Mary Cravets

Get Out of “Too Busy to Grow” Mode

May 18, 2015 by Mary Cravets

Ever notice that opportunities often come all at once? It’s awesome… and more than just a little overwhelming!

What is it about my brain that, when things are going great, it starts firing new ideas at me? “Oooohhh… and I could do this, and I could do that, and then I could write a book and start a screenplay and build a better mousetrap…” You get the idea. You may be living this idea!

If that’s the case, here is an easy way out allowing you to calm down, dig deeper and take on only the best opportunities:

Write a huge messy list of everything that’s on your mind. All the ideas, all the to-do’s, all of the fun stuff. Get it out of your head and on paper so it’s not making you crazy and distracted.
Determine your #1 priority, and write it down.
Review your messy list, and find the items that are closest to your #1 priority.
Put the priorities into your calendar. Under schedule yourself! Believe it or not, you’ll get more done, faster if you schedule lightly.

Moral of the story: If you’re feeling nuts, like your business is running your ragged, your priority MUST be to take a time out and prioritize.

Is your list still too much for you? Good news that tells you it’s time to expand your business! You’ll need to put a plan and processes in place to delegate, automate, give your clients more responsibility, or raise your prices – or possibly all four.

If you find this idea daunting, contact me. I specialize in simplifying business growth.

Stop Settling for Small Successes

April 29, 2015 by Mary Cravets

“There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” – Nelson Mandela

You know what I’ve noticed?

People settle for small successes all the time. It is disheartening, because they leave so much opportunity, so much potential positive impact, and so much money on the table.

With all of that, why on earth would would anyone settle? For example,

There is an emotionally happy charge that comes from any success – even small ones.
You already know how to accomplish the small successes.
You’ve mastered small successes so they don’t make your stomach drop and your palms sweat.
Bottom line: small successes are easy and comfortable.

But guess what? If you think back, it’s likely the things you’ve accomplished up to today at one point scared the pants off you. Don’t hold back. You have so much more to offer, and so much more to gain.

So how do you move past the settling phase?

Recognize when you’re settling.
Be willing to be uncomfortable in the short term in order to create bigger successes in the long run.
Decide on a big opportunity you want to go after.
Create the action plan to get there.
Implement it, even if it makes your palms sweat.

And don’t do it alone. Get a coach or mentor who can help you see the opportunities right in front of you. Every single person with whom I work is leaving money and opportunities on the table because they’re not getting a big-succes perspective within their own business.

Stop settling. You deserve and are capable of great things.

What big opportunity will you commit to going after today?

Recipe for Super Chocolates

April 11, 2015 by Mary Cravets

I recently made a re-commitment to eating healthy, and am exploring ways to make this commitment delicious (rather than torturous). Imagine my delight when I discovered recipes for healthy chocolate online!

But I’ll admit, I was skeptical. I’m a chocolate snob. And chocolate made from superfoods? Well, I was concerned they would taste like grass.

After experimenting, I came up with a simply delicious recipe*. The online recipes I found didn’t address how to deal with common problems (like the honey completely settling to the bottom), so I’ve included best-of-the-best instructions that will help you avoid these pitfalls.

Side note: if you are like me, and are on a diet that restricts carbs, you are going to be ecstatic about this next tidbit. Depending on how large you make the chocolates, they only have about 2-4 carbs each. While I’ve been eating and testing these chocolates (often up to 10 a day), my ketone levels have actually gone UP. If you don’t know what that means, here’s the bottom line: I seem to burn fat better when I eat the chocolates. Totally serious.**

A Note About the Recipe

The recipe below is for a small batch of chocolates, because you may want to do some practice runs to get it the hang of it. The ingredients are not cheap, so making small batches will save you money and headaches. Once you’ve got it, double or triple the recipe and go crazy!

RECIPE: Super Chocolates

Ingredients

1/3 cup Coconut Oil (I prefer unrefined, like at Trader Joe’s)
1/4 cup raw cacao powder (I used Hershey’s cocoa powder in one batch and it worked fine and tasted great, but cacao gives you the best nutritional properties)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch salt*** (optional)
2-3 teaspoons honey (to taste)

Instructions

Step 1. Put coconut oil, cacao, vanilla and salt into a stove top-safe pan or bowl. Do NOT add the honey yet!

Step 2. Over very very low heat, continuously mix with spoon or spatula. Remove from heat as soon as the coconut oil is melted, then continue stirring until the mixture is free of lumps and thoroughly mixed. The mixture will be a very runny liquid at this point.

–> For a milder, creamier chocolate (similar to milk chocolate), skip Step 3 and go straight to Step 4.

Step 3. For a darker chocolate, return the mixture to very very low heat, stirring constantly with a whisk until it is lightly bubbling. Continue to whisk gently (don’t whisk like you’re beating an egg!) for 2 minutes. Stick to 2 minutes: if you go longer, you’ll end up with a much more bitter chocolate. Remove from heat.

Step 4. Put the whole container of the mixture into the fridge until you see about 1 inch of the chocolate starting to solidify around the edges of the bowl. For the milder chocolate, this will be approx. 10-15 minutes, for the darker chocolate, 45-60 minutes.

Step 5. Remove mixture from the fridge and scrape the hardening chocolate from the edges and mix with the runnier stuff in the middle. What you’re working to get is for the entire mixture to be the consistency of a good, thick hot fudge. This may take a few trips back and forth into the fridge and onto the stove top, but it’s worth it. Getting to this fudgy consistency is the key to keeping the honey from completely separating.

Step 6. Add the honey, and taste it. Add more if you like!

Step 7. Spoon chocolate into candy molds, then pop in the freezer. In 15 minutes, they’re ready to eat!

Once you get the hang of this, try adding coconut, almonds, dried fruit. Have fun with it!

On the right, the milder chocolates and on the left, the darker. Coconut was added to all except for the hearts.

Post questions and comments and I’m happy to help!

* To those of you who know me well, please stop laughing. I know I haven’t cooked for more than a decade, but… well, just stop laughing, ok?

** I’m sure if I ate more than 10 or so per day, this probably would not be the case, so I don’t recommend using the chocolates as a basis for your diet. Just a yummy supplement.

*** The salt does not dissolve in the mixture, but is fairly well distributed. If you include salt, you’ll occasionally get a piece that is a little saltier than the others. Personally, I like that, but feel free to just omit the salt if you prefer.

Three Ways to Make the Impossible Work FOR You

March 23, 2015 by Mary Cravets

“What have you decided is impossible?”

This is the question I asked an audience of entrepreneurs recently, and was delighted by the responses. The “impossible” answers started out as limitations, but quickly blossomed into:

Creation of healthy boundaries. “It’s impossible to do it all myself.” This was shared by a business owner who realized this impossibility early in her business. It spurred her to action to find support people to help with her responsibilities as a wife, mother and entrepreneur.
Release of self-judgment. “It’s impossible for me to be a litigator.” An experienced estate-planning attorney voiced this in an apologetic tone, as if litigation was the only truly credible law specialty. By saying this out loud, she realized her false assumption, and the fact that it was holding her back: she constantly undervalued her own natural talent for her chosen specialty. By releasing this self-judgment she experienced an immediate jump in her self-confidence.
Freedom from limiting assumptions. “It’s impossible to hire someone right now.” The underlying assumption that was quickly revealed was that it’s very expensive to hire someone. Once this assumption was exposed, the business owner quickly thought of several inexpensive alternatives so she could get help quickly.

Asking yourself “What have I decided is impossible?” is the key step. When you don’t explore whatever you’ve decided is impossible, these beliefs remain restrictive limitations. Once you call them forth consciously, you transform them into intentional actions that energize you and your business!

Stick With it, or Change?

March 6, 2015 by Mary Cravets

Last week my husband and I were working in a coffee shop in Oceanside, CA right across the street from the ocean. He took a break, walked down to the end of the pier and back, then related this story to me.

“I saw 30+ fishermen on the pier and at least 50 lines in the water. No one was catching fish. And there were no fish in the buckets – I checked. All those fishermen, but no fish.”

Weird, right? I mean, if their goal was to catch fish, it was quickly obvious that this was NOT the right place to do it. So why do they all keep coming to the same place doing the same things?

Probably because of thought processes that go something like this:

Everyone is fishing here, so there must be fish here.
If I’m not catching fish, I should just be patient a little longer before considering changing.
And I’ve always fished here anyway… so results be damned – I’m staying!

Crazy, right? But it’s SO easy to get caught up in these assumptions and inertia, whether you’re fishing or being an entrepreneur. The trick is to know when to stick with it and be patient, and when to move on and change your strategy.

Stick with it when nothing has significantly changed, and you can confidently determine that your course of action has a history of bringing results for yourself or someone you trust. Sometimes the solution is to just stay the course with consistent, effective actions.

Change your strategy when you are not seeing results in any 60-90 day period, or when something significant has changed in your business, such as your goals, target market, industry, or product offerings.

These assumptions and inertia are often deeply ingrained and hard to recognize when left to our own devices. If you change when you should stick, you’ll constantly be in frantic reinvention mode. Stick when you should change, and you’ll stay stagnant and frustrated. Either way, your income and sanity suffer.

So get an outside perspective from an expert. Talk to a mentor, consult with a trusted advisor or hire a coach to sort through your options and move forward quickly.

23 Tips for When Everything Goes Sideways

March 2, 2015 by Mary Cravets

A lot of the people in my life have two things in common right now:

They declared in no uncertain terms that 2015 is their break through year.
Nothing is going the way they planned.

The truth is that when you make a declaration of sweeping change and are serious about it, things get weird. What you’ve been doing doesn’t work anymore. Things you’ve counted on for years fall away. Clients leave.

It can make you seriously question your sanity.

When you’re questioning everything you’re doing, everything you’re thinking, and everything you’ve ever done, listen to anyone other than yourself. In this crazy space, you will have nothing kind and nothing constructive to contribute.

I gathered opinions and compiled the constructive tips, as well as some fun and silliness to help you through the weirdness.

I call you, my Business Coach!
A big chair in my living room, a warm cotton blanket, a cup of tea and a book that has no redeeming social value, so I can just escape.
Prayer first, wait…reassess, create new plan, review then implement!
A deep breath, love the situation no matter what it maybe. Meditatione..and channel in on the good that will come from staying positive.
Pasta…
Take a nap on my purple couch
Prayers of gratitude because so many things are still going “right”. Then, some old school ’80’s dance music cranked up while I dance like no one is watching around my house. Next, do I need to create a plan or just let things go because I have no control? Finally, I work at not being in resistance to the way things are because they are what they are, and I make sure to honor my feelings and really FEEL them. If that means I have to take a nap, binge watch TV to escape for awhile or just have a good cry, so be it. Hang in there!
Distance and nature. A quiet walk in the woods (double points if I can hear or see water rushing by) and counting out my gratitudes.
LOL! Actually, I take a step back (literally) and find some perspective elsewhere.
Dark chocolate and prayer…not necessarily in that order.
Milk Duds
Napping.
Meditation. Exercise. Yoga. Dark chocolate.
Mary Cravets the biggest thing that changed my life is when you said, “focus on what you have accomplished”..and ” if you think it will be easy, it will” I use these DAILY! And boy, has it had an impact! I adore you.
Pray
Take a nap. Lol!
A deep breath, crunchy snacks, and writing out a list which then gets prioritized
Chocolate.
PRAYER!
Go to bed…. everything looks better in the morning light.
disconnect completely. Don’t try to make it work. Next, meditate, read (productive things like LOA), journal – what’s the lesson to be learned? what within me needs to change?
Popcorn and a chick flick!
Sit. Don’t touch anything. Hands off everything! Do you thing it usually entails things breaking and dropping? Yes. So just stop. Get a glass of cold water. Rest. And realize that its telling me to stop for day.

Thank you to: Joseph Gerace, Judy Helm Wright, Dianne Schmidt Kelley, Rosalynn Moreno-Perez, Cecelia Jernegan, Shannon Presson, Jane Garee, Candy Sugarman, Barbi Richter Holdeman, Michelle Sala Radtke, Rebecca Paul Hill, Mallie Rydzik, Jaymie Meyer, Sandra Ahrens, Martha Knight, Sara Harrie, Shalet Abraham, Stephanie Belvin Hopson, Sumiko Glenn, Deb Boulanger, Carrie Sharpshair, Becca Tokarczyk.

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Mary Cravets

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