Vickie's Viewpoint

You have invested in yourself and hired a business coach. As a result, you’ve saved countless hours of learning the hard way and your career has progressed by leaps and bounds. Now your momentum has slowed. Your enthusiasm has waned. And your sense of purpose has drifted.

You’ve switched hair stylists. You’ve switched investment advisors. You’ve switched child care providers. When your intuition, your heart and the face in the mirror told you the timing was right you’ve switched professionals. Could it be time to switch business coaches?

Here are some signs it’s time to change business coaches…

When you find yourself…

• Dreading your coaching sessions.

• Distracted easily during sessions.

• Annoyed with your coach’s advice.

• Complaining about what they are charging you.

• Making sacrifices to always accommodate your coach’s schedule.

• Feeling the relationship is stuck.

• Having no shifts or new insights in a long time.

• Not feeling better after the sessions.

If you are still questioning whether it’s time to change your business coach, take Vickie Champion’s quiz entitled See if You Are Getting the Most From a Coach.

As many of you know, I’ve recently started offering “pay what you can” afford business coaching and life coaching sessions and workshops.

I’m not the only one. I’m part of a “pay what you can” movement. Restaurants, theaters, yoga classes, personal trainers, speakers, spas, cab drivers and health care clinics, just to name a few, have initiated this. I just heard an interview at http://www.heartofbusiness.com/pay-what-you-can-and-tad-hargrave/ on the concept “pay what you can.”

I think “pay what you can” is going to become more common and here’s why…

• It seems like many of us are becoming paralyzed because of a lack of trust, whether it’s because of corrupt people like Bernie Madoff or dicey situations, like whether we will have a job next week. “Pay what you can” builds trust, which we need more than anything now.

• I think most of us think of value being associated only with price.  Instead “perceived value” should be redefined as associated with quality or the customer’s opinion of the value.

• It helps businesses put “making a difference” and “doing the right thing” at a higher priority than “making money and “exceeding sales goals.”

• “Pay what you can” equalizes the economy. If we don’t do something soon, our society will consist of the very rich and the very poor. “Pay what you can” gives the poor the same privileges and opportunities as the rich and at the same time, helps eliminate the rich getting richer off of the poor.

• It builds faith that God is our source, not our clients.

“Pay what you can” is not for every business, but for me it’s the right thing to do for now.

If you’ve let the lack of funds stop you from hiring that much needed business coach or life coach, contact Vickie Champion at 480-838-9866 PST or visit www.VickieChampion.com.

Debt can be a vicious cycle. We start the debt cycle by finding a way to JUSTIFY adding on new debt. (See the previous blog to find out more details about What is a Debt Cycle?)

Here are 11 Signs You’re Stuck in a Debt Cycle…

When we…

1. Have little or no savings, investments, or assets.
2. Add new debt right after one debt is paid off.
3. Have several credit cards.
4. Borrow money to pay off credit cards.
5. Put very little money down and set up a longer repayment period to reduce the monthly amount.
6. Have charge accounts that rise steadily and rarely get paid off.
7. Use overdraft privileges on our checking account.
8. Are proud that we’ve been approved for credit.
9. Are ignorant of the terms and interest rates of our loans and credit card accounts.
10. Keep payments around the minimums.
11. Use promotions to pay off items such as furniture and dental work over time.

If most of these signs fit you, you are in the vicious debt cycle.

How to End the Debt Cycle

A good way to stop the debt cycle is to take it one day at a time. You might say to yourself, “Just for today, I will pay in cash.” Or, “Just for today, I will not use my credit or charge cards.”

Even if you can slow the debt cycle down, you’re getting somewhere. If you stay committed, it will eventually end the cycle.

To learn more about improving your relationship with money Click here for a FREE MP3 download of a live recording of Vickie Champion’s Avoid the Money Madness! Workshop.

Debt can be a vicious cycle. We start the debt cycle by finding a way to JUSTIFY adding on new debt.

Ways we JUSTIFY Adding on New Debt-

1 To rectify our past mistakes.

(Example: You got in a fender bender by not paying attention and you need to fix your bumper.)

2  To reward ourselves.

(Example: You’ve lost weight so you deserve to buy a new outfit.)

3  To get rid of the old debt.

(Example: Taking out a second mortgage to pay off credit cards.)

As soon as we JUSTIFY it, we take on new debt. This causes more stress and more financial consequences. For relief, we JUSTIFY adding on more debt. The more we do it, the more problems result and the more we seek relief from the problems.

When we catch ourselves explaining, rationalizing, defending, or making excuses why we need to add new debt, we’re caught in the debt cycle.

Click here for a FREE MP3 download of a live recording of Vickie Champion’s Avoid the Money Madness! Workshop.

I talked to two people this week who mentioned that they were tired of being nickel and dimed. This reminded me of a coaching client I had years ago.

This hard-working mother of four children felt shame that she couldn’t give her children more. So we poured over her budget and I learned that every night she was buying fast food for dinner.

Clearly she was nickel and diming her money away. And the habit was costly in other ways. She was overweight and two of her children also were getting chubby. Easy fix, right? Tell the mother to stop the nightly drive-thru runs. But she worked long hours and coming home to cook – her least favorite thing to do –wasn’t likely something she would stick with very long.

Instead, we returned to the issue of what she wanted her money to do for her: provide more for her children. I asked if she had millions of dollars what would she do for her kids. With no hesitation she answered, “Take them to Disneyland.”

I suggested she call a family meeting and ask her kids if they had a choice between Disneyland and eating fast food every night which they would choose. They chose Disneyland, which meant that everyone, including the 4-year-old, was responsible for saving for it.

Each family member, including her husband, was responsible for cooking one dinner a week. You realize for the two younger kids, that meant many nights of  cooking peanut butter and jelly and macaroni and cheese.

Whatever was leftover from their food budget that week was put in a piggy bank until they had what they needed.

Eight months later, the family went to Disneyland.

Here’s Some of the Benefits of Going for Their Dream…

Everyone in the family…

• Learned how to budget and save for what they wanted.

• Worked as a team.

• Bonded with each other over a common goal.

• Learned how to accept responsibility.

• Ate healthier and avoided gaining more weight.

• Built their self-esteem.

• Realized dreams can come true.

So often we put ourselves on auto pilot and nickel and dime our money away. Yet, if we would go for our dreams, we would benefit on so many levels.

Learn more about mindful spending, dream budgeting and taking your finances off auto pilot by clicking here for a FREE recording of Vickie Champion’s Avoid the Money Madness! Workshop.