If you had dropped by Yahoo.com’s home page yesterday, a smiling Jessica Simpson would have greeted you.  It’s always nice to see someone smile, but it’s even more amazing when you learn they’re smiling to the tune of $750 million dollars. That’s right, Jessica Simpson, Inc. (not Jessica herself) is on the edge of breaking $1 billion in retail sales this year.

What? Jessica Simpson? The beautiful and yet sometimes clueless blonde who can sing but not act and who has been invading my TV in a never-ending supply of semi-cheesy Macy’s commercials? Her?

Yup.

While most of us may think of a tattered “former” rock star who seemed to have life together much more pre-Nick Lachey, Jessica has quietly been building an empire of licensed products where her name plays center stage. Be it jewelry, perfume, fashion clothing or shoes, Jessica’s got her name all over it and it’s selling like hotcakes.

Now as I read over the article discussing Jessica’s entrepreneurial accomplishments, I couldn’t help but think to myself if there is anything we could learn from this story.

The Top 3 Lessons from Jessica Simpson

Below are what I believe to be the top 3 entrepreneurial lessons you could learn from Jessica Simpson.

1. Be where your “attracted audience” is
   I’ve just started talking about your “attracted audience,” so simply put, be where the people who are currently around you and pulling from you are. For Jessica, it’s the fans that already know and love her as the rockstar.  She knows her fans want to look and be like her. Therefore she licenses her name on products that her fans would need to accomplish that goal. Fashion clothing? Check. Great smelling perfume? Check. Funky, cool shoes? Check.  

   Lesson: We hear it all the time, be where your customers are. Don’t make them search. Don’t make them come to you (unless that’s where they’re searching.) Put it right under their noses so it’s easy to find and easy to buy.

2. Partners that bring credibility, often can bring success
   In this case, Macy’s is benefiting from selling products that have Jessica’s name on them. She’s a style icon. She’s someone that young girls and women want to be. Her celebrity status brings credibility to the products that they’re something Jessica would wear, thus your teenage daughter should run out and buy. 

   HOWEVER, Macy’s also brings credibility to Jessica’s licensed products (thus, dollars to her business.) Macy’s isn’t known for carrying off-brand, low-value products. They only carry the best or at least better than “good.” By them stocking Jessica Simpson branded products, they’re saying that these products are of high quality and high style standards regardless of the namesake on them.

   Lesson: Find a partner that can help bring the credibility to your products and/or services, then form a symbiotic relationship where you return the favor in an effort to help one another grow. That’s the only way to keep the relationship going. Value for all.

3. Build products that come from your passionsNot long ago I talked about an idea generation exercise called a PGT Map to help you find business ideas you could be passionate about.I’m thinking Jessica must have completed that exercise because the products she licensed her name to? They’re all products that she’s stated in numerous interviews as things that that she loves herself. Her name could be on anything, but she stuck with what she loves, which is who she is, which is how your daughter can now look and be like her.Lesson: We can make products to sell our products, OR we can make products because we love our products. Which one do you think sells better? Which one would you be happier selling? I daresay that your passion will give you a greater opportunity to make success than just building and selling something because you can.

What do you think you could learn from Jessica Simpson?

And “No.” I didn’t just write this topic just so I could post a picture of the beautiful Jessica Simpson.

One of the most common struggles for any entrepreneur is how to come up with a business idea that doesn’t just focus on what we can do, but what we really want to do.  As an entrepreneur, you may find yourself asking the following questions:

How do I find a business idea that capitalizes on my passions?

How do I find a business idea that capitalizes on what I’m naturally gifted at instead of just what I know?

And can I combine my passions, gifts, and talents to come up with the perfect business idea that I would actually want to pour my heart and soul into?

Well, I ask myself those very questions every time I am thinking about my next business venture.  Early on in my professional career I would get frustrated when I tried to come up with ideas that were something that I knew I could be truly passionate about, not just make some money with.  It bothered me so much that I couldn’t put my finger on one true idea that I felt, “this is it.” So, being a natural “problem solver” (I’m told,) I started to outline why I struggled so much coming up with a business idea I could be passionate about, and I developed an easy exercise that I called a “PGT Map,” which stands for “Passions, Gifts and Talents.”

How Does it Work?

The basic idea is to force you to truly look at yourself and to outline those three main areas in order to focus your mind on ideas that built off of that map.  It has had the most impact on me in developing new ideas and I think it could help you as well.

Let’s See an Example

I want to visually show and explain to you how this exercise works so that you can see how easy it is to start finding more business ideas that target your passions, gifts, and talents. So grab a sheet of paper and a pen and get ready to get to learn what makes you passionate and how you can find a business idea.

Watch the video and let me know in the comments what your map was showing at the end!

(click here if you cannot see the video)

Photo credit: stu_wp

Have you ever read that one book that launched you down the path to owning your own business?

Did you ever read a book that made you try something different with your business that propelled you towards increased growth?

Can you name a book that changed a fixed mindset you once had about what it means to be an entrepreneur?

If you would have asked me a little more than 6 years ago:

“What was the last book you fully read?”

I would have answered:

“Umm… ‘The Eyes of the Dragon’ by Stephen King… when I was in high school.”

I was NOT a reader. In fact, I loathed reading. Nothing could put me to sleep faster than opening a book and reading just the first paragraph. Then I read “The Art of the Start” not long before I started my business in 2004, mPower Consulting, and I haven’t stopped reading business, marketing, and technology books since.

So let me share with you the books that have had the most impact on me as a business owner and have helped me change how I market my business.

My Entrepreneur’s Bookshelf

To make this list more valuable, I’m going to list these books in my recommended reading order that should line up with how you would start your business, from when you first come up with the idea for your business to when you’re ready to move it into overdrive.

The Idea Phase (or the “Stuck in the Corporate World” Phase)

• Career Renegade
  by Jonathan Fields

  This book is a great “get off your a@*! and start doing what you love” book.  This is the motivation you need to stop running in mediocrity, boredom, and career depression and find the idea that makes your passion profitable.

• Made to Stick
  by Chip and Dan Heath

  This book is all about why certain ideas stick in the mindset of people (i.e. your potential customers) and why others fail.  This book may not help you come up with the idea, but it will tell you how to formulate the story around your idea to make sure it “sticks” with your target audience.

The Start-up Phase

• The Art of the Start
  by Guy Kawasaki

  This book is the “no BS” version of any ‘how to start a business’ reference book. Guy breaks down what is usually viewed as complex steps into very simple “do it” exercises (that’s right, exercises to complete right in the book!) So do it!

• The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur
  by Mike Michalowicz

  This is another “startup” book that I’ve come to enjoy.  Mike is another “no BS” sort of guy who focuses on the mentality of a successful entrepreneur and makes you deal with your insecurities and doubts.  A motivating book for those that are a little bit scared or nervous about stepping out on their own.

• Entrepreneur Magazine’s: Start Your Own Business
  by Rieva Lesonsky and the staff of Entrepreneur Magazine

  It’s what you would expect from the entrepreneur’s publication: an exhaustive reference book documenting just about anything and everything you could think of when researching what you need to do to start your business. Make sure you are thinking of everything by getting this book.

The Start Marketing My Business Phase

• Duct Tape Marketing
  by John Jantsch

  This is what I consider THE book on how to market and promote your business when you first get started.  This book helps you understand marketing 101 concepts as well as how you can use these concepts to build your first effective (and continuing) marketing strategy. Get it, read it, act on it!

• The New Rules of Marketing & PR
  by David Meerman Scott

  This mainly deals with how the web plays into your marketing strategies and how you reach out and engage your prospects and customers using new media.  It is a great book focused on news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing, and online media.

• Attention: This Book Will Make You Money
  by Jim F. Kukral

  This is my new favorite “how to get the buzz” idea book.  Jim breaks things down into simple exercises and concepts to help you discover what are some unique ways to get some buzz going around your product, service, and/or business.  Most of these ideas require little to no money – which I love!

Growing Your Business Owner Mind Phase

• Lifeblood: How Successful Business Owners Achieve Wealth
  by Sam Frowine

  One of the most important concepts in being a business owner is understanding how to manage your cash flows.  Learn to manage the finances of your business in order to grow wealth for yourself with this book.

• Influence: They Psychology of Persuasion
  by Robert B. Cialdini, PH.D.

  This book teaches you how to understand what makes your customer and prospects say “yes” and how you can apply that understanding to influence them to engage your business.

• The Tipping Point
  by Malcolm Gladwell

  This book was not my favorite read (sort of long-winded) but the concept is really key to grab a hold of.  It’s something many of us business owners would never think of, but being able to apply the core concept of this book to your business can help it propel ‘itself’ to further growth.

The Marketing My Business Better Phase

• The Referral Engine
  by John Jantsch

  This book is all about how to create loyal customers who then bring you new customers through referrals (hence the title of course.)  How to develop a never-ending cycle of “auto-generated” business. Lots of concepts, tips, and techniques for focusing on your customers as a strategy to gain customers.

• Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs
  by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah

  Plain and simple – your step-by-step guide for how to use Google, social media, and blogs to increase the results of your online marketing efforts.  This book has actionable steps and reference material that I still continue to flip back to almost every month.

• Media Rules!
  by Brian Reich and Dan Solomon

  These guys make you question your definition of the word “media.” They help you realize that almost anything you can see or hear can be turned into ‘media’ to reach out, connect with, and sell/market to your target customers. Consider this the “educational textbook” for those looking to understand the new media world.

• Six Pixels of Separation
  by Mitch Joel

  Mitch helps you understand both basic and more advanced techniques of how to use the ‘social web’ to connect to a global audience and consumer base with cost-effective strategies that create compelling results.

• Trust Agents
  by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith

  This book has been a big mindset changer for me in terms of “how to use the web to build influence, improve reputation, and earn trust.”  I like the last one, “earn trust” instead of “build trust.”  Their references may connect easier to a younger (late 70’s/early 80’s) generation, but their concepts are easily understood by anyone. This book defines – to me – the “social media marketing” world in which we now live and operate in as business owners.

What’s On Your Shelf?

These books are only a portion of my collection of business books and in future posts I will focus on a few of these in a more detailed review. These are the books that have impacted me and hope that you will get as much – if not more – value from them as I did should you acquire them.

Now, I want to ask you: What other books would be on your “entrepreneur’s bookshelf” and what should I read next?

Post your answers in the comments below!

So why do I love it so much? Because it has become my “thinking place!”

My Business in 360 Degrees While Riding Around My Lawn

When I jump on my lawn tractor, grab my iPod, start it up, and get going the world becomes a place I am completely separated from.   Now maybe it only works because I have a lawn tractor as opposed to a push mower that requires extra effort, but I essentially turn off the rest of the world and get lost in my thoughts and my music.

What ends up happening during this time is the part that I find the most amazing.  It’s when I am sitting there on my tractor riding around my lawn that I do some of my best thinking for my business.  I mean, I know my lawn. I’ve mowed it many times. So when I’m riding around for like the hundredth or so time, my body just naturally seems to know when to turn, stop, back-up, and go forward.  Therefore, my mind seems completely free to think about whatever it wants to!

Being a business owner, my mind quickly jumps to my business and whatever opportunities or growth ideas I’ve had on my mind.  I think and think and think and plan and plan and plan in my head and I can promise you, by the end of EACH time I mow, I’ve got something new figured out. I’ve got something new up my sleeve to try. I’ve got something new that could bring about some great change and results in my business. It sometimes just keeps me in awe how much I can come up with in 40 minutes while “figure-eighting” my way to the end of my lawn.

After doing this for almost 2 years (since I’ve owned a yard to actually mow) you know what I realized?  I’ve always needed to find my “thinking place” so that I could strategically plan and lay out the growth path of my business.  This time, this place has brought about some great things for mPower Consulting and I’ve come to get excited about that time because I’ve learned how to make my business the core focus while I’m there.

So, if it works for me, it can work for you!

I’m not suggesting that you all jump on your mowers and get to thinking strategically. What I’m suggesting is that you determine where you do your best thinking in regards to your business and then purposefully allocate time to be in those places to think strategically about how to take your business to the next level.  Trust me, you’ll be surprised by your results!

Here’s my top 5 tips for finding your “thinking place”:

1.It should be a task or place where there are no distractions, none, notta, zilch, nothing!
2.It should be a task or a place where if you are doing something, it requires little thought or effort (but keeps your body busy since if you’re like me, you can’t sit still!)
3.It should be a place where there is no opportunity to write down your thoughts. Now this is strange I know, BUT if you are writing down your thoughts, you are not opening your mind to flow freely because you’re too busy trying to write down the last thought. SO, this takes practice to remember what you thought, but allows you to follow thoughts to the end without interruption getting a clearer and more complete thought!
4.It is NOT in your home office, work office, or anywhere else you normally conduct business!
5.I recommend that it be somewhere outdoors. Why? Because how can you think “out of the box” if you’re inside a room… which essentially IS “in a box?”  Get out, breathe fresh air, change your scenery and open your mind up to the possibilities!

So, are there any other business owners or professionals that already have their “thinking place?”

If so, where is it or what do you do to get into that place?

*Photo credit to Brenda Anderson

How you could you possibly be making it any worse you ask?

Well, let me ask one question to you as a fellow business owner: Have you been reacting hastily and panicky to the whole situation or have you taken this as a time when you should completely step back and find out if and how your business has changed?

Before you answer, let me tell you, it’s likely that it has changed… dramatically! On top of that, every time you desperately make a quick move to try and keep your little world in perfect utopia, you kill another little piece of your business.  How do I know this?  Hey, we’re not all perfect you know!

Now is the time to stop the merciless killing and get smart about how we manage our businesses moving forward! But first we need to learn how we’re killing our business.

Three Reasons You’re Killing Your Business

When I meet business owners at different events or sit with them as new prospects, I can quickly tell who are the ones who have a grasp on what this economic meltdown has done to their businesses and those that think their world will get back to normal if they can just “hang in there.”  Here’s the issue with that thought, the world has just about completely changed and each time you try something to get things “back to normal” (which no longer exists) you’re just opening up a new wound in your business to bleed your lifeblood… cash.

The three common culprits:

1. You are hastily making decisions about cutting prices using elaborate promotional schemes that cut into margins while not giving any focus to how that will affect the business in a long-term view.I call this the “well, we gotta get something out of our customers” syndrome. Stop it! You’re bleeding yourself dry!
2. Rather than reviewing the business as a whole and finding the fat around the operational processes and supply chain, you instead quickly apply cuts in terms of employees, marketing budgets, customer service operations and even to the extremes of cutting your operating hours (yes, like “not working” is going to help you grow and survive at all?!)This isn’t just cutting a hole to bleed business out of this is actually chopping off limbs that are key to providing your value! Why would you destroy the strongest assets of your business? There may be fat on them, but they are what deliver your value!
3. You look at the world around you with an “end of our world” perspective that you’re trying to prevent from happening as opposed to a “we have a whole new world of opportunity” perspective that helps you identify how to leverage opportunities in this new economy to that may only require minimal changes to how you currently operate.

So what am I saying in all of this?  If you cut your margins, cut your available resources to barebone levels or have a doom `n gloom mentality then it is likely you are a few months away from the doors slamming shut on you, permanently.

Stop Panicking and Start Thinking Straight

Now is not the time to cry “It’s the end of the world!” Now is the time to realize there is a whole new world of opportunities out there for you to identify and grab a hold of to continue growing your business.  What that requires is for you to NOT PANIC and make rash moves, but to step back to look at the whole picture and think strategically about each step.  We need to remember that every day is “Game Day” as business owner Monica Tate-Maile says in her post for Harvard Publishing titled “For Entrepreneurs: Every Day is Game Day.” Read it, get focused.

So, first off, if you are the panicky business owner: STOP… and breath, count to ten, do some yoga or whatever else lowers your blood pressure.  Now, let’s give ourselves a few actions we can perform and a few things to focus on to help us identify what has changed, what needs to change, where the opportunities are and how we can go after them.

Five actions to take to start thinking straight about your business:

1. Get away from the business with your management team (or with your family if it is just you) and focus on life.
   1. The key here is to relax and not talk about business.  It is to enjoy your time together to strengthen your relationship, which in turn strengthens your ability to work as a team, your ability to listen and be honest with one another and your ability to trust one another with the changes to come.
2. Schedule a “Our Changing World” meeting for your leadership team where you will take a look at the entire economy, not just your market, and point out what has changed
   1. Look at who the new consumer is (what makes them tick, what they want to know about businesses, what they expect from businesses, what makes them buy, how they like to buy, etc.)
   2. Look at your competition and see if and how they have changed or how they are reacting to the changes in the world around them. If you see growth in them, find out how to copy it and make it your own. If you see panic, use that to encourage your team to continuing pushing forward to overtake your industry adversaries.
   3. Look at other industries, whether complimentary or not, and see how they’ve changed and how they are reacting to the to the changes in the world around them
3. Do not look to find a market for your product, find a market that has a need/problem that you can make a product for.
   1. It may be a product you already have that you never thought of how it could help this market. This may require little changes in the product itself and just a new marketing campaign and message to redirect it to this qualified market.
   2. It may be a product you need to develop from scratch, but at least you have found a qualified market that has proven it has the money and will to buy.  This is a more drastic change, but drastic times call for drastic measures.  Can you make a product for them?  Why don’t you if your market has disappeared?
4. Redefine your messaging
   1. Listen, if the world is so dramatically different it’s a sure thing that your message no longer communicates the same value as it did before.  Start over. Again, listen to the market and find what they want first, not what you think you should now represent. Communicate how your product will fulfill their need.
5. Focus on the customer and not on sales
   1. Make every touch-point of your organization the best experience it can be for the customer, not for the business.
   2. Now is the time to beef up and improve the quality of your customer service operations to keep new customers satisfied and current customers loyal.

It’s a whole new world out there and us business owners have to be willing to realize that we may need to start over in order to survive and thrive.  Clearing out the panic and opening our minds to the new opportunities that may be all around us is the only way we’ll make it through another year of this mess. So start now before it’s too late!

So what about you?  How have you handled the change in the economic world of your business?

If there is anything that history has taught us in the world of business, it’s that collaboration – one or more individuals working together for a common goal – is a strong breeder of success.

Here’s just a few success stories that were bread out of collaboration:

• Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google
• Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft
• Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak of Apple
• Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Roebuck of Sears, Roebuck and Co. (it’s official name)
• Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana of Dolce & Gabbana
• Sonny and Cher
• Bert and Ernie
• Tom and Jerry anyone?

Sure, there are those individuals like Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com and Pierre Omidyar of eBay fame that did it pretty much on their own. But I bet behind each of those individual success stories are key influencers that gave advice, feedback, and assistance as these entrepreneurial rockstars were just getting started or beginning to hit growth.

How I Learned to Collaborate for Business Growth

My consulting practice, mPower Consulting, has undergone a powerful strategic shift that has centered around the idea of collaboration.  I originally started it as a web design/online marketing consultancy since that was a strong skillset I had developed that I knew could get our foot in the door with clients.  At that time, it was all about everything our clients wanted and how we could make sure we offered all of it.  We were buying books, manuals, taking courses, anything to be able to have some level of expertise in all of these service areas.

What I soon realized was what I already knew, we were not the best at everything! We know what we know what we know and that’s it.  Now, I’ve always been a fan of the idea of being a “life-long learner” but let’s face it, our brains can only hold so much and to keep trying to fill it with a little knowledge of how to do a million different things begins to dilute those things that we know a lot about and are great at.

So then it hit me: “Why don’t we just focus on what we’re best at, what we know we can provide value with, and then team up with other great organizations who are experts at the rest?”

Duh! That should have been simple to figure out, right?

Not so much! Those of us in business have always been in love with the idea of being the “one-stop shop” and the “everything to everyone” where we can provide (and charge) for all sorts of products and services, but unlike Wal-Mart, it’s not really a possibility for most businesses, especially for those who are just starting out.

So now with collaboration as our driver, we’re working with 15 other local businesses that we pull into our client projects to collaborate with based on their areas of expertise.  This has allowed us to focus on what we do great and funny enough, we’re able to charge more for it! Our partners (or “resource network” as we call them) bring in their value and we all look like the heroes to the client.  What was I thinking all this time?

Through the continued development of our relationship, we’ve also been able to learn from one another and offer advice for how we can improve different areas of our businesses.  Our collaboration has gone internal and helped us build better businesses. It has been absolutely invaluable and mPower Consulting has begun to attract new, exciting, and challenging projects from clients we never may have reached before as we tried to be the everything to everyone.

Learn this, collaboration can fuel growth faster than you by yourself can!

Eight Steps to Start Collaborating

You might be thinking, “Well how do I find businesses to collaborate with.” Well, I’m going to tell you.  To truly find great business collaborators, it will take time and it will take effort.  You will have to search, research, analyze, test, measure, and continue testing to find the right businesses you should be connected to.

Though that sounds challenging, here’s eight simple steps I started with to find the organizations we collaborate with:

1. Identify your top 5 weaknesses in what you are trying to offer your client (trust me, you have weaknesses)
2. Join a networking organization, review the membership, and identify at least 3 organizations who appear to be strong in your areas of weakness
3. Research their business and determine if you could provide their clients value (This is important because why would they want to collaborate with you if there was nothing really in it for them? Make it about helping each other.)
4. Reach out, connect and have an informal meeting with the owners of those organizations (it needs to be the owner)
5. At the meeting, first talk about how you think they can provide your clients with value, then compliment with how you think you could provide value to their clients (Make it more about what they would want than what you would want.)
6. If you both agree you can provide value to one another, just find some projects to work on with each other and work through them as a test to determine if this is true and if you can work well together
7. In-between projects, continue meeting and building a relationship between your organizations
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 as it will take some time to really start opening your collaboration to be both externally with one another’s clients and internally with one another’s businesses

How Do You Collaborate?

So what about you? Do you collaborate with other individuals/businesses? How has it helped your business?

Writing to Make You Famous

If you ever thought that writing would never make you famous, just take a look at what Brian Has been able to accomplish with three years and a blog.

• The Guardian named Copyblogger one of the world’s 50 most powerful blogs.
• Advertising Age ranks Copyblogger as a top 5 blog about marketing.
• Technorati says Copyblogger is one of the most popular blogs in the world, and a top 20 favorite among readers.
• The editors of Performancing honored Copyblogger founder and editor Brian Clark by naming him the most influential blogger of 2007, and he came in at number 30 among the 50 most influential bloggers compiled by top blogger Leo Babauta.

Brian Clark has been featured in the following books:

• Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin.
• The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott.
• Free Agent Nation by Daniel Pink.
• Gravitational Marketing by Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller.
• Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields.

(source: Copyblogger.com)

Helpings Others Build a Successful Online Business

On top of Brian’s success in both offline and online businesses, he has recently created a new platform called Teaching Sells, in which Brian has created an online learning center where any individual can learn how to build a successful business by teaching others with an online membership web site.

As one of the early members, I can say that this program has opened my eyes even more to the possibilities of building a successful business on the web!

A Different View of Social Media

Funny enough, I haven’t even personally met Chris.  I’ve just been a relatively recent fan who: follows his RSS feed, his Twitter feed, his Facebook profile, his FriendFeed, reads his blog daily, and have recently bought his first book called Trust Agents.

Okay, so I sound a little obsessed here.  Honestly, it’s because I found someone that thinks a lot along the same lines that I do and that always intrigues me.  He see’s the “human-side” to everything, including how we interact online, and tries to figure out the answer to the question “why?”  I, very much, take that same approach.  The difference is that I sometimes feel Chris is about 10 steps ahead of me so I read his work and follow him to catch up!  He also just brings a whole new level of thinking to my own business and how I build a community around it, myself, and things I’m passionate about! He’s also a person of integrity, which I’m always attracted to and he lives what he preaches.

A Proclaimed “Expert”… with Proof that it Works!

Need an example, if you looked back over the past two years you would see how Chris and his co-author Julien Smith used social media to connect with people who would be interested in the book they were writing. They then built a community around the book by sharing with their followers the progress of the book as they were writing it. During that time they asked their community engaging questions and starting discussions that continued to give them further insights and ideas for the concepts that would become part of the book while promoting its release all at the same time. By the end, they had used social media and their community to pump up its release… and it came out #1 in three categories on Amazon.com when it was released!

Read the book… the concepts they used to promote it is exactly what they talk about in the book. Talk about putting your money/effort where you mouth is!

Consider her your “recovering entrepreneur.”  I believe we were all born with the ability and desire in so many ways to create our own destinies, but some of us get caught up in a false belief that we have to work for someone else to succeed rather than being able to make it on our own. Pamela is that very person who started there, but learned to break away. After leaving her wonderful corporate job at Barclay’s Global Investors, she found herself in what is commonly the position of most corporate robots turned entrepreneurs, an outsourced contractor to those same large corporations! But Pamela was able to convert those experiences into a wonderful consulting practice called Ganas Consulting.  She has shown how true passion and effort can lead you to create something that not only supports you financially but fulfills you emotionally, mentally, physically, and for some of us spiritually!

What I really love is that the way she speaks, writes, coaches, and interacts is consistent with who she really is as a person.  Remember that entrepreneurs!  Stay true to yourself and your passions, and most of your business will come naturally to you. That is… MOST of your business!

Check out more about Pamela Slim at her blog Escape from Cubicle Nation

So, it’s that time.  Time to launch out on my own!  Ahhh! The release and comfort of being able to reply with whatever I actually want to say to any comment, post, status update, or tweet that I see!  So digital world! Here I come! Guns blazing… well, not yet… but soon!  Of course, I’ll still bite my tongue where necessary… besides, you could all easily find out I own mPower Consulting and convert your negative feelings for my responses to the quality of my business!

Now isn’t that an interesting topic? I think I’ll go write a post on that!  Talk to you all soon!

kcjtumsrv3