Happy Holidays!

Maya Angelou Quote:

”I don’t know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, ‘well, if I’d known better I’d have done better,’ that’s all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, ‘I’m sorry,’ and then you say to yourself, ‘I’m sorry.’ If we all hold on to the mistake, we can’t see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can’t see what we’re capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one’s own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that’s rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don’t have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach.”

The best part of starting an amazing new chapter in life is your past can no longer knock you down <3

If someones worth having in your life they will do anything to stay by your side.

I don't know everything. But I am right about everything I know

How Much You Actually Mean

You can always tell how much you actually mean to someone by the amount of effort they put forth to make sure you know you are important to them!

Tip of the day!

Never allow someone to make you feel like less of a person. Only you can control how you let someone talk to and treat you.

Laugh Laugh Laugh... For Your Health

People with a good sense of humor increased their odds of survival by 31 percent, according to a 2006 Norwegian study of critically ill patients. When something strikes you as funny, your body produces less aging stress hormones, explains Dr. Bruce Rabin, medical director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Healthy Lifestyle Program. 

Seize the Day!

Seize the day does not necessarily have to include the morning part of the day!

Right Path

People are made to be loved...

People are made to be loved and things are made to be used. Confusion begins when things start being loved, and people used.

Quote of the day

Expert Perspective - Fast Company - http://www.fastcompany.com/1842005/five-contrarian-lessons-from-successful-entrepreneurs

5 Contrarian Lessons From Successful Entrepreneurs

BY CATHERINE KAPUTA | 07-06-2012 | 9:00 AM

This article is written by a member of our expert contributor community.

There's something special about entrepreneurs whose startups take off and those whose stay small--starting with how they begin.

In studying successful entrepreneurs for my new book, Breakthrough Branding, I was struck by a series of contrarian habits that set them apart. Here are five contrarian lessons that I learned from them.

1. Think "small" rather than search for a "big idea."

Contrary to everything we've heard about finding a "big idea," there's a fundamental paradox in business. Big ideas are small--simple, focused and different so they can occupy a specific niche and dominate their category. Kevin Systrom was building a location-based mobile business like Foursquare, but found that only one piece of it, the photo app, was different and had real traction with customers. So he focused on the photo app, named it Instagram, and became insta-rich. If you can't write your business idea on the back of your business card or explain it to a ten-year old, you probably have a big, bad idea.

2. Use the start-up phase--the so-called Valley of Death--to take risks and experiment.

Rather than follow conventional wisdom and be cautious at the beginning, brand-building entrepreneurs use the "the Valley of Death" to experiment and tweak their fledgling idea. You can die in the valley, yet growth entrepreneurs realize this starting period is the most valuable time because you can create tremendous value out of practically nothing. When Mark Zuckerberg launched Facebook, he thought small and experimentally. He began with students at Harvard and tinkered and experimented with the site to create a different user experience and then started expanding.

3. Realize that when people say, "You're starting what?" that you're on to something.

Most people will tell you that you're crazy when you present a fresh idea, so you have to be a contrarian to forge ahead anyone. You need to realize that you have a viable business idea when you find the "white space," which is just a new need in the marketplace that no one is filling. In 1980, Fred Carl Jr. was designing a new home kitchen and his wife, Margaret, wanted a heavy-duty range like her mother's 1947 Chambers range. They weren't made anymore so Carl looked into restaurant ranges; but they weren't suitable for homes. So Carl decided to make one. All the major manufacturers told Carl that no one would want a commercial-style range for the home. Everyone thought he was crazy. That's when Carl realized he had a good business idea, and named his range, Viking, because it was strong and enduring.

4. Listen to their heart and emotions as much as their intellect.

Successful entrepreneur want to make money, sure, but your goal has to be more than just making money. Finding your business idea is about finding your purpose. Your goal must be tied to your deeper story, your sense of destiny for yourself and your business. Innocent was launched by three Cambridge University graduates who quit their jobs in 1998. The small idea behind Innocent is authenticity, as their tagline says, "The fruit, the whole fruit, and nothing but the fruit." Its brand personality is playful and interesting, and in the early days Innocent experimented with labels listing ingredients such as "banana, orange. and a lawnmower" that got them tremendous publicity. After a few years Innocent became the top smoothie brand in the United Kingdom and recently sold a stake to Coca Cola.

5. Create a new trend or category rather than fit into the market.

Growth entrepreneurs keep a pulse on what's happening but don't try to fit into the market--they try to appeal to where their customers are heading. They have what I call an "outside-in" orientation. They begin with the larger context--the outside--and work inward. After getting his MBA from Stanford, Joe Coulombe acquired a convenience store chain called Pronto Markets. In the mid 1960s he was intrigued with an article in Scientific American about how many baby boomers were going on to college. That article gave Coulombe his small idea. He speculated that those well-educated boomers would want a more sophisticated--but offbeat and fun--food-shopping experience. His name was Joe, so he decided to call his high concept grocery store Trader Joe's.

These five lessons are simple but contrary to the way most business owners operate. They're not obvious to many business owners because they are counterintuitive. That's why they are so important.

Catherine Kaputa is a brand consultant and author of Breakthrough Branding: How Smart Entrepreneurs and Intrapreneurs Transform a Small Idea Into a Big Brand.  Follow her on Twitter @CatherineKaputa and visit her at SelfBrand.

Engage your Prospects with Webinars

Engaging your audience begins with the Webinar invitation. Take the time to craft a compelling message that makes prospects curious enough to commit to your event. Keep in mind that 76 percent of prospects attend Webinars to acquire product information and 61 percent attend Webinars to better understand issues (Osterman Research).


Then, create a customized registration form that will profile prospects when they register for the Webinar. For example, gather vital contact or company details, identify purchasing objectives or ask questions relevant to your product or service. Use this information to tailor your presentation to fit your audience’s interests.

True Faith

When everything is going smoothly, faith is easy. But true faith comes from having trials and going through hard times.

Look into informational interviews

Informational interviews are a great way to learn about a job, industry or company. Not only can you learn more about positions that may not be published, but you're also forming connections to important people. They're especially useful if you're looking to switch industries and they're always a fantastic way to meet new people in your field of interest.

Women can achieve orgasm through exercise: Study

By QMI Agency

There's a new reason for women to hit the gym. Some women achieve orgasm simply by working out, according to a new study. But there are downsides, as women tend to have orgasms in public whether they want to or not.

A researcher at Indiana University decided to study the anecdotal phenomenon of exercise-induced orgasms, also known as "coregasms" because of their association with core workouts.

"Magazines and blogs have long highlighted cases of what they sometimes call 'coregasms,'" said Debby Herbenick, co-director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at IU. "But aside from early reports by (Alfred) Kinsey and colleagues, this is an area of women's sexual health research that has been largely ignored over the past six decades."

Herbenick surveyed 124 women who reported experiencing exercise-induced orgasms (EIO) and 246 women who experienced exercise-induced sexual pleasure (EISP).

She found that women who experience EIO and EISP experience it frequently and many have no control over it.

About 40% said they'd experienced it more than 10 times, most said it made them feel uncomfortable working out in public and 20% said they couldn't prevent it from happening.

What's more, most women said they weren't fantasizing or looking at anyone they were attracted to when it happened.

"These data are interesting because they suggest that orgasm is not necessarily a sexual event, and they may also teach us more about the bodily processes underlying women's experiences of orgasm," Herbenick said.

But if you're looking for a coregasm of your very own, 51.4% said it happened during or after abdominal exercise, 26.5% credited weightlifting, 20% said yoga, 15.8% said bike riding, 13.2% said running and 9.6% said walking or hiking.

"It may be that exercise — which is already known to have significant benefits to health and well-being — has the potential to enhance women's sexual lives as well," Herbenick said.

In A Relationship

#InARelationship you should NOT bring your past baggage into your new relationship. leave that in the past.