HOPSON POTTER BUSINESS

Several years ago I conducted a yearlong research study with over 100 working women across the country about professional crises in women and how we can reclaim our lives to overcome them. I was astounded by the findings, and felt they were so universal and important for women, I wrote a book called Breakdown Breakthrough about these 12 crises, offering a three-step holistic model to break through these challenges once and for all.

Since the book came out in 2008, women from all over the country have written to me sharing sentiments such as, You are writing to me, about me, and for me, and Its as if you know exactly what Im living and feeling! My research shows that 9 out of 10 working women are experiencing at least one of these 12 hidden crises, and on average, women are experiencing three at the same time! And over half of these women dont know what to do about it.

These 12 crises are not just tiny bumps in the road but full-out, serious challenges that are marked by chronic disempowered thinking and a serious lack of ability to move oneself forward in positive, powerful ways towards ones goals and visions.

These 12 crises fall into four categories that represent how we relate to ourselves and the world.

These four levels depict the nature of our:

Relationship with Ourselves
Relationship with Others
Relationship with the World
Relationship with Our Higher Selves

In general, each crisis is characterized by an I cant do this! mantra, or some form of disempowered thinking, beliefs and actions. The crises include:

I cant speak up for myself.
I cant get out of this financial trap.
I cant escape this crushing competition.
I cant resolve my chronic health problems.
I dont like who Ive become.
I cant use my real talents in my work.
I cant balance life and work.
I cant do work and play that I love.

Entrepreneurial Women Experience the Same Challenges

As I move forward with marketing consulting work for entrepreneurial women around the country, Im finding that these same 12 crises are challenging women in their entrepreneurial ventures as well, and in the ways in which they view and run their businesses!

Entrepreneurial women are challenged on these same four levels:

Relationship With Themselves as Entrepreneurs
Key issue: Do I have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, and am I good or smart enough to run this business?

Relationship With Others
Key issue: How can I forge a mutually-beneficial and supporting relationship with clients, customers, colleagues, and peers?

Relationship With The World
Key issue: Am I using my real gifts and talents in this business, and is my business providing a service to the world that I care about delivering, that others need and want?

Relationship With the Higher Self
Key issue: Does my business have a higher mission, vision and values that mean more to me than simply making money?

If youre an entrepreneurial woman and are challenged with any of the above issues in your life and work please know that there is indeed help out there for you, and these are very common challenges that entrepreneurial women face. Also know that new thinking and actions can indeed shift you away from feeling disempowered and unable to tackle the issues at hand. You can do this, and you can do it well, loving your work and thriving in the process. But you had to take action, and a kind of action that is different from what you normally would engage in.

There are four key steps to overcoming these types of challenges:

1. Step Back to gain a fresh, empowered perspective of your situation and what it is telling you about what needs to change

2. Let Go of the thinking, actions, and behaviors that are keeping you stuck and holding you back

3. Say Yes! to your compelling future visions of your business and of your success as an entrepreneurial woman

4. Create It – create a S.M.A.R.T. plan with concrete, measurable goals and action steps — and find someone to help you become accountable — for moving on your way to achieving your visions of success and fulfillment.

Try this experiment! Pick up a copy of my book Breakdown Breakthrough and read it. (Try carving out a bit of time just for yourself over the holidays and read the chapters that really speak to you.) As you read the book and the powerful stories and advice presented by women who have transformed their lives and work, focus specifically on the concepts and information that elicit a feeing of resistance in you ideas or words that make you say to yourself, Oh, I really dont want to look at that, or Thats not me! Then take one, targeted action that will help you address the area you resist the most.

One of the most powerful concepts I learned in therapy training is, What you resist, persists. Watch closely what you resist, because resistance is a sign that youre overly attached to one particular view or approach, and youve closed yourself off from openly exploring other avenues. Ive found that the biggest breakthroughs, learning and growth come when we muster the courage to walk directly toward — and through — what we resist the most.

Online video advertising has grown and will continue to grow. Let’s face it our society is comprised of lazy individuals who much rather watch and learn then read and learn. With the ever so growing popularity of visual media it is imperative that small business owners and affiliate marketers utilize online video marketing to further increase their profits or suffer dire consequences at the hands of their competition.

YouTube is the giant whale in the room when it comes to video sharing websites. YouTube has allowed the small business owners of the world to rise and take part in visual media advertisements that were mostly dominated by big business via the “television commercial” due to high price tags. Video marketing is very affordable and has allowed small businesses to create viral video marketing campaigns to further penetrate their target audiences maximizing their profits.

In order to succeed with these online video advertising campaigns it is important to know who your target audience is.

If you are not targeting your niche and just providing information to the masses you are more likely to fail in your viral video advertising campaigns. Advertising videos lacking direction are found to be irrelevant to the viewers they are reaching and is just another speed bump in the way of what they are looking for. Online viewers tend to be less patient then television watcher’s and are quicker to move on. Although you want your online video advertising campaign to be well thought of, out of the box, and entertaining it is important to not lose focus and stay professional.

Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action. It includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume that particular brand. Modern advertising developed with the rise of mass production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Advertising is a brilliant idea to increase business for all type business. Radio is still surprisingly inexpensive for advertising. The medium has been around for about 100 years. Many businesses give radio a pass because of the misconception of the return on investment.

The greatest advantage of radio is its ability to go after a very specific kind of market.

Print & Radio Power (http://www.printandradio.com/) is the largest pre-buyer of national radio advertising and print advertising. It own multi-million dollar blocks of national radio advertising network time. This media gives its clients consistent profitable returns on their media dollars. Local, regional, national…straight media or performance based.

Today, everyone talks about ROI and the need to make marketing more accountable. Print and radio advertising measurement systems tells which media components work, for rapid ROI improvements. Print & Radio is the largest pre-buyer of national print advertising. In print media, the advantage of catering to specific target audience opens up countless opportunities to enhance sales figures.

A fashion magazine would highlight cosmetic products and fashion accessories. At the same time, a sports magazine would display sports related ads to cater to its readers. There is no wastage of resources as ads get to reach the target audience.

Print & Radio Power uniquely drives this demand for high dollar and financial concern through direct response and cost per call radio advertising. They offer programs that cut the risk of advertising by clients, through the use of some programs.

Print and radio also provide Hispanic Advertising. The Hispanic population generally spends an average of 26-30 hours a week listening to the radio – 13% more than the rest of the population. Additionally, readership of weekly community and free newspaper remains high and consistent.

Print and Radio is providing all advertising opportunities at one place.

Every couple of months I like to take some time to share with others any books I’ve read that are particularly great, or helped change me for the better…  Entrepreneurial reading helps expand my personal and business world, and often is focused on personal development.

It might surprise you, but I don’t only read just books on real estate and investing, marketing and internet marketing, but a lot of what I DO read gets filtered through those glasses- searching for ways to incorporate what I’ve learned into my life and business. These are some recent books I think you, too, should check out if you’ve got a business of your own or plan to have one some day.

Recently I read Mitch Albom’s “Tuesdays with Morrie”, AGAIN. This slight little book is one that could fit in your hip pocket, but packs an emotional punch that’ll hit you right in the gut.

We truly do not have forever to live, and that can be a humbling thought. More humbling still, is how little what most people do will last beyond their own passing. This book shows how much influence just ONE person you touch can have on the world, taking what you yourself hoped to accomplish in life and rocketing it off into the stratosphere. It really makes you keep yourself aware of opportunities to help OTHER people grow, in addition to looking out for yourself.

Tony Robbins’ “Awaken the Giant Within” is also a great journey between pages with a personal development focus. Tony Robbins didn’t invent the self-help genre; he just branded it his own. While I don’t know him personally or particularly agree with all the values he seems to espouse, he definitely knows what he’s talking about when it comes to developing your own personal power. Each of us has within ourselves a tremendous capacity to achieve the results we dream about- are you ready to unleash it? This book can help you change yourself, and change is what it’s all about for those seeking to increase or improve.

I’d consider Robert Cialdini’s “Influence: The Science and Practice of Persuasion” book entrepreneurial reading, a must have for anyone who wants to learn how we as human beings respond to the influence of others around us. If you can’t figure out a business application, or fifty for that kind of knowledge, then I just can’t help you! Cialdini talks about how and why we make decisions, what automatic mechanisms control us in the increasingly fast-paced world where decisions are made on the fly and most (to a VERY high degree) are made beneath a conscious level by our subconscious because there simply isn’t enough time in the day to consciously stop and make all the little decisions we need to make to move through our day. Of course, he shares a number of strategies on how we can develop our own selves through channeling the power of communication to influence and persuade others. The more I get out there into the business world, the more I see how tantamount this skill is– of enlisting the aid, cooperation, or blessing of others is to our pursuit of success.

Conrad Hilton’s “Be My Guest” is another excellent book. That is a man with a dream that wouldn’t quit. I may write an entire article on this one alone. If you have real estate interests, just go read it and thank me later!

If there is a book that has touched your life in some way, visit one of my websites and contact our offices to tell me about it. I’ll check it out and share the results with all our friends and the tens of thousands of members of Real Deal Community, our free social network for Real Estate Investors. For now, be blessed and remember: when you read something that means something, do something about it and it’ll mean even more.  Be committed to entrepreneurial reading, and share the wealth of knowledge!