Tag: wealth

Picture your mind like a still pool of water.
Its quiet depth is profound.
–a mindfulness reminder from chill-app.com

Think of something you feel gratitude for. Let that gratitude warm you.
For a few breaths, simply sit with that warmth.
–a mindfulness reminder from chill-app.com

Want to be loved by your customers? Do this.

What if you could easily and effortlessly get referrals from your customers, wouldn’t that be great?

Sometimes all it takes is considering how YOU would like to be treated as a customer.

Here are some Do’s that might have them jumping for JOY.

Love your Business

DO be someone who builds relationships before results. Be a person your customers ENJOY.

DO CALL your customers to check in with how you are doing. Ask your customers if they have any ideas or suggestions that would help you to serve them better.

DO offer continuous service or product improvements.

DO remember to THANK your customers for their business. A  HANDWRITTEN note  on a nice card via regular mail will WOW your customers.

DO keep your customers in the loop if there are problems with  your product or service. (Think: Steve Jobs handling the iPhone 4.0 situation)

DO teach your customers how to get the most from your product or service.

DO something totally unexpected that adds value to your customer just because.

DO give clients special services or a for-clients-only club with special offers.

DO follow-up, ask for feedback.

DO remember client birthdays.

DO stay ahead of the pack. Look for ways to innovate and offer something nobody else does. Be a leader.

DO love your customers and they will love you back.

Want to be more effective when working at home?

I don’t know about you but as an on again, off again blogger I find it very difficult to sit down and just write.

It’s not for lack of ideas rather for lack of a disciplined schedule. That would work for me.  Of course if your life is hectic and full of challenges, you might laugh and say.

“Disciplined schedule is she kidding? I can hardly make time to eat!”

Yes you can.  Make the time.  Pick a tip from the list below.

Then put the idea into action and notice any changes.

Pick another and keep going.

Their design is meant to keep you moving forward.

1. Set a deadline. Give  yourself  a reward  or  give someone else a reward, depending on outcome. Using a timer like from your iPhone or an egg timer can help, a lot.

Miss it:  Put a $5.00 bill in a jar to donate to charity. Make it: Take the $5.00 and and save up for that massage you long for.

2. Work with a buddy, friend, colleague, coach. Check in at start, check in 30 second call> stay on task, and check in at finish to see how you both did.

3. Do only what you love to do or you won’t do it. Focus is easier if you love what you do.

Delegate or dump anything that keeps you stuck in the land of excuses.

4. Develop a routine. What is your working style? I like early mornings to write ideas in my journal.

5. Train family members to respect your working time. Or lock the door or go to library or Starbucks.

6.  LOVE your work environment.  This is a biggie. Mine was a mess. The walls were pink with big blue blobs.  And overflowing with who knows what.

Now it’s the color of Pismo Beach dunes and my dog Clinton can be on the deck with me. Here he is testing a rug for me.

7. Set yourself up with your beverages, snacks, tissues. All the necessities you will need to get down to business and not have to keep jumping up, which is an avoidance tactic.

8.Define your daily goals.  Break big tasks into little actions. Define what you want to accomplish.  Baby steps can be very meaningful. Make it so.

9. Start your day with a smile. Keep it in your heart.Take a walk. Meditate for 3 minutes. Stretch. Have a delicious cup of coffee, english breakfast tea or hot water with lemon.

10. At the end of the day write down 10 things you were glad you did today. Could even be you got the laundry put away. Just make sure ONE of them advances your goals for being more effective in your business.

What would Marilyn Monroe say?

“Did you ever notice that sometimes “what the hel”l is the best decision?”~ Marilyn Monroe

How often have you wanted to just say, “What the hell?” and go from there? How often have you stopped yourself from just going with it?  What if it just  might be that what the hell will lead you into the path of opportunity?

You might be surprised at what you can discover by just letting go.

It’s that simple.

"Talk to me Harry Winston tell me all about it."

Shift Happens 101: Advice. Wise men don’t need it. Fools won’t heed it.

Ever notice this? You work and work and work. You’ve written out your daily goals, action plans and yet somehow you feel like Sisyphus, that darn boulder keeps rolling back at you.  I don’t know about you but that happens when I let my out-sized ego self lead me around by the nose.

Way back in 2002 I participated in an experiment. I wrote a chapter in a book.

My ego took over and I went against the advice of my life coach at the time, Talane Miedaner, who said, “write your own book”. Well she was right and I didn’t. Still the little book contained some wisdom and good ideas for getting an abundance mindset.

My chapter is called “Maximal Deliciousness”. It’s good if a little syrupy in the wake of September 11th my message was true then and true now.

Live in a space of gratitude. And if you haven’t got it, get it.

The book was called, A Guide to Getting it: Achieving Abundance. Truth is I wasn’t as thrilled with it as I had hoped.

Talane was right. Write your own book. Sing your own song.

Others who have read it find that it has wisdom within.  One gal told me she followed the exercises in the book and they were very helpful her business started to blossom, her life started to shift just from taking a different tack. A guy from Michigan told me he found my chapter “inspiring” and “he got off his butt” to enjoy life more.

You can decide for 99cents on Amazon and it’s free shipping if you are a prime customer or SuperSaver shopper.

99c and it 's yours

Shift happens 101: Just ask.

Back to the books.

What a difference a day makes! One minute I’m thinking I will have pack up 5000+ rare books, move them to my house, then figure out to sell about 5000+ rare books, ephemera items like Playbills from the turn of the century and beyond, prints ad infinitum and for the rest of my natural life.

Just a few days ago I was doing my usual research online. Learning about pricing, history, background, what the book is about, looking for images that were the same as the book I had,  when I stumbled upon an auction house in Ithaca, NY that will help me get the job done!

What I  didn’t want to do was the wrong thing and I thought I had to research every book myself and try to sell them online. In the process of my research I found help. Help is what I wanted. Help is what I asked for and help is what I got.

After a lengthy phone interview  to make sure that I was not completely breaking every family generational edict of what not to do followed by a reference checkout,   I decided to get them to help me.

OMG!  Yay! Woo hoo!

What a relief! I feel as if I have been let out of jail. Time to let others love and care for my grandfather’s collection.

My role has now shifted from being the beast of burden trying to sell my grandfather’s books on my own, to becoming the person who gets to uncover the all- important provenance, family stories around this collection and  signatures .

The good news: the scoping out work has already been done by my mother and my grandfather.  Thank you!!

They left clues. Their notes have notes.

So expect an update from time to time.   Rare books are becoming extinct and dear and the market is on the upswing.

Interested?

Don’t worry I will clue you in about the where and the when.

This one is in my bookcase at home;  look how pretty it is. Small in the hand like a lovely little accessory.

The top of the pages are gilt-edged with real gold.

And inside are stories with titles like: The Altar Painting A love tragedy of an Italian Artist.

A thing of beauty to behold. And probably not read. The book is from 1896.

Who makes books like this today?

So pretty it's an accessory!

And so what’s my lesson? What’s the big shift that happened?

Ask. Just ask for what I need in my life.

Presto, I got it! With a little help from the internets.