I’ll share a few more of my thoughts around passion in the following video:

We are so good at pouring our passion into our work, yet I hear time and time again about the challenges of making money on those passion projects.

One of the most important things we can do to turn our passion into profit is to intentionally build solid business structures around the passion project, then GET THE MESSAGE OUT to those who most need to hear it.

This upcoming Big Fish Nation program is tailored to help you do exactly that, with the theme of “The Power of Media.” It is THE most powerful yearlong program we have ever offered!  I will still be leading teleclasses as usual on the whole-person and total-life approach to success, AND for this program we are partnering with enterprising Women magazine to bring you the following high value additions:

• Your passion project / your business will get coverage in enterprising Women magazine as they follow your progress throughout the year
• You will learn how to build important media relationships — through additional PR strategy tele-sessions led by enterprising Women magazine’s owner and publisher, Monica Smiley

Click here for more information on this one-time-only program (it starts March 7, enrollment limited to just 12 women) and reserve your spot today, or email me to see if this program is a fit for you.

If you have been on the fence as to whether or not to participate in this program, this is your time!   Your passion project needs to be seen, heard, noticed… and monetized! 

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If you are looking for ways to bring your whole “passion team” up to the next level, click here for details on the customized work I do with teams.

It is easy enough to be compassionate with someone you love, who is very special in your life… but what about the people you find it difficult to be around?   What about the people in the workplace who seem to push all your buttons??  How do you find ways to respond to them from your heart instead of a knee-jerk reaction?

I’ll be the first to admit that this is a challenging area for me right now, so this blog post is a reminder to myself as much as to anyone else!  After several recent experiences with “difficult people” (for lack of better term), I wrote out a list of positive thoughts and lessons that may also be helpful to you:

- The difficult people in our lives are typically our best teachers.  My difficult people teach me to stop reacting and to instead be in charge of myself and be PROACTIVE.   (Some days this is easier said than done!)

- Difficult people typically are not feeling heard, seen, or supported… and are looking for an acknowledgement of some sort, so give it to them!   If not for their sake, then do it for your own sake because in the end, compassionate acknowledgment makes life easier for YOU too.

- Setting boundaries is sometimes the most compassionate thing you can do.  Difficult people often enjoy many one-on-one meetings in the workplace, notice this… this behavior is dangerous to organizations as it can set team members (and others) up against each other!  If you see this behavior over and over, it needs to be addressed directly for the health of the team and the organization.

- Some days we need to just be angry and allow that anger to have a message for us – it always does.  Anger is our fuel to bold, useful action when we act consciously!

- Sometimes it is not a difficult person, just a broken process or misunderstandings.   This happens easily in the workplace when teams can’t seem to work together because one or two people are “being difficult.”  There’s a good chance the problem is a lack of shared vision or that all team members are not clear on the goals or the process.  The lesson here is to look beyond the difficult person and see what the real cause of the issue might be.

What are some of your best practices or recommendations for dealing with difficult people in the workplace?  We can ALL learn from your comments!

• It’s launch day for your new product or service, and it is almost time for you to go live.  Potential customers are waiting “in line” (at your store, by their phones, or at their computers) to sign up with you or to buy your product because they believe it will be amazing.
• They don’t want to miss the chance to work with you before you’re completely booked, or to buy your product before it’s sold out in the initial rush.
• They already know that they will benefit from what you uniquely offer, and they are already looking forward to the results of working with you or buying your product.
• Before you even launch your new product or successful it is wildly successful.

This is the power of media… and I know this is true, because it happened to me. 

Long story short — in my “previous life” (in the early 90′s), I started an internet access provider business, and without thinking a lot about it, I started building relationships with the local media by intuitively focusing on SERVING THEM.

I didn’t realize just how powerful those partnerships were until one night during a news broadcast, the anchor mentioned my company during a related news story.   In our office, we watched the dial-up modems light up as people used OUR phone number to access the internet.   It was AMAZING.  People had been WAITING for OUR phone number so they could access the internet!

As entrepreneurs, we don’t just have something to sell, we also have world-changing messages to share, and we need media help to do that.  

I want to help you get your message out there, and to see WILD SUCCESS in your business, so this year I put together a special program for you!

Big Fish Nation is partnering with enterprising Women magazine to offer the yearlong program with a brand new theme of “The Power of Media.”   Editor-in-chief Monica Smiley will lead PR strategy tele-sessions, and  enterprising Women magazine will provide coverage for your business as they follow your progress over the year!

Click here for more information on this one-time-only program (it starts March 7, enrollment limited to just 12 women) and reserve your spot today.   Give your message the chance to be heard!

• encourage you to set your annual intention (I tell you mine in the video)
• share some plans around the “happy and healthy” parts of the Big Fish Nation tagline
• shine a light on some powerful ways for you to make a splash in 2012

I’ve heard so many women entrepreneurs say they feel as though THIS is their year (I’ve said it too!), so here’s a quick list of ways to dive in and make your BIG splash in 2012!!  Click any link for more information and always feel free to contact me directly!

• Attend a Lorin & Friends Teleclass
• Set your 2012 Goals — powerfully
• Harness The Power of Media – and get publicity for your business in Enterprising Women’s Magazine

And of course…

Sign up for the Big Fish Newsletter

Is it just me, or do New Years resolutions not mean that much to people any more, as if it is almost EXPECTED that New Years resolutions will be broken?

At Big Fish Nation, instead of New Years resolutions, we focus on a new intention for the year as we set our goals.  We each choose a word or short phrase that describes how we want to BE during the year as we are doing the tasks of business and life.  It is your choice for your year.

Wayne Dyer says, “You do not attract into your life what you want, you attract what you are.”  If we truly attract what we ARE, what a calling forth THAT is… it makes us look closely at our way of being, doesn’t it?

My intention for 2012 is “unbridled joy,”  which means that I am committed to choosing actions and thoughts each day that can help me experience and share unbridled joy.  I admit, some days I really do not feel like choosing unbridled joy, and it would be a lot easier to be angry or frustrated.  That choice is up to me on any given day… just like your way of being (intention) is up to you on any given day.

If you haven’t already, choose your annual intention NOW and step into it NOW, and where you are at the end of the year will be most magical.

I would love to know your intention for 2012… please share it in a comment to inspire all of us! 

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Want support setting your intention and goals?  Get the 2012 Goal-setting Teleclass Replay!

 Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.  – Norman Vincent Peale 

School's Out!

I have always loved this time of year.  It really does feel and look magical, with everything “softer and more beautiful” as many of us share the focus on friends, family, celebration, and love.

My wish for you — for all of us — this Christmas season is simply that we may see ourselves and everyone and everything around us as being “softer and more beautiful” and allow that to give us the experience of deep joy and peace in every day. 

From my house to yours, Merry Merry Christmas!!! 

We tend to not be as good at receiving as we are giving, so the business challenge this month is for you to create and maintain a Giving & Receiving Circle, one where, as Big Fish Coach Nancy Duncan describes, “the sender becomes receiver, and round it goes until distinctions disappear.”

There is a spot where magic happens in that giving/receiving circle dance.  In that spot, there is no difference between the energy of giving and the energy of receiving.. it is all one energy.  It’s the energy of abundance, the energy of human possibilities, the energy of gratitude and the energy of hope.  

The Giving & Receiving circle is an ongoing dance, and if we choose to make it a way of life, our whole life can flow with that energy of abundance, possibility, gratitude, and hope.  

For many of us, it takes more courage to receive than to give because we don’t want to seem selfish.  Maybe it can help to think about how good it feels when someone graciously receives a gift from us (for example, allowing us to pay for their dinner).  Chances are that they also get that much enjoyment from giving to us, so when we receive their gift, we are actually GIVING a gift back to them at the same time.

This holiday season, I wish you the magic of giving and receiving, and that the energy within the Giving & Receiving Circle inspires you to give bigger and receive even more! 

I really don’t even know where to start to describe last week’s Starfish Retreat… 

Should I start with the hot air balloon ride experience and build metaphors about trust, stillness, and a “50,000 foot view” of business and life?

Or maybe I should start with a description of the 5-star resort (L’Auberge del Mar) with top-notch dining, a view of the ocean to make your knees weak, and a spa experience to turn your muscle knots to jelly?

But really the focus needs to be on Lorin (Beller Blake, our fearless leader) and her modeling of dynamic leadership, incredibly intuitive coaching, personable authenticity, brilliant facilitation, and holding this incredibly safe space for us to work hard and play equally hard together.

Ok, so that’s all true, but the experience of being with 10 diverse, powerful, playful, intelligent, beautiful, motivated, imperfect, loving and wise women business owners for 2.5 days certainly deserves a first paragraph slot in ANY blog post.  Especially the part where we each served as part of an “Advisory Board” for the other women, working together on specific business challenges, and I saw the light of “AHA!!!” shine in one face after another through the magic of our shared experience.

But maybe since this is my personal reflection on the experience, I should start by sharing the realization of how much I’ve grown over the past 3 Starfish Retreats, and that my definition of success (and my belief in what I can accomplish!) is on a totally different level now.  How words like “cultural change” and “lasting impact” and “passion project” are dancing into my Vision Story and fueling kicka** goals for 2012.  You know, the kind of goals that kinda freak you out because they’re so darn BOLD yet … ohmylands … could it be?? …. ACHIEVABLE.

Oh, wait, wait, maybe I should just start with the Retreat theme of “Celebration,” and talk about the champagne opening to our sharing of celebrations, and the genuine “CHEERS!” we gave and received time and time again throughout the 2.5 days, and the reflections on why and how we celebrate.  OH, and wine paired with our astrological signs “in celebration of YOU”!!

Yet stories are always a great way to start a post… so maybe I should start with the “intervention” story (the one that included confrontation, appreciation, challenge, affirmation, tears, laughter, and a bazillion lessons for EACH of us)… but details there might break the required confidentiality of the session, so …

Maybe I should just try to capture the essence in the title.  Something like:

Starfish Retreat: Where Passion and Profit Meet, or

Starfish Retreat: It Gets Real, or

Starfish Retreat: Where the Only Hot Air Was In the Balloon, or

Starfish Retreat: They Laughed, They Cried, They Built Some Seriously Amazing Businesses, or

Starfish San Diego: The Puppy Project (sorry, had to toss in one inside joke to entice you to join the next retreat).

Or maybe I should just have other Starfish Retreat participants post their highlights in comments below (do, please do!).

Or you know what?  I think maybe this is an experience that words can’t quite capture.

So how about I provide you a few choice photos, hope that a picture paints a million words (growth, think growth), and invite you to join the Starfish Retreat(s) next year.  We will send info out shortly, so make sure to get on our mailing list (enter your email in upper right hand corner of any page).

* photos by Stacey Canfield and Starla J. King

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Don’t miss the Dec 9th Annual Goal-setting Teleclass! Click here to register.

This week (Wednesday, Nov 30 – Friday, Dec 2) is our Big Fish Nation Celebration-themed Starfish Retreat in San Diego, and we invite you to join us online from wherever you are!

Big Fish Starla J. King will be our field reporter from the Retreat: blogging, tweeting, and “Facebooking” during the full 2.5 days so you can taste the experience yourself!

Follow the fun, progress, and celebration (including pictures):

• On Twitter at @BigFishNation, @lorinb, and @starlajking
• On the Big Fish Nation Facebook Fan Page and my personal Facebook wall, and
• Right here on the Big Fish Nation blog

As I mentioned in a recent blog post, I have been meeting with the women entrepreneurs who signed up for this retreat for several weeks already — setting and working on goals to be reached by retreat time.  Some of our reasons to celebrate are:

• The launch of a new business
• The launch of a next phase of life
• The completion of a new eCourse offering
• The completion of a new book proposal
• Progress in learning to take better care of and nurturing ourselves
• Progress toward a business exit strategy
• and SO much more…

What is YOUR reason to celebrate??  Use this week as a time to pay attention to what you have accomplished, and celebrate with us! 

As usual, I have a BIG surprise in store for the retreat participants — you won’t want to miss this one, because I think it might be my best yet  (which is saying a lot when compared to breaking arrows with throats and “what happens in the Adirondacks stays in the Adirondacks“!!)

Follow us on Twitter, Friend us/Become a Fan on Facebook, and join us online Wednesday – Friday to celebrate together!  

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Why not set a full year of reasons to celebrate in 2012?

Click here to register for our wildly-popular, hands-on annual Goal-setting Teleclass — just $57! 

Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. ~Native American Saying

I’ve talked often recently about being grateful for what we have … now what about what we don’t have… yet??

I love this idea of giving thanks for unknown blessings already on their way!

Sometimes life’s challenges get overwhelming and it is difficult to find and feel the blessing in the moment, no matter how hard we try.  Giving thanks for what’s ahead is a great way to remember what it feels like to be in a place of gratitude and wonder at the time when we might need and miss that feeling the most.

It can be comforting and exciting to think about what might be “already on its way.”  You might be just about ready to close a big deal, or on the verge of an idea that jumps your business up to the next level, or about to get a surprise visit from a dear friend or something else even better than you could even imagine!

This Thanksgiving season, let’s be thankful for the usual wonderful things in our present lives… and for the surprises waiting to show up for us at just the perfect time in the future.  I can’t wait to see what’s in store for each of us!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and all your loved ones!