Let me begin by saying I was very impressed with Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter. She spoke at the Dan Kennedy/Bill Glazer Superconference and it was fascinating hearing her take on business. Here are a few nuggets I came away with:

1. You got to really want it. Ivanka is a driven woman. In fact, I would go so far to say she is succeeding despite her father and wealth. She works 3 times as hard as anyone else to prove that she is really is the best person for the job. And she has succeeded.

Now you could say it was easy for her. She has connections, a name, money. However, that’s exactly the reason why it’s difficult for her. People assume her success is due to her family and not her ability.

She could have thrown in the towel, turned into another Paris. Instead she decided to work 3 times as hard to prove to the world she is just as capable as her father at being successful at business.

My point here is that everyone has obstacles. Even if you can’t see them, we all have issues and blocks and obstacles. And we can choose to give in to them or to succeed despite them.

And, we all feel the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Ivanka truly believes her father would fire her if she screws up. (Actually he publically said that in an interview he’d fire his kids if they messed up.) Can you imagine the public embarrassment and humiliation if that actually happened? Sure we can all look at Ivanka and think “oh, she has it so easy.” But if she ends up in the middle of a colossal failure, the world will all know about it and talk about it. That’s not the case with someone less well known.

This is very common in business (well, in life in general) – people assume someone else’s business is a piece of cake while they have to X, Y, Z to contend with. While it’s true maybe that person doesn’t have X, Y, Z, they do have A, B, C, which are just as difficult in their own way. So the best thing to do is rather than wasting energy on comparisons, focus on making what you have that much better.

2. What’s going on with the economy is just a way to make businesses stronger. Okay, she’s 28, which means she was an infant during the last big recession. However, she is learning from her father, who not only lived through that recession but nearly went bankrupt. How did her father handle it? He got up every day and did something about it. He didn’t let the fact that he owed millions of dollars with no way to pay it back stop him. He got up every day and did something about it.

What are you doing right now? Are you sitting there waiting for the economy to “get better” so you can start making money? Or are you going to start doing something NOW to make that money?

Businesses are still making money right now. People are still buying products and services. You can make money, you just need to be smart about it.

3. Find what you love and do that. Ivanka had been offered a very prestigious job in another company after graduation, but wanted to work in the family business. Her father questioned that decision, which for a long time made her angry. However, he just wanted to make sure she was doing something she loved and not just getting a job in the family business because she thought it was expected of her.

What I liked about this story was what it said about both Donald and Ivanka. Ivanka knew she loved construction and buildings, so she designed her career around doing what she loved. Her father knew how important doing what you love is, and wanted to make sure Ivanka was following in his footsteps. Not his footsteps in the family business but that she truly was doing something she loved.

Are you doing what you love? Or are you doing what is “expected” of you? Think about it. Make sure you really are designing a business you love and that motivates and excites you.

Have you ever heard of “Dream Boards” or “Treasure Maps”? A Dream Board is a visual picture of the dreams you have for your life. Some of my clients also use this concept to visualize their businesses! It’s their first business plan.

One thing that is important to remember, though, is not to “get stuck” on your dream boards. We all have plans for our future, but it’s important to watch the universe for signs of “its” plans for us. Otherwise, we might miss out on some great opportunities!

Step 1:

Purchase a large piece of paper such as oak tag or poster board in whatever color you like. Also, find 4 thumbtacks and glue or scotch tape. You now have the beginnings of your Dream Board.

Step 2:

In the center of your board, put a picture of you that you really enjoy looking at.

Step 3:

Whatever your dreams, goals, etc., start cutting out pictures that symbolize your dreams and paste them on your board. You can always draw the pictures if you’d like. Can’t draw perfectly? Draw it anyway! (If I can, you can.)

What are some of your dreams? Remember to include all areas of your life on your board– Career/Business, Relationships (self-others), Money, Recreation/Play, Health/Well Being, etc. Get specific…. In fact, be really specific and descriptive!

Go for it!! Enjoy it!! Have fun with it!! Tack it on the wall.

As your dreams continue to grow or change, keep adding to it… Make it the last thing you look at before you go to sleep.

Design a HOMEshop. Invite your friends over and work together on your Dream Boards Spend a few moments in front of it before you start your day!…

Special thanks to Edie Peirera-Hulbert for teaching me the concept of Dream Boards, and to Susan Ban Breathnach and the Unity 4T Prosperity Program for expanding my knowledge.

In this audio, I am interviewed by Rosemary Davis, who is a student at International Coach Academy. She asked if she could interview me for her research paper.

Rosemary is a future mentor coach and had some great questions around the subject of spiritual coaching.

• What is your definition of “Spirituality”?
• What inspired you to use it as one of your coaching tools?
• I noticed that you use breathing and visualization techniques as part of your coaching sessions. Why?
• You have been a coach for 5 years. Can you share with me two examples of outcomes you have experienced with clients?
• What would you recommend to a coach who wanted to use “Spirituality” as part of their portfolio?

Rosemary, thank you once again for a great interview and for agreeing to let us share it.

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This is a very common question when you have a conversation about success.

A coach or a motivational speaker says to you, “You must be willing to do whatever it takes if you want to become successful!”

Yes, I am willing to do whatever it takes . . . as long as I still love my life. Perhaps a single person without children could easily say yes to all of the things required of him or her. But when you’re a family person, all of that changes.

What I am not willing to do, for example, is to work harder than I have to, spend more than 30 hours a week on my business, travel more than once a month, stay up working late, have an alarm clock wake me up at 7 am, or have a client call me on a weekend.

You decide – what are YOU willing to do to become successful?

Most importantly, I am the living proof that you can build a million-dollar business WITHOUT sacrificing your personal happiness working less than 35 hours a week. You just need to focus on the right actions.

In case you hadn’t noticed by now, I’m a big proponent of merging what you’re passionate about with what you do to make a living. And, I’ve noticed that I’m not the only one who believes this. There are experts like Turbo-Charge Your Marketing’s first speaker, Lori Palm, who make a living helping people turn their passion into gold.

Also, there is Janet Bray Attwood, creator of The Passion Test, and Melanie Hoffner who walked me through the first part The Passion Test in an interview I posted on this blog earlier.

A friend of mine, Jeff Howard, that I met through social networking, also coaches people to connect passion, purpose and intention, thus creating a “rock star” presence on the Internet.

I bring this all up for a few of reasons:

1. Today is International Passion Day, a perfect day to talk about following your passion.
2. It is one of my favorite topics and, I believe, with what’s going on with Wall Street and the government, a topic that is very important to talk about and understand.
3. Jeff is launching a very powerful program that is totally in alignment with what I teach as part of the Turbo-Charge Your Marketing program.

You see, Jeff has partnered with Jerry Hart to create an 8-week webinar event called Create Your Social Media Marketing Explosion!.

You can find out more and register here.

Why do I recommend this program? For a couple of reasons:

• First, everywhere you turn, you’re probably hearing about Web 2.0 this and Social Media that … and you may even wonder what it all means. Twitter, Facebook, blogging … it all starts to sound like a science experiment and you may be missing a key ingredient. In fact, this is such an important topic to understand, I’ll be covering it in the third series of teleseminars scheduled for the Spring.

• Second, Jerry is the social media mentor to Fortune 500 companies like Boeing, Sony and Toshiba… His company typically charges five- to six-figure fees to set up programs like this. This information just hasn’t been available to small businesses like yours and mine. Until now.

Jeff and Jerry have created with Create Your Social Media Marketing Explosion! a system that combines the most powerful tools for traffic generation, social media, blogging and really “connect the dots” to put all those missing pieces together for you…and WITH YOU…

…and we’ll be blending all that with my systematized approach to connecting with your true passion and purpose while you ATTRACT your ideal audience to you using a cutting-edge intentional “attraction” system.

I’m trying to fit this into my tight schedule, and I recommend that you do the same!