The Successful Dilettante Ezine

The Successful Dilettante
July 5, 2007 - Issue 25 - ISSN 1935-4886
Editor: Susan Henderson, coach@susanhenderson.com
Visit our website at: www.susanhenderson.com

In This Issue

1) Greetings/News

2) Susan's Musings - Promises to Keep

3) Featured guest: Thomas Elliott
This 'Jack of all trades, master of many' possesses a strong and true entrepreneurial spirit. He has a great story and resources to share in this issue's interview below.

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Greetings/News

Welcome one and all. I am writing to you on July 4th, which is celebrated as Independence Day here in the U.S. For those of you who have made the jump to self-bossing, I hope you are enjoying and celebrating your independence every day. If you are not quite there yet, I hope to offer you inspiration, tools, and resources in this twice-monthly ezine to help you get there.

This is the 25th issue of The Successful Dilettante and our one year anniversary. Growth and changes are happening in my business this month. I have many projects in the works.

I am creating new services, products and writing a book for creative multipreneurs, which will be published this fall. It is exciting times. Watch for announcements coming soon.

My one-on-one coaching fee will be increasing on July 15th. If you have been thinking you would like some coaching help to speed-up the process of taking you from where you are now to where you want to be, now is the time to act. Lock in my current rate by contacting me before July 15th. Email: coach@susanhenderson.com

Also, if you haven't had a chance yet to sign up for my new ecourse, Five Secrets to Making a Living as a Creative Multipreneur, hop on over to www.creativemultipreneurs.com to learn more and read some testimonials.

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Susan's Musings - Promises to Keep

A couple of weeks ago I attended the weekly Think Big Revolution call conceived and hosted by Michael Port (www.michaelport.com), author of Book Yourself Solid and creator of many marketing products and programs that help propel people forward in their businesses and lives in a big way.

Michael is a big thinker, as well as creative and hugely curious. He chooses a topic to focus on and sometimes invites a guest. Listeners are encouraged to speak up and share their thoughts at certain points in these calls. The topic on this particular call was: Why some people get booked solid and some don't.

He says there are three groups of people:

1. Those who like the idea of being their own boss, but don't really know what that means.

2. Those who like the idea of being their own boss and they know that it means they will be spending 75% of their time in the first two years on marketing.

3. Those that are a combination of the above with a strong learning component. They are willing to dig deep and discover new ways of being.

I believe most of us that regularly attend these weekly calls, consider ourselves to be in group three or I suppose we wouldn't be there every week investing our time into digging deeper and discovering new ways of being with Michael spurring us on.

He went on to list four competencies successful people possess and asked us to rate ourselves on a scale of 1-10 in our own marketing.

1. They have confidence in self and services.

2. They make promises and keep them.

3. They know how to tell stories about their past and present to shine the light on their future.

4. They invest as much, if not more, of their resources in those two years learning to market and sell as they do in learning how to provide their service.

When Michael opened the line for sharing, a woman stepped up and admitted that while she has no problem keeping the promises she makes to other people, she has a hard time keeping the promises she makes to herself.

Aha! Murmers of agreement. That share became the pivotal point of the whole call. The solution Michael offered is simple and obvious, yet it stunned me; "Involve other people! You change the way you show up when other people are involved."

Well, of course! When we make promises to other people that we will keep a promise or intention we set for ourselves, we do not want to disappoint them and are more apt to do what we say we will do. It keeps our integrity and trustwothiness intact.

So how does this work? Choose business building relationships that fully support you, yet keep you accountable. The following are four ways of doing this that work extremely well:

1. Find a buddy and commit to regularly scheduled calls or meetings focused on supporting each other's stated goals. Cost: none

2. Form a small mastermind or take action group with 4 - 6 people for brainstorming, support and accountability. Meet regularly by teleconference or in person. Cost: Your time as leader/organizer; possibly long distance phone charges.

3. Join a facilitated mastermind/take action coaching group where all details are attended to by the coach. The best groups are small, focused on the participants' needs and each person gets an equal amount of time during every single call or meeting. Often there is support between calls through group email or a forum. Cost: $50 - $125/month.

4. Hire a coach for individualized attention and support. Look for someone who you feel understands you, your situation and needs. It is all about you, not the coach or their reputation. It is more important for you to be listened
to and truly heard than it is to be talked at. Cost: $300 - $500/month

You can choose one or all of the above. But DO choose to keep those promises to yourself. Involve other people. It is critical to your success.

Hugs,
Susan

PS: There is a brazen hint above on a new service I will be offering and announcing just as soon as I get the information up on my website. You are the first to know. Shhhhh. It's number 3!

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Featured Guest: Thomas Elliott

I discovered Tom Elliott on the Renaissance Souls yahoo group (started by author Margaret Lobenstine for readers of her book of the same name). I have been more of a reader than a poster in this group and Tom's posts really spoke to me. He has wonderful insight into the multipreneur soul because he is one. His journey has had some speed bumps, but he is clear about his biggest strength and completely passionate about it. At a young age, his entrepreneurial spirit was already in full bloom. I love reading all he has to share.

SH: Tom, how have you come to enjoy the successful multipreneur life you live today?

TE: I decided to make every mistake I could.

In fact, I started making mistakes as an adolescent. Before that, however, I knew what I wanted to do. At the age of 8, I was selling packets of seeds door to door. At ten I was selling my drawings and artwork to other elementary students. When I was 11, I had started a comic strip. Now it was only a few dollars a week, but I loved it.

When I turned 13, I realized that I needed to focus on my future and the amount of money and prestige that I wanted. That year I declared to friends and family that I would become a lawyer. I had successfully adopted the general belief that financial security was more important than happiness.

I was proud of this acceptance, but as time passed I knew something wasn’t right. Me.

Three years into college I still had not declared a major. Someone told me there was a lot of money to be made in advertising, once I climbed the ladder. That was the direction I took. I stayed in advertising, working for someone else, for 6 years. It was OK. I was making a good living, but I was
unfulfilled.

I decided to buy a distribution business and it turned into a money factory. By the second year I had enough saved to buy a commercial print shop with my brother. Everything was fine at first, but the print shop became a money-eating monster. Soon all the profits from the distribution business were being gobbled up by the print shop. I was working over 100 hours a week and sleeping at the shop.

Then one day I started to go to work a little less. Finally, in less than three years after buying the print shop, I broke down. I couldn’t push myself anymore. I was a dead horse. For two months I just stayed in bed.

Eventually I started to gain some energy back. I had an idea to start a Monopoly-style game for a resort area. Suddenly I was re-energized. The games sold well. After being ineffective in pleading with my brother to sell the print shop (for anything we could get), I decided to give my half to him. In the process of trying to turn the print shop around I neglected my distribution business. I had lost most of my clients. It was a wreck. I salvaged what I could and started over.

SH: What skills, or systems, do you have that enable you to live the life of a creative multipreneur?

TE: I’m a bit of a “Jack of all trades” type. I used to be pretty disappointed by that but now I’m starting to appreciate having multiple interests. My biggest strength is my desire to explore, especially ideas. I’m completely passionate about it.

SH: How do you manage your time? Do you make a plan?

TE: I manage my time very loosely. I find that I get too caught up in trying to maintain a schedule. I’m just not wired that way. I find that I can plan meetings etc., but I cannot plan when I’m going to be motivated to do something, no matter how much I enjoy it. So my schedule is very open to my varying motivation.

I do set deadlines and I list steps. I find that if I don’t do this then I can be unrealistic about what can be done in a certain time period and I start making promises I cannot keep.

I strongly believe in business plans. When I have a business idea I am in an instant “flow” state. I cannot write it out fast enough. I get a nervous excitement that a kid at Christmas would envy.

SH: What mentors, books or people, have influenced you in your life?

TE: Family and society has influenced me the most, in both positive and negative ways. Tony Robbins’ “Personal Power” (cassette tapes) was the first self-improvement program of any kind that I owned.

The book that changed the way I looked at my life was “The Power of Full Engagement” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. It made an incredible impact. For whatever reason this book resonated with me. I was “ready for the message”.

“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Frankl and “Think and Grow Rich” by Hill are two favorites that I would suggest to anyone.

And this book, “Is Your Genius at Work?” by Dick Richards for this one important idea: That I have one gift that ties my multiple interests together. Before that book I thought I had many strengths that were unrelated. Now I see that several of them have one common denominator. I’m still a “Jack of
all trades”, but most, if not all of my trades, emanate from one core strength or “genius”.

SH: What advice would you share with our readers in their quest to become successful dilettantes?

TE: If you are like me you have several interests and several ideas. If you plan to make a career change or want to start a business, I would suggest asking yourself these questions:

1. Does this idea have a deeper meaning larger than myself?
2. Does this idea revolve around my genius (or core strength)?
3. Does this idea involve a personal interest or passion?

I think if you answer all of these questions with a “YES”, then you greatly improve your chances for success. It puts you in a “flow” state. It is self-actualization, in my opinion.

If you have ever watched “The Big Idea” on CNBC with Donnie Deutsch you’ll notice a common theme around the majority of the millionaires: They are passionate about what they’re doing. They truly feel that they have something to offer to society and it usually involves a skill or talent they have. What they usually don’t have is a business background but what they do have is determination fueled by passion.

A final suggestion that I will make comes completely from “The Power of Full Engagement”. Managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance. “Its not just physical energy, but emotional, mental and spiritual energy together that allow us to be fully engaged.”

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Tom Elliott lives in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware where he is busily working on many projects, including a new music CD. He has rediscovered his love of song writing. Other interests include animals, psychology, writing, and idea development. He does not have a website up right now, but when he does I will be happy to announce it in this ezine. You can contact him by email at: iprinting@hotmail.com

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2006-07 Susan Henderson, All rights reserved.