The Official Newsletter of Authentic Promotion™
Volume 6, No. 3, January 20, 2004
U.S. Library of Congress ISSN: 1530-311X
Molly Gordon, Master Certified Coach
Subscribe at www.mollygordon.com
Next week my assistant, Debbie, and I are attending Tom Antion's live Internet Butt Camp in Portland, Oregon. I invested in Tom's Butt Camp audio tapes two years ago, and now I'm going to the live event for the latest information on online marketing. Tom's approach is informal yet to the point, his support materials are excellent, and he's got the track record to prove that he knows what he is talking about. Learn more about his live and recorded seminars at http://www.antion.com/t.cgi/192738/buttcamp.htm
In This Issue
Fast Focus: Success Is an Inside and an Outside Job
Simple Gifts: Choosing a Good Enough Direction
Teleclasses: Bringing Spirit to Business
Open for Business: Sales, Spirit, and Psyche
Coaching: Openings
Resources and Links: Perfectionism
Small Print: Copyright | Getting On and Off the List
Privacy Statement | Contact Info
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Fast Focus
Success Is an Inside and Outside Job
Success as a human being is an inside and outside job.
It's about character. It's about intention. And yes, it is about choices.
Yet success is also about structures of support. Emotional support. Material resources. Health and well being.
As 2004 unfolds (can you believe January is 2/3 over?), notice where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Do you tend to prefer working on inner success? Outer? What opportunities and challenges arise when you shift your focus to framing success in terms of relationships or health or spiritual well being?
There is no single success formula, no one true north. When it comes to success, the compass rose is a kaleidoscope! Still, you can pause to notice the hand on the scope and ask yourself who it belongs to. The answer may be a surprise.
Simple Gifts
Choosing a Good Enough Direction
What do you do when you have too much information? When it's hard to distinguish among the alarm bells of homeostasis, the siren songs of wish fulfillment, and the call of your heart felt purpose? There are times in business and in life when it's just not possible to know what to do next based on your usual sources of information. This week's simple gift is a practice that can cultivate the discernment to know when to act and when to wait. Email discernment@mollygordon.com for your complimentary Discernment Guide. This is my most popular autoresponder (over 800 folks have requested it this year). Feel free to pass it on.
If this topic interests you, be sure to look at the Discernment teleclass below.
Teleclasses
Bringing Spirit to Business
I've rescheduled "Sweet Spot" and "Believe!" and extended the pre-registration discount to February 3, 2004.
Believe! Working with Your Beliefs to Build Your Business demonstrates the opportunities and limits for identifying and shifting beliefs so you can be more successful. This class goes beyond conventional teaching about affirmations to explain where people get stuck in and shows you how to move on. Four 90-minute teleclasses on Tuesdays from Noon to 1:30 pm eastern time February 17 and 24, and March 2 and 9. Learn more or sign up at authenticpromotion.com: http://www.authenticpromotion.com/teleclasses/believe.html
Thriving in the Sweet Spot: Naming a Meaningful and Profitable Niche
Are you struggling to tell people what you do really? Do you want a simpler, more effective way to market your work? Thriving in the Sweet Spot will teach you a way to name your niche that increases your scope and your value to prospective clients while vastly simplifying the task of marketing your work. Four 90-minute teleclasses on Tuesdays from 2 – 3:30 pm eastern time February 17 and 24, and March 2 and 9. Learn more or sign up at authenticpromotion.com: http://www.authenticpromotion.com/teleclasses/sweetspot.html
Discerning Meaningful Action in Life and Work with John Forman, OblSB.
How can a spiritual practice of discernment help you to integrate spiritual and material aspects of experience? What are the opportunities and pitfalls on this path? We’ll delve into these questions with John’s expert guidance while engaging in a daily discernment practice. Mark your calendars for four consecutive Thursdays in February (Feb. 5, 12, 19, and 26) from noon to 1:30 pm eastern time. Given the fact that over 1800 people have downloaded my free discernment guide, this class is expected to sell out early. Learn more or register here: http://authenticpromotion.com/teleclasses/discernment.html
Watch for new teleclasses featuring integral theory!
In a few weeks I will be publishing a list of possible class titles and descriptions for your review and feedback. If you want to be placed on a special notifications list, drop me a line and I'll be sure you get a heads up about integrally informed classes. Meanwhile, see the Resources section below for several cool links to free resources.
Open for Business
Sales, Spirit, & Psyche
Two years ago I experienced an epiphany with respect to my work in the world. I'd been struggling with what it meant to be a coach and how to build my business with integrity and humility, but also with healthy pride and delight. How could I play the "bigger game" I felt called to play without becoming deflated by the pressures of living up to an image that could not possibly match reality, at least not all the time? And when I did succeed, how could I continue to grow without becoming inflated and identified with success in an unhealthy way?
I wrestled with questions like this for many months that year. I'd been through soul-wracking doubt enough times to have worked out a sort of diplomatic accord with my psyche. Over the years I had accepted that this was not depression, but of what Jean Houston calls ingression, an invitation into the do shadow work that cannot take place under the bright, hot lights of certainty and confidence. In other words, I felt crummy and confused, but did not think there was a problem (most of the time).
While I committed myself to doing the inner work that was called for, I could not help putting a time limit on the process. The rhythms of the school year are strong in me and I was taking August off, half for study and half for play, so it seemed natural to assume that by September I'd be ready to go recommit to business with renewed vigor, clarity, and conviction.
September brought no such relief. I was still in suspense and some distress about life, work, and everything when, on September 11th, I rose at 6:00 a.m., switched on the radio, and heard the stunned tones of newscasters at the site of the World Trade Center. Minutes later, the second plane hit, and I was riveted to the television for the next several hours. Far from marking the end to my passage, September simply intensified the darkness.
Finally, just before the end of the year, light broke through. In one blinding moment I realized that everything that mattered most to me -- developing myself as a conscious being, service to the world, participation in the joys or creation without turning a blind eye to suffering, and relentless learning -- could all be realized by choosing business, especially marketing and promotion, as the focus for my values, gifts, experience, and longing.
I saw that my lifelong fascination and repulsion with respect to business made it an ideal context for examining the stories I project into the world. The problems and challenges of business, if encountered with awareness, integrity, humility, courage, and compassion, would tell me who I was. (In fact, I find that business is a great teacher whenever I can summon up even one or two of the qualities in that list.) I saw that business, especially marketing, had the potential to reveal even what I did not know that I did not know.
It's easy, I think, to see that business can be mentally and physically challenging. But the spiritual and psychological challenges, especially those more subtle than "cash register honesty," may not be so apparent. Here then is an example of how rising to the challenges of doing good business can instruct us in what it means to be human and in working at our own learning edge.
Recently I decided to postpone two teleclasses due to low enrollment. One of the persons who had registered sent a note expressing her disappointment and seeming to say that I had behaved badly in my decision. (I'm not claiming that's what she said – that's just how it landed with me.)
In terms of business, this situation presented the challenge of repairing a relationship that seemed to have been damaged and the opportunity to learn how to more effectively communicate with clients and customers. In order to meet the challenge and realize the opportunity, it would be necessary to open a dialogue with the customer.
And here is exactly where business presented me with an opportunity to encounter my limitations and fears, because while I understood clearly enough the business case for a dialogue, the fact is that when I read the complaining email I felt defensive. In my defensiveness, I was more interested in having the customer see it my way than in hearing her concerns. I felt she should have known that I would not cancel a class lightly and that a class with too few participants would not be rewarding for anyone.
At one time, I might have actually lectured this innocent person. As it happens, I've been letting business teach me for long enough that I was not going to do that. Still, I was sorely tempted to simply email her that a refund would be forthcoming and let it go at that. But in the interests of letting my business teach me how to grow, I picked up the phone and called her instead. I've learned that gently but persistently acting in ways that test or challenge my fears and prejudices can result in surprising outcomes.
As I dialed, I formed the intention to let go of my story about what was happening and to listen to hers. As it turned out, I pretty much failed at that. When she answered, my mind went blank. I could not figure out how to say, "I've received your email. Thank you. I'd like to know what happened for you when you got the notice about the class change." Instead, I told her what I thought I knew about what had happened in her. I said that I knew she felt it was a shame that the class was canceled and I agreed. (Big of me, eh?) Eventually I shut up, and she had the opportunity to say a few sentences. She was very gracious, and we ended the call on good terms.
Treating a business problem as a learning opportunity on two levels (the level of being more effective and profitable in business and the level of becoming more aware and responsible personally) resulted in at least two benefits. First, while I fell short of my ideal when it came to listening without prejudice to this customer, I did demonstrate that I was available and accountable. Secondly, by acting in a way that challenged my prejudices and fears, I loosened ever so slightly the hold that my mental and emotional habits have on my perception, choices, and behavior. The next time it will be easier to act with authentic and fearless (or less fearful) regard for my customer's well being.
This is just one of the countless ways in which doing business lands me smack in the middle of my personal learning journey. I believe the same opportunities exist for all of us who are in business by choice or by circumstance. That's why I do what I do, helping people to make the conscious connection between doing good business and developing their fullest human potential.
I welcome your comments and questions. Please send your letters to letters@mollygordon.com . Please do not reply to this newsletter as your message will be lost in cyber-limbo.
Authentic Promotion
Grow Your Business Feed Your Soul
Here's what one reader has to say about Authentic Promotion, the marketing workbook that shows you how to build your business with authenticity and integrity while you grow s a human being."I want you to know that this e-book is changing my entire experience of running a business. I thought I was my work and my work was me. Now I see differently.
"I read through the entire workbook once to get help with some urgent issues related to my new venture. Now I'm working through it thoroughly, chapter by chapter. It is truly transforming. I've recommended it to all of my creative colleagues, all of whom are brilliant marketers on behalf of clients, yet oddly uncomfortable with promoting themselves. Thank you for providing a fresh perspective."
K.M. Jones, Benevolent Planet, A simple path to purposeful living. www.benevolentplanet.com
Only $29.95. Info and secure online ordering: http://www.authenticpromotion.com/tapes.html
Coaching
Openings
I have one private coaching opening left for February and March. Recent clients include athletes, artists, and attorneys, and a whole slew of people whose businesses don't start with 'A.' If you are called to connect the growth of your business or career with your personal evolution, contact my assistant to schedule an interview. Email debbie@mollygordon.com.
Here's what one person says about her work with me:
At my first official networking event of the new year, I went to sit down at a table and introduced myself to the woman who was seated next to me. She, of course, asked, "What do you do?" I was able to very comfortably and confidently give my elevator speech, and she replied, "Nice niche!" I couldn't have asked for more!
I was able to very comfortably and confidently give my elevator speech, and she replied, "Nice niche!" I couldn't have asked for more!
I'm finding that this new approach is really working for me and is eliciting some great follow-up questions from the people I'm taking to. I feel better about what I'm doing that ever before (that's no exaggeration) because there's some focus and credibility attached to it. Many thanks again for all of your help.
Kim Goad, performance improvement consultant
Ovations Inc., www.preparedtoperform.com.
====> Pick a Coach: I'm not the right coach for everyone. I've invited a few of the many coaches I admire to share their experience and background in a brief referral guide. Request it at no obligation by sending an email with "referrals" in the subject line to referrals@mollygordon.com
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Quick Links
Resources and Links: Perfectionism Article
Thanks to Cheryl Longyear for sending the link to a very interesting article about perfectionism that she says gave her a new slant on the topic.
http://www.nexus.edu.au/teachstud/gat/peters.htm
Synopsis:
Perfectionism, by Carole C. Peters, Excellence in Education, Perth
This paper gives an overview of a range of definitions of perfectionism and considers the link between giftedness and perfectionism, the quest for self-actualisation and the management of perfectionism. Much of the paper is based on the work of Silverman (1995) who believes that perfectionism is an inevitable part of being gifted and an energy which can be channelled positively and viewed as a strength in those who have the potential to achieve excellence. [note: spellings as in Australian original]
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Small Print
Copyright | Getting On and Off the List
Unless otherwise attributed, all material is written and
edited by Molly Gordon, MCC.Copyright (c) Shaboom Inc. (r) 2004.
All rights reserved. www.mollygordon.com