Time to Go Pro
On May 23, 2019, I went pro. Left the “day job” and stepped forward to become a healer full time. I had tried this once before with mixed success. I have learned a lot since then. Here are some tips for anyone with a dream of going pro:
1. It’s not about the money. If you do something that really excites you, the money will come. When I chose a business that I thought would get me rich, I failed. I am now doing something I love and I get contacted every week by strangers who want to learn about what I do.
2. Failure is a difficult thing, but it is essential for long term success. As former IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson said “, If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.” I had my first business failure in 1988. I let it eat me alive for many years. If I had just embraced that failure as an essential step on my road to success, things would have been much different in the decades that followed.
3. Structure my time. Have clear monthly and yearly goals. Take time every Sunday night to plan out the week. Schedule key tasks and treat them like a dentist appointment. When you have a dentist appointment, you show up on time. If a distraction occurs, you set it aside so you can make it to your appointment. Today, I put it in my calendar to finish this blog post at 1:00pm. I am now not answering my phone or checking email or paying any attention to my phone pinging away. If I were at the dentist, I would not be answering any of those things because I would be reclined on a chair with someone’s hands in my mouth. Treat your daily tasks the same way: schedule them and then stick to the schedule no matter what.
4. Connect with people. For who I am and what I do, connecting is more important than anything. In person contact, phone calls and hand written cards are great ways to connect. Tweets, email marketing and advertising are useful, but they are not the core of my business.
5. Always be improving- Take classes, listen to audios in the car, read out of a real book every day. This will make a huge difference.
6. Work incredibly hard. Chances are you are in a competitive industry where others are working hard to attract the same business you are. You have to work harder. I take one day a week to rest and recuperate but am working the rest of the week. It’s no problem for me. I am doing something I really love. I have a clear business goal for this year that I know I have to work to achieve. But when I track my numbers every day, every week and every month and I see improvement, it’s totally awesome. And I know all along that I would not achieve this goal while holding down a day job, so when it felt right, I let it go. Now the pressure’s on and I am going for it with joy in my heart.
Now get out there and go pro!