For many of us out here on the front lines of entrepreneurship, there is one constant that either makes us or breaks us…
And that’s US!
As cartoon strip character Pogo said many years ago “We have met the enemy and he is us!”
Ultimately, wherever we are is the result of our thoughts, beliefs, values, decisions, and actions (BTW “inaction” is actually the action of not doing anything).
Since NLP provides us with easy to use maps for recognizing and changing our own blocks, patterns, behaviors, fears etc. it makes a great tool for business people. What I love about folks in business is that they “get” that if something is costing them, they have to change it.
My business clients “get” that if they spend $100 dollars to clear something that’s holding them back and hurting their company or their success and they make an additional $100 dollars, then it wasn’t a “cost” it was an investment that just paid for itself. If that $100 investment brings a return of $200 or $1,000 then it is a “no-brainer”.
Typically, I find that when people clear the block that has held them back they go on to exponentially increase their income and their effectiveness as leaders in their respective fields.
Two examples that come to mind of people who have made revolutionary change in their lives as the result of learning NLP are Michael Guerin and Rob Bronson.
Michael has been kind enough to share his story with my readers on a number of occasions as well as on the phone and in an extensive video interview.
The bottom line for Mike is that before he worked with me he could barely use the phone. He literally had a phone phobia. He also suffered from agoraphobia so basically, he couldn’t get out and meet and greet new clients and he couldn’t call prospects on the phone! Not a recipe for success in business! We did my basic NLP breakthrough process and within hours he was on fire! As he said in his interview with me, “It was really strange because it was like the old pattern was just gone! As if it had never existed in the first place…”
Mike has gone on to increase his Credit Card Merchant Processing business so much that he is now training other associates to work for him. He has also expanded into helping other business owners make sense of online interactive marketing. In this severe economic climate Michael Guerin’s businesses are thriving and growing by leaps and bounds. That’s the power of NLP to help us get out of our own way.
Which brings me to Rob Bronson. Rob is my good friend and technical adviser. This blog format and all the videos I’ve been doing is the direct result of Rob using my own NLP stuff on ME! I had a lot of technological RESISTANCE. which Rob helped me to release!
I first got to know Rob when he took my “Reluctant Sales Person” training a couple of years ago. And immediately started implementing the tools and techniques he’d learned there. As a genius level technical guy, Rob had a little trouble relating to the rest of us non-geek types. Through the NLP sales training he learned how to speak another person’s language and how to communicate the way other people preferred to communicate so that he could maintain rapport and get his message through in a way that could be well received.
Rob learned how to get out of his own world and to enter into the world of his client.
A year ago Rob and Mike and I began to meet every Monday in a “Master Mind”. We would frequently spend the entire day learning about internet marketing and search engine optimization, blogging, copy writing and basic business tools, techniques and philosophy. We also continually put NLP into practice and shared our successes and challenges. We supported each other and acted as sounding boards for each other. Personally it saved my business and my sanity on a number of occasions.
At one point Mike did not even have his own website up. At one point Rob was living in someone’s basement. At several points, I was tangled up in my own “stuff” and they helped “coach” me through the tunnel and out to the sunlight.BTW we all need the help of other people. NLP does not make anyone invincible or perfect.
It was a year of stripping the paint down to the surface and sanding and honing ourselves. and then as the financial storm clouds gathered back in the fall of 2008 something magical happened, Rob and Mike began to form a partnership that was all about helping other people in business save time and money and benefit from what they had learned and put into practice…
Now with their new business Best Web Presence they are so busy I haven’t seen them in weeks. They are signing up clients left and right at a time when there are thousands of “Chicken Littles” running around screeching “The sky is falling! The sky is falling.”
The point of my story is that there is a set of tools and techniques that if used properly will enable you to clear through the clutter of your own thinking and patterns of behavior. Once you clear the personal blocks that are holding you back, fasten your seat belt because things can change rather quickly. At this time last year neither Rob, nor Mike nor I knew how far we would have journeyed from where we began. It truly has “turned out better than they could possibly imagine…”
Does rapid change seem to be pretty scary to a lot of folks? Sure. But that’s a subject for another post…
If you are curious about how NLP can help your business please call me at 203-804-1208 or e-mail me mark [at] markshepard.com. You can also learn more about NLP Certification here
Please share this post with anyone you know who may be struggling with their business or who may be ready to break through the blocks and experience more success.
– Mark Shepard, NLP Trainer, Songwriter, Visual Artist, Author, Speaker…