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Monthly Archive for January, 2007

[SiH] On a Personal Note: New Site Sneak Peek

Published
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sarahurd
on January 27, 2007
in [SiH] On a Personal Note
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Success in Harmony

January 2007 - Vol. IV, Issue 1

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On a Personal Note: New Site Sneak Peak

Maybe you’ve noticed… my website is completely different! I’m not quite ready to do a “grand re-opening” yet, but go take a gander. Understand that some of my links are broken, especially my newsletter archive, but I’d love to hear what you think. You’ll also notice a little bit different look to my email newsletter; I will probably be tweaking it in the coming months.

As part of my website rehaul, I have changed how newsletter subscriptions are handled. If you’ve noticed, I’ve sent out special occasion notices here and there as I run across a resource or time-sensitive event that I would like to make you aware of. Because my normal newsletter only comes out once a month, I like to be able to keep in touch with other news a little more frequently if needed. I have just added a second newsletter in my subscription setup called “Keyway Strategies News & Resources.” For your convenience, I have added you to this new list, because you were already receiving these notices anyway. However, if you wish not to be included in the extra news and information, you can simply change your subscriptions (you’ll see the link on the bottom of each newsletter that you receive).

You may notice, too, that my blog is a fundamental part of this new website. This is exciting, because it allows me to post things that I don’t want to necessarily send out as a newsletter and allow visitors to read at their leisure. To see this extra content, you’ll need to visit my website periodically or subscribe to my RSS feed. You’ll see a little orange icon and some links on the right side of my website that will allow you to subscribe in your feed reader of choice. If you already read news or blog posts in a feed reader, this may be a good option for you. If you don’t already use a feed reader, you may wish to subscribe to blog postings by email. You’ll see a link to do that on the right side of the feed page. What will happen is that approximately once a day, little creepy crawly web spiders will come see if there is any new content on my website and then post it on my feed and email my feed subscribers. :) If you don’t want to have to remember to come to my website to see if I’ve posted anything new, subscribing to feed posts by email is a great option.

An additional advantage to this new blog format is that it allows me to get more feedback from my readers. Comments are enabled on each blog entry, and anyone can post a comment. At times, I’ve seen virtual “discussions” happen through blog comments, and it’s a nice way to see how people are responding. I’ll be posting my newsletter articles on the blog as well as other stuff, so feel free to visit and make a comment. If you’d like to comment on anything, simply click on “Add a comment” at the bottom of the entry and you’ll see a little box that you can type in and then submit. You can use your real name or an alias; either way works.

You’ll also notice a handy-dandy search box on my website. Once I get my newsletter articles all posted, you’ll be able to search for any past content on my website easily. So if you remember an article I wrote about leadership or a free pdf creator that I recommended, you can easily find it again.

I’ll be continuing to work on things at www.keywaystrategies.com. I realize that there’s an added complexity now that there are several ways that we can keep in touch. If you’re confused by any of this, just let me know. Come visit us soon!

Feature Article Note: I am excited to include another article by Mr. Jack Canfield in this month’s newsletter. This month’s article is all about coaching, a subject I hold dear. I had the great pleasure of working with Jack to develop his Success Principles coaching program and know each of the coaches personally. Jack’s Success Principles are very well suited to the coaching model and the coaching program is getting great reviews.

Also of note, the photo that Jack used in the article is of one of our Success in Harmony subscribers, a dear friend of mine. How great is that? Hi, Abe!

[SiH] Feature Article: Who’s Coaching You on Your Path to Success? by Jack Canfield

Published
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sarahurd
on January 27, 2007
in [SiH] Feature Article
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Success in Harmony

January 2007 - Vol. IV, Issue 1

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Feature Article: Who’s Coaching You on Your Path to Success?

You would never expect an athlete to reach the Olympic Games without a world-class coach. Nor would you expect a professional football team to enter the stadium without a whole team of coaches - head coach, offensive coach, defensive coach, and a special teams coach. Well, today, coaching has moved into the business and personal realm to include coaches who have succeeded in your area of interest - and who can help you traverse this same path or even one far greater.

One of the Best-Kept Secrets of the Successful

Of all the things successful people do to accelerate their trip down the path to success, participating in some kind of coaching program is a the top of the list. A coach will help you clarify our vision and goals, support you through your fears, keep you focused, confront your unconscious behaviors and old patterns, expect you to do your best, help you live by your values, show you how to earn more while working less, and keep you focused on your core genius.

Worth More Than Money

I have had many coaches who have helped me achieve my goals - business coaches, writing coaches, marketing coaches, and personal coaches.

What were the results?

First and foremost, I immediately doubled my free time. I delegated more tasks, scheduled vacations rather than merely thought about them, and hired additional staff that ultimately positioned my business to earn more. And that was just in the first few months.

Not only did my business benefit, but my family did, too.

For me, coaching wasn’t just about making more money. It was about helping me make better decisions for myself and my business. The truth is, most coaching clients are smart - very smart. Yet they still know the value of accessing someone who can be objective, honest, and constructive about the options they are facing.

Why Coaching Works

Regardless of whether the program is designed to achieve a specific business goal - say, increasing your real estate listings - or whether it is specifically designed to help you simply gain more clarity and progress in all areas of your personal and professional life, a coach can help you…

  • Determine your values, vision, mission, purpose and goals
  • Determine specific action steps to help you achieve those goals
  • Help you sort through opportunities
  • Keep you focused on your top priorities
  • Achieve balance in your life while still accomplishing your business or career goals

Different Formats for Coaching

Coaching can be delivered privately or in groups. Most often, it’s done through regularly scheduled telephone contact, although it can also be done in person. Over the course of the sessions, you’ll work together with your coach to develop goals, strategies, and a plan of action that is positive, desirable, and realistic. Support is often provided between sessions through e-mail and other media.

Occasionally, depending on the coach, you may be coached via structured large-group teleconferences in which you listen to valuable information, and then implement what you hear on your own. Some coaches will work with you every week and others once a month.

How to Find a Coach

There are literally thousands of coaches available to work with you. There are personal coaches, life coaches, and business coaches. Some are industry specific (dental, chiropractic, real estate, and speaking), some are job specific (executive coaches), and some are interest specific (strategic planning, health and wellness, finances, and career transition).

You can find them on the Internet, in the phone book, and by asking around. There are organizations like Coach U and the International Coach Federation that can help you find a coach near you.

For information on The Success Principles Coaching Program, which is designed to personally help you integrate the principles into your life, career, relationships, and finances, visit www.CanfieldCoaching.com for more information.

In my experience, the reason many of us are not living up to our fullest potential lies in the gap, the gap between knowing and doing. Often, we attempt to close that gap with the New Year’s Resolution only to find ourselves back where we started come February or March.

In the end, a coach will challenge you to do more and be more.

(c) 2006, Jack Canfield

————–

Jack Canfield, America’s Success Coach, is the founder and co-creator of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul and a leading authority on Peak Performance. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com.

 

[SiH] Recommended Resource: Do You Need a Passport?

Published
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sarahurd
on January 27, 2007
in [SiH] Recommended Resource
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Success in Harmony

January 2007 - Vol. IV, Issue 1

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Recommended Resource: Do You Need a Passport?

If you live in the United States, you’ve hopefully heard of the new requirement for travel. All air travelers between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, Panama and the Caribbean must have a valid passport. This requirement just began as of January 23, 2007, and as a result, you may face long lines if you go to apply for a passport today. Because I just renewed my passport in preparation for travel to the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches conference in Vancouver in May, I thought it might be helpful to share a couple of tips.

  • If you don’t have a current passport, go get one. You never know when you may need it. If you want to wait until after the current fervor has died down, feel free, but do it as soon as you can. The processing time for passports is about six weeks normally, but I expect that it’s longer now because of the new requirements. If you don’t have one, you won’t be able to travel internationally.
  • If you’re facing a passport application, renewal or name change, make http://travel.state.gov/passport your first stop. The US Department of State has done a great job at preparing you for the process. You can even fill out your application at home before you go. You just can’t sign it if you’re making a full application � you must appear in person and your signature must be witnessed.
  • Get your photo taken at a regular photo store, not at the passport application location. And don’t try to take it yourself; photo stores know the specs and probably have a little space where they do all of their passport photos. I walked in to our local Inkley’s and walked out with my passport photos in hand in about 10 minutes.
  • If there is another option, don’t go to the post office to make your passport application. I was there today and the line was almost out the door. Luckily, I was doing a renewal and just needed to purchase postage for my envelope. I chatted with a postal worker and she said that it had been like that all week, but that the local county building had no line and you could just get in and out. Again, http://travel.state.gov/passport is your friend… there’s a quick search feature that shows you the passport application locations that are closest to you.

I’m not sure how many of you this will help, but if I can save you a little time and headache, my work here is done!

Cheryl Richardson - Recorded Teleclass for Service Professionals

Published
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sarahurd
on January 25, 2007
in What's on the Web
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Cheryl Richardson is a household name in coaching. She has appeared on Oprah regularly for several years and has written many self-coaching books. She’s been in the coaching industry for almost as long as there has been an industry, and I respect her work greatly.

Last year, she recorded a teleclass for service professionals, especially for coaches, suggesting ways to build business on a strong foundation. I came across the audio podium phone number the other day, and it’s still active if you’d like to have a listen. Not sure how long this will be available… and it’s probably about an hour long. Enjoy!

Practice Building Workshop telegathering on audio podium for those of you who are involved in service-oriented businesses (coach, therapist, accountant, lawyer, etc.) and want to build your client base in a relaxed and authentic way. You can listen and learn about the important steps for practice development by calling (405) 244-4000 - Box 104.

Are you a geek? You’ll love this blog.

Published
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sarahurd
on January 25, 2007
in What's on the Web
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I’ve subscribed to The Uber-Review in my feed reader for a month or so, and I’m beginning to really love it. They profile new and in some cases strange gadgetry. I got a glimpse of a $90,000 electric car called the Tesla on this blog, and learned that there are such things as diamond-studded computer mice (mouses?) and voice-changing telephones.

But recently, two entries just made me laugh out loud.

First, “Are You Spending Too Much Time on the Internet?.” Truly hilarious.

And next, an alarm clock solution for people who find it difficult getting out of bed. You need this clock! :)
I’m a bit of a techno-geek, so a tongue-in-cheek look at gadgets is right up my alley. Enjoy!

[KS News & Resources] A Powerful Gift: The Divinity Movie

Published
by
sarahurd
on January 25, 2007
in Special Notices and [KS News & Resources]
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Keyway Strategies News & Resources

Every now and then I find that I have to pass on a powerful link. Turn up your speakers, get comfortable and check out www.divinitymovie.com , featured on a brand new CD set called Awakenings.

This CD set is incredible and is at www.awakeningtopurpose.com/awakenings.html . I have partnered with a colleague of mine, Donna Mills, to provide a gift that you’ll see on that page.

But check out the movie at www.divinitymovie.com first!

Enjoy,

Sara Hurd

Ripoff alert: NetOpus.net

Published
by
sarahurd
on January 12, 2007
in Special Notices
. 9 Comments

I almost used the words “fraud alert” in my post title, but that’s a little strong for something that hasn’t been proven in a court of law. In any case, if you’re a business owner, you need to know about this company’s tactics.

Over the past week, I’ve been right in the middle of a huge can of worms. Thursday evening last week, I sat down to pay my phone bill and noticed a third-party billing service item that I didn’t recognize. www.paymentone.com had put through a $34.95 charge on behalf of “netopus.com” for something called “NetOpus Silv er Mnthly Fee” (sic). I attempted to call both my phone company and the phone number listed for NetOpus, and both were after hours. And the website netopus.com states this: “If you recently received a letter from NETOPUS.NET concerning services that you did not order, please direct your inquiry to NETOPUS.NET. This domain is NETOPUS.COM and we have nothing to do with the company operating at NETOPUS.NET although we are getting a whole lot of people contacting us incorrectly in response to the letter from Netopus.net.”

Because I couldn’t get it taken care of right then, I began to do some research online. I found incident after incident posted by other victims. Victims claim that the telemarketer who calls asks the person who answers the phone to simply verify business information for their directory, then afterwards doctors the recording so that the victim agrees to a monthly service that they’ll be charged after a 15-day trial period. From what I gather, the service is for website hosting. Huh… why would I agree to website hosting when I already have a website and hosting that’s vastly cheaper than $35 a month?

My phone company has taken the charge off my bill and the third-party billing company has also agreed to do the same if it continues to be an issue. But that’s not enough - I would really like to protect other unwitting small business owners.

I hesitate to post much more than this… just that the telemarketers instruct you to say “yes” for their recording. Don’t agree to anything until you ask for their terms in writing and be wary when verifying any information, even if they have only information that’s in the public domain. If you want to know more, contact me directly.

The feed works!

Published
by
sarahurd
on January 12, 2007
in What's New
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Without me doing anything (at least, I don’t think I did anything…), my feed started working. So you can now subscribe to keywaystrategies.com updates in any feed reader. Either enter the URL into the feed reader of your choosing, or click on the Feed links to the right and see lots of options. You can subscribe in many different feed readers or even subscribe to my feed by email.

I’m working to get my newsletter list up and running. I may use a service that I already have until I can find something better. I’m not sure how soon my newsletter will get out this month. I’ve got a bit of work ahead to get my list ready to send to!

My feed is broken! and other sob stories

Published
by
sarahurd
on January 11, 2007
in What's New
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If you’re looking for the RSS or what-have-you feed, it currently doesn’t appear to be working. I’m troubleshooting. In the meantime, the Sage reader for Firefox CAN find my feed if yours can’t.

My email was also not working for most of yesterday, so I tried to troubleshoot between my web host and domain registrar much of the day. Then, this morning, my email was working but my website wasn’t. Now, currently both appear to be functioning properly. Cross our fingers!

It will take me a little while to get my newsletter archive built on this new site. I think it’s going to be great when it’s up! In the meantime, if you see anything in the Archive list that interests you, feel free to contact me directly to request the article.

Undergoing remodeling… broken links!

Published
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sarahurd
on January 9, 2007
in What's New
. 0 Comments

We are currently switching our website over to a new webhost. Because of that, there are still some bugs and links that need to be fixed. Feel free to look around, and you can view the old site at www.coachtechnology.com until it’s taken down.

Thanks for your patience!