Toluu

SlashChick.com

Erica Douglass, "temporarily retired" after selling a successful business at age 26, writes thought-provoking blog entries challenging you to change your life and daring you to become more successful.

Feeling Lonely, Depressed, or Underappreciated This Thanksgiving? Read This!November 26

Feeling underappreciated? Try this simple remedy.Every once in a while, I get depressed and unmotivated. Of course, with depression comes the inevitable feeling-sorry-for-myself moments.

I was having one of those today while taking a shower, bemoaning my life, when a new thought occurred to me.

Background

I have real problems talking on the phone. While I know the phone is an essential communication mechanism for many people, I still have a tough time actually picking up the phone and calling anyone. I always feel awkward once I actually call someone, and my goal is often to relay information and hang up as quickly as possible, resulting in confusion for the person on the other end!

I managed to get over this quite effectively for business, since I always had an end goal in mind (”Is your issue resolved? Is there anything else I can help you with? Okay, great, thanks. Have a great day!”) but for simple personal calls, I just can’t do it. There’s no goal!

Kicking Myself out of My Self-Pity

I decided today that I could kill two birds with one stone and take a great leap by actually calling people. Since I needed a goal, I made one up: I would call ten people who had helped me out, either recently or in the past, and tell them thank you. Since it’s near Thanksgiving, this seemed appropriate.

After nearly having a heart

Good Gifts To Give: Five Guidelines To Giving Gifts Your Family and Friends Will LoveNovember 18

Like you, I get many holiday gifts every year I don’t use — from clothes that don’t fit to food I don’t eat to soaps and bath accessories I don’t need. These products fill our landfills and clutter our closets. Worse yet, they are often quickly forgotten and don’t make an impact on our lives.

Here, then, are five strategies you can use to give meaningful gifts your recipients will love — and actually use!

What are good gifts to give —
for even the pickiest recipient?

1. Avoid giving “stuff” if at all possible.

   All of us get an inordinate amount of “stuff” every year. Most of it clutters up our houses, and therefore, our life. I’m a big proponent of reducing the amount of stuff in my life, so I don’t like these gifts. Instead of giving stuff, why not give an experience they will remember for a long time to come?

   Here’s an easy question. Simply ask the gift recipient where they shop, eat, or would like to have a spa day, nail treatment, etc. Don’t let them get away with vague answers like “I buy most things at my local grocery store.” Ask them, “Where is your favorite place to shop?” Then give them a gift card fom that place.

   My mom gives me

Are You Ready?October 31

This blog post is raw, unedited, and from my heart.

I’m at the Train the Trainer workshop in Los Angeles, CA. The goal of this 5-day workshop is to train you on how to speak in front of an audience…from specific ways of handling questions to actually getting up there on stage and speaking.

Tonight was “Outrageous Night”, where we had to dress up in costumes and perform a minute-and-a-half song in front of 100 people. We were not allowed to lip-synch or talk.

Before we got up on stage, we were asked to write down some fears and obstacles we would like to overcome in our performance. Dancing is a huge fear of mine, which stems from my fears of not being perfect and of looking silly. And, of course, one of my beliefs is that I have to do everything myself — which was why hiring an assistant was such a huge step for me.

Before we were scheduled to go up, we had an hour and a half break for dinner. I knew my mission was to find a guy and set up a dance routine with him. I was really clear that this was part of what I had to do to overcome my fears.

The song I had picked was Madonna’s “More”, which is from Dick Tracy. (If you don’t know it, click on that link and watch the video.)

I walked downstairs and found a guy about my age sitting at the hotel bar, eating. I introduced myself and explained that I needed a dance partner. His name was Eli, and he agreed! I sh

Beat the Big Corporations by Delivering the Best Customer ExperienceOctober 23

Is emulating the “big boys” really a key to success?One of the most common mistakes I see when people first start a business — and I see this one clearly because I did it myself — is to want to make themselves look more “corporate.”

Sometimes, corporate is good — it’s professional. For instance, I don’t recommend using those tear-out business cards with dotted-line edges. Can we put those back in the 1980s where they came from?

The mistake I most often see is not in business cards, though — it’s in the message of your business. There is a pervasive belief that the more “corporate” your website and emails look, the better.

I completely disagree, and here’s why.

Why You Shouldn’t Emulate Large Corporations

Many of you, as business owners, look to large corporations’ websites and marketing materials to see what you should do. For instance, if you’re starting a restaurant, you may wish to emulate the Cheesecake Factory website.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, except that you do yourself a disservice by trying to clone these websites. By making your website a clone a big company in your industry, you miss out on the largest marketing opportuni

Manifesting A Trip to Tahiti, Income Goals, And Other Weekend FunOctober 19

I’ll be back in a day or two with more thought-provoking blog posts. In the meantime, since it’s the weekend, I figured I’d share with you a few things I am working on and reading that wouldn’t necessarily fit in an entire blog post — including some fun I’m having!

Manifesting A Trip To Tahiti

Tahiti, by Robbi BabaI recently picked up the book Money, and the Law of Attraction by Esther and Jerry Hicks. I can already hear some of you sighing… “Erica, surely you don’t believe in that stuff.”

Actually, you might be surprised to find out that I became a believer after consistently envisioning for several months that I would sell my business for $1 million, and then doing it. I’ll explain how I did it in another blog post.

In the meantime, since I’ve achieved that goal, and am working hard toward my $10,000/month in writing and blogging income by the end of 2008, I decided to envision something more fun. I noticed on the Abraham/Hicks website that they were taking a cruise to Tahiti next year. I was disappointed