Tishia Saves Time

How One Book Changed Her Life

By Tishia

I’ve been fond of Kathleen Gage for quite awhile. I love her voracious appetite for living life to the fullest. I enjoy her business savvy ways. I just enjoy her (even though I’ve only met her once – at a NAMS event many moons ago) period. And a recent blog post she wrote caught my eye. Even though the end of it was about a course she was promoting/putting on, the main portion of the post is what caught my attention.

I’m a huge book fan. I don’t think you can ever have too many books (and yes I still like the good old fashioned paperback books). I’ve read some inspirational books over the years that have had significant impact on my life. So when Kathleen talked about a book that changed her life I resonated right away.

Here’s a little excerpt form her post in reference to the book The Magic of Believing:

The insights I learned from the author were beyond anything I had ever known.

Originally written in 1948, this was my first exposure to the mindset that thoughts become things. Devouring the information, my life would never be the same.

And even though I wasn’t interested in the course she was promoting (at least not at this moment, it looks like a great one!) I loved how she so naturally tied it into the importance of book

Click here to read The best 25 cents I ever spent. 

As a side note, now I want to find a copy of The Magic of Believing so I can read it!

Content Curation Challenge Results

By Tishia

A couple weeks ago I created a video to check in about the Content Curation challenge I was participating in. For 21 straight days I shared a piece of content that I found to be valuable, fun or helpful. The challenge was great – for a number of reasons:

  1. Quick – Curating content is a lot quicker than creating a new blog post
  2. Accountability – we had to check in on a forum every day with a link to our curated content
  3. Routine – they say it takes 21 days for a habit to form…and I believe it. The challenge ended yesterday and I feel “lost” now 😉
  4. Up to date – the challenge helped me stay up to date on blogs I’ve been following in my feedly.com account but hadn’t been checking very often
  5. Traffic – I saw a nice increase in my traffic during the 21 day challenge (see screenshot below)

The last thing I mentioned above was an increase in my traffic during the challenge. Here is a screenshot image of my Google Analytics:

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The image is a little hard to see so I’ll break it down for you.

  • Date Range: July 21 – Aug 10 (the 21 days before the challenge) vs August 11 – 31 (the 21 days of the challenge)
  • Users:  288 during the 21 day challenge vs 187 the 21 days before =’s an increase of 54.01%
  • Pageviews: 971 during the 21 day challenge vs 367 the 21 days before =’s an increase of 164.58% 

The statistics say it all – curating content for 21 days did a great deal for my traffic! While I probably won’t continue to do it daily, I will definitely be curating content on a regular basis.  If you haven’t picked up your copy of Smart Curation Skills, I highly recommend you grab it now:

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You can see my curated posts here:

 

 

2 Tips for Mastering Productivity

By Tishia

productivityOne of the biggest issues most entrepreneurs, (myself included) I know, face is not having enough hours in the day to get everything done that needs to be done. Lack of time is one of the main reasons busy coaches, authors, consultants and other solopreneurs come to me for Virtual Assistant services.

So why is it, if we all have the same exact amount of time in a day, that others seem to accomplish a lot more?

The big “secret” is productivity and mastering it. In a recent Faith. Fun. Business podcast episode, Marlee Ward and her guest Jonathan Milligan talk about this exact thing. In this episode you’ll learn:

  • Two key principles to mastering productivity
  • A super simple and HIGHLY effective mind trick for getting work done faster
  • How to accomplish more each year using a white board

I highly recommend you listen to Secrets to Being a Super Productive Entrepreneur [PODCAST] if you’re looking for a way to master productivity.

5 Steps To Overcoming Limitations

By Tishia

limitationsThere have been times in my life where I have set goals…and not met them. It’s never a good feeling to ‘fail’ and not reach a goal. It leaves me frustrated (maybe even angry with myself) and wondering what the point of even setting the goal was in the first place. But once I get over the initial frustration and really think about things, there’s always one reason behind why I don’t meet a goal. And Paul over at All About Gratitude hit the nail on the head when he said:

… it all boils down to fear. It could be the fear of rejection or of failing again. It could also be because you’re afraid of not being good enough. When you have thoughts like these, it can sometimes be difficult to feel grateful.

For me, it really has all boiled down to fear and the limitations I’ve put on myself. Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of what others will think – the list goes on. I loved the suggestions Paul shared in his post Unlock Your Potential by Overcoming Your Limitations. If you put limitations on yourself and find it’s hard to meet goals, I really encourage you to spend a few minutes reading his post – it’s well worth it!

Photo Credit: Flick Creative Commons image via Celestine Chua

How to make the most of a live event

By Tishia

knowledge-is-powerI’m getting ready to attend Nicole Dean and Kelly McCausey’s first Beachpreneurs Lifestyle Conference in St. Petersburg, FL in a few weeks. I know it’s going to ROCK. Why? Because these 2 ladies are awesome and I went to the very first Beachpreneurs (women only) retreat and aside from it being at one of my favorite places – ocean/beach – and in one of my favorite places – Florida – it was intimidating (just because there were a few women I didn’t know/was meeting for the first time), fun, full of tons of learning opportunities and more, all rolled into one!  Anyways…there’s just something about live events that you have to get out and experience for yourself. They really are magical!

So, in light of the upcoming conference I wanted to share something I just came across over at HubSpot all about attending conferences and things you should do before, during and after. While their post is geared specifically towards the upcoming INBOUND  conference, there are definitely still takeaways that will work for any live event/conference you’re attending! I loved the checklists they have in the post – wish they would make them available to download!

One of the 7 checklists they share, for conference attendees, is if you’re a content creator:

The Content Creator’s Conference Checklist: You’ll be able to churn out some really fantastic content after attending a conference. Keynotes provide loads of great takeaways and inspiration for external audiences, and sessions can lead to very tactical “how-to” posts. Conversations are another great spot for content ideas. For example, you could meet someone you really admire and write a Q&A post based on your chat. The checklist below contains some of the most important points to remember if you’re attending a conference so you can produce great blog posts, ebooks, webinars, SlideShares, and more for your company or for yourself.

Several of them didn’t pertain to me, but as I mentioned above there is still great info to glean from the content no matter what type of conference you’re going to. So before you leave for that next event be sure to check out Conference Attendees: How to Get the Most Bang for Your Buck.