Affirmations that Work to Your Benefit

When you think of affirmations, you may typically think of standing in front of your mirror and saying something like, “I am powerful, I am beautiful. I am fit. I am [fill in the blank].” While those may be true, what if they aren’t? Meaning, what if you say, “I am a millionaire. Or, I am a triathlete”. What I want to guide you on is how to make sure that those affirmations work to your benefit.

You see, your mind recognizes when you’re telling yourself something untrue. It’s basically calling your bluff. So if you were to say, “I am a millionaire,” and you really aren’t yet, your brain will call you out for that. And it definitely doesn’t sit in the storage compartments of the brain as an honest truth about yourself.

So here’s a quick tip for you: Change the ways you say your affirmations so that your brain says, “Ah, that’s true”, instead of recognizing it as false.

You can do that by saying, “I am in the process of becoming…”

You look at yourself, maybe in the mirror at home, or however you like to approach your affirmation. Then take what you started with before, and adjust it to say, “I am in the process of becoming powerful, I am in the process of becoming fit, I am in the process of becoming a millionaire”, and so on. You can fill that in with whatever you may be striving towards, but no matter what, when you use the words “I am in the process of becoming...”, your brain responds with, “Yes, yes you are.”

How many times does it take for an adult to retain new information? The answer is, twenty-one times! This is why we are pounded with certain advertisements over and over again. Repetition is key to associating a message with a brand. Hence, I encourage you to stick with your affirmations until it becomes your brand and your belief about yourself.

What are you in the process of becoming? Share in the comments below!

What is Your Daily Agenda | Part 2

A couple weeks ago we talked about the book, "Today Matters" by John C. Maxwell. The key to success is found in your daily agenda. In other words, what are your daily priorities? Are you running your day or is your day running you? 

I wanted to share my musts for each day. I literally create an agenda sheet and print a new one each week. It's my version of checking off my goals. Am I the only one who loves doing that? I thoroughly enjoyed having a curriculum in school or when I was off to a sports or bible camp. I found that I struggled with consistency once I became an entrepreneur. It's not that I didn't work. I actually worked day and night. So much so that I lost balance and family time, among other areas, suffered. 

Each day I must: 

• have a daily quiet time/devotional
• post to my own social media sites
• work out
• read or watch an educational video
• write
• plan (blogs, podcasts, mastermind topics, social media, etc...)
• laundry-- ha!  "It's easier to keep up than catch up"

In addition to my daily musts, I have weekly goals and/or restrictions as well as monthly tasks. Oh, and like most of you, I have an ongoing to-do list that is dependent upon upcoming events, speaking engagements, etc... I once was told that I needed to focus on the behaviors that lead to results rather than the results themselves. It's a practice. It's continuous. And it works.

P.S. what I mean by restrictions is I set boundaries for my schedule. Okay, an example would be that I only allow myself to have two one-on-one meetings per week. I know if I go beyond that, the consistency of my daily routine will suffer and other important tasks or goals may not be met. I pre-plan open spots each week for those times when someone wants to get together for coffee. You dig?

Please reach out with yours or share on my Facebook page so we can high five one another and hold each other accountable :)

What is Your Daily Agenda | Part 1

The book "Today Matters" by John C. Maxwell talks about our misunderstanding of success. It's not what we think it is. It's not what I thought it was...

He writes, "The secret of your success is determined by our daily agenda. If you make a few key decisions and then manage them well in your daily agenda, you will succeed." 

Besides reading this awesome book, I recommend joining me in the following exercise. What are the main decisions you need to make in the following categories? Once you've made these decisions for your life, you will need the discipline in managing them. And remember, discipline means giving up the good, and the better, for the best! 

1. Attitude: Choose and display the right attitudes daily
2. Priorities: Determine and act on important priorities daily
3. Health: Know and follow healthy guidelines daily
4. Family: Communicate with and care for family daily
5. Thinking: Practice and develop good thinking daily
6. Commitment: Make and keep proper commitments daily
7. Finances: Make and properly manage dollars daily
8. Faith: Deepen and live out my faith daily
9. Relationships: Initiate and invest in solid relationships daily
10. Generosity: Plan for and model generosity daily
11. Values: Embrace and practice good values daily
12. Growth: Seek and experience improvements daily

If you're open to it, I'd love for you to share with me on social what you've decided on in these categories for your life!

How to stay strong through difficult times

We all go through tumultuous circumstances. How do we stay strong? How do we get through?

First, and this may surprise you, we don't have to stay strong. We can allow ourselves to be weak, vulnerable, and exposed. I've always tried to muscle my way through life. And as life would have it, there are times when I just can't. I need to admit, I alone cannot overcome the hurt, nor the pain. I alone, cannot find my way through this.

Most of you know that I'm a believer in Jesus Christ. When going through difficult times, I've learned it is best to go to my Heavenly Father. For me, He is strong when I am not. 2 Corinthians 12:9 says, "And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."  

What Paul is saying, and I agree with, is it's okay to give your rights over to those who can help you. For me, I find strength in going to God with my burdens. Asking Him to lead the way. And I also share my struggles with trusted advisers, who will pray for and with me, or offer advice, give me direction or give me a referral to someone who can help.  In our willingness to be vulnerable about our problems (we all have them), we find freedom, grace and mercy.

At the end of the day, each trial, each storm we live through, is forming us into the version of ourselves we are meant to be. Have faith and hope in the midst of it all. Because in my opinion, there will come a glorious day when we'll no longer suffer from the sin of the world. Amen?!

Social Media and Self-Branding

Are you branding yourself on social media? The answer is always yes. Right now, whether you recognize it or not, you are creating your own personal brand. Think of yourself as a trustworthy politician that everybody loves. The mindset that I believe will benefit you, regardless of whether you’re just starting out in your career or you’re an established entrepreneur, is to realize that your job on social media is to run a likeable campaign. You’ll be the brand behind whatever position you take or life role you play. I also have some rules for you to follow in order to have a winning self-brand.

Rule #1: First impressions are everything

Others will judge you in seconds based on the first few pictures or posts of yours that they see. So be wise about what you want others to believe about you. I’ve talked about this before: there’s no difference between greeting online or in person. Some of you say, “I want to keep my social media private rather than public,” but I think there is a way that you can do both. First off, I’m glad there wasn’t this social media presence when I was a teenager because I would have scarred my adult self, had I posted, shared, tweeted, or snapchatted pictures or events that I participated in when I was young. So I thank God that all of this wasn’t around then.

But now you have to think about your social media presence strategically, as though you’re a politician running a likeable campaign. If you’re trying to stay private you’re really missing out on a competitive advantage. These days people don’t necessarily like to follow the brand itself; they like to follow the person behind the brand. That’s who inspires them.

How are you inspiring the people you’d like to do business with? If there are people you’d like to meet that would provide you with opportunities for growth, then figure out who they are and utilize your personal brand to get in front of them. Just remember that first impressions are everything. So choosing the right pictures to display or making sure the wrong pictures aren’t out there is crucial.

Rule #2: Post about what you’re passionate about

The easiest way to gain followers is by being yourself. There are so many people in the world who share your interests and values. Be bold and confident enough to share yours. If you’re passionate about healthy living, then that can absolutely be a part of your brand. You’re not just an “accountant by day” or a “salon owner by day”; you are this person every day and you have a multitude of unique attributes, characteristics, hobbies and passions. Share the things that you’re passionate about with the world and you will encourage authentic engagement. The right people will want to be around you, and not just because you’re an awesome hair stylist who happens to be the best at blond hair coloring. They don’t just follow you for your talents, they follow you to find out more about you as a person, what your everyday life is like.

Again, it always comes back to how you inspire others. I encourage you to post about what you’re passionate about. If a couple people don’t resonate with those passions and they stop following, that’s okay. You open yourself up to a world of possibilities when you’re authentically true to yourself. The right people will be following you, and that opens up doors for opportunity in the future. There are many people I’ve met only online who have opened up opportunities for me.

I’ll share a story. Before I ever started my podcast, I thought a lot about starting one and I purchased the equipment for it. I sat down and recorded some pretend episodes to practice and see what I sounded like and how I could improve, before ever launching the “Beyond the Technique Podcast”. I had also been listening to a lot of other podcasts.

For example, there’s an awesome sales podcast called “The Sales Evangelist Podcast” with Donald C Kelley. I started listening to his podcasts, and at the end of each, he’d encourage people to connect with him on LinkedIn, which I decided to do. And instead of sending the typical automated message, I created a custom message and said, “Hi Donald, I just wanted to let you know that I have been listening to your Sales Evangelist Podcast. It’s awesome! Keep up the great work. Thanks, Kati.” What was really cool is that he not only accepted the connection, but he responded to me and said “Kati, that’s awesome! How did you hear about my podcast?” So I messaged him back and said “Well Donald, I’m new to listening to podcasts and I love business, sales and motivation topics so I was looking into some and found that you were one of the top choices to take a look at, so I subscribed to your podcast and I’ve really enjoyed it.” He replied a couple days later and said, “Awesome Kati, are there any sales topics you’re looking to hear about?”

I didn’t respond right away because I wanted to think about this: what could I learn more about in regards to sales? I was in the shower where there were no technological distractions and thought, “You know what, this is an opportunity for me to respond a little bit differently. I should respond and ask him to have me on as his guest. What’s the worst that could happen?” So I went back and said, “Donald, I would love to offer myself as a guest on your show. The topic would be people + passion = sales. I think that would be really cool; let me know your thoughts! If you are excited about this, I will send you an outline of the show for you to consider.”

A couple of days went by and I was lying in bed, looking at my husband, and thought, “There is no way this guy is going to respond to me. He’s probably just going to ignore it and wish it away because he feels bad rejecting me.” But instead, something amazing ended up happening. Donald messaged me back and said, “Kati, that topic sounds awesome! Click on this link to set up a date when we can communicate with one another.” Score! Now he’s down in Florida, so our podcast session was a virtual conversation and it did get released. You can officially go and check out the Sales Evangelist podcast for the “People + passion = sales” episode. I’m incredibly thankful that I decided to put myself out there.

When you put yourself out there about something that motivates or moves you, it pays off. That was actually my first official podcast before my own podcast launched. So like I said, posting about what you’re passionate about will help you get to know the right people.

Rule #3: Avoid Unnecessary Topics

What topics should you avoid? The ones that you yourself don’t like to see. The topics that drive you nuts, and the ones you want to disregard; those are the posts that you should also avoid. I could give you some common sense advice, in connection with today’s politics. It’s very challenging to take a stand politically when you’re a business owner or entrepreneur, because potentially 50% of all people, regardless of what stances you take, will completely disagree with you.

Is it worth that conversation? It’s kind of like a marriage: there are some arguments that are just not worth having. But just keep in mind that it’s okay to avoid the unnecessary topics altogether. I get that you’re passionate about some things, but ask yourself if it’s worth the potential lash back if you post on touchy and controversial topics. Everyone is different, so just do what feels right to you, while keeping the reactions of others in mind.

Rule #4: Remove the Negative

If you have a connection or friend online who is constantly posting negative content, remove them or unfollow them. Figure out a way to get it out of your sight! You don’t need negative content in your life.

Here’s an example: If you’re working on living a healthy lifestyle and you have friends who are constantly posting temptations, get those posts out of sight and out of mind. There may be people constantly posting that they’re out partying and drinking, but you’re trying to focus on building your wealth, not your weekend. That might not be a hindrance, but if you’re trying to lose weight or eat healthy then it may definitely affect you.

What are those things for you?

Rule #5: If you sign the checks, you are a public figure

I’m speaking figuratively here. If you own a business and have built a life as an entrepreneur, you’re a leader. People are following you and you should know it’s time to accept that leadership role. What is your mission? That’s what your public page should represent. The mission of your life; not just personal or professional, but all aspects of your life. Your personal life is not separate from your professional life, they’re completely connected. Your career, social life, family, intellectual well-being, spiritual well-being are all important pieces of your life and are some of the things that your public figure page can represent.

Now you’re armed with five rules that will help you create a winning self-brand on social media. So what are the next steps?

Take it slow. For week 1, just look through your photos and decide what stays and what should go. Take a look at your timeline. Do you have it set up ask you to approve when someone tags you in photos or posts? You may sometimes want to hide it if the pictures you’re tagged in don’t accurately represent you.

It is important to be protective of your personal brand. During the second week you should come up with a plan of things you want to post and make sure there’s a consistency to your plan.

I’m personally passionate about business, the beauty industry, living healthy, physical fitness, and my faith in Jesus Christ. My family, friendships, and networking are things I’m passionate about. My goal is to slowly build a plan around that. Let’s say you post once every couple of days. That should be consistent. If you’re on Instagram and you want to post every single day, that’s awesome. Keep a focus on your passions and you’ll begin to build a consistent following, because your followers will understand who you are and what you do. They’ll want to join you on your journey because you’re an inspiration to them.

For week 3, you should be all about removing the negative. When you see something that does not align with what you believe or value, remove it right then and don’t think twice about it.

Finally, weeks 4 and 5 are when you should take the plunge and set up a public figure page. This might take a little more planning for you but don’t overthink it. Your life has been your preparation for this. You need to step on stage for your performance. It may not be flawless, but it will get there.

Practice makes permanent. The more practice you get, the more feedback you’ll get, and thus the better you’ll get. I know it’s a little scary to put yourself out there, but what’s the worst that can happen? People can choose not to follow you or ignore the posts you put out there. But most people are going to accept and support you. They’re going to be excited that you put yourself out there and admire your boldness and bravery. They’ll like you and praise the fact that you’re confident and in tune with your journey.

Are you ready? If you take action on this, please comment below and let me know!

Cheers~ Kati

What Have You Been Putting Off?

Think about this: What do you want to accomplish that you’ve been putting off? What have you been putting away on a shelf that deep down you really want or need for your life?

Maybe for you, it’s starting your own business, hiring a manager, or getting healthy. Or maybe it’s attending advanced education, which would require you to take a trip across the country and make a significant investment.

Why is it such a struggle to just do it?  

Would you agree that sometimes it’s a struggle to start or try something, because you’re afraid of the possible issues and/or outcome? You and I both know it doesn’t always work the way we want. But there is only so much planning you can do, and only so much control you can have.

You can’t predict the outcome! You already know that you can’t control tomorrow. The only thing you can control is this present moment, and how you respond to today. Sometimes you just need to take the leap.

And I think you’d also agree that if you do nothing, you will gain nothing. Action has to be taken. If you want something, you need to act on it. Stop overthinking it, and take those first steps.

What’s your goal? What’s that thing you keep thinking about?

My challenge for you is, just to do it. Get started. Write down two simple action steps that you can accomplish today. Think of two small things that will bring you a step closer to that elusive, big dream you’ve been imagining. Don’t let it slip away without putting everything you can into it. And remember, there are other people taking leaps like this each day. You're not alone. Just do it! 

Cheers,
~Kati

You Were Born for This

Acknowledging and Accepting Your Challenges

I know that I’m speaking to the salon owners, and hair and beauty professionals out there. And I get that we wake up many days wondering what we were thinking! Sometimes our profession can seem like a thankless job. But it could also be the same with parenting, or any role we’re in. Some days we may just wonder what the heck made us decide to put ourselves in this position.

But I believe that you were born for this. I first heard this saying when my husband and I went on a “Love like you mean it” cruise. It’s a marriage cruise put on by an organization called Family Life. Their mission was not only to have couples walk side by side with one another, but also to have them grow closer to the Lord. This cruise was an amazing opportunity for us, and I can’t say enough about how great it was for our relationship with each other, and for our walk with Jesus. I’m very thankful for that opportunity. While there, I heard one of the Pastors onstage say, “Marriage is a mission you were born for. When you become married, you’re taking on a role with your partner, and you were born for that role.”

Think about it like being a fireman. Would a fireman resent having to put out fires? Sometimes we do resent the obstacles we need to go through. But we still jump over, climb under, get through that obstacle and emerge better, stronger, wiser, and more resilient.

Persevere to Find Greatness

Nothing, in my opinion, is not meant to be. And I know that it’s challenging when you have these obstacles and you wonder if it could get any worse. But I promise that if you persevere, you’ll realize (and maybe not anytime soon, but eventually!) that you needed to experience that hurt, pain, or trial, so that you would be prepared for future challenges.

So stay positive in the midst of the struggle. Keep your eye on the greater prize and the greater vision. Remember why you began this adventure in the first place. When you remember why you started on this path for your life, you can endure any challenge.

In this line of work, it’s never because we have to. It’s because we get to. All storms eventually die down, and the sun comes back up.

You were born for this. Try to remind yourself of that regularly. There is a bigger, greater, deeper purpose, and you are exactly where you’re supposed to be. And if you persevere and endure, you will be successful. You may not see glimmers of hope for six months, or a year. You may not see how this will work or might not believe that it’s true. But just don’t give up.

I can even get a little biblical with this topic. I believe the devil tries to bring us down. And there are also a lot of naysayers and negativity out there. “See? You couldn’t do it, I knew you couldn’t do it.”

And even in our own minds, there can be plenty of negative self-talk. But think about it this way…You choose a role, just like a fireman does. You have to show up for hard, scary tasks sometimes.  But you’re prepared to put out the fire, because that’s your role. You were born for this. Don’t give up.

Success Starts with Self-Mastery: Your Career

Do you want growth and development in your career? Instead of thinking about your career coming before family, or being placed as a higher priority than your spiritual life, think about your career as a slice within your personal life pie. Each area of your life has a different size pie slice, depending on the importance of that area of life at any given moment. And everyone’s priorities or pie slice sizes are different.

Here are three ways you can experience growth by focusing on the development of your career!

Education

Education is key; it’s essential in order to advance your skills. You might educate yourself by attending educational events, seminars, expos, or by watching videos and tutorials. The education aspect of growing your career is so important. Without it, it can be very hard to gain traction in your industry. How will you commit to advancing your education? It could look like scheduling thirty minutes in your calendar, once per week, to read a book that you’ve heard would impact your professional environment. Small, obtaining strategies will lead to success.

You could also plan to gain educational experiences by proactively booking three events per year. That’s about one per quarter, and you could even take the Summer off! You could think about having guest speakers that come to your business every couple of months. P.S. I know this girl who may be a good fit for you (wink).

How do you respond to education?

Many of you know that I’m heavily involved in the beauty industry, so allow me to use this industry to give you an example. Ask yourself, if translated into your world, can you relate?

I’ve seen stylists who attend educational events and then completely revert back to what they’ve always done. They did not apply what they learned because it was uncomfortable stepping out of their comfort zones. It’s sometimes painful to implement new techniques, systems and/or processes. Yet, we believe that if we would, we’d benefit greatly. In the beauty industry, if you aren’t changing with the times, the times are going to change without you, and you’ll become outdated. Eventually, you may lose clientele if they become bored with you or mature in their styles before you do.

I personally struggled from the opposite. As soon as I learned something new, I’d want to apply what I had learned to and for everyone. I once attended an intimate razor cutting class with Wayne Grund, the Founder of Surface Hair. I came back from his workshop and was way too excited about applying what I learned and I ended up giving this long-haired teenage girl a disastrous haircut. I used the razor on her fine hair and I took too much weight out, which left her with even less hair than she started with. If you use the razor in this inappropriate way, the hair becomes very tangled and delicate. Needless to say, I never worked with her again. She and her mom were so unhappy that I ended up losing both of them as clients. Lesson learned? When you learn new things, don’t be afraid to try them, but make sure you have a trial period or practice period prior to launching full force!

You may sometimes fear that you won’t be as good as the professionals you see at an event or in a video. You’re probably right! At least at first, very few new skills should come totally natural to you. It’s like being at beauty school before you even know what a zero-degree haircut is. Learning new things takes time, but you have to be willing to invest in yourself if you want the long term benefits that will propel your career success.

Development Through Networking

This is another huge way to get to that self-mastery. For the most part, everyone either totally loves or completely dislikes networking. I believe that networking is essentially getting out, and meeting new people, and getting to know them. If you’re always hanging out with the same people, you have no idea what you could be learning and gaining from new relationships. There may come a time where you realize that you’re outgrowing those around you, and you might need to be around new people that offer more than what you already have. It sounds negative, but it just means that you could be moving at a different pace than those around you.

Who can you get out and start meeting? Where can you go to start meeting new people? There are very few times when I haven’t benefited from networking. I remember going to a local chamber of commerce event and it just so happened that a person I had networked with in the past introduced me to Spencer X Smith. He’s brilliant at marketing, social media and writing for well-respected business magazines. He’s an expert in areas that I am not. We started meeting once a month, and I would spend a lot of the time taking notes. We bounced ideas off of each other, but I tried to absorb as much of what he said as I could. It was a great opportunity for me to talk to someone who excels in different areas, and as a result, I’ve learned so much. He also provided me with resources that I never previously had access to and invited me to events that I’d never been to. He became an advocate on my behalf and talked about me to other professionals.

Because of all of this, I ended up having an opportunity to speak at UW Madison. They have an event called MUBS, which stands for Midwest Undergraduate Business Summit. The talk I gave was called “What every young entrepreneur needs to know to be successful.” There were 60 amazing, young adults in attendance and they were eager to learn. It was awesome. And none of this would’ve happened had I not been willing to network, willing to ask questions and willing to apply what I’ve learned. At the end of the day, networking always leads to growth in your career.

Spend Time with A-Players

Have you heard the “Rule of Five”? You become most like the five people you spend the most time with. So it makes sense that if you want to get better, you must hang out with those who are better. When you start hanging around people that perform at a higher level than you do, what happens? You’re able to see how they interact with their clients, how they communicate, and witness some of their non-verbal communication skills as well. These are all important things to pay attention to if you want to advance yourself.

How do these people sell products or services? How do they retain their clients, or gain new referrals? How are they following up with their clients after they experienced working with you? If you can observe and identify the strengths of those A-players, and ask some questions, then you should be able to start taking action. Mimic their positive characteristics and you should slowly but surely reach the same level of performance.

If you try doing any or all of these steps, I guarantee that you’ll start seeing increased success very soon. Spend time networking, learning from the right people, and continue to be educated throughout your life and career, and you’ll be so much closer to your goals that as of today, may seem out of reach.