Our beloved fur child and cocker spaniel passed from this life today at home.  She was coughing the past couple of days before I departed on Thursday. The vets had talked about a heart murmur that was perhaps getting worse.

Now she has trotted along the rainbow bridge to a new home. So glad that I have her photos with me.

Now I’m halfway across the country, in Sedona at a retreat with Susan Castle and Paul Bauer. So I received the news from home by telephone.

The powerful heart essence work that we do in the retreats with Susan and Paul is a perfect sacred container for the grieving that I will be doing for the loss of my boon companion and familiar, the little black dog who was my constant shadow for her nearly 12 years with our family.

I am blessed in so many ways, and I want to express my gratitude for the fact that I was sharing breakfast with my friend Kate McGovern at the moment the phone call came. Perhaps part of me sensed something. Or perhaps it’s just that we are, all of us, vulnerable. Anything can happen at any time.

The trust in those liquid brown eyes…oh my. The faithful devotion. The beloved member of the family who walked on four legs instead of two. She enjoyed a very good life and grew up with a family who found her one late summer day at the Anti-Cruelty Society. She found a home and love, and she gave equally in return.

Rest in Peace dear one. May you dig up peanuts and roll in luxurious grass to your heart’s content. Your pawprints are seared into our hearts.

Do you struggle with charging
what you are worth? I know I do.
If you’re satisfied
with what you are charging, then
stop reading right now. If not, then join
me. You, too, can be like a fly
on the wall. Read on to find out how.

My coach and colleague, Molly Gordon,
has invited premium pricing coach
Dave Navarro to discuss why it’s
so hard for artists, writers,
visionaries, healers, and other
Accidental Entrepreneurs to set and get
good prices for your work.
You offer transformation:
Now what’s *that* worth?!

It’s a touchy subject that goes right
to the heart of issues about money,
value, and self-worth. Without the
right price, you can’t have the
security you need to make your greatest
contribution to the world. Yet getting
to that price and naming it confidently
can be a real problem. That’s why
I’m so looking forward to this Thursday’s
free conversation.

[Ready for answers about your pricing?
Go straight to the sign up page
by clicking: http://bit.ly/9LqIXT ]

I’m so excited about Molly’s
upcoming interview with Dave Navarro
on how to set and get premium prices
for your work. Dave is on the faculty
of this year’s Self Employment Telesummit.

In this no-cost preview of his feature
presentation, Dave will share:

*= The inspiration for his work around pricing.
*= The biggest challenges self-employed
people face around pricing, especially
after they’ve been working for themselves
for a few years.
*= The three avoidable pricing mistakes
that can cost you big-time.
*= What you need to know to be comfortable
(and successful) raising your prices.
*= The secret that makes your
price the *right* price.

WHAT: Premium Pricing Secrets Preview

WHEN: Thursday, August 19, 9:00am Pacific/Noon Eastern

HOW: Teleconference

SIGN UP: http://bit.ly/9LqIXT

If you already know Molly’s work, you
know she is deeply committed to ending
the epidemic of under-earning among
Accidental Entrepreneurs. And she’s
hand-picked Dave Navarro to hone in
on this topic to help you get over
The Hump from just getting by to
shining profitability.

To sign up for the call, head on
over to http://bit.ly/9LqIXT.
There’s no cost and there’s so
much you’ll gain.

Come, spend an hour with Molly
and Dave and shift your thinking
about pricing.

Warmly,

Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru

P.S.: This no-cost, content-rich call
is a preview for the 2010 Self Employment
Telesummit. I’m proud to recommend this
event and the telesummit as an affiliate.
I hope you’ll take a minute to learn more
about how the telesummit can help you get
over The Hump when you sign up for the
pricing secrets call at:
http://bit.ly/9LqIXT

P.P.S.: Can’t make the call?
Sign up anyway and Molly will
send you the link to the
recording.

http://bit.ly/9LqIXT

P.P.P.S. Pricing secrets shared!
Don’t miss this.
http://bit.ly/9LqIXT

Hope to “see” you on the call!

Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru

August’s “What Will Be Your Legacy Month” is a great reminder. Mostly when you hear people talk about “legacies,” it’s all about what’s left behind.  Certainly that’s worth pondering.

But I challenge you to take it up a notch. Realize that what you leave behind starts with your decisions right now, in the present moment. How about living your legacy?  With every word you write and speak, every choice you make, you can connect the decisions to the heart and soul of your deepest commitment and connection to the whole. Make the present moment your moment to, as Gandhi reminded us, “BE the change you wish to see in the world.”

As someone leading a business, you can make a conscious decision right now to make all your choices for the highest good of all concerned. You can even take it the next step to make your decisions that will benefit “all the children of all the species,” (a phrase I’ve embraced from architect and polymath William McDonogh) and for the greater good of Mother Earth herself.

Unfortunately too often what I see in business is a disconnect between what you want to leave behind and the in-your-face necessities of business. How many cut corners does it take for disaster to follow  — especially when the focus is purely on bottom line results?

You are sowing the seeds — right here and right now — of what you leave behind at some future date.  Every decision in the present moment has consequences through time. Is your business living the legacy that you intend? If it is, are you documenting the positive moves?

Maybe this month’s reminder to consider your legacy is a perfect opportunity to look at your personal purpose, why you are here on this planet at this tumultuous time.
*Is your deeply personal, greater soul purpose informing your business actions?
*Are you aligning your business and personal purpose so that you are making the difference in the world that you came here to make?
*Is your business fully reflecting the highest purpose of you, as the leader of your business?

Live your legacy every day in your business by making decisions based on your most heart-felt values!

Are you wasting time and money on writing that doesn’t get you results in your business? Have you been “promising” to write a book, publish a newsletter, start a blog, but it just hasn’t happened?

If writing is not your main gig, then writing can eat up a lot of your time — especially if you tend to have perfectionist tendencies or try to edit as you go along.

Perhaps even worse than doing no outreach communications at all is creating poor, unclear, or hard-to-decipher written messages. If you are trying to make a point, but your readers (clients, customers, employees, vendors) don’t “get it,” then your time has been doubly wasted.

Poor writing can also reflect badly on your product, your service, your brand, and (if you’re a solo-preneur) on you!  Clear writing affirms your professionalism.  On the other hand, murky, clichéd, repetitious, jargon-y or error-filled writing does not.

It may be the digital age, but what fills those bits and bytes are — you guessed it — words! From 140 character Tweets to white papers, web sites, blogs, newsletters, press releases, catalogs, and the more than a million books published in 2009 — count it all up and that’s a lot of words.

Among that avalanche of words, how do you create a message that stands out? And how, out of all the possible written messages, can you serve and nurture your customer relationships? How about turning prospective clients into paying clients?

Did you know that an ongoing communication program, what some call a stay-in-touch program, can be your key to bringing in all the business you can handle?

There are many, many ways to use writing to grow your business, sharpen your brand’s visibility, generate fresh results, and open a two-way dialogue — starting with your own clear action-oriented messages — with your perfect clients.

Over the next few posts, we’ll look at some of the possibilities.

Conscious businesses, even more so than other ventures, have a commitment to bringing heart to marketing messages and soul to business. These words play a critical role as they carry the essence of your business story.

Do your writing and business communications lack impact and pizazz? If your written messages are not getting attention, if your words are not moving your customers, clients, or employees to take the actions you are spurring them on to, if your results are suffering, then maybe it’s time for a messaging makeover.

Words are powerful. The right written words, even if just a 140 character tweet, can nurture existing relationships with clients, introduce your business values to prospectors (people looking for the types of products or services you offer),  and move people to take action to get to know you a little better.

While you might not get every one of those benefits from a single blog post or Twitter tweet, your communications are an ongoing affair that, like your relationships with your customers, require regular cultivation for long-term business success and results. In fact, cultivating your messages and nurturing your client relationships are two sides of the same coin. They are inextricably related.

Clear, focused, and articulate written communications are the foundation stones on which powerful businesses grow. You, as chief messaging officer, whether owner, CEO, or marketing leader, know the difference that the right words can make. But…
*Do you have the time?
*Do you have a trusted writing partner?
* … Someone who can download all your insights and polish them up to best serve your business, provide solutions to your customers, and expand your own inner development all at the same time?

There’s a greatness in the gifts you and your business are here to share and the service you provide to your perfect audience or tribe. The right words can build bridges between your vision that you are striving to achieve and the people you are here to serve.

If you’d like to consider a messaging makeover with a proven bridge-builder, then contact me directly at jasbjm (at) earthlink (dot) net to open a dialogue.

Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru