Cathy Stucker - The Idea Lady

Attract Customers and Make Yourself Famous

You Get an Extra Day

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february 29We all say we want and need “more time.” Well, tomorrow we get it. Because this is a leap year, February has 29 days instead of 28. What will you do with your extra day?

Use the day to enrich yourself. Start by thinking about some of the things you claim never to have time for. Whether that means spending more time with family and friends, grabbing your camera and going to the park or the zoo, reading for pleasure, etc., use your leap day to do something that will help your heart and soul.
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13 Reasons You Are Not as Successful as You Should Be

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13-reasonsDo you think you deserve more success than you currently have? Most people do. Instead of blaming bad luck or a lack of connections, take a look at this list of 13 reasons you are not as successful as you should be by business consultant and author Jim Kukral.

Success isn’t something that is handed to you. It is something you earn. And you earn it not just by working hard–lots of people work hard and don’t become successful–but by working hard at the right things. That means having goals and working toward them, believing that you can and will be successful, wanting it enough to do what you have to do and working through failure.

One thing I think is missing from Jim’s list may ultimately be the most important reason for not being successful: [Read more…]

Stop Waiting for Permission

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How do successful people become successful? They do things. Instead of sitting around waiting for the Permission Fairy to whack them upside the head with her magic wand, they just go out and do what they need to do.

I get a lot of questions from clients, students and others about how to do various things. Sometimes these questions are about the technical details of how to do something, but often the question is about how they go about getting permission to publish a book, become a consultant, create a course, etc. They want to know what course they need to complete, what group they need to join or who needs to give them a title before they can do what they want to do. While that is necessary if you want to be a doctor, in the world of entrepreneurs you do not need a license to succeed.

When someone is waiting for permission it is often because they do not have confidence in their ability to do something. The way to get that confidence is not to look to someone else. The way to get confidence in your ability to do something is to do it.

In the corporate world there are people who hand out titles and job duties. As an entrepreneur, you are the one who decides what your title is (if any) and what responsibilities you have. Want to be a published author? Write a book and get it published. Want to be a professional speaker? Get to the front of the room and start talking. Want to be a consultant? Start lining up clients you can help. It’s up to you.

There are people and educational resources to help with the things you do not know how to do or that you do not want to do on your own. However, there is no one who can give you permission. No one but you.

Want to become a professional speaker? The first time I gave a talk I was nervous and not all that good at it. But I gave myself permission to be a speaker. I decided I could get better with practice, so I practiced. I spoke to many local community groups. I taught a class for a local university. I participated in professional associations where I led meetings. Not only did I become a better speaker, I KNEW I was a better speaker because I had the experience to back it up. And how did I get that experience? That’s right, boys and girls, I just did it.

If you are waiting for someone to give you permission to be successful you may be in for a long wait. Stop waiting for others to tell you that you can do something and just do it.

Do You Think Like a Billionaire?

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Before millionaires and billionaires became super successful, they were usually like everyone else. At least outwardly. But they had big dreams. People like Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates were ordinary individuals, seemingly no different from you and me.
One obstacle to becoming successful is believing that success just happens. That the people who get extraordinary results “got lucky.” However, as the saying goes, most people find that the harder they work, the luckier they get.

Success does not get handed to you on a platter. It requires hard work and perseverance. You also need a belief system that says not only that it is possible to achieve success beyond the wildest dreams of most people, but that you can achieve that level of success. That means having the mindset of a billionaire.

How do you think like a billionaire?
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If You Won’t Be, You Can’t Be

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This week’s Monday Morning Message from Wm. H. Danforth, founder of Ralston Purina:
What is the Monday Morning Message?

A sign hangs in the Club House of Bill Roper’s Princeton football squad:

“A team that won’t be beaten, can’t be beaten.”

You men who are putting your life behind Purina Checkerboard Chows just won’t be beaten—you can’t be beaten.

Hang up this motto.

One of the most memorable lines from the movie Apollo 13 is when flight director Gene Kranz announces that, “Failure is not an option.” Like many things in the movies, the line was written for the movie and did not come from real life. However, the attitude behind the line was definitely part of the culture of NASA’s Mission Control.

There is a quotation attributed to Henry Ford that goes something like, “Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are probably right.”

All three of these quotations have a common theme: Our belief systems play a big part in the results we achieve.

  • If we truly believe we can not lose, we will win.
  • If we believe failure is not an option, we will find a way to succeed.
  • If we believe we can do something, we will approach it with confidence and will keep trying until we do it. If we do not believe we can do it, we probably will not even try.

It is easy to take a negative position–that something is too hard or there is some reason that we can not do it. It is so easy that we may not even realize we are doing it.

Strongly asserting our belief in ourselves and what we can do is harder. But it pays off.

Do you ever say things such as:
“I never do anything right.”
“I don’t know how to do that.”
“Well, I’ll try, but…”

The next time you catch yourself voicing one of these (or other) defeatist thoughts, stop right then and change your attitude. Look for the way to succeed instead of accepting failure as an option.