THE NEW LEAF™

The Official Newsletter of Authentic Promotion®

Volume 4, No. 33, August 19, 2002
Circulation: more than 11,000 and growing.

DO YOU LOVE RUNNING AND PROMOTING YOUR BUSINESS?
After years of struggle and fear, I've learned how to love my business as much as my work. Learn the insights, techniques, and resources that allow me to manage and market with integrity and delight in my 12-week Authentic Promotion teleclass. Build a business that feeds your soul as well as your bank account, that supports you and serves others. Register today for sessions beginning in September.

IN THIS ISSUE

• Fast Focus: Ask for What Your Want
• How to Publish and Promote an E-Zine That Attracts Business
• Simple Gifts: Manage Your Commitments
• Open for Business: Confessions of a Reluctant Marketer
• Seven Secrets for Free Publicity
• The Bedside Table
• Sing Out: Join the Rolling Requiem for 9/11
• Copyright | Sponsors & Affiliates | [un]Subscribe

FAST FOCUS: Ask for What Your Want
It's hard to make a living if you won't ask for what your want. It's hard to ask for what you want if you won't admit you want it. It's much easier to admit you want it if you are willing to hear "no" as an answer. It's a mystery!

HOW TO PUBLISH AND PROMOTE AN E-ZINE THAT ATTRACTS BUSINESS
I love writing, publishing, and promoting The New Leaf. It helps me prosper in every sense: it challenges me mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to speak the truth as I understand it in the moment and to trust that being exactly who I am and where I am is the best way to serve and to thrive. It is a gift to you and a profit center for me. I am truly blessed.

My Shorten Your Learning Curve audio tapes and e-books share the lessons I've learned from four years of online publishing as well as the technical savvy of my Virtual Assistant, the very real Debbie Buxton. These resources will save you months of trial ond error. As always, you must be completely satisfied or I will cheerfully refund your investment. Order your tapes and e-books here.

SIMPLE GIFTS: MANAGE YOUR COMMITMENTS
By now alert readers have discovered that this column features a different FREE resource every week, yours to download from my Web site or request by autoresponder. Last week over 180 people downloaded the Jump Start Guide to Promoting Your E-zine.

This week's featured FREEbie is a tool for charting your commitments so you can see where your time goes. The secret to managing your time is managing your commitments. Get your commitments on paper and start making smarter decisions today. You'll find the link to the form at the VERY bottom of this Web page.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS: CONFESSIONS OF A RELUCTANT MARKETER
One disadvantage of getting to know people from the pages or screens of an e-zine is that folks can get the wrong impression. For instance, some people think marketing comes naturally to me.

Nothing could be further from the truth. While administering projects and advocating for the success of other people and causes has always been easy for me, learning to thrive in my own business has been a long journey.

My first business was a wearable art studio, Mollycoddles. (Isn't that a great name? I still love it.) I designed, fabricated, and marketed high-end knit clothing, the kind of thing you might see in an upscale boutique or craft gallery.

I started out with a bias against making money, which made it difficult to earn any significant amount of it. I tended to distrust people who had money, which made it difficult to respect and serve folks who could afford my work. I had a short attention span, so as soon as I figured out how to do one thing fairly efficiently, I would decide to make something else, so I never achieved any sort of economy of scale.

On the bright side, thanks to my experience with PR on behalf of other folks (see "Seven Secrets for Free Publicity" below), I was nationally recognized for my work. I just never figured out how to make any money at it, and I suffered intensely because what I loved to do was making me miserable. (Of course, I was making myself miserable, and I sort of knew that, which "made me" feel worse.)

During the eight years that I owned Mollycoddles, I learned a lot about creating success doing work you love, but it took closing the studio and starting my career as a coach to reveal those lessons in forms I could understand and apply to build a successful business. It took an additional five years for me to see that my own pain and struggle around business was the heart of what I had to offer others.

I used to feel inauthentic and phony when I imagined, let alone planned for, business success. Yet something in me knew that learning to succeed in business was part of my personal hero's journey, and that it was up to me to heal the rift between material success and my most fundamental values.

Bit by bit, as I embraced my difficulties, I discovered that being in business is an invitation to speak the truth, to be responsible for my well being, and to create a space of prosperity that serves my clients and customers as well as myself.

It's easy to write that now, but it took me years of self-examination, failure, and reflection to stop struggling and start prospering. I believe that the lessons I learned over such a long period can be learned much faster, with much less drama and wasted energy, and that the more good folks learn about doing good business the better off we'll all be.

Here are some of the lessons I've learned along the way.

1. Good luck and good fortune are about choice, not about control. When I am clear that I am choosing my life, and when I understand that making choices is not the same as managing the outcome, luck and fortune find me every time.
2. It's hard to make a living when I won't ask for what I want. It's hard to ask for what I want if I won't admit I want it. It's much easier to admit I want it if I am willing to hear "no" as an answer. It's a mystery!
3. When I look directly at my resentments against the business world I always come face to face with some part of myself I do not want to acknowledge or accept.
4. When I acknowledge and accept even the parts of myself that I fear or dislike, I become free to act in accordance with my highest standards. I like to say, "I'm often fearful and when I'm afraid I lie, but that is not what I'm up to today." I can always play a bigger game.
5. Mistakes really are the compost of our future successes. The more openly I embrace and acknowledge my errors the more they have to teach me, and the more friends I make along the way. Amazing.
6. Money is energy. It's not so much about the quantity of money as it is about being free of energy leaks and energy blocks. If I think money is evil I'm going to have a very hard time taking care of myself in the world, and it will be impossible to serve others with grace.
7. I am in a sense both the gardener and the garden. I am responsible for co-creating the conditions under which I thrive and I am responsible for reaping the harvest.
8. I'm responsible for being an offer to the people who will most benefit from working with me. I do not need to be an authority on all things.
9. I will always receive the guidance I need just for today. I am only lost when I insist on seeing around corners.
10. I'm always writing the story of my life. It's up to me to discover how to live and work each day with dignity, grace, and passion. When I pretend I am doing just that I discover that I can do all sorts of things I didn't think I knew how to do. (Like build a thriving coaching practice, have a great Web site, or write an e-zine with over 11,000 readers. I mean, who knew?)

I'm still learning. Every day I face some things that are scary and some things that used to be scary but that are now a pleasure. I've written that mistakes are the compost of future success, and I find I welcome the lessons of my errors these days. That's a huge shift, and one I would wish for all of you.

Well--that's a part of my story. I'm sharing it with you because I think you have a right to know where I'm coming from, and because some of you have been kind enough to ask. I hope it helps you to understand the principles and experiences behind my coaching and my courses. Also, it is good for my soul to reconnect with the inspiration, challenges, and mistakes that led me here.

I WELCOME YOUR COMMENTS. Please send them to leaf@mollygordon.com.

SEVEN SECRETS FOR FREE PUBLICITY
When I was 16, I spent a summer interning in the Boise office of Idaho's Senator Frank Church. From time to time, the Senator's Washington, DC, office would phone and dictate a press release to be distributed locally. I learned how simple it was to use press releases to build credibility and visibility.

That was the beginning of my love affair with publicity. For more than thirty years I've used publicity to focus attention on community service projects, arts events, and my own business ventures. I know it works.

That's why I'm such a fan of Joan Stewart, aka The Publicity Hound. Joan has a nose for news, and she knows how to teach others to sniff out opportunities for great publicity. Her Web site is packed with special reports, tapes, and CDs that show you how to get media attention.

Here are a few tips from "The Publicity Hound," Joan's bi-monthly e-zine. Joan's Special Reports are packed with tips like these that you can put to work right away to get free media coverage.

1. Produce your own television program or a series of programsófor your local cable TV station's public access channel. Air time is free. You can rent the camera equipment for about $20.
2. Write a letter to the editor commenting on a story that was published in the latest issue of the newspaper or magazine. Subtly weave into the letter a little about your business.
3. Take advantage of smaller media. Chamber of Commerce newsletters, alternative weeklies, alumni magazines, newspapers for minorities, religious newspapers and neighborhood newsletters should be targeted.
4. Get onto the public speaking circuit. This gives you instant credibility and will often result in business from people in the audience. Sometimes you can even sell products from the back of the room.
5. Write a tip sheet for the media on a topic that shows your expertise.
6. Try to get onto radio talk shows in your community.
7. Call reporters at your trade publications or local newspapers or magazines and offer yourself as a source who can provide background, commentary and story ideas about your area of expertise.

Visit Joan's Web site and start your publicity engine running. Click on Special Reports or Audio Tapes to choose from a wealth of expert guidance. While you're there, sign up for your free "Publicity Hound Tips of the Week" receive free by autoresponder the handy checklist "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."
http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=42346

THE BEDSIDE TABLE
"After Ecstasy, the Laundry, How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path," Jack Kornfield What happens after enlightenment when there are clothes to wash, children to feed and work to do? Jack Kornfield explores the practical aftermath of enlightenment from his own considerable experience as well as from scores of conversations with spiritual masters east and west. A great read, and a great bit of reality testing for anyone on a spiritual path.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553102907/mollygordonperso

If you prefer to do your summer reading via audio tape while walking or napping on the beach, the unabridged tape is available at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1564558258/mollygordonperso

"Nonviolent Communication, A Language of Compassion," Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D.
This is a practical, insightful, and revolutionary that goes right to the heart of what is in the way of getting what we want when we talk to each other. Rosenberg teaches simple, muscular techniques that you can use immediately to lift your communications out of struggle and into breakthrough. Mired in hierarchical tug of wars? Stuck in endless struggles with coworkers or family members? Out of ideas? Read this book and put it to work.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1892005026/mollygordonperso

"Be Heard Now!: Tap Into Your Inner Speaker and Communicate with Ease," Lee Glickstein
This is the book behind the "speaking circles" you may have heard of. One of the best speaking coaches I know is leading these circles and if Connie (http://www.constancemiller.com) says they work, they must be a good thing. If you want to be more comfortable, compelling, and authentic speaker, this is the book for you.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0767902963/mollygordonperso

"Soul Proprietor, 101 Lessons from a Lifestyle Entreprenuer" by Jane Pollack.
Pollack distills the lessons she's learned in building a business out of decorating eggs (no kidding) into evolutionary realizations rather than mere "how tos." Readers will finish this book wiser and more savvy not only in the ways of the business world but also with regard to the spiritual, mental, and emotional challenges of being a "soul proprietor."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580911080/mollygordonperso

"In the Spotlight, Overcome Your Fear of Public Speaking and Performance." Janet E. Esposito, MSW.
Esposito suffered from crippling stagefright, a fear that she overcame. How she did that, and how you can do it too, is the subject of this highly readable book. A great companion to "Be Heard Now."
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1928782078/mollygordonperso

Searching for a book or CD or other product on Amazon? When you use these links to Amazon search engines you support "The New Leaf." Please visit and bookmark them today.
US: http://www.mollygordon.com/searchbook.html
UK: http://www.mollygordon.com/eurobook.html

SING OUT: JOIN THE ROLLING REQUIEM FOR 9/11
A group of singers in Seattle is organizing a world-wide "rolling requiem" on September 11, 2002, to commemorate the lives that were lost last year. The Rolling Requiem is a series of worldwide performances of Mozart's Requiem, that will begin at 8:46 AM Eastern Daylight Time, the time the first plane struck the World Trade Center.

As I write this on August 14th, groups from Latvia and Wales are among the more than 30 choirs from around the world that have already signed up. I'll be singing with the Bainbridge Chorale a few miles west of Seattle where the idea was born.You can learn how to participate as a singer or audience member and how to support this grassroots outpouring of love and music at http://www.rollingrequiem.org.