When I was little my dad would ask, “Would you rather be the prettiest girl in the class or the smartest?” I knew he thought I was smart, and I liked the attention I got for it. I always answered, “The smartest.” For most of my life I’ve never thought I was pretty or beautiful. I was born with crossed eyes which were repaired in an operation at 9 months, but had a lazy eye for years. I had horribly buck teeth. My mom got me braces. My brother made fun of my legs and compared them to a “metal bar” – as in formless and straight.

So when I met my future husband, and he thought I was so beautiful and liked my legs, I never quite believed him. I chalked it up to “love is blind.” He was seeing what he wanted to see.

It wasn’t until I was in my forties that I began to be interested in feeling beautiful. I got in shape, took Carol Tuttle’s Dressing Your Truth course, and people began to comment about my attractiveness. A back-of-mind vanity warning fired occasionally, but overall I’m enjoying myself. I feel great when I’m in shape, and I enjoy looking nice. I don’t do it for others. I dress, fix my hair and put on makeup most days because it makes me feel good. I do it for me.

Marnie with her parents, Jack and Betty Morton

As time progressed, I began noticing in my meditations with the Lord, He would tell me that I am beautiful. My husband will occasionally ask, “Why are you so beautiful?” Still, I wasn’t owning it. I figured, I’m a 46-year-old woman who’s in shape, maybe that makes me stand out or something. Besides, I know beauty fades with time. We all can’t stay young and beautiful. But I look at my mother who is 80, and to me she is the most beautiful woman in the world. She has always been beautiful, but she improves with age because the beauty comes from within her. It radiates from her soul, through her eyes, and a warm glow surrounds her.

She walks into a room and love enters with her. That’s the kind of beauty that endures.

Yesterday I was on my Create a WOW Book Mentoring call, and prepped to do some energy shifting around money mindset. I had my list of affirmations handy and was ready to shift that energy for the folks on the call – using the method in which I’ve been certified.

I’d written a blog that morning, “Yep, I’ve Been Terrified to Share My Message Too” and sent it to my mentoring group earlier in the day. I began the call by asking them if they’d read it and what, if anything, stood out to them.

This started a conversation about scarcity (which would lead very well into the money mindset material I intended to cover). But the conversation was so great, that for the full hour we discussed two main themes – scarcity and what to do with outer/inner criticism. I never covered the material I had on my lap. The participants shared their brilliant insights. Many of them are energy-shifters themselves and discussed their modalities, their ideas. People were opening up and sharing brilliant ideas and epiphanies. The hour passed seamlessly.  Behind the scenes, I quietly cleared blocks I saw coming up for the group.

I directed the conversation a few times, chimed in with a few of my thoughts here and there. But for the most part, the call was a beautiful example of Quantum Collaboration and co-creation. Yet why was I so unsettled at the end of the call? I felt as if I’d done something “wrong.”

This morning I decided to meditate, ponder, and pray a bit about this. Why had the call made me feel uneasy?  I think it boiled down to the fact that I felt like I didn’t “do” anything. It wasn’t me being the wise one imparting knowledge or the energy shifter making things happen. Would my mentoring group realize I hadn’t “done” anything and go away?

Yet, I had played an important role. If I hadn’t, none of it would have happened. I set the stage, offered insightful talking points, and chimed in when I felt like I should. This is what I do:

1) I attract good-hearted, amazingly brilliant people.

2) I bring them together in ways that they can interact with each other in a safe loving environment where they are valued.

3) I am able to reduce or eliminate judgment and criticism.

4) I share a bit of wisdom, set talking points, get out of the way and let the infinite flow through the group.

Result: Quantum collaboration happens and the sum is far greater than the parts.

There’s an analogy I love that portrays the power of unconscious collaboration:

“Honeybees are driven to pollinate, gather nectar, and condense the nectar into honey. It is their magnificent obsession imprinted into their genetic makeup by our Creator. It is estimated that to produce just one pound (0.45 kg) of honey, the average hive of 20,000 to 60,000 bees must collectively visit millions of flowers and travel the equivalent of two times around the world. Over its short lifetime of just a few weeks to four months, a single honeybee’s contribution of honey to its hive is a mere one-twelfth of one teaspoon.

Though seemingly insignificant when compared to the total, each bee’s one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey is vital to the life of the hive. The bees depend on each other. Work that would be overwhelming for a few bees to do becomes lighter because all of the bees faithfully do their part.” (M. Russel Ballard, “Be Anxiously Engaged,” Ensign, November 2012)

Pondering upon the honeybee reveals that we are all going about our lives, engaged in our own “magnificent obsessions,” oblivious to the collective impact we’re making on the world. The honeybee certainly doesn’t know he’s creating honey that will be drizzled on your biscuit one morning. He is clueless to the rippling impact of his actions. And so are we!

Studying this analogy, I realized I’ve been measuring my value as if I’m a honeybee – busily working to gather pollen and make a tangible product – honey. But I am NOT the honeybee in this analogy. I am the flower. It’s my job to be beautiful, to attract beautiful people, and to set the stage. My pollen is talking points, bits of wisdom. As my friend Phil Davis says, it’s my “Marnie-ness.” My job is simply to be beautiful, to be me!

What an amazing paradigm shift for me!  This word, “beauty” (that I never knew what to do with) is who I was born to be. Those compliments of “you’re beautiful” that I continuously deflected are truly what I am and why I am here. From now on I’m “owning it.” It’s not about vanity. It’s about being who God created me to be – a flower who attracts beautiful people and sets the stage for magnificent obsessions to play out in quantum collaboration. Rippling impacts for good result in the world when I show up and be me. WOW! I love it!

I’ve worked with people for years, encouraging them to share their messages. I’ve promoted so many wonderful people  and seen the greatness in so many. Yet, I also noticed that a lot of people will do anything and everything but share their messages.

I had a fair idea of why they weren’t sharing — fear, self-doubt, and overwhelm. Yet, this paralyzation had me stumped. Of course, it was easy for me to be stumped because I didn’t have a burning message to share in those days. I thought my message was that YOU have a message. That’s a safe position to be — telling other people what to do when you haven’t really done it yourself.

Then everything changed when I realized I had my own message. Eight months after discovering it, life kicked me out of the nest and gave me the impetus to fully commit to this new path. As I’ve taken this flying leap, I now know WHY people are paralyzed! It’s downright terrifying!

Ironic, it’s a main phase of the Light Bearer process that I’ve been teaching for the last 3 years — you will come to the point where you’re tested on the very thing you’re teaching. 

I’m realizing that the paralyzation comes from mad, scrambling, short-circuiting thought patterns. Some days I’m getting a handle on my message and how to share it, and the next it’s slipped like sand through my fingers. Doubts and fears have taken its place. One step forward, two steps back. It’s crazy the things that go through your head when you set out to share the message you’re here to share. Here’s some of the nonsense that’s been running through my mind…

- If I start sharing, then I’m giving my good stuff away and then what will I have to share? What if I don’t have more to share later? What if this is all there is? What if I share it, that’s all I have to say and I’m done and I gave it all away? Now what?

- What if that’s all there is to me? I put it out, I’ve said it, and I’m done, and I have no other purpose in life. I’m just done.

- What if I share it and people don’t respond to it. I’m here to share a message that no one cares about. Of course, then, that means they don’t care about me. It becomes personal –  because my message doesn’t matter, I don’t matter.

- If I pour my heart and soul into this – give it my all and really do it and it falls flat, then what is there left to me? A J.O.B. doing something that bores me for the rest of my life. As long as I’m “working toward” sharing my message, then I have hope and something to look forward to. But if I actually do it, share it, give it my all, and it falls flat, then I am the ultimate failure.

- It’s safer to hold back some because then you have an excuse for why you didn’t succeed – it’s not about you and your message anymore then.

- What if my message is so complicated no one gets it? What if it’s too hard to explain, to quantify; and the learning curve takes so long that I go down in financial ruins waiting for people to “get it.”

- What if I throw myself 100% into this and it’s all a mistake. I’ve burned my bridges, now what?

- What if this is all pride and I’m being arrogant to think I have a message that is this important, but really it’s all just a lie.

- Pride goes before a fall. To think I have this big message is just me being full of myself. Risking everything for it is just pride, and I’m going to splat onto the concrete.

- What if I succeed? There’s a lot of responsibility with that, and I’m not ready to take on that responsibility.

- If I succeed, I give up the freedom to hide and play small. And it’s feels safe to play small.

After getting all those crazy thoughts out of my head and down in written form, I decided to work through each one and craft truth statements to counteract them. I’ve installed these in myself. If they apply to you, let’s install them for you too!

- I let go of scarcity thinking around my message. I have a lifetime of wisdom to share about it.

- The more I share about my message, the more comes and the richer and deeper it becomes.

- I’m here to share a message that people will respond to, be transformed by. I let go of the false belief that God would send me to this planet to share a message that is irrelevant.

- I let go of connecting my value to my message. I let go of connecting my value to other people’s opinions.

- The fact that I exist makes me priceless and of infinite value.

- I make money from my message. All of creation supports me as I live on purpose. I tap into the greatest levels of abundance as I live true to myself and what I’m here to do on the earth.

- I let go of fear of failure. I let go of the need to hold a part of myself back.

- All of creation is conspiring to help me share my message in a way that resonates with people and they are drawn to it.

- All of creation is orchestrating my success.

- My message can be conveyed with clarity and simplicity, yet with a depth and richness that I can study and expound upon for a lifetime.

- It’s in my highest good to fully commit to my message.

- It’s safe to give it my all.

- I let go of the need to play small. It is safer for me to play full out and live large.

- I let go of the fear of pride. I release the notion that I would have a great desire to share a message that would cause my demise.

- I trust that I will be comfortable with any responsibilities associated with success.

- I trust that I will be prepared and strengthened for everything I’m called upon to do as I live my purpose.

- I trust that this is a joyous journey and that I enjoy the responsibilities and activities associated with success in living my purpose and sharing my message.

I hope these affirmations are helpful for you and that you can internalize them for yourself. They’re true for you too! Accept them, you have something to do that only you can. We need you. The world needs you. Rise to your calling and let your light shine!

I felt the nudge to pick up Og Mandino’s book “The Greatest Salesman in the World” today, and opened it to find a page folded down: “Scroll Marked II,” pages 52-55. It’s been over a decade since I’d picked up this book, but evidently this section had been important to me back then.

As I read through the Scroll, these are a few passages that seemed incredibly relevant to my research on collaboration and synergistic relationships. I believe what Og Mandino describes here is the core ingredient to creating what I call “Quantum Collaborations.”

“I will greet this day with love in my heart. For this is the greatest secret of success in all ventures. Muscle can split a shield and even destroy life but only the unseen power of love can open the hearts of men and until I master this art I will remain no more than a peddler in the marketplace. I will make love my greatest weapon and none on whom I call can defend against its force.

“My reasoning they may counter; my speech they may distrust; my apparel they may disapprove; my face they may reject; and even my bargains may cause them suspicion; yet my love will melt all hearts liken to the sun whose rays soften the coldest day.

“I will greet this day with love in my heart…

“And how will I speak? I will laud my enemies and they will become friends; I will encourage my friends and they will become brothers. Always will I dig for reasons to applaud; never will I scratch for excuses to gossip. When I am tempted to criticize I will bite on my tongue; when I am moved to praise I will shout from the roofs.

“Is it not so that birds, the wind, the sea and all nature speaks with the music of praise for their creator? Cannot I speak with the same music to his children? Henceforth will I remember this secret and it will change my life.”

“I will greet this day with love in my heart.

“And how will I act? I will love all manners of men for each has qualities to be admired even though they be hidden. With love I will tear down the wall of suspicion and hate which they have built around their hearts and in its place will I build bridges so that my love may enter their souls.”

“I will love the ambitious for they can inspire me; I will love the failures for they can teach me. I will love the kings for they are but human; I will love the meek for they are divine. I will love the rich for they are yet lonely; I will love the poor for they are so many. I will love the young for the faith they hold; I will love the old for the wisdom they share. I will love the beautiful for their eyes of sadness; I will love the ugly for their souls of peace…

“I will greet this day with love in my heart.

“And how will I confront each whom I meet? In only one way. In silence and to myself I will address him and say I Love You. Though spoken in silence these words will shine in my eyes, unwrinkled my brow, bring a smile to my lips, and echo in my voice; and his heart will be opened. And who is there who will say nay to my goods when his heart feels my love?”

… “With love I will increase my sales a hundredfold and become a great salesman. If I have no other qualities I can succeed with love alone. Without it I will fail though I possess all the knowledge and skills of the world.”

Mynders Glover and Marnie Pehrson at NAMS9

Well there is no area of marketing that requires more attention to detail than a product launch.

I should literally be making t-shirts with the slogan, “I survived my first product launch.” Those of you who’ve gone through one know what I mean…

But what I’ve learned recently is that it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to kill yourself over your next launch. You simply have to get the details down…all of them.

In this special video by my friend, Mynders Glover, you’ll learn exactly how to harness the power of Google Calendar to keep your product launches on track without derailing your life.

Mynders will even show you an advanced method to actually have your calendar pull from you the actions that are most important for you to schedule. That’s right. No more post-it notes.

Once you learn this special calendar layering process, you’ll be using it for everything!

I guarantee your next product promotion will be way more organized!

As a Product Launch Consultant, Mynders helps business owners develop their launch strategy and implementation plan to promote their products online. He has consulted on numerous launches, including taking the lead role as Launch Manager for social media guru, Don Crowther. Visit www.BusinessBuildingShortcuts.com for more great videos from Mynders.

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Guest post by Shannon Cherry

You know about JV (joint venture) partnerships. And I am sure you know about affiliate partnerships. But there’s one partnership you may be forgetting – and it’s costing you thousands of dollars.

It’s Sponsorship Partnerships.

Most people think sponsorships are for nonprofits or ‘big name’ sports stars.

But this is simply not true! Sponsors are looking for people to partner with at all levels to help promote their products and brands. Why?  Companies know that sponsorships allow them to reach a particular target market in a way that advertising cannot… through someone they know like and trust – YOU!

And sponsorships can really benefit you, too.

Sponsorships can pay the bills and give you money to spare! And they can boost your image as well as your bottom line. Sponsorships are a great publicity and promotion technique for your business. They can increase your credibility and visibility, while building customer confidence AND help you find even more people and companies to partner with.

Every year, corporations spend millions of dollars on sponsorship marketing and event sponsorships. Unfortunately, many don’t have a clue about how to approach a potential sponsor, prepare the information needed, and persuade a sponsor to join them in a mutually beneficial project.

So how can you create sponsorship partnerships?

You need to realize that sponsorship is a business deal like any other partnership, not a donation or hand-out.

Sponsorships won’t work if you are just saying, “Gimme” like one of my 7-year old twins. (At least they say please and thank you now!) You need to find sponsors who will make a good partnership because the sponsorship will provide something of value for both you and the company.

You also need to know that you need to be offering a good marketing investment to the corporate sponsor. Sponsors want to exploit the commercial opportunities associated with an event or organization.

It is as simple as that, but perhaps the hardest to grasp:  the key to creating a sponsorship partnership is just like any other partnership. You need to show the true value in the partnership in order to be successful.

About the author: Shannon Cherry, a business and marketing pro with more than two decades of experience, helps you to make more money in your business without adding more time.

She founded her business, ShannonCherry.com, in 2002 to help helped experienced and ambitious entrepreneurs grow the business they desire– without compromising on their principles. Her focus is to provide laser-targeted solutions to get fast results, including Sponsorship Made Simple program, which helps coaches and consultants get sponsors.

Shannon’s business has been debt-free since its inception and she consistently works only 20 hours per week to spend more time with her family in the capital of New York.

On our IgnitePoint.com creating revenue streams call yesterday, Kirk Duncan of 3KeyElements.com and Leslie Householder of ThoughtsAlive.com both said they don’t market. As a marketer myself, I’ve watched these two with wonder, having spent some time with them personally, I can substantiate their claim. I’ve said on more than one occasion, “Just think what you could do if you marketed yourself!”

But I want to make one thing clear. Just because they say they don’t market, doesn’t mean that marketing doesn’t get done. There’s an intense amount of marketing that goes on around Kirk and Leslie. It just isn’t them or their paid team doing it. It’s their fans.