Remember that you are needed. There is at least one important work to be done that will not be done unless you do it. ~Charles Allen
What would you dream of doing if you knew you could not fail? Imagine being honored for your accomplishments and awarded a huge prize in front of an audience of thousands of enthusiastic fans.
One lie that we have been told loud and long is that debt and credit are not only an acceptable way of life, but a better way to live.
Myth: Debt, credit cards and car payments are tools that allow you to live the good life. Truth: Debt, credit cards and car payments are dream stealers.
Being owned by your stuff manifests four syndromes. Syndrome: a group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a particular abnormality.
Insufficiency: If you have ever thought to yourself, “I’ll be happy when I get____________________.” you have experienced insufficiency. There is nothing that can make us happy except for our own decision to be happy - happiness is based mainly on the happenings of life.
Busyness: If you have ever answered, “Busy!” to the question “How are you?” or if you have forgone connecting with someone important to you so that you could get something done, then you have experienced busyness.
Social Isolation: Social isolation follows busyness because busyness is, in part, the cause of social isolation. It used to be that neighbors dropped in on one another, but now busyness is seen as a virtue. Now people assume that everyone is busy and dropping by is seen as rude and as an intrusion.
Financial Insecurity: Financial security is achieved by putting in place some key tools: a realistic budget, an emergency fund equal to three to six months of expenses, proper levels of insurance and a method for saving for future purchases and expenses. Financial security is not the same thing as financial independence. Financial independence is the ability to pay for your basic needs and comforts from a source other than paid employment. Financial security is the path you must journey on to reach true financial independence.
The path to true financial independence starts with a dream; a personal dream of the things you want to do and how you want to be. If you have a partner you must find a shared dream.
The next step is to create the vision. In addition to breaking the dream down into manageable steps, the vision must incorporate the steps which lead to financial security because every dream has a financial component. Without financial security you cannot reach your dreams or true financial independence.
The final step is to practice the discipline required to create the vision daily so that you can live the dream. Without daily discipline we trade our dreams for instant gratification and shortchange ourselves.
If you're on the internet, you have to know PR Marketing Coach Pam Perry who presents a wealth of information to assist in performing your own marketing efforts. Below is a recent e-mail she sent to assist in living your dream by walking in Power and Purpose and marketing that dream:
SOCIAL MEDIA IS NO JOKE.
I"m going to provide you with ten tips that can help you brand your company name, increase sales and build a loyal fan base.
1.) Find out what people most want to know. Consumers go online to ask questions about products and services. Check out Yahoo answers, forums, and other Q&A hot spots to spy on your target audience and see what concerns or questions they have so that you can provide the answers.
2.) Blog frequently using strategic keyword text for maximum "find-ability." Use a keyword tool to download a list of phrases your prospects are using to find products or services in your niche. Use these in your blog titles, web content, and elsewhere to ensure that when they type the phrase into Google or Bing, your site or blog has an increased chance of coming up as one of the top 10 results. Blogging frequently helps Googlebots identify you as an authority figure, and it makes customers want to check back frequently to make sure they don"t miss anything.
3.) Tweet throughout the day and reply to your followers. It only takes a few seconds to put together 140 characters and hit the Tweet button and it allows you to generate new interest in your business to millions of potential customers each time you do it.
4.) Initiate and participate in discussions on your Facebook Fan Page. Some entrepreneurs launch a Facebook Fan Page,post their site link information, maybe their telephone number, and abandon the page from that point on. Your fans or followers want interaction! Visit the discussion page often to make sure conversations aren"t awaiting your participation and if there aren"t any, start some!
5.) Showcase real stories from the company or from customers. Personalization is important when it comes to using social networking sites online. People like to hear real stories so tell them yours from the company perspective, or ask customers if you can share their stories. Why do you think so many weight loss products include "real life success stories?" Because people want to relate to the person using the product before they buy it themselves.
6.) Use a multi-pronged approach to your media. Don"t just type on your keyboard. Text socialization is fine, but there"s so much more you can do to really develop an online personality for your business. Ask customers to submit questions and then create an audio file they can listen to on your site or download where you"re talking. Or, interview an expert in your line of business and record it for an audio lesson they can download.
7.) If bad press gets out there, don"t hide from it. Whenever you start socializing online (and maybe even before), there will be some people you just can"t please and who will talk negatively about you. Don"t engage in a flame war. Instead, reach out to the customer to see how you can make it right "" and do this publicly wherever the bad press was so that it shows you"re not hiding from a problem.
This is a good rule of thumb to remember. Don"t sell, sell sell. Instead, give away freebies, poll your customers for their opinions, provide advice consistently. This is all fostering good will with people who may later buy what you have to offer.
9.) Ensure that your audience sees you as a cutting edge company. Watch the news. Create a Google alert for your niche so that whenever groundbreaking news occurs, you can blog about it and capitalize on it with your customers who will come to perceive you as a company that stays on top of things.
10.) Make viral opportunities available in ample amounts to your customers. Whenever you"re using social media, you want to encourage a viral response. For a blog, for example, make sure you have a widget that has all sorts of social networking site buttons so that your reader can share your blog post with one click of a button.
Don"t wait until you have everything perfect for your website. You can start socializing immediately with afree Twitter account, free Facebook Fan page,free blog, and more. It won"t cost you anything but time, and the rewards that your company will reap will have an everlasting effect on your business.
Today, as we honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. first we would like to thank God for the life of Dr. King, and what He used him to do, so that we could be where we are on this very day.
As The SISTAHS Ministry International celebrates the 5th Year, we wanted to take a moment to honor him, with five of his quotes which embody Power and Purpose:
ALL LABOR THAT UPLIFTS HUMANITY HAS DIGNITY AND IMPORTANCE AND SHOULD BE UNDERTAKEN WITH PAINSTAKING EXCELLENCE.
DARKNESS CANNOT DRIVE OUT DARKNESS; ONLY LIGHT CAN DO THAT; HATE CANNOT DRIVE OUT HATE; ONLY LOVE CAN DO THAT.
EVERY MAN MUST DECIDE WHETHER HE WILL WALK IN THE LIGHT OF CREATIVE ALTRUISM OR IN THE DARKNESS OF DESTRUCTIVE SELFISHNESS.
IF WE ARE TO GO FORWARD, WE MUST GO BACK AND REDISCOVER THOSE PRECIOUS VALUES – THAT ALL REALITY HINGES ON – MORAL FOUNDATIONS – AND THAT ALL REALITY HAS SPIRITUAL CONTROL.
AND FINALLY,
LIFE’S MOST PERSISTENT AND URGENT QUESTION IS, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR OTHERS?”
We encourage each of you to continue to LIVE THE DREAM by walking in Power and Purpose…!
