The Women’s Business Alliance Power Sabbatical is your opportunity to take – For Yourself! – 2 ½ days + 2 nights to:

–Rejuvenate mentally and physically. Unplug, get away from it all in a serene gorgeous setting. Be catered to and taken care of (what a concept for us women!), including dining on gourmet healthy food prepared by Marconi’s amazing chef. Take advantage of gorgeous natural surroundings by starting your morning and ending your day with a solo or group power walk or hike. Breathe the fresh air. Enjoy the stars at night and the peace and quiet (no ambient light or noise pollution here!) Even use your free time to take a swim in Tomales Bay (wet suit optional!), visit the quaint town of Marshall, kayak, or horseback ride on the beach.

Recharge your ambition. Launch – or re-launch – your dream in a powerful way. Recharge your business and your goals. Or finally give yourself the space, resources and support to give the business you’ve been struggling with the power to lift off. Get clarity on your ambitious goals. Figure out what’s working and what’s not. Redefine your targets. Get unstuck. Fire up your ambition. Keep yourself on target to do meaningful, challenging work that pays you what you’re worth. Stop settling. Stop selling yourself short. Get your ambition mojo back – you know what I mean: that feeling that you can’t wait to bounce out of bed each morning (no matter how tired you might be) because work feels like play. Keep your commitment to yourself to make the contribution you were born to make – and surround yourself with supportive peers to help you achieve the goals you have stars in your eyes for.

This is an opportunity to restore your sanity and recharge your business by retreating to a stunning, peaceful conference center in an historic park setting and interacting with innovators like yourself. I’ll be leading the charge and together we will make sure that You — and Your most precious ambitious goals — are the agenda. And of course, a huge part of recharging your business and dreams is making sure that you, yourself, get plenty of downtime – space and time and the serenity to unplug and think and be taken care of.

Break isolation. Stamp out your fear and resistance by interacting with ambitious, creative innovators – women just like yourself who struggle with the same fears and doubts as you, even as they are fighting the big fight to hold on to their big dreams. Get your brain cells firing and reignite your passion for what you do or want to do though 2 ½ days of custom-tailored small-group coaching and brainstorming with me plus 20 other women peers. The ideas will be flying around the room. And You and Your goals are the agenda.

Where:
The perfect venue is the gorgeous setting at the Marconi Conference Center overlooking Tomales Bay in beautiful West Marin County, San Francisco Bay Area. Marconi Conference Center is approximately a 90-minute drive from San Francisco International Airport, Oakland International Airport.

When:
September 16-18, 2010

So register now as there is not a greater feeling in the world than coming together with supportive, talented, thirsty-for-knowledge, open-minded, fired-up, ambitious women, such as Debra Condren, author of Ambition Is Not A Dirty Word,  to link arms and help each other make our ambitious dreams a reality.

If you’re active on Twitter, you’ve probably seen at least one reference on your own profile page to Twitter lists.

They’re a powerful way to categorize Twitter users according to their area of expertise, or the topics of their tweets and then, once the list is created, let anyone see it. They save valuable time because when you create a list, every tweet from every person on that list feeds into that particular list. You don’t have to drink from a firehose on Twitter to be able to find the tweets from people who have a particular expertise.

But don’t be fooled into thinking that that’s the only way to use Twitter lists. They’re powerful tools that can help you do valuable research, track down experts in a particular niche, find people in your target market, spy on your competitors, find journalists who cover your industry, and so much more.

They’re also an excellent way to determine how other people perceive your expertise and your brand. Here’s what I mean.

Go to your Twitter Home or Profile page and look under your photo on the upper right side. You’ll see the number of people you’re following, the number of people who are following you, and the number of lists you’re on. Click on “Listed.”

Instantly, you can look down the list and see which Twitter users have put you on one of their lists, and you can see the names of their lists. For example, I’m on a number of Twitter lists. When I click on “Listed,” a window opens and I can see that many of the lists include the words “virtual assistant”, “VAs” and “social media.”

If you aren’t on many lists, or you haven’t created your own lists yet, that’s OK. Joan Stewart, aka, The Publicity Hound is hosting a webinar  at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, Aug. 26, called “How to Use Twitter Lists & Directories to Generate Publicity and Build Your Brand.” If the time is inconvenient for you, sign up anyway because she is recording it. You’ll get a link where you can watch the streaming video, or download the video.

We continually strive to provide timely, quality service for our clients. The special relationship that we have with them is both valuable and in some cases fragile. We understand that they have choices and that we must always be vigilant to provide exceptional value for them.

What do we do when a client notifies us that they are terminating our relationship? Our first inclination is to throw our hands up into the air, rail at the gods and wonder what it is that we did wrong.

Most times it is not due to an error, but if it is, do everything within your power to correct the error, even if you have already lost the client.

If it is because of your rates, decide if you are willing to bend a little. If this is not a viable scenario, explain it to the client and see if there is another option. Such as:

–Cutting back on the amount of work that you do for them
–Offer time-saving tips that will allow them to do some of the work for themselves
–Offer coaching as an alternative

There will be clients that just aren’t a good “fit” for either of you. If this happens, be gracious, offer suggestions of other VA’s that you think may be willing to work with them.

Sometimes clients just fall off the radar. It’s through no fault of your own or the clients.

The best thing you can do in any case is to move on. Don’t dwell on what was and concentrate on how you can better your business. Never assume that all is well in the relationship between you and the client. Touch base on a regular basis and not just through email.

PICK UP THE PHONE!

The countdown has begun . . . are you going to meet the deadline? Last week I shared on Facebook with you the exciting new Stay-on-Track program recently launched by Ariane — and today I am writing this blog posting to make sure you understand what it is that she is offering . . FOR F.REE!
 
If you are anything like me, you’re a visual-experience-oriented person — who sometimes struggles with online information, especially when it’s packed full of IMPORTANT career-boosting information. I get overwhelmed to say the least, and panic at the thought that my money will be wasted because I might miss some of the crucial information provided by the speakers. Will I remember what I needed to take away from the session, will I understand what they were trying to portray to me?
 
With the Stay-on-Track program, it’s like Ariane read my mind and said… “I will prepare the Telesummit for you in CD and transcript form — AND I’ll also give you the Stay-on-Track program to make sure you succeed!” She WANTS you to get all the fruit off the tree… and she makes that possible for F.R.E.E if you purchase the Home-study program on or before midnight (Eastern Time), on April 15th!
 
The Stay-on-Track Program is a simple system to organize, prioritize, and create YOUR action plan as you hear the Telesummit presenters — so you’re immediately able to feed your energy and the wealth of information into creating and developing your first project!
 
No more feeling like you are flapping in the wind… the Stay-on-Track Program allows you to be grounded in your creative process and utilize all the valuable information from the Telesummit Home-study Program!

This is an ongoing conversation. How does one measure their ROI on Facebook?

Facebook has provided a tool in which we can measure our ROI on Facebook if you have a fan page.  I can go into my fan page and look at the “insights” section on the left hand side of your page.  This is where I can measure exactly what kind of traffic I have had. It measures everything from male/female, to where your fans are coming from.

Of late, I have had some success with clients and their fan pages. For instance, I have several clients that have a newsletter. We have now taken those newsletters and “sliced and diced” them. We have posted them as notes on their Facebook fan pages such as Joan Stewart’s, aka, The Publicity Hound. What this has shown is an increase in sales.

How do we know that? Well, when I post the note, there is always a call to action. Such as, “read more at ….” or “sign up for my newsletter at….”. We have also been “tagging” her friends in these notes. You have to be careful when “tagging’ as it can be overly promotional, but if you believe it is of value to them, by all means, do.

Last week one of my clients came to town. What a week she picked too! She is from Annapolis and her timing was impecible. We had sunny skies and they got 4 feet of snow.

She is a fairly new client and I was thrilled to actually meet her. Her name is Kristina Von Rosenvinge who specializes in self-growth and relationship skills for personal and business success. Her website is GrowWithKristina.com (I have her permission to mention her in this posting).

I have been managing her Facebook page and doing odd jobs here and there for her, but we had not really defined what my role was and how I was going to assist her outside of social media.

So, I picked her up at her hotel on a Sunday morning, we met in the lobby, shook hands (I then gave her a hug) and we proceeded to have coffee at the Hotel del Coronado foundly known as “The Del”. It is a San Diego landmark and if you have never been there and are ever in the area, it’s a must see.

We walked around the hotel for a bit as I wanted to show her the beauty of the architecture and the decor. We then ordered our coffee and sat outside to enjoy the view and the weather. It was sunny and warm. What’s not to like?

We chatted for a bit about our families, our interests and so on. Basically, we got to know each other a bit.

After about an hour, we did start to discuss business. What her goals were and how she thought I could assist her with her new projects and marketing plan.

I know, I know. Why am I writing about this? Very simple. It describes exactly what social networking is all about. This is how it should be approached. Friendly, non-invasive and certainly not promotional at all. If you are confused about social media, especially Facebook, see 11 Ways to Avoid Missed Opportunities on Facebook. I was Joan Stewart’s guest on this 70 minute teleseminar.

We had a lovely chat and I then took her back to her hotel so we could go on with our day.

Thank you Krisitina for allowing me to share this.

“Learn exactly how easy it is to turn your passion into a fun, fulfilling, and profitable business – when you discover how to stop marketing and turn your life’s calling into an unstoppable movement!”

The BE THE CHANGE event is designed to help you TAKE BACK CONTROL of your business dream from the gurus and hacks, GET YOU OFF THE MARKETING HAMSTER WHEEL, and GET YOU IN TOUCH WITH YOUR PURPOSE (all while creating a REAL plan to accelerate your income beyond what you believed possible).

Suzanne Evans has taken all her experience (because hey, she can only be herself), bottled it up for mass consumption and is ready to serve it to you on a silver platter over 3 days. (Think of it as a savory 3-course meal)

The BE THE CHANGE Event is rooted in “The 3 M’s”:  movement, marketing, and mindset.

Over the course of the event she’ll help you:

* Get super clear about YOUR movement.

* Help YOU understand how to market it.

* Give YOU the mindset to do it.

February 18-20, 2010
Fort Lauderdale, Florida

If you want to know more about licensing your art, come hear Ariane’s interview with Jeanette Smith, who brings a wealth of experience to the table that I don’t want you to miss.

Get the facts you need to focus on this potential income stream:
Tuesday, Dec 15th 7-8 pm ET (NY) 4-5 pm PT (CA) 

Find the sign-up box in the upper right corner of that web page
• Enter your name and email • Look in your inbox for all the call-in & webcast details One thing I make sure of—all of my smARTist Pre-events have meat on the bone!

Registration is open for the 7-day conference in January, and for a limited time you can choose to pay over 3 installments.