When I first got started in my online journey, I never dreamed how social media would change my life.  I realize now that social media is here to stay and I want to invite you to get social with me.

After I mastered my learning curve and set up Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and all the other social media platforms, I started engaging, networking and meeting others who were also business owners.  But during that time, I also connected with personal friends who I haven’t seen forever and reconnected with high school friends and long lost family friends.

Social media allowed me to find entrepreneurs, just like me, who were newbies.

Social media introduced me to coaches, mentors, trainers and like minded individuals to created wonderful products and offered great services.  Their connections allowed me to get to know them through online connections but it also gave me opportunities to attend live events and make life long friends with those I first met online.

Social Media also connected me with many of my high school friends.  With these connections, we started a Facebook group,  invited all our classmates to join in and we all planned our 40th reunion that took place in September of 2011.  We had a great time, shared photos and videos and continue to stay connected, even after the event is over.  Now we are planning a summer reunion at the beach.

Best of all…. It’s FREE!  

Are you social on any social media platforms?  If not,  I invite you to get on board..  If you are already a part of any social media platforms, please come a join me.  Below I have listed my links to invite you to connect with me.

Facebook profile

Facebook business page

Twitter

Youtube

LinkedIn

Please go to the comments section below and say hello. Then share your social media links and I will be glad to come and socialize with you too.

Looking forward to our social connections.

Until next time, have a great day.

Cindy

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

Radiant Success Summit April 2011

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending a Live Event right here in my own home town of Raleigh, NC called The Radiant Success Event.

In 2010 I attended 4 Live Events and I loved each one of them and took away a lot of nuggets and strategies.  But this one was especially special to me because of it’s location and because I stepped outside of my circle of influence to expand into yet another group of entrepreneurs and leaders in the online and offline world of business who gave different strategies and insights.

The speakers were real and genuine men and women who shared their expertise and experience for the purpose of sharing it with their audience in their own unique way.

What was unique about this event are the stories.  The stories that we all face when we start a new business.  I heard about their learning curves and the financial struggles that drove these speakers to their success.  Was it easy, NO!

It was a very special weekend to have met these awesome speakers and I would like to introduce them to you as well.

Janis Petit talked about Sweet Spots; finding your special skills; researching your niche and she provided an action guide to put it all in place.  To learn more about Janis, you can find her on her “Meet Janis” page.

Adela Rubio – In her presentation she talked about List Building to get your tribe of followers, how to create virtual events and she talked about her 30 day virtual events and her many interviews with other business leaders.  To find out more about Adela, you can check out her about me page.

Marnie Pehrson is a best selling author.  She is also the creator of ideamarketers.com.  Also, Marnie is a mother of 6 children who has found her way to success, even with her busy life.  Learn more about Marnie at marniepehrson.com

Bob Jenkins is a former high school teacher who is now a successful entrepreneur known as Bob The Teacher.  Bob’s presentation focused on steps to take to income velocity and gave great tips on creating a simple business.  Bob is also an expert on video  marketing.  To learn more check  out Bob The Teacher.

Shannon Cherry‘s presentation talked about leaving money on the table.  She focused on taking action to make more money by offline methods that were fun and interactive.   Learn more at BeHeardSolutions

Felicia Slattery is also a former teacher and now has a very successful business as a speaker and trainer.  As a communications expert, Felicia’s presentation focused on Competence, Character and Charisma.  Learn more at FeliciaSlattery.com.

Jessica Swanson

Finally, as a special bonus, I got to meet Jessica Swanson,  founder of Shoe String Marketing at Shoe String Marketing University.  Jessica has an awesome kit that will teach you how to market with little to no money.

As a person who was laid off twice in one year, her training helped me overcome my learning curve without the expense of buying high prices training packages.   Click the link to get her marketing kit and see for yourself ===> Download Your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit

Well now you have it.  A list of the speakers at the Radiant Success event that took place here in Raleigh NC last weekend.  There are so many leaders and experts to learn from and to mentor with.  Why not take a look at these leaders and see how you might be able to connect with them yourself?

Do you attend live events?  If so, what are your take aways at the end?  Feel free to share.  I love comments so please leave yours below in the comment section.

Until next time, here is to your success.

Cindy

First of all, I want to wish you a Happy Spring.  Sunday, March 20th marked the first day of spring.  A time for bulbs to grow, flowers to bloom and new beginnings.

This may be the time for you to ask yourself if your business has sprung over the past year.  Have you been working and working at your business, struggling to get it off the ground so that you can quit your day job?

Or maybe you are a newbie, thinking about taking a passion and turning it into profit eventually but you need the tools to begin.

As you can see from the photo to your left, spring has sprung.  But now I ask you, has your business sprung into action?

Part of my mission on this Bloomin’ Boomer’s blog is to help baby boomers go from passion to profit.  In order to do that, there are some essential steps you need to take before you even begin that journey.

Over the weekend, I created a new FREE giveaway called “5 Easy Action Steps For The New Baby Boomer Entrepreneur.” I wanted to give you newbies a chance to do some research before you even take the entrepreneur path.  Without these essential first steps, you will do what I did and get lost in the maze of overwhelm and information overload and I don’t want to see you do that.

In this free report you will learn how to

• Discover the very first piece of the puzzle before you begin your journey.   This piece is the key to your success and a must do before you can determine your strategy.
• Define your solution.
• Develop your strategy.
• Determine your free giveaway.
• Deliver your marketing message.

How do you get this report? Look over to the right of my blog here at the top of the page and put in your name and email address when you see the image like the one here.

Within minutes, you will have access to my free report where you can begin the process to see if you will go from a new baby boomer entrepreneur to an entrepreneur who turns passions to profit.

See you on the inside.

Until next time, here’s to your success.

Cindy

Your Marketing Solutions Coach

Are you a baby boomer wanting to start your own business?  Are you stuck by making excuses instead of finding solutions?  These excuses will stop you dead in your tracks, just like a red light at a stop light.  But the green signal suggests you are good to go and can keep moving.

This post will discuss some of the most common excuses that I hear when my clients tell me they want to start a business.  After we explore those excuses, we discuss ways to  find solutions to move you forward.

Excuse - “I don’t have time to start a business.” Ask yourself What are you doing on your “off-time” that is preventing you from taking the first steps to start your own business?   Are you watching TV or vegging on the sofa?  Are you to tired?

Solution – Keep a time journal - Make a list of those times when you aren’t committed to a responsibility or a “must do” task where you could have been spending time researching, training or working with a coach to move you forward.  I suggest keeping a small memo pad with you so you can use it all day long.  When you start monitoring your off times, you will see that there are lots of opportunities in your day that you can take time to build your business.  Remember, if you want something bad enough, there are solutions.

Excuse - “I don’t have anything to offer.”  – As baby boomers, we have lots to offer.  Think about a hobby or a skill that you have that you can teach others.  Maybe you spent many years in one career but you always had a dream to turn a passion into profit.

Solution – My friend, Cindy Schulson, is a Niche expert who offers a FREE report called “10 Steps to Finding and Attracting Your Ideal Niche“  I highly recommend you request her report and learn the techniques and tips to help you identify your niche.  So go ahead and request your copy here ==> “10 Steps to Finding and Attracting Your Ideal Niche.”

Excuse - “I’m To Old.” – This one astounds me.  I was 55 years old when I got laid off twice in one year.  I had no money, very little savings and got rejected over and over again from job interviews.  If I had used this excuse, I would have hidden under a rock and just not come out.  Instead I found a solution.

Solution – Turn to Social Media and start your Facebook profile, a Twitter Profile and find other baby boomers who are just like you who are starting their own businesses.  Google key word phrases about baby boomers and baby boomer entrepreneurs and see what you come up with.  I bet you will be amazed at the number of baby boomers finding solutions to their retirement by starting their own business.

Excuse - “I don’t know where to begin.”  There are so many places to research and sometimes that can lead to information overload, making it harder to focus and get started.

Solution – Hire a Solutions Coach – When you hire a solutions coach, you have the opportunity to work one on one with a mentor who will hold you accountable for your goals and success.  Someone who will take you through the journey in a step by step process leading you to accomplish your goals to help you avoid overwhelm and gain confidence.

I hope these tips helped you see that baby boomers have so much to offer through their years of expertise and experience.  So take some of these solutions and get started.

What excuses do you have for not getting started in building your own business?

Until next time,

Have a great day and please leave a comment below.  I love hearing from my readers.

Cindy

Your Marketing Solutions Coach

Did you know that this year, in 2011, the oldest of the baby boomers will turn 65?  While I am in the middle of the baby boomer age scale at 57, the time has come for me to ponder how I am going to retire.  With a lay off in 2009 and building a new business in 2010, I am no where near retirement, at least not now.  Not until I started Bloomin’ Boomers, which will not become boomerpreneurs.

So what are baby boomers doing to supplement their income?  They are starting new businesses.  Some are starting from scratch after a lay off, others are taking their passions and going from offline ideas to an online presence for profit.  Others are using their capital from their savings to start a new brick and mortar business or patent a new brand.  Whatever road you choose to take, there is a swarm of activity with baby boomers becoming boomerpreneurs.

In this Youtube video, Matt Lauer, of the Today Show, is interviewing Jean Newell, who had lost her job and decided to take the boomerpreneur road and found success.  Jean, at the age of 62,  had a product that she loved and wanted to promote.  This video is a year old but listen to the statistics.  They are astounding.  Here is what Jean did.

A year ago I started my own business and have learned that we baby boomers have lots of experience and expertise to take our passions and turn them from offline to online success. I chose the path of offering products and services to help my clients.

In doing so, I put together 55 Strategies with an Action Guide here on my blog.  Go take a look on the sidebar at the tip of my blog by adding your name and email to access the strategies to get ideas on starting your own business.

I love comments, so let me know what your thoughts are.  Did you start your own business?  Why not share it in the comments below.

Until next time,

Have a great day,

Cindy

Now that the new year is upon us and 2010 is history, I have been reflecting about my best and worst business decisions in 2010 to help me move forward in 2011.  As I am setting my S.M.A.R.T. goals for 2011,  it has been helpful to make a list of the things that didn’t work for me.

Some decisions were good and some decisions were bad as I built my business in my first year.  It is my goal here on this blog post to share them so that those of you who are new to the online world will learn from my experiences.  What I learned through the best and the worst decisions has made me very motivated to make 2011 a year of implementation and focus.

My Worst Business Decisions in 2010; Sort of:

I spent more money than I made, and what little I did make, I put it right back into my business by traveling.   Some would say that was a mistake, but I found it as a learning experience to guide me into a better decision making mode for 2011.  I found it very important to learn from some top leaders which allowed me the opportunity to travel to 4 live events in the west coast.  Make no mistake, it was a great opportunity to meet those in person with whom I connected with online.  In doing so, I have made some awesome friends and have met some fantastic business leaders. Not only have I met some fantastic leaders, I have connected with some online folks who have reached out to me for help.  Lesson Learned:  It’s like going back to school and learning something that I couldn’t learn in college.

I spent to much time training for everything I could get my hands on and became an information overload person with ADD, creating confusion and a lack of direction.   In the first half of 2010, I began so many projects and went in so many directions before I was clear on my Niche, preventing me from understanding the importance of implementation and focus.  I bought many programs and trainings and found myself learning one area of expertise, then learning another,  thinking I had to be the expert in all areas.   Lesson Learned:  NOT!

I gave up exercise and local social connections. It was quite an adjustment for me to go from a large corporation working with lots of coworkers and having an agenda to working from home all alone and feeling isolated.  When I started working from home, my focus was to become a student 24/7, keeping me glued to my computer for hours and hours.  With this decision, I realized I had gained some weight and wasn’t as energized as I was when I was working outside my home.  You might say I became a “hermit”  except when I traveled to the West Coast.  Lesson Learned:  I have made exercise and local networking events part of my 2011 goals and have them written on my new 2011 wall calendar.

My Best Business Decisions in 2010; Really!

I signed up for a 6 month coaching course that gave me new insight into my personal growth and also the growth of my business.  Coaching Cognition allowed me to explore the possibility of adding coaching into my business plan for helping new “boomerpreneurs” gain their confidence and lessen their overwhelm as they were starting off in their online journeys.  It also helped me connect with the other students in the program allowing us to connect, train and learn from one another.  Now, I am a coach helping my own clients.  Lesson Learned:  Personal Development and training is the way to move you business forward.

I learned that perfection can hold you back from achieving your goals. Have you ever wanted to start a project but had to have it perfect before you completed it, leaving it unfinished and leaving you frustrated and ready to give up?  Yep, been there, done that myself.   Here is a quote I have taped on my desk to remind me that perfection can prevent me from moving forward.

“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” Anna Quindlen

Lesson Learned:  Waiting to be perfect got in my way.

I learned to focus and implement. Like I said, the first half of my first year in business, I became a sponge learning all that I could but it was taking me in to0 many directions, leaving me confused and feeling a sense of ADD.  When I returned from my last 2 Live events in November of 2010, a light bulb went off.   I knew I had to focus and implement.  When I got home,  I began unsubscribing to all the emails that I never read, I got a large wall calendar that I have posted on my wall in front of my computer that I see every day reminding me of my goals and I got a timer that has helped me focus on only one project at a time.  I learned to turn off all tabs on my computer so I could complete one task at a time.  The timer taught me to TRAIN MY BRAIN for better focus.   Lesson Learned:  I am ready for 2011.

These are just a few of my best and worst business decisions for 2010.  I do hope you enjoyed learning from me.  Please share your comments below and let us know what you learned, best and worst in 2010.  I believe it’s so much nicer to learn from one another.

Until next time, have a great day,

Cindy

CLICK THE ARROW TO HEAR THE INTERVIEW

[audio: http://cindymurphyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Interviewing-Trina-Hayes-7-5-10.mp3]

In today’s interview, I had the pleasure of talking with Trina Hayes, who works from home as a  successful entrepreneur, researcher, teacher and author.  As you listen, you will discover her challenges and successes in working from home.

You will also learn about her book “Just Love Her” as Trina talks about her journey and reasons for wanting to share the message.

Trina continues to build relationships with others who share her passion in creating awareness of addiction and the impact it has on destroying families, communities and our world.

If you would like more information, you can check out her website at www.trinahayes.com