In my experience, you come to a point where you give up…. you simply throw in the towel and give up… After this phase you might even come back and try again. With all you previous experiences in your backpack, you know what to do… you think… and then you hit the wall once more…. Why, why, why don’t things go your way… what are you doing wrong… and you give up again. This may even take place several times… it is heartbreaking to watch.

Finally you reach a point where you quit for good…. you realize that this is not for you. Even though you know how to setup word press blogs, autoresponders, signup as an affiliate, use advanced software and so on… you simply cant make it.

This is a quiet place to be… now stress, no pressure, just silence…

And then it happens. It might not happen right away, maybe first after a few months or even a year. But it happens. You finally realize what all this learning was good for. It finally makes sense to you. It might not look like you thought it would. You might not even realize right away that your learning has paid off… But when you do, you get all exited and filled with such positive energy. There is a higher meaning after all!

For me it was the perfect job offer.

I responded to a job ad the night before the deadline, and got the job the day after!

The job was for a PA – who was a woman with marketing, technical and media skills – who could work in a structured way from home. Hds to be positive towards the new feminine paradigm and be able to offer great customer service.

This was me! – I realized the reason I started leaning all of this IM was number 1: I love this stuff, number 2: I wanted to work from home… and I thought I needed to start my own business to do that…. Now I did not have to. And this job could actually give me something that having my own company could not… Security… money wise I mean.

Now I have it all!

A job I love, great money, security, really over-the-top boss, I work from home, I structure my own time, I learn, I teach, I make a difference, I have meaning – Life is good!

I write this to you – to inspire you on your journey, to give you hope and to make you see that the universe has a way of giving us what we don’t even realize we need.

Enjoy your journey!

Creating a Birthday Party is the Perfect Formula for Project Management

Last Thursday my son (Mikkel) had his 6th birthday! It was such a big day for him and I wanted to create the perfect birthday party for him in the weekend.

I realized what a huge project it really is to plan a birthday party. You have to set a date, select a theme, send out invitation, pick and buy decorations, bake, clean the house, decorate and so much more…

In the middle of it all I came to think about the project management course I participated in  November. To my surprise, planning a birthday party is no different than doing project management in real business life.

So you see, if you are struggling with your projects in your life or in your business you probably already know what to do. If not here is a great formula to follow:

1) Brainstorm what tasks are involved

- Select date, select theme, clean the house, bake, send invitations etc…

2) Set deadlines and prioritize the tasks after deadline and importance

- 1) Select date (1 month before)   2) Select theme (1 month before)   3) Send invitations (1 month or 3 weeks before)  4) Clean the house (1 day before)  5) Bake (in the morning)

3) Draw a timeline of the prioritization inkluding overlapping tasks

- draw a square for the first task, then one for the next task and an arrow in between. If two tasks start at the same time or overlap, draw them under each other. The timeline moves from left to right.

4) Assign a budget to the total project and to each task

- $200 Total, Invitations $20, Cake $20

5) Assign a person to be responsible for each task and make sure they know where to get help if they encounter problems

- Date, theme, invitations: Me  Clean house: Me with help of partner   Bake: Partner

6) If different tasks depend on each other, make sure the responsible people communicate.

7) Make a time table of team meetings where progress and problems can be discussed.

- Start up meeting (1 month before), Planning meeting (1 week before)

Remember to motivate and praise yourself and the team!

9) Celebrate the finished project

10) Have a team meeting where you give constructive feedback on the project and the process

So, there you have it…. there is nothing to it. The real problem is…. do you actually use this formula or do you just improvise as you go along?

For big projects I really recommend using a project management software program. Here is a site that makes project management software reviews: http://online-project-management-review.toptenreviews.com/

Good Luck on your next project!

Love

Marlene

PS… more great business lessons to come!

You Can’t Score Without a Goal!

I know I have been talking about this in a previous post, but it is so very important for business success, that I have to talk about it again.

Have you ever witnessed a chicken getting it’s head cut off? Well, it is not a pretty sight I tell ya!

A headless chicken will run around for several minuets (if you don’t grab it and hold it) before surrendering to the eternal peace. But running around without your head might look funny or at least weird, but it makes no sense. The chicken runs without a plan, without intention. This is exactly what you are doing if you don’t sit down at make a plan of what you want to do!

You might even know this already… if you know this and have never done it, I suggest you read my blog post about procrastination before continuing here.

OK, so now you have probably decided that it is time to make some plans, so you dont run around looking like a headless chicken. Great! but what to plan and how to do it?

How To Make A Great Plan

Life (and business) is funny… you live your life forward, but in order to get where you want to be, you have to plan backwards, you have to start with the end in mind. Here is what i mean. If you would like go on a trip around the world, you start by figuring out a time frame and a budget for your trip. Then you start brainstorming where you would like to go. .. then you map out a good route between your destinations in a logical order and make sure it fits in your budget and time frame…. etc.

See, you dont start by jumping on the next train or plane and just go with the flow… Well, some actually do, but they usually look like headless chickens

What you start with is a framework (the money and time you will spend). Then you make a map, find the ending and starting zone and start mapping the best route. Then you will go into details about accommodation, transport, things to see etc. The trick is not to get overwhelmed by the level of details. You don’t have to plan every step you will make on the trip. Stop at a detail level that makes you have a clear path, but room for unexpected things to happen.

So how to make plans for your business?

1) Start by defining a goal for your business. It can be a financial goal, a performance goal or maybe a branding goal. Remember your goal has to be SMART (See procrastination post) – Specific, measurable, attractive, realistic and time bound.

2) Define the framework – Time, money and other resources. Break the “trip” down to small steps, they have to be small enough for you to be able to do them, but not so small that you get annoyed by their insignificance.

3) When executing your plan, keep refining the way you perform. Find a way to constantly get feedback so you can improve the quality of your work. This concept is known as LEAN and has been made very famous by the Toyota Factory. Breaking the tasks down into small steps, get continues feedback and always finding ways to improve is what LEAN is all about. 

What To Plan?

You probably already know you want to make plans for your business, right? But being an entrepreneur it is very important that you don’t stop your planning here. Make plans for your life as well. Your work and life is interdependent and will grow from mutual success!

Many people tend to overestimate what can be done in a month and under estimate what can be done in a year. I really recommend creating a set of plans, for your business and life, that has both long term goals (5-10 years) and short term objectives (every day, 1 week plans).

Make a piece of paper or open up your favorite textpad on your computer…

State your 10 year goal for business:__________________________  and for your life:____________________________

Your 5 year goal for your business:___________________________ and your life:_______________________________

Make 1 year plans, break them into 1/4 plans, monthly plans, weekly plans and even daily plans. Put it where you see it, don’t lock your plans away in a dusty drawer. You have to look at your plans every day (at least your monthly, weekly and daily plans)

Plan your tomorrow today!

There is nothing more satisfying then a to-do list, when you wing each task of… and looking at the completed list when going to bed

If some of your plans don’t work out, remember to review why they went bad…. what can you do to prevent it in the future. Also look for ways to automate some of your repeatedly tasks and always make a task prioritization so you do the most important tasks first (they have to fit the time schedule of cause).

Wow, you really have your work cut out for you here… But once you get started, you wont ever go back I promise!

Love Marlene

PS… I have more gold business nuggets coming soon.

Top Secret Method Successful Business Entrepreneurs Use To Grow Their Business

Wow, amazing what a hyped up blog title can do… get you all expecting the next big secret right?  Well, I just wanted to test you. I don’t deal in hype, so I have no secret for you… sorry!

What I do have, is very common sense… so common most people forget how powerful it really is. I am going to share a personal story with you, to make you realize what any business owner should know and do to get success.

When I was growing up as a child, going to school, I hated gymnastics and sports. I tried to do everything I could to skip my classes. I even had my mother take me to my doctor and he prescribed some bronchitis medicine for me, an inhaler, and then I could escape this tormenting. But it did not last very long before an expert doctor had me tested, and the result….. “she is just badly out of shape!”… talk about embarrassing. I lost my inhaler and had no excuse to not take my classes. But I found other ways of cause.

Why am I sharing this with you?

Well… here is another story.

Do you know of a chap called Tiger Woods? He might not be in good standing with you, but bare with me, he does something you should do too!

What was it that made Tiger stand out a few years back? He treated his sport like a business… others did too, but he was so committed that not only did he train on the golf-court, he also did massive workout in the gym… can you see where I am heading? Why did he do that? Golf is not a particular tough sport… you walk a few miles, but don’t really do anything that requires lots of physical strength… or does it?

My claim here is that keeping yourself in good shape, will make you perform better even if your work doesn’t require muscles like an ox. Why? Because being in shape, makes your brain function better. You have more energy, you feel good about yourself and you train discipline. There are lots of other great benefits, like having a great health and so on, the point is… You Should Keep Yourself Fit If You Want To Succeed!

Back to my personal story….

My entire life I have been avoiding physical demanding tasks. But…. After my car accident (read the about me) and having two babies, my body was in a sorry state. I was overweight, had no figure what so ever (looked like a lump of deform clay) and I had no energy. About two years ago I decided to change all that. For the first time in my life I wanted to get to know the feeling of being in shape. I don’t know exactly what happened. But I slowly started to first walk, then walk and run and finally run small distances. Last year in august I was finally ready to run my first ½ marathon and I did!

Wow, what a tremendous feeling it was to cross that finish line. It had taken me 1½ years to go from lump to fit and it was just the most amazing feeling I had ever felt. Even beat having kids…. why? Because now I could actually feel something. Before when my body was totally wasted…. I couldn’t feel very much… not physically(besides the pain from my car accident) or mentally. Getting my body in shape has indeed increased my connection to my feelings and also my creative intuition. And that is key to business success!

So I dare you… If you are not exercising on a regular basis… get started right now. Not only for your health but for your business and every other aspect of your life! – Come on… There are no excuses, just do it!

Love Marlene

PS… more business lessons on the way, stay tuned!

How To Overcome Procrastination

The number one reason most business entrepreneurs don’t achieve what they want in their business is caused by inner resistance - also called procrastination.

The problem is so bad and widely spread it’s like a disease!

When asked, business owners often knows what actions to perform in order to move their business forward, but they seem to lack the focus, time, money, resources, skills, knowledge or what ever excuse they come up with to do it…. There are no excuses in business, only lack of courage (even laziness is a form of fear…. fear of loosing quality of life or even fear of succeeding). Because that is what inner resistance is all about. We lack the nerve to go into the unknown, to do what we have not done before, to rice above the ground and stand tall. We want to be safe and sound in our comfort zone.

The Comfort Zone

The comfort zone is the Green Zone. It is where business as usual is the norm. It’s where we feel safe. Our business can only grow and move on the other side….in the Yellow Zone. Yellow Zone is where we take chances, make mistakes, follow intuition and learn. But to go there takes courage. If you lack courage… you might want to find a guide to help you. A guide is a trusted person or a mentor, who will help you and motivate you on the way. But… beware of the last zone, the Red Zone. This is the crisis zone, where you simply freeze or collapse. you don’t want to go there… small steps, to push your comfort zone is the way to go!

So, how to move into the Yellow Zone? - You Need A Plan!

Before you can move anywhere, you need a direction, you need a destination, you need a goal — and you need a map.

What is a goal and how to get a map?

Goals has to be SMART to work!

Specific- What exactly do you want to achieve?  – I want to outsource tasks in my business

Measurable- How do you know, when you have reach your goal? - When I hire a web designer I trust

Attractive- On a scale of 1-10 where 1 is: I couldn’t care less and 10 is: I really really want this, how attractive is this goal? If it is less than 8, what would make it a 10?

Realistic – Is it possible to reach this goal, have others done it, do you have the time…

Time Bound – When is the deadline for this goal, when will you do it… Make a timetable

This goal setting is all fine, and you might even use this method already, but sometimes it just ain’t enough! You have inner resistance.

In my communication, organisation and leadership classes we have been using the theories of A. J. Schuler to understand the resistance to change

Resistance to Change: Risk of Change is greater than risk of standing still, Feel connected to people who like the old way, No role model, Fear lack of competence to change, Feel overloaded/overwhelmed, Healthy skepticism, Fear hidden agenda, Change threatens notion of themselves, Fear loss of status or life quality, feel change is not a good idea.

When we have identified the reasons to resistance, we have been using Kotter’s 8 step model to overcoming the resistance

1. Create Urgency
2. Form powerful coalition
3. Create a vision for change
4. Communicate vision
5. Remove obstacles
6. Create short-term wins
7. Build on change
8. Anchor change in culture

Now you might think it is silly to bring in organisations theories to overcoming your own resistance….. but bear with me, I’ll explain!

You have an entire organisation inside your head!

Think about it. When you want to go on a diet, you set goals for exercising and eating healthy. But what happens when you get that craving? Your internal craving manager gets alerted, he sends a questionnaire to your taste-counselor.. do you want chips, candy, chocolate or ?… He get a response back… we want chocolate! Then he ask for a money check from the economic advisor: Do we have the funds for buying chocolate? No – wallet empty! OK, the manager then sends for the creative and innovation team… Come up with new idea on how to get chocolate. Brainstorming ….Hmm… we could make some, steal it, borrow money from Little Linda’s secret drawer… and it just goes on… and on… and on.

Who do you have in your internal organisation? Who is in charge? What motives/objectives do they have? Do you lead your internal organisation or does it lead you?

 Some smart guy said: You have to be able to lead yourself in order to lead a family and you have to be able to lead a family before you can lead an organisation… it really make sens since you use the same skills but in lager frameworks as you increase your influence.

If you don’t take charge of your internal organisation and learn how to lead it… You are going to have to learn to live with procrastination – but that is not all – you have to learn to live without control in your life!

So the next question is….

How do you lead an internal organisation?

First you need to ID who is in the organisation. Some ”employees” are shy, and you don’t notice them all at once. Keep a record and adjust as you go along. Find the most important ones and get to know them. Think of it like this – you are a manager of a large organisation…. but you have been away on vacation for quite some time… years maybe, now you have comeback, but realise you don’t know half of your employees and the ones you have been in contact with you don’t know well enough to coach or mentor…. So, your task is to get your organisation aligned under one vision…

Your vision, for who you want to be!

 So, start with who you want to be… And do employee meetings with everybody in your internal organisation following Kotter’s 8-step model.

You do that by finding time to sit and relax without interruptions, noise and distractions. Start with 10 minuets at a time (maybe when you lay in bed, take a shower or while running).

Start by thinking of the goal you want to reach. What inner voice is blocking you, does this voice have a name, a face…. what occupation does it have.

 - All inner employees are there for a good reason – they want to help you! Even if it does not look like it at first glance. The craving guy, might be there to prevent you for being nervous when doing scary things…. helps to distract you from what scares you, right? The trick is to find out what your resistance is trying to do for you, and then convince it to help you in another way… Never make your resistance feel unimportant or not wanted. That will only make it act out more! Get your craving manager to alert your grounding expert next time you have to do something scary!

You can even use coaching questions on your inner employees… What do you want to achieve? Why is that important? Why now? What will happen if you don’t achieve it? How else could you reach your goal? etc…

Good Luck, you have your work cut out for you, but it is worth it, I promise!

Love Marlene

PS. Next business lesson is on the way… stay tuned I have something great planned!

As you might have noticed, its been a while since my last blog update…. A lot of really nice people have been concerned for me and have been writing very heartwarming mails asking what happened to me…Thank you for that

I left you all just before I went to the Internet millionaire summit in London… I did attend, my plane did not fall from the sky, or anything like that… I did have a great time and I met really nice people there too…. So what did happen to me?

Well, I got what I came for…Networking, meeting gurus…. See I got pictures:

Cool huh…hope you recognize some of them …. From top left: Alex Jeffreys (Marketing With Alex – Great mentor!), George “sniper” Brown ( I made my first online money following the google sniper system!) And last … Dean hunt (famous branding expert).

and….. Get the newest hype!   —-  I almost bought a branding coaching program from Dean hunt for ***$… but bailed out in the last minute. I am sure the program was pretty good… its just that I came to realize something…. I Did Not Need It At This Time And Stage Of My Business!!!!

And there you have it…. It got so sick and tired of the hype, that make you buy things, you don’t need. In fact, it made me completely turn off internet marketing for months…as you might have noticed.

Meanwhile, I have been focusing on my offline marketing education from my Danish business school… And I came to realise, I learn everything there, that I need to know…. (except for online traffic and list building…which I already know)…. and I get to study in a non hype way, to fit both off- and online businesses.

So, what am I doing back here?

Well, I am almost done with my education… Have just scored two A’s in my last exams and only have my practical placement and final project left. I should graduate in June, hopefully      —-  This got me thinking… I want to help you guys off the hype junk too… Some of you are junkies you know, just like I was…. and I want to help you learn marketing without the hype… if you are ready for that?

Here is what I have planed… I have removed my auto responder… I have no list.. This is not about me building a huge list. I just want to give you straight up marketing and business building advice. You can subscribe to my blog through rss-feed if you want to keep up. Later I might create products for you, if you need them and I might take a reasonable fee for that… its only fair, right? But until then I  will practice my marketing skills by teaching you! Then I will ace my exams in June and be ready to start my own company teaching marketing to struggling off- and online businesses…. sounds good to you? Great, stay tuned for lesson number one….coming very soon, you dont want to miss that one, promise!

Love… Marlene

 Many people are talking about how you can create your own product in just 24 hours, but is it really as easy as they say?

Checkout this power point presentation and find out.

Hope you loved the info, so now is time to post your reply to this post.

I found this great resource for you today… Alex Jeffreys is giving away his insider secrets to how he earns hundreds of thousand of dollars each month.

You are getting a full 60 min free webinar with mister Alex Jeffrey himself, telling you everything you need to know.

Get the free webinar here: http://www.marlenekristensen.com/EasyCashWebinar

I am really learning a lot of stuff on Alex’ Coaching Program. He is the real deal and he is very big on delivering value and even over delivering!

I hope you check this webinar out, he is the real thing!

I want to share with you how I build my list from around 30 to 250 in just a couple of days!

What I am going to reveal to you is somthing you probably already know, but might not do right now. I am here to tell you, how to do it and motivate you to get started.

This is a very easy way to build your list in the internet marketing and graphics business.

The “secret” is GiveAways…. Yes – total shock right…. Not!

Do you do giveaways? No? Why not?

Don’t think it is worth it? Don’t have something to giveaway?

Well, I am here to tell you that it works. I am currently in the Easter GiveAway and it has been running for a couple of days now. Even though my free gift is only ranking nr 60 in the list, I have got almost 200 signups from this giveaway alone!

Now what am I giving away?

Well, I have created 13 videos with camtasia and put a PDF guide with each video. I am simply giving away PLR rights to this package. Now you dont have to do your own videos you can simply find PLR or MRR material with giveaway rights. You can also create your own report or an interview with a top marketer. Graphics packs works like a charm too!

So now you have no excuse, get started right now!

Dont know how to find a good giveaway?

Don’t worrie, I have just the place to go ST. Georges GiveAway starts 4/23 at 9.00 am!

So get started building that list today!

Enjoy, Marlene

I am really looking forward to writing this post for you today… I did a really cool video, that I hope you will enjoy… It is a mini blue print for ranking high in google when doing review posts or blogging!

Hope you liked the video…

If you would like to get the Instant Guru System, just click the banner on the right or the link below:

Instant Guru System

Have a really nice day!