How to Craft an Authentic Elevator Speech People Say YES to!

By Carlene Ashby

A deer in the headlights: Someone’s reaction when you tell them about your obscure modality.  We’ve all been there.  You are at a party or a networking event, or a family reunion, and someone asks you what you do for a living.  If you are a life coach, a holistic therapist of any kind, an intuitive, or any other profession that the general public doesn’t clearly understand, then you know how awkward this can be.  Here is why: You are giving them a title that has no meaning for them and therefore they have no idea what to say.  The mission here today is to find a new way to communicate what you do so that people will raise their hand to become a client or recommend you to someone they know.

For instance, if you are a tarot or angel card reader, and you are at the chamber of commerce for a networking event, you may get a lot of blank stares if your response to “What do you do?” is “I’m a tarot/angel card reader.”  Another way to say that, is to tell them about the results you offer.  Your answer to this may be something like this: “Do you know business owners or executives who are great at what they do, but occasionally get stressed out and confused about making big decisions?  Well I help them to get clear on the best decision for them by getting them to tap into their intuition.”  Doesn’t that sound a lot clearer?

Your Prosperity Assignment Should You Choose To Accept It:

1. Answer the following questions:

a.  Who is my ideal client? (1 to 2 words)

b.  What problem do I help them solve? (1 to 4 words)

c.  What do you help them to experience? (1 to 4 words)

d.  How do I help them? (1 to 3 words)

2.  Use your answers above to fill in the blanks below:

My purpose is to help/ assist ___(a)___ who __(b)__to __(c)__ by/ through ___(d)__.

Ex.) “I help conscious entrepreneurs who struggle with marketing to create marketing materials that attract clients through my various coaching programs.”

If you need help crafting your “elevator speech” or would like feedback on it, email me at info@Prosperity-Through-Purpose and I’d be happy to help.

© Copyright 2010 Carlene Ashby

Decide to Be a Success

By Carlene Ashby

A wise man once said, “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.”  That wise man was Dr. Seuss, a man who created great success for himself by doing what he was great at.  He chose his path and he decided on his own direction.

Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, one of the best books on success of all time, wrote about the power of decision.  He describes that the key to success is a burning desire that will cause you to do absolutely whatever it takes to get what you want.  That desire is the key to decision.

The word, decide comes from the Latin, decidere, which literally means “to cut off from.” When you decide, you cut yourself off from all other possibilities.

There is no limit to what you can do once you truly decide to do it.  History is full of people who were called dreamers and worse for following their heart’s true desire and without them nothing great could have been accomplished.  Martin Luther King, Barbara Walters, Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama all came from humble beginnings and faced great obstacles.  They were all told at several points to give up on their dreams, that they were being unrealistic, that they would not be successful.  And yet they persevered.  They had the burning desire to succeed and so they decided to do whatever it took to achieve their dreams.

“And will you succeed? Yes indeed, yes indeed! Ninety-eight and three-quarters percent guaranteed.” -Dr. Seuss

Are you ready to decide to create a successful business with the lifestyle you dream of?

Excellent.  Let’s get started.  The key to decision is motivation.  As Tony Robbins says, there are two motivators for humans.  Pain and pleasure.  We will do more to avoid pain than gain pleasure.  Does this mean we need to begin to hate our lives before we make a change?  Well, no, but discomfort is necessary.

If you are perfectly comfortable in your life, then why change anything?  You must become uncomfortable enough to make a change.  How do we do this?  Decide on a goal, and then look at the benefits of accomplishing it and the consequences of not accomplishing it.

Well first, define what it is that you want to create.  For example, let’s say you decide you want to create a successful information marketing business.  You are going to sell you proprietary system for creating organic babyfood easily and inexpensively.  You want to work 25 hours a week and you want to make $150,000 a year.

Now define all the great reasons for doing that.   Why do you want to create that kind of success?  You want to help parents raise healthy babies, you want to vacation often, live in a bigger home with a large garden and finally afford to go to that spa retreat in the mountains once a month.  Great.  How will you feel when you accomplish this?  Proud, grateful, joyful, abundant?

Now what will happen and how will you feel if you do not create success in your business?  You’ll keep going to that dead-end job, you’ll slowly have your soul sucked out one draining day at a time, you’ll continue to lose your passion for life, you be disappointed in yourself, etc.  Connect to the emotions of not accomplishing the goal.

Now decide.  Are you going to do what it takes to accomplish it?  Will you walk through fire to create success for yourself?  Will you do that which others won’t to get the results that others wish for?  If you can say yes, then you are committed.

Write out your decision and place it somewhere you will see it everyday.  Tell supportive people about your decision.  Ignore the unsupportive ones. Remember, as the infinitely wise Dr. Seuss said, “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

Now create the structure for that commitment.  When will you set aside time for your business creation, your marketing efforts, your education, your brainstorming?  Who will you enlist to help you achieve your goal?  Who will keep you accountable on this journey?  How will you fund this endeavor?  What will you give up in order to make room for this success?  Every day ask yourself, is this action bringing me closer to my purpose?  If the answer is anything but yes, choose something else.

And so I will end with the great Dr. Seuss “Today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.”

© Copyright 2010 Carlene Ashby