Steve Olson is a favorite regular reader of mine. Hi Steve!! *Wendy waves*
Steve’s blog has been phenomenally successful in the very short time he’s been publishing Steve-Olson.com (like, under two months). Steve put together his own sort of “MVP” post that steers us to all of the blogs and posts that influenced his amazing success. I’m honored to be included as one of the links - but I was more excited about digging around and reading more about Steve’s recommendations - they are fantastic.
This post is DEFINITELY worth a visit.

~

Dave Sifry put out his quarterly state of the blogosphere report earlier this week. Now, I will admit this is the first time I caught the report, but I was quite impressed - now THAT post was an entire project in and of itself to put together!

Dave’s insights are very helpful for anyone seeking to take their blog to the next level. I love it when someone else crunches the data, and then just gives us a grand global overview of what makes great blogs tick. Particularly interesting is the posting frequency of the highest trafficked blogs… I guess I should be wondering if I should post more often!

~

Have you ever wondered if someone was lying to you? Well, there is a simple way to find out - now mind you, it’s not foolproof, but I’ve tested it and have found it to work most of the time. I found a post on Blifaloo that summarizes how to read eye patterns to determine whether someone is being truthful or not (it’s based on NLP, btw). It’s a short and handy guide that you can also just have fun testing with your family and friends.

Tags: Home Based Business, Productivity, Work At Home, Achievement, Goals, Pitfalls, Success Thinking, Blogging, Blog Trends, Successful Blogging,

The Productivity Group I’m working on launching at the beginning of the year is based a lot on how we run our Mastermind Group - but if you want to tap the power of the Mastermind, you can start now.

Here’s some of the key things that have made my Mastermind Groups powerful:

1. Keep them small so that conversation can flow. We have 4 people in our group. I don’t think I would want more than 8 total.
2. Include a range of skill levels in your group. You want people that can mentor you as well as people you can mentor - keep in mind the Latin Proverb, “By learning you will teach, by teaching you will learn.”
3. Use the power of leverage. If I don’t follow through on my commitments, there is a price to pay. I make it painful enough to ensure I do what I say I will do.

Our meeting structure is simple and efficient:

1. We meet weekly at a certain time - if one of us is late, that person is buying breakfast for everyone.
2. Each person has the floor for a certain period of time - which gives everyone an opportunity to share successes and ask for help or guidance.
3. We sometimes hand out ‘assignments’ to each other. A few months ago, I was knee deep in working on blasting out my limiting beliefs about money. One of my group members suggested that I ask for money from someone every day for a week. Wow, it was hard, but I got SO much out of it.

There are lots of paid Mastermind Groups to join out there - if they offer the right networking and learning opportunities, I think they are quite valuable. Technically, I paid to be in my own group - but it was part of a larger program that included other seminars. I think it was the best investment I have ever made in myself.

If you have the urge to start your own Mastermind Group, feel free to drop me a line, I’m happy to offer tips if you need it. But if you just want to tap the power of a group of amazing individuals, stay tuned for my Productivity Group launching soon to start in early 2007 - it’s going to be an intense 12 weeks that will help you keep and achieve the New Years’ Resolutions you make for your business!!

Tags: Home Based Business, Productivity, Mastermind, Mastermind Group, Work At Home, Achievement, Goals, Pitfalls, Success Thinking, Work Life Balance

So what do the law of attraction, sobriety, depression and being a size 6 have to do with anything around here?

Not much, actually.

That’s the point.

These are all subjects that I have touched on in this blog that have prompted MANY of you wonderful readers to contact me privately and ask more about how I have overcome these challenges in my past.

I’ve responded to all of you along the way, but I prefer to answer reader questions on the blog, so that more people get to benefit from the answers. Unfortunately, most of these answers simply aren’t on topic around here. I’ve been able to weave in bits and pieces of my experiences as they relate to business (and personal challenges affect us everywhere in life, anyway). But it is time to devote more time and energy to these topics.

Why?

1-Because I want to address the volumes of email I get on a weekly basis from people seeking help that I can provide

2-Because it fits awfully well with my new-ish coaching practice

3-Because it fits with my life purpose that I left my high-paying, outside-the-home career to pursue back in April

You know, it’s funny how all these things work out - and hindsight seems to always reinforce my trust in the Universe and the process of life in general. When I launched eSelfHelp, I specifically didn’t want to be at the forefront of the site. I think I wasn’t quite ready to be a true leader yet. When eMoms took off and eSelfHelp didn’t, I was left to figure out why the heck that was the case.

But after talking with several of my colleagues, it became clear that the reason this site was working was because I wasn’t afraid to put myself out there as an expert in my field. Once I embraced my power and owned my place as a leader, this blog just skyrocketed.

Thanks for the nudge Universe (and to myself!). I got the hint.

I’m ready to move forward and be at the forefront. I am ready to lead and to serve everyone who wants my help. And I’m launching my new blog in the next week or two to take my own career to the next level.

Don’t worry, eMoms at Home is staying put and nothing is changing around here - it’s just time I started helping a lot of other people besides work at home parents.

Stay tuned!

Tags: Self Help, NLP, TimeLine Therapy, Self Improvement, NLP Coach, Business Coach, Intervention, NLP Intervention, Depression, Addictions, Law, of, Attraction, LOA, Weight, Dieting, Eating

But one day, I wake up, and things are feeling a little chilly. And on that day I have a lot going on, so I just throw on a sweater and keep going. That night, I’m too tired to go downstairs and turn up the thermostat, so I throw on an extra blanket and fall asleep all warm and snug.

This goes on for a week or two, and soon, I wake up and find that things are really cold. I finally go and turn up the thermostat, but find that I also have to clean out my vents, because dust is flying everywhere. And I have to change the furnace filter, because it’s been a long time since I took care of that. And now my whole house needs cleaning, because I didn’t catch the dust in time.

If I had taken care of all of this stuff when things started getting chilly, my day wouldn’t be so filled with chores.

But now I am really uncomfortable, so I take care of it all, and kick my butt into gear. I clean the house. I get my furnace checked and cleaned. I go to Home Depot and buy several furnace filters so that I can change them often.

And life is pretty good again.

So, I got to thinking… what if I stayed on top of my game like this more often? And what if I stayed on top of my game in my business, AND in my home, AND in my relationship, AND with my family? Wow! That would be AWESOME! I’ll DO IT!
So a few weeks later, I wake up one morning and I am sweating. Whoa! What’s up with that?! I check my furnace and my thermostat - everything is fine. I guess things must be running more efficiently! Cool!

I’m SO on top of my game! I’m going to call my hubby to make plans for dinner: let’s go out and celebrate! And you know what? We haven’t been on vacation in a really long time - why don’t we talk about finally planning that trip to Florida?

I wake up the next day in a great mood - I’m feeling so good I’m going to call myself in “sick” today! My furnace is running so well on its own that I don’t need to check it - I’m going out to play! And I’m already getting ready for Florida - we are able to take the time away now, and you know what? We NEED this vacation!

I’ll make my to do list, and hopefully I’ll get everything done before we go… Let’s see, clothes? Check. Toiletries? Check. Pet sitter? Check. Change furnace filter? It’s running so smoothly right now - I’ll take care of it when we get back to town.

Ahh - sunny Florida. What a great trip it was! We tanned, we saw Mickey, we swam in the ocean. What great family bonding time! But it’s good to be on the way home… I can’t wait to get there and just flop on the couch.

We turn the key in the door, and uh-oh. Crap! What the #$%& is going on? The house is FREEZING! I go and check the thermostat - it’s flipping 58 degrees in this house! What the heck happened?

I hate this see-saw crap! One day it’s freezing - next I’m sweating, and now I’m freezing again! I can’t take it anymore! So… I think I’ll approach this differently and ask myself some better questions:

1. What are the consequences of living my life comfortably at 70 degrees? What will I never accomplish as long as my thermostat is always set at 70?
2. I love living my life at 80 degrees, but I get so darn sweaty! What would I have to believe about myself in order to feel more comfortable when things get warm?
3. As I look back over this pattern, I find I am most productive and energetic when I’m just a little chilly. How can I maintain this motivation as things get warmer?
4. Living life at 68 degrees is a little uncomfortable, but certainly not unbearable. How can I change my perception or my approach to living life a little chilly? What would transform the experience from “uncomfortable” to “exhilarating” and from “frustrating” to “exciting”?

Hhhmmmmm… these are good questions. I’m going to go set my thermostat to 72 degrees right now and ponder my answers…

Tags: Home Based Business, Productivity, Work At Home, Achievement, Goals, Pitfalls, Failing, Business Failures, Success Thinking, Work Life, Work Life Balance, eMoms,

So what is a coach? I actually don’t like the term, because my own coach not only transformed my life, but also worked extensively with my family and all of us have experienced massive change by working with him. Somehow “coach” doesn’t seem to encompass all of the things he has done for us, and all of the things I can now do for my own clients. By working with my coach on and off for 3 years, we have:

• More than doubled our income
• Got our daughter off of Ritalin, and she just got straight A’s (well, one B+ too)
• I know I personally have saved two lives and had a hand in saving at least 2 more
• Eradicated depression from my life
• My husband got sober, which also…
• Saved our marriage - which is absolutely extraordinary now
• Moved into our dream home on a wooded half an acre near a forest preserve
• Owned our first investment property

So perhaps you can understand why I think the word “coach” doesn’t quite cut it.

I think I prefer the titles…

• Interventionist
• Change Agent
• Manifestor of Destinies
• Architect of Dreams
• Transformation Maven

Well… I think I will put it out to you - any suggestions for a better title than “coach”? You are a creative and brilliant bunch out there - I know because I read your blogs too!!

If you want to learn more about coaching, and want to:

• Take your business to the next level
• Overcome personal challenges, including depression and self-sabotage
• Increase your income
• Be a Change Agent in your own family
• Increase your productivity and end procrastination

Then drop me a line for a free session to determine if coaching (or whatever we are going to call it!) is right for you!

Tags: Home Based Business, Productivity, Work At Home, Achievement, Goals, Pitfalls, Success Thinking, Work Life, Work Life Balance, Business Coach, Interventionist, Intervention, NLP, NLP Coach, Life Coach,

Our whole house was filled with carbon monoxide at 2:00am.

Thankfully I was actually up and working on a deadline and didn’t sleep through the CO2 alarms going off - which we stupidly only had installed in the furthest-from-our-bedroom basement corner of our home.

PLEASE ensure you have CO Detectors (an affiliate link - but I would feel better if you got them now at a local store) installed and working in your homes today. According to our (wonderful!) local fire department:

If you start showing signs of Carbon Monoxide poisoning while you are sleeping, you can be guaranteed you won’t wake up.

The most important place to put a CO2 detector is near your bedrooms. We had dangerously high levels on the top floor of the house, but our CO2 detector that I placed on the middle floor never went off (because I didn’t trust the first reading from an older detector in the basement :: dumb).

Signs of Carbon Monoxide poisoning include nausea, headaches, vomiting and flu-like symptoms. The key difference between the flu and CO2 poisoning is that the whole family will come down with it at once - whereas the flu knocks over family members one at a time.

If your CO2 detectors go off, call 911 right away (though I have in the past turned them off and they didn’t go on again - I’m thinking that wasn’t the smartest move now…)

Here’s a link to the full Wikipedia article on Carbon Monoxide Poisoning

Please be safe and keep your families safe too. I was lazy and had 2 CO2 detectors sitting in the store bag for months. I assure you today they are working and in their proper places.

Do the same and make sure you have a CO2 detector for every level of your house. And SPREAD the word - having these detectors in your home is now a law in most states, anyway!

~

*Edit* For those of you who are curious, I am still sitting in a very cold house as I wait on the second professional to come out to our house and figure out what the problem is. The gas co. and fire department seemed pretty confident there was something blocking the flue. The hvac guy I just had out here wasn’t able to find anything in the flue, nor able to figure out a furnace problem without charging us a lot of $$. I’m now waiting for a chimney sweep to come out and check the flue more thoroughly…

The wonderful chimney sweeping company found two dead squirrels in the flue - we are all clean and finally safely warming up!
I am so happy and grateful, not much can bother me today

Tags: Safety, Family, CO2, Family Safety, Carbon Monoxide, C02 Detectors, Save Lives, Safety Tips, Winter Maintenance, Winterize,

I’m working on launching my Productivity Program - group coaching for anyone who wants to make some New Years’ Resolutions for their business, and to ensure that those resolutions actually happen! More on this to come SOON.

I’m curious if any of you would be interested in promoting the program to your own readers - and if so, I would put together an affiliate program!

Please drop me a line if you want to take advantage of my offer - or if you have questions. It would help me to know the interest level of potential affiliates while I am in the planning stages of the program.

As an incentive, I will offer a higher commission to anyone who signs up for the program before December 31st! Just ’cause I like you guys so darn much!

[I’ll post a sign up link in the next few days if I get enough interest]

Tags: Home Based Business, Productivity, Work At Home, Achievement, Goals, Pitfalls, Success Thinking, Work Life, Work Life Balance, Work Kids, Affiliate Marketing, Affiliates, eMoms, Affiliate Program, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing,

Now, it’s not that he likes peppers, in fact, he hates them. What he DOES like [love!] to do is taunt our almost-12-year-old daughter with pepperoncini-eating dares, such as:

“Eat four of these peppers soaked in Tabasco Sauce and I’ll take you to GameStop“.

All I do is give her the “look”. The “look” says “You would be flipping CRAZY to listen to your father at this moment - but if you do it, negotiate a hell of a lot more out of him than a simple trip to GameStop!!”.

Thankfully, she didn’t do it (but only because my hubby wasn’t willing to give her $100). What she DID do next, though, really caught me off guard.

She prefaced a question she wanted to ask with, “Please don’t blog this mom, but…”

And then she proceeded to ask me an embarrassing question.

Lest you think I am going to spill the beans on her, I’m not. But the question was rather anti-climatic - one of those things that would only bother a 12-year old anyway.

It was one of those time/brain-twisting moments when I realized I couldn’t even conceive of having this kind of conversation with my own mother when I was 12! I didn’t really know how to react because I had NO references in my own experience to respond to a kid who didn’t want her embarrassing moments blogged about for the world to see!

It got me wondering about what our kids will be capable of when they are sitting in the middle of a restaurant with their own 12 year olds in the future.

If little Alexandra McDaniel (via) is setting the pace for our children, us parents had better get our game on!

And I’m curious - all you parents out there - what do your kids think of your blogs? Do they even care? Do any of them maintain their own blogs? And how has blogging impacted family life? Please share!!

Tags: Blogging, Blog, Weblog, Parenting, Entreprenurialism, Family Dinner, Family, Embarassing Moments, Parents

The BlogTipping tradition? Pick three blogs. Say three great things. Offer one tip. I’m taking a more minimalistic approach this time, simply because life in eMoms-land is awfully busy these days!

Kiddley

1. They have great content - really fun projects that I would *want* to do with my kids - nice!
2. The site is one of the prettiest blogs I have seen (and I am a sucker for pretty!). Your site would be pretty too if your Chief Editor was a phenomenal illustrator too!
3. For a ‘commercial’ blog, you have done a great job of keeping the layout clean and easy to read - I’m impressed.

Tip :: I’d love to see more projects for older kids - my daughter is turning 12 this week and still loves to craft. It’s getting harder to find things she would be interested in doing. Help!

Dooce

1. Heather, I LOVE your work. I don’t know HOW you take so much crap from your readers and turn it into the most delightfully hysterical stuff I have ever read.
2. Your photographs are phenomenal - and so crisp and sharp. Even at high res I can’t get my camera to take such great pictures. Must be the photographer…
3. You’ve done such a great job monetizing your blog - I know my readers would love to pick your brain on the subject. If you ever decide to write a post about it please let me know!! (We would settle comment though… just askin’ )

Tip :: Keep your heart in the right place woman, and remember Psychology 101. Your not-so-favorite readers are doing what’s called Projection. It’s “a defense mechanism in which the individual attributes to other people impulses and traits that he himself has but cannot accept. It is especially likely to occur when the person lacks insight into his own impulses and traits.” Thanks to Heretical.com for the definition. (So, yes, the religious fanatics are basically jealous that John gets to touch your breasts. Go figure!)

Pronet Advertising

1. I think I picked all three blogs this month based on what great designs they have - your blog has a unique template that I love. Nicely done!!!
2. You offer great tangible blogging info and I really respect you for that - and you are definitely my goto source for understanding Digg.
3. I didn’t realize you had such a big section on Analytics. I’m usually a big picture thinker, but I LOVE web analytics. I’ll be spending more time there to read what you have to say on the subject.

Tip :: I am a scanner and scan fast to determine whether I want to stick around and read more. Although I love the layout of your home page, I would invite you to consider having more than 4 story headlines for new readers to review. I have been a reader for a while, so I know to dig around and find good posts. Newbies to your site might not give you the benefit of the doubt (or might, as you DO have an impressive Alexa going on!!)

Tags: Blogging, Blog, Weblog, Blog Tips, Blogging Tips, Blog Traffic, Blog Publicity, Increase Traffic, Blogtipping, Powerful Women, Dooce, Pronet, Kiddley, Kids, Moms, Mom Blogger, Online Marketing

Some of you are still in a job outside of the home, longing to take the leap into home based business-land. Are you ready? Well, if you can say yes to at least ONE of the following, you had better start giving a home business some serious consideration. Three of them should be a wake up call. If you have more of five of them you had better stop reading this blog right now and start on that dang business plan!! (Come back later though for help along the way!! )

Anyway, here’s the 10 Signs that You are Ready to Start a Home Based Business ::

Your work-life schedule has become unmanageable

You have a dream that has become an obsession

You are willing to do whatever it takes in order for your business to succeed

You dream of business plans and of marketing strategy

You are willing to start your new business in your off hours and give up some of your free time

You have the ability to go 2-6 months without any self-generated income [either by tapping into savings or by cutting expenses enough to live off of one income]

Your “I shoulds” and “I wish’s” are becoming “I musts”

You have a nagging feeling that you aren’t living up to your full potential, and you have decided to do something about it

You are getting little hints from the universe that it is time to put up or shut up

That little voice that used to say “I can’t do that” is now wondering “Hey, CAN I do that?”

[Hint :: yes, you can!! Do it now!!]

Tags: Home Based Business, Productivity, Work At Home, Achievement, Goals, Pitfalls, Success Thinking, Work Life, Work Life Balance, Work Kids,