The next time you think you’re flat broke and can’t acquire something you want or need think again. Physical money isn’t the only game in town when it comes to obtaining goods and services. According to Simone Kelly-Brown, CEO of Own Your Power Communications, bartering is currently experiencing a re-birth.
While Kelly-Brown has been bartering since the mid 90s, she first began to draw others into the world of bartering in 2002 when she was attempting to find a less painful way to network. For five years Kelly-Brown had juggled both full-time employment and her business which was then called Gots to Have it Marketing.
When she left corporate America and decided to focus mainly on her business, she knew she needed to get out and meet new people. Yet despite her outgoing personality, like many professionals, Kelly-Brown dreaded the usual networking scenes.
So she came up with a fresh idea. She would gather women together in a social setting and have them fill out cards. On one side of the card they’d write their name, occupations and what they have to “give” in terms of professional goods and services. On the other side of the card they’d list what they were looking for or what they wanted to “take.”
READ REST OF STORY HERE…
Ecco is as intriguing and unique as her name. As a long time member of the Give ‘n Take Network we are excited to give Ecco to time to shine! Since 2002, she’s been the founder of of Bu-T-Full, LLC, and clothing line called E.Savoy. She focuses on beautiful apparel for the Full Figured Diva, in quality and style.
Inspired by the belief that she could give the well-endowed women what they most desired in clothing, Ecco began to design E. Savoy apparel, a complete and realistic brand of beautiful clothes designed specifically around the bust, and attentive to the rest of the body.
Ecco also spent much of her career in front of the camera. As a former model with the Kemcy Model Agency in New York City, she modeled across the country in cities like Chicago and Dallas, and made an international mark through her trips to fashion capitals like Paris, France. Through this experience she clearly saw the target market for which she knew could really use her expertise and discovered her distinctive, niche market. Now find out why she LOVES what she does!
What does your business do? Our clothes are designed for easy wash and wear also to mix & match. We focus on comfort and style first!
What year did you kiss Corporate America goodbye and why do you hope to never go back? I left corporate America in 2006 and I hope to never go back, because working for myself is so much more rewarding!
How do you stay motivated? I’m motivated from others such as Simone Kelly-Brown, and countless others who show you it can be done, if you really want to do it we must be around like minded people, PERIOD….
Biggest pet peeve in business? Canceling at the last minute! Unless you have a really good excuse for this one, I won’t bother again.
What’s a bold move you took that turned your business around? I’ve just finished my 1st Book “Go Get It!, and I’m working very hard to get the 2nd one done by August-2009. I’m being asked to speak in places, and never thought about ever even writing a book in the 1st place.
One thing that you would change if you could? I would change Welfare. You’d have ONE year to figure it out, sorry no 25 year role call!!!! We’re seeing three or four generations of it, it’s really shocking.
What’s your favorite area on www.ownyourpower.ning.com? Favorite area is everything! I like seeing how people are using whatever then can to make it happen for themselves.
What’s a unique talent that you have that might surprise us?
Talent= Roller Skating, I am extremely good at it, I do it on Tues & Thursday night at BranchBrook Roller Rink in Newark, NJ—but 1st Thurs. every month is the bomb, when people come from all over the tri-state area and fill the Rink with about 800 people!
You know the expression, you can’t take it with you…well, if you could, what would ‘it’ be? My hearing to know what people really thought about what kind of person I was before I left here.
It’s sadly time for your last meal on earth…what would it be?
Shrimp + Steak+ Salad + a glass of Merlot…
Have you used Social Networking to gain new contacts/business? If so, what have been any results? Social Networking is always a good way to introduce yourself, get to learn, meet people, understand business to the fullest! Results have been amazing contacts!
If you could do it all over again, what is the biggest mistake you’d avoid next time around? Not being more focused on what life could be in the future and how to obtain it with greater wisdom at an earlier age.
Most exciting moment that you got your time to shine? Exciting moment when I was the featured designer on Spotlight on NJ and had 18 minutes to show the world what I do with Anchor Della Cruz!
What was your last barter and what was if for? I’ve bartered for one of my outfits in my line to have a make-up artist offer her services for my last fashion show.
What’s in your cd player/Ipod right now? House Music
If you’re an Own Your Power Member add Ecco as a friend. You’ll also have access to 10% off of any of her clothing!
Website : www.myspace.com/esavoyfashions
Would you like to be featured here? Let me know! Email: simone@ownyourpower.biz
Stunned. Saddened. Speechless. Michael Jackson dies suddenly at just fifty years-old. No one saw it coming. A legend is gone. To celebrate his life, his legacy, we’ve put together a medley of MJs best…
By MaBu
Mobile phone communication gap? I know, sounds like an oxymoron, with our mini-computers, phones, video and conference meetings in the palm of our hands, one would think our communication would be at it’s most highest peak. You would think that our society would be ultimate communicators, right? However, I beg to differ. What made me really scratch my head was a simple observation at a poetry event that I attended recently.
The crowd was slowly forming waiting for the event to begin. The music was playing, and groups of so-called friends and couples sat together at the round tables sipping on their after-hour beverages. The setting was perfect to catch up on some ‘what’s happening in your life news’, the latest gossip, venting about your jerky boyfriend, or flirting with your date. Well, instead of talking to one another, I saw thumbs typing furiously away to their other friend, much more POPULAR FRIEND, you got it…their MOBILE PHONE.
I had no idea that it’s gotten this bad people. Yes, I’ll admit we’ve advanced with technology. There has been a serious shift in what we call normal related to cell phone activity. When we see someone shouting and gesticulating wildling walking down the street by themselves, we no longer assume they just escaped from a mental institution! We know, oh, he’s just an obnoxious jerk on his Blue tooth, arguing with someone. Normal everyday stuff, right?
However, I didn’t realize that we’ve gone this far. That it’s actually normal, not poor taste or bad manners anymore to be on a cell phone while in company of others. Oh no, not for a quick call to check in with the baby sitter or make sure your friends are on their way, but to surf, Tweet, Face Book, and God knows what else NON-STOP.
I chuckled as I observed the room of the poetry lounge and I mentioned it to my friends at my table who WERE actually talking to each other. We observed the room in awe. Almost every table was illuminated with flickering blue lights, people slouching in their chairs immersed in the LCD of their cells.
Of course, me being the nosey people-watcher that I am, had to ask. I thought, this will be an interesting blog post, so why not? I started making my rounds, since the show didn’t start yet. I told people they’d be featured in a blog, and all of them were more than willing to share. 
I first asked the popular Miami Poet, Lex, why he was on his phone texting and why does he think most people were doing it right now.
He said, “We’re trying to look busy, occupied. I’m usually just playing Bricks on my phone. Something to do.” Lo and behold he showed me his phone and he wasn’t lying! LOL Then, there were three girlfriends who came and barely spoke to each other. They sat in the corner, laughed for a few minutes and then dug in their purses to connect with their other friends on Facebook and Twitter. I asked them what they were doing that had them so involved with their phone when they had real live friends sitting next to them.
One giggled a bit embarrassed, “Oh, I was looking at Fandango trying to find some movies to go to with some other friends!”
Another said she was checking Facebook and Myspace.com.
Oh it was hilarious, they couldn’t see how strange it was? When I say not talking to each other, I am saying NO COMMUNICATION. They were just sitting together, not speaking. I just found it fascinating how people who were friends rather talk to their social networks than the flesh and blood sitting right next to them.
I went over to a few others. One sheepishly admitted she was looking for an after party to hit up. The last one I asked is the only one with a valid response. She was trying to help her lost friend find her way to the poetry spot by texting her directions.
The next evening I was in a restaurant and I saw this “mobile communication gap” again. The avid text maniacs going to town. Two girls dining together, texting, calling, and not talking to each other. It’s a travesty people!
Now, the main question is why do we do this? Was it really like Lex said, to look important, busy, or cool? Or just because were in such a fast forward society we forget to live in the now and appreciate our moments as they come as opposed to living in the future. Ya know, looking for that after party or telling people how much fun were having on Facebook at the lounge “not talking to our friends.” If they ONLY knew the fun you were really having! Come on! The irony just kills me.
At the time of writing, my Blackberry vibrated and it was a Facebook alert saying that a client posted on my wall and few friends were digging some photos I posted. I checked it without hesitation, smiling at their responses. Oh nooooooo, don’t say it. They got me too!
Are we just little puppets controlled by the need to feel wanted, to feel important, and hey… to even show off a bit. It’s about LOOKING FABULOUS, LOOKING GOOD, FEELING APPRECIATED, FEELING LIKED and trust me we are all falling for it. It’s fun, but I think we need to find a balance between the digital world and the real world.
I remember in the early 90’s when email became more popular and we couldn’t wait for an email to come in. Now, the emails we crave are Facebook, Myspace, Twitter alerts to let us know we have a new comment, bulletin, note or message.
Don’t get me wrong. I love social networking and it’s a POWERFUL vehicle to help you get your name out there. It’s help me grow my businesses tremendously. I enjoy meeting new people from all walks of life and I especially enjoy meeting my Internet friends in the FLESH! All I’m saying is if you have REAL friends, which I’m hoping you do, cherish the moment you have with them IN PERSON.
Your poor friends have been feeling neglected. When you start sending Facebook messages to your other friend in Canada, that seems like more fun RIGHT in front of them, they’re thinking, “What am I? Chop liver?” So, they pull out their cell to feel important as well and so the cycle begins. LOL Well, that’s just my theory!
Just remember to talk to your friends, listen to them, laugh with them and put your dang phone away just for a little. If you’re one of those FB/Twitter junkies or text maniacs, check yourself when you are sitting with a friend.
Let’s close this communication gap and bring it back to the basics. You know, when we actually talked to each other!
Own Your Power,
Simone
Are you building a business, or are you simply self-employed? Do you understand and recognize the differences? And are you intentional about which path you’re on? If you presently have a job but want to strike out on your own, do you want to be self-employed or realize the benefits of true business ownership? Asking and answering this question can make a real difference in your business development and overall strategic direction.
The E-Myth Point of View is quite clear on the advantages of creating a true business. We’re all about building a systematized operation that can function successfully without you, one that can scale to multiple locations and truly support your life in a way that self-employment can’t. Indeed, the very word self-employment belies the reality: self-employment depends upon you, and only you, to keep the whole enterprise going… and this quite naturally has limitations.
If your business depends on you, you don’t own a business-you have a job. And it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic… You can’t close it when you want to, because if it’s closed you don’t get paid. You can’t leave it when you want to, because if you leave there’s nobody there to do the work. You can’t sell it when you want to, because who wants to buy a job?
—Michael Gerber
In other words, in most instances self-employment involves “doing it, doing it, doing it,” until you really can’t do it any more.
Many technicians begin as self-employed practitioners. This is the very premise behind the E-Myth: that technicians, suffering from an Entrepreneurial Seizure, break away from their employer and begin their journey of business ownership by creating a job for themselves. Many never make it beyond infancy. Some do, but then they fall back. Most technicians suffering from this seizure don’t begin to understand the truth about business creation until it’s either too late or they have such a backlog of mistakes to clear up that it takes longer than necessary to embrace a real business model.
But what if you knew from the beginning what you wanted? What if you understood the value and life sustaining possibilities that founding a real business can create and you started out with that idea in mind, even if you begin as a self-employed technician?
Intentionality is a powerful force and if you begin with the intention of true business creation rather than self-employment, you will approach nearly every aspect of its development differently. You’ll ask and answer many questions concerning the ultimate objective of your business.
Do you want to sell it eventually? If so, perhaps you want to come up with another name for your business instead of Joe’s Auto Supply. Do you plan on using your personal credit, or are you pursuing business credit so the business can truly exist outside of you? Do you set things up as a sole proprietor or an S-Corporation? Do you engage in a social networking strategy under your business name or your personal one? Are you prepared from the beginning to observe, analyze and document business processes so they can be easily followed by others?
You may be self-employed when you first start out but if you begin with the total intention of founding a company that can be turn-keyed, operated by another, passed down to children or sold, then you begin with that end in mind and develop the entire enterprise accordingly.
As much as the E-Myth exists, there is a similar myth about being self-employed. Maybe you have no intention of starting a true business. Perhaps you really want to be an independent consultant, a lone artisan, or a self-employed accountant. But even if you plan on staying in what we call the infancy business stage, to be successful you still must develop yourself and your business beyond the essentials of your technical discipline.
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