Couldn’t we apply this same principle to food?

I love this saying. And I have a great deal of respect for the Bariatric Guru, Erin Akey.

Erin Akey, FNC, wife, mother, Christian, nutritionist, author, Emerald Ambassador with Plexus Worldwide

I love this picture.  I took it at Wintzell’s Oyster House in Mobile.  It really is a great principle to live by and a guideline we should all follow.  If we did, the world would be a much nicer place for sure!  I starting thinking this weekend about how this same principle could be applied to the food we put into our bodies.

If I rewrite this for food, it would look something like this:  Tell me what you think…….

Three tests:  When I want to put something into my mouth, let me think-                              

First: Is it true? Is the food you are about to eat REAL FOOD or is it a bunch of processed garbage that is created in a lab and not in nature?  If your diet is consisting largely of fast-food (even their salads and grilled…

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How to avoid charge-backs and fraud when processing credit cards

How to avoid charge-backs and fraud when processing credit cards.

Don’t be a Square. Think outside the little white box.

Don’t be a Square. Think outside the little white box..

Check out my new site!

I’ve moved to wordpress.org.  Check out my new site at www.yourbottomlines.com

Walking my Talk

Ever feel like you are running in circles and you just can’t catch up?

Ever feel like you just can't get ahead?

My husband reminded me that I need to follow my own advice and take time for what’s important in life.

Thanks, babe.

Bringing Property Casualty to the Front Range

Steadfast Rural Values

Honesty, integrity and making one’s word one’s deed;  these values are appreciated by people no matter where they live.  Besides, it’s the only way we know how to work.

We provide great rates on auto & toy insurance, farm & ranch, and liability insurance for the small business.

Outstanding Claim Service

Nine out of ten customers say they’re “pleased” or “extremely pleased” with everything about our service: speed, settlement, attitude. Everything.

Competitive Rates

Our philosophy is to be among the top competitors in every area we serve. Let us give you a quote – it’s always good to make sure you are not paying too much especially in these economic times.

Independent

As big companies get bigger and middle-size ones are gobbled up, GPFN stays independent. We’ll keep our company small enough to pay individual attention to you and your family. Great Plains Financial Network stands alone in its financial strength and common sense tradition of service. GPFN holds fast to its commitment to families in “Main Street” towns, farm communities, and suburban areas of the Great Plains. Our commitment continues today with programs design to meet the needs of our customers.

Financial Planning. Don’t risk losing what you have.

In feudal times, the wealthy built castles to show their wealth and motes to protect that wealth.  Your home and your retirement assets are your castle.  Insurance is not only your moat, it’s your foundation.  It does no good to build wealth if you don’t protect it. Make sure you have proper insurance to cover the following:

• Your auto – including adequate medical
• Your home – including an umbrella policy to cover in case of a lawsuit
• Your business – If you are in a partnership, do you have insurance on each partner?  What about key employees?  Do you have survivorship agreements in place?
• Disability – Don’t make the mistake of relying on your employer.  It’s almost never enough should you need it.
• Health – Are you paying too much for your coverage?  It’s worth a free quote to find out.  Every year, review your policies – even if you are covered at work.  The number one reason for bankruptcy for the past 10 years was due to medical expenses and being underinsured.
• Life – Your family depends on you – whether you work inside the home or out.  Where would they be if something happened to you.  One of the most selfish things I can think of is not having a life insurance policy to ensure that if something happens to you, those you love won’t suffer hardship.
  • You can purchase an inexpensive Term policy that can convert to something permanent, or you can use a Permanent policy as a vehicle to help you save with tax advantages.
  • If you haven’t had your policy reviewed in the past few years, you are probably paying too much.  Insurance companies responded to the fact that we are living longer and dropped rates. (It’s True!)
  • The largest financial impact you can give your children or grandchildren is the gift of a permanent life insurance policy where their money can grow and be accessible later on with interest and tax advantages.  In addition, they will spend thousands of dollars less on premiums as they get older.
• Long-Term Care – There is no saving or investing that can match the return on investment of what you will receive in exchange for your Long-Term Care Premiums.  Knowing when it is appropriate is key.  Not everyone is suited for LTC.  Ask us for more details and check out this story…

I was at the Boys and Girls Club Annual Fundraiser Breakfast and was talking with a gentleman about what I do.  He shared that just this past week he and his siblings were moving his mother into an Assisted Living Facility. She hadn’t discussed her plans with them and he and his siblings were scrambling to figure out how much each of them could contribute to her care each month to keep her in the home she wanted to live in.  He said they were all trying to figure how what they could do without, what they could sell, what they could liquidate to take care of their mom.  The only question in their minds was how, not whether.  They were going to take care of their Mom to the best of their abilities.When they met with the case manager to arrange her care and find out how much they would owe, she informed them that their mother had purchased a long-term care policy.  Because of their love for her, they were going to sacrifice whatever was necessary.  Because of her love for them, they didn’t have to.That’s why Long-Term Care is so important.

7 Steps for Marketing Success Using Twitter

One of the hardest things about marketing on Twitter is that it doesn’t even look like marketing. In fact, the closer you watch those who have made a success using inbound marketing techniques, you’ll see that it seems that they’re not doing much of anything at all. Sure, they’re talking to people and sharing some great resources, but that can’t be marketing …
But it is marketing – and it’s a powerful kind of reverse-marketing. It’s relatively easy, it’s fun, and it’s really effective.

Looking for ways to tap into this almost effortless style of business promotion? Here are eight easy steps you can follow:

1. Choose Topics Outside Your Niche
As hard as it may be to swallow, you are not your niche. A niche is something you have. But it is not who you are. Choose 5 other things you could possibly Tweet about. On my list are technology, parenting, water safety, and of course the weather here in HOT Jerusalem. Find more opportunities to Tweet and talk about other things than what your business is. Getting people to like you first is a great place to start on Twitter.

2. Define the Personality You Want To Reach
Thanks to David Meerman Scott, we have the concept of buyer persona and a method for applying it to marketing. Thanks to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, we have a tool for getting inside that buyer persona’s mind. It was easy for me to choose ENFPs (Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving) as my target market. They’re the types who get lots of ideas and are natural entrepreneurs but struggle with things like internet marketing implementation. 4 little letters can give you a lot of potential Tweet ideas.

3. Use the Search Button at Least 3 Times Per Day + Tweet at Least 15 New People
Lots of Twitter help articles will say “Join the conversation!” but if the people you’re following don’t seem to engage in conversation and only promote themselves or send out quotes for Re-Tweet bait, what are you supposed to do? That’s where the search button comes in. Search for something you’re interested in. Find someone you’d like to talk to. Then repeat as much as possible. Use your @ function more than anything else. Engage, don’t broadcast.

4. Ask 5 Questions on a Daily Basis
Once you start to find more followers, just ask questions. Will they always get answered? No. But did it cost you a ton of money to ask? Absolutely not. You can’t take it personally if no one answers the first time around. But if you’re focusing on your buyer persona, you get closer to getting inside their mind. You’ll know you’re asking the right questions when you start to get responses. Easy to do, easy to measure.

5. Answer at Least 3 Questions Daily
The fewer questions someone has on their mind, the more at peace they are. Questions, especially ones that don’t get answered, are the things that keep us up at night. Though it might seem extreme to say, it’s very likely that anytime you answer someone’s question via a Tweet, you’re helping them sleep better at night.

6. Send Out 10 Useful or Entertaining Links (But Be Sure To Track!) Every Day
While desktop applications like TweetDeck or Twhirl offer convenient URL shortening, they are not necessarily the best. You’re missing out on one of the best features of Bit.ly and other URL shortening tools like it: click tracking. This is the simplest way to find out if you’re Tweeting things that your Followers actually want to know about. Just sign up for Bit.ly’s service and Tweet from there when sharing articles and blog posts.

7. Share at Least One Blog Post, Article, or Video Per Week
There are so many options for connecting your blog posts, articles, videos, and all your content to your social media venues. But self-serving promotional content just doesn’t cut it. Remember the question theory? Use it to your advantage. Think of the questions your target market (or even better, your buyer persona) has and make sure your content answers those questions.

For more great tips, follow Reese Ben-Yaacov at http://twitter.com/ReeseBY

The Importence of Proof Reading

Did you just roll your eyes?  Did you even catch it?  The Importence Importance of Proofreading can’t be emphasized enough.  Do you want to sound ig’nant or intelligent?  Do you want people to trust your words or immediately question their validity?  First impressions are just as important in writing as they are in person.  Being a Dyslexic, writing never came easy.  I had to work harder at reading, writing and anything else that had to do with my eyes.   If I can do it, so can you…

Here are a few Tips for Proofreading:

1)  Always, Always use SpellCheck

If you don’t have it in the application you are using, open a word document, write it in there, then cut and paste the text.  If you have the option to “check as you go” automatically, always take it.  For email, always check prior to sending and automate if possible.

2)  Grammar check isn’t always right.  (But it usually is.)  Pay attention.  Spell check also doesn’t always mean Grammar check. 

3)  Watch for left-off letters.

Your is often left as you when typing.  Don’t know why.  But it happens.  Same with Them/They/The. 

3)  If you rework a sentence, read it in its entirety – especially if moving from singular to plural or vice versa.

When he watched over their work, he realized they hadn’t read it.  When he watched over her work, he realized they hadn’t read it.  (Neither did he.)

4)  Watch long, drawn-out sentences and shorten them. 

5)  When adding items to a numbered list, check the numbers.

6)  Understand when to use what word.  If you don’t know, goggle it.

their, there, they’re

its, it’s

your, you’re

where, wear, were

7)  Pay attention to punctuation (“;:,.’) and spaces.  Again, if you don’t know what to use, or when, google it.

8)  Duplicated word.  the the, and and are often missed when typing.

9)  Same word(s) used over and over and over…and over again.   This is a balancing act.  If you are blogging and trying to raise your search engine status, then you want to use your keywords, such as proof reading, multiple times.  However, if you want to keep from sounding like someone with a limited vocabulary and limited thought process, you may want to mix it up a bit.

10)  Capitalization.  Don’t get lazy.  Names are capitalized.  So is i I.  States, Cities, Businesses, too.

more to come…

Top 5 things to know about MLM Companies and Network Marketing

Whether you are already in a Network Marketing company, or just evaluating one for the first time, here are the top 5 things to know.

1.  Product, Product, Product…UNIQUE PRODUCT!   

 Is the product unique?  If it isn’t, move on!!!

If there are multiple companies that offer similar products (vitamins, juices especially), what makes this product unique?    

Who says so?   Are there outside validations on the product?   

If the validations are on ingredients, why is your delivery system better?

What is the retention rate of not only the distributors, but more important, the clients?

Are there more customers than distributors?  If not, this is a recipe for failure.

2.  Compensation Plan

Some plans require you to jump through an enormous amount of hoops to get paid.   

Understand what is expected of you in order to make money.  

Ask what the advantages and or disadvantages are with the plan.

If you don’t understand it, ask questions until you do understand it.

What is the definition of Active?  Some continue to force you to work to keep your down line.          

(Imagine never retiring.)    What happens to your compensation if you are no longer active?

Is it a Binary plan?  Is it a Unilevel plan?   

How many levels are you paid on?  Does it have Dynamic Compression?   

How much do you have to buy in autoshipments to get paid?   

Usually there is some requirement.

How much business do you have to do to cover that expense?   

If you can’t do that very easily, you may be in the wrong business.

What happens if you don’t buy an autoship?

Who are the recent stars in the company?  Are any of them “fresh” to Network Marketing?   

Too often, people are shown “leaders” who move from company to company bringing their teams with them.

Is it IN WRITING that you OWN and can sell or leave your business in an inheritance?

Is there anything in your contract that says you can’t work in another MLM at the same time?

(Most will have a clause that says you can’t try to recruit away to another company.)

3.  What kind of training and support do you have to help you succeed?

Are there local groups to support you?  (Not required, but helpful)

Are there tools online?

What are the marketing tools for you to use?

How expensive are the tools?    How much is the company making money on your efforts to succeed?

 

 

4.  Strength of Company

Does the company have experienced people at the helm?   

How stable are they?   Has there been a lot of movement of key people?

Has it recently been bought out?

It the company Public or Private?   (What’s in place to keep if from being sold out and changed?)

Private means more flexibility and the ability to make changes without checks and balances.

Public means that there is more accountability, but less flexibility to change quickly.

If it is in the hands of one or two people, you better understand what drives them.

What is their back office support like?   

Do they have a strong system in place including enough people to answer phones when you and your clients call?

5.  What cycle is the company in?

Is it less than a year old? 

(This is the most dangerous time for any company and the most lucrative.)

Expect growing pains.    

Are they ready for explosive growth?  If not, this can kill a company faster than anything.

Is it 5+ years old?

It probably still has substantial growth before saturation.  (That depends on the rate of growth.)

It has withstood some of the basic tests.  There is more experience, less growing pains.

Where is it in the Growth Curve?

Is it one of the “Big Old Dogs” in town.
These are much more stable.  There is name recognition.  Growth is not as easy.   

You’re choosing to build a business that is far past its growth curve.