If Nobody Loves You, Create the Demand - Podcast CG018 with Dr. Joel Freeman
October 1, 2007
According to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (an organization that promotes entrepreneurship & education) there are approximately 10 million Americans involved in starting a new business at any given time. With that reality in mind, millions of people will take their first courageous steps on the road to self-employment—only to lose their footing when they encounter unexpected obstacles in the path.
Leadership Podcast 018 : Joel Freeman, Author of If Nobody Loves you, Create the Demand.
The statistics don’t lie: an estimated 75 percent of new businesses will fail. The overwhelming majority of those will close up shop within the first six months. Clearly, the mere possession of a great idea, product or service does not ensure a successful outcome. In his new book, If Nobody Loves You, Create the Demand, author, international conference speaker and business coach Dr. Joel Freeman provides the skills and tools necessary for individuals aspiring to create a new business on a limited budget.
In this podcast, Joel talks about how to effectively get publicity for your business. He also talks about Trips With Dad, which is his philosophy of keeping family close. Go anywhere in the world that your child chooses at age 15. This will increase closeness and bonding in the family, giving more of a peer feeling to the relationship.
Find out more from Joel at www.WorkHardWorkSmart.com
Joel Freeman is a truly gifted communicator with a knack for finding the memorable stories or quotes to illustrate his points. His humorous and conversational style makes this book a quick, enjoyable read. If Nobody Loves You, Create the Demand is the essential resource for people who truly desire to see their entrepreneurial dreams take flight.
Leadership - Building With People
July 30, 2007
From my earliest days in Sunday school, I have remembered the words that a wise man builds his house upon the rock and the foolish man builds upon the sand. For 50 years, I thought this probably sound advice for someone about to build a house. It never dawned on me that it might have some other application until I heard the following quote from Peter Drucker. “The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make weaknesses irrelevant.”
That statement unlocked doors in my mind and with it came the realization that success really does come from building on strengths. All too often we focus on problems (weaknesses = sand) and struggle to overcome them when in fact, we would be much better off focusing on what is working (strengths = rock) and building on them.
Over the course of my career, I have had a variety of bosses. Most tried to fix me. I did have one boss who stood up before the whole sales organization and told them he had complete faith in me. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my boss motivated me in a way that I would have walked through fire for him.
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Five Tips to Enjoy Your Family Reunions
July 20, 2007
Seems there’s always another holiday gathering or family reunion right around the corner. But do you ever leave wondering why you went? Are some of your in-laws and extended family members a little hard to deal with? It can be different. How would you like to walk in feeling excited about being there, knowing that you’ll leave happy about your whole experience? It’s your choice. Discover five tips that will show you how to plan your next family reunion experience just like you’ve always wanted.
Are you wondering how your next family gathering will turn out? Is it tough to relate to some of your family, in-laws, and extended family members? Do you sometimes leave feeling drained and wondering why you went at all?
It can be different this year. Imagine walking into your next family reunion feeling excited about being there and knowing that you’ll leave feeling happy about your whole experience.
It’s your choice. You can use these five tips to make your next family gathering the experience you’ve always wanted.
Tip #1 - Decide What You Want to Experience
We call this creating an intention. If you aren’t very clear about what you do want to experience, then it will be difficult to make that happen. And it may be hard for you to even notice it when it is happening. How do you get clear about your intention? Ask yourself these questions:
“How could my family and I benefit from this?”
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Essential Principles for Finding Your Way to an Inspired Life
June 14, 2007
This book excerpt from Dr. Wayne Dyer’s presents six principles that are important to observe as we seek an inspired life—they’re a blueprint to refer to as we reconstruct a life in-Spirit. I’m listing them in no particular order of importance because I believe that they’re equally essential.
Principle #1: Be Independent of the Good Opinion of Others
In order to live in-Spirit, we must adopt Arthur Miller’s trust that the Source is always working within us, or Walt Whitman’s belief that our ultimate calling “may be regarded by others as being useless—yet it is [our] dream, it is [our] lodestar.” In other words, inspiration must be our master, even though following it might disappoint others.
When inspiration makes its presence known, we must pay attention if our priority is to be who or what we were meant to be. William Shakespeare’s famous query, “To be or not to be: that is the question,” symbolizes the urgent choices that we have to make—that is, do we become what we came here to be, or do we ignore that calling? In this oft-quoted soliloquy, Hamlet delves deeper by wondering, “Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them? . . .” Suffering the consequences of living according to someone else’s wishes doesn’t make any sense; rather, we need to oppose the external opinions that try to force us to be what we’re not intended to be.
There are many well-meaning people in our lives who have ideas about what we should or shouldn’t be doing . . . relatives tend to be specialists in this area! If we let them guide us with advice that isn’t congruent with our inner calling, we’ll suffer the anguish—the “slings and arrows”—of an uninspired life. Each of us can feel what we’re being called to be; when we pay attention, we can hear our own impatient voices coaxing us to pay attention and complete the assignments we brought with us from the world of Spirit. But when we allow the opinions and dictates of others to determine what we’re going to be, we lose sight of our objective to live an inspired life.
We need to determine for ourselves how much we’ve allowed others to decide issues such as what we do, where we live, with whom we live, and even how we’re treated. We must know that absolutely no one else truly knows and feels what we’re here to accomplish, so we must give ourselves permission to hear our inner guidance and ignore the pressure from others. Regardless of how absurd our inner calling might seem, it’s authentically ours and doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else. The willingness to listen and act on our inspiration, independent of the opinions of others, is imperative.
Principle #2: Be Willing to Accept the Disapproval of Others
Logically following the last principle, this one notes that we’re going to incur the disfavor of many people when we follow our inclinations to be in-Spirit and live the life we came here to live. This isn’t a selfish or cynical attitude: When we begin to follow our ultimate calling, there will be a lot of resistance. In fact, the purpose of the “slings and arrows” sent our way is to get us to change our mind and be “reasonable,” which translates to “Do it my way!”
However, as we gain the strength to ignore the pressure to conform, resistance will diminish and ultimately change to respect. When we steadfastly refuse to think, act, and conform to the mandates of others, the pressure to do so loses its momentum. All we have to do is endure some initial disapproval such as dogmatic persuasion, anger, pouting, silence, and long-winded lectures . . . and then we’re on our way to inspiration rather than frustration.
Here’s a recent example of this from my own life. I elected to have most of the royalties and all of the advance payments for this book go to a scholarship fund, and there were people who tried to get me to “come to my senses” and not “throw my money away,” which was how they viewed my decision. I have an inner voice that is overwhelmingly powerful, and I trust in what truly inspires me. I’d known for many years that one day I’d endow a scholarship fund at my alma mater, for instance—the thought of young, financially challenged students having the opportunity that I’d received as a young military veteran inspires me more than I can relate to you here in these pages. So I was comfortable with, and able to ignore, the disapproval I encountered, giving responses such as, “I know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it,” and “Don’t waste your time and mine attempting to convince me otherwise.” And sure enough, the resistance I met was converted to acceptance.
The people who receive the most approval in life are the ones who care the least about it—so technically, if we want the approval of others, we need to stop caring about it and turn our attention to becoming an inspired being of sharing. One little note of caution here: When we raise our children according to these principles, and they observe us living them on a daily basis, we’ll have to deal with their determination to respect their inner calling. For example, when my daughter Sommer was about 11 years old and I asked to see her report card, I was a bit taken aback by her response. “Why do you want to see it?” she asked.
When I said, “Well, I’m your father, and I think I should know how you’re doing in school,” she matter-of-factly replied, “But these are my grades, not yours, and if I thought you needed to see them, I would’ve shown them to you already.”
I assure you that she wasn’t being disrespectful; she simply had no need to share her grades with me. Since I knew that she was doing very well in school, I let it go—and let her be who she wanted to be.
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