I’m pretty open about my absolute commitment to my own self-care. Early mornings. Bible. Journal. Meditation. Prayer. Writing. Exercise. But also… Massages. Chiropractic care. Hair blowouts. Facials. Nails. Naps. Downtime. Solitude. Hiking. Luxurious Baths.

These things NOURISH MY SOUL, and I recommend them.

But I also
deliberately
regularly
nourish my POWER.

This work,
the doing of hard things,
the attempting of tough stuff,
the staying the course,
the hustle and push and strain….
is AS critical as the rest,
MORE SO for entrepreneurs
and it is the OTHER SIDE of self-care.

We need to nourish ALL parts of ourselves. We need to soothe our souls AND build our GRIT. We need to be focused AND strong, relaxed AND ready, flexible AND ruthlessly determined.

The truth is I go to the gym
Or to my bike
or to the trails
to move my body,
to build muscle, physical strength – the same way an athlete approaches their sport, with intention and consistency.

Business,
— the ART of slinging my soul at the internet
and transforming pain into power and profit–
is what I do to grow and build ME.

Business builds GRIT, determination, resolve, confidence, pluckiness, certainty, strength, intuition, respect, tenacity and power… but — much like the gym — ONLY if you go there ready to work, ready to let the SWEAT from your brow stain the pages of your planner.

This is how I approach my business every day.
Not just WILLING to work,
but anxious to grow,
to stretch,
to develop new muscles,
deeper levels of grit,
further reaches of authenticity.

The entrepreneurial journey is a workout for all parts of me. It’s not a soothing as a massage, but it is STILL self care, and if I ever have to choose,
I’ll forego the massage,
and go to the gym of business.

So, if you are NOT seeing the results you want from your business,
consider THIS side of self-care.

What are you doing DAILY to nourish your POWER, friend? What are you doing to DAILY grow your own tenacity,
your own RESOLVE?
How easily do you acquiesce to outside circumstances and allow them to change YOUR mind… versus requiring circumstances to bend to YOUR will?

These things matter.
There are TWO sides to self care.
Soulful and relaxed and pampered is only ONE side of it.

The other — though — determines how far you go, how fast you go, and how you make the trip. Uphill both ways and bemoaning all you “have” to do to be successful… or entirely on your own terms, navigating according to your own preferences and staying the course until the rest of hte world catches up.

What can YOU do to nourish your POWER today? What “heavy weight” is waiting for you in the gym of business? What part of your entrepreneurial body will YOU focus on strengthening today?

If you need help with this,
a training partner,
an accountability partner,
a spotter…
I’ve got you.

Message me. I want to show up for you for 30 days as your training partner.

xoxo

The post THE OTHER SIDE OF SELF-CARE FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS appeared first on b. michelle pippin.

But, because I’m working diligently on my own fitness level, it got me thinking….

So, SHOULD you hire a fat business coach?

The person who wrote this Facebook post values fitness as a TOP priority. Should she hire a “soft, pudgy, or even “big boned” (lol…) business coach?

DEFINITELY NOT.

Because they would not be aligned. One is willing to forego fitness for other pursuits, maybe including financial success. The other — if cuffed to the desk — would cut her left hand off to make it to the gym.

Sound silly? Does it sound SILLY to NOT hire a business coach simply because she’s FAT? When that business coach is getting exactly the results you want in your business?

NOT TO ME.
NOT IF FITNESS IS YOUR TOP VALUE.
This is NOT about vanity or about a certain size….

It’s all about THIS: the HOW of creating success MATTERS.

When my kids were young, I wouldn’t hire a business coach who used a live in nanny or au pair. WHY? Her “how” didn’t align with mine. I wanted the success, yes… but my CORE and TOP priorities were that of wife and mom. I didn’t want to delegate that which mattered most to me.

The coach I worked with the longest had / has not only a thriving (and simple) business, but a thriving and passionate marriage. This is my TOP priority.

I don’t love to travel for work. So anyone who is promoting a “50 cities in 50 days” route to success — even if the result they’re creating is EXACTLY what I want — isn’t a fit for me.

I won’t do affiliate crap. So, Anyone who makes millions selling affiliate programs isn’t a fit for me.

I demand FULL control over my schedule. So, anyone who is frazzled, harried, rushing all the time — even if the “end” is what I want– isn’t a fit for me.

For me, the end WILL never justify the MEANS.

I have to LIVE the “means” every day. In this ONE LIFE I get to live.

So, the perfect business coach for you? Well, she (or he) won’t be perfect. But you DO want to ask two questions:

Do you WANT what they’ve created?
Do you LIKE / ALIGN with how they’ve created it?

Both questions matter equally… and perhaps the second more than the first.

If this post aligns with how YOU think…. maybe you’re a fit for Women Who WOW. Join us for DAILY accountability, training, and inspiration….

The post Do You Have to Be PERFECT To Be an Amazing Leader? appeared first on b. michelle pippin.

“… The new source of competitive advantage is customer centricity:  deeply understanding your customer’s needs
and fulfilling them better than anyone else.”  — HBR

This is a direct quote from the September edition of the prestigious Haaahvard Business Review.  Now, before I delve into what REALLY matters here — like the absurd fact that this  “customer centricity” (which I’ve been writing about for YEARS) is described as a “new source” of competitive advantage– I’d like to go on record and say that Harvard has long woefully un-impressed me.

I briefly and casually dated a guy once who went to grad school at Harvard.  Visited him once.  Wished I were back at Tech, were it not for the ride up there with my cousin and friend… which was super fun but will not be discussed. =)  Bottom-line: The boy and the school… left me underwhelmed, to say the least.   

Back to me FINALLY being affirmed by the fancy pants HBR. =)   HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW is saying — in 2016–  that understanding your customer’s needs is a “NEW” source of competitive advantage?   Seriously?   What shocking research will you reveal next?  That the earth is, in fact,  round?

Welcome to the real world, to the world of Women Who WOW, to Main Street America, Harvard Business Review…  where money is made–  and business doors kept open–   through eye-to-eye sales, not exclusively through new rounds of investors.  

On Main Street America, we have LONG known that she who knows her market best, wins.  

But only always. 

I first started speaking about “knowing your market intimately”  as a CRITICAL marketing strategy in 2010 and began writing about this in February of 2011 with this article.  Since early 2011, I have detailed — in about 30 additional articles–  why this competitive advantage (to know your market intimately,  described now as “new” by HBR) is so important.

Because I’ve said for AT LEAST 6 years now, demographics do not buy.  PEOPLE buy.  

So, as Dan Kennedy says in the October edition of the GKIC newsletter, data (demographics) will tell you how many 3rd generation coal miners are no longer working in coal… but it CAN NOT tell you that these same “coal miners say, ‘piss on your job training’ and do not want welfare. They want to mine coal.”   Data can tell you numbers, but it can not speak from, for or to the heart.

To quote Harvard Business Review,  you need to “deeply understand your customer’s needs….”    I happen to like the word “intimately”… but deeply works too.

Data can tell you that more and more Americans are obese and don’t want to be, but it can’t tell you the feeling of failure so many face when battling a seemingly hopeless and never-ending war against those last 10 or 20 pounds.

Demographics can tell you how many small businesses fail each year and that fewer small businesses are opening in general now.  But it cannot tell you that these businesses represent — in many cases — the HEART of their owners and is so much more important than a balance sheet.

More on this, if you’re interested, in my Advanced Guide to Marketing With Muscle.

Anyway, welcome to the party, HBR.  We didn’t exactly miss you, but — like whenever a well -known celebrity pops into the real world —  it sure got us talking when you showed up…

better late than never, I presume.

The post Big Business Research Finally Confirms What Profitable Small Biz Owners Have Known appeared first on b. michelle pippin.

Christian Grey himself. His very person. =) 

Consider it for a moment. Christian Grey is 27 years old. No, not in dog years… in human years. Twenty-friggin-seven.

I haven’t actually read the books. But, the IMDB describes Grey as brilliant, handsome and successful. Oh, and a “self-made billionaire.” At the age of 27.

That’s Billionaire, with a B, folks.

Still not offended? No sweat. I have more for you.  According to anyone who has actually read this trilogy, the man seemingly NEVER works. Or rarely, at best.

Admittedly, I don’t hang with many billionaires… but I know one thing…. at 27, these billionaires were working… a lot.

That’s why I boycott the 50 Shades of B.S. trilogy. (Although, in full disclosure, I was tempted enough to watch the movie… got bored with his “sultry stares” that were met with Anastasia biting her bottom lip…. again. So, I never finished it.)

Bottom-line: If you want to be a Billionaire Small Business Owner… or even a Millionaire, prepare to work, both hard AND smart… and sometimes long.

I’m not saying that financial success in business has to be created uphill both ways in the snow. I’m just saying that to be a self-made Billionaire at 27, you’ll have to put in a lot of long nights. And even then….

So, what does all of this have to do with us?

I hate the charlatans selling success snake oil that promises 6-figure months while you work on your business no more than 4 hours a week. It’s just grade-A bull feces, people. Entertaining, maybe. Tempting? Sure, if you’re into that unicorn on a rainbow farm kind of thing. But, true and accurate? Not so much.

P.S.  Napoleon Hill’s least celebrated success principle is that of accurate thinking…. not optimistic or idealistic or hopeful thinking… but ACCURATE thinking.  

And so I ask you… are you WILLING to hustle to create success? Are you willing to put in the sweat equity in order to build the business you long to lead? Are you willing to do the EVERY DAY and EVERY WEEK hustle?

Yes? Great. You’re in the right place.

No? Is this too much for you? Do you think hustling EVERY DAY is “too much?” That’s okay. Go ahead and keep struggling everyday instead.

Or marry “well.”

Either way.

For the record, I choose the hustle. And Women Who WOW is full of others like me. Refusing to lose. Full of grit. Defying the odds. Creating outrageous success. I’m so humbled to be at the helm of this association of seriously driven women entrepreneurs.

The post Are You Willing to Do the EVERYDAY Hustle? appeared first on b. michelle pippin.

TODAY, I began with a 45-minute “download” session, jotting down everything I had to accomplish today.  Here’s an incomplete snapshot of what’s on my list:

**9 days worth of email responses ** writing/editing WOW’s print newsletter ** respond to editors/journalists/producers who are part of my upcoming MEDIA training ** PAYDAY for my team ** food menu for upcoming PJ Party ** details for Chris’ surprise 40th birthday

Of course, having been largely off of social media for 9 days, I peeked in on twitter to see that there are nearly 60,000 tweets with the hashtag #MondayMotivation.  60K, and counting.  My immediate thought is this:

Why do all of these grown ups need to be motivated? 

Don’t get me wrong… I LOVE some of the tweeted material.  The quotes (some below, for your — ahem — motivation)  are inspirational… challenging even.   I grabbed snapshots of some of my favorites.

But,  why do we feel like we need to be MOTIVATED to do what we need to do?

The uncensored truth is that you can do all sorts of things without FEELING excited about doing them.  You can go for a jog when you’d rather watch a rerun in your pajamas.  (In fact, the only time I’m MOTIVATED to run, is about 1/2 way through a run!)  You can write that article… follow up on that lead… check in with your clients…  even when you feel unmotivated to do so.

In short, you can do it anyway.

We’re not five anymore.  We don’t need to be tricked into eating our veggies or cajoled into visiting Grandma or bribed into doing our chores.

We can feel completely unmotivated, uninterested even… and do it anyway.   In business, marriage, fitness, and life — in my humble opinion — the most exciting changes occur when we “do the thing” we need to do… consistently… without taking our emotional temperature to decide if we FEEL like doing them or not.

So, maybe this completely un-motivational Monday post will actually motivate you to “do the thing, ” — whatever that is for you today.  IF NOT, well… I offer you my favorite motivational Monday tweets:

The post My Unpopular Take on #MondayMotivation appeared first on b. michelle pippin.