I’m currently in Barbados enjoying the beautiful weather and avoiding the snowstorms of Rochester. It’ll be Christmas Day tomorrow and I want to take the opportunity to wish all of you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! It’s my favorite holiday because everyone is a little more upbeat and friendly, everyone wants to help others, you get to see friends and family you haven’t seen in a while and there are lots of goodies to eat. You can compare Christmas in Barbados to Thanksgiving in the USA.
However what is Christmas without some old-fashioned gift-giving and today I play Santa’s little helper by offering you some of the great tools that I use. I thank Yvonne for one of these tools because it is through following a link in one of her posts that I was able to find the site – Marketing Profs.
This site has really great information on marketing via both online and offline channels. The articles are informative and I’d advise you to sign up to receive their newsletter. I usually don’t read newsletters but I find myself reading their newsletters thoroughly and even taking notes. This is a must for all entrepreneurs.
My second tool is Entrepreneur magazine. I love this magazine; the writing style is appealing and the information offered is very useful ranging from recruiting strategies to cost cutting tips. There are profiles of interesting entrepreneurs like Richard Branson (who also happens to be one of my favorite entrepreneurs) and interesting technology tools for business owners. I read this magazine from cover to cover and look forward to its arrival every month.
Sometimes I also need a little “pick me up” or a bit of encouragement especially when life gets a bit overwhelming. For this I head to my personal development blogs. It may sound a bit corny but I find these blogs very interesting and they do offer some good advice especially as it relates to time management, following your dreams, relieving stress, thinking outside the box, among other things. If you are choosing the life of an entrepreneur then it’s certain your life will get overwhelming at some points and it’s good to have somewhere to turn to that can give you a good boost. My two favorites are the Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online and the Positivity Blog.
If you’re looking for some great ideas and information from some of the brilliant minds out there I’d suggest watching some of the TED talks. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and each year the world’s leading minds gather at the TED conference to discuss topics ranging from science, arts and design, politics, culture, business, global issues, technology and development, and entertainment. Several of these talks are provided online at this website. If you’re interested in hearing some great perspectives then the talks are definitely worth a listen.
My final gift is Pandora which is a personalized Internet radio service. All you do is enter the name of an artist or band you like and Pandora plays a continuous stream of music that shares the same musical characteristics. Expect that you’ll love 95% of the songs played. And if you don’t like a song, simply indicate this and it will never be played again. What I find particularly pleasing is that I can even hear Caribbean-style music by entering some of our Caribbean artists. If you are a millennial like me chances are you like working while listening to music so Pandora is a great place to visit. It even offers biographies of your favorite artists. If you don’t like music in the background while you work, a stream of uninterrupted music you like is also great for relaxation. Unfortunately I’ve been suffering from Pandora deficiency since it’s only offered in the US and not internationally but hopefully they’ll rectify this problem soon.
I hope you like your gifts and again have a very Merry Christmas!!
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