Save Money While Making Memories

I'm really not understanding the Christmas decor and advertisements the day after Halloween. A few days ago I made my usual Thursday morning Starbucks run before heading to the radio station and my latte was served in a cup decked out with red hollies and such. Retailers have done it again - skipped a whole month and planted us smack dab in December. This made for a great show topic and our listeners didn't waste time calling in to give their two cents.

My family started a Thanksgiving tradition 10 years ago when I purchased my first house. My middle sister had the grand idea to have dinner at my new place. About 15 of us piled comfortably into my less than 1000 sq. ft. abode. Since then, we've kept the tradition alive by rotating between houses every year.

As American families continue to face tough economic times, planning holiday get togethers can be challenging. As a result of increased gas and food prices, some family traditions have fallen by the wayside. Here are a few things you can do to save some money and cherish your time with loved ones.

• Host Multi-Family Dinners: Instead of footing the bill alone, invite neighbors and friends over and ask them to bring a dish. This can work in tandem with saving on travel. Too strapped to book a flight out of town? Stay put and celebrate with others who decided to forgo travel.

• Skip the Elaborate, High-Priced Meals: It's going to cost more money to feed more people a gourmet meal. Your family and friends aren't looking for a 5-star experience. Scale back on the specialty items and keep it simple by serving up inexpensive comfort foods.

• Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse: This goes beyond being eco-friendly. Reduce your spending all together by comparison shopping, clipping coupons, and buying early. Create a spending plan (doesn't this sound better than being restricted to a budget?). Recycle items by swapping; you can get rid of something "old" while giving someone else something "new". Buy decor that can be used for more than one season/holiday/occasion. Clear glass votives, vases, and dishes are great. Use colored linens/flowers, etc. to capture the holiday's theme.

These money-saving strategies can be used all year long. What traditions do you have and how do you avoid breaking the bank?

Photo credit: alamedabrad

Kick Butt Collaboration

How many new ideas do you think of on a daily basis? How do you decide which ones to act on? Where do you keep all of those ideas until you're ready to put them into action?

I've come a long way with managing my creative process. The more focused I become on specific goal-oriented projects, the less time I spend going off into total world domination mode - the place where one simple concept morphs into a global initiative.

I'm going to take a moment to show you how my most recent venture came about.

MY IDEA BOOK

This is the sacred place where my ideas get written down. Not all ideas make the cut, however. If it's a thought I can't seem to shake or something that comes to me in the middle of the night, I jot it down. Other factors come into play, but you get the picture. Periodically, I flip through my idea book and cross things off that no longer interest me. I wrote down the idea of having coaching and coffee a few months ago.

CLARITY

Usually when I have a bright idea, that's all I have. I wrote about this in the post talking about fear. Rarely do I have a detailed plan attached to the concept. Just as fate would have it, when all of the pieces need to fall into place, that's exactly what happens. This is especially true in this particular instance. Because I'd briefly brainstormed and ran this by my accountability partners, I did have somewhat of a clue as to how this event would actually look. Sometimes all it takes is a few key bullet points and logistics to move your ideas closer to fruition.


CONNECTIONS

My relationship with the owner began close to a year ago on twitter (I make it a point to follow locally owned businesses and entrepreneurs) when he tweeted a coupon good for new customers only. It was a well executed marketing strategy to get newcomers through the door and coffee happens to be one of my favorite things. My initial experience was fun and personable, just the way service is supposed to be and my barista won me over when he concocted something using my three must-have ingredients: vanilla, cream whip, and caramel - in that order. When I saw Kick Butt's callout on Facebook letting folks know the venue was available for events I immediately sent an email and within 15 minutes, Thomas and I were on the phone. Note: Knowing the decision makers saves you so much time on the front end. About 30 minutes later, we'd worked out all of the details and I was good to go.

Now all I needed to do was figure out how to conduct 5-minute speed coaching. Let me rephrase that - I know how to coach, but I've never actually organized speed coaching sessions. Not a problem. I knew who to call. I got Julie Lara on the phone and within another 10 minutes, she got me all hooked up.

DON'T think you need to have all the answers.
DO surround yourself with other people who do.


REALITY

Today marked my first Kick Butt Coffee & Coaching and the next is scheduled for November 16th. Was it a success? By my definition, yes. Simply deciding to get up and take action was half the battle. It would've been easy to sit back and wait for the "perfect" time to move forward. With very little marketing and the fact that today was election day, three people showed up. My inaugural gig was 1/4 full capacity! I know...most people wouldn't celebrate and share what some would consider a low turnout. The truth of the matter is we don't always come out of the gate and hit our target. We meet our goals by committing to consistency. Slow and steady still wins the race.

Your ideas are the beginning of the journey. No matter when you start, you can't expect to arrive overnight.

The Upside of Social Networking Addictions

I've been on Facebook now for almost a year, but my social media addiction started with twitter. I'd spend hours and hours laughing and tweeting...retweeting and laughing some more.

True story: The Boy (my son) once told me, "I wish I had the mom who worked at [previous employer] instead of the mom who works at twitter." Bless his heart, he thought twitter was my job!

Before migrating my addiction over to Facebook, I wanted to make sure I'd positioned myself on twitter. Not as someone who was there to self-promote, but to use it for what I believe it's truly meant for - taking online connections and turning them into real-life offline relationships. Twitter lead to the opportunity for me to speak to eWomen Network in Oakland, CA, as a result of meeting Ann Evanston online. It's been a couple of years since I sent my first tweet and I'm still amazed at the number of people who still miss the point. They continue to talk about only themselves, push their services and affiliate products, and blast sales pitches.

Now that I'm comfortable with using Facebok, I'm spending more time on twitter again. Last week I was on and happened to see a tweet announcing a chat for the upcoming Texas Conference for Women. The hashtag was #TexasWomen. I hadn't participated in tweetchat in a long time and decided to join the conversation. I was glad I did. Although I don't have plans to attend the 2010 conference, I had fun enteracting with the speakers and past conference attendees. That experience alone made me want to go to the live event and I've already put next week's chat on my calendar. I also gained a few more like-minded followers in the process.

I'm sitting in Starbucks writing this post and couldn't help but overhear two men talking about twitter. One guy was telling the other all the great benefits of being active on twitter and the other fellow was rebutting and saying what I've heard so many others say, "I just don't get it."

I'm not here to sell you on it one way or another. Not all social networking works for everyone and I don't subscribe to the belief that you have to be plugged into everything or you're not "doing it right". Find what works best for you and stick with it consistently.

Regardless to what you choose, remember this: Join the conversation - it's a dialogue. Forget about adding value and just show up and give it.

You can see my latest tweets over there to the right below my picture. If we haven't connected there yet, you can follow me at @iHiredMe.

Photo credit: xotoko

Feel the Fear, Have Doubts & Do it Anyway

I was searching for an image that depicted someone being afraid and despite feeling the fear, they chose to "do the thing " anyway. This photo is a good representation of not only that, but of how I personally feel at times.

More often than not, when I make up my mind to do something, I really don't have a clue how to go about doing it. I'm sometimes fearful, rarely have a comprehensive plan in place, am a bit worried about being judged or how the idea will be received by others, but yet and still I do it anyway. I give myself permission to have all of those conflicting emotions - the negative ones that usually hold others back from reaching forward into the unknown. In case you didn't know, that's what we're resisting. Moving outside of what's comfortable and into territory we've never explored.

If you only take away one thing from reading this, let it be the following: If what you're doing doesn't make you uneasy, it's probably not worth doing.

Complacency is akin to comfort. Comfort is related to stagnation. Stagnation mirrors conformity. None of which are breeding grounds for prosperity, growth, responsibility, or success.

I couldn't encourage you to dream big and then make it happen unless I was actually doing it myself. Well, I guess I could but I wouldn't be taken seriously and I certainly wouldn't be leading by example.

The point I'm trying to make here is simple. We experience a range of positive and negative emotions and thoughts. It's ok. What's not ok is when we become paralyzed by the negative - anything and everything from the distracting little voices in our heads to the very people in our circle of influence who shoot down our dreams for no reason other than they too have the same reservations but don't know how to manage and overcome them.

Tell the voices to shut up and get yourself some new friends. I suggest you do this sooner rather than later. The more you procrastinate the more it costs you. Wouldn't you rather have a small group of people who build you up and support you unconditionally rather than a large network of Naysaying Nellies?

Stop settling for less than you deserve because you're guided by fear and can't see beyond the seemingly impossible. Let your fears motivate you. Embrace them and allow yourself to evolve into someone you never imagined you could be.


Photo credit: Marlene Ford

The Unemployed Entrepreneur®: The Evolution Begins

 

This interview was done in March 2009 and was the second one I'd done with the local news. The first was a few months earlier in November 2008, where I shared my story about overcoming foreclosure. I didn't hire a PR firm and wouldn't have done so even if I could've afforded it. Instead, I sat down and taught myself how to pitch the media.

Media outlets report on newsworthy information and during this time, unemployment and the foreclosure crisis was in the news daily. Like millions of others, I'd been impacted by both.

The angle of the FOX 7 interview was to shed light on the upside of losing your job. I wanted people to know that unemployment wasn't the end of the world, but the beginning of reinventing yourself as someone you've always wanted to be or the opportunity to just try something new all together. Bottom line: it's gonna be whatever you make it - good or bad, but regardless -  it's not going to be easy. So since tough times were ahead (believe me, I've had my fair share between now and then), I decided to face them doing something I actually enjoyed and the idea of helping a few folks along the way excited me.

The Unemployed Entrepreneur® was born in May 2009 (I borrowed the money from my uncle to trademark the name).

So much has happened over the last couple of years and I've shared some of it here on my blog. I founded a women's entrepreneur group, started writing for Forbes, and recently became a radio host. And while I've been transparent about certain aspects of my life and business, I must admit that I haven't been that forthcoming in regards to the stuff that isn't so pleasant - the bad days, disappointments, and struggles.

From this point on, I'm really an open book. Not for the sake of airing my dirty laundry, but simply because life isn't always a cake walk and the challenges are also a part of the journey. I believe deep down in the innermost crevices of my heart that I'll reach all of my goals, my dreams will be fulfilled, and my brand will evolve into something bigger than I've even imagined for myself.

So many times we hear a person's story of trials and tribulations after they've made a name for themselves (Paula Deen and Tyler Perry immediately come to mind). We don't get the opportunity to experience it first hand as things are unfolding...until now.

This is my success story in the making. We'll find out how it ends together.