Give a gift of success to a new grad with a gift certificate for a life coach!

Do you have a child or grandchild, niece or nephew graduating from high school or college in May or June?  Graduations are a time for celebration AND a time for change that can bring other emotions such as:
        • Anxiety about moving to college
        • Frustration over identifying a major or career
        • Feeling powerless over identifying a life purpose
Help him or her get a head start on the next chapter in life with their very own life coach.  Gift certificates are available by contacting Coach Karen.  Give the gift of life success!  

we may forget to cherish a new beginning.”

~ Karen Kramer

List 10 things for which you are thankful for today. Celebrate at least 1 of them.

but whose place no one else can take.”

~ Cardinal Mermillod

Happy Mother’s Day to All Mothers!

Job Hunting? Quick Tips to Get “LinkedIn”

A nice cover letter and detailed resume may get you in the door, but a LinkedIn profile could finally get you that dream job. A virtual CV not only gives perspective employers more information about you, it also allows social media to open doors to new career opportunities.

LinkedIn is an online professional networking site with access to over 7 million business people. The website tops all other social networks when it comes to finding jobs, and it’s FREE!

If you are new to social media, don’t let it overwhelm you. Just like learning to swim or riding a bike, start slow, learn the basics, and observe others. Here are a few tips.

Get Started:

1. Visit the LinkedIn Web site.
2. Enter the information requested on each page to build your basic profile. This takes about 2 minutes.
3. Choose “Basic Level” to continue with a free profile.

Expand Your Profile:

1. Review your basic profile and enhance it where needed.
2. Define your career goals and interests by creating a compelling statement about the type of job you seek and your unique skills. Select the types of business opportunities about which you wish to be contacted.
3. Add a professional profile picture that represents the image you want to portray to potential employers.

Build Your Network:

1. Build your network by creating a list of business professionals you know. Consider past bosses, coworkers, clients, classmates, neighbors, friends, and relatives. List anyone you know in a professional context.
2. With the list, conduct a “People Search.” In the box provided, enter a person’s name that you would like to add to your network. If you allowed LinkedIn to pull from your own contact list associated with your email address upon starting your profile, refer to these profiles.
3. Join a LinkedIn group. Many alumni groups and professional societies use LinkedIn to connect with members.

Reach Out to Others:

1. If possible, ask former bosses to write you a strong recommendation. Ask that they highlight key skills and include specific examples of your successes.
2. Send short messages to select members of your LinkedIn network to ask for any opportunities in their companies.
3. Identify members in your LinkedIn network who work at a company to which you want to apply. Ask for tips about the hiring process and the skills for which the company is looking. Request your resume be delivered to human resources or ask for the hiring manager’s contact information.

Keep With It:

1. Log into your profile for at least 15-minutes once a week to update your profile, accept LinkedIn requests, and continue to search for other people to build your network.
2. If you meet business professionals not already in your LinkedIn network, search for them in LinkedIn and ask them to be part of your network.
3. Concerned about managing your time on LinkedIn, check out Debra Simpson’s tips on “How To Manage Social Media So It Doesn’t Manage You!”

Create an expanding network using your LinkedIn account, and get the job you want in less time than it takes to go on numerous, boring interviews. It is simple to join and free. Put yourself out there today and start your dream job tomorrow!

nothing is going to get better.  It’s not.”

~ Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

What can YOU do today to make a positive impact on TOMORROW?

You never know how strong she is

until you put her in hot water.”

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

This can apply to both genders. When was the last time you surprised yourself with strength when you needed to most?

you’ll always have more.

If you look at what you don’t have in life,

you’ll never have enough.”

~ Oprah Winfrey

Do you have enough in life? List 20 things you are grateful for having in your life today.

And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”

~ Dalai Lama

Who will you help this week?

is getting started.”

~ Mark Twain

What have you put off starting this year? What will you do to get started today?

by Guest Writer Debra Simpson

How To Manage Social Media So It Doesn’t Manage You!

I hear it all the time, “I don’t have time for social media.” Look at your competition. Are they on Facebook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn? If they are, then they are finding value in engaging their “tribe” on social media. Maybe you should too!

Social Media is becoming one of the essential marketing tools for small business owners. It elevates your visibility and gives you a platform to show your depth of knowledge. It can make or break your business. We are being evaluated by our social media presence.

So you’ve decided to jump in and now have a Facebook page, a LinkedIn account and a Twitter page. You realize you need to share valuable content on those pages, regularly, and engage those who are viewing your status updates. So how do you manage it all?

Here are some of the tools I use to manage my social media.

Google Reader

With Google Reader you can subscribe to blogs you find interesting and informative. Google Reader provides you with one place to see all the new content being created at the blogs you love. So rather than having to visit each blog site to see what is new, you need only check your reader.

You can easily share any blog post in your reader, from reader, to Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Stumble Upon, Buffer and more. It’s an incredible time saver.

Any time I’m researching something, or following links from Facebook and Twitter, and… I like the content, I subscribe to their feed. Just look for the orange square icon with the white dot in the lower left corner followed by two white bowed lines. Tap that icon and subscribe through Google Reader. Now, a lot of great content is at your fingertips, waiting for you to share it on your social media sites.

Hootsuite

This is a great tool for checking all your social media in one place. Hootsuite has a free and a paid version. The free version allows you to link 5 of your social media sites and two RSS feed. The RSS feed is for your blog. Hootsuite will send a tweet out, on Twitter, a link to your blog post each time you publish a new blog post.

After connecting your five social media sites, you then create streams to give you, at a glance, the activity happening on each social site. This makes it easy for you to see when someone has responded to one of your shares, has sent you a message, and other activity.

The beauty of Hootsuite is the Hootlet. The Hootlet is a tool you drag up to your bookmark bar on your browser. As you’re surfing the net and you find a piece of content you love, the Hootlet, with one tap, lets you share that content on one, or all, of your social sites.

Hootsuite also allows you to schedule your tweets and status updates. I spend about 20 minutes in the morning with my Google Reader and Nexus tablet, scheduling out the tweets for the day via my Hootsuite app. Then I check in, via Hootsuite, usually through my browser, to see if anyone has shared or responded to my status update.

Hootsuite can be accessed through your browser and is available as an app on your Android, iPad, and Blackberry. It’s a tool I use every day.

These two tools will save you a lot of time and help build your online visibility and showcasing your expertise.

Debra Simpson has been blogging since 2005 and builds WordPress websites for small business owners.