By Leslie Campos

Everyone in the education field – students and instructors alike – had to transition to some degree of online learning since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. However, colleges have been developing and perfecting the delivery of online education for a number of years, working to ensure they have viable options for those who want to pursue a degree while still holding down a job. If you’ve never taken online classes, the prospect might seem a bit daunting at first. However, once you understand how the process works, and see the many associated benefits that come with online education, you’ll be ready to hit the ground running with these tips courtesy of Stairway to Leadership.

Necessity of Continuing Education

The way we work and learn is continually evolving, and according to Kiplinger, the jobs of the future are changing as well. That’s why it's important to regularly assess your skills as a business owner or career trajectory and take steps to ensure you have the appropriate training and education necessary to adapt to fluctuations in your industry. You may opt to pursue a degree related to your current profession, as a way to advance in the field, or you might look to the fast-growing and critical areas of information technology, computer science, and cybersecurity – all rapidly advancing careers of the future. Graduate education, in particular, can help prepare you for people leadership and management roles.

How Advanced Degrees Help Your Career

While undergraduate degrees introduce you to the main tenets of your particular area of study, advanced degrees take your insight and knowledge to a new level. This is especially important in continually changing fields like IT. You’ll often have the opportunity to learn from experts in the field, gaining relevant, timely knowledge that you can begin incorporating into your work right away. You’ll also interact with other students who may be working or running a business in the same industry, giving you the opportunity to learn from the experience of others while making valuable professional contacts.

Elements of Online Education

While in a traditional higher education setting, students typically participate in lectures, discussion groups, and some degree of project work, leading universities have found a way to replicate and even improve this system in an online setting. You'll still have an opportunity to interact with fellow students, professors, and guest lecturers – you’ll just be doing it in a virtual environment. This may include real-time and/or recorded lectures or presentations, group chats or discussion boards, and commentary posts. You'll likely have access to online resources and reading materials, rather than hard-copy books, which is a highly efficient way to research, study and prepare course assignments.

Flexibility of Online Learning

Depending on the type of online education you're pursuing, you're likely to have a great deal of flexibility about where, when, and how you study, interact, and complete assignments or take tests. This system provides an exceptional degree of freedom, which can be especially useful if you're caring for children or parents or working full-time. Additionally, studying from a remote environment can provide for greater focus and concentration, which can improve your overall productivity and learning outcomes. Keep in mind, professors, academic advisers, and university resources all remain accessible to you in an online learning environment.

For entrepreneurs and those climbing the ladder, a degree isn’t the only reason to go to school. IF there are skills you’ve always wanted to learn, particularly if they’ll be useful to the business. You’ve got a good eye for photography but have never taken a class. You think you’d be good at graphic design but have never tried. You could learn web design, digital marketing, or coding. The more you do to support the business, the more you’ll grow along with it.

Just this last December, Maggie has graduated from a fully online executive MBA program at Jack Welch Management Institute. This 3-year journey allowed her not only to become a better coach for her clients but also to run her own business more strategically.

Stairway to Leadership wants to help you build a successful, long-lasting business. Click here to learn more about our coaching programs and to schedule a free consultation.

If you're an entrepreneur who's scared of numbers and financial language, this article by Susan Vanderburgh is a good start. I always tell my clients: You are the CEO of your business. And finances are the language of business. You don't need to be a financial analyst to run your business but you need to understand enough to make informed decisions and hire great people who can help you manage money.

by Susan Vanderburgh

The calendar year is divided into standard fiscal quarters which businesses and financially savvy persons describe dated financial data.

Here is a summary:

January, February, and March (Q1)

April, May, and June (Q2)

July, August, and September (Q3)

October, November, and December (Q4)

Q1 Dates: January 1 - March 31

Q2 Dates: April 1 - June 30

Q3 Dates: July 1 - September 30

Q4 Dates: October 1 - December 31

Why is it important that you know this information?

Well, if you want to impress your friends and family members, you could start referring to a month in the context of a particular quarter. However, when you are speaking to business or financial professionals, it is appropriate, and sometimes expected, to refer to parts of the year in quarters.

For illustrative purposes, here is a scenario:

Prior to this knowledge, you might have wanted to say, “I will get this done by the end of August.”

Here are two examples of how you would say this differently when speaking with a business or financial professional:

Example 1: “I will get this done by the end of the third quarter of the year.”

Example 2: “I will get this done by the end of Q3.”

When you use either example (above), economic professionals will understand what you are saying. It also sounds cool, doesn’t it?

If a financial service provider does not understand what you are saying, hire a replacement. I mean this, seriously because this is a basic business and finance concept. Wouldn’t you want to work with the best?

Knowing about the quarters of the year is helpful when you are trying to gauge the business and financial knowledge of a potential business relationship or referral partner. Being able to refer to the calendar in quarters (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4) also shows your sophistication when you are applying for a business loan. The potential lender is likely to look at you as a professional, especially when you are presenting your business ideas in hopes of getting financing.

For people who are self-employed or those who are required to pay quarterly estimated taxes, it is important to pay on time to avoid penalties. Although April 15 is a due date for filing tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service, you still need to file quarterly payments throughout the year as a self-employed individual.

Here is a Cheat Sheet of when quarterly self-employment taxes are due (US regulations):

PaymentQuarterlyJanuary 1 - March 31April 15April 1 - May 31June 15June 1 - August 31September 15September 1 - December 31January 15th of the following year

Please note that there are exceptions, especially during COVID-19. If the due date of the estimated tax falls on a weekend or a national holiday, the payment would be due the following working day.

So, what does this mean on a personal level? Why do you need to plan for the end of the year and think about the year in quarters?

The last quarter of the year could be quite expensive and can catch many people off guard. November and December (i.e., in the last quarter of the year) are quite important. Not only do we have Thanksgiving (for those who celebrate), birthdays, anniversaries, and winter holidays, for property owners, real estate taxes are also due.

Your knowledge about fiscal quarters also provides insight when researching stock and bond markets, and financial reporting of public companies. You might have recalled hearing about financial projections for publicly traded companies that schedule the releases of their financial reports and payment of stock dividends in quarters of the standard calendar year.

As you could surmise, the final quarter of the year is also when most public companies are pushing for the ability to report positive earnings. As a consumer, you would be inundated by offers from retailers and businesses offering incentives to spend. Also, do not forget, for homeowners, this pressure to buy during the last quarter could be torture, especially if your real estate taxes are not impounded with the mortgage payments and you must pay real estate taxes to avoid delinquency.

For employees, most companies offer year-end performance reviews and holiday or merit bonuses. Yes, these are more reasons and added temptation to spend those hard-earned dollars!

For people who are undergoing credit repair or budgeting for a better financial future, consumerism is a real struggle and often creates conflict on the person's well-being and happiness when not able to spend.

As we head into the last quarter of this year, I urge you to make a list of your goals for the end of the year and for the upcoming new year.

Think specifically of these 6 questions:

1. How was this year for you financially?

2. Did have enough income to live comfortably or did you exhaust all your credit lines?

3. Do have an “emergency fund” that will cover you if something unexpected happened and would cost you some dollars?

4. How do you want to make your money work for you in the coming year?

5. What are your financial goals?

6. Do you have a plan to make the next year a better financial year than this one?

If you do not have answers to the above questions, you still have a few more months before the end of Q4 to figure out your plan for the next year.

For individuals who are hoping to buy a new home sometime next year, you should allow yourself 6 months (or 180 days) to make sure your credit profile is ready for a lender to review and have no objection. Please stay tuned for other articles regarding buying your home.

If you need assistance, it would be a good idea to seek professional guidance.

About the author

Susan Vanderburgh is a Business, Financial and Credit Strategist who helps clients get from frustrated to a more balanced financial lifestyle by implementing financial and credit strategies. www.getcreditcure.com

guest post by Teresa Greenhill

Entrepreneurs face many challenges that others do not. We are responsible for not only ourselves but also our employees and, in some ways, their families, too. We often work ourselves to the point where we feel like work is a life sentence, and no amount of good behavior allows us any personal freedom.

It does not have to be this way.

As an entrepreneur, you have control over your working hours, and you must use your time and resources wisely. This means taking care of yourself both at work and at home. Today’s tips from Stairway to Leadership can help you take better care of yourself.

Self-Care and Therapy

First, it’s important to know that part of your self-care regimen might mean seeking therapy in your relationship, to help you lose weight or help change behaviors that are holding you back. The good news is you may be able to do so from the comfort of your home. With the advent of telehealth, you can take advantage of medical providers offering a range of online services that can help you do these things. By utilizing virtual visits, you can save time and money and get treatment on your own terms.

Work/Life Balance

It may sound cliché, but finding a balance between your work and your career is one of the best things you can do for yourself. A few simple actions to get you started here include reducing clutter (and therefore cleaning time) at home, hiring a virtual assistant, providing your body energy through natural light, and adding houseplants to improve your mood. You should also set a schedule and avoid working when you should be spending time with your family.

Another great way to save time is to hire freelancers to work remotely. Communicating with these individuals, however, can be a challenge. You can streamline this process by utilizing PDFs to convey information back and forth. Try a free PDF editor to make changes easily on shared documents so you can skip explanatory emails and intrusive instant messages.

Health And Nutrition

Do you eat lunch every day? Probably not. You should. Give yourself permission to check out from work every day, which the Work It Daily blog explains will help you be more productive. (If you're a strict workaholic, you can use your lunchtime as an opportunity to network.) Further, keep a desk drawer full of handy snacks that can give you energy on those days when you can’t break away on time. UK-based snack food company Veloforte recommends bananas, nuts, watermelons, and berries for boosting energy.

Other Health Tips for Self-Employed People

• Get enough sleep. Your eight hours each night does more than refresh you; it can also reduce weight gain, strengthen your heart, and, like our other suggestions, boost productivity so that you can have a better work and life balance.

• Don’t take things personally. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to learn that business is business and things are not always personal. Losing a customer, for example, does not mean you are not good at what you do, and there are always opportunities to find new clients.

At the end of your work day, you want to know that you’ve done your best as an entrepreneur. But, for that to happen, your workday actually has to end. It’s important to find balance and prioritize self-care, whether that means eating right, getting enough sleep, or seeking therapy when the pressure is too much to bear. By giving yourself the same attention you give your customers and employees, you’ll be a better business person and may be better positioned for strategic growth.

About the Author- Teresa Greenhill

Teresa Greenhill is the co-creator of MentalHealthforSeniors.com, which is dedicated to providing seniors with information on physical and mental fitness. Being a senior herself, Teresa, with some help from her granddaughter, manages the website as a way to keep her busy and help other seniors be active and happy in their golden years.

written by Victor Lane

If you own, manage, or operate a business in today’s digitized world, you already know that marketing your business on social media is integral to any modern business’s overall digital marketing strategy.

But when it comes to marketing their businesses on social media, managers have many options available in terms of which platforms to use for focusing their social media efforts.

After all, there’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linked In, Twitter, Tik Tok, YouTube, and more!

And because of their differences, marketing your business on any of these platforms will require a slightly different approach.

More specifically, in the following article, we’re going over a handful of simple yet proven tips and tricks that can help your business better connect to its target audience when using the popular social media platforms known only as Instagram.

Create A Separate Business Account

It doesn’t matter if you’re the business’s sole employee; you need to create a business account that’s entirely separate from your personal Instagram account.

Of course, you’re welcome to share your content between both accounts. But if you want your business to get noticed, you’ll need to have a specific page where you can showcase your brand, as well as its products or services.

You can still share content and information about your business from a personal Instagram account.

But we highly recommend signing up for a Business account because doing so will give you access to features, such as account analytics, the ability to create sponsored posts or ads, and the ability to create a shop directly from your business’s page.

After setting up your business account, it’ll be time to start creating and regularly sharing content with your followers.

High-Quality Images And Content Are Everything

As you know, Instagram is famous for its users sharing heavily filtered images.

Therefore, for business owners active on other platforms, it’s essential to understand that Instagram is a more visual-based social media platform than its competitors like Facebook and Twitter.

Therefore, you’ll want to focus on creating content around visually attractive, eye-catching imagery, graphics, and other media formats.

For instance, rather than simply uploaded photo images, some business owners might prefer using the carousel image feature, which allows you to create individual slides, which can be swiped through by your followers.

Carousels, stories, IGTV, and other features can also be used as practical tools for helping you connect with your target audience on social media.

One Follower At A Time

When you’re first starting, it can often feel disappointing when you see your business competitors boasting hundreds or thousands of followers on Instagram, especially if you’re still struggling to gain your first dozen.

But when you feel like getting down on yourself about a lack of followers, remind yourself that it’s much better to create an Instagram account with a handful of followers that like your content, interact with your posts, and who want to learn more about and promote your brand, rather than an account that has a million followers but virtually no engagement rate whatsoever.

The fact is that it takes time to gain popularity on social media platforms like Instagram, especially when you consider the fact that you’ll be competing with hundreds of thousands of other users and businesses.

But when you gain one loyal follower at a time, you’ll build a much better foundation for your brand’s future social media success.

Know Your Audience And Get To Work

Finally, before investing too much time or energy in your Instagram marketing efforts, it’s a good idea to regularly review and factor in your target audience. Keeping your ideal customers in mind will help you develop content ideas that will better resonate with your followers.

And in turn, taking a slightly more strategic approach to your Instagram marketing will result in better content, better engagement levels, and more leads and sales for your business!

I love to dance. It's so much fun! The 6 years I spent dancing in a dance theatre in Poland were the best years of my teens. My daughter loves it too and is way better at it even at 9 (look below of some pictures of ours ;)).

Dance taught me many valuable lessons that I use in my business and while coaching my clients. I picked four key lessons to share with you in this blog today.

1. You need to know the basics.

To be a professional dancer rather than a hobbyist you need to learn the key principles of dance technique. Be it ballet, hip hop, or ballroom, without knowing the basic steps and moves you won’t go far.

Same with your business, you might get some clients from your immediate network and by talking to people, and that’s a great start! Like movement to the rhythm is a great start for dancing.

But to gain consistency and really scale your business to the professional level, you MUST learn some basic marketing, sales & finance skills.

2. You need to practice, practice, practice.

Nothing happens without action - consistent action.

It's repeating the same moves over and over again, day in and day out. To do that, you grow patience. Because in the beginning, your moves (results) can be clunky, won’t flow well and you’ll be tired. Sometimes even discouraged.

But when you persist, you’ll start mastering the moves, they will start flowing with ease, and you’ll learn any new choreography (strategy or tactic) much faster.

One day you just become a professional without even realizing it. You'll make everything look effortlessly to the outside eye.

3. To achieve mastery you need to express yourself.

The skills, action, and consistency form the foundation. Without them, you can never call yourself a professional dancer (the CEO of your business). Without them, you’re a hobbyist.

However, to become a master you need a little bit more.

You need YOU.

Dance is a form of art. To create a masterpiece, the artist needs to express their emotion, be vulnerable, show themselves to the world for the world, so the audience can really SEE their art.

The same applies to your business. You attract your clients for being YOU.

For being authentic and expressing through your marketing and branding what you are all about. That’s how you’ll have clients coming to you and asking to work with you.

4. You need great teachers to help you with everything above.

There is no professional dancer who has risen to where they are all on their own. They have been blessed with the teachers and coaches who stood by them every single step of their journey.

Those teachers taught them what they knew, encouraged, picked up when they lost confidence, motivated, and help them be accountable.

It's the same with your businesses. All highly-successful entrepreneurs had mentors, coaches, and advisors along the way in their journeys. They were their teaches helping with achieving mastery.

In your business, this is where I can come in.

My individualized coaching support, video lessons, journal, and everything else you get when you join my Business Results Accelerator coaching program take you from a hobbyist to a professional business owner.

You become the CEO who not only has the skill to run a seriously successful business but also a master of knowing who you are, being confident and proud of it AND showing that to the world.

That is how you'll be attracting 2, 3, 4, 5, and even 10 paying clients every single month!

If you’re ready to make that switch and want to know more about how it would look for you, fill in this form to schedule a free discovery call with me.

Alonna Heller, the CEO of The Heller Creative CO, is a young leader, an entrepreneur who has started her business straight after college.
On her journey to growing her business and making money, we have coached on a few challenges that most of us experience on the entrepreneurship journey: the need to be liked, not wanting to disappoint your loved ones, or even thoughts about making money.

Listen's to Alonna's learnings and breakthroughs to see what's possible. Check her business here. You can also follow Alonna on IG @hellercreativeco

You can also listen to this interview here, on the Diamond Effect podcast, Episode # 20.

https://youtu.be/R_A07JR4-WI

Written by Leslie Campos

Thanks to the internet, moms no longer have to choose between their kids and careers. There are so many different ways to work from home. Advancements in e-commerce technology have produced countless digital tools and resources for people striving to launch a business on their own, which should be great news for busy moms.

Still, finding the time—and, importantly, the motivation—to work on your business can be incredibly challenging with kids underfoot. Maggie Perotin explores some steps you can take to make entrepreneurship more attainable.

Ask for Help

You’re bound to come across a few roadblocks as you prepare to launch your business. Do yourself a favor and ask for help overcoming these obstacles. Business consultants, coaches, and specialized freelancers can offer a lot in the way of assistance. For example, business and leadership coach Maggie Perotin can help you establish a simple strategic plan for attracting your first clients.

Depending on your business idea, you may even want to hire a few employees to give your business a running start. Hire team members to take on time-consuming tasks like packing and shipping products or managing content creation. Just be sure to establish a solid payroll system before onboarding staff. To set up payroll for your growing startup, you will need to set a regular pay schedule, review your CRA/ IRS filing obligations, establish a reliable bookkeeping system, and determine how you’re going to pay your workers. A full-service payroll system will make the whole process a lot easier.

Another option to get help is to hire freelances and other entrepreneurs whose genius zones are to help Mom's like you to get the business off the ground.

Choose an Idea You’re Passionate About

Most business ideas seem exciting in the beginning, but that initial enthusiasm is going to wear off eventually. Once this happens, it can be tough to carve time out of your busy schedule to work on your business. Feeling passionate about your business idea is key to maintaining your motivation in the long run!

Still looking for your passion? Try thinking back on your experiences. Have you come across a problem that has not yet been solved? Can you think of a way to solve this problem for others in your situation? Think about how you can use your strengths and skills to develop a solution that will provide immense value to others.

Harness Your Stress

Launching a business is bound to add a little stress to your life, and that’s okay!

Occasional stress can drive you towards your business goals. The key is knowing how to harness your stress and channel it into productive activities rather than letting it overcome and overwhelm you. Instead of thinking about your anxiety as a negative feeling, Trello recommends reframing it as excitement or motivation. Try to relate to your anxiety positively and use it as a springboard for your passion.

Chronic stress, on the other hand, is not healthy. If you’re constantly feeling stressed by your new business, take steps to prevent burnout by reducing your workload. Hiring help—with your business or your home life—can take some weight off your shoulders so you can enjoy a better work-life balance.

Establish a Mompreneur Schedule

You’ll have an easier time finding the energy to work on your business if you stick to a daily schedule. VirtualVocations recommends developing a schedule that aligns with your unique work style, business model, and personal obligations so that you can commit to it day after day.

For example, if you feel the most mentally energized right after lunch, don’t waste those productive hours on insignificant tasks or household chores that require less brainpower. It’s also a good idea to schedule in an hour or so of flexible time that you can use as a lifeline when a project takes longer than anticipated or a family emergency pops up.

There’s something about being a mompreneur that is incredibly liberating. Launching a business opens up a world of opportunity for the stay-at-home mom. Whether you’re looking to earn some extra income, pursue a passion project, or fill some free time while the kids are at school, launching your own business is the way to go.

Are you looking for business coaching or leadership advice? Contact Maggie Perotin for a free brainstorming session today! Fill out the contact form on our website to get in touch.

Many people think that running a successful business is hard and complicated; that it requires numerous resources, state-of-the-art technology, and complex 100-page business plans.

Indeed, technology is vital in today's day and age, but you can keep it simple and streamlined without breaking the bank. And what's the point of creating a business plan so complex that the moment it's finished, it goes into a desk drawer to collect dust, and no one ever looks at it again?

I have also seen entrepreneurs waste countless hours and energy trying many different strategies and tricks to pursue the magic one that will make them a millionaire overnight.

Some business owners believe that making the first $30,000 - $60,000 a year requires complex funnels or FB ads. And with that, fancy technology, they don't know how to set up, and thinking about it makes their head spin.

None of it is true.

Creating a thriving business is simple...

To the point that it blows my clients' minds when they start making money they thought was out of reach for them. And in the beginning, especially, you don't need to run any ads or create fancy funnels. I don't do that either.

All you need is these three foundational steps:

1. Create a business foundation aligned with YOU.

So that growing a business feels good and fun.

And the actions you take feel natural rather than pushy or forced.

So that you can be 100% committed to making it work.

2. Get super clear on who your client is and their journey with you.

This clarity makes it easy to know where to find them and what offers to create that serve them, so they are compelled to say yes.

It allows you to truly understand your clients and show up consistently to talk to them about your offers in a way that speaks to them.

It also helps you deliver outstanding services and create raving fans who refer you to anyone they know.

3. Create and follow a Simple Action Plan.

When you take time to think and decide what you need to attract your ideal clients and deliver on your short and long-term promise, the essentials you need to do reveal themselves.

And trust me, you don't need to spend days on end to do that.

When you have a simple step-by-step plan to follow, it's easy to stay consistent and execute at the highest level because you know what to do and when.

Every action has an intention and purpose: it either creates clients or serves the ones you have. You stop being busy and start being effective.

THESE 3 STEPS is what I follow for myself and with my clients in my Diamond Effect coaching:

• Create the foundation.
• Get super clear on your client & their journey with you.
• Create & follow a Simple Action Plan.

It is how my clients leave their 9-5's, make more money than they thought they could, and ditch the stress and overwhelm they felt before. By getting laser-focused on the essential, they become high-performing leaders of their businesses.

Steve Jobs and many others knew the power of focus and simplicity:

Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

Steve Jobs

You can do it too.

If you want to explore this process more in-depth, listen to Diamond Effect Podcast Episode # 31 here.

Blog by Julie Brar

I love sharing tips and tricks on how to create a happy and abundant life. This week I have an interesting topic. GOALS! How do you figure out your goals and then work towards them?

Do you know that 42% of people who write down their goals achieve them? Putting pen to paper and writing down your goals helps you to clarify what you want to create in your life. Here are some of the key ways to help your goals come to fruition.

DO YOU KNOW YOUR WHY?

The first thing to creating any goal is knowing your WHY. This is foundational to starting on the path of creating the life of your dreams. Write down your WHY by journaling and read it out to yourself.

Make sure while you're writing and reading your WHY that you have visions in your mind about your goals. Our mind is a powerful machine, utilizing your visualization potential in a positive light and manifest what you want to create for your life, family, and career.

Do you know that professional athletes visualize themselves excelling in their sport before they hit the field? This is a part of their training. They train their brain to see where they want to go when they are playing their sport.

Yet many of us do not use the powerful tool of visualization at all. Start seeing where you want to go. Along with seeing, hear, smell and be in the experience of where you want to be in your life. This makes a world of difference. Your mind can't tell the difference between what is actually happening and what isn't. By visualizing your goals, you're setting the stage for your future success.

The more vividly you can experience your goals with all of your senses, the more likely you will be to get there.

EVALUATE ON A REGULAR BASIS

Be honest and evaluate. What is working for you? After tracking your week, be honest with yourself, acknowledge if you're overshooting and what is working and what didn’t work before you step into next week. Re-evaluate the things that are not working out for your health and your goals.

Success comes from trial and error.

By evaluating what you're doing, seeing if it works or not you can course-correct and start again. We all learn by failing and trying again. Those who never fail, generally don't even try. If you're having a hard time figuring out a good plan of action then start to work with a coach to help you get there. ALL successful people work with professional coaches.

WHO IS HOLDING YOU ACCOUNTABLE?

Who can be your accountability buddy?

A friend, family member, or online support group are some of the ways you can have accountability in your life. Unfortunately left to our own devices, it can be easy to fall off track. If you can't find a friend or a group consider investing in a coach to keep you accountable to your goals in health, business, and life. Don’t allow yourself to talk yourself out of the life you deserve.

When things get off track, all you have to do is evaluate-re-evaluate-and start again.

By investing in your own excellence, you'll be the one who gets to benefit the most. Also by being successful you can help others in your circle.

Are there people or organizations that could benefit from your success? Then you being successful has the possibility of creating positive ripples in your community. Aim high to not only help yourself but to help and inspire others as well.

YOUTUBE VIDEO

If you want to create better habits and routines around food check out my video this week on my Youtube Channel. I share some great tips on how to drop the habits around food that are no longer serving you. I hope the video helps. Email me and let me know what you think of this week's video!

About the author

Julie is an award-winning Health Coach and Nutritionist. Julie specializes in helping men and women lose weight, gain energy, balance their gut health while incorporating more whole foods nutrition into their lives.

Julie has a keen interest in the mind/body connection in creating health. Prior to health coaching and nutrition, Julie taught yoga for 15 years. She has four certifications as a yoga teacher including Modo Yoga, Baptiste Power Yoga, and Akhanda Yoga. Julie is a Certified Health and Life Coach. Julie holds a certification in Plant-Based Nutrition from Cornell University. She’s currently completing her Holistic Nutrition Certification from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition. When working with clients Julie uses a holistic approach that incorporates mind, body, and spirit.

Julie co-hosts a show, The Wellness Movement that covers various topics on health and wellness. She’s also a published author in a collaborative book project, The Courage to Change, which hit the bestseller list on Amazon under Motivation in 2019.

Julie has an ebook, writes weekly blogs, and creates videos to help educate about the many ways to create optimal health and wellness. Visit her website at www.balancelifewithjulie.com to learn more about all of her programs and offerings. You can also email her directly at julie@balancelifewithjulie.com Follow her on Instagram and TikTok @juliebrar or on Facebook as Julie Brar Holistic Nutritionist/Health Coach.

I had the pleasure to be a guest on the Leading to Fulfillment podcast.

The interview became the source of this blog. I invite you to listen to the whole interview here AND also read the blog to take as much value out of it as possible.

1. Leading Yourself Well

https://youtu.be/vuXUKYxzChI

Effective leadership coaching

Here are two steps to helping people become a better leader:

1. Start from a position of trying to understand them, which will, in turn, help them understand themselves better. Ask them about their values, and how they operate as a person.

2. Once you understand this, apply it to their business. Try to align their actions with their mission and vision for their business. If they don’t have a vision for their business, help them articulate one.

These two steps will provide a framework for helping your clients become effective business leaders in today’s world.

2. A Process for Defining Core Values

https://youtu.be/ooa8iKdAZJw

Defining Core Values

Defining core values in your business is part of a strong foundation.

They help guide a company’s direction and everyday decision-making.

But if you’re not certain how to choose them, here’s a process that can help you decide:

1. Start by brainstorming everything that might be important to you. Brené Brown’s book Dare to Lead has a list that can help jumpstart this process.

2. Categorize your values. Certain values fall into the same bucket, which allows you to narrow them down.

3. Choose the top 3-5 values you want to embody. Remember that there’s a difference between personal values and business values, and choose appropriately.

3. How to Simplify Difficult Decisions

https://youtu.be/pwfPoEfX-LE

Making Difficult Decisions

Every time you’re at a crossroads and have an important decision to make, go back to your values.

Look at your mission, and make a decision from there.

When you start your business, it might seem difficult to grow. But if you can get past the growing pains, you’ll soon find more opportunities than you can take on.

And the only way to choose the opportunities that make the most sense for you moving forward is to revisit the values, mission, and vision you started with. Use those as filters, and you’ll find the decision-making process much easier.

4. Scheduling Creativity

https://youtu.be/A6Am5kOfDzE

Scheduling Creativity

As business owners, it’s imperative to prioritize creativity. It helps us iterate through problems and come up with new ideas that help us reach our goals.

And one of the best ways to prioritize creativity is to put it on the schedule.

Create a space to go beyond your daily tasks. It might be an hour a day, or a few chunks of time every week. Don’t try to do just “productive” work. Simply allow your mind to go where it wants to go. You might find it helpful to keep a journal, which can help record any ideas you might come up with.

Creating little habits such as scheduling your creativity is a great way to break up your weekly work and take a more intuitive approach to life.

5. Key to Forming Good Habits

https://youtu.be/vX4KeX1uGQY

How to Form Good Habits

We all want to form good habits. But the only way to make habits stick is to start small.

If you read a book that contains 10 ideas, you might be tempted to try to implement them all immediately. That will never work over the long term. It’s too much change in your daily routine, and you won’t be able to handle it. Choose one thing from that book and try to implement it.

And if they say it will take 4 hours a week, and you think that’s impossible, try starting with 1 hour. Do it at a day and time that you know will work best for you.

Remember, change is a journey, not a once-and-done thing. But if you stick with it, it will be worth the trip.

If you're ready to implement a good habit in your day-to-day my free 20day Create ONE Good Habit For GOOd Challenge will help you. Check it out HERE.

6. A Tip for Effective Business Leadership

https://youtu.be/sZacUHav6Z8

Effective Leadership

Part of growing your business is learning to grow yourself as its leader.

As a business owner, it’s important to remember that it’s not just about improving your products or getting more expertise in the way you serve your clients. Those things are necessary, but you need to equally invest in yourself as the CEO of your business.

You don’t need to become an expert in every aspect of your business. You don’t need to be a CPA or a guru marketing strategist. But you should have some knowledge about key aspects of your business, so you know how it shows up in your industry, to your best clients. This will help you direct the path forward, and do a better job of outsourcing any roles you need to fill.

7. Best Way to Handle Failure

https://youtu.be/vpd3XJ6a4ck

Best Way to Handle Failure

No failure is a waste if you can learn something from it. But it takes a mindset shift to be able to see it that way. The key shift is to detach yourself from failure.

Understand that failure doesn’t mean anything about you as a human being. Let's normalize failure right now. Because there’s no successful business in this world that didn’t go through multiple failures on its way to success.

We can’t attach our worth to our financial success or how many customers we have. We have to acknowledge that failure is simply part of the journey. Planning can help, but you can never entirely avoid failure. Instead, ask yourself what you can learn from the failure, and how you can improve for next time.

In short, creating a thriving business starts with you, its leader. When you grow yourself, your business will grow. When you thrive, it will thrive alongside you. Ready to thrive? Schedule a 45-min free consultation with me here to talk about your goals, challenges, and a plan that will get you thriving.

If I sign up for business training, it's because an expert I trust runs it and covers the topic I want to learn more about to move my business forward.

If I invest my time in being there, I also ensure I make the most out of it.

Here is how:

• I show up prepared to take notes (or screenshots) and learn.
• I'm in a space without distractions where I can be focused on point 1.
• I pick 1-3 things I learned that I will implement in my business.
• If the host offers more free support during/ after the event, I happily take it.
• Once I am ready to get more help from them, I become their paid client to speed up the growth I want in my business.

Pursuing self-growth and investing my resources in it has been the most critical component in my professional career and even my personal life.

First, building a 6-figure corporate career (in a male-dominated industry) as a first-generation female immigrant in Canada. And then deciding to leave that to build (and keep scaling) a successful coaching business.

That's why I create my free events to offer you enough value so you can take 1-3 things, implement them, and get results.

I offer free consults, too, so that you can take what you learn, and I can help you implement it even better by adding tailored to your expert advice. And when you want more and faster growth, you can decide to work with me as a client.

For now, let's start with this free training.

If you want to scale your business, Mastering Sustainable Growth: Scaling Your Business with Passion and Balance is the masterclass for you.

In this masterclass, I want to teach you the framework my clients and I use to scale our businesses while creating more balance and fun overall. Because as entrepreneurs, we created our businesses for that very reason.

To become LIMITLESS.

To do things on our terms.

Limitless in what we can create and how.

So let's do that. Shall we?

No more holding back.

No more feeling busy, overworked, and overwhelmed.

Learn my simple 5-step framework for sustainable scaling and 3 CEO mindsets to help you implement it.

https://youtu.be/AvthoeVCzXY

Stairway to Leadership - Business Coaching by Maggie Perotin - How to Grow a Successful Business

SCHEDULE A FREE CONSULTATION HERE

I love networking and meeting amazing business owners and other coaches.
Wade Thomas, a fellow business coach, and I met through networking and decided to do this collaborative podcast interview together.

We review strategies and tools business owners can use to exceed their business goals and evolve into high-performing CEOs.

As a coach, of course, I believe that every entrepreneur should have a business coach, just like every athlete has one.

Common Blockers Business People Face

Many would-be or beginning entrepreneurs dream of one day running successful businesses. They are lured in by the freedom and possibility of owning their schedule, transforming the world, and not having to answer to anybody. Yes, running your own business is glamorous, but the reality looks slightly different. There will be challenges, and you will have to figure out how to solve them, which will feel uncomfortable and hard.

Most business owners lack core business skills. They are good at what they do and maybe experience some success. But here’s the thing, passion alone is not enough. As your business grows, gradually, you'll need to master every aspect of running a business, from sales to marketing to people management. This is something that is very hard to do on your own. Yes, nobody knows your business better than you do. But an outsider’s expert perspective will help you scale because they can see your blind spots and are not emotionally married to existing business processes or strategies.

Why Every Business Owner Needs a Coach

Business owners are used to wearing many hats. They are involved in marketing, sales, product delivery, HR, accounting, etc. Handling many roles can lead fast to overwhelm. It’s hard to let go, but if you continue being everything to everyone, you’ll surely burn out. Also, doing everything means you don’t know whether you’re making the best use of your time and whether those activities align with your business goals.

There comes a time in every entrepreneur’s life when trying to do it all is not sustainable. It doesn’t matter where you are now; as long as you know where you’re headed, a coach can help you shorten the journey. They will help you address areas in your business that need nurturing and keep you accountable. Remember, your business cannot outgrow your mind. A natural cap to any business is set on how much the owner is willing to develop themselves. If your goal is to stay competitive, grow, and scale the business, you need to keep growing yourself as the CEO and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

The Power of Applying What You’ve Learned

As a business owner, you're constantly learning. You’re reading books, listening to podcasts, attending seminars, whatever it may be, you’re focused on enhancing your skills and overall knowledge. There’s a big difference between absorbing information and putting new knowledge into practice. Without the latter, all that knowledge absorption will be in vain. This is why it’s so important to have a strategy for implementing what you are learning. Plus, know what to implement and what to leave out.

Anything new isn’t learned until it is implemented successfully. Knowledge is not power. Knowledge combined with intentional action is the power which is what the path to success is all about.

Creating Time For Coaching

Think you don’t have time for coaching? Here’s some news: saying you don’t have time for coaching or some form of training is like saying you don’t have time to grow your business. This also means you don’t have time to make a profit or develop your team. You see, coaching is not about adding more to your plate. It’s actually the opposite. Athletes, actors, and soldiers do not see coaching as something that takes time away from their duties. They see it as something that directly impacts the quality of their performance. Nonetheless, everyone needs some coaching, but not everyone is ready for coaching. It requires a willingness to look inwards, be challenged, and commit to creating time for it.

Listen to the entire podcast episode here.

To connect further with Wade Thomas

LinkedIn HERE

Website HERE

Instagram HERE

AimToWin Podcast HERE

And if this episode sparked your interest in hiring a coach and you'd like to talk more, schedule a free consultation with me HERE.