Upon further reflection, there are a few things I learned that I think would help other businesses, especially small businesses in their single-digit years of life, make the most of 2019 and beyond.

Lesson 1 | Ask for Help

This is the area I typically have the hardest time with. I hate asking for help. I am the person who basically breaks my arms off carrying groceries into the house instead of making two trips up one. whole. flight. of. stairs. Guys, that’s just too much to ask to walk up and down the stairs twice.

Anyway, asking for help was a big deal for me. But it was such a great thing. I hired a business coach and strategist and have loved working with her. Eryn just gets it. She’s able to meet you where you are, push you a bit further, and cheer you on while you do the work that’s been custom co-created for you.

I was truly hesitant to agree to working with her (and reach into my pocket for the payments), but asking for help truly allowed me to grow.

So for you, I would 100% ask for help. Many of the women I worked with this year said that they can write for themselves, but they’re a) not good at it, b) don’t want to do it, and c) don’t have the time, so it gets pushed behind client projects, kids, and just generally to the back burner. Asking for help where you need it allows you to do so much more. Two heads are better than one, after all.

Lesson 2 | Don’t Compare

It is way too easy to compare yourself to the highlight reel you see on someone’s Instagram feed. The perfectly light photos that are posed just so… yeah, I mean, we all do it and we all have a pile of papers, pens, old coffee mugs, and coupons pushed out of the frame. That said, it’s still so hard not to compare. And it makes you feel so shitty! Amirite?

I tried this year to share what’s real, not to make my pictures too perfect (it’s such a double-edged sword of “needing” to get a pretty shot while also sharing a true story) and not to get wrapped up in comparing.

When you compare, you shut down your own dreams. You say, “Why bother, I’ll never get to X,” or “I’ll never have the success she’s having, so I’m just going to dive into this bucket of popcorn and pretend like I don’t have work to do while pretending I live in Stars Hollow for the millionth time.” I never do that, btw. Nope, never…..

If you notice yourself comparing, walk away. Literally. Put your phone down, go for a walk, find three things you can do for yourself that are easy wins, meditate, whatever it is, just get yourself out of that situation and focus on what you can do today. As Alexandra Franzen says, “Today is not over yet.” There’s time to make it your version of satisfying.

Lesson 3 | Develop Your Voice

In writing, your voice is part of your brand. It’s how you show up and talk to people. No shit, ya don’t say? (Sometimes the voice in my head likes to write.)

Everyone and every brand has a unique voice. It’s part of your company and as big of a part of your branding as your colors and logo. When someone reads your words, they should say, “Yep, that’s X” right away. Or at least know that it’s something your brand would say. Even if you’re selling something, it should be in your natural voice.

Don’t get it twisted, your voice can be different from your brand. So many of us, though, are our brand, so the voices are the same. It’s worth it to take some time and figure out what you want to sound like, the words you always use in your marketing, and infuse them into your marketing messages.

Lesson 4 | Just Start

This was a hard-hitting lesson in 2018. There were days when it was hard to go above and beyond the bare minimum or even to get started (see: popcorn, above). Hiring a coach and working with a therapist helped greatly.

Mental fortitude is a huge part of owning your own business. When I have something I need to make progress on, there are a few things I’ll do to get started. Get myself to a place where that’s the only thing I can work on (like a coffee shop). Bribe myself with a really good reward when I finish the task. Set a timer and make as much progress as I can in a short amount of time.

Either way, just start. I try to do something every day that Future Angelica will thank me for. What will future you thank you for doing today?

Lesson 5 | Show Up, Own Up

This one is possibly one of my mottos going into 2019. Show up, own up. Show up and do the work, own up when something doesn’t go right. I operate with a total honesty policy. If something goes wrong and I make a mistake, I admit that. Looking at the situation and figuring out what could have been done to prevent it and addressing it so it doesn’t happen moving forward is a huge lesson anyone, not just entrepreneurs, must take to heart.

One of my Core Desired Feelings is True. To be True means showing what’s real in my heart and communicating in an open, honest way. And I expect the same in return. Again, I think it’s a great tenet for anyone to have, not just in business, but in life overall.

Showing up and doing the work looks like honoring your commitments, communicating where you are in the process, and just starting. You’ll earn a reputation for the right things.

And now I’d love to know what you learned in 2018. What life and business lessons came up for you? And how did you adapt to them or change what you were doing in response?

The post What I Learned in 2018 appeared first on Angelica Ross.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of showing up, even if it feels like you’re just barely moving the needle. It’s something I’m actively focusing on this month as part of my Lara Casey’s Cultivate What Matters PowerSheets. I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty bad at finishing things I start.

The basement clean out project I’ve had on my list for….oh….four years? Still on my list. The printers I want to take to an electronics recycling center? Still in my garage.

It’s especially hard if I don’t get instant gratification. I’m a real-life embodiment of a meme that’s like, “Goes to the gym once, doesn’t see abs, doesn’t go back.”

Now, I’m not trying to dissuade you from working with me, thinking I can’t do my work. It’s more of a problem of putting too much on my list. I’m always biting off more in my day than I can chew. (And yes, I see the irony of doing content marketing and always preaching to my clients that just because you’re on Facebook, it doesn’t mean you’ll get thousands of dollars in sales overnight.)

Well, I got a burst of inspiration for finishing what I start from an unlikely-for-me place: a spin class.

Last week, I got up early on Saturday and took my happy ass to the gym. I’m noticing if I have a class to attend, I’m more likely to do it than just showing up and running on the treadmill for 45 minutes.

Anyway, the spin instructor said to us, “You have two options: you can either take off resistance or find a way to make it work for you.”

The choose-your-adventure style of the statement she posed totally speaks to me.You can either give up or you can work to find a solution. Sure, in the moment, the easy thing is to take resistance off the bike. And that won’t get you anywhere in the long run. The better, albeit more challenging, route is to focus on making the ride work for you.

She was shouting out the cues and we had the answer we needed to succeed: push down and pull up. Use the back of your leg. Every time your leg straightens, your glutes should engage and contract.

She was empowering us to find a way to work through the challenge instead of giving up. Sure, we could have given up (and she did give us that out by saying, “You can take resistance off.”) What she really did was empower us to make the choice that would be most beneficial to us.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t wake up at 7am on Saturday morning and drive to the gym only to half-ass my workout. If I’m there, if I made the effort to show up, then I’m going to show up.

We like to make things easy on ourselves. No one wants to do 100 more steps to get to the same spot it took someone five steps to get to.

And, sadly, there is no such thing as overnight success.

We’ve all heard the saying attributed to Aristotle: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” Little habits add up over time to big results.

As Jeff Olson, the author of The Slight Edge*, says, “The difference between successful people and failures are the little things. The things that are easy to, but that are just as easy not to do.”

So what’s the point of this post: it’s to show you there are always two options. You can give up and lower the gear to make it easy on yourself. Or you can show up, do the work, and, little by little, make a change.

Lara Casey, the spin instructor, and Jeff Olson all have one philosophy in mind: little by little, progress adds up.

That’s what I’ll be working on this month. Small things that compound into big success.

What are you working towards this month?

*This is an affiliate link from Amazon. If you should you purchase via this link, I will receive a small commission at no cost to you. Coffee isn’t cheap and this helps keep me caffeinated and sane! Thanks!

The post Quit or Make It Work appeared first on Angelica Ross.

I recently adopted daily mantras thanks to a suggestion from my Rock It mastermind group. I had never really paid attention to mantras and seriously thought they were just these things you repeat to yourself when you’re trying to meditate. I had visions of yogi-Angelica, twisted into a Lotus position and sitting very zen-like while repeating, “You are enough” over and over.

That just doesn’t sit right with me. Literally. I mean, I can get myself into a fairly respectable Lotus, but I live alone and it’s too soon for me to get Life Alert, so the likelihood that I’d ever leave that position is slim to none.

And the idea of being all zen and calm while I’m trying to repeat a phrase over and over, willing myself to believe it doesn’t resonate either, though apparently the dude who wrote Miracle Morning screams them in the shower. So there goes that belief that you have to be totally yogi-zenned-out to use mantras.

Mantras do have to be something that you believe or they’ll never work. Do you have to believe it all at the time you start? Yes and no, but there does have to be an element of truth that resonates with you.

Personally. I know that the more I said it, and said it with conviction, the more I started to believe myself.

And the days I didn’t say it….watch out. I was disjointed, unfocused, and argumentative.

Of course, volume isn’t an indicator that you believe it, but it is helpful to really dial up the intensity and get as ridiculous as possible if you feel silly starting out.

(I scream mine in the car over the Pittsburgh alt rock station. You wouldn’t believe how loud you have to get to hear yourself over Nine Inch Nails.)

So these cool things happened when I repeated a mantra every day. Naturally, these things can happen for you, too, and completely shift your life to allow you to manifest the lifestyle and business you want to have.

I changed my vibration.

Positive vibes send out a high vibration into the world. Negative vibes = low vibration.

So if you’re constantly getting turned down by clients or vendors or no one wants to pay for your work, think about how you value yourself and the words you use when you talk to yourself.

Like attracts like. If you’re wallowing around in the shit, you’re going to attract shit right back into your life.

A big part of You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero is believing that you are a fucking badass and you are the best thing ever to come into the world. That’s called operating with a high vibration.

I truly do believe that my time should be valued and I will find clients to value my time and pay me what I ask for.

I also believe that when I give love freely, it’ll come back. So the more I give my clients love, the more they’ll appreciate the work that I do and want to keep being my client.

I’ve shifted my vibration by being aware of the connotation of the words I use. Subsequently, I’m pulling great opportunities into my life and clearing the way for even more. I mean, you’re reading this; that’s pretty great to me.

I focused more on the positive.

Mantras aren’t negative. I never heard anyone say that their mantra is, “When I work my hardest, I get nothing in return.”

Repeating a positive phrase about what I want helps me to focus on getting it because I now believe it’s already there waiting for me. It’s kind of like visualizing a positive outcome. When you see the end results, it’s easier to do the work to get there.

That’s a big reason why practicing gratitude is proven to yield positive, happy results. And people who practice gratitude are happier in general.

Similar to vibrations, your energy goes where you focus it. So when you focus on positive, you get positive back.

I got what I asked for from the universe.

Mom’s catchphrase when I was growing up was, “I’m not a mind reader.” She’d say that shit all day every day. Turns out, she was a big, fat liar because she’s crazy-intuitive, but she has a point.

You don’t go to Starbucks and just stare at the barista, telepathically asking for a venti quad soy latte without whip, do you? Actually, maybe you should ask for that telepathically because if I heard you order that, I’d be obligated to hit you.

What I mean to say is you can’t expect people to give you want you want if you don’t ask them for it.

Same goes for the universe. Ask for what you want. When I did, I got it. Sure, more clients didn’t just fall into my lap, but more opportunities to get what I wanted were presented to me.

Here’s the catch: you have to be specific.

For example: how can the universe deliver “more” money? Technically, finding a penny on the sidewalk is “more” than you had a second before you found it. But if you want to take a trip to Belize and need $2,000, ask for $2,000 specifically. You’ll probably get it.

(FYI: Denise Duffield-Thomas has built an entire business around this idea and is a fantastic resource for manifesting money.)

So from this I was able to tap into my intuition clearly.

Another key part of this is then listening to your intuition and trusting that the signals from the universe are true. Really focus on what your body is telling you. It knows. It has the answers you need and it’s holding them deep down. Just tap into them and pay attention.

Recently, I agreed to a trade agreement with a potential client. Trade agreements are fine, but both parties have to be happy and, the key for me, is that it would be something I’d spend money on anyway.

This, sadly, was not. I couldn’t go down to the Water Authority and pay my bill with something that isn’t money.

My body knew even before I agreed to this trade that it was a bad idea. I was uneasy, I wasn’t able to sit still, I couldn’t hold a conversation at dinner, and I couldn’t turn my mind off to go to sleep. I was physically and emotionally unsettled.

This didn’t go away until I made a firm decision that this was the wrong thing for me to do and I’d rather go back to the client and be honest that I’d need money to continue this partnership instead of spending time and energy that weren’t going to yield me something I could use to have a happy life.

I’m sure you’ve experienced something like this. You had a gut feeling, there was a ringing in your ears, you keep seeing words or themes repeatedly coming back to you.

Be aware of these signs you’re getting. You know exactly what you need to do. Zero in on the specifics and be open to everything around you. And use mantras to help shift your energy and tap into these signs – your intuition.

Repeating a daily mantra definitely snowballed for me. Some amazing things happened and the momentum gained is unlike anything else.

Trust yourself. You have all the answers you need.

What techniques do you use to tap into your intuition?

The post Use Mantras to Gain Clarity in Your Life and Business appeared first on Angelica Ross.