Today is day 14 of the blog challenge and it’s starting get REAL. I’m digging deep and really putting together a sustainable and most importantly FUN business.
Today’s blog is about the 2 habits that millionaires have that you will incorporate into your business.

1. Millionaires move forward and don’t let excuses get in their way. Powerful huh, I don’t care what goal you are trying to achieve it’s so easy to let your excuses tell you a story AKA lie.  You will tell yourself why things won’t work or why that person won’t want to hear from or why they wont’ help you. That has to stop. This past weekend I have written out my goals and really start to track my daily activities. I have typed out my goals and posted them through out my house.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask! Here is something that I recently read that just hit me like a ton of bricks.

• If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same spot.

Here something that smacked me between the eyes about how powerful this is. I met this women Yolanda at a business networking event. She ran an successful bridal and special event dress business in Boston for years. She was well known and respected. I sent her an email and she replied right back. I asked if I could run a business idea past her and do you know what she said’ She said yes!!!! WHAT!! She met me once at an event we had a little connection and she said yes.  That was such an AHA moment!!

How I will make money is I will sell ebooks about workouts motivation and setting goals. I will also continue to coach clients. I love working with clients helping them to achieve their goals and I will partner products and/or services that will help clients to achieve goals.

What price would you put on having peace of mind that your body is receiving quality protein daily’ Consider that a recent report from ConsumerLab.com found 31 percent of other protein powders reviewed failed to meet the claims they advertised and/or were contaminated with excess heavy metals.

For the report, ConsumerLab.com bought, tested, and analyzed the quality of 17 protein-based products that are used for everything from bodybuilding to weight management. What they found was surprising: some protein powders exceeded limits for lead, contained more carbohydrates or cholesterol than advertised, or less protein than advertised.

A total of five products out of the 17 tested and ConsumerLab.com gave them a “Not Approved” grade—as in “Buyer Beware”. The products were tested to check the accuracy of label claims (total calories, total protein, etc.) as well as possible lead contamination. The products that raised red flags were then sent to another independent lab to confirm the findings.

Of the five products that failed to meet testing requirements, quality problems they had included:

• Less protein than what’s listed: One product actually had 16 fewer grams of protein than listed on the label—that’s almost 70 percent less! Also, the same product had 16 more grams of carbs than listed, including 3 extra grams of sugar.
• Contaminated with lead: One protein-based meal replacement shake had 12.7 micrograms of lead per scoop, which can exceed daily limits (as outlined by U.S. and Health Canada regulatory guidelines) if two or more are consumed daily.
• More cholesterol and calories than what’s listed: One product that claimed to have “0 mg” of cholesterol actually had 10.2 mg. Another product had 25.7 additional calories per serving.

For consumers who are looking to meet health or athletic goals with products like these, it’s easy to see how inaccuracies could be problematic. That’s why it pays to have a company like Isagenix with a “No Compromise” quality policy.

Isagenix products are rigorously tested to be sure they meet label claims. This means that when the label says “24 grams protein,” it’s what you’re getting. Our Isagenix Quality Assurance department performs routine testing of label claim accuracy for the duration of each product’s shelf life, too.

The strict quality policy at Isagenix also involves testing of raw ingredients and finished products for microbial activity, pesticides, and heavy metals including lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium. Isagenix uses independent laboratories for testing to guarantee quality and safety.

The process that Isagenix uses for continual inspection of raw materials and analysis of finished products is an expensive enterprise. Because of the high cost of testing, other companies will often cut corners and avoid such extensive testing. At Isagenix we believe that meeting and exceeding safety guidelines is absolutely necessary as integrity and the health of our customers, friends, and family is paramount.

Once again, as evidenced by this latest report from ConsumerLab.com, you just can’t trust every protein powder or drink product you come across.

Reference:  Product review: protein powders and drinks (for body building, sports and dieting). ConsumerLab.com 2013.

I love this blog challenge because it’s all about simple micro actions. This is what I tell my clients it’s not about big sweeping moving, but taking tiny steps forward toward your goals.

Today’s blog focus is what 3 things can I do change my blog.

1. Clear Calls To Action — How do we interact with each other. Make it easy for you to understand what you are a suppose to do once you get to the site. How can you work with me’ How do I make so you want to hang out with me and join the squad in some capacity.
2. Clear and Consistent Content — This challenge has really helped me get clear about what I want the blog to be about. During this challenge I want to get consistent with my posting.
3. Clean Up My Service Offerings — What is it that I offer clients’ KISS ~ Keep It Simple Stupid.

How about you’ Think of 3 things that you can improve and leave me a comment below.

Today is all about what makes me special. It’s about why you would choose to work with me. This one was particular hard for two reasons. 1. I don’t really like to shine the spotlight on me, I’m more of a background stage manager type person. and 2. It caused me to get really deep and think about what I really want and be very open. I’m usually the one asking the questions to help you open up and get to the heart of  what you are really feeling. Now.. this was the spotlight being put on me and my feelings and that’s not something I really do. I’m the one asking questions (not in a police interrogation kind of way) or the smart ass in the corner telling jokes.

1. 1. What are you better at than anyone else’ No, I don’t think I’m better than anyone. I just think I have a different approach from a number of trainers. I believe the YOU the client has the answer. I don’t. I work with you to meet you where they are. Using questions and listening to you to better understand your motivations behind making a changes in your life.
   2. What do you enjoy doing the most’ Helping you achieve your dreams. I can see the strengths in you and will breathing belief into you when you don’t or can’t believe in yourself. I enjoy showing you how to stop dieting and embrace your changes as a lifestyle.
   3. What do (or could) you provide that no one else is providing’ I listen to all the facts and work with you to brainstorm different solutions that will work best for you. Together we create a road map leading you to your dreams. This is so POWERFUL!
   4. What annoys people the most about your industry or blog area’ When folks get on their high horse and telling YOU  what YOU need to do without any flexibility. I also get frustrated with the bootcamp type instructors/fitness professionals who believe in no pain no gain. If you aren’t hobbling the next day it’s not a workout. Running/treadmill sprints and balls to the wall cardio each and everyday is not the way to get leaner it’s the way to an over training, overuse injury.  Now.. I’m not giving your carte blanche to eat fried foods and ice cream. But I do believe in meeting you where you are. I also believe in a safe and sensible approach.
   5. What is remarkable about you’ I have a sense of humor. I don’t take myself so seriously. I’m honest to a fault. You will always know where I stand. I will also hold you accountable to helping you to achieve your goals and dreams. If you want to achieve your dreams I’m your girl.
   6. Do you have an unusual combination of elements’ What is unusual about me is also remarkable about me is my unusual combinations of elements. I have a sense of humor, a way of explaining fitness concepts in layman terms to you so that your really understand.  I have a way of putting you at ease, encouraging you to answer questions openly and honestly. This is the first big step toward permanent change.
   7. Do you have a big personality’ Yes. I can sometimes be a loud and over the top type of person. It’s just that I”m sure passionate about what I do for a living that I can be a get a little excited.

They say no 2 snowflakes are a like and I feel the same way about trainer relationships and their clients. Each relationships has its on fingerprint and each client approach is different based on where they are in life.

This day 11 of my blog challenge is here is where it great real for me! I have to choose. I need to make a clear and definitive decision! For years, I’ve been you must have multiple streams of revenue. To me this meant you did a little of this and a little of that and in the end it all helped to pay your bills. I was told by a very wise person and it took quite some time for it to sink into my thick skull.  Scattered focus. Scattered attention. The other quote that has been popping up in my head is Guard your focus like it’s a briefcase filled with $1 Million dollars.  Now’s the time to put it out to the world!!!

I will sell myself.  Now get your mind out of the gutter! =) I will sell my knowledge. I’ve been a health and fitness professional for several years and in that time have gained  a ton of knowledge. My main focus has been working with women who are in their forties and who are looking to get their groove back, they want to get their health and fitness back into their lives. Selling myself includes — regularly blogging, getting in front of the video camera and letting my clients hear my via podcasts.

As I’m selling myself, I will work create information products and work with other manufacturers that sell products that will enhance my clients goals. This will enable to me make residual income.

I keep talking about living my passion while having time and financial freedom. I was lucky enough to have been told that my services were no longer needed at my last corporate job. Okay– in layman’s terms I was laid off. Now for most people there are a number of emotions that run through them. When I heard those words, my boss was expecting tears OR anger. I took a deep breath and said what does this mean’ Is today my last day. I should have taken a picture his face was PRICELESS!!! Now let’s face forward to me going home and telling my husband. My husband’s response — you hated that job it’s time you finally did something you love.  Got to love him! He knows how to kick my butt and motivate me to take action.

So for the past few years I’ve been stringing a bunch of jobs together, but now I’m ready to scale it back and create revenue that won’t require me to always be present to deliver the services. I’m also looking for away to be able to travel with my husband without having to shuffle the world around to make it happen.

Today’s blog post is all about how will I make money.

1. I have been wanting to create a digital product for YEARS. Yes, years it’s time for me to get off my butt and take ACTION! Here I’m putting it out there. By the end of 2013 I will have 1 information product. My plan is to have the following.

• Clean eating recipe book
• 12 week workout plan including nutrition

2. I love helping people achieve their fitness goals. I want to continue to coach clients, both in an online way and by phone.  Ideally I’d love to do a 2x year women’s fitness and wellness retreat.

3. For years people have asked me what products I use, I want work with different manufacturers to be able to showcase the best products to my clients. These health and wellness clients will help me the achieve their goals.

Now here’s a fourth dream goal that will take a little time for me, but I’d love to start speaking in front of large groups.

As part of my 30 day blog challenge was asked to ask to take a look at companies and/or brands that I’d admire. Well, that was hard to narrow it down. Well I’ve narrowed it down to 3. One site is in my space. I like how she’s organized her site and how she’s presenting her information. It’s very simple and it’s easy for the visitor to find information and the visitor also knows where to go on the site as well as what she stands for. The site I’m referring to is Wellness Mama. What I have learned from this site and what I plan to implement into my site is clearing up my message and making sure folks know what I’m about and how to easily find information.

The other brand that I admire is Gary V. He took over his family’s wine business with a goofy You Tube video show. I and many others love it becasue he showed his authenticity. He was a REGULAR guy talking about how regular people would talk about wine. Take a look. Some say he’s a little over the top. I think Jim Cramer from Mad Money is over the top =). Gary is just real and honest. Got to say that’s my style. My take away from Gary is 2 fold. 1. I must step from behind the computer and in front of the camera and 2. I must convey to folks my authenticity. Yes, it may be real, but it’s honest and comes from a place of love and respect for helping meet your goals. 

The third brand I admire is the blog challenge that I’m currently doing. her name is Natalie, but calls herself the Suitcase Entrepreneur.  I love it as one of my goals is to be able to work from anywhere I want provide a I had an internet connection, a laptop, cell phone and/or land line. This 30 day blog challenge is really forcing me to commit to taking daily actions in my business and I love it!! I’m also using this blog challenge as a way to have an idea and follow through until completing. This is HUGE FOR ME.

Today’s post took me a little longer than normal, but I got it done. Yeah me!!

Yesterday in my blog challenge we were asked to come up with goals for the next 30 days. That was challenging, but the most challenging part of it for me was taking it to the next step. You see I’m awesome with coming up with ideas, but sometimes  I struggle to take the next step OR the next step overwhelms me OR I get side tracked by something else. Well not this time! I’m focused and committed to making my dreams come true by the end of the year.

Action is the foundational key to all success.
Pablo Picasso

I’m not sure about you, but sometimes we just get stuck in our habits and patterns that we can’t seem to break free! Well. I’m ready to break free. My mission to help women embrace their strength and their power. I feel like I can no longer contain it. It’s time for it to come out!!

Today’s challenge was to come up with 3 tools that will help you stay on track. Here are my three tool:

• Time management — purchased a book that I can track my daily to dos. I’m also finishing reading and immediately begin in-acting The 7 Minute Solution. I will also block time in my schedule DAILY to devote to marketing and promoting my business.

• Meditation —  I need to learn to sit quietly.  I will use my Ipod and set a time for 5 minutes. I have index cards of mantras that I will repeat to help me grow my belief in growing my business and helping my clients achieve their goals. I will continue to read my Daily Book of Positive quotes to help center me and keep my thoughts positive.My affirmation: I confidently go after success!

• Plugging in — I will listen to 3 podcasts/week. This time instead of listening I will take any tips or techniques and find a way to implement them. I will also get back to daily posting on Facebook and Twitter.

Apply yourself. Get all the education you
can, but then, by God, do something.
Don’t just stand there, make it happen.
Lee Iacocca

The first thing that comes to my mind is that song — Give me three steps, give me threes steps mister, give me three steps towards the door …… Now you can take the three steps toward the door to be positive or negative. I take it to be positive. As the saying goes when one door closes another one opens. My taking 3 steps toward the door is positive.  To move me closer to that other door and the life I want to lead here are the 3 things I must do!

1. Develop my 90 day — this means getting it out of my head and putting it in writing. This means mapping out what I need to get purge to make room for what I truly want my life to be.
   • Part of my plan will be to become a better and consistent blogger
   • Build a community of women
   • Develop an information product
   • Track and log all the ideas in my head
   • Create a clean eat recipe database
   • Set the ground work to become a fitness speaker
2. Get clear about my health — right now I’m going through some health challenges and I really to make sure that I make the decisions that will help me long term. Nothing to be worried about they tell me I’ll live a nice long life.
3. Have a daily plan — I find that when I map out my day the night before I feel focused and productive. They say it takes 21 days to make a new habit. So.. I’m going to give myself 90 days to really burn it in.

So.. what are your three steps. What you do you need to purge to make your dreams come true”

Today is all about how we can mix work with play. What an interesting concept!! This is so timely because one of my mentors told me I needed to CHILL out! That I was working to hard and needed to find a way to mix business with pleasure. That comment made me take a big step back!! I didn’t know where to begin, so this blog posting is quite timely.  I’m going to treat this blog post today like an interview. Kim I want to you close your eyes and visualize your perfect day.

1. How would you spend it’ I’m a sucker for the ocean. Ideally I would love to wake with the help of an alarm clock. I would go outside and with a hot cup of coffee and just take in the morning. I know that they say you shouldn’t read the paper, but it helps to ground me. I find that when I read the paper it’s not about the fire, murders and bad things, I really gravitate towards the human interest, science and okay a little entertainment news. The main thing is really all about just sitting out and breathing in that ocean air.  Once my morning is complete I’d head out to the gym. Then I’d head back and start my work day. Once my work is complete I’d head back outside and watch the sunset — I love watching the colors and how they vary from day to day. It’s just so fascinating to me.
2. With whom’ I envision myself surrounded by friends who share my vision, make me laugh and push me to better than I think I could possible be. Of course my husband would be with me, but we both know that if we spend to much time together it would make us crazy –LOL =)
3. Where would you be’ As I’ve mentioned I LOVE warm weather!!! Ideally I’d be in a place that I can be outside enjoying warm weather. With that said, I could be somewhere where I wear a light jacket or fleece, but certainly not wearing a hat, scarf and gloves!
4. Would you be working, playing or both’ My day would a combination of both. One of my clients said it best everyday would be a Saturday! You know where you might have some things to do in the mornings, but then the rest of the day is YOURS!!! The challenge as I mentioned earlier is to just relax and not feel like I need to ALWAYS be moving!
5. What does that smell, look and feel like’ They say that if you are doing something you love you are in the “flow”. My goal through this blog challenge is to really discover “my flow”. Over the past few years, I’ve done stuff for money. Now..I want to pay attention to what I do that makes me get into the flow. So.. my day looks and feel relaxed, I’m not anyone’s else time schedule or agenda. I’m working on projects that make me happy and while I’m working on them I lose track of time. The part of my day is really make sure I have blocks where I’m not watching the trying to squeeze in project into bits of time. I truly believe that’s what hurts my flow. As I lose my rhythm and its hard to get it back.

Kim, now that we got the personal thoughts of your day, let’s talk about your business.  Contemplate how a business fits into your perfect life.

• What kind of work do you do’ My business is a  combination of online and telephone coaching. I’m also working on creating easy to make clean eating recipes. One of the outcomes of my business is also recommending and sharing products that would be beneficial for my clients.
• Who are your customers’ My clients are busy moms and working women over forty who are looking to get their groove back.
• How much time would you spend in your business’ In any given day, I would love to spend 4 hours working in my business and another 2-4 hours working on my business. Now here is the distinction.  In my business is doing the hands on work, actively coaching clients, writing programs, responding to emails, putting together information products, and marketing my business. Working ON my business would be meeting with business partners, attending conferences, marketing, attending networking events.
• What hours would you work, ideally’ I find I’m most awake between 11 and 4 and then get another burst around 8pm. 

This is day 4 of the my blog challenge, today is all about location independence. Let me just say I’m a SUCKER for warm weather. Once the the temperature hits 70 or higher I can soak it all in like all. At times I think I’m a battery just to get my dose before the long hard winter. Here in New England winter typically lasts about 7-8 months.

In my ideal world, I would be able to pick up my business and have it anywhere I have an internet connection and cell reception.
I would love to chase the sun as soon as it got too cold here in New England I’d move South or West. Even if its for a few weeks, just to recharge my sun batteries.

Now I don’t want my current clients or potential clients think that my work ethic will suffer. In fact, it will excel. I find when I’m in with nature I’m much more creative and energized to work.

I truly believe that if you are where you love your work life and regular life will thrive.

3 tsp high olive oil
1/2 cup pine nuts
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 bags (12 oz total) fresh spinach
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
dash red pepper flakes
2 cups fresh basil leaves, torn
optional: fresh grated Parmesan cheese

In a very large skillet, add cooking oil over medium-low heat.
Add pine nuts and cook, shaking skillet gently, until just starting to brown a little, about 2 minutes.
Add minced garlic and continue cooking, stirring constantly for 1 more minute.
Turn heat up to medium and add spinach, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes.
Toss spinach around in skillet for about 3 minutes or until it just starts to wilt.
Add fresh basil leaves, tossing to combine, and continue cooking for 1 minute.
Remove from heat and serve immediately.
Grate fresh Parmesan cheese on top of each serving if desired.