Branding – your message is your name.

By Pam | Published: March 3, 2010

Not your business name but the name people think of when they read your statement, your copy, your bio, your blog. The name they give you in their mind (nice person, want to know them – that kind of thing) the minute they see something you’ve put out into the world. Is it the logo you chose, the background of your Tweeter page? Is it the way you presented your ideas in Squidoo? Did you talk about yourself, what you like, trust, want and stop there? Did you include thoughts and facts about yourself in addition to trying on the needs and wants of others?

For me it’s the personable way you might explore yourself to me. A misspelling won’t turn me off too much but if there are too many txt’s and lites, I’m gone. I love dashes and I personally use too many parentheses – which I hope won’t be a problem for you, I know a little cuteness goes a long way! How you expose your life without too much information but enough to help me know I can trust (or not) your ideas, what thoughts come to you, how much we might share.

This last is crucial. What might we share? It’s a key in the deciding route we all take on the road to purchase. We are all looking for the Something that will make our next – career, baby quiet, dog lie down, smell go away, best cup of – there are no exceptions, we are going to contact someone for an issue we are dealing with. That Someone is going to fill our needs and make us feel good at the same time.

I’m a poet in one of my lives and when I send poems out for consideration I hope I have done my homework and looked at the magazine before I send and I hope the editor will actually look at my work before it’s sent back in the envelope provided. I was an editor once and I noticed that I wanted as much from the poet as they wanted from me. I had a problem to solve, an itch to scratch and I hoped that every piece of writing coming to my desk would be the one I’d be excited to read and want to publish.

There are no exceptions to this dance. We are all in the market for something. We all want to pay for some things and get some things free. We don’t want to pay for everything and we don’t want everything free.

This is a great time to be a small business in a big world. We are all looking for the niche where we will find comfort. The best places in my kids’ schools were the reading nooks where they could curl up and read or just look at books. They could be surrounded by comfort and get some cool information or a great story. Let your business be a nook, it’ll be on everyone’s list of things to do.

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I love Seth Godin

By Pam | Published: March 3, 2010

I just got a new blog from Seth Godin. I love Seth Godin. There isn’t anything he says that’s not worth listening to, looking at, and really taking in. Every one is a “head’s up!”

This one was about College graduates. They are not finding jobs. According to Seth, only 20% are being hired. He spelled out a plan for the other 80%.

This is directly from him – and it’s worth repeating:

“How about a post-graduate year doing some combination of the following (not just one, how about all):
Spend twenty hours a week running a project for a non-profit.
Teach yourself Java, HTML, Flash, PHP and SQL. Not a little, but mastery.
Volunteer to coach or assistant coach a kids sports team.
Start, run and grow an online community.
Give a speech a week to local organizations.
Write a regular newsletter or blog about an industry you care about.
Learn a foreign language fluently.
Write three detailed business plans for projects in the industry you care about.
Self-publish a book.
Run a marathon.”

Seth Godin June 9, 2009

Does that sound like “make a Self to believe in?” It does to me. You know there was a time when that kind of learning was a part of growing up. Maybe you were fortunate and had a playroom. Maybe you and your friends and/or siblings made up plays, did projects, made costumes. A child’s world was full of challenges in groups with objects they made or made believe.

Maybe your opportunities didn’t include something so structured but maybe you didn’t know that it was so important. Whether your parents had money or not I bet you found it paid to be inventive, to put yourself out and you found out at least a little bit of who you are by bouncing around in a group not just awash in your daydreams or one on one games.

More than likely your parents participated, they watched you, clapped, gave you pointers. Maybe you hated it, maybe you loved the chance to be in front of your peers and your leaders. It almost doesn’t matter because no matter what, you were getting something out of it. I bet the put downs you may have felt look less harsh now than they did then. I bet if you had some of these experiences time has worn off the edges and what you’ve gotten into since has made them look smaller.

My teenagers are heavy with the weight of their studies, their friends, their social networks. They think this is the heavy time in their lives. They are sure they have more eyes on them, more commitments, more drama and tragedy than they ever will again. They feel experienced and unsettled yet they expect a steadiness to their lives that what they rail against most gives them. They feel the hang of their safety net but not the support of it.

And, as Walter Cronkhite used to say, “and that’s they way it is.” And ever was and no doubt ever will be. But that doesn’t absolve us as parents, as leaders, as friends and mentors of our responsibilities to show them how we feel, who we are and what is important to us and to the world we inhabit.

We need to look at that list, get a head’s up, see what we see, who we are, what is important to us and what do we want to do about it. Then let’s all of us take some of those tasks to heart. Do them well. Because if college graduates are not getting jobs, if they are at loose ends, they need us now more than ever.

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When Do You Have Enough?

By Pam | Published: March 3, 2010

What do you really want?

If you don’t have a clear picture to answer the question “What do I really want?” you are not alone. We are bombarded with things to do, buy, play, and know. This is a complex time, this is always a complex time. There is nothing new – if you can take solace in that, or if you can’t. We are rarely not challenged by our lives.

Challenge leads to our meeting it (the challenge) or avoiding it. Our minds play a huge role because if you really tell yourself the truth, most stuff we spend time and money on doesn’t matter that much. Have you let something get by you – a game, a car, an attitude and then not missed it? When it comes to you over and over maybe that’s the time to give it a look. But most of us are pulled in the moment. We respond quickly. Isn’t that what our parents wanted? Quick responders. Isn’t that what we see in the movies? What we need in the Emergency Room – yes, there IS a time and a place for instant action. But most of us overplay our hands at “instant.”

Some questions to ponder; Do you put down your real goals in favor of what someone or something else wants? Is that what your “quickness” is about? Do you have enough time to take care of yourself or do you let that go? Do you have enough money to live the way you want or are you living someone else’s dream? Are you following your parents’ goals for you, living in a house they like, going to places they’ve been or want to go? Do you have enough love? Are you accepting what’s offered? Nothing wrong with that if you are pursuing your own goals. Do you have enough friends? Do you count all the people in your organizations as your friends but don’t have time (take time) to really connect with any one or three of them?

In my experience with my children, I find I want them to have certain experiences and not others. I don’t think I’m too unusual. I don’t want them to have any strife or struggle. No bad grades, unrequited love, bullying, or nasty falls. At the same time I pride myself on how I’ve handled occasions where challenges were met. I’d rather they didn’t express themselves with hair dye or piercings but I value my radical difference from my parents – and most of my peers even now.

This comes back to what we really want. Is there a way to know? Yes, of course there is, and it’s one of the areas in which we are most challenged. It’s focus. I should write “FOCUS.” It’s that big. That important. We do what we are focused on, we become what our focus brings us to. If we can say “birds of a feather flock together,” then you know how important it is to put yourself where you can be your best self. Where you can meet and exceed yourself, where you can start low and end up with loftier ideas and ideals. Are you more aware with whom your children hang out than you are for yourself? Do you challenge them and their attitudes to study, work, play. I doubt you think it’s cool when they hang out with friends who are driving aimlessly, drinking and drugging? Do you say, “sure, take the keys, go do nothing?”

Look in the mirror. What are you doing? What are you aware of? Where are you going?
Take a good look. Get your goals in sight. Write them down , talk about them to the loving supportive people around you. Be the winner you want your kids to hang with. Take the leap. One step at a time. One minute at a time. One turn at a time. Don’t get lost in the whole picture – be a GPS, take the turns to the next frame once you’ve set your ultimate goal.

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Why Am I Here?

By Pam | Published: March 3, 2010

That’s a question we might all find ourselves asking from time to time. Or worse, complaining or thinking we should be somewhere else. You know all those bumper stickers that say “I’d rather be……” Well, it is a question we should ask pretty often. The real question that most of us dare not think about is, “Am I spending these precious hours/minutes/days of my life doing what is good for me to be doing?

Do you ask yourself that question? And what answer do you get? Because if you can’t think of a good reason to be where you are, to be doing what you’re doing, to be with who you’re with – then you are in over your head. Or under your head, as in the case of an ostrich. Where is your head? That should be on your mind 24/7. It’s the only way to sanity. Otherwise you are making up stories, justifying (making up stories), explaining (making up stories), reasoning (making up stories).

Remember the weak link in the chain? How the strongest chain is only as strong as each individual link? I know the saying was the weakest link, but I don’t want to get into judgement calls. I want you to think about how strong is your link right now to what you are doing. How strong is your commitment to what you are doing? The link’s on you. The link’s IN you.

It’s not that you have to love every minute of what you do. Everyone has to do stuff that’s not to their liking – but, the big picture has to fit what you want to do, your goal, your dream, your reality. If you have to anesthetize yourself to get through part of a day, you’re wasting your time and probably that of everyone around you.

What can you do to get in synch with what you are doing right now. Can you tell yourself how you feel without getting nervous about what will happen when you know the answer? Can you stand to make a list of what you want and don’t want, what you like and don’t like. I’m not talking about a wish list or a complaint list. I’m talking about seeing what it is you are doing in a clear enough light to get some answers about your heart’s true mission.

In my study of meditation I’ve learned that menial does not equate with lowly. The person who cleans up, edits, cooks is often more important to the life of business/monastery/country than the person who heads it. More than likely the people you know best will be the ones who make a business function. In my experience, the best run businesses are headed by someone who is not afraid to do a small task. I know a very wealthy business owner who is out in the parking lot every morning picking up cigarette butts people throw out. His business is the whole business.

If you can love the small parts of what you are doing probably you’ll love the larger parts. If you can get with each minute, the hour takes care of itself and your goal will look more reachable to you. I know they say that about pennies and pounds too and I hope you’ll look for the shiniest penny you can find in every minute you spend, whatever it is you are doing. Don’t “Just Do It” but make sure you like the process. It’s where it’s at.

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This is what you fear most

By Pam | Published: March 3, 2010

There is no magic bullet to getting rich. Hard work will not get you there by itself. There are no tricks. People who are rich are just like you, only different.

When you decide to get rich, you have to; 1) change your attitude toward yourself and others, 2) have a vision, 3) keep hold of that vision, 4) define your goal(s), 5) identify your limiting beliefs, 6) listen to your true self – anytime a “should” comes in, you’re on the wrong track.

The reason you aren’t successful is often due to a tennis match between your negative and positive feelings about being rich and successful. This game can manifest as inertia, self-sabotage and procrastination.

Your body can be an antenna for what makes sense for you to pursue. A trained athlete may make a wrong play every now and again but we wouldn’t be watching if their moves were random and dominated by opposing influences.

But this is exactly what we do. We think we want (did I hear a should?) one path and then we hear another, advice, e-mail, the news, we have so many venues for information. Most of the choices you make don’t depend on “bad” and “good” to prove their veracity. The simplest move on your part requires the most faith in yourself. I’ll go back to the athlete analogy; what if Tiger Woods ( you choose a sport) had decided to try snowboarding and baseball, his mother wanted a soccer player, his uncle first draft on a baseball team. Would you have heard of him?

Look at yourself. How many things do you do? How many do you do well? How did you come to be doing most of the things you are doing? Did your family growing up have anything to do with it? Do you hold beliefs you don’t even know about? Do you have judgements you don’t know and can’t define?

Each judgement has started with your belief system. Each belief system starts before our comprehension kicks in so we become adults believing without reason or experience. We are swayed by others’ life experience, as were they.

Time to give it up. Be your own success story, kick the limiting beliefs. Stay tuned!

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A Mind At Peace

By Pam | Published: March 3, 2010

A Mind At Peace

“A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others, is stronger than any physical force in the universe.”

Dr. Wayne Dyer

When we are in the middle of a huge ad campaign, when we are focused on our selling, our writing, our parenting, our business, our buying, our driving, our belonging and communicating verbally or any way we don’t have to commute away from this very strong reminder of what many philosophies call Right Action.

Our being centered on our highest goal(s) is the key to keeping the mind mosquitoes from biting us while we are going about our dailies, accomplishing or trying to accomplish our aims. Are we thinking about how high these aims are? Are we focused always on the “Big Picture?” No, not necessarily – but only if we keep our selves in line with our Selves.

Are we nervous when we’re making a plan for a business deal, an ad campaign? Are we looking over our shoulder, do we jump when the phone rings? Are we grumbly when it rings? These are signs we are not taking care of our biggest efforts to achieve the goals we dream of. I’m not saying we have to have the door open while we work, or that we shouldn’t protect our time – exactly, we should.

When you are pursuing and planning your biggest steps, you should protect your time. You are as valuable as your time, there should be no question about that. But, if your time isn’t aimed at your biggest dreams, your highest goals, you may be wasting it. If your passion is engaged you will attract what you want, if your passion is elsewhere it is a good sign that you have another area that is more interesting to you and better to put your energies there.

In the above quote, “not harming others” may seem like a logical route, but are you focused enough on not harming yourself? This is something most of us overlook on a daily basis. Do you wear seatbelts, protective clothes (rain, cold)? Do you cover your ears when you hear a loud noise? Sunglasses? I’m not going to tackle shoes – when I see a woman’s head bobbing crazily as she walks I don’t have to look at her shoes to know she’s wearing very high heels!

How do you protect yourself from yourself? How do you let yourself know you’ll be there for you, your love is certain, your time secure. Well, start by being a mind at peace, centered on your true vision and you’re on your way.

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True Desires

By Pam | Published: March 3, 2010

“As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Marianne Williamson

I thank Marianne Williamson for all her wisdom and praise her for letting us see it and understand it. And I thank all those who quote it whether they put her name or Nelson Mandela’s name it really doesn’t matter – it’s getting the word out that counts.

Getting people to think about it is another thing. When I first saw the quote in a book, I said, “oh yeah, I’m going to write that down. Do something with it. Spread the word, Twitter it, put it on my car, my facebook page, make a bookmark.” OK I didn’t really think all those things in that moment or do many of them but I also didn’t really think about what it means.

What does it mean to be a “light?” Don’t you have to be one, at least hold one to have something to shine? Have you ever tried to get someone – a dog, a baby, a friend – to hold something they didn’t know much about or didn’t really think existed? Like handing reins to someone who has never ridden a horse or seen riding. The reins are a foreign object held, if at all, in a very uncommitted way. Can they “shine that light?”

I was doing one of Jack Canfield’s exercises a while ago, a “simple” principle of success (ha!) which I’ll give you here: the first one was (drumroll, please, maybe a horn) decide what you want in seven areas of your life. And as if that’s not enough, do five things everyday to support them.

Well, just as an aside, this is like eating the right food for you – if you eat all the things that support your body, you won’t want to eat anything more. What a bore!! So, here are the seven areas: 1. Money 2. Career 3. Relationships 4. Health 5, Fun 6. Personal 7.Contribution to the world.

I noticed that when I wrote them all down and then wrote more about supporting them every day, there just wasn’t much else for me to do! I would have to choose not to do some of the things I really care about in order to do the things other people want me to do. I want to be careful here with the fact of JOBS because we need to do the jobs we are in and we need to do them well, but do we know how we got to them? That doesn’t mean we won’t leave them as soon as possible, it means they can be a teaching for us to know ourselves better. Do we know why we do them everyday? That’s part of the “light” we shine and if we hate it then that’s a good place to start to uncover our values and goals. We all favor different lifestyles, hobbies, food. The first years of our lives we spend discovering our likes and dislikes, our skills, what our bodies can do. And then we stop. We’re supported and supported with adults helping us on our way – and then they start directing us.

You can do that and keep the light going, but most likely your light was not supported and you learned to modulate yourself. You learned what was acceptable and what wasn’t. I grew up rebelling against everything and I did things I really didn’t want to do because I thought it would screw something up for someone who had power over me. How often do you think I was doing the things I really cared about? How often was I “following my Bliss?”

Napoleon Hill says, “What a different story people would have to tell if they would adopt a definite purpose and stand by that purpose until it had time to become an all-consuming purpose.”

I couldn’t agree more. And I can’t emphasize enough that if everyone who had a nascent purpose could be supported or at least left alone (!) the world would have more purpose among its inhabitants.

So it’s not strange that people do not know what they want, to do, to be. Most of us walk around without really knowing who we are. It is part of our instinct, it is not always part of our culture to let us play in the garden of our choice, eating what will support our best mental and physical health.

So, right now, think of something that makes you smile – then, quickly before you can think of anything else, think of another thing that makes you smile. Try to do that as many times in a row as you can. Then do more. And more. Then say “thank you, I love you, thank you.” A hundred or so times. Then keep doing it. You’ll feel great.

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Gratitude Habits

By Pam | Published: March 3, 2010

Appreciation – the most important habit.

There are five easy ways to participate in the appreciation game.

First, be appreciative of the life you have. Whatever it is, right here, right now, you have a life worth living. You are here because of your infinite wisdom and this is the life that’s yours. When we look at our lives with love, the love is returned. When we look with appreciation at ourselves, that is returned. It’s a straight shot from us to us.

Second, appreciate yourself. Start small. Can you smile? Do it. Make a list of the wonderful things you can do. Everyday review what you’ve done. Have you picked up something on the street and put it in the trash? Have you smiled at someone? Have you appreciated your dog, your cat, your child, your spouse, your friend. Do you love everything you call yours? Why not? They are a gift, from you to you.

Third, appreciate what’s outside you, what you see, feel, touch. All the music, books, movies that you can access – all for free if you need to. Do you know that other countries do not necessarily have libraries and lectures, old movies for their citizens for free? What great opportunities we have for personal development and enrichment and entertainment. Every municipality in this country offers great excursions at little or no cost into worlds beyond our immediate borders.

Which leads right to #four which is appreciating other people. People who share their knowledge and skills, their enthusiasm and hope with us. Slide shows, books, lectures, dances, theatre – the list is endless. There are people around us picking up trash, rescuing wildlife, reading to kids in schools, recording books on tape for people who have trouble with the written word. There are millions of great stories among us who are never on the nightly news. People who are great neighbors and friends, lovers who are kind, spouses who aren’t indifferent, friends who are true. Heads up! Check them out. Pay attention to what is right under your nose. Don’t walk by another person without smiling – unless you are in a place of danger – you know where you are and what’s the right action to take.

Fifth, take this opportunity to team yourself up with those around you. Once you start smiling you’ll find people drawn to you, you’ll start seeing how they are like you, how you fit in with them. You have to make an attempt to know them – if you still feel like you’re good and they’re idiots, you’re not listening to “them,” you’re not seeing “them.” If you truly see people for who they are you will see commonality and in a funny turnabout, you will see your own uniqueness. The more we concentrate on our feelings, motivations, the truth in us, the more we feel connected to those around us.

So, take a leap of faith. Be kind. Be generous. Start here, now, with the most important person you know – YOU!

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Are you Tweeting me or Am I tweeting you?

By Pam | Published: March 3, 2010

Seth Godin writes, “The presenter who loves his [sic] audience the most, wins.”

In the business of internet networking, in the daily communication of all of us with all of us, there is some confusion as to who is the presenter and who is the audience. When I tweet, am I tweeting you or me? If a tree falls in a forest with no one there is there a sound? Are we listening to each other? Do we have anything to say? Where is our focus? Is the goal of the market simply to perpetuate itself?

In the confusion of who is presenter and who is audience lies for each of us an opportunity. For business, for personal growth, probably for both. You really can’t have one without the other. Mindset is key, focus is key and the value we place on ourselves is the outstanding balance in the middle. I could say that the person who loves his or her audience is loved and respected in turn. If I love myself chances are that I will love you because there won’t be much of a commute between us. That’s where we get the value of all the communication strategies that are open to us. We can exchange and change in bits and bytes, in leaps and bounds.

Once upon a time it seemed to matter whether a tree fell and could be heard. With our communication portals it is almost certain someone somewhere will hear. What matters to us as entrepreneurs is that they care enough to keep going, to click, perchance to buy.

We are powerful when we take the communication possibilities offered and focus ourselves, our hearts, our truths to such a degree that we are presenters who love ourselves, our audience, our product and its persuasions to inspire the click. For us to be successful we have to inspire and delight. We need to create lightness in ourselves and each other. Is that why it seems so important to talk about every plane trip, every line we wait in every movie we see, song we hear. It’s shared experience, the trip of Life. We get to be with each other on every journey we choose to share. How cool is that? Lucky us. Let’s make it work, let’s give ourselves value. Believe in yourself, share your opportunities, make work together and play. And, don’t forget, breathe, always breathe.

And click on http://www.pamwhiteccpro.com/

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Is it enough to have a great product?

By Pam | Published: March 3, 2010

Obviously not. Read the papers – actually, don’t read the papers – but even glancing at them, you will find that jobs are being lost rapidly, debt is skyrocketing and total revenue is declining. Oh, and if that isn’t enough, it hasn’t bottomed out yet.

Ok. Well, we’re sure set with that, aren’t we. I think I’ve heard every word that can be used to describe a “very bad situation” used over and over.

But, there is a counter trend. It’s real. It’s about mindset. It’s about entrepreneurship. It’s about attitude and breathing. Breathing – that’s a key word. No, not in Google. I doubt I’m going to get a lot of readers who have just Googled “breathe.” It would be better for us all if readers did that. If we all cared about our breath. How it comes to us, how it goes, what happens in between.

I’m not kidding. Money is like air. Just breathe. Relax, take a breath. Look around you, let what’s good come into your mind. Train your mind to respond to the positive. Train your body to feel the simple and good things that make up your life, your day, your dreams.

Yes, I mentioned dreams. You have to have a dream – a desire, a focus – for the dream to come true. Otherwise what are you focused on? What others are saying, doing, writing. Not good. Keep your dreams alive, act them out, live them. That’s your mindset you’re training. It’s the most important thing you have. Water it, weed it, nurture it, fertilize it. You’ll feel better. You’ll have to. You won’t have a choice. You’ll have to be happier.

And then, you have a better product. You’ll be the product. That’s the goal. When you are the product – and, don’t get me wrong, you are always the product – what you want will come to you when you click on

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