As the CEO (Chief Energizing Officer) at Hartful Living including GaiaHart.com and BizBuilderCards.com; I’m a Messenger and Mentor for women entrepreneurs, connecting them to their capacity to energize their work and their lives in the art of living Hartfully. At BizBuilderCards.com, you can make a living through giving with greeting cards and gifts to build your network net worth as an additive to your current business or an easy way to send gratitude and kindness to the world.
Do You Inspire Your Clients – Are You an Inspired Entrepreneur or Exec?
July 9, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Are you inspired by your work? Are you inspired by how you serve your clients? If not, why not? Inspiration is different than motivation. Both come from within with the energy and feeling of spirit inside. Inspiration spreads outward, so if your work isn’t inspiring to you, there’s no way others would pay to work with you or want to be around you. If you don’t give a hoot, then neither do your clients or colleagues. You’re just marking time and time is our life energy. So you’re just wasting your life if you’re not doing something that inspires you towards a greater good.
I hear from so many clients that they’re not liking their work, but don’t know what’s wrong. I would ask that you compartmentalize your work into segments dealing with who you’re serving, how you’re serving them, who you may be working for (your boss, organization, yourself), what you’re serving, what the big picture and outcome is of your product or service.
Sometimes pinpointing that you love your mission, but don’t like the distribution channel, or you love the actual work, but not the person you’re working for or the location, or the population you’re serving. If you can figure out how to take the good parts of what you do, the inspirational parts and separate them out from what is not inspiring; you’re on the right track.
When you’re feeling inspired, it will resonate with others. Those feelings set off vibrations in others that compel them to work with you or repel them from being around you. They may not know it, but it’s just an uneasy feeling.
Your clients feel inspired by you when you help them feel successful and fabulous about themselves, their work or their organization. You light them up. When they feel inspired, it activates possibilities and transformation in their lives. If they feel uninspired, they do nothing to uplevel their business or their lives.
Create your work to first inspire you, then it will inspire others. Power and passion resonate from inspirational people. Mediocrity and busy work resonate from uninspired workers. What are you doing to inspire yourself, inspire your team, inspire your clients?
What You Think is Right, May Only Be Cultural
July 5, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
It was on the Ivory Coast of Africa while facilitating teambuilding and communication style workshops with members from 34 different African nations who all worked for the same international organization. Bringing some assemblance of order, cultural understanding, corporate culture adherence and just plain getting your point across was no small feat.
The main point was that what we think of as ‘right’ may only be cultural. It is our belief, our values, the way we think nad behave based upon what we learned from our parents, society, supervisors and general socialization. We can take this further in business and in life by saying what we think of as the right thing to do may be based upon regional, national, familial, political, gender specific, religious or corporate cultural norms.
We can take this to personal relationships and how we run our families and households to how we celebrate traditions or how we offer ourselves to the world. We see this play out in corporate culture not only among different nationalities, but in every single individual and what ideologies and work ethics they bring to the workplace. The clash between Baby Boomers, Traditionalists and the New Generation X and Y’s is a classic example of who holds what important and how they get things done.
Blending your personal cultural values with your corporate culture or even if it’s your personal corporation for entrepeneurs can be a tricky minefield. When you catch yourself saying ‘they should’ or ‘he shouldn’t’ or ‘that’s a stupid rule’, you may need to take a fresh perspective on the situation. Whenever you hear the words ‘should’ come out of your mouth, it’s a red flag that you’re in somebody else’s business or placing your way of ‘right’ onto somebody or something else.
Managing the ‘rightness’ of how things are done in your partnership, in your work, with your coach, in your family or in moving through the world takes awareness that your ‘right’ may not be somebody else’s ‘right’. Seeing the world through a different pair of eyes gives us a new perspectice. Even is that someone else is a new and improved you.
After working with coaches, I am continually gaining new insight and new perspective on how I do my life and my work. I find where I once saw the ‘right’ line, is now a more flexible noodle of a line. It’s softer, more flexible, more gray and moveable. I find myself saying ‘isn’t that an interesting way to look at things’ much more often. Who is coaching you to take a look at what’s right or what doesn’t work in your life and in your business? Is your ‘right line’ bold, straight and immoveable or does it have some play or is it open for discussion?
I invite you to be more open and aware of different ‘rights’ that pop into your life and take a gander, then ask yourself ‘who says it’s right?’.
ACTUAL Social Networking with Clients, Colleagues, Friends & Family
June 22, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully, Wealthy Woman | By Gaia Hart
A recent TV commercial for Coleman camping equipment stating that they were the original social networking site with their little green stoves reminded me that getting back to ACTUAL socializing has become a lost art.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe digital social networking is aaaahmazing and blogging is freedom of expression in its purest form. I also believe the lost art of actually visiting with people face to face and not just through facebook is a pretty cool thing. I also think that the art of sending cards and gifts through the snail mail postal system is another art that isn’t near extinction yet, but it’s been fading into the background.
Research shows that only 3% of our mail is personal and the rest is filled with marketing, logos and bills. More data suggests that 83% of people would rather receive a paper greeting card than an electronic greeting card. It means the sender spent a little more time thinking of you and spent a little extra care in creating or selecting the card. What would happen if you sent more greeting cards and gifts to friends, family, clients and colleagues?
What would happen if you became more social and invited them to lunch or to coffee to connect? What about sending them a Thanks a Latte card wiht a $5 or $10 Starbucks card in it and invite them to join you to catch up, to actually socialize and network.
The greeting card industry shows that most people send about 10 cards per year, but they have a need to send about 70 cards per year. Now you have a system at your disposal to actually send actual greeting cards, gift cards, gifts and postcards in a couple minutes from your computer for less than the cost of a retail greeting card. You can completely customize your cards with your handwriting and photos. When you click the SEND button, your card is printed, stuffed, stamped and mailed for you in 24 hours. I’m in love with this system of sending out cards and gifts.
It allows me to connect with my tribe on a regular basis and allows me to express how I feel about them simply and easily. The best part is it allows me to acknowledge and appreciate them and make their day. I know appreciation wins over self promotion every single time and what I send out comes back to me exponentially. I choose to send out positive vibes every single day to stay connected.
How are you choosing to stay connected with your network? How do you choose to socialize and actually meet, greet and make other’s days? I choose to add love, light and joy to my day by sending positive thoughts through pictures, words and deeds.
How are you making the days of your network? If you want to brighten somebody’s day, my treat, and test drive this vehicle for the Law of Attraction; send me an email at Gail@GailHahn.com and I’ll set up a gift account for you to send a card on me. Let me know how it works out and how it feels to make somebody’s day with an unexpected social card.
Check out this and other videos on the page to view the power of gratitude and appreciation and how sending out to give can change lives:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi5kxE57Oio&list=PLtUVv9eXCdIKmF4MMCOVMBuzeZ1nrrUQF
Adventures, Misadventures & Executive Decisions
June 7, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
So maybe you’ve made some decisions that didn’t turn out like you had anticipated. Maybe you’ve gained your life experience from some ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’ decisions. Make an executive decision to use the lesson, not lose the lesson of your experiences.
As a speaker and author, I tend to chalk it up to another adventure… or misadventure which gives me lots of material for my programs and articles. Re-framing any incident, whether it be a moment or monumental, can make the situation a little easier to endure. We have the power to make that executive decision on our perceptions. I tend to think of life as a grand adventure made up of many smaller adventures and new experiences.
Just like a pearl necklace; your life is a strand of many moments strung together. It’s our decision to create those moments that make up the grand strand. Who wants a boring life anyway? Why not take some risks – no risk, no reward.
Because adventures make good stories, and good stories are made up of overcoming conflict or adversity, then coming out victorious; I’ve made an executive decision to view my experiences as fodder for my work.
It seems to me that the measurement of a good story stemming from a misadventure is directly proportional to the length of time that has passed since that episode. 🙂 It takes more time to pass for some adventures before they can become ‘a good story’ without the sting pf their rawness.
Yes, even being stranded in the Sea of Cortez for a couple hours alone with my SCUBA guide, running out of air, abandoned by our dive boat (with all my belongings – ID, money, clothing), being swept out to open ocean by the current, verging on the realm of hypothermia, the sun setting, nobody to be seen for miles around, and my ship departing in the very near future.
That little misadventure not only took several of my 9 lives, it took several years before I could re-frame it without a visceral reaction to the memory. How are you seeing your challenges? I contend we can choose how long it takes before we re-frame something. You know they say we will look back and laugh about some of our bad decisions and misadventures. We can also choose to laugh sooner rather than later. It’s all about what we DECIDE to do. There’s no magic formula.
How do you see your life? Are you living your own adventure? What types of life experiences are you creating? How are you re-framing your misadventures so you can make better decisions next time. As one of my mentors says, “You can’t hit a home run if you don’t swing”. I choose to take a swing at life and chalk it up to an adventure.
As entrepreneurs, execs and enlightened employees, we make umpteen decisions daily. Isn’t running your own business a grand adventure? We may never know how just one tiny decision can change the course of our life. It’s up to us to course-correct if needed, or remain on that path. I’m making an executive decision to live an adventure. I’m choosing to see my life experiences and ‘bad decisions’ as stepping stones on my way to success, how about you? If you need a guide to lead you through some of your executive decisions and plot your entrepreneurial adventure, give me a call.
Deciding is the First Step to Success
June 6, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
What is the secret of success? Right decisions. How do you make right decisions? Experience. How do you get experience? Wrong decisions.
It all starts with a decision. Deciding to act. No action is started without first making a decision to do it. Deciding sets off a series of behavior that takes us down a path – we choose the path to success or otherwise. Once you realize you may be on the wrong path, it’s your decision to continue in that direction or bushwhack your way back to the right path.
Sometimes it’s a gentle nudge that tells us we’re on the wrong path. Sometimes if we don’t recognize the nudge, we get a shove, or a slap in the face, or a full-on hammer to the head to drop us to our knees. In life, as in hiking the back-country, our job is to be open and aware of our surroundings, what’s happening around us, what are we experiencing and are we following our internal compass and listening to our gut. Often our instincts kick in before our consciousness does to let us know something isn’t right, a person isn’t quite what they seem, a situation feels icky, somebody seems smarmy. Those are your signals to find a shortcut to your right path.
Once we realize we’ve made a wrong decision, don’t lose that lesson learned from the wrong path. At least you know what not to do or where not to go next time. It’s called experience. I call it adventure. As a speaker and coach, I gather all of the stories from my midadventures around the world as fodder for my programs so I can share with others what not to do. Sometimes the best stories come from the missed adventures and overcoming bad decisions.
So next time you find yourself lost in the woods, on the wrong path, with the wrong people, without a trusted guide and experiencing things you’d rather not; think of it as another life experience on your way to making the right decision. Pay attention to the signs. Listen to your intuition. Take note of where your decisions are leading you and if it’s not where you want to be, make different decisions. Remember the definition of insanity – making the same decision over and over and expecting a different outcome. Change your decisions, make better decisions and change your life for the better.
Living the Work You Love
May 20, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Just finished a radio show with the amazing Margaret Salmond, owner of Bay Area VA, a Virtual Assistant firm located in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay area. Her show is Bay Area VA Chat: www.blogtalkradio.com/bayareava where she interviews guest experts on their business, their lives and how they find success in both. Check out our interview about Living the Work You Love and Why I Love My Work.
Thrilled to have the opportunity to share insights with Margaret’s listeners and you on living the work you love. In our 20-minute interview, we answered the questions of:
- How do you know you are in the right line of work?
- What is the tingle test?
- How do you incorporate fun and passion into your work and why is it important?
- How can you find work that you love and live it daily?
- How does it feel to live the work you love?
- How a life changing event, contract ending, boss from hell can really be a blessing in disguise – a tap on the shoulder from the Universe to nudge you into your own power
- How does listening to your heart lead you to work you love?
- Why DECIDING is a huge factor in creating work and a life you love.
- Why a values match with your organization or your boss is so important.
- One key step in jumping the corporate ship and breaking free of your golden handcuffs.
Call 866.Fun.at.Work or email me at Gail@GailHahn.com for more details on how to get expert guidance on finding the work you love, merging your life, your heart’s desire and your passions and turning them into profits by creating your right livlihood. Get mentored on how to be an Energized Entrepreneur and live the work you love.
We packed a ton of tips into 20 minutes! Cheers to Margaret for breaking out of the contractual, corporate world to start doing the work she loves and bringing it to us. I’m delighted to be a small part of it, at least for 20 minutes this morning!
What are you doing to break out of your golden handcuffs and live the work you love? Your life and your freedom to live and to earn what you’re worth is worth more than a dental plan or holiday pay.
On Being More Childlike vs. Childish to Have More Energy
May 19, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully, Living Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
Upon attending an outdoor concert the other night watching the toddlers dance and play and make new friends very quickly; I’m reminded to be more child-like (not childish) in order to keep up my energy.
Childish is whiney, self-centered, me, me, me. Child-like is inclusive, joyful, open, free and possibility thinking.
This was not a Wiggles concert, it was an 80?s party dance band that got everybody rockin’ from 2 year-old’s to 72 year-olds and the energy was amazing. Here are some observations on being more child-like:
1. Free-flowing self-expression. What are you doing to express your creativity, your emotions, your message, and your authentic self to the world? One boy just kept running across the dance floor with his arms spread out yelling, just yelling and venting and letting it out. Try some sound therapy – vocalize a long A sound loudly for as long as you can in a deep breath – it helps get the energy moving through your body.
2. If you fall down, get back up quickly and keep moving forward. Another boy just kept running in circles at top speed. He’d fall, look around, smile and get up to keep running. This went on for 1.5 hours. He never stopped smiling and running, even if he ran into people or tripped and fell. He just kept going. Ski racers and other athletes know the race could go to the one who gets up the fastest after falling.
3. Laughter keeps you healthy and vital. As a Certified Laughter Leader, I’ve written on the benefits of laughter. It helps boost our immune system, it connects others, it keeps oxygen flowing to our body, it helps our lungs and it gives us internal exercise. Children laugh 350-450 times per day, adults laugh maybe 15. See the difference?
4. Make friends easily. I mean real people, not just Facebook friends. Go out and meet others in person. If the internet crashed tomorrow, how many real friends would you have? Friends boost our energy, help us live longer, give us a place to vent and bounce ideas off of and are a soft place to land if we do fall. One little girl just walked around with her arms open and gave kisses to everybody. Sometimes she would just stand there, arms spread with a wanting look in her eye and others would give her a hug.
5. Free flowing movement, dance with abandon, run, skip, make a game out of what you’re doing and make it fun. Make a game out of cleaning your house – set a timer and see how fast you can do it, create competition, put on some music, ride your bike for errands, walk to the store, and invite others to join. One boy made a game of jumping from one colored marker on the dance floor to the other and did a happy dance when he made it across without touching the other colors. Sheer happiness and a celebration of success.
6. Change directions, change activities when your energy is waning on one activity, to focus on another that will pump up your energy. When a child loses interest in something, they immediately change to something else that catches their eye. We adults call it a short attention span. I call it a smart move to keep your energy and enthusiasm up to pump up your resilience to life stressors. If you feel your energy draining, change directions to something new and feel the spark.
7. Take new risks, try new things and learn from failures. We can’t win at everything, but when we lose, don’t lose the lesson. Have a beginner’s brain and try something new. I’ve have a pact with myself for the past 25 years to try something new each year and to learn something new – hang gliding, parasailing, moving to a new country, dog sledding, sky diving, bungee jumping or something a little lower key like starting a new business, taking a class, learning a new language or trying vegetarianism.
What are you doing to celebrate your successes? What are you doing to keep your energy and interest at its peak, build resilience, and stave off stress? How are you expanding your horizons and learning new things or taking new risks to be more childlike? What puts you in beginner’s brain to be open to new experiences? Now excuse me to go change activities….
Your Values, Feel Valued, Give Value & Matching Values
May 10, 2010 | Posted in Leading Hartfully | By Gaia Hart
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There’s a lot of talk about value these days. Whether it’s knowing your own priority of values, feeling valued by others, adding value to a sale or service,s or matching values with your partner or your workplace. Is there alignment with your values and those you choose to deal with in your work and home life?
If we don’t feel valued, we walk. Whether it’s in our personal life or in our professional life. If our partner isn’t valuing us or our values don’t match with them, there is a good chance the relationship will fizzle or you will walk away before the big downward spiral.
In business, it’s the same thing. If we don’t feel valued as a client or customer by the service, attitude or inferior products or behavior – we take our business elsewhere. If we’re mistreated, not honored, patronized, ignored, spoken to in a rude manner, experience unacceptable or sub-par service, we walk. It takes just one person in the service delivery chain to really screw things up for a business owner or company. Your font line is your bottom line where the rubber meets the road in customer retention and one surly, sour receptionist/cashier/call center rep/sales person can ruin it for you. And there goes the lifetime value of that customer.
It pays you dividends many times over to train your team in the manner you wish to be treated and wish them to treat your customers. It starts at the top – how they are treated is how they will treat your clients. Value your team and they will be more likely to value your consumers. It sure helps to hire them with positive dispositions in the first place. You can train skills, but it’s much harder to train attitude and outlook.
Matching your values to your workplace or to your preferred providers of service is critical in maintaining a long-term happy partnership. Before deciding upon a career path, job or personal or business to business provider, get clear on how your values match the values of that other business. If there is a big discrepancy, then it will create tension, strife, frustration and ultimately a deterioration of the connection. It is not a pretty sight. If you can determine some of the foundational values of your chosen business, then you’re one step ahead of the game.
Clues as to what a company values is in their marketing materials, how they treat their team members, how they treat their customers, what type of business they are in and who is running the show. Make sure there is a good match between what you value and who you spend your time and money with to ensure smoother sailing in future endeavors.
How are you offering value to your customers, your employees or business partners? How do your personal values spill over to your work? How about your friends, family, loved ones? Is there a good match between what you hold in high value and what they hold in high value? If not, there may need to be some tough decisions ahead.
Is there an alignment with your values and what you do for a living? Or your values and how you treat your customers? If things are out of alignment, you will know something isn’t right. Take stock of your values and how that colors your choices in your personal and professional life and make changes to align them to feel more energized.