As a person who has opened up Google+ numerous times, then walked away after completely being overwhelmed, I personally had a ton to learn during this Tip Tuesday.  The Stacey Harris joined us to break down why Google+ is so important, how you should be utilizing it, and the important areas you should concentrate on when filling out your profile and page.

Why do you need to be on Google+? ‘Because it’s a social media network backed by a search engine.’  Google Authorship, along with the search capabilities within it, are mind blowing. 

What are the terms we really need to understand in Google+?  Profiles are profiles just like they are in Facebook.  From there, you can set up a Page for your business, again, just like in Facebook.  When you connect with people instead of ‘friending’, you circle with people.  Groups like in Facebook care called Communities.  Chats, are called Hangouts in Google Plus.

The...

Sally Hope is a Renegade Life Coach and the leader of the Wild Heart Revolution.  It's definitely a hefty title, but she lives up to every ounce of it.

Sally experimented with her free spirit after graduating college.  While all her friends were getting internships and jobs, she decided she wanted to be in a band.  She ended up joining a band, which led to another bad in LA.  Sally ended up spending all her 20’s touring as a musician.

After realizing that she was inspiring people through her work in the band, she thought maybe she should try something else.  As she toured, she became less and less excited about the music aspect, but more inspired by being able to help and inspire others.

She got the idea to look into life coaching, and it sparked something in her to try it.  She went to school, and after a major life change, decided she could run her business from anywhere.  She got into an RV with a friend and her dog, and took off with no...

My first course is in session, and I’m alive, well, and actually have students to teach.  I can’t tell you the relief to step into this crazy uncomfortable place.  However, I’m here to stand and tell you the lessons I learned and that YOU can do this too!  Here are some of the top lessons I learned:

1. Start Before You’re Ready – You can wait until you’re perfect.  You can’t wait until every single detail is absolutely perfect.  You just have to start and get it up even before you’re ready (because guess what, you’re never going to be ready.
2. Make yourself uncomfortable – This discomfort will make massive differences in your business and in your life.  When I noticed people were clicking on my links, I may or may not have freaked out (okay, I FREAKED out).  However, I stood back up and turned my Facebook ad back on, and well the rest is history.
3. Push through the unknown – You will...

Loved, loved, loved, the info in this Tip Tuesday, as Karen Yankovich, of Karen Yankovich.com stopped by to break down why you HAVE to be on LinkedIn if you own a business.  Lots of great information and tips on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile and get the most out of this amazing social media medium.

Why should be a business owner be on LinkedIn?  Google’s algorithims rate LinkedIn very high.  Basically if anyone is ever going to do business with you, they’re going to want to know a little more about you.  You can either give them what you want them to know about you (and professionalize your profile) so they don’t have to keep on searching, or make them search more to find you (and have no idea the information they're going to find).  People are going to do their homework on you, and LinkedIn is going to come up when they do that homework.

Make them feel warm and comfortable when they go to look on doing business with you.

LinkedIn...

While Marina was living in Costa Rica and traveling with her family, she decided it would be fun to blog about it.  It was when people were contacting her about their travels to Central America where she discovered a huge void in the travel industry: information about where to go with a family in Central America.  Marina took advantage of the situation and started her own business, helping families find more boutique hotels and packages for their entire family.

This led to an extremely niche business for Marina which has allowed her to make a living and travel to amazing places with VIP service for free.  Not a bad way to take your family to trips you would have taken anyway, all on someone else's dime.

Marina shares her story of how she got started, and how she built her business from just a blog to much more. 

How did you monetize this idea? Originally the business plan was going to be to work with the companies hotels and resorts, and then it would be based...

I honestly don't believe it does.  Sure, you look at the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg,  and you immediately put yourself down because well, you used DOS, and you were totally okay with it, right?  Or you had your favorite tracks on MySpace, so you felt no need for anything else.  (And if you don't know what DOS is, *sigh*, don't say anything because you'll make me feel old.)

Granted, I believe people like them are absolutely brilliant too.  However, I'm not going to let the fact that I never got into Harvard (okay, I never tried), stop me from following a dream.

Here is what I believe entrepreneurship takes, and it's just two simple things:  A Dream and Willingness.

Yep, it's that simple.  You see you don't need a ton of money, and you don't need to be the smartest person you know.  You can always hire out the tasks that you don't know how to do.  In fact, if you know how to do EVERYTHING, you're kind of a freak of nature.

So...

So you have this best friend, and you both have an interest in the same thing, and you think you would be great business partners.  

So the natural step is to start a business, right?

Well, just take a quick step back.  Sure, you're right a partnership with your best friend could work out really well.  You can split the costs, along with the work, and you could end up moving that business forward faster than you ever dreamed.  

BUT.....Not trying to be a negative Nancy, but you could also end up with a failed business and a friendship that no longer exists.

I'm not trying to scare you, but there are definitely things you need to consider along with the preparations you need to make before you jump in with both feet.  I talked with my friend Holly Signorelli who laid out five great tips that we can do to set-up the partnership for success.  

These are really, really important steps!  Just because you think you know someone on a personal level,...

Mike Ahnemann’s story is near and dear to my heart.  It was a year ago, when he went from being my boss in the corporate world to telling us he was going to follow a dream.  Now, one year later, all he does is mountain bike all day for his company MTBProject.com.  Totally kidding, but he is living the ultimate dream by taking a passion and making a living out of it. 

I held off on this interview, waiting until I finally let my corporate job go, and was so excited to catch up with Mike on the anniversary of the day he left the Corporate America world, for a dream of bigger and better things.

Mike had a very niche skill set in the corporate world and ended up at a start-up company, where he lead a team for five years.  It was when Mike and a friend, who had success in a previous venture, saw a big need in the mountain biking community, that he saw a huge opportunity to do break out to do his own thing. Things fell into place when they landed a big...

You have this amazing business idea, and you know that you're the absolute best person for this 'job'.  You are beyond the moon excited and everything seems to be falling into place, letting you know that you're on the exact path you need to be on.  But when you put it out the world, no one is really jumping....

I think this is probably one of the hardest things for me, as an entrepreneur, that I've had to overcome.  Every time I move forward with a business idea, I get really excited, start pushing forward, and then become frustrated when not everyone is jumping on my bandwagon right away.  I always forget that people have to learn to trust you, learn that you're legit, and that businesses don't just explode over night.  However, no matter how many times I've learned this lesson, it's still hard to accept and take-in.  

I think the best analogy for entrepreneurship is a giant hill.  A really big giant hill.  There are days that you can push...

Rachel Rofé is back for another great talk with us, and this time we’re going to breakdown the world of copywriting and sales letters.

This is a super important topic because if you own a business of any kind, whether it be product or service based, you need to sell your item in order to make money.  You can put it out there and hope for the best.  Or you can create a great offering, and detail that offering with great copy, which will put you at a massive advantage.

Rachel is here to breakdown the three steps we need to take for a killer sales page.

1. Create an Offer That Your Audience Really Needs

A lot of times people don't do their research and create an offer that their audience really doesn't even want.  One of the best things you can do is to talk to people and find out what they're willing to buy for a problem you can solve.  You can use your current audience and list if you have one, and simply ask them via email or even a survey....