Ever hold off on launching your website because you are just not crazy about the font size or accent colors that your graphic designer has selected for you? 

Have you paused on hitting publish on a blog post because you just need one more person to reassure you it is good? 

Have you ever avoided a networking event because you haven't gotten your business cards printed yet or had time to craft a killer "what I do" statement?

If so, my friend, you might be struggling with perfectionism - the killer of entrepreneurial dreams and potential.

What is Perfectionism?

It is NOT:

• High quality standards. If you're a high-achiever with a long track record of creating results - you deserve a world-class website that reflects the depth of what you bring to the table. That's personal power.
• Longing for living in an ideal world of truth, justice and moral order. That's a desire for peace that we all share.

It IS:

• A condition that results from a set of self-defeating...

“Oh it’s going to be all right
This is love…this is life
When times get tough and still worth the fight
This is love, this is life
The road here is paved with the brokenhearted
We have gotta finish what we started
Oh we gotta hold on tight
This is love…this is life!”

 - “This is Love, This is Life” Bon Jovi

Failure. That dreaded word. We all experience it probably more often than we wish. That missed promotion or lost job. The divorce…maybe even for the second time. For many of us, when we experience failure we feel like we have a scarlet “F” on our chests and hang our heads in shame and hope to God that no one asks us any questions that will force us to reveal how badly we have messed up.

The Two Worldviews That Failure Reveals

When we fail it reveals something about the worldview that we build our lives on. There are two options:

1. The Contractual Worldview:

In the contractual worldview, you choose what you want out of...

“If your success is not on your own terms,
if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart,
it is not success at all.”
- Anna Quindlen

I really don’t know when I lost my passion for my role as an internal consultant at Walt Disney World. When I landed the job, it was the realization of a lifelong dream. Once hired, I threw myself into my client work, which was always interesting, always complex. I want to attribute my loss of passion to the sheer exhaustion of parenting two children under the age of three while holding a highly visible and responsible corporate position. But I know the truth.

The source of my discontent took root when my Dad died of lung cancer way too young. When we was in end stages, I flew back and forth from Orlando (where I lived) to Chicago (where he lived) on a weekly basis. To pass the time during many hours on planes, I would listen to music. That Tim McGraw song “Live As If You’re Dying” was big at the...

It’s a jungle out there
Disorder and confusion everywhere
No one seems to care, well I do
Hey, who’s in charge here…”

Randy Newman, It’s a Jungle Out There

As a consultant, I have exposure to the inner workings of companies of all sizes and in all industries. Over the past few years, I have noticed an increasing trend of excess stress experienced by employees at all levels, particularly at the executive level. While there are many systemic reasons that I can pinpoint for this challenge such as the reduced headcount, higher pressure for short-term numbers, expectations of 24/7 connectivity, the net result is all the same. Stress abounds everywhere – particularly for high achievers.

Regardless of how the excess stress has come to be the impact is significant. There are many studies about the high toll that exhaustion is taking on us as individuals and companies and society on the whole. The experience of time poverty and sleep deprivation is directly...

Interview Transcript:

Betsy:   Good afternoon.  I am Betsy Jordyn and I am so excited to have Dr. Sangeeta Pati here.  She is an integrative health doctor who completely was instrumental in helping my overcome my burnout.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Dr. Pati for coming to talk to us today.  I'm so excited you're here.

Dr. Pati:  I'm excited to be here.  You're in inspiration.

Betsy:  Before we get started I'd love for everybody here who is listening in or watching to know a little bit more about you and your background, and how you're connected to this project that we're talking about related to the Science of Burnout.

Dr. Pati:  Okay.  Well I was born in the United States and traveled and got exposed to a lot of schooling abroad, which obviously ultimately has influenced where I have gone in medicine.  I've practiced as an OBGYN in private practice in the D.C. area.  And I then joined a safe motherhood project...

The best thing about leaping from corporate into running your own business is having control over your career, time and earning potential. But for a lot of us - we don't fully take advantage of this power we risked so much to find.

We work a ton of hours.

We get caught up in the chase for gig after gig.

We don't take time off (or as much time as we want) because of the fear of not knowing where the next client is going to come from.

And as a result - we take work is beneath what we did when we were corporate leaders and get paid for our time, something we haven't done in years.

So let's turn this around. Let's make your business the best promotion you have ever received and in the process turn you into the boss you always wished you had.

#1 Position Yourself to Land Work that You Love...With Clients That You Love

You don't have to take any work. Really you don't. You don't have to become a subcontractor to another consultant or coach that has mastered marketing more than you...

You don’t need masters’ degree or unique certifications to break into corporate consulting or coaching. You also don’t need to become some marketing guru to land work with the C-Suite. Instead, if you want to start finding and landing executive advisory assignments with high-level leaders, you need to cultivate the following attributes that they find the most valuable.

1. Business Acumen

• Focuses applying expertise towards achievement of business outcomes (vs. implementing a methodology.)
• Knows how the various functions of a business work and relate to each other.
• Understands business drivers, challenges, competition, goals and strategies.
• Speaks the language of business – financials, data and analytics.

2. Political Savvy

• Can recommend solutions that consider the realities of the formal and informal power networks.
• Understands how the culture and power networks operate within the client system.
• Able to build relationships for mutual benefit and win support...

A couple of days ago I wrote an article that differentiates between consultants and coaches and the respective business models. 

I realized that I was remiss in pointing out one business model that both might choose: becoming a subcontractor.

Quick Recap on the Difference Between Consultants and Coaches

Consultants and coaches are both executive advisors. The difference between the two is the way that they advise their clients. 

Consultants are more focused on enhancing leadership and organizational capacity whereas coaches are more focused on the leaders themselves and helping them improve their personal and leadership effectiveness.

A consulting business is a "business to business" (BTB) model where you get paid to improve an organization's results. A coaching business is a "business to consumer" (BTC business) where you get paid to improve an individual's results. 

What is a Subcontractor?

A subcontractor is a self-employed consultant or coach...

When you first start your consulting and coaching business, you are likely to get a lot of referrals to potential clients. But referrals will only take you so far, especially if you want to scale up your business. Therefore, you need to create marketing routines that consistently generate leads and future clients into your pipeline.

Marketing has one job – to get qualified leads to know who you are and be interested in having a conversation with you. But when it comes to marketing as a consultant, you need to add one other thing: You need to establish your credibility. You are not selling widgets for low prices. You are selling your know-how in exchange for significant fees.

Therefore, create your overall marketing strategy that sets the context for you to be able to make a powerful promise and then deliver on that promise. Select tactics that give you the opportunity to make create a relationship to the right people that you can most help.

1. Identify Your Ideal...

All thought leaders have a big breakthrough idea that they contribute to global conversation. Brené Brown is known for her contributions of our understanding of "shame and vulnerability." Marcus Buckingham brought "strengths" to our awareness. Daniel Goldman did the same with emotional intelligence. Simon Sinek - your "why", Donald Miller - "story brand" and the list goes on.

What's A Big Breakthrough Idea?

At the core of what you do isn't your methods or techniques. It's not your certifications in different tools either.  It's your stance. Simply put, your stance is your position or point of view on how to create essential change or transformation in an individual or a group of individuals.

There are three parts of your stance:

1. What's the ideal state - what does individual and/organization health look like
2. What has gone wrong - why don't people live that ideal state
3. What is the best way to fix the gap

Defining The Ideal State

The...