With this lack of passion, she decided to tap her creativity and enrolled in Aesthetic School with a focus on skin care therapy. She thrived in her Aesthetics program and embraced how truly impactful the beauty industry can be on building confidence in women. This is where she found out how exciting and fulfilling helping people feel special truly was.

Sandra attended the University of Massachusetts where she studied Hospitality and Tourism Management and gained valuable experience working as an event planner for a waterfront special events venue. Her foray into the aesthetics world was the perfect complement to her event experience. This is when she caught the event planning bug, although it was put on hold for a bit as she pursued and built a successful Bridal Beauty Agency.

Sacrifice Leads to Success

Initially it was a tremendous sacrifice to go back to school for the 5 month Aesthetics program but Sandra soaked up every minute of her training and soon launched her company focusing on weddings. Initially for the first few years, Sandra’s company focused on Bridal Beauty, but after a personal battle with a rare form of skin cancer and 4 surgeries, this gave Sandra a new lease on life. She fulfilled a desire to play to her strengths and honor her true career passion and love of design, creativity, entertaining, and crafting. Sandra’s company is a one-stop-shop for Brides and event clients alike looking to get all things pretty.

Sandra Downie Event Designs is a premier full-service boutique wedding and party design firm, based in Connecticut specializing in weddings, parties & social occasions. Nationally, Sandra is recognized for her wedding and party design services and her couture dessert tables. The business has earned a reputation for its ability to create spectacular settings while focusing on couture detailing.

Currently, Sandra and her team are proud to offer services in Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, across New England and beyond. They are also available for worldwide travel and love the destination wedding trend.

One Stop Shopping

With a sincere love for helping women, Sandra wanted to create a business where brides could create their dream event from beginning to end including on-location hair and make-up. Leading her award winning on-location hair and makeup team of beauty professionals, Sandra is dedicated to serving the unique needs of the modern bride and the discerning client. By offering Bridal Beauty services on location, she gives her clients the luxury of time and convenience by having their services provided on-site in the comfort of their home, hotel, or other special location.

Sandra believes she is more than a party planner but a true designer focusing on the presentation aspects of a wedding, party, or event. She designs custom atmospheres, with a personal touch and creative eye, to make memories unique to the client’s vision and inspired by their personal story. From conception to final execution, Sandra and her team will design an event with panache, elegance, and modern style.

The Business of the Business

While it all sounds magical and glamorous, Sandra admits that she learned her entrepreneurial skills on the job. She did it all on her own in the beginning starting with hair and make-up application for brides and working her way up to fully designed events.

She was the master of her own research, finding contract templates online and learning the ins and outs of a successfully run business by establishing professional relationships with vendors she trusted. She made mistakes and learned from them.

In the beginning she remembers not knowing what to charge for her services or how to put a value on her skills and talents. After learning the ropes and comparing notes with her peers in the industry, Sandra had confidence charging what she was worth and the clients started lining up. Referrals of course are the number one way to generate new business and Sandra’s website showcases a myriad of “Love Notes” from very happy clients.

Her staff now includes 2 professional event planners that found Sandra and were eager to share their creative talents in her successful business. Sandra feels fortunate to have a great team whom she trusts and she enjoys the flexibility of being her own boss.

As a self proclaimed control freak, this type A personality loves that she doesn’t have to report to anyone else. Being her own boss suits Sandra very well and also allows her to spend time with her 17 year old daughter.

How Sweet It Is

Sandra finds inspiration in many places from flowers to colors and has just launched a sister business – Pretty Little Party Shop featuring stylish party ware, supplies, paper goods, and delightful gifts available for purchase online. You can even join Club Pretty to get a monthly newsletter about all things creative, chic, and couture – Sandra’s tag line for her event business and her inspiration for design.

A specialty service that has become a signature trademark for Sandra’s business is her Couture Dessert Table. Stylized dessert tables capture the element of surprise as a sweet alternative to traditional party favors. According to Sandra – “A dessert table is a fun way to encourage conversation and mingling amongst your guests while also enhancing the overall visual aesthetics of your event.”

Lights, Camera, Action!

Sandra’s events have captured critical acclaim and have been chronicled in leading publications including The Knot, The Connecticut Bride, Wedding Nouveau, La Bella Bride, and Supermodels Unlimited, to name just a few.

Speaking of celebrities, Sandra has provided make-up and hair styling for such notables as Christina Aguilera, Scarlett Johansson, America’s Next Top Model – Jaslene, and Sharon Carpenter.

With an eye for beautiful things and a desire to take her creative skills to the next level, Sandra’s design aesthetic naturally results in a signature style layered in couture detailing, beautiful colors and timeless style. From make-up and hair to a formal wedding, or an intimate celebration event, Sandra strives to always create unique and memorable experiences through attention to detail and flawless orchestration.

Escaping the cubicles of corporate America to play to her strengths and ignite her passion, Sandra Downie is thriving as a multi-faceted business woman. Be sure to follow her on Facebook and Twitter and check out her delightful blog The White Library with inspirations and ideas in pursuit of domestic bliss flavored with humility, humor, and some great Do-It-Yourself tips to bring pretty things into your life.

Sandra’s Advice and Action Steps:

• Always play to your strengths.
• You can find inspiration anywhere if you look.
• Look for a mentor and stick by them.
• Do what you love and the money will follow.

Quote:

“It’s all about the pretty!” – Sandra Downie

Resources:

Website: http://www.sandradownie.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandradownieeventdesigns

Twitter: SandraDownie

Pretty Little Party Shop: http://www.prettylittlepartyshop.com/

The White Library Blog: http://www.thewhitelibrary.com/

Little Doggie Lips

She had a very successful career in a huge advertising agency in Los Angeles working on campaigns for national brands including Panda Express, Saturn cars, eBay Motors, Shutterfly and The San Francisco Giants, to name just a few. As an Art Director, she was responsible for full-scale guerilla marketing from websites to TV commercials and everything in-between. The work was exciting and fast paced but after many years it left her stressed out, unbalanced, and unhealthy.

As a way to relieve her stress, Grace began to take photos of homeless dogs at the local animal shelters in order to help them find loving homes. As an Art Director, she developed a wonderful eye and worked with photographers regularly so she knew the craft even though she was not formally trained in the medium.

The hobby morphed into a sideline business and Grace began working early mornings, late nights, and weekends on her photography in addition to her ad agency job. She was clocking over 70 hours per week and received a significant raise at the agency after launching a popular national television campaign. But after 9 months of the cottage industry business and the grind of the day job, Grace quit the ad agency to focus on her photography full-time. This woman, in love with organic gardening, old books and little doggie lips recognized her calling and took the leap.

Do You Zig or Zag?

Grace’s background in advertising gave her the perfect set of transferable skills to launch her new business and make it a successful full-time venture. She designed her own website, developed her brand and marketed the business in order to attract clients. Grace uses social media resources to spread the word about her business including a blog http://www.shinepetphotos.com/blog/ that has become very popular with clients.

While Grace capitalized on her own self reliance she also knows the importance of distinguishing herself and her work. Since the time Grace launched ShinePetPhotos, over 70 new pet photographers have popped up in the Los Angeles area alone. She continues to be strategic and tap into her business sense to differentiate herself and separate her business from the pack.

At the ad agency she learned how to serve clients well and to solve problems. Advertising is not just marketing a product or a service, it involves solving real life problems and this has helped tremendously in her new business. Grace knew it wasn’t just enough to identify her passion for animals in the form of photography – she had to monetize it in order to make a livelihood out of this new venture.

A Clear Picture of Success

When I asked Grace to distill her personal brand down to a few works she responded with modern pet photography. Her images are beautifully real and capture the relationship of the animal and their human families as well as the unique personality of each furry friend. She aims to capture the pets in their natural environment, with gorgeous natural light, doing their favorite things.

The adage that time is money is even more applicable according to Grace who now works from home. She goes on location for her photography shoots but her days are filled with hard work managing and building the business. She does find time for gardening and cooking which was not always possible when she worked at the ad agency.

Grace feels more balanced, healthier, and has a sense of calm in her new work that everyone around her has recognized. Working with dogs and cats as your subjects takes a lot of patience. Although Grace considers herself impatient with most things in life, she has developed a sense of serenity and peace with the animals which makes for a good photo shoot.

The accolades are piling up and Grace has become widely recognized in a short period of time. She is the official photographer of The World’s Ugliest Dog Contest, has cover photos showcased in The Bark Magazine and her shots were in a feature story about Perez Hilton’s dog, Teddy. Grace was also named LA’s best pet photographer two years in a row by Tails Magazine.

Grace’s grit and determination have helped her transfer the ad agency skills into her own business. She is committed to doing everything she can with character and integrity and has built her business on those values. She finally feels like she is doing what is right for her and has a sense of contentment about the new career that she is designing.

Coming Full Circle

As a little girl, Grace knew she was passionate about animals. Little did she know then that many years later she would develop a business to celebrate her furry friends and capture their essence with photographs.

Grace’s friends and colleagues thought she was crazy to quit a lucrative job in the midst of a recession but she kept her eye on the prize and never looked back. In 2 years, her business has grown exponentially. She operated in the black her very first year and nearly tripled her intake during the second year. Working full-time while growing the business was one of the most challenging things Grace has ever done but she earned her dream career with sweat equity, business savvy and the wisdom to know the importance of distinguishing herself from the competition.

And needless to say, she has the most lovable furry clients to work with on a daily basis so life is grand.

Grace’s Advice and Action Steps:

• Identify your passion – then monetize it!
• Be strategic and learn how to differentiate your personal brand to separate yourself from the competition. Identify your niche market.
• Know that if you start a new business you will have to work extremely hard and manage your time wisely. It’s all up to you.
• Learn how to connect your transferable skills and experiences with a new opportunity.
• Develop a plan.

Quote:

“If you are more excited to leave your job on Friday than you are to come in to work on Monday, something is wrong.” Donny Deutsch

Resources:

Shine Pet Photos www.shinepetphotos.com

Blog www.shinepetphotos.com/blog

We often fail to keep our resumes updated when life is good in a current position because we are not showcasing this part of our professional toolkit on a regular basis. I urge you to dust off your resume and make sure it is good shape since you never know when opportunity will knock.

Since my public speaking has really ramped up, I have a press kit that I use to showcase my experience, book, and keynote/workshop topics for prospective clients. Recently, I was asked to also include my resume. As a career coach, I take pride in having a strong resume and I have reviewed literally thousands of resumes over the past 10+ years for students and clients. But I decided to share my resume with a trusted advisor, a fellow career development expert who specializes in resume writing to get her take on my resume.

I had become so close to my own resume that I wasn’t showcasing myself in the best possible light. I can say with confidence that my good resume is now a great representation of my professional strengths. It took someone else’s keen eye and strategic resume writing skills to help me take my document to a new level.

My resume guru should not be a well-kept secret since her professional services are worthy of strong praise. Jessica Sremanak http://jessicasremanak.com/ took my resume to new heights when my bar was already set very high. The point is – we can all get too close to something to see what needs to be tweaked and adjusted in order to improve. Jessica conducted an interview with me asking in-depth questions about all my positions so she could enhance my job descriptions with specific accomplishments that clearly define my value-add. The end result was a new and improved resume that I am thrilled with.

I urge all of you to brush off your resume and consider a tune-up. Of course you know the importance of customizing a resume for each specific opportunity, but having a great mother-ship version will give you the point of departure you need. Jessica revolutionized my resume and she is a new member of my personal Board of Directors whom I highly recommend. Having a great resume is an investment in your career future.

It’s about time that women own their strengths and enjoy self-confidence. Join me in paying-it forward to others.

So, Kim created The Urbane Concierge for people like her. But rather than simply start a personal assistant service, she wanted to offer something special. For 30+ years Kim worked as an event planner and global travel arranger, and her clients demanded a unique experience. And that’s what she vowed her new company would offer. Kim’s concierges are experts at delivering intangibles beyond simply serving your needs. They become an extension of yourself, anticipating your requirements and accomplishing tasks the way you would want them to be done. That’s why all her services are customized and Kim wouldn’t have it any other way. Many people start businesses out of necessity, and that is certainly the case with The Urbane Concierge. Kim was ready for a change.

Wanted: Chief of Staff for Your Life

The very definition of an urbane concierge is: affable, balanced, cosmopolitan, courteous, cultivated, gracious and mannerly.  These days, hiring the equivalent of a “Chief of Staff” is more common than you think for everyone from business owners to corporate managers and stay-at-home moms. Yet, as our lives get more complicated, the role of personal assistant has grown in scope to include highly sensitive and confidential tasks such as project managing small business owners, paying bills, managing the individual services for your home (i.e. gardening, housekeeping, remodeling), personal & business travel arrangements, even overseeing your social calendar. There are tremendous benefits to having someone within arm’s reach who can juggle what you never have time for.

Kim believes that in reality, work time is intermixed with personal time.  Her clients need far more than a junior assistant, they need a trusted adviser, a concierge who is standing by 24/7. The Urbane Concierge provides customized packages so clients can focus on their core competencies and strengths and leave what they don’t enjoy doing in the capable hands of a concierge.  In return, life is simplified and clients can have more balance to enjoy non-work time with friends and family.

I Can’t Get No Satisfaction

Kim started her business after 30 years in the corporate sector because she was extremely unhappy in her professional life. She felt like she was selling her soul to her employers and had to compromise her values to make a good living. In March of 2007 she quit her job and began to research what else was out there.

Knowing her strengths, she enjoyed the organization and detail orientation skills that came naturally to her as well as helping others. But, she wanted to do it on her own terms. Kim was a frequent conference attendee at the Professional Business Women of California (PBWC) events and became inspired to branch out on her own after attending a PBWC program.

With the input of a SCORE (Counselors to America’s Small Businesses) advisor, Kim quickly developed a business plan, a web design logo and applied for a tax ID number.  Soon after she assembled an amazing team of women whom she knew and trusted from her professional contacts and the business officially launched in October of 2007.

She chose the name The Urbane Concierge because she wanted to reflect the unique services offered that distinguished her from other personal assistant companies out there. Branding is especially important for a new business and Kim did a lot of self reflection and research to consider what her special sauce would be in this service industry.

A Very Special Valley Girl

Demographic research was also very important when Kim decided where to focus her business. She has captured a niche market in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco region. 95% of her clients are men and 90% come from within the San Francisco area. These young professionals are very busy and career focused so they need The Urbane Concierge services to handle their multi faceted lives. This high-end clientele is the definition of urbane and they see having a personal concierge as a status symbol as well as a necessity and that’s good for business.

In her business, Kim often has access to a client’s personal bills and medical records, etc. so discretion and confidentiality is of the utmost importance for her and her staff.  Kim relies on having a stellar reputation as well as positive recommendations from clients. This is the number one way that her business grows.

The old adage – The customer is always right! – is alive and well. However, there are some clients that just can’t be helped, according to Kim and she has learned that in some cases she must turn down a client if she thinks it won’t be a good fit for her or her staff. This is the beauty of running your own shop – you can say no to business you don’t want.

Über Organized

In some cases, Kim talks about working herself out of a job because she gets a client so organized that they don’t need her anymore. But that is usually a good thing because it results in a strong referral and the original client most often comes back for another service down the road.

While being organized is what Kim does best, she admits that some clients seem to have monumental tasks to accomplish. She trains her staff to keep their games faces on and to remember that “fear breeds courage” and to persevere at all costs. Since her team is made up 100% of contractors, she hand picks which concierges on her staff are best suited for particular assignments. Kim does the original client intake to build trust and determine how The Urbane Concierge can best help.

At the end of the day, Kim now values that she is completely accountable and responsible for the satisfaction of her clientele. She runs her business on integrity and trust and feels like she is making a contribution in the lives of real people that she gets to know very well. Developing these strong professional relationships has given her a newfound satisfaction on the job and she enjoys being her own boss.

One-Stop Shop

The goal is to make the client aware that a concierge is a one-stop-shop for all of their needs. Kim offers customized packaged and pricing for each client based on what they require. A sampling of services includes, but is not limited to:

•           Appointment setting

•           Home life organizer

•           Project Managing Small Business Owners

•           Travel & event planner

•           Personal shopper

•           Errand runner/ courier

•           Home greeter

•           Pet care

•           Project manager

Your Wish is My Command

Kim has developed packages and customized services for individual and corporate clients so the possibilities are endless depending on what a person needs. The first question in an intake is usually about cost. Why should they employ someone to do what they usually do for free? Kim has them to fill out her Urbane Concierge Time/Cost Assessment, something she encourages clients to do before they even make an initial appointment. Suddenly, their mindset changes and they realize they actually need a concierge because Kim adeptly shows them that their time is valuable and time = money.

Here is an example from one of Kim’s customers. The client billed $300/hour as a business coach. She also estimated she spent 10 hours per week running errands, shopping, and so on. That is $3,000 per week at her billing rate, $156,000 a year! After employing The Urbane Concierge, she not only saved money and time, but also found she had more energy to devote to both her business and her personal life.

Studies have shown that 75% of employees handle personal responsibilities while on the job. To make matters worse, 92% of employees admit to taking personal time off just to keep on top of their errands and personal responsibilities. Kim’s business mission is to take care of people’s needs so they can focus on their core competencies and enjoy life more.

Time Flies

The business launch in October of 2007 seems like more than 3 years ago and Kim is thriving as a business owner.  In 2009, she was named one of the Top 50 Women Entrepreneurs by Savor the Success.  In 2010, Kim was awarded a full scholarship by Wells Fargo for the Fearless Entrepreneur Program.  Future goals include continuing to build her clientele as well as her team of experienced concierges so she can focus more on growing the business and handling select clients.   She is conscious about staying on top of current trends, techniques, and technologies to better serve her clients.

Kim is now living her philosophy that time is money and she appreciates having control over her own time now. She has numerous client testimonials on her site that endorse The Urbane Concierge and validate that Kim’s career reinvention was well worth it!

Kim’s Advice and Action Steps:

•           Find the right people when building your staff.

•           Be tenacious for what you really want.

•           Realize that some clients can’t be helped and that is no reflection on you –   simply move on.

•           Use technology to your best advantage. Keep abreast of new gadgets, programs and features that can help you in your work and life.

Quote:

“People have hired me because of me.” Kim Daly

Resources:

The Urbane Concierge www.theurbaneconcierge.com

Savor the Success www.savorthesuccess.com

Professional Business Women of California http://www.pbwc.org/

SCORE http://www.score.org/index.html

Wells Fargo Fearless Entrepreneur Program

http://www.futurewomenleaders.net/entrepreneurship-program

Nikos says that it’s all about the right mix and describes 4 archetypes of people in organizations: magicians, warriors, sovereigns, and lovers. You may see some similarities with these in the Jungian personality types. See if you can pick out who you are as well as others on your team.

Magicians: Rational yet imaginative souls in your organization. They think a new idea or insight is the only thing that can move the world – they are obsessed by ideas. These people think a mere argument over an idea equals action.

Lovers: Everything comes down to human relations. They are pragmatic but emotional and focus on building the winning coalition. They are obsessed by feelings not ideas and they consider agreement an action.

Sovereigns: Emotional and imaginative types who focus on the big picture and judge everything on whether it leads to where they want to go. They redefine what people consider is possible. Obsessed by beliefs, they consider direction a form of action.

Warriors: Rational and pragmatic, they are focused on the next battle and can only see clearly what is directly in front of them. They hold people accountable to systems and fairness and are obsessed by facts. Action is finding the critical factor to get something immediately accomplished.

The most effective teams maintain a balance by having a healthy variety of these types in key roles, according to Mourkogiannis. When one type dominates, friction, conflict, and the fall-off of creativity can occur. The best leaders surround themselves with types other than their own who complement their strengths and off-set their weaknesses.

Every organization requires a unique recipe for the right team mix. Too many warriors will experience difficulty with change and will consequently miss opportunities competitors may exploit. Too many sovereigns will pull an organization in too many directions at once, or will radically change direction often. Sovereign-dominated teams appear fragmented, with poor communication, and often struggle with strategy and direction.

Too many lovers and you have another set of problems. These employees value consensus to the detriment of results. They hold far too many meetings and do too much talking and not enough acting, lacking both competitiveness and edge. Too many magicians and your team will be pondering opportunities all the time, but will lack decisive action, even though the thinking will be excellent. Magicians are more concerned with having it done “right,” rather than having it done. A group of them in a room will look more like a debating society than a high performance team.

So, get to know the players on your team and adjust for balance to make for a more efficient group. Perhaps discussing the four types will be an empowering exercise to help individuals understand the valuable role they play and the need for the counter balance of other players for a stronger team.

Figuring out what makes you special gives you an edge in the career world.

She Bought the Farm!

As a graduate student, Anne studied Linguistics and specialized in Arabic which led her to an interesting, but according to her, “dead end” job at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC where she worked for 5 years. Willing to retool in order to make a living, Anne enrolled in a vocational computer programming school and taught ESL (English as a Second Language) on the side in addition to waitressing to make ends meet. She took a course on the Internet and fell in love with web development where she still works as a freelance consultant developing sites for small businesses, non-profit and government clients. She also teaches web design at the local community college and has a flexible schedule which permits her to fit in her other passion – animals.

Anne first moved to the suburbs from the metropolitan life of Washington, DC so she could adopt a dog. In 2002 she bought a farm in Maryland after experiencing the realities of this lifestyle when she served as a “farm sitter” for a friend who has a 150 acre farm in Virginia. She found it invigorating to work on the farm and with the animals and turned her farm into a non-profit she named Star Gazing Farm where she takes in abused, stray, and unwanted animals in need and provides them with a permanent home.

Tending To Her Flock

Anne believes that farm animals are every bit as affectionate, interesting, and in need of loving care as other domestic animals and there is a real need in her community for more compassionate farm animal care. With 50+ animal residents on her farm, including a small flock of sheep, Anne discovered that it was very difficult to find sheep shearers so she went to sheep shearing school and now adds this to her list of transferable skills.

Word leaked out than Anne has become a fine sheep shearer and she travels to other farms in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania to shear small flocks.  She has since learned to shear Angora goats, llamas and alpacas and has turned this into a thriving little business to supplement the farm operational expenses.

Pay-it-Forward

As a non-profit organization, Star Gazing Farm has an education and outreach division. Every year they teach children and young adults about the humane care of farm animals and help them build physical and moral strength through actual hands-on farm work. In 2007 they began a program tailored to local at-risk youth.

With Anne’s sheep shearing skills, she offers experiential classes and demonstrations with wool and fiber, showing participants how to shear, wash, card, and spin the wool they grow. The local community is made up largely of urban and suburban residents and Anne has invited them in to visit and volunteer to befriend the sanctuary animal residents and develop a greater compassion for farm animals.

Between sheep shearing and website design, it’s still difficult to make ends meet on the farm with the high cost of food, veterinary care and appropriate housing for the animals. So Anne offers opportunities for animal sponsorship, contributions, and volunteer work to make Star Gazing Farms run efficiently. Since Anne can’t take in every stray or abandoned animal she also runs a farm sanctuary network through her website to help find permanent homes in other locations for animals in need.

The Challenges of Running a 501c3 Organization

While Anne believes that she graduated from the school of hard knocks and admits to being very stubborn and determined, in the beginning she found herself out of her element knowing how to care for her many different farm animals. She bought books on farm animal caretaking and joined discussion lists online about caring for ducks and sheep and quickly became familiar with the local veterinarians.

The future goal is to have a larger corps of volunteers for her non-profit that can assist the Board of Directors with fundraising and development for the organization. Anne believes there are many private donors that would support Star Gazing Farm if they knew it existed so her goal is to be financially solvent so she can continue to develop more education and outreach programs.

By day Anne tends to her sheep, goats, birds, dogs, cats, horses, cows and pigs – 50 in total. At night, she works on her web development business and often stays up past 2 am well aware she has to be up at dawn to tend to the animals. Admittedly, she has the biorhythm of a “Web Vampire” and is able to keep these taxing hours because she is doing what she loves.

Follow Your Heart

While work life balance is often impossible, Anne is doing what she loves and shared that she has found her calling. After many career changes it’s refreshing to hear Anne talk about her work with such passion and enthusiasm. Working in the Saudi Embassy as a Linguist, I’m sure Anne never envisioned being the Founder and Director of a non-profit, a freelance web developer and a sheep shearer. It pays to follow your heart. Check out the Star Gazing Farm website and consider sponsoring one of Anne’s animal residents today. Their full bios and histories are posted on the site and your generosity will be much appreciated by the likes of Newman the goat and his friends.

Quote: “Attitude is more than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.” W.C. Fields

Anne’s Advice and Action Steps:

• Don’t be afraid to explore new careers but do your research, pursue informational interviews and inform yourself.
• Follow your heart.
• Have a vision.

Resources:

Language Works www.language-works.com

Star Gazing Farm www.stargazingfarm.org

But today’s entry is not just about Lisa’s book – it’s about something she shared in her recent newsletter that struck me. You may have heard of the Pareto Principle – otherwise known as the 80/20 rule. This concept illustrates the reality of unequal distribution when in most cases 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.

Lisa went on to share examples such as 80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients and 20% of the work we do consumes 80% of our time and resources. Most of us only wear 20% of the clothes in our closet on a regular basis!

The bottom line, as Lisa so aptly describes is that 20% of what we do is vital and 80% of what we do is trivial. So, from all our daily activities – only 20% produce meaningful results. The goal is to identify the 20 % that matters so we can be proactive instead of reactive and more in control of the productive way we use our precious time. We must remind ourselves to focus on the 20% each day that really matters in work and life so we can produce the most positive and successful results.

Likewise, if you play to your strengths, you will use the 20% of your time even more effectively because you will be firing on all cylinders and working efficiently at what you do best. The bonus is that you will also be enjoying the process because you are honoring your strengths.

So – cheers to Lisa Montanaro for reminding us of the value of the 80/20 rule if you use it to your advantage. I hope you will check out her book, she really is the solutions expert!

A business or personal card is your ticket to effective follow-up when networking. Learn why everybody should take advantage of this essential career tool.