From any angle, Alaska’s scenery is breathtaking; its wildlife, amazing. Take in views from the deck of a ship, and see even more on a land tour.
If you’re ready to be astounded by the sheer power and beauty of nature, don’t miss this corner of the globe. There’s nowhere else quite like it.
The true spirit of entrepreneurship is finding a need and filling it. Helping people; being a servant. No matter what the economy, it’s always a good time for that.
Creativity and innovation are at their best when there's a problem to solve. There’s always a demand to fill, and sometimes you can be the first to see it. You have to think like a consumer. Get inside their minds, then give them what they want before they ask for it. When people say, "What will they think of next?" what they're really saying is, "I had no idea I needed that."
Just look, for example, at how far cell phones have come in the last decade. Calling is now just one among seemingly endless features. And that came about because a handful of people took “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” to its full potential. Innovation isn’t stopping.
But you don’t have to be a science wiz to take your entrepreneurship to its full potential. Be willing to listen to your customers and let your intuition kick in. Do something you may not normally do. Try to get behind your clients’ eyes. Anticipate what they need. Care about what they need. Then give it to them.
We all have fears—you know, those thoughts that can stop you in your tracks (make you at least hesitate), make your heart race, make you turn away. Yours might be heights or speaking in front of people. Maybe you don’t like to take risks, get germs on you, show too much emotion, or plunge into the deep end of the pool. Maybe it’s spiders.
It can be easy to look at someone else’s fear and say, “Oh, don’t be afraid of that.” From the outside looking in, it’s easy to see that the word “fear” is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real.
But what about your own fears? Different story. Those ones are real. But you can conquer them.
For starters, realize just what it means to conquer a fear. A great quote from Nelson Mandela: “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
So how do you triumph over it? Here’s one way: write it down. Write down everything about it that scares you. What misgivings do you have? Then go back and write the answers to every obstacle—write down what you know is true. Read back over that paper every day. Modify it. Add to it. Let it sink in, and let the truths take over. Before you know it, you’ll win.
After all, playing it “safe” never brought anyone to greatness.
Abby Sunderland , a 16-year-old, California blonde, does her high school homework in an unlikely location – the cabin of a 40-ft. sailboat named Wild Eyes. And it will be a few months before Abby can turn in that homework. That’s how long it will take her to sail around the world – alone.
That’s right, alone. Abby set out from California in January determined to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe non-stop solo. She and Wild Eyes will make the entire voyage without stopping at any port along the way. The next time she sets foot on land she’ll be home.
At first glance, this adventure seems impossible. After all, a 16-year-old is still just a kid. But look a little deeper. Abby has been sailing literally all of her life, and sailing alone since she became a teen. By the time Abby set sail in January, she had accumulated thousands of miles of coastal cruising through a number of hazardous weather conditions.
The trip began as a dream, but she prepared for it by learning all she could about her boat and everything aboard. It carries state-of-the-art navigational equipment, a water desalinization system, safety features and more. She also has a support team, and sponsors to help defray the costs. When the big day finally came Abby was ready to live her dream.
You can follow Abby’s journey at www.abbysunderland.com. There you’ll find an upbeat, positive young woman happily facing challenges most of us can only imagine. She’s confident, she’s prepared and she’s following her dream.
If a 16-year-old can sail alone around the world, what excuse can any of us have for not setting lofty goals and achieving them? Go, Abby, and thank you for your example.
I love his common-sense approach, and want to share one of his tips that he repeats on nearly every one of his radio programs and throughout his publications: Spend every dollar on paper before the month begins.
If you’re not on that specific of a budget right now, get onto one. Be patient; it may take a few months before you’re totally comfortable with it. Here’s how Ramsey says to start:
“Every dollar of your money should fit in a category, even if you need to make up new ones. The basic categories include saving, housing, utilities, food, transportation, medical, personal, recreation and debt. Don’t forget to include saving for things that aren’t monthly, such as Christmas, birthdays, taxes and insurance premiums…. Prioritize your bills, savings and debts in order of importance, not urgency. Ask yourself, ‘If I only have enough money to pay one thing, what would that be?’ Move this way through the list.”
When you know exactly how much you need to cover your expenses, and when you plan before the month begins (giving every dollar a name), you can start making your money behave. And you might just be amazed at the stress that will just get up and leave your life, and the feeling of empowerment that replaces it.
Do you 
make a to-do list every day? And are there days when you wonder how you’ll get to it all? Well, here’s a way to clear some space for the things that are worth doing: stop doing the things that aren’t worth doing.
The concept comes from the book Good to Great by Jim Collins, a fabulous book built on the concept that good is the enemy of great and that so few people and companies achieve greatness because we’re satisfied with goodness. To quote Collins, “Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life.”
This book was the first time I’d ever heard of the stop-doing list, and I love the principle. Sometimes the very things that are keeping us from becoming what we want to become—maybe even what we were meant to become—are seemingly small things.
Try it out. Write down the things you want to eliminate from your life. Maybe you’ve been meaning to stop eating after 7 p.m., or to stop complaining and start being grateful. Stop staying up so late. Stop yelling at your kids. It could be anything.
The very things in life we hang on to the hardest are sometimes the things that keep us from getting what we want. What are you willing to let go of? Anger? Debt? Guilt? That ugly green sweater in your closet? Come on. Let go, and bring in the great.
- Bryan Thayer
Cliché, yes, but it’s true. Sometimes one more knick-knack will clutter the shelf, one more rhinestone will ruin the jacket, and one more brushstroke will spoil the painting. Less furniture makes the room feel bigger. Ease up on the candy. Don’t over-schedule your kids. Go light on the makeup.
Yep, less is more. The key is knowing when you hit that just-enough point. Here it comes, the obvious, a-ha, not-even-trying-to-be hidden in plain sight corollary: with just a little bit of SoZo, you get a lot of nutrition.
You don’t need a full glass or even a full shot glass. Just an ounce and a half gives you the approximate antioxidant activity of 10 servings of fruits and vegetables.
Aaah. Just right.
The nice guy doesn’t always lose. In fact, he hardly ever does.
It can be a tough concept to wrap your brain around, but doing the right thing is the real way to get ahead. Believe it or not, life is not about closing the sale right now.
Build your relationships for the right reasons. Find out what matters to those around you, regardless of whether they’re going to want your product or service. When you care about what they care about, you will relax and want to help people just for the sake of helping. Your relationships will grow in value. You will stand out, and that means more long-term prosperity.
Keep your word. Give more than you promised. Make your family a priority. Reach for your dreams, but stay grounded.
What goes around comes around.
- Bryan Thayer
Facebook has accumulated more of a draw than many of us might have imagined. More than 400 million people are active users, and the average user has 130 friends on the site.
While that average user looks at this as a great way to connect with people from the past and keep up with people from the present. But the marketer sees a ripe, ready-to-harvest crop.
But don’t get all excited and start throwing stuff out there to see what sticks. Advertising with Facebook ads allows you to reach the exact audience you want with relevant, targeted messages.
Facebook is all about relationships. Friend someone before you try to sell to them. You’re not going to get instantaneous sales; people on Facebook are browsing. But it’s a powerful platform for building ongoing relationships and “remarketing” to your customers.
Learning to use Facebook to target your advertising may take a little time, and it will definitely take some patience. But if you do it right, in time, it can pay big. You can learn to target according to who’s doing what—birthdays, age, gender, where they live, favorite books, job titles—anything that’s on their profile.
So set aside the time, and learn all you can. Happy advertising!
Our favorite example might just be Richard Branson. His name alone equals success. You hear it, and the Virgin logo pops into your head. But Branson started small, in a tiny upper-floor studio.
Another example: Kinko’s. Their first store was so small that they had to wheel the copier outside when customers came in.
Successful entrepreneurs are people just like the rest of us. It takes knowing you have something that people need, having the courage and determination to get it to them, and having the willingness to work hard.
We can learn a great leadership lesson from this entertaining, viral YouTube video. Today’s message: it only takes one person gutsy enough to start a movement, but that person can’t do it without a follower (and another, and another). The point: have the guts to follow.
The first follower shows everyone else how to follow. He or she makes it so that people can see the leaders as well as the followers, and helps them see that there’s no reason not to join in. That first follower takes the fear of being ridiculed out of the equation.
So check out this example. And when you see a movement starting—one that piques your interest and tells your conscience that it’s right, even if it’s a little scary—be the first to stand.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW8amMCVAJQ&feature=youtu.be
Whether you’re ecstatic or stunned over yesterday’s passage of the healthcare bill, one fact remains: you are the one in charge of your own health.
It’s not a new concept. About 2500 years ago Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” What that means today is exactly what it meant then: you’re the one in control. Here’s an example. A friend visited his doctor about an acid reflux problem. You know what she told him? “You were in here a year ago complaining about your back, and I told you to lose 20 pounds; you’ve gained 10.”
Way to go, doc! Way to not just throw a prescription at him and send him out the door. And way to light a fire under someone who needed it.
Said friend decided to let food be his medicine. For him, that specifically meant cutting down the extras and focusing on healthy choices. He began to exercise. Over the next several months, he dropped more than 40 pounds. And every concern he’d taken to his doctor went away.
No matter what entity claims to be in charge of healthcare, you are the one with the most control over your health. Your healthy choices are not up to your doctor, they’re not up to your HMO, and they’re not up to the government. Whatever the current state of your health, the choices you make—how much you move, how well you eat, and how much you sleep—have a major impact on your wellbeing.
Be healthy.
It really wasn’t all that long ago that using the worldwide web meant getting a disc in the mail from AOL (who else was there?) and installing it on your computer. Then you’d have to unplug your phone, plug the line into the your computer, and wait for the obnoxious, and obnoxiously long, series of chirps, beeps, and bongs. You paid according to the time you used. And forget about using the phone while you surfed. No can do.
It’s easy to forget that we once thought that so new and innovative. It’s also easy to forget what else we thought of it. For most, the Internet was just a handy way to look things up or send an e-mail (wasn’t that cool?). But almost no one saw it as the cash cow that it is. Not in the beginning, at least.
Very few business-savvy people were quick to see the potential for advertising, selling, or building a brand. The Internet was seen simply as a novelty—maybe even a time-waster. What do I need a website for? was the cry of many a business. Now, it’s just accepted that your website can make or break your brand.
Let’s not forget, because by remembering, we’re more equipped to make the most of today. There’s always something new and innovative, and it almost always presents a way for you to build your business. These days, the new “time-waster” that’s just waiting for you to get savvy and cash in is social networking.
Look at the millions of people who use Facebook and Twitter—and those are just the top two social sites. There are actually gazillions of social networking avenues, each with millions of users. Clearly, the main objective of most users is to connect with friends. But if you’re not using it to your advantage in business, you might as well still be connecting with that series of chirps and bongs.
All you need is a little willingness to learn how to use the latest resources. Trust me, you’ll be left behind if you don’t. Social networking is taking over. So set aside the time.
Here’s to not missing any opportunities.
Are you seeing how many people these days own their own businesses? Well, the guy who goes for it is no dummy. That’s where the power is.
When you’re your own boss, you write your own agenda. How many bosses out there would actually be cool with you having a different schedule every day? Or making a last-minute change in any given day’s activities?
It’s impossible to actually put first things first (like family) if you’re working for someone else. If you’ve never had to take time off for a family crisis, it might amaze you to see how quickly your company’s initial outpouring of sympathy can turn to impatience.
A home-based business is yours. You can truly call it your own. How many things in life is that true for? Well, maybe your house. But even if you “built” it, chances are that means you hired someone to build it for you.
OK, what about the great ideas you offer up in your workplace? Oh. Nope. Intellectual property of the company. Not yours.
But when you start your own business, everything you build IS yours (and it’s one sure way to make your compensation match your awesomeness ).
Being your own boss even saves you on taxes—you can write off your cell phone and Internet service, some of the square footage in your house, mileage on your car, lunches, even products that you use. This can add up to thousands of dollars.
So if you’re using products that carry with them a business opportunity, ask yourself, “Would I share my great results anyway, even if there were no compensation?” If you would, then building your own business won’t feel so much like work. And you might as well start reaping all the rewards.
Ever notice how passionate the best salespeople are? You think, “Woah. This guy really believes this stuff.” And you’re right. He does; so much so that he’s not just telling you about his product so he can make a sale. That is secondary to the obligation he feels to make your life better.
You see, the best networkers have crossed over from simply selling. They’re fulfilling an obligation. They have something that they know you need. They believe in their product, they know it’s going to make your life better, and they’re morally and ethically obligated to make sure that happens.
There’s only one way to get to that level: get your own results. You’ll hear it referred to as becoming a product of the product. It can take time, but if you want to be really great at what you do—if you want to get to the point of feeling obligated—use your product and let your own story take shape.
The more people you share that story with, the more they’ll want what you have, and the more times you will see your product help someone. And letting those stories accumulate makes your own experience even more real. It strengthens your determination, builds your confidence, and reinforces your story.
Then you have no choice but to believe it.
As wonderful and convenient as technology is, we can’t deny that it makes us lazy. We don’t bother to remember phone numbers because even a base-model cell phone will store hundreds of them. We don’t have to remember how to get somewhere because that nifty GPS will talk us through it. We don’t even have to remember when to be lazy because our DVRs store our couch-potato time for us.
So with all of this convenience, spelling errors are starting to litter blogs and Facebook updates. Errors are now becoming the new rule. RLY. Text abbreviations are showing up in e-mails written with access to a full keyboard and without a character limit. R U kidding?
You have to decide for yourself. If you’re a purist—if you think no sentence should ever end in a preposition because we take our rules from the Latin, and you don’t use abbreviations, even when you’re texting—you’re going to fight this trend with all you’ve got.
But if you embrace the dynamic nature of language—if you’re totally fine with made-up words like ginormous, and you recognize that olde is an old way to spell—maybe you see the lazy text-speak revolution as the logical next step for the English language.
Won’t it be GR8?
The YouTube revolution isn’t just about entertaining ourselves with an easy-to-access version of America’s Funniest Home Videos. It’s a way for anyone to take home the $10,000 prize (or more). YouTube millionaires are not unheard of.
Our example for today: Blendtec, a blender company that was doing a pretty good business before YouTube. Then they began their Will It Blend? campaign, a series of videos that went beyond demonstrating how to make a smoothie. They started blending things like iPhones and E-Z Cheese (including the can). Blendtec built enough of a following with these cringe-worthy clips to quadruple their sales.
So how do you tap into the power of video? SoZo Distributors know: an easy little tool they all have access to, called SoZoExpress. It’s like YouTube with a personal touch.
The technique is Call, Click, Call, and it works like this. You’re talking to someone about SoZo. You hop on SoZoExpress and push any video right to that person’s inbox. Then, when they watch it, you get a notification. So you call them. And the conversation continues.
What do you know? YouTube that comes to you.
Most of us will never compete in the Olympic Games. But we’re inspired by a new story every day. What is it that’s so mesmerizing? Well, the winter games, in particular, take a level of nerve the average Joe just doesn’t have. Who sails down a mountain on solid ice at 90 miles an hour or jumps 144 meters through the air on a pair of skis? That stuff is just beyond most people's imagination.
Even so, there’s something about the games that speaks to everyone. We all hope to have the kind of courage it takes to go for what we want, the discipline not to give up, and the wisdom to be thrilled with a great performance.
The Republic of Georgia lost one of their lugers before the games even began—a young man who refused to take the track at a slower speed, even though he was afraid of it. He had come to compete, and he did it completely without looking back.
In women’s moguls Shannon Bahrke took the Bronze. At age 29, this is her final season (after she competes in the World Cup), and she said she sees this medal as the perfect way to end her run. All smiles and celebration, Bahrke stood on the podium with her teammate who had taken the gold, and sang every word of the national anthem.
As we watch these Olympics, we see hero after hero make a great performance. And we see some come away with disappointments. Some are composed; others break down.
What the rest of us can find out about ourselves is this: if we have the courage to do what we know will take us where we want to go, the drive to give it our best, and the poise to recognize in ourselves a job well done.
Sometimes getting the prize takes an action that goes against our instincts. But there’s no other way to come out on top. And one other little perk us average Joes get: we don’t have to wait four years to fix mistakes and go for the next victory.
Every day, make time for phone calls. Plan one or two hours (if not more) into your schedule for doing nothing but making calls. Reaching out to people.
A couple of things to know about this: One, you have to plan it—put it on your schedule. And two, this time is sacred. Don’t check your e-mail, don’t file, don’t open mail, don’t even take phone calls. Get your list in front of you, and simply call out. Why? Because if you are calling out every single day, one, two, three hours, or whatever it is, you will always have people calling you back. You’ll always have something in the pipeline.
Want to know how to get the greatest return? Do it in the morning. That leaves the rest of the day for people to get back to you. Some will call you back that day, some in a couple of days, some may take a week, but if you’re calling out, prospecting new business, reaching out, you’ll always have it coming back to you.
We’ve all done it. Looked back on some aspect of our lives and thought about how we could have done it better. But what if we didn’t have to? What if we could pick other people’s brains, see what they would change about their lives, and make ours better so that we can avoid some of the same regrets?
Thanks to Dr. Gerald Ball, former professor at the University of North Carolina, we can. Dr. Ball is one of the world’s most respected human behaviorists, and his study of 4,000 retired executives is an eye-opener.
Here it is, in a nutshell. Dr. Ball went into homes and care centers, and interviewed ex-execs (average age, 70). His question was this: If you could live your life over, what would you do differently? Here are the answers, starting with the most common.
1. Take charge of my life and set goals earlier
2. Take better care of my health
3. Manage my money better
4. Spend more time with my family
5. Spend more time on personal development
6. Have more fun
7. Plan my career better
8. Give back more
These answers came from people who have done what a lot of us are doing now—getting out there and making a name for ourselves. Striving to achieve more.
Now ask yourself: How in charge of your life are you? Where do you sit with your goals? How is your health? How healthy are your finances? How much time are you spending with your family? If you’ve got room to re-evaluate and improve, and you choose to DO it, you could very well find yourself one day looking back and smiling.
Now for something your mother didn’t tell you. You can get the approximate antioxidant activity of 20 servings of fruits and vegetables in just one three-ounce serving of SoZo. It’s made from naturally sun-ripened coffee fruit (yes, the coffee plant yields an incredibly nutritious fruit) in an exclusive form called CoffeeBerry®. CoffeeBerry is blended with other fruit and vegetable extracts to form one incredibly nutritious beverage: SoZo.
Don’t worry; Mom wasn’t holding out on you. It’s just that no one knew about the power of CoffeeBerry until now. Not only that, it wasn’t available until now.
Times have changed, but the message is the same. Fruits and vegetables have to be a staple. It’s just that now we have a refreshing, easy way to get the goodness and feel better than ever. How lucky is that?
The way you connect is about to change—if you’re ready to go where technology can take you. Apple is soon to release the coveted iPad. It’s everything you want in a laptop, minus everything you don’t. No bulk, no keyboard, and powerful one-touch applications.
At a compact size (it’s only a half-inch thick with a 9.7-inch multi-touch screen) the iPad is easy to read, easy to carry with you, and puts 140,000 apps at your fingertips—including the ones for your iPhone or your iPod Touch.
So here’s what all that means to you. You can page through websites, write e-mails, flick through photos, or watch a movie. All with one touch.
And here’s what it means to your business. You can build it, share it, or show it anywhere. Get your documents. Market yourself with social media. Give a presentation, paperlessly. Then put it back in your pocket.
This great business tool is coming soon. Wi-fi models ship in late March; 3G models are set for April. How much do you develop your business is up to you (and it’s at your fingertips).
The simple beauty of the coastline is a draw of its own. Perfectly clear, blue waters teeming with colorful marine life, pristine beaches, and amazing rock formations (including the world-famous El Arco, loved by sightseers and sea lions alike) define this sub-tropic paradise.
How you enjoy it is up to you: world-class golfing, sport fishing, parasailing, snorkeling and scuba diving, rock climbing, or just plain old swim and surf. Cabo has it all. Pack your schedule with adrenaline-pumping activities or just opt for a relaxing massage, tranquil beach time, and quiet dining.
Conga In Cabo
A new study out of Singapore shows that people who drink at least two sugary sodas a week have an increased risk of developing cancer of the pancreas. The study collected data on 60,524 adults and was published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.
As if we needed a reason to stay away from soda. The fact is, soft drink sales are down. People just don’t want to consume things that aren’t good for them, and most people know that cutting out sugar-sweetened sodas, a leading source of added sugar in the diet, is a quick way to cut both empty calories and sugar.
The trend toward functional beverages (drinks that offer a health benefit) is growing. And not gradually. In 2007, functional beverage sales were about $9 billion. Projected sales for this year: $34 billion.
Now consider that SoZo® has more nutrients than any other functional beverage. It’s the first and only one of its kind that features antioxidant-rich CoffeeBerry®. One three-ounce serving of SoZo® delivers the approximate antioxidant activity of 20 servings of fruits and vegetables. Plus, it tastes better than anything else out there.
Whether you know the definition of socialnomics or not, chances are, you participate in it. Plug in to any social media site, and you’ll see the updates, the fan pages, the messages. You’ll take the surveys. You’ll use the apps. You’ll click the links. We all do, and it translates into big business for the socialnomics-savvy.
Social media can generate exponential returns. It’s a way to bring your product or service to life and let it go out and find people for you. Generate leads, increase sales, build brand recognition.
Marketing via social media has traction. And it’s low-cost. A few examples:
Wine guru Gary Vaynerchuk learned that he could spend $15,000 in direct mail and gain 200 new customers, or he could drop $7,500 on billboards for 300 new customers. BUT spending ZERO dollars on Twitter got him 1,800 new customers. He grew his family business from $4 million to $50 million using social media.
Just with a Whopper application on Facebook, Burger King estimated that a $50K investment got a $400K return with 32 million free media impressions.
Blendtec quadrupled sales with Will it Blend? YouTube videos.
Dell sold $3 million in computers on Twitter.
These examples are even more impressive when you consider that only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate positive ROI.
As an entrepreneur, if you’re not using social media to your advantage, you’re already behind. Are you plugged in?
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