If you are building a business without accountability, chances are your business is not growing as rapidly as you would like. When people set out to build businesses, accountability is not something they think about as a ‘must have’ item. They think about leadership, marketing, sales and tools. Accountability never usually crosses one’s mind. It is however, one of the most CRUCIAL things to apply to your business.

Why? Because accountability is what Gets Things Done. Without it, things just don’t happen. Or at least not as quickly as they need to happen. Remember when you were a kid? Why did you make your bed in the morning? Why did you do your homework? Your chores? Someone was checking up on you and making sure that you did everything you were supposed to.

From a young age we were taught to do things because if we didn’t, we would get in some kind of trouble. We were subconsciously taught to care more about doing for others, than doing for ourselves. Which is a great lesson when applied to selfless acts of kindness, but not our daily important tasks. Now that you’re an entrepreneur and building a business, Who is checking up on you?

Here are Two Ways you MUST us Accountability as an Entrepreneur…

First, establish accountability partners for all of your work. These people can be business partners, family members,friends, prospects or who ever can or will be there to ask you if you are getting done everything you have set out to do. One word of warning however, DO NOT ask a person to hold you accountable that is either a pushover and will accept any excuses that you feed them, or a person that really doesn’t care about your work. Neither one of these people will actually help you. Instead they will be enablers. Find yourself some tough ‘NO B.S.’ individuals that care about you and will keep you on track.

This takes care of our ‘learned’ accountability habits where we need someone checking up on us to fully complete our tasks. Without a doubt, if we know someone is going to ask if our project is completed yet, we are going to work even harder to do it before they ask. No one wants to look lazy or un-dedicated.

Secondly, you MUST be accountable to yourself. Period. There is not a Single Successful entrepreneur that does not employ self accountability. There is not always going to be someone standing at the finish line making sure that you crossed and then praises  you when you get there. We have to care enough about our wants, desires and goals that we Do Not allow ourselves to slack off, make excuses or be lazy.

Secondly, To be Truly Successful, we Have to Want it More than Anything Else. So much more so, that having someone else hold us accountable wouldn’t even make a difference because we are too driven and focused. This is where we have to learn how to get rid of the old thought process of doing more for others than for ourselves. This is Where we Want and Need to be Selfish. This is where we put ourselves first and simply work and work until we have achieved our goals.

The biggest piece of the puzzle here is following our passion. If you are following your passion and doing  work that is aligned with your purpose and highest calling, how could you Not hold yourself accountable? You would be crazy Not to. If you are having a lot of difficulty holding yourself accountable and completing your work, maybe you need to ask yourself if you are in the right line of business. Because when you are working at your passion, there is no ‘Have to’ at all. It is a simple and natural ‘Just Do It’.

What ways are you using accountbility in your business? What ways can you incorporate accountability into your business?

Take this message to heart and apply it. This is what makes all the difference in your business when it come to day to day results.

Believing in Your Success,

As busy entrepreneurs, we tend to spend most of our time working and trying to get things done. We get so caught up in what we have to do that we forget one of the most important parts of being an entrepreneur, reflection. Why is it so important to reflect? Watch the video below….

We are our best teacher if we only take the time to reflect and learn from our self. Make sure you are not only working hard, but observing what works and what doesn’t work for you. Most of all, don’t forget to celebrate you accomplishments! Be proud of your growth and the path that has led you to where you are today.

Believing in Your Success,

We are all free to create the Success we Dream of, Right? That is why we are entrepreneurs and spending so much time building our businesses. But my question to you is, are you REALLY Free to Succeed? Are you open to all of the things that Success is bringing or will bring your way? Or do you feel like there is a disconnect? Something blocking you from getting to where you want to be?

I, like most others, struggled with this disconnect for a long time. It took me awhile to realize that one of the hugest differences between Successful and Unsuccessful people is the Open-ness and Freedom to accept the success that comes your way. For most, there is this fear that lies inside our subconscious mind. A fear of how Success will change our life, will we be happy with the changes? A fear that once we have the Success we desire, we will loose it because we won’t be able to sustain it? On the surface we all say,”Heck Yeah! Bring on the Success!” But is that what you are really saying inside?

The reason that our subconscious fear exists, is because of a belief system that has been ingrained in us from the time we were children. We live in a society that views true success as reserved for an elite few that were ether born into luck or struck by luck. Other than the few Cinderella Stories we hear, a dream is just a fairytale that is unattainable by the average ‘Joe’ or ‘Jane’. We are taught not to get our hopes up and be happy with the status quo(sometimes we are made to feel guilty if we want something more than that). Anyone who does step up to work hard and create their dreams, is faced with opposition and Negative Nancys looking to crush their dreams before they even get off the ground. All of this negativity causes us to feel inadequate, that we don’t have what it takes. We are unhappy with ourselves and we start to fear loosing the success before it even comes.

What every successful person has that sets them apart is their Love of Self. Not in a stuck up egotistical way, but in a self-fulfillment way. Take my daughters for example, if you ask them if they love themselves they will say,”Of Course!” That is the beauty of a child! They are happy to be themselves, doing exactly what they are doing. They know they are infinite and are capable of anything. That is what the ‘Successful Elite’ have. A true belief in themselves. Something we are all capable of as long as we make that choice.

We can choose to live in lack and fear that we will either loose everything or never achieve it.  Or, we can live in abundance by believing in ourselves and knowing that our limitations are set only by our mind. We have the power to create our Freedom For Success. Our greatest ally is our self, we just have to make sure we are on our side at all times. We must change our mindset and weed out the negative talk we are constantly being fed.

It has been quite a journey for me to be able to do this, and I continue that journey each day. The way to change your mindset is through personal development. If you are beginning your personal development journey, a great place to start is by reading the book ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill and anything by Tony Robbins or Zig Ziglar(if you search any of these gentlemen’s names on YouTube you’ll also find some Awesome Videos). The personal development journey is not an easy one, you have to be open and honest about looking at what is deep within you. You might not like all that you see at first, but the purpose is to learn to love yourself a little more each day. If you are on the personal development path already, Keep on Going!

When we change our mindset to a higher more loving one, it is amazing the people and opportunities that you will attract to yourself.  Learn to love yourself, and the rest falls into place.

Please comment and share with us about your journey and anything you have found beneficial to your growth. If you enjoyed the post, be sure to re-tweet and share with others.

Believing in Your Success,

As a mom of two beautiful girls, I am forced into watching many ‘girly’ movies. I can’t say that I mind(my husband might speak differently), it is always fun to re-connect to that magical fairytale world of a little girl. Yesterday, my girls and I watched the very cute Tinkerbell movie. I have seen the Tinkerbell movie a few times, but this time it touched me in a different way. I saw a powerful business lesson unfold about the importance of Finding and Being True to your Niche.

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of watching Tinkerbell, I will give you a quick break down(Spoiler Alert!! For the purpose of explaining this lesson, the ending will be disclosed. Stop reading now if you want to see the ending for yourself!). Tinkerbell is new to Fairy Hollow, the world of the fairies, and each new fairy must take part in a little ceremony to find out what their talent is. Through an amazing display, it is very apparent that Tinkerbell is meant to become a ‘Tinker’ Fairy.

As she learns what her job is to be, she feels unchallenged and becomes bored quickly. She convinces her fairy friends to teach her their talents so that she might change hers. No matter how hard she tries to master the other talents, it all turns out to be a miserable failure. Tinkerbell even destroys all of the preparations for spring in the process and threatens the balance of the seasons!

After running away and doing some thinking, Tinkerbell decides to put her ‘Tinker’ talent to use. She creates multiple contraptions to restore the all the preparations for spring in just one day. When she decided to embrace her calling and put it into action, the results Tinkerbell created were amazing. This is exactly what we must do with our niche.

When it comes to finding our niche, we have to discover our true calling and true purpose. It takes some soul searching and being open to what is in our heart. If we focus on a niche that sounds good or looks fun, we’re not going to get very far. When we match ourselves with our true passion, that’s when we are going to create amazing results, just as Tinkerbell did.

This is something that has been difficult for me to achieve. I knew that I was passionate about ‘Success’ and helping others achieve true success and freedom professionally and in their personal lives. I also knew that I enjoyed focusing on women, especially mothers(as I connect with both). Until recently though, I was afraid of focusing my niche down on just women. I was afraid of ‘leaving out’ men, in particular all of the males I have befriended and connected with.

What I have realized though is that I’m not leaving anyone out or loosing any connections that I’ve made. I’m just allowing myself to be a stronger entrepreneur and leader because I’m following what is true to my heart. I hope you do the same. Take some time right now and do some real soul searching. Be open to what your heart tells you.

Sometimes we can be afraid of the truth about ourselves and what changes it might bring to our life or business. It is that Truth however, that is the core of our being. When we are connected with our Truth, we can Be and Create the most amazing things. Find your truth, it will be your Brand and your Offering to the World.

Believing in Your Success,

If there were no obstacles in our way we could achieve ANYTHING. Right??

What if you knew how to kick every obsacle out of your way? You CAN! All it takes is one simple question….

Wouldn’t it feel great to be five again and ask yourself what you would do if you had a magic wand? When we were five we knew we could overcome any obstacle, now we’ve got to believe it again.  Anytime an obstacle croses your path stop the negative thoughts! It’s not a burden, it’s a chance for you to find out what your heart desires so you can focus on how to make your wish come true. We can create ANYTHING  and overcome ANYTHING that our heart desires. What does your heart desire?? The only way to achieve success, is to know what’s in our heart.

Believe in Yourself! I Believe in You!

~Danielle Zack

Today is my Birthday!!

Birthdays are a great time to reflect and think about our years here on earth, our accomplishments, and our goals. I want to share with you my reflections from today.

I would love to hear you comments and feedback below! Make it a beautiful and youthful day!

Beieving in Your Success,

Danielle Zack

We all know at least one of them. The people that seem to breeze their
way through life as if there are no problems and nothing could ever
bring them down. For most of us, when we see this, we just scratch our
heads and wish we had even half of the energy and enthusiasm they have.
Many of us also think, ‘How can I have that?’. But it just seems like
living in a fairytale to us.

Someone recently gave me a challenge that has changed my mind about the
fairytale notion of these Happy-Go-Luckies. She first asked me about
the difficulties I was facing in my business. I quickly rattled off
the most current drawbacks I was facing, expecting her to offer some
typical business advice. What she said was…

“Wouldn’t it be nice if you thought of it like this,
Isn’t it great that you know the difficulties you are
facing? Now you know what needs to be fixed, all you
have to do is get a plan together to fix it. I challenge
you to start thinking of your difficulties in this way.
They’re not problems, but rather quides to show us what
we need to work on.”

Wow. I have to say I was kind of taken a-back. Is it really that easy?
All I have to do is start turning the negatives into positives in my
mind? Can I have that much mental clarity in my business that easily?
Instead of getting discouraged and bogged down, all I have to do is
focus on the difficulty in a positive light?

After that conversation I really started thinking about how as a society
we are conditioned to Think in Negatives. From a young age we were told to
listen to the rules ‘or else…’ and we were scolded for our bad behavior
much more than we were praised for our good behavior. We didn’t want to get
good grades because it would make us feel good, we wanted good grades so we
didn’t get in trouble at home. You see, we’ve been taught to DREAD the negative
instead of focusing on the positive.

Then I started thinking about how many opportunites I’ve MISSED OUT on because I
was so fearful of the negative, that I totally MISSED everything I had that was
positive. Sadly, there have been quite a few times where I have allowed myself
to become consumed with thinking about my problems instead of embracing them
as challenges and fixing them.

So can I be one of the ‘Happy-Go-Luckies’? It really IS that easy to change my
mindset by changing my outlook. As you can imagine, the possibility for happiness
is limitess when everything is shed in a positve light. IT’S NOT JUST A FAIRYTALE!
We can ALL be ‘Happy-Go-Lucky’.

So I challenge you. Starting right now. Stop the negative thought when it
crosses your mind. Find the positive in that thought so you can smile more
and have the enthusiasm to conquer whatever difficulty crosses your path.

I Believe in Your Success!

~ Danielle