One of my best friends got me one of those Page-a-Day calendars for Christmas.

To be honest, I usually get at least one of these every year, and more often than not, I end the year with the first few torn off, and then the rest of the year’s block of paper intact. I forget to read them, I don’t find them useful or interesting, or I just can’t be bothered.

This year, though, she got me the Page-a-Day calendar from “The Secret.” You know, the big Law of Attraction movie-book-viral marketing success story? (No doubt the musical will be coming later this year. ;))

So far, every day this year, I’ve been excited to read the little pages of insight and inspiration.

I believe in the Law of Attraction. I’ve seen it work in our lives and business. It makes sense to me. I want to get better at using it to manifest the things we want in our lives — more laughter, fun, time, money, freedom, creativity, etc. All those nice things that make life worthwhile.

I thought I’d share today’s little blurb here, because it’s definitely one of the biggest blocks I’ve seen for solo professionals, micropreneurs, and small business owners.

 From The Secret page-a-day calendar for January 12th:

If you have held thoughts in the past that the only way money can come to you is through your job, then let that go immediately. Can you appreciate that as you continue to think that, it must be your experience? Such thoughts do no serve you.

So many of us unwittingly set our own limits about what we can do, how much we can make, and how money can flow into our lives. “I tried that and it didn’t work.” “No, that wouldn’t work for me.” Or “I couldn’t possibly make money doing THAT.”

Just like what Allen and I tell our 5-year-old son, and what he now parrots back to us on a nearly daily basis (and what good old Henry Ford said:

Whether you say you can or say you can’t, you’re right.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 12th, 2008 at 11:33 am and is filed under Lessons Learned. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Well, Boys ‘n Girls, here it is. January 6th, 2008.

One year ago today, I wrote a gigantic blog post about this day, the word “Epiphany,” and how “Epiphanies, Inc.” came to be the name of our business. (In fact, this is a dynamite example of yet another reason why I love blogging so much: It serves as an easily searchable database of your own personal and biz history, rants, musings, etc., so when you wake up at 4:44 am and decide to take advantage of the quiet and blog about the meaning and history of the word “Epiphany,” you can discover you already did the exact same thing one year ago today, link to that post, marvel at the fact that 365 days have passed in a blink of an eye, and move on to some other yet-to-be-determined riff on the day.)

In addition to it being the Day of Epiphany, and “Little Christmas” in Ireland, and Armenian Christmas, and the Rastafari movement’s celebration of the birthday of beloved Ethiopian Emperor (1930 - 1974) and religious symbol for God incarnate Haile Selassie, January 6th also marks the day:

• Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I, becomes King of the Romans (1690)
• Samuel Morse first successfully tests the electrical telegraph (1838)
• Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta to begin a her work amongst India’s poorest and diseased people (1929)
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address (1941), which inspired the the famous “Four Freedoms” paintings by Norman Rockwell (one of my very favorite artists and “A-Ha Yourself!” masters!) AND a monument of the same name
• Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding (1994)
• Joan of Arc (1412), Khalil Gibran (1883), Earl Scruggs (1924), and Rowan Atkinson (1955) were born
• Louis Braille (1852), Dizzy Gillespie (1993), and Lou Rawls (2006) died

(I nabbed all the above from the lazy person’s go-to information source, Wikipedia.org. If you’re dying for the complete list of things of note that happened on January 6th, check it out here.)

In other words, it’s a day loaded with meaning for us, and thus a perfect day to reflect, project, process, and rejoice at the exquisite and beautious chaos of it all. 

Allen and I incorporated Epiphanies, Inc. with the state of New Hampshire four years ago, almost to the day (January 2nd, 2004, to be precise. Or so Allen tells me. I like to reinvent history and say it was January 6th, just for synchronicity of it.) So far, it’s been quite a ride.

We’ve had victories and defeats. We’ve struggled and soared. We’ve had big, ugly fights we thought would certainly jeapordize our marriage — but now, looking back, we know they made us stronger and forced us to learn how to communicate better.

We’ve balanced parenting and moving from the West Coast to the East Coast and first-time home ownership with learning everything we can about marketing and online communication tools and successful business strategies.

Last year, we:

>>> Released our first four info products out into the world

>>> Attended the Global Marketing Summit in Myrtle Beach, SC

>>> Made a bold ‘n very smart move and got an office outside of the home

>>> Landed a quote in a feature article on Forbes.com

>>> “Shared the stage with Adam Urbanski” at his reknowned “Attract Clients Like Crazy” Boot Camp

>>> Were among the the featured presenters at MicroCredit-NH’s Entrepreneurial Exchange Day 

>>> Were invited to be a guest on Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman’s (aka “The Blog Squad”) Blogging and Beyond radio show

>>> Got a blogging article published in an awesome book loaded with expert advice on writing and how to market your writing talents

>>> Were invited to lead a workshop at the 24th Annual Governor’s Conference on Volunteerism  

>>> Celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary (!!!!! Wahooo!!!!)

>>> Were asked to moderate a call for Melanie “The Entrepreneur’s Success Coach” Strick’s Ultimate Wealth and Success Circle monthly resource teleseminar

>>> Led three killer workshops for MicroCredit-NH, including: Brainstorm + Brand = BOOM!, Creating Added Value, and Plugging in Your Marketing Power Tools

>>> Were interviewed by Ali “The Ezine Queen” Brown as a success story on one of her teleclasses boasting attendance of 2000 other coaches, consultants, and small biz owners

>>> Became parents for the second time (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and learned how to blog while breastfeeding

>>> Attended PodCamp Boston 2, and met David Meerman Scott , author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR

>>> Attended Fall Von 2007, the premier IP Communications trade show, to help VIP client Iperia manage their exhibition

>>> Finally got life insurance AND upgraded our health insurance to a premium plan that makes us feel like we value our family’s safety and well-being

>>> Submitted 15 original articles on www.AhaArticles.com (our affiliate link to article distribution service SubmitYourArticle.com), and were bestowed the honor of “Expert Author” status on EzineArticles.com

>>> Laughed a heck of a lot more than we did in 2006 (!!!!!)

>>> Posted 10 ADD Info Summits on everything from article marketing to social media

>>> Saw my little brother get engaged, buy HIS first house, and get married (!!!!!)

>>> Made nearly 3X as much money as we did in 2006, doing nearly everything with radical imperfection 

Wow. I had no idea how much we’d done. No wonder we’re pooped.

To think, before I had the striking idea to actually scan through our blog archives to see what the heck we’ve been doing these past 12 months, I could only remember the giving birth and getting life insurance thing. Crazy and crazier.

All this month we’re carving out a solid success plan for Epiphanies, Inc. for 2008, so we can get over this feeling that we’re thriving — as a business AND as a married couple — by accident.

It’s a little scary and intimidating and more than a little overwhelming, this “planning” thing. It’s also fun and fascinating, and we’re excited to make 2008 the year we finally:

1. Create a plan TOGETHER
2. FOLLOW our plan
3. Reap the rewards of our focused labor, including (but not limited to): More fun, more free time, more income, more overall prosperty, fewer headaches, less confusion, more confidence, and MORE SUCCESS TO EVERYONE AROUND US

So, on this Day of Epiphany, here’s mine:

Progress is more easily recognized and revered over time (say, over a 12-month period), than it is when you’re trying to find it at the end of a long day, when you’re collapsing into bed with your husband/biz partner and wondering where the time went, why it seldom feels like anything’s getting done, and how the heck you’re going to tackle the never-ending to-do list of life and business the next day, and the next, and the next…

And for a bonus EPIPHANY, I’ll say this:

I love, love, LOVE my gorgeous, talented, brilliant, kind, benevolent, wonderful, sweet, caring, loving, patient, extraordinary, creative, thoughtful, funny, fair-minded, courageous, and utterly fearless husband/biz partner!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 6th, 2008 at 9:56 am and is filed under Entrepreneur Diaries, Married - With Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Article marketing is one of the three Power Tools — in addition to blogging and news/press releases — we recommend to small business owners on a tight marketing budget because it’s affordable, effective, easy. (Heck, we recommend it for bigger companies, too, since adding informative, relevant content around your field or industry to the online party is a MUST to your searchablility, visibility, and competitive edge.)

Last week I read a kick-butt blog post from Acorn Creative’s “Chief Nut” Kevin Skarritt and asked him if we could send it out to the world via our preferred article distribution service, www.AhaArticles.com. Being the kind ‘n generous dude he is, he said yes. And yesterday, we were notified by www.EzineArticles.com, one of the most SEO-friendly and popular article libraries, that they liked the article, too.

They sent us the email below. The reason I’m pasting it is because, well, even if this is their standard method of operation, it’s a winning strategy because it makes me feel GOOD. Check it out:

Hello Lani And Allen,

 

Your article, “Inbound Link Mania - 10 Key Content Strategies to Increase Online Visibility” - has been accepted and added to the EzineArticles.com

directory:

http://EzineArticles.com/?id=902941

 

You’ve also earned Expert Author status:

http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lani_Voivod

 

Your article will be on our high-traffic home page later today:

http://EzineArticles.com/

 

Your article has also been sent to our exclusive EzineArticles RSS Feed and to our proprietary EzineArticles Email Alert Members.

 

You are welcome to add one of these special buttons on your website to show that your articles have been featured on

EzineArticles.com: http://EzineArticles.com/XXXXXXX [Not the real link, since I don't think it's public]

 

For quality control purposes, your article was reviewed by our Associate Editor #40

 

To Your Article Marketing Success!

http://EzineArticles.com/  

In the realm of small biz marketing, how often do you get to FEEL like something you put “out there” actually made a difference? How often do you get to FEEL like your marketing efforts aren’t in vain? How often do the tools you use actually pat you on the back and let you brag to the world that you’re a recognized EXPERT in the article-writing community?

Of course, this is a GREAT move for EzineArticles.com, too, because they get free marketing. But isn’t that what it’s all about? YOU focus on delivering products, services, and creating a brand with stellar standards and practices that make your ideal audience FEEL SOOOOO GOOD, they willingly and happily brag about you to others in their world?  

So, in 2008 and beyond, go ahead — find little things you can do to make every contact with you and your business, your BRAND, as fun, entertaining, and pleasurable as possible. Take an extra 10 minutes to add personal touches to your marketing touches. Whether it’s your outgoing phone messages, your invoices, your signage, etc., take some chances and make your mark.

It’s not only fun, it spreads good stuff in the world…and it’s GOOD for your bottom line.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 4th, 2008 at 11:11 am and is filed under Agents of Karma, Fun With Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Separated at birth, perhaps? No, of course not. But I’ve been thinking about them both a lot lately, for different reasons.

I’ve been mulling over Reilly because, after a tremendously distinguished career in serious movies, has made a bold move into comedy in recent years, with 2006’s Talladega Nights and 2007’s Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. And of the five movies he’s got going in 2008, three of them are comedies.

What I’m dying to know is why he’s making this choice! I think he’s a great actor, and I’m very curious to know what’s motivated the move.

More to the point of the blog post, I think he was the funniest thing about Talladega Nights (better than Will Ferrell in it, who’s honestly kind of rehashing the same character movie after movie), and I think I know why - but it took Tyra Banks to teach me.

By some odd quirk of fate, MTV and VH1 have been airing marathons of America’s Next Top Model, and though we never watched it before, it’s become a staple while a hungry two-month-old baby boy demands his milk from Lani. And the thing that jumped out at me one night, after the models were challenged to act out a random verb/adverb combination pulled from separate hats (i.e. “dance viciously,” “hide dizzily”), was Tyra’s observation about commitment.

Some of the models just threw themselves into it, some barely tried, and one actually got so embarrassed she ran out of the room when she was done. (She was the one eliminated that episode.) And the essence of Tyra’s feedback was that commitment is everything.

No matter what’s thrown at you in your given work day, you’ve got to attack it with complete commitment, dive in, give it your all, don’t worry about making a fool of yourself, just own the moment and roll with whatever life and business throw at you.

That’s why I think, despite very little indication (in more than 15 years of movie making) that comedy was in his blood, Reilly is succeeding at comedy - because as an actor, he commits. Sure, there are things about comedy that most people can learn, but not everyone can master. I’d say utter commitment is one of the keys to mastery, and Reilly seems to have that in spades.

That’s my medium-sized “Aha!” of the week for you, and if you’re getting so-so results from whatever you’re up to these days, maybe a check-in with your commitment level is in order. And that goes for me as well. 

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 10:32 am and is filed under A-Has in the Ether. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.