But in general I turn to my social networks for news that is more accessible and in a format that I can digest in the time frame that I need.

The other day I was on Facebook, (how unusual) and a post from Mashable showed up in my news feed about Idaho and I was instantly drawn to the post. I was born in Boise, ID and lived there for a majority of my childhood, so I have a little soft spot for my home state.

The headline read “Idaho: The Unlikely Spam Capital” I had to read the blog post. It turns out that 98.3% of all email that is sent to Idaho is spam, which is interesting because, according to the article in just one year Idaho has jumped 43 spots to take its place as number one in spam.

As a girl from Idaho I’m not sure what spammers are drawn to in Idaho, yes we have great spuds, snow, and old ghost mine towns, but a love email spam no.

As long as email is being used spam will be around, hoping next year Idaho will drop back to the 44th or lower sate in receiving the most spam.

We will pick up right where we left off to hear even more inspirational tips from an amazing man!

…..continued from part one

K.H. Where do you find inspiration to continue growing your business? Being a successful professional embodies being an excellent marketer (so that people know your name and service!), how do you reach out to your wide range of customers to build a trusting relationship?

N.J.L. I find inspiration in so many places, one of the biggest places I find inspiration is from my clients, the joy and excitement that they have when they realize their goals, when they get closer to realizing their dreams, that really inspires me to do more, to empower more. People that inspire me are Nelson Mandela and The Dalai Lama, I have some authors who’s book inspire me, Don Miguel Ruiz (The Four Agreements) and Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist). I also find inspiration from the Internet and watching YouTube videos from other speakers and coaches to see their messages.

In my perception that question, “Being a successful professional embodies being an excellent marketer (so that people know your name and service!). How do you reach out to your wide range of customers to build a trusting relationship?

The first being, how do you reach out and build your network?  I am counting to utilize the web 2.0 using social media like Facebook and I’m on Twitter and I have a website.  I’m writing a blog that I just started a few weeks ago and I’m starting to post them on my website (www.harmonyccinc.com). 2. How do you build trusting relationships? I think in building trusting relationships it is key to be very responsive. It is always my intention when people reach out to me to respond back, that I create relationships in that way. I see myself as very approachable, I like having that same approachability online as well.

K.H. When you are faced with a setback or an enormous business challenge, what do you do to keep moving forward?

N.J.L. In my world there are no mistakes, and there are hardly any challenges, there are only opportunities. So if something happens, I take a deep breath and ask what are the opportunities here? And then it’s about how do I go from here and then I break things down into little steps.  One good thing to remember for moving forward is that we tend to overestimate what we can do in a day but we underestimate what we can do in ten minutes!

K.H. What do you think is the most challenging part about being an entrepreneur? How do you overcome this challenge?

N.J.L. One of the challenges I see from  people that come to me is that when they are entrepreneurs they usually work for themselves and it is  very challenging to set up the right work structures to stay on track, to not get distracted. They tend to get overwhelmed and how to overcome that is to break it down, make sure you know the vision, be specific on what you want to create and then break it down into tangible steps.

K.H. Who is your personal role model? What about this person do you truly admire and aspire to?

N.J.L. Nelson Mandela is the first one that comes to mind. What really inspires me about him is his sense of forgiveness, and his sense that there is good in everyone. I clearly remember the time he gave a speech in Holland and he walked up on stage, he had a hard time walking he was up in his eighties, and the person that helped him was his prison guard from prison, that was so powerful to see. I read about his life and  his passion for looking for the good in people and  his belief in  equality and equal rights is just fantastic, just very noble very inspirational person, very good listener, a visionary, I think he is one of the greats of the world.

K.H. What has been your biggest achievement recently that you are proud of?

N.J.L. I think the transition from having a great career in Holland, dropping everything, leaving everything behind and coming to the U.S. and building a complete new life both professionally and personal. That’s something I’m proud of.

K.H. What are your goals for this upcoming year?

N.J.L. One of my goals for 2010 is to take a group of passionate people on a week-long intensive to South Africa. I tell you why South Africa. I had the good fortune of being in South Africa about four or five times and have gotten to travel around for four to five weeks at a time. I think when it comes to coaching, it comes to realizing your potential and with that it is really good to ground yourself and find you who are. Being in nature is such a perfect place to do that. There are so many beautiful places on this planet to do this, your backyard, a mountaintop, Yellowstone. One of my favorite places to do this is South Africa, the nature there is so pure and vibrant and so powerful and I believe a place like this will facilitate huge transitions in you’re life. If people are interested they can call me ha-ha J!

I’m also continuing to grow my business not only here in Santa Barbara and the Tri-Counties but, I am branching out. I’m already working on a seminar series in Europe.

K.H. What is the ONE best practice that you would share with others?

N.J.L. It would have to be goal setting for both your professional and personal life. To realize your goals break them down into little steps using the following START process:

1.     Specific – What exactly is the action step I can take now?

2.     Tangible – What is the result I expect upon completion of this step?

3.     Achievable – Do I have the resources needed to complete this action step?

4.     Reasonable – Can I accomplish this now?

5.     Timed – When exactly do I intend to have this action step completed?

K.H. What online social media platform are you most addicted to? (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin…etc).

N.J.L. I use Facebook a lot but I wouldn’t say I’m addicted, it’s a fun way to stay connected, I like it.

Niels, thank you again for sharing with the Wild Web Women!! Your words are truly inspiring and motivating.

A user in the forum said that a site called Quarkbase could tell me what blog platform a site was using.  I was psyched that I had found the answer to my query, and although it didn’t give me all the info I needed for my client research, overall, what Quarkbase does is pretty cool, so I wanted to share.

Quarkbase allows anyone to find website information.

I did a test run on Web Marketing Therapy and the results that it pulled were pretty interesting.  If you want to get a general technical geeky informational overview of what a site is about, this site provides it.

These were the results that I found…the most interesting result that Quarkbase generated for us is that apparently WMT is making a dent in India! 

Ok, anyways, side track back to the new Twitter homepage – Ben Parr did a post the other day on the new Twitter home page – The Goal of Twitter’s New Homepage? Be the World’s Water Cooler. This seems like a good direction to go with Twitter as users of Twitter provide up-to-the-minute information (some true, some not i.e. Jeff Goldblum’s death). All the same people are using Twitter as a way to get information on what’s going on in the world vs. reading about what their friends had for breakfast (maybe sometimes).

To understand the “Water Cooler” theory just compare Twitter’s old hompage explanation with it’s new explanation. Twitter has become less focused on the individual on more focused on sharing the world.

Old Twitter  - ” Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

New Twitter – “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world”

The New Twitter