clarity is key to your growth

Childhood memories of the big hunt for pussy willows

One of my fondest memories of spring as a kid is watching the winter snow begin to melt and hunting for pussy willows.

My brother & I knew the places to tromp through the woods to find the best pussy willow bushes and, each spring as the snow melted & formed muddy ground, we'd don our boots and go in search of those wonderful plants.

The pussy willow is actually a scrubby willow bushy type of plant and those small, silky buds are actually flowers before they bloom.  Those flowers are called catkins.
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Catkins usually don’t rely on pollinators to spread their pollen. Instead they simply release their pollen into the wind, where it may or may not land on the female flower parts. In order to hit their targets, the catkins must produce a tremendous amount of pollen.

The metaphor of the pussy willow & visibility

I've worked with plenty of business owners that remind me of the pussy willows & catkins --- and I too can totally relate to this metaphor within my own business venture!

Visibility doesn't automatically translate into value, don't just be everywhere, be where you are most needed.  - Bernard Kelvin Clive

When I first entered the online space, the professionals were touting that, in order to be successful, you needed to be everywhere!

That couldn't be further from the truth!  You need to be where you are most needed and, to find that, you need to be crystal clear on your vision, message, ideal client, and your marketing plan.

To start, ask yourself these questions

1. What do you stand for? Your vision & your beliefs
2. What are you trying to accomplish?  Who is it that you are trying to help?
3. What is my special talent?  What is it that you alone are so unique at doing?
4. How can I take that special talent & share it with others?  This is your mission.
5. In what ways am I committed to showing up & sharing?  

By answering these questions, you will gain so much clarity on your strategic growth plan, it will simply amaze you! 

Your answers to these questions will help you to form your targets -- and unlike the catkins -- you'll clearly see areas in your business that you can set goals around so you're not just simply blowing pollen in the wind!  Instead of pumping out ideas and not taking intentional action, the answers to these questions will provide you clarity about reaching your ultimate goals. 

Steps to reaching those goals will become extremely clear and, from there, it's a matter of building the strategy.  You'll no longer be blowing pollen to the wind and everything you do will have a specific plan attached to it.

Most people don't reach their goals because they simply haven't built an actionable, workable plan around them.  They haven't used the SMART method:  Specific, Measurable, Attainable/Achievable, Realistic, and Time bound.  

When your goals aren't written down, aren't SMART based, or are tucked away in a notebook, they become easily forgotten, overwhelmingly hard to tackle or impossible to achieve.

For the longest time, I was trying to be all the places everyone told me to be, following every shiny new thing that popped up on my radar, and revising my plan every week.  

It was sheer exhaustion and got me absolutely no where!

3 Things That Will Make All The Difference

Once I stopped trying to be everywhere and be everything to everyone, my business took on a whole new life --- and so did I!

Get the clarity by answering the questions above, just like I did, and then take that next step of creating your plan by following these 3 simple steps.

1.  Create and focus on a 90-day plan of action
2. Chunk up those larger goals into bite-sized pieces -- monthly, weekly, daily
​3. Get to work -- take action & stay committed by getting accountability

If you're ready to release your pollen and not let the wind decide where it will land - if you want to gain the visibility through a solid plan of action that's in alignment with your ultimate goals - then you'll want to stick around and learn more about clarity & visibility strategies.

I want to help take you from that place of searching to a place of clarity but, even more than that, I want it all to be in alignment with your ultimate goals and provide you a strategic plan on how to bring it all to a place of understanding and action.

I invite you to join me & over 500 other dedicated solopreneurs in my free Facebook group, Solopreneur Success Strategies, where getting clarity, visibility, support, and learning business strategies happen every day!

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