Category — Guest Post

Cydney Smith

City and State: A little town between Brattleboro, VT and Keene, NH

Astrological Sign: Aquarius

# of children: 2

Ages: 9 and 10

Favorite Business Book: Tribes by Seth Godin

Favorite Family Book: Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Favorite Quotes:

“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” Rumi

“If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.” Anna Quindlan

1. Which came first: the biz or the kid? Kids

2.  What is your biggest productivity secret- the thing that helps you accomplish the most in your day? Having a schedule. Which is not an easy thing for me to do. But placing important tasks into a time slot helps me to not overbook and to get things done.

3.   How well do you feel you are balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship?  Any tips? Honestly, I try to not think about balance. When I do, I start to feel in anxious, because I seem to only understand balance as a form of  perfection.  I now think in terms of creating a conscious rhythm in my life, where there is an ebb and flow. Sometimes, there is flood and draught too!! I’ve come to a place where I can roll with the day to day, and stay focused on the things that are a priority. I try to create a baseline each day, and for the week, of the bare minimum I need to get done to carry forward my vision for myself as a mom, women and entrepreneur. That usually means a small percentage of what’s on my list! The bare minimum approach is really about not losing my center. So I guess that brings it back to balance, or at least trying to maintain grace as I move through life.

4. What was the tipping point for you when you realized you were truly an entrepreneur? When I decided to start a Dog Sledding Adventure Business, and it worked. It was so far fetched (NYC suburban childhood) and I didn’t have a clue about business. But within a few months I had contracts, permits, a merchant account, logo, brochures and a booked schedule for that first winter. I also became pregnant with my first while still in start-up. But that’s another story!

5. What one word describes your purpose in your family, your biz and your life? Spirited

6. Where do you find your greatest source of support for your goals in your family, business and life? I come from a very large extended family, Irish, on my Dad’s side. We are still very close. I spend summers with many of them and holidays with my siblings and parents. I was brought up with the understanding that family is your greatest currency.

7. What do you do to recharge your spiritual batteries? Yoga and wilderness adventure. Oh, and going out for drinks with the ladies

8. One thing you can’t live without: The ability to breathe

9. iPhone or Blackberry? iphone

10. Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla

11. PC or Mac? Mac

12. Which do you do most often: Eat out, Order In or Cook it yourself? Cook it myself

13. Who is your biggest supporter? My husband

14. Who is your greatest inspiration? My daughters

15.  What do you see yourself doing in 5 years? Extended travel with my kids, a completed book, a successful coaching and teaching career, offering adventure wellness retreats for mompreneurs, and contributing time and money to issues related to hunger and wellness in the world.

Name of Business: Mompreneur Wellness is my primary focus right now (also, Spirited Nutrition and A Nourished Life, LLC)

URL: http://MompreneurWellness.com

Twitter Name @cydneysmith

Facebook Page http://facebook.com/mompreneurwellness

Accept + Forgive + Step Back & Laugh = Love Your Mess

(Trick question alert)  As a busy, driven, perfectionist mom have you ever felt that despite your very best efforts, nothing is under control and everything in your life is, well, a mess?

Yes, life can be is a mess.

And by “mess,” I don’t mean week-old crumbs on your kitchen floor or a pile of clothing stuffed into an already-full drawer. Sure, those kinds of messes are all around us. Sure, we can clean them up. Sure, we can make things look nice and neat and under control.

But what about the real messes of your life? The big ones that take more than a dustpan and broom or 10 minutes of folding to deal with?

Things like:

Your son who is having behavioral issues in his preschool.

A spouse who is more like a cordial friend or business partner than a romantic love interest.

Your daughter who can’t keep up with the homework load in the seventh grade.

Your inability to say “no” to people in your life who you’d prefer were not in your life.

A business that isn’t working – financially or otherwise – anymore.

Those 15 pounds that have overstayed their welcome for far too long now.

That two-cigarette-per-day habit that you need more than you care to admit.

A life that isn’t exactly turning out as planned.

I think you know what I am talking about:

Those things we can’t control.

Those things that we’d prefer were not part of the package of our lives.

Those things that we need to or should solve, fix, deal with, clean up before we can do, pursue and have the things we really want to do, pursue and have.

Thinking about your mess may not feel good. You may reject your mess. Or try to pretend it doesn’t exist. You may even feel you hate it.

How has that approach been working for you?

Yea, that’s what I thought.

How about if, starting right about now, you try something different?

How about if you love all this messiness instead?

Accept. The first step toward loving your mess – no matter how freakin’ messy it is – is to accept that you have a mess. Of this, I am certain: You. Have. A. Mess. It is messy and yucky and weird and disorderly.

Stop spending wasting so much time trying to pretend it isn’t there or hide it or dump it in a pile deep in the closet. See it for what it is (and isn’t) and just accept it.

As it is right now. As you are right now.

That doesn’t mean that you should forget about losing the weight or quitting smoking or helping your kid get the homework under control. It means that by accepting you are actually doing the very best thing you can do to actually live and move forward instead of being stuck in the hiding or pretending mode.

Accept it. It is yours. No better or worse than the next girl’s mess. (And believe me, she has one too. Guaranteed.)

Forgive. As Moms, we are in charge of, worried about, responsible for and the final word on just about everything remotely related to our home, our career, our kids and our lives.

We have lots of imbalance and imperfection we are supposedly supposed to balance and perfect. And when we see that, inevitably, nothing is every really balanced or perfect, we feel frustrated or angry or unworthy.

We take out most of those emotions, usually, on our own selves: Not _____ enough or Too _____ have always been my go-to self-talk favorites.

More times than not, we are quicker to forgive or nicer with our words and thoughts to our friends and family (or strangers for that matter) than we are to our own selves.

So, how about, as we begin to accept the mess that is, we also forgive ourselves for the ingredients in this great messy mix?

How about we look to congratulate and admire ourselves and all we do, create and accomplish in, say, one week or one day or one hour for that matter?

How about if our go-to is to forgive ourselves first?

Step Back & Laugh. I know messes are stressful and annoying and often pressing and very in the “now.”

But you know what?

There is always humor to be found, even in the most messy times. Always. (Did I say “Always?”)

Many of us have forgotten how to be amused by the details that make up our lives. . To just see the things in our messes, that, well, you just have to laugh at.

Getting perspective, seeing the beautiful mess of the forest for the messy trees, can go a very long way in you loving your mess and, in the process, moving forward, taking action, trusting yourself and creating the life you want.

For real. For messy real.

ABOUT ALLISON NAZARIAN

Allison Nazarian is a writer and mom living a very messy life in Florida. She works with businesses and individuals looking to write about real life to make more money, find peace, inspire and/or just vent. Allison also works as a copywriter and ghostwriter, focusing on books, speeches and creating programs for consultants, entrepreneurs and leaders in areas such as real estate, personal development, business management and media.

Allison is the author of “Do-It-Yourself” copywriting books Copywriting 101 for Small Businesses, Entrepreneurs, Coaches and Consultants and One Minute Copywriter, as well as of the newly-released Love Your Mess™. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.S. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, INC, Entrepreneur and Fortune Small Business. Allison writes on the entrepreneurial life, working from home, working moms, single parenthood and all of the things, people and stuff that make up real life.

CONNECT WITH ALLISON

Web:
http://AllisonNazarian.com

Love Your Mess The Book:

http://LoveYourMessBook.com

Have I got a treat for you!

Last week, one of my fellow mom entrepreneurs and I were talking about what she is up to…

and what she is up to is SO amazing,  I just had to share with you because that’s what I do. 

From coast to coast and around the world, Multi-Media Moms, Comedians, Bloggers and Mom Entrepreneurs are teaming up and to be a part of MommytoMommy.TV — the show is witty, intelligent, informative and sometimes just plain wacky.

Kimberley Blaine, author, parenting expert, and founder of The Go-To Mom has created all new online programming for moms.  The new series is produced and hosted by Blaine, alongside other well-known Internet mompreneurs as her co-hosts. MommytoMommy.TV is a face-paced entertainment variety show, which highlights and features Sony’s digital products.

MommytoMommy.TV focuses on relationships, health, child-rearing, social media, along with product highlights, services, and news to improve the quality of life for moms.

We hope you find MommytoMommy.TV comforting, entertaining and addictive!

Take a peek and let me know what you like about Mommy to Mommy tv.   I love the branding and the simplicity.

Now, I’d love to hear about any resources for moms that you’d like to share.  Tell us what you like & what works best for you –> See ya in the comments!

By Jill Starishevsky

They call me the poem lady for as you can tell
Rhyming is among the things I do well
Thepoemlady.com is a place one can go
When you need a poem, but verse you don’t know
Many moms have hectic lives and are busy like I am
So this mom entrepreneur gets them out of a jam
Whether birthday, bar mitzvah or any shower
The poem lady makes you the toast of the hour
I have used this skill to write a children’s book
It’s an important one, that’s worth a good look
In real life I prosecute child abuse and sex crimes
And I’ve been saddened to notice dozens of times
That children are quiet and have heavy hearts
And are confused if touched on their private parts
Parents often know not what to say
And avoid the subject, in hopes it goes away
So I penned a little tale called My Body Belongs to Me
It’s a simple story, as straight as can be
It’s meant for children from three to ten
And since children like it, you can read it again and again
From the mountaintops I have wanted to yell
If you are touched inappropriately, a trusted adult you should tell
Should you be interested in spreading the word
You can send out a tweet or tape a post-it to a bird
Know someone who skywrites way up in the air
Or owns ad space at Yankee Stadium with some room to spare
Do you have extra time on your radio show
A billboard in Time Square when foot traffic is slow
No matter the medium, it must go far and wide
Children need to know that we’re on their side
I’ll take help spreading the word wherever I go
To teach children about their private parts and it’s OK to say NO!
Tell everyone you encounter, whether teacher, Dad or Mom
Learn how to protect a child at MyBodyBelongstoMe.com

Thanks Jill!

How clever can you be when spreading the word about your business?  I know you have some great ideas, so let’s hear ‘em!

See you in the comments!

I just read this on Seth Godin’s blog and had to share it with all of you amazing moms.

To keep things in perspective, read the following…

You matter

… Continued from Part 1 of Guest Post

by Tara Geissinger and Christine O’Kelly

of Online PR News...

#6 Write in a Third Person Narrative

Press releases are written in the third person, much like a traditional news story. When they are written in the first person, they instantly sound like ads rather than news announcements and can turn journalists off.  Basically, the reader shouldn’t be addressed as “you” or “your” and your company shouldn’t be “we” or “I” in the release (unless it is part of a direct quote.) Our job is to objectively tell WHAT the news is and try to make it as easy as possible for journalists to take your news and use it in their story.

#7 Sprinkle with Quote Love

While the PR itself needs to maintain an objective tone, quotes are one of the best ways to spice up the release with your own words! This is the place to talk about what makes you different and better, than your competition. The news release hit all the basics, now tell us why you shine!

#8 ‘About’ Section

Including an ‘about’ section is an excellent opportunity to leave the reader with some good, solid information about your company. This is not the section to necessarily talk about your news. This is where you talk about your company in general and what makes it stand out. This is also a great place to add one of those two URL links we recommend.

#9 Leveraging Multimedia In Press Releases

There is a new breed of press release on the market today — the multimedia press release. Journalists and readers alike love reading these because all of the information is right there — video, photos, attached supporting materials, and more. Whenever possible it is best to provide as much supporting material as you can to spice up your press release. Not only will it look visually attractive, but it will also be a slam-dunk for journalists looking for a complete story when on deadline. Natural health expert Larry Cook has done an excellent job of creating a great multi-media press release to announce the launch of his new YouTube video.

#10 Choosing a Press Release Distribution Outlet

Look for a distribution site that offers SEO press releases. This means that the website has been tailored to meet specific SEO goals — like optimized title tags, meta descriptions, releases include anchor text links, inclusion in Google News, pages that never expire, and social media buttons. To enhance the readability and conversion of your press release, choose a press release site that allows you to embed images, videos, files, and other rich multimedia content that will work to draw readers into your message.

Press release writing can be a lot of fun and the finished product is something you can really feel proud to show off. Once published, be sure to Tweet about it and promote it on Facebook and your other favorite social media networks.

If you have any questions whatsoever along your press release marketing journey, feel free to post them here in the comments section for us to answer!

About the Authors

Tara Geissinger and Christine O’Kelly are the cofounders of the multimedia press release distribution site Online PR News. They are mompreneurs that are passionate about helping others learn how to leverage press releases to gain visibility online.

Guest Post by Tara Geissinger and Christine O’Kelly

of Online PR News

Press releases… Aren’t those the stodgy boring things that corporations sent out to the media?  That may have been the case in the past, but today’s press release has morphed into an incredibly powerful promotional piece that can be leveraged by businesses of every size.

You can easily utilize one day’s toddler naptime to write and distribute a press release that can:

• Generate hundreds of backinks
• Get you a first page position on Google News
• Live in the search engine results indefinitely
• Bring you new customers
• Establish your brand dominance
• Potentially land you an interview in a blog, webinar, podcast, magazine, or newspaper

By following these 10 essential steps, you’ll have all the tools you need to write and publish a press release between school drop off and lunchtime.

#1: Choose a Powerful Press Release Topic

There are probably all kinds of things happening within your business that are ideal material for a press release! Many people that I talk to have a tendency to feel as if their news is not ‘newsworthy’ enough to warrant a press release. In all of the years that I’ve talked with people, I’ve never met anyone that didn’t have one, if not many, press release worthy happenings to announce!

Here are just a few questions to get you thinking:

• Have you published a new article, e-book, video, or other content piece that is useful for your target market?
• Have you added a new product to your inventory or a new service to your list of offerings?
• Have you been featured or quoted in a blog, webinar, newspaper, or magazine?
• Have you added any enhancements to your website to better serve your customers or that are revolutionary in your industry?
• Are you running or about to run a contest?
• Are you offering a special limited time deal or sale?
• Have you or your company recently earned any awards or accolades?
• Has your business engaged in any new strategic partnerships that will allow you to better serve the needs of your customers or improving your industry?
• Have you made any key hires that will result in better serving your customers or improving your industry?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these, then you have the makings of a great press release.

#2: Writing Effective and Optimized Headlines

An effective press release headline must include two critical elements:

1. Keywords

2. A Solid News Angle

The importance of keywords:

In the ‘olden days,’ press releases were sent out via a newswire service where journalists held all of the power to decide what was and wasn’t newsworthy. While a new model train car may not be “newsworthy” enough for a journalist at the local paper to write about, it is certainly important to a model train hobbyist or a ‘citizen journalist’ blogger who writes about model trains.

With the advent of instant online publishing search engines, the online press release has completely eliminated the need for information gatekeepers. Now companies can publish press releases online not only for journalists to find, but also for their target market to find via search engines.

This is precisely the reason why it is important to include your main keyword in your title. This will increase the chances of having your release show up high in search results for that term.

The importance of the news angle

Today, journalists use Google and other search engines to find their sources just like the rest of us — and press releases are an ideal way to get your news in search engines in front of journalists that are actively looking for an expert to quote.

The key to writing strong press release headlines is making sure they focus on the news angle while also including one of your main keywords for SEO. It can be tempting to be ‘cute’ with your PR headline — trying to tease the news or write something that will grab attention. This technique can backfire when journalists and readers are quickly skimming the headlines.

#3 Leveraging Anchor Text To Promote Your Keywords

Many PR distribution websites offer anchor text links embedded within your release. Take advantage of these links! Building backlinks to your website is one of the basics of SEO. Still, we often see businesses using general phrases like “blog” or “Facebook” to link to their websites rather than the key terms they should be trying to target. If you are a real estate agent in Nevada, for example, you may wish to link to your website using the phrase “real estate” – but that is still a very general (and highly competitive) term. Instead, consider narrowing your target to phrases like “Nevada real estate” or “Nevada short sales.”

#4 Include 1-2 Full URL Links

Not all places where you can submit your press release will offer the option to include anchor text. And even if they do, there is no guarantee that a site that reprints your press release will include the anchor text. That is why it is always a good idea to include at least one URL to your homepage in your release. If you’re referencing a particular product or service in your press release, be sure to add a URL link to that particular page as well.

#5 Make Your Summary KISS-able

Oftentimes you are given the opportunity to create a summary for your press release. Rather than just copying and pasting the first two sentences of your release, take this opportunity to really “sell” the reader on your release. Your summary will often display below your headline on the homepage of the PR distribution website — making it a perfect mini-advertisement as to why readers and journalists should click through to read more. Many sites have a limit on how long this section can be. We typically recommend no more than 2-3 sentences. Keep your message clear and simple. Be sure to include a few more of your keyword terms in your summary.

…STAY TUNED FOR PART 2 OF THIS AMAZING LIST OF TIPS!…

About the Authors

Tara Geissinger and Christine O’Kelly are the cofounders of the multimedia press release distribution site Online PR News. They are mompreneurs that are passionate about helping others learn how to leverage press releases to gain visibility online.

Guest Post by Carla Young, Founder of MOMeo Magazine

At cocktail parties (not that we get out much after becoming parents), people ask me what I do and I explain, “I work from home doing what I love and raising my daughter.”

I know I’m talking to a corporate captive when this answer gets the scrunched up face and the quizzical look that implies they think it’s a cover story for watching Oprah all day. Then they think about it and say something like, “I could never work from home. I would go crazy!” I take that to mean they spend most of their days socializing with coworkers and not actually doing any work (studies support me in this belief).

The polite ones usually ask why I decided to do that – why take on the challenge of working from home AND raising a child. And thinking about it I realized that it seems kind of crazy. Both are more than full-time occupations and I’ve signed myself up for two!

The short answer is “Because…”

Because I get to take my morning coffee breaks with a spirited child who in the blink of an eye went from a wiggly baby to a busy 5-year-old. Because even when my daughter is with her nanny, I can hear the sound of laughter from my office. Because when it’s nice out, I can play hooky and go to the paddling pool.

Because I want my child to grow up on home-cooked meals made with lots of love just the way she likes it. Because I want to teach her how to cook from scratch the way my mother and aunts did for me, not reheat grayish goop from a can.

Because I want to raise my daughter to believe that anything is possible by showing her by example. Because I want her to create her own universe without fear or self-doubt. It’s not enough to give the valiant speeches anymore – kids need to see it.

Because I want her to know that even as she heads out into this big world, that she has me there as her backstop, the way she does today when a boo-boo sends her rushing into my office for a cuddle and a band aid treatment the way only Doctor Mommy can do it.

So yes, sometimes it means I need to work late at night to catch-up on the work that didn’t happen during playtime. Yes, sometimes the laundry sits in the dryer so long that it’s just easier to wash it again. Yes, sometimes I feel like a zombie because the one morning I have to get up early to give a speech is the morning after the night my daughter has a bad sleep.

But it’s worth it. Why? Because…

Interested in starting a work-at-home business? Check out the MOMeo Magazine Business in a Box Special Edition! It’s FULL of insightful how-to articles and practical tips for starting your own business, including 141 Mom-Friendly Business Ideas!

Author Bio: Carla Young is the Founder & CEO of MOMeo Community.com and Publisher of MOMeo Magazine.com. She’s dedicated to supporting mom entrepreneurs (or mom entrepreneurs-to-be) build work-at-home lifestyle businesses and succeed on THEIR terms at work, at home and in finding a little playtime for mommy!

Part II of Fabulous Guest Post by Alycia Edgar

http://www.numbersarelife.com

Once you’ve cleaned up your act and have your business numbers organised, you need a method of keeping it organised ALL OF THE TIME. In other words, ‘maintenance’. Just like you go on a maintenance program after losing weight in order to keep the weight off, so you need a maintenance program to keep your numbers organised.

Maintenance needs to happen on a weekly basis regardless of who is doing it. The first step is to pick a day. You need a regular appointment with yourself (or your bookkeeper) to keep up with the paperwork, so pick a day. Let’s say that day is Tuesday. Tuesday is selected because you have to pay your employees anyway so you may as well do everything in one hit!

So what tasks are required to stay on top of all of this paperwork?

1. Your paperwork needs a home before you enter it into your accounting software. For this example we’ll assume that you enter all supplier invoices before being paid.

2. This means you need a home for:

a. Supplier invoices to be entered
b. Supplier invoices paid
c. Supplier statements
d. Customer invoicing information (if invoiced after the fact) OR
e. Daily register and EFTPOS receipts (for retail)
f. Bank statements (I recommend Bookzkeeper)

3. I have always found that manilla files work well for a, b, c and d above. Using this system you would only have 1 weeks’ worth of information in the files at any one time.

4. With daily register and EFTPOS receipts I recommend an envelope to keep them in one place. Just write the date on the top left hand corner. This can usually be kept near your register so that at the end of each week, that week’s envelopes can be transferred to your office after doing the reconciling process.

5. If you keep the manilla files near the recycling bin, you can sort your paperwork into the appropriate manilla file as you open the mail and get rid of the junk (to be paper recycled) When Tuesday comes around take your manilla files and:

a. Enter your supplier invoices
b. Apply payments made to supplier invoices
c. Process customer invoices or cash register sales information
d. Reconcile bank and credit card statements
e. Make payments to suppliers – you should always have a day that you pay them

f. Pay your employees (if you have any)

6. Now that feels good doesn’t it? All sorted and empty manilla files! Of course, you have to do it again next week but if you follow this method it is much easier to keep on top of your paperwork.

7. On a monthly basis you will need to check your supplier statements against your system. I’ll be honest -this is not something I enjoy doing. I used to put it off and get in a mess with missing invoices and incorrectly applied payments etc, so I got someone else to do it.

8. The maintenance program above will only work if you’re willing to commit to the process. If you’re not willing to do it then look around for someone to do this for you and get them to commit to this weekly process. Really be honest with yourself here – let’s face it, you can probably earn a lot more money doing what you do best than spending your time doing a job that a bookkeeper can do much quicker and probably much cheaper than your hourly rate.