Superlicious Diva Business Day

Last month I attended the online Superlicious Diva Business Day with Lisa Hunter. Wow what a great experience that was! I met lots of new entrepreneurial women and we had so much fun together. It was like a virtual playground. Lisa and the group reminded me to have fun while working and to take breaks to play. Even though we were having fun and playing we were also getting down to serious business, we did some brainstorming, talked about business ideas, and made some great connections. Lisa is lots of fun and very inspiring to be around. Lisa has been my coach in the past and she is one the people that helped inspire me to create the new blog: Sally Around The Bay. I always have so much fun with Lisa, I thought it would be fun to interview her about the Superlicious Diva Business Day.


Your Name: Lisa Hunter

Company Name: Inner Business Diva

Type of Company: A place for spirited, go-getting entrepreneurial women to make new business connections and thrive

How long have you been in business? I've had this particular business for 4 years. Overall, I've been in business for myself for 14 years!

Why/How did you get in to this business? I have the spirited, go-getting-entrepreneurial-woman gene myself, which means that I tend to have friends who are the same way. We have so much fun when we get together - the brainstorming, the inspiration, the connections and the goofball antics. I would feel so alone running my own business if I didn't have these women in my life. I also love facilitating new connections. So... I decided to make it official and create a network where spirited entrepreneurial women gather and then magic ensues.

Do you have fun running your business? Yes yes yes! I used to be on a very long path of working myself into the ground until I couldn't take it anymore. Then last year I decided that I would only say 'yes' to projects that feel fun and that energize me. Seriously, if fun isn't in the equation I don't do it. And the Diva Day network is about women connecting, but it's also about getting together and blowing off a little steam and getting kinda goofy. You know how you get a little goofy after you've been sitting in front of your computer for too long? Well you're totally encouraged to act on that goofiness on the network, and best of all, the other women "get" it.

What do you sell? What service do you offer? Two things: Superlicious Diva Business Day which is a network for the sassy, passionately-driven entrepreneurial type. Diva Day is just once a month, which I love because it makes the day really special, with lots of synergy. I'm also about to launch a new book/course: Sexy Time Management. It teaches you the art of tapping into your right rhythm and using that to guide your scheduling, rather than all those boring old time management tips that we've all tried, but that never seem to fully work for anybody.

What is your favorite product that you sell? Can't pick! It's like being a mom and trying to pick your favorite kid!

Do you have any specials right now? There's a special on your first Diva Day. Since the only way to find out if you like Diva Day is try it, I like to meet your risk by giving you an intro rate of $14 for your first Diva Day. And then the regular monthly membership fee after that is $19 if you decide you want to stay. You can try it out and cancel if you find it's not your cup of tea.

Any advice for new entrepreneurs, someone just getting started?
It really is important to keep things fun. The products/services that I've offered over the years have been progressively more and more fun for me. And I've noticed that I get more energy from my offerings, the more they include a playful component. I know that place well of being all serious and tired from owning a business, and it just doesn't feed the business or you. Now, incorporating fun is sometimes easier said than done, but I'll tell ya - if you can find even little ways, or if you can weave it into one of your products/services, your business and your soul will thank you!

Where can people find your product? My cute l'il ole website! The specific page for Diva Day is: www.InnerBusinessDiva.com/diva-business-day

What is the best way to contact you or to order your product online? If you're interested in Diva Day, there's lots of information on the site and if it feels right to you, then you can just sign up on the Diva Day page. If you have questions, then you can fill out the contact form on the page and I'll be happy to answer whatever you need to know.

Do you want to offer a special discount or offer to Virtual Simplicity blog readers? Hmmm, they can have the first TWO months for $14/month. And then $19 after that. They'd just need to send me a special email that they read your blog so that I can program the billing accordingly. And they don't have to commit to the ongoing, they can cancel whenever they want.

Thanks Lisa! I can't wait until the next Diva Day which I know is coming up soon!

Twitter is Magical!

I like Twitter. My Twitter friends get this. My real-in-person friends don't. They think I'm weird. But I'm okay with that.

Ever since I first heard about TweetUps I wanted to attend one. A year or so ago I started asking if anyone was interested in a local TweetUp... no response. Since Twitter has grown so rapidly in the last 6 months I decided to ask again because this time I knew I had a handful of local followers. I got responses this time! People said yes they'd love to participate in a TweetUp. One woman @LissaRankin volunteered her office space at Clear Center of Health in Mill Valley. Others (@pobutler) offered to bring things. Lissa and I decided to co-host the TweetUp and to make it a potluck. We weren't sure how many people were going to come.

Last night I arrived at Clear Center with my vegetarian springrolls in one hand, sparkly water and wine in the other and walked in to be greeted by Lissa's coworkers, charming husband and adorable daughter. They were so nice and welcoming and told me Lissa was coming a little bit later. We rearranged the meeting space, got tables set up, put out our food and wondered if anyone was going to show up. They did! One by one people came walking in with food or drinks in hand. I think we had 20 people total. Four men, the rest women.

I wasn't sure what to expect with a room full of strangers but what I found was a room full of interesting, friendly people. It was probably the most relaxed and comfortable event full of strangers that I've ever been to. But I guess we aren't really strangers. We see each others tweets, we follow each others lifes. We carryon conversations.

I had a strange experience earlier in the day. A local business owner contacted me for something else and I wrote him back asking if he was on Twitter and invited him to our TweetUp. He wrote me back basically telling me he thought Twitter was a waste of time. He said if I can figure out how to make magic with Twitter then God bless me. Well guess what? I think I did figure out how to make magic with Twitter. Last night I was in a beautiful, warm, friendly office filled with wonderful people who I now consider friends. I would have never had this experience if it weren't for Twitter. It feels pretty magical to me!

Thank you to everyone who came to the TweetUp!

Photos from the TweetUp!

Social Networking Etiquette

Just found this great video on the blog Social Media 101 explaining Social Networking better than I've ever heard it explained before.

So many people are still trying the "get rich quick schemes", the bullhorn shouting look at me stuff and the same old marketing techniques. I keep telling people it is not about that anymore. It is about creating relationships with people, building trust and being real.

Tara Hunt said in her book The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business "Turn the bullhorn around, Stop talking and start listening."

If you are thinking about using Social Media to sell your next product or service please watch this video before doing so. Thank you.



Thanks to Scott of @UnMarketing for creating this video (and tweeting about it so I saw it).

Social Networking Overload

Last weekend I attended WordCampSF. It was great, I learned a lot and now I think I am suffering from information overload.

Do you ever feel like you are running in a social network race? I do. But I don't know who I am racing? I think it is a race against time.

A race for information, a feeling of not knowing enough, feeling like you need to do more, read more, learn more. Trying to keep up with all the interesting tweets on Twitter. Checking out all the cool and informative links that people tweet. Staying on top of Facebook updates, becoming fans of various businesses, organizations and causes on Facebook. Keeping up with reading blogs, writing blog posts and commenting on blogs. Checking email, Skype, Yahoo and AIM. Read the news online. Watch a few YouTube videos, Blip some songs. Remember to check text messages on iPhone. Check Google alerts. Review Google analytics. Attend conferences about blogging and social networking, attend and/or coordinate Webinars and tele-seminars. Teach clients, friends and family about social networking. Re-learn how to use Wordpress. Contemplate moving this blog from Blogger to Wordpress. Try to keep up at Virtual Assistant networking, IVAA, and all the other great online forums and communities I am a part of. Check MySpace and other random social networking sites (occasionally). Organize a local TweetUp. Agree to do an interview about my blog. And, and, and... the list goes on and on.

Thanks for listening to my brain dump. The previous paragraph is a description of a usual day in the life of Sally.

This is the part where I should say what the moral of this story is… but I don't know what it is. I think the moral is sometimes I need to turn my computer off and just chill or do nothing. I think I’m going to step away from the computer and finish reading The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business.

:-)

No wonder I can't sleep at night. Sheesh.

How Not talk to your potential Virtual Assistant

I was catching up on my blog reading and came across Candy's blog where she posted this video (that Nina showed to her). I just had to re-post because I have heard things like this SO many times and it relates to my previous blog post.

(I can't get the video to fit properly in the post so please click the link to watch)

The Vendor Client Relationship in Real World Situations

Thanks Candy and Nina!