Life & Business: 

Did you  know that sitting for long periods is very damaging to our health? Unfortunately by our career choice, those of us in online business world have less active time than say a nurse or a waitress who is on their feet all day long.

And unfortunately, research is now showing that we can’t just go to the gym and think it’s going to undo the damage from sitting too much.

We may need to think about sitting and exercise as two separate behaviors, each contributing on its own to our health. So while that 1-hour jog is great for you, it may not undo the 8 hours sitting at your desk. – Source: WebMD

We are victims to suffer … or are we? 🙂

Here are four ways to continue to work efficiently but yet keep from harming your health.

1. Use a timer. I love setting a timer for 45 minute increments to get my most productive (money-making) tasks done. I start the timer, knowing exactly what I’ll be doing for the next 45 minutes and then I GO GO GO until that timer goes off. I don’t get distracted or head off to “research” or any other justifiable excuse to procrastinate, I just write, create, or plow through obstacles until I’m done. When that timer goes off, I get up and go stretch my legs, move some laundry over, go outside and play with the puppies, or run to the mailbox or do some yoga for about 15 minutes or so. I might even throw on my swim suit and do a few laps. Then, I sit down and start that timer again. I do this so that it accomplishes two things. First, I get my money stuff done FAST so I can get off the computer. Second, I break up my sitting time to keep my energy and blood flow going and keep me healthier.
2. Sit on a balance ball. For the past 10 years, I have been spending a lot of work time sitting on a balance ball. Apparently this is a “thing” as now they sell Balance Ball Chairs. But really I prefer the plain balance balls because I can roll back and forth while I’m typing which feels good, stretches my back and hips and is better for me in general.  It works your core, so even if you don’t get thin, you’re still getting stronger. The important thing in getting a balance ball for working on is getting the right size. So, take a peek at the sizing charts before you order one.
3. Standing desks. I’m drooling over these and I think I’m going to grab one soon. I have a few friends that have been using them and they say they are much more productive and feel more energetic than they did flopping into a chair every morning. So, stay tuned. This is the one that Pat Flynn  has http://www.beyondtheofficedoor.com/vertdesk.php – so that’s a good place to start learning about them if you’re interested.
4. Treadmill desks. Similar to standing desks, people actually have Treadmill Desks and swear by them. I do not, so I’ll just link to one on Amazon so you can research. I’m not specifically recommending the one that I’m linking to… just giving you a place to start looking if your’e interested.
5. Bicycle desks. I ended up buying this instead of a standing desk. It’s probably not quite as effective since I’m still sitting, but I’m able to type quickly while peddling unlike when I’ve tried to work standing up -which just hurt my back.

FitDesk v2.0 Desk Exercise Bike with Massage Bar

Of course, there are a few other important points I want to make about this.

1. Be efficient. I try to remember that every moment that I spend in front of the computer is a moment of my life that I can’t get back. I ask myself “Am I happy to be spending my time as I am right now OR am I wishing to trade this moment for something better?”

2. Outsource when possible. I know that many people don’t think they have the money to outsource tasks, but if they are roadblocks standing between you and profits, then it’s costing you more NOT to outsource it. AND it’s costing you time sitting on your bottom when in some cases, a trip to Fiverr and $5 in your pocket could free you up to cook dinner and save $30 that you’d spend on Dominos PLUS get more done on your business.

3. Again, GET UP! Set that timer and GET UP frequently. Don’t get a water pitcher for your office, make yourself walk down the hallway to get a glass of water or cup of coffee. Don’t bring snackies to your office, keep them in the kitchen so you have to walk down the hall to get them. (Just some tips that I use.)

The World:

Awhile back I took my daughter downtown so she could go with her youth group to hand out food at Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen. It gave her an opportunity to grow her servant’s heart and  I’m happy to take the time to drive her down and back. I listened to her stories on the way back with my whole brain and not just part of it while thinking of other things.

Also, here’s another tip. Recently I went through more of my clothes in the back of my closet to see what I hadn’t worn lately. I always intentionally hang up my clean clothes in the front of the closet so the items towards the back are the things I don’t wear much. Either they need to be reloved by me or they will be donated to someone who WILL use them. There is NO point in me storing old clothes when there are so many in need of decent clothing that makes them feel worthwhile.  🙂

Big hugs and high fives,

Nicole

Reminder – DO THIS – You’ll Thank Me…  

I know it may not seem sexy, but I swear to you that the two tools that I mentioned earlier this month save me time which allows me to make more money AND be less stressed.

If you missed those, you can catch up here:

• Easy Safe File Sharing (that I use every day to stay organized and productive whether on my desktop, my laptop, or my mobile devices)
• Easy Safe Password Program (that saves me time and frustration every day)

Business, Life, and the World:

Because you’re awesome, and getting awesomer, I want to tell you about a concept that really changed my life.  It came from this book and it gave me understanding and power in a lot of areas of my life, including being a better wife, a better mom, and a better boss (or leader for my VA’s).

Don’t toss it aside if you’re not in a relationship right now. There are other versions of the book AND it will apply the next time you are in a relationship.

The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts

So the concept is this. There are Five Love Languages in a relationship. (I find others when I’m working with my Virtual Assistants, but they are similar over all.)

The languages are:

• Time together
• Acts of service
• Touch
• Gifts
• Words

We each personally VALUE some more than others and easily and naturally DEMONSTRATE some more than others.

The problem is though when someone is showing you their love in a language that you don’t understand as your primary or secondary language – or on the same note, they aren’t showing you they love you in the way you most need to be shown.

For instance, my primary love language that I like to receive from my husband is acts of service. I also love words. When he runs errands – especially taking care of things that I dread (like making phone calls or taking the dogs to the vet) he is my hero. And when he tells me I’m beautiful and means it, or says he adores me, he can seriously like sit down and drink beer and watch football for a week and I don’t care. 🙂 All is right with my world.

HOWEVER, if he went out and bought me a $10,000 tennis bracelet or even a $75 bouquet of flowers, I would be upset. Gifts (as a love language) is not even on the radar for me. I know what I like and I’ll go get it if I want it. Yes, I appreciate gifts from friends, but they know that I’m more of a softie and their gifts tend to be very sweet (which goes back to Words and Act of Service). For instance, one of my friends got me a little book “Why you’re so Awesome” and on every page, she filled in why I’m awesome. So that comes back to Words and Acts of Service over just buying a gift because you want to buy a gift. (I hope that sounds right. I do love being thought of and given gifts. It’s just that I LOOOOOVE gifts that bring in a special thing or words.)

This can cause problems for me, though, because Gifts is not high on my list but Acts of Service is. Because of that I’m not a consistent gift giver. Like my cousin got married and I had such a hard time finding the perfect special gift (hours of my time trying to find the right thing) that I ended up not getting her anything. eek! But when her baby girl was born, I searched and found the coolest stuff for her. And, at Christmas, I’m often late giving a gift. For instance, one year I gave Pandora Bracelets to all of my friends, each with a special charm. Before the next Christmas, one of my friends and her daughter got a Scottie puppy. So, I hunted everywhere to get the Scottie puppy charm. It couldn’t be just any charm. It had to be that one and I became a woman on a mission. Well, it was sold out, so I finally was able to give it to them in February after being on backorder. They cried. My mission was accomplished.. even if it was a few months late. 😉

So what can you do and how does this help?

When working with my Virtual Assistants, I try to get a feel for what they value. One of the gals that worked with me for a long time needed the words – regularly. So, I knew that and I regularly told her the truth that I appreciated her and she made a difference by being on my team. I learned that she needed to be reassured on a very consistent basis, so I didn’t take for granted that she KNEW she was doing a great job. I took time to tell her.

I also took some time to learn what my kids’ love languages are. And they are DRASTICALLY different.

My daughter loves gifts and time together. That’s what she needs. Of course she still likes me to do things for her, tell her that I love her, and loves hugs, but she NEEDS the other two.  So, instead of getting frustrated when she asks me to go shopping or wants things, I finally get that it’s part of our time together.

My son couldn’t care less about gifts and thinks they are a waste of money (sound like someone?). But he loves time together and hugs and words.  So, when he wants to tell me *another* story about Avengers or a comic book that he read, I put down whatever I’m doing and I get that this is his way of needing to be loved. He wants to share things with me, even when he knows I’m not interested in them in the slightest bit. So by listening, I show that I’m interested in HIM.

Just some insight that I found helpful. I would recommend reading the book, too. 🙂 And, here’s the quiz that can help you figure out which are your primary love languages. Take the quiz.

The World. An Extra Tip to Help. Don’t Over Complicate This:

Today I want to share a simple tip that will help improve your life AND help the world. I don’t do this enough and I’m actively trying to now (as inspired by you).

CARPOOL!

My daughter is in 5 dance classes per week, plus 2-6 chorus rehearsals – all of which are downtown which is a 20 minute drive from my house.

I’m making a bigger effort to do two things to awesomize my LIFE and the World in a small way.

1. A few years ago, I joined a gym near where she has dance classes and chorus so that I don’t feel like driving home and back again, wasting gas and burning time. I drop her, run to the gym, work out, and come back and pick her up. (Parents are not allowed to watch classes, so I couldn’t stay anyway and enjoy them.) So rather than sitting around playing Words with Friends or buzzing around town, I get my workout in guilt free.
2. I’ve also started offering to drive more kids home that live in my neighborhood. There is no reason why THEIR parents need to burn gas (ie money) and waste time when I’m down there at the gym anyway. Plus, with my travel schedule, you never know when I might just need to ask for a payback.

Making the WORLD a better place, HELPING others, just by planning ahead a bit and getting some phone numbers in my phone. Easy peasy.

If you don’t have kiddos, then one other thing I do is when I’m at the store, I’ll text my friend (if I’m planning to see her later) and just say “Hey, anything you need from (insert store) here? I’m here and I can grab it.” She’s at work and running in circles in her own crazy, so since I’m already THERE – why not? I also try to remember to text my husband from the store if I stop spontaneously and just say “Anything we need from the store?” That saves me from getting home and having to turn back around or have him have to stop. PLUS it saves us money because every time you go into the store, there are impulse buys. 😉

Simple is good. Enjoy!

Hugs and high-fives,
Nicole

Your daily dose of awesome. Watch for tomorrow’s email for even more fun stuff.

Life:  

Yesterday, I spoke about shutting up your inner critic. Oddly enough (or is it fate) – my coaching client, Allegra Sinclair asked me to look at a new site design soon after I sent that message out to you.

I was poking around her site and saw this which carries the message along: How to Stop Criticizing Yourself in 5 Steps

Business: 

I would be absolutely lost without this tool that saves me TIME, FRUSTRATION, and ENERGY.  I’ve been using it for a few years and I love it.

In fact, before our Beachpreneurs Mastermind Retreat weekend, we firmly request that everyone have this free program before they show up to not waste their time or ours. Watch and learn…

https://youtu.be/lT4SRRwWwg4

Not only does it save me time, but it keeps me safer from hackers and bad guys.

I get a free month of the premium version if you sign up, which is the one that I use: Last Pass (Nik’s Link) or just go to LastPass.com if you’d prefer. 🙂 The important thing is that you USE a program like this to stay safe. 

Bonus Life & Productivity Tip:

I also want to share an app that I use that helps me to keep my productivity rocking and my thoughts positive.

But before I do, this is NOT something I would recommend doing forever. It’s a training tool to do for a week to get your brain more focused and make you overall more productive. Then shut it off and do it again when you feel the need, later.

It’s the “Chime” app in the iTunes store, but I’m sure there are others if you have an Android. 🙂

What it does is very simple, but effective. It says the time every 15 minutes, every half hour, or every hour.

I actually recently talked about this app during my keynote at NAMS. In fact, I’ll add those two slides here.

So, when I hear it say the time every half hour when I’m NOT working, I ask myself these questions… 

When I AM working and I hear the voice, I ask myself these questions.

It’s just a good reset for me to make sure that my actions and my thoughts are truly awesome in that moment.

The World:

If you missed reading the “Quick Start Guide to Being Awesome” here is a reminder of a VERY quick and easy way to give back to the world when you just don’t have time to think of something else.

For every click, you can make the world a better place.

Go to greater good and choose what means most to you and click it today. Then share it on social media so others can, too.

There is a button on top of each page listed below that says “Click here – it’s free!” and they donate based on clicks.

• Click on the hunger site. http://thehungersite.greatergood.com/
• Click on the Breast Cancer site on the greater good to give free mammograms. http://thebreastcancersite.greatergood.com/
• Click to help animals: http://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/
• Click to help homeless veterans. http://theveteranssite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/vet/home
• Click to help kiddos with autism. http://autism.greatergood.com/
• Click to support Alzheimer’s research. http://thealzheimerssite.com/
• Click to support diabetes research. http://diabetes.greatergood.com/
• Click to give books to kids. http://theliteracysite.greatergood.com/
• Click to help protect wildlife habitat. http://therainforestsite.greatergood.com/

Big hugs and high fives,

Nicole

Your daily dose of awesome. Watch for tomorrow’s email for even more fun stuff.

Life:  

Yesterday I shared the “20 Things We should say More Often (to OTHERS)” video.

Today, I want to talk about the things we say to OURSELVES.

Listen, we’re a trapped audience in our own heads and we’re subjected to that voice. Sometimes I want to tell that BI-ATCH to shut up. The chick in my head says things to me that I would *NEVER* say to another human being.

I’m kind to others and I don’t typically judge them.

Yet, I grew up being a horrid horrid negative person to the one person that I am stuck with the rest of my life. ME.

… and then I realized that it’s in my power. It’s ME doing it to ME which means there’s only one person who can stop it. (Wanna guess who?)

As He-Man would say “I have the power!”

So today, I ask you to please regain power over the voice in your head. At least start paying attention to what he or she says and call him or her out on the BS that is said.

For instance, if you’re trying on swimsuits and you think “OMG… (Insert mean girl / guy voice mean thing to say.)” stop for a second and tell it to shut the heck up! You wouldn’t let another PERSON sit in front of you and talk to you like that, would you? I wouldn’t.

I’ve started to laugh at the voice in my head. Seriously. Laugh at her. “What gives YOU the right to talk to me that way? I am FREAKING awesome.”

By treating her as a separate person I’ve made great progress in healing and not allowing myself to be subjected to that toxicity any more.

I challenge you to do the same.

Business: 

If you’re struggling to create content for your blog posts, I have great news for you. 🙂 There are sites out there that create blog drafts for you that you can use to create your own unique content. However, there are only a FEW places that I recommend – so don’t go googling for more. Ask me (DM me on FB) if you need something specific.

Here is a place where you can get some free -> Free Blog Drafts

The technical name for it is PLR, which stands for private label rights articles, but I find that term to be confusing, so I call them blog drafts instead. 🙂

So, if you have a blog in any of the areas on that page or need to create content about any of those topics, just head over and sign up for the package that you want. It’s free.

Then, you take the articles, infuse some “YOU” into them, and voila. 100% legal content to share with your peeps. It’s easy peasy.

The World:

I just *LOVED* this post by James Dering of BetterPiano.com. Just being present with children can make a huge impact in their lives. This is HUGE.

Your daily dose of awesome begins now. Watch for tomorrow’s email for even more fun stuff.

Life & World:  

I also wanted to talk today about being a kid again. 

Feeling like a kid again is freaking awesome!

When is the last time you did any of the following things?

• Rode a bike
• Swung on a swing at the park
• Blew bubbles
• Flew a kite
• Danced like you didn’t care who was looking
• Belted out show tunes (yes, I may have a problem….)
• Colored a picture or drawing
• Did a cannonball into a swimming pool
• Grabbed a hoola hoop and went to town
• Sang a duet with your dog. Maybe Summer Lovin’ from Grease? (You might have to sing both parts, but wigs could be involved.)

I don’t know about you, but all of my worries fall away when I go back to being a kid if only for a little while.

Put me on a bicycle with the wind in my hair and I feel ALIVE and AWESOME!

Think about what makes you feel alive and plan to do it this month… even if you think you’ll look a little silly.

Really, go ahead! It’s what Awesome You would do.

If you’re not doing it because of what others might think, look at this amazing lady.

I’m sure lots of people told her she was “TOO OLD” to do what she loved to do, too. POOP ON THEM! Sorry for the language, but really. Who are they to judge you or what you do?

Your job is to be awesome and enjoy life this month. If that means you go out into your cul-de-sac with a hoola hoop and some bubbles, then the more power to you! Take pictures and post them in the group. WE will cheer you on!

BONUS: It’s hard to have a bad day when you’re coloring!

Speaking of being a kid, grab these free coloring sheets for grow ups from my friend Kelly McCausey by clicking on the graphics below:

 

She also made a special graphic that you can print and color that she shared in the Facebook group: You are Way More Awesome Than you Think.

I also have another coloring book you can grab. This one is from Leonie Dawson and is called “Inspire your Spirit”.

You can grab that here:

Warmly with big hugs and high fives,

Nicole

Your daily dose of awesome. Watch for tomorrow’s email for even more fun stuff.

Life:  

Yesterday, I shared that I oftentimes listen to Broadway tunes on Amazon Music (you can use that too if you’re a Prime member) to pick up my mood. Well, I also use music to frame my day and get my butt into gratitude mode.

This song is what plays on my phone alarm in the morning. It’s my anthem and it starts my day off with a reminder that the day is a GIFT.

What do you wake up to when you have to set an alarm? I hope it’s something positive and wonderful to start the day!

If it’s just some beeping or clanging that annoys the heck out of you, change it to something that reminds you that …

“I’m Alive… and Well.

And Today you know that’s good enough for me.

Breathing in and outs a blessing can’t you see.

Today’s the first day of the rest of my life.

I’m Alive and Well.”

😉 Or whatever floats YOUR boat.

Business: 

Let’s talk today about coaching. I always try to have a business coach although there are sometimes gaps where I’m patiently waiting for the right person to appear.

But, I always figure, if Michael Jordan had a coach during his prime, then it would be pretty egotistical of me to think that I didn’t need one, right? 🙂

How do you choose a coach? That’s the hard part. To me, integrity is the primary criteria. If I admire someone’s integrity, then I can consider them a possibility.

Here’s a post that I wrote last year when I just chose my new business coach. I hope you enjoy it!

I just started with a new coach and I’m happy! happy! happy!

Note that I said “new coach” as I feel that the coaching/client relationship is a fluid and evolving thing. In my opinion, to stick with the same business coach or mentor forever will limit you.

The problem that I’d been having was finding a coach for ME. Once you get to a certain level of income/success in your business, it can be very difficult to find a coach who you trust and who is someone that you can be honest and direct with – as well as who has knowledge in areas where you want to get stronger.

Could I have found a coach to help me become a better speaker? In a heartbeat. I’ve definitely got room for improvement at that.

Could I have found a coach to help me write and publish my book? Absolutely. In fact I had one.

But, someone to teach me to be a better marketer? Well, I’m kinda awesome at that – so it’s a little more difficult.

One normal alternative, and what I’d been doing was to create private masterminds with peers which worked well.

But, I really wanted something different. And, I’ve tried to coach friends and be coached by friends — it just doesn’t work as well as I’d like. I wanted to work with someone who I admired – but who wasn’t a girlfriend (and someone who I was paying so they had to be honest instead of just being nice).

So, I’d been on the hunt for a coach for me. And, I knew several other friends who were looking as well.

My criteria at this point in time for a coach included:

1. My coach must have built at least two successful profitable businesses, and also have a great relationship with his/her list.

2. My coach could not be working 80 hours a week. I’ve built my business so that I can work when I want to but I have plenty of recurring income streams and systems in place so I make money ongoing. Having a coach who was flying all over the country and working 8-18 hours a day wasn’t going to be a good fit.

3. Similarly, I wanted someone who doesn’t work off a jam packed calendar. I like to have my schedule mostly free except for a few coaching calls and any interviews that I’m doing. Otherwise, I feel trapped by my business.

4. Someone uber-productive.

5. A businessperson with low overhead. I didn’t want someone who had a staff of 15 employees and an office building. I wanted someone running a tight, lean, profitable business.

6. A person who rocks at positioning. I felt stuck in a decision about rebranding and how to move forward with it.  So, I wanted someone who was very clear in his/her positioning and in putting themselves out clearly in the marketplace.

7. A great public speaker/presenter. I am getting more and more speaking opportunities and I know that I can improve in this area.

8. A person who I trusted to not blab to others and who I felt comfortable being honest and open with. (Someone safe and kind.)

9. Someone who was familiar with and who would understand my business models, with AwesomizationNation.com, CoachGlue.com, Beachpreneurs.com as well as my other areas of business.

10. He or she must offer email coaching. Again, I’m not a fan of scheduling calls and I prefer flexibility. Plus, I wanted private coaching, not group. Sometimes more opinions are not necessarily better.

11. Funny helps. I wouldn’t mind having some laughs, too.

12. My coach must also have MASSIVE amounts of integrity in business and in personal life. This is not optional.

13. He or she must also be making the world a better place with the platform that they have built. (Using the opportunity of having an audience to get the word out about ways to impact the world.)

Not too hard, right? Well, when I was stuck in Icelanta during the storm a few years back, Kelly and I brainstormed and one person JUMPED out at me as the right person. And, I was so sure that I was making the right decision that I grabbed the lifetime coaching option. It was the best and easiest money that I’ve spent in a long time.

Click here to find out who I picked!

I do hope you found this to be interesting and informative.

If you’re wondering, I also do business coaching. I mainly work with people who fit in one of these criteria.

1. They have created a product but don’t have an audience / following.
2. They have an audience but no products yet.
3. They have both a product and an audience but little profit.

This is my sweet spot, I’ve found for jumping in and making a huge difference fast – and it’s fun for me.

More info here: http://nicoledean.com/coaching/

The World:

Recycling counts. 🙂  Kudos if you’re already doing it. And, a little kick in the bottom for those that aren’t yet to make an effort. <3

Also, if you’re thinking of someone recently reach out to them. Sometimes I find that the person that I’m thinking about NEEDS me. It’s like the universe is sending me a little heart tug to go connect. When I ignore that I always wish I hadn’t.

Big hugs and high fives,

Nicole

Your daily dose of awesome. Watch for tomorrow’s email for even more fun stuff.

Life:  

This is one of my favorite quotes. I heard it at exactly the right time in my life – which happened to be a few weeks ago when I was super overwhelmed.

I see it as a positive and an inspiration to work on me NOW rather than later. After all, what is accomplished by waiting?

“Don’t wait for things to get easier, simpler, better. Life will always be complicated.

Learn to be happy right now. Otherwise, you’ll run out of time.”

– from a movie called The Intouchables

Along the same lines, I love this message that I got from the Urban Monk earlier this year.

It’s a bit harsh but good message overall. When reading it, think of experiences as what YOU value.

• Time invested with the special people in your life.
• Time doing the things you love to do the most.
• Time becoming who you want to be, learning, stretching, growing.
• Time shared making the world a better place.

Cool? Now go ahead and read it and let me know your thoughts in the group.

Hi Nicole,

What if our goal was to collect experiences on this planet, not things?

What if we are here to share wonderful stories and have great laughs?

I think it’s possible that we’re here to discover ourselves all over again and find the majestic beauty in being and not doing all of the time.

The way I see it, we can spend our lives hoarding a bunch of useless crap or traveling the world and hiking through the mountains.

The problem is most people have given up on fixing the world so they have resolve to live a life of mediocrity whether they know it or not.

Either you decide the direction of your life or your TV will do it for you.

Talk soon,
Pedram Shojai

Bonus Super fun life tip for the day.  My favorite way to cheer up FAST.

If you have Amazon Prime, you can cancel your Pandora account. You’ll never need it again.

I recently found out about Amazon Music  (both on my computer and the app on my phone), entered my Amazon logins (since I have Prime) and now I have unlimited commercial free music.

NOT ONLY THAT, but I can download any songs that I enjoy to my phone to listen to when I don’t want to stream online. SWEET.

What do I have on mine? A lot of Broadway show tunes. (They make me happy).  Wicked, Hairspray, Hamilton, etc. 🙂 So anytime I feel like belting out some tunes to cheer myself up, guess what? I’ve got them.

Business:

One of the best ways that I get traffic is to get my competition to happily promote me. 🙂  It’s a science and an art, but it can be done. And when it works, it WORKS. Like seriously tons of traffic (and sales) if you connect with the people who are reaching your target audience / market.

Here’s a blog post from my friend, Milana, with more information about it.

22 Surprising Reasons Your Colleagues, Peers, and Even Competitors Will Promote You!

The World: 

I’m sure most of us do this anyway, because we’re awesome, but if you see a piece of litter, pick it up today. 🙂

 

 

Your daily dose of awesome. Watch for tomorrow’s email for even more fun stuff.

Inspiration – Beautiful Smart Words from a Beautiful Smart Lady:

Yesterday, I shared this video…

We talked about how to  “Just do Right”. It makes everything else easy.

After watching that amazing video, I noticed one thing. Maya has several “thumbs down” ratings on all of her videos.

What?! WHAT?!

Yes, even Maya Angelou who was basically an angel on earth has people raining on her parade. The difference is that she marched on.

How do you handle seeing a “thumbs down” in your business or getting a nasty email or a poopy negative remark on Facebook?

If even the amazingly brilliant and loved Maya gets haters, then we must be doing something right. Right? 😉

Walking the safe line doesn’t make people FEEL and RESPOND… sharing your heart does. So, let’s think about two things.

1. How would Awesome You handle haters, criticism, negativity, and toxic people?

2. Are you sharing from your heart enough that people actually FEEL something and care? Like Maya, we want to make a difference. However, sometimes that involves stepping outside of “safe” and sharing a REAL message from the heart. Some people will love that. Those are our peeps. Some will ridicule. Those are not who we are trying to reach and they can go find someone else to follow.

The World:

It’s funny. I was co-leading a training/coaching call the other day for our Beachpreneurs and we started talking about one members’ site. She was so frustrated and blurted out “I just want to be able to talk about (this ugly thing) and (that ugly thing) to these people but I can’t!”

We were like … why not?

She viewed it as a business-based site rather than a community. So, we gave her permission (although she didn’t need us to) and now she’s going to go shake stuff up  – in an AWESOME way.

What’s one message in your heart that is begging to be set free? Write it down and put it by your computer. Hopefully soon, you’ll share it and you’ll impact others with your heart-felt honest words.

Bonus:

My friends, Susanne and Tracy, have some free PLR that you can grab if you can use it.

Pick the one you can use most and grab it. 🙂
You can add the rest once you are inside your account.

• Back to School Lunches
• Walking for Fitness
• Budgeting
• Creating Habits

Your daily dose of awesome. Watch for tomorrow’s email for even more fun stuff.

Inspiration – Beautiful Smart Words from a Beautiful Smart Lady:

Life:  In this video, Maya says “Just do Right”. It makes everything else easy.  Dang, Maya Angelou was an angel on earth.

Business:  

My motto in my business has been “Making the web and the world a better place” pretty much since I started to really have success in 2004. To me, it has always been simple.

When I need to make a decision as to how to proceed with something. I ask myself “Is this making the web and the world a better place? Yes or no?”

Way back when I started online, there were all kinds of junky ways to profit and people would do them because it was what they were taught. I, on the other hand, typically stayed true to moving my business forward with my motto. (Of course, I occasionally slipped and promoted a “new” system that looked awesome, too, and ended up regretting it. I’m not perfect by any means.)

BUT the difference is that my business GREW while those chasing the next “easy button” every day dropped like flies around me. I’m not happy about that, of course, but my point is that keeping that message in mind at every moment is the difference between achieving success or running in circles.

The funny thing is that I was on Pat Flynn’s podcast ages ago and I talked about this. Then, a few years later, I was speaking at an event and a man came up to me afterwards and said “YOU! It’s YOU!”

I said, “Yes, it’s me… ”

He said “No, YOU are the one from Pat Flynn’s podcast that changed my life. Before I heard that I was just doing SEO as I was taught for my clients and I spent my days building crappy links. After I listened to that interview, I changed my entire business model and my business has exploded by offering more VALUE to the web and the world. Thank you.”

I didn’t really think I had done anything special, but I was very happy that my message had touched him.

“Just do right”. It applies in business, in life, and in the world.

The World:

Is there one place in your world right now where you could “just do right” and fix something that is weighing on you? If so, do it. Whether it’s apologizing (even if you don’t expect the other person to forgive you) or doing something for someone else even if you think that it may not be appreciated like you’d hope.

Just do right. The results after that are not our responsibility. Just do right, and sleep well at night, knowing you did the right thing… even when it’s hard.

Question of the Day: 

Our Dean family motto (yeah, like we’re in Game of Thrones or something) is “We do the right thing even when it’s hard.”

What is one time when you did the right thing even when it was hard to do? What was the result? Tell us about it in the group.

More Goodies.

If you’re a business coach, check out this free report.

 

Your daily dose of awesome. Watch for tomorrow’s email for even more fun stuff.

Life:  You can’t help but feel awesome when you watch this:

What are you thankful for today in your life? Corn dogs? 😉 Post about it in the group.

The World:

What’s something about the world that makes you feel awesome? Today, I’m going to say penguins and sweet potatoes.

Remember not to stress about doing good in the world. To me, I consider anything outside your IMMEDIATE family and your immediate circle of closest friends that you do to make someone’s life better an awesome win in this category. Go do awesome!

Business:  Are you using dropbox? If not, get it here. It’s free and it’s AWESOME!

What does it do? Here’s a quick video to show you.

Get Dropbox free here
I have it on my phone, my ipad, my laptop, my desktop… it keeps me sane, productive, organized and happy!