Exceptional People Magazine-November-December 2011 – Part 1

November-December 2011

CONTENTS

www.exceptionalmag.com

Wishing you a season filled with love, good Wishing you a season filled with love, good friends, the closeness of family and unlimited friends, the closeness of family and unlimited

blessings.blessings.

Cover Photo by David Vance

Extraordinary Profiles

6

Cover Story—

Geir Ness—Celebrity Fragrance Designer Runs New York

Marathon in Memory of Champion Grete Waitz

12 Janeé Harrell—Changing Lives

Through Positive Media

Minding My Business

22 Tony Ellison—Transforming the

Office Supply Business

27 5 Easy Marketing Techniques for

Online Businesses

28 William McMillian—Building

Brands That Impact Bottom Lines

21 Finding the Right Business

Partners

Empowerment

36 Alexandra Watson–Happiness

Coach Helps People Discover Joy

41 7 Ways to Boost Your Business

Just by Asking

43 Is Your Resume ‘Interview

Worthy?’

44 Quick Tips for Presenting a

Professional Appearance at a Job Interview

45 How to Accelerate the

Resilience Process

46 Not All Income is Created Equal

47 How to Detect Lies From

Impressions and Expressions When Negotiating

Dear Friend,

I am thrilled to present our November/December 2011 issue. This is a special issue, and I want to send a special thank you to my guests Geir Ness, Dr. Deana Murphy, Tony Ellison and Wil-liam McMillian for their generosity in contributing to our special holiday promotion. They have contributed extraordinary gifts so that others may have an extra special holiday season. You’ll find in this issue that the focus is on change. Many of the guests featured have significantly changed their lives for the bet-ter and each has a unique way to help others change their lives personally, professionally and entrepreneurially. Webster’s defines change as “to make radically different” or “undergo transformation." When that happens, either you or something in your life is no longer the same. Oftentimes, when we become accustomed to the norm or the status quo, whether it’s good or bad, we oppose change. Trans-forming yourself or some aspect your life into something that you have never experienced is not easy, but I encourage you take a

leap of faith and begin today to re-evaluate your life and your relationships and find something to improve upon. Every-one has something that they can improve upon. Begin making small changes daily. Be consistent and I guarantee you’ll begin to see a noticeable change in the way you view life. Don’t wait for the New Year. Begin the process of change now. Begin 2012 with new ideas, a new vision and a better "you." With every good wish for great achievements,

P.S. Send us your letters at www.exceptionalmag.com/contact.html. Tell us what you want to read in Exceptional Peo-ple Magazine.

Publisher’s Letter

Exceptional People Magazine is not just a magazine. It is a life-changing experience.

November-December 2011 | Exceptional People Magazine | 3

I want to send my sincere thanks to all of my writers, contributors, staff, guests and

readers. It has been a pleasure working with you, interviewing you, and receiving and reading your wonderful comments. You inspire me to continue to live my life’s purpose

which is to help others live their best life. Each of us are presented with opportunities to use our talents and abilities to create our

own masterpieces and to help others create theirs. I hope all of you create wonderful masterpieces in the coming year. As the publisher of Exceptional People

Magazine, I want to personally wish each of you a Prosperous and Happy New Year.

Monica DavisMonica DavisMonica DavisMonica DavisMonica DavisMonica DavisMonica DavisMonica Davis

18 Principles to Enhance Your Personal, Business

and Professional Relationships by Monica Davis

Relationships are powerful conduits to success, both personally and

professionally.

Whether you want to enhance your current relationships or start a new one, this quick guide can help you develop lasting bonds as a career professional, an entre-preneur or business owner and personally. Apply the principles within daily and watch your relationships flourish. Key elements include:

• Understand and know Who You Are and What You Want

• Putting the Needs of Others First

• Recognizing Unhealthy Situations

• Teamwork and Self Discipline Use this quick guide as a daily reference at home and at the office. Available now in PDF format for just $2.95. Printed edition available soon! Pre-order your print edition today for only $5.95—(Regular Price: $6.95). Visit http://www.exceptionalmag.com/18principlesofrelationships.html to learn more and to order your copy.

Coming Soon in 2012!

Blueprint For Life: The Ultimate Business Planning Resource

for Achieving Maximum Results

by Monica Davis

This book will help you:

• Learn how to make better financial decisions for your business

• Gain clarity and an in-depth understanding of your business

• Learn how to identify the best team and resources to help you succeed

• Develop a strategic plan for overcoming business challenges, and much, much more

It will help save you two precious resources you’ll

never regain once they are lost: TIME and

MONEY.

No other resource gives you such an in-depth

thought process by which you can plan your busi-

ness, professional career and life.

Coming Soon in 2012!

Proven Rapid Growth Secrets

by Monica Davis

Included in this book:

• A high power collection of some of the best time-tested advice from top leaders and experts

• Specific success information that you can apply directly to your life and business right away

• Proven advice from award-winning experts that can help you build your business faster and much more cost effectively

• And much more

Some of the powerful things you’ll learn

include:

• How to quickly gain market share

• Guaranteed ways to gain customer loyalty

• How to effectively negotiate anything

• How to turn business challenges into profits

• How to develop a strategic plan for creating solid business goals, and much more


Geir NessGeir NessGeir Ness

Celebrity Fragrance Celebrity Fragrance Celebrity Fragrance Designer Runs New York Designer Runs New York Designer Runs New York Marathon in Memory of Marathon in Memory of Marathon in Memory of Champion Grete WaitzChampion Grete WaitzChampion Grete Waitz

Geir Ness came to America to fulfill his dream of becoming an actor. He has achieved amazing success – but not as an actor. As a celebrity fra-grance designer, Ness is living his ultimate dream. He’s using his suc-cess to inspire others to live happy and healthy lives. Ness arrived in America with a very little money, but his passion and thirst for success has allowed him to achieve an amazing feat that others thought impossible. Through his company Laila, Ness is not only en-joying his success as a fragrance de-signer, but he’s sharing it with thou-sands of people as he travels across the country spreading his message of hope. His love and caring spirit was most evident through his bold decision to team with Norwegian Olympic Gold Medalist Grete Waitz, who recently lost her battle with cancer in April of 2011. The true champion that he is, with a commitment to helping those in need, Ness stepped in to run the race for Waitz in November of 2009. This was his very first marathon, a huge decision. It took a lot of training

ever run in New York, and she set the world record. She's just a person that if she does something, she gives it 110 percent. Her goal was just to do the best she could do, and that meant becoming the best. She was always telling people to be-lieve in themselves. She and I talked about how important it is to really believe in yourself. Before she passed away this spring, she said, “Geir, I am just so blessed that I have been here. I can actually make a dif-ference for women's sports.” So she actually made a difference not just for people who are struggling with can-cer, but also for women in sports. So she was a huge inspiration to me and for Norwegians, that she got Nor-way on the map because nobody had done that before. She just showed people how to really believe in them-selves. Monica: After being diagnosed with cancer, she was unable to run the last marathon and you took over for her. What was that experience like? How did you prepare or train for it? Geir: She wrote a book about how to prepare for a marathon. She advises to “Start pretty slowly.” You start to run maybe, 25 or 30 minutes, for a few times. I also work out a lot, so I had a little more experience in work-ing out than most people do when they're first going to start. But the important thing was to start very slowly, then increase it to 45 minutes, then one hour-and-a-half. Make sure you're eating healthy. Drink a lot of water.

mentally and physically to prepare for it. This was another way for Ness to help raise money for cancer patients. He ran the marathon in four hours and twenty-eight minutes, raising close to $300,000. Always remembering where he hailed from, Ness is constantly reminded of his mother’s words of encouragement and her life-long examples of helping others. He is a committed supporter of the Norwegian Cancer Society, the Susan G. Komen Foundation and sev-eral other non-profit organizations. Ness shared his excitement of prepar-ing for his first 26-mile marathon, in memory of his friend to help raise money for a disease that affects mil-lions of people. He also shared ad-vice on how to achieve consistent suc-cess as a business owner. Monica: Tell me a about what it was like having Grete in your life and what she meant to you. Geir: She was such an inspirational person. She was always very posi-tive, a go-getter. She actually started running marathons unintentionally. She ran shorter distances, not mara-thons. One day she was in New York with her husband, and he said to her, “Why don't you try to run the mara-thon?” And she said, “No, I don't want to do that. It's too far, too long.” He somehow talked her into running the New York marathon. She said, “If I'm going to do this, I can do it really fast. I can finish; I can go home again and relax.” During her very first marathon she did just that; she began to run faster. She won the very first marathon she had

Extraordinary ProfilesExtraordinary ProfilesExtraordinary ProfilesExtraordinary Profiles



8 | Exceptional People Magazine | November-December 2011

I started very slowly, and at the end, about a few weeks before the mara-thon, I would run probably for three hours. Then she also told me when you run a marathon, when you go to the station where you get water and other liquids, you can walk for 10, 15, or 20 seconds sometimes in between, and it's good for you. You can take small breaks in between, which I also did a few times, and that really helped me because I saw people just running and running. At the end, they couldn't finish it. So she was very strict about taking these little breaks and not giving eve-rything you have in the beginning, just run at your own pace. It was important just to keep going, and that really helped me through the marathon, because I thought at the end I was going to die. I first came over Brooklyn and into Queens and over the bridge into Manhattan, up First Avenue, all the way up to the

homeless person. I said, “I don't have any money.” And he said, “Oh, you ran the marathon. I see the medals. You're okay. You can ride for free.” I was thinking, “Thank you. Hallelu-jah.” You don't know how it is to not have money and be in the streets of Manhattan. I mean oh, my God. It was just unbelievable. Monica: Overall it sounds like it was an exciting time. Geir: Yes, it was. I learned a lot, even from that experience. All of a sudden you have no money at all, not even one dime, and I could imagine people who don’t have anything at all, and they don't have family. I have a family, a home, and I have friends. But a lot of people don't have any-thing. How do they live? How do they get by? It just really puts your life into perspective.

Bronx, to make sort of a U-turn and go back onto Fifth Avenue and into the park. And I thought, “When I come into Manhattan, which is where I live, it will be easy.” I didn't have much energy left. I couldn't believe it. It was like I don't know if I can do this. But I said, “Yes, I can do this,” and I did, but it was really hard. I remember when I went to the finish line and received my medals; I then had to walk to get out of the park. You can't just walk right out. They had a closed-in area, so you had to go for about 40 minutes before you could walk out of the park. As I was walk-ing, I remembered I didn't have any money with me because I actually thought I could just walk home. But you know what, I could barely move at all. And I didn't think about that, how I would get home without having any money for the bus or for cab fare. I walked up to 86th Street on the west side, and the bus came. I felt like a



Monica: During the time that you were training, you still had to run your business. How did you manage that? Geir: I did it early in the morning or in between what I had to do. I always scheduled in. I didn't run every day, maybe three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. I always had a couple of days in between, so my body could rest a little. Near the end within the last month, I trained only twice a week, and the week be-fore I didn't do it at all. I just had a light little run, like maybe 30, 40 min-utes, and that was it, so my body could really get prepared for it. If you run a long period right before, you get so exhausted. You should really have some time off right before you run a marathon. Monica: Looking back on it though, do you feel that you were well pre-pared for it? Geir: You know what? I did, but I think I probably could have been bet-ter prepared. I don’t think I did enough of those longer runs. I real-ized that about a month before the marathon. I ran the marathon in four hours and twenty-eight minutes. I was just happy to complete it. Monica: How did having the oppor-tunity to run in a marathon and do it for your friend who was ill, impact your life mentally, emotionally, and physically? Geir: I have to say it really opened my eyes. I do a lot of charity work and all that, but when you do some-thing like this to prepare for some-thing that you never really thought possible, it was an honor for me to do it, and I honestly never in my life thought about doing a marathon.

would stop and talk to people and help them if they needed help. Other people in my neighborhood didn't really have any family. So she would sometimes cook for them and clean their houses, because nobody else was doing it. She also said, "This is im-portant, Geir. A lot of times you do things not to get anything back but because you want to give and just to be there for people, and it will come back to you in different ways." So she taught me that at a very early age. That's why for me it's so impor-tant, especially now that I’m working on a children's book. It’s important for me to go to schools to try to moti-vate young kids and inspire them to believe in themselves. Monica: You have given back to many charitable organizations, and many of them have focused on can-cer. Is there a particular reason why you have chosen to contribute to or-ganizations that are focused on can-cer? Geir: I have a lot of people around me that have had cancer, including my mom and Grete, so I felt that was a natural thing for me to be involved in. Everybody talks about breast can-cer. It's huge, but there also a lot of other cancers that not a lot of people will talk about. Men, especially, are not really good at talking about can-cer. A lot of people don’t talk about men having breast cancer or colon cancer. I try to become involved as much as I can, because I think it's im-portant. This Christmas I'm going to try to raise money to buy gifts for children in the New York area that don’t have families. I want to be like the little Norwegian Santa.

I'm starting to think differently, that if you change your mindset and prepare yourself, you can actually achieve any goal. Early on I said, “Okay. I'm go-ing to train. I'm going to do this. I'm going to like it. You're running the marathon, and it's a blessing that you can be able to do this on a team with Grete Waitz, a world champion.” It was a wonderful experience for me. One of the persons that I met on the team, she had only had one arm. I met her the day before on the team from Norway. She said to me, “You know my story here.” “No, I don't know your story.” And she began telling me that she was divorcing her husband, and she was in his office to sign divorce papers, or something. Her husband came in with a rifle and shot her, and then he killed himself. She didn't die, but her arm blew off, and she received some shots to her legs as well. Can you imagine? She was limping but she came to run the marathon with one arm and limping around. She said, “You know what? Grete Waitz has inspired me so much, and I want people to see you can do this. Just believe in yourself.” And she actually completed the marathon. She got through the entire 26 miles. Stories like that inspire you to do your best. Monica: You collected close to $300,000 for the charity, and I appre-ciate your commitment to helping others. You certainly have a wonder-ful giving spirit. Do you attribute it to your parents? Geir: Yes, for sure. My mom has always said, “You should always give.” She really was an inspiration for me because every time we would go someplace, she would give of her-self. We didn't have money to give, but she would give of herself. She


Monica: I’m going to change the topic a little. As a business owner, how important is it to share your suc-cess with others? Geir: I think it's very important that people see that you can be successful and that you want to share it. You should give back to people who are in need. It's our obligation. If some-body can learn something from me and what I've done, that's a good thing. It’s good for your mind and spirit. Monica: I also understand that you include your mother in a lot of your appearances as you travel throughout the U.S. I would imagine it's a very special relationship that you have with your mother, especially since she inspired you to start your company and you've named your company after her. What is the experience like to have her traveling with you? Geir: Oh, it's a wonderful thing be-cause to have her with me she gets to see how people respond to what I've been doing. Mostly for her, I think she's just proud, and she thinks it's wonderful, but she also loves to see that I have actually tried to copy her and deliver that message to people that I meet. She has seen people come up to me, thanking me for the fra-grance ‘Laila’. One woman came up to me and told me that her daughter loves my per-fume. She passed away with cancer, but the last thing she put on was my fragrance. So when her mom met me in person, she started to cry and said, “It means so much for me to meet you.” My mom sees these things, and it's really a wonderful thing for her to see that a fragrance can actually make a difference for people.

the other times when things are going against you that you really have to be strong. And that's one of the things that my mom taught me. Sometimes we didn't have any money to do any-thing, but that's when we tried to be creative. I always managed to think back and appreciate what I have and then use that as a tool to make things happen. I’ve never been a person to give up. My self-esteem gets stronger and stronger. If you give up once, then it's easier to give up the next time. So you're just trying to think that way, you know, manage to somehow get something negative to become a posi-tive thing. Monica: I would imagine that you would agree that you can be unknown to most people, but still be successful among much larger brands. Geir: Absolutely. It requires dedica-tion and you have to know something about the product, whatever you're going to create. But if you really want to do something and you believe in it, you're good at that, and you have good people with positive energy sup-porting you, eventually it will happen. People ask me all the time, “Geir, what's your next step now? What do you want to do with your company? Do you want to be the next Ralph Lauren or Calvin Klein?” For me, it's about just sustaining what I do now

Monica: Over the span of your busi-ness, 15 years, you have overcome many different types of challenges along the way, but you have always maintained a positive outlook on life as well as on your business. What are a couple of challenges that you en-countered, and how did you overcome them? Geir: The toughest thing was to get my name out there and compete with all those big companies, because they are huge companies. They have mil-lion dollar campaigns, and they have a lot of people working for them. When you only have yourself, you have to switch gears and say, “Okay. I’ve got to use myself as the adver-tisement.” And that can be hard sometimes because everything is new. There were times in the beginning that I only had myself, and I didn't really have the money to come up with anything different. It’s been hard, especially when you have all these other brands or people basically walking all over you and you’re trapped in the middle of these things. When you travel, you sometimes rent a car, but the car will break down. There can be flight delays because of snow. There are many things that people don't think about, but you have to get over all of that. It's been very challenging. Many times I’d sell out and then not get the orders in right away. You have no money coming in, but you still have to pay all the bills. Monica: With all of those things how do you manage to keep your head above water? I mean how do you manage to keep afloat? Geir: Well, that's when the challenge comes in. When things are going well, it's easy to be positive, but it's

Geir Ness with his mother, Laila.



and also working on my other projects and charities. Success for me means helping other people. I've never been driven by money. I've been driven by being successful at what I'm doing. When I started my fragrance company, it was-n't because, "I'm going to make a lot of money, and in two years I'm going to make this amount of money." I've never been driven by that. I've just been driven by something that I want and like to do. Monica: The key is to enjoy what you do, make a success of it and then share it with others. If Grete was alive today, what would you say to her? Geir: I would just say to her how much I appreciate her advice about never giving up and believing in my-self. I told her that before she died. She was so giving to everybody, and her energy was always so positive, even to the end. Monica: And she left a legacy of hope and compassion and inspiration.

uct exposure by using yourself first and have a story behind it. Why are you doing it? Why should I buy your sunglasses instead of someone else’s sunglasses? Come up with a real story that you can tell because every-body likes a story, and it's very pow-erful. You should also focus on one thing at a time. As a new business owner, I don't believe you can do 20 things at a time and be good at any of them. Don’t try to be everywhere and every-thing to everybody. Also, be very cautious because when you start something and start to do well, you will be surprised how many friends you really get. Most of those people, unfortunately, just want some-thing from you. They don't care about you as a person. They care about themselves and what they can get. Just be careful about the people you have around you and people you meet on your way up. Not everybody wants the best for you. �

What kind of legacy would you like to leave? Geir: Well, I’d like just to be known for helping to change peo-ple's lives. Being there, helping them any way that I can. Of course, to me it's im-portant for kids to be healthy and to stay away from drugs. I try to motivate them and inspire them to focus on staying away from drugs. My goal is to become a role model for people. Monica: What one piece of advice can you give new entrepreneurs, peo-ple who want to start a business but are not sure if they should? They’re sitting on the fence. They're not sure whether they want to take the risk or whether it's going to turn out well. What advice can you give them? Geir: Well, I would just say, first, do not spend a lot of money on anything because you don't need to. People

think that you need a lot of money to adver-tise or to get to the next level. You can start small using Google ads. I think it's good to get your name out there obvi-ously, but try to do it in a way that it does-n't cost you a lot of money in the begin-ning. Be very con-scious of what you do. For example, if you want to start a sun-glasses business, give your brand and prod-Geir speaking at a Fragrance Festival.


Geir at the Golden Globe Awards.

Janeé HarrellJaneé HarrellJaneé Harrell

Changing Lives Through Positive MediaChanging Lives Through Positive MediaChanging Lives Through Positive Media


She has an infectious, positive attitude that uplifts every person that she comes in contact with. Janeé Harrell, a seasoned television producer thrives on delivering pro-gramming that is positive and authen-tic. She is determined to help change the world of television by producing and promoting innovative shows that have a powerful impact on viewers and the guests that she interviews. Through her production company, mHe3 Productions, Harrell is con-stantly developing programs that in-spire others to change their lives and give back to their communities. Prior to her television production ca-reer, Harrell worked in senior posi-tions at various corporations including Southwest Airlines and Option One Mortgage. Some other positions have included motivational speaking and working as a public relations and per-formance consultant. She is currently an actress and model. Harrell shared with Exceptional Peo-ple Magazine, her commitment to having a positive influence on televi-sion viewers, while simultaneously

open yourself up to more criticism. I remember being 87 pounds and hav-ing an agent in LA tell me that I didn't look that thin. Well, I'm 5'4". That's very underweight. So it was that kind of scrutiny that, at the time, I didn't feel strong enough to say, “You know what? This is too thin.” Now I'm very comfortable with who I am and I have my own voice. But I think that public scrutiny plays a role for sure. I realized about four years ago that I still had this passion for media but I wanted to use it to make a difference. When I was going through those rough times, I didn't see a whole lot of positive, thought-provoking pro-grams. There are talk shows that help people. You can see people who have made it to the other side of their jour-ney, but there was nothing to really walk people through life's journey in a meaningful way. So that's when we shot a 30-second promo, not even a pilot, for our first show, Tour of Giving, where we high-light people making a difference through giving. That show is now in its seventh or eighth run. Then I did our next show, which is Revelations of Authentic Women where women share their secret struggles using video cameras to open the door to freedom and healing. Now we're really working on our signature pro-ject, which will really highlight how the small things in life really make a big difference, so that's kind of where we are today and who I am. Monica: That sounds wonderful. You come up with a unique underly-ing story idea and then you center a show or series of shows around that.

changing lives and helping others in need. Monica: Would you mind talking about Janee Harrell and what her life’s purpose is? Janeé: I am a woman on an interna-tional media mission -- really to trans-form the face of media. What I mean by that is we are committed to authen-tic positive programming. Many nay-sayers in Los Angeles say that it can't be done; that we will never make any money. I started this mission around the age of five or six when I got my first mi-crophone and I would go around the neighborhood reporting my neighbors' stories and wrote my first little news-paper. So, I've always wanted to do that. Unfortunately, some things happened in my life, and my gift of performing was really used to cover up some of the pain. And during those tough times, I really was looking for media to make me. I lived in Los Angeles in the 1990s. I did a lot of great things but really struggled with self-esteem and ended up struggling with ano-rexia. I got out of the entertainment industry and went into motivational speaking and after 10-plus years of doing that, I realized that I still had a passion for media, but now I wanted to do it to make a difference. Monica: Do you think that being in the media or entertainment industry had something to do with some of the problems that you were experiencing at that time? Janeé: Monica, I think any time you put yourself in the public eye you



Janeé: Absolutely. And it really is, 9 times out of 10, true with a lot of pro-ducers and motivational speakers -- the topics they're covering are what they need help with because when we teach, we learn. With Revelations of Authentic Women, that was created to inspire a community of mentorship and women walking each other

through life's journey. It was really because that was what I needed at that time in my life. It's just amazing to see women collaborating versus com-peting once we start taking down those walls of perceived perfection. Monica: Can you talk about Revela-tions of Authentic Women? Janeé: I think it's important for me to be transparent with how that project got started. I was a victim of domes-tic violence. And what I found through my own journey is that there were a lot of people who said they would pray for me, but I needed more than that. I certainly needed the

share some of my experiences and what worked for me. We had a young lady who struggled with an eating disorder, so the focus for her was getting resources to help her. Another young lady told her par-ents for the first time that she was sexually abused for years by a friend.

So it was those kinds of things -- peo-ple coming out with really personal stories. I'm so honored to have been a part of these women's lives and we still have that sense of community. Now they've started their own little community groups of women sharing their stories and helping each other grow and move to the next level in their lives. Monica: It becomes a ripple effect. Janeé: Yes, absolutely. We had one of the young ladies, Miss Texas who actually dropped out. She said that being transparent was too hard for her because in the pageant world you're

prayers, but I needed pals and a plan. I was so grateful for the people who really took me through that very diffi-cult time and led me to great re-sources and really got me through it. It was in my heart to give back and to help other women who were strug-gling. When we did the casting for

the show, we ended up getting a lot of people who really just wanted to be on television. So we recast the show and we ended up with six women ranging in age from 19 to 46 when we started the project. We really had a wide range of women who were willing to pick up a video camera and share their dark moments. They came on set with me and we would look at some of those dark mo-ments. I'm no counselor, but I've certainly been through a number of things in my life that I feel I'm able to now



always ‘on’. So to ask her to share some of those ‘not-so-on’ moments was very difficult. I never push any of them to stay, I simply welcome them back if they have a desire to re-turn. After about two months she came back and now she's doing tre-mendous things and has actually made that part of her platform.

Monica: That is excellent. Can you talk about Tour of Giving? Janeé: Yes, Monica. With Tour of Giving, we wanted to show that any-body could make a difference. It doesn't take a whole lot of money. It just takes a whole lot of heart. What we did on that project is we found ordinary people doing extraordinary things and interviewed them as well as people like Mikoski from Top Shoes. And it really was designed to reignite that human spirit that we can all make a difference. It was great fun because at the season finale we went back to individuals and organi-zations that had really touched our

“Who is doing it,” and, “I'm sure it's a big name.” And so it's really been fun to see the underdogs and, truthfully, even for my team to get to experience some of that. The hard work is pay-ing off after a couple of years. Monica: Where can people see some of your shows or all of them?

Janeé: Currently Tour of Giving and Revelations of Authentic Women are on FamilyNet, which is a network dedicated to family-friendly program-ming. With the new project, we're looking to launch that on FamilyNet but also on some local ABC affiliates. Monica: How have some of the women that you've featured affected your life both on a personal and pro-fessional level? Janeé: Oh gosh, I am on the board for an organization called Mentor Connect, which does a lot of virtual mentorship. So I mentor anywhere from five to seven women a week.

hearts over the course of the season, and then we gave back to them. I think what you're going to see in our next project is a combination of all of the work that we've done to date in an incredible hybrid. I believe we're reaching a time in our society when people are getting tired

of the negativity and the negative role models for our children they see on television. They are looking for new things. So we are really looking to become a pioneer and a renegade in that arena. Monica: It certainly sounds like you have been proving the Hollywood naysayers wrong so far. Janeé: We have been able to prove them wrong. And the other thing is, we're a small production house, but it's great. It's been interesting because when people didn't know it was my production company, they were say-ing, “This is a great production,” and



And what I’ve learned from them is really a lot of grace. I teach them not to expect perfection but it’s important to make progress and as I hear myself telling them that, then I look at what I'm doing for myself. And that has really changed my leadership style.

I'm not proud to say this, but I used to be a Type ‘A’ perfectionist. I used to be very critical, and instead of look-ing at the 80 percent we were doing well, I was looking at the 20 percent area that we had to grow. It com-pletely shifted my leadership ap-proach. It's also shifted my personal relationships. I truly look to always bring out the positive and build on what is working well. We'll address the areas that need to be addressed, but it's really about starting from a place of strength and love. And I really learned that through the ladies that I have worked with.

Monica: To whom do you attribute your passion for helping others? Janeé: My parents are incredible people. And my dad is like a tiny version of Santa Claus. He's just so lovable and people-focused. He's turning 70 this year, so we're doing a

tribute and collecting best memories and what we admire the most about him. He's always so interested in others. But I think greater than my earthly father is my heavenly father. God has done so many things in my life and taken me truly from the pit of destruc-tion that there's no way I can't share that message of love and hope with others. Monica: What advice can you offer to young ladies to inspire them to be able to use the gifts, talents and skills that they already have to help change someone else's life?

Monica: What is your overall view of the affect that you are having on people's lives in general and where do you see your company in the next two or three years? Janeé: We are network-approved producers for major networks. The

fact that people have begun to em-brace positive, authentic program-ming and there's a demand for our programs, that's where I see us grow-ing. When I get letters from people that I don't even remember touching their lives or an email from a woman that I mentored years ago and she's now expecting a baby and she's in a happy marriage, you just can't put a price on that. I know that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing which is helping others.



Janeé: I think opportunities exist as long as we're looking for them. When you lead your life with a mindset of how can I help others, how can I serve others, opportunities just arrive. Even if it's just an older lady at the bank who wants to strike up a conver-sation -- you don't know, that might

be the only conversation she has that day. With young ladies, I would say, first, look for the opportunity. Second, surround yourself with people who see your gifts and strengths and who want to nurture those gifts and strengths. And then third, anything is possible if you truly believe and never quit. Monica: The key words that you mentioned were to never quit. Janeé: I would also say that your low-lying fruits are not always the best fruit. So don't take the easiest

road; take the road you know you were meant to take. Monica: You have to have a set of principles that you live by, and live by them no matter what.

Janeé: Absolutely. They're your

little internal compass. ♦


Surround yourself with remarkable, influential and successful people without leaving home!

Minding Minding MyMy

BusinessBusiness

Effective goal setting requires you to state what you

want and determine how and when you're going to

achieve it.

One of the major challenges facing entrepreneurs and business leaders is finding the right business partners. Great care should be exercised when selecting associates because the right choice can bridge gaps and assist in the execution of your business plan. The wrong choice can harm the repu-tation and earnings of your company. When forming strategic alliances, it is important to consider the following:

Finding Believers in Your

Mission No one will champion your cause like a true believer in your product or ser-vice. Align yourself with those who comprehend the magnitude of what you are doing and who will offer wholehearted support to your endeav-ors. Those who align themselves with

strengthen your areas of weakness and allow you to compete effectively. The right affiliations will, most im-portantly, shorten or eliminate prod-uct and service development time. Your resources will not have to be spent acquiring expertise in areas where your partner is already adept.

Alliances Your ideal partner should be in a po-sition to help you form strategic part-nerships. This person or organization should be able to help you align your-self with people who can assist in growing your business. Strategic part-nerships can also bring about needed political affiliations.

Growth and Exit Strategies A major point of contention for many partners is the company’s growth and exit strategy. Some parties may be content as the owners of a small busi-ness, while others seek to franchise or go public. All parties should be in agreement on how they plan to access the equity of the company, whether it is by salary and dividends, or a sub-stantial liquidity event. The right partner can ease the road and multiply the profits of your busi-ness. Whether you are looking for investment funds, advice, a comple-mentary skill set, or helpful associa-tions, choose your relationships wisely. �

you solely for monetary gain will of-ten carry a short-term perspective that will conflict with your long-term business strategy.

Active Partners vs. Passive

Partners Are you looking for an active or pas-sive interest holder in your business? Do you seek someone who will be involved in the day-to-day manage-ment of the company? Many entrepre-neurs opt for passive partners to avoid having them encroach on the manage-ment of the business. If you elect ac-tive partners, it is important that they share the same vision, objectives, and ethics as your associates.

Smart Money vs. Silent Money When pursuing financial partnerships, you have several options. You can choose investors that will solely pro-vide financing or you can partner with funding sources that will also offer guidance and help with strategic plan-ning. Silent money could be the right choice if you have a seasoned man-agement team and desire total creative control. However, if in both cases you will surrender the same amount of equity, it makes more sense to partner with investors who are well-connected and may offer advisory services.

Complementary Skill Sets Your ideal operations partner will have a complementary skill set to

Finding the Right Business PartnersFinding the Right Business PartnersFinding the Right Business Partners

by William R. Patterson

Minding My BusinessMinding My BusinessMinding My BusinessMinding My Business


Transforming the Transforming the Transforming the

Office Supply Business Office Supply Business Office Supply Business

Monica: You have built an amazing online business that seems to be surpassing many of your competitors. Your company, Shoplet.com, of course, is known as an e-tailer, and you sell and distribute products strictly online. Can you describe the types of products that you offer? Tony: Certainly. We were founded in 1994 with the very simple vision that we'll carry the widest and largest selec-tion of office, business, break room and industrial products. And we've been true to that promise. Today we carry over 400,000 products in categories such as traditional office supplies, IT, furniture, janitorial supplies, industrial, furni-ture, technology, and much more. Our products are even shipped free on most orders over $45 We cover quite a few categories and a very large spectrum. In fact, this is one of the key differentiating factors between Shoplet and the big boys. When we say, “Big boys,” we refer to Staples, Office Depot, and Office Max. To put it all in perspective, while we have over 400,000 products, an average superstore only carries 6,000 items. The biggest one that I've seen in the country has no more than 10,000. So it's almost a factor of 40 times more in terms of products. Monica: You have experienced steady growth every quar-ter since about 1997. How are you able to continuously increase revenue as an e-tailer versus what the brick-and-mortar stores are doing? Tony: It's worth noting that we are currently ranked as the number one virtual e-tailer in the category. We have also successfully subscribed or have over 2.8 million customers and that gives us going forward, enormous scale. When we got into this “office supply” space, it was already crowded back then by four large players, which dominated the space. We needed to come up with a unique value proposition based on service, simplicity and selection that would help us to sustain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. For us, and as I mentioned earlier, the first thing was selection. We were looking at differentiating ourselves in the market-place so that we could have an edge. If you remember back in 1994, the internet was just forming. From the “big boys” perspective, they were very slow to move. The industry that we are in is the second largest traded industry online after travel. I saw that as a great opportunity to have a first mover advantage.

You might say that he has changed the way business owners shop for office supplies and many other products. You may recall the early years when the Internet first began to show some signs of longevity. Who would have thought that it would become the gold mine that it is to-day. In 1994 Tony Ellison realized how beneficial the Internet would be for retailers. As the founder and CEO of Shoplet.com, Ellison’s vision to change the way business owners and corporate Amer-ica shop for business products has revolutionized the of-fice products industry. While working as a senior executive for Goldman Sach’s technology division, Ellison’s foresight into the internet’s capability led him to start his company which today of-fers stiff competition for brick-and-mortar retailers. One might say that it takes courage to go against the “big boys” in the brick-and-mortar arena like OfficeMax, Sta-ples, and Office Depot. As an e-tailer, Shoplet.com has become an extraordinary success every quarter, since Ellison guided the company to profitability in 1997. Ellison's tremendous success didn’t come from “doing business as usual” – he defied the status quo. He took an innovative approach to the customer’s shopping experi-ence by developing a proprietary e-procurement software and platform, boosting selection and distribution, includ-ing a wide array of environmentally-friendly products. The website has also been optimized to serve mobile cus-tomers who now have the ability to place orders without having to use a computer. It is these types of unique ap-proaches that have enabled him to rise above the compe-tition year after year, recently making Shoplet.com 142nd on a list of Top 500 Online Retailers. Ellison, enthusiastically shared his story and the impact that his business has made on the lives of entrepreneurs, their customers and his customers with Exceptional Peo-ple Magazine.

Tony ony ony ony EllisonEllisonEllisonEllison



What was really interesting as we were building our web presence was the fact that the “big boys” were using the web as a means to take orders online and reduce the transaction cost. And that's really one of the key differ-entiators. In addition to that, we have sought a niche market, such as green products. We have the largest green and environmentally friendly products online, and we've done so many other great things to encourage the transition from non eco-friendly products to eco-friendly products. Additionally, we have started understanding the custom-ers; the small- and medium-sized business customer, which is anywhere between a 25-person company to a 2,000-person company. They wanted to get the same benefits that large and Fortune 500 companies were en-joying when they were transacting. So they wanted to have access to a very costly application called Ariba, which was an e-procurement management application. The starting cost is at $750,000. I don't know many small businesses that can afford that kind of pricing to streamline their purchasing process. So we took the best features of Ariba, implemented it in a free hosted e-procurement platform and now are afford-ing it to all of our customers. Another requirement we readily found with our small- and medium-sized customers is that they wanted to get the same volume discounts that the large companies and the Fortune 500 companies were enjoying. So we went back to the suppliers, negotiated favorably, and we passed all the discounts to our small- and medium-sized customers. And that really helped us to differentiate our-selves. I could also add that many online players would build what is called a transactional site. Shoplet is all about building a relational site, which means we're all about repeat and retention. We want the customer to come back to us again. So we took a lesson from Amazon's chapter and we built what is a phenomenal customer ex-perience online and we strive very hard -- I'm not saying we are perfect, but we strive very hard to meet and ex-ceed our customers' expectations every day. So service is really a key differentiator for us as well. While our competitors, for instance, like Office Depot, have sought to outsource their customer service to a Third World country and reduce cost, we have kept it in-house. We felt that this was the most important element

of what we have to offer as a differentiator to our custom-ers. And that strategy has worked flawlessly. Monica: Through your thought process you have come up with ways in which to not only grow your business quickly and successfully, but you have outmaneuvered the brick-and-mortar stores. Tony: Yes, absolutely. When you talk about our growth, it has been exceptional. For the past decade, for instance, we've been growing both in down and up economies and one of the worst economies too. For example, from 2001 all the way to 2006 we've been growing in triple digits year after year. And if you remember back then it was both a down and up economy. In the last four or five years, in one of the worst economies we've seen in our lifetime, we still managed to achieve strong, aggressive, double-digit growth. In 2009, which I think we prefer to say that many compa-nies have either gone out of business or have experienced sales declines and layoffs. We have not only increased by head count over 45 percent, but our sales were up in excess of 40 percent. So we definitely are bucking the trend. And the value proposition that we put in front of the customer is widely and favorably received. Monica: How are you passing on the savings and dis-counts that you get from the manufacturers or vendors who provide the products for your store, and still make money? How are you able to continue to increase revenue? Tony: That's a very fair and a good question. When you look at this industry, it's an old industry that has seen very little change in the past 100 years. When you look at the retail and the cost of retail and sustain that kind of opera-tion, it's overwhelming as opposed to having an online out-fit that is a lot more slimmer, leaner, and meaner in that sense. So, our cost is vastly different from the “big boys”. Retail has become a liability in this industry, and in order for them to pay for that type of expense, they have to build that into the price. There is a substantial discount between what we offer our customers versus what they are offering. So on a daily ba-sis, when we do benchmarks, when we go to customers of 250 people on average, we save them anywhere between 15 to 30 percent. That's enormous when you consider that an average person buys $500 worth of office supplies in a year. That’s almost $45k a year in quantifiable savings.



Monica: What gave you the idea of starting a company like Shoplet versus some other type of internet business where obviously you don't have to be concerned with so many products? Tony: Before starting Shoplet, I was working with an investment banker on Wall Street at Goldman Sachs. In 1994 when the internet was forming, I understood that the internet and e-commerce specifically was going to level the playing field and was going to allow small busi-nesses to compete effectively with large businesses and afford a more efficient medium for small- and medium-sized businesses to transact. So that was one key. What really attracted me to the office product industry was the fact that it was a large industry. Those products did not need to be touched before being ordered. So for instance, if you ordered paper and you knew the brand and you also ordered pencils and notebooks, you're likely to order that online without needing to go to the store and actually touch the products. So that was one of the key reasons we decided to jump into it. The market was very fragmented and underserved online. So combining those three reasons, we felt they were strong and compelling reasons to jump into it. When I was thinking of leaving my job, people thought that I was losing it. I had to give up a very stable salary and a very comfortable envi-ronment. I'm thankful to my wife for being so sup-portive who said, “You know, if this is really your vision and your dream, you should go for it and live a life of no regrets, if you will.” Monica: What are your views on the internet as a whole, in terms of all of its current capabilities? Where do you think it's headed? Tony: It's interesting. I think about it everyday. We've seen such a rapid change online. If you look at the last ten years, Google came on the scene, and Google has changed the economy the way we know it. Now we have an even stronger and bigger force coming which we call social networking. We've seen Facebook, which is very much a social-driven recommendation and a whole lot more pow-erful. Those are some of the big trends we see from my point of view or from Shoplet's point of view. We see social commerce developing more rapidly than we've ever seen before. I think with

HTML5 developing and new specs and the development platform online being a lot more powerful, we're going to see more features. Let's not forget Twitter and some of the other new technologies. Monica: Can you share a couple of things about how your life has changed as a business owner versus working as a senior executive for Goldman Sachs? Tony: I want to set proper expectations for all entrepre-neurs. I never expected it to be as difficult, especially in the first three years. It's non-stop, around-the-clock work. It’s those critical years from formation to establishing your-self and putting a footprint in the ground. So how has it transformed my lifestyle? Vastly, to the point where in the first three years I was probably working my bottom probably 10 times harder than I was doing be-fore. Maybe I'm exaggerating just a little because I was working hard already.



But just to give you a sense that it wasn't a walk in the park, "Hey, I'm my own boss, and I'm going to design my own hours." It's never been like this. It's constant, around-the-clock, thinking about your go-to-market strategies, your business model. So, in one sense it gave me an enormous amount of freedom. At the same time it really engulfed me in the sense that I was so much preoc-cupied with this idea. Monica: Of course at the same time, I think probably more so than most, you had already established a very good financial foundation where you could branch out on your own. Tony: That's absolutely true. And probably that's what made it happen for me. That has been a blessing in dis-guise for us. One of the things it did for us is allowed us to be independent. We don't dance on anybody else's whims. We make decisions based on whatever is good for business rather than investors. So the customer is really the center stage for us. And that has been a huge, liberating factor for Shoplet. I could tell you now, after 17 years, that I have more artistic freedom. I'm at more liberty to make decisions on my own and be in control of my destiny. Monica: Many people want to be in control of their fu-ture and they are asking, "How can I do that?" You have to start at the bottom and work your way up. There's just no getting around that. Tony: Absolutely not. Monica: For the new entrepreneur or the person that wants to become an entrepreneur, can you offer some important tips to help them grow their business, whether it's an online or offline business? Tony: Of course. First of all, don't be afraid to make mistakes. I'm sure I've made countless number of mis-takes. There is no such thing as starting a business and doing everything right, so making mistakes is part of the learning process. Second, when you have an idea, make sure that it's an idea that is sustainable, and it gains you a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Make sure when you're starting up that you have a business model, a business model that includes a unique value proposition to your customer and understand why that would make you successful. Most importantly, try to study your mar-ketplace beforehand. Understand the void and try to ad-

dress that rather than copying somebody else’s idea and trying to be just another player in the marketplace. I would say that if we just tried to merely become another Staples or Office Depot, we wouldn't be as successful. The fact that we sought to innovate, the fact that we offered so many green products, the fact that we are very much eco-friendly in terms of what we have to offer going forward to the future generations, is what makes us successful. When you look at the green movement, it's real and every single person has an obligation to leave the planet as good as they found it. Monica: I want to talk just a little about customer loyalty because I think sometimes business owners don't realize the importance of keeping a good customer. They are so ex-cited to get a customer, but then they don't really have any-thing in place to keep that customer to turn them into a loyal customer. Can you talk about how a business owner can not only bring in a customer but work on turning that customer into a loyal customer? Tony: One of the things that helped us to stay above wa-ters in the worst times is our ability to concentrate on repeat customers. We have extensive retention strategies, which start from understanding the customer’s lifetime value and being able to say, "This is really what the customer is worth." So, from our perspective, customer experience is crucial. You need to be able to target them; data mine, and know who the niche customers are and what customers you want to have come back to you. We have a 110% price match guarantee to please our customers. Try to build a loyalty program such as a reward program and try to build data-driven marketing campaigns, whether it's email or point-of-purchase or in general, engaging in marketing campaigns that will bring the customers back. My point to future entrepreneurs is you cannot start a busi-ness without having a repeat and retention strategy that is data-driven. Monica: It's much easier to get a repeat customer than it is to have to go out and get new customers. Tony: That's absolutely right. I do want to mention that at the end of the day when building a company, it's about peo-

ple. So you need to build a team of excellent people. ♦



1. Viral marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing for very little money and effort. Attach your marketing message to your product or service and if cus-tomers enjoy your product they will let other people know about their experience. Viral marketing is a form of networking by word-of-mouth through friends and customers. It grows like wildfire. 2. Publish your own newsletter or Ezine. With this method of mar-keting you will constantly stay in touch with your prospects and customers; keeping them abreast of new products and services that you will be offering while provid-ing useful information about your company and industry. 3. Start an email marketing cam-paign but make sure your email recipients are opt-in which means they have subscribed to your newsletter, report or Ezine. Spamming is not recommended and you risk ruining the reputa-tion of your business. Always provide an unsubscribe link in your email message. Though not the cheapest form of targeted marketing, opt-in or double opt-in email lists can be rented and they do work. 4. Participate in email discussion groups or online forums that re-late to your area of interest. Dis-cussion groups are excellent because they deliver your opinions and thoughts to your targeted audience.

5. Start your own affiliate program. It’s an effective way to increase sales through an automated advertising cam-paign. An affiliate program allows you to build a team of sales representatives who may also have websites, and opt-in lists. They become your affiliates and they advertise your product to their lists and web visitors. You pay your affiliates when they make a sale for you. �

5 Easy Marketing Techniques for Online Businesses5 Easy Marketing Techniques for Online Businesses

by Donna Carletta



Building Brands That Impact Bottom LinesBuilding Brands That Impact Bottom LinesBuilding Brands That Impact Bottom Lines

advice on the importance of effective branding and busi-ness strategies for entrepreneurs. McMillian also shared his passion for graphic design and marketing and offered in-sights on what he calls his perfect mix of strategy -- hard work and passionate employees to create ultimate business success. Monica: Tell me about your life growing up. William: When I was in high school, my mom was a graphic designer, and she went to college to become a graphic artist. When my parents decided to have children, she stopped doing commercial graphic design and taught art in elementary school, which is actually quite an awe-some career to take. She taught for over 30 years in the same school district. I knew from looking at her portfolio from the 1960s how graphic art was designed at that time. It was all done by hand and she sparked that interest in me. She still has all the graphic design magazines and annuals. As a kid, I was looking through them and was mesmerized about how a logo could be done. In the 80s when we were kids, they were still designed by hand. When I was in high school, the Macintosh had become the next big thing, and graphic design was slowly being done on the computer. When I was in college in the early '90s, all of our teachers did everything by hand, so I was familiar with how everything worked. I knew I wanted to do that as a career. After high school, I attended art school, the Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri. But really what sparked my interest even more was getting that first internship. I worked at a company now called E Advertising Design. They were small enough so that I could do what I wanted to do. And they gave me my own project, so I got the chance to do posters and other graphic projects while I was still in col-lege. Monica: Eventually you started your own company and became a small business owner and a principle in McMillan

If you’re a business owner or entrepreneur you probably know that branding is an essential part of your success. Your brand can either send a positive or negative mes-sage to your potential customers. At McMillian + Furlow cofounder, William McMillian, truly understands the importance of presenting an identity and message to help businesses stand out from the crowd. As an award-winning creative director, McMillian has worked for such media giants as The New York Times Magazine Group and Condé Nast. He has been recog-nized for his work and has received over 300 interna-tional, national and local design awards. With such remarkable talent and skills he and his team are helping ordinary business owners achieve maximum results through marketing strategies that make them unique. As a teenager, McMillian dreamed of owning his own design firm. Well, his dream has come true. “I know I want to do this, there’s no option. I will do this at my desk until the day I die. This is what I’ve always wanted to do,” says McMillian. Now he is making the dreams of business owners come true by helping them and corporations to establish brand identities. Your brand is an extension of who you are. At McMil-lian + Furlow, their ultimate goal is to understand who their clients are and learn their missions and objectives to help them develop marketing strategies to achieve great results. The founder of Exceptional People Magazine was excited to speak with McMillian about his passion for helping business owners create unique identities and powerful messages that can be presented to the world. He offered


William illiam illiam illiam McMillanMcMillanMcMillanMcMillan



and Furlow. Can you talk about the focus of your com-pany? William: Eight years ago was when I left Conde Nast. I did freelance work for them working at the magazine. I had a couple of clients, and I had enough to where I could leave and have a decent salary. It certainly wasn't what I was making at first, but I decided to leave my job. At first it was just me, and then I gradually brought on more people as our client base increased. It was pretty lean for awhile, and just like every entrepreneur, you're waiting for that check to come in. My partner and I had planned to get married, but she was diagnosed with metastatic stage four breast cancer. I still ran the business at a much slower pace, and I was often-times working from the hospital. She passed away. Af-ter that I decided that I was going to throw everything I had into the business. I got my first intern after four years of being on my own, and we worked together on a couple of projects for the semester. After that we landed a few more projects, and I started to build a small staff of three people. We were doing print, web site design, brochures and a few complicated pro-jects. I think all entrepreneurs understand that you have to start small. You can dream big, and that's great, but you also

have to be realistic. You can't overextend yourself and tell a client you can do something, knowing that you can’t. Monica: Your business focuses on helping clients develop marketing strategies. That encompasses branding, corpo-rate identity, interactive media and social media. Who are some of your typical clients? William: We used to have a lot of not-for-profits. I have always had larger clients, but I've also kept that core of not-for-profit organizations as clients, because you get more design freedom with them, even though you don't necessar-ily get paid all the time. We are a growing company. Our biggest project to date is the East River Ferry project. It's where Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan are now all connected via ferry service here

in New York for the first time in 50 or 60 years. New York Waterway is the holding company, and they operate ferry service from New York to New Jersey and back, and they handle millions of people a year with that commute. I think what I loved about working with such clients is that you help them create their brand and you’re very much invested in their business. In a way, you really need to have fallen in love with their business. Monica: You believe in what you call "the perfect mix of strategy, hard work and passionate employees" to make your business successful. How did you combine those three elements to create the success that you have?



William: This has been my goal. I think that when you reach life goals, sometimes it doesn't feel like you thought it would, and then you just reach for another goal. I've dedicated my entire life to my work. I love design. I have always been very passionate about it. Even in school I knew the end goal was to have my own place. I've seen people who start companies, who have some-what of a dream, but not a real passion for it. Ultimately those people fail because they don't throw everything they have into it. You really have to be completely dedi-cated. It's taken eight years just to get to where I am. I'm happy with it, but there's always that next goal. We're all really passionate about good design.

Monica: Oftentimes I find that from a manager's per-spective or from a business owner’s perspective, that if you reward your employees for their hard work, it leads to employee loyalty. What is your thought on that? William: Of course. Well, I mean I think that you should reward people for staying and for doing great work. As a small business owner, it's difficult some-times. Financially you can't always reward people with a cash reward or a bonus at the end of the year. One of the things I'm fine with is flextime. If you want to take a two-week vacation and go to Europe, do it. Small busi-ness owners just can't give $100,000 bonuses. I try to reward people with small amounts of cash or maybe free lunches. You have to let people know that

they're valued and that they’re not just an expendable per-son that could be changed out at any time if you don't agree on something. Monica: You also say that it is important for business owners to establish a solid brand. To be able to do that you must know who you are as a company and as an individual. And I would think that there must be some fusion between the two. Your brand is an extension of who you are. So how did you go about establishing and defining your brand and identity? William: We approach it in the same way that we ap-proach everybody else's brand. We did research on it to see who's out there. You have to know who your competition is in advertising and design, because you have to see what they're doing, and who their clients are and the quality of their work. We wanted to establish something that was very strong, that stood out. Before McMillian + Furlow, I was McMillian Design when I first started. It's more than the logo; it's establishing our overall look. We have a very clean look. Our site is very simple, and it highlights our work. Monica: Oftentimes, I speak with people who know that they want to achieve an overall result, but they don't know, or they don't take the time to define the specific steps or goals necessary to get to that result. They have a tendency to focus just on the big picture. What do you think are some important goals that are absolutely necessary for an entrepreneur to ensure business success?


William: I think almost every entrepreneur would say the freedom you get with it. I think that it's a freeing experi-ence not to have to answer to someone. We answer to our clients for everything, but it's like having the creativity to do things your way. There are no limitations. Monica: How important is it for a person who is consider-ing becoming an entrepreneur to set proper goals before going into business. William: I was one of those people that I knew what I wanted to do, but I had no real financial footing, and I did the wrong thing. I took money out of my 401(k) to buy my new machine and other things. It worked out because I paid it back, but you really have to think carefully about such things.

I've always been a risk-taker with the business in doing something that we needed to do. We didn't necessarily have the money, but somehow it always worked. I mean a lot of entrepreneurs are in this position; however, you definitely cannot overextend yourself past the point where you can't pay yourself back or pay off what you owe on a credit card. It's a very dangerous game to play, because before you know it, you're going to owe a ton of money and possibly go out of business. I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do. I've seen peo-ple who had an idea but they haven't really thought it out that much. I worked for almost ten years at companies to see how they worked, to see what the process was in run-ning a business and how you land a client, what happens after that point, the process of billing and how that whole factoring thing works. We're designers, so I didn't think

William: I think you have to be realistic about the cash you have, the cash you're going to get, accounts receiv-able, your cash flow and what your long-term picture looks like. My business is one that you make money by going out and getting it, and that's basically by meeting people, do-ing a lot of networking. We have a PR firm that works for us. This business is little more difficult. You can't say well, I've sold 1,000 widgets for 10 months in a row. So obvi-ously in the 11th month, we'll probably sell 1,000 wid-gets. It doesn't work like that, and that's the problem, I think, with a lot of business owners. My partner didn't understand this either. If you go out and get your busi-ness, you'll always have business. And the real goal I have here is to always do good design. That will always get you through, doing good work Monica: How do you keep your clients coming back? How do you get repeat business from them? William: Well, it's really funny because I'm a Midwest-erner, so I guess I'm naturally friendly, but I like to think that it’s because they're very happy with our work, and they know that they are getting great value for their money. Monica: What do you enjoy most about being an entre-preneur and helping entrepreneurs and large companies create a solid identity or an image for their business?




about that at the time. It was an awakening experience. I also had to learn to use QuickBooks. Everyone should do research. First of all, find out if your idea is valid. See if there's anyone out there doing it al-ready. You have to ask yourself so many questions. If you don't do the research, I think you're setting yourself up for disaster. It could be a minor disaster, but you don't want to do that either. It's really something that one should think about if they go into business, because there's a lot of money involved, and you're putting your-self in financial peril as well, if you don’t plan carefully. One of the most important things you need is a clear brand identity, and you have to stand out in a very crowded space. So what does that mean? You must have

business cards, a web site that's well-designed and well-planned, which a lot of people don't have. From what we do as a business, that's where we work hand-in-hand with entrepreneurs and new business own-ers. We're basically setting them up for success. We're a very important part of that. We're basically giving them an online brochure that says "This is what I am, and this is my idea." Sometimes even before they have a busi-ness, they've got that. I feel very fulfilled knowing I get to do what I want to do. �


Food For ThoughtFood For ThoughtFood For ThoughtFood For Thought

“Greatness and goodness are not means, but ends.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.”

Robert F. Kennedy

“Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word.”

Lord Acton

“The greatest assassin of life is haste, the desire to reach things before the right time which means over reaching

them.”

Juan Ramón Jiménez

“The virtue of prosperity is temperance; the virtue of adversity is fortitude.”

Francis Bacon

Founder and Editor-in-Chief Monica Davis

Editors

Jon Crump Marla Gem

Beatrice Roots

Company Writers

Donna Carletta Kathy Kentty Pat Markel

Other Writers and Contributors

Angie Brennan Annemarie Cross

Catherine Galasso-Vigorito Dawn Abraham Dawn McCoy

Dean G. Campbell Dorothy Rosby

Eileen Lichtenstein Greg Williams Inez Bracy

Jack Canfield James Adonis Margaret Paul

Rosalind Sedacca Sharon Raiford Bush

Shelley Riutta Sue Urda

William R. Patterson

Exceptional People Magazine is published bi-monthly by Atela Productions, Inc. The opinions of the contributors are not necessarily those of Atela Productions, Inc.

Atela Productions, Inc. 2961-A Hunter Mill Rd., PMB 624

Oakton, VA 22124-1704 www.exceptionalmag.com

For advertising information please contact The advertising department at 703-865-8308.

Copyright © 2011 All rights reserved.

Exceptional People Magazine is a copyright of Atela Productions, Inc. The contents of this publication may not be printed, copied or dis-tributed without the express written consent of the Publisher.

ISSN 1944-9062


Empower Yourself...Empower Yourself...Empower Yourself...Empower Yourself...Empower Yourself...Empower Yourself...Empower Yourself...Empower Yourself...Empower Yourself...Empower Yourself...Empower Yourself...Empower Yourself...

Create a strategy for success: Talk to people you know

who can potentially help you pursue your professional or

business goals, such as coworkers, friends, family or

business associates.

Alexandra WatsonAlexandra WatsonAlexandra WatsonAlexandra Watson

Happiness Coach Helps People

Discover Joy

We all want to experi-ence peace, har-mony and lifelong

happiness but for those who don’t have that experience, the question is, are you blocking your happiness? Oftentimes, change is tough, but with the right mindset, change can lead to endless possibilities in your personal and professional life. After asking herself that very same question, Alexandra Watson contem-plated her life and realized she needed to make a change. She enlisted the help of great mentors and coaches, and she set about turning her life

around. Alexandra conducted in-depth research to develop quick and easy-to-follow techniques, coupled with ancient wisdom and modern phi-losophies. “It’s the perfect combina-tion for today’s needs,” says Watson. It was simply the need for immense improvement in her life that led Watson to create ‘The Happiness Sys-tem’. Fifteen years later Watson con-tinues to teach her unique system to Olympic athletes, celebrities, business professionals, working moms and cor-porations throughout the world. Now Watson’s aim is to present her illuminating program, ‘Time to Shine.’ After several years of coach-ing thousands of people, it was time to follow her passion and establish a program to help women lead happier lives. She has designed a program to help women reach new levels of hap-piness within seven weeks. Watson enthusiastically shared her thoughts on how to achieve lasting happiness with Exceptional People Magazine.

when I was listening a Tony Robbins tape. God bless Tony Robbins. Before then I was completely oblivi-ous to personal development or self-help or anything similar. I had never even read a book like that. So, I lis-tened to Tony Robbins and that had a major impact on my life. But there was one question that he posed to me at that time where my life just stood still and I realized that this is a defin-ing moment in my life. And the ques-tion was this, “If you knew you could not fail what would you do?” It was incredibly profound for me because I suddenly thought, “Oh my gosh, the world is my oyster.”

Somebody literally the next day came up to me and said, "Oh, you’d make a really good life coach." This was a while back. At the time nobody in the United Kingdom knew what a life coach was. They ex-plained what it was, and I researched it. And as soon as I understood what a coach did, it just resonated with me. I thought, "This is it. This is the start of something absolutely new and amazing for me." So I've never looked back since that moment. Monica: How did you go about thinking in terms of developing a pro-gram around happiness? Alexandra: When I started, I quali-fied as a life coach. I needed to move fast. That's the energy that I have. I started coaching and had a full prac-tice very quickly and began doing lots of workshops. It was sort of my train-ing ground. And then I realized as I talked to more people, no matter what situation they

Monica: I'm curious to know what was the defining point in your life that made you say “I am not as happy as I should be, and I can be much happier and a much more vibrant person. I need to make a change in my life.” What happened? Alexandra: I remember it so vividly. I was in marketing and public rela-tions (PR) before my current career, which is happiness and success men-toring and coaching. I was really a driven person. I had all this energy, but I was really just frustrated and unfulfilled. It was something I could not ignore, and it got worse as time went on and it started affecting every

area of my life. It affected my rela-tionships and my career. Even though in my career things were going well, I just wasn't happy doing what I was doing. I even started my own business as a PR consultant and thought that might help; that it might be the answer. But again, I had that hollow feeling. I wasn't having the best relationship with friends and with family. I was attracting all the wrong people in my life and I kept waking up thinking, “Is this all there is?” That was a scary thought for me because I've always been one of those people who imag-ined myself in my rocking chair at 80 years old and I thought, “I don't want any regrets,” at that point in my life. It was a frightening thought to think, “Well, is this it? I've worked so hard to be here, and this isn't where actu-ally I want to be.” What I learned was that I was putting all my energy into the wrong profes-sion. It was around 1996 or 1997

““““““““““““Success is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy.”Success is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy.”Success is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy.”Success is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy.”Success is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy.”Success is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy.”Success is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy.”Success is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy.”Success is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy.”Success is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy.”Success is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy.”Success is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy.”

EmpowermentEmpowermentEmpowermentEmpowerment


were in, whether they were coming to me because of a career issue, a rela-tionship issue, or a feeling of being stuck, I realized that it was all about their self-esteem and feeling happy about who they are. When I realized that, I thought, “I'd love to coach more people,” but sometimes it's not easy to coach everybody. I decided to write down what I had created, which was a systematic approach to happi-ness, a step-by-step approach, seven steps, into a book so I could give the book to the people I couldn't coach. It was called the Happiness System for Women. It did amazingly well, and it became a bestseller, and that book helped me get onto the X Factor tele-vision show with Simon Cowell. I got to coach Leona Lewis who was on the X Factor; now she's an interna-tional singing star. It opened up so many doors for me and things have never the same since. I decided to create more programs around that sys-tem, and very soon I decided I wanted to work mainly with women and women entrepreneurs. I help them become happy and successful. Any success in life is 80 percent mindset and 20 percent strategy. Monica: Happiness is a result of both inward and outward changes that you have to make. Just like most things in life, happiness is a choice. Why do you think so many people choose not to be happy? Alexandra: Because they don't un-derstand the choices. Happiness is a choice, but then that confuses people even more. What I find is that people sometimes find happiness unreach-able, or deep down they don't feel they deserve it. So there's a whole plethora of emotions and confusion around happiness for people.

I try to help them change that inter-nally so the outward experience is now a reflection of their more power-ful and more positive beliefs about themselves. So you've got to tweak it inside in order to get the outside result because we tend to prove our-selves right. No matter what we believe, our experiences will reflect what we believe. Monica: Do you think that more men are happier than women? Alexandra: No, they're just less emotional. I have coached a lot of men in the past, and they are amazing creatures, and they're wonderful, but especially in business they don't bring a lot of emotion to business whereas women do. So emotionally we're more complex and more emo-tional in our thinking.



Men are more straightforward-thinking, more logical thinkers. Monica: You decided to make the change in your life to go from work-ing for someone else to working for yourself. Most people really can't afford to quit their jobs and begin working for themselves or at least that's probably their mindset. What can they do to become happier indi-viduals in the meantime, where they currently are until they can get to where they want to be? Alexandra: Good question. You’re right, not everybody can make that leap or feel that they want to make that leap from being employed to an entrepreneur or business owner. So if that's the case, what they can do in the meantime is be proactive in creating the life that they would ideally like. So instead of putting the focus on what you don’t like or don’t want, focus your energy towards what you prefer to do and what that looks like to you? Ask yourself, “How can I make steps toward getting closer to that?” Be proactive with the focus, the thought and energy to make sure that you feel you're making progress towards something because that not only gives you hope, it makes you feel more inspired, more motivated, and you get more momentum. Know your options. Do the research. Plan it out. Give yourself deadlines. Make sure you're always moving for-ward and making progress. Monica: A lot of people believe, and I think overall, society has played a role in this -- most people believe that you cannot achieve happiness unless you have a lot of material posses-sions. What is wrong with that mind-set?

days, and it works brilliantly for a coach and for the client because it's so fulfilling as a coach to have that focus and concentration on one person, one thing or a group. You can get so much done. It's a massive transfor-mational process. It's great for the client for exactly the same reasons. They have a coach who's very knowledgeable and experi-enced, focusing on them for a whole day, and they really make major breakthroughs. After that, then they would probably progress on to a six-month program or a year program with me and it would be their choice after that. Monica: Because you have mastered, so to speak, the art of happiness, you are able to certainly tell when a per-son is truly happy. Alexandra: Yes, and I work very intuitively with people as well. So, as any trained coach can do, they can always listen between the lines, as it's called. Really, that's listening on level four technically speaking, which means you listen to what someone is saying, but you can actually read be-tween the lines. I can work intuitively with someone and just absolutely know what to tell them to do. What makes what I do different from life-coaching officially is that I do give advice and make sug-gestions whereas officially life coaches aren't really in line to do that. It's a very direct approach. I think what I do is quite unique and people appreciate it and love it because it's not beating around the bush. It's quick, dynamic and powerful changes. Monica: There are lots of people who are unhappy either generally speaking or within their careers or

Alexandra: It's backward thinking in the sense that you're putting happiness out there as something that has to come to you. There's absolutely noth-ing wrong with wealth. In fact, wealth is what you should be striving for because when you are wealthy, then you can help more people and you can enjoy life more. However, it's not about it making you happy. Money is just a way of showing you where you're coming from. The money you have in your pocket right now really reflects your beliefs about yourself and your possibilities and your potential. It’s that simple. It's an energy. You're either attracting money or you're repelling it. Monica: What are some things that you look for, for example when work-ing with an athlete versus a working mom versus a corporation? How do you approach each one of them? Alexandra: First and foremost, they have to be ready. They really have to be ready to make the commitment to themselves and for it to be a defining part of their life. If it's a corporation, they have to be ready to make the commitment to their staff and to their employees at all levels. No matter where they are or what their situation is, they have to be ready to make the commitment. Monica: How long are your coach-ing sessions? Alexandra: I don't coach by the hour. That is not a sustainable busi-ness model for coaches, and that's a big mistake a lot of coaches make. What I do is work on a day-to-day basis so I have an entire day with a person. We work on whatever it is we need to work on in that entire day. What they're called in the trade is VIP



their businesses. If they are not able to reach out to a person such as you, what can they do in the meantime to try to help themselves? Alexandra: Great question. The first thing that they can do is define for themselves who they are and what they want. I know that sounds basic, but you would be surprised at how many people don't know who they are and they don't know what they want. When you get those two things clear, crystal clear in your mind, then you can move forward. So that would be my first piece of advice. Step one, define who you are, as in what you like and what you don't like, and then define what you really want to do and get a clear picture of what that is. You're not to think about limitations. In an ideal situation, what do you want from life? The next step would be to trust them-selves. To trust themselves is the first step towards accepting who they are and liking and loving who they are, and that's the area where self-esteem can be raised. Their confidence about themselves can be raised. There's always going to be a moment in your life where you have to take a leap of faith. If you want to be happier, then you have to trust who you are, trust your instincts, trust your intuition and your gut feeling. You have to recog-nize the difference between when your intuition is telling you some-thing, when your gut feeling is telling you something, and when your fearful thoughts are telling you something. We were all born happy, and it's what happens over time when we're chil-dren, in the formative years that can bury what I call the “inner diamond,” that ability to shine.

Monica: How have some of the peo-ple you’ve worked with changed your life? Alexandra: That's a great question because everybody I meet, every cli-ent teaches me something. They give so much back. But I've had the ability to be stretched and challenged, and I'm really thankful for that because that's helped me grow as a person. So the more I'm challenged by a situa-tion, or a client, I see that as an oppor-tunity to grow. �




One of the easiest and fastest ways to grow your business is revealed in an ancient proverb:

Ask and you shall Ask and you shall Ask and you shall

receive.receive.receive. You’ve probably heard this phrase countless times in your lifetime, but how many times have you put this fundamental truth into practice recently? When was the last time you asked for a written en-dorsement from a client or colleague? How about feedback from your cus-tomers? Or the opportunity to renego-tiate something that just doesn’t work for you? Too often, business professionals—especially those in sales and market-ing positions—falter because they simply stop practicing the art of ask-ing. But if you were to ask successful top executives how they got to where they are, most would admit they “asked to get to the top.” They knew when and how to ask the right ques-tions so they could gather the right information, build their reputation, seek useful referrals, generate new business, and expand their audience or customer base. The simple act of asking is critical to success. Yet many people don’t do it because for some reason, people falsely believe that asking implies weakness and sets one up for potential rejection. U Here are seven asking strategies you can implement in your business (and in life) to boost your results:

1. Ask for Information. You can never have too much information. In fact, the higher up you go, the more you need to know. For example, to win potential new clients, you first need to understand their current chal-lenges, what they want to accomplish and how they plan to do it. Only then can you proceed to demonstrate the advantages of your unique product or service. Ask questions starting with the words who, why, what, where, when and how to obtain the information you need. Only when you truly understand and appreciate a prospect’s needs can you offer a solution. 2. Ask for Business. It’s shocking, but true: more than 60 percent of the time salespeople never ask for the order after giving a complete presen-tation about the benefits of their prod-uct or service. If you fall into this trap, beware: it’s a habit that could put you out of business quickly. Al-ways ask a closing question to secure the business. Don’t waffle or talk around it—or worse, wait for your prospect to ask you. There are numer-ous ways to ask, “Would you like to give it a try?” Find the phrasing that feels most comfortable to you and ask. 3. Ask for Written Endorsements. It can be difficult to ask for endorse-ments if you don’t like tooting your own horn, but well-written, results-oriented testimonials from highly re-spected people are powerful for future sales. They solidify the quality of your product or service and leverage

you as a person who has integrity, is trustworthy and gets the job done on time. The best time to ask is right after you have provided excellent service, gone the extra mile to help out, or in any other way made your customer really happy. Simply ask if your customer would be willing to give you a testi-monial about the value of your prod-uct or service, plus any other helpful comments. 4. Ask for Top-Quality Referrals. Just about everyone in business knows the importance of referrals. It’s the easiest, least expensive way of ensuring your growth and success in the marketplace. Your core clients will gladly give you referrals because you treat them so well. So why not ask all of them for referrals? It’s a habit that will dramatically increase your income. Like any other habit, the more you do it, the easier it becomes. 5. Ask for More Business. It’s easier to sell your existing clients more products and services than to go look-ing for new customers. Look for other products or services you can provide your customers. Another approach is to devise a system that tells you when your clients will need to re-order your products – or to simply ask your cus-tomers when you should contact them to reorder. 6. Ask for Feedback. This is an im-portant component of asking that is often overlooked. How do you really know if your product or service is meeting your customers’ needs? Ask

7 Ways to Boost Your Business Just by Asking

by Jack Canfield



them, “How are we doing? What can we do to improve our service to you? Please share what you like or don’t like about our products.” Set up regu-lar customer surveys that ask good questions and tough questions. It’s a powerful way to fine-tune your busi-ness. 7. Ask to Renegotiate. Regular busi-ness activities include negotiation and often re-negotiation. Many business professionals get stuck because they lack negotiation skills, yet this is sim-ply another form of asking that can save a lot of time and money. All sorts of contracts can be renegotiated in your personal life, too, such as changing your credit card terms and rate. As long as you negotiate ethi-cally and in the spirit of win-win, you can enjoy a lot of flexibility. Nothing is ever cast in stone. It’s only in stone if you don’t speak up! The 5 Secrets to Successful Asking The first stumbling block for most people is knowing how to ask. Here are five tips to improve the way you ask, so you achieve results: • Ask Clearly: Vague or fuzzy ques-tions confuse listeners, making it dif-ficult for them to provide the informa-tion or help you desire. Be precise in your asking. Think clearly about your request, and take time to prepare. Use a note pad to pick words that have the greatest impact. Words are powerful, so choose them carefully. For exam-ple, if you throw the “How am I do-ing?” question out without specifics, it may take time for the other person to understand what you’re talking about. Instead, try “How is my atti-tude toward customers? Do you see room for improvement? Where?” • Ask with Confidence: People who ask confidently get more than those

who are hesitant and uncertain. When you’ve figured out what you want to ask for, do it with certainty, boldness and confidence. Practice in the mirror if you have to, or write out your ques-tion in advance. Try to have an open mind and heart when receive a response. (It’s normal and okay to feel intimidated by the experience, but don’t show it.) Be prepared to hear the unexpected or unwanted. Don’t get defensive if you hear something you don’t like or that makes you uncomfortable. It’s good to get a little uneasy once in a while upon the observations or insights of others. They will inspire you to stop, reflect, and take steps to make a shift for the better. • Ask Consistently: Top producers know that they can’t quit if they ask once and don’t get a good response. In prospecting, for example, there are usually four or five “no’s” before you get a “yes.” If the approach you’re using doesn’t seem to be working, try a different way of asking and keep asking until you find the answers you want. For example, if you find a co-worker is reluctant to offer an opinion when you seek feedback about your per-formance on an important team pro-ject, you can ask another team mem-ber who is more receptive to the ques-tion or rephrase how you are asking the question and try again. Because people don’t normally go around ask-ing others for opinions on how well they are doing, it’s not a question typically heard. So be prepared to ask over and over again before you hear a clear—useful—answer. • Ask Creatively: In this age of global competition, your asking may get lost in the crowd, unheard by the decision-makers you hope to reach.

The way around this is to ask in an unusual way. Use your creativity to dream up a high-impact presentation. Bear in mind that asking someone to stop and evaluate you can seem awk-ward or time-consuming. Show re-spect for them first and find the ideal time to ask the question. Here’s one way to engage the insights of a supe-rior: “I highly value your opinion and honest perspective, and would love to know what you think I could be doing differently on a daily basis that would make your life easier and make our clients happier.” • Ask Sincerely: When you really need help, people will respond. Sin-cerity means dropping the image fa-cade and being willing to be vulner-able. Tell it the way it is, lumps and all. Don’t worry if your presentation isn’t perfect; ask from your heart. Keep it simple and people will open up to you. Like speaking a different language, asking takes continual practice until it becomes a regular, reflexive habit. The sooner you build your Ask Mus-cle, the sooner you’ll see results you’ve been waiting—and search-ing—for. Remember that asking does not relate only to work-related goals and tasks. Bring this practice home with you to enrich your relationships with your family members, and your friends. You’ll be surprised and de-lighted at what you discover about yourself in this process – and at the greater results and satisfaction you’ll gain in all areas of your life. �


tivated, controlled, delegated, consolidated, generated, im-

plemented, proposed, specified … and the list goes on

• Identify challenges you overcame; the action or solution you undertook to alleviate the challenge; and the (quantifiable) result, and script into a powerfully written statement. For instance:

Challenge: Staff turnover high, performance levels ex-tremely poor, with overall costs to recruit and train new staff high.

Action: Developed staff monitoring and incentive pro-grams; implemented staff training programs. Result: Increased staff knowledge base; decreased staff turnover by 66.7%; increased staff morale and collabora-tion; increased productivity levels by 77%. Then by incorporating a number of action words, the above can be written as:

Enhanced staff morale; optimized productivity by 77%;

and reduced staff turnover by 66.7% through imple-

mentation of strategic monitoring and incentive pro-

grams.

Notice the deliberate placement of the quantifiable results at the front of the statement, followed by the method in which this accomplishment was obtained.

• Ensure your document is consistent in its formatting. If you bold a position title; bold all job titles throughout your document. Make certain your overall document is well structured (plenty of white space), and aesthetically pleasing (professional headings and layout).

• Refrain from providing details of every single position you have ever had. As a guide, generally the last10 years

The increasing competitiveness of today’s job market now requires a job seeker to be far more assertive in their overall job search, particularly when it comes to develop-ing their career-marketing document – the resume. With a window of opportunity often as little as 10 sec-onds for the resume to spark the reader’s attention, this demands a well-written document that outlines the candi-date’s expertise and overall value offered. Gone are the days of a tasked-based resume with an inventory of a po-sition’s responsibilities, coupled with a standard list of personal aptitudes. This has been replaced with a results

driven document that highlights solid results through ex-amples of achievements and contributions that you were responsible for. Your resume is your initial handshake and must therefore not be second-guessed, so the aim is to demonstrate your ability to fulfill their requirements and to build an interest in the benefits and value you bring to the company. So what strategies can be followed to create a profes-sional marketing document that promotes your overall value and that demands an invitation to interview? Here are some tips to inspire your writing:

• Replace the career objective [which concentrates on what you want] with a career profile that summarizes your expertise. Your profile could also include a few accomplishment highlights which is bound to impress the reader as it concentrates on what you can deliver for them, rather than on what you want

• Incorporate industry-related key words as well as ac-tion words that will grab the reader’s attention. For instance:

Orchestrated, devised, instructed, spearheaded, maxi-

mized, led, directed, streamlined, oversaw, managed, mo-

Is Your Resume ‘Interview Worthy?’

by Annemarie Cross



is appropriate (if the position being applied for is rele-vant to what you have been doing), with a maximum of about 15 years.

• For far greater impact when identifying your professional experience, create a strategically written paragraph out-lining your main accountabilities (remembering to incor-porate attention grabbing action words), followed by a bulleted list of achievements.

For example: Pivotal sales and leadership role within one of the 10 busi-est stores in the chain, using strong staff management and sales talent to continually exceed competitive sales budgets by ensuring professionalism and quality service is extended to a diverse and continually-expanding client base.

Notable Achievements:

• Outstripped sales budget by 285% with many products selling out through relocation of stock to more prominent positioning; developed eye-catching displays to capture and elicit client spend.

• Lastly, edit, edit, and edit again. Then ask a family mem-ber or friend to read through the document to ensure your

career-marketing document is error free. ♦

To your success!

Annemarie

Quick Tips for Presenting a Professional Appearance at

a Job Interview

by Pat Markel It is very important to pre-sent yourself in a profes-sional manner. A great thing to do is ask yourself, “How do I want to be re-membered?” When you walk into the room you want them to see a well dressed, confident woman or man who displays a pro-fessional image. It is very important to make a strong first impression because often times your first im-pression will either open or

close the door on the opportunity.

Suggestions for what to wear:

Formal Dress a. A dark suit (blue, black or brown) and a white or

ivory blouse (avoid low cut or revealing blouse) b. Very little makeup c. Very little or no perfume as it can become a distrac-

tion d. Dark closed toe shoes e. Conservative hairstyle and jewelry f. Stockings (skin tone or matching suit color) Business Casual Dress

a. Pant suits b. Skirt or dress pants with different color jacket c. Dress pants and sweater set or classic blouse d. Tailored dress (no a- line dresses or skirts) e. Skirts at business length (knee length) f. Dress shoes or pumps with decent heel height (no

stilettos) g. Dressy flats shoes are acceptable If you are not sure what to wear, then wear something conservative, not flashy. �




The dictionary

does not tell us

how to accelerate

the resilience

process, it only

defines it:

1. “springing back into shape, position, etc. after being stretched, bent or compressed.” 2. “recovering strength, spirits, etc. quickly.” Being resilient in body, mind and spirit is key to being happy and successful in all areas of life. Emotionally, it’s the opposite of being “stuck in a rut” and it’s about being positive. Physically, it can translate to strength and flexi-bility. Spiritually it can indicate faith with the ability to maintain hope in tumultuous times. It’s about staying cen-tered and grounded and making “right” choices. So, you may be asking yourself, how does one maintain emotional-spiritual equilibrium and resiliency when things can be unpredictable and often in crisis mode? How can we accelerate the resilience process? It’s not easy, and takes some work. It’s easy to create positive patterns and habits when life is going smoothly. It can be quite challenging while being swept away by negative forces. A good men-tor/coach and practice is important, and the practice will create a “spill-over” effect into life situations. Many people, including myself, have learned how to be more resilient. There are skill sets of meditation, relaxation

breathing, visualization and “tapping” (EFT- Emotional Freedom Techniques) that all add into helping an individ-ual maintain focus and be positive. Exercising, eating healthfully and being in healthy relationships are natu-rally fortifying. Most people are not born resilient, but do have the capacity to learn how to be this way. Here are a few tips to accelerate the process:

• Think of possibilities from different perspectives.

• Stop talking in absolutes. Eliminate the words ‘nothing’ and ‘never’ from self talk.

• Set specific goals that are attainable.

• When you are feeling down due to personal circum-stances, take stock of your strengths.

• Lower the stakes, not the standards: Don’t have your whole life riding on the outcome of one event

• Savor small triumphs, steps leading to the bigger pic-ture.

• Set aside self blame and learn from your mistakes.

• Surround yourself with positive people

• Do not read, watch or listen to the news if you become “too upset”.

• Take a few minutes each day to reflect on your feel-ings.

• Cultivate generosity and gratitude.

You are the only one who can control your attitude. By focusing on what is strong and enduring and seeing your potential, you can take calculated risks and overcome challenges. It takes an open, creative mind free from anxiety to pick up on opportunities. They are out there ready to be accessed by your positive and resilient radar! �

How to Accelerate the Resilience Process

by Eileen Lichtenstein


vs.

What type of income are you working for? Most people cannot get ahead because they are working too hard for earned income. Earned Income - Income from a Job or

Being "Self-Employed"

• Trades your time for money

• Depends on your physical labor

• Is taxed at higher rates

• Takes more of your time to sustain

• Provides you with no leverage

• Leaves you with no income when you stop working and poorer in retirement

Residual and Passive Income

• Leverages your time - Allows you to do something once and receive a recurring income stream

• Provides a repeatable process for building wealth

• Is taxed at lower rates

• Provides you with more freedom

• Provides you with income whether you physically work or not

• Enables you to own your time instead of having to work a job or struggle as solo entrepreneur

• Allows you to retire years or even decades earlier

• Makes your wealth grow in retirement If you are going to work hard, it makes sense to work

hard on the things that will leverage your time and

create automatic and sustainable wealth.

BARON Wealth and Business

Success Actions:

Action 1: Quantify - What percentage of your income is currently derived from passive and residual sources? Ideal Target: 60% of your income or enough to cover all living expenses, whichever is greater, should come from passive and residual sources. Action 2: Qualify and Diversify - How many sources of passive and residual income do you currently have? Ideal Target: At least five sources. Action 3: Assess Your Past Progress - Over the last 3-5 years, how much have your sources of passive and resid-ual income grown? What are some ways that you could accelerate this process? Ideal Target: 10-25% growth per year. Action 4: Create an Effective Plan & System of Ac-countability - What is your plan for generating more pas-sive and residual income faster? Do you have someone to help you and hold you accountable to your plan? Ideal Solution: Create an effective team of advisors and strategic partners to help you implement an accelerated wealth-building plan for creating passive and residual income streams and to hold you accountable for achiev-ing your goals in the most expedient manner. �

Not All Income is Created Equal

Structure Your Income the Right Way

by William R. Patterson

Earned Income

Passive & Residual Income



∗ When you suspect a liar is lying, don’t be too quick to stop him. Observe the verbiage he uses and his body language. The more comfortable he becomes with his lies, the more lies he’ll tell. In so doing, he’ll give you greater insight into how he lies and why he lies. Then, you’ll know what to look for when you suspect he’s lying.

∗ If you’re astute at reading body language during a negotia-tion, you can pick up on nonverbal signals and detect a liar’s lie before he gets too deeply into it. In so doing, you will de-crease the probability of being deceived.

∗ People lie because they’re seeking something they need at the time of the lie. In a negotiation, if you understand the need, you’ll understand the source of the lie. From that perspective, you can address it.

The Negotiation Tips Are …

To enhance your efforts of catching a liar in his lie, switch subjects in the middle of his suspected lie. Change the subject to anything that’s unrelated to what he was dis-cussing. After a few minutes, ask him to continue speak-ing about what he was discussing when you suspected he was lying. When he resumes the discussion, take note from where he continues, versus where he left off. Also, take note of the degree his demeanor has altered. In addi-tion, you can ask questions that highlight slight differences in what he said (ex: If he said he drove a black car, restate what you heard as he drove a blue car). By slightly alter-ing what you said he said, he’ll have to go into ‘recall’ mode, if he was lying. If he’s telling the truth, more than likely, he’ll say without hesitation, ‘oh no, it was a black car’. In any situation, before you can discern if someone is ly-ing, you have to establish his or her baseline. That means you have to be aware of how they gesture and use verbi-age in ‘normal’ environments. Then, as you seek to detect lies, note the differences between what is ‘normal’ to what becomes different from ‘normal’. Therein will lay the sig-nal to delve deeper into what he is saying. Once you dis-cover how to hone your skills to detecting liars, it will be increasingly difficult for someone to lie to you success-fully … and everything will be right with the world. �

by Greg Williams

When negotiating, can you detect lies based on some-one’s expressions, or the impression that they make on you? You’ve no doubt heard the expression, ‘he lied to me with a straight face’. There’s something to be said about someone keeping a ‘straight face’ when lying dur-ing a negotiation. The reason being, the body never lies. So, when someone is lying, the body will compensate for their untruthfulness by displaying ‘cover actions’. ‘Cover actions’ can be almost imperceptible nuances that occur when people lie, or they can also be exaggerated expressions. Nothing succeeds like success. When a person becomes confident about his ability to lie in a negotiation, and he continuously gets away with it, he will continue to lie. In most cases, he will become emboldened to increase the intensity of his lies. Therein lies where you’ll have the opportunity to ‘catch’ him. The way to detect and deter a liar is to observe the verbi-age he uses during the negotiation, and observe his body language when you suspect him of lying. When lying …

•People will tend to use phrases that make them feel comfortable. Take note of the ‘comfort phrases’ that a person uses and note the change that occurs when they alter such phrases. When change occurs, they could be in the process of entering into a lie, or fully engaged in it.

•People will lie to make themselves appear to be more impressive or demur. The lie will usually be accompa-nied with body language gestures that exemplify the stature of the liar. Such gestures may be observed as the individual raising his head higher, or thrusting his chin or chest forward when seeking to be perceived as being more impressive. A demur individual will tend to bow his head and present a less impressive image.

•People will also lie to get out of tough situations. Such maneuverings will usually be accompanied with gestures that align their discomfort. Thus, they’ll tend to keep their arms close to their body. They’ll also tend to be more reflected, as they try to ‘keep their story on track’.

How to Detect Lies From Impressions and Expressions When Negotiating



Exceptional People Magazine-November-December 2011 – Part 1

Documents

process of change

noticeable change

special issue

best life

good friends

good wishing

new vision

new ideas