Monday, November 24, 2014

Routine

The holidays are a time of year when we all can feel overwhelmed, and overextended. There are holiday gatherings, holiday travel (whether you are traveling or your family is visiting you), shopping, holiday services in your local community, and children's school holiday programs, and then the kids are out of school for a week or two or three. 

As always, none of the day to day items fall off of your list. 

So how do you manage when you are out of your routine? 

We take comfort in our routine, don't we? Things happen on schedule, and we can plan "wiggle room" for unexpected things to come up.

So how can you make chaos routine? 


Well for starters, we all sort of have, haven't we? I mean we are far from the days of Leave it to Beaver and Happy Days. The world  moves at a pace faster than ever before and there is no chance of it slowing down any time soon.

So, the holidays are a time to plan for a lot more "wiggle" and a lot less schedule. So, plan for it. Schedule less into your day so that when whose opportunities arise, you have planned for the space to take advantage of them.

Another winning strategy is the buddy system. You remember the buddy system from when you were in school, right? Well this is a little bit different application, but it works basically the same way. 

Say you have to bake cookies for a school event, a cookie exchange, or a family event. I bet at least 1 of your girlfriends, if not more, also has to bake cookies for something at this time of year. So... buddy up! You can get the task done faster, and you'll have more fun. 

How about gift wrapping, or shopping, or ...

I think you catch my drift.   

Monday, November 17, 2014

Women Entrepreneurs are the World’s best Jugglers

How true is that?


  • What woman entrepreneur you know doesn't do at least 3 jobs?
  • Who makes it look effortless most of the time?
  • Who doesn't get thanked enough?
  • Who slowly and quietly gets more overwhelmed each day?
  • Who seldom complains about the load she bears?


And of all the hats we wear, we are nearly always supporting, doing or caring for someone else. 

So, when do you decide it's time to take care of you? And if you ever make this difficult and guilt inspiring decision, who is it that does take care of you?

Run down the list of hats you wear in a typical day, or week, or month, and consider how those who are paid as professionals in each field demand to be treated and served. 

Chefs have dishwashers, most professions have secretaries, or assistants, some professions have entire staff to tend to things that are outside their expertise.

And you, a busy woman entrepreneur, do all of these, only get paid for one maybe two of them and insist that your needs can wait.

and wait...

and wait...

and wait...

But what happens when they can't wait any longer? What happens when you finally hit that tipping point? What happens when you burn out mentally, emotionally or physically?

People in your life will step up and pitch in and they will care for you. And then you'll feel even more guilty.

So what if you decided that taking care of you, self-care, that thing that you know you're supposed to do, but just never manage to get around to, was important. What if you decided that it was a priority? 

What if you could come up with a way to do that on a regular basis and not feel guilty?

Impossible?

Maybe not.

There are a thousand little things you can do in a day to lower your stress level and take a little bit of self-care without neglecting your loved ones, your business or your ever growing to-do list.

Here are a few to inspire you to do a little self-care today...
  • Give yourself a mini facial - grab one of those sets of beauty products you bought but never took the time to use and do all the steps. Enjoy the glow and great feeling skin.
  • Listen to your favorite song. Turn the volume up loud. Before you pick up the kids, sing all the lyrics at the top of your lungs and chair dance if you want to.
  • Call your best girlfriend and share a funny memory.
  • Do a random act of kindness for someone who cannot return the favor, buy a cup of coffee for the person behind you in line; pay a parking meter; give a McDonalds or Subway gift card to a homeless person.
  • Send yourself a note or card - in the mail.
There are so many people in your life that you want to serve. You are a woman entrepreneur, you want to get out there in the world in a bigger way, share your mission; spread your message; help more people. Don’t all of those people deserve the very best you have to give?
Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish or self-indulgent. Taking care of yourself is the most important thing you can do to be of service to those you are put here to serve.
Shannon Bednowicz

Click the comment box below and share what self-care practice you are going to implement today!

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Is your heart open?




Does the front door of your business open to, or better yet, through your heart?


What kind of customers do you want?




Do you ever find yourself dealing with rude or annoying customers, but decide you'd rather "deal with it" because they are paying you money?









Do you envision yourself serving your customers?






Do you see yourself truly touching their heart with yours?

Do you see the product or service you offer honestly improving their life in some way?

They say love is when you care more about the other person's happiness than your own. 

I'm not saying that you can't or won't succeed if you don't put your customer first. Plenty of businesses do. 

I do believe that if you do put your customers first you will experience more success and more fulfilling success and you will attract customers that bring you joy as well as success.

What would it look like if you only attracted the customers that were a blast to work with? 

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

3 Secrets to Look Younger, Look and Feel your Best and Boost your Confidence

When we Look good, we Feel good and we Do good.

Like anything, of course, we can apply the good, better best multipliers, right? 

Women have an amazing capacity to undervalue ourselves. We place a huge number of limitations on ourselves, and the worst part is we don't even realize it. 

There have been a couple of amazing social experiments in the news recently.





The Dove forensic artist experiment that showed the difference between how people see themselves compared to how others see them. 












The Mrs magic mirror "you are enough" campaign. Where women were asked to rate how they felt about their appearance in what turned out to be an interactive mirror. 







As if we don't have enough self imposed issues, the inevitable effects of time and age start to show and thanks to the media, we feel even smaller and less significant and less worthy the older we get.

And while I hope that these movements continue, and women begin to develop a stronger sense of self worth, I know that even though we know it's wrong, we fall back into those self limiting beliefs easily and quickly.

So what can you do? 

1. Find one simple practice that makes you feel good, make it a habit and turn it into a ritual. This can be something small, but it must be something that you do in gratitude to yourself. Meditation, a cup of tea, read your favorite quote, listen to your favorite song. Daily affirm that you are, in fact enough.

2. Take great care of yourself, the best thing you can do to improve how you look and how you feel is drink water. Plenty of it. Every day. It flushes toxins, it hydrates all of you, and brings back health to your entire body including the biggest organ in your body, your skin. 

3. Invest in a skin care regimen that you love that works for you. Everyone has different skin with different issues and different priorities. Find something that works for you and stick to it. Every day! 

When we feel good, we look good, and we can do more good! 


How would you like to look 10 years younger in 15 minutes without laser or cosmetic surgery, without air brushing or photo-shopping, without makeup contouring tricks? Click here to see for yourself.




Thursday, November 6, 2014

Spoil me Silly

This week I write to you from sunny Phoenix. 
I love it when the stars align and things gel together. I have a convention in downtown Phoenix over the weekend, and my parents live in the Phoenix suburbs. I am able to combine a visit with business and through the power of the world wide interwebs, I can even extend my visit to a whole week and work from Phoenix for a couple of days.

Today, we went out for breakfast, did a little shopping, and got massages. 

As adults, we don't get the chance to get spoiled very often, so I'm enjoying my time with my parents and allowing myself to be treated. 

It's not about money or gifts, but just letting someone else take care of things for you when you are normally the care giver, the organizer, the orchestrator is a huge blessing. 

As women, we often have a hard time accepting, heck, most women can't even accept a compliment! 

I'm giving myself the gift of doing just that this week. And it feels GREAT! 

And check out my office! 
 

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Why did you do it?

Women business owners and entrepreneurs, why did you do it?


Why did you decide to start your own business? What was your inspiration? What did you hope to gain? What were you trying to get away from?

I think some women entrepreneurs started their business because they dreamed of a better life. 

More financial abundance, more time with their family, vacations, a nicer car and home, more security, more fun, more HAPPINESS.

But MOST women entrepreneurs started because... 

  • You wanted to make a bigger difference in the world. 
  • You have something to say and want to be heard.
  • You have a big vision about the person you want to be.
  • You have an image you want to put before your children as an example of the possibilities for future generations of women.
  • You were tired of the control of your well being and the security for your family being in belonging to someone else.
You were dissatisfied with something, your previous career, working for others, or a situation or problem in the world. AND you chose, you felt EMPOWERED in some way to change it. You took action. You took a risk.   

And YOU certainly want all those things
more financial abundance
more time with your family 
vacations 
a nicer car and home 
more security 
more fun 

more HAPPINESS
But they aren't your why, your motivation, or the thing that gets your juices flowing and your engine roaring.

Please, please share below what was your reason? Why did you do it? I'd love to hear your story and you never know who you're inspiring with your story. Don't forget to share a link to your blog or website so we know how to find you!

Saturday, November 1, 2014

3 Secrets to Grow your Business when you Connect

We crave connection. Real person to person connection. We get so bombarded each day with commercials and ads.
All expecting us to hand over our hard earned money without ever actually connecting with us. 
Women, especially, do business based on emotion, rather than logic. Touch her heart and she will practically throw money at you. OK, not literally, but pretty close. More importantly, she will want to support you and help you and can become a fantastic source for lead generation without you ever having to ask.
1. If someone has made an impact on you, personally or professionally, tell them! 
Last week, I felt compelled to drop a short note to my business coach who has profoundly impacted my life. I don't know why, but I'm glad I did. You don't know when what seems to you to be a tiny gesture could mean the world to the person standing next to you or waiting by the phone or sitting at their computer.This was her response:



We are all connected, we are all one community. When that tiny voice tugs at your heart, listen.
2. Be authentic! 

People can sense a phony. Know who you are and what you stand for, and don't compromise because you think your customer or partner will view you more favorably as a result. There are things about you that make you, YOU. Love those things! They make people remember you. Me? I love wine and shoes! People I've met at just a few networking events post to my facebook wall funny sayings about wine or great shoes all the time. That means they are thinking about me. Top of mind is GREAT for business. 

3. When you are making a person to person connection, CONNECT! 

One of the greatest compliments I ever received was from a friend that told me she never feels so truly heard as when she speaks with me.
Have you ever been talking to someone and you can see them looking over your shoulder? Have you ever found yourself formulating your response before that other person completes their thought? 
This includes when you are on social media. Complete your thought, your whole thought with the other person in mind, leaving your agenda at the door.
Remember, touch her heart and she will practically throw money at you.
Feed that craving with our supportive live and online networking community.