Congratulations to all of you! Here are a few bragging items for me: 1) Publishing: When the publisher who was going to publish my book fell through this summer, I took up the mantle, so to speak, and established FolkHeart Press and produced a workbook: Family Folktales; Write Your Own Family Stories. 2) Public Relations: I have been able to help connect one of my clients (a water management specialist) to the Governor of Georgia's press secretary so they could talk about water management for that drought-ridden state. 3) Public Relations: I have booked one of my clients onto "View From The Bay" an ABC TV evening program for the SF Bay Area.

How did this all happen: Making great contacts and having persistence, patience and faith in my ability to do a good job!

Wow, congrats Leif. I'm thrilled that your profile on Biznik got you noticed in the media. Sounds like a success story to me! I love hearing stuff like this.

What a great thing to see everyone's successes! I've had a couple of things come up for me lately, mostly in the finishing-work arena, but my biggest success was actually managing to finish several stages of about 6 major projects before the holidays, and I still managed to make time for marketing, reading, and getting (some) exercise into my day! I'm still not sure how I did it, but I'm pleased. November and December will be about spending time with my various networks, finishing up a few of the other pieces of the projects I've been jumpstarting, and relaxing with my family. Score!

Great job everyone,

To begin my shameless self promotion I would like to say that has been 2 years since we have switched our target clients from home users to businesses and have never been happier.

Since the switch I am proud to say that we have had 100% client retention.

I believe the biggest reason for this is personal service, we get to know the client and they see that we care.

In the last year alone I have been invited to countless clients’ office parties, birthdays and even a funeral.

So do unto your clients as you would want to have done unto you and they will be sure to use your services again and recommend you to others.

Several of my largest clients originated from past and current friends. One of my greatest successes has been building my business slowly over time by doing a great job, making friends and trying to keep in touch with everyone. In short, we all need to continue to build our network and more important than that, do an excellent job and the work will come.

Chris

As the semester draws to a close, I only have one final exam remaining (my Japanese class). I only need a 37% on it to get an A in this class. That will make my GPA 3.75 (cumulative 3.6) and I am so proud!

What makes this even more of an accomplishment to me, is that I did it while running two businesses, raising a child, and fighting this brain condition. Just two and a half more years to go!

I'm presenting a seminar at New Renaissance Bookstore in Portland, OR (NW 23rd street), on Thurs, Jan 10th, at 7 p.m.. The seminar is about accounting...what basic financial reports look like when done right.

This is success for me on many levels. I joke that succeeding is business is about surviving your failures. People relish pointing out our failures. And that was my attitude about marketing. Marketing was a way to fuck up in public. But with this gig, I'm experiencing marketing as a tool for empowerment.

Dan and Lara go out of their way to notice other people's successes. I want to be that kind of person too, so I make sure I mention my clients successes, so they know I'm noticing.

Good thread! Who's next-->

Who's next? Must be me ;-)

Thanks for this thread - I've been reflecting on the list of things my partner & I have been through in the last 2 years and somehow despite them, still managed to start a business.

Cancer, bereavements, spinal surgery, kidnap of a child ... to name but a few. As if that wasn't enought, I gave up cigarettes and alcohol in the middle of it all too. :-)

I'm not usually that great on patting myself on the back, but today I'm proud of having had the courage to keep going when things seemed so tough.

I really enjoy this post. Thanks so much for sharing, bizmigos (from the Latin, business associate with friendly overtones).

Celebrate Victories, All. Naturally the great, but don't neglect the small.

1 victory this week for me: I have all the authors lined up for Your Sales Force ( http://www.yoursalesforcebook.com ) so next week the battle for ISBN, graphics, editing, etc.! I am excited to jump into it. I may be calling you for advice/help.

2 Our Leadership program that we laid out at the beginning of Q4 is proving out to be effective for the BizBuilders Chapters, imparting skills and lightening the workload for leaders while giving a chance to express themselves to leaders and members.

3 I have been booking a lot of work for January in the world of Sales Training & Coaching. Getting invited to speak and put on shows all over Western Wa.

4 The REDEFAS Foundation enrolled its first full scale Escrow office. http://www.redefas.org This is a major breakthrough and hopefully opens the floodgates so that we can impact starvation in a mighty way in '08

Wow, it was a good week. I didn't know how good 'til I wrote it out. Hmmm. Is there a lesson here?

Your turn.

How wonderful and encouraging it has been to read all of these threads!

Though I am far from reaching my career goals, I feel these last few months have been very successful. Being relatively new to the business side of things I have, in the past, felt very frustrated and limited in my abilities to grow and develop my business.

However, Biznik became a catalyst for growth in both my personal and professional life. Since a very young age, I believe relationships are the key to life; now I realize they are also the key to business development and success. Networking with exemplary individuals through Biznik drove the concept home!

Thanks to you all!

…next… :0)

It seems that the LA Times article (which, as expressed before, probably started thanks to Biznik's great SEO), has now led to an opportunity for our upcoming workshop to be filmed for National TV. See my promotion page or the promotions thread for more details. Thanks again Dan, Lara & Crew (: -Leif

The last time I wrote in this forum was just after our successful launch of Green Halloween. Since then so much more has happened it's unbelievable.

We are writing a book with a deadline Feb. 15. A second book which I originally wrote for Green Halloween and is for small children, also is being published by the same publishing company. Both books will be out in October of this year, just in time for Halloween.

A nice coincidence (I know some people don't believe in coincidence, but I'm one who happens to), our publisher has moved from Chicago to Seattle. (Need to get them to join Bizniks.)

Also, a TV production company is currently working with a cable network on the possibility of doing a show we have proposed. That one is still a looooong way from happening, but the way things have been going for us, I won't be shocked if it does.

In December, our LLC, The Green Year, was formed. Our ultimate goal is for this to be a not-for-profit company (think Paul Newman's food empire) through which we can support many causes.

Meantime, I've had to create a waiting list for my coaching business as I'm devoting a lot of time, as you can imagine, to writing the book.

I can hardly wait to see what the rest of this year brings!

Lynn

The Seattle PI article yesterday turned out great! If you didn't read it, you can check it out in the Life/Arts section online here. So far, 3 more participants from the article. Looks like a fun, diverse crowd will be there. Hope some of you can come! -Leif

Great article Leif. Wish I could come. Maybe next time. Good luck with it. Lynn

Thanks Lynn, I was really happy with the PI article too. My only disappointment (which has been updated on the online version) is that our change to a donation based event didn't make print. Oh well!

Hi all, I wanted to share a recent success. Last week I was featured in a great interview with David Van Nuys, Ph.D; "Dr. Dave" of Shrink Rap radio. It was a lot of fun and the Shrink Rap podcasts cover a wide range of topics pertaining to Psychology, Personal Growth, Spirituality, etc. Check it out at www.shrinkrapradio.com/2008/01/25/134-sign-language-for-babies/

(You will have to cut and paste the link into your browser, as the live link option embedded in a text is not working for me, for some reason...even after multiple attempts.)

I love this idea. Aside from my mother, I don't share my successes with many people. My biggest recent accomplishments:

1) Having a bridal bouquet featured in Seattle Bride Magazine,

2) Getting my blog up and running with enough posts in draft to last me until April,

3) Being picked the Best Florist in Seattle by the editors of Citysearch.com,

4) The one that puts the money in the till: A 36% sales increase for January.

And Valentine's Day looks like its off to a great start!

Cheers, Miles

I just want to share the potential with everyone and give an update to any that are interested.

We are now a vendor with the International Police Mountain Bicycle Assn. Thumbing through an old newsletter, I saw an ad for Volcanic Bikes located in Olympia WA. I called and an hour later got a call back. It turns out that Volcanic has the contract for the bike police in LA and Seattle among many others. This is exactly the way in for our product. The next step is to put a Brake Director™ on a Volcanic bike. We'll get one this week and deliver it back to them once they return from vacation.

And we will have materials from the Wounded Warrior Project. And thanks to an introduction from Howard Howell, we are talking with Mike Schindler who is championing Operation Military Familys.

I will post a reminder about the up and coming Bike Expo here in town and will be opening up our Bicycle Market Biznik event to more people in the new location for Electric and Folding Bikes NW. Stay tuned.

Our book is finished! A miracle in six weeks. We're very, very happy to have it done. Well, at least the initial writing. Of course, there will be editing and lots of PR and marketing, but that will be fun compared to the actual writing.

Both this book, "Celebrate Green, Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family," and my children's book, "My Halloween Treasures," will be coming out at the beginning of October.

The publisher is Kedzie Press, recently of Chicago, but newly transplanted to Seattle. (When we signed with them, we discovered they were going to come here.)

In addition, my daughter and I launched The Green Year, LLC which we ultimately expect to be a not-for-profit. Lots of excitement ahead for us.

Lynn www.CoachWithLynn.com

Just got the times confirmed: We'll be on the Today show at 7:30a and 10:00a tomorrow morning! Check it out and record it for me if you can (I don't have a TV myself!) They will be showing pre-recorded parts of the workshop at both times and one of our workshop participants will be there live for the 10:00 segment talking about the workshop, and her project 52nightsunplugged.com

Congratulations Leif. I'll record it on my DVR, but I don't know how to make a copy from it. You may have to come to my home to see it. Maybe someone can give me a clue of how to "rip it" from my DVR.

Thanks Howard...I've had a number of DVR offers but, like you, I'm not sure how to then rip it. One cool thing is that, being in the first hour of Today Show (apparently the prime spot) means that that hour will be podcasted --which I believe comes in a very transcribable flavor (mp4?) -Leif