The Ant and the Elephant Day 1

As many of you know, Theresa Trumpelmann is a WomenforWealth.com member from South Africa who has offered to lead the whole group through a book she found useful in her leadership development and in the building of her own business. The book is The Ant and the Elephant by Vince Poscente.

Over the next two weeks, she will walk us through studying the book via email. This will culminate in a call where we can all share verbally, the impact.

That call will take place on Saturday morning, August 18th at 8am Pacific/11am Eastern and 5pm South Africa time. The following is Lesson #1 and will act as a study guide for the first part of the book. You will get several more of these lessons by Theresa before the call with action guides to implement the lessons into your life and business today. We recommend you order this little book and read it in preparation for the call Saturday the 18th.

The Ant and the Elephant by Vince Poscente

Leadership for the self

from Theresa Trumpelmann

Lesson 1: Why? Zero in on a dream that has depth of meaning. The journey has to be worth taking.

To get to your dreams and goals, you must first learn to guide

your subconscious mind. You need harmony between your conscious and subconscious minds so that they travel in the same direction.

Before you start a journey, you must know why the journey is

worth the effort it will take to get you there. Your CORE – the

answer to your WHY – will remain pretty constant throughout your

life. It is essential to your happiness. It will keep you moving

forward even if your elephant, or subconscious, wants to go the

opposite direction. Your WHY is as important as your Dream/Goal

because it is what is behind the dream.

Start with this simple question: What is most important to you?

So, what’s at the CORE of your being, what’s inside of you?

What is important to you, and what is in your heart… for this is

where you start the journey to your dreams.

To discover this, you simply need to ask yourself the question

“WHY?” When you can’t ask yourself “why” any further, you’ve

reached your CORE. (If you goal is to grow your business to $10

million in revenue per year, then ask “why?” Maybe the answer

is “to provide for my family.” Then ask “why?” again. And so on

until you get to the core of the matter.)

Or, Think about what you love to do most. Then ask yourself why

you love it.

Lesson 2: Clarify your vision.

To dig a little deeper, one must learn to harness the power of

emotions. Find that very deep emotion that will send a shudder

through your whole body, once awakened. That dream or goal that

brings tears to your eyes when you think about it.

Find the emotion that ignites the vision. Inspire yourself and

your team through emotion. Never underestimate the power

of emotion.

Practical tip to find the emotion behind your Dream:

Describe your Dream or Goal.

Be specific, describe details how you would EXPERIENCE your

dream. Make sure you include all 5 your senses in your

description. Create a clear vision – see, taste, smell, hear,

experience the feelings and connect with your Dream, as if you

are there RIGHT NOW!

If your thoughts and Dreams match up with something important to

your Elephant (subconscious) you will have the powerful effect of

teamwork, your conscious and subconscious minds moving in the

same direction. Pay careful attention to what energize your

Elephant, what makes her excited, learn to recognize the feeling

– it is important to practice this harmonious alignment. (See

The Ant and the Elephant for more on this harmonious relationship.)

What to do in the next couple of days…

1. Start paying attention to your sub-conscious mind, what

energize you subconsciously, what drives you, what decreases your

energy and where do you get stuck and frustrated.

2. Stop when you feel stressed and find your fears. What are

you scared of and what stops you from moving forward? Sometimes

it is little things that hold you back from big dreams, but once

you know what you are afraid of, it can be placed into

perspective. You might get mastermind group to work through this

step together.

3. Find your CORE, your WHY.

What is your next goal, your Dream? Why is that important to you?

Why is that so important, etc.

How would that make you feel when you achieve it?

Ask “And then what?” to prod a little deeper.

Write this down and see if you get 2 or 3 CORE experiences.

4. Connect your WHY with your EMOTIONS by writing down your

DREAM, envision it with all your senses. Experience it as if you

are there right now.

Also, don’t miss the Member Call Tuesday, August 7^th at 6 Pacific, 9 Eastern (That’s 3am in South Africa). Overcome Obstacles and Keep Focus on the Solution: Strategies for changing your focus and growing your business.

Training Women Business Owners

From Liz Uible

Christine and I just got home from Rwanda this week. In Kigali, the capital, we taught an entrepreneur's workshop with about 50 participants in addition to working with female senators, ministers and other leaders in a separate workshop. (if you've missed it, you can learn more about our trip, and Rwanda in other blog posts.)

In the workshop, one of the things that impressed me was the universal feeling of business owners around the world seem to get when building their business. We can get so caught up in obstacles and road blocks that it is hard to see past them in any kind of constructive way. We can just sit in that problem for days or weeks and allow it to drain the life away from us and our businesses.

The power is in focusing on the solution and goal rather than sitting in the problem. We taught the entrepreneurs in the workshop some simple formulas for getting their head out of the problem and into the solution. (In fact, I was surprised at how quickly they took to the Mastermind concept and have already started implementing it. )

This is going to be our major focus on the Member call Tuesday. Overcome Obstacles and Keep Focus on the Solution: Strategies for changing your focus and growing your business.

I thought you might enjoy some photos of us working with the
business owners in Rwanda. Besides Christine Harvey and
me, Madeleine Nichols, Connie Kadansky, and Christina Willings helped teach these women about our experiences as business owners and how to grow their businesses even faster.

How a Coffee Bean Gets into Your Cup

from Liz Uible

On Monday I visited the other micro-lending facility we are working with in Rwanda. They are just rolling out a micro-lending program for the women coffee farmers who want to make money in the off season.

Evidently in some places, like Congo, coffee grows all year long and has several harvests. In Rwanda, there is only one harvest due to less rainfall. To compensate, Rwanda generally produces a higher value bean… the kind in Starbucks rather than Folgers.

In the off season, things like school fees are due and the children want to eat. So the cooperative is encouraging women to start cottage-industry businesses- crafts, sewing, etc.

The WomenforWealth.com Foundation granted some seed money to start their program and they are now putting together the training to make sure the loans are used appropriately (see post from yesterday).






(above- demonstrating the foot peddle sewing machine at the electric-free washing station)

Since we have spent so much time with the women leaders of Rwanda and also with successful entrepreneurs this trip, I am even more clear how important micro-lending can be. It gets down to what locals call “grass roots people.” The really poor who are smart, but have no hand up in the world. I will connect the COOPAC co-op people with the organizations we know who are doing micro-lending training so that they have a baseline to begin from.

While I was visiting Coopac, I was reminded how amazing a cup of coffee is.

Who thought to take this berry,

sort the bad out,





pull off the pulp,




wash it,





wash it again,







dry it,







sort it again,




pull off the hull, roast it and then grind the pit into little bits and pour hot water on top?????

How does one happen upon such an idea, anyway?
That is a lot of steps to get your java and is mostly done by hand at the washing station.

And then, to celebrate and impress visitors, the COOPAC dance troop dances. And the singers sing.

You can see some of it live from when another group went (they are very proud to be on Youtube.)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=VKHl5C6bzkw

Micro-Lending Training

From Liz Uible

One can not give a credit line to a high school student who has no
financial experience and expect her to use it wisely with no training.
In the same way, you can not give a $100 business loan to a woman
in a village in Rwanda without training her on how to run a
business and take care of money. The one week training is to
teach her that the loan is to grow her business and the profit is
to pay living expenses. Not the other way around.

On Tuesday, we went to see the training for micro-lending that Dr.
Immaculee has created. She has this very dynamic man who
knows everyone’s name and gets really excited. He seems
interesting to learn from. The trainings are done in Kinyarwanda,
the local language. (In Rwanda they also speak French and English,
but only the well educated.)

Liz Uible with Rwandan Women in Training

Christine Harvey with future micro loan recipients

We were invited for the second day of the 20-person training
sponsored by the WomenforWealth.com Foundation for Micro-lending.
These are twenty mostly HIV positive women who, when they are
done with the training and present a verbal business plan, will get
a small loan to start a business. The loans will be under $100.
We met each participant and shook hands. There was a woman
with a small child who she entertained as she took in the lessons.
We communicated mostly with our eyes.

The instructor talks to them as a large group and then they break up
and do work in 3-4 small groups to do assignments. Tuesday morning
they were talking about their expectations of what they would
learn and what that new knowledge would help bring them. One
person from each group would write the verbal ideas on flip chart
paper and then they shared them as a group.

One of the great things about that format is that is promotes
reconciliation among women whose communities were torn apart
by genocide just 14 years ago.

Madeleine Nichols holds hands with women at training

I was really impressed. I discovered a bias I held about the
illiterate of the world. Maybe it comes from elementary school
when by third grade the children who didn’t know how to read or
write yet were labeled ‘slow’ –and really did seem that way. I
did not know I had that bias until I met these women and was
truly surprised by their intelligence and self-confidence. We talked
to them about how excited we are for their futures, and they
made speeches right back to us with confidence and ability! It
was truly remarkable.

A woman from the Village gives a speech of thanks (with translator)

And then at the end, with a sense of love and fun, we danced.
And that was the best of all.

Dancing with the Micro Lending training participants

A group photo: Dr Immaculee is in the blue suit in the centerand
Christina Willings, who filmed the whole, is in black

Rwanda and It's Opportunities

Hi Friends,

It’s Monday morning here in Rwanda, 5:30 am. Liz Uible and I are out here with an investment team of five, looking at possibilities. Our highlight was running 4 days of seminars on business skills with the Women of Parliament, followed by training of 40 high level entrepreneurs, which has helped us gauge the level of expertise and to meet potential partners.

Here’s a summary of activities including Micro-Lending, Real Estate Potential, interest from outsiders, other opportunities including quarries and venture capitol, and access to decision makers.

MICRO LENDING
Liz just left with the driver for a day at Lake Kivu, to visit our Micro Lending coffee co-op recipients, who will use the small loans for the women to start businesses between the coffee harvest seasons. Madeleine Nichols and I will see the US Ambassador at 10 am to brief him on our trainings with the women in Parliament and the 2 day conference we ran for women entrepreneurs. Tomorrow we’ll all get to meet the recipients of the Micro Loans to HIV women, through Dr Immaculee. They are starting their 5 day training on how to start up business. Many are illiterate, but they are required to present a profit and loss plan – verbally, if not in writing. They are also taught simple math and reading during the training, as well as nutrition and how to open a bank account.

The part I admire is that Dr. Immaculee has set the loans up in such a way that they have support groups of 10 women amongst themselves – rather like our mastermind groups, except that in addition they are required to co-sign for each other in order to get the loan. That means that during the training, they have to come to know and trust each other and also assess whether each member of their circle has learned enough to be qualified to receive the loan. The initial challenge is that some don’t understand the concept of a loan and it’s repayment, and think at first that it might be a grant or gift. In her program, Dr Immaculee explains the concept of profit, and that they are free to spend their profit on school clothes for the children, but the loan itself must be used for the business.

REAL ESTATE
I had dinner last night with Dr. Immaculee and her husband Sandrali. He’s a well know architect here, having designed the genocide memorial, as well as public and private buildings. We drove around the city first to see his architecture, then eat at a new Chinese restaurant near our rented home in the prestigious Kiovu area, near the American Embassy. One of the houses he built is about 7000 square feet and is along a beautiful curving road along a river, across from a park and lake. I’d not seen this on my last trip, and the curving street and gorgeous flowers made me think I was in Philadelphia for a moment. I asked the prices of houses there, and they run $700 per square meter. Since a meter is longer than a yard, a quick mathematical conversion comes up with $70 per quare foot. That still makes a 5000 square foot house cost close about $350,000. (I previously had a conversion error here, but 350,000 is the correct price.) Of course as you come down the scale in neighborhoods, the cost per square foot drops. A high end home, in a different area with nice views can be built for $500 per square foot.

Housing here for medium and low end is in demand. Yesterday we went out with staff from the Mayor of Kigali’s office to see the new area being built which incorporates low, medium and high end homes. There will be 5000 new homes when complete.

The low end homes have 2 bedrooms, a living room. The whole home measuring about 15 feet by 15 feet. That makes each bedroom about 7 feet by 7 feet, but I might be exaggerating on the high side. Each home has a cement slab of about 15 ft by 7 feet connecting it to an out building housing a toilet room, and shower room and a kitchen. The kitchen measuring about 5 feet by 5 feet. Each home will have a wooden fence separating it from it’s neighbor, which stands about 8 feet away from each other. The people who will be housed here will be relocated from the slum areas of the capitol, which is about 6 miles away.

At first the people were upset about being re-housed, but the city has worked long and hard they tell us to be sensitive to the needs. They are letting groups of neighbors move together and still be neighbors. They are also forming co-operatives so that the new housing area can also provide livelihood opportunities. The beauty of the newness and view compares favorably to the slum homes, so folks think it will work.

The interesting part for me was the location and the clustering of the housing. The site they chose is on a hill, and one of the most beautiful views of the city. Secondly, the low cost housing is situated such that it circles the hill along the lower rim. Directly above it will be medium cost housing in the $30,000 plus range, and above it will be the high end homes on the hill top. We asked questions about the clustering, whether schools would be integrated, what they anticipated from the social mix, and obviously they had thought it through thoroughly.

INTEREST IN RWANDA FROM OUTSIDERS
There seems to be a lot of faith in Rwanda now. The Americans are building a huge regional Embassy here, the Christian Family network is building a state of the art broadcasting center with a 300 seat auditorium on the hilltop (also designed by Sandrali,) the Chinese are in here building roads and infrastructure, the Swiss President was visiting last week – and it seems that a head of state has been here every month in 2007 which is an escalation of interest. We’ve met may expats living here and they all seem quite happy. They report a shortage of some goods by our standards, but fresh food is not a problem.

I met an American who is the head of the major hospital and he says that the President wants him to pull out every stop to make it a first class facility. The President, and the Parliament which is 49% female, pounce on corruption at every turn, and the streets are reported by many to be among the safest in the world.

OTHER INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Several investment projects have caught our attention. One is housing development, including roads and infrastructure. Another are a quarries. Another is Venture Capitol. If you have expertise in these areas and would like to start a dialogue with us, send us an email. Or you can call me on my cell phone here. My number is 011-250-0878-9774. Remember please that Noon in Los Angeles is 9 pm here. So best to call before Noon LA time or 3pm Eastern. We’re leaving Thursday, so call us asap if you have specific questions, or email me at ChristineHarvey@WomenForWealth.com.

ACCESS TO DECISION MAKERS
One of the delights in working here is the access to people that we’ve created. We’ve gone out of our way to host dinner parties here at our rented home, to throw parties and to have informal get togethers. Decision makers are still keen to get to know foreign investors and the government has made attempts to make it attractive. Investor bringing in over $250,000 do so tax free we are told. There are agencies who help with ‘one stop shopping’ for foreign investors, answering all questions and facilitating the process.

People on all levels are a delight to work with. Their negotiation skills are good too. The cleaning lady we hired for example, had negotiation skills that would make even David Finkel of Maui Millionaires proud. The private party we hired the car from were the same. So, as you see, entrepreneurship is ripe here! Every event you attend here is full of decision makers. Reverend Rick Warren was here from Saddleback Church and The Purpose Driven Life, and the room was teeming with government and business leaders keen to make Rwanda everything it can be. The same is true at every turn.

Before closing I want to give thanks to our investment team who accompanied us here – Madeleine Nichols of New York – attorney and real estate investor, Christina Willings of Canada – award winning film producer, Connie Kadansky of Phoenix AZ – sales and business trainer, of course Liz Uible, Co-Founder of WomenForWealth.com, business woman and real estate investor, and then there is me, Christine Harvey of Tucson AZ, real estate investor, author, business trainer and business woman.

I hope this gives you a feel for life here, the opportunity here and the fun we’ve had exploring the country and the people! We feel we’ve made some life long friends, and have been moved to new levels of global and human understanding.


Much love,
Chrisitne Harvey
Co-Founder, WomenForWealth.com

Convenience Integrity Can Bite You

Have you ever reflected on how ‘convenience integrity’ comes back to bite you?

I woke up this morning with a nagging feeling. I realized that twice this year I’ve hired subcontractors in my different businesses that I knew were not up to the job. In fact whenever I’ve ‘settled’ on a person who seemed to be under qualified, it was because my mind told me that there was no one out there who was perfectly suited for the job. AND this ‘convenience integrity’ doesn’t stop here – it happens in personal life too.

What I realize in reflection, is that the perfect person, meeting all the integrity requirements, was there all the time, and it was only my attitude of scarcity that blocked me from connecting with them.

That’s what I mean by CONVENIENCE INTEGRITY. That’s when you make a decision to do something despite your better judgment. You talk yourself into something by saying “Oh well, it’s probably not going to be a problem.” Maybe someone asks you to do something – like take on a volunteer position - and you agree, knowing in your heart that it’s not a perfect fit for you. Or maybe you have an invitation to do something with a group and there are signs that the group and you have different moral values - but you do it anyway because there seems to be an opportunity in it for you, and you ignore the future downside of those different moral values, and later it comes back to bite you.

I remember a friend of mine who was having horrible problems with an associate. The associate had a volatile personality in the office, but was fun loving at parties. Because she had met him at a party and saw his fun loving side first, she choose to ignore the signs of his volatility, and engaged his services anyway. Ignoring that cost her thousands of dollars and sleepless nights. It also cost her friends grief as she continued to ignore the downside of working with him, spilling her complaints onto her friends, and entangling them in her scenarios with him.

Or maybe, as I’ve done, you hire someone who gives signs of not working out, but your mind tells you that need them desperately. So you talk yourself into the shortcut of hiring them, rather than to look further for the right person. That’s ‘convenience integrity.’ It’s against your personal integrity. That nagging feeling is there but you choose to ignore it. You do it because it’s convenient for you at that moment. You do it saying, “Oh I’m sure there won’t be any problems,” while deep within you, you know differently.

An interesting point was made to me many years ago, and it was this: “When things start out badly with someone, they rarely get better.” Keeping that in mind has helped me numerous times. Everyone has different values and standards of integrity. By listening to our own better judgment and connecting with people of the highest standards of integrity, we can impact the world in the most positive way.

Here’s an example of integrity with ones self and courage you might want to consider. A friend of mine decided some years ago that most of her friends were of a negative mindset. She decided she needed to be surrounded by positive friends, and immediately acquired a new set of friends with a positive mindset. She didn’t block herself with a scarcity mindset by saying things like, “All people have some negativity, so I’d better stick with the friend I have.” No, she opened her mind to the possibility that people existed of her mindset, and immediately they appeared.

THREE-SECOND FOCUS TIP: Think now of any niggling situations with people in your life – things that perhaps make you toss and turn at night. You can’t quite get a handle on it, but it’s there gnawing away at you. Now think of that person in question. Were there signs you ignored about integrity differences? Or signs of incompetence? Or moral value differences?

By settling on these relationships, we compromise our own personal integrity, and we block possibilities for the world. Decide now – as my friend did above in acquiring a whole new set of friends, what you can do to change your situation, then promise yourself to listen to your own personal integrity next time. When you do, you’ll be operating at you highest level. Then you and the world will benefit from collective integrity.

From WomenforWealth.com … For over 80 articles on business, personal and community empowerment, go to www.WomenForWealth.com

How to Multiply Your Income 4-Fold

from Liz Uible

Good Morning!
I am sitting on the deck of our rental house in Rwanda
with the lush African landscape to my left, where a tree blooms
blue flowers and a fifty foot rubber tree towers above me. A
bird, like osprey, flies overhead and the capital city of Kigali
spreads out below and across the valley through the morning haze.

In today’s Wealth Tip there are some facts around creating
abundance in my finances that I want to share.
__________________________________________________

How to Multiply Your Income Almost 4-Fold

An article in the Wall Street Journal July 6th caught my
attention. “Giving Til It Hurts” discusses what people are
calling a ‘new kind of philanthropy,’ though I doubt the
phenomenon is truly new. It seems that recently charities have been
surprised by people who give a larger share of their net worth
away- seemingly out of proportion to the amount they have to
give.

These “stretch givers,” it seems, are making universities and
charitable foundations stand up and take notice. A 72 year-old,
retired conservator at the New York Met sells her small New York
apartment to give an arts organization that gave a $1 million
gift to an organization that had helped her early on with an
$8,000 grant. A tech tycoon, fallen on hard times, fulfill the
promise of a $25 Million gift, almost his entire net worth, to
AIDS research in the name of his dead brother. (The donor has
a young family.) A retired GE executive, rather than buying a
retirement home in Florida, lives modestly and gives away the
proceeds from her stock options, as she has given money all
of her career.

In all these cases, the gifts to charities made up the bulk of
the givers net worth.

Why? Arthur C. Brooks, the author of Who Really Cares, a book on
giving in America, shows that people who give are happier and
healthier than those who do not.

And ther is one more thing. According to Mr. Brooks's analysis,
$1.00 donated to charity led to $3.75 in extra income for the
donor. In other words, Givers make almost four times
more than non-givers. And this was reported in a very reputable,
conservative even, New York paper.

Do you get it yet? If you are not yet giving away a portion of
your income regularly, you are missing the wealth boat.

I admit I was surprised to see the size of that number.
I have studied the power of giving and enacted it in my own
life with great success. But a 375% return on such a fun
investment? That seems HUGE.

I remember when I first learned that giving sets in motion
universal principles of abundance. I didn’t think I could afford it.
I told my mentor that I would give money away when I had excess to
share. “If you don’t give,” she told me, “that will likely never
happen.” And she was right.

My first major gift was a ‘test,’ after I learned about this
principle. It was the first time I went out on faith and gave
10% of my income away and it was really uncomfortable to me.
I don’t even remember what organization I gave money to. I
do remember the result, because they were more
specific and tangible than I ever expected.

Within three weeks of that $2,000 gift leaving my hands, I came
home to find an unexpected check in the mailbox for almost
exactly the amount of my gift. I was surprised and delighted.
Some might call it coincidence, some will call it a fluke.
And that’s ok, they can stay poor. J I saw it simply as
powerful confirmation of a Universal Law that has power over us all.
As I continue to build my own wealth, I see the this principle in
even more powerful and surprising ways.

As I sit it East Africa, it makes me wonder. Is the reason for
U.S. prosperity somehow related to the fact that we give more to
charities, per capita, than any other population? I think it may be.

Have a wonderful, generous weekend!

Liz

P.S. For more article, check out womenforwealth.com/freearticles.html.

Handling Disfunction Can Propel You into the Billionaire Zone

from Christine Harvey

Most of us don't need help when things are going well.

But what do we do when things are going badly? Do we stew over it or do we have a plan in place, a method for handling each type of difficult situation?

Let's look at Billionaires for a moment. Do you think they could have built their empires without being able to confront an employee about a bad behavior? Or confront a supplier about an integrity issue? Or confront a business partner about a niggling disagreement? Of course not.

Here's an example. Recently Warren Buffet gave Bill and Melinda Gates billions of dollars to administer through their foundation at Microsoft. Wouldn't you like knowing that people have enough trust in you to give you billions to invest or control? Billionaires get where they are today by developing skills for handling ALL situations, not just the easy ones.

So if that's where we want to get financially, shouldn't we all be learning about how to handle dysfunction in ourselves and others? Of course we should, but we get so busy with 'everyday pressures' that we don't focus on getting answers to the development of these two critical strengths.

First we need to identify the areas we want to develop. The easiest way to do this is to look at what makes you stressed. Do you stress out over wanting to tell someone that things didn't go well, and you want to see it go differently next time? If so, presto - you've identified an area needing a methodology that works, so you can propel yourself to the Billionaire Zone.

Focus Tip for Today: Pay attention to what seems difficult or niggling in your life today. See what you stew over. If all goes well today, then watch for one tomorrow. By the end of the week, you're sure to find several. Jot them down. Then watch how other people handle those same situations. Some will handle them well. Others will not. It's the good role models that you want to follow. When you see someone handle it well, jot that down too. Then you'll have your own blueprint and methodologies started for moving into the Billionaire Zone.

FOCUS

from Liz Uible

Leigh, a WomenForWealth.com member, was telling me last week about Robert Kiyosaki's "FOCUS- Follow One Course Until Successful." As she pointed out, obstacles are overcome and objections melt away when focus is combined with determination, as in Kiyosaki's formula, above.

And that is where so many entrepreneurial minds get hung up. Instead of "following one course until successful," sometimes we follow-one-course-until-another-looks-better and then keep-on- that-course-until-another-interesting-business-idea-comes-along.

If that doesn't sound familiar to you, Congratulations.

I am continually amazed by how many entrepreneurs, myself included, create confusion, chaos and mediocrity in our lives simply by forgetting the original course and following bunny trails instead.

Follow One Course Until Successful applies to all areas of business.

Investing in Real Estate? A focus helps you learn a niche and talk with agents, sellers and other leads without confusing yourself or feeling overwhelmed.

Running a business? Do it without a Business Plan or 'Focus,' and it is like throwing darts in the dark... no telling what you will hit.

Training Employees? Choosing a course for them and sticking with it will help your employees be stable and effective.

Raising a family? Ditto.

Sometimes people resist creating a plan for fear that it will stifle their creativity or take too much time. I have certainly been guilty of this at different times in my business and investing. In reality, a business plan allows the details of running a business to be covered so that you can release your creativity in totally unexpected ways.

At WomenForWealth.com, a basic business plan has allowed Christine and me to have fewer meetings and to have the flexibility to do off-the-wall-creative adventures and know that our business is on track. FOCUS creates space for creativity.

That's why we are leaving for East Africa on Saturday... Stay tuned, this will be fun!

Opportunity in Disguise

from Liz Uible

"Every trial is an opportunity in disguise; do not let it slip by un-mastered. Boldly take away its mask, and you will be glad that you have this problem to solve. What was before looked upon with fear and trembling, will present brighter aspects to you; and you will be pleased with what you now account a misfortune."
-Our Invisible Supply: How to Obtain by Frances Larimer Warner

This is the kind of wisdom that I like to type up, print out and post near my desk because I know it will be useful often.

Being the kind of people we are- business owners, or investors and people who are committed to growth, this applies to us all- probably several times a day.

Reread the above quote a couple of times. What trial are you going through right now? What area feels like a monster in your business life? By 'taking away its mask' and seeing a trial as an opportunity to master an area, we not only give ourselves permission to grow, but reduce the size and scope of the problem itself and build a better foundation for our business future.

When you are willing to re-frame your 'problem' as an 'opportunity in disguise,' you begin to you begin to make the problem smaller. You collect the resources to master the opportunity and build an asset moving forward. And in doing so, you remove the blame from the situation giving it space to morph into an opportunity.

And we all like opportunity!

***One way I re-frame trials as 'opportunities in disguise' is with my Prosperity Team(TM). WomenforWealth.com Prosperity Teams are forming now. Also, new groups for those investing in commercial real estate and for those focused on building a business are also being created (please email me if you are interested). Join our membership program now and get access to great people and information

THE SURVIVAL OF MARRIAGE

from Christine Harvey

Have you ever wondered why some marriages last and others don’t?

I do, and so I surveyed people married over 27 years with this question:
“What would your advice be to a young couple just getting started in marriage, for how to have a long and happy life together?”

The answers were so good that I wanted to share them with you:

1. Grace – “To receive give and receive forgiveness.”

2. Reciprocal understanding – “When your partner expresses a need or desire, always turn it around in you mind and think of it as your own need. Have tolerance for that need, whether it is a ball game you don’t really want to attend, or a perceived hurt of some kind.”

3. Love – “I always try to remember my love for my partner, even during an argument. It helps to take my mind and feelings back to when we first met.”

What jumps out for you as you read these? What could you apply in your life today? Aren’t these also great answers to dealing with any one in life? In fact, is it not possible that the original question I asked:

“What would your advice be to a young couple just getting started in marriage, for how to have a long and happy life together?”

…could just as easily been:

“What would your advice be to anyone who wants to have a happy life, with regard to their relationship with people?”

Hum, something to ponder.

Focus Tip for Today: Determine that you will have a better life today. Decide which mindset will you implement immediately- grace, reciprocal understanding and/or love?

Overcoming Overwhelm Part II

From Liz Uible Yesterday I wrote about how Christine and I developed our Strategic Plan for WomenforWealth.com. Now let's talk about how to apply those principles to our lives as a whole, business and personal. Beth Walkup told us "the point of strategic planning is to choose the 3-5 areas of business that will make the biggest difference in your business over the next 3-5 years and to focus your time and resources on those few areas." In an institution (or a life) in which the number of projects overshadow the amount of time to complete them, a true strategic plan can be a useful thing to have. It brings clarity to a list of stuff that needs to be done. It's not just about clarifying your vision for the future and creating a framework around it, but it is about seeing where the leverage points create the vision faster and with more joy. And that is something we can all do. Priorities differentiate successful people from those who are consistently 'overwhelmed.' Create a Strategic Plan (or Priorities) I invite you to take this challenge with me this today and over the weekend. This will take 30 minutes or so to create, but will be an invaluable tool in avoiding overwhelm. Remember, priorities allow us a level of sanity we don't get doing everything. Write out all the things you are spending time on (you can do this for our business and for your life in general). Do those activities fall in to a bunch of different categories? I came up with ten for me, including my relationship with my husband and family, growing my businesses and charitable works, and I am sure there are others. Now, what are your goals for each area and what are the leverage points to get there over the next 3-5 years? Do this for each area. (If you already have business and personal goals that are comprehensive, you may be able to use those 10 or so categories.) Take a look at this list you just made. What 3 or 4 specific areas will create the most result over the next 3 years? This is the beginning of your strategic plan. Put a star next to those 3 areas. If instead of trying to do everything, you instead focused your time and money on these 3 areas, your results will be achieved. Now let me be clear. I am not saying to ignore the rest of your life and business. As Beth taught Christine and me, the power of a strategic plan is that if you focus time on the leverage areas you get the greatest result. Then the less peak time, of other fragments of time can be spent on the areas that are not high leverage, but just 'need to be done.'. This allows us a set of clear priorities that we have set up in advance so that we can make choices about what to focus on in the moment- guilt-free. And that is a beautiful thing. On the Member Call Tuesday I am going to walk through this exercise further. We will identify choices you can make in advance to decrease overwhelm and allow you the feeling of freedom in pursuing your goals. The Member Call is Tuesday, June 26th at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern.

Overcoming Overwhelm I

from Liz Uible

Last week, Christine and I met for three and a half days focused entirely on strategic planning for WomenforWealth.com. We thought about the community we are creating, the impact we want to have on people’s lives and businesses and how we wanted to feel about the work we do on a daily basis.

We categorized the different areas of our business and became clear about what each of us liked and didn’t like about each one. We looked at where we want to be in one year based on all those goals we set out. And we looked at what we needed to do this quarter in order to have those results we want next year.

It was a great exercise, but we found ourselves still feeling overwhelmed. “How can we keep doing all the things we want to do without ignoring the things we feel we have to do?” we wondered. We were now had an overwhelming plan. Do you ever feel that way?

And then something fortuitous happened- a voice of sanity in the form of Christine’s friend dropping by.

Beth Walkup, whom we had interviewed as part of Motivation Marathon last winter is a fantastic, generous, active business person who has lots of experience with business and non-profit strategic planning. We told her we had created a 9-part strategic plan that is bound for great things.

Then Beth said something that seemed profound:
“But ladies,” she said, “strategic planning is about choosing the areas that you will focus on most, not choosing everything!”

We looked at each other a little stunned, so she went on. “The point of strategic planning is to choose the 3-5 areas of business that will make the biggest difference in your business over the next 3-5 years and to focus your time and resources on those few areas.”

“The way you measure if you are following through on the plan is to look and the time and resources you are putting into the business. If the majority is spent on your strategic areas, then you are in good shape,” she explained.

And something inside me smiled.

The point was that everything does not have to have the same priority. In fact, it shouldn’t. Priorities allow us sanity. Priorities differentiate the successful people from those who are consistently ‘overwhelmed.’

If you have your priorities already set out, you have a track to run on. In other words, instead of having two to-dos on the list and doing both halfway, you can easily see which one is important to your long-term objectives and the other can wait.

**What are the priority areas in your life and business?**

Tomorrow, we I'll talk about creating a priority system that works for you and your priorities. Then you can achieve the results you want and stay out of overwhelm while achieving your goals! We will begin to create your Personal Strategic Plan.

And you can bet we will be talking about this more on the Member Call next Tuesday, June 26^th at
6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern.

Financial Freedom- What are your Goals?

A Wealth Thought From Liz Uible

Definition of Financial Freedom:
“When you never do anything you don’t want to do because of money, and you never omit doing something you want to do because of money.” -Unknown

Christine read this to me from a book a couple months ago. Reading it just feels relaxing to me. What percentage of the population do you suppose is financially free at this level? Certainly it is less than 1% of the US population. Globally, even lower than that, I would think. Most people don’t even have this as a goal.

It is June, halfway through the year. Now is the time to take out your 2007 goals and evaluate where you are. If you have not yet set 2007 goals, take a few minutes to do that now… don’t wait for the perfect time. Is financial freedom, as described above, a goal for you?

Key question:
What one step can you take this week to move each of your important goals forward?

HELPING YOUR PARTNER GROW

from Christine Harvey

Have you ever heard of peer tutoring?

It’s a system of two people working work together to catapult results in a matter of days. What if we could do that with our business partner, or life partner? Or maybe you find a mastermind partner. No matter what area of application – these results are possible for both of you through peer support. IT’S EASY. It also builds your relationship!

HOW IT WORKS:
Let’s say you want to improve in courage and your partner wants to improve in computer skills. While these are two diverse skill areas, you can work together to make it happen.

The benefit to you is three fold in this process.
First, you’ll grow in your chosen area from this goal setting and support.
Second, you’ll grow in your leadership by learning to give positive reinforcement easily.
Third, your relationship with your partner will catapult.

Here’s how it works, and it only takes a few minutes a day.

Part 1
At the start of the day, you each set a goal and communicate it to each other. The partner who wants courage might choose to stop procrastinating and make a difficult phone call. The person wanting to develop computer skills may want to hire an instructor and sets today’s goal as putting an ad in Craig’s List.

Part 2
At the end of the day, you do a report back. You each tell each other of your success, and then give positive reinforcement to your partner.

The important part is the partner who listens and gives positive reinforcement. Let’s say that your partner called the difficult person. When it’s your turn to give positive reinforcement, try to see a strength in them that you can point out. They stated that they want to develop courage, so you say that you see courage clearly in them because it took courage to make the call. As the partner of the person wanting to develop computer skills, you can say you see commitment to their self improvement, or whatever you do see.

FOCUS TIP ACTION STEPS: Decide now to choose a partner, and explain this system and/or let them read this. Choose a goal to work on – for each of you. Then pick a time to report in each morning and each afternoon. TIP: Keep it to a short specified time – perhaps 2 minutes each. This time MUST include time to give your partner positive reinforcement. Commit to doing it for 3 or 4 days, then re-evaluate your methods and results. Then decide on a new goal, or continue with a new one. You’ll be amazed at your results!

We work with people who want to build wealth for themselves and their community: For more information please go to www.WomenforWealth.com

Making Magic Moments

from Christine Harvey

Have you ever sat back after a busy day, exhausted from hard work and wondered about the meaning of it all?

And yet, have you noticed how a magical moment can come out of the blue, unplanned, staring you in the face when you least expect it?

What causes those moments?

At a seminar I attended this weekend we were given the assignment to create something out of nothing. In fact, we were told to create a quite space, with a total stranger, where something could happen.

My husband and I decided we would do this exercise with the breakfast staff at the hotel. So we dutifully started a conversation, gave the waitress 100% of our attention, and then when a pause came in the conversation, we kept our eyes focused on her and said nothing.

Sure enough, in that space magic was created. She confided in us that she missed her family terribly. They were in Ethiopia and she was here with her baby son and husband. Her chances of going back to see her parents were slim. Their chances of coming here were slim. It could be years, if ever, she would see her parents again.

I reflected on that conversation – the fact that I’ve always been able to hop on a plane to visit my family. The fact that every blessing I could think of is available to us. That pause in the conversation changed my day, brought me unbelievable gratitude, and strengthened my resolve for the work we are doing in Africa. Those magical moments are available every moment of the day, if we leave space to let them unfold.

Later that morning my husband and I were leaving the hotel, walking hurriedly to the car, although in fact we would have had plenty of time to stroll. I said something to him, which he misheard in our rush. I straightened out the miscommunication and then reflected on the fact that we are often ‘rushing to nowhere.’ And when we are rushing to nowhere, we don’t let the magic moments in.

Focus Tip: Take a moment today to commit to pauses in your conversations. In your next conversation with someone, be it in person or on the phone, just pause at the end of a sentence and see what happens. And give it a long, determined pause. Perhaps that person will share something with you that will change your day, bring you gratitude and strengthen your resolve!

June 1st as a Turning Point

from WomenforWealth.com Founders, Christine Harvey and Liz Uible

Happy June first! What does a new month mean to us?

What will you do with this month to make it different from the rest? What will you do to look back and say, June 1^st changed my life?

Well here’s a suggestion. Dr Wayne Dyer says that most people think that their happiness is NOT in their control. They think that circumstances create their state of happiness.

I know that for most of you that is not true. I know that you know that you can control your state, and that happiness is in your control. BUT, here’s the critical question: HOW MUCH do you actively work on your mental state minute by minute? How often do you stop to ask yourself what state you’re in – ESPECIALLY WHEN THE GOING IS TOUGH!

Knowing is one thing, doing is another.
On our member call last Wednesday, as a prelude to looking at our unique abilities, we discussed the Focus Tip on Emotional States, which we’ve copied for you below.

One member talked about a family situation, and the negative dip she found herself in. She decided to examine her state and see which rung of the ladder she was on. No surprise there! She discovered she was in a depressed state of feeling victimized. Immediately upon realizing that, she pictured the rungs of the ladder in her mind, and decided she could easily change her state to irritated. From there she was able to put the scenario into perspective and move to a positive state. Voila – her life was immediately transformed. Her slump was gone, unlike the times we have when we drag these things into hours or days. Or in some families it can be weeks and years! In some countries, it can be generations.

When is enough, enough? What can you do as leaders to change this? What can you do, not only for yourselves, but for the others around you? First and foremost you can lead by example? Soon people will be asking you, “Barbara, what’s different about you?” You’ll be attracting different people into your life. While you are in your new state of calm, new ideas will come to you and your whole prosperity consciousness will change. Why not do that for ourselves and for others as leaders, this first day of June, 2007.

Dr Dyer points out that most people let themselves get dragged by events from one victimized state to another. First it’s the traffic, then it’s the colleague, then it’s the boss, or the project or the customer. “The only road to joy,” he says, “is taking control and responsibility over your own state of mind.”

Tony Robbins points out that we can change our state anytime we want. In fact, by asking yourself what state you are in, your mind shifts from the emotional side to the logical side, and you’ve broken the grip on the negative state.

ONE MINUTE FOCUS TIP: So let’s make June 1st the turning point of our lives – truly, once and for all. Let’s decide today, as Dyer suggests, to NEVER LET OURSELVES BE DRAGGED DOWN BY CIRCUMSTANCES. Let’s use the rung of the ladder technique as follows:

First - identify your state, tell yourself what rung of the ladder you are on.

Second – picture the ladder in your mind, and see which rung you can jump up to. Can you go from depression to anger? That’s pretty easy. Anger gives relief from depression. Once you’ve jumped a few rungs, you can jump more.

Please write and tell us your experiences so that we can share them with others.

All the best,

Christine and Liz

PS For your review, here’s the list of the rungs of the emotional ladder in italics below, in order from high to low:

Joy/Love/Freedom/Appreciation
Positive Expectation
Optimism
Hopefulness
_______
Pessimism
Irritation
Feeling Overwhelmed
Blame
Anger
Revenge
Rage
Depression/Fear/Despair/Powerlessness/Grief