Jade Goody loses battle

The news came through today that British reality star Jade Goody lost her very public battle with cervical cancer. She was just 27 years old with young sons aged 5 and 4. She died on Mother's Day.....

I've never been a great television person so to begin with I had no idea who she was but everytime I have been in the UK over the past 9 months Jade Goody was rarely off the front page of the more popular newspapers. (It seems she became a celebrity after appearing on the British version of Big Brother in 2002, polarizing audiences with her brash manner.)

When her cervical cancer was diagnosed last Summer the remaining time she had on this earth was played out very publicly. Her situation touched the hearts of the nation, made people acutely aware of how vital it is to follow up when a hospital calls you back because of abnormal cells being found,
how doctors can fail sometimes and resulted in a dramatic increase in cervical screening in the UK.

Jade went from rather brash to serence and poised. A credit to her strength of character when she knew that her days were so tragically numbered. She always had a brave, beautful smile for the press. Even during her lavish wedding just a few short weeks ago she made no attempt to conceal the ravages of chemotherapy, holding her bald head high and so elegantly.
Bishop Blake who conducted the blessing of her wedding to Jack Tweed said: "She was an extraordinary person, she's become for all of us almost like a saint, a saint of Upshire, a princess from Bermondsey. [...]she's touched so many people not only in this country but across the world." He said she transformed the way people approached cancer by laughing in the face of death and making possible every last dream before she died. "I think that's been an inspiration, a light, a torch of hope burning brightly across the world [...]

The British Prime Minister in his tribute to her said: "She will be remembered fondly by all who knew her and her family can be extremely proud of the work she has done to raise awareness of cervical cancer which will benefit thousands of women"

I think the TV presenter and author, Stephen Fry, summed it all up in his tribute: "Poor, dear Jade... I warmed to her immensely. All impulsive spirit and smiles. What a life. Jade lived life under a magnifying glass. Magnifying glasses magnify (obviously) but they distort and they burn. I suppose she was a kind of Princess D from the wrong side of the tracks."

Yes she touched my heart too and this post is a further tribute to her courage and a warning to others to never ever ignore symptoms, never ever ignore a letter when a hospital calls you for further tests, never ever be fobbed off by a doctor when your body and your heart tell you that something is wrong. You only have one life - fight to keep it and always strive to make it a worthy one.

Rest in peace Jade.

Click here for the BBC video clip about her life.

Info Products - What do your clients want?

Well I would love to know what my potential clients would like to have when they consider buying information products.

The survey is at this link or you can read the questions below and just leave your comments on this blog post - as you wish. Thanks in advance for sharing your views !

What information products have you bought recently - what subject and what format did they take (audio, CD, e books, combination of these)

What did you like about the content and what did you not like

What did you like about the format and what did you not like

Did the product involve any interactive sessions with the person who produced it, or coachiing or the possibility of asking questions ? - did you wish that it had ?

I look forward to hearing your comments and feedback !

The Power of a smile

Check out this awesome 15 minute film about the power of smiling. Try smiling at everyone and even those miserable faced people you see everyday will smile. Smile at potential clients rather than straight faced telling them about your business services.

Empowerment

Back in the days when we were in the corporate world empowerment was all about the company empowering its employees and managers empowering their staff; then you become self-employed/run your own business. Suddenly its just you so is empowerment relevant anymore ? You bet your life it is.

Think about it...

When did YOU last empower yourself to not open an email from an ex-client who was bound to be writing to hassle about something ?

When did YOU last empower yourself to not accept a mandate even though you needed the $$ because you knew the client would cause you grief ?

Have you empowered yourself to not do everything but to outsource a few things ? - like setting up the website in Wordpress, or doing your tax returns.. sure you can do it but you'll probably do it slower than someone else and while you are doing that who is getting in the clients ?

Go on - make a list of things that annoy or irritate you; the things you do not like doing; the things you are slow at and then empower yourself to make changes.

Feeling empowered makes you feel great and utlimately it will make you great.

Don't you agree ?

Otengo - or how to share photos, videos and large files

What is Otengo?

Otengo describes itself as a reliable, secure and easy to use software application that enables easy sending and receiving of messages rich in multimedia content. The application takes seconds to set up and comes with an intuitive interface integrated within the Windows environment. Otengo is completely free of viruses and other undesirables. Best of all, it is absolutely free! Try it now!

A kick in the butt from IttyBIz

Some kick in the butt advice from Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz (yep, another Facebook friend of mine but since she's moving to the UK soon may become a real friend). I have taken a chunk verbatim from her latest blog post:

If you run a service business — and in service I include coaching and consulting — and to a degree if you run any other kind of business, here’s the best piece of advice I’ve got.

Spend 4 times more time on MARKETING than you do on DOING.

I could give you the list and litany of people who are the worst at this, but basically everybody is the worst at this. Except maybe life coaches. They’re the REAL worst.

You bust your ass creating this wonderful business that is going to change lives. You get the certification and you spend the money on the website and you give the free sessions to get the testimonials. You create something that will quite honestly make it so people will not even remember what their life was like before they worked with you. And then what do you do?

You sit around and wait for people to find you.

Unless any of the other aspects of your business are absolutely tragic, you should not be spending your work time:

- tweaking your website
- responding to comments
- reorganizing your accounting methods
- taking skills upgrade courses, including mine
- reading ebooks
- chatting on IM
- telling people what you ate for breakfast on Twitter

There is nothing wrong with any of the above activities, but those are the things to do in your SPARE time. And if you’re not getting clients right now, you don’t have spare time during the workday. The time that you THINK is spare should be spent getting your name out there, all over the place.

If you are not getting enough clients, your only priority is getting clients.
That is all. Now stop reading blogs and get back to work.

Original post at IttyBiz

Trust, but verify

Seth Godin (marketing expert and one of my Facebook friends) wrote this in his blog today. I have reproduced his blog post verbatim as they are very very wise words:

If you think that's a friend of yours on twitter, don't be so sure.

If you wonder why your boss sent such an insane email to you, don't be so sure.

If you get a chance to invest online, think twice.

Don't buy anything from an inbound phone call.

That email you sent in confidence... probably won't be read that way. And that photo, yes, it's going to show up in the digital world where you least want to see it...

In your little village, where you see your neighbor every day for ten years and the person in the next car might be the local constable, the rules are very simple and obeyed by all. In an electronic world, it's trivial to impersonate, hack and otherwise annoy.

Online, rely on direct, personal interactions to be sure you're seeing what you think you're seeing. Trust, but verify.