I know many of you are business owners, entrepreneurs – the unemployable!  At some point you made the decision that you no longer would live your professional life by someone else’s set of rules – and made your own.  Giving you the chance to live the life you wanted to live and make the difference you want to see in the world.

genius is about making connections … between ideas + strategies, desires + beliefs, between that flame in your heart and your full potential. 

(gleefully robbed from her website)

Are you ready to light up?  Personally?  Professionally?  Then be SURE to tune in for this conversation with Danielle LaPorte - share this date with your friends and SPREAD the news.  August 20th - 9am Pacific – if you are in the Seattle area AM1150 or 98.9FM HD3 - not here – don’t worry join us online at www.1150kknw.com

About Danielle LaPorte

my past life

I never went to university. For this, I am very grateful.

A LONG TIME AGO … I had a real job, co-running The Body Shop Canada’s Department of Social Inventions. We refurbished Romanian orphanages, and ran recycling and rock-the-vote campaigns. So thankfully, it wasn’t really a real job.

I was the Executive Director of a Washington-DC think tank where I managed a team of brilliant, analysts to create future scenarios for the likes of the Pentagon, IBM and the State of the World Forum. I hung out with Navy Admirals and signed NDAs every other day. Trippy.

Before that, I ran my own communications and business development agency, “promoting visionary people and projects,” including a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, a philosopher-physicist, a rogue economist, the Pulitzer-winning co-founder of Greenpeace, and a few old pop stars.

NOT SO LONG AGO … I was featured in Elle, Body + Soul, Vogue Australia, Better Homes & Gardens, Globe & Mail, The National Post, The Huffington Post, Entertainment Tonight, and numerous talk shows. I wrote Style Statement: Live By Your Own Design, which The Globe & Mail deemed, “Haute Minded”. It ranked as an Amazon bestseller and caught the attention of Oprah. That was fun. I built a big website and media presence based on that brand, and then went super rogue. Creative sovereignty is bliss.

 Deeply in debt and feeling there is nowhere to go?  Eli Davidson has solutions for you.  She’s not just a ‘talking head’ – she has been through the fire and knows how you feel.  In 18 months Eli lost her marriage, her health, and business leaving her $88,000 in credit card debt.  Eli will share her story – how she changed her financial situation and how you can too!  Tune in 9-10am Pacific - August 6th – in the Seattle area on AM1150 or 98.9FM HD3 or via the internet at www.1150kknw.com – Enjoy the show! 

 About Eli

A successful business owner, life coach and public speaker Eli is a dazzling inspiration to people across North America. Her upbeat attitude and personal story of going from challenge to champion encourages people to take that first step to overcome their own obstacles. Her unique approach combines her “I’ve been in your shoes” manner, playful humor and deep compassion. People naturally wake up to their own possibilities of greater health, wealth and happiness using her tools and Turnaround Techniques. By breaking positive change down into bite sized morsels she assists her audience to implement those steps immediately.

Due to her consistent results her clients achieve in increasing their income, Eli’s work was the cover story of Kiplinger’s Money Magazine.

She is The Today Show’s “Reinvention Expert”, and is a featured columnist at Huffington Post – reaching 21 million readers each month.  Her book, “Funky to Fabulous” is an international best seller and was named the 2008 Motivational Book of the Year. 

As an actress, she shared the stage, television and movie screen with Christopher Walken, Kiefer Sutherland and Michael J.Fox. Oscar winner, John Madden (best director Shakespeare in Love) wrote a role in for her in the Obie Award winning play, Cinders, at the legendary Public Theatre. He cast the entire play, began rehearsals and said, “the play isn’t complete without Eli.”

From the ashes of a difficult divorce, she started a leading Healthcare consulting company working with: Cambridge Insurance, Zurich Insurance, Hartford Insurance, Kemper Insurance, Liberty Mutual, State Compensation Insurance Fund, and Glendale Memorial Hospital.

As a successful life coach she has coached Oscar Nominees, Golden Globe winners and many of the Hollywood’s inner circle as well as clients throughout the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Eli has also coached numerous leaders in the technology, real estate, entertainment and healthcare industries.

Eli received her Master of  Spiritual Psychology degree from The University of Santa Monica. She graduated with the Honor of Student of the Year.

What are your rights as a consumer when contacted by debt collectors?  If you think your rights have been violated by a debt collector what should you do?  Answers to these questions and many more on this week’s show. 

About Gerri Detweiler

Gerri is considered one of the country’s top credit specialists. She serves as Credit Advisor for Credit.com, a free website offering a wealth of tools to help consumers improve their financial lives. In addition to co-authoring Debt Collection Answers, she is the co-author of Reduce Debt, Reduce Stress (Good Advice Press, 2009), The Ultimate Credit Handbook (in print since 1993 and named one of the top five personal finance books of the year by Money magazine), and co-author of both Invest In Yourself: Six Secrets to a Rich Life and Slash Your Debt, Save Money & Secure Your Future.

Gerri has been interviewed in thousands of radio, television, and print news stories, including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Dateline NBC, The Today Show and many others. She has testified before Congress several times and worked on reform of the national credit reporting laws.

She has served as executive director of the non-profit consumer advocacy group Bankcard Holders of America and as policy director of The National Council of Individual Investors. She has also developed consumer education programs for MasterCard, Bank of America and others. She has served on credit reporting agency Experian’s Consumer Advisory Council and on the board of the National Council for Consumer Education.

Is your business having a brand identity crisis?  This conversation with Maria Ross is sure to provide useful immediate information you can use for your business regardless of size.

About Maria Ross and Red-Slice Marketing

Maria Ross’s mission is to engage, inform and delight audiences and keep them coming back for more.  A born storyteller, she has over 16 years experience building brands, advising on marketing strategies and coaching businesses on how to tell the right story to the right people at the right time. Maria is founder and Chief Strategist at Red Slice, a branding and marketing consultancy, and has worked with large companies like Accenture, Business Objects, Discovery Networks, Monster.com and Microsoft as well as technology start-ups and small businesses like CRAVE and Mudbay in Seattle. She is also the author of Branding Basics for Small Business (2010, Norlights Press). In her free time, Maria is a volunteer, a published lifestyle writer and an actress. Her unique creative talents combined with her business savvy on both the client and agency side enable her to see the whole picture in an innovative way. Maria received a B.S in Marketing, with a minor in Spanish from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Know someone with ADD/ADHD who could use some help with financial tips and suggestions?  Dr. Sarkis takes us on her own journey and shares tips and strategies you can begin using immediately.

Enjoy the show!

Founder of Get Rich Slowly, J. D. Roth joins me on the show to share his own story of how he went from being in debt – and how he got out of it – to his book Your Money:  The Missing Guidebook, and whether growing and preserving your own food is a money saver and how IS he doing on his ONE goal for 2010.  Enjoy the show!

 About J.D. Roth

J.D. Roth is an accidental personal-finance expert–a regular guy who found himself deep in debt. After deciding to turn his life around, he read everything he could about money and finance. In 2006, he started the award-winning website Get Rich Slowly, which Money Magazine named the Web’s most inspiring personal-finance blog. Over the past four years, Get Rich Slowly has grown into an active community where thousands of readers a month share ideas on how to improve their financial lives. J.D. lives with his wife and four cats in a hundred-year-old house in Portland, Oregon.

When opportunities come your way – and it turns out after some investigation that they are not right for you either due to your interest, their interest, qualifications or even because of the dollars involved do you just pass on the opportunity or consider who inside your circle might be the right fit for it?

In reflection I believe there are two things we most often do – first we simply pass or second if it is a really uber cool opportunity we try smash ourselves as the round peg into the square hole because it so exquisite and it’s an opportunity we’d  be silly to pass.

Addressing the first

If we simply pass on the whole thing then aren’t we doing a great disservice all the way around?  Not putting the opportunity in touch with the people we know have the skills knowledge and passion is not fulfilling our highest contract with our self.  And it may leave the opportunity one degree away from a perfect fit – if only we took the time after saying, “not right” – now – to think “who” right now.

Addressing the second

This is just awkward and uncomfortable for you and the opportunity – don’t do it.  Just reflect how ever cool the opportunity is – it wasn’t meant for you.

What am I talking about?

Well, 3 months ago I received an “out of the blue” phone call from a LA production company looking for a very specific type of person to audition/interview for an online reality TV show opportunity – to be the financial professional in the Pacific Northwest.  The fellow’s voicemail went something like this, “You don’t know me but Marcia Brixey suggested we should talk with you……”

How cool was that?  When Marcia had been approached by the opportunity and learned it was not a fit for her, she suggested they contact me.

How often do we let these wonderful opportunities for selflessness wash over us and think of others when the opportunity is not right for us?

That one phone call more than 3 months ago – while cool – and the opportunity potentially amazing was not the best part of this experience.  The best part of the experience is knowing that Marcia herself thought enough of me and my work and my passion to suggest this opportunity be in touch with me.

When I started my journey to expand my circle to build relationships with people to add resources to refer my clients to I NEVER imagined that along the way an army of advocates would be built and that I would receive support that I cannot even describe.

Good Things Come To Good People

I believe that the universe works in mysterious ways and that Marcia’s act of selflessness will not go unnoticed.  Her work is magnificent and marvelous.  The information she personally shares through her MoneyWise Women seminars and her book is of the highest quality and caliber.  How will her opportunity manifest?  I certainly do not know. 

What I do know however is my awareness of her and golden opportunities for her have been heightened.   AND it feels good to be thinking of someone else and their success.

Who will you think of today?

Be conscious of opportunities today that could benefit from what is not right for you.  I have noticed when you shine a beautiful light on someone else – a glowing reflection will wash over you.

Enjoy your day.

From fear to freedom – one woman’s truly inspiring journey.

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From adverse beginnings to experiencing life in full bloom, Kim Crumpler is a veteran Personal Style & Branding Coach, Shopper, Author and Speaker who’s discovered the power of living her “authentic essence and style” and enthusiastically guides others in accomplishing the same. 

Kim believes the process of authenticating one’s Personal Statement of Style is an inside-out journey, one that may be multifaceted – full of unexpected twists, turns and aha moments along the way.   Not only is Kim a coach, she’s a visionary, with the exceptional ability to help you see that which you cannot, enabling her to passionately champion you along your road to style success.     
 
Empowering individuals to step into their authentic essence and style, Kim inspires clients to first discover and celebrate the strengths of their personal brand: skills, talents, abilities, personality and passions – the attributes that make an individual unique. Accurately translating their brand into a personal statement of style according to individual best practices for style, color, lifestyle and budget is a reflection of Kim’s exceptional listening skills and attention to style detail.

A member of AICI, the Association of Image Consultants International, Kim is an engaging and informative speaker for a variety of audiences from corporate to cruise line vacationers. Her 22 years of image and style experience provides reliable expertise for Uniquely Savvy’s Style GPS, Color Compass, “WOW!” Factor wardrobe audit and personal shopping services.  

Kim graduated from Central Washington University and later founded Uniquely Savvy Inc. in 2000.  She’s honored to have earned the trust and confidence to deliver customized solutions to men and women, both locally in Seattle and virtually nationwide.  Whether coaching an executive, lawyer, retiree, realtor, programmer, mom or teen, Kim’s worked alongside clients of all sizes, ages and stages in life while taking into consideration individual budget and lifestyle objectives.

I followed my usual tendency of being a chronic supporter to friends who want to attack a big audacious goal, hopped on the website and registered and said to her, “no time to think about it…go register right now and you had better be the next number after mine.”

Sometime about December I thought I should start running – see I had made a huge mistake when I previously entered my last ½ – I didn’t train – I was in pretty good shape – and had a pretty cavalier attitude – after all, I was only “walking” 13.1 miles – how hard can that be? 

As it turns out, it was really damn hard.  Add to that it snowed that November morning – and I don’t think I moved for a week.  I was 36 and arrogant.

I said that was my last ½ marathon and I meant it.

I love being active – I love hiking – I love taking long walks – but I have never been a strong swimmer or runner.  I never felt comfortable with my running style, feeling more like a Clydesdale than a gazelle – when people would ask me if I ran, I would reply “only if being chased – and if he’s cute….not real fast.” 

Though this time I did want to do it – I wanted to finish and do well.  So I started to run.  I couldn’t even run one mile the first week between Christmas and New Year’s.  Over time though, one mile became two – then three and so on.

At the end of my first 5 mile run – I began to get a pain in my foot that never seemed to go away no matter how much ice and elevation – it turns out to be tendonitis. 

Now, I don’t know about you but I am now less inclined to run injured – so I give it time to heal.  And start running again – and the foot starts hurting again.  So I blow it off – keep walking which I enjoy and figure – I’ll run what I can and walk the rest – but at least I’ll finish.

Me and The Betsys on our way!

Oh, did I mention that all of my in-laws were flying into town; many to run this deal too – with goals like – run the ½ in less than 2 hours and for two others to finish in less than two hours and 15 minutes? 

Mile 5 and 6 have me talking to myself about doing more than “just finishing”– looking at total time – my minute per mile time and calculating if there’s a shot at finishing in 3 hours as I had boldly stated the night before. 

Is your technique as good as it could be?

At mile 7 I have a sharp pain enter my hip……never had that happen before and begin to wonder if I should stop and stretch and then begin thinking of all the other things that will start to happen if I stop to stretch …. and just then I hear two women talking as I come up on them about how one is having hip pain – and the other shares that when that happens for her she focuses on tightening her stomach muscles and it releases the pain….I give it a whirl – and what do you know – it works.

At mile 7 1/2, I begin to question if the course pre-view video I had previously watched was really this course or not…sure didn’t seem this long in the 4 minute pre-view video! 

Once you get past ½ way there’s no sense in turning back!

Miles 8-10 I am doing a lot of self talk “I can do this” – “Debb you are doing great” – “I am a runner” – “I will finish in 3 hours.”

The next 2 miles challenged me more that I have ever been challenged before – and I turned deep inside myself to find a strength I didn’t know I had to make it off I-90, through downtown and onto the viaduct.

One mile from the finish I felt a power come from deep inside me and I began to run like I have never  run before- – and in those moments, I found my stride.  It may not be what I always perceived in other people as pretty or elegant, but it’s mine – and in that moment on Saturday I owned it.

...all wonderfully me!

It didn’t matter anymore, how it looked to other people – it’s how it feels to me.

 Who is there to support you?

I will always remember seeing my husband, best friend and nephew –as I rounded the corner and passed the Mile

Tim, Katie, Me and Freddi...yeah she's the one who finished in less than 2 hours!

Tim and sister in law Katie closer to the finish as they saw me – the pride that I felt in being part of this amazingly supportive family is one that will never go away.

 The rest of Saturday is a blur – I know there was the best beer I ever had and the

The after 1/2 marathon burger and beers!

most wonderful hamburger I ever tasted and a feeling of accomplishment that will never leave me.

 The lessons I learned in 13.1 miles on Saturday are ‘game changers’ for me. 

 Oh, and if you see me walking around town with my ½ marathon medal around my neck – don’t be surprised – I want people to know who I am – I AM a runner. 

You may not find the answer in 3 hours or 13.1 miles, but I do encourage you to ask the question - Who am I?

 PS – My official time 3 Hours 10 Minutes 17 Seconds

I recently told a lot of people, some close and others not-so-close to me about a big exam I had scheduled – after spending 30 hours on coursework and self study, I asked for some grace as I felt a strong desire to go underground to study for 7 straight days coming up to the scheduled test date.  Nearly 60 hours of intense studying – more than 3,000 multiple choice questions in practice exams and… I didn’t pass.  Yep – I didn’t pass.  In fact my score seemed as though I hadn’t studied at all – and boy was I ticked.

So many layers of frustration I felt last Thursday: 

In my ‘previous life’ I never would have told anyone I was even attempting a major exam….because – yep, what if I didn’t pass…what would other people think of me, and what would I say?  Here are the interesting things I learned this past week.

1. The universe has a unique sense of humor – the week I commit to completely focus on my studying I ended up with no less than 6 invitations to attend, BBQs, Anniversary Parties, Women’s Conferences, AND my wonderful husband changes his plans to be gone for the weekend and stays home instead – ok universe, I AM committed – stop toying with me.  (There’s a lesson here – what’s your take?)

2. Standardized tests that work on tricky language as a premise for testing “knowledge” – are not an indicator of how good you are as a practitioner in your chosen field.  (Always carefully read a situation –whether it’s with words or people.)

3. Admitting my less than perfectness – and spectacular “not passing” on Facebook was one of the greatest gifts I could ever have given myself.  (Was showered with support and encouragement to pick myself up, dust myself off, and get the damn thing rescheduled and pass.)

I think I finally get “it” – after many subtle and twice as many not-so subtle reminders that when I make myself vulnerable– I receive my greatest growth.

I don’t remember how old I was when I read this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Our strength grows out of our weaknesses.”  While this line may be a familiar one to many of you – I imagine few have read the rest of the verse which says; “Not until we are pricked and stung and sorely shot at, awakens the indignation which arms itself with secret forces. A great man is always willing to be little. Whilst he sits on the cushion of advantages, he goes to sleep. When he is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something; he has been put on his wits, on his manhood; he has gained facts; learns his ignorance; is cured of the insanity of conceit; has got moderation and real skill. The wise man always throws himself on the side of his assailants. It is more his interest than it is theirs to find his weak point. The wound cicatrizes and falls off from him like a dead skin and when they would triumph, lo! he has passed on invulnerable. Blame is safer than praise.”

How do you accept praise and encouragement?  Is it with grace and gratitude?  Or, do you deflect and deny?  When you commit to something do you give in to distraction or stay the course?  Are you ‘reading’ the situations in your life accurately, or are you missing the tricky language?  And finally – when an outcome is not what you desire, do you give-in or go-on?

Enjoy your week!