Wine Survey

Local food and wine businesses are two serious economic drivers of northern Michigan. We may make light of our "Foodie Wednesday" visits with wineries, food producers and restaurateurs, but make no mistake, we appreciate their impact.

Mary in the Morning started listener events at wineries back in 2006 then switched to the Chef du Jour Tour in '08. The thought, guarantee a full house plus a bunch of promotion, was to help restaurants on Monday nights when business can be pretty scary for a restaurant owner. The Chef events sell out every time and now, we are looking at the wineries again.

Do you support the local wineries? Do you visit the tasting rooms? Do you buy the local wines at your grocery store? Do you consider a winery visit entertainment or are you a serious wine connoisuer looking for an opportunity to fine tune your palate before buying many bottles? Are there just too many wineries in our region? We want to know.

The TC Wine & Art Festival was such a huge success, we are wondering if the area has an insatiable palate for wine entertainment and access to local vino. Please take our survey!

I've got a thing...

At the Marigold Forum last week we asked women to share a gem of wisdom that has changed their life. Many shared tips that they wished they had learned earlier.

Many of the comments surrounded saying no, taking control of her time, not over thinking and especially not over-explaining yourself.

June Palumbo, Ford Insurance took the prize for "The One Great Thing".

Her advice: When you need to end a phone conversation, end a meeting, leave the office, exit from a committee meeting (regardless of why) simply say "I need to go, I have a THING". Isn't that beautiful! I have a thing, no details, no making excuses for yourself, no anticipated judgment of your reason, just "I have to go now, I have a thing".

It could be a conference call with your number one client or a towel on the beach calling your name. Doesn't matter.

Thank you June!!!!!!!

You don't need to be hit by a car to learn this lesson!

This week's Forum Luncheon is all about giving and shortcuts. I'm asking you to think of a bit o' wisdom that you've picked up along the winding path of your career or business development that you wish you had acquired much earlier. I'm asking you to recall how you came upon this piece of gold and to have you think about how to tell that story and what the gem has meant to you.

Then, I want you to wrap this story and the wisdom it brought you in a beautiful (but pretend) box and bring it with you to the Marigold Forum to pass along to another woman. It won't cost you a dime, but could save a sister thousands in dollars or time.

What is the One Great Thing that changed your effectiveness, productivity, peace of mind, profitability, work/life balance, financial security, ability to build a team, made you an awesome leader or allowed you to give yourself permission to do something completely outside of your comfort zone?

Our featured sponsor, Bonnie Alfonso, President of Alfie shares her story of convalescing for 6 months after being hit by a car. She learned to let her team members get things done in their own way, not her way. It was tough for her to let go, but she learned to care more about the work getting done than on how it got done.

I hope that you can accept these gifts of wisdom as just that: The gift of a shortcut in life's lessons. We don't each need to be hit by a car to learn Bonnie's lesson.


Please join us Thursday, August 20 at the Traverse City Golf and Country Club, promptly at 11AM. Register here.

SARK and the E-Myth

Don't you just love when you are talking to a new friend and the two of you discover a shared passion? Bonus! Well, that is what happened when I was chatting with my new friend SARK (or Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy). She has inspired millions of women through her art, books, PlanetSARK.com, workshops, etc... on how to transform their lives. After her first interview (a fluke!) on Mary in the Morning, we invited her to become a regular on the show, which I'm sure we will all enjoy.

In prepping for her first "regular" appearance which will air this Friday, we were talking about the joy and freedom versus the total consumption and loss of a personal life as relates to running your own business. Well, I mentioned our Marigold Book Club selection, The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber and she went completely nuts! She not only loves the book, she has conducted classes and workshops on it and thrusts copies of the book into the hands of anyone in the midst of an Entrepreneurial Siezure.

On Friday, SARK shares her personal E-Myth testimony to how she was working 24/7, losing her mind, didn't understand the cost of goods sold or ROI and was about to jump in a lake when this book came into her life and changed her way of operating. She assembled a great team of people, got smart about how a business is run and the rest is history. She is an artist, author, and a celebrated business person running an empire based on her personal brand. This is a sister who survived the infancy and adolesence of her business and is riding high thanks to the E-Myth and its principles.

Check out SARK's website PlanetSARK.com and you will see the many revenue streams that she has working on her behalf while she is chatting on the phone with Mary in the Morning. An inspiration to be sure!

Click here for more information on Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited!

Do the work, do the work, do the work?

If you were to ask me if I've read the U.S. Constitution, I'd say, "Well, not word for word, but sure I know what its about". Well, same thing holds for The E Myth. I have heard so much about the concept of this book that I assumed I "knew the book".

Well, I think I'd better go back and read the Constitution because when I finally did read every page of The E Myth Revisted, cover to cover I could only think that I wish I'd read it 4 years ago when I founded Marigold. I did not "know the book".

Who should read this book?
She who currently owns a business or is self-employed.
She who feels vulnerable to an oncoming Entrepreneurial Seizure (that moment when you decide to work for yourself or start a small business).

I will be blogging on the blessings of this book for the next several weeks, focusing on one concept at a time. Lets get started!


From the E Myth-
"It is critical that you understand the point I'm about to make. For if you do, neither your business nor your life will ever be the same. The point is: your business is not your life. Your business and your life are two totally separate things... An organism, you might say, that will live or die according to how well it performs its sole function: to find and keep customers". Michael Gerber, The E Myth

A sustainable business has the ability to function without you because you have designed and implemented systems and procedures that do not include YOU! Of course your business will include a lot of YOU at the beginning, but there should be a clear and definable time period after which YOU are not needed. You will be the owner of the business, not the business.

If you have a non-transferable skill or talent that you sell to others, you do not have a business, you work for yourself. Big difference. If you stop doing that work, the customers go away and so does their money. You will have lost your job. If you have taught your team how to do the work of the business and you have put systems and job descriptions in place with the right employees, your business survives and the revenues continue to flow regardless of your health. The business can be sold, transferred, etc... There is nothing wrong with working for yourself. Just don't fool yourself into thinking you have created something other that a different way to earn a paycheck. There is no equity from the relationships you have established with clients or customers. You have to keep doing the work, doing the work, doing the work.

Are you your business? Do you want the added responsibility of early stage business ownership? Can you see the business being attractive to a potential buyer? Do you want to learn a new way to approach your work?

The E Myth Revisited spells out how to achieve separateness from your business. It is not too late or too early. Lets get started.

Update your game plan!

So we are a little more than half way through 2009. Where did THOSE six months go?

For many of us January 1 looked pretty scary and few were setting high goals for business or career growth. But most of us at least had a game plan with the goal of keeping our heads above water. How is the game plan working for you? July is the time to revisit the plan and the goals. If you never created any (shame on you, but I'm not your mother) then this is a good time to plan the remainder of the year.

As you review your goals and your plan, ask yourself:

• Have I been successful in taking steps forward?
• Am I holding back my vision out of fear or common sense?
• Have I learned new disciplines that will help me in the future?
• Have I discovered my true business allies and loyal customers?
• Have I found that my new frugality should be the new "normal"?
• Did I underestimate my ability to take on the challenge?

Maybe you can be a bit more optimistic in planning 2009 Part 2. At the very least, you can pat youself on the back for what you've survived and learned from the experience.

The economy may feel like a ball and chain as you try to get ahead, so consider it weight training. Once your leg is free, you will have become accustomed to the hard work, persistence and dogged determination to move forward. You will soar!

Lesson Learned on the 3rd of July

With the nation's birthday falling on a Saturday this year, many of us were given Friday as a paid holiday. This was an inspiration to me. The 3-day weekend is a most glorious gift during a northern Michigan summer. Was it the glorious weather? Was it that the kids still had camp, making it a grown-up holiday? Whatever the source of the magic, I'm sold!

Instead of taking two week long vacations, I'm rearranging my schedule to take several summer Fridays off. I live here for the summers, so why not maximize the time spent enjoying it. Think about it!

Here are some options to 3 day weekends:

• If you are the boss, well, just do it!
• If you HAVE a boss, ask if you can squeeze an extra 8 hours into the first four days of the week. Just for 6 weeks of summer.
• Request a special project that you do off the clock in exchange for Fridays off.
• Offer to work 5 or 6 Saturdays or Sundays in the fall/winter.
  
• Take a week of vacation and make it 5 Fridays between now and Labor Day.
• Start complaining of mysterious symptoms of ill health around 3pm on Thursday afternoons. I think you get the idea. With any luck your co-workers will not recognize a pattern. Maybe space it out every 2 weeks.
• With fewer of us getting raises in this economy, negotiate summer Fridays off as compensation for your work.

Enjoy!