Create M A G A Z I N E
ISSUE #2
u o y g n i p l he eate the cr of your biz reams d
Easy ways to
LOOK AFTER YOU
Use Facebook to
YOUR ADVANTAGE Go from wishful thinking ...
to reality
HOW TO
REEL IN NEW CLIENTS
Transform
YOURSELF with help from Sarah Liddle Create Magazine 1
Contents 2 Create Magazine
How are you building relationships with potential customers? 11 10 ways to get a sea of new clients
14
5 questions you must answer to take your goals from wishful thinking to reality
16
How to assess your productivity
22
Let’s meet in the middle
24
Tips to use Facebook to your advantage
28
Put yourself out there in the business world with confidence 32 You can do it yourself ... with a little know-how
38
Stop clients from making their crisis yours: a script
42
Systems to enable you to operate your business remotely
48
10 easy ways to take care of yourself when you’re super busy 52 56
The depth of your being
2015: The year of sitting less, standing more and moving more 58 The 12 minute workout twice a week?
62
Is your workplace sabotaging your waistline?
68
Make your own all natural bronzer recipe
72
Do you want to beat procrastination?
74
You can also find artwork throughout the mag with inspirational quotes. Print it out and stick to your wall to keep you motivated!
On the cover: Sarah Liddle Teacher/ Coach/ Leader You can read more from Sarah on page 56 where she shares her article: The depth of your being.
Image supplied by Sarah Create Magazine 3
Welcome
Welcome to issue #2 of Create Magazine. I hope that you find the information is this mag useful and gain some tips that help in your business and life. Whether you are thinking about starting a business or you have an existing business, I hope that you are inspired to take some positive action. This issue I have enlisted the help of 16 amazing people who have contributed an article in their area of expertise. These cover a range of business and lifestyle topics — because I believe it is all related. You need to look after all areas of your life (business, health, fitness and even your thinking) to truly be successful. So grab yourself a cuppa and have a read and please leave a comment in the section below the mag — I aim to improve every issue and your feedback is valuable to helping me achieve this.
Incase you don’t know me My name is Teresa Lagozzino and I live in Victoria, Australia. I am a graphic designer with over 16 years experience. The majority of that time I have worked in publishing and the design of a range of magazines. Through my business Alluring Designs I mainly work with small businesses on their branding and required design products. I also teach people how to create their own graphics at DIY Biz Branding.
Why do I produce this mag? I wanted to create a product that I could offer to visitors of my website that provided useful information, tips and advice — I love helping people get started or build their business and want to help whether they use my services or not. One day I was hit with the idea to use my skills in publishing to create a magazine for small businesses that contained tips and advice that they could put to use in their own businesses. I get a chance to have creative control and get information out there, while readers get something of value for free. Everyone wins.
Where is it headed and how can you join me? I have many plans for the future of this magazine and would love your involvement. I already have plans for issue #3 and would love your articles. You can submit your article for consideration here: http://bit.ly/1udTx1l Thanks for reading and please don’t forget to give me your feedback via the comments on the web page or any of the contact methods on the opposite page.
Teresa xo PS. A very special thankyou to my sub-edititor Kerrie Lazarou
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Email: teresa@alluringdesigns.com.au Website: www.alluringdesigns.com.au www.diybizbranding.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/alluringdesigns
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Contributors Louise Griffiths
Louise specialises in helping coaches, consultants and practitioners strategise how they’ll achieve growth in their business, how they will approach it from a marketing perspective as well as help with all the project management and implementation needed to get it up and running. Louise is passionate about ‘why’ people buy and focuses strongly on customer experience and relationship building when it comes to marketing execution. Visit http:///www.louisegriffiths.com for more information.
Carla Holden Carla Holden is a certified transformational coach and founder of Her Business Boutique, where she teaches women the mindset and marketing skills necessary to make money doing what they love. She’s the author of the upcoming book, “The 5 Day Flirt: Change Your Life In A Week Or Less!” (Pink Ink) and a regular contributor at The Huffington Post. She’s also been featured in YFS magazine, Your Bella Life and Cafe Truth. You can nab a copy of her free workbook “The 7 Step Guide To Turning Your Part-Time Passion Into Your Full-Time Money Maker” right here http://www.herbusinessboutique.com/ free-gifts/>
Melinda Brack Melinda Brack is an expert in setting up frameworks to deploy strategy. Through her business zero to CEO, she teaches solopreneurs the insider secrets of creating focus, direction and momentum in their business. She has over 15-years experience across numerous industries defining and assessing strategic objectives and implementing them into strategic frameworks. Connect with Melinda on Linkedin or on http://www. facebook.com/zero2ceo to set your business free.
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Justina Ford Justina is a Savannah, GA based Master Certified Media Makeup Artist who has graduated with Honors from Hollywood Expressions Academy taught by Celebrity Make-up Artist Angie G. Ford. She has represented cosmetic lines such as Bobbi Brown and Laura Gellar Cosmetics. She has published works in magazines such as South Magazine, Beauty and Lifestyle Bride, Dark Beauty Magazine just to name a few. She has worked on a number of corporate interviews and commercials as well as celebrity-hosted fashion shows. Justina also hold a Masters in Human Service Counseling with a Concentration in Business. She has been living out her dreams of balancing the roles of wife, mum, homeschool teacher, make-up artist, business owner, and now she is ready to tackle another role as a Beauty Business and Balance Life coach to women looking for balance in their work, life and relationships! http://www.makeupbyjford.com
Debra J. Frank Debra J. Frank is the Founder of Spa Swank. As a Business Lifestyle Coach she is known for making and breaking the rules of business! Debra empowers entrepreneurs to craft their “Unique Position” in a Blue Ocean Market, increasing clients and creating more wealth! Business Lifestyle Coaching: Onward to your beautiful business, life and successful future! http://spaswank.com/
Cindy Russell Cindy is a widely experienced and versatile Kinesiology Practitioner, NLP Master and Life Coach with more than two decades of dedication to the personal development field. Her absolute passion is to wake people up to their full potential — to witness others being engaged, present and passionate about life with increased options and expanded awareness. Why live live a life that is ok when it can be awesome? http://www.cindyrussell.com.au
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Contributors Shannon Townsend
Is a get sh!t done business coach — specialising in repeatable, customised systems that help your business function at it’s best. Nothing makes her happier than to see entrepreneurs get their businesses up and running by ditching their excuses and getting real about making their business profitable, functioning, and fulfilling. You can find her here: http://www.ShannonTownsendCoaching.com
Anne Clark Anne Clark is a Virtual Assistant specialising in online business systems and management. Anne works with entrepreneurial women across the globe, managing and maintaining their business system enabling them to focus on their business growth. You can find out more about Anne at http://www.firststepvirtualassistant.com.au
Sami Blackford Sami Blackford is an Holistic Skincare Specialist, the force of passion behind Love Yourself Naturally, and founder of the Freyaluna natural skincare brand. After battling acne for many years, Sami finally found the secret path to clear and healthy skin, and she has since made it her mission to reach out to women around the world and help them along the same journey. Using a unique blend of natural skincare, nutrition and lifestyle advice, and a caring nature, she guides women to the healthy skin they deserve to see reflected in the mirror. For more information, visit http://www.love-yourself-naturally.com
David Pita David Pita makes websites for people that love their business and use their business to push humanity forward. His graphics are bold, punchy and beautiful to look at. You can find him at http://www.davidpita.com
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Sarah Liddle Sarah Liddle is a Certified Professional Coach, Wellness Teacher, Healer and Writer. She is the Founder and Director for The International College of Wellness Coaches. Sarah has written articles for Succeed Magazine, Inner Self, The Art of Healing, Insight and Vision Magazine. Sarah currently holds a Diploma in Life & Career Coaching, and a Diploma in Human Resource Management. Sarah has an International Certificate in Life Coaching through the International Coaching Academy; a Certificate in Adult Teaching; a Certificate 2 in Body Ecology; also holds a Level 3 Masters Certificate in Reiki. Sarah is currently studying a Bachelors of Law and one day aims to incorporate law and wellness coaching. Learn more about Sarah here: http://www.icwcschool.com
Lorraine Barwick Loz, as she likes to be called, is a nationally recognised Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP) and health and well-being mentor, who learnt the importance of healthy living the hard way — after discovering she had been living with Lyme disease for 30 years. After completing a Bachelor of Applied Science (Exercise and Sports Science) she developed a strong passion for heart health while working in a Cardiac Rehabilitation clinic in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire. Loz and her husband Dave, are on a mission to get people up and more engaged with their own health care and take radical measures to improve it. Standup People is their new community. To join, simply go to http://www.standuphealth.com/community and sign up for free.
Lynnie Wennerstrom Lynnie Wennerstrom is an Author (7 Simple Steps to a Crazy Awesome Healthy You), Speaker and Health Motivator Extraordinaire. She has mastered the art of common sense health and nutrition strategies & techniques, and is an expert health, energy & anti-aging strategist. After battling anorexia, years of chronic fatigue, migraines and suicidal depression, she learned how to heal herself using simple common sense health strategies. In doing so, she created a unique seven-step system she is adamant will improve the life of virtually any person alive sporting a human body. Lynnie is a total health geek and is fascinated with how simple getting healthy really is. She trolls health summits, lectures and is on a mission to help one million women improve their lives through better health so they can feel beyond amazing. http://www.crazyawesomehealthyyou.com Create Magazine 9
Contributors Hayley Cavicchiolo
Hayley Cavicchiolo is a qualified nutritionist, wellness coach and personal trainer with a passion for delicious, nutritious food and recipe creation. She regularly experiments to create tasty meals and treats for clients, family and friends. Hayley loves gluten free and sugar free cooklng, travel, Pilates, spending time at the beach and exploring famers’ markets on weekends. http://www.nourishedhabits.com
April Holman Tired of putting chemicals on your skin? After searching forever for truly all natural products, April gave up and decided to make her own. She uses only certifiably raw and organic materials that she hand picks herself; from like minded small businesses or right in her own backyard. April believes it is time to start realising what we put on and in our bodies becomes us! She also offers classes in her local area for foraging wild edibles and shares her recipes on ger blog so you can DIY! http://www.ForagedFields.com
Henna Datta Soul Alchemist, Henna Datta, has mastered the art of helping you turn the lead of your ego into the gold of your soul. Busting your upper-limits and barriers to creativity + wealth and unleashing your true genius is fast + simple with her actionable, intuitive techniques that take less than 10 minutes a day. As a sought-after coach, she works with hundreds of creative women entrepreneurs from all over the world. And her deepest desire is to live in a world where everyone is happy and free to be their authentic self and express their unique gifts lovingly and fearlessly. When she’s not creating fun strategies for her clients, finishing her Ph.D. Thesis or writing her first book, you can find her indulging her eternal wanderlust through exotic cuisine, books or travel. http://hennadatta.com
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How are you building relationships with
potential customers? By Louise Griffiths http:// www.louisegriffiths.com
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HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT ABOUT HOW YOU ARE BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP NOT JUST WITH YOUR CURRENT CLIENTS AND CUSTOMERS BUT ALSO WITH YOUR POTENTIAL CLIENTS AND CUSTOMERS?
You need to be looking at how all these marketing pieces fit together.
IT’S EASY TO GET CAUGHT UP IN THE LATEST MARKETING ‘TACTIC’ OR THE NEWLY LAUNCHED COURSE PROMISING ‘THIS IS THE ONE THAT WILL EXPONENTIALLY GROW YOUR BUSINESS WHILST YOU SLEEP’ BUT MANY ARE MISSING THE POINT.
Are you giving them what they want when they want it?
And I don’t mean just literally thinking “well my Facebook ad will take them to my sale pages, and then they opt-in for my free gift and then go on my list”. I’m talking about what that experience looks like, how do they feel as they journey through your sales funnel?
One of the first exercises I do with all my new clients is an audit of what they are currently doing and it’s surprising how many have never recorded how much of each product or service they sell, or what the cost of a new lead is for them. But what is even more surprising is that they’ve never looked at the whole process as a continual journey, thinking about how they are creating consistency and growth as the customer experiences their business more and more.
Without consistency and bigger picture planning your potential customers become less and less likely to buy from you the longer they are on your list. 12 Create Magazine
They don’t understand what you stand for or what you are selling to them. They opted in to receive a free download and then sat on your list for three weeks — and then intermittently receive emails about blogs posts and topics which may or may not be related to what they originally opt-ed in to learn about. Then you launch something and all of a sudden they get an email from you every second day — a launch about something that is only slightly related to what they opt-ed in for and isn’t really related to them. And eventually they either opt-out or even worse — hang around deleting your emails without opening them.
You need to start looking at their journey. The journey of getting to know you, and knowing what you do and the value you provide whilst ensuring it is relevant to them. So how do you do that? Well it doesn’t start with your free opt-in — also known as a lead magnet. This is the mistake most people make. It starts with your core offer. What are you offering and who is your ideal target market? Then you can create smaller offers and free content from there — making sure the topics covered are relevant to what you eventually want them to purchase. Once you have that
established you need to make sure you have consistent messaging to them from the moment they see your ad or blog post and sign up for your lead magnet. Think about how you will build that relationship, what does the resource they have signed up to receive tell you about them, what they want, and what their biggest challenge is right now? How do you show them you can solve that problem? And how does that translate to what you will share with them on email? How will you show them the value in the things they could buy from you?
This relationship building is crucial and it is where many business owners fail to spend enough time. But I can assure you — that doing this process with the customer truly in mind as well as that end goal (the sale) — will make all the difference when it comes to selling to your list.
— See more from Louise at http:// www.louisegriffiths.com
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to get a sea of new clients By Carla Holden http://www.herbusinessboutique.com/
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IF YOUR BUSINESS IS FEELING A LITTLE SLOOOOOOW LATELY THEN HERE ARE A FEW QUICK AND EASY IDEAS TO IMPLEMENT TO GET SOME CLIENTS COMING IN FAST! Lead generation is just a fancy way of saying that new people are aware of who you are and what you do. People have to know you exist in order to hire you so it all starts with getting in front of your future clients.
Here are 10 ways to get in front of the right peeps! Personal reach outs: Email people personally and ask how you can help them. Public speaking: Host an event at your house or speak somewhere that has a built in audience. Networking: This includes being out and being social. Get good at telling people what you do. Having your own business automatically makes you interesting! Online marketing: You have a website, right? If not get one. If so, blog regularly to build traffic and make sure people have a way of getting on your list. Referrals/Partnerships: The people who know and love you … Ask them to pass on what you do to their people. Your newsletter list: Give them a chance to get to know you and how you can help make their lives better or their dreams
come true … then offer to help them (with your services!). Media: Podcasts, local radio, national TV, magazines. Check out HARO for access to media opportunities. Social media: Get active in a couple of Facebook, LinkedIn, or GooglePlus groups. Show up and be of service. Advertising: Facebook ads, Google Adwords, other blogs with a following. Guest blogging: Submit a pitch to your favourite online journal to get in front of new people … make sure you have a sign up ready to go to capture new traffic to your website.
Pick one of these to focus on for the next TWO weeks and implement like crazy. Then move down the list and focus on another one for two weeks … see which ones work best for you. My current personal favourites are speaking and personal reach outs. I love connecting and talking with people so those seem to suit me best for where I’m at in my business right now … Although I’m looking forward to trying my hand at Facebook ads soon. What’s your favourite way to get in front of new people? Take action today. One thing … You’ll definitely see results! — See more from Carla at http://www.herbusinessboutique.com/
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5 questions you must answer to take your goals from
wishful thinking to reality By Melinda Brack http://www.facebook.com/zero2ceo
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WHAT IF I TOLD YOU THE MOST POWERFUL TOOL YOU CAN USE TO TURN YOUR BUSINESS GOALS INTO REALITY IS EASY TO LEARN AND ALL YOU NEED TO ACCESS IT IS A PIECE OF PAPER AND A PENCIL. WOULD YOU BE INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT MORE ABOUT IT? >>>
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The tool I’m talking about is strategy. Now before you get all flighty and start telling yourself you’re not left brain enough to do this type of thing, take control of yourself and listen up. Strategies are about two things. Action and limitations. They are used to define what you are going to deliver within in the limitations of your resources, time and money to take your business from where it is now to where you want it to be at a fixed date in the future.
So, here we go. The five questions you must answer to formulate a successful strategy are: 1. What is the purpose of the strategy? This is your north star. It’s the outcome you want to see in your business. Define it as a broad, big picture description of the one change you want to see in your business summarised into one or two sentences. The easiest way to check whether you’re creating a strategy to do the one right thing at the right time is to answer this question: Why do I need to do this instead of something else? Think about why it’s important to do this particular activity right now. How does it help your business? What will happen when you achieve it? Keep it to one thing only. For example: You find that the manual
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marketing and sales processes you are using now are taking up too much of your time. They don’t leave you enough time to spend with paying clients. So your strategy may be: To increase the number of sales of your coaching product by creating an automated sales funnel on your web site.
2. What is the one goal you must accomplish to achieve your purpose? It’s the one thing that you must deliver to realise your purpose or nothing else matters. You define your primary goal by asking the question: What is the one thing do I need to do right now to get my business from where it is now to where I want it to be? A goal is written as one specific, precise sentence. It specifies an observable, measurable action on an item that will deliver your outcome on a specific date. A goal has five parts. 1. An observable action. 2. An item that will change or be delivered. 3. A condition that defines the scope of the goal. 4. A measurable standard. 5. An exact date on which the goal will be achieved. For example: To launch a web site with a fully automated sales funnel that will increase sales by 20%, on 31 January 2015.
3. Are your assumptions realistic? Assumptions are something you think you know will be true about the availability of
resources, time or money at some point in the future. Identifying your assumptions is the most important part of your strategy. They underpin all the decisions you make in your business. Before you start carrying out your strategy, you need to root them out and test whether they are true or false. When your assumptions are incorrect, at best they may cause a major inconvenience and at worst they may derail your strategy. Let’s say your assumption is that you can get a web developer to build your sales funnel for $2000. But you haven’t checked whether this is true and what you don’t know is a developer with the kind of expertise to develop a sales funnel costs $7000 and you don’t have the budget for it. This situation would have been avoided if you had confirmed your assumption by researching how much web developers charged for what you want to start with.
4. What are the constraints? Constraints are the limitations you have on the resources, time or money that affects what you can realistically achieve and the way you can achieve it. They may come from forces outside of your control such as industry or Government standards or regulations. Or they may arise from your business values or other choices you have made about how you will run your business. For example, you may have a business value to support your local economy. This limits from where you will source the web developers, graphic designers, copywriters you will hire to develop your website. If you’re living in
the first world (North America, Europe, Australia/NZ and so on), this constraint may impact your budget and who you can hire. To meet this constraint, you may have to hire people with less experience who cost less or do some of the work yourself to stay within your budget.
5. What are the risks? We all like to think positive, however the reality is that sometimes you can do everything right in business and still fail because of forces outside of our control. The best way to deal with this reality is to think about what could go wrong with the execution of your strategy and what you will do if the worst does come to pass. For example, what will you do if your web developer delivers a web site that doesn’t perform the way you want it to and it’s unusable? (This happened to me!) Or what will you do if you suddenly have a cash flow problem? How are you going to pay for the new website? Or now you are on the web, how will people find you. These five elements will set you up for success. They give you a framework through which you can test your ability to deliver your ideas and are the first step in creating focus, direction and momentum in your business for 2015. — See more from Melinda at http://www.facebook.com/zero2ceo
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assess your productivity By Justina Ford http://www.makeupbyjford.com
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DO YOU EVER QUESTION YOUR SELF-WORTH? WHAT DEFINES YOU? IS IT WORK, YOUR FAMILY, YOUR RELATIONSHIP? I’m a strong believer that as entrepreneurs we have the luxury of being identified by all the roles we play in life. Some may not consider it a luxury because it can be difficult balancing our time and realising how productive we really are. If we think about this for one moment we can view this as positive. Defining oneself by many roles makes us more well-rounded individuals and gives us permission to operate in our roles. As a mother working in a corporate environment we may be forced to give up some of our mothering defining roles such as nursing. But as an entrepreneur working from our home offices we have the freedom to operate in dual roles. One challenge at play is successfully balancing the time and feel productive while doing it.
There are tools in place that can help us gauge our productivity. Using those tools help me balance my time as a wife, home-schooling mum, make-up artist and life coach. I feel confident running a local community home-school co-op, doing makeup for various clients, taking my children on field trips, coaching women on how to define their success, and writing articles like these to encourage entrepreneurs. As entrepreneurs running our businesses from home, we spend more time trying to balance all of our roles that identify us. It’s perfectly okay for us to multi-task. We don’t go to work in a building and compartmentalise this area of life. And for many of us our work is centred on our lives. We may be home trying to cook breakfast right after writing a blog post, or taking calls
from the school while planning our next launch. As you strive toward your business sorting out brand design, marketing techniques, email campaigns, opt-in forms and more, remember that writing down your accomplishments each day will help you from forming a negative mindset about what you have really done for the day. It is easy to look back and wonder what have I done today? That negative mindset settles in, bouts of sadness and unsatisfcation because we can’t tangibly see what we’ve done.
I have struggled with the feeling of not accomplishing enough each day. This happens when I don’t take the time to track down what I have accomplished. I find having a list of accomplishments sorted by category works for me. My categories would be: 1. Time with God 2. Marriage 3. Fitness/health 4. Homeschool 5. Housework 6. Make-up biz 7. Coaching biz. Your categories will look a lot different than mine. First you need to have a page for goals of the days and separate to track what you’ve actually done. You can then see how you geared away from what you planned but you still accomplished other things. So even if I didn’t get done what was on my original goal, I still feel better tracking my activity in each category because I can truly see what I have done and not only looking at what I haven’t done. Sometimes the plan changes and we reprioritise in the moment. There is nothing wrong with that. As long as we can go back and review and make changes as necessary. — See more from Justina at http://www.makeupbyjford.com
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Lets meet
in the middle By Debra J. Frank http://spaswank.com/
I BET YOU HAVE HEARD THE LONG RATHER TIRED STORY OF THE LEFT — RIGHT-BRAINED DILEMMA! SOME CALL IT THE HUGE DIVIDE AND IT IS GENERALLY DESCRIBED BETWEEN WOMEN AND MEN. MOST WOMEN ARE MORE RIGHT BRAINED, MEANING THEY ARE MORE INTUITIVE, SUBJECTIVE AND LOOK AT THE WHOLE. THIS BEING THE OPPOSITE OF THE LEFT-BRAIN, WHICH LEANS TOWARDS THE LOGICAL, RATIONAL, ANALYTIC AND LOOKS AT PARTS. >>> Create Magazine 25
Interestingly however, whether it is our left hemisphere that is more dominant or our right one, the distinction can impact our personality and the decisions we make. For example, left-brain people are more organised and systematic. Right-brain people are more creative and intuitive. So which side of your brain do you wake up on in the morning? Find out with this test! See more at: http://testyourself.psychtests.com/ testid/3178#sthash.gvwbQu8V.dpuf
Hunters in silence vs women in conversation still? Western business is dominated by the leftbrain, the part that’s good at analysis and weak in the right brain, the part that’s good at creativity. The difference between men and women focuses on the fact that men have evolved as the hunters. They had to concentrate on hunting for food, a risky job that required them to develop a sense for risk and aggression. Men hunted and women collected food. They organised activities around the home and community. Unlike men, they moved between several different activities. Men executed their job as hunters in silence, women always had others around to share in conversation their joy, sorrow and problems. It is obvious why women easily vent their emotions and communicate well with others. Because of this history, men have a preference for focus, precision, directness, logic, strategy and risk while women have a preference for organising, strategy, feelings and empathy. Women go into business based upon a deep, strong passion for their cause! This is great but it concerns me that it could get in the way of objectivity. I love passion however I also love a set of “sober eyes” on the balance spreadsheet. If all decisions are being made from an emotional point of
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view we may be missing other opportunities. Usually, when men talk about business it is the opportunity that is the driver. They do not have to be in love with it but they can get behind it if they see it as a viable opportunity to make money!
Creativity educated out by age six. The second reason why business is dominated by the left-brain is our western education system. By the time we are six years old most of the creativity has been trained out of us. Want more proof? Reflect on the early school report of Albert Einstein. “Albert is a very poor student. He is mentally slow, unsociable, and always daydreaming. He is spoiling it for the rest of the class. It would be in the best interest for all if he were to be removed from school at once.” Men see an opportunity and want to capitalise on it, however when women see an opportunity they are passionate about the cause. A man can see the opportunity and not need to be in love with it. Therefore if the deal starts to go sideways he can exit the deal without remorse or attachment. Women on the other hand will not exit a deal turned bad, they will go down with the ship. They love what the business is about! Men will say, “I saw an opportunity” and women will say “I just love this so much.” Women are driven by their connection; men are driven by the profit opportunity. Sounds like we need to mix it up and create a perfect formula with a little from both camps!
Middle = Sweet= spot = Better outcome $.
I think men and women both would experience better business outcomes if
we meet in the middle. You know when the graph has two circles that overlap each other. There is a small sliver that becomes the “sweet spot” for success and profit. As business people, women are passionate, mix a bit of “reservation” and learn to concentrate on both sides of the brain to create stronger business offerings. Both applications left and right, when used properly will always yield a better outcome. Yes, I think it is important to have the logical and analytical along with the love and holistic. Perfect! I strongly believe in left and right brain thinking, in practice because of the bias within the environment, I often find myself forced to work in ways that correct this bias. As an only girl growing up, I had three brothers, five god brothers and my best friend had six brothers. I definitely think more like a left-brain male. Interesting data!
Left and right are great together! Why can’t we have a business investment that makes us feel good and makes money as well? If we are cognizant of our strengths and weaknesses we only get better! I will learn to be more right brained and hey all you guys out there, I bet you will work on your right brain too. Lets meet in the middle and create some mind blowing business opportunities capitalising on the best of both sides! The Middle! — See more from Debra at http://spaswank.com/
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Tips to use Facebook to your
advantage By Teresa Lagozzino www.alluringdesigns.com.au
WE ALL KNOW HOW POPULAR FACEBOOK IS. MOST PEOPLE YOU KNOW ARE ON THERE AT SOME STAGE DURING THE DAY — SOME PEOPLE CONSTANTLY! A PRESENCE FOR YOUR BUSINESS ON FACEBOOK IS A ‘MUST’. YOU NEED TO BE SEEN AND YOU NEED TO BE PROFESSIONAL. BUT HOW DO YOU MARKET YOUR BUSINESS SUCCESSFULY ON FACEBOOK AND USE IT TO BRING IN MORE CUSTOMERS?
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To begin you need to make sure your business page is visually up to scratch. Is your cover image professional or does it look like you made it yourself? Can visitors easily see what your business is about? Your cover image is the first impression of your business to visitors of your page. Make sure it looks right. You can also use your cover image to send visitors to your website. Add a circle with the words ‘click here’ to get access to your free offer or special and add the link to
your website in the photo caption. When people ‘click here’ your cover image photo will open up and they will be able to see your link. Make sure your post graphics look professional and are consistent with your branding style.
Next: It is all about coming up with a strategy. The main aim of online marketing is to get names onto your email list. You own >>>
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your list and you get directly to your customers — Facebook reach has been declining (you can’t guarantee your likers will see your posts) and they could make a change tomorrow that could see you loose all of your ‘likers’. You need to find people on Facebook and direct them to join your list. How can you do this? By offering free valuable content that your ideal customer wants or if you are a product based business you could offer a give-away or discount ($10 off your first purchase, 10% off your next purchase etc.).
How to set up your strategy Step 1. You need to set up a lead capture page on your website (or by using online websites such as LeadPages) with the sole purpose of capturing the names and addresses of visitors and giving them your free offer. It needs to be plain and simple with no other information to distract them.
Step 2. Now you need to direct people on Facebook to this lead capture page. Link to it in your cover image (as discussed earlier) and you can also set up a tab on your page that also captures names and email addresses. If you are using MailChimp they have an integration option that basically does it for you —
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most email programs will have this option. Both of these are ways that are constantly accessible to people who visit your page.
Step 3. Use Facebook posts. Upload a post linking to your free offer at least once a week — more if it is a special product give-away. See opposite page for details about creating interesting posts.
Step 4. Use Facebook ads. This requires some experimenting — experiment with your targeting, your image in your ad and wording. Ads are a great way to spread the word about your offer and I notice that most of the time your page does get more ‘likers’ also. I know I mentioned earlier that likers are not as important as getting people on your list, but if you have more likers on your page your advertising can be cheaper (if you are targeting likers) and also they will see your posts and hopefully join your list.
Set up your strategy and plan it out for the month. Assess if your free offer is still working for you (if not change it up). Then you can create and schedule your posts for the month. Then the only thing left to do for the next four weeks is keep an eye on your page and reply to any comments.
How to create interesting Facebook posts It is important that you consistently put up posts to keep your page active and encourage more engagement — you want people to stumble across your page to see that it is a happening place and make them interested in seeing more. Mix up and try to stick to the 80/20 rule (80% interesting content and 20% about your actual product or service). If all of your posts are sales related you will loose ‘likers’. You need to build their trust and keep them interested. Share interesting content and create posts that are related to your product/ service but are not necessarily selling your specific product. For example if you were a jeweller you could upload a post just after New Year’s Eve along the lines of: ‘Spill the beans… who got engaged over the festive season and New Year? Tag them below so we can all give them a big congratulations’ — this post is fun, encourages engagement and is telling people exactly what you want them to do. Try to keep these things in mind when it comes to your posts: Use a professional-looking graphic, keep it interesting, tell people what you want them to do (like, share or comment) and try to encourage engagement (the more engagement the more people will see your post). Set up your weekly posts and schedule them in at once so you are not wasting time.
— See more from Teresa at http://www.alluringdesigns.com.au
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Put yourself out there in the business world
with confidence! By Cindy Russell http://www.cindyrussell.com.au
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WHEN IT COMES TO CONFIDENCE I THINK WE DO IT ALL BACKWARDS. WE THINK WE NEED TO ACHIEVE CERTAIN THINGS AND REACH PARTICULAR MILESTONES TO ENABLE US TO FEEL THE CONFIDENCE WE DESIRE. THIS IS PARTICULARLY TRUE IN THE BUSINESS WORLD. Well it doesn’t have to be the case. Today I am going to give you five tips that will help you feel confident right now in the business world or anywhere else in your life. Once you are confident you will start acting that way. When you act confident you will see the results a confident person sees and ... guess what? You will feel more confident!
1. Know what confidence is like for you. It is important to be clear (with detail) about what it would be like if you did have the confidence you want. To get this clarity and detail, imagine forward to a time when you are confidently putting yourself out there in the business world. What do you see? What are you doing and how are you doing it? Does your posture or facial expression look different when you imagine this? What else do you notice? What do you hear when you imagine forward to having this confidence?
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What are you saying to yourself? What are others saying to you? Do you sound different when you are confident? How does it feel? Where in your body do you feel the confidence? What does it feel like? Is it heavy or light? Moving or still? Big or small? Does it have a colour? All this detail helps your unconscious mind move toward making it happen.
2. You make the rules. What needs to happen for you to feel confident? This is a big question and probably one you haven’t really considered in this way before. Do you need to be earning a certain amount of money? Do you need to have a certain number of likes on Facebook or people on your list? Do you have other measures that must be met before you feel confident? Write them all down, create a list of anything and everything that would lead to you feeling confident. Come back once you have your list. Look at your list and realise you made this up. Each item on the list was decided by you and can be just as easily undecided. What can you cross off the list? This does not mean you will not achieve the things on this list but that you can be confident whether you are achieving them now or not. By living this way funny enough you are more likely to meet the milestones you had on your list. This is what I mean by working backwards.
3. Fake it until you make it. This exercise is one I do with people of all ages and for all sorts of desired states, not just confidence. It is sooooo easy and fun and it really works, if you actually do it. Imagine everything on your list was being satisfied, you are earning $X, your list has X number of people on it or you have X number of likes etc etc. Imagine how confident you would feel. The feeling of confidence is created by a mixture of chemicals in the body. It is possible to have it without any requirements being met. Wherever you are right now, reading this, stop and close your eyes (after you have read what to do), imagine what it would feel like if you had all the confidence you could imagine. Take some time to really let yourself feel what it would feel like if you believed this was true. Now commit to doing this exercise at least five times a day for a few minutes at times when you don’t really need it. Do it while getting ready for the day, eating breakfast, driving to work (you do not need to close your eyes).
4. Take mini steps. Once you are used to feeling this new feeling of confidence it is time to practice it in areas you need it. Start with small things first, really small. Each day deliberately choose something small that you will do to put yourself out there in the business world while maintaining a confident state. You may choose something you would normally
do but you are choosing to do it today with the confident feeling. Once you get the swing of it you can choose to do many mini things in this confident state and even start doing the big things too.
5. Celebrate. Your confidence level will snowball when you decide to notice, acknowledge and celebrate the changes you are making, even and especially the small things. Notice what you do more confidently each day and pay it attention. Right now you are probably used to noticing where you are not confident and you probably pay that a fair bit of attention. This affects your experience in everything you do. Once you start noticing where you are confident, acknowledge it (no matter how small) and celebrate it. So now you have it the right way around. You know how to create the feeling of confidence in your body and you can do it everyday, even when you are putting yourself out there in the business world. When you practice these steps you get to feel confident straight away, you then act confident and think like a confident person so all of a sudden things around you become something you can be confident about.
— See more from Cindy at http://www.cindyrussell.com.au
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Imagine... being able to create your own graphics yourself that look like a designer made them
The DIY Biz Branding Members Club will arm you with the skills and knowledge so you can! Doors open February 2015 – See details at the website.
www.diybizbranding.com
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You CAN do it yourself ...
with a little know-how! 38 Create Magazine
By Teresa Lagozzino www.diybizbranding.com
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DO YOU WISH YOU COULD WHIP UP A NICE GRAPHIC FOR YOUR LATEST FACEBOOK POST? DESIGN A NEW BUSINESS CARD? MAKE A PRETTY EBOOK FOR YOUR WEBSITE? OR TOTALLY REDESIGN THE LOOK OF YOUR BIZ?
what your whole look and branding will be based on. Search for inspiration through magazines or online through using online colour scheme programs.
I know what it is like when you are getting started in business or funds are tight. Sometimes you just can’t afford to hire a pro and you need to DIY in some areas.
Choose fonts. I recommend you choose up to two fonts to use in your branding and try to pick fonts that compliment each other. For example you might choose a plain simple font and match it up with a cursive font.
There are so many online programs out there that make it easy for people to create their own branding and graphics — and some of these programs are fantastic. The problem is that if you don’t understand the basics you could actually be hurting your business. You might be proud of your new creation but honestly, you could be looking at it with clouded judgement. I don’t want you to fail at all. So, I’m going to share some things with you …
The secrets to creating your brand. The number one thing is research. You need to work out who your ideal customer is and the look you want to go for with your branding. Choose your colour scheme. This is
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Choose a texture or background that you can use as part of your branding in your products. You can use a tiny element of it in everything you create to tie it all together.
Design a logo using the above elements. You don’t need to use all of them, what you don’t use can still form part of your branding. For example you might use two colours and have the additional colours in your scheme form part of your branding through your website and graphics. Create a style guide. This will have all the elements included and you can use it as a reference point when you are creating any products for your business.
The free resources you can use to create your brand. Colour guide: www.colorhunter.com it is easy to use and you can upload an image you love and it will choose a scheme for
you to match the image. Photo editing: www.picmonkey.com I prefer to use PicMonkey to edit photos but you can also use it to create graphics. Creating graphics: www.canva.com I find Canva to be easier to use and have more features for creating your own graphics.
Tips to creating marketing products that get attention. Here are my five tips for creating graphics that get attention. It is so important that your advertising, Facebook posts, brochures etc. stand out and help your business: Use people in your images where possible. Think about it. You are scrolling through your Facebook news feed and you see a photo of a person so you stop to see who it is. People get attention. And if that person is using or doing something related to your product that is even better. Potential customers like to imagine themselves using your product and if they can see it even better. Use image filters to make your images pop and look pro. Filters fix everything. An imperfect photo can be covered up with a filter. They can also add a new dimension to your graphic. Don’t be afraid to use filters.
Use your logo. Where you can include your logo or a part of it. Your branding is important and people will instantly recognise it is from your business. Include a web address. The main aim in the marketing game is to drive traffic to your website. Your web address should be on EVERYTHING. Especially any graphic you create for a social media post. If that image is shared around and goes viral you want people to know where it came from. Include a call to action. Any kind of marketing that is selling something (including your business) should include a call to action. Call now, contact me, more info, last days call now etc. Tell people what they need to do next whether it is visit your website for more details, to call you to book one of the last places, or to book now before the price rise. Even if it is a standard Facebook post, encourage them to like, share or comment. Make sure you clearly tell them what they need to do so you can continue contact. Now I have shared with you the secrets to creating your brand, the free resources you can use to create your brand and tips to creating marketing products that get attention. You are all set to go out there and create some amazing graphics for your business. — See more from Teresa at http://www.diybizbranding.com
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Stop clients from making their crisis yours
a script
By Shannon Townsend http://www.ShannonTownsendCoaching.com
I love Facebook, it’s my ultimate time waster along with ”research.” I love Facebook because it gets to function as a nice little Petri Dish of human interaction, dysfunction, success, failure, and chaos. Plus, there are cute animal photos and those witty eCards! Watching all of that on Facebook can cause me/you/us to really pick out certain struggles and successes, because they mirror our own experiences. One of the places I really get to examine where I fall short is when other people plan poorly and then want/expect/demand that I swoop in and save the day. >>>
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BELIEVE ME… I LOVE BEING THE HERO! I MEAN, COME ON, HOW COOL IS IT TO KNOW THAT I — SINGLEHANDEDLY SAVED THE DAY?! NOTHING BEATS FEELING LIKE A ROCK STAR.
told you I’d be booked up soon, two days isn’t enough time! I really needed to start working with you three months ago to really get the best results!!! I could maybe squeeze her in tomorrow, but I only have 45 minutes … shit, what do I do?!
Unless of course, being the hero is killing me, the person needing saved continually needs to be saved, and those unprepared jerks are more than willing to take me down with them…
One — Getting caught up in these people’s messy problems, creating some dependency. You’ve let them dump it all at your feet once, they’ll keep coming back and doing it again if you let them — which makes them dependent and doesn’t do them any good — AT ALL. At the same time, they might not be happy with the results because you never got to set parameters, rules, and manage expectations — no one wins in this scenario. Worst of all, you’ve set a precedent — they’ll expect it again and you’re kinda screwed.
So, naturally, I notice when these little circumstances pop up in my Facebook Universe. People get stuck wanting to swoop in and be the hero, creating chaos, murky boundaries, and killing themselves in the process. What’s a girl to do when these messy situations show up? How can they be handled with grace, humility, and authenticity?!?!
Let’s tackle it together utilising the following work scenario that service based entrepreneurs find themselves in all the time:
Barbarella: Oh Suzy!!! I’m totally swamped and in need — I’m totally lost. I know that we’d talked about it before and I couldn’t take you up on your offer/sign up for the class/get my shit together, but now I NEED you to help me! My deadline/speech/presentation is in two days! Squeeze me in!” Suzy: [Internal Dialogue] Crap! That’s why I wanted you to sign up two weeks ago! I
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We’ve all been there — tons of times. Our need to be of service and help clouds our responses and we end of doing one of two things:
Two – You tell them no and bungle the relationship. Most entrepreneurs expect that once they say, “no, I can’t take that on,” the relationship has ended because you couldn’t be their everything — not true! You’ve shown that you’re strong, set boundaries, and managed expectation — as long as it’s handled properly. How do you avoid both of these extremes while still being authentic, present, and of service — all while keeping your own sanity?
Preparedness, that’s how. Ok and phrasing.
Phrasing your limitations and managing their expectations is paramount to being effective. So, let’s break this down and start with a script.
“Hey Barbarella, I’m sure you’re freaking out, I get it — I want this to be an awesome event too! I’m so glad you turned to me to help you with this and I want to make sure you get my best work! My best work requires two to three months notice. If you need me to squeeze you in I have 30 minutes from 3.45 to 4.15 pm MST on October 5th, it will cost $439, and I need to know by October 4 th at 4 pm to make this work and get you onto my schedule. I’m excited to work with you and know your presentation can be great. I also have more time available after March 1, 2015 to really take you to the next level and knock your socks off! Details for future bookings can be found here. I can’t wait to hear back from you and really knock this out of the park together.” There’s a lot here, so let’s break it down so you know WHY it’s there and then make it your own!
Hey Barbarella, I’m sure you’re freaking out, I get it — I want this to be an awesome event too! {It’s super important you acknowledge
their crisis right off the bat — they need to know you’re in their corner, heard their crisis, and empathize!}
I’m so glad you turned to me to help you with this and I want to make sure you get my best work! {Gratitude goes a long way, you’re also being honest — you want them to have an amazing experience. It will lead to return business, referrals, and good karma.} My best work requires two to three months notice. {DO NOT APOLOGISE FOR YOUR STANDARDS! Clearly state what your ideal work timeline looks like. It’s so easy to soften this because we want to be nice, however, they are in crisis — they need parameters, quick answers, and limits. This is for everyone’s benefit — they know that you can’t give them everything you’ve got — but you can if given proper time.} If you need me to squeeze you in I have 30 minutes from 3.45 to 4.15 pm MST on October 5 th, it will cost $439, and I need to know by October 4 th at 4 pm to make this work and get you onto my schedule. {This is a loaded sentence and it’s all in one sentence for a good reason — give them all the limits and don’t give them a chance to stop and only get a part of it by breaking it up with a period. Always give a little less time than you have, you’ll be hyper focused and they will be too! Give a VERY specific time frame, this helps cut down on the back and forth of trying to wiggle things here and there — take >>>
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premium — you’re bringing your A++ game, they need to as well. Nothing makes people work like money does, so go just outside your comfort level on this one and make it worth your time and stress too! You’re also pushing the price into the middle of the sentence so that it’s not the last thing they read — it’s a psychological thing that works in your favour.}
I’m excited to work with you and know your presentation can be great. {There’s a chance they’ll work without you and you need to honour and recognise that. Give them kudos and encouragement — they’re freaking out and you know the feeling — empathise, don’t sympathise.}
it or leave it. Now they know when you are available, but if they take you up on this at 3.40 on October 5th, you might not be available! You deserve the ability to plan for this and make it worthwhile for everyone, which means you need to know with enough time to get it on your calendar. This is a last minute appointment and extra unexpected cash, don’t belittle that by charging half the rate because it’s half the time! This is valuable and inconvenient and comes at a
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I also have more time available after March 1, 2015 to really take you to the next level and knock your socks off! {Keep the door open for future engagements, they came to you in the first place because they think you can solve their problems. You can, especially when you’re in YOUR ELEMENT and working your own time frame and process. If they say “no” now, that doesn’t mean they won’t look you up after this fiasco is over, they probably won’t want to repeat this little crisis and will be a little more proactive next time. They deserve a chance to work with you and your genius — keep that door open and inviting.} Details for future bookings can be found here. {Show them where that door
is and make it simple. Send them right to your programs/offerings/booking calendar. What would be even better is if you have the perfect offering for them that would have avoided this whole thing in the first place. They’ll take a look in their current state and see, laid out before them on a silver platter, the answer they’re seeking and a chance to never be in the same stuck place again.}
I can’t wait to hear back from you and really knock this out of the park together. {Again, we’re bookending things and making sure that we don’t end with an offer, but that we’re ending with a heartfelt offer of help for either now or in the future. Plus, assuming that they’ll work with you later — when done tactfully — is a great psychological hook and puts you in the column of ‘awesome resource/helper/ saviour’ even if they don’t take you up on it right now. The goal is to be authentic and really root for them — then they will return the favour by rooting for you with referrals and future business.} That’s a lot to digest, but when you’re crafting systems to keep your business running smoothly you’ll thank yourself for putting so much into it early on. Keep this in an easily accessible place — like an email to yourself so that you can copy, paste, change details, and send this out to clients while you’re on
the go. No need to obsess — you’ve worked it out and it’s coming from an authentic place — with everyone’s best interest at heart.
Your authenticity’ will shine through“ and you ll win over those no’s” by creating a framework for your interactions, giving them’ a direct answer while they re in crisis, and allowing them to take ownership. Remember to take a moment the next time someone wants to make their emergency yours and breathe. Sit with it and take a look at this option and see if it fits. Make sure to pass on this easy formula to anyone you think would benefit and tell me how you’ve made it your own!
— See more from Shannon at http://www.ShannonTownsendCoaching. com
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Systems to enable you to operate your
business remotely By Anne Clark http://www.firststepvirtualassistant.com.au
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ESTABLISHING YOUR OWN BUSINESS IS AN EXCITING JOURNEY, AND ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU START TO SEE IT GROW. IT’S SO VITAL TO ENSURE YOUR FOUNDATIONS (SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES) ARE PROPERLY ESTABLISHED SO YOU ARE NOT WASTING YOUR VALUABLE TIME. WITH TODAY’S ENTREPRENEUR’S TRAVELLING AROUND THE WORLD BUT NEEDING TO OPERATE THEIR BUSINESS AS SEAMLESSLY AS POSSIBLE, HERE ARE SOME GREAT PROGRAMMES THAT CAN HELP SAVE TIME AND INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY. >>> Create Magazine 49
Emails. You can use free programs such as Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo to run free email systems. The benefit of these programs is that you can also set up their backend to have emails be sent and received as if they are going to your business domain. So rather than an email being anne.clark@gmail.com, you can have your emails displaying as anne@ firststepvirtualassistant.com.au This in fact can be done through any company you have your emails set up with. Once set up in the backend, you are ready to go.
Diary management. Widely used and recognised is Google Calendar, which is usable from all devices — iPhone, laptops and desktop computers. For those who don’t want to use Google Calendar, all operating systems are linked to a ‘cloud’ system, which means you can synchronize all devices. For example; you can use iCloud for MAC users which synchronizes all your devices diaries so there is no overlapping or conflicts in appointments.
File storage. Being a digital age, we aim to use a little ‘paper’ as possible. We see less of the old filing cabinets and more of the digital storage. Some great programs you can use to store your documents, which have to a certain level a free component are Google Docs and Dropbox. However, for a simple fee of $9.99 US a month you can have Dropbox storage, which holds up to 1TB storage.
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File transfer. At times we may need to transfer files to people that are larger than our email capacity can handle. You can use your Dropbox, by sharing a link, which enables the receiver to download the file, or another program called Large File Transfer, which has a free transfer amount for users. You also get notified when the receiver has downloaded the file.
Project management. There are many programs available to assist you with project management, it all comes down to what is visually appealing to you and what system you find easy to work with. Such programs are Basecamp, TeamWorks, and ASANA, to name a few. ASANA and Basecamp have free components to them, and allow you to invite multiple users for various projects.
Daily task management. If you are looking for programs that enable you to manage your daily ‘to do’ list, then there are programs like ToDoList.com or Wunderlist.com. These programs email you daily reminders, allow you to set up categories and mark off when tasks are done.
Communication. Needing to speak to client face to face, but you’re on the other side of the world? Skype is one answer, and for Apple users you also have Face Time.
Creating images. If you can’t afford at this point in time the expense of a graphic designer to do your images. Available to you for free is Canva and PicMonkey. Both are free and have templates for you to use in creating your masterpieces.
Newsletters. To communicate with your audience regularly, you can use programs such as MailChimp, Constant Contact, Aweber or Infusionsoft. All these programs enable you to track when emails are opened, what percentage are being opened, and what links people are clicking. You can also set up your autoresponders for sign ups.
Contract signing. No longer do we have to post contracts for review and signing. Or even print them out for signing and then scanning them back to the originator. You can use programs like Adobe Echosign or Hello Sign, which allows electronic signing of documents, tracks where documents are at in the signing process and when all parties have signed a copy it is sent to everyone for their records.
Accounting. Using online payment systems sees clients paying faster and enables you to easily track your invoices. Some great programs for these are Xero or Freshbooks.
Brainstorming. Need to map out ideas, without using lots of paper? Check out a great program Mind Meister, which is a brain-mapping.
Coaching streamlining. The last thing you want to do as a coach is spend your valuable time sending client contracts, waiting for signatures and then invoicing. Satori or Acuilty, are all in one programs that are perfect for a coach. You can set either up to streamline your coaching packages, link it to your diary, automatically have questionnaires emailed out and monitor payments.
Social media. Social media is a great way to keep in frequent contact with your audience. However, social media can be very time consuming. Scheduling a set time a week to create your content and using programs such as Hootsuite, PostPlanner and MeetEdgar allow you to preschedule your post to go live on certain days, and allows you to schedule them to multiple social media platforms, eg: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. For those looking for programs for Instagram, there is Latergramme currently available. The best thing about worldwide web is that new programs are being developed every day, and all programs offer a trial period, so don’t be afraid to try them out. — See more from Anne at http://www.firststepvirtualassistant.com.au
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“LEND YOURSELF TO OTHERS, BUT GIVE YOURSELF TO YOURSELF.” — MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
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10 easy ways to
takeyourself care of when you’re super busy By Sami Blackford http://www.love-yourself-naturally.com
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IF YOU’RE NOT TAKING CARE OF YOU THEN ALL ELSE IS WORTHLESS ...
We all have times in our lives when taking care of ourselves takes a back seat. There are always deadlines, exams, due dates, children to help with their homework, friends to help through their crises, school concerts to attend, charity work to do ... just too many priorities to juggle. And when everything is going wrong, the world is screaming for your attention and you just don’t have time, it’s difficult to remember about little “THE WAY ol’ you.
YOU TREAT YOURSELF SETS THE STANDARD FOR OTHERS.” — SONYA FRIEDMAN
Here are a few gentle ways you can take care of yourself when you are pressed for time and attention ...
Ask for help. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, and you will quickly learn that most people around you actually love to be asked! It makes them feel useful and important. What usually helps the most is to get help to do the normal things; cooking, shopping and regular every-day tasks. However, don’t underestimate how important the people in your life can be when it comes to feedback, motivation and supporting your self-confidence regarding the important work you’re doing.
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Get enough sleep. An oldie, but a goodie. This old advice is not only essential when it comes to selfcare, it is also absolutely essential when it comes to being able to do your best. Particularly important when it comes to exam periods and work stress, sleep will help you achieve. It’s easy to think that a few extra hours of work will do you more good, but it won’t. Sleep will.
Eat healthy and green food. I know it’s tempting to just order pizza (I mean, who has the energy to cook?!), but it really pays off to take your time to cook and eat nutritious and healthy food. Not only will it help you achieve better, it will also boost your mood.
Take five minutes in the morning to just stretch and breathe. I know it’s easy to jump out of bed with all your tasks for the day whirling around your head, but if you start your day in a stressful way, you’ll probably stay stressed for the rest of the day as well. Make sure your morning starts with five minutes of silence and ease. Stand up and stretch your body to make you as tall as you can be. Then bend over and touch the ground. Stretch again. Try to just feel your body and pay attention to your breath. Starting the day in
a way like this will make you more relaxed as well! You could think about taking a yoga class, or do some yoga at home. Even 10 minutes of savasana is better than nothing, and will recharge your batteries (and your mind).
Surround yourself with inspiration. Put up some of your favourite photos, images and quotes, where you can see them when you work. Whenever you get unfocused, you will feel much better if you can rest your eyes on something pretty, rather than everything that reminds you of how busy you are. If you can’t put up photos at work or in a study hall, bring a scrapbook or use Pinterest on your computer.
Wear your pretty clothes. Be busy with style! If you dress nicely, chances are you’ll feel better too. All it takes is five minutes in the morning, and with your most powerful, wonderful and pretty clothes on, you’ll feel like a million dollars for the rest of the day.
Use scented oils in the bath. Lavender to relax, peppermint to wake you up, or citrus scents to boost your mood. Plus, nothing helps you relax like a nice hot bath. Turn on some music, turn off the light, light some candles and you’re good to
go. An hour in the bath in the evening may be the best way to relax because of this simple fact — you can’t take your computer with you.
Get more sunlight. Especially if your busy period is during winter, for an instant mood-boost, make sure you get your daily dose of sunlight if you’re spending a lot of time in gloomy offices and workplaces.
Be silly. Don’t forget to have fun! Who said you can’t laugh, even though you’re busy? Make jokes, engage with your co-workers, read comics and just allow yourself to be silly for a little while. I promise it will boost your mood, your co-workers’ moods and a little laughter every day will help you through a really challenging time. And most importantly...
Compliment yourself. Positive self-talk can seriously impact your mood. Instead of adding to the monkeybrain thoughts of “not good enough”, tell yourself you look good, you’re perfect just the way you are, that you’re doing great and that you can manage everything that comes your way. — See more from Sami at http://www.love-yourself-naturally.com
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The depth of your
being
By Sarah Liddle http://www.icwcschool.com
CREATION AND EXPANSION CAN ONLY HAPPEN IN THE CENTRE OF THE NOW THROUGH THE LIGHT CONSCIOUSNESS OF YOUR BEING. Your fulfilment and joy can only happen when you give up trying to control and structure everything to fit into the little box that you have created for your life. If you look at your life always in this certain way then you will always get it reflected back to you as that certain way.Your experience will always be whatever you perceive it to be; It cannot be anything other. How do you see your life right now? Is everything smooth sailing, or have you hit some waves in the sea? Maybe you are parked up at dock choosing not explore the great uncharted waters that lie deep within the sea’s distance? You have complete control of your life, you can choose to sit at port and wait idly for seeing the great seas and exploring the depths of the ocean, or you can choose to set sail to see really what is lying out here in the deep blue ocean. 56 Create Magazine
You are in control 100% of the time. This is why you are the creator of your own life and your own destiny. This is why you are God. Because even though you have labelled an experience as bad or termed it as disheartening does not mean that you should rest at port. You can set sail if you choose once gain. You do not need to label any experience as bad. As long as you have learned something from it, it has taught you something. There for it is your teacher and you have grown from it so it was acting in perfect synchronicity of your growth and evolution You caused the outside world to react the way it reacted.
The universe will always, always, always give back to you your own power.
Maybe situations have happened outside of you in your world that you cannot control, that you were not happy with but they happened anyway. Maybe someone pissed you off, someone close to you passed away, or you were tired or laid off at work. But realise this that whatever happened to you happened because you chose it through your thoughts, emotions, resonance, beliefs, values, perspective, and energy level you were oscillating at at the time. You allowed it to happen and unfold the way that it did because you were being of that resonance yourself.
Everything happens for a reason, there are no mistakes, absolutely none. What could appear as a horrible misfortune or bad event in your life could turn out to be the very best thing that you have ever possibly of happened to you. It may be the very thing that you need at this time to give you the very spiritual lesson that it gave you, in order to grow and move on the path the way that you did. The universe does not want to take the spontaneity out of the living and the being of you. This is why it does not tell you what it wants you to know until after the event has happened. The spontaneity is still there when the lesson is not yet learnt, but only through reflection and contemplation can you see the perfect synchronicity of each continuous event in your life. The universe does not make mistakes, only we make mistakes when we fail to realise that we have created every single event and situation in our life. There are no expectations to this. You designed your life; your universe can only reflect back to you your design. Therefore, as you go about your day slowly raising your awareness and designing your life to suite you, shift your consciousness to become the primary designer of your life. There is never a better place than where you are now. Right now is the best place you can be and how things in your life are choosing to unfold is up to you. Being present and allowing them to unfold is your number one
priority. The destination should not even be in your mind. It is secondary; it is the thing that happens from the thing that happens. This is your inner most imperative relationship; this is your relationship with this very moment. You do not have a relationship with your achievements; you have a relationship with this moment, the now. This moment is all we truly have. Everything else is questionable. Go into this moment deeper through becoming fully centred in between form and non-form in the space of stillness. When people start to see your changes, as they will, stand tall within yourself and reflect to them everything that they can be. Allow others to see what they are not, in order to learn and grow from you. The vibration field of awareness becomes the most important relationship that the two of you have — it is your higher purpose, for both of your interactions. You are now helping, co-creating, changing and transforming within another. Think of the impact that this would have in their life. It really does not matter what you do for this person. That is irrelevant. What matters is that they have helped you shift their consciousness and shape their evolution. What matters is — you are fulfilling your evolution just by being the light to this world. This light can only shine through when you are not in ego but spirit — Neither in form, nor non-form, but in the depth of the dimension in between. The quality purpose and power that will manifest through you into the now will transform who and what you are. By transforming yourself, you are allowing the light to flow through you into this world. You are allowing the light to shine through the universe. You are allowing others to see their light by showing them your light.
Ultimately, you are changing the world. — See more from Sarah at http://www.icwcschool.com Create Magazine 57
“SITTING IS MORE DANGEROUS THAN SMOKING, KILLS MORE PEOPLE THAN HIV AND IS MORE TREACHEROUS THAN PARACHUTING. WE ARE SITTING OURSELVES TO DEATH”. — DR. JAMES A. LEVINE
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2015: The year of sitting less, standing more and moving more! By Lorraine Barwick http://www.standuphealth.com
Not surprisingly, the story of my own behavior change in this area and an interest in educating others to sit less and stand more started right from my very chair. Early this year I was inspired to start my own lifestyle business after buying a laptop and enrolling in Marie Forleo’s B-School. For the first time I had an online audience, but it came at the high cost of more screen-time and hours parked in my chair. Ironic, considering I am a health
professional, an Exercise Physiologist to be exact! Luckily in my research I came across the term ‘sitting disease’, coined by Dr. Levine, the co-director of the U.S based Mayo Clinic and the Arizona State University Obesity Initiative, author of the book Get Up!: Why Your Chair Is Killing You and What You Can Do About It and inventor of the treadmill desk. >>>
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The simple solution, according to Dr. Levine is to stand up! So that’s what I started to do. I started to think like a stand-up person, whose default position is standing, not sitting. But you may need a little convincing to change your ways. Let’s start with the obvious.
It’s obvious that… We’re designed to move throughout our day. Not be crammed into a chair, a very unnatural posture that’s bad for your back, your wrists, your arms, and your metabolism.
It’s obvious that… We’re supposed to rest from time to time. But really that rest should break up the activity. So could we start to think and act in the reverse, that we rest to recover from being on our feet all day? Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong! Because if it were so simple, then we would all be stand-up people like the people living in natural agricultural villages who naturally move all day and only sit for three hours a day.
The alternative. A sit down or sedentary person. These people are at high risk of chronic illness, disability and an early grave. If you’re not already doing so, this is your cue to stand up!
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There are now in excess of 10,000 published scientific studies to back this up.
A good example came from Australian researchers tracking 8,800 men and women (average age 53) for about six years. They found that for every hour of daily TV viewing, risk for death due to cardiovascular disease increased by 18%. For those who watched TV four or more hours daily, risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was 80% higher than for those who reported watching fewer than two hours daily. As a health professional, the dangers of an overly sedentary lifestyle were quite clear to me. I studied the effects; I see the effects it has on people. Many of my heart patients live this type of lifestyle. The funny thing is that a lot of them would blame their heart disease on their hand-me-down genes. We all like to blame something or someone. But regardless, we all need to stand up for our health, because really, no one else will.
80% of early deaths from cardiovascular disease (C VD) are preventable by addressing risk factors, such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity. That being said, I firmly believe that you can have a strong enough dietary and lifestyle regime to upgrade your genetic expression and prevent and/or reverse disease. But it’s not entirely the person’s fault. Our environment can impact and increase these CVD risk factors. Most of us do not have control over what we do for our jobs or what we do in our evenings or in our off time. We may think we have control, but that actually isn’t true either. Kids can take up our spare time as well as other obligations that pop
up, right? We think we have spare time, but often we don’t. The key here is to work around those constraints to find ways that you can get up to more that’s fitting for whatever you do as an individual, in the most practical, easy to implement way possible. As soon as you can start identifying your constraints and implement some changes, you will start improving your health.
Get up every 20 minutes for at least two minutes. During the break time move around your office or home by walking and/or stretching.
60 to 90 seconds.
Buy a sit/stand desk or DIY by placing your computer on an elevated surface, such as a shelf or stand. Working in the standing position, makes you shift your body weight between your feet, so you’re not actually standing still. You’re also more likely to move around when you’re standing than sitting.
That’s the time it takes the cellular mechanisms responsible for handling your blood sugar, cholesterol, and blood pressure to be activated. Stay crammed into your chair for too long and these cellular mechanisms get switched off.
Take your phone calls standing up. If you’re on a cordless phone or mobile, see it as an opportunity to move around. You’re more likely to give the person on the other end your full attention and not get distracted by what’s on your computer screen.
So can I challenge you to partner with me and be a stand up person in 2015? What that means is that you will sit less, stand more and move more. A stand up person engages in simple, lowintensity movement throughout the day. This is referred to as non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) and is the term that is used for the energy that is expended (calories burned) doing everyday activities. My goal for 2015 for when I return to work which was about 50:50 stand up, move around and sitting work, is to minimise the 50% of sitting work to as little as possible.
Here’s a list of NEAT things you can do along with me during your day. Ditch your chair and if you must sit, sit on a stability ball. It engages more muscles (especially those in your abdomen and back) than sitting in a regular chair. Strong abdominal muscles help fight back pain and enhance stability and balance.
Turn your meetings into walk and talk meetings. This works best for smaller groups and for meetings when you don’t need to take notes. Otherwise, incorporate a move and stretch break in every meeting’s agenda. Include some walking on your commute to work. Commuter’s by public transport should try getting off a stop of two earlier and walk the rest of the way. If you’re driving, park further away. Walk for part of your lunch break. Keep a pair of joggers at work and even a change of clothes if you’re going to start brisk walking. Otherwise, a casual walk around the perimeter of your site is better than none. So the question is, are you ready to get rid of your chair, reset your default from sitting to standing so that you become a stand up person in 2015? I encourage you to at least start thinking about how you can get more physical movement into your life, each and every hour of your waking day. — See more from Lorraine at http://www.standuphealth.com Create Magazine 61
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The 12 minute workout
only twice a week! By Lynnie Wennerstrom http://www.crazyawesomehealthyyou.com
DREADING THE DAY YOU MADE THE COMMITMENT TO FINALLY START EXERCISING? NOW YOU DON’T HAVE TO — HERE IS THE SIMPLE 12 MINUTE SOLUTION ... >>> Create Magazine 63
It’s time to talk about exercise again. Don’t squirm, I’ll be gentle. Now, we can start this conversation off by playing word games, and I can call the act of exercise by another term to make you feel better about it if you’d like. Words like; working out, getting fit, physical fitness, toning, killing ourselves for an hour every day, but the truth is plain and simple — it’s E.x.e.r.c.i.s.e., with a capital E. It’s not my favourite way to start a conversation because exercise is not everybody’s favourite thing to do, or favourite topic of conversation (especially for the guilt ridden). But I have to because 1) it’s really important to your health, 2) commitment days come and go for far too many people and 3) I am a very enthusiastic Health Motivator. Next to not hydrating, eating correctly and getting enough restful sleep, exercise is one of the most overlooked components of having and maintaining a healthy body. And it doesn’t have to be that way. Many people perceive exercise to be time consuming, no fun, and for some, even painful. Others feel that it is just, “one more thing” they have to do, or worse, to feel guilty about when they can’t seem to make the time. I find that many people really get motivated one day, but then don’t really commit, even with the best of intentions.
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When life gets in the way, they just never get around to it again after the first day, or the event they were motivated to look good for — has passed (i.e. wedding, class reunion, bathing suit vacation, etc.). It’s typically one of the first things to be pushed aside until “tomorrow”, which of course, never seems to come. Exercise seems to imply, well … to be perfectly frank, personal hardship — but what if I told you that moving your body could be easy, and could also be fun. And that you could derive amazing health benefits in just minutes a day? Even better, what if I told you about a quick and simple exercise strategy for the person who thinks they dislike exercise, abhors going to the gym, or has limited time and wants to maximise it? Would you be interested?
Well, hold on to your fancy pants, unused new cycling shoes,— or weightlifting gloves because that is exactly what I am going to tell you. Burst or High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is your solution. If you haven’t yet heard of
HIIT, you’re in for a pleasant surprise, a bit of fun, a major hit of lasting energy. HIIT training is exercising at moderate intensity intervals alternated with short high intensity intervals. HIIT can be applied to almost any exercise which allows you to go “full out” for a short burst. The idea is that you work up to six to eight rounds of this interval training. I’ll explain exactly how in a minute but first let me share that this way of training beats a boring hour on a treadmill or elliptical machine for an hour, hands down. HIIT has been shown to be much more effective than the typical hour long cardio session because the short bursts of intensity are higher, resulting in the ability to increase both your aerobic and anaerobic threshold (a very good thing) and burn up to 50% more fat!* Amazing isn’t it?!! And that’s not even the coolest part. You also raise your metabolism and keep burning fat for hours afterwards, just as if you had just done an hour of intense heart pumping exercise. Now that’s cool! I have to give this way of training an even higher mark in the plus column because it helps ensure you don’t over train, which would create unhealthy stress and inflammation in your body. Going this route, you’re also less prone to injury or to tweak
something. This form of quick and easy training can be implemented for almost any exercise that will raise your heart rate, including exercises such as heavy squats. This is due to the sheer exertion of the movement when you’ve piled on enough weight, which in turn, raises your heart rate. Now hold your horses you weekend warrior! I know you’re excited but before you grab your hoola hoop to gyrate like a crazy exercise freak for a couple of seconds, let me explain how you do this HIIT training thing, so you can derive the full benefit.
How to perform HIIT It’s really pretty simple; you choose an exercise, warm up for a few minutes and then go full out very high intensity (like a cheetah running from a mama rhino protecting her baby) for 30 seconds, then slow down to moderate intensity for 90 seconds. You then repeat the sequence of the 30 high intensity / 90 moderate intensity for several rounds, with the goal of building toward being able to do this two-step interval training six to eight times in a session. Then a two to three minute cool down at the end. You only practice HIIT every other day (or every two days) so that your >>>
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body and muscles have the time necessary to repair themselves. (I know — aww shucks!) After a few weeks of this, you’re going to love me because you won’t believe the difference this can make to your body, attitude and energy levels. So that’s it — you’re done! Now if you’re already physically active, want more intensity or you want to speed up your workout time even more, and still get the same amazing benefits, here’s another variation. Do your short burst of intense exercise for 30 seconds and moderate intensity for 60 seconds for round one, round two you go 40 seconds at high intensity with 60 second moderate intensity, round three is 50 seconds with 60 second moderate intensity, and then do the sequence backwards (50/60, 40/60, 30/60). Work up to the ability to complete six to nine rounds. I mentioned you can do HIIT training with almost any exercise. It’s also very easy to do almost anywhere, even when you are away from home travelling or on vacation. I like HIIT training on my mini trampoline (rebounder). I bounce to warm up, then squat wide and low, running as fast as I can with quick feet for the high intensity part, and then bounce for the moderate. This is my favourite because I’m not only building strong cells and muscles, but the up and downwards movement moves the garbage collector of our body, the lymph system, and I’m detoxifying at the same time. And, it’s FUN! This is an exercise astronauts practice, before and after they journey into space, for building strong cells in spite of that low gravity thing. But you can also: Jump rope, sprint (take your stop watch and go anywhere), swim, dance, get on a machine in the gym where you can control the speeds quickly, plus so many more and yes, even includes the hoola hoop swing. Truly, you can do this exercise anywhere and
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anytime you have 12 minutes or so. If you have worked up to eight rounds, the total time spent on the high intensity portion of the exercise is still only four minutes, while the moderate exercise recovery period totals only eight minutes. Of course you still have the warm up and cool down part but that just doesn’t require much effort. And the benefits you’ll receive are massive! So you can do this! Combine HIIT with a bit of strength training, which will help build your bones, while also strengthening and toning your muscles; pushups, use stretchy bands, lift cans of food or purchase an inexpensive set of hand weights. Do strength training on opposite days of HIIT. So for example, Monday and Thursday you would do your HIIT. On Wednesday and Saturday you would strength train for 15 to 20 minutes, some light exercise Tuesday and Friday, and rest on Sunday. Search YouTube for “easy at-home strength training exercises” and you’ll be all fixed up, as there are thousands of examples available. To wrap this now “easy to discuss” topic of conversation up, exercise can be welcomed back into your heart and body again, with open arms and a willing spirit. It doesn’t have to be painful, you don’t have to sweat like a dog (although you probably will!), it doesn’t require a gym or much of your precious time and, it can be fun! The benefits are massive, far and away exceed the pain and you’ll feel energised and amazing.
Your “tomorrow” to start exercising is quickly and easily started… today! — See more from Lynnie at http://www.crazyawesomehealthyyou.com References: *Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, [http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/abs/10.1139/H08-097?url_ ver=Z39.88-2003&rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&rfr_dat=cr_ pub%3Dpubmed&#.VI0hdGd0yM8]
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Is your workplace sabotaging
your waistline?
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By Hayley Cavicchiolo http://www.nourisedhabits.com
MOST OF US HAVE TO WORK, AND WITH IT COMES THE STRESS OF APPOINTMENTS, LONG DAYS GLUED TO YOUR COMPUTER, AND THE ENDLESS SUPPLY OF HOMEBAKED TREATS COURTESY OF YOUR CO-WORKERS (IF YOU WORK IN AN OFFICE). CHANCES ARE, YOUR ATTEMPTS AT MAINTAINING A HEALTHY WEIGHT ON THE JOB MAY BE, WELL, RATHER SLIM. >>>
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I KNOW YOU ARE BUSY, BUT TAKE A MOMENT TO THINK ABOUT HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE YOU MADE, OR AT LEAST CONSIDERED MAKING, A DETERMINED EFFORT TO GET YOUR HEALTH IN CHECK? What you choose to feed your body can have an enormous impact on how you feel, think and move whilst at work and more critically, hours after you’ve actually left the office. And let’s face it, unfortunately when you’re superbusy with work, your diet and fitness tend to derail! Not all of us can manage a complete diet overhaul but by adding some simple dietary tweaks to your daily workplace routine, you can help prevent fat-storing blood sugar and cortisol spikes, and put into play mechanisms that help the body effortlessly burn more calories and fat — to help you on your way to shedding that office jelly-belly once and for all!
Prioritise breakfast. Breakfast literally means breaking your body’s overnight fast and for this reason, is typically considered to be the most important meal of the day — promoting several health benefits including improved concentration and increased energy. Eating a healthy, nutrient dense breakfast also assists with weight management by helping to avert ravenous cravings and therefore making the wrong food choices, prior to lunch. In addition, eating breakfast kickstarts your metabolism, which can further promote weight loss.
Pack your lunch. If you, like many, tend to fall victim to eating out Mondays to Fridays, make a conscious effort to cut back and designate a few days during the week where you bring your lunch instead. By doing this you can better control what you’re eating and ensure that you are balancing takeaway options with healthier, homemade meals. And if you get takeaway, choose wisely.
Here are some tips on how to get You can say no to cake. started:
Every now and again your afternoon will be
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interrupted for a celebratory cake. There is absolutely no need to feel pressured into indulging every time, and it’s okay to politely refuse, especially if you’ve let people know that you’re on a mission to get your health in check. Perhaps you could suggest having some healthy snack options available too? Remember though, that life is to be enjoyed and that the occasional indulgence in fine; so when your birthday rolls around, put in a request for your favourite cake and enjoy a piece. Yes, just one piece.
Keep snacks out of reach. Make sure you place your snacks in the communal office fridge or pantry, rather than having them sitting on your desk as a temptation to reach for absent mindedly whilst you are focused on your work. By the same token, try to avoid eating your lunch at your desk whilst you work. Instead, take time out to give yourself a mental break and enjoy your lunch in the park or in the company of friends / colleagues.
Keep hydrated. Not only does it quench your thirst but water assists with regulating your body temperature, keeps your skin moisturised,
and helps your body flush out waste. Most people don’t drink enough at work, resulting in dehydration which can lead to fatigue, trouble concentrating and mindless snacking. Caffeine-containing drinks such as coffee and tea can increase your alertness and ability to concentrate, however in larger quantities and in those with sensitivities, it can cause headaches, irritability, and anxiety. Keep a large bottle of water by your desk and keep refilling it throughout the day.
Get moving. Although your company may limit the number of breaks you can take during the course of a work day, there are numerous ways that you can optimise and make healthy use of that time. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, park your car further from the building entrance or hop off the tram or bus a stop or two early. Another great idea is to keep a pair of comfortable walking shoes by your desk and partner up with a colleague to go for a brisk walk during your lunch break and make more of an effort to get up and walk over to talk to your coworkers rather than emailing them when they are sitting close by. — See more from Hayley at http://www.nourishedhabits.com
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Make your own ALL NATURAL bronzer recipe
By April Holman http://www.foragedfields.com
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YOU SHOULD KNOW BY NOW THAT THE STUFF YOU BUY AT DEPARTMENT STORES IS FILLED WITH NASTY CHEMICALS THAT SINK INTO YOUR SKIN, CIRCULATE THROUGHOUT YOUR BODY AND POISON YOUR MIND, MAKING YOUR BRAIN TURN TO MUSH AND FILL WITH CANCER GLOBULES.
Okay, okay, that might have been an embellishment but honestly, we don’t really know if that is true or not. Many people are starting to actually study what those tiny particles do to us and let’s just say its not pretty. So make your own shit, yo! There are a tons of great ingredients all around your house that can help you look beautiful; you just have to learn what they are. To make your own bronzer you will need a bowl, a spoon, and an old makeup container or Tupperware, or a cute glass container.
Ingredients: Arrowroot Starch Cocoa Powder Cinnamon Nutmeg (Organic would be great but I won’t get too picky, I’m pumped you are going to try and make this!) Take a spoonful of arrowroot starch at a time and add it to the mixing bowl. Add in dashes of cocoa, cinnamon and nutmeg until you are happy with the shade. Test it out and see what works best for your skin tone. We are all different! This recipe is not exact but that is the beauty of life. You can find arrowroot starch at your local Indian/Asian food store (or your normal local ugly supermarket, but support someone else for god’s sake) and there will be all sorts of other fun items that you never have seen before. You can even forgo the arrowroot starch and use cornstarch if you
don’t want to get any. (Heck, if you are really awesome, you will find some cattails and boil their underground parts and sift/dry out the starch and use that.) Spoon it into containers to use forever or give as gifts to your friends.
Great additions to this recipe include: Rhassoul clay Bentonite clay These two clays help this recipe feel like feathers on your skin and will make it healthier. They may not be laying around your house but if you happen to want to purchase them, come across them or find an alternative next to the river near your house; by all means, go for it! You can use them instead of arrowroot starch as well if you have a dark skin tone. Just make sure they are a fine fine fine fine powder. You can eat this recipe it is so natural. It might be awful and terribly dry out your mouth, but you can do it. Bentonite clay is known for its detox properties so you may even pull out some mercury from all that tuna fish you eat. If you try it though, make sure your friends film it. How did this recipe work for you? Do you like the feel of it? Will you ever buy fifteen dollar chemical bronzer again?
— See more from April at
http://www.foragedfields.com Create Magazine 73
Are you feeling inspired after reading this magazine? Here is a f nal note for you ... i
Get out there and beat procrastination
HERE IS A SIMPLE AND POWERFUL POETIC MEDITATION INSPIRED BY STEVEN PRESSFIELD’S, THE WAR OF ART. READ IT ALOUD BEFORE YOU START ANY WORK FOR THE NEXT NINE DAYS. YOU ARE BOUND TO MAKE BREAK-THROUGH PROGRESS. By Henna Datta http://hennadatta.com
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The Enemy Within Your true enemy is not outside It’s within Hiding Crouching Waiting To crush your dream saplings Keeping you from achievement accomplishment success Whispering in your mind the cant’s the shouldnt’s the impossibles the not good enoughs Pretending wolf has you convinced of his good will You’re sure he’s a wise friend counselling caution to protect you by becoming the voice of all your past failures
How do you overcome this cunning chameleon? Awareness is the magic potion Resistance is his true name Watch the self saboteur Watch closely his Momus face DO NOT buy the excuses hear the justifications heed his apocalyptic prophesies Hold this mantra like steel within Let it seep cell deep The surefire way to definitely fail is to never begin Go NOW Begin!
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Thank you For reading issue #2 of Create Magazine.
I would love your feedback. Contact me at: Email: teresa@alluringdesigns.com.au Web: http://www.alluringdesigns.com.au Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/alluringdesigns 76 Create Magazine