I’m absolutely beside myself with excitement to go to a business retreat this Spring. Not only am I going, I’m presenting a workshop: Marketing Mapping Magic.

This retreat is ALL you need to get your life and business in order and it’s designed completely to be ACTION focused. Real growth comes from taking the steps you need to move ahead. This retreat skips the theory, ideology and sales pitchy stuff and gets down to business.

What I love about the cast of speakers Shelley Streit has pulled together is their real life experience that they bring together in sharing their expertise. And this real life experience as women running their own businesses means they know what works and what doesn’t in a practical, pragmatic sense.

From getting your business mindset in shipshape, so you ditch the “I can’ts” and invite the mojo you know you need , to creating a well-rounded business blueprint with brand, social media and marketing mapping sessions, you’ll leave the weekend knowing exactly what you need to do and how to do it to reach your goals!

Real Growth Session: Marketing Mapping Magic

Every good business owner needs a marketing plan, right? But a great business owner has a plan of action! In this fun class your plan of action becomes focused, clear and pretty as a picture as you doodle and diagram your own marketing “map.”

In this workshop you will discover that marketing is FUN & EASY:

• evaluate all your marketing ideas, existing plans and current activities – getting it all out of your head and onto paper – and then choose the ideas that work and those that won’t
• examine 7 resources every small business owner has (whether they know it or not) and use these to evaluate your most “doable” business ideas
• ensure you have set goals you really WANT and CAN achieve
• create a marketing ACTION map – a one-page diagrammed plan that will become your “go to” guide for business decision-making.

Bring your plans, your big idea files, your doodles, your sticky notes and anything else where you’ve jotted your dreams and “to do” items. I’ll provide blank maps, fresh sticky notes, coloured markers and the guidance to craft your big ideas and long list of tasks into a step by step strategy that makes achieving your business dreams feel easy and fun.

I invite you to see the whole speaker line up here. It’s STELLAR! http://realgrowthretreat.com/speakers/

Special Offer for MPowered Friends & Fans

Because I just know that you are going to want the adrenaline rush of the retreat weekend to keep on going, I’m offering attendees something really special.

Marketing Magic Momentum: 50% discount exclusive to Real Growth Retreat attendees:

• 4 weekly one-hour tele classes AFTER the retreat, starting April to continue lessons learned in the Marketing Magic workshop at the Real Growth Retreat
• private group forum to get expert and peer feedback on your personal marketing challenges, share your marketing successes and ask for support or promotion of your programs
• e-mail coaching weekly for 4-weeks to support your ongoing marketing mapping and marketing action steps

Offer Details: 50% discount is ONLY open to those who pre-register by March 10th and are registered attendees of the Real Growth Retreat.

Click light green words “promotional code” and enter RGR2012 to receive discount here:

EARLY BIRD SPECIAL: 2 Free Marketing Magic Momentum program seats available!

Receive the 4-week package above for FREE! 2 lucky Real Growth Retreat attendees will win a free seat in the program, selected by random draw, when you share on social media by midnight, January 31st:

• Tweet about the Marketing Mapping Magic session of Real Growth Reatreat using hashtags #MMM #RGR2012, explaining why marketing mapping magic is what you need! (tweet as many times as you like, you’ll be entered each time)
• Post to Facebook about the Marketing Mapping Magic Session of Real Growth Retreat by tagging @MPoweredMarketing and @RealGrowthRetreatforWomen in your post. (post as many times as you like)

Rules: If you purchase the session in advance, you will be reimbursed the full price if you win!

When I commit to something for MY business, I am in it 100%. But the timeline to completion is stre-e-e-e-e-tched beyond what even I could estimate at times. And I am constantly having to accept that’s the way it’s going to stay until my third baby is in school full-time.

The 30 day Healthy You, Healthy Business challenge I launched for International Alliance of Motivated Part-Time Entrepreneurs is a perfect example of this.

I’ve recently proclaimed “I didn’t ever say the 30 day challenge would happen IN 30 days.”

However, it was my full intention to do it in 30-days. It really was. But at day 10, I paused. At day 18, I really paused. As the pre-Christmas season wound up, the flu season arrived and the gymnastics season landed one of my daughters in physio for a week (during my Starbucks office hours), my priorities shifted.

And such is the TRUE life of part-time entrepreneurship.

In the HYHB Challenge Day 19 I outline how to prioritize and honour commitments as a part-time entrepreneur. I claim family comes first, you come second, business in various forms comes 3 through 6. And that’s what happened.

Best laid plans are ALWAYS interrupted by real life that needs you more.

But the point of IAMPTE is the M. The M means motivated. And for me, motivated is back to being in it 100%! I’ll get to day 30 of this 30 day challenge, because I am committed to seeing my projects through.

No matter how long it takes. I don’t quit. I just get interrupted and have to find my mojo again.

How about you?

I just launched a 30-day challenge for a healthier you, healthier business over at International Alliance of Motivated Part-Time Entrepreneurs. But who is kidding who, I’m doing it for me as much as for others.

I need a kick-start, reset, refresh, rewind, review. Well, you get the idea.

So, I’m joining my own challenge and going to push myself to really try to make some changes. Not obvious changes – I’m pretty darn great and I love myself. I’m not damaged or abused or lost or hurt (much). I’m normal.

But normal is no excuse for accepting how I’ve been feeling lately. Which is stuck.

So I have to stop just facing the truth, but acting on a few things. I’d love you to join the journey with me! You can request to join the private Facebook group, you can comment here or over at IAMPTE (like the page first please!).

The day 1 challenge of Healthy You, Healthy Business 30-Day Challenge is posted here.

My response to the challenge (deep breath)…

• My business health is solid, growing, inspiring and good for now because I stick to my values – put my kids first, do good work, tell the truth, share the best information, connect the best people, grow slow and steady with purpose until my baby is in grade school, practice patience hourly with myself – reminding I chose to grow slow and steady so I can be mom first for now. My business is also stuck in ways I can manage. I need to meet new people – a full-time mom’s challenge. I need to trust others even though I’ve been hurt. But my business is good. I still love it and I’m inspired daily. I feel lucky.
• My emotional health is fluctuating but mostly in control because I am honest with myself that I have serious PMDD and migraines, I have engaged my doctor – literally in a process of getting tests done, I am practicing engaging my friends, I am starting medication to help (hopefully temporarily), I started this challenge, I can accept that my reasons I can’t fulfill all my goals ARE REASONS not excuses, and that it can be helped. And that I’m still awesome and normal.
  
• My physical health is ignored because I put my family, my clients and my work before myself. Always. This is an excuse, not a reason. I know how to do better, I don’t know why I don’t. This is my journey.

There. Now you know my whole truth! And it only took me 5 minutes to spill it.

Except why this is titled… “And I Wore Pink”

Here’s the scoop. I recently participated in a photoshoot for my feature pages in Crave Calgary: An Urban Gal’s Manifesto and I tormented myself trying to find “my colours” – turquoises, greens on advice that they make  my eyes sparkle. (Golly, thanks!) I found those colours. But in a flying fifteen minute shopping spree I also bought a pink shirt – a shade of pink never before seen on this body. Not a big deal, really. Until I shared the photos. And the comments came back of “I love the pink. I love the pink. I love the pink.”

Pink is NOT my colour. But that doesn’t matter. The point of the pink shirt is you don’t always know how others will react to something new and different you put out there. I’m very stuck in my opinions sometimes. This is a month where I’m listening more than I’m doing. Observing more than I’m creating. I want more pink shirts. I want others to see more of me than they think they know.

Kathleen Sullivan (who taught me WordPress) just shared this on the Facebook group, and is perfectly timed for this article:

“The longer you stay in one place, the greater your chances of disillusionment.” ~ Art Spander

Join the Healthy You, Healthy Business 30-Day Challenge with me. Share your blog posts if you are “putting it out there” like me over at IAMPTE so others can be inspired by you. Request to join the private Facebook chat with our experts or other challengers. Or keep it private in a journal. But whatever you do, start now.