Monthly Archives: October 2013

Caine’s Arcade Part 2 – Sharing the Joy of Imagination

What better way to end this blog challenge than to spread some joy.

This video is part 2 of the Caine’s Arcade short film.  It will fill you with awe at what has been created worldwide.   The film has inspired a wave of cardboard creativity and caused the filmmaker to create the Imagination Foundation to foster creativity in more kids, and a Global Cardboard Challenge culminating in a Global Day of Play.

Don’t miss this film.  It’s speaks directly to my heart and brought tears to my eyes and much joy.

What are you doing to support children’s imaginations?

It’s been a pleasure to blog with you over this past month.

 

Caine’s Arcade 2: From a Movie to a Movement from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

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Join the Rock Your Business in 28 Days Business Challenge
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Caine’s Arcade – A Young Entrepreneur’s Story

I know I’ve missed a few posts in the last few days, I was out of town and preoccupied with my mom.  But I didn’t want to miss the end of the challenge.  Today I’m going to share this video of an amazing story that speaks to my heart.  It shows that the support of a child’s imagination can change the world for the better.  I hope that it speaks to you.

What do you think of this video?  Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow – it is a great way to end this challenge.

 

ACTION STEPS:

Join the Rock Your Business in 28 Days Business Challenge
to jump start your business into action again toward the next level.

Sign up for group coaching with 28 Days to Rock Your Business Group Coaching Course

 

10 Blog Titles that Drive Massive Traffic

We are coming into the home stretch of this round of the Ultimate Blog Challenge and I feel like I’m just getting into the swing of it.  I’ve been having fun with infographics since finding some free resources willing to share them.  This one is about writing effective headlines.  It occurs to me that this would have been a good one to share at the beginning of the challenge.

Writing good headlines has become a real challenge for me lately so this one certainly would have been good for me early on.  Well, as they say, “better late than never” right?  So I hope you find this infographic useful and we can use these tips for the next challenge or even for creating good email headlines.

10 Blog Titles that drive MASSIVE TRAFFIC

ACTION STEPS:

Join the Rock Your Business in 28 Days Business Challenge
to jump start your business into action again toward the next level.

Sign up for group coaching with 28 Days to Rock Your Business Group Coaching Course

 

 

The Impossible Dream – or is it?

Dreams imageDreams, we all have them, are essential to our very being.  Sometimes our children have dreams that we don’t believe in because we don’t see how they can possibly come true.  Often we try to quash those dreams because, being well-intentioned for our children, we don’t want them to be disappointed. However, what we end up doing with our good intentions is quashing their confidence and injuring their spirit in ways we may never recognize.

When I worked with teens in foster care I had a client who wanted to spend the rest of his life skateboarding.  He carried his skateboard with him wherever he went and took every opportunity to ride it.  He dreamed of being a professional skateboarder even though he was uncoordinated and had very little skill.   He also had several major mental health issues that made it likely that he would have significant difficulty finding and holding a job.

While it was not likely that he would ever master skateboarding, his dream gave him a reason to get up in the morning.  Rather than take that away from him, I encouraged him to find other things that he could do related to skateboards.  I suggested that it might be a good way to earn some money while developing his skating ability.

I conducted a skill assessment and discovered that he had some ability in drawing.  I encouraged him to create skateboard art.  He decided to create unique art to decorate the skateboard with.  He made several designs and with my assistance, we contacted a company that makes skateboards and they liked his designs so much that they bought all of them.  He then had the idea to make designs to silkscreen on tee shirts and created a thriving business as a graphic designer of skateboarding art.

During this time, this young man found a confidence that he didn’t have before.  He started believing that he could not only take care of himself financially, but that he could have a successful business and therefore a successful life.  I watched as his self-esteem blossomed and he grew in many ways, including taking an active part in managing his mental health issues.

Our children are capable of amazing things if we support them in their dreams or even with just their ideas.  There are many stories of teens creating million dollar businesses because their parents supported them.  One young women created a line of greeting cards for teens because she and her friends used to complain they couldn’t find cards that made sense for their age.  A major greeting card company paid her millions for her designs.  Another young man didn’t like using scented candles in glass jars because he thought they were too feminine; his parents supported his idea to create more masculine scented candles in cans which he calls Man Cans.  At 19 years old he is now a millionaire CEO of his own company.

What impossible dreams do your children have that you can encourage and support them in?  With a little thought it isn’t difficult to help them find ways to keep that dream alive by encouraging things that they can do related to their passions.  In doing that, you are raising happy, confident kids who aren’t afraid to follow their passions and create the life of their dreams.

ACTION STEPS:

Join the Rock Your Business in 28 Days Business Challenge
to jump start your business into action again toward the next level.

Sign up for group coaching with 28 Days to Rock Your Business Group Coaching Course

Which Social Media Platform is Right For Your Business

A few days ago I posted a graphic showing only the basic social media platforms.  Today I found this graphic from Digital Insights that has current and interesting statistics and information about the largest and most popular social media sites.  I don’t use Instagram or Pinterest and while I’m signed up with Google+, I don’t actually use it yet.

Which platforms are you on and are they working for you?

 

Social Media Facts 2013
Did you learn anything you didn’t already know about these platforms from this graphic?

 

ACTION STEPS:

Join the Rock Your Business in 28 Days Business Challenge

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My Top 10 Reasons to Hire a Business Coach

“Coaching helps you take stock of where you are now in all aspects of your life, and how that compares to where you would like to be.” -Elaine MacDonald

coachingWhen I first decided to start a business on the internet, I had no idea what I was going to do or how to even get started.  I was doing some research one day to get some ideas for a direction to go using the experience of many years of my career and accumulated skills.  I happened upon a promotion for Marcia Wieder’s 90 Days to Transform Your Life Course at Dream University.  I ended up enrolling in the program and coaching with Marcia for a while.

That experience has led me to understand the value of coaching and of working with someone both in group situations and in individual coaching to grow my business.  I will probably always work with a coach and I, in turn, coach others.  I think there are many reasons to work with a coach and here are my top 10 reasons:

1.   Clarify your goals and priorities

2.   Create a bigger vision

3.   Be held accountable for your dreams, goals and actions

4.   Get a new perspective on your situation

5.   Put an action plan in place to reach your goals including learning new skills and finding new resources

6.   Create growth in your business and personal life

7.   Learn better time management skills

8.   Be supported and encouraged while experiencing significant transition

9.   Learn how to get out of your own way

10. Discover and fully live out your passion

Can you can identify other reasons to hire and work with a coach; there are more – these are just my top 10.

ACTION STEPS:

Join the Rock Your Business in 28 Days Business Challenge

Sign up for group coaching with 28 Days to Rock Your Business Group Coaching Course

Challenge Yourself to a Breakthrough

Rock Yr biz BannerMy JV partner and I have set some lofty goals for ourselves, among them is list building and jumping our business to the next level.  We’ve been trying all sorts of things to meet those goals.  We have participated in giveaways hosted by others and have hosted our own giveaway.  That was moderately successful for our first try.  There are things we could have done better and will do better in the future, however, it was a fantastic learning experience and the support for the participants was humbling.

We have participated in list building challenges and in the Ultimate Blog Challenge.  These have also been moderately successful in addition to helping us both to stay on track, push ourselves to meet the commitment and connect with new people.

The other day we asked ourselves, “what can we do next?”  We decided to host our own challenge, the Rock Your Business in 28 Days Challenge.  We are very excited about this event.  From November 1 through the 28th we will provide a list of business boosting activities in the areas of mindset, blogging, systems, administration and operation, finances and more.  There will be daily emails with suggested activities and resources.  We’ve already created the opt-in page, the Facebook Group for the challenge and have started promotion.  And people are signing up to participate.  You can imagine the big smile on my face when I logged onto to check the registrations and found a lot of them.

I am really looking forward to this challenge.  We’d love for you to participate in the challenge.  There will be something for those who are new to small business and those who have established businesses and want to break through to the next level just we do.  And who knows how many new ideas you may come up with that you hadn’t thought of or tried before.

If you are interested, you can sign up here.  There’s no charge and you don’t have to buy anything to participate.  Come and join us, it will be fun, it will an opportunity to find more motivation, support and get stuff done that you’ve been meaning to do.  We hope to see you there.

In the meantime, what have you been doing to meet your list building and income boosting goals?

 

My 7 Reasons Entrepreneurs Should Have an Accountability Partner

AccountabilityAn accountability partner is someone who you trust to hold you to the standards that you set for yourself.  As stated in this quote by Bob Proctor in the accompanying graphic, “Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to results.”

One of the drawbacks of having an exclusively internet based business is a sense of isolation that many people feel.  I know that was my experience before I started coaching, masterminding and working with accountability partners.  I used to love working solo and not have anyone to report to.  It got more challenging as time went by because I didn’t have anyone to run my ideas by, no one to offer suggestions, no one to tell me I was full of it and indulging in my excuses.

Then I signed up for a group coaching course and all that changed.  We paired up with an accountability partner and I noticed that my level of motivation increased as did my productivity because there was no way I was going to come back the next week and say I hadn’t completed my assignments.  I’d always been a good student and turned in quality work, on time.  I no longer felt isolated and alone.  I was getting things done and really making progress in my business.

A popular quote from Jim Rohn is “When two people come together and share common goals, things will happen.”

So here are some reasons I believe it’s essential to have an accountability partner.

1.       They help us focus – accountability partners help us keep our eye on the ball – our goals – and stay on track and not allow us to go off on tangents.

2.    They provide a sounding board – they are someone to bounce ideas off of and they bring clarity and a fresh perspective to our challenges.

3.    They kick butt when we need it – they don’t accept our excuses and they call us on them.

4.    They help us deal with overwhelm – we all feel overwhelmed by all we have to do sometimes.  Accountability partners offer suggestions and support to work through the overwhelm, often suggesting time saving ideas and shortcuts we didn’t know about or think about.

5.    They help us make good choices and decisions – by being good listeners and providing feedback on our thought process, they help us get clarity so we can make better decisions.

6.    They are great cheerleaders – they encourage and cheer us on and tell us we can achieve our goals.  That boosts motivation and feelings of achievement.

7.    They remind us to celebrate our successes – along the way we need pats on the back and someone to say “good job” when we’ve done well and created a success.  Accountability partners give us virtual hugs, pats on the back and help us appreciate our accomplishments.

When our accountability partner has done these things for us, we then reciprocate and return the favor.  It allows us experience being both the giver and the receiver.  It is my experience that often times friendships are formed, friendships that last a long time because we’ve shared a part of our journey that no one else has had the opportunity to share with us.  That creates quite a bond.  So if you don’t have an accountability partner, do yourself a favor and find one.

My business partner and I are hosting the Rock Your Business in 28 Days Business Challenge next month.  It’s a fun event where we provide you with a list of business boosting activities throughout the month so you can Rock It in your business.  There will be suggested activities for blogging, mindset, systems, administration/operation, finances and more.  It’s free so sign up now at http://www.rockyourbizin28days.com/28-day-business-challenge/.

If your business needs a boost, or if you just need some fresh, kick starter ideas, join us for the challenge.

 

The Kick Starter Strengths Assessment

I talk a lot about identifying your passion and building a business doing what you love.  There’s another element that is just as important as having passion in your business and that’s leveraging your strengths.  It is never a good idea to try to build a business around something your strengths are not a good fit for.

For example, you don’t want to become a personal exercise coach if you don’t enjoy exercise, or be a professional writer if you don’t have command of the language or can’t read well.

There are many tests out there that you can take to help identify your personality type, your intelligence level, your IQ and more.  Most of them require that you pay a fee to access them.  I found one that is perfect for young people in particular from Andrea Samadi of AchieveIt360.com.  She calls it the Kick Start Assessment and it is designed to help your teen identify their natural strengths.  Knowing what your strengths are provides that extra boost of motivation and allows teens to focus their energies in a productive way to succeed with their goals and dreams.

This assessment is free and you can find it here – http://AchieveIt360.com.  You’ll find the link to the assessment below the video on the left side of the page.

I hope you’ll encourage your teens to take the assessment.  Not only will it help pinpoint their strengths, it can serve as a great conversation starter for you to have a more indepth communication with them.  Also, I took the assessment and found it useful for myself.  It was validation of most of what I thought my strengths are.

I hope you’ll post the results after taking the assessment.  I’d love to hear about your and your teens experience with it.

My business partner and I are hosting the Rock Your Business in 28 Days Business Challenge next month.  It’s a fun event where we provide you with a list of business boosting activities throughout the month so you can Rock It in your business.  There will be suggested activities for blogging, mindset, systems, administration/operation, finances and more.  It’s free so sign up now at http://www.rockyourbizin28days.com/28-day-business-challenge/.

If your business needs a boost, or if you just need some fresh, kick starter ideas, join us for the challenge. Continue reading

Where to Begin with Social Networking

Online-Presence-ManagementIf you are new to business, or are just getting started using social media to grow your list of leads, this chart may be of interest to you.  Some business owners feel they have to start out using every social networking platform out there.  I think that is a mistake.  My advice would be to start with one or two that actually apply to your business.

Once you are comfortable using those, then you should consider expanding to other networks.  The chart includes email and blogging as social networking platforms.

How do you know which ones fit your business?  There are tips on this chart that may help you make that decision.

If you are a travel agent or have retail products to sell, I would recommend using Facebook and Pinterest which isn’t represented on this chart.  Pinterest is currently the third most popular social networking site because they feature photos and don’t we all love to look at pictures.  Your photos and therefore your business name and contact information will have a lot of views.

If you want to connect with peers and professional people, then LinkedIn should be the first on your list.  You create a profile then invite a lot of people from your address book to connect with.  Once you connect with someone, you become part of their network and so your contacts have grown exponentially.

I am on Twitter however, I can take it or leave it.  I don’t like all the time it takes to shorten what I want to say.  To me, Twitter is time consuming and I don’t enjoy it anymore.

I prefer Facebook as my priority social media tool.  It offers many possibilities and you can have a lot of pages, groups and connect with a tremendous amount of people and share photos, graphics and videos, inspirational quotes, original content and so much more.

Take a look at this chart and see what might apply to your business and tell us what social media networks do you use and why.

where-to-start-with-social-media2

Are you working your business EVERY day and not seeing results?  Business might be at a standstill.  You are tired and don’t know what to do to give it an extra jolt of AMAZING!!! WOW!!!

If this describes you and your small biz, then get ready to ROCK! Starting Nov. 1st, the 28 Day Business Challenge will offer 28 days of structured and easy activities that you can use to inject a fresh dose of AWESOME into the important areas of your business.

Register now and receive two awesome bonus gifts just for signing up.  We’ll see you in the challenge!

http://www.rockyourbizin28days.com/28-day-business-challenge/