I’m so excited to share this with you! The International
Association of Women in Business Online (IAWBO) is celebrating its
2nd birthday, and you’ve got to see the Virtual Birthday Gift Bag
that they’ve put together.

IAWBO is celebrating its birthday by giving YOU a gift!

More than 30 successful women (including me) have contributed
their wisdom to this complimentary gift bag devoted to
supporting – and accelerating – the success of women in business
online like you.

And it’s SO much more than your average “give-away”…

Each item in the gift bag is an EXCLUSIVE resource not available
for-free anywhere else and also includes access to a special
interview series that will unfold on IAWBO’s blog:  the “How Does
She Do It? 2.0″ series. You’ve watched and you’ve wondered. Now
you can KNOW what these women do to achieve MEGA success.

And, I know you’ll really appreciate this too…

You’ll get immediate access to all 30 gifts with just ONE opt-in!
(You do not have to subscribe to any other list – unless you want
to).

Hurry — the virtual gift bag is valued at over $1,000 and is only
available for a short time. Click here to see ALL the fantastic gifts
included inside.

Wishing you MEGA success!

P.S. Once you register for your gift bag PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION
to the thank you page where you’ll discover the MEGA secret we’ve
been keeping. You’ve really got to see it to believe it!  Click
here to find out.

I’m looking for a retreat agenda. I had a milestone birthday last January, and I promised myself I’d take myself on a retreat for a weekend. Well, that was almost 8 months ago, and I have not gotten my act together. Yeah, yeah, my self care remains at the bottom of my list.

But kudos to me for finally making steps in the retreat direction. I’m looking at places, and will probably head out one weekend in September. However, I’m a bit worried about heading out with absolutely nothing on my list of things to do. So I turn to you, my great and powerful friends…

This is how I'd like to feel at the end of my weekend retreat!

Any fantastic retreat ideas, activities, suggestions? For those of you who gave gone on retreat by yourselves…what’s your best advice? Please help create a kick-ass retreat for me, and I’ll make sure I pass along what worked so you can have your own kick-ass retreat someday. I can create a pretty good agenda for any other kind of meeting, but I’d love some help creating a good agenda for my own retreat.

With gratitude,

First, tune in tomorrow at 12PM Pacific/3PM Eastern, when I’m the guest on Gina Bell’s “How Does She Do It?” teleclass series at the Association of Women in Business Online. Head on over to the Association of Women in Business Online and sign up now! Hope to “see” you on the call tomorrow.

Second, if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area and need legal advice, I highly recommend Bill Ambrunn. I’ve known and worked with Bill for several years. He is smart, reasonable and has the utmost integrity. You cannot find a better attorney…and he shares my wicked sense of humor. Learn more about Bill by visiting his web site.

Can’t decide whether it makes more sense to build new or change existing…your thoughts? http://ow.ly/2cuMH

Apologies for not posting in a while. I’ve been trying to pull my head out of the morass of “gurus” Facebooking, blogging and tweeting about their latest free call or telesummit or live event or ebook or whatever, and really, seriously think about what would make my clients (and potential clients) excited enough to invest in themselves.

Research shows that Apple devotees are no different from those committed to a formal religion.

Then, my Mastermind pal Linda Miller-Zellner posted a link to an article in Fast Company:  “Invincible Apple:  10 Lessons from the Coolest Company Anywhere”. Check out Lesson #8:  Turn Feedback into Inspiration. Inspiration is the key word. Gather feedback, of course, but do not simply deliver what clients say they want. Use that feedback to inspire you to deliver something they didn’t know they needed.

What do I take away from that advice? Do not limit yourself to providing only what your clients say they want, or what “gurus” say you should provide. Pay very special attention to what your clients tell you they want. Then, spend a little extra effort to deliver something inspirational. And when was the last time you were truly inspired by an ebook, telesummit, program, blueprint or system?

I don’t claim to have this nailed myself. I have made available my share of ebooks and programs. I remain frustrated with the lack of inspiration I’m creating for my clients, and the lack of inspiration I’m getting from my work. Is it a risk to put all of this in writing? I think so. But no risk, no reward, right?

Here’s a great post from my friend and Goddess Coach, Melissa Zwanger.

Financial Abundance – Decide that Money is Important

You can’t convincingly ask for it if you don’t think it’s important. Check it out!

(c) Pallotta Teamworks

For those of us working in/with the nonprofit community, Dan Pallotta’s writings can be polarizing. I personally admire and respect him and his work, and I’d love to be able to have dinner with him sometime. His most recent post at the Harvard Business Review is the latest in a long line of reasons he is one of my heroes. Check it out, and let me know what impossible work you’re tackling right now.

Screen shots from iProsper by Fl!p Your Thinking

I am so in love with two of my newest iPhone apps that I just have to share them with you.

iProsper and LiMITLESS, both from the cool kids at Fl!p Your Thinking. They are based on their beautiful flip/flash card decks. One side of each card contains a negative thought that is replaced by a positive thought when you flip it over. The simple act of flipping the card reinforces your decision to focus on the positive.

I check out a new card often throughout my day:  on the train, before I go to sleep, when I’m waiting in line. These have really made me feel like I can make some progress changing my thinking without carving out a huge chunk of time and space.

Check them out!

There are three words that I believe are critical to a successful asker:  “please” (which seems a bit obvious) and “thank you” (which often gets overlooked). Expressing gratitude to those who deserve it has become a challenge in our culture. Many of us do the internal stuff–thanking the universe, making our daily gratitude lists–but how many of us do the external stuff? For example, when was the last time you said “thank you” to someone?

The same wise woman just referred me to the Coffee Party. Take their Civility Pledge!

Several years ago, I was sitting in a staff meeting. The topic of discussion was, “How to Better Motivate Our Employees”. Most of us immediately leapt to staging big team-building events, which the company could not afford. Then, a very wise woman (and tiara wearer) said, “How about we all start saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’?” Dead silence in the room. How beautifully simple! Just say “please” and “thank you”. Have you ever been loath to take on an additional task because you hadn’t been appreciated for doing the extra work last time? Using these three little words made a world of change in my department in this company. My team was happier and more motivated, and other people were dying to come work in my group.

Start expressing your appreciation and gratitude today. Here’s an easy way to begin (and one of my personal pet peeves):  If someone holds a door open for you, SAY “THANK YOU”. Is that really so hard? Do you really have so much on your mind (or such a high opinion of yourself) that you can’t take the fraction of a second? Or will it take a door slamming on your head or hand or foot to wake you up and make you appreciate us door-holders?

OK, rant over. My point is, will you start appreciating what you receive (and the person or entity that gives it to you), or will you continue to live in your bubble until a door slams you in the head?

Thank someone who made your walk easier.

All too often I talk with women who do not seem to appreciate the work of women who came before them. They believe they have to invent the wheel all over again; that is someone did it before them, it just can’t be good.

This is particularly evident in women of my generation (youngest baby boomers). I think part of our “ungratitude” comes from the fact that we did have to do so many things before those women who are younger than we are had to do them. For example, I was one of the first young women to gain access to the previously-male-only weight room at my high school. Today, my daughter can use whatever facilities she likes at her school.

Because we were trailblazers in so many ways, it is likely we even think about the fact that someone could have done something before we did. So today, I’m taking a moment to thank one who came before me.

Liz Carpenter was the founder of the National Women’s Political Caucus and a tireless fighter for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. She also was instrumental in gaining admittance for women into the National Press Club in Washington, DC. I am grateful to Ms. Carpenter, and thousands of other women of her generation, for blazing trails that I merely had to walk down.

It’s still Women’s History Month. Thank those who came before you.