By Emmanuel Tsesmelis 

If you are living a life where you are not fulfilled, where you haven’t achieved the success you desire and your life just seems to be more difficult than it should be, read on and discover the secrets I found out when I interviewed some of Australia’s most successful self-made millionaires.

For years I had noticed that the most successful people in the world have something ’special’; they seem to have an ‘edge’. What was it that they knew, what was it that they had that seemed to lead them to create a life of wealth, success and happiness - a life so many of us dream of.

The curiosity of what they had, what they knew, got the better of me and I became driven to speak with and interview these ’successful’ people to discover the secrets to their success.

As I interviewed the owners of Boost Juice (Janine Allis), Fernwood Women’s Health Club (Diana Williams), La Porchetta (Rocco Pantaleo), kikki.K (Kristina Karlsson) and so many others, a common theme began to appear, their secrets were revealed.

They had all gone through 5 key areas to achieve their incredible wealth, a life with passion and the life they have always dreamed of.

I think we all know that we have been put on this planet to live our dreams and to touch other people in a positive way. You know, to truly leave the world a better place, yet so many of us are living a far more desperate life than that, a life that just isn’t true for us.

Well let me tell you that these self-made millionaires discovered the secret to making their dreams a reality and that’s what I am about to share with you. These are the 5 Key steps all the self-made millionaires have followed:

Discover It - They have all discovered what they are passionate about and have gone on to find a way to use and express that passion to contribute to other people’s lives.

So, have you asked yourself what you would truly love to do, what you are passionate about? We all have a unique way we can touch the world and your way is inside you right now!

When you work with your passion, it never seems to be work. You love everything about it and you want to spread it to the rest of the world. I believe that that’s why we are here and the self-made millionaires have discovered this secret. They know what they love to do and by developing a commercial way to pass that on to others, they have all become multimillionaires.

And this is a big key; not one of them focused on what’s in it for them. Their main focus was on what they provide to others, how they contribute to their customer’s lives through their passion. So I ask you; what have you got within that you would like to share with others?

Believe It - They have truly connected and bonded with their passion and their dreams. They have fused with it, become one with it and totally believe in it. From that place, they have the courage to express to the whole world who they are and what they stand for with no shame, embarrassment or guilt but rather with total pride, commitment and drive. With this driving force they never take no for an answer and continually strive forward in making their dreams even bigger.

This is such an awesome quality they all possess. They know what they stand for and they are proud to express it to anyone and everyone. Of course this allows them to effortlessly flow in life which in turn leads to their incredible success.

Try it and see what happens. People, new people and opportunities will be drawn to you because now you finally have an image, you are someone, someone that stands for what they believe in and who they truly are.

Overcome It - I know we see these people as fearless, as totally comfortable being leaders but I can tell you after interviewing them that they are exactly like you and I. They feel fear, they have self doubt but what they don’t do is allow their fear to stop them living the life they dream of. They all have come up with ways to overcome their fears or at least a strategy to overcome the damage their fears could cause in their lives.

We all know that the only thing that stops anyone from following their dreams is FEAR. How sad, that we let this emotion control so many of our actions. If you give in to your fears you will notice that life is quite monotonous, uninspiring and without real success. Come up with your own strategy to overcome fear and use it, use it, use it.

The more practice you get overcoming your fear, the easier it becomes to take the actions you need to take to live the life you dream of!

Change It - We all have deep limiting, negative, dream destroying beliefs within us. Yes, even these self-made millionaires. But again, the difference with these people is that firstly, they have identified those thoughts, those beliefs and then have chosen to believe new empowering beliefs that serve, nurture and challenge them to achieve their dreams.

Growing up we all create limiting dream-destroying beliefs. Have a little think about where you hold yourself back and notice what you are saying to yourself at that time. I bet you it is not positive, or even the truth. So why don’t you change these dream destroying beliefs; look inside and see the truth, see your truth.

Start believing what is really within you and not the rubbish you picked up growing up. As an adult now, you can choose to believe whatever you want. Might as well create beliefs that will support you in making your dreams a reality, don’t you think?

Live It - It doesn’t matter how much you know, if you don’t put it into action your life won’t change. The results you want to show up in your life will never appear.

These self-made millionaires do not over think things. They listen to their gut, to their intuition and go, go, go. That is one of the biggest keys to their success. You will never ever get everything right but if you get it going you will always work a way through to achieving your goal.

The key in taking action is to start realising that your comfort zone is the dead zone. Nothing new happens there, no new experiences, no growth and no opportunities. If you truly want to live the life you dream of, you must keep growing your comfort zone. All the self-made millionaires get out of their comfort zone as soon as they feel comfortable. They truly see it as the ‘Dead Zone’.

So there you have it. The five Keys to living with passion and making your dreams come true. Spend some time going through these key steps to get your own answers and then take action, single small steps to creating the life you deserve, the life you dream of! The reality is, that when you live with passion you enjoy the journey so much that success is inevitable. Now, go for it!

About the Author

Emmanuel Tsesmelis is Australia’s Number 1 Passion Coach who believes that inside every single one of us live passions, natural talents and unique gifts that, if tapped into, compel us to create the life we have dreamed of.

Emmanuel’s Website: www.mypassioncoach.com
Hear Emmanuel Tsesmelis @ Coach Radio!

“The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.” Thomas Carlyle

What factors are holding you back, slowing you down or preventing you from achieving your goals? Almost all progress toward a goal or series of goals comes up against a limiting factor of some kind.

It is crucial to identify these limits or obstacles in order to eliminate them. Progress at the pace you’d like and in the direction of your goals requires the systematic removal of obstacles that undermine advancement.

Identifying the true obstacle to progress takes honest reflection and analysis. Obstacles may be entrenched within organisational structures or culture. Conversely, obstacles may be embedded in our own mind, in the beliefs that you hold and the behaviours that you routinely perform.

By reflecting honestly on the obstacles within your own mind, you become better equipped to focus your energies on removing or eliminating the most appropriate obstacle. This of course is preferable to spending valuable time removing external obstacles that are inconsequential to your progress. 

Personal obstacles consist of any belief, thought or action that may sabotage your progression towards your goals. They may include:

The attitudes you hold about change and progress - Do you think change is a process that is controlled by you or controlled by something external, such as luck or destiny? This is the concept of locus of control.

Locus of control refers to the extent to which a person believes they are in control of their destiny. An individual with an external locus of control attributes change largely to forces outside of themselves such as fate, good fortune or bad luck.

Conversely, those individuals with an internal locus of control are more likely to see change as a function of their own doing. Individuals with an internal locus of control tend to be more comfortable with change and consequently make smoother, more efficient progress.

Self-limiting thoughts - Self-limiting thoughts are ingrained processes of thought that impact on the way in which we appraise, interpret or analyse a given situation or event. Self-limiting thoughts can take many forms, such as:

• Black and white thinking - The tendency to interpret events in extremes (no shades of grey). This means that anything less than perfect is interpreted negatively and limits our ability to see the positives.
• Unrealistic expectations - The tendency to pre-empt an event with unrealistic ideas of what should occur. This is a clear sign of setting yourself up for failure.
• Selective thinking - This is the tendency to hone in on the negative aspects of a situation and ignore any of the positives, leading to an unbalanced perspective.
• Catastrophizing - Imagining the worst possible outcome. This can discourage action and stall change.

Lack of assertiveness - Assertiveness is the ability to communicate self-assurance to those around you. It involves being direct and clear about what you want without aggression or hostility. An individual lacking assertiveness may miss opportunities and may be taken advantage of by others.

A lack of assertiveness can interfere with the achievement of your goals. If you suspect a lack of assertiveness may be an obstacle to you, it may be useful to focus on assertiveness training and communication techniques to assist you in eliminating this obstacle.

Vague time management - Vague or unfocused time management can impact greatly on the achievement of tasks and can ultimately impact on the quality of your performance. If you find that time slips away from you and meeting deadlines is difficult, you may benefit from focusing on your time-management skills.

It is possible, however to have well-developed time-management skills, but find difficulty prioritising tasks. Sometimes guilt and expectations can distract us from concentrating on our self-focused goals. If this rings true for you, it may be helpful to review the section on self-limiting beliefs.

This is Part 9 of the special series “Discover the Work You Were Born to Do“, by author Nick Williams.

By the end of this article, you will have explored:

• Your next steps on the path to becoming an inspired entrepreneur.
• The eight stages of progression from employee to inspired entrepreneur.

Taking it from here… we are almost at the end of this series!

I hope you’ve been inspired to some new possibilities for discovering the work you were born to do - and that you’re excited about the idea of creating your own business and becoming an Inspired Entrepreneur. I hope you can also recognise the common obstacles you’re likely to encounter along the way - both within yourself - and those presented by the environment.

I’ve given you a little of the ‘how to’ information you need, but that wasn’t the primary purpose of this programme… If you are serious about moving from being an employee to becoming an inspired entrepreneur, then I have - along with my friend and colleague Niki Hignett - created a range of products and services designed to help you at each stage of your journey.

We know that the best way for you to build your confidence is to start by creating tiny successes and then use them to create momentum. Our advice is always to invest the least amount of time, effort and money into creating the minimal working version of your product or service before taking it into the real world - in other words - action not perfection!

We also know that, just as a rocket burns most of its fuel during the first few moments of flight in order to overcome inertia and the gravitational pull of the earth, so it can be for us when we launch our dreams into the real world. It takes a lot of energy to go from having an idea to manifesting that idea in the real world and earning our first income from it.

But it’s well worth the effort!

So that you can better understand the structure of the journey that’s ahead of you, we’ve described the eight stages of progression from being a 9-5 employee to your new life as a card-carrying Inspired Entrepreneur living the work you were born to do…

Stage 1: A new vision for work and its place in your life. Becoming re-inspired about the whole idea of work. Realise that work is a means via which you can contribute to the world and to spread positivity. Understand the defining the characteristics of the work you were born to do.

Stage 2: Study the nine signposts of the work you were born to do. Become clear about where your heart lies and what will inspire you. Decide the answers for yourself, or get support throughout the process.

Stage 3: Inspire yourself to the possibility of becoming an entrepreneur and being your own boss. Understand that self-employment is one of the greatest vehicles for you to live the work you were born to do.

Stage 4: Design your business and secure your first paying client whilst still employed. Overcome your resistance to promoting yourself and asking for money for your services. Have incontrovertible evidence that you CAN earn money doing work you love, quieten the critical voices of resistance and help silence the naysayers.

Stage 5: Launch your business whilst still employed, and develop your idea to the point were it’s producing a stable and consistent source of cashflow. Become an apprentice, learn your craft, and reduce your dependency on your 9-5 salary.

Stage 6: Scale your fledgling business so that it can fund a period of transition, during which you’ll triumphantly quit your 9-5 job and become a full-time Inspired Entrepreneur. Scale your business to the point were it can deliver a comfortable standard of living.

Stage 7: Grow your business into a successful operation that will enable you to live life on your terms - and create a lifestyle of joy, freedom and abundance.

Stage 8: Become an inspiration to others and help mentor them through the process of starting and growing their own businesses. You can mentor at earlier stages as well: wherever you are, even one step ahead, you can help others on the path behind you.

That brings us to then end of this series! I hope you’ve enjoyed it, and please check our website to find out how we could help you take the next steps on your journey.

About the Author

Through his books, and live talks, workshops, personal coaching and on-line learning programmes, Nick Williams has inspired tens of thousands of people to discover the work they were born to do.

Website: www.nick-williams.com
Blog: http://nickwilliams100.typepad.com

Counselling Connection, the official Blog of the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors, is filled with great content to optimise your life.

Their ‘Life Coping Skills’ category showcases skills, techniques, strategies and activities developed by professionals to assist individuals in coping with a range of challenging situations in life.

Such situations include daily stress, changes, loss of a loved one, relationship problems, and much more. Post-series approach each topic with a comprehensive display of information, and some skills and techniques can also be used in coaching sessions to assist clients.

To access some of these post series, visit www.counsellingconnection.com or follow the links below:

• Coping with Stress in Every Day Life
• Coping with Violence
• Coping with Workplace Harassment
• Coping with Transitions in Life
• Coping with the Death of a Loved One
• Coping with Infidelity

You have an invisible business! What you sell is not tangible. You can’t drive it home, wear it, sleep on it or consume it. As a coach you are in the Service Industry. The service industry has many unique attributes that differentiate it from the product industry.

There are both positive and negative differentiators to a service industry. How you optimise the positives and mitigate the negatives impacts on the effectiveness and success of your business. And it impacts dramatically.

This article will provide you with some strategies to optimise your services in order to stand out from your competitors. The strategies will include: information products; establishing your credibility; Post Purchase Reassurance and; low delivery costs.

Information Products

Information products are a very powerful tool. They can be used in many leveraged ways. In the context of this module, information products are one of your best means to build trust, rapport and credibility.

They are one of the best mechanisms to overcome low credibility and high perceived risk in the early stages of your client relationship. They can be used as a very low barrier to entry device to allow clients to ‘test drive’ your service.

In the initial stages of your relationship with your prospect there is a significant Credibility Gap. This the gap that exists between the level of credibility you need to sell your prospects into your higher priced service, and the actual credibility you have with them. Information Products allow you to demonstrate to prospects the value you can provide them.

For example, let’s say your core product is a 6 month, $500 per month ($3,000) 1-to-1 coaching program. This may initially pose a significant barrier to your prospects.

To bridge the Credibility Gap and promote your service, you speak at an Association meeting for your niche (Information Product 1). Due to time constraints, you’re allocated 30-minutes.

Whilst your content may be compelling, it’s most likely the 30-minutes of content will not be enough to bridge the Credibility Gap. But you came prepared.

At the seminar you used a Green Sheet technique (Information Product 2). At a critical point in your speech you channel people’s attention to a green A4 page containing incredibly important information.

You say something like: “If you’d like more information on this, I have a free resource guide that I can send you.” Hold up the green sheet and continue: “If you want a free copy, just write “GS” for “green sheet” on your business card and hand it to me after the presentation.”

When you do this, you’ll be swarmed by prospects eager for more information. In return you capture their names, addresses and emails. By giving more information you bridge the Credibility Gap a little more. And now you have their contacts, you can continue to nurture them (Information Product 3, 4, 5) until your credibility reaches the point they are willing to invest in your higher priced services.

This example is just one of an infinite combination you could use.

Establish Your Credibility

As a service professional it’s crucial you establish your credibility. Most product businesses establish their credibility through their brand. For instance, Nike has immediate credibility. As does Porsche. You know what you’ll get for your money.

These brands have so much credibility it becomes a shortcut to decision making. Their brands have so much credibility that prospects do not need to consciously consider or validate the value of the proposition.

But as a service professional, do you have the same? Anthony Robbins does. Jay Abraham does. As do many others. What are you doing to establish your credibility?

Post Purchase Reassurance

You must have a system in place to reinforce your clients buying decision. Once your client has overcome the mental hurdle to commit to buying your service they are immediately seeking validation of their choice.

In a service business your client has no tangible product to look to as validation. You must therefore nurture them, particularly in the honeymoon stage. This will improve your client relationships, make your client feel positive about their choice, and also improve referral.

Low Delivery Costs

A significant benefit for service businesses is their shorter development timelines, lower development and delivery costs and higher profit margins. If you use these attributes to your advantage you can gain considerable upside advantage.

These features allow you to create multiple services to utilise in your sales process and sales funnel. You can create services with very low perceived risk as incentives into the top of your funnel, then incrementally more valuable services to sell as you demonstrate and increase your credibility. You can offer services as value-adds to your sales proposition in place of discounting.

As you have much greater net margin, your risk of loss on returns is significantly lesser. As such an extremely powerful psychological tool to use as a conversion inducement is a risk-reversal or guarantee.

You remove the risk to your prospect of losing their money but giving them a fully refundable guarantee. In this way, the risk is reversed from your client to yourself.