How to Find Your Passion

As part of our series on providing tips for mom entrepreneurs, I interviewed Elena Verlee, a successful mom entrepreneur herself who has started and sold several companies. Now, she is helping others get buzz for their businesses as well as coaching people on turning their passions into business ideas! Listen to Elena’s inspired tips and find YOUR passion!

Interview with Elena Verlee (AUDIO 3:48)

Share your passion with us in the comments!

You can find Elena at www.PRinYourPajamas.com and @ElenaVerlee on Twitter. Read more

How to Be a Role Model for Our Kids

If you are on our subscriber list, you already heard me get on my soapbox last week about how important it is to support each other as Mom Entrepreneurs. More and more women and moms are making the leap to pursuing their life’s passions. And we want you to know that in this regard again, you are not alone!!!

“It’s so important to go for what you want in life.” ~ Kim Gellman

Read more

How to Understand Your Career Direction

Unknown to many people, I wanted to pursue a business degree in marketing as my undergraduate studies but my parents insisted that I choose a career in math or science because I was “good at it.” Listening to my parents, I bounced back and forth between nursing and pre-med with neither option really being an ideal fit. I made it through a grueling four years of science, labs, clinical rotations, and jumping through hoops before realizing that I hadn’t chosen the ideal career path. Read more

How to Stay Positive at Work

Talk To The Hand…Because Your Negativity Doesn’t Affect Me

Do you ever find yourself face-to-face within someone at work that knows how to push all of your buttons and rub you the wrong way?  Or maybe you work with someone that is always negative and assumes the worse in every situation.  How do you feel when confronted with this negativity?  How do you react?
Read more

How to Build Your Network

Every day, I am impressed by all the cool and interesting things women are doing. I’ve already talked about my friend Gail and the Global Hugs Tour. But there are so many others. Kathy is developing college curriculum for aspiring women entrepreneurs, Jennifer is encouraging kids to use their imagination (more on that soon), Diann is saving a school… all are women and moms who are giving their passion to the world. I know that this isn’t an easy thing. I constantly struggle with feelings of doubt or battle being overwhelmed by all the things I have to do all and/or all the things I have to figure out how to do! I couldn’t do it without the support of my network.

Belonging to a community seems to come naturally to a lot of women. Many of you have probably already seen the Kelly Corrigan’s Pigeon video. It’s natural to yearn for a flock. In my own experience, there’s no better way to accomplish a goal than by working together. But what if you don’t have one? How do you cultivate your flock? Or, as Seth Godin says, your Tribe. Read more

How to Set Priorities

One of my friends I can always count on for a good laugh sent me a Top 10 Priorities list the other day. Not unlike David Letterman’s lists, it was funny. But beyond the humor, what struck me was the very real benefit of taking one’s own life, complete with loved ones, work, interests, dreams, goals and aspirations and being able to sum them up, simply stated into ten lines of text. The next real challenge, not for the faint of heart, is to then label them 10 – 1, ascending in rank from lowest to highest priority. And then if you really want to live by these new priorities you have set for yourself, you will share them with someone close to you. We all need reminders every now and again and if we don’t share them, how can we be accountable for them? So once you have your top ten, post them on your magnet board, write them on little pieces of paper and hide them all over the house but definitely be sure to share them with a friend.

Read more

How to Overcome Fear

I picked up The Alchemist this evening, looking for an “easy” read in the tub. Did I mention that Paulo Coelho is my idol?! In the preface, he tries to explain the secret behind the success of this book, having sold over 20 million copies and having been translated into 56 languages! Interestingly enough, his honest response is, “I don’t know. All I know is that like Santiago, the shepherd boy, we all need to be aware of our personal calling. What is a personal calling? It is God’s blessing, it is the path that God chose for you here on Earth. Whenever we do something that fills us with enthusiasm, we are following our legend. However, we don’t all have the courage to confront our own dream.”

Coelho goes on to say that there are four obstacles to living our personal calling: 1) we are told from childhood that our dream is impossible, 2) we are afraid to hurt the people around us by abandoning everything to pursue our dream, 3) fear of the defeats we will encounter along the way and finally… 4) the fear of realizing the dream itself for which we fought all our lives! Wow! Essentially, what keeps us from our dreams… our calling… our bliss? FEAR.

I recently separated from my husband of eleven years. Read more

How to Do What You Love

There is one thing in this world you must never forget to do. Human beings come into this world to do a particular work. That work is their purpose, and each is specific to the person. If you forget everything else and not this, there’s nothing to worry about. If you remember everything else and forget your true work, then you will have done nothing with your life.

- Rumi

Yikes! That’s a lot of pressure. But how does one find out what that life purpose is and if you are in fact, on the right path? I don’t know that there is ONE WAY with which people discover their life purpose. For a few lucky ones, it’s something they’ve always known. Do you know someone who, as a child always wanted to work with animals and then grew up to be vet? I knew someone in high school who wanted to be a doctor, specifically a cancer specialist working at Sloan-Kettering in New York. Sure enough, he did. I was always envious of his unwavering certainly.

But if your purpose isn’t saving people or animals, is it still worth doing? If your purpose is just doing something you love, is that gift enough to validate pursuing the dream? I am soooo incredibly lucky to know a few good women who think so. Jen, Tyler, Sharon and Ann respectively own Angelina Accoutrements, Periwinkle Bloom, Secret Leaves Paperworks, and String Buzz. (click the links for more images of their beautiful wares and/or listen to great music, all born of love!) Read more