Today's Innovative Woman, September/October 2012

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September/October 2012 4 Today’s Innovative Woman

Summer is over – and fall is arriving! The kids are back to school, vacations are over and it’s time to focus on the final quarter of 2012.

(I can’t believe I’m saying that!) For those who took all summer off, you might have a bigger push to get yourself back into the groove!

We have an exciting Fall planned! We kick it off by participating at the California Women’s Conference! We have a booth and are providing 10,000 magazines to the attendees. We’ll even have some of our showcased writers at the booth – stop by and say hi!

We also have our big SUCCESS Summit and Expo – the premiere West Coast event for women business owners. This event is a full day of speakers who are top in the field. They’ll be presenting on everything from “becoming famous in your niche market” to “branding beyond your logo” to putting “billions in your briefcase”! We’ll also be talking about “transforming your sales results”, creating a “business with a greater point then profit” and lastly, stepping up into the role of CEO! This event is NOT to be missed. We will have 200 high energy business women in the room – and you will want to be one of them!! We will also be awarding our Innovative Women in Business Awards! Finalists are announced September 1st and winners will be presented on October 5th!

On another note, I’m excited to announce my newly formed company! With two magazines, a magazine publishing program and more, I needed a

company that encompassed it all! So, I am now Alessandra Media Group. Check out the portal website! (www.AlessandraMediaGroup.com)

Lastly, I need your help! Do you know a mom or dad who may be looking to work part-time from home and make some extra cash? As you probably know, I’ve published the print version of What’s Up For Kids in the Los Angeles area for almost 17 years. With parents spending more time online, launching an online only version for local parents is a great opportunity. And I’m looking for a few good moms and dads to do just that around the country! All the details can be found on www.WhatsUpForKids.com, just click on “Become a City Editor”. And thanks for your referral!

Here’s to your SUCCESS!

From The Publisher

Subscribe for FREE at www.TodaysInnovativeWoman.com 5

All About Business 8 Doing Well by Doing Good

10 4 Steps To Savvy Sleuthing for Maximum Publicity

12 5 Tips to Get More Results from Your Marketing Materials

18 Smart Women Exercise Their Easiest Marketing Muscle

20 Effective Web Design Means More Than Just Looking Pretty

26 Now Money Now and More Money Later

28 How to Create Videos that Generate Leads

All About Success 16 Beth Shaw Shares Her Challenges

and Success Strategies All About You

14 Boundaries, Why We Need them

All About Fashion22 Style File: Sheath Chic for Fall

All About Food24 Edamame Salad

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In This Issue




Doing Well by Doing Goodby Elzabeth Bernay and Kara Noone

Increasingly, many investors want their financial holdings to reflect their social,

ethical or religious values. At the same time, most investors still want to earn a reasonable return on their portfolio. Socially responsible investing (SRI) seeks to reconcile these two objectives by helping investors create diversified portfolios that strive to deliver acceptable performance while excluding companies that don’t meet their criteria. With some investment planning, investors can incorporate SRI into their investment strategies to help meet their long term goals.

SRI investing recognizes that incorporate responsibility and societal concerns are an important part of many investment decisions – particularly with the world’s increased focus on sustainability and climate change, among others. Typically, SRI is done through the use of specific “screens,” to identify

companies active in industries or lines of business that the investor wishes to avoid. These industries could include tobacco, alcohol, firearms or gambling, to name a few.

To implement a socially responsible portfolio, individuals, with the guidance of their advisors, can select an investment product that specializes in such strategies, either through separately managed

account products or mutual funds. Additionally, some firms have systems that allow their clients to block the purchase of specific companies or industries.

Before implementing a socially responsible investment program, discuss your desires with your financial advisor and identify the appropriate restrictions in your written investment policy. Structuring investments consistent with social, environmental or ethical objectives offers investors a way to align their portfolios with their own values.

All About Business


Elizabeth Bernay and Kara Noone are Financial Advisors with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. With a combined financial services industry

experience of more than 30 years, they address a broad spectrum of wealth management concerns. Their business is tailored to the concerns of women and their families to help them identify and prepare for life’s challenges and opportunities. They believe the way women approach managing their wealth can have a profound affect on how they take advantage of new experiences and enjoyment throughout their lives. To that end, they offer on-going financial advice and educational opportunities to their clients and the community. They can be reached at 949-955-7552 or [email protected].


4 Steps To Savvy Sleuthing for Maximum Publicityby Deborah A. Genovesi

I recently interviewed celebrity nutrition/fitness expert JJ Virgin, Dr. Phil’s resident

nutritionist for several seasons and co-host of TLC’s Freaky Eaters. She shared her top tips on how to ace a media interview. I’ll expand on one of her concepts, as it’s one I teach my clients and is an often neglected step.

Would-be media darlings focus time and attention on how to attract media attention and what they want to say. While these are two vital steps, there’s another that needs to happen between them - research. Here are 4 tips to help you better navigate the media landscape.

1. Study the programs you’re targeting. In a recent conversation I had with author and celebrity book publicist Arielle Ford, she said she’d like to appear on Ellen, so she carefully studies that show. She watches it frequently and takes note of the stories and guests, especially the ones Ellen enjoys. Then she works with her publicist to frame media pitches that fit Ellen’s interests and show format.

2. Your main requirement, especially on TV or radio, is an ability to speak in sound bites. The producer needs clean, concise bits of info to edit the story. To avoid the cutting room floor, you must deliver your message this way.

3. If you are going on TV, study the set beforehand. Coordinate clothing colors to harmonize with the backdrop, not clash or blend in. If you wear a red dress and the program has a red couch, you’ll disappear.

4. Be aware of what is happening in the world, especially if you’re on a live show. Keep current on news of the day and never go on-air before reading newspapers and scanning online for top topics trending that day. If something major happened, be prepared for questions about it.

Deborah A. Genovesi, APR “Your Communications Copilot” is an accredited PR veteran and former TV reporter who helps business owners attract ideal clients and increase income. She nails down your marketing messages and trains you to deliver them via media and public speaking with confidence, poise and style. Reach her at www.CommsCopilot.com.

All About Business



5 tips to Get More Results From Your Marketing Materials

The moment I decided to specialize as a direct response

copywriter, I knew there would be one thing that would determine whether I would eat steak or mac and cheese: the results I got for my clients. Therefore, improving results became my passion!

Here are 5 tips to improve the conversions of your marketing materials:

1. Know who you’re talking to. The quickest way to end up with dismal results is to try and talk to everyone. Identify a specific customer you can

help -- and make sure your marketing materials speak directly to that ideal client.

2. Write benefits, not features, because that’s what people buy! Features are a description of a product -- for instance, a feature of a diet pill is that it IS a pill. A benefit is the solution the product provides -- in this case, losing weight. Focus on benefits.

3. Work on that headline! David Ogilvy, famous ad man, says people make the decision to read your marketing materials based on your headline. Your headline should: a. speak to potential customers, b. contain a

benefit, c. be so compelling your ideal client wants to read further. Take the extra time to get this right!

4. Don’t forget the call to action. You’ve got to tell people what to do next, because they won’t know unless you do.

5. Use P.S.’s. Postscripts (P.S.) are the second most read item in a sales piece, so think of ways to best utilize them in your pieces. (A special offer? To highlight a compelling benefit?) Whatever you do, don’t waste that space!

If you even do just one of these tips, you should start seeing better results. Work on all five and you might be amazed at how much your results improve.

All About Business

by Michele Pariza Wacek


Michele PW (Michele ParizaWacek) is your Ka-Ching! Marketing strategist and owns Creative Concepts

and Copywriting LLC, a premiere direct response copywriting and marketing company that helps entrepreneurs attract more clients, sell more products and services and boost their business. To grab your FREE “Ka-Ching! Business Kit” with a FREE CD visit http://www.MichelePW.com/freecd


All About You Boundaries, Why We Need themby Bibi Goldstein

It never surprises me when I meet someone who blurs the boundary lines in multiple areas of their lives because it happens so naturally, especially

if you have a home office.

Do you schedule specific time to dedicate to yourself or your family? What I’m finding is that most of us have given priority to work over self and family. If something is calendared for ourselves or our family we allow work to interrupt that time but we rarely allow the reverse to happen.

Boundaries are not walls, but more like fences that can be moved when necessary. When I work with clients who struggle with work spilling over from their home office to the rest of the house, I try to encourage them to really think about the efficiency and mental clutter it can create, not to mention the animosity or resentment from others in the home. By maintaining our work within the

designated time and place, it can serve to provide clarity and produce results at a more efficient pace.

An area where the tendency to constantly move the fence is with our clients, bosses or employees – where we haven’t set clear boundary lines in the beginning and now it comes back to haunt us. Set working hours and stick to them as often as possible. Sure you’re going to have instances where a particular project will push that, but that should be a rare occurrence. If the traditional weekend day is a more efficient time for you then switch a weekday out for yourself and/or your family. Managing your time to your needs rather than others will help you to maintain the boundary lines.

We need boundaries in our lives to build healthy relationships with our businesses, families, friends and ourselves with as little chaos and stress as we can control. Boundaries create trust and respect around all these areas and

are crucial to our success in each of them.

Bibi started Buying Time with a friend to give everyone the opportunity to have access to support and assistance with any task. With over 22 years in the transportation/logistics industry Bibi has specific experience in space and time efficiencies through Six Sigma training for warehouses from 1,000 to 30,000+ square feet. This provided her the ability to visualize the final outcome even when the client cannot. Bibi recently co-authored “Get Organized Today” with other organizing experts hoping to reach out and help more people. Bibi can be reached at www.buyingtimellc.com.



Beth Shaw, Founder & CEO of YogaFit Shares Her Challenges and Success Strategies...

One of the best parts about being the Publisher of Today’s Innovative Women magazine is all the wonderful, powerful, get it done women I

get to meet. They are a role model and inspiration to me every day. And Beth Shaw is no different.

Beth began taking yoga classes in 1989 and quickly realized it was a passion. She took the step of becoming a certified yoga instructor as a hobby but

found that the traditional methods of teaching yoga weren’t suited well to the fitness club environment. With her 9 years of experience in advertising sales and her newly created YogaFit teaching style, she launched her company in 1997. Since then, YogaFit has become the largest yoga school in North America and has trained over 200,000 instructors around the globe.

A life-long student of fitness, psychology, philosophy, spirituality, and health, Shaw is committed to helping people find their own perfect physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. On this path, she has studied yoga in India and Asia, holds numerous certificates in fitness disciplines, is an E-RYT registered with Yoga Alliance, a certified anger management specialist and has earned a bachelor’s degree in both Business Administration and Nutrition.

I asked Beth about her biggest challenges. “Staffing”, said Beth. “Finding the right people and making the right fit. I have a daily practice of nurturing them, training them correctly right from the beginning and cutting things when they aren’t working.”

Beth’s next biggest challenge is initiating new ideas. Like most entrepreneurs, she is never at a loss for the idea, but having too many ideas to implement leaves her with a challenge. “I have many new ideas to implement so I use a whiteboard to write out all my ideas then I prioritize them based on what is most profitable, how it can be implemented and who can help.”

by Cathy Alessandra

All About Success


As a successful business woman, I asked Beth why she thinks women entrepreneurs struggle. “Women aren’t groomed to run a business”, said Beth. “The external assumption is that women don’t have what it takes to run a business.” When Beth and I discussed this further, we both agreed that women are stereotyped into “being nice” and trying to please and take care of everyone. In addition, women have secondary commitments that are actually primary commitments such as children and aging parents that take them away from their work and put them into a juggling act.

Beth has experienced the ups and downs of business. She shared with me what success means to her; “When I feel in “balance” – when I can find time to meditate, workout, spend quality time on non-work things as well as having time to work, then I feel I have success! Running a business is like running a marathon. Sometimes you are walking, other times you are running and sometimes you are hobbling along on one leg!”

Beth is a success! And an innovative woman too! “I am constantly coming up with new ideas and new concepts and always moving forward. I am a visionary who is able to drill down from my big vision to the smaller steps.” Because of Beth’s innovative thinking and conscious business practices, she incorporated philanthropy into her company. Shaw’s own nonprofit, Visionary Women in Fitness, awards Yoga training and other educational scholarships to promising young women. Beginning in 2011, YogaFit committed to giving one million dollars of free yoga trainings annually to those in need. To date, the YogaFit Network under Beth’s direction has delivered over one million hours of community service work teaching yoga and promoting peace. Beth is also known for her community service initiatives and involvement, dedication and commitment to animal welfare.

I am very excited to have Beth as our keynote speaker at SUCCESS Summit in Los Angeles on October 5th (see ad on back cover). Beth will discuss how to build a business with a greater point then profit and a philanthropic mission. Beth concluded with, “Business without a greater point than profit is pointless”.


Smart Women Exercise Their Easiest Marketing Muscle

by Joy Chudacoff

A few days ago, I contacted a friend to ask for a referral recommendation for a big project I’m working on. My referral source

responded quickly providing me with the information I needed. I was so excited to speak with this potential resource. I immediately and eagerly reached out by email. No reply. Within 48 hours, I made a second attempt via email and phone. No reply.

Can you imagine how I felt?

I have great respect for the person who made the referral. In fact, it was most likely a “done deal” because of the person who made the referral, however the lack of response left me feeling unsure. I began to question the professionalism and expertise of the person I was trying to reach.

Why do I share this with you?

Follow-up is a marketing muscle that you must exercise if you desire to be successful in business. It is the one of the most important (& easiest) parts of securing new business. You can guarantee more clients and maintain a consistent cash flow by mastering this simple exercise.

Feeling like your follow-up skills could use some help? Here are some tips and solutions that are guaranteed to attract more clients and more income when you use them:

1. Make it Timely– When you make a connection with someone or receive a referral request, follow up immediately within 24-48 hours. The warm connection with the other person begins to fade with every passing day. Remember the follow-up doesn’t have to come directly from you. It can be a member of your team.

2. Monitor Your Channels – With email, web sites, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media channels, it can be exhausting to monitor where potential business is coming from. Dedicate a specific time each day to check your channels of communication to make sure you haven’t missed any important messages or I recommend having someone do this for you as soon as possible in your business.

All About Business

3. Make it Easy – When you follow -up, offer 2-3 dates and times to chat by phone, meet for coffee or find other creative ways to continue the conversation. Offer a suggestion on how you can take the conversation further. People are super busy and welcome the creative thinking on ways to connect.

Here’s what I love about follow-up. It’s simple, easy and anyone can do it. Oftentimes, it becomes the main reason I choose to do business with someone. In today’s entrepreneurial climate, price is not the only factor for consumers. They want to trust that the person they choose to hire will keep their commitment and provide the service that was promised. What’s the value of that? Priceless.

Joy Chudacoff is Heralded as “The Coach for Women” in the millennium, Joy Chudacoff has x-ray vision when it comes to helping women discover their Big Ideas, Dreams and Goals! Joy draws on both her personal life and entrepreneurial experiences to support women in achieving better ways of living. It’s her passion, her purpose and her business. She is a Professional Certified Coach, highly skilled group leader, motivational speaker and a gifted communicator.

Visit Joy’s website, SmartWomenSolutions.com, where you’ll find more articles plus information about her Women’s Success Circles, Smart Women Smart Solutions Coach Certification Programs, Speaking engagements, teleclasses and upcoming events for women. Joy can be reached at 310-454-2005 or by email, [email protected].



Effective Web Design Means More Than Just Looking Pretty

Are you letting your personality out? When thinking about creating or updating your website, it is important to create a beautiful design that reflects who you are and how you do business. Also, bear in mind that it is the “usability” of the site that contributes greatly to the financial success or failure of your website. It’s important to keep in mind that you need to have both beauty and function to have an effective website.

Your site must look great, work smoothly and be extremely easy to navigate. Typical web users are impatient and insist on instant gratification. Therefore, it is important to make sure your website is simple and intuitive.

Here are 5 tips to help in creating an effective and beautiful website:

1. Know Your Users - You must understand the needs of your users. You can use market research, focus groups or surveys to better under-stand them.

2. Have a Clean Layout - A clean layout that uses a lot of white space will enhance your website’s look and readability. The layout should keep the focus on your content, flow easily and not be a distraction.

3. Design for all types of Screens and Resolutions: Make sure it can be read on everything: computer, phone and tablet. A site that is easy-to-use will encourage your visitors to stay; if it doesn’t display properly you could lose potential customers.

4. Make sure the website is Cross Browser Compatible: Make sure you check your website in all versions of the top browsers; Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari and Netscape.

5. Let Your Personality Out – Let your personality show through when de-signing your website. Find a designer that not only understands the

mechanics of a good website, but one who will understand who you are and can translate that information into your website.

Linda Cotter is a graphic artist and fine art photographer. Her goal is to help her clients produce better results through great design. Whether it is a logo, business card or website, she incorporates each client’s unique personality and style into the design with an eye-catching flair. This creates the opportunity for them to attract the desired clients and results they are looking for. Visit Linda’s website at www.LindaCotterDesigns.com. She can be reached at (310) 486-3108 or by email at [email protected].

All About Business

by Linda Cotter



Style File: Sheath Chic for Fallby Lisa Cole

The forecast for fall is about simple and elegant details. The statement of the season is The Sheath

Dress. This time it’s been reinvented for every Body type. The beauty of this dress is that it works for you as a professional woman. Cocktail party. It’s perfect. New client meeting and you want to impress, totally makes a powerful statement. Day to evening. Many women complain that it’s a fit challenge.

The goal of wearing something that shows your frame from every angel is to shape it up. High waist

shapewear is your friend! Black is back as the color of the season!

Compliment it with a cognac or honey color leather handbag. It can be mixed and matched with

your entire wardrobe Confident, classic and timeless...love it!

The purpose and passion behind Lisa Cole’s signature message is to inspire women to see the possibilities as it pertains to fashion and body image. Her events, media appearances and seminars have inspired thousands of women. Lisa embraced her own “challenges” with solutions that not only made her feel empowered but equipped her to reach women in a new and innovative way. Her programs are endorsed by leading women’s apparel companies and red carpet stylists. She devotes a percentage of her annual revenues to women’s causes. More information about Lisa can be found at www.StyleFitSolutions.com.

Doncaster.com

Doncaster.com

Flexees 3037

All About Fashion



by Nancy Newcomer

Looking for a side dish for family gatherings that’s easy to make but just a little different than your run of the mill green salad? Try my Edamame

Salad! Not only does it look pretty, it’s perfect for any occasion and loaded with protein and vegetables. It’s a cinch to make and your family will love it.

Edamame Salad - Serves 6-8

4 cups shelled edamame (2-9 oz packages Trader Joe’s shelled edamame) 2 cups roasted corn kernels (2 ears- I shuck & roast directly on my gas stove top) 2 tomatoes, cored, seeded, & diced 1 red bell pepper, diced 3 green onions, sliced 1/2 red onion, chopped 2 TB Italian parsley, chopped 2 TB fresh basil, chopped

Dressing juice from 2 limes juice from 1 meyer lemon 1/8 cup seasoned rice vinegar 1 tsp dry mustard 3 TB extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp French grey salt ( or sea salt) ½ tsp fresh ground black pepper

Directions 1. In a large bowl, combine edamame, corn, tomatoes, red bell pepper, green onion, red onion, parsley, and basil. 2. In a small separate bowl, whisk lime & lemon juice, rice vinegar, mustard, olive oil, salt and pepper. 3. Pour dressing over salad mixture and combine until thoroughly mixed. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until ready to serve. Tastes even better the next day after marinating overnight. Enjoy!

Longtime Santa Barbara radio personality, Nancy Newcomer is a food blogger and an accomplished cook & creator of simple, healthy meals made from fresh, organic ingredients. With an emphasis on gluten free fare and local farmer’s market bounty, her Facebook food blog, “Back to the Kitchen: Healthy Living with Real Food” is followed by people in over 22 countries. Check out Nancy’s new website, www.NancyNewcomer.com where she shares recipes & shopping tips and continues to advocate cooking “real food “ recipes and having sit down family dinners.

Edamame SaladAll About Food



When you earn now money now, you provide a service or sell a product and are paid for it right away, like when a therapist sees a

client they are paid for that hour. When you invest time now to develop a product or service that will pay you in the future, you are investing in more money later. You do this when you take time now to write a book, develop a group training program or write a webinar. You create the revenue stream once and are paid for it over and over. You make a big time investment now for a big revenue payoff later. A profitable and sustainable business needs both now money now and more money later.

In most service-based businesses, time and expertise is delivered in exchange for money. This is now money now. This is fine. However, you want to make sure you also create ways of generating revenue that do not involve too much time. You want to develop more money later ways of generating revenue. When you do this your business you will have ways of generating revenue that do not involve too much of your time. You develop something once like an audio CD pack or a video series once and you can sell it hundreds and thousands of times.

Ask yourself: What are you current now money now revenue producing activities? What are your current more money later revenue producing activities?

If you are not investing time to create opportunities for more money later you are working too hard. It is time. I tell my coaching clients to always be working on the next more money later revenue stream. Decide now what that is for you. Investing some time each week in more money later activities will help ensure a robust, long-term thriving business.

Caterina Rando’s shows ambitious women how to be loud and proud about the value they bring. She is a master certified coach and creator of the Sought After Speaker Summit http://soughtafterspeaker.com and The Business Breakthrough Summit http://bizbreakthrough.com You can reach Caterina at (415) 668-4535 or via email at [email protected].

Now Money Now and More Money Later

All About Business

by Caterina Rando



How to Create VideosThat Generate Leads

by Katrina Sawa

Whether you’ve already started recording video and using video in the marketing

of your business or not, there are a few key things you may want to make sure you’re doing in order to maximize your exposure and time.

Video is highly searchable by the search engines online and it’s becoming one of the hottest ways for someone to experience you. It’s not going away so you want to start embracing it!

How to shoot videos:

1. Buy a webcam or flip camera or use the one on your desktop or laptop.

2. Get in a room with good lighting and not too much distraction in the background

3. Put on extra makeup for the camera

4. Have someone hold the camera or set up with stand if using portable one

5. Turn on and talk – its that simple!

6. Download to your computer or save

7. Open an account on YouTube.com

8. Upload your videos, weekly if possible to YouTube – adding keywords and a written description of what you’re talking about with link to web page

9. Make sure your YouTube account is set up to automatically feed into your social networks using an RSS feed so it gets repurposed in multiple places

All About Business

Katrina Sawa is an Award-Winning, International JumpStart Your Biz Coach, Author of the book Love Yourself Successful, and a Dynamic Speaker who’s helped thousands of small business owners take dramat-ic steps in their businesses to get them to the next level in business, rev-enues and their personal life. She offers one-on-one coaching, group coaching programs, live events and do-it-yourself business-building products. She’s been featured on various news talk shows and radio shows including Oprah and Friends XM Radio and she has her own radio show on Blog Talk entitled, JumpStart Your Business NOW. Go online now and get started by grabbing her Free Entrepreneur’s Success Kit plus two other free gifts now at http://www.JumpStartYour-Marketing.com/gifts!

Quick outline of what to say in promotional videos:

1. Quick introduction – your name, title, business and website url plus what you’re going to share (i.e. quick biz tip or similar)

2. Content or tip – share something useful, helpful or interesting

3. Close with a call to action – what do you want them to do? Go sign up on your website for information, call you, register for an event or teleclass?

Don’t worry about what you look like. Be personal, memorable and vulnerable. Encourage interaction with your audience and you will build followers. You can do this!




Documents

Today's Innovative Woman, September/October 2012