She Owns It

Celebrating, Connecting, and Supporting Women Entrepreneurs

Social Selling: How to Generate Leads and Sales by @DONNAAMOS

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social selling

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor 

Leads are life to your business. Leads are potential customers who have expressed some interest in your product or company and have provided contact information you can use to follow up with more information.

When thinking about how to generate leads on social media, consider that 76% of buyers are ready to have a conversation on social media.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of lead generation using social media specifically is the ability to focus on highly qualified leads through advanced targeting. Targeted leads are much more likely to respond to your sales pitch because the are already qualified and interested. That’s what I like to call “low hanging fruit.”

Useful Tactics for Generating Leads Through Social Media

So how do you go about using social media for lead generation? Here are some of the best ways to start filling your sales funnel with qualified leads.

Offer Links to Gated Content

Gated content is content hidden behind a virtual gate. If the content is valuable enough, interested readers will be willing to provide some basic contact information in exchange for access.

When using social media for lead generation, you can promote gated content by sharing a link to a landing page where potential readers provide their information before gaining access to the content.

Some people who click through to the landing page will click away without accessing your content—maybe they were mildly interested in the information but not so interested that they feel it’s worth sharing their contact details.

But those who are truly interested and understand that they will gain significant value are willing to overcome this minor hurdle, qualifying themselves as more than casual readers in the process. These are great qualified leads.

Run Contests

With contests, the prize has to fulfill two important criteria. First, it has to be valuable enough that people will actually be interested in entering the contest. But second, it has to be valuable specifically to the people who have the highest potential to become your customers, and not much value to anyone else.

If the prize is not valuable enough, no one will enter your contest. But if it’s so generically valuable that everyone who sees the contest will want to enter, you’ll gather loads of contact information but no qualified leads.

So, what should you offer as your contest prize? An extended trial of your product could be a good option, or an upgrade to a higher tier of your service. After all, those prizes only have value to people who are genuinely interested in using your product. If you sell physical products, you could give away some of the products themselves.

Pay-to-Play Social Media Advertising

While organic social media posts can be targeted to some extent, social media advertising takes targeting—and therefore the ability to collect leads from laser-focused groups of potential customers—to a whole new level.

Using highly specific target audiences to promote gated content is a great way to keep advertising costs low while ensuring the leads you collect meet certain desirable criteria.

Here are a few good places to begin:

Facebook lead ads

This specialized ad format offers a low-commitment, low-barrier way for potential customers to connect with your business without leaving Facebook. As with a gated content offer, the potential customer provides information in exchange for something of value. That something of value can be either digital—like a newsletter, white paper, or coupon—or something that’s delivered in real life—like a product demonstration at a brick and mortar store or a test drive.

One great advantage of Facebook lead ads over a regular gated content offer is that Facebook automatically populates the lead form with the user’s contact information, so it can take as few as two clicks or taps for a potential customer to connect. You choose how much information you need, so you can get enough information for the lead to be useful, but not ask for so much that it scares the user away.

Instagram lead ads

Since Facebook owns Instagram, Facebook lead ads can also appear on Instagram, as long as the ads meet Instagram’s design requirements. However, lead ads behave a little differently on Instagram.

Instagram can only pre-populate the lead form with email, full name, phone number, and gender. If you want to collect additional information, the user will have to type it in.

Since Instagram lead ads only appear on mobile, and it takes 40 percent longer to fill out a form on a mobile device than on a desktop, you should only request additional information if it is critical for your initial sales efforts.

LinkedIn lead gen forms

LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms also make it very easy for potential customers to share their information, since they are pre-populated with details from the user’s LinkedIn profile.

Since LinkedIn is primarily a professional networking site, the pre-populated information can include work details like job title, company, and seniority, as well as education details, giving you an extremely rich set of data about each lead.

Like Facebook lead ads, LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms require no typing at all to complete, making them easy to complete even on mobile devices.

Host a Virtual Hangout, Webinar, or Live Video

There are two approaches to generating leads with live video, hangouts, and webinars. The first option is to present the video as gated content, requiring interested viewers to register in advance by providing their contact information.

The second approach is to open the video up to a wide audience and generate leads from that audience in one of two ways:

  • During the video, direct viewers to offers, contests, or other social media lead generation tools on another platform, such as a landing page on your website or a custom tab on your Facebook page.
  • Encourage live interaction by offering a reward for participation, then be sure to follow up with those who leave comments. The follow up could be as simple as directing people to resources related to their comments (including gated content), or you could encourage them to reach out to your team on social media with any further questions.

Keep in mind that the more specialized or niche your video, the fewer leads you will likely generate, but the more targeted the leads.

Better Leads Mean More Sales

Of course, the more top-quality leads you can acquire, the better your chances of making more sales. The world is on social media. If your business plans to market itself to the world, and especially to target a select audience in that world, social media is a great place to start.

How are your results with social selling? Do you depend on totally organic results or do you spend dollars on social media ads? Share your experiences with us in the comments below.

 

10 Reasons Why Your Business Should Be Investing In Elearning by @DrRKayGreen

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by Dr. R. Kay Green | Featured Contributor

Training is an important part of a successful workforce. From onboarding new employees to teaching current ones new and important skills, education can help them grow and an active role in their future. But many employees resent, do not thrive in, or otherwise dislike or avoid traditional classrooms and seminars. For some, these conjure up unpleasant memories of school days, and others simply do not have the time to fit it into their schedules.

Luckily, in today’s technology-driven world, this is not the only option. More and more businesses are investing in elearning, which allows employees to become more educated than ever. Here are ten reasons that elearning is the right investment for your business.

1. Flexible

Employees are busy with more than work. Some of them have families and other obligations, and this makes adding a class with a rigid schedule and a set time difficult. Luckily, elearning reduces these barriers. Employees can take the classes whenever they want, wherever they can fit them into their schedules.

2. Employees can learn in their own way

Not every employee works well in a classroom environment. Some struggle to keep up with lectures, and others work better when they are able to review information in privacy, or pause and rewind things. Elearning makes all of this possible. Employees are able to learn on their own terms, and not just in the style that the teacher demands.

3. Faster Learning

Just as elearning can benefit people who want to take their time on assignments, it is also perfect for those who would get bored or impatient waiting for the next lecture. For people who prefer to get an entire class out of the way in one day instead of spreading it out over weeks, this is the perfect option.

4. Encourages independence

When employees are educated, they are able to make decisions with confidence. Instead of turning to a manager to ask a question, they can know what they need to do and do it. They can feel ownership of their decisions, which in turn will lead to a higher job satisfaction and an overall more productive workforce.

5. Cost-effective

Classes can be costly. And the added cost of transportation and time may not seem worth it to employees, who may begrudge any sort of mandatory learning for this reason. But elearning is more cost effective for both your employee and your business, which makes it a far more attractive option.

6. Resources are always there

Once a class is over, it is over. If you are not taking good notes and if your professor does not email it to you, you will not be able to look back on a presentation or replay a lecture. But with elearning, these things will always be there. Employees can revisit them when they are unsure or when they want to double-check something.

7. Real-Time Feedback

Instead of waiting for a professor to grade things, which can take weeks, elearning allows students to see their results immediately. They can learn from their mistakes sooner, which allows them to perform better. It also takes away some of the anxiety that can come from waiting for a test result, which may be the cause of bad school memories.

8. Interactive

When elearning, there is no “back of the class.” Students can not simply sit and coast by as more energetic students speak. This requires interaction, and each student has to take control of their own education. This can be incredibly empowering, and it also helps them learn.

9. Collaboration Encouraged

When employees are taking online courses together, they will often reach out to each other for help. This encourages a spirit of teamwork that might not yet be present in your team. If you are looking to encourage an office culture of collaboration, giving them all a class can be a great way to do so.

10. Modern and easy to interact with

Most importantly, elearning is easy for students. Everyone is used to getting information from technology these days—we get news from our phones, social feeds, and more. It makes sense that learning from technology would feel natural and easy. And this is why so many employees love it when their business invests in it.

———————————————————————-

Dr. R. Kay Green – Marketing Expert from RKG Marketing Solutions Inc. from Atlanta, GA.

Dr. KayDr. R. Kay Green is the CEO/President of RKG Marketing Solutions Inc. With over 190,000+ Twitter followers, 35,000+ Facebook Likes, and the Top 1% LinkedIn profile designation, Dr. Kay, a self-motivated trailblazer, is the Quintessential “New-Age” Professional Woman, and PhD Marketing Pro. She earned a Doctorate of Business Administration in Marketing, and has completed PhD coursework in Leadership and Organization Change. She also holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Management, a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing, and an Associate of Arts in Marketing Management.

She is affiliated with several prestigious universities and has instructed over 350 courses online. A popular speaker on Marketing and Business topics, Dr. Green is currently featured on Huffington Post, Black Enterprise, Black News, The Network Journal, Business Review USA, Digital Journal, College View, Business New Hampshire Magazine, Bay State Banner, Reader’s Circle, North Dallas Gazette, Harlem News, Top News Today, One News Page, NE Informer, Women in Business PR News, Consumer News Today, Women PR News, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Daily Herald, The Miami Herald, and Book News Articles.

Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn

Top 5 ways to find PAID speaking gigs for FREE by @KerryHeaps

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by Kerry Heaps  | Featured Contributor

Here is a list of resources that you can use when searching for speaking engagements online. Some of these resources have an upgraded option, however I find that the free versions work just fine. When utilizing these resources, it’s important that you put together your own database, you can use these resources to start building your own. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, Excel spreadsheet is just fine or if you are a paper and pencil person, that will work just as well. Do what works best for you in this process.

Sign up for Google alerts.   One of the first things you should do is sign up for Google Alerts  using the phrases, “call for speakers”, and “call for papers”.  This way, you save time searching on a daily basis which shows have opened their call for speakers portal. Check out the call for papers because they often are accompanied by a call for oral presentations that don’t always show up in a call for speakers search.

If you want to speak at Colleges, search for the Director of Campus Activities.  You can do a simple search on Google just type in “Director of Campus Activities at *” then hit enter.  This will bring up certain contact pages on the Colleges site that will have the contact person listed. The *  search doesn’t always work with all titles, you have to play with the wording a little bit. For example, if you want to speak to the College staff, your best bet is to find the VP of HR. You can do a Google search for that title as well just to make sure you put  “at *” after the title.

If you want to speak or train at company engagements,your best bet is a list.   If you are a member of your local library, you can access databases online at no charge. Every library is different, however if you go to their website, click on the database link and see what’s listed under the Business section. A lot of libraries will have access to databases such as Reference USA, LexisNexis, etc. This way you can download a list a businesses in a targeted area, with titles. For example, if you want to speak to a company’s sales team, you will want to target the VP of Sales, if you want to do training for customer service or interoffice communications, you’ll want to target the VP of HR. It depends on the type a company, your topic and who it serves best within the organization.

Get a list of Associations and target their state chapters.   The library can also give you a great resource for Association lists. Each Library will have access to Gale Publications. There is one for associations and you can do a search to target specific associations, by location industry type, etc. These lists are downloadable at no cost. I also recommend for each Association to research their state chapters. They also booked speakers and can be an easy way to gain entrance to the National Convention.

Bookmark Events in America and Events Eye.    These two sites list upcoming events for the US and overseas. It’s a great resource to find out what is coming up in your area, or in areas that you’d like to target and you can easily go to the show’s website and find out if they are looking for speakers. Events in America also gives you the opportunity to list yourself as a speaker at no charge.

Stay tuned for my next column, I will be discussing best practices for reaching out to these organizations and how to create a solid follow-up system for each.

 

How To Get Press…Even If You Are An Introvert by @ChristyALaverty

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by Christy Laverty | Featured Contributor

Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

Do you consider yourself a bit of an introvert?

Getting press and PR for yourself and your business can be hard at the best of times but it can be even harder if you are someone who feels more comfortable behind their computer than out in the world. Good news is you can earn media mentions and coverage without even leaving the comfort of your couch!

I think more and more people these days would say they are introverts rather than extroverts, or even a combination of both, but that doesn’t have to be a negative when it comes to getting the media’s attention. You don’t need to be a total extrovert to get press and promote your business.  These days there are many people who are running online businesses and getting it done like a Boss from behind the computer screen.

There are lots of great ways to connect with the media, even if the idea of standing in front of a television camera freaks you out!

Here are just a few ways your introvert ways can be a benefit. You can still earn media even as an introvert.

NERVOUS IRL (IN REAL LIFE)? ONLINE ROCKS

No worries if getting out in person in real life makes your sweat, that’s the beauty of social media. You can do everything in the comfort of your own home from behind your computer.

Social media is a great way to connect with journalists.

Be sure to make your social media profiles (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn) as complete as possible. This is a great way for journalists to find you and the stories/content you are sharing. If you are running a business, especially an online business, you are using social media to connect with your customers and community already so be sure to add researching and engaging with journalists part of your to-do list. Don’t forget that is how journalists are finding you too!

Social media platforms are also a great way to find journalists to follow, see what stories/content they share and find out what they talk about. About 70 percent of journalist say they use social media, like Twitter, every single day to do their jobs (researching stories & finding sources). Create a list on Twitter of all your media peeps so you can easily find them.

Social media platforms are also a great way to find journalists to follow, see what stories/content they share and find out what they talk about. Anywhere from 50 to 70 percent (depending on the case studies and research) of journalist say they use Twitter, every single day to do their jobs (researching stories & finding sources). Create a list on Twitter of all your media peeps so you can easily find them.

Your website is also a way for journalists to find you. You want to make sure you have all your important contact information on your website. Make it easy for producers and reporters to reach you. Be sure to leave an email address and phone number in a spot that is easy to find. If the only thing you have is a contact form as a way for people to get in touch you will likely miss out. Journalists don’t have the time to look for your contact information or fill out a form and wait for you to get back to them. A great way to make sure you have all the right information is to create a Media Kit or Press page and post it as a page or a pdf on your website.

NETWORKING NOT YOUR THING?

That’s O.K. Journalists rarely have the time to attend events in person, especially producers, as a way to search for stories or contacts. Even if they do attend networking events and the like, they are there to have a good time just like you, so don’t expect them to come with notepad in hand to source stories. If you are pitching a story to a producer, email is still your best bet. You would rarely find producers taking pitches in person at an event, they likely want to leave work in the newsroom. Networking in person is a way to collect the contact so you can build a relationship later on.

PHONE PHOBIC?

Afraid to make cold calls to journalists? Well, that’s a good thing. Many journalists are not fans of the phone pitch. They are busy people and are always on deadline. Many journalists rarely have the time to chat on the phone and prefer to get pitched via email. Remember what I said about 70 percent of journalists use social media every day to source stories? Well, the same number of journalists still prefer to receive story pitches by email. They can read the pitch when they have time! That is not to say phone pitches aren’t possible but you need to do your research first so you know when it is best for a journalist to chat on the phone.

BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME

This one is great! If you are sharing great content and are active online, journalists will find you. Build a great website or blog and create content that resonates with your community and clients then journalists will find you. Start sharing that content via your social media channels and you increase the chance they will find you. Many journalists use social media, like Twitter, to research stories and search for ideas. Let them find you!

Be sure to include a media kit on your website or, at least, have all the necessary information, like phone number and email, so the journalist can contact you. Don’t make them work at finding you. So, in order for journalists to find you, you need to be sharing great content from your own blog/website but also from other sources via social media. Be sure to share stories related to your niche or industry and add some comment/commentary. You want people to get a sense of who you are when you are sharing. It is all about creating a solid online profile or footprint. You want to drop those crumbs – leave a solid trail – so journalists can follow them to find you.

HELP A REPORTER OUT

HARO (Help A Reporter Out) is a great way to connect with journalists. Sign up for free and you get emails every day (even multiple times a day) to your inbox listing journalists looking for experts/guests/contacts for their stories. Sourcebottle.com is also a great tool you can use to get press. Both of these allow you to sit behind your computer and find journalists who are looking for someone just like you!

EVERYTHING BUT TV

I know you are probably wondering how you can do PR & media if you are an introvert and prefer to work from behind your computer screen but hear me out. I know most people think doing media and getting press means getting on television. Sure, that’s a big part of the media landscape but it’s not the only game in town. Radio, podcasts, newspaper, magazine and website interviews make up a large portion of the media landscape. OK, those mediums make up practically the rest of the media landscape and the best part is you can get yourself in all of them while sitting behind your computer. These are the best forms of media for all you introverts. You can do interviews for all of these from the comfort of your home  – think Skype calls, phone interviews, and email interviews. You don’t have to do T.V. to get press.

There is no doubt more and more of us are making a living from behind our computer screens. It is a way for introverts to comfortably be out in the world without being “out in the world”. Don’t let the introvert in you stop you from reaching out and getting press.

Want more tips to help you earn more media mentions and coverage? Check out some of my previous posts on She Owns It

Or connect with me over on my social media platforms

 

The Sad Truth of Lying by @RelaxedMale

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by Bryan Goodwin | Featured Contributor 

What is one thing people can’t stand but everybody does? Lying we have all done it at least a few times in our lives. We don’t lie all the time. Many people pride themselves on being honest. We have Honest Abe and then there is the story of Washington and the cherry tree. I remember seeing television episodes that center around the main kid in the show, they start lying to the rest of the cast. Then you have the whole moral discussion about why you don’t want to lie.

We know what it feels like when we are lied to. Especially when it is someone we originally trusted. The crushing feeling we encounter when suddenly we find out our child who never lied is suddenly started to show dishonest tendencies. Perhaps you had the awakening of the damage you did to a person you deeply care for when they discover that you have lied to them. I remember that turning point. There is something about a person’s word. Business is dependent on trust. I use to tell my children it takes a long time to build that foundation of trust but one lie to destroy it.

We all have had stories of people who have lied. I bet though that you lie a lot more than you want to accept, and it is to someone you should believe. The person you lie to the most is yourself. OK, stop right here let that sink in, just a little bit before you dismiss that statement. I have mentioned this to many people and their reactions say one thing though their response is the complete opposite. You do lie to yourself daily and maybe even hourly.

Why do we lie to ourselves?

The reasons and theories behind why we lie to ourselves are as numerous as the types of lies we tell. Most of the time we tell ourselves lies for the very reason that lies are told to other people. We don’t want to face up to shortcomings because we are afraid.  We don’t want to have to see that we are normal. We don’t want to face the fact that we have to work just as hard if not harder to accomplish something. We lie out of fear.

We don’t want to feel inadequate about an accomplishment or about ourselves. We may feel jealous of a friend’s success and tell ourselves that you could have don’t that in reality you probably couldn’t. We are afraid that we will lose that friend. We are afraid of being called out. So we lie so we don’t have to face the discomfort that we have to work on a portion of our business that we really struggle with.

Folks lie to themselves because we want to keep something hidden from ourselves. We lie to ourselves so in a weird way, we want to protect ourselves from discomfort and fear.

Yes you have lied

I can hear you all the way over on this side of the internet. It is ok that you have lied to yourself. How many times have you said, “Tomorrow I’m going to start my diet” only to not start it? Is that not a lie? There are plenty of instances of all of us lying to ourselves. We just have to pay attention to. The fact that you are fighting against that statement says that you are wanting to keep something uncomfortable tucked away. You don’t want to face it. That is alright you don’t have to face it now, but you have to face it sooner or later.

What does it matter?

As Polonius states in Hamlet,

This above all: to thine own self be true,
and it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!

Another common saying is the Golden Rule. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Other words, Not only is it treat others as you want to be treated but if you can’t be honest with yourself then how are you expected to be honest with other people? If you have no problem lying to yourself then why would you have an issue about telling your neighbor a little white lie?

So what do you do?

The most direct route is to start telling yourself the truth. Now, this isn’t going to be easy especially if you are lying to yourself all the time. So good tip on correcting the problem is to just simply call yourself out. When you catch yourself telling yourself a lie than simply say that’s not true, or that a lie. Then state the truth. But don’t beat yourself up over it. Be a bit jovial about it. Beating yourself up will not fix the problem as easily as if you just take the time to gently correct your lie with the truth?

This isn’t easy I still struggle with telling myself lies and in the following years since I stopped lying, I have taken pride in honesty. Sometimes I need to work on how that honesty is delivered but I am getting better at being truthful with myself.

The reason we shake on the deal is that we trust that other person is going to uphold their word. If they crawfish on a deal, then you would never want to do business with them again. Trust is a two Way Street You have to be trustworthy and be trusting. It is hard to do just that if you are lying to yourself. If you can’t have trust that you are going, to be honest then it will show through in your actions. Denying the truth to yourself isn’t helping anybody especially you.

Top 3 strategies to stay consistent with your blog by @mominbusiness_

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how to stay consistent with your blog

How to stay consistent with your blog 

Blogging consistently is not an easy task. Most people start their blog with tons of illusion, but the lack of consistency kills their lovely child (blog) before even start.

And if you have kids around, this consistency thing can become a real challenge.

It’s really important that you know how to stay consistent with your blog in order to be successful.

There is going to be things every day that will affect the way you have organized your tasks, sometimes life gets in the way, and you need to be flexible enough to absorb those changes and stay consistent with your blog

Whatever you do, don’t quit, adjust!

I just prepared a very nice printable with 18 pieces of wisdom that will help you keep your motivation up at every moment!

wisdom for the mommy blogger

My top 3 strategies to stay consistent with your blog

I want to share with you the 3 most important tips I use to stay consistent with my blog.

1 Keep Yourself Accountable

Share your goals with your blogging partners.

Once you share your goals, you’ll automatically feel more committed to get it done.

You want to be trustworthy, so you keep your word and get everything done on time.

You can also share your goals with your couple or even with your readers.

Exposing yourself will help you do whatever you can to deliver what you promised.

2 Get Rid of Distractions

You need to be aware that there are online and offline distractions.

What is the difference?

Washing the dishes, do the laundry, cooking, cleaning the house, buy some groceries, etc, are offline distractions.

And of course, checking your social media account every second, email notifications, 50+ WhatsApp groups, etc, are online distractions.

Offline distractions are a real problem when you work from home, to avoid these kinds of distractions, you need to imagine that you’re at the office.

During office hours you can’t wash the dishes or go to the supermarket.

To combat online distractions you can try the Pomodoro Technique.

This method uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. This will help you improve your concentration.

3 The Realistic Publishing Schedule

There is no such thing as “the right publishing schedule”. You should stick to the schedule that works for you.

In my case, posting on a daily basis is impossible, so I try to post every 15 days or once a month.

You can start slow, posting once a month and then move to twice a month once your writing becomes more fluent.

Just go with the publishing schedule that works for you and avoid committing to an unrealistic schedule that will drive you to quit your blog.

Next steps

You can start applying these 3 strategies, but I really recommend you to create your own ones. Nobody knows you better than yourself. I’m sure that you are aware of what you need to do to stay consistent with your blog.

So, move into action and get it done!

 

I wish you happiness, love and the courage to live your life according to your priorities ♥

Vanessa Cast

The One Secret to Be Efficient With Time in Your Business by @CasiYost

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by Casi Yost | Featured Contributor

We all complain about not having enough time to do our work. I don’t think we really have an issue with time, but rather how we use it. I stumbled upon this efficiency method years ago but didn’t know the name of it. Now I do and I can’t wait to share it with you.

Before you start, prioritize. We all know our own schedules and the priority of things that need to be done. So essentially you and only you know which items are the most important. This is the one thing that you have to think about and the rest is easy. I promise.

 

I’m talking about the Ivy Lee method. Lauryn Evarts from The Skinny Confidential talks about it, James Clear, author of Atomic Habits talks about it in his book and tons of other successful people use it to cut through the noise and get things done.

 

How it works:

  1. You have a list of items you have to do right? We all do.
  2. What you do is you list the top six most important things in order that they need to be done.
  3. The kicker is that you can’t move to the second item or anything else until the first item is done. You also need to remove any distractions and focus completely on the task at hand until you are done. Then you can move to the next item.

This is extremely effective and I think is the perfect antidote to all of the technology, calendars, noise and social media that gets us off task in the first place.

If you’re someone who has your to-do list on three different calendars, sticky notes, two notebooks, and a planner, then you really need to boil it down to one central place.

For me, I have a google document that I essentially word vomit onto and list all my goals, ideas, to-do items, and keep it there. I pull the most important things out of it and put on my list for the day.

 

 

To be clear, I look at my google doc and physically write down my list of six items on a piece of paper. Then I don’t have any of the other items distracting me.

I usually do this the night before. I look at my calendar and see what I have to do the next day, what items are needing me to do them right away, and those definitely get priority.

This method isn’t complicated but that is the genius in it. It is so simple and easy to do that you eliminate “decision fatigue” and can get rolling right away on your work.

Anyone ever stare at their inbox and wonder what they should start working on? Yep. Same here. This method allows you to just list all the things you need to do, prioritize them and get them done. Nothing weighing on your mind or distracting you.

Let me know if you employ this and how effective it is for you! I would really love to hear!

 

Any other methods that work for you drop them below!

 

All the best,

Casi

How to Marie Kondo Your Financial Life By @AZAnswers

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 by Ann Zuraw | Featured Contributor

If you haven’t joined the Marie Kondo movement let me explain why it may be a smart financial decision to give it a try.

For those of you unfamiliar with the movement, Marie Kondo is an organizing consultant and author. She wrote the “The Changing Magic of Tidying” and now has a popular series on Netflix where she can teach you how to de-clutter your life and find what truly brings you joy.

What I learned from Marie Kondo is to set up a system that you can maintain long-term. It is easier to get organized when you follow a system and do it consistently. For example, get in the habit of taking a step back and thinking through a purchase before you buy.  If you take a moment before you purchase an item, especially an item that is essentially a duplicate to what you already own, maybe you’ll skip this purchase and save the money for something more essential. It would be great both for your wallet and our environment as it will prevent the need to fill up our landfills.

 

Another great habit is having a place for everything so that after you’re done using it, reading it, or opening it, you put it back where it belongs. By developing these systems, there will be no need for an annual Marie Kondo purge because we will begin to change the behaviors that led us in the first place to over-consumption and holding on to things that we will never use again. So today, I advise you to join the fun and take steps to make your physical and financial environment clutter free. 

As a financial advisor, I recommend you start de-cluttering and organizing your financial life as well as your financial security methods. Here are a few areas to consider: 

  • We are at tax time, and many documents and information are needed before you file. Do you have a consistent system to organize and help you remember what to include every year? It can be as simple as a checklist.
  • Where do you keep all your financial information? Do you have a system to keep it confidential? Or available? It can be locked in a secure file or stored as an encrypted file in a cloud program.
  • How safe are your login passwords for your financial accounts? Your logins are sources of information that put your financial life at risk. Pass-codes should be changed regularly and contain at least twelve characters which include both upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols and never use duplicates to reduce the impact of a data breach.
  • Do you have a secure place to store your pass-codes? What if you lose it? Is it on the cloud? You can keep a hard copy in a secure locked file or better yet purchase a pass-code manager which will encrypt your pass-codes and save them securely in a cloud program.
  • How secure is the information on your laptop, cell phone or wallet, should any of these be taken? Technology keeps getting better, and in return, you keep increasing your reliance and use of it which means you also need to keep track of what information is stored on each of these items.
  • Do you have an inventory of what is in your laptop, cell phone, and wallet? I personally have switched to digital files both in my business and my own Doing so has helped with security; also, I found a need to clean up and organize this information continually. Even though I am not physically holding the paper-my cloud is getting overloaded—like my closet. When this starts to happen, I find it taking much longer to find the information I need because it is not organized. So just like putting my socks folded neatly in one container—I need to put all my tax information for a specific account in a folder with the year identified, rather than just one large catch-all “Tax” folder. In addition, separate which information I need/want to keep long term, and which can be deleted after a specific time-period to reduce digital clutter.

When you start the practice of following a system that helps you keep things simple and organized you will begin to feel more confident and in control of your personal and financial life. You will also have a lot more free time to do the things that you love.

Best, AZ

Owning Your Financial Future by @wendykrichards

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by Wendy Richards-Edwardson | Featured Contributor

Sheownsit.com is a wonderful place to read inspiring stories of talented and fearless young women who are building businesses, relationships and putting themselves out there. Ladies, do you know how truly special and courageous you are?

As a relatively successful entrepreneur who didn’t get going until much later in life, I hope, from time to time, I can provide tidbits of wisdom from the School of Hard Knocks.

So if you are feeling a sense of bravado at the moment, I would ask you to pause and give me your attention for a minute. I know you are all very busy planning, building and imagining spectacular success stories, but this is news you can use!

As my biography suggests, I am a late bloomer, discovering who I was and what I wanted to become after my 50th birthday. Sometimes I think my circumstances were a blessing and other times not so much. Life is full of twists and turns and when you are young, you cannot see the whole road ahead.

Unlike many late bloomers, I was not merely shifting gears and setting out on a new adventure of self discover. Without pointing fingers or making excuses, the truth is I found myself having to give up my home, my savings and all the resources I thought would be in place for my retirement. I was, in the truest sense of the word, broke after 50.

I am far from alone. Female friends and business acquaintances I have known for years are finding themselves in the same boat. The circumstances may not be the same: divorce, disreputable money managers, addiction, bankruptcy or poor health, have contributed to women ending up with little or no resources in mid to late life.

At a recent business luncheon, I recognized a woman (I’ll call her Jane) who I first met over 25 years ago. It so happened that she and her business partner/husband were having work done at the law firm where I was employed. Jane and her husband had a highly successful land development company and her over-confident manner reflected her success.

I approached Jane at our luncheon and asked how things were going. Well, after the marriage failed, so did the business. She ended up declaring bankruptcy and being the sole supporter of their daughter. She is still in litigation with her ex. Jane was a smart business woman. What could possibly have gone wrong? This wasn’t supposed to happen! Jane, like so many others just like her, had put all her eggs and trust in one basket and had no backup plan.

I got no pleasure in hearing this. I too had been an independent, self-reliant woman. I always believed I could do anything! But then again, I thought I had endless years of life ahead of me. There was plenty of time. I also believed that when someone said to me, “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got this.” then there was nothing further for me to do.

I assumed that if I trusted those I loved, believed they had far more business sense and had my best interests at heart, everything would be all right. I don’t know the science behind it but for some reason women still tend to allow others to control their lives by thinking they know better.

After working in the field of litigation law for many years, I can tell you that partnerships usually fail. Approaches to future ideas and money can change over time and partnerships erode. With good contracts in place, protecting your assets and having an exit strategy, you will survive these detours in your plans. Keep YOUR assets in YOUR pockets! I was always told if you want to destroy a friendship, become roommates or business partners. I have found this to be true in both cases.

So here is my advice from the trenches. When someone says to you, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you”, accept the compliment and then ignore it. Take charge, do the work and, under no circumstances, allow someone else to control or guide your life or finances. It is not fair to them or you. Best intentions aside, sh*t happens. You must rely on the one person that ultimately will take care of you. That would be you!

I know it’s hard but fast forward 10, 20, 30 years. If you truly want a successful future, you need a backup plan today. Have you got one? It everything should fall apart tomorrow, you are going to need that Plan B.

Affirmations Can Help Your Goals by @relaxedmale

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Affirmations Can Help Your Goals

by Bryan Goodwin | Featured Contributor 

March, whew! Time is flying one-fourth of the year is here and where are you at on your goals? Yeah, your goals, those tasks, and objectives that you want to complete before the year ends. So, how are you doing with those goals? Looking for your goal list right now aren’t ya. If you are like me, you hit February and your goals start to disappear from your memory. Even if you have, the goals listed in a journal or on post-it notes on your mirror.

Why do we forget?

Why do most people have such a difficult time remembering goals? Well, the answer is we are both creatures of habit and we get busy. Many times by February, we are having conferences we are trying to attend. There are impending deadlines that are looming. Then there is life and if you have kids in school, February is when the school routine starts to focus on the end of the school year. There are so many different activities and the kids need your attention. In addition, you are human, you want to believe you are Super Girl but sadly, you too have only so many hours in a day. Therefore, something often has to give. That something is often the focus on your goals.

Yet there are ways you can remember your goals even when you come to the February wall. Now, this does take a bit of practice if you haven’t done this before, the trick is to put your goals in with your affirmations.

The power of affirmations

Maybe you have heard of affirmation. Maybe you haven’t. If not affirmations are thoughts and beliefs that you reaffirm in your mind. Many people from the ’80s hear affirmations and they think of Stewart Smalley. This was a skit on the sketch show Saturday Night Live. Now the skit was to try to show the absurdity of using affirmations because at that time affirmations were kind of the fad of the self-help world. Many times it was thought that you just say positive thoughts to yourself and poof walla! You had a better life. Well, that is how it was often sold. There is some key point when not applied can cause you to be just a Stewart Smalley saying, “I’m Good enough. I’m smart enough, and doggone it people like me.”

Key points about affirmations

The biggest aspect of affirmations is you have to believe what you are saying. If you look in a mirror and all you see is a fat person, it isn’t going to do you any good to have the affirmation of, I am my ideal weight. If you don’t believe the affirmation it is not going to work. You can work to that affirmation though. You have to take baby steps but if you do see yourself as overweight and you are wanting to be content with that weight then start with a small bit of truth. Start with the best feature you have. You may start by looking in a mirror and say I have nice eyes. Keep that up until you can say you have a nice face. Eventually, you will expand to, “My body is alright”

You do have to see the truth in the affirmations before you get the benefit of it. If you say, “I choose Happiness and love no matter what the circumstances”, and you believe it then you will choose happiness even when the circumstance isn’t as favorable.

Another point is that the affirmation needs to be said in your own voice. Also depending on who you are it may be better if you personally read it aloud. You may even say it into a mirror but I don’t find that really necessary. It does need to be in your voice. You can read it yourself or you can record yourself saying the affirmations. Then play it back as you are driving or washing dishes.

A good app to do this is Think Up. It is for both Android and iOS. You are able to record your affirmations and then you can play it back with or without music.

Photo by Kalen Emsley on Unsplash

Personal note

I rarely do the playback me reading my affirmations and that is because I often lose focus on what is being said so I am not hearing each affirmation. When I read my affirmations, I am actively listening to each word and the power that it has. So take that for what it is worth. Maybe you are a better listener than me and you can pay attention to each affirmation as it is stated. If you can’t, do not sweat it. Just read the affirmations to yourself.

If you would like to find some great affirmations to use, there are lists all over the place. Here are a couple of sites that contain affirmations you can use.

50 Positive Affirmations

1,132 Positive affirmations

Affirmations and goals

Now here is the punchline for that whole affirmation overview. If you have the habit of reading your affirmations daily, then this a perfect opportunity for you to remember your goals. Insert your goals into your affirmation list. This way since you are paying attention to your affirmations you are also reading each day, and you are also hearing each of your goals be read aloud by you. This allows you to stay focused on those goals so they don’t fade out in February, or May, or September. So try this little trick. It that may help you keep your goal a bit longer so you have a better chance of achieving it and reaching the level of success you hope and dream for.

Have you ever tried mixing your goals in with your affirmations? Have you had better success with your goals by doing so? Do you read your daily affirmations? If not please share why in the comments below. I would love to talk more about this.

Featured Image Photo by Marc Rafanell López on Unsplash