Reorienting Our Thoughts: The Beauty of Dusk
Listening to Frank Bruni on a recent Oprah Insiders live event inspired me in ways I couldn’t imagine. It is a true gift to listen, learn, and be inspired unexpectedly sometimes by others.
Frank lost some of his eyesight to a stroke and shared the positive lessons he learned by having this condition and in the process avoided self-pity. Most everyone he knew had gone through some type of personal struggle and it occurred to him that if people all walked around with a sandwich board listing the trails in their life, none of us would be prey to self-pity because struggle is truly part of a human life and we’d become more empathic towards others when we realize this.
As you know, I don’t have to walk around with a sandwich board because people can see my main struggle in life when they see the sun shine off my bald head. It’s taken 3 years of coming to grips with the fact my hair may never grow back, answering questions about having cancer from strangers, and looking in the mirror to find a new kind of beauty in my image. But as Frank points out, the real question in any struggle is not to ask “Why me?” but rather, “Why, not me?”
His point went on to reflect the fact people go through their life in the world thinking we should just be comfortable all the time and in doing so we become less prepared for unplanned occurrences. But if we start realizing when we are in the most difficult moments of our lives, it is normal, then our mindset can start shifting towards solutions and healing.
Bruni said, “Why me, is a wasted moment,” instead he suggests we look at our strengths to help us get through any ordeal. Through sports, my faith, and a large community of female entrepreneurs who have supported me through my revelation of my alopecia condition, helped me accept and turn my life into more than a condition. Stepping through the hard moments and walking into bravery is the only way I have moved forward. My word of the year “undaunted” helps me take big and small steps every day.
I hope this blog post sheds light for you on difficult moments and conditions you are experiencing and inspires you to walk through a vail of darkness following light rays instead. Bruni’s memoir The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found comes out on March 1st through Amazon.
“There are devastations that break a heart open and there can be beauty in the rupture and the shards,” said Bruni. There is truth to that beautiful, raw statement. Sometimes we have to accept the rupture, see the shards, pick them up, and carry on.
Wednesday Wisdom: Super Exciting Marketing Campaigns
Wednesday Wisdom for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
It is the annual rage around the county created by smart marketers. Getting your community outside to participate and enjoy your most treasured assets is not only a thing of wonder, but a work of art in the business advertising world. During mid-February in Onondaga County, you see the young and old by themselves, with others, and in groups trying to act inconspicuous searching for a white medallion whose location is leaked in daily clues in our local paper.
Today was clue #5 of the 2022 Treasure Hunt . There were definitely more people out and about searching for the medallion as I rode my bike in a typical place that the clues seemed to lead to. Wouldn’t you be out there too if you could win $1,000 or $2,000 if you found it? I must admit I was sort of peeking as I rode my bike in places that might hold the magic medallion.
Feeling excited and then let down by not spying this one-inch white coin, I looked at the faces of the kids excited to be searching for it holding hands with each other and their parents and people who looked like they could really use the money and then I didn’t care I hadn’t spotted it. I don’t need the money and perhaps someone else needs it more than I do. They are the people or person I hope finds it. Everyone needs a great stroke of luck once in a while.
Brilliant marketing and advertising ideas can be as annual as this one or a one-time stroke of creative genius to entice your customers, community, and public to really grasp your name and remember it. Small or big marketing campaigns can be as grand as your budget and as creative as your mindset. Even hiring some extra imaginative people to brainstorm with you may help you create a truly exciting marketing campaign to get your business name known more.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to motivate you to think of the hidden medallion hanging somewhere in Onondaga County’s Parks and how a local business enticed the community to get involved. Sometimes a great corporate PR idea brings more than a thousand dollars to someone’s bank account, it brings enthusiastic potential consumers to a business. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars to launch a clever advertising promotion, just the will, idea, and a plan.
I wish you a thousand ideas as you begin your next creative marketing promotion or perhaps a thousand dollars if by chance you live in our county and find the medallion all while getting in some healthy exercise while looking for it. What a bonus!
Simple Business Breakfast Advice
Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners
As I drove out of a local nature center known for their hiking trails, serene environment and diverse animal visitors, I saw a large yellow sign that said “Pancake Breakfast this Sunday.” I knew this center used fundraisers to support their non-profit organization but advertising and hosting a pancake breakfast was a new revenue stream for them.
Sometimes it takes a large yellow sign as a signal for us to pay attention to the message too. My ever-entrepreneurial thinking mind right after witnessing the sign immediately thought of ways businesses can create their own revenue opportunities to increase dollars in their bank accounts. Some companies add a new product line to their existing service business, while others add services to a traditional product based operation. Some add both.
The companies that creatively add new sources of income might get fresh ideas from customers requesting something from them or client problems that need fixing. Other times a competitor offers something our customers ask from us after seeing it. Often times we witness a national trend in our industry and want to bring it home to sell. What is important is not the way we were motivated to create something new for our company, but rather being aware enough to notice.
Today’s blog post is meant to inspire you to look for the bright yellow pancake breakfast signs along your own travels, to listen to the questions being generated by your clients and to seek inspiration from national sources about new revenue producing business ideas for your enterprise. The great thing about being a business owner is our ability to add new offerings, when we want and then selling them to make more money.
Be wise and do your planning when it is time to add your own Pancake Breakfast service to your existing menu and then enjoy the taste of your new offering.
Ode to Random Acts of Kindness Day
Thursday Thoughts on Random Acts of Kindness Day
Parking my car one blustery April day, to head into a bank to get money to go to Boston to run in my first marathon, the wind was blowing hard. As a frail woman came out of the bank doors, a big gust of wind almost blew her over. Witnessing the alarm in her eyes, I approached to see if she needed help getting to her car. She nodded yes, so I extended my arm for her to grasp, but instead she interlaced her fingers into mine, like a boyfriend and girlfriend in the beginning of a relationship.
We walked gingerly towards her car hand in hand. By the time we got to her door; I shared the fact I was withdrawing money to travel to Massachusetts to run the Boston Marathon. She said, “What’s your name?” I told her “Tracy.” She said, “Well, Tracy, I am going to pray you are successful in the race because of your kindness today.” I gave her a hug, closed her door once her feet were tucked inside, and went into the bank smiling. I love being kind to strangers.
This feeling of kindness must have traveled with me to Boston, because two nights before the race, worried about completing it, I stopped eating. I knew I needed food to fuel my 26.2-mile run, so I walked to a pizza parlor and bought a medium pizza pie and salad. I sat down and ate only a quarter of the pizza and salad, figuring I would save the rest for later.
As I walked back to my hotel, I came upon a man looking through a trashcan for food to eat. I walked over to him without a thought and asked him if he wanted my warm pizza. He accepted my gift, thanking me. Not unlike the beggar in the Jim Carrey movie “Bruce Almighty,” where the city beggar morphed from his ragged look into God played by Morgan Freeman, this Boston man could have been God or just a simply hungry man needing food. All I wanted to be was kind in the moment.
On this annual Random Acts of Kindness Day, do something unexpected and nice for someone you don’t know and after you do, be kind to yourself too.
Wednesday Wisdom: Winning With New Social Media
Wednesday Wisdom, Motivation, Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Business
Twitter this, Twitter that, TikTok here, TikTok everywhere. Do these sounds rumble in your entrepreneurial headspace? Well, they did with me so I jumped in bald head first this past week into a Twitter Chat event followed by a Twitter Space event and into downloading TikTok on my new iPhone. Now before I lose you saying, “I’m too old for this new media stuff,” stick with me a little further, because an old dog can learn new tricks.
Inspired by Deb Coman, one of our members, I took up her invitation to experience a Twitter Chat and Twitter Space event she hosts regularly every Monday at 3 p.m., I joined her not knowing what it was about, but trusting her hashtag #SocialTrust and her. It was an interesting and enjoyable 45-minute online chat through Twitter at first answering questions on the subject of “How to Build Love and Trust with Your Marketing Campaigns,” followed by listening to live audio of the speaker and followers chiming in on the subject. If you didn’t know, Twitter Space is the new audio version of Twitter.
What was cool about the experience was learning about new women, following some of them on Twitter (and them following me) because they have similar interests as women entrepreneurs, and then hearing them speak and realizing many of them were international. One woman from Cameroon, Africa was on the phone and the speaker was British. What a nice way to meet women from around the globe in the comfort of one’s home office.
Then, downloading TikTok became a day-long challenge for me but I stuck with it since I want to use it for my new personal brand, as an athletic bald woman. Inspired by Hope Breen, a young Rochester woman who utilizes TikTok for her own brand, I decided I wasn’t too old to try it out. To be honest, I got it downloaded (check my page out) but need more help from Hope using it and not feeling goofy. Hey, if you don’t try, you can’t fail and if trying these new social media marketing platforms, means admitting they aren’t quite right for me and my company, what do I have to lose but some time trying.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to remind you not all things new are right for us, but if you don’t try them out, you don’t know if they could be. Sure it takes time, trials and errors, but maybe, just maybe, we find a cool new way to connect with potential younger clients, global women, or even a person in our own community we wouldn’t have met otherwise.
Remember, If you try something new, like a social media marketing platform, and you don’t like it, hang it up and try something else, but don’t stop trying.
Women – Let’s “Live” Like the Olympians
Tuesday Thoughts, Inspiration, Fitness for Women, Female Entrepreneurs, Athletes
After riding the red gondola up the steep mountain, my male cousin skied off quickly taunting me to keep up. We were teenagers who both loved sports and skiing at Gore Mountain once a year was a thrill. As I caught up with him, he was perched on a Black Diamond run, you know one of those treacherous looking cliffs you see on television and think the people who ski down them are crazy. Well, not to say my cousin was crazy, but he was a dare devil, and being a girl, I always wanted to be his equal.
“Ah, crap Jeff, what are we doing?” He smiled slyly and started down the vertical, rocky cliffside trail. Of course, once he made it down the icy edge of the steepest part of the trail, he yelled for me to follow. What was I suppose to do? You can’t back up on a ski hill and the Gondola only went one way. So, I took a really deep breathe, almost closed my eyes, trusted gravity and my skiing skills would get me down safely or I’d die on the hill trying.
Sometimes when I think back on what made me the daring woman I’ve always been, I thank the love and thrill of sports. Waterskiing and skiing at the tender age of five, sailing a sunfish boat by myself against the silhouette of a summer day, biking around the lake I grew up on, and jumping off cliffs at near the dam’s edge, made me fearless in sports and I think eventually in entrepreneurship. How else do you build confidence than trying hard feats and succeeding?
Perhaps my cousin and my riskiness came from our shared Italian genes or the fact we are four months apart in age or that we had parents who let us live and try sports. Following him off a diving board, doing a full somersault in the air, was something else I had to master to hang with my male cousins. Ever the feminist, I believed if the dudes in my family could do it, I could do it. And so, I did.
As I watch the Beijing Olympics and see Salomon and Downhill skiers, I know what it’s like because I tried that too. One sunny winter day, I skied the moguls all day long without fear of falling so I resonate with them too. With a neighbor down the road as a high ranked USA downhill skier, I also attempted one too many plunges down some hill sides to see what it was like. Now at the age of 57, I want more thrill from sports than I ever have had before, and you know what, it is my new life goal to try ALL the sports there are to try, at least once. My excel spreadsheet has them listed with plenty of marks for the ones I’ve already tried. I am inviting women who know me to join me – especially middle agers.
Follow me on my journey the rest of this year as I inspire you, and other women of all ages, to follow in my footsteps and take the risk and gain the rewards of trying more and more sports in their lifetime. We can’t just let the Olympians have all the fun, can we?
Monday Motivation: Does Love Fuel Business Success?
Monday Motivation, Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Small Business Owners, Female Businesses
By the middle of the 18th century, Valentine’s Day was a customary day for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. Handwritten notes and sentimental thoughts were converted over time to a billion dollar industry. According to today’s statistics, Valentine’s Day has become the second largest card sending holiday with an estimated 2.6 billion cards sent.
As I review these statistics, I wonder how a simple idea like creating Valentine’s Day cards could translate over time to a billion dollar industry. Is love what really fuels business success?
It’s hard to be innovative in a world of a billion business success stories. I’m sure most women entrepreneurs wish they were creating the next best concept to launch them into the ultimate success stratosphere. But original ideas are hard to come by. If you just figure we are living in the 21st century and it took 3 centuries for the Valentine’s Day card industry to become a billion dollar enterprise, you’ll see how challenging it can be for an idea to really take hold.
So the lesson today isn’t so much about what it takes to create the next best ground-breaking concept because honestly the fruition time for success could outlast an entrepreneur’s lifetime. The lesson is about love. Yes, love.
People love to know other people care. Customers in particular love to know their vendors care about them. In the automated, super technical world we live in, a simple gesture of affection – a card, a flower, a gift, a thank you note can have more impact on your current customer base than a new splashy ad campaign can do to attract new clients. Business is about love isn’t it?
Today’s post is meant to have you stop and think about the most important people who make your business successful. Who are they – vendors, partners, sponsors, advisors or friends? Have you taken time lately to tell them they matter? Can you find 30 minutes this week to send a few handwritten “love letters,” like they use to pen in the 18th century, to a few really important people connected with your business?
I think you’ll find as corny as it sounds, displaying love and affection in your entrepreneurial life will reap you a billion seconds of clients remembering who you are.
Define Your Own Sense of Beauty
Friday Feelings, Inspiration, Motivation for Women, Women Entrepreneurs, Females in Sports
They say, “Beauty is skin deep” and “Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder,” both vintage and honest opinions about the subject, but there is more to beauty than these statements – especially what is considered “beautiful” in today’s world and seen in diverse settings.
Just recently on a trip out West in our country’s beautiful national park system, I saw pretty women dressed in Pantagonia jackets with hair tucked inside The North Face fleece hats and authentic faces lit up by the air’s freshness to create natural pink rouge on their cheeks. Their clothes were rugged wear, boots, walking poles, and denims which were perfect for the occasion of hiking in and out of national parks. They didn’t need more than an adventurous spirit and healthy heart to explore and exist in nature, and their natural beauty matched the environment.
In contrast to the park’s female guest appearances, just down the road in Las Vegas, were women donning glitzy sequin jackets, high heels, long fake eyelashes and two-inch nails, professional makeup, and painted on pants to walk up and down Las Vegas Boulevard taking in the city life and culture of the Sin City, as it is called. These women were also beautiful in a very cosmetic way. To the men, hanging on their arms, their beauty was all they needed, and most likely expected or demanded. It worked for these women if that’s what makes them feel beautiful.
Today, I watched a video of a Charlotte female marathoner with alopecia, the same autoimmune disease I have, making her completely bald from head to toe. She spoke about needing to find her natural beauty after wearing wigs since elementary school. In her early twenties, she ditched the wig when she became a runner and has discovered her own natural beauty defined by her strength as a runner and bald woman.
In 2013, Dove, known for their SuperBowl Commercials and brand on natural beauty, showcased a video on how women define their beauty and how others define them. It is a must watch on YouTube called “You are more beautiful than you think.” Here is the link. It is six minutes. It will change your mind about your own view on your natural beauty.
What I hope today’s post will inspire you to define your own beauty sense whether it in athletic wear, hiking gear, sequins, or anything else that defines the style that makes you most comfortable with yourself, every moment of the day. Women don’t have to live up to anyone’s expectations of beauty, only their own. It may be difficult at times but try your best to be as “natural” as you can be.
I can tell you I was happier out West in nature wearing limited makeup, athletic and hiking wear, with my pink baseball hat on top my bald head, then putting on my expensive real-hair wig in Las Vegas to blend into the other women which I felt I had to do to not feel like an outcast. Sometimes we dress up for others, but mostly we should dress for ourselves, wearing our own perception of beauty and wearing it proudly. Be you, today….and every day, because you really are “Be YOU tiful!”
When Once Favorite Companies Fail You
An emotional song plays during the start of my 46-minute wait on the phone to talk to someone in the customer service department at JetBlue Airlines. 46 minutes is actually half the time I usually have to wait to reach someone due to them changing a flight schedule on us. But I patiently listen since it’s vital I reach someone.
Picture yourself at 8:30 a.m. walking up to the JetBlue Newark counter to check two bags within the two-hour suggested arrival time before your relaxing vacation flight, only to be told your flight was cancelled. Imagine this flight had been changed one other time before after you booked and paid for it without a call to make sure the changes were suitable. Then consider the fact, the JetBlue flight prior to this cancelled one, was also changed without notice making your end destination in Seattle instead of San Francisco because according to them “we didn’t have enough people on the flight.”
As a 30-year event planner with a strength troubleshooting urgent scenarios, I immediately approached one of 4 agents to try to figure out how they were going to get us on their next flight. To my chagrin, their next flight was at JFK airport at 7 p.m. “Impossible,” I said to the male agent as I saw their sister airline American Airlines had a 10 a.m. straight flight to Las Vegas which would get us there in time to pick up our pre-paid car and drive four more hours to Sedona, Arizona to our pre-paid hotel. I wasn’t going to lose time or money due to their problem.
“You used travel credit so I can’t help you, I don’t know how to do that transfer,” the male staffer said with no energy in his voice. “Get your manager then,” I demanded. After 10 more minutes of a manager not showing up, I noticed the American flight was already full so I left my husband to attend to this incapable staff member and went to United Airlines where the man there booked a straight flight for us leaving at 10 a.m. for only $200 one way per person easily.
I messaged my husband and told him to make sure the male staffer at the counter cancelled our trip and put the credit back in our travel bank. Supposedly, he did until we received messages that we were booked on a 7 p.m. flight out of JFK to Las Vegas, which believe it or not, got delayed to 9:30 p.m. after we got their second notice. By the time we got their repetitive changes to our travel plans, we were already across the country in our rental car driving to Sedona, Arizona.
Assuming this man canceled our return flights but not trusting him, we booked a return flight home on United Airlines again for more money but our trust level of United was more important than the cost. More than three times, we tried without success to reach JetBlue via phone and website on our vacation to no avail, never getting anyone who could even answer us. As I sit here now typing this blog post, I am waiting to see if I can finally get someone to justify the cancellation and lack of refund to our account, but all I hear is music.
Do I want to be rising my blood pressure level to rectify this situation? No, but it is money owed to us and if we left it up to JetBlue, they would keep it and say it was our fault for not taking both flights. As the continuing music plays, I think of this wisdom to share with you:
* If your first or second customer service experience with a company is so bad, do not under any circumstances use them again. We trusted a company that used to be great thinking they would rise to the occasion again, only to be fooled by their horrendous business attitude. I don’t blame the pandemic for this mishandling and mismanagement, I blame JetBlue.
*Money is not abundant so do not give it away to a company that doesn’t make you a priority. There are other companies that will make you feel like you are their best customer like United Airlines did for us immediately and through both flights
* Sharing poor customer service experiences are necessary to warn other consumers of terrible corporations. Save someone else the pain of a bad experience by sharing your thoughts with others. It is good business to do that.
Wednesday Wisdom: Bridges
Inspiration, Wednesday Wisdom, Motivation for Women Entrepreneurs, Women in Business
The golden boulders shimmered in the sunlight surrounded by brilliant blue sky so clear you felt you could touch it from deep down in the canyon. The only way to traverse rugged gullies was across rock bridges icy from the deep February cold in Utah’s stunning Zion National Park, which we did slowly in awe of God’s creation.
Just across state lines in her sister state of Arizona, Devil’s Bridge, an elevated rocky expanse awaited our arrival. Willing to walk six miles in and out to reach it, we dared ourselves to try. The red rocks of Sedona have a way of calling you to try or regret not exploring them for life. Perhaps the Devil, himself, was daring us to reach it, which we finally did in late afternoon hours after a difficult rocky climb, as evident from the photo.
Later in the week, not even close to the natural bridges of nature, were the man-made ivory, Greek style bridges taking pedestrians across the bright lights of Las Vegas Boulevard so visitors could dance on sidewalks with Flamingo dancers, shop in high-end stores, eat in world famous chef-owned restaurants, or view the Bellagio Hotel’s stunning fountain display. Crosswalks weren’t allowed in some places along the crowded sidewalks and roads, only bridges.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary provides two meanings for the word bridge, the first, a structure carrying a pathway over a depression or obstacle; the second, a time, place or means of connection or transition. What I can tell you for sure is experiencing the Southwest for the first time in my life had both types of bridges – physical and mental – one of them expected and the other one not. To sit in the sun’s rays, high above earth’s floor, after an exhilarating experience to get to your destination, you can’t help but contemplate the journey and destination.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to inspire you to think of the bridges in your life – physically and mentally – you have traversed to get you to this point in your business or personal space. How much have you changed? What bridges lie behind and before you? Are you content enough to bask in the sun of where you are now or do you need to get up and cross another new bridge? Are you willing to transition mentally into a new space calling you?
Bridges are all around us, even if we don’t live in the natural beauty of Utah or Arizona. We can go out our door and cross one now or wait. We can move past a point in our lives now or wait. We can carry ourselves above and beyond our current situation and transition into a better place if we desire. I hope you follow my footsteps and do just that. It will be worth the new adventure.
Women TIES 