today's innovative woman magazine, november/december 2012

November/December 2012 4 Today’s Innovative Woman

The last quarter of 2012 – hard to believe we are in the midst of it! Is your year ending as expected? Did you meet your goals?

Now is the perfect time to reflect on the year behind us. I’m already well into planning 2013 and what we are going to offer and provide for you, our loyal fans and readers! It’s time to study the accounting and see where you made the money – and didn’t. Pull out the list of products and services and evaluate what worked – and what didn’t. Send a survey out to your people and get feedback from them about what they liked – and didn’t. Look into your heart and decide what all came together and you want to do more of – and what you don’t!

We all have things in our “genius” that we need to do more of – and less of our “incompetence”. I was recently given a book as a gift – The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. The week after the SUCCESS Summit, I felt called to read it – so I stepped away from my computer and spent the day curled up with a blanket, reading and reflecting – with HUGE revelations about my “upper limit” challenges and what is holding me back. Every year, I become clearer on my vision and my mission. But that is only because I take the time away from the “working in” my business to “working on”.

I challenge you to do the same. Do some serious reflecting about where you are, where you have come from, and what you want and how you are going to get there. The holiday excitement and chaos will take over shortly and the sooner you know what’s next for you, the sooner you can celebrate and move forward.

Here’s to your SUCCESS!

P.S. I’d love to hear your revelations after reading The Big Leap!

From The Publisher

Subscribe for FREE at www.TodaysInnovativeWoman.com 5

All About Business 7 4 Inexpensive Ways to Update

Your Home Office

10 7 Questions to Qualify The Best Practices for Your Marketing

14 Passion Branding

16 Every Business Must Have a Website

18 Ask The Lawyer: How to Choose a Strong Brand Name for Your Business

22 5 Tips to Make Your Marketing Creative

All About Success 12 Award Winners

All About Fitness 8 Motivating Yourself to Exercise

All About Home & Family20 What to Cook for Dinner?

In This Issue

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20

12


4 Inexpensive Ways to Update Your Home Office

by Lisa Kanarek

How would you describe your home office? Does it look a bit rough around the edges? Clients may not see your home office, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a nice, comfortable and even stylish place to work. There are a few cheap ways to give your home office a face lift.

• Paint your walls and don’t be afraid of color. Start with your rug, a piece of art or any furniture that’s in your home office and then match it. It doesn’t have to be a perfect match (that’s boring). If you can’t find a color you like, make up your own color.

• Add window treatments. Shades, valances and drapery can add color, pattern and interest to your home office. In the design industry, custom = costly. Fortunately there are some great ready-made window treatment options avail-able from high-end stores to discount stores.

• Use homemade accessories. What better way to get free art than from your kids? Instead of tossing your child’s wobbly clay pot or pitching a vase, display it. My sons’ works of art (from a few years ago) fill my home office bookcas-es. They’re colorful and they have sentimental value. Do you have a clay sculpture of a lion holding a penguin or a mouse surrounded by cheese and cooking utensils? I do.

• Create cheap (yet stylish) art. Enlarge your favorite photo, add a mat and frame, and then hang it. Or buy a book of reproductions, clip a few pages, slip them into frames and enjoy your new masterpieces. Frames are cheap and sometimes even expensive frames go on sale.

The beauty of working from home is that you can make your home office reflect your personality and personal style. Best of all, these changes don’t have to cost a fortune.

All About Business

Lisa Kanarek is one of the nation’s leading home office experts and the author of five books, including Working Naked: A guide to the bare essentials of home office life. She has been featured in hundreds of publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Entrepreneur, and has shared her expertise on several national programs, including Good Morning America, CNN Financial News, and CNBC, among others. Lisa is the founder of HomeOfficeLife, a consulting firm that advises home-based business owners on all aspects of working from home and is founder of WorkingNaked.com.


Motivating Yourself to ExerciseAll About Fitness

by JJ Flizanes

One of the biggest complaints I have heard over the years is that “exercise is hard because I am not motivated!”

Tip#1: Success Stories: Everyone gets a boost of inspiration when they see or read something about an amazing transformation that someone else has had. If you are feeling off track, take ten minutes at your computer and look up weight loss success stories online.

Tip #2: Music: We all have some kind of music that permeates your cells and encourages you to move. Sometimes it’s fast paced music to inspire cardio, boxing or dancing or maybe it’s slow and relaxing which might put you in the mood for yoga or meditation. While meditation is not exercise, it can help empty your mind of the excuses you may have around exercise.

Tip #3: Having a good exercise plan: Without a customized plan, you may get frustrated really easily if you don’t see the kind of results you are expecting. Even if you already have the motivation, spend the money or time on creating a sound plan.

Tip #4: Hypnosis: This is such an easy tool to use every day; it requires only the effort of putting on your headphones and lying down. Hypnosis is one of the fastest ways to change your habits.

Tip #5 Get a Buddy: We all need accountability. Take a class, hire a trainer or coach, or create your own group. Need more help? Meet me on November 10th! To get more details, go to: http://tinyurl.com/9vckgol.

JJ Flizanes, Director of Invisible Fitness, was named best personal trainer in Los Angeles for 2007 by Elite Traveler Magazine and was also one of the six featured trainers in Shape Magazine in 2003. She is the Author of the Amazon.com Best Seller Fit 2 Love: How to Get Physical-ly, Emotionally, and Spiritually Fit to Attract the Love of Your Life and Knack Absolute Abs: Routines for a Fit and Firm Core. She has appeared on NBC, KTLA, CBS and Fox 11 as well as numerous local and national magazines. JJ’s mission is to help men and women feel gorgeous and con-fident in a bathing suit without starving or killing themselves in the gym.

Motivating Yourself to Exercise


7 Questions to Qualify The Best Practices for Your Marketing Success

All About Business

When something feels “off” in your business it’s likely because you’re not infusing your values into your mission (both personal and professional) . Some may think there is no correlation between your personal mission and your business mission. You’ve probably heard the saying “it’s not personal, it’s business.”. I have to disagree — as entrepreneurs, our business is personal and the way we behave and operate is a direct reflection of who we are, business or not. It takes dedication, determination, clarity and practice to become the best that we can be.

Here are 7 questions to help you qualify best practices for your business.

1. Are you really clear on your values?2. Do your personal and professional mission statements align with your

values?3. Have you owned your personal story and do you incorporate that in your

marketing?4. Are you choosing the RIGHT clients instead of chasing not so ideal clients?5. Have you CLEARLY identified who you are meant to serve so your

marketing messages resonate with the right people? (This means increased revenue)

6. Do you regularly incorporate the “Challenge. Solution. Invitation™” marketing formula (as seen in Inc. Magazine) to create marketing messages with integrity?

7. Are you familiar with other formulas and techniques to craft a palatable marketing message that isn’t too salesy AND gets results?

I ask because these 7 elements are crucial to your marketing success. The answers to these questions can truly qualify best practices for your marketing and beyond. Getting clear on your marketing message takes practice and the right formula for success. This includes a balance of your personal and professional life and integration of your values so you’re coming from a place of service first.

by Lisa Manyon

Lisa Manyon is an Award Winning Author, Marketing and Copywriting Strategist. She is a co-author of the #1 Best Selling book Success Rituals 2.O –Winning Habits of High-Achieving Women: How she does it and you can too, the recipient of the Charles Schwab Financial Literacy Award in The Hot Mommas 2011 Competition she’s featured in the world’s largest women’s digital library of role models & men-tors and the Write On Creative Blog received a 2011 APEX award for publication excellence. Manyon is the co-creator of the 24-7 Web Sales Success Course with Ali Brown, a founding member of the Evolutionary Business Council and expert faculty member for Business Brilliance University. She offers a complimentary Copywriting Action Plan and publishes Manyon’s Musings a free monthly ezine. For more infor-mation visit www.WriteOnCreative.com.


by Lisa Manyon


All About Success

2012 has been a huge SUCCESS for Today’s Innovative Woman! And the SUCCESS Summit in Los Angeles was the culmination and celebration of suc-cess for many!

Our 2nd annual Innovative Women in Business awards luncheon was held during the event. We had so many fabulous women apply and be nominated in the various categories; it was hard for our panel to narrow down to our finalists. Once we had our finalists, the voting began. Voting accounted for 50% of the decision and the remaining 50% was made by our Advisory Panel of 4 women and 1 man.

Our Advisory Panel reviewed each of our finalists’ applications, websites, use of social media, blog posts, percentage growth for 2012, number of team members, etc. It was a very tough decision for them, but the winners were announced on stage!

Here is a little glimpse of each of our finalists!

Start-Up Entrepreneur:

Debbie Saviano (winner) - Debbie offers training on utilizing LinkedIn to it’s full po-tential as well as designing and re-de-signing LinkedIn profiles. www.DebbieSaviano.com

Trish Lay - Trish is the Founder and Creator of Souls at Play Productions, a full service outlet promoting individuals in the areas of Coaching, Writing, Public Speaking, and Teaching. www.SoulsatPlayProductions.com

Visionary Entrepreneur:

Kim Somer Egelse (winner) - Kim’s passion is coaching, inspirational/motiva-tional speaking, teaching workshops, and helping others to be happy and empowered! www.KimLifeCoach.com

Darya Allen-Attar - Darya founded Broads Circle in 2008 with the goal of cre-ating an exclusive network of businesswomen and the professionals who work with them. www.BroadsCircle.com

SUCCESS Summit A SUCCESS!

by Cathy Alessandra


Innovative Entrepreneur:

Lisa Manyon - Lisa is an award-winning, #1 bestselling author, copywriting strategist and master of powerfully communicating marketing messages to increase results. www.WriteOnCreative.com

Chantay Bridges (winner) - Chantay is a seasoned professional who utilizes her gifts and abilities in outreach to her community and world around her. www.LosAngelesRealEstateNow.com

Service Based Business:

Candy Messer – Candy is the owner of Affordable Bookkeeping and Payroll Services, a company that energizes business owners by removing the over-whelming burden of the bookkeeping and payroll processing. www.abandp.com

Bibi Goldstein (winner) – Bibi is the owner of Buying Time LLC, providing virtual assistance, personal assistance, organizing and bookkeeping. www.buyingtimellc.com

Entrepreneur Mom of the Year:

Tara Powers - Tara is the founder of Mama Means Business and is an expe-rienced business strategist with over 12 years in business as a successful corpo-rate consultant to Fortune 500 compa-nies around the country. www.MamaMeansBusiness.com

Elayna Fernandez (winner) – Elayna is the Founder of The Positive Mom Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit or-ganization passionately committed to strengthening families and communities worldwide by providing accessible, comprehensive character development education for parents, youth and children. www.PositiveMom.org

Jolette Jai - Jolette is the co-author of Quality Time With Your Kids, The Simple Directions and founder of Peace of Mind Parenting, Jolette is a passionate mom, writer, and motivational speaker who inspires you to break any cycles of shame, blame, manipulation, etc so that you can be confident, connected, abundant and radiant right now. www.PeaceofMindParenting.com

CONGRATULATIONS to all our finalists and winners!


All About Business

One of the easiest ways to build the “know, like and trust factor” with your personal brand is marketing your passions. We will show up most authentically when we are involved in what we love. I refer to that as “that which gives us life.” That very well may be the work you do; but for the moment let’s focus on you creating more compelling content via your social media to attract those of like minds and interests beyond your business expertise. I call it passion branding.

One of many ways to be a successful marketer is by being an organic storyteller with the passions you love.

Wonderful examples of passion branding:

1. A web designer/creative director created an art club for women locally and exhibits their masterpieces. They inspire each other and their community via their art. She shares her artwork on her profile page and markets the free exhibits.

2. A Chiropractor who loves helping under served families in the Philippines started a non-profit feeding these children. He posts stories and successes of his mission work. Beautiful way to build an authentic brand while creating the know, like and trust factor with his social media communities.

3. My passion for film making (storytelling and writing) led me to joining forces with a past client who is a producer and writer in the entertainment industry. We are organically building a community online and offline called Los Angeles Filmmakers Network. We created a meet up page and fan page. Our first meet up was in June and a workshop coming up. Our purpose is to educate, inspire and transform lives through the art of film making.

Our passions demonstrate the rich texture of our lives. Passions are the easiest topic to be inspired by to create compelling content for marketing and influence. When you share your passions you are inspiring others to do the same. And that makes for a better world all the way around.

As a personal branding and social media savvy expert, Marla inspires and awakens imagination and possibility thinking. She guides positive-minded, highly-motivated, results-oriented, adventurous, heart-centered entrepreneurs and dentists how to clearly communicate an authentic personal brand that builds quality online communities for higher revenues supported by Universal law principles. She mentors you how to be more conscious in your intentions and smarter with your time & strategies aligned with the Law of Increase for all. With a 22 year career as an entertainment publicist, coaching entrepreneurs how to define and deliver their personal brand on Social Media platforms made practical sense. Marla’s progressive coaching company is a perfect fit for those ready to identify and monetize their personal brand with a Social Media and Online Marketing system. Come visit her at www.eCreativebiz.com.

Passion Branding: Inspired Ideas that Easily Buildthe Know, Like and Trust Factor

By Marla Dennis


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Passion Branding: Inspired Ideas that Easily Buildthe Know, Like and Trust Factor

By Marla Dennis


All About Success

It is no longer negotiable. Whether you’re a solopreneur, entrepreneur, small business owner, or a global organization, a website is imperative to your success. Here’s why…

Need a plumber? Google it. Looking for a restaurant? Google it. Looking for a local drop-in childcare provider? Google it. Looking for a dog groomer who specializes in toy-sized dogs? Google it.

In other words, the Yellow Pages and phone books are no longer the main way consumers locate businesses. With computers, laptops, netbooks, mobile phones, and other web-ready tools, the Internet has now replaced the Yellow Pages. Most consumers now turn to the search engines (mostly Google) to find what they need.

If you don’t have a professionally-designed website programmed to ensure your business comes up on the first page of those search results, people may never find you. And if they don’t know you exist, they can’t hire you or buy your product.

Remember, people buy when they are ready to buy, not when you are ready. So your business needs to be visible when your prospects and potential customers need your product or service. One of the easiest ways to make that happen is with an optimized website that acts like a 24-hour beacon, attracting and educating your prospects and customers.

Consumers aren’t just searching for broad terms either. Consumers are searching for local businesses and resources just as much as global businesses.

It’s time to ask yourself, when your target market searches for your business online, do you show up on the first page of the search engine results? If not, you really should invest in a website or website upgrade—and work with a marketing-savvy web designer who not only understands how to visually present your information, but how to market your products and services as well.

The bottom line is this: You need to show up when someone searches for you online because your target market can’t buy from you if they don’t know you exist!

Every Business Must Have a Website by Jennifer Bourn


BE CAREFUL! A bad website, that looks like a high school student did it for a class project can do more harm to your brand and your business than having no website at all. It screams, “I am too cheap to hire a professional! I don’t value my products and services enough to invest in a good website to showcase them!”

At minimum, you need to have a simple, clean, well-designed website with targeted, informative, helpful content. This will ensure that you have a professional presence when someone searches for you.

I guarantee, if you don’t invest in your brand and your professional appearance, no one else will either. I also guarantee that without a website, no one will be able to find you where everyone is looking for what they need—online.

But, I can tell you who they will find… your competitors.

Jennifer Bourn is the brand strategist, WordPress website design-er, and graphic designer behind the award-winning branding and web design firm Bourn Creative, LLC near Sacramento, Cali-fornia. Bourn Creative helps successful entrepreneurs who are frustrated with their brand and website transform their marketing materials and their business into an extraordinary and lucrative brand through a combination of speaking, consulting, and done-for-you services. Learn more at www.bourncreative.com.


How to Choose a Strong Brand Name for Your Business

Welcome to part two of Ask the Lawyer! In this series, I answer specific questions from real world womenpreneurs. If you have a question you would like answered, send it to me at [email protected] and put “Today’s Innovative Woman Legal Question” in the subject line. Your question might be featured in an upcoming post!

Oh! And don’t worry…I will change the names and some of the details to protect your identity!

Question: Jessica, I’m launching a new company and want to pick a strong brand name from the beginning. My company will sell baseball caps with lots of bling, so I thought using the name Capz With Bling would be cute. Can I get that name trademarked? Thanks! Kellie M.

Answer: Congrats on doing this early in the process of launching your company! Let me first say that I would avoid picking a brand name that describes what you do. Descriptive marks are not trademarkable. The more descriptive they are, the more the USPTO considers them problematic.

Think about it: The strongest brands in the world have names that relate in no way to what they do. Google. Apple. The Gap. Starbucks. Amazon. You can’t possibly guess from their names what they do. Other strong brands might suggest what they do, but the word or phrase itself is totally unique: Netflix. Microsoft. Twitter. Pinterest.

The more unique and fanciful the word or phrase, the better chance you have to get a trademark.

But even more importantly, if you choose something totally unique, you will stand out among your competitors because your name will be memorable and won’t be something that could be confused with the others in your market.

Using a descriptive phrase will likely put you in the position of having a name like other companies in your industry (because many business owners make

All About BusinessAsk the Lawyer:

by Jessica-Eaves Mathews


the mistake of thinking the name of the business needs to describe what they do). That means that you won’t be unique if you use that phrase, and it means that there is a chance in the future for confusion, which will water down your brand. You don’t want to be confused with competitors or others in your field. You want to stand out and be remembered.

So, I’d encourage you to pick another name that isn’t descriptive (which is the kiss of death on a trademark application). If you want the name to suggest what you do, get creative (this is where the community on Today’s Innovative Woman’s Facebook page might be able to help).

If you really really want to see if you have the rights to use “Capz With Bling,” go to my column at TodaysInnovativeWoman.com to learn the analysis you have to go through. Good luck!

Jessica Eaves Mathews is America’s Advocate for Women in Business™, business lawyer and leading authority on helping women entrepreneurs step into their power and create brilliant business without fear and without undue risk to their assets or hard work. She is also a multi-passionate entrepreneur herself, having launched a number of successful ventures of her own throughout the past 16 years. Jessica has now taken her legal expertise and has created the ultimate legal services solution for entrepreneurs. Through Leverage-A-Lawyer™, women entrepreneurs can get their legal foundation in place in 90 days, so that they can get on with the work they love without facing unnecessary risks or exposure as they operate their businesses. http://www.leveragealawyer.com.



What to Cook for Dinner? 2 Easy Ideas to Make This Fun!

The time is 5 o’clock and your stomach clenches - what to make for dinner is the question racing through your mind. You know you want to prepare healthy meals for your family, but you’re tired and you don’t have all the ingredients for your favorite “go to” recipe so you pull out the frozen pizza instead.

Every family has its own dynamics, however here is an idea, that can actually make meal preparation an enjoyable experience.

Idea:

Choose a day of the week (I suggest Sunday) to sit together as a family and go through some inspiring cookbooks. Children as young as three can participate in this activity.

Each member of the family is responsible for choosing a recipe for the main dish, and a vegetable that would accompany that meal. A salad is a given, and a dessert is optional.

Have everyone take turns reading out the ingredients needed for their recipe. A parent will usually be the one who writes down the ingredients, however if your children are nine years or older they can take this over every once in a while.

Be sure to create a chart either made on the computer or by hand that states the days of the week along the left side and the words, Main Dish, Vegetable, Salad, and Dessert along the top.

Depending on the age of your children, you could add the word “Chef” along the top as well so that you rotate the cooking responsibilities. (This should be reserved for children aged thirteen years or older).

After, go shopping and have each person go off to find ingredients. As each ingredient is put in the cart, cross the items off the master list.

If made to feel part of a team, your children will absolutely love to help out and their self-esteem will grow because they will feel part of a loving unit.

All About Home & Family

by Erin Kurt

Erin Kurt, B.Ed., discovered her passion for studying families when she herself was a child, interviewing her friends’ parents and siblings to learn more about their family life. Throughout her education and years of experience, Erin became an expert on child development, child psychology, family counseling, and methods of improving children’s self-esteem and learning capabilities. Visit Erin’s web site at www.erinparenting.com to learn more about her live events and teleseminars, and to subscribe to her weekly e-zine for moms.

by Erin Kurt

What if…

… It is possible to make the money you want to make in your business?

… That sense of purpose you crave is just waiting for you?


5 Tips to Make Your Marketing More Creative

Same old same old just doesn’t sell anymore! To make your marketing stand out, you need to get creative. Below are five tips to get your creative juices flowing.

1. Find the “second right answer.” Don’t be content with the first good idea you come up with. Take the time to think of a second, or third or 50th idea. Quantity counts!

2. Change the question. If you change the question, you’re probably going to get a different answer. You say you want to sell more products? What if you changed the question to how can you make more money? There are other ways to make more money than to sell more products –now you suddenly have new avenues to explore!

3. Ask your product or service how it wants to be sold. Now we move into more intuitive techniques. First, RELAX. Then, imagine your product or service in front of you, and ask it questions. Who do you want to be sold to? What are your strengths/weaknesses? You can also do this as a journal exercise.

4. Paint a public relations campaign. What would a press release look like if you painted it? Or sculpted it? Take any part of your marketing that troubles you and turn it into a piece of art. By combining two dissimilar acts, you may discover your answer.

5. Walk away from it. Just stop. Take a walk, or just quit thinking about it. This is especially important if you find yourself getting frustrated or discouraged. The most important tip of all? Make sure you have a blast. Being creative should be fun. Keep it light and fun, don’t struggle too hard with it, and see how many ideas you’re rewarded with.

All About Business

Michele PW (Michele Pariza Wacek) is your Ka-Ching! Marketing strategist and owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting LLC, a premiere direct response copywriting and marketing company that helps entrepreneurs attract more clients, sell more products and services and boost their business. To grab your FREE “Ka-Ching! Business Kit” with a FREE CD visit http://www.MichelePW.com/freecd

by Michele Pariza Wacek

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by Michele Pariza Wacek

today's innovative woman magazine, november/december 2012

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