In Episode 004 of Marketing Fit TV, Leesa is joined by her friend, Simone, as they talk about how eating 5-6 small meals per day is comparable to taking small steps with social media each day.

Don’t forget to listen to the Marketing FIt Action Tip so you can learn what action Leesa wants you to take.

Click here to view Episode 004 of Marketing Fit TV.

Join the Marketing Fit Studio to learn fresh new tips on how to use social media in a dynamic way.

It became a trending topic on Twitter Search, just underneath Obama and a girl named Anita. Here’s the screenshot from November 12, 2008:

And here’s a closer look at the list of trending topics on the right from Twitter Search:

How was I able to max out 250 lines and get people so excited that the teleclass is one of the most popular topics on Twitter?

1. I encouraged those on the teleclass to share the call-in details on Twitter after the call started. Because the call was free, sharing the call-in details wasn’t a problem. This helped increased the numbers so that those who didn’t have time to sign up could just call in without giving me their email.
2. I created a easy to remember hashtag and asked everyone to use it in their tweets. Hashtags to Twitter are like keywords to Google. Develop one that’s less than 5 words, then encourage everyone to add it to their tweets. The one I used for this call was #smmb. Then using Twitter Search, I could follow the conversation.
3. I encouraged those who couldn’t call in live to use the hashtag while listening to the recording. This helped to keep my teleclass visible in people’s eyes even after the live event was over.

As more and more people started to tweet their thoughts about what they were hearing on the teleclass, it became a popular topic on Twitter Search. But I noticed a curious thing happening as a result of using Twitter and a hashtag to monitor feedback for my teleclass:

1. The barrier to participation was removed. If you just found out about the event, just pick up your phone and call in as I asked those who registered in advance just to tweet the call in details. No forms to fill out.
2. People started to follow the conversation and build relationships with each other. When people looked at who was twittering about the event here, they naturally started to connect with each other.
3. People started to build their follow lists because of the call. Again, as people followed the conversation here, they started to follow those who were commenting about the call.
4. Whether people listened live or played back the recording, they felt included. I strongly encouraged those who were listening to the recording to use the hashtag to tweet their thoughts. There was feedback coming in 2, 3, even 4 days after the live event ended.
5. Registrations continued to flood in after the call was over. On the live event, I encouraged those who just got the call in details from Twitter to go to the sign up page to get details about the recording. In the 3 day period after the call was over and before I pulled the recording from the page, I got just under 100 additional subscribers.

My advice? You may not end up in the Top 10 of trending topics on Twitter Search for your own event, but using hashtags do help in encouraging interaction between you and those listening to your call.

While it will boost your ego to max out your phone lines, what’s even more rewarding is being the hub that connects people with each other.

Join the Marketing Fit Studio to learn fresh new tips on how to use social media in a dynamic way.

I still haven’t given up the eggs and frankly, I don’t think I will. Everytime I eat them, my sister reminds me that I’m eating an undeveloped chicken fetus swimming in its protective amniotic fluid. It doesn’t deter me. I still love my scrambled eggs.

I ate less beans this past week which my body loved since it practically cured my flatuence. On the flip side, not eating enough beans made me feel as if I were missing something from my diet. I’ve been eating more veggie meats and tofu, although they both lack enough protein for me to function. I had a protein deficient headache one day this week and it wasn’t fun.

On Sunday, I thought I was getting sick. I had a killer headache, my muscles were aching and my stomach felt weird. Yet, I wasn’t coughing, nor did I have a sore throat. Odd since those are the signs that I’m getting sick.

On Monday, I started to feel better. I determined that I wasn’t getting sick, instead I had “overdosed” on raw cashews. I ate too many of them on Saturday. Most of the things I ate on Saturday had raw cashews in them.

• I had a tofu strawberry “yougurt” that I made that had raw cashews ground up in the mixture.
• Then for lunch, I had tofu spinach patties, again with raw cashews ground up in the mixture.
• Then, I pigged out on at least 1 cup of raw cashews as I watched re-runs of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season 1 on Saturday night.

So what did I learn from week 2?

• Even vegans have to eat things in moderation. Just because raw cashews are good, it doesn’t mean that they can be eaten in huge quantities.
• Beans aren’t the only things that contain protein. It can be found in other foods.
• There are tons of alternative out there to take the place of your favorite meat and dairy products. I just have to remember to choose a variety of things to eat.
• Maybe the vegan lifestyle isn’t for me. However, I’m enjoying being vegetarian. Being meat and dairy free is doing wonders for my state of mind and my body.

More next week when I recap Week 3.

photo courtesy estaticist

Join the Marketing Fit Studio to learn fresh new tips on how to use social media in a dynamic way.

If you’re feeling a little bit of angst about the economy, read these tips from The Fitness Jeanie on why you can’t neglect your health.

How to Make Your Health a Priority in Uncertain Times
By The Fitness Jeanie

During times when you may feel extra pressure about your job, finances or the economy, it’s extra important that you take care of yourself, exercise and eat well.

You may not be able to control the situation around you, but you can control the situation inside you.

This doesn’t only refer to food, but also the thoughts you choose to think, the conversations you choose to take part in, and the television channels you choose to watch.

Each of these mental stimulants has a physical response on your body. So, if you’re not careful, your body will start to ingest all the negativity and you’ll find it showing up more and more in your life.

So, what can you do? Here’s three quick tips to keep you positive even when it may seem like there are so many negative things around you.

1. Perspective – Remember that all situations are neutral. Only YOU can charge them as good or bad. If you’re worried about the economy, remember, more millionaires were made per capita during the Great Depression than any other time in American history.
2. Exercise – The number one thing that can keep your body in a positive vibration is exercise. Set aside at least 20 minutes per day to move. Even if it’s just a short 10 minute walk twice a day, the extra blood flow and endorphins will keep you energized and improve your mood. If you feel like you can’t shut your mind off, find some great music and listen to your iPod while you exercise.
3. Quiet Time – When your body feels over stimulated by everything else around you, it’s especially important to take 5 minutes just to breathe and count all of your blessings. It will seem like you don’t have time, but think what are you willing to give up for 5 minutes so you can create this peace of mind. We often start thinking and analyzing every worst case scenario. But, if we just step back, thought about what was good in our lives, we’d bring more of that to us.

You physically manifest your dominant thoughts, so by thinking negatively, you actually bring more of that to you. If you think positive things, you attract more of that.

You may not have the power to control the conditions, but you always have the power to control your thoughts.

Celebrity trainer, author, inspirational speaker and talk show host, Jeanie Callen Barat “The Fitness Jeanie” transforms your body by transforming your mind. You can try a really effective exercise or nutrition plan, but not until you change your emotions and sabotaging patterns can you ever experience results. To receive a free meditation and workout with The Fitness Jeanie to help you transform your mind, body and spirit, visit www.TheFitnessJeanie.com.

Join the Marketing Fit Studio to learn fresh new tips on how to use social media in a dynamic way.

1. Visibility
2. Credibility
3. Cash Flow

All great reasons, but I would add one more - community. I’m not a huge fan of the word, but creating a place where you belong is another reason why business owners should add social networking to their marketing mix.

I read Seth Godin’s book called Tribes over the weekend. He states that every tribes needs a leader. It’s by leading a tribe, you build visibility, credibility and eventually, cash flow.

By thinking about your community as a tribe, it forces you to lead by encouraging connections, sharing a story and creating an experience. As you get used to giving, sharing and helping, your tribe can’t help but raise your visibility for you and vouch for your credibility.

The result of all this is a cash flow that is effortless. No hard sells, no smarmy marketing tricks. Just a group of people who look to you for advice, follow your lead and share your story to others.

My advice is to focus first on building a community. You can do this by starting a blog or starting your free profile on Twitter or Facebook. Share your story, create an experience and give away your advice. Or, as Seth says in his book:

“Do what you believe in. Paint a picture of the future. Go there. People will follow.”

Join the Marketing Fit Studio to learn fresh new tips on how to use social media in a dynamic way.

It’s a sacrifice.

I watch on TV as coffins come back from Afghanistan containing the body of a young Canadian who has lost their life. Their family stands on the side in tears. A father, a mother, a wife (or a husband), young children. They cry because the person they love walked on a plane, but returned lying in a coffin

I watch the news and see people lining overpasses, saluting the hearse that drives along the Highway of Heroes (the stretch of the 401 between CFB Trenton where all dead soliders are sent to and downtown Toronto where the autopsy is performed).

Civilians waving the Canadian flag, soliders saluting, police officers standing at attention. The scene sends a shiver up and down my spine. It’s real life.

I get reflective. No matter how much I love my country and my way of life, I always ask myself:

“Do I have the courage to leave all that I know and love behind to fight a war? Do I love my country enough to make this sacrifice?”

I think of my dad who served in the Jamaican army. While he was never deployed, I honor his decision to serve his country. One of my uncles fought in the Korean war. I honor his sacrifice.

No matter your feelings about war, just remember that those who fight in it are real people. Men and women with families, feelings and values.

Don’t honor war on this Remembrance Day. Honor lives lived and lost.

Update: Global National reported that MSNBC did a piece on our Highway of Heroes. Very touching to see how Americans reacted to the story. I could find the video clip of the MSNBC news story on their site, but found it here. Watch it.

Join the Marketing Fit Studio to learn fresh new tips on how to use social media in a dynamic way.

The first week wasn’t as bad as I thought. I imagined that I would crave meat all week. That my mouth would salivate at just the thought of deep fried chicken or a well done peppercorn steak.

Neither has happened.

I must admit that I’m not completely vegan. I think I’m more of a vegetarian because:

• I had cheese on a vegetarian pizza on Nov 5th.
• I had French toast twice last week (eggs are the culprit).
• And I had egg in my Pad Thai from Spring Rolls and in my fried rice from Asian Legend.

What have I eaten this week? The common misconception is that a vegan diet is rich in tofu. Well, I’ve had tofu this week, but I’ve also had beans, lots of vegetables and soya products, such as soya ground, soya chunks and soya milk.

Easy Transition

The transition has been relatively easy because:

• I’m lactose intolerant and I don’t consume much dairy anyways, except yougurt and cheese. Not having milk, sour cream or cottage cheese was easy since I don’t consume them.
• I typically eat red meat once a week, so cutting it out completely for my so called vegan diet was simple.
• Being active means that I watch what I put into my body, so I’m used to being selective about what I eat.
• I’ve been exposed to vegetarian foods all my life. I tend to mix my diet with vegetarian dishes, so instead of doing that once a week, it’s now every day.
• I don’t like biting into fruits, so I use a juicer daily and mix different fruits together. Since I was already doing this, it was easy to do more of this as a vegan.

What I Like

What am I enjoying the most about my so called vegan diet?

• I’m not hungry at all. I used to eat 6 small meals a day, but now, I eat 4.
• My last meal is around 6pm and except for some air popped popcorn around 9pm, what I eat for dinner takes me through until the next morning.
• I lost 4 lbs this week alone. It just melted off.
• I feel more alert. I don’t know what it is, but I now have more energy than I did before.
• I see meat, yet my mouth doesn’t water. I even went to my favorite Chinese restaurant over the weekend and my sister ordered my favorite chicken dish. Yet, I didn’t crave it.
• I’m sleeping better. I now tire around 9:30pm and can fall asleep by about 10:30am. This is perfect since I’m at the gym by 6am 4 mornings a week.

What I Don’t Like

There are some drawbacks:

• I miss cheese, especially old cheese and yougurt. I tried soya cheese, but it tasted gross. My sister has given me a tofu, cashew, frozen fruit recipe that’s just like yougurt, so I’m going to give it a try.
• I had a problem with flatuence. It would go on for almost 12 hours. I cured that problem with Beano and so far, it’s working.
• I now have to plan my meals for the week. Lots of work involved in shopping for lentils, beans, tofu and then grinding them into pastes and liquids for the week. Of course, working from home makes this easier to do, but now I have to fit food preparation into my daily schedule.

Action for Week 2

This week, I’m going to add a little bit more variety to my vegan diet. I’m going to add more nuts to my foods and I’m going to try and cut out eggs from my foods.

Also, I’m going to check out the Toronto Vegetarian Association website based on a referral from my Twitter pal, Angela del Buono.

If you have any vegan resources, eg associations, receipes, etc. do post your links in the comments area below.

photo courtesy estaticist

Join the Marketing Fit Studio to learn fresh new tips on how to use social media in a dynamic way.

I’m a featured guest expert on a call with Michael Port and Elizabeth Marshall, authors of The Contrarian Effect: Why it Pays (Big) to Take Typical Sales Advice and Do the Opposite. This book was just nominated for Amazon’s Best of 2008 top business books.

This is not your typical virtual book tour. While you will learn great strategies from The Contrarian Effect, it’s not a call to just pitch the book. Michael and Elizabeth are interviewing me and Nancy Marmolejo, CEO of Viva Visibility, about the specific strategies we use to sell the contrarian way, so you’ll get lots of value from this call.

There are tons of other featured experts on this book tour. Here’s just a sample of the ones I know:

• Scott Stratten
• Shama Hyder
• Pam Slim
• Jill Konrath
• Debbie Weil
• David Meerman Scott
• John Jantsch
• Beth Schneider
• Sarah Robinson
• Andrea J Lee
• Jason Alba
• Michael Gerber
• Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero
• Sandy Grason
• Terri Levine
• David Frey
• Frank Rumbauskas

For the full list of experts (yes there’s more) and to get the call-in details for the call I’ll be featured on, click here for more information.

Join the Marketing Fit Studio to learn fresh new tips on how to use social media in a dynamic way.

When I first started using social media in 2004, I was wasting alot of time. It took getting into debt before I realized that there must be a better way.

Well, there is and I’d like to share it with you. I found the blueprint that has helped me and my clients master social media. I have helped my clients use social media to:

• Appear on talk shows without sending out press releases.
• Release their fears about social media to open up new profit centers.
• Get tons of speaking gigs without sending out speaking proposals.
• And many other exciting results

If you want to learn the 7 simple ways that you can create your social media marketing blueprint so you can create your own success, I invite you to click here to grab the call-in details.

Join the Marketing Fit Studio to learn fresh new tips on how to use social media in a dynamic way.

Barb Wilson, director of the Oakville chapter of Women in a Home Office (WHO), has invited me to share the Marketing Fit story with her members.

I love speaking to the WHO crowd. So bubbly, friendly and eager to learn new things. Anne Stone, the Founder of WHO, has done some wonderful things with her association.

If you’re in the Oakville area, you’re more than invited to come out and attend. It’s $20 for members, $30 for non-members. Details on the location and how to pay are here.

Join the Marketing Fit Studio to learn fresh new tips on how to use social media in a dynamic way.