My High School Portrait

It was 40 years ago, in June of 1971,  when I graduated from high school in a small town in Delaware.

Tomorrow my classmates and myself will be celebrating our 40th year as a group at a local venue in my home town of Milford, Delaware.  I have kept in touch with many of my high school friends but others moved away and we lost touch.  I am  looking forward to catching up and hearing lots of stories.

It seems like yesterday when I was an 18 year old young girl full of dreams and feeling so much excitement to go to college and make something of myself.

In high school and college, we were taught to get an education so we could get a “good job” what would give us benefits and help us plan for our futures.  Like our parents, we thought our lives would be set if we worked for 20 or 30 years in the same job.

We were told that our 401′s and investments would get us through our retirement years.  But we weren’t prepared, as baby boomers, that we would be dealing with this current economic downturn that would take a lot of our dreams away with layoffs,  loss of our retirement funds and having to make it on unemployment.

Now, at the age of 58, I am feeling like I did in high school, trying to find my way and to figure out what I will do when I grow up.   It has taken a toll on my life to start over again but one thing is for sure.  I now have 40 years of experience and expertise that I can now teach others what not to do so that their lives can be better prepared when they reach their baby boomer years.

So as I prepare for a fun filled weekend, I leave you now and wish you a great weekend,

Until next time,

Cindy

© Andres Rodriguez | Dreamstime.com

Some of my laid off baby boomer clients want to turn their passions to profit but they feel stuck.  They will make comments like  “I don’t have anything to offer.” or “I don’t have a passion.”

Here’s a News Flash for you!  If you are a baby boomer with years of experience, I am here to tell you that you have lots to offer.

Now I am not talking about only your years of experience with your job or your career, although that is one avenue to research.  I am also talking about your talents, your passions and your combination of the two.

To help you get more clarity,  I have created this table below to help show you how you can narrow down your talents.  This exercise will help you take your years of experience and your passions and put them together in a 3rd column of those areas you want to focus on.

On a piece of paper, make three columns.

1. In Column A, you will write down all of your areas of expertise.
2. In Column B, you will write down all of your passions.  I mean those passions that really get your juices flowing.
3. In the 3rd column, you will write down all the areas that match in Column A and Column B and put them in order of your most desired interest.

After completing this exercise, you should be able have an idea of areas you want to turn passion to profit.   This is just step one to turning your passion to profit.

There’s more to do……. But for now, I want you to do the exercise above and then I will give you the next step, coming in my next blog post.

Until next time,  please share your results in the comments column below.  Let me know if you have any questions and I will be glad to answer them.

Have a wonderful day,

Cindy

For all us Facebook lovers, this week has been a week of significant changes and it has been hard to keep up with  it.  I am talking about the new Facebook Subscriber’s feature that has caused a lot of confusion for many of us.

I don’t know about you but everytime I get a handle on Facebook, another change appears and sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all the changes.  Since we are all so busy,  and the learning curve takes more time out of our busy schedules, sometimes it’s actually easier to learn from the experts in a faster and more efficient manner.  When I started my research on learning the new feature, I wanted to share these 7 great resources with you.

These 7 resources I have collected will help you understand all the new features.  Depending on your learning style, and your time commitments, I have added several great ways to learn it all.

1. If you are a visual learner, Jo Barnes, with The Social Networking Academy, has created a great visual video as she walks you step by step in learning  if this feature works for you and your individual needs.  Click here to listen to her video.
2. Facebook has an about “subscribe” help page so that you can get an overview of some of the features.  To view that, click here.
3. There is a Facebook blog that you can view to check more features.  There are a few visuals too. To view, click here.
4. Facebook also offers a help page that offers many links to help you understand the new features in steps.  To view, click here.
5. There is a new Facebook page called, Facebook + Public Figures.  To view and “Like,”  click here.
6. Mari Smith, a Facebook expert, has put together an awesome “How To” on her Google + page.  To view, click here.
7. Finally, Mashable, social media news and web experts, added a new blog post about the new Subscribe feature.  Mashable has over 500,000 subscribers and is the host for the upcoming 2011 Facebook Summit.  You will learn a lot from this resource.  To view their recent post, click here.

I realize this is a lot of information.  My goal was to give you several options so that you can choose the resource that best fits your time, your learning style and your interest.

Let me know what you think about the new feature after you have had time to review these resources.

Until next time,

Have a wonderful day,

Cindy

Your Solutions Coach, Consultant and Trainer.

In preparing for some online training sessions and wanting to connect online with my followers, clients and customers, I have been researching different online meeting companies.   With my recent layoff and my tight financial woes, I was looking for one that didn’t cost a lot of money but would serve my purposes.

I am so excited to be sharing with you that I found the perfect fit and it’s FREE.  Gotta love free, huh?   You know the old saying, “You Get What You Pay For?”   Well in this case, FREE is worth big bucks when you use anymeeting.

Take a look at some of their features.

1. You can send emails to your target market.
2. You can set up custom forms.
3. You can sell tickets using Paypal.
4. You can promote meetings on Facebook and Twitter.
5. You can display your Linkedin information.
6. It’s compatible with both a PC and a MAC.
7. You can invite up to 200 people.
8. You can screen share.
9. You can interact with your audience.
10. You can create surveys and charts.

Below,  I have added a screenshot from their site, showing you their comparisons, which they updated in March 2011.

I am very excited to have learned how to use their system.  Now, I just need to get my information together so I can have my very first webinar.  When I do, you will be the first to know.

If you are interested in learning how to present an online meeting and want to start off with this FREE service, why not learn how to use anymeeting too.

Until next time, here’s to your success.

Cindy

One of my goals this week was so get my social networking sites updated with my current information.

Linkedin was one of the sites I wanted to concentrate on.  I kept putting off my goal to add Linkedin to my list of networking sites.  Not because I didn’t want to but because I didn’t think it was necessary.  Boy, was I wrong.

But there was a learning curve and I didn’t have time to “teach” myself all the steps I needed to take to get Linkedin account up and running.

To save me time, I decided to listen to a step by step, click by click training by Jessica Swanson, The Shoestring Marketer.

Through her training, I was up and running in no time.  And the great thing about a recorded training is the ability to pause it while you set up your own account one step at a time.

Jessica and I met in April at a local event in Raleigh NC.  When I met Jessica, it was as if I had known her forever.  She was so genuine and full of excitement and encouragement.

I explained to her how I got so much value from her trainings when I first got started with my online venture.  She offers training in Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, SEO and numerous other awesome helpful tips and tricks

Last year I had purchased her Bootcamp course and learned so much about blogging and the other platforms but kept putting off my desire to learn Linkedin.  It is such  a relief to have it up and running, thanks to Jessica.

Here are some of the Linkedin steps Jessica recommends.

1. First of all, sign up at Linkedin.com
2. Complete your profile
3. Join groups related to your industry
4. Request connections
5. Write template emails to send to your incoming and outgoing connections.
6. Interact on Linkedin
7. Update your status on a regular basis to include upcoming events and alerts.
8. Ask for recommendations
9. Create your own group when you have 500 connections.

She has so many recommendations in her 60 minute training webinar.  If you don’t have time to learn it on your own, I highly recommend you check out her course.  I have added her trainings on my “Resources For Your Biz” Just scroll down the page to find her Linkedin logo, click it and you can view her site.

Finally, if you are on Linkedin, please come over there and connect with me.

I look forward to seeing you there.

In the meantime, have a wonderful day.

Cindy Murphy,

Your Marketing Solution’s Coach, Consultant and Trainer

Downsizing

While companies are downsizing, so are their laid off employees, especially us baby boomers.  We seem to be the group that is left to find our way and to seek solutions.

<===== The photo to your left is a storage unit of all the personal belongings that I have left.  As you can see,  I have very little left from the furnishing that were in my home.

When I rented my house, I decided that my possessions were holding me down and preventing me from moving forward.  I really wanted to build my business  to help other baby boomers who were looking for solutions.  In order to do that, I had to make some very difficult decisions, such as selling most of what I had to get what I want.

For the past week I have been staying with family members while I set up a temporary office in another location.  As hard as this is for me, I realize that many of us,  who have been affected by the economic downturn,  are not as fortunate and don’t have options.

I can only hope that we all come together and help each other in this journey of changing times.   It’s not about possessions as much as connections, our health, our attitudes and our drive to find a solution that will move us forward.

What are your thoughts on this?  I love comments and sharing so please pass this along if you think it will help others and please leave a comment in the section below.

Until next time, have a wonderful day,

Cindy

Your Solutions Coach

Are you looking for help but are not sure where to turn?  Not sure if you want someone to just listen to you?

Or are you looking for someone to walk you through the steps to show you how to do something?

Sometimes it’s hard to know what you want at first.  So First, you need to ask yourself, do you need coaching or consulting?  There is a difference!

When I first got started building my business, I needed help with technology challenges as well seeking someone to listen to me, I mean REALLY listen.

As I was going through the beginning stages of understanding where to begin, I realize now that consulting meant finding someone who could “teach” me what I needed to know and do it quickly.  Someone who could walk me through the setup process step by step.

Consulting is a faster approach to get quicker results.  Coaching takes longer to reach the goals based on the clients needs and the coach/client relationship.

Below I have broken down the difference in easy to understand terms:

dreamstime.com

Consulting occurs when the client is looking for an expert in a particular field and is seeking their expertise to show then exactly how to do something.

For example, let’s say you are needing help with your blog or website and want to outsource someone’s services.  You hire someone to lead you step by step through the set up process and then that consultant has done what they are hired to do.

A consultant builds their business on their expertise on one or a few skills. From their skills, they help you find quick  solutions for getting the task done.

dreamstime.com

Coaching, on the other hand, allows the client to do the talking and for the coach to listen. I mean REALLY listen.  The client is the expert and the coach is there to help the client reach their goals.

No judgements and no consulting, (telling you what to do and how to do it)

Instead, a coach is there to give you support and to help YOU clarify your goals and strengths through active listening and asking the right questions.  It is a safe and confidential relationship that builds trust and helps the client with less overwhelm and more clarity.

Now that you have a brief overview of the difference between coaching and consulting, which one do you need?  Coaching or Consulting?

Not Sure? You can get a FREE 15 minute session with me and find out which one you need.   Click here to get started.

Until next time, here’s to your success.

Cindy Murphy

Your Solutions Coach