Live Into It!

Never stop learning…

At any given time I’m reading a handful of books, studying from carefully chosen mentors, and doing my own research on the topic of the day that seems to rock my world.

Today I tuned into a teleseminar from one of my online marketing mentors, Howie Schwartz. The guy is BRILLIANT. Plus, he’s a total sweetheart…

As I was on the call, he mentioned someone typed in NAMASTE to him. He got a kick out of it and encouraged everyone listening to look it up for themselves for a more personal experience of the true meaning. He mentioned how he’d been doing Yoga and had changed his eating patterns to green tea and live foods. Funny thing, because I’ve done the same in just the last month…

It is Saturday, Fourth of July weekend, and I’m chilling so I found myself GOOGLING NAMASTE. I found the Wikipedia definition and noticed the hand symbol in the photos. Namaste is a term from India, which made me think a lot about Siddha Yoga, a form of yoga that I’ve done with great success in quieting the mind and getting centered. Whenever I think of what I have learned through Siddha Yoga, I am filled with love and gratitude.

One more thing. My sweetheart, life partner, and fiance Thomas Gorgas, Ph.D., has always told me that I need to be a teacher at the “School For Love“. He keeps asking me what I’m waiting for, and well, I don’t have a great answer. When I watched this video today, I felt it through and through. I needed to share it with you…

So on this Fourth of July weekend, I wish you love and light as you live into the life you’ve imagined… :)CC

Christine N. Cibula, M.S.
Business Development Consultant
www.LiveIntoIt.com
“Live Into The Life You’ve Imagined…”

P.S. Just in case you are wondering, nothing is more irresistible to MANIFESTING THE LIFE OF YOUR DREAMS THAN LOVE, no matter what you are in the process of manifesting. Love… Health… Wealth… At the core in all of it and each other is LOVE… NAMASTE…

Do you ever wonder how the amazing internet marketers make boatloads on their product launches? You know how it goes, your inbox is suddenly stuffed with MEGA-LAUNCHES and co-promotions all pointing to the same amazing new product or seminar. And these guys are good - really good - at getting their marketing message out there. A bunch of the big WEB 2.0 internet gurus made at least a million with their launches.

But the thing I keep wondering is what happens to the little guy? Can just plain regular folks win with those kinds of launches?

Well I just saw a short video that gives the FINAL answer on that question. And I have to admit, I found it really shocking.

I mean a guy with a crazy obscure niche going from the food stamps line to a six figure income? His case study is for real. I mean, you can see how he started out with this herbal medicinal board game he produced for a pretty penny and a home overflowing floor to ceiling with all these boxes. Talk about a super specialized niche, right?

And this husband and father of two basically put them out there and guess what? He sold 12… And then he found Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula (the one I have in my library that I just pulled back out to look at in depth again). Jeff pulled the version I have and is no longer selling it, because he’s getting ready to release his Product Launch Formula 2.0.

I’m actually in line to get his version 2.0 because he’s added a bunch of great new content for Web 2.0 users. Even if you don’t buy the product, the case study rocks and it is worthwhile to see how Jeff Walker does his own product launches. After all, he’s the guy behind the success of John Reese’s and Frank Kern’s million dollar product launches… I won’t say he taught them everything they know, but he did teach them how to do record-breaking product launches that skyrocketed their product launches into SEVEN FIGURES!

I’ve met Jeff Walker in person at the Dan Kennedy & Bill Glazer Info Summit in Atlanta where he presented. He’s a great guy - real… down to earth… unassuming… trustworthy… kind… gracious… humble… we’re talking a guitar playing guy who loves his family and hangs out in sweats at home… he even does product launches in his bathrobe… I’m sharing this to say it is worth your time to check out how he launches a product around an event. This stuff is GOLD…

Go watch the video now:

http://tinyurl.com/2emuhs

But before you go… one more thing: you don’t need to
enter your email address to see the video - it’s
completely free. But MAKE SURE that you do enter your
email address anyway… the follow up “case study” is
going to be even better than this first video.

http://tinyurl.com/2emuhs

Live Into It… :)CC

P.S. Food stamps to six figures is cool… but that’sjust one of the amazing non-guru case studies in the video. How about a list to 312 people that generatesway more than five figures?

Go watch it now:

http://tinyurl.com/2emuhs

This morning my fiance shared a beautiful story with me about a documentary he saw about 10 years ago about MOVING THE MOUNTAIN. Michael Apted’s 1989 documentary was about the pro-democracy movement in China that later escalated into Tianamen Square and the courage of one man captured in a photograph before he met his death standing up for what he believed in…

In the end, Thomas shared that we can move a mountain ONE SHOVELFUL AT A TIME.  He then said that it is like he’s heard me say before, “Focus on base hits instead of home runs…”

We don’t usually win at the game of life in one full swoop.  Sure, some people win the lottery and then proceed to lose everything they gained, because they don’t know how to manage it.

Most of us build wealth steadily with some rather nice growth spurts at times, what Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer refer to as THE PHENOMENON.

We’re creating our EXTRAORDINARY lives, so we talk like this most mornings, noons and nights. We’ve got our vision boards. We have our daily goal cards and action steps.  We’ve mapped our plan.  We make a point to only watch, listen to, and participate in INSPIRATIONAL activities.

So back to my story… He said,”You know, it is just like Jack Canfield says in THE SECRET that you have to have faith as you move forward only being able to see 200 feet in front of you because you will eventually reach your destination. Of course, you need to know where you’re going…”

Which triggered this thought I’ve literally run back into my office to share with you this moment!

Last weekend we were celebrating my Dad’s 65th birthday AND my fiance’s birthday, because they BOTH SHARE THE SAME BIRTHDAY!

All joking aside about how we eventually marry our fathers (or mothers), we were on our way to a really amazing restaurant called the Canebrake. It happens to be in the MIDDLE of the countryside in the middle of a small town in the middle of somewhere that for a minute felt like it might as well have been #%&*! Egypt…

TWO important points. One is that since I run an internet-based business, I can do it from HAWAII like I did last summer and I can do it from OKLAHOMA where we are now to enjoy some time with family. So when you read this, understand we’re in Oklahoma right now. The second is that I have an older ML-430 SUV Mercedes WITHOUT a GPS tracker and I was using a Google MapQuest map.

We knew our starting point (Tulsa, OK). We knew our destination (Canebrake in Wagoner, OK). We made it, but not without some challenges…

We got LOST… LOST… LOST…

LOST #1: I had the map in front of me, but did not follow it. I was supposed to get off at the first exit on the turnpike but I got off earlier when we were just merging with the turnpike and got on Highway 51. I asked Dad if that was the right exit by phone and he thought based on what I was sharing that it was, but it turned out to be wrong.  Even so, I was looking for a street intersection, found it, and ended up in a neighborhood with no restaurant to be seen anywhere. We discovered we had gotten off the turnpike earlier than anticipated and had taken a smaller highway so we went forward, reconnected with the turnpike, and followed the map.

LOST #2:  We followed the map, but the map was WRONG.  At one point, the map said highway 51 merged into a street called CHEROKEE, and that we’d take our next right after Spencer.  Highway 51 did merge into Cherokee if you proceed forward and ironically at a point where Highway 51 makes a SHARP RIGHT that the map did not mention.

A short distance down CHEROKEE, we did find SPENCER, the street that was supposedly right before our next right onto the street where the restaurant is supposed to be.

But we never found the next turn to the right which was supposed to be our destination.  Instead we ended up going WAY farther forward and dead ending at a street that ironically had the same intersection signs as the first time we got lost (on both signs).  But clearly, the restaurant was not there.

(I had a mini-breakdown on the cell phone realizing we were stuck at night in the middle of the countryside in the middle of nowhere not knowing where to go.  I was panicked.  My fiance made the honest observation that I was being a,  “FRICKIN’ NIGHTMARE” to which I promptly replied, “HAPPY FRICKIN’ BIRTHDAY!!!) We laughed about this publicly at the dinner once we arrived and had a little champagne!

LOST #3:  Not trusting the final set of directions.  We got the right directions but since we had chased our tails so feverishly twice before, I was starting to lose it.  We gassed up and the attendant had no idea where the restaurant was that I was talking about. I was seriously consider going back home.

I turned around two or three times (much to the dismay of my fiance) before proceeding forward cautiously and finally making it to the correct destination.

Jack Canfield calls this phenomenon “CORRECTING COURSE…”   He shares that most of the time a flight has the correct destination locked in on its computer, but the majority of the time, the flight is correcting course to reach its destination.

So we arrived at this beautiful spa, resort, fine dining location and enjoyed a beautiful birthday celebration and had a perfectly wonderful night.  Never mind that it took our friends one hour to get there and it took us two and a half hours to get there.

We reached our destination…  Actually, everyone marveled:

1. We STUCK IT OUT until we arrived.  STAYING POWER PAYS OFF EVENTUALLY!
2. We were able to figure it out despite a WRONG map and without a GPS SYSTEM (…Guess what I’m getting for my birthday from Dad this year?…).

3.  We were able to enjoy and celebrate a ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY.

So the moral to the story is…

1.  KNOW WHERE YOU EVENTUALLY WANT TO END UP…  This is a critical key to your success and it is worth the time to get a clear solid and exact picture of where you are going. It saves a lot of time, headache, and heartache along the way.  Others in the group found it by actually going to the Canebrake’s website (better directions from the source) and relying on a real road map (yeah, the old fashioned kind that you keep in the car with you) instead of a Google or MapQuest map.

2.  STAY THE COURSE…  Despite being tested along the way, stay the course.  Correct course when you get off track.  Staying the course helps when you have a clear picture (not a foggy one, but a definite and clear focus) of where you are going.  It may take two to three times what you anticipate it is going to take before you get there, but you must stay the course in order to actually arrive.

3.  GO THE DISTANCE…  Remember that one of the Universal Laws is the LAW OF GROWTH.  If you retreat just before the seed sprouts, you’ll never see the flower.  In our case, we decided that even if we made it for dessert and coffee, we were going.  Turned out they had enjoyed appetizers and champagne and we were able to enjoy the remainder of the meal with them.  If we had given up, we would have missed a very special once in a lifetime night.

Live Into It…  :)CC

Christine N. Cibula, M.S.

The Manifestation Mentor

www.LiveIntoIt.com  

P.S.  And when in doubt, remember that one man can move a mountain one shovelful at a time…  This may not be ideal for fast business growth, but remember that base hits win the game steadily in lieu of home runs, and often times with a much better overall standing when it is all said and done…

Have you ever just met someone and had that instant connection where suddenly you’re talking about your families, your businesses and just about everything under the sun and you know you can trust this person implicitly?

For me that was how I felt when I met Fabienne Fredrickson. She felt like a sister. It was so cool. We chatted up a storm and I knew right then and there I wanted to work with her. That’s me, CC, on the left, Fabienne Fredrickson “The Client Attraction Breakthrough Mentor” in the middle, and my other awesome friend, Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero of “Red Hot Copy” on the right (check out previous blog entries to read all about Lorrie).

We were all together at Alexandria Brown’s “Online Success Blueprint Workshop” last November when we took that picture. But I met Fabienne the year prior in Atlanta, Georgia at the Bill Glazer and Dan Kennedy Info Summit. Come to think of it Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero and Alexandria K. Brown were there, too! I was actually assisting Ali when she had a mad rush of six figure sales the last day when she gave her onstage presentation. Isn’t it fun how that works?

Here’s ONE BIG HINT… Successful people all hang out in the same places. This is especially true in the Entrepreneurial and Infopreneurial world… Turns out Fabienne and Ali go all the way back to their early days living in the city of New York… Turns out Lorrie and Ali met at a speaking engagement where they were both scheduled to talk in LA in the leaner years.

Now here’s the REALLY COOL PART OF IT… We all learn from each other’s products, seminars, and services and send each other clients. Sure it is a great way to reconnect and have a great time with friends and write the trip off because its business, but you can be sure we wouldn’t spend our time there if the payoff wasn’t huge. Every entrepreneur is always looking at the bottom line when making these kinds of decisions.

After meeting Fabienne, I picked up her Client Attraction Home Study System. I was completely WOWed! To this day I still regularly open the system and work with it. If you don’t get Fabienne’s Ezine, sign up for it ASAP. It ROCKS!

I was so impressed with Fabienne, I began coaching with her. She is such a wonderful coach. I was able to fill my coaching practice effortlessly and easily implementing the systems she teaches. Now I’m moving my business to the next level…

This year, I’m attending her Client Attraction Workshop, because I want to totally immerse myself for three solid days in her system and fine tune myself. I am a big believer in repetition, because I find it helps me to fine tune myself year after year. Plus, I believe you get a heck of a lot more out of LIVE IMMERSION in an event rather than simply doing the home study version. Both have their place in my world, but live events are my favorite.

Fabienne’s giving away a ton of free information on a series of calls, the first of which starts TONIGHT! Here’s how to sign up and get your link, but be quick about it, because these calls are filling up super fast. The last call I heard Fabienne give I took PAGES of notes… Now that’s saying something! So here are the details… Be sure to let me know if you decide to join me in at Fabienne Fredrickson’s Client Attraction Workshop in April 2008! I’ll be in the front row (I signed up as soon as the landing page was put up on her site!) and I’LL SEE YOU THERE…

In the meantime, you can get a tremendous amount of information from Fabienne on these calls. I know I’ll be there, and I want to hear you on the line, too. You simply CANNOT miss all this great FREE CONTENT!!!!!

So, won’t you join me? The first call is on Tuesday, February 19, 2008 and you can sign up and get the details here now by simply clicking on the link below or type this adorable tiny URL into your browser (http://tinyurl.com/2k6lbv):

Fabienne Fredrickson’s Client Attraction Workshop FREE PREVIEW CALLS

I’ll see you on the calls!

Live Into It… :)CC

Okay, I just had to tell you. It’s back, but not for long! But HURRY, because she only releases * 147 * COPIES a year, PERIOD. You read that right, because she only wants this information in SERIOUS ENTREPRENEUR’S HANDS. Then it’s done.

And an insider secret? She’s getting interested in shifting her business in 2009, so with some of her programs, like Marketing Mastery, she’s announced that 2008 is the ONLY year she’s offering the program. And if you know Ali, you know she sticks to her word.

By the way, do you know Alexandria Brown, a.k.a. “The Ezine Queen”? If not, you’ve seen her before in my blog entries. Just scroll down and you’ll see she’s been my biggest ONLINE SUCCESS mentor. Actually, if she noticed the blip in my blogging, she’d be like, “CC! You were at my Online Success Blueprint Workshop last year and you don’t have a review up there???” I know. Time to get a move on it girl…

Truth is, I was there and the event was Ali’s BEST EVENT EVER. I’ve personally attended ALL FOUR of Ali’s **SOLD OUT** Online Success Blueprint Workshops. And you know who else was there? The list was LONG AND DISTINGUISHED…

Bill Glazer & David Neagle Presented. Lorrie Morgan Ferrero and James Roche were on Ali’s expert panel. Fabienne Fredrickson was in Ali’s Platinum group.

James Malinchek, Kristy Frank, Maria Forleo, Christine Kloser and many more were in attendance. This was no fluff group. We’re talking about movers and shakers in their respective fields of service.

Why were they there? Because they want to get this INFORMATION AND APPLY IT IN THEIR BUSINESSES. Plus, the networking opportunity is one added bonus.

So what’s all the buzz about?

ONCE A YEAR, Ali releases her Online Success Blueprint In A Box, which is the EXACT content presented at her LIVE EVENT in the Fall of the previous year. She only gives this LIVE seminar ONCE a year in the FALL, and she only releases her ONLINE SUCCESS BLUEPRINT IN A BOX once a year in the SPRING. She puts it out there for a short time and then pulls it again until the following SPRING. So this is one of those things that if you want it, you need to TAKE ACTION NOW.

She’s really shaken things up with the “big boys” of the Internet marketing world. Why? Because she’s so open and honest about what WORKS (and what doesn’t work) when it comes to using email, the Internet, and information marketing to transform your business.

Instead of dangling exciting “magic pill” solutions in front of you, or selling “the next big thing”, Ali tells it like it is. Especially at her SOLD OUT Online Success Blueprint Workshops, the most recent of which was just 2 months ago in Los Angeles.

The bad news is, you missed out! During the 3 full days, she shared her step-by-step, internet-based plan for dramatically increasing your business while working LESS. It was absolutely amazing, even for me, and this was my fourth time in attendance. Several of my buds were repeat guests, too, which simply speaks to the strength of the seminar and the information.

The GOOD news is, after hours of editing, polishing, and coddling, the brand new 2008 Version of her “Online Success Blueprint-in-a-BOX” is finally READY!

It’s the home version of the exact same program she taught LIVE a few months ago. You can see everything you get right now at http://www.LastEverWorkshop.com

This is Ali’s 2nd year of honing this program to perfection, and I can honestly and confidently tell you — there is NOTHING else out there like this! Her program is honestly changing lives. It changed mine by shortening my learning curve substantially.

Before Ali I had a dream but wasn’t sure how to DELIVER the dream because my target market was often housebound with personal illness. Most used computers to do their research, so the ONLY way for me to reach them was THROUGH THE INTERNET. Ali taught me exactly how, and now I’ve gone on to launch two more successful Internet businesses.

But don’t take my word (or even her word) that this stuff works. Ali has *dozens and dozens of client success stories* that will blow your mind! Real people like you and me making thousands or tens of thousands more each month because of Ali’s simple system.

Listen, you’ll want to jump on this FAST, because Ali is only releasing *147 copies* of this version of the program. You’ll have to see what I mean — get the scoop, see all those success stories, and reserve your copy NOW at http://www.LastEverWorkshop.com

(And TURN UP YOUR SPEAKERS so you can hear Ali’s personal message to you. Pssst… This is just one of the amazing techniques she teaches!)

Live Into It… :)CC

Christine N. Cibula, M.S.

www.LiveIntoIt.com

PS - When Ali released last year’s version of this program, it sold out within WEEKS! I was actually at a Mark Victor Hansen Mega Book event working at Ali’s booth and even getting up on stage to present her free giveways. I remember talking with clients about the special package she was offering there and sharing that she was going to pull the product for the year after the event, and she did! The people who missed out were totally BUMMED when the realized they’d have to wait until the fall to attend her workshop (in November) or wait another full year before the new version would be on the market. So please don’t delay - at least take a look at http://www.LastEverWorkshop.com

P.S.S. After the event, Ali asked me to become her Marketing Mastery Tele-Coaching Program Coordinator - an annual program that began on January 8, 2008. We were so busy launching behind the scenes, I got a little behind on my usual blog entries. This opportunity is too good to miss out on, so at least take a few minutes to go check it out.

P.S.S.S. If you were to ask me, “CC, if you had to drill down through every program you’ve been exposed to and learned from in the last 3 years, where would you tell me to lay down my hard earned cash in 2008 to master ONLINE SUCCESS including teleseminars, building a relationship with your people, how to monetize your website, etc.?” I’d say without hesitation, “…Ali Brown’s Blueprint!”

http://www.LastEverWorkshop.com

I’m super excited about going to Alexandria Brown’s Online Success Blueprint Workshop this week. We’ve got one heck of a line-up presenting to us including Bill Glazer! Yes, as in Bill Glazer and Dan Kennedy, who just recently released THE PHENOMENON and one of the featured speakers is Alexandria Brown herself! This is going to be a special treat. I have met Bill Glazer in person at the Info Summit in 2006 and Super Conference in 2007 and worked with his amazing team of people. I really admire and respect him and Dan Kennedy and I’m sure that Bill is going to deliver one heck of an amazing presentation.

Plus, Ali’s amazing Platinum Mastermind Members will be in attendance, and so I’m really looking forward to seeing some old friends and sharing our good news together about how our businesses have grown over the last two years as well as connecting with new members as well.

Then I’m super excited to meet David Neagle in person. I’ve done his home study course called JUST BELIEVE and he is going to be sharing his system in much more depth and detail about the process that allows you to believe in the power of your dreams. Ali has shared it was David’s techniques that helped her to manifest her beautiful million dollar beachfront home in Marina del Rey, California. So you can bet I’m excited to participate in his presentation.

This will be my FOURTH time in attendance! I’ve been at every single one of Ali’s events and for good reason. I can’t get enough of a good thing, can I? I’ve met some of the most amazing people at Ali’s events and we’ve become great friends. What’s more, they have incredible businesses and are really wonderful people.

There’s no replacing the exceptional value of a rocking Online Success Blueprint Workshop, but I can tell you the top 10 things I’ve learned from Ali in the last 2 years that have had a profound impact on what I do daily in my business.

Top 10 Things I’ve Learned From Alexandria Brown

1. Cooperation gets you a lot further than competition. Ali has done an amazing job of collaborating with her colleagues as well as bringing in special guests. I recently heard an interview with Ali where she was sharing that in the beginning she was concerned about competitors. Ironically, in the interview, she was interviewing another colleague who shares her niche and she pointed out that upon further inspection a joint venture was much more appealing as long as they could respect each other’s differences of opinion. Turned out to be a smart move as the interview was a “hot topic” and complimented her products very nicely.

2. Appreciate your peers and colleagues. One thing I absolutely love about Ali is that she gives credit where credit is due and openly shares her appreciation at events. At last year’s OSBW, she handed me the microphone to share how we had come up with the idea and created her most recent product “Workshop Marketing Secrets” which is an amazing product I highly recommend if you want to put on workshops. Then when Ali presented at the Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer Super Conference in the Spring 2007, she stood on the stage and talked about her virtual team and in a room full of hundreds of people, she pointed me out at the back of the room. But it’s not just me. She publicly honors and promotes her friends and colleagues with openness and sincerity. That is one of the things I really love about Ali the most.

3. Growth can be exponential and it requires challenging yourself to reach new milestones. Ali steps up to the plate. She announces a workshop for 30 people, designs it and sells it out, kicks off an amazing weekend and celebrates her birthday on a yacht with all of her friends. Each workshop has practically doubled in attendance and has SOLD OUT. She’s willing to put herself out there for what she wants, and the beauty is that she gets it!

4. Take good care of the people who take care of you. It would seem this one goes without saying, but how many business owners treat the people who take care of them the most and the best like what they do isn’t valuable? When in fact, the people who take care of you are the most valuable. Ali seems to recognize this and takes good care of the people who take care of her.

5. Play with the big boys. There is no point in standing back and shrinking in the world. Take up you space and fill it to overflowing. Despite sometimes being “the only girl” in a sea full of men, Ali holds her own and plays with the big boys. What’s more, they really seem to love her for stepping up to the plate like that and putting herself out there.

6. Surround yourself with successful mentors and participate in a mastermind group. If you try to reinvent the wheel, you will take approximately the same amount of time as the original inventors did. If you participate in a mastermind group, one will have road-hugging wheels, another will have an engine and a wealth of knowledge about mechanics, another will understand hydrolics and pressure, another will have a connection to companies that represent drivers and the next thing you know you’ll be driving in the Indy 500. You get the picture.

7. Invest in yourself. Success rarely occurs in a vacuum. As small business and social entrepreneurs we need to continue learning and networking. Life in the shoebox of our home office (no matter how large and elegant the home office may be) is still life in a shoebox. So I highly recommend you invest in yourself, with one caveat. Invest in products, services and seminars that are in alignment with your business vision.

8. Take care of yourself. There’s only one you. I see a lot of people invest all their energy in the outcome of their business but completely neglect themselves in the process. Some have no family or personal life to speak of while others have noticeably let themselves go.

9. Success is in the follow-up. Take time to get to know the people who are attracted to you and what you do. Stay in touch. Find out what they most need. Meet their needs. Stay connected because they will want to work with you. As Ali says, “The fortune is in the follow-up.”

10. You are in the business of “marketing your business” no matter what you do. This is the final and BIG KEY! Ali taught me that my business is really not the thing I do for a living. Instead, my business is marketing what I do so that potential clients learn about me and get to know me, so that when they are ready to move forward I’m their first choice. The business of an entrepreneur is marketing your business.

I’m off to pack and get ready for this week’s Online Success Blueprint Workshop. If you are looking to take your business online or you have an online business that is just kind of plodding along, I highly recommend you rearrange everything in your schedule and pick up one of the last few seats for this event and you can even bring your life and/or business partner for half off once you’ve registered!

You won’t want to miss it! Live into the life you’ve imagined…

Live Into It… :)CC
Christine N Cibula, MS
The “Live Into It!” Expert
1-on-1 Business Coaching

Here’s a super fun video clip (C) 2005 from the love of my life, my fiance and life partner, Thomas Gorgas, Ph.D.. He is the Founder & CEO of Amakua Video, LLC (www.AmakuaVideo.com) a Hawaii Corporation specializing in Internet Commercials, award-winning DVD production and documentary production.

Here’s a cute picture of us taken recently while we were in Hawaii together this summer… Isn’t he HOT-T-T-T in his Save Our Seas Rash Guard? We sell them on www.GetFitWithAloha.com in case you want one for your sweetheart… Mine looks really good on me, too. An awesome choice if you want to match and see each other easily in the ocean. But I digress…

My life with Thomas is one of the dreams in my life [a loving relationship with my best friend and a fulfilling family life] that I’ve lived into, and I am grateful for my life with him and the kids every day… This is a “just for fun” video on Pumpkin Carving for Halloween. We hope you enjoy… To get an update on how things are going in San Diego, you can read my short update below.

The last week was harrowing with over 500,000 evacuations in the County of San Diego alone. California wildfires are a norm with the Santa Ana winds this time of year, but what we saw two years ago in 2005 with the Cedar fires and this year in the 2007 fires, we’ve certainly seen our end of global warming effects that Al Gore shared so eloquently in An Inconvenient Truth. Qualcomm Stadium was the refuge that reminded way too many people of the blessings here by comparison to Hurricane Katrina’s Superdome horror, but to our surprise, evacuees were back home on Friday and The Chargers won over Houston, Texas 35-10 in a home game on Sunday. We’re back to life as usual here in San Diego even though we’ve been warned that on Friday the Santa Ana winds will be picking back up again and to have our bags packed and ready to go as well as our cell phones plugged in for reverse 911 calls. The system worked beautifully and they got to people with 15 minutes or more time before the fires reached their homes, which was amazing under emergency conditions like that for a city our size. One final note, THANK YOU TO OUR FIREFIGHTERS and EMERGENCY CREWS and POLICE DEPARTMENT, but most especially TO OUR FIREFIGHTERS… Wishing you some rest this week and a Happy Halloween…

For some this is a time of new beginnings. For others it is a time to be grateful for what has been Remember, live into the life you’ve imagined…

Live Into It… :)CC
Christine N. Cibula, M.S.
The Live Into It Expert
www.LiveIntoIt.com

In my graduate school days at Notre Dame University, we would always get the course catalog before the new session, FALL-SPRING-SUMMER. I loved the course catalog. Sure enough, I’d spend hours (yes, I was a bit of a dork who actually really loved school) perusing the catalog to see all of the exciting courses. I’d look in my own field of study. I’d look in the other fields of study where there were cool courses that were interesting to me.

Inevitably, most of the courses I wanted to take would say, “PREREQUISITE” in front of them. Ugh… To get to the courses I really wanted to study and learn about, I had to take all of these lesser, boring courses that seemed like a complete waste of time. I hated playing by the rules, so sometimes I’d find a way to have the prerequisite waived so I could take the course I really wanted to take. EXCEPT I’d be in the course and find out that the reason I needed the prerequisite to begin with was so that I’d have the foundation necessary to excel in the higher level courses.

My best illustration was when I attended Notre Dame University and took graduate psychology statistics without ever having had an undergraduate statistics class in psychology. Somehow my undergraduate psychology program allowed me to graduate without a foundation course in statistics. To this day, I’m not sure how that happened. So there I was at Notre Dame University taking graduate statistics without undergraduate statistics as the foundation. It was like learning Russian. Plus, it took me half a semester to realize my vision was a little off (I needed reading glasses) and that I was in the middle of dyslexia-ville with all of the calculations we had to do by hand on paper to illustrate to the professor that we understood the process. One error in hundreds of calculations could throw off the answer. And folks, there is nothing intuitive about statistics. So it was a painful lesson. The great thing is that undergraduate statistics seemed like a breeze after that and it was never an issue again. Once the foundation was in place, it was smooth sailing.

This is such an important point, it bears repeating…

We need a solid foundation in order to excel in dynamic, fluid environments.
A solid foundation is the key to success.

Entrepreneurship has a couple of primary prerequisites that are the foundation of good business, and if you don’t have them, it is probably better to find solace in “Corporate America” by finding a role in which you can excel in your strengths. I know that probably sounds a little intense as a declaration, but it is true, because to become a successful entrepreneur, you really have to dig deep. You have to go longer than the other guy so it requires staying power. This means you stay in the game despite exhaustion and times and despite uncertainty of the future.

Notre Dame University College Football is an excellent illustration of this point. I was lucky to be there the year Lou Holtz rocked the house, and let me tell you, Lou was much more than a Notre Dame University College Football coach. He was a master of the winning mindset. The point is, despite rain, sleet, snow and sheer exhaustion, you keep going. And even if you don’t win this week, you’re back in swing for next week and for the rest of the season. And if you don’t make it to a bowl game this year, then you get back on board for next year. You weather disappointments and momentary setbacks, learn from your mistakes and keep going until you reach your desired outcome always focusing on what is important in the NOW. (Memories… GO IRISH! GO IRISH!!!! - WE ARE ND! WE ARE ND!!!!! - LOU! LOU!!! LOU!!!!!) So remember to ask yourself what is important in the now?

ENTREPRENEURIAL TRENDS

Most of the entrepreneurs I know have rags to riches stories. Some have pinnacle of success to bottom of the barrel to pinnacle of success stories. A few have doing okay in their businesses for a long time and then suddenly taking off stories. One thing is certain, they all have to stay the course and go the distance in order to reach the success they now enjoy.

ENTREPRENEURIAL PREREQUISITES

So what are these essential entrepreneurial prerequisites? Are you ready? Drum roll please!

The core of entrepreneurship is BUSINESS PERSISTENCE. This means come hell or high water, you don’t give up. You adapt. You revise. You correct course as you go. You follow a plan to fruition. It is essential. Better to mess up than to stop midway, change course completely midway or get most of the way there and then freeze up. Think of the horse that stops dead in its tracks right before the triple bar jump sending its rider over the top - eeeouch!

Along with business persistence comes the personal quality that must be developed and that is PERSONAL RESILIENCE. See, many of your best laid plans will fail miserably. You’ll experience financial failures, product failures, marketing failures, internal business infrastructure failures and major miscalculations along the way. You’ll learn. You’ll get better over time. You’ll improve. Be patient. The key is the ability to weather the storm and make it through to the other side.

Business Persistence includes:

1. Seeing concept to completion in the rough.
2. Making it nice and shiny with feedback from your most valued players.
3. Taking it to market until you method of marketing meets your prospective buyers.
4. Finding your turnkey system and then repeating your results on a larger scale.

Personal Resilience includes:

1. Facing the financials on bad days and good days.
2. Dealing with your critics who drain your most precious asset of creative energy.
3. Ignoring bright shiny object syndrome, also known as the distractor factor.
4. Staying the course and going the distance.

The good news is that you can live into these qualities over time. If you find that it is a challenge, remember that working with good coaches along the way is essential and can help you develop the foundation that will allow your dreams to flourish.

Live Into It… :)CC
Christine N. Cibula, M.S.
The Live Into It Expert
www.LiveIntoIt.com

I spoke too soon in my last entry. We were under mandatory evacuations in San Diego. The next day we were on the road trekking north after getting our reverse 911 calls. It is really scary to see a wall of black smoke heading your way. Luckily my girlfriend Jenny, Miss Bo Benny, was totally resourceful so we stayed at one of her friend’s homes up in Laguna the first night and then moved out to Palm Springs to a beautiful home… Like BEAUTIFUL… With a pool and spa…

I learned a few things in the process of the mandatory evacuations:

1. Remember your passport, birth certificate & social security card. You may not plan on international travel, but these items are hard to replace (as in time consuming), so be good to yourself and have that with you.

2. Take a few pics of the precious stuff. My girlfriend brought her photobook of her time with the twins and I was happy to see she had it with her. I realized I left every last picture in the house.

3. You can do a mandatory evacuation in beautiful locations with about as much ease as in really uncomfortable locations with a little resourcefulness and persistence. We were told to go to Qualcomm Stadium and I’m sure you’ve seen the reports on CNN. It reminds me of Hurricane Katrina and the Superdome. But honestly, all I could think of doing was driving to the beach or up North to San Francisco to my brother’s house. Instead, Jenny kept calling on this beautiful home and when he picked up the line he said, “Yeah, I have about 100 messages waiting I haven’t gotten to yet, so sure, it’s yours…” So persistence pays off.

4. Keep your most precious jewelry in one spot where you can easily access it on the way out and maybe even a little list including oxygen masks during fire and flashlights for nighttime, not hidden away, because you’ll forget where you put it and then be wondering what happened to it when looters are reported in your neighborhood.

5. Strong men with golf clubs can and do scare away looters, at least most of the time. Of course, if given the choice to be with your family or leave it, stay with your family, because they need you even if they don’t say it during the crisis…

K. Short post, because the owners of this gorgeous home are coming back tomorrow, so we’re heading out today to another gorgeous hotel that is comparable to the Hotel Del Coronado only in Palm Springs.

The funny thing is these beautiful places continue to anchor one thing in my mind’s eye… Success… Success… Success… Which is an irony in the middle of mandatory evacuations, threat of loss of home and looters and overall a really stressful time in San Diego history.

In an odd way, I am happy and grateful for this experience…

Live Into It… :)CC

P.S. The biggest lesson learned? I can take the entire core of my business with me in a backpack and still be working even when away from home. To learn how I do that and to work together to get you to that level of personal freedom, check out my PERSONAL COACHING.

We’re miles away from it (we live on the coast). But oh my goodness… The house smells like a wonderful campfire, the air in the house is actually noticeably dry and even a little smoky. I’m hoping the fire alarms don’t go off. The air outside is so thick with smoke, the moon is blood red tonight. The winds are whipping. Our Chief Meteorologist, Loren Nancarrow from ABC, shared that if the winds are 50mph, then that means that the fire moves at 50mph. Did you know that? I hadn’t put that together before. Earlier today the winds were 69mph, so the fire was actually moving at a rate of 69mph.

I find this interesting.

Simultaneously in the last 24 hours BOTH, not one but BOTH of our printers died. The first one had an irretrievable paper jam and after three years of service with my MAC, I let go without too much trouble. The Canon printer was affordable and came with my MAC but the ink refills were off the hook expensive and they needed to be replaced a lot. The second had a print head die after almost 8 years in service and it isn’t MAC compatible, so I decided it was time to let go gracefully. It was my HP Business Inkjet I spent $900 (a big business purchase at the time) when I lived back in New York. I really, really loved that printer and it performed exceptionally well for me on my projects and presentations.

A mutual friend had her printer die and her computer die all in the same 24 hours, too. Mercury in retrograde may be more than a KOINKI-DINK - just maybe…

Meanwhile, this weekend I purged. I went through most of my office and asked myself one question, “What is in these binders, in these drawers, on these shelves, in these boxes that will benefit me as I move forward in my business and in my life?” I dumped the rest. It was a brave move… Sometimes you need to let go of what no longer serves you to make room for what you are living into.

So the little lessons learned?

1. Back Up. Seriously, it is your business. If your computer dies, your business could die or at least be put on hold in a big way. Plus, who wants to tell a client that the projecct has disappeared? Who wants to wake up to discover the book they’ve been working on painstakingly for over a year of intense research and development has just VAMOOSHED?

2. When things fall apart, sometimes what comes out of it is so much better than you could ever anticipate. Let the old fall away and the new come into being. For me, the new is our brand new WIRELESS ALL IN ONE HP print, scan, fax, photoprints, legal prints, etc. printer… Prints 34 pages per minute in black and white and 33 pages per minute in color. I am so happy I’m thanking Mercury Retrograde for helping me out!

3. As yourself, “What’s important now for me to move forward with my current dreams, goals, and visions?” Be Brave. Dump the rest… Let it go, because it is an energy sapper and time vampire. If you haven’t come back to it, the likelihood that you will come back to it is sort of small. I’m not talking about your key educational materials that you reference. I’m talking about stuff that matched the old you but that doesn’t match or help the new and improved you that is taking charge of your business life.

A few more things I’d like to share?

* The notes they take at conferences or during discussions have the same light touch. Only the actionable items.

So I happily let go of two old printers and a desktop I’m no longer attached to in lieu of my laptops (both MAC & PC)… I shred 5 huge hefties full of stuff I no longer needed. I donated anything technological I own but don’t currently use. I cleaned up my vision boards.