Connecting Mind, Body and Business

Issue: IU League 9 Week of: August 15, 2011

NETWORKING COMMUNITY

Inspired Living is a publication from

Inspiration University for the IU League.

www.InspirationUniversity.com

SUCCESS TIPS

5 More Ways to Reward

Employees Without a lot of

Money!

INSPIRATION

7 Ways to Reduce Stress

BUSINESS

SOLUTIONS

Should You Be Using

Google+?

CONNECTIONS

Creating Your Networking

Action Plan

IN THIS ISSUE:

SUCCESS TIPS Page

5 More Ways to Reward

Employees Without a lot of

Money

2

INSPIRATION

7 Ways to Reduce Stress 3

BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

Should You Be Using Google+? 4

CONNECTIONS

Creating Your Networking

Action Plan

6

IN EVERY ISSUE

Sponsor Offers 7

Up Coming Events 7

Business Highlight 7

Publication Information:

Inspired Living is a publication for the

IU League of Inspiration University, a

networking community. This publica-

tion is distributed for members only.

Membership information can be found

at www.Inspiration-University.com

or contact:

info@Inspiration-University.com.

Editors: Valerie Stuut and

Vicky Pestrichelli

Copyright 2011 Inspiration University

5 More Ways to Reward Employees

Without a lot of Money:

1. Flexible work hours

2. Buy them tickets to a con-

cert, show or event of their

choice.

3. Give them a membership to

a networking community.

4. Give them a new, im-

proved job title.

5. Provide them with one-on-

one mentoring.

Page 2

7 Ways to Reduce Stress

Page 3

By: Dr. Oz, www.Oprah.com Read more: http://www.oprah.com/health/Dr-Oz-on-Stress-Reduction/1#ixzz1SIqBXd7J

1. TAKE MORE RESTROOM BREAKS

There's a reason it's called the restroom: It's the one place—at work

or at home—where no one will bother you. If you're overwhelmed,

steal away for a five-minute meditation break. Inhale deeply into your belly and try to focus on your breath-

ing. You'll emerge calmer, and maybe even more productive. Research shows that meditation can improve

your ability to concentrate.

2. SHOW UP FIVE MINUTES EARLY

Everyone knows the feeling: You're running late, stuck in traffic, glancing at your watch every 30 seconds in

frustration. Give yourself extra time to get wherever you need to go. Being an early bird will kill stress by giv-

ing you more control over your day and your commitments.

3. CHANGE YOUR STRESS EATING

The best stress-quashing foods are made by Mother Nature, not Baskin-Robbins. Berries are naturally rich in

vitamin C, which helps fight increased levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. A handful of pistachios can lower

your blood pressure, which means less of a spike when you get that next rush of adrenaline.

4. AND QUIT STRESS DRINKING

Yes, a few cocktails can relax you, but alcohol also prevents your brain from entering stages of deep sleep.

And sleep and stress are bound together: Chronic stress can keep you up at night, and a lack of sleep can also

lead to further stress. Limit yourself to no more than one drink a night.

5. GET YOUR HEART PUMPING

Stress makes your body spew out two hormones: cortisol and adrenaline. These chemicals put your body into

fight-or-flight mode, ratcheting up your energy level and causing your heart to pound and your muscles to

tense. Exercise gives you an outlet to release some of that tension. A good workout also increases your levels

of "feel-good" chemicals called endorphins.

6. MAKE IT A COMEDY NIGHT

Researchers say that merely anticipating a laugh can jump-start healthy changes in the body by reducing lev-

els of stress hormones, which have been linked to conditions like obesity, heart disease, and memory impair-

ment, to name just a few.

7. ENJOY THE COMPANY OF FRIENDS

Socializing releases oxytocin, a chemical that can help combat stress hormones and lower your blood pres-

sure. Whether it's spending time with dog lovers, book club buddies, or siblings—whatever group you like—

just knowing you're not alone can go a long way toward coping with stress.

Should You Be Using Google+?

Page 4

It’s time to include Google+ in your social media strategy.

Here’s how.

By: Gary Lee

(Editor’s note: Gary Lee is CEO of mBLAST. He submitted this

story to VentureBeat.)

It’s something of an understatement to say social media is a

moving target – especially for business owners. Just when you

feel like you have a handle on your strategy for one social me-

dium, another platform surfaces and forces you to re-

evaluate. The latest entrant is Google+, Google’s fast-growing

challenge to Facebook and Twitter.

There are some basic rules that can guide your business’ strategy on Google+ and any new social

platform. The most important of these is to pause before you jump in. It’s critical to take some time

to understand the conversations, the players and the zeitgeist of the communities you wish to become

involved in before joining the conversation. Too many companies have ignored this approach and

ended up with unproductive or counterproductive social media efforts.

Before doing anything:

Listen to the voices talking about your market and work to understand their conversations.

Measure the impact prominent voices have in the market.

Compare the voices. Find the ones that matter to your market and company.

Engage – but only after you finish the first three steps.

Step 2 – measuring the impact of voices – is typically the hardest part to do, especially ―by

hand.‖ For most social media networks you can (and should) use automated measurement

tools. Unfortunately, Google+ is so new that application programming interface (API) access, allow-

ing automated solutions, does not yet exist.

Page 5

The tools aren’t there yet, but the crowd is. So

you probably can’t afford to ignore Google+,

which gained 20 million users in its first three

weeks (Facebook reached 30 million in six

months) and a lot of mindshare across the

Web. While Google hasn’t begun supporting (or

allowing) business ―pages‖ on the service, thou-

sands of companies have already signed up to be

there when that feature goes live. And lots of so-

cial media influencers – in all sorts of topical ar-

eas – have already adopted Google+ wholeheart-

edly.

Some, like Internet entrepreneur Kevin Rose, have

moved almost entirely to Google+ (Rose has redi-

rected his kevinrose.com blog to his Google+

page).

So, without measurement tools, how can you be-

gin leveraging Google+? Here’s what I recom-

mend:

Join Google+ and start listening. This is a lit-

tle difficult as there is not yet a topic search

within Google+, but you can use a regular

Google search (TOPIC site:plus.google.com,

like this one) to begin to find people whose

profile or posts contain the words or phrases

you care about.

Add the people you (think you) care about to a

circle and listen. This is one of the cool fea-

tures in Google+. It gives you time to decide

if you want to get involved in the conversa-

tion.

Measure the impact they’re having. When the

people you’ve identified talk about your topics

of interest, what happens? How many +1s are

there for each post? How many com-

ments? How much impact? This is hard to do

manually, but you can get a feel for how much

authority a person has just by observing the

number of people picking up their voice and

running with it. For example, Robert Scoble is

about to hit 100,000 ―followers‖ in just three

weeks.

Compare. Once you’ve found a set of voices

that rise to the top, listen more and see which

voices talk the most about the things you care

about on a granular level, which are most in-

volved in conversations and which are most

receptive to the ideas you may wish to share

with the community.

Once you’ve listened, measured and compared,

start engaging. And don’t worry – the tools are

coming soon to make tracking, measuring and

comparing voices easier for you and your busi-

ness.

___________________________

For more information, please click: http://

venturebeat.com/2011/08/11/its-time-to-include-

google-in-your-social-media-strategy-heres-how/

Should you be using

Google+, Continued

―Your network…determines your NET-

WORTH‖ Robert T. Kiyosaki

Networking is so vital to the success of

your business that if you are not network-

ing your business will dry up and die.

Have you put time into networking for your

business and have you created a

―networking plan‖ to make it all happen?

Ask yourself these ten questions to help

evaluate your networking plan of action.

1. How and where do you network.

2. What if any professionals groups or

organizations are you a member of?

3. Are you actively involved?

4. What are the benefits offered by the

organization

5. Is your target market a member of

this organization?

6. What value do you add to the organi-

zation?

7. What is your plan for online net-

working?

8. Have you established a budget for

networking?

9. Will you travel to any conferences or

workshops?

10. Who are the people you need to con-

nect with?

Page 6

For those of you who are seasoned net-

workers, great! These questions may give

you a fresh perspective to your networking

plan. There are some of you who do not or

have not realized the value of networking.

Networking is one the most cost effective

ways for you to make those important con-

nections, to market your business and to es-

tablish your credibility; people do business

with those they like and trust.

“Change how you feel about yourself and

you will have a warm inner glow of self

appreciation that draws people to you.”

Walethia

__________________________________________

Visit http://graceandcharm.com for more information on the

ultimate Grace and Charm™mentoring program, ways to

accelerate your business and life. Walethia Aquil, is the crea-

tor of the Grace and Charm Success System™ the proven

step by step program to increase your Income, Power, and

Influence.

Creating Your Networking

Plan of Action

Mark you calendars for our upcoming networking opportunities:

September 20, 2011 - Tuesday:

IU League Meeting: Broward General

October 18, 2011 - Tuesday:

IU League Meeting: Location TBA

November 12, 2011 - Saturday:

Total Working Women’s Convention:

Broward County Convention Center

January 21, 2012 - Saturday:

National Women’s Career Expo:

Broward County Convention Center

Here are some great offers from our sponsors. Just

print them out and enjoy!

Print out the above inspirational message and

display it in a place you can see everyday like

your refrigerator. Page 7

We would like to thank P. J. Art Tags for participating

in our Total Working Women’s Convention.