But, every once in a while…
every blue moon…
I stumble upon “the others.”

I hear them bemoaning the work or complaining about clients.

These “others” think sequentially instead of simultaneously. “Let me finish this program, put a nice bow on it, tidy it up and then I’ll look at what’s next.” (Yuck.)

They not only come UP with excuses — for why they’ll be ready NEXT YEAR, but not this one (of course)… or for why they’re NOT selling anything or for why they’re STILL not ready. They not only come up with this nonsense, but they actually BELIEVE it.

Every once in a while I’ll run into a truly VISIONARY leader…
who is delaying her launch,
as she learns social media or podcasting or some other technology.

Or — worse — as she waits for better timing.

O
M
G.

Newsflash, you don’t need to KNOW the ins and outs of a technology or platform to be able to USE it for profit. And there’s NO SUCH THING as perfect timing. The only PERFECT timing is RIGHT NOW.

Uggg…..

Bring on the brave, people.
Bring on the courageous.
Bring on the audacious.

Because anything else bores me to tears,
but also…
mainly,
It drives me FREAKING mad with frustration.

I want to shake them.
I want to wake them up.

I want to show them how SLOW, SEQUENTIAL, SAFE
is a PROVEN, TIME TESTED recipe
for mediocrity and failure.

But, honestly, how can they not already see it?
What could I POSSIBLY say that would allow them to “get it?”

When, they are living it, already.
Mediocre,
Repetitive,
Disappointment…
They’re living it already…
day in and day out…
Nothing much changing from year to year.
Despite learning new skills,
or hiring a new coach,
or launching a new brand.

They are LIVING it…
mediocre increase year to year…
constant derailments, fits and starts…
consistent “feast and famine” cycles.

What could I POSSIBLY say that would be more compelling or clear than the REALITY they endure every single day?

What could I SAY that would allow them to see it is THEM… it is their DESIRE for slow, sequential and safe… it is their unwillingness to get messy, to dive deep, to get in over their head?

All of this — the desire for slow, sequential, safe — seems reasonable. I’ll give them that.

But, industries aren’t disrupted,
Movements aren’t created,
Fortunes aren’t made,
Empires aren’t built,
Lives aren’t changed,
Fame isn’t created…

by the reasonable ones.

So bring me the BRAVE,
The courageous.
Hell, bring me the CRAZY.
So we can DO and DISRUPT and CREATE.

And let the others go celebrate groundhog day someplace else.

The future and the fortune STILL favors the bold, friend. If you’d like to plan 2018 in a way that you’ve NEVER planned before. If you’d like to get some 1:1 accountability — with me — for all of 2018. If you’d like to CUT THROUGH YOUR OWN CHAOS, and CLUTTER and — yes — even excuses… there is time to join me in my proprietary program, “Plan, Promote & PUSH 2018.” You can join here: bmichellepippin.com/PLan2018or you can PM me any questions you may have. We get started on Monday, December 19th.

The post Bring me the BRAVE Women Entrepreneurs, Or None at All. appeared first on b. michelle pippin.

Here are Women Who WOW’s top predictions for women entrepreneurs in 2018.

WARNING: If you read ANY of this, please read ALL of this. There is some “good news” I’ll share first… but even the BEST of the news ushers in some challenges that you must FIRST acknowledge — and then leverage– if you’d like to squeeze ALL of the potential out of 2018.

So, first…. the statistics, which the NFIB says is the best we’ve seen in the United States in over a decade. The bottom line is that RAW OPTIMISM in business is UP. There are more people becoming business owners, more business owners confident about the future, and more business owners investing in their business.

Good news?

Certainly. SOARING consumer confidence intersecting with SOARING entrepreneurial confidence is exciting. But, there are VERY FEW things in life that are either ALL good… or ALL bad.

In fact, this incredible statistic is EXACTLY what will lead to some small business struggle in 2018. We’ll get there, but first…

I want to BEG you to read these trends and predictions and consider HOW they may impact YOU… and how you could LEVERAGE them to create your best year yet.

Ponder them.
Mull them over.
Get curious.
Brainstorm.
Think critically.
Don’t “just” read them.

btw, these predictions are listed in NO particular order.

Prediction #1: Big ANYTHING will become even MORE distrusted in 2018. This goes for big pharma, big medicine (people and pets), big government, big education, big “food” even. No longer will the big, established brands and conglomerates feel “safer” or more trustworthy than the small, lesser-known entities.

In fact, the opposite will continue to be true. Small will become MORE trustworthy, just because they’re not “big.”

This will make room for small businesses to come in and take some pretty massive market share. So look for your MOMENTS to slide in and present yourself as a BETTER option than the “big names” in your industry.

PREDICTION #2: Convenience will become even MORE huge… more expected… and more in DEMAND. Amazon is moving into the food delivery “business,” with their Amazon Restaurants. There’s also Uber and Uber Food, Grub Hub, Amazon Lockers and doctors who are no longer requiring you to go through the hassle of making an appointment.

Convenience, convenience, convenience. Be sure you’re constantly questioning how you can do what you do but make it MORE convenient for your market. OR that you are SO well positioned and well-branded that they will wait for two days in the rain with no tent for the opportunity to buy a ticket to work with you.

Or maybe, do BOTH. =)

PREDICTION #3: Small business confidence will bring in MORE competition. Combine this SOARING confidence with the continuing GIG economy and what we’re left with… is more competition. This has the potential to drive prices (and profit) down, so pay very close attention to how your POSITIONED (as the preferred voice, the preferred option) in your industry.

PREDICTION #4: The market will become even NOISIER than ever before. This is due to not only the INCREASED # of business owners and their ZEAL with their soaring confidence… but also due to the growing number of ways they can reach us… with ease and — in many cases — for free.

Books.
Podcasts.
Live streams.
Stories.
Social Media.

If you think it’s noisy today, it is.
But it’s getting noisier.

Consider going where it’s MUCH quieter. (Like Direct — snail — mail.) And also, find/create BRAND AMBASSADORS… real life, real people, in the real world who naturally endorse your brand.

PREDICTION # 5: The B.S. will increase, start to pile up and STINK…but it isn’t going anywhere. An opinion will continue to be paraded as fact. The public — it seems — PREFERS hearing their own opinions echoed back to them over fact and so VERY FEW people are demanding an end to the madness.

It will continue.

Your industry — and mine — will have to deal with the B.S. peddlers.

The solution? BE the truth teller in your industry. Point out the B.S. Call out the lies. Shine LIGHT on common sense, battle-tested, true today and true tomorrow TRUTHS that YOUR business is built on.

Tell the truth always.
Become KNOWN for it.

In 2017… being “authentic” was enough to allow you to stand out. In 2018, being authentic is expected. Your market actually doesn’t want you all glossed up and corporate-ized. So, show up authentic, yes… and also show up with the unfiltered TRUTH. Show up DAILY as the truth teller, if you want to SOAR past your goals in 2018.

So, that’s that people… My predictions for 2018. If you’d like to lock arms with me in 2018… If you’d like me to walk with you and hold you accountable in 2018… join us at WomenWhoWOW.com

Don’t forget to check out my Facebook Page to stay up to date with all my content.

The post 5 Predictions for Women Doing Business in 2018 appeared first on b. michelle pippin.

I’d hear this all the time when my kids were infants and toddlers and I’d run into someone who found out I was working from home.

The “accusation” of being lucky, somehow didn’t QUITE feel right, but I’m not a complainer. And the truth was, I DID feel “lucky.”

I’d quit my job cold turkey,
with an infant
and a mortgage,
$213 in the bank,
and no back up plan…

I invested $50 in my start up “business”
with no mentors
and only one strategy:
“figure out things to do from home to earn money”

and somehow, it was working out.

And so when I’d see someone I hadn’t seen in a while and I said I was working from home, I’d hear what would become one of the most common phrases:

“Oh, you’re so lucky. I’d love to do that.”

REALLY?

So, I’d dig in…
for free…
encouraging,
telling them exactly how I did it,
enthusiastically sharing how THEY could do “it” too…
while also honestly explaining some of the “hidden” realities:

• working while babies and husband slept.
• nursing while typing with one hand to meet a deadline
• having no “down time,” as down time for any other member of my family was ON time for me… as I was full-time caregiver AND full-time earner without even part-time help.

I was still the quintessential housewife.
I grocery shopped.
I cooked.
I paid the bills.
I didn’t clean WELL, but I still made an effort. =)

Neither of my youngest children EVER took a bottle — not even once, not even a bottle of breast milk — and so I was literally present for each and every meal. (Which, incidentally, I never thought of until later. It was just a normal and natural part of my life and I wouldn’t change a minute of it.)

It wasn’t long into these conversations that I’d hear the second most common phrase… a simple, nondescript, absolute and total rejection of my particular brand of “lucky:”

“Yeah.. I could never do that.”

“oh.” I’d say… “Okay.”

GEEZ, maybe I wasn’t lucky at all…
Maybe I was a hustler.
Maybe I was just one of those that stubborn, uncontrollable women who saw what she wanted and RAN after it…
not glancing from side to side wondering about the wisdom in my sprint or the risks in my decision…
but just running FULL OUT after what was important to me.

Maybe the old adage was true… the harder I worked, the luckier I got.

Fast forward 18 – 19 years and here I sit.
Hearing the same simple, nondescript, absolute and total rejection to any variety of my suggestions:

You should write a book.
Why don’t you show up daily? TEST IT… for 3 months.
Maybe you should just reach out and ask for the business.
Double your pricing.
Fire that (drag of a) client.

“Yeah… I could never do that.”

oh. Okay.

I’ll confess… I don’t believe in luck.
Honestly, I don’t.
Send me one or 100 of those “send this along to 5 people and you’ll be lucky” things and I delete every single one…. even when the “consequence” of NOT sending that “lucky” email along is 7 years of “bad luck.”

Because I don’t believe in good OR bad luck.

No, instead…
I believe in CAUSE and EFFECT.

If I want something in my life, a specific EFFECT…
I do everything within my power to CAUSE it to happen.
Call me a simpleton, but that’s the way I believe it works.

So, here are 4 things I do DAILY — and have done DAILY for ALL of my 19 years in business — that cause me to be “lucky:”

• I wake up early. Not on most mornings, but on every morning. Over the past nearly 20 years, I’ve woken up AT LEAST before 6 AM 355 out of 365 days a year. Getting a jump on my day allows me to do the most important work before “people” starts to happen. Working for 2 hours uninterrupted is like working for 6 hours while distracted.
• I do the work, even when I feel like NOT doing the work. This is one of the blessings of starting out BROKE. I did the work even when I didn’t want to because I needed to be paid. Even when I got out of that “eat what I kill” financial cycle, my work ethic remained. I show up, every day and do the work I am meant to do. And then, “luckily” the money also shows up.
• I do AT LEAST one thing EVERY SINGLE DAY to move my business forward. This can be a phone call, a sales page, media outreach… something to break out of maintenance mode and take NEW ground. When I was in the early years of my business, I’d take ONE new sales action per day. Now, I take ten. In launch mode, I do 30 things EVERY DAY to make my goals a reality. But, I started with just ONE action every day to move my business forward.
• I take chances and risk failure on the regular. Shying away from this serves only to keep me playing small… so, I have conditioned myself to TAKE RISKS regularly… I have become okay with failure. I’ve made peace with it… because SUCCESS lives in the land of FAILURE. (P.S. There IS no land where success lives all by itself.)

So, you know…

A seriously driven woman entrepreneur knows that she makes her own “luck.” Are YOU a seriously driven woman entrepreneur? Take a look at Women Who WOW. WomenWhoWOW.com

The post 4 THINGS THAT HELPED ME GET “LUCKY” IN BUSINESS appeared first on b. michelle pippin.

I’ll never forget — way before any of my online marketing/blogging/etc. would have been worth copying — finding a woman who had (word for word) copied my entire website. EVEN THE ABOUT ME PAGE.

She was from my area, and while I didn’t know her, I reached out to her to discuss the, um, “situation.” She denied it, of course… saying that it was a coincidence.

Saying she’d NEVER even SEEN my site.

She hung up, however, when I marveled at the fact that she and I were both married to public school teachers named Chris, had three kids the EXACT same age, named Summer, Shelbey, and CJ, she apparently went to the same church, same high school, same college. Isn’t that special? =)

Anyway, most business leaders will tell you to NEVER copy someone else, but I’m not most business leaders. The truth is, we are born with an innate desire to mimic. It’s how we learn most everything in our early years.

We are also — of course — born so incredibly unique in every way, with an innate desire to fully express who WE are as individuals.

In business, I suggest we use both.

WHAT TO COPY, THE COMPREHENSIVE LIST:

1) Behaviors. If you want what “they” have, take a look at what “they” do. if you want to be thin, look at the habits and behaviors of thin people. If you want to be rich, look at the habits and behaviors of rich people. Behavioral congruency will lead to RESULT congruency.

There is no 2nd thing to copy. =)

WHAT TO KEEP ORIGINAL: EVERYTHING ELSE, of course.

Your message.
The way you bring your message.
Your phraseology.
Your analogies.

Stay 100% true to your own twisted little view of the world. =) Stay absolutely true to you.

So, if you see someone getting the results you want to get online. Don’t try to talk like them, cuss like them. Don’t try to wrangle your own beliefs around to match their own. OF COURSE.

But DO watch what they’re DO-ing…

Are they doing Live streams once a day? once a week?
Are they blogging directly into Facebook or sharing a link directly from their site?
Are they using images with EVERY post or only certain kinds of posts?
How are they using groups?
How often are they releasing a new podcast?
What seems to be their approach with the media?

This is no different than reading a biography of a great leader. You DO study other great leaders, right? Soaking up the habits, the tendencies, the beliefs they all have in common???

This is no different, it’s just in real time.
So, look at what they are DO-ing
and then
do it ENTIRELY
YOUR
EXQUISITELY
UNIQUE
way.

Here’s to US!

Want to stay updated with my posts, videos, and tutorials? Head over to my Facebook! 

The post When to Copy Someone Else and When to Stay Original appeared first on b. michelle pippin.

Today, I am painfully aware of the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and also have my eye on Hurricane Irma (and behind her, Hurricane Jose) heading up the East Coast.

There will always be storms. 
Weather storms.
Life Storms,
Storms in marriage and parenting.
And — of course, most relevant to our focus on women entrepreneurs — storms in business.

No matter your industry, years in business, education level or geographic location, there will be TIMES when your business threatens to overwhelm you, or times when your finances are looking “scary,” moments when your team quits, your clients are angry and you just feel like you might be better off with a J-O-B.

I remember hearing Marley Majcher say that there was a point — in the early years of her business– during which she came to the following realization,

She’d “be better off working at McDonald’s for minimum wage and a shift meal.”

She says it in a way that is REALLY funny.
But, perhaps you’ve been there.
Maybe you’re there now.

Wondering…. if “it” is going to “work out,”
Waiting… for YOUR big break.
Wishing… that something would TURN your way.

And — of course — because you’re a hard-core, seriously driven woman who WOWs… OF COURSE, you’re doing the work. Right?

Day in and day out.
Showing up.
Doing the work.
Checking the boxes.
Falling down,
Standing back up,
Straightening your shoulders…
And then…
charging ahead again.
Against the wind and rain.
Despite whatever headwinds you may face.
Regardless of the obstacles,
Ignoring the self-doubt,
Digging deep,
Always…
while the storm rages on around you.

BUT… sometimes, we need a shelter from the storm. A place to come in from the rain, a place to be safe, to rest, to refuel.

I want to give a big Shout Out to my Mom, Vickie Tabor Woolard, who many of you have met. (And to know her is to love her, of course.) It’s her BIRTHDAY today, so if you are her friend on Facebook, send her a quick message.

My Mom has always been my shelter from the storm. No matter what was swirling around me, no matter how overwhelmed or hurt or rejected or miserable I was feeling… she was my safe place to land.

Strong.
Sure.
Tender.
Wise.
Loving.

SHE was the place in which I was most safe.
My heart.
My secrets.
My hurts.
Always safe.

I am so blessed to have had her growing up and even more blessed to still have her by my side to this day. (Happy Birthday Mom!)

Lately, I have been hearing from our Women Who WOW members some of these same sentiments… that WOW is THEIR shelter from the entrepreneurial storms in their life. A place where they can come in from the cold….

A place they can rest.
Re-fuel.
Re-focus.
Re-group.
Enjoy relationship.
Be nourished.
Be encouraged.
Be loved on.
Celebrated.
And STRENGTHENED — sometimes with some tough love — for whatever is yet to come.

Few know just how much this analogy means to me. It is one of the greatest honors of my life to lead this tribe of women…. women who are each FIERCE on their own… in their own right…. brought together under one umbrella. It just blows me away.

BUT, the storms of business do NOT have to blow YOU away. =) Here’s a quick overview for how to navigate WHATEVER storm you are facing right now:

— Take stock of the current reality. What is going right? What needs some adjusting?

— Consider the possibilities. What is the worst that can happen? What is the BEST that can happen? (Reality will probably be somewhere between these two extremes.)

— Acknowledge your feelings about it all. The anxiety. The overwhelm. The fear. The adrenaline. The WHATEVER. Acknowledge the feelings…. Notice them, don’t judge yourself for how you’re feeling… just acknowledge the emotions of it all.

— GIVEN all you have just written down, what is the NEXT BEST ACTION to take?

— Do that.

— Repeat.

Step by step, we weather the storms in business…. and come out stronger, more sure, more confident than before!

To my friends and members in TEXAS and LOUISIANA, FLORIDA and up and down the EAST COAST, we’re praying for you. Stay safe.

xoxo

The post 6 Steps To Weather Any Storm in Your Business appeared first on b. michelle pippin.