As a home-based business owner and avid network marketer, I am always finding myself at various meet-and-greets throughout Chicagoland. Like a good little schoolgirl, my 30-second elevator speech is well-prepared to roll off my tongue at every introduction. My new acquaintances have a knack for exchanging quizzical looks at the end of my spiel before asking, "yeah, um, so what is a life coach?" Exasperated that my prepared speech is never enough, I began researching the definition of life coach in order to develop a more refined explanation to have at the ready. The following is what I have come up with.

I often coach clients who are unsure of what direction to take in their lives. They are often bogged down by negative noise and unfair expectations placed on them by others. They have difficulty determining what their true purpose is in life. They have trouble finding the passion to be engaged in anything with meaning.

Whay are so many people suffering from such lack of direction?

The problem is that they are not following their own definition of success. The secret to achieving success is in determining what success means to you. You must shake off the negative noise, the negative self-talk, the unfair expectations, the fears, the doubts and the unsatisfactory circumstances that chain you to a complacent reality.

by Melanie Benson Strick

"Mastermind” is the one of the greatest “secrets” to success. A mastermind is a group of people who share a common vision and commit to leveraging each other’s brilliance, skills and big thinking to achieve their biggest dreams. Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, talked about the power of masterminding almost 100 years ago! When you gather a small group of committed, successful people together and focus on your individual businesses – magic happens. I know – I just spent last weekend with my mastermind for our quarterly in-person meeting and the results were phenomenal.

When I look back at the 18 months our mastermind has been together it’s truly amazing what each of our five members has accomplished.