By Erika Danina Williams and Dr. Yvonne Williams-McMillan
As we participate in the daily grind to create and promote our businesses, four of the most neglected areas for solopreneurs and leaders of home-based businesses tend to be: nurturing social/professional networks, striving for deeper levels of self-awareness, calling upon our creativity; and sustaining the acts of self-care. Tackling these areas can certainly help us work smarter.
Nurture Networks
Why is it so important to network and how does it impact our level of self-awareness?
There are popular sayings that answer this question quite nicely, “Your network determines your net worth!” and “Contacts mean contracts!”
The purpose of our network is to have more people within our sphere of influence that know, like, and trust us; can vouch for our character and professionalism; and can extend our message and/or resources outside of our immediate social circle. If we seek out these opportunities with the attitude of how we can help others as opposed to how they can help us will create goodwill and favorable impressions that help get us closer to our own goals.
Instead of being known for a particular function like branding or accounting, strive to be known as a master connector; someone who is more interested in enriching the lives of others than in pitching a self-serving idea or product. Take the time to deepen existing relationships, choosing quality or quantity. But before we head out to the next happy-hour full of altruistic intent, we need to talk about self-awareness.
Stay Self-Aware
Most of us feel we have a good grasp of who we are and what makes us tick; however, we also have blind spots that prevent us from seeing the whole picture and can prevent us from growth in particular areas. Remember those days of the 360 Degree Feedback Tool from HR? Believe it or not, it did serve a greater purpose – to help us identify gaps in our knowledge, efforts, and perceptions of ourselves; to help identify strengths and weaknesses; and to be more reflective of our performance (quality, reliability, comprehensiveness of the product/service offered, etc.). Addressing the feedback provided helps to create a better customer service experience, provide a more comprehensive product/service, or encourage referrals and repeat business.
However, since so many of us work from home now, feedback is not as readily available as it once was. Yet it is still as important. Therefore, using members of our networks (including clients and vendors) can be the next best thing for gaining valuable insight into our current work performance and productivity.
Call-Up Creativity
Once we have insight and support from our network, are aware of our own blind spots, and know exactly where to focus our efforts, the $64,000 question remains – How do we use this information to improve our business? The best possible answer to this question is to get creative! Inviting others to participate in brainstorming exercises, where we think of every possible solution to our problem (no matter how crazy or impractical it may seem at first), can help us really see the opportunities that lay before us.
To get the most out of this exercise let’s be sure to invite people who aren’t so close to us or the problems we are trying to solve. As Richard Saunders (aka Benjamin Franklin) put it “When familiar people try to solve familiar problems, they tend to develop familiar solutions”. The way to create a fresh entrepreneurial reality is to start reveling in the boundless possibilities.
Sustain Self-Care
Tending to our own psychological, physical/physiological, and spiritual needs is crucial to sustaining the high level of energy we need on our journey toward success. Of all the areas we tend to neglect in our pursuit of return on investment or positive cash flows, self-care may be easiest to incorporate into our routine. Yet is the one area we tend to neglect the most.
The phrase ‘self-care’ is typically perceived as one of indulgence or luxuriousness, but we must get over the idea that we cannot afford, or that we must be rewarded with such an act. Reframe it instead as a healthy habit. Integrating healthy habits into our everyday lifestyle has benefits that contribute to increased productivity/effectiveness and a positive mental attitude when problem-solving and engaging others – which can improve our bottom line. A simple way to start is to take time in the morning to express purpose in setting our goals, and end the day with gratitude, celebrating the small wins with family and friends!
Engaging in the daily grind is a necessary part of building our business and can take up the majority of our day. However, we cannot afford to overlook these four important areas in our lives that aren’t as obvious in their demands: being supportive and helpful as a connector to others, being precisely aware of where we need support and assistance, gaining a fresh perspective of our situation and circumstances, and establishing a routine of self-care. Investing in each of these areas can help strengthen our entrepreneurial resolve to work both harder and smarter.
DR. YVONNE WILLIAMS-MCMILLAN, MA, Ed. D
Dr. Yvonne Williams-McMillan is the Co-Founder of Color Your World Personal Development & Coaching, LLC, which provides research-based instruction, motivation and inspiration to help busy, professional women sharpen their competitive edge in the marketplace. Drawing on her expertise and experience in the areas of curriculum design/assessment and e-learning/educational technologies, Yvonne felt that she could better serve her clientele with a highly focused program tailored to their unique needs.
Born & raised in Chicago, IL, Yvonne is a recent transplant to sunny San Diego, CA. Yvonne has an impressive background in education, earning her B.A. in Art History and Communications from Roosevelt University, an M.A. in Communications from DePaul University, and her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Organizational Change from Roosevelt University. In her spare time, Yvonne enjoys traveling, relaxing in her garden, and spending time with family and friends.
ERIKA DANINA WILLIAMS, MBA
Erika Danina Williams is the daughter of Dr. Yvonne Williams-McMillan and Co-Founder of Color Your World Personal Development & Coaching LLC. Also a native Chicagoan and recent transplant to sunny San Diego, California Erika’s background was in Investments & Securities before joining her mother in Color Your World Personal Development & Coaching in 2017. Erika has served as VP/Investment Management & Advisory for several of the world’s largest financial institutions (Northwestern Mutual, Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co, and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group) after earning an M.B.A. in General Management from the University of Chicago in 2008. Previous to that she’d earned her B.A. in Fine & Applied Arts from Chicago State University.
Erika brings to Color Your World Personal Development & Coaching, LLC., profound insight into corporate culture, having personally experienced, and fully understanding, some of the many challenges women face in climbing the corporate ladder. With her mother, Dr. Yvonne Williams-McMillan, Erika helps create courses and programs to help women tackle and overcome these challenges so that they not just survive but thrive in today’s competitive global marketplace. In her spare time, Erika travels extensively and spends time with family and friends.
COLOR YOUR WORLD PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT & COACHING, LLC
Oftentimes, high-potential, professional women experience difficulty marshaling, honing, and packaging their diverse skills into one coherent, fully-articulated personal leadership philosophy which can cause them time after time to lose out on opportunities to candidates less qualified and/or possessing less-proven track records. As a result, some women become disillusioned, disenchanted and eventually disenfranchised in their careers.
Color Your World Personal Development & Coaching offers online courses and webinars to help women outshine their competition by developing personal leadership skills and abilities, greater confidence & self-esteem, and effective interpersonal skills. With a comprehensive selection of programs, they can become better leaders and communicators, complementing their domain-specific skills and expertise. Sometimes even small changes can transform an individual from being captive by her circumstances to shaping her own destiny!
