"Simple Strategies to Effectively Work From Home"

Thanks to Smart Moms ~ Smart Business for inviting me as one of their guest speakers!



“Simple Strategies to Effectively Work From Home”

Learn how to engage the right mindset to work from home effectively along with realistic time management strategies and lessons on setting boundaries.

(download the worksheet to help you take notes - a PDF file)

Effective Time Management Strategies

Typically time management is one of the most challenging areas to master, especially for women. Here are some strategies to consider for effective time management.







Creating your Absolute Yes List

Keeping the ultimate vision of what you want to create in your life and business will help you determine your YES list.

Ask yourself these questions when being asked to do something:

• Does this bring me closer to my ultimate vision?


• Do I feel good about doing this?


• Do I really want to do this?

If you do not answer ALL three questions with an absolute YES then you should absolutely not commit to the request - even if you feel obligated.

Create Your To-Do List the Night Before

Not only will creating the list help you fall asleep faster, you will wake up with purpose and intention every morning. Doing this will keep you focused and productive.

Put Yourself on Your To-Do List

Self-Care FIRST - Care of others SECOND

It's simple: You cannot provide for others and be effective at anything if you are running on empty. Not only will it cause emotional and physical stress, but greatly impede your productivity over time.

Allow for Flexibility

You want to create a daily routine which helps you stay organized, but don't schedule everything down to the minute or you will never stick to the routine. Leave enough time in your schedule to be flexible to change your mind or agenda for the day.

Try NOT to Multi-Task

Seems crazy huh? Here's the thing about multi-tasking: When you are multi-tasking you are doing many things at once, but you are not doing one thing well. If you are feeling the need to multi-task then you have too many things on your to-do list and you want to re-visit them with your absolute yes questions.



Doing things sequentially allows you not only to dedicate your full energy and focus towards that item, it actually increases productivity. You will accomplish more if you are not splitting your attention between multiple things at once.

These are just a few strategies for managing time. If you feel this is definitely your main area of concern, I'd love to work with you to create your perfect time management solution. Please feel free to contact me at Growth In Action ~Empowerment Coaching and Training to set up a complimentary consultation.


Until Next Time...

Opportunities to Network

As I attended my younger cousin's graduation party this last weekend I was reminded of how important it is to always bring business cards, marketing brochures, samples etc. You never know who you will meet, even at a family event. Fortunately for me I did bring my business information and was able to make a couple of really good connections.

I feel this topic deserves a little bit of attention. Here are some strategies for making the most out of any event - remember everywhere you go there is an opportunity to network and build new relationships.

Always remember who you are and what you have to offer.

When you work for yourself you always should be conscious of who your ideal client is. If you are conscious of this when you are at social events then you will easily find opportunities to offer your services to those who you meet without being inappropriate. Some of the best business relationships are those that are developed in social situations.

Carry your business cards at ALL times.

Often times when attending social events we assume that we don't need to bring our business cards. Again, social events can be the best opportunities for you - AND if you are in business for yourself business cards should be on you at ALL times!

Be inquisitive.

The best way to determine is someone you meet can benefit from your services is to ask lots of questions. Rule of thumb is Who, What, Where, When and How - Avoid questions that require a yes or no response. Using open ended questions engages conversation by requiring an in-depth response. Using these types of questions allows you to get a better sense of who the person is and determine what their needs might be.

Examples of open-ended questions:

How do you know _____?
What do you do for a living?
What do you love about your job?
Where do you find you are most challenged?
What are you passionate about?
What does your husband/wife/SO do for a living?
What's your favorite way to relax?
Who is your ideal client?
If you could do anything, What would it be?

Ask to follow up.

When you do establish interest and hand out your contact information ask for theirs in return with permission to follow-up to continue your current disscussion. Then bring the subject back to social topics and enjoy!


With all of the graduations, weddings and family reunions you are sure to build new relationships. Go forward with intention and have fun!

Until next time...

Sales 411 cont...

In a previous post, I touched on selling self-acceptance and choosing a new thought around what selling really is. Today, I want to focus on something you've probably heard before and I think that it is an important component to success.

"People don't care about what you have to say until you care about what they have to say"

How true is that? Think about that for a moment - It is part of our nature as humans to want to be heard. Most people go through life just trying to be understood and when we are around someone who truly listens to us it is a breath of fresh air. And, what do we want to do? We want to be around those people as much as possible. Be part of their inner circle. We talk about them to everyone we know because they are the most genuine authentic people. They really hear us.

When we own a business or represent a business, we need to truly be in touch with what our clients need. We need to know what their challenges are, what they are excited about, who they are, so that we know how to best serve them. The only way to do this is to listen.

Listening is one of the best ways to sell. If you are in touch with your potential customer/client you will know how to work with them and create a win-win situation.

Be In Service of Others

Building on listening, let's go into service. I'm not just talking about excellent service on the part of us, our business/product, I'm talking about being IN service of others.

When meeting another person for the first time, do you screen them for potential customer status? That's a given. What about if they do not have a remote chance of being in need of you or your product? Do you write them off and move on to the next one?

What would happen if you looked at each person in terms of what you can do for them instead of what they can do for you?

Think of the people that you really like to do business with. What characteristics do they embody? How much of their success do you feel is in direct proportion to their ability to listen and really help you?

My challenge to you:

Practice really listening to everyone you connect with this week and find one way that you can be in service of them that exceeds their expectations. Comment on your experience at the end of the week.


Until next time....

Breaking the Rules

I stumbled across a great blog - I Help You Blog and there is a fantastic challenge that of course I can't pass up. 101 Great Posting Ideas for Your Blog challenges it's readers to pick one of the 101 posting ideas and write a great post about the topic.

I have decided to focus on great food for thought that I found in a book I am currently reading called Breaking the Rules: Removing the Obstacles to Effortless High Performance by Kurt Wright.

He proposes that weaknesses do not exist, only strengths. One example he highlights is that you cannot measure darkness except in relation to light. Darkness is light measured in degrees up from zero, therefore you only posess degrees of strength.

So, it might look something like this: You posess two different characteristics, one is self-confidence and one is self-discipline. Previous to this you might consider self-confidence to be your strength and self-discipline your weakness. But, since weakness does not exist then you need to re-evaluate.

We recognize that we only have degrees of strength, so if we were to use a scale starting from zero, (0-10) where would you place your different strengths? It might look like this: self-confidence might be a 10 and self-discipline might be a 2. They both are strengths and self-confidence is stronger.

If you were to accept this belief as true, how would that change the way you operate going forward? What benefits could you see from adopting this new belief system? What would be different as a result of your new beliefs about yourself?


Here's another interesting thought Kurt brings out in his book - you probably are aware and familiar with the Law of Attraction by now and he points out that energetically we cannot recognize a strength in another if we ourselves do not already posess it. He challenges us to verbally acknowledge and engage others in conversation around a strength we notice in them. By doing this we ultimately provide ourselves with a mirror in which we are able to generate awareness by acknowledging and exploring our own strengths, which in turn makes them stronger.

Who do you know that you embody strengths you admire? How might you verbally acknowledge them this week? In acknowledging them, what do you notice about yourself?

I had fun writing this post and I hope you have enjoyed it. I'm curious what your thoughts are on this - share them!

Thanks to I Help You Blog for the wonderful inspiration behind this tidbit.


Until next time...

Sales 411

Here's an interesting thought: Everything comes back to selling. Think about that for a second. The world revolves around sales.... every business regardless of what they do, have to sell. Every person sells. You sell your favorite movies, favorite books, favorite restaurants, favorite shoes. You even sell yourself on ideas and thoughts.


Here's another interesting thought: Most people hate the very idea of the salesperson, yet we all fall under that category in one fashion or another.

The question is: How do I embrace my inner salesperson?

Acknowledge that you sell on a continuous basis in your day to day life.

Admit it. You do it. You just don't think of it as selling.... You would probably say "I'm just sharing my favorite_____________with so and so.

Hmmmm - Sharing. Replace the word selling with sharing. There. That feels better doesn't it? Isn't funny how changing a word can alter your perspective? When it was selling, you shuddered. Now that it's sharing, you feel all warm and fuzzy. We all like to share - we like to share our things, our thoughts, our ideas, our favorites, ourselves. Stop and think about that for a moment..... It's the same thing.

Choose a new thought.

When you choose to think of selling as sharing, it shifts the way you feel about it. When you feel empowered by something you will be more successful at it. For all of you who own businesses or work for a business (um, that would be everyone), this is vital.


What thoughts do you entertain around selling? What new thought might you choose instead? What is one thing that you can do today to embrace your new thought?

To be continued.......