I met Richard today, a delightful volunteer in a thrift shop who had a stack of two different children’s book sitting on the counter  in front of him. I found out that they were his books, he had written them just recently. When he approached a publisher with his first one he was told that it wouldn’t sell, that it was too Australian. He took it elsewhere and so far has sold 1500 copies!

BUT the most remarkable thing about the whole story is that Richard was illiterate for 63 years of his life. He went to the local college and started learning to read and write.  Within 3 years he became an author.

Check out his website and get the full details of his story at:

http://www.richarddabinettbooks.com.au

Till next time

Connie and Charly

http://www.stretchyourmindandbody.com/blog

I was wondering how to make sense of the “twitter stream” and Charly explained that it is like walking into a room full of people who are all having conversations and you just join one of these ongoing conversations.

You can refer people to each other on Twitter which makes for great networking.

When you are setting up your twitter homepage it pays to take care with it and spend time on it. It can be a great platform for you to market yourself. People will go there and use that information to decide whether they want to “follow” you or not.

Depending on what you want to achieve with it, it might pay to work with a “tech” person and a graphic designer to get your homepage looking great.

Some interesting links:

To find other people on twitter who you might be interested in

http://www.mrtweet.net

A twitter “Yellow Pages”

http://www.twellow.com

http://www.tweetbeep.com

To schedule tweets in advance:

http://www.tweetlater.com

For twitter backgrounds:

http://www.twitterbacks.com

To get all your Twitter accounts under one roof:

http://splitweet.com

Till next time
Connie and Charly
from
http://www.stretchyourmindandbody.com

What is Twitter? It is a microblogging engine, each “tweet” is limited to 140 characters or less. Or, to describe another way, it is like an SMS chat but instead of two people chatting it can be any number of people creating a lively discussion.

On Twitter there are “Followers”. Your followers can see anything you write and you can see everything somebody you are following is writing. There needs to be a balance between following and being followed. You cannot be selfish and only accumulate followers and not follow anybody else. Choose wisely who you follow – you don’t want to end up following a spammer.Remember – all social networking sites are about relationship building and not just about sending out marketing materials.

There is also a public timeline where all twitter chats can be viewed. You can search for particular topics. Once you join Twitter you have your own twitter home page, profile and your own timeline. There is also an option to exchange private messages. So, when somebody wants to get to know you and check out whether they want to follow you they will check out your home page and then maybe your blog.  Of course you can do the same before you decide to follow somebody.

In a way Twitter can be also be seen as an interactive forum but it works much faster and is less complex. It is an amazing way to get information, help and support.

To find out more, listen to our show.

Till next time
Connie and Charly
from
www.stretchyourmindandbody.com

The main focus of the discussion was using your time effectively when connecting and networking with people – how to ensure you make worthwhile connections whilst still having time to run your business!

Social networking is on the increase and the number of places to connect just keep growing.  Most of us receive 1 or 2 invites a day to connect on one platform or another – and quite frankly, we’re overwhelmed by the sheer ‘enormity’ of it all.

Networking is the process of meeting people, either in person or ‘virtually’, that you would like to develop a stronger (perhaps more formal) connection with.  These connections, in turn will enrich your life in one, or many, areas – depending on the type of contact.

Carol had some great tips regarding the effective use of networking.  Here are just some of them:

You should network where your target audience is.  If your target audience (or market) uses Twitter, ECademy and Ryze – then that’s where you should be networking. It doesn’t make sense to network on Facebook or Myspace if your target market doesn’t.

Use an egg timer to limit the amount of time you spend each day on your networking and only do what you can in that time. This means being focussed and addressing the important requests first…. but you can do it!

Schedule your day to maximise your networking. For Carol, networking at the end of her work day works best – but for Charly, networking at the start of her work day is optimum.
Charly was also asked how she manages to work from home and handle the ‘interruptions’ from family and two young teenage children…. her answer may amuse you!

Carol is networking coach and her site can be found at RUNLancaster and her networking blog. Carol is available for coaching and advice.

Enjoy the show: