Are you a solopreneur, entrepreneur, new or small business owner? Are you in transition from a 9 to 5 job to a solo profession or business or have developed a new product or service?

During my tenure as a coach, I have had these types of people come to me saying they are:
•    feeling confused, overwhelmed, and stuck
•    wanting to know what to do first
•    feeling their business does not truly represent them
•    missing an unknown element to their work
•    questioning their choice of the service or product they provide
•    finding it difficult to focus on one business path or market
•    being easily distracted from their goal by other shiny objects

And what I have learned from my clients is that all these issues resolve when they rediscover who they truly are and what they truly want; when they reconnect to the often overlooked #1 factor in their business which is themselves.

So to help you resolve these issues, come join us in the CONTROL Business Group.

In this group you will:
•    Discover what gets your juices flowing
•    Unravel the confusion about why your business isn’t working and learn how to fix it
•    Reveal what you bring to the table, how to voice it and the target market best suited for your offering
•    Rediscover and connect to who you are, all of you, and your personal power
•    Understand your strengths and weaknesses and how to use both to your advantage
•    Learn to plug into your business in a way that fits

We will meet weekly for 6 weeks beginning Thursday, September 9 at 7pm Eastern.

To learn more about the CONTROL Business Group and what it can mean to you and your business, go to http://www.connectingthroughrediscovery.com .

And remember, CONnecting Through Rediscovery of your Own Life, puts “YOU” in CON.T.R.O.L.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Elaine Lockard

There is so much talk about being authentic today, one would think that most everyone would have gotten the importance by now. Alas, I am seeing more and more people who don’t understand than do.

To help, here are 4 basic reasons why it’s important.

1. People don’t like lies! Believe you me! They can spot one a mile off. Take for instance a person who boasts a lot about things they have done. They may have done what they speak of, but most embellish and fudge the truth. This will quickly kill a budding relationship.

2. Authenticity shows your uniqueness. Ever wonder why a person is picked over another even though their message is similar? It’s because the way they present their message is unique to them and calls out to those who want that special, unique twist to their relationship.

3. Authenticity shows your passion. Emotion rules in getting your message out. People connect to emotions fast. When you have passion and tell it like it is people connect right away to that on a gut level.

4. Fake actions turn people off. When you are not being yourself, you have to think and try harder to be what you’re not. This causes you to act differently; maybe at a loss for words or stammer or be uncomfortable in your interactions. People pick up on this and turn away because they feel uncomfortable also.

I hope these four simple points help you clarify and demonstrate how important authenticity is in your life and business.

If you are uncomfortable with your authenticity, or maybe not even sure what your uniqueness is, please contact me at elaine@elainelockard.com or schedule a FREE consultation using the scheduling box on the upper right sidebar. I am here to serve and help you however I can.

To also assist you on your self-discovery, I invite you to attend my free teleclass on Thursday, August 26, at 7:00 p.m., Eastern time. You can get all the information about this class by clicking here – FREE TELECLASS

Blessings to you on your journey!

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Elaine Lockard

I was talking with a friend today and she was telling me how foggy her mind was and how low her energy. It made me think again about how we need to look at ourselves as a whole being.

Yes, we can know who we are and what we can do but that is only part of the picture. We also have to know how to keep our bodies, our personal machines, in good health and in good working order. One is no good without the other. This is a major part of having personal power; taking responsibility for our own well being.

If you are a solopreneur, as I am, or a sole proprietor, to be responsible for your business means taking care of yourself. If you miss a days work, there is no one else to replace you. All you have accomplished is the loss of a day with no income.

However, taking care of yourself is a tough thing to do. We tune out most of what our body  tells us and we abuse it for the sake of convenience. We don’t take the time to get to know and respect the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual sides of who we are. A quote comes to mind here, “Take care of your body and it will take care of you.”

So here are a few simple, common sense tips to help you start to pay attention to you and to be in better shape and a better frame of mind to operate your business and life from a position of strength and personal power.

**Take time, just a few minutes everyday, to feel what your body is saying. Check on where there is discomfort and correct the cause, whatever it is.

**Create and stick to a sleep schedule. You can’t function properly without rest.

**If your tired during the day, take a break or take a nap or exercise.

**If your low on energy, find out why and do what is needed to replenish yourself.

**Eat several times a day in very small quantities. Not only does it help stabilize your blood sugar and give you energy but eating lightly puts less strain on your body while you are trying to work.

**It’s good to exercise daily even if only dancing to the beat of a great song. The more you move and groove, the more energy you have. It also helps to clear your mind and brighten your attitude.

Since there would be no business if there were no you, it makes taking care of you the number one priority in your business. Determine and fulfill your own needs first so you then can be in an fully charged, optimal position to do your best work . Never forsake your health and well being for anything else.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Elaine Lockard

These Pillars are great business tools for you to use everyday to help you achieve the goals you have set for your business. They do take dedication and personal commitment but are so worth it in the long run.

They are:

1 – Meditate and Visualize your goals daily

2 – Engage in Personal and Professional development

3 – Spend time on Daily Activities that directly produce income

4 – Mastermind

5 – Expectation of Leadership in yourself and those around you

To learn more about these pillars, what exactly they are and how to use them, visit Iain Forrest’s article “A Personal Development Business and the 5 Pillars of Success.” He has done an excellent job in explaining how and why to use these to your best advantage.

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Elaine Lockard

I have always been an advocate for personal development. I even wrote my first blog article on just this topic:

Reaching Personal Goals to create Long-Term Business Success

The key to starting this kind of in-depth work, is getting to know you first. And, as I stated in my article, this directly affects your business in many ways.

To help you understand how important the factor of YOU is to your business, I am conducting a FREE Teleclass called “3 Ways Knowing Yourself Can Impact Your Business Success” on Thursday, August 26, at 7:00 pm Eastern, 4:00 pm Pacific.

On this call I will cover:
* how knowing yourself affects what service you provide
* how knowing yourself influences your choice of target market
* how what you know and don’t know influences your day to day running of your business

Also, for those people who attend the live call, I will have a special offering just for you!

To register,  click here to reserve your seat for this one-time only call.

I urge you to make your plans to join us on Thursday, August 26 at 7:00 pm Eastern, 4:00 pm Pacific, because, eventhough you will be sent a link after the call to the recording, you will miss out on the special offering only for those in attendance.

See you on the call!

  Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Elaine Lockard

I have the honor of being interviewed on the BlogTalk Radio program, “Grace,  Grit and Gratitude with JaiKaur” on Friday, July 9 at 12 noon eastern.

The program is an oasis of information, inspiration, and illumination for nurturing the spirit, soul, and wisdom of being at this time of amazing change and opportunity. Discover how an active relationship with your spirit, soul, and sovereignty is vital to your health, happiness, and fulfillment.  Learn practical, everyday tools and techniques to engage and live the wisdom, truth, and guidance already within you. Learn from your body’s wisdom what is – and is not – working for your health and happiness in your current life choices. Live a mature spirituality where grace, your deep wisdom and creativity as a human being, and an intimate relationship with your spirit and soul are requirements for meeting our world’s challenges and changes. Life is a gift already granted, how we live it is our expression of gratitude. Embrace the gratitude of being, utilize the divine grace always present to you, and meet your life’s changes and challenges as opportunities to bring forth your spirit and strength!

This program is interactive so you are invited to call in with your questions or comments at (646) 929-2246.

To learn more about JaiKaur or her BlogTalk Radio program, simply clicks these links.

I look forward to talking with you on the show!!

For most of my life, I have dealt with pain in one form or another. Whether it came from emotional abuse or from a chronic illness or injury, it’s hard to remember a time I did not have some form to deal with.

Through it all, what helped me most to cope and find my answers were my spiritual beliefs. They gave me hope when the alternative would have been to have none. They gave me answers to better understand the “why” of my situation. They helped me go deep inside and work on myself to get rid of the baggage I carried, which caused additional pain and prevented me from moving forward in my life.

It was and still is a hard road to travel.  However, life would have been so much more difficult if I had not had my spiritual beliefs and my intuition to guide me in finding my inner strength and truth and the healing power inside me.

I am being interviewed on this topic on the VoiceAmerica radio network show called “Help me Rhonda…NOW!” with host Rhonda Farrah, on Thursday, June 24 at 6:00 pm Eastern/3 pm Pacific. Come join us as we discuss ways on how you can tap into your inner strength and healing power.

Click this link to be taken to the program page where you can access the network, program information, and the show directly:

“Help me Rhonda…NOW!” on VoiceAmerica Radio

The program is interactive so you will be able to call in to ask questions.

I look forward to the opportunity of helping you find “the healing power inside YOU!”

The term or name Maven means;

- a trusted expert in a particular field who seeks to pass knowledge on to others
- one who understands, based on an accumulation of knowledge. (Wikipedia)

So who is a Mavenpreneur? It is a person who creates a business around their knowledge and the teaching or dissemination of that knowledge to others.

In keeping with this name, which he first termed, Noel Lyons has created the “Mavenpreneur Interview Series” podcast which showcases many different, unique entrepreneurs and what knowledge they provide the world through their experience and expertise.

I had the honor of being interviewed for this series and would like to share this with you and invite you to listen to the whole series as it is rolled out. The link to my interview is:

Mavenpreneur – Elaine Lockard

In my interview we discuss how knowing what personal power you possess leads to knowing your true self and how this leads to success in your life by being authentic.

At the bottom of the interview page you can click on a link to take you to the next interview in the series. Please return often since Noel is adding interviews to this series regularly.

I recently read an article on SelfGrowth.com by Sam Davis called “Increasing Self Confidence – 4 Effective Tips”. He lists these tips as  the most important to help you gain or regain the confidence you seek in your personal or professional life. They are:

1. Visualize yourself doing really well at the things you lack confidence in
2. Forget about perfection
3. Write down the things you have achieved
4. Don’t compare yourself to others

All of these tips are very valuable but I want to concentrate for the moment on the third tip – write down what you have achieved. I feel this tip is the most important because it uncovers so much for us.

Our brain is a miraculous organ that stores huge amounts of information. However, we are not able to remember everything all the time. We need reminding constantly of what we know and have experienced. We often get into a rut in our thinking which blinds us even more to our knowledge.

By doing this simple task, we realize we do know so much more than we give ourselves credit for. We realize we have so much more power within us to pull from to accomplish all we want in our lives.

I learned this lesson first hand when I decided to join Linkedin, after receiving an invite from my girlfriend, and needed to do, in essence, a resume there on my profile. By going back and looking at my old records, which I had not seen in years, I had a “dah” moment as to what I really do know. It opened my eyes and caused me to do an even deeper evaluation of my training and experiences. I am so very grateful  my friend asked me to join her there and caused me to do this evaluation because it changed my whole perception of myself.

This experience was a primary reason in why I wrote my free report “YOU Have More Power Than You Think” that you can download in the left sidebar. It’s not only a report but also a workbook that can help you do this kind of exercise and reconnect you to YOU.

By doing this exercise and utilizing the other 3 tips, you will be well on your way to reclaiming your lost self confidence and stepping into your personal power.

Today I am beginning a series on my blog called Truth-Full Teachings.  These are audio recordings of ways you can add value to your life and to live your life more authentically, more in line with who you are, what you want, how you want to be.

I welcome any comments or discussions so we can all learn from and help one another to be more “Truth-Full” in our lives.

Today’s topic is “Living With Your Eyes Open” and was inspired by a phone call I listened to this morning.  Thank you to Jack in Israel for this inspiration.

LivingWithEyesOpen