A few months ago, I received a call from a woman looking for help to position herself for employment. She had been out of work for 18 months having a baby and was now ready to begin the process of finding a job. So I asked her what she did. There was a long pause and then she replied in a soft voice. “This is my problem. I can’t talk about myself at all, let alone articulate why someone should hire me.”

Wow! I thought. This was an extreme case of someone who had identified herself with her job and because she had been away from it for a while, she was lost. She was no longer connected to what she believed was her identity and value (her job).

Most of us spend more time at work than we do with our families and friends. We work long hours and our jobs consume a tremendous amount of our energy and focus. It’s understandable that we begin to “become” our jobs, and it’s a challenge to separate our identity and value from our work. That being said, we need to take the time to understand what value we bring to the job and how our value benefits the company and our clients if we want to be successful in moving our careers and businesses forward.

We are much more than our jobs. If all of you reading this had the exact same background and experience, the same position in the same company, you would still be unique and special because of the way you DO your work. Each of us brings something different to our work that defines us and sets us apart. Zeroing in on how you “deliver” the work is the first clue to identifying your unique value proposition and what differentiates you.

Charlotte Beers, former CEO of Olgivy and Mather, writes in her new book, I’d Rather Be In Charge, that it’s not about the work, but the way you deliver the work.

The way you deliver the work comes from an interior place. You know all about the exterior you; it’s right there on your resume. But your delivery is about the essence of who you become when you’re at work, your deepest, truest self sent out to play in the field of work.

Delivery means the way you get your work in front of the right people. It’s how you manage to get the work used properly and, drum roll please, ‘appreciated’.

Ask yourself this: How do you “deliver” the work? What is your contribution? This is your value and identity that will follow you to any job or any company because it’s not about the job, it’s YOU.

When you want to promote or position yourself for a job or attract new clients, remember this. Your value and how it benefits others is what people want to know about; not just what you do but how you do it.

Today we are going to hear a story that I hope will stimulate you to look inside yourself to discover what you can offer others. We are each here for a reason and we each have unique gifts to offer the world. As you listen to my guest, Jeanne Staples, today, think about what it is that you have to offer and how you can help others with your unique gifts and talent.

Featured Guest

Jeanne Staples has spent her entire professional career working in the arts. She is a full-time, professional artist who lives and works on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, and is represented by galleries in Boston, New England and beyond. You can see firsthand the beautiful work she does on her website, www.jeannestaples.com.

She is also the Founder and Director of PeaceQuilts, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, humanitarian organization dedicated to relieving poverty in Haiti by establishing independent, self-managed and self-sustaining sewing cooperatives, and connecting them to international markets. This organization is best described in a book called Patience to Raise the Sun: Art Quilts from Haiti and their power to change women’s lives.

Listen to the May 16th show at 12 noon EDT or download the podcast.

True confession time. I have a little gremlin inside me that often rears its ugly head and causes me to lose focus. Of course, it’s easier to blame a gremlin than to admit that I am often challenged to stay on track with my business.

When presented with compelling new opportunities, new ventures, new products, new  technology, I have been known to veer off my well planned strategic path from time to time. As a result, I find myself headed down a dead end road chasing something that not only doesn’t make sense, but consumes my time and energy.

Does this ever happen to you?

I can’t even count how many times I’ve said, “Yes. I can help you with that.” “Wow! Of course I can do that for you.” All this willingness to help out leads me astray and off my mission.

How does this happen? Let’s face it. We are constantly presented with new enticing opportunities. Every day I receive emails, tweets, invitations to connect that all brings potential new prospects for my business. It takes a tremendous amount of focus to stay focused!

So how do we stay on point? How do we evaluate new opportunities that come our way? Should we accept every client, every consulting gig, even if it’s not aligned with our core business? The answer is “no”.

The best advice I can give (which I admit is a challenge for me) is to put up a sign in your workspace with your mission and keep it visible at all times. When presented with new opportunities, evaluate them against your stated mission. Does is make sense to move forward and investigate this further? Does it align with my mission? Does this project or client best reflect my core message?

The reality is that staying on message and living your mission and values is THE best way to grow your business and attract the right clients. When you stray off course and send mixed messages, people get confused and as a result, it becomes more of a challenge to engage with you.

There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. ~ Peter Drucker

How do you stay focused?

Any tips you’d like to share?

Our decision to buy a new car is often more about the status and sex appeal than transportation and functionality.

We can purchase a great looking pair of jeans any where, but we are more likely to choose a popular brand that has some status and recognition. The advertisements tell us we will be more attractive and appealing in these jeans and we believe it. We pay more money even if we can’t afford it, for the opportunity to wear these status symbols.

So what’s this all about?

It’s all about the emotional connection. The advertisers create an emotional benefit for you when you purchase and use their products; a big juicy payoff. You will be more attractive, sexy, respected, admired, etc. That’s the big payoff; not the specific features of the products themselves.

As entrepreneurs, we often make the mistake of focusing on the features and details of our products and services instead of the big emotional payoff. We don’t make the emotional connection between what we offer and what our customers need.

Think about your target audience. What is their need or their pain, and how does your product or service fulfill their need?

Making this emotional connection is the most powerful way to promote your business. Identify the big juicy payoff or emotional benefit and clearly communicate that to your prospects. You will grab their attention and win their business.

There can be a big payoff for you in more clients, more referrals and more money!

I’ve designed a 90-Day Intensive Program for Entrepreneurs that starts January 20th for entrepreneurs who are challenged promoting themselves and their business.

Is this you? Do you have a pitch that falls flat and doesn’t get you new clients? Do you freeze when asked to promote yourself at a networking event?

Start 2011 off with a big bang and learn how to overcome your barriers to self promotion, create a powerful message to attract more clients and business than you thought possible AND if you register before January 1st, you receive a special $700 discount.

Also, a very special bonus gift for the first 3 women to sign up: a FREE 60-minute consultation with PR expert, Lisa Elia, who will help you plan how to increase your visibility in 2011. This consultation is worth $500!!!

Check out the program now and invest in yourself and your business. Imagine feeling confident and comfortable selling your services! Register now and take advantage of the special discount and gifts.

Whether you are a solo entrepreneur or small business owner or career professional, you probably spend a fair amount of your time at networking events to build your business.

Here are some common mistakes we make at networking events:

1.       We schmooze, but don’t make the necessary connection with people to get business. It’s great to meet new people, but effective networking is not just about how many new people you can meet. It’s about making more meaningful connections; building and leveraging relationships that will over time get you new clients. It’s about quality not quantity.

2.       We mingle with no strategy. Who is attending the event? Who do you want to connect with that you have determined might be a potential client or referral source or even someone to collaborate with? Make it your business to meet the people who will have the most impact on your business. Focus and be intentional.

3.       We assume that people automatically understand the value of our products and services when we introduce ourselves and hand out our business card. It’s important to use benefit language to clearly communicate the value of your service so people you meet can immediately determine if you will meet their needs or if they know of someone else who could benefit from your product or service.

4.       We give away too much. This includes too much information, too many things for free, and too many business cards. When we first meet someone at a networking event, we should not talk about ourselves endlessly. Craft your message so you just give enough information to stimulate curiosity and more conversation. Engage in a dialogue, not a monologue. You will learn more about the person.

Don’t offer to give away too many free products or services. Be strategic about give-aways. What product or service positions you best? What will provide a good intro so that people will want to purchase more?

Finally, don’t go to networking events with the goal of giving out as many business cards as you can. Collecting cards from the people you have good conversations with is much more important. Write notes on the back of those cards so you remember who they are and what they said. Once you have their card, you control the follow up.

5.       We don’t follow up. What’s the point of going to events to meet new people and then not following up?  Following up is how you begin to build relationships that will bring you business. If you tell someone you will make an introduction for them or send them information, do it and do it as soon as possible after the event. Determine who the key people were that you met and send a personal note and set up a time to talk or meet them again. This is the beginning of developing a network that will bring you business.

I’ve had family and friends say to me that I’m independent to a fault. Is there such a thing as being too independent?

I left corporate America six years ago to start my coaching business and I’ve never looked back. Sure, there have been challenges; plenty of challenges. I would be dishonest if I said running my own business is a piece of cake. It’s not. It can be stressful and even scary at times. Why? Because YOU are the business and though you can occasionally take time off (as difficult as that is for me personally), at the end of the day, it’s YOU who makes all the decisions and charts the course for the direction of your business.

In the beginning, I would stress over every decision. It seemed to me at the time that every decision was a monumental one. What should I name my company? What should my website look like and say? What is my niche? I have to say now I make my decisions quickly and they are often based on my intuition. Sometimes I make good decisions; some aren’t so great, but I’ve come to realize that this is all part of the evolutionary process of becoming an entrepreneur. I celebrate the fact that I have the ability to make these decisions and chart my own course; to make some mistakes and hopefully learn from them and move forward. That’s what is means to be independent after all.

That being said, I think it is possible to be independent to a fault as an entrepreneur. You can’t build and run a successful business in a vacuum. It’s important to surround yourself with a network of supporters and mentors that you can tap into for advice.

I read recently that every business owner should have an advisory board for their business; a group of like-minded business people who can act as a sounding board when you need it. This advisory board can be a formal group or an informal relationship with colleagues who have the experience and expertise to help guide you.

Who should be on your advisory board? For my coaching business, I look for advice and support in finance, marketing, technology and design and often use a coach myself to keep me on track and move my business forward.

So, it is Independence Day and I am celebrating my independence! Being an entrepreneur is an amazing experience to me. Because I am following my passion to help other professional women be successful, it never feels like work. I love it and every day is a celebration of my independence. That being said, I think as an entrepreneur, it is possible to be too independent and we need to seek out the advice and expertise of others to help us grow. In the end, this gives us the ability to maintain our independence and flourish.

Happy Independence Day!

A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed Libby Gill on my Head over Heels Radio show about her book, You Unstuck: Mastering the Rules of Risk Taking in Work and Life.  Reflecting on that discussion this week, I realized that there are so many ways we get stuck in our personal lives and in our businesses. I guess it’s part of the human condition to get “stuck in our ways”, especially as we get older.

Sometimes we get stuck because we become so comfortable where we are that we are fearful of taking any risks that might bring about change. So we stay in a job that has no potential or a job that we hate because in our minds, the choice is between the job that we have become so accustomed to and the unknown. We are frightened of the change. Needless to say, whatever the reason is that we don’t make a change, it is important to realize the consequences of being “stuck”. After all, being “stuck”, quite simply means going “nowhere”.

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, it is critical to not only be flexible, but willing to take some risks and embrace change. Any company that is fearful of change will eventually miss the boat. We all need to keep the pace of the many changes in the business world today. Think about this; if you did not embrace technology or the internet, where would your business be right now? What about social media?

I often laugh when I think about the phrase “business as usual”. In today’s marketplace, does that have any meaning at all? Changes happen so rapidly and the need to adapt and be flexible so critical, that the way we did business just last week, can be obsolete!

In my own business, I am constantly making changes to my business model and tweaking my approach, yet I still find that I get very comfortable with some aspects of my business. Consequently, it becomes more of a challenge for me to let go of certain business practices as my business gets more sophisticated. It seems that there are so many choices relative to how to move forward that it’s daunting. It’s much easier to procrastinate or vegetate instead. (By the way, when this happens, it is a good time to hire a business coach!)

Take a good look at your own business and evaluate your flexibility and willingness to change. Have you resisted any changes to your business recently? Are the reasons for your resistance valid or are you stuck because of your comfort level and fear of taking any risks?

Remember that being “stuck” means “going nowhere”.

I did something really important last weekend. I took a whole day off! I have been consistently working seven days a week for months without a break and my coach strongly suggested that I try to take one full day off each week. Well, if my coach told me to do this and it was part of my assignment, I could not refuse.

I have to admit I was very anxious about this. If I do indeed take Sunday off, what will my Monday be like? Won’t I be even more stressed than if I worked the whole week?

I had to make a plan. I knew that if I stayed around the house, I would be compelled to look at my computer and blackberry and do some work. I know myself all too well. So I planned a trip with a friend to go to Provincetown for the day. It was a beautiful day and a perfect time for an outing on Cape Cod. We took the ferry from Martha’s Vineyard and drove the length of the Cape, listened to great music, ate a fabulous lunch at an outdoor café, and shared some small talk.

My next challenge was to not discuss business all day. I didn’t do too well in this category, but this “taking a break” thing is a process for me, and at least I was off to a fairly good start. After all, I physically removed myself from my office and work environment. (I do think I might have cheated though when I came home that night and did a little work before heading to bed. Don’t tell my coach!)

Monday morning I felt refreshed and energized and not at all stressed. It was a good experiment for me and a great lesson as well.

Sometimes our drive to be successful drives us to work compulsively. Can you relate to this?  Intellectually, I’m sure we all recognize this is not healthy.  I know that I certainly do, yet pulling myself away from work once a week to do something entirely different makes me anxious; a clear sign to me that this is unhealthy behavior.

I am mindful that at least once a day I need to leave my desk and my office and do something unrelated to work. I am mindful that once a week I should take twelve hours of respite to renew my energy, spirit and passion for my work. What I have discovered is that when I step away from work my creativity kicks in and I can actually think more clearly.

Case in point, for weeks on end I was trying to think of a new name for my radio show. Women Mean Business is trademarked by NAWBO and though I was unaware of this when the show launched, I did receive notice from them to stop using the name. I loved the name and racked my brain trying to think of something equally sticky and clever. I even ran a contest on LinkedIn to get more ideas. Trying to get a new name was on my mind night and day. Here’s the lesson though. As soon as I let it go and stepped away from the problem, a solution came to me.  Miraculously out of the blue, the new name, Head over Heels, popped into my brain. WOW! I could not believe it. This process of “letting go” really worked.

If I can pass along any wisdom about this it is to be mindful yourself of how your drive to be successful can work against you at times if you don’t take a break and let go. Not only is it not healthy, but the consistent compulsive need to work actually stifles your creativity and is counter productive.

This is a process that I’m just beginning myself.

Well, need to get back to work. :>)

The Harvard Business Review posted a test this week, “Should You Be an Entrepreneur?”

The test of 20 questions was created by the author of the article, Daniel Isenberg, who is a professor of management practice at Babson College.

I thought it would be fun to pose these questions to those of you who are entrepreneurs, like myself, or to those of you who are considering taking the leap to starting your own business.

Here they are:

I don’t like being told what to do by people who are less capable than I am.

I like challenging myself.

I like to win.

I like being my own boss.

I always look for new and better ways to do things.

I like to question conventional wisdom.

I like to get people together in order to get things done.

People get excited by my ideas.

I am rarely satisfied or complacent.

I can’t sit still.

I can usually work my way out of a difficult situation.

I would rather fail at my own thing than succeed at someone else’s.

Whenever there is a problem, I am ready to jump right in.

I think old dogs can learn — even invent — new tricks.

Members of my family run their own businesses.

I have friends who run their own businesses.

I worked after school and during vacations when I was growing up.

I get an adrenaline rush from selling things.

I am exhilarated by achieving results.

I could have written a better test than Isenberg (and here is what I would change ….)

According to Isenberg, if you answered “yes” to 17 or more of these questions, you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. I can tell you this. I passed this test with flying colors!

I’m interested in getting your feedback on the questions. Do you think they are a good test of entrepreneurship?

How did you do on the test and what does that say about you?

I couldn’t help but notice #18, “I get an adrenaline rush from selling things”. This is definitely true for me, but what I believe is important for an entrepreneur is not necessarily getting a rush from selling things, but  having the confidence and passion to sell YOURSELF . When you own your own business, you are not selling someone else’s products or services. You are selling YOU.

Your thoughts?

Are you a woman entrepreneur with big plans, and the vision and passion for growing your company? Do you know a dynamic woman entrepreneur who is on track to create a multi-million or billion-dollar enterprise?

If so, I encourage you to apply, or to nominate, an outstanding entrepreneur for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women program. Now in its third year, Entrepreneurial Winning Women is a competitive award designed to connect high-potential women entrepreneurs with the advisors, resources and insights they need to become market leaders.

Winners will:

• · Join an elite network of the country’s best high-growth companies and entrepreneurs
• · Participate in a customized program designed to accelerate and sustain business growth
• · On a complimentary basis, attend the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum 2010, the country’s most prestigious gathering of high-growth companies, November 10-14 in Palm Springs, CA (http://www.ey.com/us/strategicgrowthforum)

Eligibility:  Applicants are women who own or have founded their companies within the last ten years and have achieved at least $1M in revenue in the past two. For more information on eligibility and how to apply, or to learn how to nominate a deserving woman entrepreneur you know, visit http://www.ey.com/us/entrepreneurialwinningwomen. The application period closes on June 30, 2010.