Modern Jedi NLP Mind Mastery

Posts Tagged ‘Array’

It’s like alphabet soup out here in the land of Transformational Techniques.

Let’s see….NLP, EFT, EMDR, CHT, PDQ, LMNOP….Sheesh!

Well here’s the scoop: EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Technique. It is weird. And it WORKS! In my humble opinion EFT is one of my best NLP tools and you can’t really think about NLP success without having EFT in your transformation tool kit.

Check out the Video to learn more

or

click here to Get Your Free EFT Starter Kit

This is Part 1 of a Question and Answer call about Mark Shepard's Modern Jedi NLP Online Course (recorded 4/29/2009)

Introduction to the Modern Jedi NLP Online Course

• Convenient
• Affordable
• Multi-media
• NLP Community Master-Mind
• A few examples of Real People Using NLP Michael Guerin and Rob Bronson
• Graduates of this course will be able to be certified NLP Practitioners or they can just use the tools and techniques to improve their lives.

Q: What is NLP?

A: Neuro Linguistic Programming is all about how you run your mind. How you interpret the external world and make sense of it internally. It's also the study of excellence. It's also all about how you communicate with other people.

NLP is partly modeled on the work of Dr. Milton Erickson, MD "the father of Modern Hypnosis" as well as some of best Therapists, athletes, business people, etc.

Your behavior, thoughts, reactions, interpretations of the world, etc are under our control...if we knew how to access the "programs". People can make incredible improvements in their lives, relationships and work rapidly.

Q: Can NLP help with changes where a person knows they should eat more vegetables but just never does?

A: Yes. I give a short introduction to NLP submodalities on the recording.

Q: A question about Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic channels of communication.

A: I give an example of making a quick change with a client using kinesthetic submodalities (over the phone while in the grocery store)

Q: How young can a client be and what intelligence level is needed for success with NLP?

A: Works great with kids. Works with all intelligence levels as long as a client can access their imagination.

Q: Can you explain about how your unconscious mind doesn't recognize the difference between what is real and what is a memory or an imagined event?

A: Explained with example

Register for the Modern Jedi NLP Online Mind Mastery Course

I recently was contacted by Emily Bernard who was seeking help in healing the trauma and anxiety left over from an old wound. She was seriously injured along with 7 other people in a stabbing at a coffee shop 14 years ago.

She was in critical condition and truthfully could have died but she survived. However from that experience she was understandably haunted by the possibility of at any moment being attacked again. So she experienced a hypervigilence and unease every time she went out in public.

She also experienced a physical problem at the site of the stabbing in her body at 7 year intervals. There was no logical medical explanation for the physical problems occurring at 7 year intervals and at the same time of year. (note from Emily: "The problem was adhesions, my intestines getting tangled up in my scar tissue.  There is no procedure to solve the problem of adhesions (which are very common), no cure.")

I appreciated that Emily was open to the possibility that the physical recurrence of the adhesions was linked to unresolved emotional material.

Another challenge was that as an exquisitely talented writer Emily was experiencing some challenges with writer's block.

One of the greatest challenges I have as a practitioner is determining who I will work with. Every one expresses the desire to change but not everyone is willing to "get to cause" and accept "response-ability" for their change. I don't "cure" people. I teach them how to "master their own minds for a change". I help them to clear blocks and release old beliefs and patterns. Some people want me to just wave a magic wand and make them all better. Sometimes it seems like that's what I do. Change can be rapid. But ultimately it's the client making the change not me.

Emily seemed like she understood that and was willing to roll up her sleeves and do what Byron Katie calls "The Work".

Another aspect of how I practice NLP and Hypnotherapy is to assign a task that contains in it elements of the transformation the client is seeking.

We agreed to work together and use the blog as an extension of our work. Since Emily is a writer I asked her if she would be willing to share her story through this blog.  I felt it would serve her greater purpose of writing about her experiences in such a way as to facilitate her own healing as well as to serve as a kind of beacon or resource for other people dealing with traumatic events or challenges in their lives.

Ultimately my intention is to support Emily's healing, and transformation as well as to make the work I do more accessible and understandable so that I can help more people who like myself and Emily struggle, or have struggled, with blocks that keep them from allowing their talents and abilities to shine out.

I know that my clients and the readers who find this site are incredible people who have much to share with the world. I also know that the talented, sensitive, imaginative, creative types who have so much to give to the world often find themselves blocked. It is my belief that this blocking and subsequent healing journey is not unlike the classic "hero's journey" that fills ancient and contemporary literature.

Stay tuned to the next several posts as Emily and I share the story of working together and clearing old patterns of thought and behavior as well as reinforcing and repatterning the new ways of thinking and being. Be a part of the process as we dig in and check our progress along the way.

In the next post Emily will introduce herself and give her account of her personal breakthrough sessions with me.

• PTSD NLP Case Study Part 1
• PTSD NLP Case Study Part 2
  

Some more notes from my class last Monday with Dr. Bernie Siegel.

• Water is an incredible role model.The ocean waves never complain about smashing up against the shore. A river never whines about having to flow over rocks. A pond never gets annoyed because it is so small and still.
• Actors immune systems respond to the role they are playing. Comedy increases healthy immune response measurements. Tragedy lowers immune system health. Be careful what roles you choose to play.
• Act and behave as the person you want to be.
• Decide who you want to be. Wake up tomorrow morning and be that person.
• Do what makes you happy.Bernie Siegel's mom said that all the time. He "got" it.
• He had a cancer patient who said, "My mother's words have been eating away at me for 30 years..." Eventually he manifested what was festering inside.
• Bring forth what is within. Stop holding back emotions. Stop stopping yourself. Express. Flow.
• Losing track of time is the healthiest state you can be in.
• If you lose your health, go look for it.
• When asking or even confronting a patient about the true cause of their dis-ease, asking them "what does this illness do for you?" What does this illness mean to you? What are the benefits you drive from your illness? What is the blessing in the curse? This is ASKING the patient it is not blaming them. Asking a person to acknowledge that their illness has meaning for them is not blaming them for having the illness. It does give them the power to change and may even save their life.
• Death is not the horrible thing to be afraid of. Bernie choked to death as a young child. He saw himself lying on the bed. When his windpipe cleared and he was sucked back into his body he was "Mad as hell!" Most people who have experienced being clinically dead and then brought back express deep annoyance. What a drag! Life is hard.
• Someone called Bernie to tell him he was going to kill himself. Bernie said "If you kill yourself I'll never speak to you again!" and hung up the phone. His friend was really ticked off and showed up the next day furious. Bernie pointed out, "We'll since you're here yelling at me I guess you didn't kill yourself afterall!"

Any thoughts? Leave a comment below! More next week.

Through a typically strange series of events I found myself last night sitting in a class room at Amity High School in Woodbridge CT with Bernie Siegel. For those of you who may not know, Dr. Bernie Siegel was a pioneer in the medical field 30 years ago. His radical idea? Treating patients like human beings. Talking to them under anesthesia like they were still in the room. Using drawing and imagery. Connecting the Mind and The Body. Radical ideas 30 years ago.

He was reviled by the medical community. Research has proven his ideas to be sound.

In other words the guy is awesome! Every NLP practitioner and Hypnotherapist on the planet owes this Bernie Siegel a huge debt. As do holistic MD's. If you ever need surgery and the surgeon talks to you and about you while your under as a human being, you owe him.

So I'm sitting there. Bernie asks the 20 of us why we are there.

We each tell our story a little bit. Bernie comments and acknowledges.

• Some are there because their well is dry and they need a shot of Bernie.
• Others are there because they are struggling with illness or the illness of a loved one.
• Others are there because they want to learn more, so they can help others more.

I wasn't really sure why I was there. I think the healer needed a shot of healing. I've been struggling with some big questions in my life. Bernie told story after story that resounded in me.

His mom said all the time. "Do what makes you happy."

That one hit a nerve. I've been working on that one. In spite of old beliefs and well meaning friends who say "Well, if you do something to pay the bills that might make you only a little miserable, then you can do what makes you happy on the weekends..."

His mother said "Do what makes you happy."  My mother said, "You can't always be happy." My mother also said, "If at first you don't succeed, give up!" (she meant it as a joke but my literal ears took it as gospel).

Bernie mentioned a cancer patient of his who said, "My mother's words are eating away at me."

For some reason through the 2 hour class my left eye keeps tearing up.

I am on the cutting edge in my life of doing what makes me happy. Writing songs. Recording them. Performing. Teaching NLP. Working with clients. Sometimes there is money. Much of the time there is not.

I keep moving forward anyway. Sometimes pissed off. Sometimes blissful.

I asked myself a big question in December. If I had only 6 months to live what would I be doing? The answer came. Music. Spending time with my family and friends. Simple.

So I've recorded all the songs I wrote last year. Learn more about it at MarkShepardSongs.com (Only 30 more volumes to go!) Along the way I discovered that the music business is in a delightful state of disarray. Everything is being reinvented. No one knows how to make a living from music anymore.

Do what makes you happy? How? Oh! I "get" it! It's a new challenge. A natural Zen Koan for the student to solve.

As I clear each new challenge in my life old patterns bubble up. So I clear them. Next layer. Next layer.

Then a test to see if I can hold the shift...Sometimes I can. Sometimes I can't. So what? Give it another shot.

We are never done people! NLP and hypnosis and Reiki and EFT and Time Line Therapy and every other approach offers the ability to clear through stuff that may have been holding us down for years. But it is not a magical pill. There is no such thing. You have to do the work.

Abraham Lincoln said: "If I had 8 hours to cut down a tree I would spend 7 sharpening the ax."

These techniques of change and personal transformation and healing are equivalent to the ax. They are tools. Practicing the techniques is like sharpening the ax. But ultimately we have to get up off our "buts" and swing the damn thing at the problem. We have to take action. Sometimes we get blisters. Sometimes we slip and fall. Get back up. Give it another swing. and another. and another.

We have to put our money where our mouths are.

And that's why I'm in the class. The coach needs a coach. The healer needs a healer. The teacher needs a teacher. No body is done. No one has all the answers. No one. Not even Bernie Siegel. He asks more questions than anybody.

I've been writing songs for 30 years. Couldn't get them out. I tried back in 1979. Went to Greenwich Village expecting to be "discovered". No one seemed very impressed. So "programmed" by my mother's words.(if at first you don't succeed...give up!) I gave up.

I got a job. I started a family. and ten years went by. When I started feeling like I was going to die. I had to get help. Studied with an Energy Healer named Mearah Marqua. 3 years later I was making a living as a kid performer. Added storytelling. Added Drums.

Another 10 years went by.

7 years ago I started to learn NLP, Hypnosis, Time Line Therapy, EFT, Energy Healing. I made a lot of progress and changes.Learning. Learning. Practicing. Experimenting. Having outcomes that were not what I wanted. We used to call them "failures". Pulling myself back up from where I fell. Each time a little stronger.

It took some time. Life takes time. But I swung the ax. Now these songs are starting to get out on the internet and through projects like "Letters to Daddy" and "Together We Can Change The World". I'm performing family concerts at schools.I'm taking action. There are a million more things I could be doing. But I'm taking action. Sometimes I do something and it doesn't seem to generate any income.

So I get frustrated. I replace the negative failure thoughts with the chant, "Why does it work out better than I can possibly imagine?" I ask the Universe, God, Atman, Allah, All That Is, whatever you want to call it, for help. Help me! Guide me! What do I do next? How can I get this stuff out into the world where it can do some good? How can I be a healer? How can I earn a living doing what makes me happy? Writing songs makes me happy. Singing them makes me happy. Recording them makes me happy. Helping people grow and transform their lives makes me happy.

You think God doesn't answer prayers? Why then does a friend call me and say "Mark, I signed up for this Bernie Seigel class...oh and BTW I signed you up too." ?

At the very intersection of our fears, doubts, struggles, wounds, and deepest desires lies healing.

In the next few days I'll be sharing more thoughts from Bernie's class.

As I re-read my notes and the handouts, my left eye starts to well up with a tear...One question he asks is this: "If you had only 15 minutes to live what would you do?"

If it's warm today I will take my guitar and play on the street in Downtown New Haven.

Here are a few questions for you:

What are you going to do today that you've been stopping yourself from doing?

What would you do if you knew you could succeed?

Please leave a comment below. I want to know.

My Dad forwarded an e-mail to me today with an article from the Health Sciences Institute News letter. It was a story about a panic attack sufferer who got a major amount of relief by taking a supplement called Inositol (a natural substance found in the human body). Interestingly, she also used a specific mind control technique to take command of her thoughts.

"I came to realize the panic attacks were not uncontrollable once I understood how they started and grew. I was basically creating my own panic by bouncing back and forth between past guilts and fears, to future non-existent terrors. Back and forth, again and again.

"Now I anchor myself in the present. I force myself to think about what I'm saying, force myself to stop recalling past 'nasties' and force myself to stop imagining them as even nastier future outcomes. I stay right here, right now, in the present. It takes determination and effort, but it works."

Read the Full Health Sciences Institute News Letter Article

In my experience the more tools you have at your disposal the greater your chances of drug free relief. If a small dose of a supplement can help I'm not against it. I am against the pattern in our culture of treating the symptom but doing nothing for the cause.

The work I do with clients one on one and in my "Crush Anxiety" calls is all about clearing the root cause and having a full arsenal of easy to use tools to master your mind for a change. Using the NLP and Time Line Therapy™ processes I teach as well as Self Hypnosis and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) it is often possible to eliminate phobias, anxiety and panic attacks in a very short period of time. Everything I do is designed to put the client in a place of power where you are in charge of your own mind. Another point I want to make is that by working with your unconscious mind instead of fighting it, you don't have to necessarily use "force" to control your mind.

A recent example of this is the client I worked with on Friday. Emily had been physically attacked in a public place some 14 years ago and up until Friday, whenever she went anywhere she fully expected to be attacked and hurt. Here's the voice mail message she left me a day later:

"I feel great! I walked to the bank today and had no feeling of fear about getting shot. And I owe this to you. The old pattern is just a distant memory. I'm feeling really excellent and really happy."

Notice she did not say, that as she walked to the bank she forced herself to think positive thoughts. The changes we make sometimes require conscious awareness but almost never "force". The beauty of NLP and hypnosis is that once the changes are made on the unconscious level things just become different.

BTW Emily and I had a great time doing her foundation breakthrough session from 10 am-4 pm. The way i work is relaxed and safe. She has agreed to write about her experiences working with me so watch for a several part article by her in the near future.

If you or someone you know needs help with panic attacks, anxiety, phobias, self sabotage, procrastination, PTSD etc. I can be contacted at: mark[at]markshepard.com or 203-495-8808.

I'm also doing two "Crush Anxiety" teleseminars this week Wednesday at Noon and Thursday Evening at 7:00 pm US Eastern Time

The cost is $97 and comes with my "Crush Anxiety" e-book and audio series. There are also a few scholarships available so please contact me by phone or e-mail if cost is an issue for you.

Register for this month's CRUSH Anxiety Call
Wednesday, March 11 at Noon Eastern Time

or

Thursday Night, March 12 at 7:00 pm Eastern Time

For a one time fee of only $97 you get to work with me over the phone in a small group as well as get my Crush Anxiety E-book and complete audio set as my gift ($197 value). If you've been on one of these calls before you are welcome to come back any time or as many times as you want for free. Lines are limited so register now.

Courage!

Mark

p.s. If you or someone you love is suffering from phobia, anxiety, or panic attacks please stop waiting to contact me. In light of our economic crisis I am willing to consider payment plans, barter or any other creative way to value the help I offer and create a fair exchange that is a win/win for both of us.

E-mail: mark[at]markshepard.com

Telephone: 203-495-8808

This Week the economic meltdown is all around us. The Stock market is at 1980's lows. Companies world wide are falling like bowling pins. Millions of people are out of work or facing imminent layoffs. The news is full of grim experts like "Dr. Doom" predicting the end of the world as we know it. As I checked my yahoo e-mail this morning I was greeted with this headline:

Even 'Dr. Doom' Is Scared: Economy Much Worse Than Roubini Predicted

Don't follow the link above! I only put it in here to improve my search engine ranking. )

So a few thoughts and some options that I am using myself to stay hopeful and positive

1. STOP LISTENING TO THE NEWS! or at least use a grim news story to improve your search engine rankings like I did above. After all that's what the news folks are using to make their businesses prosper. Think about it! What businesses do you know are still doing really well? Who benefits if you are freaked out? The more eyeballs the News media can get the more advertising they can sell. So I'll say it again. STOP WATCHING AND LISTENING TO THE NEWS! BTW do you know what city is booming and growing in these hard times? Washington DC! Talk about thriving in a crisis!
2. Listen to positive, hopeful stories and music. I posted a special, hopeful song for you this week at www.MarkShepardSongs.com called Rose Colored Glasses. Download it FREE to your mp3 player or burn it to a CD and play it all day. Burn it into your Rostromedial Pre-Frontal Cortex. While you're there check out some of the other tunes I'm giving away free for your spiritual refreshment. I've also posted a hilarious "Trickster Tale" called "Monkey & Leopard" at www.DrumSongStory.com
3. Make a list of the miracles in your life and all the abundance you have right now. I've said this before but it bears repeating. You did not have to mine your own salt eh? You have people who do that for you! If you are reading this that means you have a computer and access to the world wide web! You are RICH. Focus on right now. At this very moment do you have clothes? Do you have running water? Do you have enough food for today? Do you have heat? Got shoes? Socks? It sounds simple but it's all about shifting your focus from one of lack to one of abundance. Speaking of the internet, there are huge opportunities for people who understand the new Web 2.0 social media and how to connect to prospects and customers on line. BTW if you are interested in learning what I've spent the last year absorbing and implementing in order to get the word out about my various projects, let me know. To date I've had over 50,000 views of my stop anxiety series as well as thousands of visits from 53 countries to my music site. I'm thinking about offering an affordable weekly coaching club for small business peeps so you can avoid all the dead ends and time wasters I had to work through. Web marketing costs almost nothing and can take your business or career to the next level despite the gloom and doom boys dire forecasts. Interested? E-mail me at mark [at] markshepard.com or call me at 203-495-8808
4. Say this to your self and write it out by hand 100 times (yes 100 times): "Why Does It Work Out Better Than I Can Possibly Imagine?" This will begin to re-program your unconscious mind to filter for good news rather than bad. Go ahead. I dare you. No. I double dare you. No. I double dog dare you! This is one of my own most used anti-anxiety practices
5. Go to www.ClearFear.com and watch the How To Stop Anxiety in 10 Minutes or Less Video. It's Free and it works: 50,000 people have already viewed it . The whole thing takes a little over 10 minutes. What do you have to lose? In addition to the video I have a lot of other info there that might be of help to you.
6. Register for this month's CRUSH Anxiety Call
   Wednesday, March 11 at Noon Eastern Time 

   or

   Thursday Night, March 12 at 7:00 pm Eastern Time

   For a one time fee of only $97 and get my Crush Anxiety E-book and complete audio set as my gift ($197 value). If you've been on one of these calls before you are welcome to come back any time or as many times as you want for free. Lines are limited so register now.

7. If you need serious help ask for it. Either from me or from another NLP practitioner. Sometimes a big part of making significant changes is simply the act of asking for help.Even though most of my focus these days is on my Life In Song Project and my DrumSongStory performances, I am still working with a select few clients one on one over the phone. Many of my clients have learned how to destroy their fears and anxious thinking patterns and gone on to double, triple and even quintuple their incomes (even in these scary times). If you need help I can often get people significant relief in just one or two NLP phone sessions. Some folks need more support. I charge either by the hour or a flat fee. I will also consider barter. So please do not let your current beliefs in "lack" stop you from getting help. E-mail me at mark[at] MarkShepard.com or call my office at (203) 495-8808

So just a few thoughts and resources for you. Please take advantage of whatever feels right for you. Remember:

• We can not change the world but we can change how we respond to the world.
• We can change how we perceive the world.
• We can change how we interact with the world.
• We can use these challenging times as a motivational tool to think outside the box of our old patterns and routines.
• We can use these times as opportunity triggers.
• Are there problems you can help other people solve?
• Are there talents and abilities you've always wanted an opportunity to use?
• Now's the time to start giving yourself permission to explore them.

I love you all and send you my best wishes and hopes for you all day every day!

Mark

"A man is most efficient and will more quickly and easily succeed when engaged in work that he loves, or work that he performs in behalf of some person whom he loves." Napoleon Hill, "The Law of Success" p.80

I've been thinking a lot lately about the journey I've been on and what lessons there may be not only for myself but for those of you who, like me, seek to make a positive difference in the world at the same time that you support your self and your family doing meaningful work that you enjoy and even love.

(I've posted an inspirational song today that relates to this post over at www.MarkShepardSongs.com as well)

In his book "The Law of Success" Napoleon Hill shares a story from his own life. He had turned down many lucrative offers for employment in order to pursue his passion of researching and writing the law of success. His wife and family were opposed to it. There was no steady income. No guarantee. They openly or not so openly insinuated that he was being foolish and selfish.

At one point Hill had a conversation with a prominent business man, Don Mellett, who came right out and asked him. Now that you've done all this research on the Law of Success, how much money have you made?

Hill was embarrassed to admit that he had be so deeply absorbed in the research and writing that he had not turned his knowledge yet to the task of bringing in money. Here was the author of the Law of Success basically broke! He felt like a failure. He felt what we in NLP call "incongruent". He was "walking his talk" but it had yet to show up in a tangible form in his external reality.

"What?" Mellett exclaimed, "a failure?

"Surely you know the difference between failure and temporary defeat," he continued. " No man is a failure who creates a single idea, much less an entire philosophy, that serves to soften the disappointments and minimize the hardships of generations yet unborn."

Mellett and Hill became business partners that day and formed a "mastermind" that literally created the "breakthrough" Napoleon Hill had labored for so many years to prepare the ground for.

The whole point of Hill's essay was two fold.

1. There is truly a difference between failure and temporary defeat.
2. He was trying to express the notion that one should always do more than one is paid for because eventually the law of the universe will return the investment exponentially.

Last Saturday I performed for free at my local Starbucks. There was a time when the background noise and the coming and going of people would have thrown me off. I would have chosen to make myself feel bad about any number of things in the past. But for me last Saturday it was awesome! In every way it was a triumph!

All the personal work I've done with NLP on my internal beliefs and filters were perfectly tested by the evening. What was important was that I sang for 2 hours without a break and it felt like 10 minutes. I sang song after song from memory and the experience was fun. In the past it was like walking on glass. but I actually had fun. Any of you out there who have overcome a major fear or phobia can relate. The old resistance was totally gone. There was no nervousness. I was totally relaxed.

So as I look back over my life I can choose to see 30 years of missed opportunities or I can look back and see that I was doing exactly what I most needed to be doing to prepare me for the moment when "all of who I am" lined up behind the single idea that I was placed here on this earth to share a message of hope, empowerment, healing, love, learning, and transformation with whoever is ready and open to hear it. My music is simply a method of delivery that engages the emotions as well as the ears.

And ultimately it is not the end goal of millions of people hearing the music and the music positively impacting their lives that is the measure of "success" it's the process and journey itself that is success.

In NLP we have a belief "there is no failure there is only feedback" Anthony Robbins made the now famous analogy of the Jet airliner flying from LA to Hawaii is off course most of the time. It gets to it's destination through the constant adjustments and corrections along the way.

So this week I ask you, no I implore you, to have some faith in your own process of learning and growth. Look back at your life and instead of seeing "failures" and "mistakes" see lessons and learnings and experiences that led you to new insights and understandings. Write down what you've learned. And ask yourself again and again the powerful questions that will lead you where you most want to go.

"What can I learn from this?"

"How can I use this lesson to move forward?"

"Why does it work out better than I can possibly imagine?"

We are all in this together. No one has all the answers. No one has it "easy". Our muscles grow stronger through resistance. The "resistance" in your own life and work can serve a great purpose if you will only allow it to.

Napolean Hill went on to make a fortune with "The Law of Success" and his even more famous book "Think and Grow Rich" his words are still inspiring millions long after his passing.

If he had gone the "safe" route and gotten a steady job to satisfy all those well meaning people in his life, the world would have been a poorer place.

So those are my thoughts today. If you found any of this helpful please share it with a friend who could use some encouragement in these challenging times. It also helps to spread the word if you'd take a moment and "Stumble" or "Digg" or "facebook" or "twitter" this post

Courage!

Mark

What is The Biggest, Huge-est, Most GIGANTIC Mistake Business Owners Make?

• It's not about having an inferior product or too much competition.
• It's not having too little capital
• It's not having some wacky idea that no one wants and then trying to get every friend relative and innocent passerby to "drink the kool-aid".
• It's not having a great idea that people don't "get" or a great idea that's ahead of it's time.
• It has nothing to do with how smart or creative you are.
• It's not starting a business with absolutely no clue how to sell (although that's a biggie and if selling is a problem for you check out www.ReluctantSales.com )
• It's not any of the dozens of personal and professional challenges most self employed entrepreneurial types struggle with.

The Biggest, Huge-est, Most GIGANTIC Mistake Business Owners Make is simply this:

Trying to do everything. Not knowing how to delegate. Not having systems in place so that other people can do the things you are not good at. Spending precious time on tasks and projects that could be delegated instead of focusing your energy on what you do best and on what brings in the money.

When you try to do everything in your business you are bound to fail. Even the smallest business is a ravenous, many headed serpent that one person can never hope to keep fed.

Note: Even though a key concept of NLP is that "there is no failure only feedback". In Business, the "feedback" of less money coming in than going out or of the owner rushing around from dawn until the "wee hours" can only go on for so long until something has to change. Either

• the business ceases to exist due to lack of money or
• the business owner gets totally exhausted, burned out or sick or
• the business owner finally wakes up and does something different.

We also have a saying in NLP: "The most flexible communicator controls the system." As the owner of a business (even if you are a Reiki master if you are working with clients you are a business owner), it is your communication to yourself, your clients and the people who work in and with your business that must lead and control the direction of your enterprise...(beam me up Scotty! I just wanted to help people!)

Here's the catch 22!

When you are starting a business on a shoestring and a prayer, how do you get the kind of help that can enable you to grow your business if you have no extra wads of cash laying around?

You need the help to grow your business but you can't pay for the help until your business grows! Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place! (In NLP We call it a "double bind")

Can i share a personal example?

Last year. September of 2007 this idea hit me really hard between the eyes and it wasn't pretty. For 25 years I've been self employed and always struggling. In retrospect I was close to major success and breakthroughs several times but I literally got worn out and burned out to the point where I just couldn't personally sustain things and then it would all fall apart. Then I would give up in disgust and go start a different business from scratch and make the same mistake all over again.

July of 2007 I taught my first full blown NLP practitioner certification training to a small group of students. It was great! I loved teaching the class. I loved sharing the powerful life changing concepts of NLP and Hypnosis and  Time Line Therapy™ but the gargantuan effort of preparing for the class, creating workbooks, cd sets and ordering all the other supplies and finding a place to have the training and getting the students in the seats and all the registration procedures and then correcting the exams and creating certifications and sending them out and then preparing the Master Practitioner level program and teaching that one weekend a month in addition to performing and booking all my own gigs and cleaning my house and seeing private clients and going to networking meetings and taking courses on how to do all this stuff better...

left me...

totally...

and...

completely...

exhausted...

and while I was so busy doing all of that stuff. I didn't always have time to keep an eye on the bottom line and so all of a sudden even though I was working my brains out...I was out of cash flow....oops! (

Does any of this ring a bell with any of you out there? Are you getting the picture? Can you grasp my concept here?

I mean you can have all the Modern Jedi Mind Mastery training in the world, but if you try to run a business, any business, all by yourself you will eventually crash and burn....

Yup. I know what I'm tawking about...uh huh and it ain't pretty...

Now, there is no failure. There really is only feedback and so we "passionate ones" pick our selves up off the ground and dust our selves off and start asking ourselves some really good (if hard) questions.

Like "What is the weakest link in my business?"

"Oh... Shit.

It's..................

....................................................ME!"

Now stay with me here because I will get you to a powerful solution and it's going to solve a bunch of your challenges all at once.

So last year, I started a master mind group. Michael Guerin and Rob Bronson were the charter members and we began meeting every Monday just to run ideas by each other and to challenge and support each other and to learn with each other and to help each other see the stuff that we were too close to see in our own businesses.

And it made a huge difference. It was the first time in 25 years that I wasn't alone trying to figure stuff out. I had a team.

For example: At one point Rob Bronson "pushed" me kicking and whining and complaining to move all of my websites to GoDaddy.com and saved me $6,000 per year. At one point I pushed Michael Guerin repeatedly until he fired his web designer and started taking charge of his online marketing. Mike and I "pushed" Rob Bronson to get his butt out of a really negative situation in his life and business and on and on and on...

So at some point you must form your own Jedi Council or Master Mind Group.

This was so cool that I started inviting some other people to join us and one of them was this amazing woman named Julie Braun, she calls herself the  "Marketing Guru". www.juliebraundesign.com

Julie was doing huge, major, multiple  marketing projects on a scale that made my head spin. She was doing events and PR and entire marketing campaigns for small to medium sized businesses. She was providing services that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But she wasn't working with Fortune 500 budgets. She was affordable. How did she do it?

It turns out that years ago Julie mastered the art of engaging INTERNS. UNPAID INTERNS.

Now these are not slaves. These are not college kids who come to your business to do all the yucky work like filing and photo copying (you just may have to pay for that kind of stuff. Do not even think about doing that crap yourself. You can't afford it any more).

Julie was setting up specific projects, real honest to goodness projects and allowing students to truly get hands on experience. So she was able to do often times 10 times the work that she would be able to do alone.

She had learned a way to not only leverage her knowledge and expertise but her time and resources in a way that enabled her to Work "on" her business as well as "in" her business. Her only investment was her time and attention and she developed exactly the skills working with interns that all of us entrepreneurs MUST develop any way if we want our businesses to succeed. The ability to delegate intelligently. The ability to manage other people. The ability to lead. The ability to generate and incorporate intelligent feedback.

All without a huge financial risk putting pressure on your learning curve.

I got so inspired by that I immediately found a Yale student who wanted to learn NLP, he ended up editing my first year's NLP training audio series.  He got to expand his knowledge base and I got a project accomplished that I just didn't have time to do. That was my "big toe in the water experience"

Now over the years, Julie has really fine tuned all of the details and concepts of using unpaid interns in her business to the point where it was just obvious she had to share the goods with those of us who were struggling with this whole "solopreneur" thing.

So Last summer she and her business partner Michelle Demers www.totalbusinessfitness.com created SuperInterns.com it's what I call a "Turbo Booster Zoooom  course" designed to get you up and running with unpaid interns fast.

To be honest, I signed up for the first one but because I was too "burned" out from teaching my 2nd NLP training and some personal stuff going on in my life, I never got to class. BUT they recorded every call and I finished the course later while driving in the car. My point is you can learn this no matter how busy you are.

(BTW Michelle met Julie in a different Mastermind group - are you getting that you need to "mastermind"?)

The Super Interns Crash Course will be offered again in a few weeks and if you are in business for yourself (or if your employer doesn't have the budget to hire the help you need to do your job right) THIS IS REQUIRED. You owe it to yourself to take this.

This is:
"Save Your Business (And Possibly Your Sanity) 101"

Are you with me on this? I know we all have the attention spans of 2 year olds these days but this is vital so PAY ATTENTION:

Whether you take the course or not this is so important that you MUST at the very least know about it. I could not live with myself if I didn't share this information with you. It's that important to your success and sanity.

So I've invited Julie and Michelle to share their stories with me on a telephone call next Wednesday, January 14th from noon to 1:00 PM eastern time.To Register Click Here

They are also doing an informational call of their own that evening, January 14th at 7:00 pm eastern time. to Register Click Here

• The Call at Noon will be me interviewing them (you will also be able to ask questions).
• The call in the evening is totally their show. So you have some choices.

The calls are free and whichever one you can make, it will be well worth your while to take an hour to find out how you can get some relief from the grind of being the sole practitioner or sole proprietor or solopreneur. It could save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars and possibly enable you to truly catapult your business to the moon. It's also one very creative way to move forward even in spite of the dire economic forecast and the worst economy in 100 years.

It is also of interest if you have college age kids or know some college students of any age because many colleges require internships precisely because the right internship could make all the difference in whether your children get a dull, low paying, soul crushing job right out of school because they have no experience in the "real world" or get to work closely with the CEO of a growing international company.

I sat down one day and figured out that I need about 10 interns in my business right now.

so if you know anyone who is interested in or is actively studying these or related fields:

• Arts Management
• Internet Marketing
• Psychology, NLP, Hypnosis, Personal Transformation and Change
• Music,Theater, Storytelling
• Graphic Design
• Direct Marketing
• Sales Skills
• General Business
• Health and Healing
• Peak Performance

Call me! 203-495-8808 or e-mail me at mark [at] markshepard.com

Registration page for 12 to 1 pm call –
“How to Get Free Help for Your Business” hosted by Mark Shepard Click Here

Registration page for the 7 to 8 pm call – “Unpaid Interns to the Rescue!”
(Super Interns general call) Click Here

Just for registering for either/both calls you’ll get a free ebook “251 Great Internship Projects!” .

If You already "get" that you need the course you can click here to: Register for the Super Interns Crash Course: How To Put Unpaid Interns To Work For Your Business - early bird special ends Friday 1/9!

BTW when you do decide to take the course, be sure to mention my name and you will get $50 bucks off of the already too cheap price of the course.

Please leave a comment below and share this with as many people as you can

Thanks!

Mark