Have you ever stopped in your tracks and not know which way to turn, which next step to take, whether to start or stop?  Self-doubt creeps in and you start to analyse everything you do, or you completely shut down.  Interestingly, as I sit writing this piece I have stopped and started on multiple occasions, and I am only into the first paragraph.
There are many reasons we hit a creative wall ranging from not getting enough sleep, in a rut, fear, not enough mental stimulation or too much mental stimulation.  The reasons are varied and differ for everyone.  A block can last a few minutes, a few days even months or years. Let’s take a look at a few minutes, hours or days today.
It is worthwhile doing a stocktake of the feelings you felt or what was the trigger for getting into this creative slump.  Sometimes being able to identify what has triggered the inertia. If you are having difficulty in identifying the cause, there are a few little tricks you can do to kickstart your creative and out of the slump.

1. Use the Pomodoro method of 25 minute work slots, 5 minute break, 25 minute work slots, 5 minute break and on the 3rd 25 minute work slot take a 15 minute break.  You can find out more here
2. Disrupt your thinking pattern.  Take a short break whether it be for a coffee or drink to rehydrate this can disrupt your thinking pattern.  You may also consider going for a short brisk walk or spend some time in the sunshine.  Anything that can disrupt the pattern of your current thinking. Make sure whatever you do lasts no less than 5 minutes and no more than 10 minutes.
3. Change your environment. No,don’t worry you don’t have to redecorate your entire office before you can get back to work.  Find somewhere else to do your work.  I have a great little park just over the road from where I live, (pity my WIFI does not stretch that far, lol) I simply pack up my laptop, a coffee and head over there and work for an hour or two on the table and chairs there.  I also sometimes pack up my work and sit in our patio with a nice view. You can also consider a coffee shop to work in for an hour or two, great if you enjoy a buzz and vibe around you.  Wherever you choose, it breaks your thinking and your pattern and is a great way to reset your mood and thinking pattern.
4. Book into local business events that offer brainstorming and interaction, it is a great way to stay in touch with what is happening in your local community, industry and you can come away with some great ideas.  Think about attending a Connect Her event with Brainstorm My Business on the agenda.

If your creative flow is lasting longer than a few hours or days, it may be time to speak to a business coach to gain some clarity and assistance.  If you feel the issue runs deeper, consider speaking to a health professional.

If your business calls for you to write whether it be a blog article, training course, e-book, or a newsletter the task can feel overwhelming if you are not quite in the mood for feeling unprepared.

Writing an article doesn't just mean putting down thoughts into words then typing and writing it. You must capture the interest of your readers and get them to keep on reading. To send your message across you must get the attention of the reader and have a firm grasp of their interest and pique their curiosity.
 
The main ingredient in baking up an article is a large dose of creativity. While creativity may come natural to many people, some just get into a block or something to that effect that can drive them crazy. Many writers have literally torn their hair out when they get writers block and just can't seem to get their creative juices flowing. 
Putting words into images in the readers' mind is an art. A clear and crisp depiction requires a certain flair that only creativity can provide. Similes and metaphors help a lot, but the way an article gets entwined word for word, sentence by sentence then paragraph by paragraph into an entire article develops the essence of the article. 
 
So just what do you have to do when nothing comes to mind? There is no sure fire way to get the perfect ideas but there are easy ways to get your creative juices flowing. No one can guarantee you of having the perfect mindset, but many methods may aid you in achieving that state of mind. Here are five easy ways for that.

1) Keep a diary or a journal with you always. Ideas can be triggered by anything you may hear, see, or smell. Your senses are your radar in finding great ideas. Write all of them into a journal and keep it with you for future reference. You may also write down anything that you have read or heard, someone's ideas could be used to develop your own ideas, and this is not stealing. Remember that ideas and creativity can come from anywhere; it's the development of the idea that makes it unique.

2) Relax and take time to sort things out. A jumbled mind cannot create any space for new ideas. Everyone must have a clear mind if one wishes to have their creativity in full speed. Get rid of all obstacles that can be a hindrance to your creativity. If you are bothered by something, you cannot force your mind to stay focused.
Try to relax every time that you can and think about your experiences and interactions with others. Your experiences are what shape your mindset and your opinions which could be reflected on your writings. Try to discover yourself, find out what triggers your emotions. Discover what inspires you and what frustrates you. You can use these emotions to help you in expressing yourself and your ideas, with this you can grow creatively.

3) Create a workplace that can inspire your creativeness. Your workplace can be quite a hindrance if it doesn't make you feel happy or relaxed. Creativity comes from being in a good state of mind and a messy workplace that causes distraction won't be conducive to a creative flow.
 Surround your workplace with objects that make you happy and relaxed. You may put up pictures, objects that inspire, diffuse essential oils or anything that can get your creativeness flowing. A clean and well-organized workplace also rids distractions and unwanted hindrances. With a good working place, you can work in peace and never notice the time passing by.
 
4) Set the mood. Setting the mood requires you to just go with the moment or to induce yourself to feeling what makes your mind works best. Finding out what makes you tick could help you find ways to get your creative juices flowing. Set the pace and tempo for your mood and everything else will follow.
There are many ways to set the mood. If you can’t create the mood, in your office, move you and your laptop to somewhere that creates a mood, such as the back garden, a park or a coffee shop.  

5) Letting yourself go and have fun produces adrenaline that can make your imagination go wild. Take an adventure or a solemn hike. Whatever it is that is unusual from your daily routine to take the rut out of your schedule. In no time at all, your creativeness will make use of that experience and get your imagination to go on overdrive.
 
And now……………….. it’s time to go write

 There are some people in this world that are born readers, they will read anything they can lay their hands on.  That happens to be me.  I love reading.  As a child, I would look forward to the day the “Book Club” brochure would arrive at school.  I would carefully go through the catalogue and rate each book as to which ones I would like to order.  I had a maximum spend each month so I would want to make sure I got as much reading as I possibly could for my allowance.
At school from an early age, I could regularly be found in the library.  I was mortified when the library closed during play break and only opened during lunchtime and before school.   It was a relief to go to high school where the library was open extended hours.  The local council library was also one of my favorite places to visit.  
As a young adult, train, and bus rides to and from work gave me the ability to devour books at a great rate of knots.  Once the responsibilities of adulthood, corporate roles and relationships came into fruition, reading quickly took a back step.
A commitment to myself and a new Kindle has reinvigorated my love of reading yet again.  What I found is just twenty minutes of reading a day has such a positive impact, many you don’t think of.  NO matter whether you are reading education books, romance, drama, a magazine or the paper, there are certainly benefits.  Here are just a few:

• Transport yourself to another place with a few turns of the page
• Time to unwind from the day
• Time for you
• Educational
• Self-help books can really help and give you a new perspective
• Inject curiosity
• Spelling improves
• Vocabulary improvements
• Positivity improves
• Awareness
• Concentration and focus improve
• Contributions to conversation increases

There you have my twelve benefits that I found reading twenty minutes a day can bring to or back to your life.  Give it a go, you will love it!  Check out Podcast episode 135 for more detailed information.

As a child growing up in what used to be what seemed the end of the line country town in WA, I remember how everyone knew everyone. It was an era where the local grocer, pharmacist and store owners knew our names. I clearly remember the pharmacist giving out specially made jellybean bags just for the kiddies. Mum’s and dads were greeted at the door with “Good morning, Mrs so and so or Mr so and so.”  It was personalised good old-fashioned service.
As we become more populated and the end of the line towns become major cities and suburbs along with automation, the ability to offer personalised service is becoming less and less doable but increasingly wanted.
Let’s throw into the mix things such as social media, automated phone services and self-serve checkouts that drive everybody mad, plus the onset of automated intelligence and it seems that good old-fashioned service and personalisation can be left behind. Or have they?
As a small to medium business owner, we can personalise our service and go the extra mile. Let’s face it, everyone has a big sign above their head saying, “Make me feel special.”  So how can we make our clients and customers feel special?
Here are some top tips:

• Send emails with the person’s name <<First name>> in the subject line and body of the email. Use mail merge or your email service such as Mailchimp or Sender
• Run Poll’s in your FB group to determine the needs of your audience
• Run competitions with your product such as photo ops wearing or using your product
• Send SMS’s specific to your database around a new product or service (use their name)
• Mention locations they are familiar with in emails and SMS.
• Call outs on your socials for your customers businesses or services
• Stay in touch, call, email, text with pertinent topics, articles, or information of interest
• Email or SMS birthday vouchers, exclusive offers specific to an occasion, their birthday, your birthday, anniversary of them becoming a customer/client
• Celebrate their wins and special occasions. Send a handwritten note or card for birthdays or special occasions. Leave the sales pitch out, that is in your email or SMS. (Send cards from your phone try bit.ly/chcardapp)

Drop a comment below if you have ways that you incorporate customer appreciation and personalisation into your business.

I have been reflecting over the last few weeks, the lessons that I've learned during the years 2020 and 2021. 
I remember 2019 was a year where my business was booming and things were going so well.  As you probably remember, everything started to change in March of 2020, and like everyone else, my business changed and my world changed. Living in Melbourne, the most locked-down city in the world proved to be challenging to say the least.
I did learn some valuable lessons throughout this time. Lessons that are not only around my business but also personally as well as professionally.
I'm going to share with you the lessons that I learned in what could only be deemed as a trying time.

1. Plans and planning don't always go to schedule or work. During 2020, the plans that I had for my business, which as I had said, was booming had to be put on hold. We needed to change. It meant that the plans that I had, needed to be re-looked at and reworked  It's OK to have to change the plan. It's OK to have to rework what your ideal is. It wasn't what I wanted to do, but I knew that I had to do it. Because of the plans I had, they weren't going to work in the environment. It wasn't going to work to the schedule that I had planned either.
2.  It's OK to change your goals. My goals have stayed relatively the same, I've just had to change a lot of how I was going to get there. It also meant that I've had to change some of the goals slightly, they've been readjusted, which was difficult for me. To make sure that I felt comfortable with changing the goals. I was really specific when I started my Connect Her® business of where I wanted to head and how and when I wanted to get there. Little did I know when I was in the planning stages of my business setting up my goals that there would be a global pandemic that I would have to take into consideration. So guess what? Yes, it's OK to change your goals.
3. It's OK to change business structure. I had to dramatically change my business structure. During 2020 I lost branch leaders through fear of the unknown, change of circumstance and a multitude of other reasons. It meant that I had to look at the way I ran my business and the structure of my business. Only recently Connect Her® have adapted our business structure to a more streamlined affair. It means that we run fewer branches, but we have them open to more people. So instead of stretching ourselves to operating in many suburbs, we now operate in city councils. It makes way more sense in what we're doing. although I didn't necessarily want to change the business structure, I knew it was the best thing for the business and also the existing leaders that we had within the business. Sometimes circumstances allow us an opportunity to re-look at the business when we may have just continued and got too far into it to be able to change what we're doing.
4. This is been a hard one for me. But it's about adaptability. Often I looked at everything as black or white and there's no grey. The fact of the matter is when you're running a business when you're an entrepreneur when you're a leader, you have to be adaptable.  Looking at your business can feel like you are being told that your baby is ugly. It isn't really. However, circumstances change, things change, plans change, and being able to adapt effectively is the way that a business can survive, grow and move forward.
5. Self-preservation. I found the last lockdown 6 in Melbourne one of the hardest. I'm not sure why, but it hit me hard. The first lockdown in 2020  didn’t bother me too much I almost thought of myself as an introverted extrovert. I enjoyed the time to myself working on the business and not rushing around. Over  2019 I was constantly on the go, rushing around to meetings and generally rushing.  So the 2020 lockdown was like a gift for me. I was able to sit back, relax and work on my business which I loved. By 2021 it was too much working and not enough community and interaction. I found that I was crying more, my ambition to be working on my business dwindled, my motivation levels were down, sometimes I just wanted to lock the door and not see anyone.  I'm here to tell you that it's OK. It's OK to cry. It's OK to shut the door and not see people. It's OK to lose motivation in your business. It's OK! We are only human. We're allowed to do stuff like that. What I do want to say, however, is if you're getting to the point where shutting the door and crying all the time, isn’t healthy. You need to make sure you've got a good mental health support system in place.
6. Fun It's all about fun. One thing that I discovered in 2020. was I love to paint. Yes, that's right. I love to paint. I picked up a paintbrush for the first time since high school, an artist stretched canvas and painted. I watched some video tutorials on how to use brushes properly, how to blend colours and also how to use them, how to use pallet knives.  IT started as a bit of a joke and has ended up being something I love. I have come to love painting, my mind slips away into a space where I don't think about anything. I relax, I feel calm. It's almost like a meditational space for me. I may not be any good at it, who knows, but I love it and it is my slice of fun. Your fun might be going for a ride, getting involved with making clay art, photography or making resin jewellery? It may be a creative outlet or it could be a physical outlet like boxing, Zumba, running, any type of activity. Whatever it is, make sure that it's fun and it is injecting fun into your life so you enjoy it. Make it your time away from everything else. I think out of all of the points, all of the lessons that I learned, the most important point is about the fun. For me, I'd started to become a bit of a workaholic, injecting this fun into my life has made a massive difference.

So there have the lessons that I learnt from 2020 and 2021. If you'd like more information, you can listen to the podcast episode 128. There is a bit more information in there than what I can fit in this blog article, but I'm sure you'll get some great information from it.

​At the time of writing this article, the country was a different and changing place to what it was on the 31st December 2019. Now, interstate borders are closing, and our international borders are under discussion. Lockdown is a new normal.
We all know we are in some challenging and never before experienced times. All that being said, it gives us a chance to hit the ‘reset button’ on our business and our lives. Let’s discuss business.
We can pivot our business just as a graceful ballerina does on the big stage, changing direction elegantly and with grace.
We can ponder what to do with our business as each day is a new and changing environment. We can also plan how we are going to come out the other end and plan how our business will look in the future. We can also step our businesses through these three key steps as we plan and ponder our business progression.
Pivot: A pivot in your business is where you gently change the direction of your business whilst still maintaining the essence and core of your business. When you pivot in your business, you don’t want to take such dramatic change of direction that your true business is lost. An example of this is the Connect Her events, we pivoted to holding online meetings as opposed to the face to face, social meetings. The essence of the business is still the same, running events for business women, offering education, inspiration and connection, be it now as an on-line model for the foreseeable future.

Ponder: Pondering can give you the time to consider your options, look at the lay of the land, reassess your approach, your business, your ideal client, formulate new ideas. Pondering and assessing for too long however can lead to the other ‘P’ word – procrastination. Allow your self a period of time that you feel comfortable with to ponder so you have a timeframe. Once the time frame is up it about taking action and it could move you into a pivot or planning.

Planning: Every business needs time to plan whether it be new strategies, new programs, new ideas, financial goals, product development and now is a perfect time to plan your next move. The changes in our business world may hold opportunities for you and your business you had never considered. With Connect Her going to on-line meetings opened up further opportunities that  had never been considered before. There is an opportunity to look at your business with a new set of lenses and see if there are different opportunities, expanded opportunities or methods to develop your business. As the environment is changing it maybe plans for the next 7, 14 or 30 days.
Pivoting, pondering and planning will give you a sense of control and a sense of your business progressing. 

Article Originally Written: March 2020

As we move from one year to the next it brings to life an opportunity to set our business and ourselves up for success. Failing to plan is planning to fail. There are some great workshops and courses available (check the Connect Her Collective FB group for events) which can assist you on the right path.  We also have some fabulous goal setting tools in the Connect Her Club
If you prefer to work on your own goals and not with a coach or workshop it is great to have some steps outlined. Using these 5 key steps is a great start to setting you and your business on the path to success for the new year.
If you are attending a goal setting workshop or have a business coach these steps will also assist you with the pre-work.
Firstly, find an area with minimal distractions, turn off notifications and your phone to silent. Grab yourself a nice coffee, tea or juice and go to the loo before you start. Nothing like setting the scene for success and being prepared. Aaaah… doesn’t that feel better?

Step One: ASSESS: Assess what worked well over the last 12 months, what could have worked better and what no longer serves it’s purpose for you or your business. Write them down in 3 columns. (it makes it easier during planning)

Step Two: RESET: Now is the time to draw a line in the sand and reset your intention and attention for the coming year. Ok, so somethings didn’t go how you thought they would, that’s ok. Some things went better than you thought, well done, pat yourself on the back, do a happy dance, you are awesome. Now it is time to wash, rinse, repeat on what went well or better than expected. ………And the clock starts NOW! Yes, it’s time to reset.

Step Three: PLAN: Take a big piece of paper (butchers paper works well for this) and plan what you want to achieve in your life, business, personal, spiritual, financial the areas you want to achieve changes or progress. Be bold, be audacious, be strong, be wise and be cheeky. 

Step Four: ACTION: Now you have a plan of what you would like to achieve, it is the time to set down some actions to make sure your plan moves from a planning paper to action delivery. When planning your actions remember the S.M.A.R.T goals Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely Be sure to write all of these down on paper (brain to hand to eye to subconscious)

Step Five: Focus: Once you have your plan, goals and actions in place break them down into weekly, monthly, quarterly goals or the bite size pieces that will suit you and your business the best and then focus on a few tasks, actions or plans a week. Keep it simple and reasonable so it avoids overwhelm. Be sure to track your achievements and celebrate your wins. Taking some time to set upyour five steps at the end of the year or beginning of a new year is 5 simple steps to set you up for success.

​What do you do to set you and your business up for success?

Whether you are a small to medium business owner, solopreneur, network marketer or an on-line marketer, there are times where we find ourselves hiding out in our business. Daily grind, regular tasks, product creation, clients, and all t​he other things that come with being a business owner can drive us further and further into our business and further and further away from connecting with others. Occasionally, these tasks and working in and on the business can be an easy excuse to hide away.
By driving ourselves further away from connecting with others we are really doing an injustice to our business and ultimately to ourselves. We human’s are creatures of connection; we love to connect with other human beings. Community, purpose and connection are key factors that can play an integral part of keeping the endorphins high, the creativity flowing and a positive attitude.

​There are a multitude of benefits to getting out and about and connecting with others, including: ·

• Refresh our ideas 
• Personal invigoration 
• Enhancing our knowledge base 
• Opening up opportunities both personally and professionally 
• Gaining new perspectives

There are several ways we can get out and about that can be cost effective and easy to implement:
·

• Attending networking events
• Business owners informal meetings
• Skype or Zoom meetings 
• Attending seminars and live events
• Attending community projects 
• Attending local commerce meetings

Before attending it is wise to set an objective as to what your purpose for attending the event maybe. It could be anything from making a new business connection through to gleaning a new idea for your business, the list is endless. Aim for at least one event per week for a minimum of two hours, this should get you kick started into getting out of your business and into making some valuable lasting connections.
Set a plan at The beginning of the month and book into the event early and have it in your planner/diary. 

​We have all been in the situation somewhere, sometime, somehow stuck with someone that isn’t a talker or gives yes or no answers even to open ended questions, the conversation stalls and so does your brain so you ended up talking incessantly.

Maybe you have a Connect Her Connection meeting or Coffee catch up and you think, oh no, I have met this person before and I know everything about them. Guess what? We don’t know everything about everyone.

Sometimes just using a weird, strange or unusual question into the mix can open up the flood gates.

It is interesting, when we use a question which isn’t quite in context of our usual ‘networking’ questions you can see the mood shift. You can almost see the shoulders relax, the face relax and a giggle or laugh emerge bringing spontaneity into the conversation. Here are some conversation starters to get you started.

Conversation Starters……………………..
What would you like to get better at?
What made your brain grow today?
What problems or challenges did you work on this month?
What is your favourite way to feel calm?
What is one quality you look for in a friend?
Who  is your best client?
What is your favourite day of the week?
When do you feel you are more productive in the morning or the afternoon?
How can someone become famous?
Android or Apple?
Tell me about something you do every day?
How often do you check your emails?
What do you do to relax after a business day?
Describe your perfect day?
What do you like the most about the person sitting next to you (on the left) (on the right)?
f you could invite two other people to join us, who would they be?
​What is the one thing that is your absolute must have for a business meeting?

​Do you have your favourite conversation starter?

​Have you ever contemplated who you really are? I mean not what you do but who you really are.

How would your family members, best friend or colleagues describe you? When we are asked to say who we are generally the first words that come to mind are the roles that we play in life. I’m a business owner, wife, mother, sister, brother, aunt, coach, confidante, personal trainer, web site designer, image consultant, and the list goes on.

These labels are the roles we play in life and most generally we describe ourselves as to the role we play or the position we hold. Have you thought more deeply about who you are? When we know who we truly are and appreciate our strengths and our traits it allows us the freedom to embrace who we truly are and be who we truly want to be. A great exercise is to grab a pen and paper and on one side of the page at the top write the heading
I am a…………………
This is where you can write down all of the labels, those roles or job descriptions. These roles don’t define who we are, the roles change as the seasons of our lives change, job changes and relationship changes.
On the other side of the paper is where we really get to think about who we truly are, what makes us tick, who we truly are, our core essence, all of this enveloped in our values. I am kind, sincere, happy, generous, grateful, calm, ambitious, faithful, determined, courageous, optimistic….. Head this page up with
I am ………
Now is your time to contemplate and think about who you truly are. For some people this is a difficult task to consider their true essence, what makes them tick. It may be helpful to think about how your best friend or a special family member would describe you.

Maybe light a lovely candle, put on some soft music and diffuse an essential oil and take some time out for you to figure out who you are. This is the last part of the exercise and is a powerful moment.

As you read through your list of I am, consider if you were to meet you in one of the roles on the other side of the page would you like you? Would you want to be friends with you? Would you want to sit down and share lunch or chat with you?

If you’re not sure in some of the areas, this is a great place to start looking at how to be more of what you are happy with. This exercise is a powerful exercise to do 2 or 3 times a year as a little self-check in. Are you going to try this for yourself? Doing this exercise often you can continue the friendship with yourself.