Amy walker personal coaching

Mom-preneur

Welcome to the best job on the planet!  I truly love raising a family and growing my businesses.  I have been an entrepreneur since I was 19 years old.  I have given birth, nursed my babies and raised every one of my 5 sons while running a business.

I remember early on in my career when it seemed like I was on a sick see saw.  When my numbers in business were up, I felt like everything was falling apart at home.  Then I would jump into my mommy role and all of the sudden we were good at home, but production was falling.  It was so stressful on my family!  They never knew what to expect from me.  I was constantly asking them to sacrifice in the short term so we could live the life we wanted in the long run.  The problem was, with all of the see saw action, I was not progressing in either side of my life.

Fortunately I learned a better way!  I thank The Lord daily for giving me the talents and skills I need to raise 5 boys and run 2 companies.  I am a better daughter of God, wife, and mother because of the skills I have learned in business.  My relationships with my kids are strong and they are each amazing.  They believe that anything is possible with hard work.  They see first hand that mom sets goals, works hard, sometimes makes it, and sometimes misses.  They see me get back up when I fail.  They see me forgive and love myself when I mess up.  And they see me give gratitude to God when I succeed.  They are better because I am in business.

Do not buy the story that you can’t do both, that is an expensive story!  I do not believe that every woman needs to have a business to be fulfilled.  But I do believe that every woman has a greater purpose and mission in this life.  When you live that purpose is when you will be the best mom possible.  For many of us, we live that purpose through our businesses.

I want to be EXTREMELY successful, but not at the cost of my family.  That price is too high!.............. Read more.....>>>>>  amy walker personal coaching

amy walker international business coach

Attracting Clients: When to Push and When to Pull

I love hearing people talk about attracting in clients. We all love when new clients show up! And I do have some miraculous stories of the right person showing up at the right time. The stars aligned, and I found myself with that wonderful new client. But not all the time.

Unfortunately there is no special client attraction cologne or perfume. There is no magic formula for how to go viral with a video. I’ve looked.

There are times when you have to push your message, product or agenda, to get it in front of the right people. And there are times when you use the energy of what you have created to pull in people. It’s like a dance. And to do it masterfully you need to know when to make the right move.

Times to push: Push marketing is when you are pushing to get your product or service in front of potential clients. Examples would be:

1. Trade Shows/Expo Booths
2. Holding classes or product demonstrations
3. Finding retail locations to sell your products
4. Webinars
5. Email Marketing

Almost all businesses need to be engaged in push marketing when they are in start up mode. It is the quickest way to get to the point of sale and it is usually the least expensive. Anytime cash flow is slow,you need to be engaged in push marketing campaigns. May-August and the month of December are slow times in my industry. You better believe I will be engaged in push marketing during all of those months. The first year and a half of my business, I was VERY engaged in push marketing. We needed to build a client base, and I wanted to build it quickly. If you are looking for fast growth, definitely time to push.

Time to Pull: Pull marketing is when you draw clients to you. Examples would be:

1. Referrals from Existing clients
2. Public Relations and Media appearances
3. Radio Shows
4. Advertising in radio, television, or print. (Direct mailers would be push)
5. Sales and discounts
6. Customer relations and internal upsales

In order for pull marketing to work, you have to have some people in the flow, or some cash in the flow. It requires resources. When you have an established client base, and cash in your budget pull marketing will help you take the business to the next level. Pull marketing can build your brand recognition and help you spread your reach.

Bottom line, you should always be pulling and pushing, just in the right proportions. For new businesses or old businesses that aren’t profitable yet, I recommend that the majority or your time and marketing budget be spent on push marketing. Once you are profitable adjust that number and start to invest in the right type of advertising and PR. But, I’ve yet to reach, or see any of my clients reach the point that they don’t benefit from some good old push marketing!

For More... amy walker international business coach

amy walker professional speaker

Business Advice Only an Idiot Would Give You

If you’ve been in business for a while you know that you get a lot of advice, from a lot of people.  And not a lot of them are actually qualified to give you advice!

You know what I’m talking about, you’re at the family reunion and Aunt Sally asks, “So how’s that business of yours going?”  With that sympathetic/pained look on her face.  “Well you know, most businesses go under in the first few years so you better make sure you …”

Or you are at a networking meeting and “That Guy” that goes to every meeting and tries to make himself seem like the most important person in the meeting, but is oozing, “I’m flat broke” energy says to you, “I’m doing this great new thing.  It’s taking off like gangbusters.  You should absolutely stop doing (XYZ business strategy that takes work but is producing for you) and start doing (quick and easy get rich overnight scheme.)

Then there are your friends who have never run a business in their lives.  “I read in an article last week at the doctor’s office about how you can start a crowd funding campaign and earn like $500,000 to get your business going.  You should do that.  You would be so much less stressed!”

We don’t get too off track with that type of advice because it is so apparently naïve and ridiculous.  But then there is other advice that seems smarter at first glance.  It seems smart, and safe and can be some of the most dangerous advice to listen to. Here’s is some of the WORST advice I have gotten while being in business!

1. “You don’t have to do so much, just slow down and scale back so you won’t feel so stressed.” Slow down and be less stressed?  It sounds amazing right?  WRONG!  You are not stressed because you are in business, you are stressed because you are a member of the human race.  You felt stress before you started your business.  You will feel it while you are in business, and you will feel it long after you retire from your business. Often times stress comes when I am at that final push to finish a project, or reach a goal.  If I stop every time I get overwhelmed and stressed, I will never finish my race!  The good advice you need to give yourself during these moments is, “You can do this.  It is hard now, but it won’t be forever. You are so close.  All I’m asking for you to do is take it one day at a time.  And you’ve got this!  Let’s go baby!”
2. “You don’t need to hire someone to do that! I have a friend who can do that for free.”  I am all about controlling costs and being a good steward of my financial resources.  I love spending my money on things that will make me more money.  I hate wasting money.  However, free or cheap labor often times ends up generating cheap, low quality results.  I someone is willing to do your website for free, they are not building you a high quality site.  If they will do your headshots for free, they are not likely to be professional quality.  The one exception to this rule is interns who want to work in your industry and are dying for an opportunity.  Even that labor is not free.  You pay for it with your time you spend training them.
3. “You don’t need help with that. You can do that on your own.”  Hint: This one often comes from yourself.  The unwillingness to hire is one of the biggest hindrances to businesses.  If you are the perpetual solo-prenuer who must learn everything on your own, you will have a very hard time getting much past 6 figures.  Your business will max out because you can’t possibly work any harder.  You will get burnt out because you get tired of never being able to take a break.  I would never design my own website.  I am sure that I could.  It would be hard, it would take me a lot of time.  It probably wouldn’t look great when it was all said and done.  But none of those are the reason I wouldn’t do it.  I would NEVER design my own website, because in the months it would take me to build that website, I would lose out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales.  You must know where you are valuable to your company, and be willing to spend the majority of your time in those areas.

Trust me on these ones!  Save yourself the struggle and avoid my top 3 mistakes waiting to happen!  Be willing to get help!  Be willing to spend.  Choose to spend wisely.  Don’t try to do everything on your own!  My motto is, I am not Superwoman!  I don’t look good in spandex and I don’t want to do it all on my own.  I need help to make my business run.  That is not a sign of weakness, it is a strength that I recognize it.  You have tremendous potential in your business!  Avoid these common mistakes and you will thank me for it! See more: amy walker corporate sales trainer. 

Amy walker consultant

YOU Have Been On My Mind…

About a month and a half ago, I made some changes in my schedule and opened up time to start talking personally with perspective clients again.  It has re-infused me with love for YOU!

YOU are the reason I love my job and my life.  YOU inspire me.  YOUR struggles, YOUR fears, YOUR triumphs and YOUR passion all make me smile.  I truly love being involved with your journey.  Every week I get to talk to clients and potential clients about their highs and their lows.  We celebrate the good.  And we dissect the failures.  Sometimes I care more about your success than you do.

YOU might be used to living where you are living.  YOU might be used to making what you are making.  YOU might be used to the current state of your relationships.  YOU might have even resigned yourself to settling for less than you once dreamed of.  But I have a different perspective.  I love YOUR journey, because it was MY journey as well.  I know what it is like to hope that there is more in store for your future.  I know what it is like to work hard and not get ahead.  I know what it is like the moment you find the missing link in your brain that connects you to the path of success.  I know what it is like to break through mediocrity and live the life you always dreamed of.

A few months ago I was talking with my beautiful, successful, longtime friend Kim Duncan.  She said, “Do you ever just look at your life and think, I can’t believe I get to live this life?”  I said, “Yes, but at the same time, this life feels so much more natural to me.  When I think back to where we were, that is the part that feels foreign.”

Speaking with so many of you over the last few months has been like reliving my journey.  I see in YOU where I was.  And I see where YOU are going.  The BEST is yet to come!

I am guessing you can relate to one of these three scenarios.

1. You are working hard. You do everything you are taught to do.  Daily you are working on the skills and tasks required to succeed.  You get results, but it never seems to bump past that line of success you have dreamed of.  You are not sure why it seems to work for others, but it doesn’t work for you.  You sometimes doubt if you will ever get there.
2. You have the vision! You have the belief!  You have the faith!  You KNOW that success is in your future.  But you lack the detailed business plan for what will get you there.
3. You know what to do. You have read all the books.  You have the mindset tools.  But you struggle to show up and do the work.  Something always gets in the way.  You know that if you could just be disciplined, it would all come together.  You can’t figure out why it’s so hard to discipline yourself and you spend more time than you would like to admit beating yourself up for not working harder.

Which one can you relate to?  Don’t worry you are not alone.  About 90 percent of the people I talk to can relate to one or more of these scenarios.  I can relate to all of them at different times in my career.

THESE STORIES MAY BE A PART OF YOUR PAST, BUT THEY DO NOT HAVE TO DEFINE YOUR FUTURE!

There is a HUGE need for mentorship right now! I’ve been mentoring and coaching business owners for 13 years!  I have always hated having to turn people away who want and need help, but can’t afford it.  It tugs at my heart every time.  Because I WAS there.  I still remember when I was in Kim Duncan’s basement being in the middle of financial crisis, and feeling hopeless because I knew I needed mentoring and couldn’t afford it.  That day, she changed my life, by giving me what I needed for $100.

Today I want to pass that on to you!  A few months ago I was invited to be a mentor with the Conscious Creators Mentoring Network by Strongbrook.  I would put my content into the Vault with other mentors from across the world.  Mentors like Les Brown, Kris Krohn, Gerald Rogers, Ann Webb, Leslie Householder and others all put in their amazing training.  And you can access all of it for $99 a month.  I am so grateful to be a part of this and to share it with YOU!

Amy walker business coach

4 Myths About Living Life On Your Own Terms.

In the entrepreneur world we talk a lot about creating the life we desire.  We talk about financial freedom and time freedom.  We have a rosy picture of living life on your own terms.  And we talk about it as though it is something we will achieve.  It’s a moment of arrival.  The moment when we can look around and say, “This is the life I always dreamed of.”

Many dream the dream, few achieve the dream.  I’ve coached many people as they transition into the life they want.  Some were already highly successful in terms of paycheck, but were not living the life they wanted.  Some were dirt poor and created financial success.  Some started poor and ended poor.  Some started with more money and ended with less.  How can that be possible?  It’s pretty simple, money is not the ultimate indicator of success.

As a coach I see a few BIG misconceptions that keep people from the life they want.  When you subscribe to these philosophies, you are likely to find yourself feeling like you are on a rat race, constantly chasing a life that is always out of reach.

Fiction: Having enough money will allow me to live the life I want.

Fact: Money is a magnifier. If you are already living life on your own terms, money will enhance that.  If you are not, it will also enhance that.  For example, if family time is a high priority for you, but you are working too much, more money to you will look like more responsibility and still not enough family time.  You can find yourself feeling like you can’t take time off because your business or job requires so much of you.  And you can’t walk away from the paycheck because the family needs you to provide for them.  You’ve created the golden handcuffs. The trouble is, you made your money living out of your values so you created a system that requires you to stay out of your values.

Fiction: I have to earn living life on my own terms.

Fact: We choose to live life on our own terms.  At some point every person who is truly living a life according to their own rules wakes up and chooses to live life that way.  It always involves risk.  It always involves change.  It always involves breaking the status quo.  Most of the truly wealthy people I know made that change long before their fortunes showed up.  In fact, they created their fortunes through an intense determination to create the life they wanted.  It’s not about how many years you work in corporate America before you branch out on your own.  Last week I spoke to a college Senior who is finishing up her last semester of college and is NOT looking for a job because she is launching her business.  And you know what, she is already making more money than MANY experienced entrepreneurs.  She didn’t earn that, she chose it, and created it.

Fiction: Living life on my own terms is easier than following someone else’s plan.

Fact: (Lets just laugh for a moment at how silly that myth is hahahahahahahaha!  Okay now back to the reality.)  If it was easier, everyone would be doing it.  It’s hard to say, these are my priorities, these are my boundaries, and no, I will not chase dollars to get by.  All successful people are willing to fail.  We don’t like to fail, we don’t do it often.  But we are all willing.  We said goodbye to our safety nets a long time ago. (check out my popular blog post on getting rid of safety nets.) For more details or Amy walker coaching services.

amy walker

I am an amazing starter!  Back in the day when I only had one kid, I loved the fabric store.  I mean honestly, there are very few things more fun than finding a cool pattern or the perfect fabric for new curtains, or some home décor project.  I LOVED envisioning the project and making the initial decisions.  I enjoyed the first 25% of the work.  I endured the middle 50% of the work, and I despised the last 25%!  I was a great starter.  Finishing was another story and as a result I had a chest full of started projects.  At one point I started a quilt made from our old denim.  I moved that unfinished quilt to 3 different houses before it mysteriously disappeared!  It’s annoying in my crafting, it’s downright detrimental in my business!

I see this behavior all of the time in certain clients.  This may or may not ring true for you.  But even if you are an awesome finisher, at some point, you will get a starter on your team.  I’ll even take it a step further to say that if you are a finisher, you should look for a starter to be on your team!  Starters are visionaries, innovators, creative thinkers, and problem solvers.  They are genius in these areas. However, their vision for what they are creating is so strong, that they feel the sense of accomplishment well before the task is finished and they mentally and emotionally move on.  Then the drive they felt to start the project disappears, and the discipline to finish the project can be a challenge.  Sometimes it is a big challenge!

You may be a starter if… (Read this in your best Jeff Foxworthy voice)

• You have 10 different products and programs to sell, but your business sales are struggling.
• You’ve been working on your book for more than a year.
• You are on revision number 52 of your website, but it still hasn’t launched.
• You never seem to get around to your marketing implementation because you are still working on the master plan, which by the way will change lives and probably the world because it is so amazing.
• You LOVE meeting new people and talking with perspective clients, but have to staple your head to the phone in order to accomplish any follow up.

Does this sound familiar?  If you are a starter, here are 5 simple tips to increase your ability to finish.  And if you are a finisher, going crazy trying to lead a starter, you may want to forward this message on!

1. Stop beating yourself up for starting things and not finishing.  Honor the creative genius you are and take inventory of all of the amazing things you have created.
2. Make friends with discipline.  He’s not a bad guy that makes you do things you don’t want to do.  He is your really muscular best friend that is on your team to do your bidding and make all your dreams come true.  Try some declarations to support this new belief.
3. Get some finishers on your team.  Some people love nothing more than finishing projects.  And they struggle to create the vision so celebrate your perfect pairing.
4. Plan awesome rewards.  Knowing you have something to celebrate at the end of the completion of the project can pull even the most distracted starter through.  We are good visualizers, so we can spend our creative energy visualizing the reward, which keeps the passion for the project alive.
5. Keep an idea folder.  I have a page in my personal tracker just for creative ideas.  I choose when to implement them.  But until it’s time and my team and I have the capacity to accomplish that idea, it gets to hang out in the big ideas page!  

Starters, it’s time to grow some grit.  Stop letting yourself off the hook and just hang in there to see it through.  Nothing is more frustrating to a starter than looking around their life and realizing that what they envision is nowhere to be seen because they haven’t acted on their creative ideas. That does not have to be your story.  Your vision is too amazing not to happen.  

For more details you can visit here : executive business coach.

amy walker international business coach

5 tips for the best Holiday Sales EVER!

Can you believe it is November already?  Before we know it we’ll be eating turkey, decorating trees, going to party’s and ringing in the new year.  And between now and December 31st, more money will be spent than any other months of the year.  The question is, will people be spending it with you?

When you are an entrepreneur, there can be challenges with the end of the year sales.  People are busy.  Unless you sell a product that they see as a great fit for Christmas gifts, they often times want to put you off until January.

“I’m just so busy right now with the Holidays.  Can you follow up with me in January?”

“I would love to get this, but all of my money is going to Christmas gifts right now.”

“We’ve already spent our 2015 budget, get back with us the beginning of next year and we can talk about your services.”

Do any of those sound familiar?

You can have an amazing Holiday Selling Season.  You simply need to have a SOLID strategy!

1. Modify the amount of time you are asking for from potential clients. Maybe your ideal is to have your clients attend an hour long presentation.  During the Holidays why not see if you can get that down to 15-20 minutes.  You can still ask for the longer amount of time, but if they don’t have it to give you, ask for just a few minutes of their time!
2. Position your products as relevant. November and December are months that my spending is primarily focused on gifts for my boys, parents, husband, and siblings. I your product doesn’t fit for those people, I’m not thinking about purchasing them.  However that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t.  Maybe you sell business services.  Make yourself relevant by helping people take advantage of year-end tax write offs.  Think outside the box and make sure you and your product are relevant!
3. Make sure your holiday is scheduled out! Think about all of the parties, concerts, school events and cookie exchanges that will happen before the end of the year.  Add to it shopping, wrapping, mailing, baking and decorating.  That is a LOT of distraction.  When you lack focus, naturally your business produces less results.  Create space in your calendar for focused work and for Holiday fun.
4. Be willing to ask more people. Even with adjusting your time commitments, positioning and having a great schedule.  You will have people just not want it work with you until the new year.  That does not mean you can’t reach your year-end goals, it just means you might need to ask a few more people to get there.  That means your marketing is going to be essential for the next few months.  You might need more leads than normal.
5. Create a rock solid plan! This is not a time of year that you can coast through without a plan in place!   Join me on Thursday November 19th for my Annual Hot for the Holidays: Business Strategy Session.  Give me one hour of your time, and I’ll give you a Holiday Plan to run with!Register now and share with your friends, team members, and colleagues. Read More...>>>>