1. Pay your bills.Inspiration is a great way to attract customers and advocates for your brand, but it doesn’t pay the bills. Money pays the bills. And before you will have any of this green stuff coming your way you must find a way to package, monetize and market your valuable offering to the people who need it most.This may require you to temporarily (and often) leave the realm of good feelings and big ideas, but it will help develop within you the dogged persistence and character needed to make your inspiring message resonate with deep authenticity and authority.
2. Develop your business plan.An inspired message and delivery cannot compensate for a poorly thought out (on non-existent) plan of action. Inspiration can give you the right-brain emotional jet fuel, but your left brain needs to do step-by-step piloting. Too often we get juiced up with a big vision and then become overwhelmed by the actualities of implementing it. Then what happens? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Our vision never leaves the realm of potential, and we end up wondering why our dreams never amount to more than a hill of beans.Break your idea up into baby steps and focus on them one step at a time. One. Step. At. A. time.
3. Protect you from lawyers. Rest assured that the more inspired and successful you become, the more those sad scavenger types will want to get in on your action. Know this. Prepare for it. No need to worry – anyone can sue anyone over anything. Just be prepared, that’s all. Whenever you work with someone, spell out the exact nature of the business relationship beforehand. Put it in writing. Have a legal agreement waiting for just such occasions. Make sure both parties sign it. Also never–I repeat NEVER–sign a contract that you are uncomfortable with.It’s a recipe for misery.Trust your gut and take the time to do it right.
4. Make rejection fun. Vulnerability is a prerequisite for being an inspiring person.Taking a stand requires true commitment. In essence what you are doing is, through your stand, creating a reality that doesn’t currently exist. Think about that!! Pretty ballsy, right? Expect that just as many people will resent you for this heroic feat as will love you for it. Change is upsetting to most, terrifying to some, enjoyable to few. In your path to becoming an inspired, world-changing leader, you will face every sort of cynicism from every sort of audience. You will feel like someone just stabbed in the chest with a cheese knife. Often. Take it on the chin. Learn from it. Move on.
5. Keep you from wasting your time. The more inspiring you become, the more people will want to have meetings with you. If you let it happen, you will have meetings lined up for weeks at a time. You will spend half of your monthly budget on lunches with people, strangers, listening to them as they try to hash out big ideas and ‘pick your brain’ for new ‘collaborations’ of some sort or another.This is all fine if you enjoy having your brain picked. But remember – big ideas that don’t ultimately lead to measurable real-world results are a a waste of time. Be generous with others, sure. But be even more generous with the vision that attracted them to you. The world is at a tipping point, and time is your most precious asset. Use it wisely. And, most of all, enjoy!
