Happy Valentine’s Day! “Tender” isn’t the word used to describe me as a consultant (as in Tender Loving Care). In fact, a recent student of mine referred to me as a passionate pit-bull. So, I don’t have anything tender for you this Valentine’s Day, but I do have a NEW meaning for TLC, that definitely expresses my love for you.

A couple of weeks ago, a client of mine referred to me as a thought leader–which I accepted gratefully and humbly–in the same instant that I clapped a hand to my head and thought, “I build Inspired Leaders…but to be much more specific, they are Inspired Thought Leaders! So, the TLC I’m giving you this Valentine’s Day is: Thought Leader Clarity….namely, the 12 Steps to Thought Leader Clarity! (TLC!)

The 12-Steps to Thought Leader Clarity

Foundational Essentials:

1. Know what you do. Hint: start with being clear on the area of life you address. There are 5: Health; Finances; Work/Career; Parenting/Family; Romantic Relationships

Then be clear on your PROMISE: What tangible result will folks get if they work with you in that area?

2. Know preciely what it is about your promise that would have them beg, steal and borrow to get it.

3. And WHO exactly are we talking about? So, your area is Parenting/Family. Is your market parents of pre-schoolers or parents of teens? Your area is work? Do you serve entrepreneurs or executives? (And there are half-dozen way to split those, once you decide.)

4. How do you deliver on your results? In what format? (I.E. What is your Signature Program.)

5. How is it different from everything else out there?

Now, Here is Where We Get Into Thought Leader Territory

6. What is your single-focused, single-sentence “argument” or “thesis” about what you do–why is it the ONLY solution? I always say, “You have to be as good an attorney as you are a business owner.”

7. How does this “break their schema”–shock them out of their current paradigm thinking?

8. How does this “separate them” from others and gather them into a like-minded tribe?

9. What is it that they’re here to do, as that like-minded tribe?

10. Why do you want this for your market so much?? Why do you do this when you could do anything?

11. In a single sentence: What is the change in the world that you are going to be responsible for?

12. What will you teach that no one else is teaching?

TOUGH questions--but the ones that thought leaders ask and answer–particularly INSPIRED thought leaders.

And in 2 weeks, I am going to teach these live in a *very rare* teleclass event. So, stay tuned by getting onto my list or checking back on my Facebook page. I urge you not to miss this. I used to do nothing BUT teach groups, but my business model has changed. This is a rare chance to learn from me, and most folks say I knock it out of the park when I teach. I have no link just yet, but keep in touch by opting into my list (top right of this page) and checking back on my Facebook page. I won’t be recording it OR giving out the transcript. You gotta BE there. I hope you are!

Have a wonderful day of love…and go share TLC of your own!

Let’s take a look at why we eat what is bad for us: it’s comfortable. It serves us in some way–and because we don’t want the pain of losing it, we justify maintaining the status quo. We look around at the immediate feedback we’re getting from our bodies and our environment and conclude that we’re still safe. No diseases cropped up in the annual check-up, so Big-Macs and Marlboros clearly are not so bad. We give ourselves permission to do what we know kills us slowly because right now, we’re doing okay. We tell ourselves that the experts are overreacting. And best of all, that we are special, carrying immunity against all of the predicted dire outcomes. Cancer schmancer. No signs of it here. Puff. Puff. Chomp. Chomp.

All in service to feeling good with the status quo now.

The fact is, we’re doing this with our business diets, too: stubbornly ignoring how sluggish we’ve become in our thinking and creativity. We look around and say, “Hey, business is still pretty good,” or—far more common, whether business is good or dismal: “Everybody’s doing it, so I’ll do it, too.” The immediate feedback from our businesses and surrounding environment tells us, phew, we’re still safe.

But we’re not. The business landscape such as it is is not safe anymore, and yet too many are still lulling themselves to sleep, thinking they can continue to do what has always been done and be okay.

First and foremost, owning a business is not about “being okay,”—it’s about being outrageously innovative. Why be in business if you’re not going to leave a legacy?? If you’re in business for the money, go get a job. Entrepreneurship is for thinking and creating unlike everyone else. But far too many—especially in service businesses and online—have forgotten this and are giving themselves permission to conform, to do what kills them slowly, because they’re serving how they feel right now and believe they have a special immunity against predicted dire outcomes. Failure, shmailure.  I’m not dead yet. Copy. Copy. Wait. Wait.

Here’s the deal: every single organized industry in our society is imploding. And within ten years, will collapse entirely. I’m referring to education, banking, government, publishing, corporate/business, media, religion, healthcare. The reason they’re collapsing is because the way they’ve always worked, no longer works. They’ve been oligarchies, and with the emergence of the internet, power is slipping like sand through the hands of the few, directly into the hands of the people. Whether or not it is stated in our nation’s constitution, we are becoming a land of “we the people.” Everything is changing. What the man on the street could not do in the Oligarchy Paradigm, because the Powers That Be made the rules, he can now do because “rules” are disappearing.

If you want to heal, you now have a chance to do it better than any industrialized, mechanized prescription your doctor would give you—because the internet has removed the rules. If you want to be a best-selling author, Amazon and Kindle can get you there. iTunes and YouTube can kickstart your rockstar career. Because of Etsy, you can make a living as an artist.

There is a changing of the guard happening right now of such magnitude, and at such speed, it is understandable that most might be stunned into blindness about its implications. But it is time to wake up.

This is not a post about the virtues of the web, or even about our growing empowerment. I am writing it to make a single, emphatic point: nothing is the same as it was three years ago. And as entrepreneurs, especially my tribe of Inspired Leaders, there can be NO mirroring ANYTHING of the past! Nothing of the past is relevant. Everything is changing over—and everything you conceive must be born out of “nothing.” From a blank slate, as an artist would. Seth Godin is right when he says in his (fantastic) and latest book, the Icarus Deception, that those in business in this economy must “make art.”

Artists create from blank canvases. But few in the world of business are doing that. They’re taking pre-fab canvases from others, or canvases from their own past endeavors, thinking that adding a few sprays of new color to them will attract a new crowd.

This is the wake-up call: very soon, nothing of the past is going to be in our future. As a species, it is as if we are systematically wiping the slate clean, washing our civilization of everything that is ineffectual. If, as an entrepreneur, you still think, create and act from within that Oligarchy (Old) Paradigm, everything of yours will collapse, too.

It is time to change your diet completely, no excuses.

The only way to survive now, (let alone thrive) is to slap yourself out of your sluggishness; stop feeding (and slowly killing) yourself on the fat of what others are doing, or on what once worked.

What “is now” will NOT “be so” in the future. Everything that once was is dying. Everything that “will be” is being born now from nothing.

You may be “doing okay” right now, but you are not safe.

Not until you destroy your rear view mirrors.

Burn every bridge back to the Old (Oligarchy) Paradigm.

 Trust your intuition and create from it.

 Not until you pull out a canvas that has never been used and

…Copy. Absolutely. No. One.

I have been fairly absent on the public scene for six weeks because I was busy breaking all known barriers in the virtual landscape again. I don’t say that to boast and I’m certainly not hyping it up. It’s just the truth and if you’re serious about making a mark as a leader in business this year, you want to read this post.

After my first free “Facebook Adventure” in July—The Inspired Leaders’ Summer 2012 Road Trip—I swore I’d never do anything like it again because the amount of focus and attention required was too much for any mere mortal to put forth again. But the fabled “December 2012” was looming and I knew, as a vocal proponent of the arrival of a new world consciousness with that date, that I had to lead another community event. And so I did: “The Inspired Leaders’ December 2012 Rite of Passage.”

If you catch wind that I’m planning a third, please have me committed.

The “ROP,” as it affectionately became known by its members, was far more intense than the Summer Road Trip in every way—but as such, it broke many more barriers than the first. From the Road Trip, we learned that “imagination” is not child’s play—it is powerful and that it physically, actually, changes lives. Radical life change had not been expected during that first trip—and yet it had occurred. With this second adventure, I knew what was possible and set out to activate deliberate transformation—personal and professional.

And it worked. Here are just a few acknowledgements of this fact from members. (Remember, this was free):

• “Thank you for changing my life!”
  
  
• “The shift that has occurred within me is nothing short of remarkable. I feel like a totally different person. To be able to live my life and build a business from this place is a true gift.”
  
  
• “I am so grateful I decided to participate. This went SO far beyond my wildest imagination. It literally SHOOK ME AWAKE. STOPPED ME DEAD IN MY BUSY TRACKS.”
  
  
• “It’s hard to recall exactly what I thought I was signing up for. Something inspirational, something of great possibility. I knew it would be amazing. I had no idea it would challenge me and rock me to my core. I’m just amazed that of all the people who received your email Lizabeth, I was lucky enough to hear the call. Thank you with all my heart.”
  
  
• “Thank You Captain and Shipmates, from the deepest part of my heart, for memories made together in one of the deepest and most transformational experiences of my life — I could not have done it without your loving, caring, steadfast support.”

I am not doing this again—so I am not sharing these comments to get you to invest in my next FB adventure. I am sharing them to show you that you CAN shake it up with your business, you CAN break all-known barriers…AND YOU  MUST!

Below are my tell-all secrets for doing so.

To talk to me about working to create your own break-all-known-barriers event, contact me by email at lphelps (at) inspiredleadersacademy.com.

1. Get a Tribe

It is essential that you assemble a group of people who have common “qualities and quirks” as I say. This is the most important step in building your business–and lest we forget, the point of breaking-all-known-barriers is to intensify your business success. So, first and foremost, you must know who your segmented target market is and gather them.

Be sure to highlight their unique “qualities and quirks” that separate them from everyone else, and then assign an aspirational mission to them—a purpose bigger than themselves and grander than any they see for themselves.

2. Get a Room and Imagine It

You need to assemble your tribe in a  “container” of sorts; a room. I chose a Facebook Group. Countless times in the past, I’ve chosen a physical room. The key to the specific success I had was that it was a virtual room.

Then, once in the room, connect them by giving them a “name,” and by envisioning just what the room is. For the Rite of Passage, we were on a Flying Ship. Within a day or so, I was referring to them not just as Inspired Leaders, but as “ship mates.” On the Road Trip, we referred to each other, and still do refer to each other, as “fellow road-trippers.”

3. Tell a Compelling Story

Tell a story to get them in and throughout, to keep them in. This is where my own natural facilities come in, as I used to write novels and storytelling is a natural way I think. But we can all do it, as we’ve been surrounded by stories all of our lives.

You want to tell a story about the purpose of the venture/experience/event. The story I told to enroll people in Rite of Passage was the story of December 21, 2012 being the date of a new dawn of human awareness and that they (my tribe of visionaries) had been born for these times; they were here to lead during these times…BUT they needed to prepare for the shift themselves; needed to strengthen themselves for this role and needed to do it in this particular adventure.

This story was maintained every day for 31 days. I constantly reminded them that it took extreme rigor to lead in the “new times,” and that even though they were destined to do so, they needed to (like the hero in The Hero’s Journey) pass through tests to become worthy of the task.

Like any good story, the adventure built to powerful crescendos—two in particular: one on the 21^st, naturally, and one at the very end.

4. Extend (and Limit) the Duration

I’ve given weekend trainings and one-day events that have been magically transformational—but to break-all-known-barriers, do something over an extended time.

BUT be sure that the extended time is limited to a certain number of days. Both of my adventures were 31 days and then they were over. Kaput. Done.

5. Keep it Free

I reflected a great deal on this during both of my events, since I was working far too hard and wasn’t getting directly compensated. But here’s what happened: people played hard and stayed in because of the most powerful force on earth, and ONLY because of it—their inner drive. They weren’t there because they “had to” due to a financial investment. They were there because their spirit, their will, had to stretch beyond known limits. Many, many dropped out as the month went on—but I believe many more would have left, and that the entire experience would have mutated—had money been involved at all.

6. Make It a Safe Environment From the Start

A participant helped me to see that I do this well; it’s one of those attributes I just “do” but couldn’t analyze just by myself. She told me that I create a safe environment by 1. always acknowledging and validating comments; 2. never judging anything anyone says and instead receiving every question, suggestion or statement with warmth and appreciation; 3. cheer-leading and urging each person to think bigger and go deeper; 4. not giving advice, just “hearing”; 5. asking deep, thought-provoking questions from the start, thus invoking vulnerability; 6. answering those questions myself, modeling vulnerability. 7. telling them how great they are.

7. Challenge Them BIG TIME

It is essential that participants be “compelled” to come every day. For the ROP’ers, it was the story I was telling, which they believed, that compelled them: they wanted to be prepared to lead in the New Paradigm. And every day, there were intense challenges. They were not about to give up on themselves. And near the end, they were not about to give up on their adventure-mates; by then, everyone was tightly knit.

So, every day, I gave them hurdles to clear in the form of either thought-provoking questions that would cause them to go deeper than they ever normally do, or in the form of exercises, or entire day-long challenges, such as the one where they were dropped into a forest and met 7 tests they needed to complete.

Every day was an adventure and an intense challenge.

8. Set and Enforce Exceptionally High Standards–With Consequences

It’s hard to decide which of these secrets is “the most important.” If asked, however, I would say this one. Every single day, I was relentless in calling every participant to play at very high levels: giving deep rather than superficial answers; commenting on others’ comments—and then the big one: commenting on every post, without exception. And here’s what made this a pressure-cooker of passionate participation: I told them from the outset that if they did not play to these levels, they would need to go home.

I had people writing me, begging me not to send them home. I’m not kidding. And if one wasn’t going to be able to participate on a given day, they would write me the night before to explain—so that their seat would be held for them.

 This is what every event-creator dreams of: participants who beg to stay.

9. See Them As Greater Than They See Themselves And LOVE Them More Than They Love Themselves

This is what I was doing in calling them to high standards. When they didn’t see their own greatness, their own capabilities, I saw them for them.  I know that at times they were weary and wanted me to just give them a break, but in doing that, I would not have been loving them, I would have been allowing them to further believe in and accept their smallness.

In loving them, I inspired them—sometimes with warm, inviting wake-up posts; other times with dance-parties after a long day’s work. Always by validating and acknowledging their efforts and levels of participation, which were extraordinary.

10. Inspire Team Spirit, Team Love and Team Collaboration

It is critical that participants understand that they are there as a community, to conquer their issues together, to achieve their goals together, and to ultimately WIN—together. At first, the group is large and the community feel, while there, is tenuous. It is as the group recedes—as people fail to participate and then leave—that a fierce sense of oneness begins to seize the group. In the last 10 days of the ROP, when one member felt ready to “go overboard,” the rest of the group would rally around them, being a stand for them to stay. That was love at its best.

Team spirit and love showed up also whenever anyone shared something important or meaningful. Everyone would wrap their arms around them with warm, acknowledging comments or whoops of encouragement.

Collaboration occurred when we would meet on the page at the same time for a particular purpose—like the day of the Sandy Hook tragedy, when we gathered for an hour for a group and planet virtual “healing.”

11. Get Frequent Progress Reports

Every night, I “debriefed” the day and all that they had learned. This is crucial to 1. keeping your finger on the pulse of their experience so you know how to proceed, and 2. embedding their learning, and 3. elevating the energy and locking in commitment. As they write about their progress, they become more determined to improve, and that increases their own energy levels and the energy in the room.

12. Change It Up Every Day With Lots Of Creativity And Sensory Explosions

In my public speaking training, I teach participants how to “teach to the brain,” to ensure that audiences are processing and remembering the material. One of the 12 learning “accelerators” is to bring in all of the senses. Every post was accompanied by a vibrantly colored picture. I then had them activating their visual center with imagination in every post. I incorporated (and soon they were contributing) music and art images that applied to something we were doing. We ate delicious food and danced…and if you think the “imagination” isn’t real, you haven’t played with it in a while.

13. Keep Control of the Room at All Times

This is a truism for any leader of a group: you must set standards, but then enforce them, and the instant—and I mean the instant—you fail to, you “lose the room.”

To run a “tight ship,” as I did on the ROP, I was present and let them know I was watching and reading their comments. They knew that I knew when they hadn’t posted in a while—and I was right on them when their answers were too superficial. At the end of a day when, as a group, they hadn’t played to their capabilities, I put up a rally-cry that could be heard from bow to stern. It was tough, but it was always, always inspirational, calling them to be bigger than they had been or believed they could be.

 And I never, ever broke my promises or my consequences.

14. Understand Energy And Direct It Tightly

There is no question that this is the most important secret to this kind of leadership, and again, it’s something I understand naturally and know that many do not, so I will do my best to explain it.

In a virtual room or live room, there must be a plot-line, a melody. Just as a song or classical piece, and just as a story, start out “setting the scene” with an introduction and then build in tension, take unexpected turns, and finally explode in a crescendo—so, too, your rooms must follow an “energy arc” and YOU are the one to direct it. You are the orchestra leader, the author. You must have a theme or plot-line and know how to develop it; how to create dramatic tension, suspense; how to direct the pacing, so that it is slow when you want to make one kind of impression, and speeds up to a frenzy when you need to make another. Your entire role is to keep the mood in the room “right” for the part of the story you are telling, and that entails an intimate understanding of directing energy.

When I wanted my participants to feel fear and suspense inside the storyline, (like the day the ship found itself suddenly in darkness, with the control panel no longer working), I dropped the posts at a certain pace, so that those who were on the FB page were experiencing the drama in real time. When I wanted them to feel breathless, I delivered posts quickly, one after another, or told a story within a post with page-turning prose.

 No “experience”—live or virtual—will work without tightly directing the pacing and mood (i.e. energy).

15. Give More Than You Think You’re Capable Of

A more common business adage is, “Give more than you think you should.” I’m saying, give more than you think you can. I continue to raise the bar on what I offer and how much of myself I bring to a business endeavor. I will admit that these FB Adventures require more than any sane human would ever agree to—and that’s why I won’t do another one, or I’ll change up the model somehow—but, yet, in going so far beyond what I thought I could do, a few things happened: 1. My boundaries expanded so that now I am capable of doing far more than I thought, which is the definition of expansion; 2. I exploded my creativity and thus my ability to truly show up as a one-of-a-kind leader. If I do more than I imagine I can, I delve into realms few others do, elevating me out of the epidemic “din” of expert sameness; 3. I raise the bar for all other business leaders, which serves me, of course, but also serves the entire world of business because everyone is now being called to higher service. And as a leader, that is my job.

Again, to talk to me about working to create your own break-all-known-barriers event, contact me by email at lphelps (at) inspiredleadersacademy.com.

Perhaps you believe wholeheartedly in what the Hopi’s call the “Great Shift of the Ages”; perhaps you’ve decided it’s just superstition; perhaps you’re undecided. But on some level, you’re wondering, as I am, what 30 days from now will bring.

Today, I share some balanced reporting on not just 12/21/12, but on other predictions about our collective future.

But first, let me say that because this is considered by so many to be one of, if not the, most significant periods in human history, I feel compelled as a “leader of the leaders” not to ignore it–and instead, to acknowledge, prepare, and celebrate–not just “it“, but you and it.

So, on December 1, I will be activating a 21-day “advent calendar” countdown to—yes, December 21 and a potential global awakening—but primarily to YOUR full awakening as a leader, here to effect great change.

Until now, it is probable that you have downplayed the calling you have gotten. I see December 21 as marking the end of, as Joseph Campbell called it, your “refusal of the call”–and the beginning of your full-on journey as a pioneering leader in the New Paradigm.

That’s what the 21-day countdown will be all about: preparing you for what you have come here to do–no more excuses.

For right now, bring yourself up to speed on the predictions of the coming times.

What Should You Know About the Mayan Calendar?

By Shelly Barclay from www.historicmysteries.com/the-mayan-calendar-facts-theories-and-prophecies

The Mayan calendars are methods of measuring time that were developed by the ancient Mayans. They are rather impressive… have been studied extensively and appear to be interpreted well. There is one calendar that has caused a great deal of controversy and frustration.

The so-called “Maya (or Mayan) Calendar” is actually only one of four calendars developed by the ancient Mayans. The calendar that is widely known as the “Maya Calendar” is actually the Mayan Long Count Calendar.

All of the Mayan calendars served a purpose. The purpose of the Long Count Calendar was to measure time well into the future or past. Quite simply, it was used to measure hundreds or thousands of years, as opposed to the days, weeks and months in our modern calendars. The Mayan Long Count Calendar is round and covered in ancient Mesoamerican hieroglyphs. Each of these hieroglyphs represents a specific time frame. These are arranged to count the passage of time in multiples of 13 and 20.

Experts have deduced that the Mayan Long Count Calendar began on August 11 or 13, 3114 BC. Based on the hieroglyphs on the calendar, it has been calculated that the calendar ends on either December 21 or 23, 2012. Therefore, the amount of time that the Mayan Long Count Calendar measures is roughly 5,125 years and that cycle is ending.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon

Most Mayanist scholars, such as Mark Van Stone and Anthony Aveni, adhere to the “GMT (Goodman-Martinez-Thompson) correlation” with the Long Count, which places the start date at 11 August 3114 BC and the end date at 21 December 2012. Some Mayanist scholars, such as Michael D. Coe, Linda Schele and Marc Zender, adhere to the “Lounsbury/GMT+2″ correlation, which sets the start date at 13 August and the end date at 23 December. Which of these is the precise correlation has yet to be conclusively settled.

In addition to the emphasis on the Maya Calendar, December 21 is the winter solstice, making it astrologically significant and some believe the Sun will be lining up with the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy on that very same day.

What Should You Know About the Yugas?

From an entirely different perspective, we have Paramhansa Yogananda, an Indian yogi and guru who introduced many westerners to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his book, Autobiography of a Yogi.

Yogananda and his teacher, Sri Yukteswar, presented a fascinating explanation of the rising and falling eras that our planet cycles through every 24,000 years.

According to their teachings, we have recently passed through the low ebb in that cycle and are moving forward to a higher age — an Energy Age that will revolutionize the world. They declared that we would live in a time of great social and spiritual change, and that much of what we believe to be fixed and true — our entire way of looking at the world — would ultimately be transformed and uplifted.

In The Holy Science, Sri Yukteswar describes a recurring cycle of human development, called the cycle of the yugas, or ages. The complete cycle is made up of an ascending half, or arc, and a descending half, or arc, each lasting 12,000 years. In the ascending arc of 12,000 years, mankind evolves through four distinct ages, or yugas, reaches the peak of development, and then devolves through the four ages, in reverse order, in another 12,000 years of the descending arc. Thus, in the course of 24,000 years, mankind as a whole rises in knowledge and awareness, and again falls, in a cycle that occurs again and again.

Sri Yukteswar tells us we are currently in the ascending half of the cycle, in the second age, or Dwapara Yuga. Sri Yukteswar goes on to describe higher ages beyond our own when mankind will communicate telepathically; will understand the subtle laws of thought that underlie energy; will overcome the limitations of time; and will perceive the subtlest law of all – that Divine consciousness underlies all reality.

Sri Yukteswar explains that the cycle of the yugas is caused by influences from outside our solar system that affect the consciousness of all mankind. As mankind’s consciousness changes as a result of this influence, so also does mankind’s perception, awareness, and intellect.

In the higher ages that Sri Yukteswar describes, mankind not only knows more but is able to perceive more than we do today; mankind as a whole not only has more advanced capabilities but becomes motivated profoundly differently as the ages unfold. In the higher ages, perceptions and abilities considered highly unusual today, will be as normal to everyone alive at that time, as cars, planes and telephones are to us today.

According to Sri Yukteswar, mankind is just emerging from the darkest of ages, and the future holds the promise of much greater things to come – not just in the realm of technology and invention – but in expansion of knowledge, awareness, and perception, that will usher in an enlightened future.

What Else Should You Know?

*It is believed that we are now at the completion point of a multi-million year circular orbit of our Galaxy around the Great Central Sun. (One orbit of the Galaxy takes 225–250 million years; it is believed to have completed between 20–25 orbits since it first formed.) Our Galaxy moves through space in the form of continuous connecting circles, like a great cosmic spiral. As it completes this multimillion-year orbit, our Galaxy is connecting diagonally to the next ring of the Cosmic Spiral. When this happens, all of the planets, solar systems, and their inhabitants, simultaneously take an initiatory step into a new evolutionary cycle.

 *We are at the end of a 26,000-year cycle of the Earth, the Sun, and the Galactic Plane. This Plane in where the majority of the mass of our disk-shaped Galaxy lies). From our perspective on Earth, the December Solstice Sun moves across the Galactic Plane—an event which occurs once every 26,000 years. The result is an attunement of consciousness to a higher frequency (imagine shifting focus from lower to higher chakras).

*The widest part of the Milky Way is known as the “dark rift,” which corresponds to the direction of the centre of the Galaxy. John Major Jenkins, researcher of Mayan cosmology and philosophy, and author of the books, Maya Cosmogenesis 2012, Galactic Alignment, and The 2012 Story, tells us that as the 2012 December Solstice Sun aligns with the Dark Rift and the Solstice Meridian then passes to the other side of the centre of the Galactic Equator, this will create a field effect energy reversal. As we resonate with the field sourced from the Galactic Centre, we will be affected by this changing orientation. The end of the Mayan Long Count calendar will culminate in a Pole Shift in our collective consciousness.

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So, what do you think? Or perhaps much more important, what do you feel? Are you experiencing a Shift in yourself? Seeing shifts in those around you? And what do you feel is true about your journey as a leader through these times?

Be sure to stay tuned for more to come on the 21-Day Advent-Calendar Countdown…coming December 1!

I’ve walked this boardwalk *countless* times. Well, what was a boardwalk.

Every single board of this 2-mile NJ landmark was ripped from its foundation by the force of Sandy and tossed lie a rag doll into the ocean.

Of course, this is mild compared to what has happened in other areas of my beloved NJ…and my beloved NYC. I am grateful that I get to sit, right now, in Starbucks, siphoning wi-fi so that I can experience a taste of civilization. I have been without power for 7 days and am staying–if you can believe it–with my ex, in a house currently alive because of a generator. We have no phone, internet or cable, and yesterday, I sat for 2 hours in line for gasoline–much shorter due to the new “even/odd” license plate rules.

Every time I sigh in longing to return to my own home, own bed, own washing machine, CNN and my * beloved* business, locked away in a darkened computer–I think of my fellow Jerseyans who have lost far, far more than I can imagine myself: homes, children…lives. And my sigh withers in mid-breath.

I’m sure you know by now that this has been catastrophic for the Northeast, and its effects will eventually slink into all areas of the U.S. in ways no one can predict now. But there’s one thing I know: NJ and NY are populated by some of the toughest folks on earth, and when we rebuild, it will reverberate around the country, if not the globe. The hardest and most grueling re-building is always marked by expansive and unprecedented growth of myriad types.

Watch us build ourselves back and, I believe, you will find yourself building something new, too: greater compassion, more humility, stronger impulses to do good–a grander vision for yourself, your business, and maybe even humanity.

I got to thinking, as I sit here, that you may be experiencing a profound re-structuring. Your own life may be turned upside down these days–not perhaps, by 32-feet tidal waves, as in Battery Park–but perhaps from comparable internal upheavals. You may feel tossed about, like the landmark amusement park in Seaside Heights, unsure what you’re really supposed to be doing with your business. You don’t feel the same passion you once had; and while you would love a “calling,” it’s not coming–any more than the utility workers are coming promptly into affected areas here.

Or, maybe the waters in your life are relatively calm–but your business just hasn’t been successful enough and you know it lacks power, too, in need of  great jolts of electric current. Maybe you’ve just moved into a new business and are frustrated because no one sees it, as if you’re in a complete black out, too.

You are physically safe and dry–but your life and your business need to be rebuilt.

Maybe we can help each other this week. Because of gas shortages, I’m unable to help my fellow Jerseyans rebuild right now, but I can help you.

Building businesses with powerful messaging is what I do. It’s my expertise. Where 48-years of life experience; 25 years of work experience; 11 years of self-employment have caused me to excel. If it is time for you to rebuild–in a big way, as Jersey is–schedule time with me so I can show you how I do it, every day, with coaches, authors, speakers–any service entrepreneur who has a *burning* vision, an unrelenting mission, even if unformed–and simply must succeed with it or die. 

I have no electricity, but I do have a cell phone and a lot more time on my hands than I normally have. If you are ready to invest in the reconstruction of your business, with an architect and power generator of exceptional skill, originality and creativity–reach out to me and I will get you on my calendar this Wednesday through Friday for a free conversation with me.

If you’re willing to roll up your sleeves and dig in, and have the financial means to be privately guided out of frustration and errors into a business-changing rebuild, grander than you can imagine now, email me at lphelps (at) inspiredleadershiptraining.com.

As NJ gets back–and takes back–its power; as it builds something better from the destruction and rubble…you, too, can do the same. And just like in NJ, we’ll do it together.

Oh…and please donate anything you are able to to the recovery efforts. And *just as important*: please give your love and attention to those who are so displaced. Give of your heart; watch the news; reach out.

I am sharing it here with my answers, rather than hers for confidentiality’s sake. The example should help you adapt it to your own situation and content.

1. What you do, succinctly stated
   I help coaches, consultants, speakers and authors who are called to effect great change in the world develop highly marketable, one-of-a-kind business empires that transform lives.
2. Why I do this
   In eleven years of owning two businesses, each passionate about transformation, I have made my own catastrophic blunders and overcome those mistakes, yet every day, I see visionary entrepreneurs making even worse mistakes: namely trying to make money with a business identity that is not viable, not interesting, and programs of quite low-standards.  They need to invest in their “store front” so that they will make money; they won’t make if they’re not urgently wanted and utterly unique.
3. Current status of things–what is happening for client, generally
   What is happening today for most service entrepreneurs is overwhelm and confusion, which leads to dangerous stagnation. They are bombarded with email marketing offers about what they must do to make it in business. They spend their time “tasting” too many free webinars, hoping that one will shed light on what they *really* need to do now. Most of them are afraid to invest and so continue in this vein, or purchase less-expensive Do-It-Yourself programs, and then spend all of their time learning myriad things, rather than doing their business.
4. Why this is deeply destructive
   What ensues is poverty, simply stated. DIY programs cannot build them a highly-marketable, one-of-a-kind, soul-inspired-reason-for-being-on-earth business. So, they’ve spent money and do not have the essential elements that ensure a business succeeds. They buy another long-distance program, and dig themselves deeper into a hole. What is lost is not just their business dreams, but their self-esteem, their spirit–and the fulfillment of their calling. This must stop because their calling matters tremendously to the rest of us.
5. What is needed, in general terms
   Without question, they need personal attention when they are building their businesses, with an astute professional who digs deeply to develop the right business for them, and for the market.
6. In order to (projected desired results)
   This way, they no longer spin wheels or waste time “learning,” and instead actually create. It’s the difference between reading and watching videos to build a house, and actually gathering friends and doing it…correctly and fast.
7. Funnel results into a final, ultimate, high-stakes result
   And ultimately, they have, ready-to-go, a tangible, viable, sustainable business, which they are madly in love with, and that fulfills their very deepest calling.
8. Dire problem, stated very directly and very crisply
   Without this, they will die on the vine–financially and worse, spiritually.
9. My prevention process (State unique process succinctly and with desired outcomes)
   This is why I offer a private, up-close-and-personal, meticulous process called The Powerhouse Method(TM), which challenges a visionary entrepreneur to succinctly craft 7 powerful messages. Each message stacks on the one before it and are woven together to culminate in the final message, their Teaching Story Thesis. The most successful way for an expert to become one-of-a-kind is with a “Big Idea” that they share and teach about–something no one else is out there saying. The Big Idea/Teaching Story is a topic of high-interest to a hungry, relevant market whom the expert feels passionately about, and brings together everything s/he believes in most, to become what they are known for.  It is their “legacy content.” In the end, they have not just a one-of-a-kind business identity, but their true, soul-inspired-reason for being on earth. These 7 sessions are a life and business game-changer.
10. Closing question to elicit positive response.
    What results are you looking for in your business, that this kind of process could get you?
    
    

This was constructed for a one-to-one presentation, but can absolutely be used for a presentation to many.

As you’ll see, it has critical elements: what you do, neatly said; why you do it (this is very important); what overall industry struggles exist; what is needed overall and why (results); a repeat of the *dire* consequence, sharply stated, of not getting the right solution; how you deliver it specifically and why that’s valuable–and finally, an ending question that invites them to reflect back the value, for them, of what you provide.

Try it! You’ll like! To learn more about The Powerhouse Method click here.

First, for you to feel the impact yourself, it’s necessary—in reading the book or in reading this post–to view yourself as a marketer. I always tell my Inspired Leaders that selling and marketing is 80% of their business, but I’ve never really called them or myself, “marketers.” Now, I will–and proudly, as you’ll see.

So, what if marketers were storytellers? As a business owner/marketer of services, do you think of yourself as a storyteller? Sachs establishes us as such from the very beginning as he tells us this story:

The Birth of Society’s Architects

 World War I had birthed an economy that was producing a great quantity of material goods and keeping jobs and stock markets humming depended on continued production. The problem was, there was not enough demand for the supply.

Here, a “new mythmaker” was born: the marketer. Sachs writes, “…American political leaders…practically begged marketers to step in. As a result, the marketer went from a product pitchman to a major player in our cultural destiny.”

This is one of the most enduring and essential sentences in the book. Marketers were employed to shape our destiny. Frugality and modesty were cornerstones of the culture at that point in history. As he says, “To fill the demand gap, society itself would have to be revolutionized.” A new mind-set was called for to avoid an economic disaster.

Sachs includes these quotes from two of the most influential political leaders of the day as they addressed a gathering of top advertisers: Calvin Coolidge said, “[Advertising] is the most potent influence in adapting and changing the habits and modes of life, affecting what we eat, what we wear and the work and play of the whole nation.” Herbert Hover said, “You have taken over the job of creating desire and have transformed people into constantly moving happiness machines—machines which have become the key to economic progress.”

(Did you know you were a machine?)

Telling stories was something “pitchmen” were already doing rather well, and so they readily and effectively took on the challenge issued by the highest powers to transform the masses. They began creating stories and telling myths that soon created a new “consumer’s mindset” to ward off financial downfall.

Sachs writes, “[Marketing] messages…inform our sense of self, the world, and our place in it. If everywhere you look, there are stories designed to direct you to action, and these stories tell you that you are powerful and full of potential, you are likely to come to believe them…If the stories you are told have the opposite message, you will likely come to believe and act very differently.” He states that if we look at the traditional purpose of myth/storytelling in society, our current marketing stories provide messages that directly oppose the morals conveyed by society’s most important myths. They “embody the shadow side of myth—the dark side.”

Citizens vs. Machines

So, Sachs asks, What is the purpose of mythology? Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and religion, told Bill Moyers that myths are about “the maturation of the individual, from dependency to adulthood…” Myths help us learn how to grow up, moving us from frightened children to mature, wise, contributing citizens.

As Sachs writes, “…most of us wish for a mature society, full of citizens that can think long-term, run a respectful democracy, make compromises, and leave a healthy planet for future generations.”

What would you say? Do we have this? Have we developed a mature society capable of making compromises and leaving a vibrant planet for our children?

Clearly not. And this is where Sachs opened my eyes wide as he states, and then goes on to prove, the premise that our immature society is because of marketers. “Even if we [marketers] consider ourselves wildly innovative and unorthodox, we come to our work fluent in a marketing language developed over the last one hundred years. And that dominant language is based on the inadequacy approach. Inadequacy stories encourage immature emotions like greed, vanity and insecurity by telling us that we are somehow incomplete.”

“Instead of teaching us to engage in the difficult journey of maturation from child to citizen, the [marketing] myths of our day keep us thinking like adolescents, consumers who wait to be told what we want and then supplied with satisfaction.”

Whew!! What a line! Go read that a second time. We are not citizens; we are consumers—made to be so by the powers that be. We are not thinking for ourselves. We are being thought by those who know that keeping people in an adolescent state is very, very good for business.

Psychologists on the Dark Side

Sachs then takes us on a journey of the birth of “inadequacy marketing” that is nothing short of fascinating. It began with some of the preeminent psychologists of the day. In 1920, J. Walter Thompson agency, still a major advertising firm today, was the first to consult with psychologists, who, at that time, had very dim views of humanity. Sigmund Freud and Ernest Dichter in particular saw humans as driven by lust, fear and vanity. Freud wrote, “…the command to love one’s neighbor as oneself… is… completely at variance with human nature…”

Dichter argued that a “stable citizen” was one who spent money to gratify his desires. His daughter said sometime later that her father and his colleagues though that, “by helping people use products to have a strong positive sense of self, they were forging the greatest society ever.”

Sachs reiterates that these men (and others he describes) were not “side characters in the early days of marketing from the 1920’s to 1950’s. They were its central figures.”

For over a century, marketers have been the storytellers shaping our destiny by stimulating anxiety and inadequacy; storytellers creating a society of individuals spinning in childish states of fear and desire. And what’s most frightening is that we are immersed in these stories. We expect them; we laugh at them; we fall into line because of them (literally and figuratively).

“We need a society of mature people,” Sachs writes, “to engage in the discussion of where we go from here…And we need millions, if not billions, of us to insist that this difficult decision be brought out of the fringes and into the mainstream. A world of willfully immature consumers won’t get us where we need to go.”

Allelujah! Here is where my role as a business owner/marketer changed forever—and I hope the same will be true for you. Sachs writes, “As mythmakers, we marketers have enormous influence in crafting society’s stories…Surely we can create another shift…and we can thrive while doing it.”

Imagine…being a part of creating a new shift.

I underlined several times the final sentence of his book: “I felt an…enormous appreciation for the fact that I am a marketer—a modern mythmaker with the power to shape the future…I couldn’t imagine a more meaningful life’s work.”

Wow. That hit me like an anvil. No more meaningful life’s work than that of a marketer? I’ve been a marketer for a long time; have my Bachelors of Science in Advertising and Marketing and as a business owner for eleven years, marketing is eighty percent of my business. But there’s always been a bias against marketing, and I still carry just a bit of it. You know what I mean; how many marketers do you respect?

But now…thanks to Jonah Sachs and this truly thought-provoking book, I, too, look ahead to what is possible as a marketer and say, “I cannot imagine a more meaningful life’s work.”

We are not merely business owners. We are not even merely Inspired Leaders, here to change the world with our one-of-a-kind specializations. We are here to shape the destiny of society…by the way we market. By asking our followers to aspire to something far greater than their individual self-interests; by encouraging them to reach for ideals that are high on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs; by showing them what is possible without anxiety and inadequacy and with inspiration.

I say all of the time that the most successful businesses of the future will be led by bold, inspired leaders with potent messages of change that uplift humanity. And that these messages will be integral to our marketing and selling efforts. Jonah Sachs and I are two peas in a pod.

What I did not see for myself–or for you and all the other Inspired Leaders–until reading Winning the Story Wars, is that in doing business this way, we will shape the destiny of society.

Do you join me in experiencing a profound shift in mind-set? Recognizing that you are here, as a business owner, with a far greater purpose and potential than you ever realized: that of shaping our destiny with new stories?

Will you join me, and Sachs, and all other new-world marketers, in being architects of a new earth populated with thoughtful, mature citizens no longer yanked by chains of inadequacy and fear?

If so, then make a comment to that effect below.

Then, go learn what I’m all about by watching the 3-part video series on the top right of this page.

And then, go read Sachs’ book.

Together, we will change the world…for good.

#6: The size of the company will determine your market.

You will always need to get in front of decision makers, and the size of the company, business or organization whom you approach determines who that is and thus who your market is. It’s well worth your time to think this through.

If you want to target a large company, your market is HR or perhaps a top executive–and most likely, they will not be your final audience.  This awareness, then, tells you–as any target market will–how to craft your marketing communications. They will not be directed to the C-levels, managers or other employees with whom you will be directly interacting–everything will be constructed around “what’s in it for” the decision maker.

In determining your market, if you simply have no handles to hold onto yet, look at your ability to provide a service that will survive the tight scrutiny and tough standards of a large company. Can you compete with others in your category? Can you deliver what the company most wants? Or are you only able to deliver the softer skills applicable to a segment of their employee base?

Furthermore, there may be a lot of bureaucracy in a large company that you’d like to sidestep in favor of edgier, early-adopter-types. There may be a few of them in a big corporation, but getting to them–and ensuring they are the decision-makers–could be a very challenging road. In such a case, you will know that you need to go for a smaller organization.

I was working with a client today on this and I can assure that your mission, your sense of why you are here, is instrumental in deciding on your market. He wants to work the young Einstein’s of the world–the inventors–yet, he’d also been talking about targeting the CEOs of 5-million-dollar-plus companies. We had to pull those wires apart (and are still pulling them), because the CEO will most likely *not* be the inventor himself. It might be worth my client’s efforts to seek out the IT inventor still working out of his basement–if aiding the CEO does not give him the same level of satisfaction that creating a rising star would. You can see how he needs to know this in order to begin developing his suite of services.

So, be sure you have established your mission–what you feel you are here to do in the world; it will be your guiding star in determining the size of the company you should target. If it turns out you feel destined to help middle-management in large organizations, just remember, they are not the ones whom you will persuade. You will need to be ready to serve both them and the needs of the company as a whole.

And, of course, if you want to work directly with the owner of the business/company, that opens up a series of questions–topping the list: do you have something remarkable enough to get his/her attention? The larger the company, the more remarkable it has to be.

If you’re B to B…who is your target market?

# 5: Your 4 Business Roles

As a service-based business owner, there are 4 roles you will likely play in your career. But only one is where you want to spend most of your time. One is the best option given your mission. One is the best option given ethical behavior toward your clients. And it is very important to build your business so that you are utilizing the best role in your Signature Program—the program that is central to your entire business. Since your Signature Program will be populated by a certain target market, it stands to reason that you need to know which of these roles you’re playing in that program so you can determine who should be “in the room.”

The 4 Roles

1. Keynote Speaker/Non-Fiction Author
2. Teacher/Trainer
3. Group Coach/Consultant
4. Private Consultant/Coach/Practitioner

Keynote Speaker/Author
If it is best for your mission and your passion, you will be a keynote speaker and/or non-fiction author. Both are “pollinators”; they disseminate ideas but do not touch down long enough or deep enough to know if those ideas are implemented by their audience. In this case, your audience might be executives across all industries. Your message is bigger and casts a wider net. (Though it is still not “everyone”!)

Teacher/Trainer:
As a trainer, you have more touch-points with your audience, as the room is smaller, ostensibly. You have the chance to hear questions and offer feedback. But you still do not know if your audiences ever get results; they implement your information themselves. This is naturally going to bring in an audience with a deeper interest in your material than those just reading a book or hearing a presentation. So, in planning to be a trainer in your Signature Program, you need to think of the audience that has a strong interest in your work–and it will be narrower than the audience for the keynoter/author.

Group  Coach/Consultant
As a group consultant or coach, you are facilitating change and growth and have a much greater hand in what becomes of your market’s success. In looking at this role for your Signature Program, you need to consider what type of people best fit together; whom you would want to spend more extended time with; as well as who wants greater results—for this group will be more dedicated than the audiences of the previous two examples. Your ethics may also say that to get results, they must be in a group coaching environment; none of the other three options will transform them as well. So, if you know your Signature Program should be a coaching/consulting group, you will choose a market that has good chemistry (i.e. strong commonalities), that you personally love, who wants a deeper level of results, and who needs this environment for greatest change.

Private Coach/Consultant/Practitioner
And finally, as a private consultant or coach, you are intimately involved in your market’s process and you ensure that they get to their destination: they achieve their desired results. Very certain people want private attention—namely, those who have acute pain and want it alleviated fast, or those who are simply driven and want to get things done right and fast. There is a type of person who has greater need for private consulting than those suited to the other three options. Who has the most acute pain? Who is driven? Who has the money for it?

In looking at the 4 Roles of Service-Based Entrepreneurs and how they fit your mission, your passion and your ethics, you will—with the help of the previous four segments in this series—flesh out the perfect market for your business.

So, who what role should you “be” more than any other?