by Susan K Morrow | Aug 19, 2024 | Business/Entrepreneurs, The Psychic's Personal Stories, Your Life
Twenty-five years! I can’t believe it myself, but there it is: I started my first business, Corporate Habitat, June 1, 1999. What I have learned in all this time would fill a book, maybe a series of books, but here are a few nuggets that have served me well.
MoJo Pro-Tip #1: “You don’t need any of that, all you need is–.”
When I started my first business, I was of course very excited and I called my dad, who was self-employed most of his life. I told him, “I’m going to need a new computer, an email address, a designated phone line, plus one for faxes and internet (it was 1999), and business cards, probably letterhead—”
Daddy stopped me. “Wait, wait. You don’t need any of that. What you need is a client. Until you have a client, you don’t have a business.”
Ohhhh.
Daddy conceded that I probably needed business cards (again, it was 1999), but I could go down to Kwik Kopy (remember?) and get those pretty cheap.
I’ve never forgotten that little nugget. You can put all the window dressing on your business that you want, but until you have a client, ya ain’t got nothin’!
MoJo Pro-Tip #2: WFH Basics
Starting my first business out of my home in 1999, I was fresh out of corporate, and my clients were corporations, so I set some ground rules for myself based on my corporate experience. Even though many things about business, and my business in particular, have changed, I still stick to these for the most part.
- Set a schedule and stick to it. (Overtime notwithstanding.) Back in the day, I had school-aged children, so I got up about the same time I did when I had a job-job, got them off to school, and then went to my office. I usually knocked off about the time they came home from school, then headed back for a couple of hours after they went to bed at 8:00.
- Dress like you would if you were meeting people in person. Working in your pj’s is fun and comfy, but in the same way that a smile can be heard over the phone (I learned that in all that sales training I went through!), the way you feel about your appearance, as well as your competence, worthiness, and more, will come through in your voice, in your emails, and in your marketing copy.
- Don’t watch TV (movies, video games) during the work day.
- Designated a separate space, no matter how small, for your office. Don’t try to work at your kids’ homework table, the breakfast table, or where you pay the bills. You need a corner or a closet or some space to call your own, preferably with a door. (I have not had a door for almost my entire career as an entrepreneur, but I am about to get one and I could not be more thrilled.)
- And speaking of being alone while you work, get out of the house at least once a day. When I first started, part of my service was to visit job sites for my clients, so I had to get out. Later, when most of my clients met with me over the phone, I still made sure to get out and about, because stir-crazy is a thing.
- Find a way to socialize at least a little. During some of my slower times, the free networking group I attended (and led for two of the seven years I was there) every week was like church without the religion. The group became like family, and during both prosperous times and leaner times, that group was where I got the majority of my business.
- Give yourself comp time. In my first business, among other tasks, I managed large corporate moves. For the days of the move, we started Friday evening, worked all weekend, and then met the client’s employees at the new offices early Monday morning. It didn’t take me long to figure out that working a full week after that did not work! And I was still young! So if you have to work a late night or a weekend, if you run seminars or retreats, if you sell your wares at fairs, be sure you get some time off to recuperate.
- Don’t forage for food all day. This may not be an issue for you, and it wasn’t for me, as I don’t eat when I am not hungry, but if you tend to wander into the kitchen to graze if you are at home, set a plan for yourself to keep from overeating or eating too much junk food.
MoJo Pro-Tip #3: My Secret Shame
I hate to admit it: I have never been very good at “sales.” With my first business, I didn’t have to sell at all, because I was filling a niche that architects loved me for, and I was good at it, so architects (and many of my contractors) sent new business my way without my even have to ask.
But the truth is, from my first sale of a box of cookies as a Brownie Girl Scout, through leasing apartments, to selling office furniture… I confess, I’m not much good at it. (But I was really excited to sell that box of cookies!)
No, you can’t “fix” it for me. I have attended countless sales workshops and trainings and gobbled up a bunch of books on selling.
I understand all the concepts. I know the right words to say and all the types of “closes.” I know about “they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” I know how to create a call to action.
But it doesn’t matter. People have never bought from me when I use those old-school, bro-biz methods.
So yeah, I’m not so proud of those long-ago jobs that made me feel like a failure. But I can set that aside, because I am proud of the way I talk to people, connecting with them like I like them—because I do.
You may have heard me say that my favorite thing in the whole tired world [sic] is sittin’ around and vistin’.
Well, when people sit and visit with me, they want to buy from me. Or they don’t. I make a client-friend or I make a friend-friend. I win either way–and so do my clients.
If you’re not great at sales, try this “relationship marketing” thing. And that brings us to
MoJo Pro-Tip #4: Networking
For some, it’s bliss, for others a necessary evil. But, as I mentioned in the “Secret Shame” section, it can be very effective for growing your biz. I happen to be an extrovert, which makes it easy for me to network, and I became really good at it when I was leading a large networking group in the early 2000s. I even taught a networking workshop! However, even introverts can become effective networkers.
The reason networking works is that we have entered into an era of marketing with divine feminine values. In other words, this ain’t your grandpa’s Rotary Club.
Networking now is about connection and community, business owners supporting one another through their personal relationships. If you can be a friend, you can use networking to build your business.
Now, some of the old “rules” still apply:
- Don’t come on strong, handing out metaphorical business cards before someone asks, expecting to receive referrals of perfect clients immediately.
- Yes, give referrals to get referrals, but at the same time, keep in mind that the people you give referrals to will probably not be the ones who give you referrals.
- The old 30-second elevator speech is still good to have in your pocket:
- Name
- Business name, if any
- What you do
- Who you serve
- And asking for referrals should be as specific as possible. We had a chiropractor show up one day who said, “I’m looking for anyone with a spine.” He got some chuckles but no referrals. Now, if he had said, “I have openings in my practice for women who have new babies three months old or less, and had a c-section,” people would have come up with someone. Because that kind of request will make you go, “Oh, my neighbor…!” or “Yes, my daughter-in-law!” True story.
MoJo Pro-Tip #5: Contractors
Note: Be sure to check your state’s hiring laws about the difference between a contractor and an employee. Many states have strict laws about what makes an employee, and you can get into big trouble for violating them.
VA’s (Virtual Assistants, ICYDK) to coaches, bringing a contractor onto your team can be priceless. You don’t have to “manage” a contractor at all. Depending on your relationship with them, they will likely do what they do with little input from you (after onboarding, of course), and/or tell you what you need to do.
For example, I hired business manager/coach/emotional support human Lindsey Lopez (https://VirtuallyLindsey.com) a while back to help me get organized and find focus for moving my business forward. It turned out that she knew everything about business that I didn’t know, and then some. Keep in mind, I have been self-employed now for 25 years and somehow, Lindsey knows much more, so that is saying a lot. She also knows the latest trends in business of all kinds, but it seems to me like she is a specialist in exactly what I do. She has become indispensable to me, so I keep her on retainer!
Now, every business owner comes to the point of “I can’t get bigger until I can hire help, but I can’t hire help until I get bigger.” But that’s why contractors are so helpful. You can hire someone for a project or a launch, to write content for you, or to teach you how to do things for yourself instead of adding an employee before you are ready.
Comment below: Which of these tips did you find helpful? If you have been in business awhile, what other good basics would you add to this list?
by Susan K Morrow | Dec 15, 2013 | Business/Entrepreneurs, Money & Spirit
From Pamela Bruner of Make Your Success Easy
www.MakeYourSuccessEasy.com
888-736-0620
pamela@makeyoursuccesseasy.com
Should Healing Be Free?
I received an email this week from one of my subscribers, saying that he wouldn’t participate in a very low-priced tapping offering because the people that he worked with (people with addictions, depression, etc) couldn’t afford it. He also said that the spirit of EFT was to be given away, not sold.
I hear this frequently from healers. There are some who believe that healing should be given away, and that to make money, especially to make more money than you need for subsistence living, is just wrong if you’re a healer. I disagree with this, and here’s why.
1) Just because some people can’t afford something doesn’t mean that it should be given away free to all. Some people can’t afford to shop at Walmart. Should Walmart give away their wares? I’m not arguing against charity – I believe strongly in giving back. I believe that businesses have a responsibility to charge for the transformation that they provide, and then give back in some way as well. But if you give it all away, you’re broke, out of business, and have NOTHING to give back. Jack Canfield taught me ‘When you’re poor, the good that you can do is limited to your physical presence.’ Jack taught me how to write multi-thousand dollar checks to charity. Wouldn’t you like to have more reach?
2) People value what they pay for. Period. I’ve seen it over and over again. Free resources go unused, dismissed, and de-valued – no matter how valuable – just because they are free. Giving tastes of what you do for free is great – it allows people to sample, experiment and lower their risk before they invest with you. EVERY wealthy EFTer I know, and unfortunately there aren’t many, gives away free support in some form. But giving everything away – or underpricing it – means that the transformation you provide will in many cases be ignored. And that’s a real shame. (It also creates an attitude of entitlement, which is currently rampant in the world and further disempowers people.)
3) You have to take care of yourself to do your work well. It may be true in healing that the work comes through you, not by you, and that you’re acting as a channel for Spirit. But if you’re constantly overworked, stressed about money, or not practicing good self-care because you don’t have the time or the resources, you’re not an effective healer/coach/practitioner. You do actually need to live well, take time off, eat good food, etc, in order to do your best work – the work that truly serves your clients and the world.
4) If you’re a healer, and you’re broke, it’s probably not because you’re chock-full of clients and not charging enough. It’s because you don’t have enough clients, which means you’re not helping as many people as you could. In order to truly help people, you need to get out, market yourself, grow your business, talk to people, be confident in what you do, and so much more. This takes time, energy, and yes – money. To do good, it takes cash. It’s been said ‘It took millions to keep Mother Teresa poor.’ She was constantly attracting money, although she didn’t choose to keep it for herself. Is your system working that well?
5) Poverty is not a status-symbol. Humans all have a need for status (this is a psychological fact.) There is always something that you are better at than someone else, and something that others are better at than you. Too many healers are claiming poverty as a status symbol, i.e. ‘I’m a better person because I’m not rich, in fact I’m barely scraping by.’ I’ll admit that I used to hold this mistaken, disempowering belief back when I was a musician. Because I couldn’t make that much money, I would denigrate those who did. It was petty. It’s not noble to be poor. Look for another way to feel good about yourself, rather than poverty.
If you want to be poor, you can. If you want to make more money, you can do that as well. Be aware that it’s a choice, and empower yourself by honoring both the choice that works for you, and the choice made by those who want to do more good in the world by becoming wealthy, and sharing their gifts.
by Susan K Morrow | Dec 15, 2013 | Business/Entrepreneurs, Interesting Info, Money & Spirit, The Psychic Has Pspoken!, Your Life
“Why Did I Attract THIS?”
That’s the question we all need to ask all the time. Many people have seen “The Secret” and have been studying the Law of Attraction, so they’re starting to be conversant in some of its principles.
In my practice as a psychic medium and medical intuitive, I’ve noticed that my clients don’t get the whole picture of just what this attraction thing is.
Simply stated, the Law of Attraction is a law of physics that applies to your life in that what you put your attention on is naturally drawn to you. Most people look at this law thus: “How can I attract more money/love/etc.?”
And that is great. That is the best use of the Law of Attraction and if you are consistently attracting things, people, relationships, and experiences that please you, I congratulate you! That is fantastic!
Unfortunately, that is not the case for about 99% of us out there. Most of us continue to attract at least a few things that we’re not too crazy about and here’s the kicker: NOBODY KNOWS THEY’RE DOING IT.
By focusing our attention on things, experiences, relationships, and feelings–that we like or do not like–we attract them into our lives.
You read that right: THAT WE LIKE OR DO NOT LIKE. Everything in your life right now, like it or not, has been attracted to you BY YOU. Ta-dum! You are the author of your own life, so I hope it’s a book you really enjoy reading.
A while back, within one week, I talked to three clients who were actually offended when I suggested that they had attracted experiences into their life that they didn’t like. “Why would I attract THAT?” they demanded. “I don’t want THAT, it’s BAD.”
Right, I get that. I understand that you don’t consciously want car trouble, health problems, bad grades, bad breath, or whatever. Who would?
And that’s exactly why you need to ask, “Why did I attract THIS?” Anything that gets your attention for better or worse, ask the question.
Here’s a dire example. My husband died suddenly several years ago and left me with two small children to raise and very little life insurance. Why did I attract THAT?
Why indeed. I may never know all the reasons, but I know there are some, probably many. You know what I always say–everything happens not for A reason, but for many reasons.
And with some of these larger things (and maybe the small things too), rest assured that, at some point before your birth, your spirit got together with other spirits to plan some of the important events you wanted in your lives as humans.
This is why we sometimes have trouble understanding-we don’t communicate with our own spirits very well. It’s why we attract both things we like and things we don’t.
The good news is that, once you recognize that your thoughts and energy have created what you’ve got–you have all the power to create what you DO like from here on out.
Easier said that done? Absolutely. Impossible? Not at all.
I’ve just urged you to ask the question, “Why did I attract THIS?” for anything you encounter that is not the best possible thing. (It’s a good idea to ask the question for those things you like, too, so you learn how to bring more of those into your life.)
And here’s another lesson in this seedy underbelly of the Law of Attraction: what about undesirable things that happen to other people who are in your life? Well, they are in your life, so you have attracted them, right? Parents, children, spouses, etc. So what happens to them is part of your life too.
Let’s say that your spouse contracts an illness. Did your spouse attract this illness? Yes. Did you attract this illness to your spouse? No, BUT you attracted an ill spouse into your own life.
Aha! Do you get that? So the illness itself, as a THING, is serving multiple purposes for multiple people.
“Why would I attract THAT?”
GREAT QUESTION! Please continue to ask it.
There can be any number of reasons why you would be served by your spouse’s illness, to wit, an opportunity to care for this person who has given you so much, proof to yourself that you are strong and capable in the way you deal with this, an urge to make changes in your life… the list of possibilities is endless.
If you are asking the question “Why did I attract THIS?”, and the answers are hard to find, a good psychic who understands the workings of the Universe and is also a medical intuitive (such as yours truly) will help you figure out just “Why did I attract THIS?”
I hope you’re hungry, because this is a lot of food for thought.
by Susan K Morrow | Dec 15, 2013 | Business/Entrepreneurs, Money & Spirit, The Psychic Has Pspoken!, Your Life
For those of you who are, like me, old enough to remember such things, there was a delightful little sitcom on TV in the ’70s, called “Laverne & Shirley”. It spun off from another sitcom, “Happy Days”. (While it may have been a while ago, my barely-grown daughters are familiar with both shows, so you probably are too. But if not, you can always Google it.)
Laverne and Shirley were roommates and best friends, so in the pilot episode, they moved into their new basement apartment in Milwaukee. A scene that sticks with me is where Laverne is trying to get her key out of the lock. She’s tugging with all her might, pushing one foot against the door for leverage, but the key won’t budge.
The landlady stops by and Laverne complains, “I can’t the stupid key out of the lock!” The landlady reaches for the key and pulls it out with ease.
“How did you do that?” Laverne asks, incredulous.
“Don’t force it–pull,” replies the landlady quite simply.
Later, the scene is played out again with Shirley sliding out the key and telling Laverne, “Don’t force it–pull.”
I’ve thought about this a lot lately. Not because I have so much time to think about 1970s sitcoms, but because any time I feel like I am not attracting, creating, or accomplishing what I really desire, this simple phrase pops into my head: Don’t force it–pull.
Replace “pull” with “allow” or “receive” and you’ve got a powerful motto.
Sometimes when I feel like I am working very hard to create or attract what I want, I get this message and I think, I have to walk away, let go of all this “action” and simply allow my desires to manifest.
This is for you.
by Susan K Morrow | Dec 15, 2013 | Business/Entrepreneurs, Money & Spirit, The Psychic Has Pspoken!, Your Life
[originally published May 30, 2008] —> NOTICE THIS ORIGINAL DATE! I’VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THIS FOR A WHILE! (And this was BEFORE the crash in October, 2008.)
“This has GOT to stop!” Thus spake my beloved grandmother on the occasion of her 80th birthday, as she craned her imperious, permanent-waved head toward the car’s power window to criticize my father. Several members of the family were packed into two cars and had discovered yet a third Houston restaurant to be closed.
Grandmother’s words were never more pertinent than now: This talk of recession has got to stop!
Every headline reeks of havoc, recession, human-rights violations, oppression, fatigue, war, and Arma-crazy-geddon. I’m telling you, I’ve had it. This has got to stop!
I look around me and everywhere I see a nation of big consumers. Sure, we gripe about the high price of gas, but we keep buying it. We keep driving wherever we want to or have to go. As a nation, we give generously to charitable causes at home and abroad. We keep buying more iPhones® and Wiis® and the other latest gadgets. We have so much disposable income, we now lag only behind Brazil in per capita elective plastic surgeries. And we have so much good food that we continue to be the fattest people on the planet.
Despite the record federal debt, we remain fabulously wealthy, compared with any time in history and any nation thus far. And yet, all we see are headlines and news stories reporting that the Dow dipped again or the NASDAQ saw its worst day since two-thousand-whatever or the economy is headed for heck in a handbasket, if it hasn’t already arrived. A cautiously optimistic headline like, “Retailers rejoice over a strong May” gets buried like it’s decomposing.
Stop it already! The thoughts and ideas that we entertain the most are the ones that continue to grow. In other words, talk of a good economy encourages more of that good thing. Likewise, endless talk of recession creates recession. Think about it. The last time the economy was great, it just kept getting greater. Remember the famous quote from the first Clinton campaign in ’92, “It’s the economy, stupid”? Well, that was no accident. The economy seemed to take on a fanciful life of its own when everyone noticed how great it was.
When was the last time you saw a good headline about the economy? I have actually seen a few, but they seem to be snatched off the internet headlines like dry laundry off the line, to be replaced with dirty laundry about–what else? Recession.
If you need help, here’s a great story to hang your hat on: Very recently, a couple of my friends decided they wanted to move to another neighborhood. They listed their house with a Realtor® and held an open house on a Saturday. That day, there were 11 showings of the house. By the following Monday evening, they had six-count ’em, six-offers on their house. The best one was considerably higher than the asking price.
2011 update: My sister recently sold her house similarly quickly–listed on Wednesday, open house Saturday, three serious offers on Monday, two of whom got into a little bidding war, and my sister and her husband reaped more than their asking price!
This is not an isolated incident, and yet we hear nothing about it in the news. We must find those happy stories and hang onto them with all our might! Believe me, our might is better spent that way than on sorrier tales.
I’m not asking you to give up all bad news. And I’m certainly not suggesting that you live in a dreamy bubble, ignoring war or famine or people who need your care. All I am saying is, please stop writing and reading and listening to the news stories that say only bad and negative things every blessed day. And when you find a good story, for all our sakes, milk it for all it’s worth!
Remember, as Grandmother said, “This has GOT to stop!”
by Susan K Morrow | Dec 15, 2013 | Business/Entrepreneurs, Health & Spirit, Money & Spirit, Suzi-Q & A, The Psychic Has Pspoken!, Your Life
Oy! It can be confusing sometimes, just living in this human life, day after day. And you may have noticed that I have been talking about beliefs lately… See this post and/or this one.
And if you listened in on the little audio about wealth I did recently, you may have heard me talking about beliefs there too. In meditation, my angels revealed this to me:
You create what you believe, and you believe what you create.
Simple? Yes. Easy? No way.
Let’s take a closer look at this. You know that you are creating all the time, right? That everything in your life, every feeling, every person and relationship, every material thing, every experience–you’ve created and attracted and allowed all of it. Right? Okay.
And you further know that you can change everything in your life by choosing to change it and thinking about it. (For more info on Law of Attraction, refer to www.Abraham-Hicks.com and get a BEST Psychic Reading with me.)
So what this deal is saying is that (a) you create what you believe–okay, so you’re sitting there, wallowing in beliefs like “I’m not good enough” or “I can’t make more money” or “I’m fat” or whatever negative thing you’re thinking. And you create that. You have created that thing you don’t like and don’t want.
However, before you do anything else, you automatically accept what you see and experience as reality. So (b) you believe what you create. Looking at what you now have, you say, “This is real, this is reality, this is what I have. I believe it.”
And then you create what you believe.
Yeah, a vicious cycle indeed.
What can you do about it? Try not believing what you think is real. Try not believing at all. Try believing something that you can’t see or feel right now.
And when you’ve got it licked, let me know!
