All posts by Amira Alvarez

A Secret About 7-Figure Business Owners

By Amira Alvarez I pay a lot of attention to what über successful business owners do. I'm going to share a little secret that not a lot of them talk about... The people who are really serious about making a significant difference in the world by making significant money in their businesses, the…
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Classic Post, Tips of the Trade

I pay a lot of attention to what über successful business owners do. I’m going to share a little secret that not a lot of them talk about…

The people who are really serious about making a significant difference in the world by making significant money in their businesses, the 7-figure purposeful business owners… they’re spending just as much money on mindset work as they are on strategy.

Yup. They know that every time they’re on their growth edge and taking it to the next level… it’s “new level, new devil.” This is why it’s essential to get the mindset help. (And yes, sometimes it’s “new level, same devil,” but let’s aim to avoid that, right?)

They know that business strategy alone, without the right mindset support, just means there’s going to be a whole lot more struggle and hard as they go for their next level dream.

They refuse to let that be their destiny.

They look at their results and appreciate what they’ve achieved. They also look at their results, and because they have a BIG purpose, they recognize that they could be doing even more… and doing it more easily.

Since they have good business acumen, they ask… why aren’t they getting to the next level of income or reach? Why are they facing the same issues around cash flow, team, feeling supported, reaching their ideal clients?

The answer is often INNER GAME. And they know this.

If you don’t clear the blocks on the inside, you can’t see the opportunities that are right in front of you, much less take action on business advice. Your mindset will blind you to what’s right in front of you or fear will stop you from taking action on the opportunity.

But once you identify and gently transform the mindsets that are keeping you stuck… opportunities become visible, and action becomes easy.

Let me give you an example. (This example is a composite of many client experiences. It comes up so often it’s truly amazing.)

Say you’re ready to hire someone to support you in some aspect of your company.

You really need that support, that area of your business taken care of so that you can go off and do your genius work.

But what keeps happening?

The people you hire let you down. They drop the ball, don’t do it how you want it done, can’t work independently or at the level you want them to…and it’s causing you more headaches than help.

You start feeling like you’re all alone in this, held back, that you have to do everything yourself, and that no one supports you. This spirals down to thinking that the world is against you. Ugh!

This is NOT a power position. Trust me–I know from personal experience! And it’s such a common pattern for highly ambitious women.

But you know what? For us to shine in the world, we need to feel supported. This is one of the keys to feminine leadership.

Allow yourself to be supported.

How do you do that? You transform the stories around this–your mindsets and beliefs.

So even though this appears to be about staffing, it’s really about feeling safe and supported in the world. Whoa!

This usually means digging into the relationships that seemingly don’t relate to your business (partners, parents, siblings.) I’ve done this with many clients (and myself) and you know what happens when you do this? Magic.

You are able to recognize and receive support in such a profound way, and you have this as such a solid foundation, you can then step forth into more.

You need both… the business solutions and the mindset.

The purposeful, 6 and 7-figure business owner decides to take an easier path, by deciding to invest deeply in mindset work, as well as business strategies.

This so important for female entrepreneurs and leaders in particular.

In order to step into a new paradigm of feminine leadership–one that prioritizes ease and grace–you must release the beliefs that drive actions that no longer serve you.

Enough of the patterns that lead to over-striving, over-doing, and overwhelm.

Enough of the beliefs that cause worry and the grind-it-out-push-style of building a business.

This is not how you bring your work and your message to the world. It’s no longer effective and is counter to your energy as a woman.

It’s time to release the thoughts and habits that are holding you back and transcend the old models for achieving success.

I invite you to stand in your power with no apologies and bring YOU to the world in a bigger way.

Amira

 

 

Desire And Clarity

By Amira Alvarez There's something urgent that wants to come out about desire and clarity. So much of the time we desire something yet are confused at some level of our consciousness about wanting it. There's a resistance that comes from some belief that says, "It's not okay to want that." Years ago…
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Life Stories

There’s something urgent that wants to come out about desire and clarity.

So much of the time we desire something yet are confused at some level of our consciousness about wanting it. There’s a resistance that comes from some belief that says, “It’s not okay to want that.”

Years ago when I first starting following my desires and putting them first (and NOT in the “some day” or the “once-all-the-stars-are-aligned and I’m fully ready and have enough money” category), I realized that I denied myself even really simple desires.

The biggest ah-ha around this was related to getting a glass of water, something so basic that it really bonked me on the head with its ridiculousness.

I realized I was denying myself water when I wanted it. I would be in the middle of something “more important” and put off taking a brief break to get up and drink a glass of water.

A glass of water!!! Trust me, the absurdity of this was not lost on me.

In that instant when I recognized what I was doing it became clear that this was representative of how I was putting myself off and denying myself in all parts of my life.

I was saying no to my desires (be they simple like a glass of water or grandiose like where I truly wanted to go in my business) because I believed I can’t have what I desire unless I both worked hard for it and denied myself. Ouch!

I believed that success (what I want) comes from a nose to the grindstone work style. I believed this so fundamentally that I had to deny myself a FREAKING GLASS OF WATER in favor of pushing through the work.

YET, get this… what I really wanted was ease, joy in my creating, loving what I was doing in life, trusting that it will all work out… those were my true desires…

BUT I was thinking and behaving completely contrary to my desires.

I was saying I want this effortless ease in my life and business but clearly my belief system was wired differently.

The proof was in the pudding, so to speak. There it was. Glaring evidence of what I truly believed. “No water for you missy until your martyr yourself to your work.”

This kind of clarity is important. When you get clear on the disconnect between your beliefs (what’s running the show) and you consciously desire, you then know exactly where the work needs to be done.

You can change your desires, you can deny your desires, OR you can change your beliefs.

You know what I advocate for.

Now, I’m off to get a glass of water. Over and out. ;-)

Amira

 

What Happens When The Truth Resonates

By Amira Alvarez "Ideas are easy, what's hard is doing the work." - Mark Cuban I heard this the other day (from a billionaire no less) and had to write it down. All the cells in my body stood up and paid attention. This is what happens when the truth resonates. Here's my…
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Tips of the Trade

“Ideas are easy, what’s hard is doing the work.” – Mark Cuban

I heard this the other day (from a billionaire no less) and had to write it down. All the cells in my body stood up and paid attention.

This is what happens when the truth resonates.

Here’s my take on it…

Ideas… when we’re open and aligned… they come streaming to us. Lots of the them and they’re often truly brilliant.

I don’t think there’s a shortage of good or even great ideas. And every time one of my clients has a great idea, I cheer. I fist pump.

I celebrate the AMAZING idea that has landed because it really is amazing to witness the matching of personal genius with a brilliant idea.

BUT that’s just the beginning.

The idea, the “what” and even the “how” (fill-in new product or service offering, new marketing channel, new outreach program, new system, etc)… is just the beginning.

Doing the work of creation is where the magic is.

Doing the work to take that idea or intention into reality, that’s where the rubber meets the road.

So often what happens is that the feeling of the idea (that marvelous “OMG, this is it!”) is so seductive we just want more of that.

Because ideas FEEL good. They FEEL *like* success.

But guess what? They’re not success. Not YET.

Sorry to bum your high. I love me a GREAT idea too and all those yummy delicious feelings that go with it.

But the trick is to run with it. To take action on it. To do the work of creating it.

Because if you don’t, you’ve just had another idea. You haven’t created anything.

You’ll probably get another great idea soon (because like attracts like) and then you have lots of ideas.

At it’s best this leads to “dating” a lot of different ideas. Kind of fun.

At it’s worst, this leads to overwhelm, inertia, and completing little or nothing.

Because IDEAS ARE THE EASY PART.

Doing the work? Well, that takes more.

Are you ready to do the work?

I’m talking about SHOWING up and being all in. I’m talking about not hiding out or letting your fears, your uncertainty, your patterns, habits, your “life” and YOUR FREAKING SUBCONSCIOUS stop you.

This means moving through whatever is blocking you… steadily, without fail.

And here, I do NOT mean grinding it out. Nope. That’s the hard way.

I don’t mean trying to over-power and man-handle yourself when you get stuck.

I mean clearing up the inner dissonance so that you can show up and do the work to bring your ideas and dreams to fruition.

The inner game = 80%.

You are brilliant. You know what you want to create… whether it’s doubling your income this year or releasing a new product or service… you have an idea.

Now it’s about executing on it. Are you ready?

Successful women choose ease, amira alvarez,

 

 

Circling Around The Same Problems In Your Business?

By Amira Alvarez One of the things I'm keenly aware of when I work with entrepreneurs is that even though they're already successful and can be making multiple 6-figures, they still have blindspots in their business models. I look for these because this is where the opportunity for income acceleration is. These are the places where they recognize that there's a problem,…
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Classic Post, Tips of the Trade

One of the things I’m keenly aware of when I work with entrepreneurs is that even though they’re already successful and can be making multiple 6-figures, they still have blindspots in their business models.

I look for these because this is where the opportunity for income acceleration is.

These are the places where they recognize that there’s a problem, but can’t see the solution for themselves.

One woman I recently worked with had been circling around the same problem in her business for the last 5 years.

She couldn’t quite figure out how to integrate her divergent passions and business channels, but knew she needed to.

This is a really common problem and one that needs to be solved if you’re going to show up fully and wholly as you in your business.

(Hint: anything less than fully showing up feels a bit dreadful, like you’re squeezed into a container that doesn’t fit… and this makes everything feel like an uphill battle.)

She had a great business model–one that had her working with her ideal client at the PERFECT point of entry and helping them on exactly what they needed help with. Then, once her clients had mastered this level of transformation, they were then ready to move onto much bigger things.

She had that planned out for them too. She had the next beautiful step, really good and juicy stuff, for her clients. It seemed ideal, except there was a problem–something was missing.

She knew it but couldn’t put her finger on it. It was feeling good but not perfect. It didn’t have that completely lined up, yummy feeling.

Listening to her, I recognized that there was this whole side of her that was being left out of her business model. She had expertise and passion that was core to her big purpose, her “why” in this world, that she wasn’t including in the flow of her business model.

Sure it was there, but it wasn’t highlighted and given it’s time in the spotlight. It needed to be made part of the magic in a much bigger way.

In one quick conversation (it’s not always this quick, but it can be!), I assessed the situation and gave her a way to do this that was elegant, easy, and aligned.

There was a long pause, during which I could feel all her cells realigning, and then a great, big smile.

She had a successful business, had worked with other business strategists before, but up until this point she didn’t quite have the exact answer she needed to make her business model work seamlessly. Now she has an elegant path forward.


This is an example of “finding the missing link” and “seeing your blindspot”– and when you do, your business gets so much easier.

It has nothing to do with your intelligence, passion, or competence, by the way. I know you’ve got that going on!

It does however, have everything to do with being able to zero in on what needs fixing–and most of the time, we can’t do that for ourselves.

Here’s the thing about blindspots… by definition you can’t see them. They are YOUR blindspots.

If you’re in a similar place to the woman in this example, and want to DIY this, ask yourself the following questions:

1) What practical elements are being left out of your business?

2) What element of your “being-ness,” your vision, your essential self is not being heard or seen in your business?

3) What are you yearning to express or address, but it just doesn’t fit your business model or how you’ve been told to do things?

Once you’ve answered these questions ask…

4) What would it take to weave these in? What would need to change in yourself and in your business? How could you do that?

5) What’s at risk if you make these changes? What could you gain?

6) Are you willing to change these components of your business?

Enjoy!

Amira

 

 

The Missing Link To Breaking Through Your Income Glass Ceiling

By Amira Alvarez One of the things I’m noticing more and more is how women who are leaders in their industry... Who are already making 6-figures or upwards of 7-figures and are ready to do more in the world, are hitting up against their own glass ceiling. They’re missing opportunities and getting in…
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Creating Easy

One of the things I’m noticing more and more is how women who are leaders in their industry…

Who are already making 6-figures or upwards of 7-figures and are ready to do more in the world, are hitting up against their own glass ceiling.

They’re missing opportunities and getting in their own way… yet they don’t see exactly what it is that’s holding them back.

I call this the missing link phenomenon.

See, when you’re at this level you are clearly good at what you do and you already have a high level of business acumen. Yet at every level, whenever you are on your growth edge, you will have a blind spot (or two.)

There will be something that’s stopping you from elegantly getting to the next level of success. This is YOUR missing link.

This is the problem that you don’t see, that if solved you’d be able to put success together much more elegantly.

Let’s take a woman with whom I was speaking last Friday. She’s brilliant at what she does, as good as it gets in her field, already making multiple 6-figures.

Yet she wasn’t reaching the level she wanted to reach on her own because with her own processing she couldn’t see the answer to her particular business bottleneck.

What was her particular business bottleneck?

Her challenge was effectively reaching her high-level, ideal clients even though she was getting personal referrals made on her behalf by highly credible colleagues.

It seems like these highly credible referrals would have worked like a charm, but they weren’t.

So we dug in and identified exactly where the breakdown was. In this case it was around messaging and exactly how her colleagues were positioning her.

It seemed okay on the surface, but our discussion revealed that they way they were introducing her was clearly not speaking to what drives the clients she was trying to reach. It was not motivating them to take action and get in touch.

This was the missing link in an otherwise strong business strategy.

Not only did we come up with better language that positioned her brilliance in a way that her ideal clients would really relate to, we came up with a strategy to get them on the phone with her that was non-threatening and more conducive to a yes.

Now she can easily run with this. (Love that!)

You’ve got to be able to to do this with ease and grace at every stage of your business and at every step along the way.

Often that’s hard to do when you’re so close to your own work. You can’t see the forest for the trees.

The first thing to try on your own, is to step back–gain a different perspective.

You need to look at the problem from a different angle.

In the example I used here, this was about stepping into the perspective of her ideal clients and then seeing if we were making a connection there.

If you’re still not seeing the answers and the opportunity from this new vantage point, it’s important to get help.

It does you no good to keep circling around your issue in your own mind by yourself.

You want to find your missing links and resolve them, so you can move forward with the ease and grace.

This will allow you to step out of “hard” and step into a much easier way of building your business.

Amira

When there’s a disconnect between beliefs and what you desire

By Amira Alvarez There are times we desire something consciously, but don't believe it's possible to have it. There's a belief that's running the show that's keeping us from having what we want. I'm going to give you a very simplistic example of this to illustrate what I mean. Years ago, when I first…
 Read more  »
Creating Easy

There are times we desire something consciously, but don’t believe it’s possible to have it.

There’s a belief that’s running the show that’s keeping us from having what we want.

I’m going to give you a very simplistic example of this to illustrate what I mean.

Years ago, when I first starting following my desires and putting them first (and NOT in the “some day” or the when “I’m fully ready and have enough money” category), I realized that I denied myself even really simple desires.

The biggest ah-ha around this was related to getting a glass of water, something so basic that it really bonked me on the head with its ridiculousness.

I realized I was denying myself water when I wanted it. I would be in the middle of something “more important” and put off taking a brief break to get up and drink a glass of water.

A glass of water!!! Trust me, the absurdity of this was not lost on me.

In that instant when I recognized what I was doing it became clear that this was representative of how I was putting myself off and denying myself in all parts of my life.

I was saying no to my desires (be they simple like a glass of water or grandiose like where I truly wanted to go in my business) because I believed I couldn’t have what I desired unless I both worked hard for it and denied myself. Ouch!

I believed that success (what I want) comes from a nose to the grindstone work style. I believed this so fundamentally that I had to deny myself a FREAKING GLASS OF WATER in favor of pushing through the work.

YET, get this… what I really wanted was ease. I wanted that energized peace of being completely in the flow with my life and work BUT I was behaving completely contrary to my desires.

I was saying I want this effortless ease in my life and business but clearly I didn’t believe that was possible. If I did, I would be behaving differently and getting different results.

The proof was in the pudding, so to speak. There it was. Glaring evidence of what I truly believed. “No water for you missy until your martyr yourself to your work.”

That was NOT believing in ease.

That was believing in martyrdom.

This kind of clarity is important. When you get clear on the disconnect between your beliefs (what’s running the show) and what you consciously desire, you then know exactly where the work needs to be done.

Then you have a choice…

  1. You can change your desires,
  2. You can deny your desires, OR
  3. You can change your beliefs.

Hint: #3 is the way toward effortless ease.

Amira