Exceptional People Magazine January-February 2021

January/February 2021

Moving From Invisible to Influential — and Profitable with Podcasting 11 Ways to Change Your Life in 30 Days

DR. DAVID STEENBLOCK

Become Your Family CEO

GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH PHYSICIAN AND LEADING STEM CELL EXPERT

Founder and Publisher Editor-in-Chief Monica Davis Writers & Editors Jon Crump Marla Gem Suzanne Harris Company Writers & Contributors Donna Carletta Kathy Kentty Pat Markel Other Contributors Andrew Horton Greg Williams Jack Canfield Annemarie Cross Art and Graphics Designer Jenette Antonio Sityar Exceptional People Magazine is published bi-monthly by Atela Productions, Inc. The opinions of the contributors are not necessarily those of Atela Productions, Inc. Exceptional People Magazine is a copyright of Atela Productions, Inc. The contents of this publication may not be printed, copied or distributed without the express written consent of the Publisher.

Copyright © 2020 All rights reserved.

For advertising information please contact. The advertising department at 703-273-2035.

Contact us: Atela Productions, Inc., 2961-A Hunter Mill Rd., PMB 624, Oakton, VA 22124-1704 www.exceptionalmag.com

P R O D U C T I O N S , INC.

LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER Dear Friend: Welcome to the January/February 2021 issue of Exceptional People Magazine.

In the past few weeks, I hope you’ve taken some time to deeply reflect on the past year, and not just on all the challenges, but the new ideas, the new relationships, and new opportunities that resulted or will soon come about because of those challenges.

No matter how much adversity we face, there are always things we can be thankful for, so don’t let COVID-19 alter your perspective of who you can be and what you can achieve in 2021.

Always seek to find the good in every challenge you encounter.

Exceptional People Magazine is not just a magazine. It’s about promoting goodwill, unity, and better living. It’s about living life to its fullest, turning setbacks into victories, being the best “you” you can be, having the faith to continue when you can’t see your way through, and using your blessings, no matter how small or significant, to uplift others.

All of us at Exceptional People Magazine wish you a New Year filled with many blessings.

Thank you. We welcome your comments.

Monica Davis

CONTENTS EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

05

DR. DAVID STEENBLOCK Groundbreaking Research Physician and Leading Stem Cell Expert

MINDING MY BUSINESS

14

ANNEMARIE CROSS Moving From Invisible to Influential — and Profitable with Podcasting

22

8 Free and Effective Ways to Market Your Business Online

24

8 Key Steps to Building Your Personal Brand

27

ROSALIND SEDACCA Marketing Yourself: Why It’s Not About You

34

Corporate Experience Can Positively Impact Business Owners

35

Collaboration and Cooperation: The Keys to Business Success in Today’sWorld

38

Create Milestones that Inspire Action

40

Your Business Credit Score Means a Lot

Each of us has a gift that lies within us. Unwrap it and share it with others.

Phenomenal Women’s Virtual RoundTable A SUCCESSFUL WOMAN SHOULDN’T HAVE TO WALK ALONE. When you join the Phenomenal Women’s RoundTable, you’re getting more than a discussion group—you’re getting your own personal board of directors.

Led by executive coach, trainer, and mentor Judy Hoberman, this is a community of strong, like-minded professional women who have been there and done that . . . and want to see YOU succeed.

Over the course of 6 months, you’ll have access to: Bi-monthly confidential sessions with your “board of directors” 2 x 45-minute Executive Coaching sessions with Judy Accountability and connection within a small, private group A wealth of resources, including tactics to ignite your leadership strategies, an engaging network, and a problem solving “think tank” Get the support you deserve, from professional women who understand where you’ve been and where you want to go.

Because women want to be treated equally,

NOT IDENTICALLY. ™

To learn more or join the next RoundTable: sellinginaskirt.com/roundtable

judy@sellinginaskirt.com

203.605.3635

DR. DAVID STEENBLOCK

GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH PHYSICIAN AND LEADING STEM CELL EXPERT

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

W

hen David Steenblock was six and growing up on his family’s Iowa farm, one of their horses dropped dead for no apparent reason. Fascinated at the autopsy, he knew immediately that practicing medicine was in his future.

The bright young man pondered life and death throughout his schooling, all while taking more classes than any student in the school’s history — and working as a hired farm hand before and after classes. He still remembers a sign on the wall of his 8th grade teacher’s classroom that said, ‘If you want to leave your footprint in the sands of time, you’d better wear work boots.”

Steenblock put those boots on and headed to Iowa State University for his BS and MS in biochemistry, and on to Des Moines University for his medical degree.

Even then, Steenblock knew he wanted to practice medicine with a more holistic approach than traditional MDs, so he put in the additional hours of hands-on technique training to earn a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) instead.

His internships included 12 years as an emergency room physician, four years in anatomic and clinical pathology at Case Western Reserve University and University of Oregon, and one year of solo practice in a rural Washington State logging town.

In 1978, Steenblock was named Director of Pathology at Nutrabar Laboratories in Palo Alto, California. He also opened First Wholistic Medical Clinic in Lake Forest that year, specializing in the holistic treatment of stroke and other patients. And he served as president, CEO and Research Physician at Brain Therapeutics Medical Clinic for twenty years.

When stem cell therapy came along twenty-some years ago, it was a perfect match for Steenblock’s individualized holistic approach. Almost immediately, the seasoned doctor began using stem cells in his therapies, particularly for children with cerebral palsy. He wrote Umbilical Cord Stem Cell Therapy in 2006.

Since then, this stem cell pioneer has earned worldrenowned success using stem cell therapies to treat neurological conditions like ALS, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, Cerebral Palsy, cardiovascular conditions like heart disease, coronary artery disease, and

6

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

stroke, COPD, osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease, muscle strains and joint injuries.

Today, Steenblock stands out as a beacon of medical innovation in a field largely dominated by more conventional symptom-focused methods. So far, he has performed over 3,000 bone marrow transplants and over 7,000 stem cell treatments.

Since 2015, Steenblock has been heading up Personalized Regenerative Medicine, located in San Clemente, California.

Even though he serves as President, CEO, Chief Scientist and Research Physician, Steenblock sits one-on-one with each patient. He then “matches” each individual’s disease and deficiencies to the treatment combinations most likely to affect healing and restoration. His methods are working, to say the least. His commitment to innovation has resulted in successful outcomes that elude most other doctors, and his patient testimonials are truly inspiring.

We had the privilege to speak with the perpetually groundbreaking Dr. Steenblock recently. His energy and enthusiasm for helping his patients and for continually driving progress in medical science made our interview with him particularly enjoyable.

Monica: Talk briefly about what your life was like growing up.

Dr. Steenblock: I’m the oldest boy in a family of five children. We were raised on the farm. But my dad decided that since I was smart and capable, I could be his right-hand man. I became his buddy work foreman kind of guy. So, he gave me the job of making everybody else work, which did not make me popular with my brothers and sisters.

So, even 50 years later, my one brother still talks about that.

He goes on about how I was such a tyrant when I was a kid.

When you learn how to work as a kid on a farm, it becomes part of your life. And then, of course, I was curious about all kinds of things, and I loved to read.

Monica: So how did you go from the farm to helping people in the way you are right now?

Dr. Steenblock: I was interested in life and death. You see a lot of death on the farm. I was also curious about how things worked. And I still am.

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

I was running around and exploring the world. Dad didn’t have anybody to hang around except for me.

We were transitioning from horses over to tractors.

At the time, we had horses and tractors. That was from 1947 to 1950. Then one of the horses just dropped dead. It was a hundred times bigger than me. I was a tiny kid.

The veterinarian decided he would do an autopsy. I insisted that I get to watch the autopsy. I asked him if I could watch, and he said sure.

My mother said, no, it’ll ruin you for life, and she was right.

It ruined me for life because I continued to be puzzled over the whole thing forever after that. I spent four years doing autopsies when I finally got through school.

At that time, I don’t know, but for some reason, I thought that being a neurosurgeon would be the ultimate in terms of being a doctor because you got to peer into the brain of somebody. That was when I was between five and seven years old. As I went through school and got to my internship, I got to work in neurosurgery and deal with the patients and work with the doctors.

I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do in terms of a specialty. I changed my mind at that point because I asked the neurosurgeon I was working with, “What do you think about your profession as a neurosurgeon?” He said, “Well, it’s great. If you don’t mind half of your patients dying.” I said, “Wait a second.” I’m a compassionate person, and I get bent out of shape when somebody I’m taking care of dies. I feel it’s my responsibility.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

7

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

I was not about to spend my life feeling bad because another patient died, and then another patient died every day. So, I decided to quit and look into something else. I gravitated towards trying to understand what makes the human body work and how it doesn’t work.

I had my master’s degree in biochemistry. Then I went on to four years studying pathology, doing autopsies, and exploring the microscopic things.

Monica: You are known worldwide as a leading STEM cell expert. Can you talk a little bit about the benefits of STEM cells?

Dr. Steenblock: I’ve been practicing medicine for 50 years.

Of all the things I’ve had anything to do with, STEM cells 8

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

are by far the best thing that’s ever come down the pike.

The results you get are so good, as compared to what everybody else is doing, that I thought for sure that the whole medical profession would be doing STEM cells as just routinely within three or four years after it all started happening, which is back in 2000.

And here we are still, in 2020, and that’s still not happening.

Chiropractors who are doing it, Naturopaths are doing it, as well as a few alternative doctors.

There’s much reluctance in the medical profession to change, to do something better than what they’ve been doing. It’s incredible to me.

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

OF ALL THE THINGS I’VE HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH, STEM CELLS ARE BY FAR THE BEST THING THAT’S EVER COME DOWN THE PIKE. Monica: You say that using STEM cells helps with cerebral palsy, ALS, strokes, and other conditions. What other conditions do people suffer from that using STEM cells can help treat?

Dr. Steenblock: I think number one is joint problems, arthritis.

In terms of clinical results, most of us have pain in a joint here or there, our toes, fingers, knees, and hips. And it’s from wear and tear. There are some arguments about that. But I firmly believe that wear and tear is a significant component of it all.

I concluded that it’s wear and tear when I was in England, and I was giving a lecture on the results I had with bone marrow transplants at the SENS meeting, (Aubrey de Grey’s meeting). There’s was a natural history museum next door to this hall where we were lecturing.

After I had given my talk, I visited the museum and noticed they had a whale skeleton - about a hundred feet -- a monster whale. The skeleton had a roof over it, but it was open to the outside. I said to myself, “I’m going to study this whale, just because I’m interested in what happens with wear and tear.”

I looked at every joint, and there was not one sign of arthritis anywhere. Now that means that this old whale, which must’ve been a hundred years old, had no arthritis.

So, what’s the point? Well, gravity. They have only about 40% of the gravity that the rest of us have because we’re not in the water. And water prevents that wear and tear.

They don’t have arthritis.

What happens with wear and tear is that the inner lining of the synovium is chipped away. And little pieces and

particles are worn down. These small particles that continue to progress make the joint continue to fall apart.

They sort of wander outside of the joint and get into the subcutaneous tissue around the joint; then, the body reacts to them. You get an auto-immune inflammatory condition.

You have two things going on. That is your initial damage and pain with the wear and tear and the particles inside that cause pain.

When you give STEM cells, it’s a simple process. You put a vial of STEM cells into a joint, and the STEM cells downregulate your auto-immune. It also then shuts down the pain inside of the joint.

An example was about 19 or 20 years ago. I had developed arthritis in both hips. So much so that I could hardly drive.

Every time I’d sit down and bounce in the car, my hips would hurt so much. I took one vial of umbilical cord STEM cells.

And within two to three weeks, no more arthritis. And I haven’t had any arthritis in my hip since. That’s 19 years now.

Of course, you also have failures. I’ve been recently working on figuring out what we can do to make things work even better. Our success rate on joints is about 80% to 90% of the patients have great results.

I always tell people it’s all experimental. I have no idea whether or not it’s going to work for them, and therefore, I cannot make that claim. Everyone has to sign a document that says it’s all experimental. In general, it’s legal for me to do that.

Monica: Many people do not believe in modern medicine as a form of healing, and they prefer a natural approach. Do you consider stem cell treatments to be a natural way of doing things?

Dr. Steenblock: Of course. It is the most natural therapy there is. You’re talking about the very best cells out of your body being used to repair and regenerate. That’s what your body does every day.

You have bone marrow stem cells in your bone marrow, and those stem cells are being released continually. They circulate throughout your body, and wherever they come across any damage, they jump right in and change that tissue back to as normal as possible.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

9

MINDING MY BUSINESS

This is part of the body itself. It’s being done every day. No matter what you think, you have stem cells working every day to keep you alive.

Monica: What do you consider your core ‘why’? You have committed your life to various issues that often eludes most doctors. Why do you do that?

The next step is to concentrate them, make them more useful. And that’s all we’re doing. We’re not doing anything other than that.

Dr. Steenblock: I love it. You know why? Because it’s exciting. Every day I discover new things.

Monica: When it comes to alternative solutions, such as using stem cells, what would you like to see? What would you like to see happen moving forward to allow people who prefer something natural?

Dr. Steenblock: We need more cooperation between the government and the public. The government seems to tell us what to do without really trying to get involved. For example, if a stem cell lab calls them up and asks, “What do you recommend as far as the equipment and the filters?”

They say, “We don’t recommend anything. It’s not our job to recommend anything.” And yet, they’re the ones that are going to inspect you and say, “No, it’s no good.”

On the one hand, they’ll say that they have no responsibility for how a doctor does his thing because they’re not legally responsible for anything we do. After all, we’re under whatever state the doctor resides. Our license is provided by the state, not by the FDA. Yet, our state medical boards have no clue about what to do as far as stem cells.

Monica: What can people do who might be interested in learning more about stem cells as a form of treatment?

What kind of questions should they be asking?

Dr. Steenblock: Number one, I would say that they should know what condition they’ve got. Put a name on it. If they’re going to the doctor, the doctor says, “You’ve got, let’s say, osteoarthritis of your knee.” That’s a simple one. Then do a Google search on osteoarthritis and stem cells. Out of that, you’re going to see hundreds of articles about it. Read the abstracts. Go to Wikipedia and put it in there, too. Wikipedia is fantastic in terms of education.

People call me up and ask, “What about such and such?” I’ll say, “Did you look it up?” There are 50 papers on whatever that person has got, and it’s right there, and it tells you all about it. That way, you feel comfortable because you’re reading science, not just talking to me. I think education is the key.

10

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Monica: You’ve also developed a supplement called Stemgevity, which utilizes encapsulated stem cells to help patients relieve pain and promote regeneration. Can you talk about that?

Dr. Steenblock: One of the ingredients is Fucoidan.

Fucoidan is a seaweed, a Japanese brown seaweed.

Over the last couple of years, people have been asking me what do I specialize in, and because I’ve specialized in so many things, I tell them, “Well, I specialize in taking out the bad and putting in the good.” But in reality, what we need to do is not only take out the bad and put in the good, but we need to put in the good that fixes the membranes. The membranes are the interface between your body and the environment.

If you don’t have an excellent barrier between you and your environment, that environment will come into your system and muck things up totally.

It’s especially bad in the gut because your gut, your large colon, is just absolutely full of poison. We go through life, not even thinking about it.

It turns out that if you take Fucoidan with each meal, it helps protect your body from these endotoxins and helps seal that gut membrane too. So, it’s got many different factors, besides the fact that it releases stem cells out of your bone marrow.

The bone marrow stem cells then can float around and cause you to be healed as well. For example, if you have a stroke, there’s a leaky blood-brain barrier where the damage was. So, when you take Stemgevity, then that helps fix that.

I’ve seen people who have improved fairly dramatically with just taking Stemgevity because of that phenomenon. In general, I would say I have had more positive compliments from my Stemgevity product than I have from all the years of my practice.

Monica: How has all of the research and work you’ve done with stem cells impacted your perspective?

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

Dr. Steenblock: I’ve been on a journey of self-discovery since I was a kid, so I sit back and reflect occasionally on my life back in the day, what I did wrong, and what I’ve been doing right and all of that.

Going back, I would say that sugar is probably the biggest problem that I’ve had, and I think most people have. You don’t realize it. You say, “Well, I like it, so it can’t be that bad,” so you make excuses for yourself. “It can’t be bad if I like it.”

For example, I always had trouble with studying. I love to learn, so when I can’t study, it just irritates me. Here I was, trying to get through school, graduate school, and at noon or 11:30 AM or so, I’d start getting weak and shaky. I was hypoglycemic. Then I would eat something, and within half an hour or an hour, I’d fall asleep. It kept happening, and I kept thinking about what was going on.

Why was I doing this?

I analyzed it over and over. At that time, it turned out to be a banana. I was eating a banana on my Wheaties every day, and it was causing my problems. I think I was just more sensitive because now I can eat a banana without any issues.

I think it’s what’s called glycogen reserve. Glycogen in your muscles and liver help control your blood sugars. Nobody ever talks about your glycogen, but stress and eating too much sugar and having these episodes of low blood sugar causes so much stress that it depletes your glycogen reserves, so you end up having increased sensitivity to these blood sugar changes.

It points out that what you eat is what you become.

Monica: What makes a person successful is that they love what they do, and to be successful, you have to be willing to put in the time and effort to make things work. You certainly Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

11

EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

have done a lot of work in your specific area and have a passion for it.

I want to thank you for your time today. Would you mind closing the interview with your last word?

Dr. Steenblock: Sure. The human body is extremely complicated and challenging for anyone to understand, but the one thing we can understand is that it operates like a machine. So the material you put into it is very important if you want your machine to work properly.

You start with clean air, especially if you have any medical problems. If you have emphysema, for example, diabetes or heart disease or stroke, or whatever -- any of these complicated things, that you need everything to be working perfectly well. You want to start with clean air.

Second, of course, is the right food. That’s a whole different subject. If you have any heavy metals in your system, anything that’s causing your system’s poisoning, you want to identify and eliminate.

You have mercury that’s present in many people. Lead is present in many people. You have cadmium, uranium, plutonium, tungsten; all of these different metals are present in many patients that I see.

Then you’ve got extremely complicated bacteria, and we’re learning more and more about them. Some of those are

12

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

START PAYING ATTENTION. START LOOKING AT THINGS. RESEARCH AS MUCH AS YOU CAN TO LEARN AS MUCH AS YOU CAN BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW ALL YOU CAN TO STAY ALIVE IN THIS WORLD. causing a lot of people problems. They’re responsible for making diabetes and heart disease worse.

Toxins are everywhere. People don’t even think about it.

They go about their life and wonder why they get sick. Start paying attention. Start looking at things. Research as much as you can to learn as much as you can because you need to know all you can to stay alive in this world.

Monica: Thank you for this informative message.

Dr. Steenblock: Thank you very much. 

MINDING MY BUSINESS Before you can set up a mean, lean, virtual dream team fueled with the adrenalin of success, you have to thoroughly know your business. There is no room for fuzzy thinking – and there’s definitely no room for assuming that your team will magically “do everything” or read your mind.

e i r a m e Ann Cro s s MOVING FROM INVISIBLE TO INFLUENTIAL — AND PROFITABLE WITH PODCASTING https://annemariecross.com

MINDING MY BUSINESS

A

lthough it’s taken years for Annemarie Cross to embrace the “Podcasting Queen” moniker, she now wears it like a crown. Not in a haughty or superior way, mind you. Cross is simply proud to have helped so many entrepreneurs move from virtual unknowns to widely-trusted industry thought leaders — with profits to boot.

It wasn’t always this way. Cross has winced under the cruel sting of career mistakes, failed business ventures, and even betrayals along the road to her now-well-cemented success. But rather than shrink away from entrepreneurship, she learned how to discover and leverage lessons from each setback and challenge. She speaks and teaches from hard-won experience, and it shows.

In addition to being a podcast pro, Cross describes herself as a “multi-passionate entrepreneur” who loves using technology and social media to grow businesses. She’s the founder and CEO of Communicate Now, Industry Thought Leader Academy, and Interviewing With Purpose. She’s a keynote, conference, event and telesummit speaker focusing on women in business and entrepreneurship. Cross recently launched The Influence Alliance to help changemakers who aren’t interested in podcasting to build sustainable, scalable businesses.

Most of all, Cross is an award-winning true believer in the power of podcasting. After all, it’s been working very well for her for years.

Ten years ago, Cross started hosting her own Ambitious Entrepreneur Show podcast and founded The Ambitious Entrepreneur Podcasting Network. A personal branding and brand communication strategist, Cross provides production, broadcasting, training, mentoring and promotion for clients who want to stand out from the competition and improve their customer engagement and retention. Through Podcasting With Purpose and Communicate Now, her podcast production and consulting agency, she helps businesses create and launch powerful online and offline marketing strategies that build reputation and revenue — starting with their first podcast episode.

We recently caught up with Annemarie Cross.

Here’s what she told us.

Monica: How long have you been an entrepreneur?

Annemarie: I started my very first business well over two decades ago. It would be almost nearly three because my eldest daughter is 29, she'll be 30 next year, and I started the business when she was just about 12 months of age after I'd left fulltime work. I loved being a mom, but I was getting quite frustrated. So my husband said, "What, if we get you a computer, would you be able to do something from home?" So we bought a computer, and I started my home-based secretarial service helping people write resumes, doing bookkeeping because bookkeeping and maintaining accounts is what I was doing in my paid job when I was working as an office manager and bookkeeper.

And the rest is history, as they say.

I continued to learn and develop through night school as my children had gotten older, and I specialized in the area of careers, which transitioned into my career practice. For about a decade, I worked with executives and professionals, and entrepreneurs as well, as they started their consultancy coaching practices and needed help with personal branding and marketing online. Now it's transitioned even further to helping them with marketing and personal branding and messaging and starting their podcasts. So, it's certainly been an interesting, diverse experience, and entrepreneurial journey for me over the last nearly three decades.

Monica: Along that journey, and all of those different experiences, I'm sure you have encountered setbacks and challenges. How did those challenges prepare you for each career transition you made?

Annemarie: Hindsight is such a valuable teacher. As Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

15

MINDING MY BUSINESS

I continue to reflect on the circumstances and the disappointments and what I call "missed opportunities," I didn't look at the reflections of what I can learn from these disappointments.

So, I might have launched a project or set some high goals from what we call bold, ambitious, audacious goals. But what I tended to do was say, "You know what, I'm closing the chapter on this year, and I'm going to start fresh in the new year."

Over those years, I noticed that I started being a little more cautious in the goals I set for myself.

And looking back, I started playing small until I had my worst business failure ever, five years ago now.

It was then that I took that time to step back. I needed to learn from this because this situation was going to break me or make me. And thankfully, it has made me.

At that time, I was not reflecting on what I can learn from this situation. These are the things that I now really recommend that everyone starts to do when they look at their disappointments and failure. Failure is just feedback that we can learn and grow from if we dare to visit those situations.

When I started to do that and get the right support, the proper reflection, and working through it, rather than ignoring the challenges, the failure, and the disappointment, I've used them to improve areas where I would have seen through careful examination, that I didn't approach that well.

I should've had a conversation in that area, recognizing that's not an area that I'm strong in, so maybe I need to get a mentor to help me become more confident in having those conversations. Through a lot of learning and growth, it's shaped the character in me to look at challenges as opportunities and stepping stones.

So those stumbling blocks have become stepping stones that I've been able to 16

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

FAILURE IS JUST FEEDBACK THAT WE CAN LEARN AND GROW FROM IF WE DARE TO VISIT THOSE SITUATIONS. step on and step to the next level. Let me share how that works out practically and how it led me down the path to where I am today.

In 2014, I experienced my worst business failure ever. And in 2015, I thought, "I'm going to take some time out to reflect on what can I do? What am I going to continue to do moving forward?"

I had been a prolific content writer and loved creating programs, but I could not write. I could not put two thoughts together, but I thought at the beginning of 2015 I do know that I can ask excellent questions, so I am going to start a Women in Leadership podcast, and I'm going to go out and find the women leaders in business, women leaders in corporate who have overcome challenges. And unbeknownst to them, I'm going to hang around with them and ask them about business for my learning and understand the healing process I knew I needed to go through.

The interesting thing that happened was, three episodes in for a podcast that I created to help me deal with my grief and loss of a partnership that had failed in business, I ended up accidentally getting two four-figure clients. These two women had no idea who I was. They'd never met me before or heard about me. They googled "branding business consultant," happened to come across my website, listened to the first three episodes that were there, and decided they wanted to work with Annemarie. And they asked me, "What's the best program that you have that will fulfill our needs?" And it wasn't until a little later that I

MINDING MY BUSINESS

thought if I could do that accidentally, what would happen if I backtracked the steps I took. And that's what I did. I took some time to map out the steps, and a course and a book later, "Podcasting with Purpose" was born.

And so it was that initial failure in 2014 that was my wake-up call, through the steps and learning and the growth opportunities since then that lead me down the path to where I am today.

Those mistakes that I made have become these lessons that I now share with my clients to help them avoid going through the heartache and the struggles that I did and achieve their goals much quicker and monetize their podcast from their first episode.

Monica: I appreciate you sharing that. How can people, even if they are faced with a challenge in their business, whether they didn't plan correctly, or maybe it's just something out of their control, really get ahold of their perspective and think about how they can go about dealing with it effectively?

Annemarie: That's one of the things that I realized that I was doing. Many of us are in business because there's a message that we want to share to impact the world. So, when anything happens that we put our heart and soul into, yet for some reason, it just doesn't work out — whether it is something that was in our control or whether it also involved a second or even a third party, we internalize it. We might say, "Well, it was my fault."

Or we can also end up playing the blame game, which is not helpful either, even if it was real mitigating circumstances that a third party caused something not to work out.

We can often have feelings of betrayal, and our trust can be broken. However, we can set new goals. We can start a new chapter. There's nothing better than to buy a fresh new journal and look at page one that has absolutely nothing written on it yet, and you can put pen to paper and start creating. But if you've still got emotional baggage or a significant event that's caused negative

emotional ties to an experience that you have not yet dealt with, then you are inadvertently going to bring that with you into the new year.

One of my core values is trust. Trust, integrity, and excellence — that's what I live by and what I believe others want to do as well.

So when the situation happened to me, I was told, "Well, Annemarie, you're too trusting. You shouldn't be so trusting." I agree; there were aspects. There were certain things that I should've put into place from a legal point of view, from an accounting point of view, all of those things, I agree, but I did not want to become jaded and skeptical and suspicious and have that be a driving force, because it would have gone against my core values and it would've changed who I am. I don't want to be that person who thinks negative things about people.

I had to take some time to revisit self-awareness and some opportunities to learn and grow, and so while I could say, "Yes, these things were out of my control," what I did was look at, "What could have been in my control." Well, I should've had a conversation around this time. We should've set up some of these protocols and systems and mechanisms where we could measure and make sure we didn't get to that point." And that's something that now I know moving forward that if I ever had an opportunity to have a partnership, I would make sure it would be done.

I encourage people now to look at that opportunity or that situation. What can you learn from it? What could you have done differently? Because you might surprise yourself with some of the resilience that you've built from that. And when people have that awareness, they're able to take those learnings into the new year to shape their character.

Monica: So, you would say that you have transformed those experiences into a different outlook on life, as well as a new success story?

Annemarie: Yes. For sure. Because if I think about the individuals involved, I have no animosity toward them at all.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

17

MINDING MY BUSINESS

When you think about a particular situation, you can build up anger, and I learned about this from one of my mentors, which is why I took this so seriously. She talked about what she coined "goal trauma." And it's also financial trauma. When we have been negatively impacted emotionally, the event causes us to feel angry and betrayed. If we don't deal with that trauma, it can inhibit how we move forward.

I've had so many conversations with women who have said, "I don't set goals for myself anymore.

I'm scared that if I set goals and even some numbers and figures, I'm setting myself up for failure. I'm just going to go with the flow."

There's nothing wrong with going with the flow, but if you look at the underlying emotion behind what's driving that and don't deal with it, that's going to be something that inhibits you from moving forward.

I did not want to be stuck with an emotion of "goal trauma" or even a financial trauma, which can often happen.

There are five different categories of money, which I learned from my mentor. There's your current income coming in, it's also your savings, your wealth and finance goals, it is debt, and there's also toxic money.

Toxic money is money you're relying on; however, when you think about the money, where it's coming from is causing you to be toxic. As an example, if you've lost your job, or your business has come crashing down because of COVID-19, and you're relying on the government, there's going to be some toxicity. It reminds you that, "I'm getting this money so I can survive because of a situation that has taken away my business or my lifestyle." When we don't address that, it can inhibit how we move forward.

Monica: You've often been called the Podcasting Queen. You help entrepreneurs utilize podcasting as a way to help them build credibility, reach more clients and customers, and build authority and influence as well. Talk a little bit about the impact of podcasting.

18

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Annemarie: Podcasting is a medium. If I compare it to many of the other platforms and the technologies that I've used, such as video livestreaming, social media, and so forth, podcasting has been a platform that I have not seen the level of engagement, the more I can trust, the nurturing and developing of relationships than any other platform has given.

I love everything associated with podcasting. The technology that we have today enables us to be able to have conversations with people around the world. We can now even capture video as well as audio and live stream at the same time. There are no restrictions other than the limits that we put on ourselves. It's an incredible platform, but I am a little bit biased because I love it.

Monica: How can entrepreneurs get started with podcasting? What should they be thinking about if that's what they want to do?

Annemarie: I would recommend people do a couple of things before they even start thinking about the microphone and the technology.

Focus on your message before you worry about the make and model of the microphone. You cannot edit and mix a compelling conversation that does not convert. You cannot nurture your ideal client through the buyer's journey from banter and fluff or from a message that sounds like the "same old thing" that everybody else is delivering who enters the podcasting space.

People will often come to me and say, "Well, I want to start a podcast." And I say, "Great. What are some of the outcomes you want? What are some reasons why you want to start a podcast?" Often, it's because they want the podcast to give them more exposure. They want to have more reach.

But when we're having a look at their existing message, it's not landing. It's not even making an impact.

I'll then say, "Let's look at the message. If you're starting to generate clients for your existing message, then you know that your message is

MINDING MY BUSINESS

working, and you know that there's an audience of your ideal clients who are interested in what you're saying. Then you're ready to layer a robust strategy or podcast strategy on top of that."

Often what people will do is look at podcasting and compare it to mainstream radio. But in fact, it's not like that at all because podcast audiences are niched.

These are the prolific audiences that love podcasting. One of the things they love is specific topics and individual podcast hosts, but they don't like and appreciate ads. In mainstream media, you've got ad after ad after ad because that's how they monetize their program; by ads and sponsors.

That is okay. There's certainly an aspect and area for that. But if you're using your podcast as a way to build your reach with your ideal client and have that niche audience, your reputation is that trusted authority, your go-to person in your industry, and ultimately your revenue by nurturing listeners.

You want to make sure that you're setting up your podcast to monetize your message first.

If you have the right elements in your podcast and as you're putting it together, people will often come for the topic, but they'll return for the host.

And that's you.

When you think of your podcast as a relationshipbuilding tool and medium of communication, you really can build a podcast that generates excellent results for the business and also your community, and it doesn't require millions of downloads either.

I would rather have 1,000 regular listeners of my podcast to engage with my content across other platforms and not just my podcast than have millions of downloads and not many people investing or engaging with my content. Set it up correctly, and it really can be an excellent new lead generation tool for your business.

Monica: You have to find the right market, the right people interested in your message, and make sure your message is clear and targeted towards them.

Annemarie: I've got seven podcast principles. One of them is don't focus on vanity metrics but focus on building your reputation equity. You could be interviewed on one platform that may be highly niched with fewer listeners or viewers, but they are so engaged that when your message is shared, you've got people who instantly engage with you.

The buyer's cycle from just getting to know you to, "I want to work with you, how do I do that" is shortened. The investment level that they're paying you can be higher because they're so niched. The narrower your audience, the faster your business will grow, and that's the frame of the podcast.

Monica: Some thought leaders and other highprofile people have podcasts, and what I've noticed is that some of them will do a 10- or 15-minute podcast where they provide insights or maybe a few steps on how to do something. What kind of podcasts should people be doing? Should they be doing more concentrated, short podcasts or something that's a little more in-depth?

Annemarie: It will be very much determined on the outcome you want to achieve from your podcast and where you are using it in your customer’s journey.

I'll give you an example and reason why I say that. Let's, say you're going to use your podcast to reach a cold audience — meaning the audience doesn't know you yet.

They haven't had an opportunity to experience you or find out much about you. Well, what you're not going to do in your podcast is that banter where you're sharing what you did over the weekend and that kind of content. People don't care because they don't know you yet.

However, if you are going to be using and leveraging your podcast within a community where people are already doing business with you, and you want to retain them and eventually upsell them, you're going to share a little Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

19

MINDING MY BUSINESS

bit more about the "behind the scenes" because we already know we can trust you. We're more open to wanting to hear about what you did.

been able to generate any leads or interest from any of them. And that's what I don't want to happen to any potential thought leader.

Again, you need to look at, "How am I leveraging my podcast, and where in the customer journey am I particularly sharing the podcast, and who is my ideal client?" Do they want more focused, in-depth conversations and content, or are they more time-poor, stressed-out executives, who will benefit from and crave the short, sharp messages so they can go on their way?

Monica: What do you enjoy most about working with your clients regarding getting them to see the benefits of podcasting and how it can impact their clients or customers?

Then, you're going to determine the length of content, its structure, and what's included in that, depending on the answers you provide to those questions.

There are no rules to podcasts other than the rules you set yourself. Because what may work for one person may not necessarily work for you because you've got a different audience and expectations.

So, don't model your strategy on someone else's success because your audience may not resonate with that.

Follow some fundamental guidelines and principles to identify what's unique to you, your audience, and what you're going to do. And maybe bring in a balance of that.

I have a saying, Monica, which is, "The great news is, it's easy to start a podcast. You pick up your phone, record yourself, and publish it on a free podcast app or host. The bad news is, it's easy to start a podcast.

You grab your phone, record into it, and throw it up on a free podcast host."

It's good or bad because most everyone can start a podcast, but it doesn't mean they should. If they don't have the right strategy and if they're not leveraging it the right way, they can still be like some of the clients that come to me frustrated because they've launched 73 or 100 episodes or 26 episodes, and they haven't 20

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Annemarie: Watching them go from, "Oh, there's so many things," to have absolute clarity and confidence because as they're sharing their message, they're impacting the world. There's a level of confidence that comes with clarity, and knowing what you're sharing is what you're meant to be doing.

One of the things that I know many of my clients struggle with is clarifying their message. There's nothing worse than putting your heart and soul into creating a podcast or a blog post or a video and there being absolute crickets. When that happens, we feel that it's us. Our content is not worthy, and no one likes what I'm saying. When in fact, it's just a little bit unclear, and you need to get clarity on that. You need to identify some key aspects of what makes your message so unique and distinguishable. I call it being distinguishable, un-copiable, and irresistible to your ideal clients.

Monica: Who are your clients?

Annemarie: My ideal clients have been working in their particular field for a while and want to up-level what they are doing. Some of them are unable to clarify their message, and I would call them a multi-passionate, multi-talented individual or entrepreneur, and they've got so much vast experience that it's tough for them to narrow it down into one compelling message. They've got those years of experience, and they're frustrated that they cannot support and help new people because not that many people know about them.

They're very much service-based businesses, but what's common amongst all of them is they are change-makers; they're innovators. They are a little rebellious because they've found different ways of

MINDING MY BUSINESS

doing things than the same-old thing 99% of people do. They're the one-percenters, and they're the ones that really can make that more significant impact in the world. They've lived it, breathed it themselves, and now want to go out and share that message to empower others to realize that they can be and make that difference as well with their message.

Monica: Is there anything specific that you'd like to say to entrepreneurs?

Annemarie: I would say if you are interested in considering a podcast and the reason is that the message that you've been sharing isn't really cutting through the noise, it's not standing out, and you're certainly not generating the influence and the impact in the lives of those people that you know that you can help, then certainly reach out.

If you don't feel quite ready for a podcast and you know that something is missing in your business and you'd like to get support and become part of a community that provides essential support, visit www.theinfluencealliance. com, or you can connect with me at www. podcastingwithpurpose.com, the podcasting site where they can find out more information, as well as access resources.

Monica: So, what's next for you?

Annemarie: Well, I think the last five years have gotten me to a place and a stage where I'm now able to bring in all my three-plus decades of expertise in the offerings of what I am currently delivering.

I'm at the point where I'm able to map out my program pathway, and it's able to support people where they are and at a level that achieves the integrity and the excellence at which I work, and part of those core values of myself and my business. This model will enable me to continue to do that now and in the future.

Monica: If you don't mind, I'd like you to close the interview with an encouraging message to entrepreneurs.

OFTEN WHEN WE'RE TALKING ABOUT PODCASTING OR USING A PLATFORM TO INCREASE OUR VIABILITY AND REACH, WHAT I FIND THAT WE DO, AND I'VE DONE THIS MYSELF, IS ASKING OURSELVES WHO WOULD BE INTERESTED IN LISTENING TO MY MESSAGE. Annemarie: Often when we're talking about podcasting or using a platform to increase our viability and reach, what I find that we do, and I've done this myself, is asking ourselves who would be interested in listening to my message.

People who are waiting for you to share your message, to share your expertise, to launch your podcast, to launch your program because it's you and the experience that you create as you teach, and as you consult with your clients that is the reason that it's going to empower their transformation.

People who are waiting for you to step forward.

So take that leap of faith, and you'll, like many of my clients, end up surprising yourself. They say, "I wish I had done this years ago."

Monica: Well, thank you for that inspiring message. And thank you for again sharing your story and powerful insights.

Annemarie: My pleasure.  Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

21

8

Free and Effective Ways to Market Your Business Online

BY JON CRUMP

A

s we all know, marketing is a necessary part of running a successful business.

Here are some free online marketing methods that you may want to consider for your business:

The issue with traditional advertising, such as newspaper, radio, and television ads, is that they can be expensive and may produce little or no return on investment. They generally require a considerable budget.

1

Advertising online may be a better option. You can track the effectiveness of each advertisement. Then, focus your marketing strategies on the techniques that are the most profitable. Also, there are options for online advertising that don’t cost you any money at all!

• Additionally, you’ll automatically get the attention of both audiences, resulting in more sales and adding more leads to your email list. In the future, these new leads can drive more sales of another one of your products.

Partner with another expert in your field. Consider joining forces with another business. You can then offer a more substantial product together than either one of you could offer alone.

MINDING MY BUSINESS

• Partnering on even one marketing campaign can bring long-term benefits to both of you.

2

Encourage user-generated content. If you can acquire user-generated content, your website will grow without creating new content. This type of content also increases your website visitors. Enable comments on your website and contribute to the discussions.

• Allow visitors to submit their articles and encourage guest posts from other experts.

3

Affiliate marketing. When you create an affiliate program for your business, you will be getting other experts in your field and the public to send business your way.

This can be mutually beneficial, and you will only be paying commissions when an affiliate makes a sale. There are many affiliate marketing applications to choose from online.

• As with the partnering opportunity, many of these new visitors will sign up for your email list. Even if they don’t buy something right away, it’ll bring you long-term benefits and sales.

4

Get active on social media. Millions of users visit the various social media platforms daily, so it makes sense for your business to have a presence there. Figure out which platforms work best for you. Don’t spend time posting and commenting on all of them if they’re not generating leads and business for you. Social media can be a huge time-waster if you’re not careful.

• Share relevant and engaging images or videos that are relevant to your business.

• Be sure also to post insights and valuable information.

• Let your audience know when you have a sale on your products. Give your social media followers coupons or discounts.

• Encourage engagement by participating in discussions.

Ask questions and answer theirs.

• Run a survey, poll, or contest.

• In turn, these will then be shared by your followers, increasing your reach and ultimately resulting in more sales of your products or services.

5

Use free online tools. There are plenty of tools online that can help your business. You can sign up for websites that will enable you to create free surveys, or you

can use a free online service to send emails to your customers. You do not have to pay a premium to receive top-notch service.

6

Change and reuse old advertisements. Rather than going through the expensive route of creating new articles with every marketing campaign, try reusing parts of an ad that worked well. Repurposing content is a great way to save time and expense.

• Plus, keeping consistent brand imagery through every ad will help with brand recognition.

7

If you don’t have one yet, build an email list. If people visit your website, the chances are good that they are interested in what you have to offer. Make a form available for them to join your email list so they can be kept in the loop about future product releases or special offers.

• Once they’ve signed up to this email list, you can send emails to these prospects with news and further information about your products, as well as useful tips and advice. Let them know whenever something goes on sale.

• Email marketing is one of the best ways to drive sales.

Treat your list members like gold because that’s what they are to you and your business.

8

Create video content. Video content is essential these days as the younger generation would rather watch a video than read a blog post. If you can create engaging videos, you’ll generate interest in your brand.

It’s certainly possible to do online marketing without spending money. However, some of these methods might take some time and effort to implement before seeing any profit.

For example, it can take a while to build an email list.

However, once you have a list, making sales can be as easy as sending out an email to your list. Once you’ve built a social media following, simply posting on your social media pages can help you generate sales.

If you want to see an immediate ROI, you may want to consider paying for ads online, like for a special promotion.

However, if funds are tight, be patient as you put these free strategies into place, and soon you’ll have plenty of ways to make immediate sales for free.  Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

23

to Building Your Personal Brand

BY DONNA CARLETTA

A

personal brand is much more than a flashy logo or a color palette. It goes far beyond having a nice-looking business card. It’s also not just about having a website with your name on it, although that’s certainly part of it.

You have unique experiences, strengths, beliefs, perspectives, skills, and insights that set you apart from everyone else. Building your personal brand allows you to highlight your strengths and differences.

Your personal brand is how you present yourself, both online and offline, to your ideal audience. It is the image you put forth. It’s what you stand for. Your values. The core of who you are as a person.

It enables you to charge a premium price for your services when you’ve effectively presented your brand as value that no one else can offer.

It’s the combination of your values, unique skills, experiences, stories, personality, and image; all presented authentically to your audience.

Every person is their own brand and can consistently put themselves out in front of their audience. Everything you share with your audience means you’re building your brand, so you must ensure that it is aligned with your values and beliefs.

The question is whether you’re actively taking control of your brand. Do you want your brand to develop independently, with no guidance from you, or do you want to be actively in control of the process? It’s always best to be the one in control of your brand.

Why You Need to Build a Personal Brand Every entrepreneur, coach, consultant, freelancer, or any other type of business owner should focus on building a trustworthy brand. If you are attempting to build a business of any kind, everything about it should be aligned with who you are. Your company is a reflection of who you are and the values you have created for yourself.

Personal branding allows you to stand out from the competition. Your competitors can’t bring what you bring to the table because they don’t have what you have to offer.

You’re unique.

24

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

When you craft a strong personal brand, you can charge a higher price for your products and services because they’re exclusive to you.

A significant amount of personal branding involves the content that you share with the world. The more valuable the content you share, the more you demonstrate that you’re an expert who should be trusted.

With every piece of content that you share, you establish yourself as an expert in your field. The more you show that you’re an expert, the more people will trust you.

Personal branding puts you in charge of the narrative. Your personal brand will evolve, whether you want it to or not.

If you use social media, have an email list, write a blog, or speak to groups, you’re already building your personal brand. The question is whether you’re building the brand intentionally.

Personal branding shapes the content you share. It would be best if you only shared things that are in line with your brand.

As you build your personal brand, you’re in control of the story you tell. Your story must be authentic.

Personal branding connects you more with individuals. People connect better with other people than they do with companies.

The more you work to build your brand, the more people will be attracted to your values, personality, and insights.

MINDING MY BUSINESS

Personal branding allows you to become an influencer. An influencer significantly shapes the opinions of their followers and has a significant influence on how they behave. There are some tremendous benefits to being an influencer.

Big brands want to work with influencers, and that means more revenue for your business.

How to Build a Personal Brand STEP #1 Determine who you are. Building your brand is about sharing your authentic self with the world.

Ask yourself: • What unique skills do I have?

• What are my core values?

• What am I most passionate about?

• What unique experiences have shaped who I am?

• How can I most effectively serve my core audience?

• What do I have to offer that no one else does?

STEP #2 Once you’ve identified the core of who you are, it’s time to think about what you want to accomplish with your brand.

Ask yourself: • What would I like to accomplish, both personally and professionally?

• What do I want to be known for?

• If I could be the world’s foremost expert on a topic, what would it be?

• What key message do I want to communicate?

• If I could only give one piece of advice, what would it be?

• What is the “personality” of my brand?

STEP #3 Identify your target audience. There is a core demographic of people who will resonate deeply with you, your brand, and what you offer. This demographic is your target audience.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

25

MINDING MY BUSINESS

To identify your core audience, ask these questions: • Who can I most effectively help?

• Who will benefit most from my skill set and knowledge?

• Who am I most passionate about serving?

• Who will resonate most with my brand and me?

It can also be helpful to create a persona for your ideal client. This should include demographic information, desires, aspirations, pain points, and challenges.

STEP #4 Determine your Unique Service Proposition.

Your USP is your brand summed up into a single, powerful, compelling statement that describes what you specifically do for your audience.

A USP typically looks something like this: I help (target person) to (achieve X) so that they can (outcome).

Your USP doesn’t have to say everything about your brand, but it should get right to the heart of who you are and how you help your audience. It may help to give your USP a unique name that will stick in people’s minds.

Don’t skimp on this step. Creating your USP gives you a high degree of clarity about what your brand is all about.

STEP #5 Start treating yourself as a brand. In every communication with your audience, whether a blog post, email, podcast, social media post, you must stay true to your brand message. You continuously speak about the problems you solve, always encourage your audience, and consistently voice your brand’s message.

It also means creating a compelling website to serve as your home base for all your online activities. It means creating a media page or media kit on your site for media inquiries. It could also mean not answering emails yourself but having an assistant answer them for you.

STEP #6 Optimize your website. Your website functions as your “home base” of sorts. It is one of the primary places people get to know who you are and what you do. Your website also functions as one of the primary ways you turn visitors into paying clients.

Optimizing your website includes: • Having a professional logo • Displaying your USP • Using professional photos 26

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

• Including testimonials • Presenting a clear call-to-action • Creating a compelling “About” page • Creating a services page • Giving away free resources • Creating a contact page STEP #7 Develop your content strategy. The primary way you’re going to build your brand is by creating strategic content, such as blog posts, videos, social media posts, emails, affirmations, and podcasts. Each piece of content you share with your audience should serve to build your brand.

We recommend the “Pillar Method” for your content. The Pillar Method involves creating more extended pieces of content that function as pillars. These pillar pieces are then cut up into smaller pieces of content that are shared across a variety of social media platforms. Using this method allows you to repurpose a single piece of content in a variety of ways.

STEP #8 Constantly add value to your audience. It’s essential that you regularly give value to your audience without asking for anything in return. The main thing people should take away when interacting with your brand is how much value you provide.

There will be times when you ask for a sale or ask someone to become a new client. The main emphasis, however, should be on adding value to your audience.

STEP #9 Build a community. One of the best ways to build your brand is to build a community of people who can share ideas, support each other, and directly reach out to you. Create a tribe of passionate people who care about the same things you do.

Some simple ways to build a community include: • Starting a private Facebook group where people can encourage each other • Sharing ideas • Hosting live events where you can interact personally with your tribe • Creating a membership site where people can get exclusive access to you And there you have it – key elements and steps to help you get started building your personal brand. 

Ro salind Sedacca

Marketing Yourself: Why It’s Not About You https://provenresultswriting.com

MINDING MY BUSINESS

W

hen Rosalind Sedacca says something about your marketing, it’s a good idea to listen.

Not because she’s an award-winning marketing professional, copywriter, communication strategist, and PR practitioner. Not because she’s a copywriting expert for print, internet, TV, radio and mobile formats. And not because her past clients include Club Med, Conde Nast, United Technologies, Husqvarna, and Fidelity Federal.

What sets Sedacca apart from other seasoned marketing pros is the fact that she and her own businesses are living proof that her writing and her methods actually work.

When her son was 11, Sedacca and her husband decided to divorce. She experienced anger, guilt . . . and an epiphany. One restless night, she discovered how to explain the split to her son with as little hurt and blame as possible: A storybook!

It worked, and she soon realized that she was a natural co-parenting coach.

Now considered The Voice of Child-Centered Divorce, Sedacca helps divorcing parents with her own experience and years of expertise. Her success in this niche stands as testament not only to her deep understanding of the topic, but to her own marketing savvy.

Sedacca shared some of her marketing knowledge with us recently. Listen up.

Monica: Can you talk a little about your background as an entrepreneur?

Rosalind: Sure. I’m the founder of the ChildCentered Divorce Network, and I’m a divorce and co-parenting coach. I coach one-on-one, mostly digitally. Also, I’ve created several products, e-courses, e-books, and programs that parents can download and explore without personal coaching. It’s more cost-effective for people, and it gives them insights, tips, advice, and strategies that they could implement before, during, or after divorce to help them protect the children they

28

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

love. That’s the primary focus of all of my work in that arena.

Monica: In addition to being a divorce and co-parenting coach, you also have expertise in marketing, and you help entrepreneurs hone in on who they should be targeting and how they should go about targeting them.

Rosalind: Absolutely. I’ve been a freelance copywriter for more than 30 years. And so, while technology has changed dramatically over the years, the basics of marketing haven’t changed.

You have to understand your target market, and you have to speak to their pain points. It’s never about me; it’s always about my prospective clients.

What are they needing? What are they looking for, and what are the problems that I’m trying to solve for them?

I find that one of the biggest problems that too many entrepreneurs make is they’re so close to their business. They assume people understand it or know it as well as them, and they fail to put in the most relevant information right at the top on the homepage so that people land in the homepage and say, wow, this person gets what I need, this person is speaking to me.

Rosalind: They forget to focus on what their prospects need, and it’s too much about “me.”

You see many websites that are “me” focused, and people get tired of that very easily because they don’t care about you, the business owner; they care about what you’re going to do for them to help them solve their problem. The more you focus on that, the better off you are in any marketing material you create.

Monica: From your perspective, what is an approach that they could take to look at what they already have and then determine what’s missing?

Rosalind: That’s a great question. I find that I’m telling clients often when they call me that I bet you’re better on the phone answering questions

MINDING MY BUSINESS

from prospective new clients and closing them than you are at reflecting that on your website.

Clients will ask very pertinent questions, and smart entrepreneurs will have answers. They’ll say, no one does it as well as us because we do this. We offer that, and we have this, and our services are better because we design solutions that are faster and less expensive. But they have those answers on the phone. It doesn’t get translated onto the website or in the marketing material.

I won’t start a project until I’ve asked many questions. Those marketing questions force the entrepreneur to think like an entrepreneur and think from the client’s perspective. Once you put on the client’s hat and look at your website as a visitor, you’re going to get many insights, and you’re going to realize that maybe I’m not speaking to what their needs are.

Ask yourself some pertinent questions. What are the most significant pain points that my prospective clients have? Why are they looking for me? Why are they searching for someone like me? And what makes me stand apart from all the others? In so many industries, you could change the name on the top of the website, and the website can be the same for 30 or 40 different people because they’re all saying the same message. You don’t want your website to look the same as all your competitors. You want it to stand out in some way.

So think about what do you do. Is there something about your service? Is there something about your approach? Is there something about your background, expertise, and experience, is there some feature you offer? That’s what you want to put as your lead on the website.

The most crucial part of websites is headlines and subheads. It’s just like looking through a magazine or a newspaper. You don’t read the article unless the headline catches your attention. Well, it’s the same thing on a website.

WE DON’T WANT PEOPLE TO HAVE TO THINK ON THE WEBSITE. WE WANT TO GUIDE THEM IN A VERY LOGICAL WAY FROM POINT TO POINT, JUST LIKE IF YOU WERE HAVING A LIVE SALES CONVERSATION WITH THEM, AND THAT’S THE MOST SUCCESSFUL WEBSITE. I find too many websites where there are many words, but you need a catchy headline first, and then a subhead under that lets people know that they’re in the right place. So, focus on strong headlines and subheads at the top of every single page. Then you support that with sentences or a few paragraphs of copy that explain a little more about that feature and that benefit you’re talking about, but the headlines are the things that are read the most.

Equally important is having a strong call to action at the bottom of the page because people very often will assume, well, now that they’ve read about how wonderful I am, they’re going to call me, or they are going to click to make an appointment, or they’re going to buy now.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

29

MINDING MY BUSINESS

Unless you tell them to, very often, they’ll click around, or they’ll leave the website. So you have to say “call now for a free consultation,” “click here to buy this product now,” whatever it is that you’re offering, you need a call to action on every page to tell them what to do next.

We don’t want people to have to think on the website. We want to guide them in a very logical way from point to point, just like if you were having a live sales conversation with them, and that’s the most successful website.

Monica: So, should they eliminate as much as possible the word “I”?

Rosalind: “I” belongs there to some degree, but if most of the copy references “I,” then you should probably rewrite it. What is it that prospect is getting as a result of your experience? It’s always because of your expertise or knowledge and your services, but it’s just rephrasing it in a way so that you’re referencing “you” and not “I.” When you’re focused on what the client needs in a language that speaks directly to them, it’s much more relatable, and that’s what they care about

IT IS MORE CHALLENGING TO DO A SALES LETTER BECAUSE THERE ARE MORE WORDS INVOLVED, BUT EITHER WAY, IT’S AN EXCELLENT CONVINCING SALES COMMUNICATION. 30

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

because the question they’re always asking is, “What’s in it for me”? You could have an excellent website, but if you write it intending to focus more on “you” messages and less on “I” messages, it’ll be even stronger and more powerful.

Monica: These days, some people don’t like to read as much as they used to, and they tend to skim over or pick out specific things, especially if there’s a long sales page or a lot of text on a page. What can entrepreneurs do when it comes to getting their message across, but at the same time, not making it so long that people don’t want to read it?

Rosalind: There are a few things I want to say about that because it’s a myth that people don’t read. People don’t read what they’re not interested in reading.

If you don’t capture them or you’re not describing things in a captivating way, that doesn’t mean that they won’t read. People always read before they pull out their credit card and spend money. What people will do is skim through to see if it has any value for them. That’s why you want to make it very easy by leaving lots of space between lines and paragraphs and around the words you want to have images. You can use a large font that’s easy to read, use bullet points, headlines, and subheads, and break it up so that there are many bold subheads in between.

It makes it much easier for those who skim to find what they’re looking for, and they can get through to the bottom and make a decision if it seems like something worth their while. If it is, the prospect will go back to read it thoroughly.

If you have a product that’s cheap and inexpensive, then you don’t need a lot of copy because they’re spending a few dollars, but if you have a larger price point, people do want to read, and they will read every word, that’s why we see long sales letters. It’s just that they’re well-written, and they’re easy to read.

You don’t want to have words that are meaningless, useless, and flowery. You want to

MINDING MY BUSINESS

use targeted words to address your prospective clients’ needs and convince them why what you’re selling them is essential and valuable. So, don’t be afraid of long copy. It just has to be very wellwritten.

Monica: That makes sense. However, in addition to that, many people are into videos. Some prefer video over text. Based on your experience and writing content for both, is it more challenging to write a long sales page versus a script for a video and still get the same message across?

Rosalind: It is more challenging to do a sales letter because there are more words involved, but either way, it’s an excellent convincing sales communication. So videos are done in a way that you’re not just lecturing. They have to be written in a very personal, compelling, and exciting manner and sound authentic. You have to consider tone, the speed at which it’s being read, as well as other things. The writer has to be aware of that when they’re writing the video script.

Videos are very important, and many people integrate both because some people prefer one or the other, and there’s nothing wrong with having a short video and then copy that describes things in greater detail. As I mentioned, the higher your product or service price, the more convincing people need. People will spend $10, much more quickly than a hundred dollars, and a hundred dollars much more quickly than a thousand dollars or $10,000.

It depends on what you’re selling, and what you want people to do is nod their head while they’re reading whatever you’re talking about and saying to themselves, yes, that’s right, they get me, that sounds good. Wow, I’m impressed.

Your content should sound authentic and convincing, and that’s why you want organic natural writing. You’re not writing a textbook, and people get very impatient. So it has to be written in a compelling way that lets them know you get them and you care about them, and what you’re

offering them is very important. They’re going to continue reading because they’re getting value sentence by sentence as they’re moving through it.

Monica: Speaking about the target market, what I’ve found is that entrepreneurs are often not entirely clear on whom they are targeting, and I’m sure you’ve heard people say, well, my product or service is for everyone or anyone. How important is it to niche down? If you’re speaking to everyone, then you’re not talking to anyone.

Rosalind: That’s very important because while yes, there are thousands of products that everyone on the planet can buy, if you’re not speaking to your ideal client, the one who’s most suited for your product, then you get too generic, and when you’re too generic, it doesn’t sound like you’re talking to me, as a buyer.

It’s more important to define who is best suited for your product or service. It doesn’t mean that others can’t buy it, but the more specific you are about your audience, the more you have to say to them.

You can sell the client in different sales letters to different niches. You could target one to women, one to men, one to middle-aged people, and one to young people. There are many ways of targeting, and sometimes you may want to have more than one sales letter or a vehicle because of that.

But the critical thing to remember is when you sound very generic, there’s very little to convince people that they need that product, and you’ll end up losing potential customers.

Monica: It’s always essential to plan before you execute.

Rosalind: That makes a big difference in the outcome.

Monica: When it comes to video, many people don’t like to appear on camera. Is there a difference between a marketing video’s effectiveness where a person is on camera versus not being on camera?

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

31

MINDING MY BUSINESS

Rosalind: The answer to that is no. It depends on how well the video is created. I have many clients who don’t want to be on screen. Not everyone belongs on screen. So you have many choices.

You could be on-screen speaking; you could be speaking as a voiceover, a narrator, and have other images. You can have someone else entirely speaking for and about you, and you could have visuals like animations and different kinds of graphics that are just being narrated by someone else and have nothing to do with you, except they’re talking about you or your product and service.

Each one has benefits depending on who you are and what it is that you’re selling. The important thing for a video is that what you’re looking at is visually interesting and captivating and that the voice and message is clear and compelling.

It’s the same fundamentals of marketing. Are you starting with a catchy headline? Are you opening by saying something compelling that grabs people’s attention? Are you offering clear, distinct information, not just rambling on and on, and is the visual aspect connected to the auditory, so that what you’re saying is relevant at the same time as what you see on the screen?

There’s no one rule because it’s just going to depend on your unique approach and who you are.

I would not be afraid to experiment with using other people because someone can speak about you in a very compelling way. In some cases, it’s more effective than you talking about yourself. It always depends on your product or service and what you want people to do at the end of your video message.

Monica: For a new entrepreneur, someone who’s just getting started, let’s say they decided that they’re going to quit their nine to five job and they’re going to start their own business. What are some initial steps that they need to take to make

32

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

sure that they’re focusing on the right audience and how they’re going to approach them?

Rosalind: I have a questionnaire that I send to clients that asks a lot of fundamental marketing questions.

The first thing to ask is, why should anyone care about my product or service? What is it about my product or service that sets it apart? That has to be the primary message. And are you saying it in any way that’s different from your competitors?

Study your competitors, look at their websites, see what they’re doing and see how many of them are so similar that if you just changed the name and the header, it could be the same website because there’s nothing different.

Then ask, “How do I stand apart?” Ask yourself, “What am I doing that’s better and different, and more meaningful? Choose one, two, or three relevant points that set your business apart and focus on making that the top criteria. Sure, you could mention everything else because if you’re working in a specific field, you’re going to be doing A, B, C, and D, but it may be A that sets you apart in a particular way. And that’s what you want to be the primary focus of your headlines and specific pages because no one does A better than you. You need to make sure it’s evident in all your marketing material.

Sometimes coming up with a tagline or a slogan is a way of doing that. People know me as “The voice of child-centered divorce.” I gave myself that title 15 years ago. I tell people in my introductions when they interview me that I’m recognized as “The voice of child-centered divorce.” It sets me apart from other people who are divorce coaches. No one else is the voice of child-centered divorce.

You can find a slogan or a tagline that sets you apart and then use that next to your logo at all times, so people remember you for that. Come up with the A, B, or C that sets you apart and make

MINDING MY BUSINESS

that consistent. All of your marketing materials should be focused on that. Otherwise, it’s not that relevant if people hear something different every time they hear about you.

Monica: It certainly will require them to think about what their unique selling proposition (USP) is.

Rosalind: Exactly. There’s always something that you need to use as the hook, and decide that first before you move ahead. When you know what your hook is, that’ll determine how your website will look, sound or feel, how your brochure or your video script or whatever marketing material you’re putting together looks.

Once you have your hook, you ask, is it more visual, or is it more of a message that has to do with a catchy headline? If you’re selling a service, like a coaching service, the visual will not be nearly as compelling as if I’m selling a certain kind of flashlight or a particular type of shoe that has unique features?

Monica: That’s true. It’s challenging to project certain services in an image versus a product.

Rosalind: Images are never as important as the headline. People don’t spend money because they love your website’s appearance or because you have beautiful pictures. People do not pull out their credit cards because of beautiful images. They

pull out their credit cards because you convince them that what you’re selling has value to them.

And that, most of the time, takes compelling words. It would help if you always used the right words.

Monica: What do you love most about helping entrepreneurs to clarify their message?

Rosalind: It’s very fulfilling because I’m looking for the unique quality that helps them stand apart. That’s a creative challenge for me because I can’t start writing until all those questions are answered that we’ve been discussing. So there’s a lot of pre-work. The easiest part, in a sense, is finally writing it. But without the right answers, I won’t start.

We have to dig deeper and deeper until we get those answers -- until we get the hook of what makes what you’re doing worthwhile and worth the prospect’s investment.

People are fulfilled and happy once they understand it because it makes a big difference, once they know what sets them apart.

Monica: I know people will appreciate your insights, so thank you for the chance to engage with you.

Rosalind: Thank you. It was my pleasure. 

PEOPLE DO NOT PULL OUT THEIR CREDIT CARDS BECAUSE OF BEAUTIFUL IMAGES. THEY PULL OUT THEIR CREDIT CARDS BECAUSE YOU CONVINCE THEM THAT WHAT YOU’RE SELLING HAS VALUE TO THEM.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

33

BY JON CRUMP

CORPORATE EXPERIENCE

CAN POSITIVELY IMPACT BUSINESS OWNERS

M

any entrepreneurs are in a hurry to get away from corporate life to start their own small business, but Inc. Magazine uses two ex-Goldman Sachs employees to explain that many of these same people will benefit greatly from their time working at a large company.

Rather than starting a business right out of college, or even during school, the exposure to a successful company, its people, and processes will help provide a benchmark for solo success. Having a name that people recognize on a resume, meanwhile, might mean the difference between being funded or failing to launch in the future.

Large companies were once small businesses, and the culture that formed the backbone of the initial startup was likely a significant reason for their success. Innovation and work ethic can all be a direct result of a business's culture, and even if a potential entrepreneur disagrees with the current state of affairs, it will be a point of reference from which to deviate.

34

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Part of that company's culture will have had something to do with per­formance, and there are likely many incredibly talented people working in a large business that have accomplished great things during their careers. Not everyone wants to make it on their own, and these kinds of companies also draw bright young talent each year after college. Having these individuals as peers and mentors should not be discounted and provides a healthy dose of competitive spirit.

A great culture of performance, armed with talented people, will drive systems to help secure a large business's success well into the future. These processes are found within training programs, logistics, human resources, and every other part of run­ning a vast enterprise. Having systems and processes is crucial if a business is going to scale past its initial stages, and it is easy to lack appreciation and knowledge of this without seeing it firsthand. 

COLLABORATION AND COOPERATION:

THE KEYS TO

BUSINESS SUCCESS IN TODAY’S WORLD

BY MARLA GEM

MINDING MY BUSINESS

B

ack in the day, business was all about competition, prestige, and presence. Business owners kept a close eye on their competitors and invested their money in looking more profitable, prominent, and successful than similar businesses in the area.

The bigger they looked, the better they liked it, even though their numbers might not have reflected their superiority. Being seen as a significant business depended mainly on image and peoples' perception of you in the local community.

The internet has changed all of that.

These days, more than anything else, cooperation and collaboration are the keys to lasting success.

It's now possible to cooperate and collaborate with people on the other side of the world and, thanks to Google Translate, even language is no longer a barrier.

It Makes Perfect Sense!

Cooperation and collaboration have become the ace in the pack for growing a business.

Look at how many automobile manufacturers are using the same components, engines, and running gear. Look how many real estate companies are listing for sale other agents' properties with an agreement to share the profits.

And it's happening at every level. Why? Because it makes perfect sense to do so.

It's more important than ever to seek out people who can support, promote, endorse, and recommend you.

The more experienced you are at it, the more often your phone will ring. And it doesn't cost anything!

Advertising versus Personal Recommendation These days it's challenging for a small business owner to make advertising work effectively and within a reasonable budget. We are bombarded with

36

January-February 2021  |  Exceptional People Magazine

advertising 24/7. Getting anyone to read an ad is an accomplishment, let alone respond to it.

Generally speaking, you only have a few seconds to get someone's attention with an advertisement, and after 7 seconds, if you're not speaking their language, they're gone.

Advertising is both a science and art for those who understand it. For the rest of us, it remains a mystery!

Personal recommendation never gets old, tired, or ineffective! Notice how social media has boosted recommendations and endorsements for all kinds of businesses. General Electric uses it. So does the local flower shop.

These days, most people view advertising with a grain of salt, not quite believing anything that is said in the ad. Too many business owners add a lot of puffy words to get attention. So, instead, prospects look to recommendations and reviews.

Personal experience - even the experience of strangers is more believable and works better than advertising!

Connecting with Others Internet-aware entrepreneurs have adapted tried and tested strategies to work online. They've made businesses hugely profitable using cutting edge technology. But at some level, sooner or later, being personable still becomes essential.

All entrepreneurs are personable at some level. That doesn't necessarily mean they all have the outgoing personality of some others. Many business owners are quite introverted, but when they connect, they connect very well with others.

The common trait is that they are all great listeners.

They pay attention when someone is talking. They're also good at reading people. These are all business skills that can be learned over time, but the sooner, the better for most entrepreneurs!

MINDING MY BUSINESS

Seize Every Opportunity Seize every opportunity you can to engage with those who already know what you need to learn.

Everything that is reciprocal is good for everyone.

Paying it forward and paying it back becomes a beneficial strategy.

Building, nurturing, and engaging with other people to promote you and your business can be a lot of fun. If you seek others with common interests, similar values, and perspectives in alignment with yours, you can also find friends for life.

Unlimited Opportunities There are no limits to where you can go and what you can do with your personal contacts. Bear in mind that not everyone will be ready at any given moment to work with you. But if you nurture the relationship effectively, everything will fall into place when the time is right.

Growing a business both nationally and internationally is dependent on both the quantity and quality of your contacts and how well you nurture them.

But what's even more exciting is not just who you know, it's also who they know, and then who they know! It's your entire network.

With the advent of social media, it's possible to create strong connections with people in 100 countries or worldwide.

ALL of these connections can be created, nurtured, and developed on a one-to-one basis: Friends recommending friends, colleagues recommending colleagues, enthusiasts recommending fellow enthusiasts, from every conceivable walk of life, from every culture, in every age group, male, female.

Even if you're working from home, you can have customers, business partners, promoters, and endorsers anywhere in the world and connect with all of them on the same day!

And because of the time zone differences, you can even make money from your business while you sleep. That's the power of the internet, combined with cooperation and collaboration.

The bottom line is, people skills are paramount for growing a successful business through cooperation and collaboration.

Do You Have What It Takes?

The good news is that everyone already has an abundance of people skills. They may need to be polished a little and put into practice in a way that works for you.

Polishing occurs with practice. The more opportunities you seize to engage with others, the more you learn, the more you grow, and the more your capabilities expand.

And so does your business.

Make it part of who you are, not just what you do, and you and your business will thrive. ď Ž

Exceptional People Magazine  |  January-February 2021

37

Inspire Action Create Milestones that

BY PAT MARKEL

MINDING MY BUSINESS

O

ne of the biggest temptations with a side hustle is to put off launching. You can get so caught up trying to make things perfect that you never actually get it off the ground.

Eventually, you’ll have to take that leap of faith and get started. Yes, it would be best if you reached the small goals that will lead you to your big goal, but eventually, you’ll have to get your idea out into the world and evaluate the response.

Side hustles are iterative. In other words, you launch, refine, fix problems, and then keep going. With each iteration, your side hustle gets better, and you become better at your craft. The more iterations you do, the more refined your business becomes and the more revenue you generate.

To launch, set milestones that will force you to take action. Setting milestones for yourself will ensure that you take action and don’t procrastinate. Each milestone should be tied directly to a date or specific time.

For example, let’s say you’re launching a coaching program. Your first milestone might be to create your website within the next 30 days. Your next milestone might be to send an email to all the potential clients you know after the completion of your website. Your third milestone might be to advertise your coaching practice on Facebook by a specific timeframe.

Think of it this way: Milestones equal movement. When you set milestones for yourself, it forces you to move forward and prevents you from trying to get everything perfect.

Like your goals, your milestones should also be realistic and achievable.

For example, it’s probably not realistic to think that you can get a website designed in a day. Give yourself a reasonable amount of time to achieve your milestone.

The more you reach your milestones, the more encouraged you’ll be about your side hustle. The more encouraged you are, the more you’ll want to reach more milestones, which will keep your project moving at a rapid pace.

Hold yourself accountable for deadlines, and if you need to get friends to hold you responsible, don’t hesitate to do that. 

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

39

Your

Business Credit Score Means a Lot

BY MARLA GEM

N

ew business owners must build their business credit score, which is similar to a personal score.

According to popular money-centric blog Nerd Wallet, a business credit score is measured by a range of numbers that indicate how creditworthy a business is, and the higher the number, the bet­ter.

The three major credit bureaus generate the ratings: Dun and Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax and typically range from zero to 100 rather than 300 to 850. Just like the personal FICO score, the single most significant influencer of this score is the ability to make on-time payments to lenders who regularly report on that history. The score will typically only be affected by accounts in the business' name, but it should be noted that many small-business lenders will still take a look at an owner's personal score as well.

Aside from payment history, these bureaus use other information to determine the overall score of a busi­

ness. For example, Experian uses credit information from product suppliers and money lenders, any filings from the courts, public records about the company, and any open or past collec­tions. Taking things a step further, they also check current loan balances, liens, bankruptcies, and judgments against the business and how large and how old it is. That's many things to con­sider, and for a small business owner, it is essential to remember that these agencies are watching every financial move they make, and each one can have ramifications far into the future.

Like a personal credit score, it is essential to check a business credit score frequently to see which direction it is moving and monitor for fraud and inaccuracies that need to be corrected. Unlike the personal score, however, the major bureaus don't hand out the information for free, and there will be a fee involved ranging anywhere from $40.00 to $100.00 each time it's checked. 

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

41

January/February 2021

Be Inspired to Live Your Best Life Every Day in 2021

Motivation From a Few of Today's Top Business Leaders Collaboration and Cooperation: The Keys to Business Success in Today’s World Job Loss: Is It a Defeat or an Opportunity?

Marketing Yourself: Why It’s Not About You

WELCOME TO THE TOP SECOND EDITION

Learn from the best and get proven and time-tested advice needed to succeed. Discover powerful strategies and systems, and endless possibilities to rapidly grow your business in any economy. Gain powerful insights to help you achieve growth quickly and save your most precious resources—time and money.

Wow, I simply love this book. I was personally empowered by this tome of collective wisdom and insights. WELCOME TO THE TOP IS A MUST-READ FOR EVERY PERSON WHO IS SERIOUS ABOUT LEADING A FULFILLING AND PRODUCTIVE LIFE. My heartfelt thanks go out to Monica for providing us a clear way to manifest our destiny.

Dr. George C. Fraser, CEO, FraserNet, Inc.

WELCOME TO THE TOP IS A MASTERPIECE AND AN ABSOLUTE MUST-READ FOR ENTREPRENEURS. It should be mandatory reading in every business school. Many of the ideas and the advice they offer can be applied immediately to any business. I have used them for my business and had great results. The wisdom they each share is profound and will shorten the learning curve for readers and save them from making a boatload of costly mistakes.

Chrissy Carew, Hall of Fame Master Certified Coach & Founder of Insightful Player, LLC

Only

16.95

GET YOUR COPY TODAY AT www.secretstosuccessbooks.com

CONTENTS EXTRAORDINARY PROFILES

46

BE INSPIRED TO LIVE YOUR BEST LIFE EVERY DAY IN 2021 Motivation From a Few of Today's Top Business Leaders

EMPOWER YOURSELF

56

11 Ways to Change Your Life in 30 Days

58

JOHNNA DEVEREAUX A New Force In Pet Nutrition

65

Become Your Family CEO

67

New Year's Resolutions: How to Break Through Your Comfort Zone

69

TOM MARINO Helping Achievers Create Balance Through Choice

75

Job Loss: Is It a Defeat or an Opportunity?

77

Time Management Techniques to Help You Achieve More

LIGHTER SIDE OF LIFE

80 82

Why I Miss Going to Meetings Recipes

Do you have the courage to keep moving forward even though there are obstacles in your path and you can’t see your destination clearly?

MOTIVATION FROM A FEW OF TODAY'S TOP BUSINESS LEADERS

Be Inspired to Live Your Best Life Every Day in 2021

Joe Nail https://www.lead4america.org

Loving your neighbor is a simple, radical, profound, and beautiful call. The concept of “love your neighbor” is such a simple one. Everyone has a neighbor. Everybody has people that surround them. It doesn’t call you to do anything other than offering what you have at the moment.

The key to a healthy community — the part that supports and connects all of it — are healthy, loving relationships between people. What makes this country great, what makes our communities great, and what makes human nature great is our desire and intense need to be connected to other people and love and serve them.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

47

Adelheid Waumboldt https://www.isetagency.com Always be in pursuit of knowledge. Learn from everyone and everything around you. And be fearless in all actions that you take.

Melanie Mack https://www.linkedin.com/in/ melanie-mack-18627717/ Life is not a dress rehearsal. Live life to the fullest. Use all your gifts. You have to recognize and own that your gifting is something special that is unique to you. It’s essential to cultivate it.

48

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Jerry Bell www.JerryBellMusic.com

Patience. Perseverance. Persistence. And love. That’s the most important thing. Not just loving what you do, but loving people and loving yourself. Everybody’s looking for someone to make them happy. But if you don’t love yourself, nobody can make you happy.

You can’t love yourself with an ego. You have to love yourself with an open eye, an open heart, and an open mind.

Everyone passes through this life—some sooner than others. Love yourself, not in a selfish manner, but love who you are so that you can continue to keep going to the end of your journey.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

49

Christal Earle https://bravesoles.life

We all have the opportunity to decide whether we want to see ourselves as a victim or a creator. How we see ourselves determines the choices we make from that point forward. Being a creator is incredibly liberating because that means you open yourself up to limitless possibilities. Where you are now doesn’t need to determine what your future will be. The choices we make help define it, but we can decide what kind of future version of us we want to have in the world.

50

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Dame Dr. Munni Irone http://www.art4peaceawards.us

Success is when you listen to your heart, and you stay in that moment to decide where the heart is leading you.

When you cultivate your heart, your thinking is clear. Your thoughts are better, and success comes when you manifest it. Nothing will come to you unless you manifest it because I believe God gives you everything you want. God will not give you what you want unless you know for sure why you want it.

To have success, you must have a balance between physical, mental, and spiritual. Cultivation of the heart will lead you to success.

We all have options for choosing our lives. As you serve, I believe the receiving is already waiting for you – waiting for anybody. You serve, then you receive. When you serve, you must do so only to serve, and that’s it.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

51

MaryWooldridge https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-wooldridge-b0924a23/

I believe our thoughts are directly connected to our futures and our outcomes, and that our greatness lies in the power of our thoughts. If we believe, trust, and have faith, I believe it will come to pass because we have called those things into existence.

52

January-February 2021  |  Exceptional People Magazine

Start Your Business Right

A Comprehensive Guide to Entrepreneurship Success SECOND EDITION Monica Davis’ book ‘Start Your Business Right, A Comprehensive Guide to Entrepreneurship Success’ is a musthave tool for every entrepreneur and anyone contemplating that decision.

She gives you the tools first and follows it with the roadmap. Your journey is mapped out.

Judy Hoberman, President, Selling In A Skirt

Ever wondered what it would be like to read a relevant guide that can take you through each step of starting your business the right way? Monica Davis has brilliantly written that guide. If you want to start your business the right way or turn an existing business around in the right direction, I WOULD HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU READ THIS INSTRUCTIONAL GUIDE. THANK YOU, MONICA, FOR THIS MARVELOUS RESOURCE! Faye Hill, CEO, The Hill Agency International LLC

The ultimate guide to help you plan your business and make smart decisions at the most detailed level before and while you’re developing your business.

Start Your Business Right gives you a blueprint for success and provides critical insights, tools, and resources that most entrepreneurs spend thousands of hours and dollars discovering.

Only

16.95

GET YOUR COPY TODAY AT www.secretstosuccessbooks.com

EMPOWER YOURSELF

The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. ~Stephen Covey

11 Ways

to Change Your Life in 30 Days

BY KATHY KENTTY

A

30-day challenge can be a great way to kickstart, making a significant change in your life. The thought of making a long-term change can be very uncomfortable for most people. But attempting change in a much smaller way less intimidating, especially if it’s only for a month.

All it takes is about a month to create a new habit that can take your life to a whole new level -- opening up new opportunities. It’s only for 30 days. What do you have to lose?

Time is a valuable resource that you can never regain, so select the 30-day challenge that will best elevate your life:

Speak to one new person each day. Talking to new people has many benefits. You’ll improve your communication skills, reduce your social anxiety, and you might make a new friend.

Replace a bad habit with a new, positive one. Don’t go overboard by choosing something difficult. Start with two relatively small habits and give yourself a good chance for success.

Give up TV and social media. If these are big time-wasters for you, this would be a great challenge. Set a date and let everyone know you’re taking a break from social media.

You’ll probably have plenty of volunteers ready to join you.

56

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Exercise for 30 minutes daily. Exercise is essential to your well-being. It’s beneficial to your physical and mental health.

Find an activity that you like to do and commit to it for 30 days. When you make it fun, you’ll be more inclined to do it daily.

Start a gratitude journal. This is a much easier challenge, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t incredibly life-changing. Just list five things each day for which you are grateful. Try to avoid too many repeats over the month. Do this either first thing in the morning or the last thing at night. Or you could do both! The more you are grateful for, the more blessings will come your way. And always share your blessings with others.

Try a new diet. There are many healthy diets available.

You can’t possibly know for sure which one is best for you without trying them. Pick one and stick to it for 30 days. You can even create your own. The key is to be consistent.

Take a walk. If you’re sedentary or stressed a lot, a daily walk can do much for you. Any time of day can work. If you work in an office environment, make it a habit to take a five-minute walk two or three times a day, even if it’s doing a couple of laps around the hallway or walking up the stairs, which can get your heart pumping. Your results may surprise you at the end of 30 days.

EMPOWER YOURSELF

Listen to a guided meditation audio program each night.

It’s not easy to begin meditating on your own, but there is another option: Recorded, guided meditations. At the end of your day, simply listen. Notice the changes you’ve experienced after ten days.

Get up one hour earlier and use the time. Generally, most people waste time in the evening. Get to bed an hour earlier and get up earlier. Find a way to use that time constructively.

Many people get more done in the morning than at any other time of the day. Use that to your advantage.

Create a morning routine and follow it. Plan out the first two hours of your day, and then follow your plan. Think about your goals and responsibilities. Create a morning routine that supports those.

Read for 30 minutes each day. Read something nonfiction each night. Ideally, it will be something you can apply

to your life. Imagine if you learned something daily and incorporated it into your life! Feel free to increase the time to an hour if your schedule permits.

Thirty-day challenges can be a fun and less threatening way to start making a change in your life. It always takes a few weeks to create and maintain a new habit. This is a very different mindset than starting something that you feel you should keep doing forever.

At the end of 30 days, evaluate your progress. Was it worth it? What have you gained? What did it cost you financially, emotionally, or with regards to time? Is it worth continuing?

If so, then you know what to do.

If you’d like to make a change in your life, consider using a 30-day challenge to jumpstart the process. Try something new for 30 days and see what happens. 

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

57

Johnna Devereaux

A New Force In Pet Nutrition

EMPOWER YOURSELF

W

hen Johnna Devereaux’s first puppy started developing chronic health issues, it wasn’t long before she realized that traditional veterinary treatments weren’t relieving his discomfort.

So she dug deep into canine health and nutrition. There, she discovered her life’s “spark” — and enrolled in a twoyear course to become a Clinical Pet Nutritionist. In 2014, she opened Fetch RI, a holistic pet supply store where she provides animal health and wellness products and expertise. Offering only what she would feed to her own dogs, Fetch RI products are free of artificial ingredients, chemical preservatives, wheat, corn, soy, propylene glycol, and plastic.

Fetch RI has received several awards, including “Top Dog”

by Animal Print magazine and “Best of Rhode Island” by Editor’s Pick and Reader’s Choice. The popular store also offers a “Fetch Room” where dogs and their owners can attend training sessions, hold canine birthday parties, or simply run and exercise safely.

When I lost my two cats, I ended up volunteering at an animal shelter and focusing on the shelter’s feline aspect.

One day I came in, and there was a dog that had been rescued, and she was pregnant and had puppies two weeks later. I met what ended up being my boy Diego, at the age of three days old. And it was instant love. It was a bond that I never thought I could have with an animal. And the rest is history.

What brought me into nutrition was that I would adopt this puppy, and everything was going to be great, and if I fed him the right food, he would be as healthy as possible. However, the world had a different plan for Diego (that’s his name) and me; I’d say he was the catalyst for a complete change in my life trajectory. Within the first year of his life, he had rashes, ear infections, just a lot of medical issues. I tried

Devereaux has been featured as a Trailblazer in the pet industry by Pets+ Magazine, and has published articles in Animal Print magazine, Rhode Island’s Family Guide and the 2019 Health and Wellness Guide for Southern New England.

She’s also Director of Nutrition and Wellness for Bow Wow Labs, the creators of the Bully Buddy — an ingenious invention which lets dogs chew on bully sticks safely, with no risk of choking. She speaks regularly at veterinary clinics about the benefits of feeding pets in a species-appropriate way, and is a repeat presenter at Potters League University.

Devereaux lives in Rhode Island with her husband and two dogs, Lola and Diego. We caught up with her in between tummy rubs to learn more about her life’s passion.

Monica: What was life like for you growing up?

Johnna: I grew up around pets, domestic pets, and a few farm animals like goats and rabbits my entire life. And I was primarily a cat girl because I was so busy with work that I didn’t have the time that I knew it would take to invest in being a dog mom.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

59

EMPOWER YOURSELF

using the traditional techniques and therapies to help his body heal, and they weren’t working.

It was really out of necessity that I went down the path of learning more about the canine anatomy, what their needs are from a nutritional level. I’m also an herbalist. I utilized that realm of my knowledge, and I saw Diego’s body change almost instantly from going from a place of disease, a sickness, really, to thriving. It just created that light bulb moment that I think sometimes we have.

When I was younger, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian, but I couldn’t deal with the thought of blood and having to put an animal to sleep. I immediately realized that I could still help animals from a nutritional level. That was what put me on this path. I researched and found a two-year course specializing in feline and canine nutrition, and the rest is history.

Monica: You mentioned that you also specialize in herbal treatments.

Johnna: I’ve been working with herbs for probably the last 20 years. It was just a love of nature and for all things natural. I worked a lot with humans. And one of the things that I learned through my education with canine and feline nutrition is that herbs transfer well with pets. Pets respond quickly and phenomenally with plants.

It was a straightforward transition for me to start using my herbs and applying them to dogs and cats. All herbs that humans can use cannot be used for dogs and cats, but there are many similarities in what their bodies will respond to if that makes sense.

Monica: Many pet owners tend to give their dogs and cats table food because they want their pet to enjoy what they’re eating, but that’s not necessarily good for them. What can you tell pet owners about giving their pets table food?

Johnna: I guess the first place I always start is how do we define table food? If you’re talking about green beans or blueberries that are in whole food 60

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

form -- meaning they haven’t been processed, fried, or they don’t have many spices on them -- those are foods that are chock-full of nutrition and can be extremely beneficial to our pets.

If, on the other hand, we’re talking about pizza crust and processed, enriched food that even we as humans probably shouldn’t be eating, then it’s not something that you ever want to recommend that a pet parent gives to their pet.

In reality, there are so many nutrients that come from our food. But it’s that definition of what is table food? What is table scraps? If you’re making chicken without spices and isn’t slathered in butter or fried, you can add that to your dog’s or cat’s food. It’s all how you qualify that statement. I can digress for a second and say I am a huge advocate of adding whole fresh food to your dog’s bowl essentially, as long as it will benefit them.

Fruits that are high in antioxidants, vegetables that are high in antioxidants and polyphenols, those are all things that can provide extra health benefits to your dog’s life. Some of the vitamins that come from those vegetables and fruits are essential, but they may not be necessarily crucial to the diet but can provide extra health benefits, and they may help prevent and treat certain types of disease in the body.

EMPOWER YOURSELF

Monica: What kind of issues can occur if they’re given the type of foods you mentioned regarding the preparation?

Johnna: Acutely, if you’ve given your dog something rich in fat and spices, you might have an episode where they have diarrhea. You could potentially cause some immediate response where they’re vomiting or having diarrhea, or just not feeling well. But you have to think more about the long-term.

Monica: It’s the same with humans. If you continue to put bad things in your system, it will eventually negatively impact you.

Johnna: It will impact overall health, and it is going to lead to obesity potentially. I say potentially because every dog is an individual, so I am not particularly eager to generalize, but it potentially can cause obesity. It can potentially decrease their vitality, decrease their lifespan. When I’m recommending nutrition to clients or even what I do with my dogs, everything that I feed them, I’m thinking, “Is this going to attribute to a longer life, or is it potentially going to decrease the length of their life?”

Monica: People see lots of ads for pet food every day. You own a pet boutique that sells pet food. What is it that you feel might be different from what’s on the store shelves in some of the products you sell?

Johnna: There are two points that I would like to mention.

First, you always want to watch out for artificial ingredients, chemical preservatives, dyes, food color dyes. Those are all things that are not necessary for pet food. There are natural preservatives with good quality ingredients, and

that’s what we strive to use. All of the food in my store is going to be wheat-free, corn-free, and soy-free. It’s going to have no artificial ingredients. There will be no chemical preservatives. I’m a huge advocate of limited ingredients.

What I offer in my store checks all of those boxes.

Monica: Based on what you offer your customers, on average, what is the food’s shelf life?

Johnna: It depends on the type of food that you’re feeding them. Once you open a bag of dry food, that shelf life severely diminishes. Once you open a bag of food, you really should not have that food open for longer than 30 days because of what we call oxidation. The fat in the food can begin to turn rancid from light, air, and moisture.

The shelf life for an unopened bag is going to be different from an opened bag of food. And that’s across the board.

With canned food, it’s two years. When you’re talking about freeze-dried food, it’s about a year. When you’re looking at raw frozen food, the shelf life will be about six months from when I receive it, and what’s dated on the back, to when a customer buys it.

Monica: I want to talk a little about COVID-19. Generally speaking, pets are, for the most part, used to their owners not being home during the day because they go to work.

Is it difficult for them to adjust, now that many people are staying home all day because of COVID-19?

Johnna: Well, I don’t know that our pets are having a more challenging time adjusting to their people being around. I think what’s happening is those pet parents because they’re home, they’re paying more attention to their pets.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

61

EMPOWER YOURSELF

supplements for musculoskeletal health to help support the joints, but yes, you want to look at feeding them a higher protein diet as they age.

Monica: How often should pets be checked?

Johnna: I’m a big fan of wellness visits. I would say do at least one wellness visit every year with your veterinarian.

Have them just put their hands on your dog and have them look at them with their expert eyes to make sure that nothing is going on. The best thing that can happen is they say your dog is great and healthy. I have my dogs checked every year.

I have their blood drawn every year to ensure that nothing is going on that hasn’t yet manifested into something that we can see visually. Often, some things can happen in the organs that we can’t know until it’s almost too late.

They’re noticing potential ailments that might be going on, lumps, bumps, things to that effect. In general, because of COVID-19, one of those silver linings that you and I talked about earlier is that people can bond with their pets in a way that maybe they weren’t otherwise able to do. They’re able to take their dog out for a walk. They’re able to spend time playing with their cat and engaging them in a way that they may not otherwise have been able to do. I think in that aspect, the silver lining has been very beneficial for pets.

My concern is two-fold. We all want COVID-19 to go away and not be a problem, but when it does and when we go back to a pre-COVID-19 life, if we ever do, that is where the issues are going to be seen because our dogs and cats will have become so used to us being home, that transitioning back is going to cause potentially separation issues, potential lessening of exercise. There might be weight gain.

Because many of us like to show our love through food, we might start to feel guilty and give treats to our animals.

When I say treat, I mean with food, which may also lead to weight issues. For an overweight animal, it’s detrimental to their system and all of the organs.

Monica: As a dog ages, should their food and diet also change?

Johnna: As a dog becomes a senior, you do want to increase the protein in their diet. They need it more for their muscles. At the same time, you want to look into potential 62

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Monica: As a parent who might be considering purchasing an animal for their child, what should they do to prepare themselves? What should they be looking for to ensure the pet is healthy?

Johnna: That’s a loaded question. Well, I would recommend any pet parent or any parent looking to bring home a pet to do your research. Do your research on the breed, the energy level of that breed, their needs, and if they’re good with kids. Every dog is an individual, but specific characteristics are shared among certain types of dogs.

Just do your homework. Energy levels in some dogs will be much higher than in others, and when you’re dealing with kids, sometimes that can be a benefit. Sometimes that can be a disadvantage, depending on the size and age of your child. A puppy needs to go through potty training, teething, and the biting phase. Are you going to be able to take the time to invest in training that pet so that they have proper manners so that they aren’t chewing things and misbehaving?

Many times, people love the idea of having a cute puppy or kitten because they’re such fabulous additions to our household, but really, it’s a responsibility. I think it’s also an excellent opportunity to teach a child responsibility and love for a living, breathing being.

There are so many benefits that come from it, whether you buy or whether you go to your local shelter, which I’m a big

advocate of rescue dogs. It just comes down to being prepared to have that new addition in the household and having a long-term plan to deal with potty training, teething, training, and everything else.

Monica: Can you talk briefly about Bow Wow Labs?

Johnna: I’ve been talking a lot about mental stimulation, which I am a big advocate for, especially with dogs. Dogs technically in the wild would be walking and navigating. Mental exercise is going to wear out your dog in about 10 or 15 minutes. It’s the equivalent of about four miles of physical activity.

There are times, especially in this COVID-19 environment, where more of us work from home. If we can give them something to engage their brains and keep them quiet, it will be extremely beneficial.

Bow Wow Labs invented the Bully Buddy product, a safety device for dogs’ favorite long-term chew, a bully stick. Your dog will chew down a bully stick.

The act of chewing is going to release dopamine and serotonin to make them happy. They’re going to navigate around. It’s going to give them that mental

BOW WOW LABS INVENTED THE BULLY BUDDY PRODUCT, A SAFETY DEVICE FOR DOGS’ FAVORITE LONGTERM CHEW, A BULLY STICK. YOUR DOG WILL CHEW DOWN A BULLY STICK. THE ACT OF CHEWING IS GOING TO RELEASE DOPAMINE AND SEROTONIN TO MAKE THEM HAPPY. Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

63

EMPOWER YOURSELF

stimulation, but they no longer have the tactile ability to hold onto it when they get to that last one inch. So, they put the whole thing in their mouth, and most times, they swallow it.

Then it becomes a 50/50 chance if they can digest it or if it’s going to get stuck in their throat. It might become a choking hazard. It might become an intestinal obstruction.

The Bully Buddy safety device allows you to insert the bully stick into this device. You screw down on it, and it protects that last inch, so your dog can get all of the benefits of longterm chewing and enjoy the bully stick without having that potential choking hazard or the intestinal obstruction. It’s a great addition, especially now when we’re working from home and we need to have those meetings that must go uninterrupted.

People can learn more at www.bowwowlabs.com, and they can follow us on Instagram or Facebook. We also have a Bow Wow Now Club to make sure that they’re never out of bully sticks. It’s a great product that I think every household should have.

Monica: Can people also purchase products from your boutique online?

Johnna: They can. I have yet to get the entire store online because we have over 3000 SKUs, but yes, we have many of our best-selling products there.

Monica: If you don’t mind, I’d like for you to end the interview with some advice.

Johnna: One of the things about COVID-19 is that, as humans, we’re also feeling a lot of stress and anxiety. Our animals specifically feel our emotional state. If your dog is feeling stressed or a little bit anxious, one thing you can do is take time to breathe and relax. Go out on a walk, take your dog with you. Meditate, do something to decompress, and it will help your dog or your cat reduce their stress and anxiety.

They are our best friends, after all. They only give us love.

And it’s just such a beautiful gift, especially during this time, to spend that time with our pets. I wish everyone could take advantage of that and take the time to enjoy them.

Monica: Thank you for this opportunity.

Johnna: Thank you.  64

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Travel Tips

By Johnna Devereaux, C.P.N.

1

Bring a little bit of home with you. Being in a new environment can be challenging for some dogs. Make the transition a little easier by bringing their favorite blanket, bed, toy, or a combination of the three!

2

Dogs that have motion sickness may benefit from ginger. This potent plant helps with all forms of nausea and may make your trip easier on the whole family.

3

Does your pet get nervous in the car? Start taking a few short trips (to fun places) before you get on the road for your trip! This will help your dog associate positive energy related to the car and should help calm them.

4

Bring their food with you! It will help avoid the potential for an upset stomach and the possibility of loose stool (especially if stores where you are going don’t carry the food you feed them).

5

Make a travel kit! Make sure it includes your dog’s recent rabies vaccination record, a first-aid kit, poop bags, bowls, water, and a few current photos (print some out in the off chance you lose your pup and your phone!)

6 7

Leash before they leave the car! Never allow your pet to jump out of the car without a leash. If something were to startle them, you would have no control over where they go.

Stretch their legs! A general rule of thumb is to let your pup stretch their legs and relieve themselves every time you fill your gas tank!

8

Make sure that wherever you are going is petfriendly and doesn’t have weight restrictions or crate requirements! If so, adjust accordingly and have fun!

Johnna Devereaux, CPN is a Clinical Pet Nutritionist, the Director of Nutrition & Wellness for Bow Wow Labs, and Owner, Fetch RI.

www.bowwowlabs.com www.fetchri.com

Become Your

y l i m a F

CEO

BY DONNA CARLETTA

A

s the head of your family and household, do you view it from the perspective of a CEO? Do you manage your home like a business?

you have to save every month to meet those bills. Set up a simple transfer to a savings account.

There may be some advantages to that point of view.

Discretionary Spending

Your family is your personal corporation that makes sales (your work income), has operating expenses (bills) and needs to make a profit (savings and retirement). If you want your corpora¬tion to make money, you can do some of the same things a CEO does.

Next, add up last year's spending by category: Groceries, utilities, phones, maintenance, clothing, dining out.

Spreadsheets or checking apps make this reasonably easy to keep to do.

Periodic Expenses As CEO, you should identify expenses that happen once or twice a year: Auto and home insurance, car maintenance and repairs, property tax, or anything over $400 to $500 that occurs regularly. Add them up and divide by 12. This is what

Some of that spending is discretionary, like things you want instead of what you need. Some things are going to fall in between both categories.

Make Big Decisions and Set Limits Compare income and expenses. If you spend more than you earn, it's time to put on the CEO hat. Look at your Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

65

EMPOWER YOURSELF

discretionary costs. This is the area where you can cut spending. Set limits here.

Do you need a new company car? You can save $300 to $800 a month if you stick with the old one. (Consider how much that adds up if you keep your existing car for ten years! Even with annual repairs, you come out way ahead.)

Think Big Picture As CEO, you want to focus on the big picture. Don't make the process too complicated. Maybe for a month -- just as an experiment -- save all your grocery receipts and then

66

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

analyze expenses as wants or needs. But, too much detail will probably make you want to quit. So, stay focused on the big picture. If you are spending within limits, then the plan is working.

Appoint a CFO Once you've established spending guidelines for the year, appoint a CFO to make sure bills are paid, and spending is within limits. If that is your spouse and not you, make sure your partner understands the plan and is on board. Hold a monthly board meeting. Tweak your plan as needed. 

New Year's Resolutions: How to Break Through Your Comfort Zone

BY MARLA GEM

EMPOWER YOURSELF

W

henever the New Year arrives, the urge for selfimprovement is strong at the beginning. It's a time for looking back and reflecting on what kind of person we have been. It's also a time for looking forward and visualizing ourselves as the person we want to be.

• Study the obstacles to your resolution and determine ways to deal with them. For example, if you want to lose weight, skip the ice cream and have a low-calorie icicle instead. Tell friends you are not eating decadent desserts so they won't tempt you.

This is where we come to the 64-thousand dollar question: Is the urge for change more powerful than the drive to revert to what is comfortable to you? At first, change seems manageable, but we may begin to get tired like the runner in a marathon as we continue. Then, as we encounter other challenges in our daily lives, returning to our comfort zone could seem more important than making the change.

• Think about seeking professional help. Medical assistance could be valuable in stopping an addictive habit.

• Keep your focus and monitor your progress. Keep a notebook and record how often the behavior you want to change occurs, who you were with, and how you felt.

You'll see a pattern that could be avoided in the future.

Keep these points in mind when making your resolutions:

• If you break a resolution, don't give up on the effort. See it as an opportunity for self-understanding. Treat yourself kindly.

• When one resolution involves a significant lifestyle change, don't make any others. If you want to quit smoking, lose weight, and learn a foreign language, you won't be able to do all three things at once.

New Year's resolutions are supposed to make you feel good about yourself. If not keeping them makes you think badly about yourself, they aren't worth the effort. Work at it, but lighten up and feel good. 

68

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

TOM

MARINO

Helping Achievers Create Balance Through Choice https://monarchlifecoaching.com

EMPOWER YOURSELF

Y

ears ago, Tom Marino was a high-level New York executive. To all appearances, he had it made.

In reality, Marino was miserably overworked and always under stress. Deciding to pursue a better work/life balance, he quit his well-paid job — with a mortgage and two kids. To make ends meet, he started coaching and consulting as an independent contractor.

It wasn’t long before he began to realize that he had a hidden superpower: The power to choose his own life trajectory based on his passions, his talents, and his authentic self. Seeing that one of his corporate clients needed major management help, he drafted his own dream job description and was hired on the spot as their Chief Transformation Officer — with a four-day work week.

Today, Marino continues his CTO work while helping other highly motivated achievers create their own balanced lifestyle. As a Life Coach, Marino helps them discover the power in their choices by understanding their core values, exploring who they are, setting goals, and establishing healthy boundaries.

Marino told us recently that no matter what the circumstance, everyone has the choice to live the way they want to live. We think you’ll agree.

Monica: I'm interested in learning how you went from being an employee to starting a company that focuses on helping people live well-balanced lives.

Tom: I'll give you the quick but extended version. I am a physician assistant by training, and I started out practicing medicine right out of college, right after I graduated from Physician Assistant (PA) school. I was 23 and worked in pediatric medicine. I also did some family medicine before entering the world of healthcare management in 2007.

In 2007, I was still helping a few patients in the clinic where I worked while doing my first administrative role. Over the last 12 years, I've held a variety of administrative positions.

70

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

About four years ago, I worked as a Vice-President of Operations for a multi-specialty group practice in New York.

I was in charge of the Queens and Brooklyn region, in which I had about 16 locations and almost 700 employees in my portfolio. That was from front desk staff to physicians to nurses, the whole gamut.

I found another opportunity to be a Chief Operating Officer for an independent practice association, and I went to that job, and I was not fond of it at all. I did not enjoy what I was doing. I realized after 60 days of being there that that was not the right decision for me.

I quit a job for the first time in my life with nowhere to go.

I had left other jobs but always went from one position to the other. In this situation, it was the first time I was faced with real unemployment in a sense. I started to network and figured out what I wanted to do, and I decided that the best thing for me was to take a break and try being my own boss and doing things my way for the first time. I networked and spoke to a former boss who needed some consulting work for a care management system that they were implementing, and she hired me full time as a consultant.

A couple of months later, I reached out to another colleague I saw on LinkedIn celebrating an anniversary. I reached out to her and said I was doing some healthcare consulting after congratulating her on her seventh anniversary, and she said, wow, we could use someone to come in and look at our healthcare operation. I ended up taking them on as a second client.

About nine months into consulting, I said to her, "I think you need a person in this organization who could help with advising you as a CEO, helping you develop infrastructure, think about succession planning and think about how you develop leadership within the organization." I wrote a job description for a Chief Transformation Officer, and that's the role that I still fill in some way in my day job because I am a coach right now part-time. I'm not 100% on my own yet. I use the word ‘yet’ very strongly because the goal is

EMPOWER YOURSELF

to be doing speaking engagements and coaching full time within the next few years. I do that job four days a week, but everything I do in my coaching business applies to what I do in my day job.

Through that entire experience, I learned that you have the power, by the choices you make, to change and create the reality that you want for yourself. I learned the power of living my authentic life and wanted to help other people who felt stuck or who feel stuck to become who they are, identify who they indeed are, and be able to take the necessary steps. I want to encourage and support them to take the leap I made.

Monica: When a person decides to quit, or if they are let go, how important is it to have an established network of people to support you?

Tom: It is essential to have that network. The most important thing I think is making sure that along the way, you grow your network. Have conversations with people.

One of my favorite things to do on LinkedIn, in addition to reaching out to people who may be in similar situations, is speaking to people who have had tremendous success and interviewing them and finding out what they did to get where they are and understand their formulas for success.

A network allows you to do that. It enables you to reach out to other people. You want to have a network because you never know when you're going to need it. My network supported me through my transition and helped me get to where I am today.

Monica: I think it's important for people to realize that they don't have to continue doing what they currently do, especially if they have other skills they want to use.

Investigate those skills and maybe see what else you need to complement them, and then write your own job description.

Tom: It's about understanding your core values. When you think of your most authentic self, and when you're the happiest, what are those core values, emotions, or characteristics that exist for yourself? That becomes the thing that I help people develop. If our core values don't align with the job we're doing or the company we're working for, we're not going to find that fulfillment. We're not going to find that satisfaction that we're seeking.

It comes down to understanding who you are. I started as a Physician Assistant, then went into management. I'm still in management, but I've held operations jobs to now having a transformation job. What's the essence of it all? It's servitude. It's service to others. It has always been a core value of mine, and I live it in every aspect of what I do.

Monica: Because of COVID-19, there are millions of people who are out of work, some temporarily and some permanently. Besides networking, what should they be doing at this very moment to prepare themselves for future employment?

Tom: I think this is a great opportunity. I thought back in March when many people were either laid off or furloughed, and many companies were not hiring, what better thing to do than to get yourself ready for that next role.

What skills or things do you need or want to educate yourself about to improve who you are so you can go out there and do something different? Maybe it's also an opportunity to shift.

It's an opportunity to become a student again and take a new course. I had one client who wanted to be a personal trainer.

She read books, she took an online course, and now she's

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

71

EMPOWER YOURSELF

working towards her certification. It's an opportunity right now to reinvent yourself.

Ask yourself what's out there for me? How do I reinvent myself? What do I do things differently, and what are the at-home opportunities that now exist? The culture and the dynamic of the world have shifted to working remotely.

The landscape of the business world has shifted tremendously to that remote environment. What are some of the things that you could do remotely that you never thought possible? Many things that are blooming are e-commerce and web-based opportunities for sales.

Countless opportunities exist now but weren't there before.

Monica: Companies are revamping the way they do business. Many of them are trying to figure out how they can survive and thrive without having people come into the office. It will help them reduce costs by reducing the amount of space they need to run their company. They're also permanently reducing their staff.

You have to be creative and think of ways to utilize your skills but not necessarily work for someone else.

Tom: I try to work with people and encourage them not to put all their eggs in one basket. If you have a lot of excellent skills and you could do something part-time -- start it as a part-time opportunity, then take advantage of this time to get that off the ground.

Monica: For those who might need some additional skills or need to upgrade their current skills, what do you think are some ways in which they can quickly get that done?

Everyone can't afford to go to college.

Tom: If you're struggling to find a job and you're not sure which direction to go, look for something you've always wanted to do and try to get a paid internship.

That may not be easy, but many businesses are hiring for that right now. I was working with a client who's very

72

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

interested in the music industry. He's an artist himself, but he doesn't want to work in construction or work in some of these part-time jobs that he's doing. He wants to work in the industry. He's moving out to California. We looked at what was available, and there many paid internships available.

Even if there's no paid internship available, if you have time while looking for a new job, get an internship, even if it's for free, so that you learn something new. You'll learn a new skill and learn a new business. You don't know what opportunity is going to present itself.

Monica: For those who want a career change. How can they go about initiating that?

Tom: It's a widespread thing that I'm seeing in many of my clients. They're people that are currently employed, but COVID-19 has woken them up a bit, and they've asked themselves, "Is this what I always want to do? Is this where I want to be? Is there something more that I could be doing?" When I work with clients looking for that career change, I usually put them through what we call our selfexploration process.

The self-exploration process is an opportunity to focus on two big things. What are our natural skills and abilities?

What are the skills and abilities that we've learned over the years in our careers and jobs? And life in general?

You have a tremendous amount of life skills that you don't necessarily apply to where you work or the role you fill.

Some people forget about those skills. What I encourage people to do is go through that process of self-exploration.

Then I help people identify what those truths are about themselves and support them in going after them. That's what people often need. They're afraid of what other people are going to say. The most important thing to do right now if you're considering a career change or looking for a different opportunity is to focus on your skills and abilities, both natural abilities and what are things you've learned, and then don't listen to anybody else.

EMPOWER YOURSELF

Monica: What would you say are some common reasons why people quit their jobs?

Tom: I think many people I speak to quit their job because they don't see any growth potential. They don't see that there's an opportunity there, nor is it being encouraged or facilitated.

Money plays a role, but money doesn't solve all the issues.

If you keep chasing money, you're going to be miserable. If there's no fulfillment, there's no alignment. Only go for money if there's alignment with you are. Sometimes, it's not just the growth; it's the self-awareness that the person has. You have to be self-aware. You have to know your limits and boundaries.

I think company culture is the second thing that plays a role in why people leave positions. They don't like certain things that happen. They don't like the back-stabbing or the undercutting, and they want to be in an environment that supports them and builds them up.

Monica: If a person is looking for another job and one of the important things to them is company culture, you may often not figure it out by visiting its website. When the company is interviewing them, what are some questions they should ask to learn about the culture?

Tom: Being in an executive role, several times, I've been asked very bluntly and directly, what's the organization's culture? What is this like? Of course, depending on who's giving the interview, you're going to answer it from a very political standpoint, and it's going to be hard sometimes to identify what the real culture is.

I think what you have to look for is the characteristics of the people interviewing you. What are you picking up in that interview about the type of people that are there? Are they friendly? Are they outgoing? Remember, an interview is not just about you. It's about the company and the people who are interviewing you. They have to sell you on the company, just as much as you have to sell them on you.

I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE ALLOW A PROCESS TO TAKE PLACE, FULLY ENGAGE IN THAT PROCESS, AND MAGIC HAPPENS, AND THEY FIND THE HAPPINESS THEY'RE SEEKING. THAT'S WHAT I LOVE. Pay attention to those kinds of things. What are they putting out there? Does it seem the same as what they're saying?

What are their reactions? What are their facial responses to your questions? Ask great questions in the interview.

Whenever I find a candidate that has many questions, I love interviewing that person. When someone doesn't have many questions, it causes concern because it tells me they're not thinking about the job, the company, and the opportunity.

Ask what the culture is like and compare what they're saying to how they're acting. Be very aware of their behaviors and how you're greeted when you walk in the door. Be very much aware of how the place looks.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

73

EMPOWER YOURSELF

Monica: If you don't mind, can you talk about a couple of the tools you use to help people identify what they should be doing in the future if they're seeking a career change?

Tom: I do a few exercises. Everybody I work with, especially around career changes and life changes, I start with a discovery. That means I help them identify parts of their lives that work well for them versus what doesn't work well. We do an inventory of 13 different areas of your life, whether it's your friendships to your finances, your spirituality to your career, to your significant other. We look at the different aspects of your life, and I look for critical components that exist where people are happy. I try to identify missing key elements where people are unhappy. Then help them determine what's needed to be successful. That's step one.

Step two is self-exploration. Doing a deep dive on their talents, natural abilities, what are things that have brought satisfaction to them, and who are the people they admire.

Often, the people we admire are people with similar attributes, and we want to be more like them.

From that discovery and self-exploration, we create a list of possibilities and what exists for you. Taking the possibilities that exist and then researching and testing them out to learn more about those job opportunities. What are those job roles like? We do informational interviewing with people in similar positions to understand more about the possibilities that truly exist for them.

Then we codify all of that into the work forward and put goals together and develop actionable goals using a smartgoal format. Those are some of the tools that I use in my work with clients.

Monica: You're taking them on a journey.

Tom: Yes, we take them on a journey. That's what I've outlined in my book that was recently published, titled Bridge to Change. It was written mostly for my clients. It's not written necessarily to sell books. It's written for people

74

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

looking for a process and a way to make a change in their lives. My coaching program has a module dedicated to each chapter, and that's the work and the tools that people use to work on in between our face-to-face sessions weekly.

Monica: What brings you the greatest satisfaction about how you serve your clients?

Tom: I love when people allow a process to take place, fully engage in that process, and magic happens, and they find the happiness they're seeking. That's what I love.

Monica: You're in the right business because many people these days need that kind of help.

Thank you for taking the time to delve into many of the issues that people are experiencing right now in their careers, whether it's something out of their control or things that people need to consider if they're thinking of making a career change. Thank you for your time.

Tom: Thank you very much, Monica. 

JOB LOSS:

Is It a DEFEAT or an

OPPORTUNITY?

BY KATHY KENTTY

A

lready lost your job or have been informed you will be let go? Whether through downsizing, redundancy, or any other reason, your first thoughts can range from panic to anger, desperation, and all points in between, especially if you have a family and all the commitments that go with it.

Even if it’s a job you didn’t like but tolerated for years, when you no longer have it, you suddenly forget all the things you didn’t like about working there and remember only the good.

It’s human nature.

It’s incredibly daunting if you’ve been in that position for a long time and assumed that you had that job for life. When it’s the only job you’ve ever known, finding out that your job has vanished can be devastating.

But the feelings of loss, of being in free-fall, create feelings of doubt. And doubt can cause a considerable loss in self-confidence at a time when you need it the most.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

75

EMPOWER YOURSELF

Rather than block out those feelings, acknowledge them, embrace them, and then let them go. They will not serve you in moving forward.

Keep in mind that accountants activate many layoffs at the request of company leadership. These are usually people you don’t know and have never met. They have no idea who you are, your skills, your true worth, and how your family might suffer from your job loss. They’re just doing their job.

When companies lay off people, it’s generally to save the bottom line.

Why Me? The accountants are merely moving numbers from one column to another on the balance sheet to keep the company solvent. Don’t spend precious time trying to figure out ‘why me.’ You are just a number to them, and there’s no answer to that question.

It might be tough for you to make sense of the situation, which is natural. But sooner or later, you know you have to get past it, over it, or around it, and move on to the next chapter. So why not make it sooner?

The hard truth is losing a job is part of society. We live in a rapidly changing world, and this is just another kind of change, and change is the only constant we can indeed expect.

Think about it. Everyone you know that has a job has come from some other workplace, and most of them ended up with a better job after they moved! You can do the same.

Regardless of what happens to you, it’s what you do about what has happened to you that’s important.

So, although you didn’t anticipate this abrupt change, you can look at it as an opportunity to rethink, reset, adjust, and get a clear idea of not only what is possible for you but what could also change your life for the better.

Have you ever had thoughts about a career change? It just might be the perfect time to consider one. It could be so much easier to make such decisions now that your old job isn’t holding you back from going after what you truly desire.

76

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Could There Be a Better Time?

Think about it. Could there be a better time to re-define what you want to do with your life and get clear on what’s important to you?

Here are a few steps to help you plan your direction: 1. Decide what you want to avoid. A comfortable place to start is with what you don’t want and then look at the opposite.

• For example, if you don’t like commuting, consider a role that allows you to work from home. Tens of thousands of people already do; why not you?

2. What about your chosen field of expertise? If you’re tired of that kind of work, maybe you could look at something completely different.

• You can find free and low-cost courses on the internet for thousands of different skill sets. Sign up for as many as you need to understand what’s out there that might be a perfect fit for you.

3. Explore new ideas using your current interests.

Consider anything and everything that gets your attention. Start paying close attention to what interests you and what fascinates you. There could be something within arms-reach that you’ve had an interest in for some time. For example: • If you go to the bookstore, what sections do you visit most often?

• If you’re channel surfing on the TV, what kind of programs do you stop at most often?

• When you’re on social media, what stories do you read and comment on the most?

Make copious notes for a week or more. Then go back and review. Notice where the commonalities are and decide to follow up on what gets your attention.

You may find a fascinating new direction to pursue!

Some people have found that losing their job was the very best thing that could have happened to them. Why not you? 

Time Management Techniques to Help You Achieve More

BY PAT MARKEL

EMPOWER YOURSELF

T

here are only 24 hours in the day. You can't store it, nor can you borrow more for later.

Only you can decide how you spend your time.

Naturally, you'll want to spend your time on things that add value to your life. But with so much happening in today's world, including dealing with a pandemic, kids at home, looking for new work if you've lost your job, and other activities, how can you have time for everything, including those things that matter the most to you?

Fortunately, there are time management techniques that are tailor-made for busy people.

Here are some techniques that can help simplify how you work, ensuring that you get tasks done more efficiently and giving you more time for whatever you choose.

1. Organize your work around your energy levels. Your productivity levels are directly related to your energy levels, so schedule your most challenging tasks when your energy levels are at their highest.

• Any low-value tasks that require little energy, such as responding to emails, can be scheduled for the times when your energy levels are lower.

2. Make a plan for the day. At the end of each day, write a to-do list for the next day. Having a daily planner will help you keep organized. When you plan, you're mentally preparing yourself for any challenges you may face.

• It will also help limit procrastination at the start of the day and ensure that you work faster and more efficiently.

3. Start your day with the most crucial task. When you start the day off by completing your most important task, you'll give yourself a boost of momentum and a real sense of accomplishment. It'll give you the drive to keep going.

4. Prioritize tasks. When every job is a priority, nothing seems that important. Urgent tasks should be the highest priority. Then consider any high-value jobs while relegating low-priority projects to the end of your list.

78

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

5. Learn to outsource. You don't have to complete every task yourself. Especially those low-priority tasks.

Sometimes it's better to outsource these tasks so that you can focus your attention on the more pressing tasks. Do some research to find capable people who can handle smaller jobs.

6. Automate repetitive tasks. These days, there is technology available to automate many of your tasks, if not most of them. There are tools to schedule your social media postings, create canned email responses, and automatically fill in online forms at the touch of a button. Incorporating automation into your work-day can enable you to become more efficient and find the time to focus on your personal life.

• Automating these tasks could save you hours a week.

7. Eliminate distractions. When you are distracted, it can take a while to regain your focus, which can limit your productivity.

• Consider turning off the notifications on your phone.

• Invest in a pair of headphones, as this makes others less likely to approach you when you have them on.

• Browsing social media can become addictive and is a huge distraction. It should be avoided if you want to increase productivity. Set specific times of the day to update social media pages and limit the amount of time you spend on each platform.

8. Don't strive for perfection. It's easy to get caught up in trying to make everything perfect. However, perfectionism will slow you down and could result in missed deadlines.

Perfection is the enemy of real progress.

• Having the attitude of "I've done my best" and "that'll do" will save valuable time. Your work will be sufficient, and you'll finish in less time.

To manage your time more effectively, try each of these techniques. Once you find those that work best for your situation, use them daily. Your productivity will increase, and you'll save precious time in your busy life, giving you the time to do what matters most to you. 

LIGHTER

SIDE OF LIFE

By Dorothy Rosby

Why I Miss Going to Meetings I

f it weren’t for that little matter of everyone, I come in contact with being potentially hazardous to my health right now, I’d suggest we go back to having meetings in person instead of on Zoom, Cisco and the other online meeting platforms. You may wonder why I, an admitted introvert, would prefer live meetings. Two words: baked goods.

At several of the meetings I regularly attended pre-COVID, someone brought homemade treats.

If there’s going to be baked goods at any of my online meetings, I’m going to have to bake them myself, and I don’t see that happening. I haven’t had a homemade treat since around 1 p.m. on March 10, 2020.

Besides that, I don’t trust my technology skills or my ancient laptop and for good reason. I told other participants at a recent online meeting that I prefer to have my laptop propped up a bit so the camera is at eye level and I’m not looking down on everyone. To demonstrate, I picked it up and the battery fell out. As you’d expect, this did nothing for my internet connection. By

the time I got my computer put back together and got back online, the meeting was nearly over and everyone was almost finished making fun of me.

And it’s hard to focus during online meetings. If you’ve never participated in one, picture Hollywood Squares. Or think of staring at The Brady Bunch opener for an entire hour.

(Yes, I’m dating myself, but so are you if you admit you know what I’m talking about.)

There you all sit in your little squares on the screen. But not only do you see Marcia, Greg and the rest, you see you. It’s like if you held a mirror to your face the whole time you were in a live meeting. You’d find that pretty distracting, wouldn’t you? So would everyone else.

Part of the reason you’re distracted seeing yourself on the screen is because you don’t look so good.

Nobody does. Unlike on Hollywood Squares and the Brady Bunch, there’s no studio lighting in most people’s homes. Everybody looks like they have a virus.

LIGHTER SIDE OF LIFE

There’s also no warning light telling everyone to be quiet on set. Even if there were, my pets probably wouldn’t pay attention to it. If I don’t close my office door, my cat runs across my computer keyboard two or three times during every meeting. And if I do close it, he howls outside the door. Everyone I meet with online thinks I work in a zoo.

They’re not entirely wrong.

My canary is quiet just long enough for me to forget to move his cage before a meeting. But once things are underway, he invariably breaks into a happy song. He clearly finds meetings more inspirational than I do. I can only imagine what everyone is seeing in my little Hollywood square as I dash from my office carrying my laptop and hoping the battery doesn’t fall out.

You also have to clean your house before online meetings.

If you think cleaning just the area that will show in your square is sufficient, you’ve obviously never had to flee from an exuberant canary in the middle of a treasurer’s report.

I don’t know how they do it, but some people avoid the issue by changing their background on the computer. They can make it look like they’re coming to you live from a cruise ship or a tropical island instead of a cluttered office.

I never fall for that though. Hardly anyone is traveling right now and anyway, who would take time from a tropical vacation to attend a meeting where there won’t even be baked goods? 

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

81

RECIPES

Moussaka Dish The modern Greek moussaka has elements from many different cultures, especially the bechamel sauce borrowed from French cuisine. The quintessential Greek comfort food, moussaka is a hearty meal sure to please with all of the lamb, cheese, and spices.

INGREDIENTS: 8 garlic cloves, finely grated, divided ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons chopped mint, divided 2 tablespoons chopped oregano 3 medium eggplants (about 3 ½ pounds total), sliced crosswise into ½-inch-thick rounds 2 ½ teaspoons salt, plus more ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more 2 pounds ground lamb 2 medium onions, chopped 1 3-inch cinnamon stick 2 Fresno chiles, finely chopped 1 tablespoon paprika 1 tablespoon tomato paste ¾ cup dry white wine 1 28-ounce can whole, peeled tomatoes Bechamel Sauce 6 tablespoons unsalted butter ½ cup all-purpose flour 2 ½ cups whole milk, warmed ¾ teaspoon salt 4 ounces farmer cheese, crumbled 2 ounces Pecorino or Parmesan, finely grated, divided 3 large egg yolks, beaten to blend

82

DIRECTIONS: For the eggplant and lamb, preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Whisk together half the garlic, half a cup of olive oil, one tablespoon mint, and one tablespoon oregano. Brush around both sides of the eggplant rounds, covering well. Season with salt and pepper.

Place eggplant slices into a rimmed baking sheet. Roast them until brown, about 35-45 minutes. Reduce your oven to 400 degrees.

In the meantime, make the meat sauce by heating the rest of the olive oil in a large, wide pot over high heat. Cook the lamb until brown, breaking it up as you go. Strain the fat but save three tablespoons. Heat two tablespoons of the lamb fat in the same pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, cinnamon stick, ½ teaspoon pepper, and 2 ½ teaspoons salt. Cook until onions are translucent.

Add chiles and remaining garlic into the mixture, scraping the bottom of the pot. Add tomato paste and paprika and cook everything until it reaches a uniform red color, about a minute. Add the wine and cook until reduced, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, gently breaking them up with a wooden spoon. Add lamb, remaining mint, and oregano and cook into a thick meat sauce, about 5-7 minutes. Discard the cinnamon stick.

Bechamel and Final Assembly Heat butter in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat until it foams. Add the flour, constantly whisk for about one minute. Whisk in the warm milk and bring to a boil. Cook until it becomes the consistency of pudding, about 5 minutes. Then, add salt.

Remove the mixture from heat and whisk in farmer cheese and half of Pecorino. Let the cheese melt.

Add the egg yolks, whisking until golden yellow. Brush a 9x13" baking pan with the last of the lamb fat. Layer half the eggplant along the bottom. Spread half the lamb sauce over the eggplant.

Repeat with the last two halves of each mixture. Top with the bechamel and smooth.

Sprinkle Pecorino cheese over the top. Bake for 30-45 minutes, until it is bubbling vigorously. Let it cool 30 minutes before serving.

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

RECIPES

Pecan-crusted Tangy Pork Tenderloin Tilapia

INGREDIENTS:

INGREDIENTS:

4 large Tilapia fillets

4 half-inch thick pork loin cuts

1 1/3 cups finely crushed pecans

1 cup chopped sweet or red onion

1 cup honey

1 ½ cups vinegar

½ of one lemon

½ cup of barbecue sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups brown sugar

DIRECTIONS: 1. Pat the fillets dry with paper towels. Squeeze lemon juice onto each side of the fish and add salt and pepper to taste.

2. Coat the fillets on each side with the honey, using a pastry brush or spoon. Put the finely crushed pecans into a shallow dish or pie pan. Then, press the sticky fillets into the pecan bits until they are uniformly covered.

3. Bake at 350 degrees in a casserole or pie plate until the filets are crusty and brown.

10 dashes Louisiana hot sauce 2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper ½ cup Frank's Sweet Chili Sauce

DIRECTIONS: 1. Combine all ingredients except the meat and onion in a mixing bowl and stir until well mixed.

2. Chill in the refrigerator overnight. Braise the tenderloin in a skillet until lightly browned. Transfer to a baking pan. Stir the sauce again, place two tablespoons on each piece of meat, and then spoon onions on each coated piece.

3. Bake at 350 degrees until the onions are caramelized, and the sauce solidifies into a thick glaze. You may add a piece of provolone or Swiss cheese if you wish.

4. Serve on a sesame seed or onion bun or a plate as an entrée. You can easily double this recipe.

Exceptional People Magazine | January-February 2021

83

RECIPES

Potato Pancakes From the dining tables of France to the farm tables of almost every country globally, potato pancakes make a great breakfast dish or a side for any meal.

When you want to be creative, add other ingredients for a variety of tastes. Consider raisins, peppers, currants, chopped nuts, or small pieces of apples. Let your imagination be your guide.

If you have no left-over mashed potatoes on hand, start by mashing some freshly boiled potatoes or using one of your favorite mashed potato mixes.

INGREDIENTS: 4 cups cold mashed potatoes 2 large eggs ½ package real bacon bits or leftover bacon, crumbled 2 tablespoons chives Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS: 1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the two eggs until the yokes and whites are thoroughly mixed.

2. Add the mashed potatoes, salt, and pepper and stir until the ingredients are combined into a smooth batter.

3. Add the bacon bits and chives and stir again until thoroughly mixed.

4. Cover the bottom of a large skillet with cooking oil and heat on high. Place dollops of the batter in the skillet and let spread until they form pancakes about four inches in diameter.

5. Fry until the cakes are firm. Turn them and cook on the other side. The pancake should be golden brown. They can be accompanied by bowls of apple sauce and sour cream for tasty toppings.

6. Serves four.

84

January-February 2021 | Exceptional People Magazine

Profile Resources Profile Resources

DR. DAVID STEENBLOCK https://strokedoctor.com/about/dr-david-steenblock/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-steenblock-bs-ms-do-08857872/ https://www.facebook.com/drsteenblock ANNEMARIE CROSS https://annemariecross.com/ https://industrythoughtleaderacademy.com/theinfluencealliance/ https://www.facebook.com/AnnemarieCrossBranding https://www.facebook.com/TheAmbitiousEntrepreneurShow https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemariecross/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-influence-alliance/ ROSALIND SEDACCA www.provenresultswriting.com; www.childcentereddivorce.com www.childcentereddivorce.com/parenting-divorce www.linkedin.com/in/rosalindsedacca facebook.com/ChildCenteredDivorce Rosalindwrites@gmail.com JOHNNA DEVEREAX www.bowwowlabs.com; https://fetchri.com https://www.wpri.com/community/winter-pet-gear-to-grab/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnna-devereaux-c-p-n-5403a6148/ https://www.facebook.com/JohnnaDevereaux TOM MARINO https://monarchlifecoaching.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/monarch-life-coaching-llc/ https://www.facebook.com/monarchlifecoaching

Design and Graphics

Magazine Design and Graphics, and Cover Design by Jenette Antonio Sityar

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a New Year filled with many blessings!