I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Rosey Dow of Let’s Get Real Marketing. (Rosey also hosts a show on Blog Talk Radio and has invited me come on her show in September. I can’t wait! You can listen to more of Rosey’s interviews on BTR at www.http://www.blogtalkradio.com/letsgetrealmarketing).

In this interview, I describe how and why I left a successful and lucrative investment consulting career to become a coach, explain why coaching is not for everyone, and tell Rosey an inspiring story!

Listen in, or download into iTunes if you prefer. I hope you enjoy it!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Congratulations! Your question reveals that you have already put some of the steps in place, whether you know it or not. You are intentional about what you want to do (change careers) and know that having a plan is important. Now two fundamental questions must be answered.  How do I choose a career that I will love and will love me back (pay me well and enable me to be successful)? and, How do I go after or create this new career?

One of the coaching programs that I offer provides a ten-step process to do exactly that, and here it is in a nutshell.

1. Start with an intention that you want to change something.
2. Resolve any lingering past regrets or decisions.
3. Discover your authentic self, your purpose, your unique attributes.
4. Create the ideal career based on who you are.
5. Overcome any doubts about your ability to succeed.
6. Change your self-talk into thoughts that propel you forward.
7. Stop fearing failure.
8. Define an achievable action plan.
9. Surround yourself with the right resources and support.
10. Achieve your goals and grow from there.

People change careers all the time without thinking enough about what will fulfill them. If you want your new career to be one that you will love for the long term and provide handsome rewards because you are engaged and productive in a career that suits you, I highly recommend taking the time to build your plan on a foundation of your authenticity and purpose, and learning how not to self-sabotage your career dreams. Once you have these pieces, it is easy to develop an achievable map that will inspire you, motivate you, and propel you toward your goals.

Question: “If my new career was completely fulfilling, what would it deliver to me?”

All over the world, people make money doing something they love. Often it involves turning a passion into a business. How is this done? The formula for making money is simple: Offer something of value, to the people who want it, in a way that they cannot get from anyone else. The three key pieces are: Value, Customers, and Uniqueness.

What kind of Value can you create within your passionate interests? Sometimes we get stuck believing that quote attributed to the Commissioner of the U.S. Patent office in 1899, “Everything that can be invented has already been invented.” Of course that is not true; innovations occur every day. Have you ever said, “Gee, I wish I had a ______________ that did ______________” while you were engaged in one of your interests? If you need it, so do others. That is creating Value.

Customers are easy to find these days. Well actually, they find you. Establish yourself as an expert, a thought-leader, in any of your fields of interest, and they will show up. You can have a simple professional website in a few hours that looks as good as someone who has been in business for a century. You can beat your competition by giving your customers more of what they want. You can do free speaking engagements to Chambers of Commerce to get your word out. People are used to being shown new things and they want new things. Your potential market is always bigger than you think.

Defining your Uniqueness is the most important element, because when you and your product are special, distinct, new, and different, people will clamor for it. There are many, many ways to be unique: your offering, your design innovation, your delivery method, your service followup, your affiliate relationships, your business model, your niche, and on and on. Best of all, define your personal uniqueness, your purpose and path, and build your business around that, for an authentic occupation you will feel passionate about forever.

Have you ever wondered, “What are the ways I could combine my passions with my knowledge base to create new business opportunities?  Download this free pdf from my website called the Matrix of Opportunity. It is a template you can use to brainstorm how to combine the things you love with your skills. Use it to open up your mind to the possibility of creating a profit while doing what you love. Good luck!

Setbacks and failures are a certainty in this world, no doubt about it. Setbacks can have devastating consequences: destroying your confidence, creating fear, and stopping you right in your tracks.

The best use of setbacks is to make them your teacher. What did you learn from what happened? How can you use your experience to make a difference going forward? What do you need to do, change, learn, or obtain in order to not only recover, but move ahead in leaps and bounds?

To take the next step toward overcoming the setback, can you find the silver lining? Incredible new opportunities often emerge as a result of setbacks, opportunities you would never have know about had “the bad thing” not happened. Cutting edge discoveries are built on failure. Who ever got it right the first time? Or even the fifteenth time? The key is to hold tight to a powerful, unwavering intention that you can and will recover and in fact thrive.

Lastly, be careful about what you are telling yourself as a result of the setback. Experiencing a failure does not make you a failure. Your thoughts define your reality and are never neutral. Your beliefs either hold you back or propel you forward. Develop a pattern of self-talk that supports what you are aiming for and jettison the self-critic.

Setbacks often cause us to curl up and hide, even though the best solution is to take positive action to change your circumstances. If you are wondering what action to take, try this exercise:
Fast forward six months and picture yourself successful and thriving in every way. Ask yourself, “What is the one thing I did six months ago [e.g. right now] that got me over the setback and back on track?”

Now, go do it!

Exactly three weeks and twenty minutes into a ten-week private executive coaching series designed to help David prepare for a huge new position as head of regional sales for a financial services company (no of course that’s not his real name – confidentiality is absolute!), he abruptly stopped mid-sentence and blurted out, “Do you mind if I ask YOU a question?”

“Of course not,” I replied. “What’s on your mind?”

“What should I do about my teenage son? He’s driving my wife crazy and doesn’t listen to anything I say.” Dave’s frustration was evident in his voice.

It was not the first time I had heard this question, or some variation of it. The more I coach people on how to achieve success in business, the more apparent it becomes that relationships and family often dominate our thoughts, and the strengths (and/or weaknesses) of these relationships can have a direct impact on the success we seek. Other dominant themes that come up often in conversations include overcoming lack of self-confidence, how to make more money, how to achieve better life balance, a desire for insider “secrets” to success, and how to achieve happiness alongside success.

Over the coming weeks I will publish oft-asked client questions along with my responses. I look forward to your feedback, comments and additional questions!

As for David’s teenager, I offered these suggestions (incidentally, these also apply to co-workers and employees whose behavior you want to modify!). I’ve had teens of my own and in no way claim perfect success in this area, but in my experience these tips helped:

1. Make sure your teen knows the boundaries of acceptable behavior at home. Treating his mother and father (and brothers and sisters for that matter) with respect should be one of the “house agreements”.
2. Consequences, such as loss of the car, cell phone, etc. are very effective when house agreements are broken.
3. Instead of trying to impose your will upon your teen, try pulling back a little. Doing the unexpected, like easing up on him and giving him a little space to be grumpy or lazy or whatever is driving you crazy  (as long as he rises to the occasion when it matters, like at the dinner table) will help break poor patterns of communication. Make him come to you, and communicate with you properly. He will when he wants something, like the car keys. Then you can engage him in civil conversation.
4. Make sure he knows that you love and support him, just not his behavior.
5. Finally, and probably most important, take care of your relationship with your spouse. The kids should know that the parents are the alphas in the house, have a relationship together that excludes the children, and have solidarity as a parental unit that cannot be broken. (This applies even if the parents are no longer married to each other – work it out so that you have a united front!)

Because our lives and our work are so intertwined, it is important to acknowledge that a problem in one area can spill over and cause a problem in another.  So this is the place to ask any question by commenting on this post or sending me a message, and I will address them as a blog series. As always, your confidentiality is guaranteed.