What We Can Learn About Predictive Analytics From The Blizzard That Wasn't

We are drowning in data. According to Nate Silver we now produce every day, three times per second, the equivalent of the amount of data that the Library of Congress has in its entire print collection. 

That’s a lot of data!

And it’s only going to get worse. Each of us is in some part responsible for the deluge. Every move we make on our Internet browsers and on each social media network we engage in is being tracked. Our comings and goings, our likes and dislikes are all helping to make Big Data bigger.  

One of the hottest new jobs is that of data scientist, a person whose job it is to analyze these enormous piles of data for insights that can predict. Predict where we want to travel to, what we want to eat for dinner, what shoes we want to buy, who we want to work for, who wants us to work for them, who we want to date.

Sometimes it works quite well.

Right around Christmas I was looking for new snow boots. I looked in a few stores, but for the most part my research was being done on line. I knew what I wanted. Comfortable with a good tread. After last winter I wasn’t as concerned with the fashion statement I was making as I was with not slipping on the ice. But I  still wanted something that said I had some sense of style. 

Boots started to follow me everywhere I went. On my iPhone, my iPad and my desktop. 

And then the result of all my research appeared right in the middle of my Facebook feed on the day after Christmas. 

It was an ad from Amazon for a pair of Merrell boots that was on sale. 

I had never bought a pair of Merrell’s before, nor had I ever bought an article of clothing on Amazon before. But the price was right so I clicked through. I read about the boots. I went to the Merrell website. I read the reviews.  

I decided to go for it.  I took advantage of my Amazon Prime membership and free shipping and hit the buy button. 

The boots fit perfectly. They are comfortable and keep my feet dry. All those cookies that had been tracking me served me up what I wanted. I am a happy customer.

But it doesn’t always work so well. 

Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes we don’t. 

Last week’s blizzard was is a case in point. 

We have more data than ever before to predict the weather. We want to believe all those insights are going to give us the right answer. But as we saw - especially if you lived as I do in New York City - there was no “historic snowstorm” as the data was indicating and all the meteorologists and politicians were standing behind. 

Instead of backpedaling afterwards, all one needs to do is understand the truth of the data going in. 

It informs. 
It garners valuable insight. 
It can direct decisions. 
It can assess risk or potential. 

But not every behavior or weather pattern can be predicted. 

Things will happen. Things that we never accounted for. 

Like that weather band that decided to skirt New York City last week.

The Art Of The Make-Good

I was raised in a business where the make-good was a vehicle to cultivate relationships. 

When we didn't run your radio schedule in the right dayparts - we never said sorry, that's too bad. We offered make-good spots.

When we ran the wrong ad copy, we never said - oh, how embarrassing for you -  we offered make-goods. 

When we ran your sixty-second commercial spot next to a competitor - after we promised not to - make-goods where what we offered.

It was a rare moment when the radio station suggested a cash refund. In fact, so rare I am not sure we ever did. For a couple of reasons.

We wanted the cash to stay on the books. We were after all - a for profit business. If we suggested make-goods on the next schedule the implication was there would be a next order. We wanted to keep the client relationship moving forward.  

We wanted it known that yes - we acknowledge the fact we screwed up but we care enough to make it right and to do better the next time you picked us to air your ad campaign. We knew that it was a lot easier to renew an existing customer - even a slightly disgruntled one - than to go out and find a new one. And the best way to do that was to let them know we cared enough to own up to our error and right our wrong. 

What we never, ever did was say - Gee, so sorry that happened. Too bad. Here's your money back.  Buh bye!

We looked for a way to make that client feel heard and special - because we knew at the end of the day that is all any of us really want and that is how relationships are cultivated. We knew the relationships we made were the foundation of our reputation - both personally and as a radio station -  and that would pay itself forward. It was never just about our product and delivery - but how we made that client feel.

We understood market volatility. It was inherent in the radio business. One day they had to buy our station - the next our ratings could sink to the bottom of the heap and we were nothing more than an afterthought. Our relationship was key to getting bought in those downturns. 

So when there was a problem - we looked to make it good. We had no email to hide behind in the eighties. We faced our dissatisfied customers. We picked up the phone and had a real, live human conversation. We didn’t wait 24 hours to respond. We were on it immediately. No matter how big or small the client was. We made it urgent. And those of us who were particularly smart, knew that when there was a really big problem, our best bet was to avoid the phone and get ourselves in front of the person with whom we'd screwed up. Because that is how the best relationships are cultivated and that is how things get mended when torn apart.

I've taken that philosophy to every place I have ever worked and continue to embody it today in all of my business dealings. It’s how I built my reputation as someone people wanted to work with.

So I'm always surprised when I encounter people who don’t.

Especially in a world where it only takes one disconcerted person to take your misstep to soclal media.

12 Alternatives To Selling

I hear it all the time. From smart, creative entrepreneurs and corporate executives alike.

"I can't sell."
"I am not a salesperson." 
"There are a lot of things I am good at - but selling is not one of them."
"I could never do that!"

The unfortunate news for them is that in a very noisy 24/7, interconnected world in which everyone has a voice and a platform on which they can be heard and in which the skinny on who you really are or what your business is about is nothing more than a Google search away - the truth is we are all selling - even if we don't want to admit it. 

But before you can hone those skills, my advice is to look to reframe the word "sell" into something that sounds more appealing.

If you are one of those people who say they "can't sell" or for whom the mere mention of the word makes them break out in hives, try one of these alternatives.

• invite 
• enroll 
• educate 
• influence 
• captivate 
• inspire 
• seduce 
• engage 
• persuade
• entice 
• solve a problem 
• tell a really good story 

If you can do any one or combination of the above, you can sell. In fact, you've been selling all along - you just didn't realize it. 

What To Do When Technology Fails You

We expect technology to work. We expect it never to fail us. Frustration levels rise when the page we opened in Safari is taking too long to load. We can't understand why we are at a conference with bad WIFI that is preventing us  from tweeting our opinions to the rest of the world. Ten years ago a Smartphone was not a necessity and today we panic if the battery is draining too quickly and our charger is nowhere to be found. A rash of expletives fall out of our mouths when we are trying to complete a transaction on line and have a bad user experience.

We don't just expect technology to work.  We demand it. In fact many of us think it's smarter than we are. 

Humans can and do make mistakes. But not technology. 

Or so we think.

We forget that it is humans who create the technology.  And it will always be humans who need to oversee their creations.

Case in point. The day after Christmas Delta Airlines experienced a glitch in their systems that offered crazy low fares - $6.99 round trip to Hawaii. The news of the offers spread like wildfire on the social networks while humans intervened to correct the mistake. The system did not know it made an error. The humans at the other end are the ones who found out and the ones who fixed it. 

This kind of stuff happens. It will always happen. No matter how advanced artificial intelligence might get - it will break down. And what do you do when it happens to you?

In the case of Delta they did the right thing. Once they caught it they shut down the site until it was corrected. And because it was their error,  they honored the bargain fares. 

Which proves my point :

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Somedays It's Out Of Your Control

I think being an entrepreneur is one of the few things you can do where you can be busy all day long and at the end of it have no idea what you have done to move the needle. 

I've had a lot of those days since that damn Mercury went into retrograde.  Those in the know will tell you it's been exceptionally hard for people. A lot complaining about exhaustion and intense emotions. 

I admit to being one of those people who believe in planetary influences. I understand energy and how sometimes it flows and sometimes it doesn't.

But that does not make me feel any more satisfied when I hear that maybe the reason I  have no idea what I have done to move my business is because of something out of my control. 

Yes, I admit it. Deep within me lies a control freak.

All those years of selling ingrained this idea into my head that there is always something I can do to move things in the direction I  want them to. That me - only me - has the ability to make something happen by controlling every move.

Only part of that is true. I do possess the ability to create - but not necessarily by controlling every step. 

Yes there are things you can do and should do and if you were working with me I could give you a long list of techniques to grow your business. 

And then there are those things you are driven to do - if an entrepreneur - hopefully from deep within your soul. 


But you still can't control it all.

You never will.

There will always be days when every moment is filled and things spin in unforeseen directions, at the end of which you have no idea what it all meant.

At which point the only option is to surrender and trust that a power greater than you sees the bigger picture. 

And be thankful Mercury straightens itself out on November 11.



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Life Is So Funny

Life is so funny.  You set off to do one thing and that leads to another and yet another. Still uncertain of the circuitous path you are taking you learn to say yes to what feels right and no to what does not. 

And then one day you find yourself standing on stage in a ballroom in the Hotel Sofitel in Redwood Shores just down the street from the offices of companies with names like Oracle, Salesforce and Electronic Arts,  speaking to a group of entrepreneurs who are all part of the largest women's online community, BlogHer.  

Your topic is selling - that part of you that you thought you left behind when you closed the door to your corporate office for the last time.

What is even stranger is that it feels so right. As if all the energy centers you had invested yourself in had suddenly joined together to create your very own perfect storm.

When I think about it I can't help but giggle.

Me. 

The shy kid who literally clung to her mother's skirts - afraid to be seen much less heard. Who grew up amidst the noise, laughter and constant chatter of a big, fat Greek family that I was sure would never hear me even if I tried. 

So I didn't.

I kept my thoughts inside my head - finding safety only in the written word and a few very close friends, until the day my tenth grade English teacher, Mr. Keyes picked my essay to read aloud to our class.  I tried to crawl under the table. I don't recall what I wrote about but I still remember my surprise afterwards when my classmates told me how good it was. And that I wanted to believe them - but I didn't.

As it was - I was far from ready to be heard. Really heard. 

Over time, I stopped hiding. I learned to speak with ease. I learned not to be afraid to hear my own voice. I taught. I sold. I managed people. I gained confidence. But what I really thought, my views and perspective on what I thought important - that I kept inside the pile of  journals that were quickly accumulating.

Until one day - November 18, 2008 -  I started a blog.  And just like that I had readers. Readers who gave me assurances I could write and should - more and more of my truths. About life. About business. I had a place to share my stories. That's when it started to shift.

I've spoken many times before. In conference rooms, classrooms, to groups of varying sizes. But last Tuesday was the first time I spoke in a real hotel ballroom, on a stage with one of those mikes that clips on to your clothes. 

The funniest thing was I wasn't  afraid. 

Not really. 

I had just the right amount of fear. The kind  that I told the audience you use to propel yourself forward - not the kind that makes you stand still.

I felt something shift - yet again. I'm still not entirely clear on what that was but I do know that the nugget of an idea I've had for my next book took form. 

A week later and I am still surprised how much I enjoyed it. How right it felt to share what I know about business, about selling, about digital tools and marketing on a stage to a group that was mostly women sprinkled with a few good men. 

And when people tweeted nice things and told me after how much they enjoyed my talk I didn't second guess them. 

Like I said. Something shifted.

Life is so funny. 

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The 9 Reasons I Might Ignore That LinkedIn Invitation You Sent

A few weeks ago I spoke with a group  at a New York Women in Communications Digital Salon on the subject of digital profiles, their importance and how best to use them to our advantage. One of the questions I was asked was whether I accept every invitation to connect I get on LinkedIn.

My answer was a complicated no.

My general rule of thumb is that if our paths have crossed, I've met you at a function, worked with you, went to school with you, or are connected because of blood lines I will say yes.

But what if I don't? What if you are a complete stranger reaching out?  What do I do then?

There is no hard and fast rule. And while I generally do not like to ignore anyone, (I think it's rude and bad karma) in the digital world I sometimes do.

The question is, how do I make that decision?
The answer is, it's really pretty easy.

If I've ignored an invitation you sent to me the reasons are most likely one or a combination of those on this list:

1. I've never met you.
2. We have no connections in common.
3. You don't have a picture in your profile.
4. Your profile says nothing about you.
5. You lied to me and to LinkedIn and said we were friends and then admitted to me you lied.
6. You did not personalize your invitation.
7. You personalized it with something to the tune of "I think it would be good to connect" without a reason why it might be good to connect.
8. We share nothing in common. Not a group. Not a person. Not an industry.
9. It's looking like the only reason you want to connect is to sell me something.

LinkedIn is about my business. I'm there to expand it, to network, to share useful information and to find information I might find useful. Which means I am going to be thoughtful - maybe even a bit choosy at times - about who I want in my circles.

So if you want me to connect with you and you're a stranger give me a reason to want to engage with you. Tell me who you are. Show me your face. Let me know why you think connecting will be a good thing. For both of us.

A Simple Tool Guaranteed To Get You Noticed

It's noisy out there. Everyone wants to be noticed. Yet so many ignore this simple and easy tool that I guarantee will set you apart.

It does not involve jumping off the high dive in some silly reality show. It's not running through Central Park naked in an attempt to revive the streaking craze of the early seventies. It does not involve a marketing budget that requires you to get a second mortgage on your home. It does not involve flash and glitz or high end video.

It's simple and inexpensive.
It's called a thank-you.  


Thank-you for your note.
Thank-you for that nice mention on Twitter.
Thank-you for your comment on my blog.
Thank-you for commenting on my FaceBook page.
Thank-you for sharing my stuff.
Thank-you for taking the time to meet with me.
Thank-you for showing up to hear me talk.
Thank-you for your consideration.
Thank-you for doing business with us.
Thank-you for your wise advice.


It says you care. It engages. It establishes relationships. It says, no matter how busy and famous I am or might want to be, I am not too big to remember this simple measure of acknowledgement. It says your business or relationship is important to me and I want you to know it. It says I am happy you are part of my tribe. It makes a lasting impression.

Especially since so many people don't do it.
They think it doesn't matter.
They forget.
They say they will, but never do.
They think they are too important, too famous, too busy.

Which makes no sense.

Let's face it. It's easier than ever to say thank-you in a timely manner. (Immediacy is important to the art of thank-you.) All it takes is a click of the reply button on an email or a text.You don't even have to talk anymore. Although that is always an extra nice touch. Nicer still is going as far as to write a note, get a stamp and put the thank-you in an envelope. And as for being too important to take the time - the digital world has leveled the playing field in so many ways. Thank-you's are not exempt. No matter if you are one person or a big corporation.

The point is, it doesn't have to be elaborate or require setting the egg timer for. It's an easy, simple and budget friendly tool to differentiate you from the masses. 

Of course you don't have to say thank-you. Ever. You can forget it. You can live in the delusion that the more expensive tools to get your name out there will compensate. But they won't. Because when you never say thank-you - that gets noticed - and not in the way you want.

Thank You Cards by Tara Dixon of Gratitude Designs

This blog also appears on The Huffington Post

The Rule You Never Want To Break

Most rules are made to be broken. In fact many can even evoke a little rush of pleasure when you do. But every now and then one comes along, you really don't want to break. The consequences are far too severe.

For example, in It Takes An Egg Timer, A Guide to Creating the Time for Your Life, I created one I call The Twenty-Minute Rule. It's designed for those things you need or want to attend to, but if not careful, will suck you in and take you away from the really important stuff you want to be working on. Like landing a new client. Or writing that book proposal.

Social media needs attending. It's got a value, especially if you are self-employed or an entrepreneur. But it can also be one of the biggest time wasters out there. It's a  Twenty-Minute Rule. It's something you must set that egg timer for. If not, hours can be whiled away looking at the 200 pictures your ex's new girlfriend posted of their recent trip to China. In the meantime  you have done nothing that will create any new revenue to pay down your Amex, which by the way is still suffering from  all that retail therapy than ensued when you broke up with him.

Give your favorite social media site  twenty-minutes each time you sign on. Anything more is too much. It's a rule you never want to break. You just can't afford the time it will waste.



This and more on the use and misuse of time can be found in my new book, It Takes An Egg Timer, A Guide to Creating the Time for Your Life , available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.

It Takes An Egg Timer

What if the secret to creating and managing your time was not some elaborate system of charts or fancy new app for your iPhone?
What if it was as simple as an ordinary egg timer?

That is the premise of my new book, It Takes An Egg Timer, A Guide to Creating the Time for Your Life which is officially released today! This part guide and part manifesto offers uncomplicated solutions to creating and managing your time that start with the basic egg timer.

It is  written not just for the self-employed and entrepreneurs struggling to keep themselves on task, productive and happy but also for those who simply dream about making a change in their life, big or small, and are convinced that what is stopping them is not enough time.

My intention is that this little book will inform, inspire, motivate, entertain and prove that you have more time than you think. You just need to organize for it!

Available today on Kindle! 

so hurry on over and get your copy!
The paperback edition  will be available later this week
on Amazon and other select on-line booksellers

Click this link to tweet the good news!

Also by the author: The Secrets They Kept, a story of secrets unraveling amidst the complex relationships of a Greek-American family living in New York City.

For information: on hiring Joanne as your coach or to speak to your organization please visit www.joannetombrakos.com or email joanne@joannetombrakos.com

They Won't All Love You

One of the hardest adjustments I had when I first became a manager was adjusting to the fact that not everyone was going to love me. In fact they may not even like me.

Up until then that is what I strived for. As a salesperson, one learned to go out of their way to make sure they were liked. After all no one was going to buy your wares if they didn't like you first. Even back then, in the late eighties, when the world was less cluttered, there were still a lot of media choices. Being likable helped.

Now that I was a manager, I was told not to worry about whether I was liked, as long as I was respected.  I was going to make decisions or be responsible for enforcing someone else's decisions. To think that every single person affected by my choices was going to be happy, was not just unrealistic, it was impossible. It took adjusting, but I got used to it. And the stronger I felt in myself as a professional and as a woman, the easier it became.

That is not to say that I wasn't tested. That young girl inside of me who just wanted a sense of approval by  making everyone her friend could still make an appearance. She still does. I am still tested.

Sometimes it is on a sales consulting project. Sometimes with a potential new coaching client. But the times that really test me are when it comes to reviews for my novel.

I've been lucky. Most of the reviews so far have been beyond favorable, enough to make me certain I am indeed a writer. But every now and again I get what I consider a mediocre review,  3 stars instead of 4 or 5. Or a few days go by and the Like button on Amazon hasn't moved. And I am back there. Not understanding. Unsure of my self-worth in this new place I've chosen to stand. Longing to feel the approval of being liked. Being tested. Remembering what I was taught. Remembering what I would tell a client.

They won't all love you. They won't all like you. Strive for respect.

The Kindle edition of The Secrets They Kept is on sale for just $.99, now through Valentine's Day.

9 Tips For Using Email

As I was saying yesterday, your email says a lot about who you are and how you interact with others. You can gain a customer or lose one. Deepen a friendship or splinter it. It’s your choice.

If you find that your email is getting the better of you, here are 9 suggestions to put you back in control.

1. Check it at least 3x a day and act on it. My preference is to sit down at my computer in the morning, before lunch and at the end of the work day, set my timer and give my email my full attention. 
2. Respond immediately or send it off to someone who will. The rule for paper was not to let your hands touch anything more than three times. In technological terms, don't scroll over and read something more than three times without acting on it.
3. Get a smartphone and have your email accounts sent to it.  And don't forget to use it. You don't have to wait until you are in front of your computer to read an email .
4. Organize your email. Separate the importance stuff from the newsletters you can’t seem to live without. I use Apple’s Mail Preferences which allows me to set up rules for my email. This enables me to send email directly to folders I have set up. For example, I have a folder for Shopping Newsletters, which prevents my Daily Candy from competing for time with a potential client. I have a folder for my Inspiration Newsletters which is where I collect all those inspiring daily quotes  I like to read. I have one for News of the Day that gets my NYTimes and WSJ updates. This keeps my main email inbox clean for the important stuff that needs my immediate attention. 
5. If you are so “busy” and so inundated that you can’t find the time to manage your email, you need to take a look at what exactly you are so "busy" with. Your problem may be bigger than your email. It may be your time management. 
6. Use spell check. And then proofread spell check. If the content is really important, forget about the trees for a moment and print it out before sending. It is amazing what typos and inconsistencies show up when you are reading from a piece of paper that you won’t catch on your computer screen. 
7. If it’s a really important communication, let it sit for a while and reread before hitting send. Especially if it is something that has you emotional. Think of it as soup you are preparing, that needs time to simmer before it is ready to be served.
8. When replying to something that has a distribution list, slow down before you hit send to make sure it's going to exactly who you want it to. Because once you hit send you can't take it back.
9. Remember this is email. You are putting more than your important words in writing. You are putting you in.  And with the click of the forwarding tab, your message can be sent anywhere to anyone, with or without your knowledge. Take the time to make sure it is leaving the impression you want it to.

 Do you have tips to add? What do you consider email best practices?

What Your Email Habits May Be Saying About You

I write a lot of emails. Every day. Sometimes they are to complete strangers I’d like to do business with. Sometimes they are to people I know really well. Sometimes people I know not so well. Sometimes I am responding to a reader of my blog or someone who wrote me a note just to say how much they loved my novel. Sometimes I am asking for something.

I’m not one to let my inbox pile up. It goes back to my early days in sales when I was taught to act on a phone call or letter immediately because it could mean money. It was a way to build relationships. My response time made the statement that I cared, enough to not let them wait. It was a chance to make an impression. Like the clothes you wear, the choices you make in hairstyle and eyeglasses, the way you shake someone’s hand when you meet them for the first time, I was taught this was a window to my personality and a barometer for whether they might want to do business with me.

We don’t have a lot of chances to make impressions into today’s virtual world.  Email is one of those opportunities and yet so many throw it away. They use it carelessly, never considering the message they are sending is also one about who they are. Think about it.

• We use texting symbols like u instead of spelling out the whole word and forget that spell check does not know if you meant here or hear.
• We ignore people we have never met as though they are something that got caught in the spam filter.
• We ignore people we know because we are too busy to deal with them or their issue. We accidentally hit reply all when we only wanted one person to receive our message.
• We write like we speak, often off the cuff and without forethought, forgetting we are putting this in writing without any idea on whose desk it might ultimately land. Then we wonder how we got into so much trouble. 
• We let it pile up until we really are too busy to get through it all.
• We lie and say we never got it, underestimating the sender who has already started to notice that you are the only one who never gets anything they send.
• We wait just long enough to answer to imply to the sender they are really not that important.

Before email, we relied on the telephone or perhaps a letter typed on real paper that was proofread for typos and put into an envelope with a stamp on it. Of course now we worry about killing trees, and the telephone, well that is so yesterday. But making an impression is not.

How you respond to my email tell me about who you are and how you do business. 

• A high level executive for a major corporation who emails me back the same day or even forwards my email to one of her lieutenants  with a copy to me, tells me that person stays on top of their business and probably their life. It also insinuates that they really care enough about their company to know that I might have something worthwhile to share. I might be wanting them to buy something from me, but I am also a potential customer for them.
• The newly minted best-selling author whose talk I attend and write a complimentary follow-up email who takes exactly one year to reply thank-you to me says scattered and thoughtless and makes me wonder why they are even bothering now. They missed their opportunity to gain a repeat customer for their next book.(this is a true story!)
• The friend who takes days to reply to my email, but then harasses me with texts and phone calls when I don’t immediately respond to theirs implies self-importance.
• There is the person who disappears in the middle of the email thread. That’s like hanging up the phone on me in the middle of a conversation.

I could go on but, I have email to answer.  Just remember whether this is business you or personal you, your email habits are a statement of who you are.  The question is, what impression do you want to leave?

Tomorrow: 9 Tips for Using Email

Top Ten Things to Adore About Coaches

Dara Emerita McKinley is one of the really cool women I know that hang around the School of Womanly Arts. She calls herself, "a warrior for the creative and healing power of our feminine essence and the rise of emotionally brilliant folks." She blogs, teaches classes and writes books on the subject of "provocative and soul stirring feminine truth." 
She recently wrote a blog on the top ten things she adores about working with a coach. 
Here's what she said:

"The word “coach” usually elicits images of stressed-out, angry men standing on the sidelines. However, life coaching is all about creativity, nurturance and becoming. Thus, in my eyes this profession is 100% divinely feminine.

I hired a coach in November when I finally admitted that all the successful people I admired had one. It was one of THE BEST decisions I made in 2010.Thus, for your reading pleasure only, I compiled the top ten things I adore about coaching:

1. Deepest Truth. Good coaches know they aren’t going to get anywhere unless the client is rooted beyond rooted in their deepest truths. Coaching is always on the hunt for “resonance,” unveiling and attending to all the things that make a client light up from the depths.
2. Protection. Anyone who dares to live their genius is going to have some major (MAJOR) tussles with doubt. Coaches take on the task of warding off doubt. I can’t tell you how helpful it has been to have someone on my team who specializes in getting doubt to take a hike.
3. More Protection. Not only does doubt have something to worry about when you have a coach on your side, but so do negative emotions and beliefs. When an emotion or belief somehow takes the center stage of my business, my coach is there to identify the culprit, find out what it has to offer and then position it to serve, not sabotage.
4. Coaches don’t believe in the impossible. When I think I have hit a dead end, my coach shines her torch on all the other options that I was completely ignoring because I was so focused on the dead end. Coaches = possibilities.
5. Coaches bring on the Vitamin See. Yes, as you can imagine, this is one of my faves and was one of my main reasons for hiring my coach. I realized I had dug myself into a professional hole of solitude and when you don’t have any reflection (especially if you are woman) you are taking the long, hard, and in my adorable opinion, destructive road.
6. Coaches push creative edges. However I might think things are going to look and take shape, my coach always pushes my creative edge towards bigger, better and easier. Love this.
7. Coaches are a well of resources. So I don’t get bogged down by all the minutiae I must accomplish, my coach offers wonderful referrals. Since we have regularly scheduled appointments, I have an “ask Tanya” list that frees up a lot of mental space.
8. Accountability. Everyone who works their online biz from home (which is probably 99% of folks) knows that the dark side is all the potential distraction (Facebook, online shopping and Celebitchy are some of my faves.) Coaches provide structure, finish lines, someone to answer to and hold you accountable within the nebulousness of working from home.
9. Coaching is on the phone. I don’t have to hustle across town, find parking or pay a meter. I just plug in my headset, find a quiet, kid-free place, and it’s on.
10. Coaches CHEER YOU ON AND CELEBRATE! Since they are on the frontlines, they see all the big AND small accomplishments and insist that ALL of them are honored. It’s so fab and important.

Now, as a disclaimer, Dara is not my client. But I'm sharing her wisdom with you because I too believe that hiring a coach is critical to success. Depending where you are in your life the speciality of your coach might vary from health, to pleasure, to business ( like me). When choosing one you cannot underestimate your personal connection to the individual. So as Dara suggests, shop around. She has several suggestions to start with. Here is what she said about me.


"Joanne is a straight shot business and life coach. She had a 25 year LOVE affair with corporate America AND is a woman who lives from her deepest feminine powers. An indomitable combination." 


Thank you Dara. I am honored. 
For more on Dara Emerita McKinley please visit her website, Volvernow.com  or follow her on Facebook or Twitter.