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Are You Fixing the Illness or the Symptoms In Your Business?

November 15, 2013 by louise Leave a Comment

33/365 Down with the Sickness
When I was in high school I was constantly sick with a cold. My best friend was convinced I had some sort of cancer (she is a little bit of a hypochondriac :))

The colds were never bad enough that it significantly impacted my life but I was always low-energy and foggy. I thought that this was just the way my body functioned and accepted it for a long time.

It wasn’t until I intentionally started working towards a healthier lifestyle years later that I understood what the real problem was. I realized I wasn’t taking care of the deeper issues that were the actual causes of my colds in the first place. I didn’t exercise; I didn’t know healthy boundaries with my energy so I said ‘yes’ to working too many shifts at the party store (my first job!); I didn’t know how to handle my emotions; I had terrible sleeping habits, etc.

Rather than just resting and taking medicine to address my symptoms, I looked at how I could improve my health for the long-term by creating better habits and tuning into my body more.

When I work with businesses I look at it from a similar perspective. Whenever an issue (a symptom) comes about, I stop and ask “are we addressing the illness or just the symptoms?”

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Getting Shit Done, Operations

The Real Reasons Why You Can’t Get Stuff Done

September 19, 2013 by louise 2 Comments

todolist

Like most online business owners, you probably work from home.

It’s an incredible benefit to running an online business, but like every good thing, it comes also with its own set of challenges.

Why is it so dang hard to stay focused and get things done? You prioritize, set a schedule, do your practices and get it done! Not so simple, right? 

It comes down to two reasons:

  1. Lack of clarity on priorities
  2. Fear of doing the work

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Getting Shit Done

What 400 High School Students Taught Me About Project Management & Operations: Simplify, Standardize, Centralize (Part II)

August 29, 2013 by louise Leave a Comment

I <3 spreadsheets | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

A few weeks ago, I wrote the first part of my experience in managing a 400 person conference and what it taught me about project management and operations. The first part talked about having the right people on your team (love my OC’s!). This next part will talk about the principles that helped me keep order with almost 400 students from 20+ countries and 40+ staff members.

The principles are: simplify, standardize and centralize.

You will have many moving parts and pieces of information while you are working on any project. In order to keep details from falling through the cracks, look for how you can implement these principles.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Getting Shit Done, Operations

What 400 High School Students Taught Me About Project Management and Operations

July 25, 2013 by louise 2 Comments

School_Bus

In a past life, I produced and managed large conferences. When I first started this line of work, I had no idea it would teach me everything I needed to know about launching and running successful projects. The one conference in particular that taught me the most was a week-long conference for 350+ high school students from mostly Muslim countries that were part of a Department of State sanctioned exchange program (not your typical conference in any way, shape or form).

When I managed the first conference for these students, it was- for a lack of a better word- a shit show. The second conference was also a shit show. There were sleepless nights organizing flight information for students flying to Lebanon, missing documents required to take students to the hospital and so on and so forth. When the third conference rolled around, lots had to change. I took what I learned from the first two conferences and revamped the whole planning and onsite execution process. The next time you are launching any sort of project, there are a lot of key things to keep in mind, but this one will be vital.

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Filed Under: Getting Shit Done, Operations

Turning Your Quarterlife Crisis Into a Breakthrough

July 18, 2013 by louise 2 Comments

Have you ever felt that itch that something needed to change in your life? You know that feeling- that gut feeling that you aren’t living in alignment with who you really are.

I definitely have!

The Quarter-Life Breakthrough | Indiegogo

My friend, Adam “Smiley” Poswolsky, decided to do something about that feeling a couple years ago. I sat down with Smiley to talk about his journey from working as a speech writer in Washington, DC to embracing his love for writing to now launching his first book, The Quarterlife Breakthrough.

He is currently running an IndieGoGo campaign for presales of the book. As I write this, he has surpassed the original goal of $9,000 and has raised $10,966 so far- way to go, Smiley!

Oh, and we had an amazing dance party afterwards- after some hilarious technical difficulties.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Career/Work, Getting Shit Done, Personal Development

How to Rock the Rest of 2013

July 3, 2013 by louise 3 Comments

July 1st was this past Monday and also marked the halfway point of the year. Holy moly. Where has this year gone?

I took this opportunity to think about what I want the remainder of the year to look like. Call it goals, intentions or objectives but they are all things I’d like to accomplish to rock the rest of the year out.

I wrote these down and have them posted in front of my desk that I sit at everyday. To make things happen I practice a few different thought processes I’ve learned from many hours of reading and learning from mentors, speakers and teachers. I hope it helps you too. Let’s rock the rest of 2013 together, shall we?!

 IMG_20130702_085009

Be clear on your ‘why.’

Sometimes, we create goals without total clarity on why we are doing them in the first place. We think it’s what we “should” do. We think it will make us look cool or get us more likes on Facebook. We think it will bring us more money or success in the worldly sense. Those reasons why will not hold up in the end.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Getting Shit Done, Personal

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