My friends Alan Hickman and Jan Stringer turned me on to this video today and I thought you might enjoy and benefit from it.

Like Vishen Lakhiani suggests in this video, I find that certain ritual practices in my life help keep me on a more even keel. The trick, when I find myself in a place of feeling crummy, is to remember to engage the practices!

Enjoy the video.

http://www.martyink.com/2010/08/daily-ritual-life-balance/

Recently, in a small town in New York state, I noticed a store called, Canaseraga Hardware and Coffee Company. I laughed a bit, thinking what an odd combination to offer together, but such seems to be the way of business life in Smalltown USA.

In our travels about the country we find ourselves in lots of small towns and see lots of odd combinations of businesses all working together under the same roof. The oddest, I believe, was the one somewhere in rural Missouri that combined “Beauty Supplies and Bait.”

Being no stranger to having a lack of focus myself, at first blush it would appear that these people either can’t make up their minds or they have too many business interests. (Sounds like me.) I suspect the truth is that those odd combos are borne out of necessity.

For way too many years – yes, years – than I care to admit, I’ve suffered – and I do mean suffered – with a lack of focus. Seems like I’ve had a knack – for as long as I can remember – for being able to help other people gain clarity and focus around their business interests but not so good at helping myself in that area.

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Did you know that every day is a holiday? Every day, somewhere, someone is celebrating something. And you can be celebrating in your business, too. Use this calendar as an idea starter for all kinds of marketing promotions that you can incorporate into your own business.

So, if you’re looking for an excuse to market your business next month, look no further than these monthly designations and events for the month of August 2010. What creative ways can you build a promotion around one of these events for your business?

We’ve provided listings for the United States, Canada, and for the International Community.

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I’m one of those folks that has resisted participating in the Social Media arena for some time now, but decided to get some training so I could learn exactly what to do and not make so many mistakes and faux pas that so many newbies seem to make. I’m really glad I did that. It has been money well-spent.

Of course, just about the time we got started in the course, we moved to this remote location with little to no internet and email access. So it has made it a bit hard to get very many updates and tweets out there.

Here’s something I learned that you may not know about but if you’re serious about social media you’ll want to know. Many Twitter powerusers use TweetDeck (or some other tool) to manage their tweets and to see what everyone else is tweeting about, and that’s great, but at least once a week or so, you should go to your Twitter account page and send some updates and messages from there. Seems that if Twitter detects that your account is going unused after a period of time, they can shut you down or make your account inactive and give your account name to someone else.

Success is a loaded word for many people. For some it puts a smile on their face, for others who don’t feel so successful, it doesn’t always sound so good.

If you haven’t reached the level of success you want yet, perhaps you’re looking at success from someone else’s point of view.

Success means different things to different people and you have your own definition of success and THAT is what you should be striving for. (Not the first time you’ve heard that either, is it?)

And if you’re beating yourself up because you haven’t “made it” there yet, please be a little more gentle with yourself. I’m the champion when it comes to beating myself up for all the many things I haven’t accomplished yet. Funny how I can never seem to remember all the many things that I HAVE accomplished. Sheesh!

So, how about you? Are you being gentle with yourself? Are you happy with where you are at this stage of your life? Still wanting to grow? Been there, done that, now ready to move on? Share! Share! (Please comment below.)

Be sure to get the latest issue of Marketing Ink (the downloadable pdf version) for a few different perspectives on things relating to success.

If you’re looking for an excuse to market your business next month, look no further than these monthly designations and events for the month of JULY 2010. What creative ways can you build a promotion around one of these events for your business?

We’ve provided listings for the United States, Canada, and for the International Community.

JULY HIGHLIGHTS

The month of July is Women’s Motorcycle, National Hot Dog Month, and Family Reunion Month plus more. How can you celebrate and promote your business with these events?

Family Golf Month. Sponsored by Play Golf America, which believes that “playing golf, even in your own hometown, may be the perfect family vacation.” Take your family golfing, and enjoy a day outside.

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A question from a reader this week prompts today’s tip.

Beth’s son is designing her logo and she was wondering, primarily, if he should create her logo in a software program (like Illustrator or PhotoShop) or simply draw it and scan it in.

I advised her that, because she’s going to be using her logo in a variety of places anyway — almost all of them online or in some other electronic media — that it would be best just to design it from the get-go in some kind of software drawing or photo program.

And that question reminded me that when it comes to designing a logo for your business you really need to also think about all the various ways — and places — you intend to use it.

You’ll want to make sure that it will work successfully — that means that it will be readable and identifiable — no matter where you put it.

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If you’re looking for an excuse to market your business next month, look no further than these monthly designations and events for the month of JUNE 2010. What creative ways can you build a promotion around one of these events for your business?

We’ve provided listings for the United States, Canada, and for the International Community.

The month of June is Great Outdoors Month, National Safety Month, and Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month. How can you celebrate and promote your business with these two events?

National Safety Month. Each June, the National Safety Council encourages businesses to get involved and participate in National Safety Month. Each week has a separate theme; themes this year include prescription drug overdose prevention, teen driving safety, and preventing overexertion at home and at work.

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At a restaurant recently, I was in the men’s room and noticed a poster hanging on the wall in there.

It was a reproduction of an old ad showing a bunch of guys practicing their golf putts dressed only in a white shirt, a tie, shoes and socks — and their underwear.

The headline read “Play golf free while having your suit pressed.”

This ad is obviously from an era when most folks wore suits to work and this intrepid dry cleaning company had created this little golf course out back of their store for their clientele to enjoy while waiting to get their suit back after being neatly pressed.

It’s what we call a “value-added proposition.” A VAP for short.

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Are you putting your best face forward? Here at Marty Ink, you have the rare advantage of having your marketing materials brought to life in creative and beautiful ways by an experienced marketing expert. Too often, graphic designers know how to make things look pretty but have no experience when it comes to developing effective marketing strategies and selecting just the right words to get your message out in to your marketplace.

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Let me show you how we can help you attract – and keep – more clients than you can handle…

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