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Today’s a “Parse” day for me — I’ve got a guest post running on the blog for designers created by Jennifer and Ken Visocky O’Grady and presented by HOW magazine.

Here’s a bit to whet your whistle:

Work “On” Your Business

“I’ve spent the entire past year interviewing, talking to my clients, and studying the landscape, and I keep seeing the same things coming up over and over again. Business owners, especially values-driven creatives, are all having the same challenges and problems that are holding them back: it all boils down to not having the right structure for their businesses.

Just Being A Great Designer Isn’t Enough
Why does having business structure matter? We’re creative, after all, we don’t need all that MBA stuff, right? Why can’t we just get out there and serve people? Well, you can do just that—but being good at your craft and serving clients isn’t always enough to keep the doors open. Creativity is not a guarantee you’re going to be in business tomorrow.”

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Every time I open my email, go to Facebook, or check out Twitter, someone is telling me I can “make 6 figures” or “get all the clients I need.”

You know what I’m talking about. And while a lot of it is really well written (and I love to read good copywriting that pulls me in), so often, there’s very little depth behind it.

Some of it is just common sense stuff, or fluff. (There is no “I” in “team.”) Some of it is airy-fairy feel-good stuff. (You must believe in your inner goddess.) Some of it is dished out by kids who just learned it yesterday from someone else.

And some of it is downright dishonest and manipulative.

I’m pretty much a fan of good solid business advice

I know there are no silver bullets. No magic beans. Running a business takes time, commitment, and work. That’s how we’re going to make 6 figures and get all the clients we need.

And, yes, there are some people, many people in fact, you can learn from who can get you where you want to go faster than you could go by yourself (and keep reading, I’m going to give you some names). I believe in hiring coaches, or I wouldn’t be one, and I wouldn’t have hired them for myself. I just want to point out that not everything you hear out there is right. And not everyone is telling the truth.

They call it “marketing.”

I still think marketing should be about getting people what they want and need, not what someone else wants to sell them.

Here are some people I trust for coaching and consulting

So I’ve been thinking. Maybe you’d like to know who I think will give you the real deal, in terms of coaching and consulting advice – people who’ve actually walked the walk, and have deep experience in the area they’re coaching or consulting in. Here are a few of my favorites (and no, while I have been in the past and may be an affiliate for some of these people in the future, none of the following links are affiliate links. They’re just my recommendations.):

Tambra Harck, Tambra Harck.com

A conversation with Tambra is like an immersion in whatever, for you, feels the most safe, protected, and comforted. She has an unusual ability to recognize you, even if you’ve lost yourself. If you feel invisible, adrift, or damaged, or need to find your voice, this is one real person who knows how to gently lead you “home.”

Ileana Kane, Ileana International

Ileana has unique and true intuition, which she uses in her work. Combine this with her years of marketing experience, and you’ve got something powerful. Even after knowing Ileana for several years, she can still stop me in my tracks with my own “stuff,” helping me shift it out of the way so I can move on. (And isn’t it our “stuff” that holds us back most of the time, anyway?) Ileana doesn’t settle, for herself or for her clients, which is inspiring.

Atim Kavi, Money Courage

I haven’t known Atim for very long, but the conversations we’ve had have led me to believe that this woman has walked the walk. Unlike many money coaches who don’t really have experience with money, Atim has a long career of managing money for multi-million dollar corporations and Fortune 500 companies. We see eye-to-eye on business principles, too. I’m very impressed with her knowledge and savvy, and feel great recommending her.

Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero, Red Hot Copy

For as popular and well-known as Lorrie is, you would think it might have gone to her head, or that she’d cut corners in her work like so many “gurus” do. Not Lorrie. I’ve been in groups with Lorrie and I’ve worked personally with her, and I love that she not only knows the stuff she teaches, but she stays true to it – and to herself. Like so many other people do, I trust Lorrie. Her copywriting courses are first rate.

Michele Price, Breakthrough Business Strategies Radio

I really don’t think I know anyone who works as hard as Michele does to talk to, promote, connect, and empower small businesses. If you know her on the surface, you know she’s a fast-moving powerhouse, and you might be fooled into thinking she doesn’t go deep . . . but you’d be wrong. In the long conversations I’ve had with Michele, her quick thinking was all about me: how she could help me, what she could learn about me, how she could promote me. If you have a chance to work with her, do it.

Connie Ragen Green, Build Your Online Business

I don’t know Connie personally but I’m so impressed with the way she runs her business, and I’ve learned a lot from her teleclasses and courses. She’s very up front, clear, focused, and no-nonsense about her teaching, which I appreciate. If you work with Connie, you will learn what she promises (if you do the work), because she makes it so easy, and makes herself accessible. You only need to look at her own very successful career to know her stuff works.

Ed Roach, The Branding Experts

I’ve known Ed for many years and I’ve got to tell you, they don’t come more real than this guy. No marketing BS, just level headed branding advice and creative strategic thinking that comes from years in the trenches. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve gone to Ed myself, when I need to get out of a mind block – this guy can think on his feet. His solutions are smart. And, he’s honest as the day is long.

I’m sure I’m missing some wonderful people I need to recommend to you, but I’ll have to catch them at another time. These are the coaches/consultants with deep experience I’m thinking of most right now, so I hope you’ll check them out — and tell them I said hello.

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**Caution. A Monday afternoon rant is coming up.**

I’m getting just a bit weary of all the people promising the moon these days, aren’t you?

Every time I open my email, go to Facebook, or check Twitter, someone is telling me I can “make 6 figures” or “get all the clients I need.”

It’s just getting so loud. And while a lot of it is really well written (and I love to read good copywriting that pulls me in), so often, there’s very little depth behind it.

Some of it is just common sense stuff, rehashed. (There is no “I” in “team.”) Some of it is airy-fairy feel-good stuff. (You must believe in your inner goddess.) Some of it is dished out by kids who just learned it yesterday from someone else. And some of it is downright dishonest and manipulative.

I’m pretty much a fan of plain old solid business advice.

I know there are no silver bullets. No magic beans. And you should know that, too. Running a business takes time, commitment, and work. That’s how we’re going to make 6 figures and get all the clients we need.

And, yes, there are some people, many people in fact, you can learn from who can get you where you want to go faster than you could go by yourself. I believe in hiring coaches, or I wouldn’t be one, and I wouldn’t have hired them for myself. I just want to point out that not everything you hear out there is right. And not everyone is telling the truth.

They call it “marketing.”

I still think marketing should be about getting people what they want and need, not what someone else wants to sell them.

So just keep your eyes open. Just because someone writes compelling copy doesn’t mean they can deliver on their promises. Check the person out before you sign up with them. Get clear on what they teach, what their track record is, and what others say about them. Ask around. Take your time. Trust your intuition. If you feel pressured, it’s not a good sign.

No one can give you the moon. You’ve got to grab the moon by yourself — the best coaches, consultants, and mentors can only point you in the right direction.

If you’ve been thinking you’d like to work with me, I invite you to check out my VIP Intensives.

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I had a terrific time on Michele Price’s Women in Business Radio on Monday, talking about my business journey — how and why I’m where I am, my bumps along the road, and what I’ve learned that might help other women.

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Listen to the interview recording through my very own Women in Business Radio page!

Women in Business Radio is a popular weekly broadcast over the Internet, created as a communication hub for women in business across the world. Michele’s vision with Women in Business Radio is to be a gathering place every Monday, to share messages from women in business so you can see your potential, power, and profitability through connection with other women.

Michele Price is a savvy business woman who has uncovered, out of necessity, interesting and dynamic ways to build her business, brand, and  presence online. Creating ways to be found online so that when people need your expertise, they already know, like, and trust you, is where Michele shines.

Listen in for a fun conversation. For full details, make sure you visit the official page for my broadcast.

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Here’s the analogy I like to use: If you just go out and sit in your car, it’s not going to take you anywhere, is it? But if you know where you are now and you put that information into your GPS, along with the information about where you want to go, and you actually turn on your car and steer it, you’ve got a much better chance of getting to where you want to go. It’s the same for your business.

“Indestructible Business” started yesterday

I have to tell you, I’m excited about the “Indestructible Business” course that started yesterday and the group of people in it. We’re beginning with our Visions for our businesses and where we want our businesses to take us. And of course, in order to do that, we need to take a good look at where we stand now.

What’s your Big Why?

For a first step, we’re looking at our Big Why. As in, why are we in the business we’re in? What drove us to it? What passion do we have for it? What gets us out of bed every morning? Why do we really want to succeed? If you’re answering these questions for yourself, here’s the next step: what’s the why behind your Big Why? Keep digging until you know your core motivation, down to your bones. Often, creating a vision board can help you ferret these ideas out of your brain.

Celebrate your wins

Figuring out where our businesses stand now also includes celebrating our wins (one of my favorite parts! and something business owners often overlook) and documenting our current stats, like number of clients, billings per client, site visitors, etc. This will give us a starting point from which to move forward, much like plugging your current coordinates into your GPS. On Friday, we’ll be discussing how all of this impacts our individual businesses.

It’s not too late to join this 16-part, 8-week course — because we’re recording all of the segments. And there are lots of exercises and worksheets to complement the course.

Core principles:

• You are not your business and your business is not you.
• You’ve got to be authentic in your business, which also means being imperfect.

More on this as we learn together as a group!

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When you build a business, you’re actually building an entity, separate and apart from yourself and the work you do. It’s a thing, like a child or a pet or a relationship. And it’s helpful to think of it that way.

I actually picture my business like the big blue monster in the 2001 movie, Monsters, Inc. — not Mike Wazowski, the Billy Crystal one-eyed guy, but Sulley, the big, strong, good-hearted John Goodman monster – and it helps me to remember that my business is not me, and I am not my business. I imagine Sulley sitting in the corner, patiently waiting for me to have time for him — to feed him, pet him, and take care of him.

Your monster needs attention

When you’re building a business, it needs attention from you in order to grow and stay strong, just as a child or a pet or a relationship (or a big blue monster) needs attention. And if you give it what it needs, your business will pay you back in spades, and it will lift you up, and it will support you and be your rock and a source of great strength and power and comfort for you for a long, long time.

But you do have to feed and pet the monster. You can’t just ignore it, like a lot of business owners do.

Just doing great work is not enough

It’s terrific that you serve your clients well. Doing great work for clients will go a long way for you. It will keep your clients happy, to a certain extent. And it will satisfy your creative urges and your need to do good in the world. But doing good work alone is not enough to keep you in business. It won’t keep your monster strong and supportive.

Your monster needs attention. It needs nurturing. It needs food. It needs you to groom it and to clean up after it, and to take it out to play. It needs your direction, understanding, and feedback. Without these things, your big blue monster flounders and gets in trouble, just like an unattended child, or a neglected relationship gets in trouble if its needs are not attended to.

You need your monster to be happy in order to continue being able to do your work

It’s actually your business that allows you to do the work you love so much. Your business is the framework you hang everything else on — like your work and your team and your clients and your finances — so it makes sense to have a strong framework. The good thing about this is that you can take care of it over time. You don’t have to tackle it all at once. It’s the same as it is with a dog or a child, you don’t feed your monster all at once and then you’re done — it’s a gradual process.

So think of it this way: you love your work. You want to be able to continue to do it. The big blue monster is your partner in this, and he has to be happy and healthy for things to continue. If you’ve been ignoring him, he may be having a tantrum, or he may be gasping for air, or he may be in a coma and not be very responsive to you. But all it takes to get things going again is for you to find out what he needs, and give it to him every once in awhile.

You can pet the monster in small doses

You don’t sit your child down for a huge breakfast and expect not to ever have to feed her again. You don’t walk you dog once and think that’s enough, do you? It’s the same with your monster. You can pet him a bit today and then go back to doing your work, because you know you’re going to take him for a walk tomorrow.

So what are the essential ingredients for growing a strong big blue monster?

1.) Your business needs vision. Taking stock of where your business is now and where you want it to go is like sitting down and spending quality time for an entire afternoon with your monster.

2.) Your business needs to project confidence. Making sure you have a good connection between your respect for your work and your respect for yourself as the creator of the work is imperative, and will be reflected visibly by your monster, making him more attractive to clients, team members, and partners.

3.) Your business needs to project value. Understanding your true difference and value to your clients will make your company stand out from the crowd and help people choose you over other guy. This is like giving your monster a massage and trip to the monster beauty parlor all in the same day, so he’ll feel great inside and out.

4.) Your business needs visibility. You need to have a great message and you need to communicate it to the right audience. After your monster’s all cleaned up, he feels great and his confidence is sky high, how about taking him for a walk to show him off?

5.) Your business needs to be productive. Left alone, your monster is going to get into all sorts of things you’d rather he wouldn’t. I know you didn’t start your business to be a business Nazi, but that monster needs to be told what to do — he wasn’t born knowing the rules any more than a baby or a puppy is. He’ll be much happier if you give him a schedule and tell him what to do.

6.) Your business needs support. What if someone could step in to help you with the monster every once in awhile? There might be people who could carry some of the weight, or know more about monster care than you do. And there might be people who could give you some pointers, too. You and your monster both benefit!

7.) Your business needs financial management. I know, this is one of those icky areas, and your monster feels weird about it too — he can tell you’re avoiding this part. But there are baby steps you can take to pet this part of your monster, and they’ll make you both feel better.

Now that you’ve got an image of your business that will never go away, you know you just can’t keep ignoring him. So go on over and give him a hug, and let him know you’re going to start taking better care of him. And then someday soon, he’ll be able to take better care of you.

What are you going to do, right now, to pet your monster?

Listen to “Business Brain 101: Seven Easy ‘Exactly What to Do’ Steps to Take So You Can Enjoy More Time, More Profit, and Get Back to Doing the Stuff You Love” to learn more about petting your big blue monster.

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I’m doing a special teleclass tomorrow. It’s about exercising your Business Brain.

Here’s why you might want to listen in:

1. Have you done wonderful, valuable things for your clients, but haven’t really worked out the framework of your own business?
2. Do you hold the work you do for clients in such high regard (because you’re so passionate about it) that you sometimes have difficulty seeing your own value in the equation?
3. Do you ever worry that “someone” will find out you don’t know what you’re doing, and your business will come crashing down around your ankles?

If you answered “yes” to any of the above questions, you may have found out that your business isn’t growing. It is either in a constant state of upheaval and chaos, or it feels like it’s mired in mud.

The solution is actually pretty simple.

It’s about exercising a part of your brain you might not have been totally using, and I call it your Business Brain. To activate it, all you need to do is begin putting seven principles in place — and you don’t need to learn them the hard way, I’ve done most of the thinking for you.

And that’s what I’ll be talking about in my special upcoming teleclass tomorrow: