1. Begin this first step on Monday so you start the week with a new mindset. This may surprise you, but try taking a little time each morning for YOU. Before you start anything, do something that is important for your emotional, spiritual, and physical health.  Do whatever is soothing, energizing, and beneficial for you, whether it is exercising, taking a relaxing walk, spending quiet time alone or with someone else, just make sure to take time for you.
2. Write a “to do” list like you normally do, listing everything you would like to accomplish during the week.
3. Put a mark next to each task that will move you closer to milestones you have set that align with your visions.
4. Divide these tasks between Monday through Friday, and place the most important tasks at the top of each day’s calendar.
5. Every day, focus on these top priority items exclusively until you feel like you’ve done your best for that day, and only then consider the balance of the lower priority tasks.

Remember this is a little different approach that will require commitment and discipline. It is especially difficult for most of us to take time for ourselves.

Start slowly if you need to. Keep the time short but make sure you do something that is only for you. There are many people who have seen amazing changes by diligently starting each day with even a short time devoted to self-care.

Making self-care your top priority each morning will improve your mental capacities and help you to be far better equipped to take on your day and focus on your goals and visions. Start tomorrow with self-care and see how you feel at the end of the day!

Bob Bare
Serial Entrepreneur

A woman who works with the dying wrote an article about the regrets her patients verbalized during the last weeks of their lives.  Here are the 5 most common regrets they had:

1.    I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

2.    I wish I didn’t work so hard.

3.    I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

4.    I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

5.    I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Does that resonate with you, does it hit a nerve when you read over the list?  “Living a life true to myself is very difficult when sometimes you can’t speak your mind without causing trouble for others around you or the situation.  I believe that always comes back to truly being authentic, speaking your truth, and being who you are, not who others think you should be.  I can’t wait until I reach that age when you say what’s on your mind, and you don’t care what people think.  I’m not there yet!

Staying in touch with friends is always hard when everyone has such busy lives.  I have so many friends and family spread all over the country.  I have actually thought about starting a newsletter to send out each month just to be able to keep up with each other.  A bit impersonal, but is it? At least we would be communicating with each other in some fashion.

As a wife, mother, grandmother and business woman, I’m always trying to keep everyone around me happy .  That’s just what we women do, don’t we?  I must consciously stop and be aware of my feelings, my emotions, and be sure I’m doing what makes me happy.  Am I working on my goals, what’s next on my bucket list?  I don’t want to die with my song still inside me.   How about you?

Selling With Purpose,

Annie Farr

The key is knowing what to search for.  I’ve compiled a list of 7 WordPress Plug-Ins you can search for right now and install with one click to improve your WordPress experience AND your web presence.

Top 7 WordPress Plug-Ins For Your Blog or Website

1). Akismet  – prevent comment spam for your WordPress website or blog.
2). Greg’s High Performance SEO – great add-on for SEO for your WordPress blog or website if you’d like to improve your search engine rankings.
3). WordPress Database Backup – What’s better than on-demand backup of your WordPress database? When you need it, nothing!
4). Google XML Sitemaps –  XML-Sitemap supported by Ask.com, Google, YAHOO and MSN Search.
5). W3 Total Cache – The most amazing WordPress performance optimization plugin.
6). Add to Any   – Allows people to subscribe to your blog when using any feed reader.
7). Share This – Want your visitors to share a post/page with others? This is a great blog promotion tool that also works with e-mail and social bookmarking sites.

With the ever-growing list of WordPress plug-ins available, optimizing your web presence was never easier.  It’s time to take advantage of these time-saving tools.

Taylor Bare
BarefootWebSolutions.com

Facebook Pages are THE way to promote your  business, your products and services as well as your expertise. While posting and interacting is vital and it can also get time-consuming.

To make sure you are connecting with your brand followers and also making time for what matters, you can hire a virtual assistant or have someone in charge of posting what you’d like to share. They will need to have your account added to their HootSuite or you can add them as an admin.

Here’s How To Add Your Virtual Assistant As An Admin To Your Facebook Page:

1. Go to your Facebook page
2. Click on Manage on the top right
3. Select “Edit Page” from the drop down menu
4. On the left menu, look for “Manage Admins” and press on that option to select it
5. Type the name of the admin you wish to add (must be one of your friends – it will auto-populate) [I don't recommend the e-mail address option]
6. Click Save
7. Enter your Facebook Account password (the one you use to login) to confirm.

And you’re done! Your assistant will now have access to post and interact as your page. It will be the same as if you were posting!

Guiding YOUR Path to Success,

About the Author:

Elayna Fernandez is a positive mom, Bestselling Author, highly sought after Inspirational Speaker, Spokesperson for The Positive Mom Foundation, and Award-winning Branding and Marketing Strategist.

Time is one of our most valuable gifts.  We all owe it to ourselves to continually learn to make the most of every day. 

Step 1: Create a To Do List

Write your list to focus your thoughts and commit to your tasks. Make use of software applications to make your list work more effectively using email and smart phones.  Both have To Do list applications that will sync with your phone for updates and reminders, allow for sharing with your team for project work, and more.  These are great tools that help make your time work for you!

Step 2: Add Actions to Your List

To Do lists are only effective if you take actions to complete the tasks. Create a well-thought through and organized action list and watch productivity grow.

List each action step by step.  By creating clear, concise steps you will be able to focus when it is time to be productive.  Have specific information, such as phone numbers, contact information, necessary data, etc. to speed workflow. 

 Step 3: The 3 D’s

Review your list assigning one of the following categories per item.  Discard it, delegate it, or do it. If it is difficult to determine the category ask yourself these 3 questions:

1. If I were to discard this, how would that affect my life, my goals, and my visions?
2. Is there a reason I need to be the person who does this?
3. If I am to do this, is it urgent, important, or both? When should I do this?

Step 4: Prioritize and Rank Your List

Add due dates to projects that have deadlines. Scan through your list, rating each project and task by priority.  There are some things that are urgent only because of a deadline. Be aware of important things that do not get done because there is no deadline and aspire to properly assign important things so they always get completed.  

Step 5: Dedicate Time to Your To Do List

Some people feel that short segments of time scheduled several times a day is best; by keeping it short they can stay focused on the task. Others find it more effective to block out the appropriate amount of time to complete projects. TIP:  Schedule “chaos” time every day to allow for unexpected situations ~ life happens!

By following some or all of these 5 steps, many people have started businesses,  advanced careers, attained personal goals and some have created whole new lifestyles.  Write your To Do List today and take control of Your Time!

Bob Bare
Serial Entrepreneur

Word of mouth truly works for us ladies and we pass along our experiences with products, stores and new ideas all the time. We are your best promoters!

Don’t assume you know what we want, ask us!!

1.       What are our challenges or our pains?
2.       How will you improve my busy lifestyle, and make things easier?
3.       How will you save me time and make me a hero to my family?

Grab our attention!

We are very busy, constantly on the move, going in many directions.   You will have to talk our language, communicating clearly and quickly.  We are very concerned about our families; let us know how your product or service will make all of our lives better.

Discover the power of collaboration with women.

We are always willing to help each other and recommend any product or service that has changed our life.  Women trust other women’s opinions, after all, look at the many products and books that were promoted on Oprah’s show.

Women tend to buy three different ways, (the third one is my own observation):

1.       Personality over product: We buy the experience, or the personality of the company, such as good reputation, friendly service, inviting atmosphere.  My example is Charming Charlie’s, love that place!
2.       Brand names: We tend to go where others shop, places suggested to us, to enjoy the shopping experience and be part of the action.  Bath and Body and Central Market come to mind.
3.       What we were brought up with:  Until we experience a different brand, other than what we have used all of our life and we are convinced otherwise, we tend to stick with what we know. My example is Hellman’s Mayonnaise. I know that Kraft makes mayonnaise, but I have always liked Hellman’s better.  My “adopted mother” was an excellent cook and owned her own restaurant.  She told me Hellman’s tastes better, I enjoy it and I have stuck with it ever since.

If your business is looking to grow and sustain itself through these tough times, find a product or service that will speak to the needs of the everyday woman!!  We will help you go viral!!

Selling With Purpose,

Annie Farr

I never thought that I would be finding spiritual inspiration from the movers and shakers in the world of business.   It seems every day, I am receiving inspiring messages in emails, Facebook, from people in business, but from a new paradigm of business.  

Business books these days are not written so much about the financial bottom line, or how to get ahead, as it is about how to follow your passion, finding your purpose, and defining your vision for your own business.   

I remember when I was producing a talk show back in 1993, I booked a speaker from the conference called “The Soul of Business.”   Rarely in those days were business and spirituality mentioned together, and what a breath of fresh air that was!  Now you see the world of spirit and business commingling constantly.  

I remember a person I have done business with say all the time, “It’s strictly business” or “this is all about business”. It was as though business excused any indiscretions, or any untruths, or to treat someone rudely.  I always wondered how people with that mentality slept at night.

Today on Facebook, I was inspired by Brendon Burchards’s message ” To coaching client today: Stop asking for permission, walking on eggshells hoping to please. Bust free. Move bigger. Speak stronger. BE.”  In other words, stop being afraid to be yourself!!  

Sometimes as women, it seems many of us are always asking permission, hoping to please.  As mothers, we always think of our children or our family before ourselves.  I have learned to say, “I give myself permission to do this or that, or I give myself permission to feel this way.”  And, not to feel guilty.  

Marianne Williamson said: “……And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Spirit moves within the business world, and it has opened our eyes and our hearts to bring the inspiration of spirit into the everyday. We are here on this earth together to grow and become the best we can be as professionals and spiritual beings. What are you doing to inspire?

Selling With Purpose

Annie Farr

Successful entrepreneurs contribute to a more prosperous country – and world! Your weapons as an entrepreneur to propelling your businesses ( and, in turn, the economy) include being:

1. Disciplined

2. Confident

3. Lifelong Learner

4. Self Starter

5. Competitive

6. Creative

7. Passionate

8. Social

9. Teachable/Trainable

10. Generous

Entrepreneurs can and will rebuild our economy.  You are the backbone of this country and everything you do is supporting a legacy of abundance, not only in financial prosperity but in quality of life and the attitude of those you love and care for will dramatically improve and continue to do so over time.

Thank you for all YOU do!

Guiding YOUR Path to Success,

About the Author:

Elayna Fernandez is a positive mom, Bestselling Author, highly sought after Inspirational Speaker, Spokesperson for The Positive Mom Foundation, and Award-winning Branding and Marketing Strategist.

“Are you going after what you want, or are you going after what you think you can get?”

I’ve been watching Bob Proctor videos lately on YouTube and find him very intelligent and inspiring, for someone without much of a formal education.   Bob Proctor is a pro with his gold nuggets, wonderful words of wisdom, having taught himself the hard way, at the university of life.  Bob’s teachings and programs are based upon the lessons learned along the way in his own life’s journey. 

Bob says “It doesn’t matter how you grew up, or what you’ve struggled with in life — your mind is unscathed by any circumstance you’ve yet to live … and it’s phenomenally powerful!”

When did you last spend time dreaming about something you thought was so out of reach, so outrageous that you didn’t even begin to try?   It’s never too late to dream, no matter what age you are.  Grandma Moses started painting when she was 64.  Frank Lloyd Wright designed the Guggenheim Museum when he was 91.   Julia Child started her TV cooking show at age 51.  I guess there is still hope for me!

My favorite nugget of Bob Proctor is: “Set a goal to achieve something so big, so exhilarating that it excites you and scares you at the same time.”  

• Is there a project or a wild idea that you have been putting off?

• Is there a dream of yours that you long for but think it’s simply unreachable?  

• What keeps you from making that commitment?  

Fear is what holds most of us back.  Fear is defined as “a distressing negative sensation induced by a “perceived threat”.  Or the famous one,  F.E.A.R. = False Evidence Appearing Real.  When we think about taking a big step forward, fear usually does rear its ugly head.  As Cher said in  “Moon Struck” as she slapped Nicholas Cage,  “Get over it!!” (You will have to slap yourself!)

And finally,  “The only limits in our life are those we impose on ourselves.”  We spend more time worrying about possibilities and less time stepping forward into our dreams.  

• How would it feel to take that next big step?  

• Are you setting some outrageous goals for yourself?

• Ready to step out of your comfort zone, take a deep breath and expand your horizons?  

Be exhilarated!!!  Live a little, or better yet, live a lot!

Selling With Purpose,

Annie Farr