Cindy's Blog #3

The fear is gripping me again. I am excited to have one person registered for my September Group Coaching program. And, I’ve sent out an email message to the wonderful people on my mailing list. I’ve posted the event on my facebook page and invited all my friends. I need to plan a preview call but WHAT IF NO ONE COMES???? I’m picturing a full group, I’m excited about what I know to be the value of what I do but I can’t seem to get past my fear... my fear that I can’t express the value in a way that is compelling and will cause people to register. I know that my fear and doubt is creating exactly the negative energy that will get in my way! I know I need to create positive energy and vision. But, I also have to DO some things. . What’s wrong with me? Am I lazy? Am I not committed? I’m afraid it won’t all work out and it has me frozen in my tracks again! I need an partner or buddy... someone to walk beside me in this. But for now... I need to walk away and get some space from it.

Toxins in our Cosmetics

What are all those chemicals in your shampoo? Your lipstick? Your aftershave? Some of them are linked to cancer, birth defects, infertility and other health problems. But right now, you can help clean up our cosmetics!

This short video got my attention. So much so that I wrote a letter to my congressman and senators! I'd be interested in your thoughts and reactions.

Summer Retreat

Our 4th annual summer retreat was special. The topic was 9 Steps to Creating Your Next Bold Move and was based on 20 years of making my own personal and professional bold moves and identifying the components that made the successful ones work. Participants spent the day identifying what they really care about and following my unique process of blending masculine and feminine, linear and creative, task and spirit-ful energies put a plan into the beginning stage of action for themselves. It was really inspiring to hear each woman as she shared her story of what she was committing to next.

The day was stunning. We ate. We swam. We drummed and sang by the bonfire led by Mary Elizabeth Wheeler. We worked in groups to create our future (sometimes our groups met in the water as it was such a hot day). And we basked in the support and community of women who are changing the world with their own unique touch.

See the photo gallery of our day.

Cindy's Blog #2

Click here to watch Cindy's TV episode

Is cherry picking OK?

Wendy, Mel and Kelly made some great suggestions. But still, I am uneasy. I feel a bit like I’m ‘cherry picking’. And maybe that’s ok. Let me explain. Cherry picking is when you take some parts of a lesson or situation and use it and ignore the rest. Usually, the parts you pick are the easier, more comfortable, less risky things. When you cherry pick, you avoid doing some things that might be just the right thing to do. In my situation, I paid a marketing expert a lot of money to teach me how to market my group coaching programs successfully. Now I’m thinking, who am I to not USE the information I paid her to give me? Can I be successful, taking bits and pieces of her advice and discarding the rest? It reminds me of the following story...

There was a very religious man named Jim, who lived near a river. One day, the river rose over the banks and flooded the town, and Jim was forced to climb onto his porch roof. While sitting there, a man in a boat came along and told Jim to get in the boat with him. 
Jim said, "No, that's okay. God will take care of me." 
So, the man in the boat drove off. 
The water rose higher, so Jim climbed onto his roof. At that time, another boat came along, and the person in that one told Jim to get in. 
Jim replied, "No, that's okay. God will take care of me." 
The person in the boat then left. 
The water rose even more, and Jim climbed onto his chimney. A helicopter came along and lowered a ladder for him. The woman in the helicopter told Jim to climb up the ladder and get in. 
Jim said, "That's okay." 
The woman said, "Are you sure?" 
Jim replied, "Yeah, I'm sure God will take care of me." 
Finally, the water rose too high and Jim drowned. Jim got to heaven and was face-to-face with God. 
Jim said to God, "You told me that you would take care of me! What happened?" 
God replied, "Well, I sent you two boats and a helicopter. What else did you want?"

I think the answer is that I need to follow the expert’s advice but be sure that I write in my own voice! And, it just occurred to me that I need to be sure to use other methods besides just mailing to my current list to spread the word about my program.

I’m still holding on to the fear that I won’t have at least 5 participants!

I’m realizing that actually clarifying my fear is not easy. What am I REALLY afraid of? Other’s judgments? Who will know? My own self judgment? Hmmm....

Cindy's Blog #1

It's All About the Fear.
See and hear me talk about my fear.

Fear. I’m a coach. I support people to blast through their fears in order to make the changes they want to make, be their best selves and fulfill their dreams. And, I’m pretty good at it. So, as an ‘expert’, I have this expectation that I’m not supposed to feel fear myself. But I do. I guess it’s true what they say… ‘we teach what we most need to learn.’

Sometimes it feels like fear owns me. I’m afraid of a lot of things… I’m afraid of being outside alone in the dark, I’m afraid of my kids getting hurt or worse, I’m afraid of what others will think, I’m afraid of others being angry with me, I’m afraid of failure, I’m afraid of success… you get the picture. And, I’m really afraid that people will find out how afraid I am. Well, I guess I just let that cat out of the proverbial bag!

So, I’m going to blog about my fear here over the next month in order to see what happens when I express my fears in the hope that readers will offer their thoughts and experiences and advice and in the hope that in sharing them, I can ‘right-size’ them.

So, here’s a very real fear that I am feeling right now. I am running an awesome group coaching program beginning in September. I know it is awesome because I have run it before and the feedback was all really positive. But I’m afraid that I won’t do the right things to market and fill it and when the day comes to kick it off, I’ll be talking to myself. Last time I ran it with only 2 people. It was great but it was small. Marketing experts have a whole long strategy for how to market online and it just doesn’t feel authentic and comfortable to me. So, I don’t want to do it the way they say… bombarding people with frequent email messages, long emails describing the readers pain so that they want to register to get relief, tweeting several times a day to draw attention and traffic to my registration page. I just want to send out a gentle, sincere invitation and explanation of the program and have people say, “Wow, that sounds great. I could really benefit from that and I like Cindy’s style. I think I’ll sign up.”

So here’s where fear creeps in. I’m afraid if I don’t ‘follow the rules’ set out by the marketing pros (some of whom I’ve paid significant sums of money to learn from) I won’t be successful filling the group. But, if I do, I will annoy people, come across as insincere and like a used car saleswoman, and I won’t fill the group that way either. So, fear has me paralyzed. I find myself thinking about it a lot and doing nothing.

Sound familiar? What do you think I should do?

See my episode on fear on Wake up with Wendy TV.