Happy New Year!!! It’s the beginning of a brand new year for many of us across the world, and a perfect time to pull out our dusty dreams, re-polish them, and put our best foot forward in realizing them.
Here at My Blooming Biz International, we are beginning our year with a well-rested, rejuvenated mind/body/spirit that is refocused and ready to continue our mission – helping you achieve your goals and materialize your dreams. Our CEO had her year-end retreat as usual, this time in the very relaxing mountains of Texas’ Siddhayatan Retreat, and the outcome of her taking time out to relax and reflect is nothing less than what we expect of our leader.
Our fifth biannual Design Your Dream Lifestyle event will be held on January 27th in Washington DC, and if you haven’t yet attended one of our events and you are looking for help in reconfiguring/reconstructing your life, this event is for you. Get your ticket at Eventbrite, then download and complete our Lifestyle Designing Workbook. You will need your completed workbook at our DYDL event. For those of you who are still on the fence about the direction in which you need to go, and will not be able to attend this event, we have curated a few articles to help you make a decision, and begin taking deliberate action.
Regardless of where you are right now, you can take steps to bring about your desired outcome. You can get from where you are to where you want to be, and it all begin with a single step – the first step. Remember, only you can see your vision, but others can help you realize it. We are here to help you materialize your vision, and we are equipped with programs, workshops, and an empowered community of women to help you get through each phase as you transition.
And as always, if you are unsure of your next step in getting to your dreams or you’re experiencing indecision, you can Schedule a free 30 minutes clarity call with us.
We are growing! In 2017, 100 women attended our events, and this year over 150 women have attended. Of the over 150 women who attended, 102 have signed up for 1 or more of our programs and workshops, and 91 have completed their respective program. This is a huge success for us, but we are aiming higher in 2019. We are looking for 100% programs and workshops completion, and will not be satisfied until that goal is met. We want all our women to succeed, and constantly seek out ways to ensure we make this a reality. Of course, our participants have to do their part, but we must improve their chances by improving our vetting, placement, and follow up.
We also kicked off our Transformational Book Series – Our Picks in January, where we highlighted books that we have read and continue to use in our many programs here at My Blooming Biz, that are geared towards women empowerment. If you’ve participated in any of our programs and workshops, we have already passed their knowledge on to you. If you have not participated in any of our programs, go ahead and get started on purchasing, reading, and implementing those strategies imparted by some of the world’s best minds. Remember, books are collective reservoirs of minds that can edify and help enhance your life, but only if you seek them out, open, and read them – then begin implementing.
We are constantly looking for ways to improve our processes, and one area we can greatly improve is by publishing content that is relevant to what we are about here at My Blooming Biz – women empowerment. If you believe you can contribute to this effort, learn more and submit your piece here.
We look forward to continue having you in our influential Power Circle and being an important part of our community in 2019, and beyond.
Money Maven, Patrice C. Washington continues to show herself worthy of that title by putting forth invaluable money-making, money-maximizing, money-retaining tips and strategies that will ensure you succeed financially well into the future – if you heed them. Like a true money maven, Patrice begin the book by addressing Money Mindset issues because she knows that that is a huge issue with many women, and so many repeat the same behaviors over and over without learning that the root cause of their money problem is in their belief system. Excuses, myths, and attitudes about how to handle money are all addressed and knocked out right away. She touched on various aspects of using your God given gifts and talents to find ways to earn more money. She talked about creating a game plan for organizing and managing your money and some financial tools you can use. She later digs deep into managing money and relationships; and how to make them both work for you. It covers every single topic of money you can think of such as:
How to say no to family members/friends who keep asking you for money
How to end generational negligence on money in your family
How to raise your children to understand money and how it works
How to accumulate and build generational wealth
The book is compartmentalized in 4 sections:
Section 1: Create Wealthy Habits
Section 2: Earn More Money
Section 3: Manage Money Wisely
Section 4: Relationships and Money
Patrice does not believe in “emergency fund” as that instigate expecting things to go wrong, and it makes perfect sense – if you believe in the Law of Attraction as we do here at My Blooming Biz. As she explains, if you handle your money the way you are suppose to, then you will already have more than enough money in your possession to take care of that “emergency” – should it occur. You cannot get any more real about money answers than what Patrice shares in this book. She gives, real, honest and practical tips to winning at the money game.
As we always say, no-one is perfect, and likewise no book is perfect. She over-mentions Steve Harvey (but who wouldn’t with the significant clout he embodies). She recommends not helping your family/friends financially if they need your help and you have the means to (which we disagree with and you can choose to agree or disagree as well). However, do not allow these few items to take away from all the vital gems she shares that can literally change your financial game for the better. Patrice C. Washington is right up there with other finance superstars such as, Suze Orman, Chris Hogan and Dave Ramsey. Get this book, Real Money Answers for Every Woman: How to Win the Money Game With or Without a Man, read it and begin implementing its strategies.
We have chosen and added this book to our transformational picks because it has helped us and our clients in our quest for financial prosperity, and we want you to know that financial prosperity is available to you as well – if only you acknowledge that it is, and take the necessary action steps to pull in YOUR six figures. There is enough for YOU too! Change your mindset, change your life!
The number of women making six figures or more is increasing and continues to rise at a rate never seen before. This is cause for celebration! If you’re not already in on this six-figure-women-winning-wealth-building juggernaut, then it’s time to get in formation and align yourself for yours.
Now, let’s set something straight! Six figure women did not just wake up and tada “I’m a six figure chick”! They face some of the same issues and challenges you face, but they held steady and consistent in their quest for success, and allowed nothing and no-one to get in their way – or stay in their way – and alas they ultimately succeed. You don’t get to see the tears, doubts, downfalls, sleepless nights that they experience, but without those down times, making six figures might not have been possible. They didn’t start making six figures overnight! Even the Kim Kardashian had to start somewhere and gradually work her way to the pinnacle she’s at where she can sellout a new-just-launched product within hours of launching it. Ask any six figure woman and she’ll tell you she didn’t start out keeping up with the Joneses and the Kardashians, she prioritized her “must haves” that are in alignment with her goals, channel her resources where they best work for her, so that later she could do whatever she wants – including keeping up with the Joneses and the Kardashians if she so desire.
Barbara outlines the power of understanding the difference between working hard and working smart with practical techniques that will energize and move you to take initiative in changing your mindset and the way you view and deal with money. According to Barbara, “If you continuously earn less than your full potential, you’re a perpetual under-earner”. And the main differences between high earners and the under-earners are actions and attitudes. What this means is that you are caught in what we termed here at MBB – a SPINN Cycle, and you have the power to change your mindset, take action and get in alignment with your worth in order to see your greatest dreams and desires realized. Sometimes we have to do something new! Change course. Keep our eyes and hearts on our goals and dreams, but configure the strategies we use to accomplish them. We cannot keep doing the same thing but expecting different results.
You Can Count On Secrets of Six Figure Women to:
1) Challenge the way you view and treat money
2) Create thought-provoking, mind-shifting aha moments
3) Show you why you too can amass the wealth you so desire and deserve
4) Help you bounce back from self-doubt, procrastination, and self-sabotage
Like many of us here at MBB, this book will help you get on the right path to financial freedom. As long as you follow the concepts and apply them to your individual situation, you will benefit immensely. It is filled with anecdotal evidence and practical steps that can prove very effective when practiced! And as we always recommend here at MBB, read this book all the way through, and do so with an open mind. Not with the mind to make critique, but to absorb what you can from it that is meaningful and geared towards enhancing your life. We all have different writing styles and ways we tell stories, but we all have something valuable to offer. Never discount that!
Read, and reread the chapter on money and begin to transition to your six figures, using those tools. You can have your money work for you! This is what we talk about and help women implement here at MBB through one of our signature programs MASTER Your Finances. But before you can MASTER your finances, you first gotta earn some money in order to have it work for you, and that’s in our signature program WERK Your Money Making Genie.
We all want maximum results with minimal effort! Can you agree with us on that? Especially, in today’s technologically advanced, information age where there are tons of new things available to learn and do, which somehow – topped with our daily responsibilities, make the days seem shorter. And there is a way to use minimal effort to gain maximum results. Thanks to a rule derived by economist and philosopher Vilfredo Pareto called the 80/20 rule or the Pareto principle.
The Pareto Principle – also known as the law of the vital few – states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the causes. In 1906, Pareto observed that 80% of the land was controlled by 20% of the people, and that 20% of the pea pods in his garden produced 80% of the peas. Since its introduction, the Pareto Principle has been applied and proven to exist in virtually all areas of life. Whether it’s maths, economics, business, software, health, or energy, the Pareto Principle is statistically embedded into virtually everything.
We have mastered this 80/20 rule here at MBB and have amplified it to the point where we have pinpointed our 4% that has been yielding the most favorable results and have been concentrating our efforts on those specific areas. This is the pinnacle of the Pareto Principle and it can literally improve your life in all key areas, enabling you to enjoy a higher quality of life.
How the Pareto Principle Can Help Improve Our Lives
The Pareto Principle Helps Us to Leverage Our Time
Time is our most precious resource! It is universal, meaning we all have the same 24 hours in each day, but what we do with that 24 hours will make the difference in whether we achieve success and how soon. When we leverage our time we channel it towards the things that are important and meaningful to us, and look for ways to maximize it. Most of us don’t use our time efficiently! But utilizing the Pareto Principle will help immensely in ensuring we use every ounce of our time where it is most valuable to us – towards our BIG goal. It is important to note that we have productivity peaks when we are most effective at whatever it is that we do. There are certain tasks, times of day, or even days of the week when we tend to produce the best results. So, by identifying these productivity peaks, and applying the 80/20 rule, we can optimally harness time and catapult our results.
The Pareto Principle Forces You to Identify Your Goals
The first step in harnessing the Pareto Principle is to identify your goals. When you know what your goals are, you have a target. Without a target in mind, the Pareto Principle is not very beneficial. If you’ve never done any goal setting, now is the time to get started. Goal setting is essential to progress and growth in any area of your life. It gives you a steady target for your mind’s eye. Without goals, we are aimless! And being aimless is synonymous with wasteful time. We might think we know what we want in some obscure fashion, but if we haven’t actually actualize it on paper and laid out a plan to accomplish those goals, then there’s no telling where we’re heading. By writing out your goals, they become more real, and you are 99 times more likely to get set on your path towards something meaningful and actually follow through.
The Pareto Principle Demands That You Track your Progress
The second step in leveraging the 80/20 rule for exponential growth in any area of your life, is to thoroughly track your progress. If you’re in sales, this means you should track the number of leads per day, how many phone calls or contact attempts you made (and the type of those attempts – i.e. email, phone, in-person), how many sales you closed, the dollar amount of those sales, your profit, etc. Create a spreadsheet for yourself – whatever the goal may be. If you have a goal to lose weight, put a number to it, and track your progress assiduously. How much did you weigh this morning? What precisely did you eat (write it all down)? How many calories went into your body? How many calories left your body? How many steps did you walk? How much cardio did you do? How much do you weigh at bedtime?
The Pareto Principle Works When You Identify the 80/20
Now that you’ve tracked everything comprehensively, you can identify your 80/20 subset. Which 20% is giving you 80% of the results? Once you’ve identified the 20%, you can work on scaling out your 20%. For example, if you’ve identified that 80% of your results in marketing are coming from a particular online campaign, scale out that campaign. Now, this is why tracking is so important. You have to be able to identify where your results are coming from so you can maximize that source.
The Pareto Principle Shows You Where to Scale or Outsource
Depending on the type of goal you’re working towards, once you’ve identified your 20% subset, you can either scale out or outsource in order to uplevel those efforts. For example, if you’re a graphic designer, and you find that 80% of your income comes from a specific 20% of your clients, your goal would be to scale or outsource that subset. If 80% of your income comes from 20% of your clients, but you spend 50% of your time on it, by reducing the time spent to 25% by outsourcing certain tasks related to that work, you can spend more time on scaling your business by locating more clients like your 20%. All you have to do is identify your 20% target demographics’ customer profile, and engage in marketing efforts to gain similar clients. This applies to any measurable and trackable goal that you can have in life.
The Pareto Principle Allows You to Explode Your Results to Its Highest Degree
To harness the true power of the Pareto Principle, identify the 20% of the 20%. This will allow you to exponentially explode your results! The 20% of the 20% of your subset – or the 4% – is producing 64% of your results. So, if you can identify this elite subset, then you can truly develop explosive results by scaling out further. The 4% of your subset are in a class of their own. The 20% of the 20% is your optimal peak performance segment. Identify this segment and replicate it in any way possible. This should be your utmost important task. Find this 4% and foster it, replicate it, and nurture it, and you’ll find yourself producing explosive results in the long term. In other words, put your efforts where it benefits you most, and multiply your efforts in that area. You can read author David Finkel’s article over at FastCompany.com regarding taking the 80/20 rule to the next level for better productivity and more massive results.
We are fully immersed in the 80/20 rule here at MBB, and we encourage you to get started using this principle today. It will save you a lot of time and effort, and improve your overall life, by helping you to direct your time and energy where it serves you most.
There is hardly anything tangible in this world that is more important than money. And while money may not be the most important thing in life, it most certainly is that key that enable us to enjoy the high standard of living and excellent quality of life we so desire and deserve. As the bible says in Ecclesiastes 10:19, “A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.” Our standard of living and quality of life will be determined by how much money we have.
“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.” – Benjamin Franklin
Since money is so vital to our overall health and well-being, we must do everything in our power to accumulate as much as possible based on our maximum potential, and take the necessary steps to ensure our money is secure. So how do we manage and improve our finances?
Here are 8 Steps to Managing and Improving Your Finances:
Step 1. Set Clear Financial Goals
One of the best ways that you can improve your finances is to set clearly-defined financial goals. You want to set short-term financial goals – within a one year period, and you want to set long-term financial goals – 2, 5, 10 years. Answer questions, like: Where would you like to be financially in the next year? Where would you like to be financially in the next 5 years? How will you meet your target? What will you do differently to ensure you accomplish each goal? Don’t just say you’ll make more money by the end of the year. How much more money will you have to make in order to achieve it? Set a figure. Map a plan. Do you want to get out of debt? Exactly how much debt do you plan on paying off, and exactly by when? Maybe your goal is to eliminate $5,000 of debt in the next year. Define that and set a date that you can move towards. Don’t make them some abstract target in your mind. Actualize them! Make them real! And the best way to do that is to write them out with real dollar amounts that have set dates by which to accomplish them.
Setting financial goals that are real and on paper creates a visceral transformation in your mind. When you can see your goals outlined there in front of you, you’ll do more to ensure you achieve them. The unconscious mind has a funny way of moving you towards what you ask it for, as long you make it real. When it’s abstract, it’s easier to get distracted and put it off. Make it real and measurable!
Step 2. Create Financial Milestones
Now that you have set your financial goals, it’s time to setup some financial milestones. They create a breathing space on our way to your financial goals. When you set a yearlong financial goal, the milestones are what make up the gaps between that year. For example, if you’re looking to pay off $5,000 of debt within 12 months, you could break that down into monthly or quarterly milestones – whichever work best for you. Financial milestones are important because they target the small picture as well as give you that added boost to actually see your efforts being paid off and be able to pat yourself on the back a bit and be encouraged to continue on.
Step 3. Create a Monthly Budget
A budget tells your money where to go, rather than have you wondering where it went. Creating a monthly budget is the best thing you can do for your finances (and your sanity)! It gives you a snapshot of your spending capacity, keeps you on track with your spending, helps you achieve a financial goal you set out to achieve, and provides some structure to your life. Budgets bring order to an otherwise financially chaotic life.
Today, creating a budget is easy. In fact, there are plenty of tools at our disposal – from smartphone apps to desktop-based solutions, you can find a budget friendly tool to help you get started with budgeting. And once you find your favorite tool, simply build yourself a budget that you can stick with, and stick with it. Of course, sticking to a monthly budget can be difficult, especially when certain habits are ingrained but if you know that you have some bad habits that are costing you dearly, prioritize the elimination of those habits. Keep in mind that if a goal means something profound enough to you, you’ll do whatever it takes to reach it, and that includes eliminating any and all financially-draining habits. Commit to doing it for 3 months and after 3 months it will begin to stick with you and subsequently become a habit – a good habit.
Step 4. Track and Monitor All Expenses
Tracking your expenses is one of the most important habit you can develop. In fact, you can put your financial life in jeopardy if you do not intentionally track and monitor your finances. Without proper tracking, you will lose sight of where you are financially, which makes it easier for you to overspend – having a false sense of security. When you can see your money in and outflow – right there in front of you, it’s harder to lose sight of how much you’re spending and on what you are spending. If you are a frivolous spendthrift, when you track your expenses you will be able to see the cost of your bad spending habit much easier, and be able to possibly make some future changes.
There are many free apps available to help you track your expenses, and it’s imperative you take advantage of one such as Mint.com.
Step 5. Prioritize Debt Repayments
One of the biggest deterrents to making headway in financial improvement, is the overwhelming debt that most people face. When you’re faced with enormous debt, it’s hard to concentrate on anything else. It deters you from looking at bank account statements and anything money related such as bills, and so the sooner that debt is repaid, the better you will feel. Also, paying down those debts will build momentum, and once you get in the habit of paying off debt, your overall spending will fall in line with it.
To prioritize your debt, pick the highest interest credit card that you have, and double the minimum payments until it’s paid off. Then, switch to the next highest interest credit card and continue until they’re all paid up. If your goal is to get out of debt, not only do you have to make a plan for repayment, but you also must monitor your spending habits.
Step 6. Open Bills Immediately & Pay On Time
Dodging bills and putting off opening them up could end up hurting your pocket. Yea, yea, we know you know, but seriously, bills can accumulate interest! Also, you may be given a break on the balances of some bills you owe with a specific time period; however, if you do not open them within that timeframe, you will not be able to take advantage of that opportunity.
Of course, the frequency of bills can sometimes put a damper on the spirit, but the downside of not staying on top of them is that you could end up making the next one bigger – with the interest and other fees that are added due to late payments which is defeating the purpose of not opening the bills in the first place – trying to avoid spending but end up spending more. If you are in a position to automate your bill payments, we highly recommend that you do. However, you must always check your money out processes, to ensure the monies going out of your accounts are all spending you authorize, as well as to keep abreast of your balances so you do not have dishonored checks or returned payment fees.
Step 7. Save & Invest at Least 20% of Your Income
Saving and investing should be the number one priority, especially for women, who usually place great value on security and stability. But, for many women, it’s not! Some has the money flow to really get on with some serious savings but refuse to do so, while others struggle to break even let alone save. However, as the old saying goes, “It’s not how much you earn but how much you save that makes you a woman”. So regardless of your earning right now, pay yourself first! That means take a portion (20%) and tuck it away in a high-yield savings account until there is enough to invest in a bigger way.
We know how difficult some women are having it trying to survive on a nickel and a dime. In fact, according to one study by BankRate.com, 76% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. That’s more than two-thirds of the population in the world’s richest country. The study also concluded that fewer than 1 in 4 Americans have enough in savings to last them 6 months should they lose their ability to earn income. But you cannot continue to make this your reality! You may want to take advantage of one of oursignature money-making programs.
Step 8. Take a Daily Money Minute
Things happen! Accounts get hacked, bank make mistakes, and you could lose some money either way. So at the end of each day, take a daily money minute. Login to your bank accounts and review the transactions for that day. You want to ensure that you know what money is going out of your account and why. You also want to verify you are on budget for each of the categories you’ve set your budget up for. If you are over on any category, then you know you are through spending on that category for the remainder of the month. If you are tracking your expenses, you should be able to double check this with ease.
Reviewing your financial picture on a daily basis is all part of the money minute. Your money minute could be 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or even an hour. This all depends on how committed you are to your saving, spending, and investment objectives.
Take these 8 above-mentioned steps and get on your journey to better money management and ultimately – true financial independence.
Money Maven, Patrice C. Washington continues to show herself worthy of that title by putting forth invaluable money-making, money-maximizing, money-retaining tips and strategies that will ensure you succeed financially well into the future – if you heed them. Like a true money maven, Patrice begin the book by addressing Money Mindset issues because she knows that that is a huge issue with many women, and so many repeat the same behaviors over and over without learning that the root cause of their money problem is in their belief system. Excuses, myths, and attitudes about how to handle money are all addressed and knocked out right away. She touched on various aspects of 
We have chosen and added this book to our transformational picks because it has helped us and our clients in our quest for financial prosperity, and we want you to know that financial prosperity is available to you as well – if only you acknowledge that it is, and take the necessary action steps to pull in YOUR six figures. There is enough for YOU too! Change your mindset, change your life!
, read it, implement the strategies in your life, and expect to be improved – wholistically.
