Committed 

A Love Story 

by Elizabeth Gilbert

I know, I know, I always read business or self help books, my two favorite genres so why this book? Hey, I'm on the beach in Hawaii, it made sense. In case you don't recognize the name, she wrote that li'l book called Eat, Pray, Love, a book about a divorced woman's quest for psychospiritual healing that went on to be an international best seller and movie starring Julia Roberts. At the end of that journey Elizabeth fell in love with Felipe, a Brazilian living in Indonesia. The couple swore eternal love but also swore (as skittish divorce survivors) to never marry. However, when Felipe was unexpectedly kicked out of the US by immigration the couple was faced with an ultimatum; get married or get out of the US never to enter again. Over the next ten months they wandered southeast Asia waiting for permission to return to the US and marry. All of these circumstances led the writer to explore the subject of romantic commitment. Yes, this would have been a better review in February, love month but hey, I wasn't on the beach in Hawaii then.

Mikki will be teaming up with some of her fabulous friends and peers to create unique training days.

Don't miss the teleseminar on  

Wednesday, March 23rd at 12:00 noon CST.

No cost, no obligation. Just CLICK HERE to register.   

 

Conversation with Mikki and 

Edgar Papke   

 

ALIGNMENT AND THE HUMAN ART OF BUSINESS

Award-winning speaker Edgar Papke confronts the greatest challenge of leadership: how to get a group of individuals aligned and working together to achieve a common goal. Along with defining the characteristics of high performing teams and organizations,

Papke shares his powerful model for the alignment of strategic intent, culture and leadership, providing a step-by-step approach to focus on and get the performance and results we identify with great teams and organizations.

 He delivers the tools and process for identifying the opportunities for improvement, how to create and sustain alignment, and how to get commitment and accountability.

   
No cost, no obligation. Just CLICK HERE to register.

For more information about Edgar Papke visit:

NEXT TELE-CONVERSATION: Wednesday, April 27th at 12:00 Noon CST  

HR Extreme...Hire the Best, Fire the Rest and Stay Out of Court

Hunter Lott is dedicated to the rights of management. Get the HR options you need to make informed risk versus reward decisions.

No, they are not all my shoes but herein lies the stories. Went on retreat to San Antonio, Texas with my CEO group and stayed at the fabulous Mokara Hotel. On the way to dinner one night I couldn't help but notice the fabulous shoes on the spouses of my CEOs. These two pairs of shoes (left) are on the feet of spouses Melissa Reiff and Stephanie Messner (yes! you MUST have a spouse with fabulous shoes to be in my group! lol).

This was a very special retreat for me as my group had done a secret ballot and voted to have me be as their retreat speaker. It was exciting and strange for me at the same time and turned out to be a blast. As I entered the room in my pink sequin booties Tim Rounce, spouse of member Laura, commented on my fab' shoes at which point his wife (who has a delicious sense of humor) got up to stand next to me to show everyone our different styles. The next comment shall remain part of our confidentiality agreement.  

I come across so many and so many are shared with me that I thought I'd share with you.    

Considering gasoline is a hot topic for everyone these days, this website features the original factory brochures for nearly every American car you have ever owned.  Pick out the make, year and model and smile.   

AmericanCarBrochures 

Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, and fat.                       
                                                        Alex Levine

Life and Skinny Jeans     

A message to tomorrow's fashion designers - enough with the skinny jeans already. This includes all skinny jean alternatives including but not limited to, jeggings, leggings and miscellaneous fat-forming pants. Sure they fit all body types but it's arguable you could wrap a cotton-elastic blend around Shamu's next of kin and it could still swim. Apple bottom-line, skinny jeans are modern-day tapered pants from the 80s and one more thing to squeeze into our already bulging lives.

This evening as I prepare for tomorrow's client presentation with one of the world's largest technology organizations, I'm reminded of a corporate culture that would appear to fit any millennial's wardrobe. One can sit in a meeting with as many electronics as they please, texting, emailing and virtual chatting. And guess what - it's encouraged! Imagine, giving a presentation to a room full of people who've adapted skills to actively participate in a handful of conversations via a handful of channels, while snacking on small plate conference food, and still asking insightful questions. It's a superpower for super people, but I argue that even Spiderman needs a break from playing on the web.

Most of us have our moments when we need to look up, take a deep breath, and break from life's constant squeeze. I challenge you to do it soon. Cleanse the system of technology for an hour, a dinner, an entire vacation and perhaps life's skinny jeans won't feel so damn tight.

Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:

   Spades - King David

   Hearts - Charlemagne

   Clubs -Alexander, the Great

         Diamonds - Julius Caesar

Get up out of your chair!

If you have ever had a bout of low back pain, your hamstrings are tight, you can't stand up straight without overly curving your back, your shoulders hunch forward, your head juts forward a bit, or your belt or pant line angles downwards - chances are you suffer from some adverse effect of prolonged sitting.

Here is the message:  If you sit in chairs- even if they are the fancy expensive type - over a prolonged period of time - your body will eventually adapt to its shape. Think about the ancient Chinese custom of foot binding - placing little girls feet in tiny shoes so that their feet would never grow. Or those photos of the "giraffe women" of Burma who put brass coils around their necks so as to give the appearance of elongated necks (they are actually deforming their clavicle). It may seem crazy - but over time, the body adapts to the shape constraints you put it in. Prolonged sitting in a chair is no different.

And we are constantly sitting. At the office, in the car, on the bus, at meals, watching TV, surfing the net, chatting with friends....all the time!

Yes regular exercise is important - strengthening your core muscles is important, and yes strengthening your back is important - but not as much as one would think.

Here are four things you can do to counteract the adverse effects of sitting

1)     Get up from your chair at least once every 30 minutes and stretch for a couple of minutes

2)     Alternate bouts of standing, perching  and sitting at your desk

3)     Lose weight - the less excess weight you carry - the less your body will want to sit down.

4)     Get a good night's rest and eat healthy- the more sleep you have and the healthier you are due to a great diet - the more energy you will have - which will assist in keeping your body from wanting to plump itself down in a chair due to fatigue.

FYI: The stability ball is not a chair for the masses- it is an exercise tool. If you have weak core muscles (and most people do) and you sit on the ball - the muscles that support your spine while on the backless ball will fatigue relatively quickly. Once this happens - the benefits of the ball are negated -  then all the stress that comes from keeping your body upright and not falling off the ball transfers to the spine itself - causing potential harm.

john@johngodoy.com 

www.johngodoy.com
312.804.8498

Dave Nelsen
Entrepreneur and Social Media Guide
Dave's formal title is President, Dialog Consulting Group. From 2005 to 2009 he was CEO of TalkShoe, a social media company now serving more than one million monthly listeners...and the fabulous company I use to produce my monthly teleseminars.

Where Internet Traffic Comes From

There's one reason that Google is one of the most valuable (and important) companies on the planet. For an instant many times each day, they know exactly what's on your mind. And then they deliver an almost infinite number of relevant results to you --- instantly. Not that you care (or need to) about more than the first twenty because they're that good.

But did you ever wonder where your own website's traffic comes from? Would you like to know which search terms lead people to you? Not surprisingly, Google can tell you that too. Just install their fabulous free tool called Google Analytics on your server or blog and you'll gain incredible insights into why and how many (and even from where) people are visiting you.

But what if you could know this about your competition? Then you could "leverage" their keywords to increase your own website traffic. You can!

Go to www.Alexa.com, click the "Site Info" tab, and enter your competitor's website address. Prepare to be amazed! Look at the search phrases (AKA keywords) that are driving their traffic. Should you borrow these? Very possibly!

How? First, use Google AdWords Keyword Tool to confirm how often these keywords are being searched: likely hundreds or thousands of times per month -- like having ESP and predicting the future. Indeed...

Then, use your newfound "secret phrases" in your website headers and social media titles, and in the first one-hundred words of content. It's almost magic for sales and revenue generation.

Want more details? Just tell us and I'll provide additional detail in future newsletters.

WomensHistoryMonth.com  

The Beauty Of A Woman 

The beauty of a woman

isn't in the clothes she wears,

The figure that she carries,

or the way she combs her hair.

The beauty of a woman

must be seen from in her eyes;

Because that's the doorway to her heart,

the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman

isn't in a facial mole;

But true beauty in a woman,

is reflected by her soul.

It's the caring that she cares to give,

the passion that she shows;

And the beauty of a woman

with passing years only grows.

Authorship is variously attributed to the following authors:

Maya Angelou, Ralph Fenger, Audrey Hepburn & Sam Levenson

REGISTER NOW! 

 SPEAKERS SCHOOL IS NOW THREE DAYS!

Day One: Presentation Skills
Day Two: Learning Lab (Your opportunity to practice what you learned in Day One. You must have completed Day One to participate.)
Day Three: Getting Booked   

The next Speakers School is April 14-16, 2011.
It's for people at all levels: novices, wannabes, CEOs, professionals or anyone who needs to improve their communication skills. 

Upcoming Speakers Schools:

September 22-24, 2011

REGISTER NOW! 

I have attended Speakers School three times and learn more each time. My ratings as a speaker continue to improve as a result. It's very generous of you to allow attendees to return over and over again for merely the cost of food and handouts, what a value proposition!! Worth the original time and money investment ten times over. YOU and your professional acumen are worth the cross country trip alone.

Sherry LeBed Davis, CEO

Healthy-Steps

www.gohealthysteps.com 

VISIONARY VOLUNTEERISM

Visionary, adjective, (esp. of a person) thinking about or planning the future with imagination or wisdom