Welcome to all the new Smart Women Members this week!  So happy to have you as part of the Smart Women Family.

I have a lot to share this week, so let’s get started!

First, Don’t forget Sunday is the Deadline for the Free Ticket to 2011 Smart Women’s Business Conference and Expo

Register for our May 17 Create and Launch a Network Intensive One Day Workshop by April 10th here in San Antonio and you get a free ticket to our annual September Conference at: http://www.smartwomenevent.com A lot more information will come on the Create and Launch A Network Workshop, but you only have until Sunday to grab the free ticket to the conference (Over $400 Value!), so make sure you Click here to learn about the Create a Network Workshop today.

Second, I am thrilled to announce that I am one of the speakers for the 1st Annual Feed. Play. Love! Virtual Conference.

This free, online event is bringing together an incredible group of authors, speakers and thought leaders in the fields of child development, positive psychology and natural health. We’ll teach you to FEED your child’s body, mind and spirit… Give ways to allow them space to PLAY and foster their own ingenuity and creativity…Inspire ways to LOVE being a Mom, to feel confident and purposeful in the choices that you make about raising your child. You will also receive the 2011 Feed. Play. Love. Workbook so that you have a tool to implement the strategies, techniques and ideas that you want to incorporate into your life.  Registration is FREE! Visit www.fplsummit.com

Third, I wanted to share this beautiful TED Video with you called “If I should Have A Daughter” by Sarah Kay.  Enjoy!

To Your Success!

Sheri McConnell

The Smart Women’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Learning™

http://www.smartwomeninstitute.com

PS: And just in case you didn’t know, our new Web Design and Business Services division is open and getting very busy. So make sure to check out the new website if you are in need of talented and dependable Smart Women to help you get your company moving towards profits faster.  Our Smart Team includes certified bookkeepers to web designers to author specialists and much more!

This “intro” was taken from our latest newsletter.  Not getting our newsletter?  Sign up by clicking on “Send My Kit” at the TOP of this page and you’ll also receive our FREE Smart Steps to Success kit!

Visit Smart Women Team Now!

Hi Creators!

I coach a lot of new business owners–many of them are women–and most of them have a common struggle. They have a spouse that gets stressed about the amount of money it takes to build a profitable business.

I know–the irony–it takes money to make money.

Here are some of my recent thoughts on how you might help your non-entrepreneurial husband understand your need to “have this business”…

First–sit your husband down and break the news.

Say it slowly so that he actually thinks you will say “baby” at the end and then be relieved when you say “business” instead.

So say, “Honey, I am having a business.”

Then proceed to get him ready for the arrival by sharing the following. And don’t worry–eventually–your husband will adjust to the new baby, I mean business.

Here are some points to make in your heart-to-heart conversation. Good Luck!

• There will be at least nine months of waiting to see my hard work emerge–It takes time to build a strong foundation for my business. I will need coaches and mentors to give me the right advice on how to bring this business into the world. So please be patient if I get a little moody. I am growing and learning new things.

• We will have to spend some money to help it flourish and grow–We will have to invest in some new “stuff” in order to give birth to and to be able to feed this new business in the coming years.

• We will have to be willing to let it constantly learn and make mistakes–I won’t have all the answers and I sure can’t offer you guarantees about how this will turn out–but I know I will only become more successful at parenting this business when I am actively playing with it and paying attention to it. So I might not have as much time for you as I used to.

• There will never be a right time to do this–I know for a fact that there will never be a right time to do this. We will never have the perfect situation to start this business. I am willing to grow into a new person if you are.

• I know I don’t have all the answers–I won’t know a lot in the beginning and it will probably be stressful until we get used to our new lives, but I know deep in my heart if you are on board–we can make this work.

• We will never know the feeling of having our own successful business if we don’t try–This will be an exciting journey for us with many challenges but I know it will be worth it and I do know that it will change our lives for the better if we let it.

To your success!

Sheri McConnell

Dear Smart Woman,

For a limited time, grab one of the 200 copies of the 2010 Smart Women’s Business Conference & Expo DVDs, CDs, & Curriculum Slides!

As many of you know, we held our annual life-changing event just a few months ago.   And ever since then, you have been writing to see when we were going to offer the program in the DVD/CD version.

Now, for a limited time, you can purchase the complete 3 day program as well as the printed and bound curriculum slides!

In addition to a stellar line up of some of the most successful women in the world including Rhonda Britten, Amilya Antonetti, Kris Carr, Sheri McConnell and more…

We also provided our signature Smart Curriculum for women entrepreneurs of all levels.

The comprehensive view of the table of contents of what you will learn at the event is here:  http://www.smartwomenevent.com/dvdcd

You will learn a plethora of business mindsets, business models, and smart manifesting (aka marketing!)

Act Now and Receive These Valuable Bonuses too.

1. Smart Women Business and Marketing Planner below!
2. Pick n Profit Map
3. Smart Marketing Map
4. Conversion Map
5. Success Blueprint

Remember, we are only releasing 200 copies of this event and there are really great bonuses for the first 50 and 100 people.

Enjoy!

Sheri McConnell

The Smart Women’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Learning™

http://www.smartwomeninstitute.com

Would you say the reporter and I in the video
above are in two separate realities?

Now watch this and then Create Your Own Reality!

If you are in need of someone to hold the space for you to take your next big leaps, here are a few things you should do before and during the mentoring relationship:

Research Your Mentor

Decisions feel better when we do our due diligence… yes, sometimes, you do have to follow your heart and let it guide you.  I do that, however, I always make sure to research and run the numbers on my mentoring investments.  Has this person accomplished on a bigger scale what I want to accomplish next?  Has he or she been there and done that and do they have the numbers to prove it?  Ask WHY you are choosing them as a mentor?  Is it based on numbers or something more personal. I like it to be both, but not one or the other.

Listen to Your Mentor

For some reason, as long as I have been a coach, I have people each year hire me in the range of $25,000 to $100,000 to teach them methods to grow their business and then proceed to use their valuable time with me having me tell them why methods from other teachers will or won’t work.  If you hire someone, let them teach you their methods so you can both move as fast as possible to those profits. Your mentor will teach her methods the best–they are the ones she or he knows backwards and forwards. Remember, there is indeed more than one path to success, but it is really hard to be on two different paths at the same time.

Know That Your Mentor is Human

Sooner or later, you will see that your mentor is human and if you have been holding them up on a very high pedestal, it could get in the way of the effectiveness of your relationship from that point on.   Do not let that happen. Separate their faults from their results. And by faults, I do not mean lack of integrity…  we are assuming your chosen mentor is full of integrity.  I have seen many clients get in the way of their results because so and so that they were following was less than a God.  It is unrealistic to have those expectations and I believe that some people unconsciously do this as a way to self-sabotage their own success. Let’s face it… isn’t it easier to blame our results on external forces than see how we play a part in them.

Understand the ROI of Mentoring

The mindset I always have when making a large investment with a mentor is that this is a lifetime investment in my career and in the security of my family.  As an entrepreneur, each mentor always helps me to expand much farther than I could alone. That expansion drives my ideas and behaviors for the rest of my life. So remember, even if you make a large investment one year, you may not recoup it in the same year.  A lot of variables (roadblocks) can keep you from moving as fast as you like. Remember that your mentor will not be taking their knowledge back at the end of the year.   You get to keep that knowledge and experience and move forward into the next year of possibilities.

Lastly, and this is a big one…

when considering your comfort level around the mentoring investment amount. Remember that if you aren’t willing to invest that amount in yourself, how can you expect others to turn around and invest in you and your business later.  You have to walk the journey before them.

Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Website? You have my permission, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sheri McConnell is the CEO of the Smart Women’s Institute of Entrepreneurial Learning (formerly the National Assn of Women Writers-2001). You can visit Sheri, access her free article archive, and grab lots of free stuff at http://www.smartwomeninstitute.com. Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, their four children, a weenie dog, and three hermit crabs.

Last week we covered Simple Steps one through five, you can read them here. I hope you enjoyed them and don’t underestimate how powerful they are in your life. Now let’s move on to number six…

Six – Create A FUN JOB

Remember, you are the architect of your life and your business.  You can change ANYTHING at ANY TIME. Watch out for the times you will inevitably go on autopilot and find yourself not liking something you created.  Also remember that you are the mirror in your life and business. Your clients, your team, your vendors are all reacting to the the energy you send out. Be authentic, dependable, fun, and abundant in everything you do and you will find that you have created an incredibly FUN JOB for yourself and those you have chosen to work with.

Seven – Position Yourself

Pay attention to your choices.  Subconsciously, everyone is making assumptions about you based on what you say yes and no to.  For instance, do you write articles or author books, do you speak at workshops or provide keynotes to conferences, do you run a company of one or have a team…  the list goes on and on.  People are making assumptions all the time whether we like it or not.  You need to be aware of this and you need to leverage this human behavior in everything you do from now on.  I have a long list of ways I have my clients think bigger and act bigger in this area. 

Eight – Slow Down

The paradox of time in business… Time is money and what I have learned is that the more realistic and balanced I became about the concept of managing and leveraging time, the more magnetic my company became. When I respected myself enough to create a schedule that included time for me to just “be”, I was able to “be” whatever my team, clients, or family needed later on.  Slowing down also allows us to create in a conscious way so that we avoid mistakes in our lives and in our businesses.

Nine – Decide What You Will Leverage

In business, we have time, money, and expertise to leverage. That’s it. You can create more leverage by creating something once to sell over and over again.  Could be a membership, an infoproduct, a software, a manufactured product, and so on.  If you must provide a service, then go directly to managing others to provide that service and you skip a huge hurdle right away and introduce scalability (leverage) to your business.  There are many more examples… your job today is to start leveraging something as soon as possible.

Ten – Write It All Down

Busy CEOs such as ourselves have a huge amount of information in our heads. Create processes in your life to to get it all out of your head and on paper or in virtual systems.  I keep track of various parts of the business on a 4 x 6 write on wipe off board on my office wall as well as using Google Calendar, Google Email, and Basecamp to manage all the different parts of my life and business.  This allows me to move from project to project faster as well as manage a team and a family because everything is written down somewhere.  Be patient with yourself while you work on creating ways to track information you consistently need access to.

Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Website? You have my permission, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sheri McConnell is the CEO of the Smart Women’s Institute of Entrepreneurial Learning (formerly the National Assn of Women Writers-2001). You can visit Sheri, access her free article archive, and grab lots of free stuff at http://www.smartwomeninstitute.com. Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, their four children, a weenie dog, and three hermit crabs.

Success often comes to those that take a series of some times very easy steps… what can make the journey difficult is when you look too far in front of you and get overwhelmed or paralyzed. Sound familiar?  Here are 5 of the 10 steps that I find really powerful for my clients.  Note that some of them require physical work and may take more time but are easy mentally. While others can happen in a mere moment and can be much harder because they require a mental shift.

One – Organize and Purge

Remove clutter for clarity.  If you start here first and organize parts of your life, you will be far more productive. Bring in a 3rd party if needed and clear away the old life to make room for the new.

Two – Buy Simple Planning Tools

My favorite CEO planning tools are a giant Write On Wipe Off Board (my idea of being in Nerd heaven) and large Post-it Notes.  Both are for planning new ways to work the M’s. Marketing, Money, and Mindsets.  I use these tools to work on my own business and my clients’ businesses.  For a wall sized board option, try this large inexpensive board you can get at Office Depot.

Three – Plan Now to Step Up and Step In

Here is my method for planning… note I have 4 kids, two weenie dogs, and a team to manage. Having so much on my plate has forced me to cut through to the highest ROI strategies. This method is all you need to get going and get in the trenches, don’t over think everything. People just want to take some steps with you and accomplish small successes one at a time. Get your brilliance out there so they can get started and let them grow while you grow.

Plan what to do next in your business using this method:

• Pick a theme for the next six months or for the year. Mine this year is: Speaking at Events, last year it was: Do More PR on TV and Radio) I have always found that when I am focused on one theme and take small steps toward that theme, the universe listens because I am very clear. When I am confused, the universe has absolutely no idea what to give me.
• Loosely map out the big projects and events for the year. I do this across the bottom of my big Write On Wipe Off Board.  The open months tell me where I have room for the new creations!
• Now, move and take the next 3 steps in front of you. Speed is money, delegate and choose steps with a higher ROI, and you get to higher profits a lot quicker. Need help, hire a mentor or coach to help you sift through your decisions so you can learn how to do this on your own.

Four – Know the Three Things That Most Often Get in The Way of Your Dreams

Over the years, I have found that the following three areas are the most common areas that hold us back. I give them to you today as a gift so that your blind spots can be illuminated.

• Indecisiveness – Decisions are always forward movement even if they end up being the wrong decisions.
• Slow Speed – Repeat after me. “I am liquid, I am not rigid and I flow with my business eroding away all obstacles.”
• Faith In Yourself – This is the number one reason we don’t make decisions and move to slow.  You have to believe it before you can achieve it.  The best coach in the world can not help you believe. This happens within you.

Five – Commit to Achieve and then Recommit

Once you have developed faith in yourself and in your own abilities (and there is no other way to do this but to dive into the trenches and do it), then you only need to commit to achieve each goal you set.  Once we have faith in ourselves, business becomes a rinse n repeat process… aka, a behavior of you committing and recommitting over and over again.

Click Here for Part Two – Steps 6 – 10

Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Website? You have my permission, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sheri McConnell is the CEO of the Smart Women’s Institute of Entrepreneurial Learning (formerly the National Assn of Women Writers-2001). You can visit Sheri, access her free article archive, and grab lots of free stuff at http://www.smartwomeninstitute.com. Sheri lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband, their four children, a weenie dog, and three hermit crabs.

Did you know?

Every once in a while, I like to let our subscribers know what we do under the Smart Women’s Institute of Entrepreneurial Learning umbrella.

And trust me, I know this is a busy Monday for just about everyone which is why I must send this email. We find that a lot of our customers don’t know how we can help them with mutiple aspects of their business.

For instance, did you know that in addition to coaching, events, infoproducts and memberships, we also have an Imprint Book Program and are one of the only companies that exist that help you create your own imprints (a brand for a series of books) and keep 100% of your royalties while cutting out the middle man.  That’s SMART.

And now we handle the back end of your businesses too…

Today, I am proud to launch our brand new division, Smart Women Web Design and Biz Services where our SMART team helps you start and run your very own profitable online business.

If you have time, I encourage your to click on the links above.

But if you are too busy to take a peek right now at our new divisions, make sure you save this email for the future… you never know when you might need a SMART solution for your online business.

Click on the graphic below to learn more about all the SMART divisions:

Sheri McConnell-CEO
Smart Women’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Learning™