There Are Lots of Stops On the Road to Success

Okay, so in the Christian faith there’s this guy named Jesus. Ever heard of Him?

Well in case you didn’t know, He’s kind of a big deal.

You see, He was sent by God to be our Savior so that us humans could be reconciled to God. And from the get-go, Jesus knew exactly what He had to do to fulfill His calling. But it took Him 33 years to fulfill it.

33 YEARS!

And being that Jesus was sent by God, had access to His direct line, and twelve legions of angels at His disposal – I’m pretty sure He could’ve used a few shortcuts to get the job done in less than 33 years.

But He didn’t.

Instead, He came into this world as a baby, and for the first 12 years of His life he grew, became strong, and filled with wisdom. And during that twelfth year, He went to a Passover party with His parents where He decided to stay behind and get down to His Father’s business, to which they did not approve, and brought Him home.

It wasn’t until Jesus was 30 that He started His life-altering ministry.

Give or take a few years, it’s safe to say it took Jesus around 20 years to become prepared to carry out the call on His life.

So, let me ask you?

Have you found yourself frustrated with where you are in your business? Does it seem like you’ve been at this forever (aka 3 years) and you’re just not where you want to be? Do you sometimes think that you may never see your dream become a reality? Have you ever felt like “success” just keeps escaping you?

If you have, perhaps it’s time for you to recognize that every step (and misstep) is all preparation for your purpose. Perhaps it’s time for you to appreciate small beginnings, mini triumphs, and unexpected detours. Perhaps it’s time for you to learn something Jesus came to know well.

You can’t hasten God’s timing. It’s perfect. It’s appointed. And, it’s never late.

Whatever you’re facing in pursuit of your God-given dreams remember it will take longer than you think, it will be harder than you expected, but it will happen just as it should.

All you have to do is trust God and His timing.

Are You Cultivating Your Tools for Financial Freedom?

A recent Gallup poll shows that job satisfaction is declining. In fact, most American’s hate their work. They feel unchallenged, undervalued, under paid, and unproductive.

But is this really a shock? Being that average person spends 110,000 hours of their life working, it’s not hard to see why so many people are miserable in life.

And whether you are willing to admit it or not, hating your work is a big deal.

So why do we keep ourselves locked in jobs and careers that are literally killing us slowly?

Putting issues like fear, uncertainty, or complacency aside for a moment, I think the biggest obstacle most of us face when it comes to quitting work we hate is failing to transform our God-given talents, existing skills, and expanding knowledge into something of value for others.

In other words, we don’t spend enough time figuring out how to convert what we can offer to the world into dollars!

Instead we spend all of our energy hating our day jobs believing that it’s just the way life is. We fail to consider how leveraging our intrinsic value can enable us to experience more meaning, fulfillment, and financial freedom.

Now, I’m not suggesting that everyone should search their soul for the entrepreneur within. Some of us are just not made for self-employment. It’s an idea that makes us hurl.

What I am suggesting is that every one of us should search our souls for what is valuable to others and cultivate those things. When we do this we become more valuable, and as a result increase our earning potential exponentially. Cultivating your value will transform your financial future forever.

Not convinced?

Here are seven reasons why cashing in on your intrinsic value is the single greatest way to transform your financial future.

1. Identifying your intrinsic value increases your chances of becoming financially independent because if you leverage it properly, you can develop additional income streams to support you, or better yet, become your most substantial source of revenue. i.e. start a side hustle along with your day job or start your own business completely.

2. Leveraging your intrinsic value increases your overall independence so you have more freedom to pick and choose the kind of work you want to do, and what you will get paid to do that work. As you cultivate your strengths, and do more of the work you love, you will start to find more opportunities to do that work. Finding meaningful work won’t happen sitting in a constant state of complaint and complacency.

3. Cashing in on your intrinsic value is the fastest way for you to save more money, eliminate debt, and design your ideal lifestyle. These desires are interconnected and it’s only until you can earn more money that you accomplish any of them. When you start earning money from meaningful work you accelerate your ability to achieve your financial goals.

4. Learning how to turn your intrinsic value into a marketable product or service make you indispensible to any organization you are part of. Critical thinking and the ability to sell something are two of the most highly valued skills in the marketplace. If you can do this for yourself, you can do this for anyone. What company doesn’t want someone like that?

Learning to leverage your intrinsic value and doing meaningful work doesn’t mean you have to leave your job. In fact, doing meaningful work without resenting your corporate job can make you a better employee. Can we say bonus?

5. Understanding how to profit from your intrinsic value gives you the personal freedom to work on the things you want to work on because no corporation “owns” you or your ability to generate revenue.

Job security is a fallacy. Having a skill set to turn to when finding employment proves difficult will prove indispensable to you.

6. Exploiting your intrinsic value increases your sense of confidence and purpose. It will empower you to take bigger risks for bigger rewards and that will overflow into other areas of your life.

7. Capitalizing on the benefits of your intrinsic value can give you the ability to serve or fund social, political, and charitable causes that resonate with your values. In discovering how to make money from the most valuable parts of what you have to offer this world, you can have the opportunity to give back to those things that matter most to you. It’s a win-win situation.

The truth is everyone needs a purpose. And when you spend the great majority of your life doing things that are meaningful to you, things that sincerely benefit others, things that God’s designed for you to do – purpose finds you right where you stand.

Spend some time cultivating those things that make you uniquely you. Consider what you might do to make yourself more valuable to others. Look for ways to leverage that value for increased income. It’s there if you are willing to seek it out. The question is, will you?

P.S. If entrepreneurship is a road that interests you, but you just can see how you’d get from a steady paycheck to writing your own, this might interest you. Going from your day job to full-time self-employment is not a leap to take blindly, and this is a resource that can help you create a personalized roadmap for making the jump (or any transition for that matter).

If you might be thinking now is the time to make a change, but the “how” plagues you – you should check this out.

Accelerate Your Results With Acceptance

If you are an ambitious go-getter, you are probably always seeking to be better, right? You have a burning desire to be and do more. You work with complete commitment towards the BIG vision you have for your life. You are going to have the business and life of your dreams, and you are going to get it ASAP.

I’m inspired by people like you.

In fact, I used to be that way too until a few simple ideas revolutionized my rate of achievement. I used to think my ambition would help me achieve my goals more quickly, because that is what ambition applied rightly should do. But have you ever considered the possibility that your bold ambitions to be who (and what) you want to be someday, are actually keeping you from being the person you are meant to be right now?

Have you ever considered the fact that striving to improve upon your weaknesses keeps you from leveraging your strengths?

Have you ever considered that striving to develop confidence in your own strength keeps you from receiving the source of all lasting confidence?

Have you ever considered the fact that focusing on what you could have done, should have done, and want to do someday doesn’t help you focus on what you need to do RIGHT NOW?

I’ve found these to be the trappings of ambition gone astray, and I’ve found that left unchecked they can dramatically slow down your rate of achievement.

Getting Rapidly Rapid Results

If you want to start seeing rapid results in your life, consider the fact that you are already fearfully and wonderfully made. Embrace your strengths and release your weaknesses. Put your confidence in that which is Greater than yourself. And, use every moment given to you in the present to manifest your future.

These ideas changed my life, and it all began with acceptance.

When you accept the fact that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, you will recognize that you already have everything you need to do whatever you’ve been called to do in this life.

When you accept your strengths, when you engage them, and seek the wisdom and talent of others to help you with your weaknesses, you become an empowered and effective entrepreneur – instantly. It’s a wise investment of your energy that will yield a generous ROI.

When you accept your imperfections, and base your assurance on that which is unchanging and everlasting, you don’t have to compare yourself to others, and you don’t have to live in self-doubt. Instead, you can do far beyond what which you can dream up for yourself.

When you accept your life as you know it, as it is this very moment, you allow yourself to be exactly where you are supposed to be RIGHT NOW. And when you are willing to do what you can do – right now, with what you have – right now, to fulfill your purpose – right now, you open the door for the extraordinary to occur.

All it takes is acceptance.

P.S. If you were looking for a practical and tactical tip – this probably wasn’t it, but my weekly KATs are jam packed with those. For clear, concise and easy implement advice on building your bottom line just enter your name and email address in the form below and get in the on the goods.

Have you ever said to yourself, “I wish there were more hours in the day!”

Are You Putting First Things First When It Comes To Your Time?

Between client work, content development, networking, bookkeeping, customer service, working out, eating right, caring for and being with your family, oh and then there is that thing called rest, it seems there is always too much to do and never enough time for doing.

But why is that some people, who appear to have just as much to accomplish, seem to get so much more done while their counterparts don’t? We all have the same 24 hours in a day, so what gives?

In one word: Priority.

So right now you’re saying, “Yeah, duh, Marlee – this is time management 101 – prioritize your tasks. Do the most important things first, blah, blah, blah. Why don’t you tell me something I don’t know about managing my time?!”

Well, your wish is my command.

What You Don’t Know About Time Management

Time management is not just about doing the most important things first. It’s about how you determine what is most important.

Take for example, building a house (which I know nothing about firsthand, so just go with me here), what would you suspect to be the most important thing to do first?

Clear the lot? Lay the foundation? Review the plans? Meet with the construction team?

Although those are all great preliminary considerations, I suspect the most important thing you would want to do before you start physically building a house is consult the architect.

The architect is the creator, designer, and often the supervisor of the construction at hand. And it’s in consulting the architect that you’ll get the clearest, most accurate instruction on what to do first and how to do it.

Consulting the architect will allow you to make better decisions as you carry out the project, so that you avoid wasting time doing things or trying things that aren’t part of the building plans. By consulting the architect you are able to properly determine what to do first.

So just as you would consult an architect before bulldozing a lot of trees and laying a slab of concrete, it would probably be a good idea to consult the architect of your life before you plan and build your days.

I mean if our days are in His hands, we should probably ask him what he has in mind, right?  And if you think, “Well maybe that applies to life in a big picture sense, and not so much to life on a day-to-day level,” allow me to ask you to think twice.

Our Creator cares about ever single miniscule factor in our lives, and that includes our how we spend our time and how we operate our businesses. He wants us to consult Him in ALL things – nothing is too insignificant for his attention.

And here is why this is important. By consulting God about how we should prioritize our time, we not only open ourselves to receive divine insight for how we should invest our day, but we trigger what one of my spiritual mentors refers to as “The Law of First Things.”

The Law of First Things

In a nutshell the “Law of First Things” basically requires that we keep God first in all things. We keep Him first in our thoughts, in how we use our money, in how we relate to others, in how we make decisions, and of course in how we invest our time.

And when we keep God first in all things, all other things simply come together as they should (this is not to say we don’t have to do anything – it’s just to say we aren’t alone in doing it as it should be done).

How to Practically Apply this to Managing Your Time for More Productivity

• Before you start your day, give the first part of that day to acknowledging, thanking, and asking God for wisdom throughout the day.
• Before you sit down to plan your day (the night before) ask God to show you how to make the most of your time, then listen to your gut as you prioritize your work.
• Before you sit down to complete a task, ask God to help you stay diligent and focused on that task at hand, then get to work focusing on one task at a time.

God wants to be first in our lives. He wants to be before ALL things. In this simple, seemingly insignificant practice you will be doing that, you will be protecting yourself from getting mixed up priorities.

You will be led by your heart in determining how to spend your time, and as a result you’ll be energized to do what you are meant to do and you can be confident that you are doing exactly what you should be. And when you feel that way, you’ll accomplish more than you ever thought you could.

For many, especially non-spiritual folks, this may seem like an odd practice, so I’m curious what do you think about setting apart the first portion of your time for some divine insight? Do you have a practice like this? Have you ever considered this before? Let’s chat about it in the comments below?

It's Time For Peak Performance

I’ve got a confession to make. It’s not that I haven’t been totally honest with you – I have. It’s more that I haven’t been totally honest with myself.

You know that phrase “keep it real?” Well, I love it. I might even go so far as to say it’s part of my personal philosophy. I appreciate people who for better or for worse “keep it real,” and I’m about to do the same.

So, if you can’t stand heat, now would be a good time to leave this kitchen.

Entrepreneurship is Just like Life

One thing I’ve learned about entrepreneurship is that it’s a lot like life in general. There are so many parallels. Take for example these things:

• Your business idea: Like an unborn child.
• Your first client: Like a child’s first words.
• Your first “no”: Like getting dissed by your first crush.
• Your first refund: Like falling down on stage at your graduation ceremony.
• Your first bad employee: Like getting stood up for prom.
• Your first big contract: Like falling in love for the first time.
• Your first big marketing promotion: Like going on an amazing first date.
• Your first BIG tax bill: Like eating a pound of cheese when you’re lactose intolerant.

Okay, maybe that is pushing it a bit far, but you get the idea.

Crazy as it sounds business and life are one in the same if you’re in business for yourself. Because if your business is truly a labor of love (as many are), if it’s truly a reflection of who you are, and if it’s your vehicle for bringing your God-given gifts into the world, then it’s far more personal for you than even the most authentic personal brand could express.

So what happens to your business when you withhold the most important parts of yourself from it?

Clearing the Interference

Is There Interference In Your Potential?

While on YouTube the other day, I came across a peak performance and intimacy coach, Gina Parris. I don’t know much about Gina, but while watching the first 38 seconds of this particular video, I came to a profound personal understanding of something I had only understood intellectually.

In this video, Gina says, “When I’m talking about peak performance, I’m talking about throwing off everything that’s not the real you, [anything that] is not the person you were created and designed to be.”

She goes on to explain that your potential exists on one level, and your performance exists at another level (typically under your potential), and it’s only when you remove the interference between the levels, that you are able to perform at your peak – which of course is the most gratifying.

And then it hit me. Eureka! I’ve got some major interference folks.

Now, I already knew this truth, but I hadn’t embraced it. In fact, I resisted it. I would find reason after reason to discredit the need to allow all of me to be part of my personally branded and purpose-based business.

I hate to admit it, but I had succumbed to the power of the Lizard Brain. I was in the war of art, and I wasn’t winning.

And now, for My Jerry Springer Moment

Here’s where I give you my big confession, and you all “oooo” and “aaaah” before wildly chanting: “Jerry, Jerry, Jerry!”

But before I go there, I just want to give props to those entrepreneurs that I know and see going so boldly after their dreams with every ounce of who they are. Before I realized I wasn’t in that category, I didn’t really understand how much courage and support it takes.

Having said all that, what you really need to know is that I’ve left out a foundational part of who I am when it comes to the work I do here. And the problem is that everything I’ve created and accomplished after leaving the practice of law is rooted in that foundation.

In fact, I can’t attribute any of my success (and there have been some HUGE successes), thus far to my ability alone. It’s only by Faith in Jesus, the grace of God, and sheer perseverance that I’ve been able to embark on this journey of entrepreneurship without totally losing my mind or my way.

You see, I love Jesus like a fat kid loves cake (yes that is totally a hijacked 50 cent lyric), and His presence in my life greatly affects the way I see entrepreneurship and things I teach as they relate to it.

But I’ve deeply feared sharing that. I’ve deeply feared the labels, associations, and rejection that comes with it. I’ve deeply feared bringing ALL that I am to what I do. But I’m not allowing that fear to hold me back any longer. I’m removing the interference. It’s time for peak performance.

The Lesson Here For You

Yes, there is a lesson here for you and it’s important. Ready?

You have got to live your truth in all you do in life, and this includes your business.  Otherwise, fulfillment and purpose will continue to evade you.

I believe that living My Truth will only further unlock the unlimited potential that God has put in me to educate, equip and empower others to become self-employed so that they are blessed, and in turn can be a blessing.

I go to God about everything in my life. And the same is true about my business. Because whether you believe it or not, I believe that God wants you to prosper (both personally and financially), and he cares about your business – because he cares about you.

Going forward I’m going to be sharing a lot more about My Truth. And whether or not you agree with My Truth makes no difference to me. I don’t say that to be flippant. I say that because I’m not here to convince you of My Truth. I’m just here to show you how it works in my life and in my business, so that if you desire, it can help you in yours.

It will be a bumpy ride, but I hope you will join us – me and JC that is.