Key Business Partners, LLC

You know how every year, Jan. 1 we list our goals, set out with the best intentions. And all through January, we’re on track. Then February gets here, and we start out motivated, but by the time mid-month rolls around, we’re back to our old habits.

LocalShops1.com and Key Business Partners are here to help! We’re planning a full day with some of the top experts around, to help you get back on track, whether your goal is to lose weight, learn to play guitar, or get your finances in order.

Admission is free. For more info, e-mail localshopper@localshops1.com. Limited number of VIP giveaway bags (see below to get yours today) will be available.

Our panelists include:

– Margo Hammond, published author & co-founder of the Book Babes, and former book editor of the St. Petersburg Times and founder of the Times Festival of Reading. Margo will talk about following your dreams.

– Helen Huntley, financial adviser at Holifield Huntley Financial Advisers and former longtime personal finance editor and columnist for the St. Petersburg Times. Helen will talk about getting your finances in order and saving for the future.

– Michele Northrup, founder of Intensity Academy gourmet sauces and mom to three 11-year-old boys. Michele will talk about branding/reinventing yourself.

– Debi Cristiano, founder of Evolving Wellness studio, which offers a body-mind-spirit holistic approach to health. Debi will talk about holistic approach to healthy living.

–Marie Sanders, owner of Ready to Get Organized, a organizing expert, will share tips about how to declutter your life.

–Mary Ramsey, owner of Body-Mind-Balance and hypnotherapist with discuss how to quit smoking.

The experts will be stationed at LocalShops1 member business Sea Breeze Bed & Breakfast.

The schedule!

At Sea Breeze Manor, 5701 Shore Blvd. in Gulfport:
11 — Debi Cristiano (holistic approach to well-being (diet/nutrition/exercise/zen time)
11:30 — Mary Ramsey, (quit smoking)
12 — Michele Northrup (branding/reinventing yourself)
12:30 — Helen Huntley (getting finances in order)
1:30 — Margo Hammond (following your dreams)
2 — Marie Sanders (organizing home/bills)

There will be raffles, too, and all proceeds will go to Get Rescued in Gulfport, which takes place that day as well.

We also have a limited number of VIP Bag with goodies from our panelists (value worth $100.00) for
ONLY $20.00
Included in the bag:
~Certificate for 15 minute phone consultation about wellness from Debi Cristiano
~One bottle of hot sauce from Michelle Northrup
~Coupon for a free label maker Brothers PT-1280 (retails for $39.99)*if schedule a 2-hour needs assessment by 3/31/10 from Marie Sanders
~Certificate for $200 off financial services from Helen Huntley
~Coupon for $5 off “Post Scripts: A Writing Life After Eighty” from Margo Hammond

Get a VIP Bag Now:

Here is a list of 10 sites and blog posts I favored over the past couple of months on Twitter. I wanted to share them with my fellow writers and authors:

1) Blog post by Lisa Brunel (original article posted Ezine articles) at Publishing Guru.com to discuss how to write conflict in Children books.

2) @straynotes twittered about My Writing Nook, a new Google app for iPhone for writers. You can now write anywhere with having the other things writers crave such as a dictionary and thesaurus.

3) @DebraMars posted a tweet about a Q &A about what a MFA is…Master of Fine Arts and how it can help a writer. This post was via @writersdigest written by Brian A. Klems. One thing he mentions is the access to resources you gain by having a MFA, some you may not be able to receive without.

4)@alexisgrant retweeted @mariaschneider 5 Questions to Ask before you Write for Free To me, the big point Maria makes here is that “making a name for yourself online is a whole different game than the print world I came from”. She goes onto mention that one single post on a high profile blog can bring in thousands of new readers to your writing.

5) @Stephenbright posted a tweet about his friend Cindy’s new site called, Write Live. It is a new interactive way for writers to share your writing and passions.

6) @inkyelbows (always shares great tweets!) shared a tweet about how video can help promote your upcoming book event. You need to see this cute short video!

7)@onlinewriters tweeted about their organization for Online Writers. A social networking site for, you guessed it, online writers. Even though it is fairly new, it is a place for online writers to come together and support each other.

8)@aswinn – Author Allison Scotch Winn wrote a blog post about Should you accept a low advance? . The one point I liked that she made was, Be proud of yourself because you got an offer. Some writers go for years and years without ANY offer. Also, know what your expectations are as a writer/author. This will help when the offers do come in.

9)@elizabethscraig chimes in about an editor who weighs in on what “well-written” means at Mysterious Matters. The editor writes about these elements:
a) properly spelled, grammatically correct, punctuation in the right place.
b) Good variety in sentence and paragraph structure
c) Simple and effective descriptions
d) sentences that stop you cold (this is a blog for mystery writers/authors)
e) good dialogue in the right places
f) a sense of control
g) an awareness of novel as story
h) a sense that the author is someone I would like to meet

10) @cherylrainfield retweeted @publishingspy tweet about how to avoid illegitimate literary agents. Be sure to ask for credentials when working with people.

Can you believe it? Half of 2009 is already over. Time does seem to be flying lately.

Have you accomplished some the goals you have set for yourself for 2009? Or at least on the road to completing them?

Sometimes you may have problems getting those things done by this time in the year.

Here are a few ideas to help you get back on track with the things you wish to complete by year end.

First, take a deep breath. Or perhaps take a few deep breathes. If you haven’t been able to finish or at least start of your 2009 goals, it isn’t the end of the world.

Many times when your goals get put off, there are other reasons and it isn’t laziness. You could be putting them off due to fear or self sabotage. Or you just need to find a better process in order to get those things done.

Next, review your goals list for 2009.

While reviewing the list, take the time to sit and give yourself credit for the things you have completed. You deserve it. Many times it is easier to knock yourself down for the things you don’t complete and don’t give any credit for accomplishments.

For those goals you haven’t completed yet, take stock again and access for each how important each goal is to get done.

Create a fresh goals list—in fact, create 2 lists.
One list for the goals you have accomplished. One list of goals you wish to accomplish by the end of the year. Place the completed list in front of you so you can see your accomplishments so you can focus on positive things.

With the “Goals to complete” remember to set realistic goals. This is not the time to beat yourself up for those things you haven’t completed. Today is a new start. You will start today toward these goals.

Enlist some help if needed. With the age of social media it is easier than ever to get other people to support you in your goals. Ask for help. Ask for an accountability partner where you each support the other in accomplishing your goals.

To show you about goals, I would like to share with you a few of mine:

Write a book by the end of 2009.
Still in process. I have started on this goal. In fact, I am in the middle of writing a few things. One is a book with my daughter for young adults. The other is a ebooklet for my husband’s business. When I initially wrote this goal, it was to write a business book or novel. This may or may not get fully completed by the end of 2009. But for me, the real goal here was to start writing and I am writing. I am proud of myself for starting and continuing on my writing journey.

Cook more from recipes.
At the beginning of the year, I was still buying a lot of fast and easy things from the grocery store. It was “easier” to do this even though, I really wanted to take the time to explore new recipes and make things myself.
In the spring I decided I wanted to make a real commitment to start taking a more active role in cooking. Take the time to research new recipes, get the ingredients and create new dishes. Cooking has been a great way to spend more time with my daughter and she is learning too. She has taken a liking more to baking but it is still in kitchen so it is great.

Get more involved in local networking.
Before getting out of the corporate world, I knew more of what was going on in my local area. Even then I wasn’t in any local networking groups. When I began my career shift to online mostly, I have stayed away from local and did all of my networking online. For 2009, I thought I would find at least one local group to join. In late 2008, a friend of mine introduced me to eWomen Network. I have been a member ever since. Also, in 2009, I have become a member of Florida Writers Association, a community which supports writers throughout Florida with many city chapters. Both groups have provided me with support, encouragement and inspiration.

It is interesting because when I sat down to write this post, I had thought to myself, “You can write this Teresa but then you are going to have to admit you haven’t accomplished anything you wanted to for 2009.” And in actuality by writing these down, I have shown myself, I have done pretty good. I am on the right track to accomplishing my goals for 2009.

Perhaps you too have accomplished more of your goals for 2009 than you thought, hmmm?

Please share with me your experience with goals for 2009.

This morning, I came across an interesting discussion in one of the forums I am a part of on LinkedIn called Freelance Success. One of the members, George Angus, shared a link to his blog post titled, The reason why freelance writing is in piss-poor shape.

In the post George writes about how he finally “broke down” and decided to sign up for a bidding site to find writing jobs. He quickly was not happy about many of the providers offered writing jobs for such low rates. He would bid on jobs, however, someone else would receive the jobs because they required less payment for the jobs. He expresses his concern for the future of freelance writers if some are willing to get pennies for their writing.

Well, this topic was pretty hot because he already has received over 30 comments on his blog and over 50 on the LinkedIn forum.

Some people chimed in and said they wouldn’t mind working for a little bit of money in order to get their name out there. Others wrote it is distasteful to the writing community to be willing to receive pennies for hard work.

I had written back on both the forum and George’s blog because I can see a bit on both sides. And in the end here are a few things I took away from my participation:

1) Do what is best for you. In the forum one of the members, Allia, shared a video with us. The video makes some great points. If you feel you want to take on a few pro bono clients, then do so. However, don’t allow this to become your measurement for jobs.

2) Don’t allow negative conversations to get to you. Don’t allow yourself to become absorbed in the negativity. Be the positive influence in your conversations.

3) If you don’t value yourself as a writer, how do you expect someone else to value your writing? You love writing and you have the knowledge and passion to write. Not everyone has the desire and skills to write well. Don’t allow others to place a value on your writing for less than you deserve.

So do you value yourself as a writer? I invite you to share your thoughts with me.

Online Promotion for anyone can be a overwhelming, tricky, complicated and unrewarding part of getting the word out to the masses about your writing or your latest book. However, it doesn’t have to end up that way.

First of all, nothing is a magic pill or an automatic selling machine. To me, those who fill authors and writers’ heads with the notion of instant or immediate sales are the one more likely to be scamming people than those of us who are offering assistance and help with online promotion services for writers, authors, coaches, speakers.

Online promotion takes time to be done effectively. I am sure you have heard, people buy from those they know. If you have just self published your book last week and then you join Facebook and Twitter and think just because you are a member and suddenly thousands of people are going to buy your book or hire you as their editor or writer, it is unlikely. The reasoning is because they don’t know you. Now, six months down the line it may be a different story. Since you have been on the social networking sites for awhile and if you are an author, you have talked about the subject of your book or you are a freelance writer and you have shared ways people can utilize a freelance writer in their business, perhaps you will start seeing some movement in the book sales or clients you receive.

Online promotion and marketing your business, whether you are a freelance writer, blogger, musician or book author, is about relaying your message and getting in front of those people who most want to read or hear it. Yes, you can spend tons of time and expend energy being on, Twitter, Facebook, several internet radio shows, writing blog posts, doing article marketing, and in the end not see much results. So before you do these things you have to ask yourself why this would be happening? One thing to look at is, are you aligned with and in front of those people who will relate best to what you are writing and have written?

Know your target market, who is your writing and book for? Speak to those who will benefit and want to hire you or purchase your book. When you are fully aware of who will be receptive to your message, you can more easily align yourself online to those who audience will be eager to hear the message too. You can go online, do some research and make a list of networking groups (Yahoo or Ning) or internet radio shows you would like to be a member or guest. Then start making those connections.

Also, be involved or be gracious. If you go into your business (yes, writing and being an author is a business) and think it doesn’t require deliberate action on your part, don’t be upset when the results come out less then spectacular. Take the time to offer tips, suggestions, ideas to others when they ask. This is another way others can get to know you and you then build relationships. Offer to be on a brainstorming round table with others in your industry or better yet, begin a mastermind group with a few other people in your business community local and online. Blog about those things involving the subject of your book or related to your message.

The pieces of online promotion – branding, blogging, internet radio show interviews, media kits, article marketing, social media, networking, virtual blog tours, are all part of the bigger picture in getting your business and/or book out to the people who you want it to reach. And it isn’t instantaneous and there are alot of “moving parts”…the objective is to keep the online promotion moving and speak to those who will want to hear or read your message.

Now, this is a discussion I had with my daughter this afternoon. It started because she is doing this project for school where she can earn an award for submitting about four examples of her writing. The submissions are due on Monday and we were talking about what she still needed to do in order to get the writing ready to give to her teacher.

She told me that really all she needed to do was to type them up (she had written most of these last year for assignments, which she can use). I asked her if she thought she wanted me to look at them and she replied, “No, thank you. If there is anything I would like to change, I will do it. She continued, “It isn’t that I don’t want your help, however, I want the writing to stay in my voice because I like the way I write.

So, then a question came into my head. If someone else helps you with your writing, do you feel they are telling you can’t write? Or do you take it as being helpful?

For me, I wasn’t going to change what she wrote but I felt I would be helping her. However, I do understand her point of view too.