Over the last couple of days as I have been super busy and my partner has been concerned I am “doing too much”, I have been thinking about my definition of freedom. You see, although I have had more balls in the air to juggle, I have felt light, happy and very free. Why? Because everything I do, I do from a position of choice.

I am choosing to be busy. I am choosing to have many projects on the go. I am choosing to live out of a suitcase with a laptop, traveling the world and currently couch-surfing in North America. Every bit of my amazing life has been created by choice.

It is all choice. Every piece of it. And for me, choice means freedom.

What is freedom to you? It is probably the number one desire I hear from people, clients, entrepreneurs, and friends. They want to be free. They strongly desire freedom. But if you don´t know what freedom means to you, it will be very hard to achieve. Perhaps impossible.

Define freedom for yourself. It may be tougher than you expect or you may have it down pat. Are there lots of emotions associated with freedom? Is it juicy and exciting for you or do you even give it a second thought?

Play with this one. I highly recommend you keep it front and center. Perhaps you base more of your decisions on whether or not they give the freedom you desire.

Busy? Yes. Free? Beyond a shadow of a doubt. And on this Remembrance Day 2009, I am valuing that freedom with even more respect and honor.

One of the things I gleaned from my parasailing experience in Mexico recently is that it is sometimes best not to know everything. This is indeed me high above the beach in Puerto Vallarta. My friend Marisol took this picture from the boat that was pulling me.

It was only after I landed that she told me how glad she was that I did my parasailing adventure in Puerto Vallarta and not in Mazatlan as I had planned. Apparently, a few people slammed into buildings as they landed and went home in a coffin.

When I showed my dear friend Monique the pictures, she mentioned that as a registered nurse in intensive care for 16 years, she dealt with many people with spinal cord injuries or other serious injuries from parasailing in Mexico. How wonderful that I did not know any of this before going up!

I would say that there are very few things in life, if anything, that does not involve risk. Some people die in their sleep in bed, others die racing cars or flying airplanes. It´s risky…living!

So as you create your dream business or amazing life, know that there are risks. Of course there are. You will make mistakes. You will fail. You will wish you did something that you didn´t. You´ll wish you didn´t do things you did. It´s all part of the learning and growing process.

Naturally, I asked a few logical questions like: How long have you been doing this and does the boat have gas? But seriously, how would I know that he was telling me the truth? At some point in life, we have to take greater risks, trust others, and take the plunge…or in this case the flight.

I honestly believe that it´s easier to not know it all. That means, do I need or want to know how many businesses fail? Do I want to know how little money many entrepreneurs make? Or can you and I just decide what we want and then create it without all the negativity and facts about what is not working and what is.

In today´s economy especially, staying positive is imperative. Focusing on what you want and creating the amazing life you want is necessary if you are going to achieve it.

So just go for it. Don´t over analyze. Trust yourself. Believe in others and know that you can do, have and be whatever you really want.

This weekend on a Beach Boys cruise that we did to a couple of remote beaches, we saw entrepreneurs who were creative and successful. This is a picture of Greg with a pet iguana. We paid the equivalent of $5 to have 3 pictures taken of Greg with the iguana. Considering that the owner didn´t pay for the iguana and the iguana eats vegetables and flowers, a few tourists paying the entrepreneurial owner $5 for a couple of pictures gives him a great income.

At the restaurant where we had lunch, there were several women who had baked beautiful home-made pies. At $2.50 a slice, they went like hot cakes and boy they were delicious. Hard work, focus on a speciality and the courage to get out and sell their wares gave those women an upper hand in the community.

At the last beach, we rented horses and went up to a waterfall in the jungle. We paid $15 each for the horses. Approximately 20 of us chose to rent instead of make the hike on foot. $300 income for a couple of hours work in this small community goes a long ways.

What we saw this weekend was creativity, hard work and a commitment to their business. Nobody was sitting around hoping that we would find them. They came to us. They sold us. They did what it took to make their business succeed.

What about you? It´s easy to say that it´s not working for you, or times have changed and it´s hard. But are you doing whatever it takes to make it work? Are you being creative and thinking outside the box or are you doing your business like you´ve always done it?

You may not need to find an iguana to put on people´s heads but you may need to get outside of your own head and limitations and see what you can come up with to increase your business.

It feels like someone turned on the heat here this week in Bucerias, Mexico. It´s been averaging around 95 degrees (Fahrenheit) or 35 degrees Celsius and the humidity has gone through the roof. I had forgotten since my days of living on the equator what it feels like to have this moustache of perspiration constantly on my upper lip. Even the pools are like bath water this week!

I´ve read some newsletters and posts lately about the effect the recession is having on entrepreneurs and their businesses. Business is down and sales have plummeted. I certainly haven´t experienced the downturn but as I have found ways to deal with the literal heat, here´s some ideas if you are feeling the heat of an economic downturn that I´m implementing as part of my safety net.

Get creative. What you were doing before may not be working now so you are going to have to get out of the box of how you may have always done your business. One of the things I will be offering this year is more group packages and teleclasses so people can do work with me without leaving their home and I can afford to offer attractive pricing for group work.

Expand your market. If your market has been local, can you go bigger? If your market has been only women, could men benefit from what you do? I certainly notice that more and more men are doing my healing work with me, buying my books and participating in events I have been speaking at. It´s great to see. What about you?

Grow your product base. If you have always done one on one coaching for example, can you write an ebook, do a home study program or offer a teleclass? All of those can be free or almost free to produce but could appeal to more people.

Ramp up your marketing. When everybody is cutting back and hiding in a place of fear, can you put yourself out there even more than before by writing articles, being a guest speaker on teleclasses, joining an online forum, networking more, or learning a new avenue of marketing. One of my projects this summer is to learn Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing.

It´s easy to slow down when the heat is on, to do less and relax more. It´s hard to be working on my laptop when I´m feeling hot and sticky. It´s way more fun to pour a Margarita earlier in the day and take it easy. However, that is not going to help me reach my goals. As I wind down the last 10 days here in Bucerias, yes I am playing a little more. But I have big plans for this year and next and I am still very focused on my goals.

So creativity, expanding my market and product base as I ramp up my marketing is the key to dealing with the heat. So is a midnight swim, some air conditioning and a ice cold beer!

The other day here in Bucerias, Mexico, a man got on the bus and started
handing out booklets to every person. Most people accepted the booklet, which appeared to be religious in nature. Then while the bus was driving down the road, he gave a short sales spiel and told everyone that if they wanted to keep the booklet, it was 10 pesos ($1.00). He then started at the front of the bus and either collected back the booklet or collected the 10 pesos.

I was fascinated as I watched the whole process – a sales technique I hadn’t
experienced since living in Ecuador 15 years ago. I couldn’t quite imagine
someone getting on the bus in Vancouver, Canada and trying this sales tactic. You’d probably find yourself kicked off the bus! Yet, in reality, this approach is what many entrepreneurs are still using – albeit slightly more refined.

I consistently hear of entrepreneurs who have a blog where they blatantly sell their product. They will send out a social media announcement through a tool such as Digg or Twitter and they are in your face selling. Other entrepreneurs will attend a networking function; corner someone and give them the low-down on their product or service. I’ve had brochures, business cards and samples shoved into my face or hands without so much as a how-do-you-do. Really, that isn’t much more sophisticated than the man who got on the bus and put a booklet in everyone’s hand.

It doesn’t feel very good and in today’s world is antiquated and very “old
school”. What is the “new school”? Relationship marketing. What does that mean in real world terms? It means you “date” before you marry or have sex. You get to know each other. You woo the other person through dialogue and mutual conversation. You impress your potential client with how you can help them with a problem rather than sell to them right out of the gate.

For example, you may have a network marketing business. Rather than
immediately sell your lotion or potion, energy drink or miracle pill, you need to sell yourself first as someone who people would even want to do business with. You know people’s concerns, worries, doubts, fears and problems and you make it your business to allay their anxieties and solve their problems.

As you give first, people will then become attracted to wanting to do business with you. It’s why this type of relationship marketing is often referred to as”attraction marketing”. So ask yourself: Is my business growing? Do I get referrals easily and regularly? Do people come back and do business with me? Am I attracting people to my business regularly and consistently?

If not, you may want to look at how you come across to people. Do people see you as pushy or obnoxious? I remember reading an email from a distributor who was “luring” people into her business. That word did not give me a good feeling as no one wants to feel manipulated, trapped or lured.

The spiritual principle of “treat others as you want to be treated” is the foundation of a solid business. So how can you use this principle in real life? Some really basic steps are:

• Take an interest in other people and what they are doing.
• Ask questions and find out how their business is doing.
• If you know of someone that can assist them with a problem they mention,
pass on the referral.
• Listen intently to what they say.
• Be “real” in how you talk to people so you don’t come across as
condescending.
But today with attraction marketing, it needs to go beyond that. Are you clear in your own mind that you are the expert in your field? Do you know the answers to your client’s problems? Are you keeping up to date with what is happening in your field? The world is shrinking and fast. You need to be aware of trends in your area of expertise. Specializing in one area is becoming more and more important.

Let’s use the example of someone who sells real estate. They could specialize in helping single mothers find affordable housing. They could niche market to empty nesters. Or they could help people look for investment properties with positive cash flow. Once decided upon, brand yourself as the expert in that field. Become known as the “go-to person” in that arena. Become the arthritis expert in your network marketing company and know exactly what products work best for arthritis. A car salesperson could become an expert in helping people with poor credit buy cars. A clothing boutique could specialize in helping women with mastectomies purchase flattering clothing for their condition. Do you see all of the possibilities?

Rather than putting your product into everyone and anyone’s hands like the man on the bus did the other day, learn the rules and tools of attraction marketing, niche yourself and have clients searching for you, talking about you and referring you to others. Now isn’t that an exciting possibility!

To Your Outrageous Success!