If you struggle with addiction or know someone who does, you probably recognize this cycle:

Sure, guilt and embarrassment come into play, too, but shame is the overriding emotion that my clients tell me they feel. Guilt and embarrassment surface when an addict gets caught or called out. Shame is an internal emotion that the addict will carry around forever if something isn’t done.

Shame, however is a crippling emotion. When someone feels shame the last thing they want to do is talk about it. To talk about it is to become vulnerable. When someone has an addiction, the likelihood that past vulnerability has been met with ridicule, disgust, teasing, (or other negative response) is high. This keeps vulnerability at bay and keeps shame trapped within.

The paradox of shame occurs when shame is talked about and it is met with understanding and compassion. Suddenly, the shame lessens and the hold it has on someone with an addiction lessens.

Look back at the top of this article to the addiction cycle. When shame is reduced, less discomfort is in the life of an addict and the need to act out lessens. Finding ways to address and reduce shame weakens the grip of addiction.

So, where does an addict go to find understanding and compassion? It may not be at home, where your addiction has caused damage. It may not be with a therapist because that’s a 1-on-1 relationship and, although hugely valuable in your recovery, serves a different purpose. It absolutely lessens shame, but not the same as in a group setting.

Shame lessening occurs in group. In my sex and pornography addiction support group, our guys tell their stories and are met by other men who are fighting the same battle. They show compassion and understanding. They can relate and they learn that there is no shame in facing your addiction and recovery. The shame starts to dissipate immediately. Attending 12-step meetings and telling your story is another way to let your shame out.

Shame is paradoxical – it’s one of the most difficult things to talk about, but when you talk about it in the right setting, it melts away. And that makes life much easier.  

If you’re curious about your alcohol consumption, or if you have ever thought about changing or stopping your use, the AUDIT is a great tool.  The AUDIT is a simple 10 item questionnaire that you can use to help guide your decision about alcohol.

If you will send an email to AUDIT@NothingByChanceCoaching.com, we will reply with directions and a free copy of the AUDIT.  To learn more about Dan’s practice click on his picture!

The life coach suggested that he consider what kind of business he wanted.

• A business that focuses on fixing problems.
• A business that aspires to fulfill a vision.
• A business that is going out of business.

He had picked the easiest of these kinds of business first. He wasn’t interested in being part of a business going out of business, until he considered selling the business. His action plan developed quickly from this reframing of the life coach’s suggestion. Now it was time to turn to the second suggestion.

A metaphor of a complex, intricate and finely tuned machine accompanied his impression of a business that focuses on fixing problems. A machine is powerful. It is efficient. Tireless and productive, it can be as elegant as a jeweled timepiece and as awesome as a locomotive pulling hundreds of freight cars. His chest warmed at the appreciation of precise engineering melding with pragmatic purpose. The components of his business, his machine, included marketing, sales, accounting, purchasing, manufacturing, distribution and development. In the beginning, he did it all. He recognized the good fortune that required him to bring in his sales partner. That was a major “fix” to solve the problem of his limited capacity in the face of growing demand. It turned out to be a wonderful solution because the salesperson was very skilled, easy to work with, honest and a worker willing to put in all the hours required to meet the marketing, travel, and, now, supervision demands. Then there was the problem of getting the product to all of the customers who wanted ever increasing numbers to restock their shelves. It was a hard day when he had to tell his original tool and die maker that their contract would not continue. The small shop just could not provide the quantity. The business owner’s due diligences led him to a tool and die shop that was as effective in meeting specifications as the original tool and die maker and also had the capacity to produce the necessary supply for the foreseeable future. He recalled the triumph at making a transition that converted a problem into an asset. It was like moving from six cylinders to eight at the blink of an eye!

As owner and CEO of a business that fixed problems, he was the chief problem solver. He was proud to “wear” the elegant timepiece and “steer” the powerful locomotive his business was becoming. Other business owners noticed. Some of them began inquiring about how accomplished so much. He was asked to bring his reputation to board positions in the community and knowing that he was contributing to the greater community through not-for-profit organizations was immensely satisfying. He felt as though the only problems in his business that he couldn’t solve were problems that he didn’t know about or couldn’t get to. Not that there no problems. It was almost as if he was less a businessman if there weren’t problems to fix. He became ferocious in the pursuit of imperfections that were preventing his “machine” from operating at peak efficiency and peak productivity. It was all good, he realized, until the biggest problem was him.

Do you have a company?  Do you have dreams?  Of course you do.  Do you also have employees? If so, your employees have dreams, too.  NBCC will support you in supporting them.  When you contact us, mention this article and the first visit is complimentary.  We want your success!   Want to learn more about Dr. Dave?   Click on his picture!

So, you have decided to have a newsletter. Great idea. It is a superb way to get people to read messages from you, to promote your business and to do so in a way that your identified audience is open to hearing from you. Now that you have that much taken care of, how about creating some revenues? Ready to learn more? Here we go:

1. Title Bar – As with all forms of advertising, think about who you reach, what you know about them, and who else may want to reach out to them. For your “Title” advertiser, think big company who would want their name tied to yours, and wants to have everyone know you are joined at the hip. Of course, use care, because you are also joined at their hip now!
2. Section Header – Give some consideration to having areas of your newsletter to which you can give “labels”. You can then look to have advertisers in a section by section basis. For section ideas, think of headers like Service or Events or Staff Notes.
3. Column Ad – If you have content in your newsletter, where the author is set up on a recurring basis, you will also discover that some portion of your audience wants to read that individuals words. Because that is so, there are people who would pay to have their message always along for the ride. An example could be: “Bob Jack’s column brought to you by Ted’s Tekhaus”

As you can see, having the newsletter is even more valuable to you than just getting your word out! If you going to take the time to put together a good regularly scheduled message, you might just as well take some time to create some money for yourself as well!

Stay tuned, the next time we are together, we will get to a look into Event Marketing!

Wanting to increase your company revenues?  Jim has the bucket overflowing for others, join them by clicking here!  Perhaps you just want to learn more about Jim, just click on this photo of him!

In many businesses when you have a good employee; one who really excels in their job; one who is head and shoulders above everyone else in their job title; what you do with/to them… is promote them into management.

The curse is this, just because you are good at doing the job, does not indicate that you are any good at managing others to do the job!

Perhaps you have gotten the call up to the “Management Majors”.  Perhaps you can sense it is coming.  Either way, you need to be thinking about what is next.  If you are the boss, who is about to make that call to one of your star performers you need to be thinking about what comes next.

According to Linda Hill, Associate Professor of the Harvard Business School, “The transition from individual contributor to manager represents a profound psychological adjustment—a transformation—as managers contend with their new responsibilities. New managers must learn how to lead others, to win trust and respect, to motivate, and to strike the right balance between delegation and control. It is a transition many new managers fail to make.”

So, this next phase requires new learning.  Just like that last phase may have required you to learn a skill or two, so does management.  What this really means is this: Before you make the call, or before you accept the call, find out what the support system is going to look like.

• Where will this new learning come from?
• Who is qualified to teach this new skill?
• How long will it take?
• How much will production suffer?

Fortunately, at Nothing By Chance we have a course to help with this very thing.  Entry supervision / managment skills can be taught in our entry course, in blocks of 3 hours at a time (which lowers lost productivity) your star performer can migrate to star supervisor.  To learn more, go here.

Kenna Lewis is our Saavy Business Socialista.  For anyone who reserves a seat in the Entry Supervision / Management Skills course, Kenna will include one free coaching session!  That’s a value of $175!  Call Kenna (816 -237-1820) today.  To learn even more about Kenna… click on here caricature.

As always, the life coach listened attentively. There were questions that helped the business owner get deeper into his uncertainty and clearer about his situation. There were words where previously there had been only strong feelings. There were insights that created platforms from which additional questions could be formulated. He was more energized after 45 minutes than he remembered being in the last six months. He knew that he had made progress but he knew that there was work to be done before he could proceed. His homework was to decide which kind of business he wanted. He had three options from which to choose:

A business that focuses on fixing problems.
A business that aspires to fulfill a vision.
A business that is going out of business.

The business owner thought he knew which of these options would be the easiest to deal with. There was no way that a business of his was going to be down the drain. But just before he moved on to one of the other options to consider, another perspective occurred to him. (It was his coach’s fault – always “on the other hand” thinking!) Rather than down the drain, what if the business was sold? After all, he had proven that his original idea was both doable and profitable. While the business wasn’t as great as it could be, there was a lot in place for someone else to realize a nice profit. The business owner began to think of his price. Everyone has a price; the offer that can’t be refused! And he identified partners in this endeavor; people who had experience in the buying and selling of businesses, which would help him to be realistic in terms of the marketplace. He was intrigued with this possibility and knew how to develop it further.
With the action plan formulated for a business going out of business, the formerly frustrated business owner turned his attention to the life coach’s second thought teaser. If he were to own a business that focuses on fixing problems, what would that mean for him, and his customers and his employees?

Do you have a company?  Do you have dreams?  Of course you do.  Do you also have employees? If so, your employees have dreams, too.  NBCC will support you in supporting them.  When you contact us, mention this article and the first visit is complimentary.  We want your success!   Want to learn more about Dr. Dave?   Click on his picture!

Unfortunately, for many businesses (web or otherwise) the number one reason for failure is under-capitalization. Thus, making money right off the bat serves the long term vision of the business best of all. Because I wanted my customers to do well (and therefore be able to pay their bill), I looked for ways to create alternative revenue streams, while the core business would grow in the time they needed. Over a period of time, I was able to discover eighteen of what became known as the “Buckets of Money”. This is column twelve in an eighteen column series… so with that said, on with the show.

When this series was created, I promised you 18 buckets of money, for having a website. 18 buckets, over and above whatever your core business. This column is going to be the closest to violating that promise. I feel compelled to offer you this, because for many businesses without my sharing this bucket, they may never even know it was possible. I hope my candor here will make up for any number of you readers who are already aware of (and better still are actually utilizing) this bucket.

So, with you knowing your core business as well as you do, you no doubt have some information that others simply do not have. You created a business based, in some measure, on that information and that information alone can produce revenues to you in the digital frontier.  Let’s explore some ways to get there:

1. e-Books – Take the information you have, put it in a digital file and prepare it for publication. Let me recommend you have at least a few others review and exercise some editing for you. Try to find a way to incorporate graphics as well, for the increase in entertainment value. You can share it in many different formats. Go for one that is widely viewable, such as PDF, which can be obtained from www.adobe.com.
2. CD’s – Another avenue available for your information is to share it via disc. Of course you have two added costs here, one being the cost of creating the CD, the other being distribution. But, in a disc you can add a few new forms of information, such as audio or video files.
3. Templates & Themes – If your offering is one in which a certain “look” is mission critical, or even something that just differentiates you from your competition, then having that look or looks, can be turned into revenues to you by the sale of templates or themes.  Making either available in the form of a digital download.

Given what we have learned here, you can now see that if you have a certain style, feel or taste, that is uniquely yours, there is gold in them there hills. Now, go get your bucket!

Stay tuned, the next time we are together, we will get to a look into Newsletter Advertising!

Wanting to increase your company revenues?  Jim has the bucket overflowing for others, join them by clicking here!  Perhaps you just want to learn more about Jim, just click on this photo of him!

After I cleaned up from mowing the lawn the other day, a man knocked on my door with advice on how to rid my lawn of moles.

After the sermon on beginning transformation from where the person is, the explosions in Boston froze my thoughts on where I want the bomber and it is not a church-like transformation that I have in mind.

For tax issues, I can see a CPA.

For pain or illness, I can see a medical doctor/chiropractor/dentist/acupuncturist.

For car repair, I can see a mechanic.

The lawn service will tell me how to stop the brown spots and the horticulturist will tell me the plants that will be hearty and the right shape and the right color at the correct time of the year.

The butcher provides great cuts of meat for my special guests and huge bones for my dog.

It took a while but, finally, there was someone who not only had advice but was willing to repair the crack in my living room ceiling.

It seems that advice is available for any issue I encounter as long as I’m willing and able to pay for it. Now, there are some things for which I choose to not pay. Living with the “problem” or taking the time to find the answer myself are sometimes preferred options. (But not too often, because my time is valuable and I have low tolerance for first time results. I’m also cheap. I’d rather spend my precious resources on fun, or kids and grandkids, or clothes, or apps, or almost anything that takes me beyond the expected norm. I expect my world to be in order and without pain. Normal seldom is like that, but I’m very good at self-delusion.) But, I digress…

With advice so plentiful, what is the bottom line for all these people who have established a business? Money will be received by the business that provides someone with something that is wanted. Some would say that the bottom line is the same as it always has been.

And I agree. It has always been about the service the consumer perceives. People gladly return to the business that previously has served them well.

Others, and perhaps this group is larger, operate as though the bottom line is profit. Nonsense! These businesses must spend ever increasing amounts on attracting new customers because those not served well will take their money to another business. This applies to “internal customers”, too. Internal customers are also known as employees and co-workers. They will collect a paycheck until the day comes when another business will provide them with pay and, better serve their dream.

The Nothing By Chance bottom line is serving you. We are not successful until you are. Have a dream? NBCC will support its attainment.

Do you have employees? Your employees have dreams, too. NBCC will support you in supporting them. When you contact us, mention this article and the first visit is complimentary. We want your success!  Want to learn more about Dr. Dave?  Click on his picture!

“Utilize the strengths of a great team and you’ll achieve more than you ever imagined possible.”

~ John Maxwell

Is your team needing a lift?  Let us do a TEAM Initiative Day with your team!  Great for promoting better communication, and motivation.  You will be amazed at how much even a half day will benefit your team.  To learn more, click here!  Want to learn a bit about our CEO, Jody Miner?  Click on her picture!

This is column eleven in an eighteen column series… so with that said, on with the show.

This time around we will look at picking up some money as a consultant.  For some people, the term consultant is not met with glee.

Yes, to some it may seem like you are the person not actually doing any work, just a person identifying that some work needs done.  I am not such a person, and thus, I can offer you to pursue this. For me, it is just another way to make money. To be clear, if you do know something, something of value, then others will pay you for that knowledge. Of course, if you will share it with them. If by doing that very thing, who loses? In my book, no one does! So, with that out of the way, let us get down to the topic at hand. You may find it, initially cumbersome about how to transition into the “consulting” business. But let me offer you this, no matter what your line of work may actually be, you have likely had someone approach you for a bit of sage advice. A free tip or two. We do enjoy helping. It might seem the decent thing to do, and I agree… to a point. If you can give another person a few moments, even if you offer more as you like who am I to say. But, if it gets into hours of help, hours that your business needs you to attend to…? Do you really want your sites to suffer so that someone else can benefit? I only suggest that you temper what you do, and make your own determinations.  But, if you can help them, to a point, then make some profit off of your experience, and your own web sites do not suffer. I suggest you take the opportunity to do so. If you disagree with me on this point, then come back for the next column, but if you don’t let’s take on another bucket. This one we will focus on just a couple of directions to go. Which one you choose depends only upon your how you look at things. Choose the best for you:

1. Consulting Approach – With this approach you spend some serious time looking into how your new client is doing business. You compare that to how you do business, then create some suggestions. These suggestions, are all bound together in a nice report, that you deliver back to the client. You may make yourself available for one or two more meetings to discuss the progress being made, but on the whole, once you have delivered the report, you are done. This approach makes the most sense, if you are someone who is more comfortable with your “formula” and want to share it and go.
2. Mentoring Approach – This approach could take a bit more face to face time, but less in terms of creating a report! Heavily focused on face to face time, you need to be willing to go the extra mile with the individual(s) in the younger company. This approach makes a lot of sense, if your strength is in people skills, and you enjoy working with others like yourself.

Stay tuned, the next time we are together, we will get to a look into Information Sales!

Wanting to increase your company revenues?  Jim has the bucket overflowing for others, join them by clicking here!  Perhaps you just want to learn more about Jim, just click on this photo of him!

“I am too busy to manage my business”… “I want to expand but I’m stuck”… “I can’t do one more thing”… “I know there are better ways but I can’t take the time to find them”… Sound familiar??

When running your own business it is easy to become preoccupied with day-to-day activities. You begin to lose touch with the big picture, and it becomes difficult to assess the overall efficiency levels to facilitate growth and expansion. That is why it is crucial to hire a business coach who can provide a fresh, unbiased perspective and tell you what is working, what could use improvement and where to grow.

Business coaches can facilitate a review of your current practices, processes, and employee engagement levels. They can assist in evaluating if there are additional streams of income that you might deploy. Often, business owners develop an emotional attachment to their business model and fail to adapt to an ever-changing socioeconomic climate. Competitors will evolve and crush you if you do not maintain flexibility in your strategies.

Business coaches can also study your marketing techniques and decide what methods are driving the most traffic and consumers. Marketing your company as inexpensively as possible, yet effectively, is a goal all owner’s strive for. You want your business to reach the broadest audience for the least amount of money and effort.
That is where a business coach can steer you in the right direction and help take your company to the next level. Call today to set up a session to determine if you are ready to take the next step with your company. Call Kenna (816 -237-1820) by April 30 to receive half off your very first meeting.