Happy Valentine's Day (from Vitamin K)

February 14, 2012 Mmmmm, Good morning, my friend...  Happy Valentine's Day!  Can you hear the birds singing... even in the snow-laden areas? And can't you feel that special energy in the air, even if you're tired? Can you feel the joy of a special person and how glad they are to have you, or at least know you?   Last year I said that with all the mess and confusion happening around the world, it's beautiful that there is still a day set aside each year, for love. Yet, with all the hub bub about "lovers" and diamond rings" and engagements and such... it creates an atmosphere where people who aren't in relationships might feel like they're not whole... like maybe there's something wrong with them -- or, rather, "us." I don't have the problem, but I usually know a few who do. But if we can remember, again, back to when we were kids in school... and we'd get that package of cards and those sweet little candies and we gave one to everybody in our class!  No shortage of love that day -- little cards, little heart shaped candies...and some occasional hugs?  Everybody got some love.  So, even if you're not in a relationship, here I am with my "everybody gets a little love today" card!  There are many special people in my life who give me joy, and each of them has a little piece of my heart (though some have a little bigger chunk than others.)  Hopefully you're life is the same way!  And not be out done, here's  a little chocolate:  no calories and NO migraines, but if you look at it long enough... You'll start to smell it.Mmmm. Yes?  My work here is done. So wishing you lots of people who give you joy, and get joy from you, and may you feel an abundance of love today, starting with your own self appreciation of the wonderful person you are.  And remember, THIS year...  I gave you chocolate. Have a ssssweet day. Kelvin

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A Cool Business Decision (IMHO)

Sometimes when you're out there "doing what you do" you never know what great things are waiting in the wings to support your journey.  And when you MAKE A DECISION to make something happen, it sparks some action in the universe and sometimes the MAP to the treasure chest just appears at your feet.

If you've been following me for a while then you know I've been fine-tuning my business model and I determined that 2012 is my year. I'm unifying all the facets of my business activities under one brand -- Intensely Positive -- because it identifies my mind set and my life choice, really, and many awesome things have presented themselves to help me on my adventure.

One such awesome event was being chosen by Jacqueline Edwards of Business Pipeline for a promotional interview to be posted on her website and exposed to her contacts and colleagues, that could help increase my visibility. She'd been looking at my activities via Twitter and thought her services would be of value so she approached me. Initially, I thought she was just being nice to me because I was a nice guy, so when she mentioned that there was a fee... I balked -- had an attack of that small business / small mind thing.

These days, whenever something comes into my life I query it to see how it fits, and why the opportunity came to me, and the words of my good friend and advisor Sophie L'hoste rang in my ears.  Two years ago Sophie said to me, "Kelvin, I notice that whenever an opportunity comes to you, you like to bargain for it. You want to have money but you never want to spend money; you like the free stuff.  If you look around your life -- your business life -- you'll see that you are attracting people who feel the same way you do.  They don't want to pay for your services; they want to bargain and get it for free."  Those words have been with me every day since she said them... and they've changed the way I look at things.  In the words of Wayne Dyer, "When you change the way you look at things; the things you look at change."

So I said yes to Jacqueline, sent her the (very reasonable) fee she requested and we scheduled the interview! Note that the interview was for a 5 minute spot on her new website.  I asked Jacqueline for the interview questions ahead of time, and she gently declined with, "I want  your listeners to have authentic answers, not something you rehearsed to perfection."  (Hmmm. Integrity; how about that.) I didn't like it, but I agreed.  I am a Toastmaster, after all (hee hee), so impromptu questions aren't a problem for me.  So the morning of the interview, she called -- precisely on time.  We had some initial hello chat (we'd been twitter followers for two years but had never taken it off 140), conducted the interview, then had some more chat, then off she went.  In two weeks (busy season for her) she posted the interview on Twitter.

I was initially shocked. She under-promised and over-delivered.  I expected a 5 minute interview posted on her site, but the teaser YouTube video really got me excited.  Then she spent time promoting that video and interview to her lists. Just looking at the work she put in to putting that presentation together, my first thought was, "Wow... this is worth way more than she charged me."  Major Win!  And there were other nice surprises I didn't expect.

So am I glad I did it?  Absolutely!  Was it worth it? Absolutely, because not only is it on her web site and promoted to her clients and contacts, but I have the option of putting them on my website as I wish.  Small business owners -- really small business owners -- don't usually have access to quality presentations.  We tend to do a lot ourselves FOR ourselves, and most of us aren't really talented enough to create the presentations we really need to represent us.  I believe that Jacqueline and Business Pipeline can give us that little extra "umph", that little push of exposure, that little boost to our public image, whether she's sending new traffic our way or whether the traffic we already get starts looking at us in a new way.  What's one new client worth in your business?

So check them out at their website, follow her on Twitter (@helpbusinesses), check out my video and interview (the interview link is right under the video), and decide for yourself.

To your success!  Have an awesome day.

Kelvin