Do You Deserve a Life of Excellent Adventures?
Published July 9, 2010 | 
Doris appears like a perfect politician’s wife. She’s lovely, tall and dresses well. In her 50s, her blue eyes still sparkle. My perception of Doris shifted when at my Excellent Adventure get-together at Starbucks this week, she whispered, “The biggest obstacle is deciding I deserve to live an excellent adventure.”
You could’ve knocked me over with a feather.
Our American work ethic is about working hard. Then, in your 60s you retire. The world has changed. It’s not unusual for people to work in their 70s now. We work harder, more hours and take less vacation time just to keep our heads above water.
The largest growth of jobs the last decade is not in the Fortune 1000 but in small business. Larger still, is growth in the “start your own business” sector.
We get caught up in maintaining the trappings of success. It’s pounded into our heads. Life should look a certain way. It’s not enough to be presentable and polite. Now we must have “a personal brand.” We miss out on living our excellent adventure because we’re too busy paying for everything.
The new “American Dream” is to live our passion – which can include a lot of financial ups and downs. However, we’re still supposed to maintain all the outer trappings. It also includes the latest iPad, smartphone and other gadgets. Maintaining that “look” or “brand” costs us the freedom to live our Excellent Adventure. We are trapped by our stuff and the expectation that we must keep buying more, even newer stuff.
Doris and her husband own a home in Las Vegas and another in New Mexico. Everything about them screams success. Inside, they both want something different. With their current lifestyle they can’t afford it. So, Doris wonders if she deserves it. I believe she does. If she and her husband are willing to make changes they’ll get there faster.
Consider the possibilities: trade down from a home with a $2,000 monthly mortgage and buy a condo with an $800 mortgage. That’s $1,200 per month in independence. Trade in the fancy SUV for more modest wheels and you free up money spent on payments, insurance and gasoline. Follow the rule you don’t buy something new unless you replace something old. You instantly have more money to live your excellent adventure and less clutter to organize. Life becomes streamlined.
You can live more authentically which truly is your personal brand.
Posted in Adjusting to Change, Excellent Adventure | 
adventure, American Dream, change, deserve, happiness, passion, success | 
2 CommentsThe Paradox of Learning
Published July 8, 2010 | I walked out of the airport and was in Istanbul. A teeming city of 12.8 million people that straddles two continents, both Europe and Asia. The air sparkled from a recent rain and green leaves fluttered on the trees as cars whooshed by. Quickly, I hopped in a cab. Traffic signals and lanes mean nothing in Turkey. It was a death-defying ride to the hotel.
Turkey was an awakening. I didn’t know much about the country and the people. I loved everything about it.
The people were gracious, gentle and kind. The architecture and history was amazing. The food was, well, in a word, “yum.” The Grand Bazaar was an amazing day of sights, sounds and shopping. What’s not to love?
Didn’t research much beforehand. I was too busy with business. I knew what the weather would be like. I knew a few hotspots I wanted to visit. I knew it’s a more moderate country from its conservative neighbors. That was about it.
I mentioned in my last post sometimes as women we have a tendency to hesitate and over-analyze. We hold off from taking action and getting out of our comfort zone because we’re unsure if it’s the right thing to do. We take forever making decisions. Visiting Turkey was the perfect thing for me to do. The thing you’ve been hesitating about, your excellent adventure, is probably the right thing for you, too.
But doubts linger. So we hold back from something we really want to do. You may have no interest in visiting Turkey. Your excellent adventure may be something totally different
A few years ago I discovered something called, “The Paradox of Learning.” It speaks to how we can get overly caught up in analyzing, researching and not doing.
Let’s say you decide you want to do something to change your life – start a network marketing business, travel to Istanbul or play tennis in a tournament. You know almost nothing. Let’s say everything you know about it is the size of a grape. Everything you don’t know about playing tennis is touching the outside of that grape.
So, you decide to learn more about playing tennis – or whatever. You watch a couple tennis matches on TV. Now everything you know about tennis is the size of a lime. Which means everything you don’t know is touching the outside of that lime.
You decide to learn more. You buy a couple books about tennis. Everything you know about tennis is now about the size of an orange – but everything you don’t know? It’s grown, too.
You research online about tennis. You spend endless hours hunched over your keyboard. Everything you know about tennis is about the size of a cantaloupe. But what’s happened to what you don’t know? It keeps growing.
So when do you know that you know enough?
Answer: when you know that you don’t know everything – but you’re willing to get out of your comfort zone, take a risk and get started. That’s when you know enough.
Posted in Adjusting to Change, Excellent Adventure, Personal Growth, Travel Adventures | adventure, change, comfort zone, doubt, fear, travel | 6 CommentsObama Surprise Winner for Nobel Peace Prize
Published October 9, 2009 | By Denise Michaels, Author, “Testosterone-Free Marketing”
This morning President Barack Obama was named winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Tongues wagged.
Many felt the choice was an exciting one. Reflecting an acknowledgment of the international effect Obama has had. And, how people in many countries are more hopeful about America’s leadership, but also excited about their own prospects for peace and prosperity.
Some asked, “What has Obama really DONE?” They must’ve given the award on their expectations for what he’ll do in the future and not based on what the 44th President has accomplished.
Then – leave it to the whack job right wingers. Rush Limbaugh, with 20 million listeners daily, said he was in agreement with the Taliban – Obama shouldn’t get the award. For good measure Limbaugh said the world sees our President as a joke.
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the greatest honors in the world. It establishes respect for a person’s work towards peace worldwide. Naturally, Limbaugh finds a way to flip it 180 degrees to appeal to his hate-besotted listeners.
Former President Bush spent eight years holding back progress – in science, medicine, culture and other facets of life. Like standing in the middle of the Mississippi River trying to hold the water back. No one could predict the rush of changes that bust loose January 20th on Inauguration Day. There was no stuffing the toothpaste back in the tube again.
The America I grew up in was largely a white, Christian country. There were minorities of every color and creed. But the majority was so firmly in control and dominant, people who didn’t fit the mold went with the program. It was the American way and no one ever thought it would change.
The last 25 years the American landscape has shifted dramatically. African Americans are about the same percentage of the population – but they’ve increased significantly in economic clout and influence in all sectors of American life. The numbers of Asians and Middle Eastern people, while still small, are evident in greater numbers. The biggest population shift is the millions of Hispanics, now proud Americans. Another sea change: the fastest growing religion in America today is Buddhism often embraced by former Protestants, Catholics, Baptists and others. Instead of teaching their children the words to “Onward Christian Soldier” they’re teaching them how to meditate.
White, right-wing Americans with their continued sense of entitlement are no longer the dominant demographic force. And they’re mad as hell. Seems like they’re afraid the rug’s been pulled out from beneath them. Not by Obama, but by the flood of population changes resulting in different priorities and different values. The USA isn’t all about them any more. Many are struggling to maintain a grip on the America that always felt so safe as it slips away. They still see themselves as the “real Americans” and everyone else is an also-ran Nobody’s trying to get into their exclusive “club” anymore.
The world views Afghanistan and the Taliban as stuck in the bad, old days of the Middle Ages. Limbaugh and his followers are right there along with ‘em. Trying desperately to hold back inevitable change. Shouldn’t that tell you something about the sheer power of this wave? (I’m hoping in a few years there won’t be sufficient numbers of ‘em to support ratings – and ad revenues – for national shows like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.)
One obvious example of this came during the summer of our discontent as right wingers swooped down on Town Hall meetings to scream at politicians. One blonde woman in an Arkansas Town Hall meeting plaintively cried, “I’m scared! I want MY America back!!”
But you can’t stuff the toothpaste back in the tube again.
Personally, I wouldn’t want to. I live in a neighborhood that’s like a little United Nations. It’s a mix of White, Black, Hispanic and Middle Eastern folks. My husband’s originally from India so he adds a little Asian. Wide-sweeping changes are coming in science, health care, the environment, the economy and more. Right wingers still dumb-founded by Obama’s election – find it hard to fathom they’re not as “in control” as they always were. The safe mantle of entitlement they always assumed would be theirs is gradually being peeled away. As a result, screaming mean-spirited, racist people are rearing their ugly heads.
The times are exciting and honestly – I don’t love all the changes. I don’t love:
• How I feel I have to be plugged in and “on” all the time.
• The rudeness and animosity permeating both left and right.
• That objectivity has gone the way of the dodo bird in journalism
• If we don’t keep up with technology, well fuggedaboudit.
• It looks like we’re getting more deeply entrenched in Afghanistan
I do like that:
• We’re closer to real health care reform than ever before.
• Players on the world stage are looking to America to lead again
• Millions of African Americans now proudly wave American flags
• Millions of children who never felt they had a chance now have hope
• There’s a push toward a “green” economy and sustainable energy
I don’t know where all the change is going. My crystal ball’s a little smudged. I’m open to an America that works for everyone – not just a few. A country respected on an international stage. And whether President Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize as a result of his accomplishments or expectations for what he might do – I wish him well and proudly salute this honor. It also says those of us who voted for Obama because we were confident his approach would be met with approval on the world stage were right – and that feels great.
As for Limbaugh and his knuckle-dragging followers who cling desperately to the past like the Taliban and their right-wing sense of entitlement: you can’t stuff the toothpaste back into the tube.
Denise Michaels is a marketing mentor, trainer and author of the business bestseller, “Testosterone-Free Marketing.” Find out more about her at her websites below:
Marketing with Denise
Empower U Academy – Get marketing and empowerment tips here!
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My Copywriting Ebook
Posted in Uncategorized | change, Denise Michaels, Nobel Peace Prize, Obama, testosterone-free | 5 CommentsThe American Dream: Does it Still Work?
Published September 27, 2009 | By Denise Michaels, Author, “Testosterone-Free Marketing”
My husband Ernie and I live in Las Vegas which is absolutely in the depths of the housing slump. Since we had the highest highs – we’ve also had the most precipitous drop. Real estate appears poised to go up now – but it’s been a pretty long, fast, slide downward the last couple years. There’s a local show on radio once a week on the state of the housing and real estate market.
Recently a guest on the show remarked perhaps the idea of owning a home with a 30-year mortgage as “the American Dream” doesn’t set well with our changing, shifting lifestyles and careers anymore. After all, that model came into vogue back in the days when many Americans worked 30-40 years for the same company.
Now, not only don’t many of us work for the same company throughout our career. More and more of us are entrepreneurial, home-based business owners and don’t work for any company – like myself. At times entrepreneurs have gaps in their income that don’t fit with a big mortgage every month. That’s become the new norm when it comes to work. And as we’re digging out of this recession I believe we’re going to have an unprecedented wave of entrepreneurism. But mortgages are still like an albatross around the neck whether a person’s income goes up or down. Doesn’t quite work.
My husband and I own our home. We’ve been here almost eight years. We bought when the market was down right after 9/11. We didn’t do anything fancy or clever – just a basic, 30 year fixed mortgage. We also chose to live in a home that was below our means. Not very sexy. Unlike many of our friends and family who bought as much home as they could possibly qualify for. It’s decorated elegantly – but in size it’s modest. Our mortgage payment is equivalent to what many pay to rent a basic two bedroom apartment.
We have friends who’ve lost their fancy homes the last two years for a myriad of reasons. One couple we know – they’re both entreprenuers. The kids are close to grown and almost launched. He still works his full-time job in addition to his business. They live in a gorgeous home in a very upscale area but the income from their respective home-based businesses doesn’t really cut the mustard when it comes to the cashflow needed to live in that house. They know and accept sagely it’ll be a couple years before it flips around. They moved in four years ago when the market was at the top of it’s lofty peak. She recently whispered to me they’re trying to short sell the house and move into something much smaller. I told her about our smaller by half home and she sighed, “I wish we’d done that.”
We also have family members who are positively cash strapped to a massive mortgage. They too bought at the top of the market. She wasn’t working because she’d just had a baby a few months before they bought the house. She’s back to work now, but because of the high mortgage payments when their adjustable mortgage went up – she doesn’t really have the choice to be home with her kids.
We chose to live carefully and set aside the difference and we’ve invested in ourselves and in our own businesses. As a result, we’ve created a different kind of wealth. Part of it is money – but even more important is the knowledge that our security is all about our ability to create more money as we travel through life.
I don’t believe in relying on a specific theory or idea about money or security. None of them seem to hold water the way they did 20 years ago. The tectonic plates are shifting and the world is changing too fast to stay “married” to one idea or notion anymore. We’re shifting right along with it – and enjoying the journey.
PS: Visit me online at http://www.EmpowerUAcademy.com for great ideas to help you in business and in life
Posted in Uncategorized | business, change, Denise Michaels, home-based, owner, testosterone-free | 3 CommentsBe the Change You want to See in Your Business
Published September 20, 2009 | By Denise Michaels, Author, “Testosterone-Free Marketing”
After years of mentoring clients and leading teleclasses and workshops I’ve encountered many personalities among women business owners. Frequently I meet people excited, optimistic and confident about the possibilities to market and grow their business. But every time I talk with them they don’t seem like they’re moving forward. They smile and say all right things – but something holds them back from getting the good they say they want.
So it’s with apologies that you see above in the headline I’ve butchered Ghandi’s famous quote, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
If I had a nickel for every aspiring business owner who said, “Denise, I’ve read books, listened to audios and spent thousands on seminars. I should be a millionaire by now.” The missing link between buying knowledge and achieving confidence, abundance, health and anything else is taking action.
If you start an exercise program and go for a fifteen minute walk four times a week, you will get one result. Let’s say you start a different fitness program. You start eating healthier and gradually work up to running thirty minutes every day. And, you train with weights. The second fitness program will give you a different result. It’s about “cause and effect” again.
Let’s say you apply your energy to solving a specific problem. How you implement solutions impacts your results. One choice is to do nothing, toss up your hands and say, “I don’t know where to start,” Doing is key. Another choice is to say, “I can’t wait to see what good will come of this” and take proactive steps forward. You’ll get a different result. It’s all about cause and effect.
Yes, sometimes taking action is a little scary. I understand. It’s easier to spend time wandering aimlessly – considering different possibilities and ideas. After all, you never have to face rejection or failure that way. I say these people are spinning in the world of ideas. The ideas all look enticing – but you never enjoy the benefits until you pick a direction and take decisive action.
Most people who become wealthy do so because they take the same ideas (cause) and move energy, creating an effect. Some are motivated and go for it on their own. Others are smart enough to realize they needed help and mentorship to help them develop their strategy and ideas, support them when blocks come up and hold them accountable.
When you listen actively do you consider:
• How can I take this idea and use it to work for me?
• What would happen if I just went ahead and did it?
• How can I take this idea and push it even further to the next level?
• How can I customize this idea to my business and my needs?
• What obstacles are in my way? How can I remove them?
• How can I create a system that doesn’t require hands-on involvement?
• Will this idea help me create more of what I want?
What effects are you creating? Do you communicate clearly? Are you building positive relationships in business so you get the results you want and the cash flow, too? Are you looking for ways to put knowledge into action?
One of my favorite quotes by Albert Einstein is, “Insanity means doing things the way you’ve always done them and expecting a different result.” Your willingness to put cause and effect into action will help you take action and get the results you deserve.
Get my free mentoring and empowerment tips at http://www.EmpowerUAcademy.com Great information, very helpful right at your fingertips.
Posted in Personal Growth | abundance, business, change, confident, Denise Michaels, result, testosterone-free | 4 CommentsDealing with Change for 40+ Women
Published September 8, 2009 | By Denise Michaels, Author, “Testosterone-free Marketing”
If you’re old enough to remember rocking out to the Beatles when they were live and not a video on YouTube, chances are the pace at which change is occurring is disconcerting. It’s all about rolling with it – especially in your business.
Maybe you can’t embrace techno-pop or rap, but it’s still smart to stay in the game and stay relevant. Success is about more than just marketing and selling. It helps to know what’s going on in the world around you. Instead of thinking you’ve got it right and Gen X or Gen Y is full of beans – pay attention. The assumed power of the Baby Boomers moving through the demographic pipeline is a thing of the past. The younger generations of adults now have larger numbers and more influence in our changing society.
So, what does it mean to stay relevant?
It’s not about trying to act like a teenager but keeping up with technology (somewhat anyway), keeping your appearance in the current decade rather than in a time warp and stop thinking, “When I was in my first management job we did it the right way – not THAT way.”
I don’t like feeling like a dinosaur either, but our notion of “the right way” means nothing to these young adults.
Remember, perception is reality. If you come across as superior and as if you know more than “those kids” they’ll turn away and won’t listen. Remember when you were in your early 20s and you thought you knew everything and had the world by the tail? It’s no different today.
Most young adults in the 18-30 year old category have had a computer in their home since they were a toddler. They probably don’t know what a cassette tape is. Since they could vote or drink a beer we’ve been at war with Afghanistan and Iraq. And, since they’ve been a tween, Casual Friday has morphed into Casual Everything.
I was talking with a marketing mentoring client yesterday. I don’t want to say her age, but let’s just say she’s had her AARP card a few years now. She exclaimed to me, “Oh, those kids don’t know anything!”
Unfortunately that attitude will keep you on the sidelines when it comes to selling to 20 and 30-somethings. Those younger folks have money to spend and they’ll buy if you don’t come across as superior or hopelessly old-fashioned.
On the flip side, I have another marketing mentoring client who’s 29. She’s sees me as having wisdom and acumen based on decades of experience she hasn’t even lived. I don’t preach or tell her how the world used to be. I’m not judgmental about her lifestyle choices. I had to be careful not to wince when she got her tongue pierced.
The world has changed and you know what? Some of those young folks that look easy to diss in their skinny jeans and platform heels are smart, hard-working, confident and have a lot on the ball. That client of mine with the pierced tongue is becoming very successful since she launched her business last spring.
To find out about my exciting workshop coming up Monday November 2nd click here. Also, make sure you sign up for my free marketing and empowerment tips by clicking here.
Posted in Uncategorized | Adventurous Women, Baby Boomer, business, change, Denise Michaels, marketing, selling | Leave a commentWelcome!
Dedicated to every 40+ person still kickin' it. If you have dreams and adventures you refuse to abandon - follow me on the journey. Life is one big adventure! Make yours excellent.
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