I’ve been in business almost 16 years now. I’m also a Business Studies graduate all those many years ago. Yet, in all that time and all the business books I’ve read, there is so much missing! There’s so much the business books and experts aren’t telling you.

It’s like there’s this secret business club which only opens the door if you work out the secret of success for yourself. The drip feed of snippets of help and advice from successful business owners allows you to put the pieces of the jigsaw together over time. But you don’t have time to do jigsaws right now. You’ve got a business to run. A family you want to spend time with. Friends you’d love to catch up with.

Secrets hidden in business books

It’s only recently that I’ve started seeing the secrets of growing a successful business are in the business books I’ve got, have business books don't tell you that nothing works unless you decide you are ready to do itread and continue to find enjoyable. But as the secrets weren’t in the headlines I’d missed them. For example, in Stephen Covey’s brilliant book, the 7 habits of highly effective people, he talks about listening well throughout the book.

Yet I’ve not heard “listening well” being talked about at business seminars and networking groups. And I mean really good listening. Where you don’t do anything but spend time taking notice of what your inner wisdom is telling you; what your staff team are saying to you; what your customers are telling you; and what the market is giving you signs about.

It’s there in the business books. But unless it’s something you’ve heard elsewhere, just like you need to see a marketing message in seven different places for it to be recognised, the same goes for messages in other places. You might not be looking for listening as one of the secrets to business success, so you don’t recognise it!

I’m just reading Shonda Rhimes, The Year of Yes which I’m loving. Obviously as a story teller (she’s a scriptwriter of some of America’s biggest shows, like Greys Anatomy and Scandal), her story is easy to read. It’s funny. It’s sad. It makes you think. But she’s honest. I’ve not seen this explicit honesty in a business book before. Or maybe I’ve not been open to hearing what successful business owners have to say about their secrets to success.

Shonda shares that loving what you do is a must to growing a successful business, and also feeling successful. She had a successful business, but wasn’t loving everything about her life. During her year of yes where she promised herself to say yes to things that scared her, she found that included saying yes to playing with her children. Surprised? The reason she was scared about saying yes to playing with her children was that she didn’t want to let her publicist down – she was going to be late for an award ceremony if she played when her daughter asked her to as she was about to walk out of the door.

What Shonda shares is that by saying yes to her daughter, and being open to play with her children whenever she asked, she found herself opening up to love that she’d been hiding away from. Not just love from her family, but love from her work colleagues who she saw differently when she stopped to play for 15 minutes. She tapped back into the reason why she worked. The reason she loved her script writing so much.

Ever bought a course or blueprint to use in your business?

I have! I can’t tell you how many as I’ve never counted them, and I’m sure there’s many I bought years ago that I’ve forgotten about. I’ve done online courses. Been to online webinars, physical business workshops. Got up early, or stayed up late to listen to experts share their wisdom about how to grow your business from their experience.

There’s some amazing knowledge shared don’t get me wrong. I’ve learnt from everything I’ve ever used, read, taken part in. (Although there may be a few of the free downloads I’ve never opened that felt so right at the time!). But what those experts weren’t saying explicitly, or I didn’t hear because I wasn’t listening well, was how to implement their blueprint in MY business.

Just like learning a foreign language you have to translate things so you can understand them, so it is with someone else’s blueprint or course or advice. They successfully used x in their business, but for it to potentially work in your business it needs to translate well. Do you know how to translate things from one business language to another? I don’t, but if you know how to do that, could you please share it? That would be another way to unlock secrets in these incredibly full business books.

You are the secret ingredient in your business

It shouldn’t really be that secret should it, that you’re the secret ingredient in your business success. It’s YOUR business after all. YOU are the expert in your field and only you know how best to set up, run and grow your business around the other things in your life that are important to you.

When we ignore what our inner wisdom is telling us, we lose sight of what we love and why we’re doing something. Just like Shonda Rhimes re-discovered her love of all parts of her life, and didn’t have to sacrifice fun and happiness in one part to be successful in another, neither do we. We may not be running an award winning business just yet, or be have a multi-million pound turnover just yet, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible, if that’s what you’re aiming for.

Many business owners I work with don’t want to be running multi-million pound businesses. They want to earn enough from their business so they can go on holiday and live the  life they want with their families. For some it’s about sharing their passion and love with people and for others it’s helping others in a way that will improve their lives through a product or service they’ve created.

Each of us has our own talents. We all want different things in life. Yet so many of us are searching for answers in business books that just aren’t giving us the answer we’re looking for. The courses and blueprints and working with an expert isn’t turning out to be what we expected. We’re not getting the results the small print promised.

Why?

Because we’re not listening to ourselves. We’re not tapping into our inner wisdom and using that as the basis for our own personal and business blueprint. In my experience I lost my confidence and stopped trusting myself, so looked outside for solutions. However those solutions didn’t fit my situation as they weren’t me. They hadn’t got my knowledge or my family or financial situation. Someone else’s blueprint didn’t fit over my life.

Since I’ve learnt more about listening and looked to find answers in other places other than business books, I’ve learnt to listen to myself and trust myself again. It’s not just about my gut feel, but that is a part of your inner guidance system that will help steer you in the right direction. It’s more about learning to tap into that part of you that you often keep hidden as you’ve been told throughout school and by parents and well meaning family and friends that “if you do it this way, you’ll reach your goal”. Your parents aren’t you. Your friends aren’t you. Your partner loves you and knows you well, but isn’t you.

Only you are you. Only you can know what’s right for your business success as well as your personal success. Some of my clients have work life balance as their success goal. Others have the number of people they support as their target. Some want to earn a certain amount of money. We’re all different and want different things for ourselves and our lives.

And then there’s those clients who want support growing their business, but when we start to talk and they listen to what they’re saying, they realise that it’s not their business they want help with at all. Their business is successful. It’s just that they themselves don’t feel successful. They’ve lost their love for their business now it’s reached it’s targets. There’s something missing in their lives. The business books don’t talk about that either do they?

For many business owners, they are the business. So if they’re not happy in that business, they won’t feel successful. For those who’ve grown successful teams, or are smashing targets who also feel out of sync, maybe we can learn from Shonda Rhimes who shows us how to say “Yes” in all parts of our lives to truly feel and be successful. How do we do that? We start by saying yes to ourselves. Reminding ourself that we’re in control. We may choose to learn from others, but we are the ones that need to decide and commit to taking something forward. It has to feel right or we won’t do it.

Nothing works if you don’t actually decide that you are really and truly ready to do it.

Shonda Rhimes

Listen to your inner wisdom and do what you hear

There’s many ways we can listen better to ourselves – journalling, working with a coach or mentor who listens to us and allows us to hear what we’re saying. For some meditation helps. However, the thing that’s really helped me really listen very deeply is learning how to use my intuition. Yes IN-TUITION, that inner wisdom we all have but we don’t always know how to listen to. I didn’t. I’m not sure I ever really knew how to use it. I’m not sure I’m very good at it yet either, but I’m certainly hearing more truth and wisdom and by following what I hear I’m finding my decision making is easier and I’m opening up opportunities I’d never had on my horizon before.

Just like any skill, it takes time. This skill will be useful in all parts of your life. It’s not just another course to do and put away. When you learn to listen to your intuition you create your own blueprint in your life for you and your business. It’s all connected together. When you learn to trust yourself again you’ll be able to take charge of your business again and not try and find nuggets from the business books and articles you read.

This five week intuitive steps to success course will give you all you need to get started learning how to use your intuition. You’ll be supported every step of the way. As an early bird entrant you’ll also get a year’s ongoing support in the online group so you can develop your skills with others who are also learning to listen to their inner wisdom. I’m working with Deborah Marie Isis who has been my intuitive coach for the past two years to support you in this unique way. We’ve both discovered that with all the information available, people are still relying on other people’s solutions to solve their own challenges and situations. It’s only when we listen to ourselves do we actually find the answer that’s right for us.

Over the five weeks you will:

  • Create a vision for yourself and your purpose in life
  • Understand your true nature and highest purpose
  • See things more clearly
  • Uncover what’s holding you back from being successful
  • Develop action steps to achieve your vision

We want you to succeed in life and business, whatever that means for you. We know from our years of personal experience that many of us hold ourselves back thinking we’re not doing things right, as no-one else is doing it “our way”. What we now know, and want to share with you is that YOUR way is the right way for you. We’ll help you develop your confidence in yourself again by listening to yourself and taking small steps each day.

Join now and receive Early Bird benefits of:

  • Free online support and further group training for a year in the Success POD
  • Entry into free prize draw to win one of three 90 minute Stuck to Success Strategy Sessions
  • Invitation to up to two online mastermind groups between now and the course starting on 24th February 2020.

All of this is ONLY £89 currently. We, like you have spent thousands on courses and programmes and books. We want you to commit to this training now so you can start reaping the benefit of listening to yourself. We don’t want money to be what’s holding you back from moving forward.

Unlock your own secrets of success and never need a translation from the business books again.

Intuitive Steps to success program