My Blog has Moved...

I've recently switched to a new blogging system to get you more information quickly.

For the latest posts and musings, my blog can now be found at:

http://www.successconnections.com/melanie/

Please bookmark this new location and drop by whenever you like.

I look forward to seeing you in my new 'blog' home.

- Melanie

Hollywood Party & The Ripple Effect

Well I finally went to my first real hollywood party. It was quite an experience as this was a unique Hollywood crowd....a blend of the spiritual, "make a difference crowd" with the industry scene and a big mansion in the Hollywood hills. Here are a couple of pictures of this house. The pool actually has a boat in it and the whole house was just outrageous in a modern-art deco kinda way. If you want to see more pictures of this house, you can go to http://www.mansion11.com/.


I had no idea what to expect. My friend and client Tracy Monteforte invited me as she was one of four presenters who were helping to kick off a spiritual movie to the industry. About half way through the evening, Tracy's husband Pat sat down next to me and said, "You know this party is because of you."

I sat there dumbfounded for a moment, trying to figure out what he was saying when it hit me. Pat said, "Yeah, remember when you called us in Hawaii about Chris Howard?"

It starts with Tracy & I. I coached Tracy and Pat a couple of years ago and we've stayed friends ever since. Last year, an opportunity came up to introduce Tracy to my mentor Chris Howard's organization through Triscka Mallia. Triscka was working for Chris Howard as his Joint Venture coordinator. So I introduced them and Tracy attended all of Chris' training and became one of his coaches. A woman named Pam Tam became Tracy's client through the Chris Howard coaching programs. Pam had a dream to make this movie and it was through her coaching with Tracy and the support of her other mentors (including Jairek Robbins, Tony Robbins' son) that this movie became a reality.

Did you track all that? Here is the bottom line. Without realizing it, and simply to help mutual friends make a connection that I thought would be mutually beneficial, a powerful, positive ripple effect occured that aligned the right people at the right place at the right time to help Pam get her movie out.

This party was the culmination of all of these ripples coming together for one big splash! Here are some pictures from the evening -- the house was a blast and it was great to connect with some fun friends from the past.

Tracy Monteforte, Beth Schnieder, me and Triscka Mallia at the Hollywood shin-dig.

This is me trying out the groovy floating chair!

My friend Ian Rich, the "audio guy". Ian now spends most of his time living in
Hong Kong so we were very blessed to have him with us.
Christopher Howard, my friend and mentor. Chris' programs are
outstanding -- I trained in NLP with him.
Tracy, Beth and I checking out the indoor Jaquzzi tub with a movie theater behind it!
This is Pat Monteforte's (Tracy's husband) dad. This is Kandy and myself cheering him up. =-)

Platinum Level Mastermind Hits Vegas-Baby

My Platinum Level Mastermind Coaching Group met in Vegas a few weeks ago at the JW Marriott Hotel for our 2nd retreat of the year. One of the reasons I get so juiced when I host a mastermind retreat is these business owners are really growing my leaps and bounds.

James Jackman, Michele PW, Rhonda Hess, Beth Schnieder,

Michele Dekinder-Smith, Mary Pat Kavanagh and Ira Bloomfield

showing off their ULTIMATE Lifestyle Vision Blueprint!

At this mastermind retreat, I added in a special project to create a book that is a reflection of their ULTIMATE Lifestyle Business. What would they do with their time, what kinds of "material possessions" would they have, where would they live, etc. Then they all created an action plan to move them closer to that lifestyle being real. It was amazing how charged up they all were!

James Jackman presenting his action plan.

Another fun part of the weekend was for our wrap up, I sprung for a limo and we all went out on the town to dinner and to see the Blue Man Group. A few of the members brought their spouses too. It was really a crazy show but fun to bond and connect in this way.

The whole gang at dinner in Vegas!

One of the comments the members make is that being accountable to the group, knowing that each person is expecting them to meet their goals challenges them to achieve more. It's so easy to "float" out there since we don't have bosses. Knowing that they have to present their progress within 4 months is a pretty big motivator!


What is your experience with masterminds? Feel free to share it here.

A Four-Hour Work Week...Really?

After the 5th person told me about reading "The 4 Hour Work-Week" by Timothy Ferriss, I had to pick it up and see what the buzz was all about.

I mean, who wouldn't want to read all about how to work less, right?

The book is truly a paradigm-shift for most of us, especially those who truly love what they do.

Here is a quick overview of what I took away from the book (I either learned it or was reminded of a concept in a new way.)

• There is a source for "cheap" labor overseas that was only a rumor for me previously (Ferriss provides actual websites)
• Most entrepreneur's don't delegate because they think because they can do it better that they should keep the task. Ferriss points out the goal is really to free your time to focus on bigger and better things -- like your lifestyle!
• You must test your ideas before you invest countless hours and money building something you don't know if the world wants or will buy. He maps out a great testing strategy.
• The ruthless "task" cut-back process is fantastic. The addiction to email is the #1 contributor to unaccomplished goals!
• His story about getting rid of the 80% of the "time wasting, energy draining" clients was right up my alley. I also teach my clients this and it works!

Here is what I would offer to those who jump on the "4-Hour Workweek" bandwagon.

The truth is if you love your work, you will never want to work only 4 hours a week. My guess is Ferriss has huge ADD and never really had a calling. But his calling became to teach others how to simplify their approach to living their ideal lifestyle. The principles in this book are excellent if you apply them to your own world.

Remember, a formula only works for you if you know how to align it with your own values, priorities and needs. Take what works and leave the rest.

If you love the idea of building a team (and you should) you might want to check out www.virtualteambuildingtelebootcamp.com. It is the program I teach to help people truly master the necessary skills, mindset and habits of someone who has a virtual team.

As for the book, for less than the price of dinner you will definitely get a brand new take on how to work less! It's a great read and I highly recommend it.

How my Masterminds Get Me "Juiced"

Have you ever had one of those weeks that you felt like you were ready to give up? Maybe you felt the weight of the world on your shoulders, things aren't going so well, lots of challenges to deal with and you start to wonder why you do what you do?

That's how I was feeling early this month.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE my work but hey, every relationship has it's ups and downs, right? I was definitly on the down swing. And I had two trips coming up and quite frankily , I was not that crazy about having to travel twice in one week.

But being the kind of person I am, I talked myself into my "coach" space, got my game face on, packed up and headed to the first of two of my mastermind retreats near the airport in Los Angeles, CA.

To kick off properly and really get reconnected to my purpose, Therese Skelly (the coach for the Business Accelerator Mastermind) and I got together on Sunday and attended Rev. Michael Beckwith's Agape church service. If you haven't had an opportunity, I highly suggest getting juiced up with Michael - talk about a mood change!

The Business Accelerator Mastermind

Michelle Dettman, Therese Skelly (the coach), Adam Hommey,
Mary Headley, Mary Kelso, Sheri Menelli, me, Stephanie Graziano.

The first two days were amazing. I watched these 6 people in the Business Accelerator Mastermind have their issues, doubts, frustrations and challenges melt away as the coaches and their mastermind partners (the rest of the group) brainstorm and sort out the fastest, most direct path to achieving their goals.

A few of the most powerful breakthroughs were:

1. Finding an easier path to the six-figure goal.
2. Realizing how "doing your own audio editing" was sucking up tons of time and commiting to give it to a professional.
3. Mapping out the "target audience" to make marketing message pop to attract lots of clients.
4. Identifying a new source of clients that were "right under our noses" and lining up an immediate gig.

Realizing that connecting with other brilliant business owners is essential to pushing yourself past comfort zones and achieving massive results!

This is just the tip of the ice berg...I'll share more in my next post from the Platinum Mastermind experience too.

Is there Such a Thing as Hobbies for the Entrepreneur?

Not so long ago I had a "smack-down" moment.

Have you ever seen the V-8 drink commercial when they smack their head and say "I should have had a V-8?" That is what it is like when I realize I've been missing something in my own "lifestyle success formula."

I realized I had not be nurturing my passions for the other things in life like hobbies.

Well I quickly decided to remedy that one. And what a fun thing to focus on right? So I thought I'd share a few of my hobbies and passions (they aren't always the same by the way) that get me OUT of my home office and into the pure joy of having fun.

1. Dancing.
I absolutely LOVE to dance. I haven't been doing it much lately. Between traveling and living kinda far away from the mainstream part of Los Angeles, I haven't had access to lessons or fun "age-appropriate" clubs. (I'm not too fond of the Hollywood night club scene.)

With the new wave of exposure that dancing has gotten with popular shows like So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing With the Stars, my love of dance is sparked again. Here are a couple of video clips you might enjoy. Who knows...maybe you have the bug too?

This is a great Latin dance routine from two seasons ago:
http://tinyurl.com/22seqq

This is just a cool performance. My niece loved this music so much I had to buy it for her. =-)
http://tinyurl.com/ywngz8

2. Golf.

It doesn't get me going AS MUCH as dancing but I love to golf. Especially with my Dad and my step-mother. We have so much fun. Last year my brother came out for a family reunion and all 16 of us went golfing! That was a blast.

Here is a picture with my brother Keith, my Dad and me at my Dad's golf club in Phoenix.


3. Crafts.

I know, it sounds so "not like me." But I have always been into making things. I was always the one in my family every Christmas who took on some elaborate decorating project like making the whole family custom Santa Stockings or making wreaths. But for the last few years my business has taken over that creative expression. Yet...I still miss getting my hands into creating something from nothing.

So for my birthday this year my sister, mom and niece took me to make jewelery. I had so much fun I didn't want to stop. I made a beautiful silver and pink stone necklace and matching earrings. Don't have a picture yet...hope to remedy that soon! Suffice it to say this could easily become my new fun project!

What are some of YOUR hobbies and passions that stoke your creative juices? Not working, not making money...just for the sheer fun of it.

Share them here and I'm sure we will get some people inspired!

Spam Filter Blues

Have you ever heard the saying, "A good apple gone bad?"


I think it typically applies to humans but in this case, I'm going to talk about Spam Filters. I know that there are a lot of annoying people out there who create questionable emails and somehow blast it out to the universe expecting someone to go, "Oh, hey I've always wanted to buy vitamins from an unknown resource, I think I'll click through." Or worse yet, "I've always wanted to enlarge my XYZ [you get the picture], maybe I should get this."


Who the heck purchases that stuff anyway? I don't know. But thank goodness our server companies have spent countless hours and millions of dollars trying to prevent that gross stuff from arriving in our inboxes.


But somewhere in our over-zealousness at protection we have gone too far and even the good stuff can't get through! Ay carumba. Here are a couple of ways that our over-zealous spam protection is costing me now:


- My graphic designer couldn't receive emails from ANYONE with a successconnections.com address for 2 weeks. She had no idea we had asked her to start a project and so we were over 2 weeks behind on a critical project. Very painful!


The fix? She had to manually call her server company and "white list" all of our domain names. Even though her server company told her repeatedly that there were no problems this was the only thing that worked.


- My good friend and internet marketing colleague tried repeatedly to email me for weeks. It was about a joint venture we had discussed and she could not get her email out. In desperation, she finally had to have her assistant call me (that was probably about a $40 phone call) and get the message to me.


The fix? We don't know yet. Apparantely they have some spam server issues with their system they are trying to get fixed.


I could go on and on but you get the point. I guess I'm just a bit peeved that these "yahoos" are out there screwing up the system for the rest of us legit businesses.


Here are a couple of pointers though:


Be careful when you report spam. If you use Yahoo, AOL, MSN or any of the free email services and report "spam" email, be sure it isn't something you signed up for and forgot about. It can take months for a internet business to clear their name off a black list. It's better if you just "unsubscribe."


White list preferred email senders. If you sign up for a valuable ezine, online product or even have a friend you want to talk with via email, take 2 minutes and "white list" them as an approved email. Your email provider should have a link or instructions on how to do that.


Follow these steps to identify the real problem. If you can't get an email from someone, isolate the problem. My virtual webmaster, Adam Hommey, put together this trouble shooting process for us:

• Identify the e-mail address they are trying to send to


• Save the "bounceback" message and fax or email to your webmaster or email server company.


• Identify the IP address(es) of the local internet connection of the person (s) having the problem (go to http://www.dnsstuff.com/ and look up the multi-part number displayed along the top of the screen)