Lisa Barwise presents VIVA Systems

3 Things you should know if you are starting a business in Belfast

2011-12-14T12:24:00.004Z

My current hometown, Belfast, is a great place to start a business. In all the countries and cities I have lived in, I find people in Belfast are very entrepreneurial. A people with a great work ethic and a friendly and open nature makes Belfast, Northern Ireland a great place to open your doors to your new venture, for the full article please go to www.lisabarwise.com.

Top 10 health tips for having a super festive Christmas

2011-12-12T20:42:00.000Z

The festive season is a time for celebration and family time but it can also bring with it stress, over indulging and well the usual winter sniffles and colds that get passed around. In fact, this time a year we can put our bodies under so much stress that we spend the first two-three months in the New Year just trying to recover. Follow just a few of these steps and you can enter the New Year with a fiery spirit!

So here are 10 health tips at Christmas Time

1. Get your dancing shoes on

Keep active during the festive season and help work off the extra calories. Try going for a brisk walk at lunchtime or why not have some fun and dance away the calories at the Christmas party!

2. Stub it out!

Give up smoking and help your heart. New Year is a good time to do this and after the expense of Christmas, it's easier on your pocket too.

3. Avoid the Fat

It can be difficult to avoid high-fat food choices at this time of year, but there are some healthier options you can include on the buffet table if you’re entertaining.

Healthy examples include vegetable sticks with low fat yoghurt or tomato based dips and sandwiches with lower fat fillings, like sliced egg and tomato or low fat spreadable cheese with roasted vegetables.

4. Cut down

The recommended maximum amount of salt per day for adults is 6g (or about 1 teaspoon). So go easy with the crisps, salted nuts and other nibbles.

It’s also worth getting into the habit of reading the food labels, such as those on pre-prepared party foods, to help you choose the healthiest options.

5. Eat more fruit and vegetables

It has been proven that a diet rich in fresh, raw fruits and vegetables can maintain heart health even when consuming high fat foods.

Fruit makes a great snack which can be eaten anytime of the day. Don’t head off to the work party hungry, as you are likely to be tempted by the less healthy options and may find you eat more than you normally would.

Instead, have a healthy snack beforehand such as an apple or a pear, low fat yogurt with dried fruit or a fruit smoothie which will take the edge off your hunger and helping you to make better choices.

Accompanying your high fat meals with a fresh side salad and fresh fruit salad can make it easier for your body to digest and is easier on your heart.

6. Festive cheer

Keep within sensible alcohol limits which is no more than 3-4 units a day for men and no more than 2-3 units a day for women. Try alternating alcoholic drinks with water or pure, unsweetened fruit juice.

7. Chill out

The build up to Christmas can be stressful and it can cause us to slip back into unhealthy behaviours, such as smoking and drinking more.

So take time out to relax, spend some time with friends or go for a stroll in the park and help reach your 30 a day physical activity target at the same time.

8. Get some sleep

We know Christmas is all about having fun, eating and drinking, but research has shown that the a cold or other seasonal snuffle.

Your body and brain recharge when you're under the covers and also fight off infections. Try drinking a warm drink before bed, and, if you've been up or out partying, make sure you give yourself time to wind down and switch off before jumping into bed.

9. Eat a good breakfast

It's even more important than usual to eat a good breakfast at this time of the year. It's more likely that people who regularly eat breakfast also make good dietary choices the rest of the day.

While any breakfast may be better than no breakfast, there are some foods you might want to avoid because they're high in sugars, sodium, saturated fats and calories. Cut back on sugary cereals (over 5.0 grams per serving), high-calorie pastries, and meats like bacon and sausage that are high in saturated fat and sodium.

Breakfast should include protein and plenty of fiber; the combination will help satisfy your hunger and will keep you feeling full until lunch time. The protein can come from low-fat meat, eggs, nuts or dairy products. High-fiber foods include fruits, vegetables and whole grains. A healthy breakfast doesn't need to be extravagant or take a long time to prepare. Try something simple like a hard boiled egg, whole grain toast and 100% fruit juice. And there's nothing wrong with a bowl of whole-grain cereal with berries and low-fat milk.

If you really don't like to eat breakfast, you can split it up into two smaller meals. Eat a hard boiled egg at home, and an hour or two later, take a break from work and snack on an apple and a handful of healthy nuts like pecans or walnuts.

10. Drink lots of water

Being dehydrated can sap your energy and make you feel tired -- even mild dehydration of as little as 1 or 2 percent of your body weight. If you're thirsty, you're already dehydrated -- and this can lead to fatigue, muscle weakness, dizziness and other symptoms. Another symptom of dehydration is headaches. In fact, often when we have headaches it's simply a matter of not drinking enough water. There are lots of other causes of headaches of course, but dehydration is a common one. Drinking water can clear up your skin and people often report a healthy glow after drinking water. It won't happen overnight, of course, but just a week of drinking a healthy amount of water can have good effects on your skin.

TEAM VIVA: Welcome Aboard!

2011-11-14T19:46:00.001Z

Hello there and welcome to Team VIVA. Lisa Barwise's JP+ Team...

If you are reading this blog post you are either:

1. A new member of Team VIVA wanting to start on the path to becoming your own boss

2. An existing member of Team VIVA wanting ideas, tips and motivation to make more money with your business

3. Or someone looking for a new opportunity...

Well, there are many resources here for you:

1. Request access to the Team VIVA resource on Dropbox

2. Request a 1-2-1 phone call to work you through the back end admin

3. Request a call from me to discuss your new potential opportunity.

Here's to that new lifestyle, new you, new direction and new friends!

Lisa

You may be fit but are you healthy?

2011-11-09T14:29:00.001Z

The World Health Organization defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." To fully answer the question, then, you may chose to refine it to:

"What is the difference between Physical Health and Physical Fitness?"
Even within these parameters, Fitness is one component of Health. And in turn, Fitness has a number of components: "Fit for what?" Endurance, strength, and flexibility are three components of Fitness.

Generally, though, Fitness can be defined as the capacity to do effort, work or exercise. Physical Health might be defined as the resistance to illnesses; the capacity of your immune system, but even within the confines of Physical Health, it is not just "the absence of disease or infirmity"

To extend this to the original answer, health might be thought of as the ability of your body to recover from diseases like a cold, but it is so much more than that. Alternately, fitness might be seen as your ability to recover from doing strenuous exercise (the quicker your heart rate gets back to normal, the fitter you are), but it, too, is much more than that. Fitness is one aspect of Health, generally mediated through the fitness of your heart and circulatory system, lungs, and muscles. So, you can be fit but not healthy AND you can be healthy but not fit.

How would you like to be both?

Dave O’Brien, endurance athlete, International speaker on health is the oldest man, and one of only 30 people to complete the 4 Deserts- Racing the Planet.

He asks. “YOU MAY BE FIT BUT ARE YOU HEALTHY ?”

Dave O’Brien is an extraordinary person with a unique perspective on exercise, nutrition and health. Empowering people to take more ownership and responsibility of their health and that of their families.

A Story about real life, extreme challenges and life beyond the comfort zone

- The Desert Runner’s Movie -
Imagine you’ve been dropped off in the middle of one of the largest, driest deserts in the World. Over the next six days you will have to run, jog, walk or crawl 155 miles through the incessant heat (up to 50 degrees centigrade), across soft sand and hard-packed gravel, over sand dunes multiple stories high and down razor-sharp rocky cliffs. You must do this carrying everything you need to survive — clothes, food, sunscreen, emergency medical supplies, sleeping bag — in a 20-pound pack on your back.

Now imagine doing this not just once, but four times in one calendar year, through the four most treacherous deserts in the world: the Atacama Desert in Chile, the Gobi Desert in China, the Sahara in Egypt… and then, the final stage, a 150-mile footrace across the single most inhospitable landscape in the world: Antarctica. The race organisers have strategically chosen these four deserts because they are (respectively) the driest, windiest, hottest and coldest places on Earth.

Any single race in RacingThePlanet’s 4Desert Ultramarathon Series is an extraordinary, life-threatening challenge– something we would only expect the most accomplished, elite athletes on the planet to try. But most of the courageous men and women who come from all over the world to compete in these Herculean events are not professional athletes at all, they’re ordinary people—people with families and day jobs and mortgage payments– people like you and me who have decided, for a variety of personal reasons, to take on this extreme physical challenge.

Why do they do it? Are they crazy? Perhaps…
Dave O’Brien, the oldest man at 56, and only Irish man to complete this superhuman feat is an extraordinary person with a unique perspective on exercise, nutrition and health. Learn what he has to share with us based on his remarkable career when he visits us in Belfast on Thursday 17th November at 7.30pm at Ramada Encore Hotel.

How to Make an Ebook for FREE

2011-11-09T13:07:00.001Z

Create PDF eBooks

Give your eBooks away as a viral marketing tool or sell them on the Internet the regular way or through your own members only website.
There is no doubt that ebooks are an excellent online money maker and a great viral marketing tool because they increase website traffic.

1. Write Or Acquire Some Content

Anything you know how to do can be created into an information product. I mean anything! Anything you know about or how to do is a topic which you can write about.

Write Your Own

This is the best Free content because you control the distribution rights. It can be a few page report or as long as you like. The size of the product will depend on how much information is needed to explain what is in your brain.

Never try to increase the size of your product for the sake of increasing it's size to add perceived value. The value is in the information I want to discover. I want you to tell me how to do it and I want you to get to the point.

Get Free Content

To get moving quickly, you can get content that is in the public domain. When a title is in the public domain, it means that the copyright has expired. There are many public domain sources on the Internet. Take care when taking public domain works. The work itself will be in the public domain but the website HTML is not.

Private Label Content (PLR) is also an excellent source of pre-written material for your eBook projects. PLR content is an excellent alternative to Public Domain content because it is supplied in a digital format with a Resale Rights license.

In all cases, you can re-write the content and put your name as the author. PLR content is much easier to source than public domain content. Many Internet marketers today compile a series of PLR articles into an eBook with their own title. Then they create another eBook telling people how they got rich on the Internet selling eBooks!

Many affiliate programs now offer Free content to help their affiliates be more successful.
I have also used reports from my old Reprint Rights 2000 CD. While there is a lot of out dated information on these CD's, there are reports that will always remain timeless.

Timeless information includes information on business, advertising, customer service, life and happiness, cook books, formulas, philosophy, gambling systems, etc.

2. Build Your Pages

Build Pages From Word and Other Office Applications

Office applications like Word, Excel, Publisher, Access and Powerpoint can all be used to create a PDF eBook as long as you have Adobe Acrobat Full Version installed on your machine. Take note that the regular Free version of Adobe Acrobat Reader will not create PDF eBooks.

Macs have a PDF writer built into all word processing documents and provide quality PDFs with accessible links.

The biggest benefits in having your eBooks in PDF (Portable Document File) format (file-name.pdf) is that both Windows and Mac users can read your eBooks, the file sizes are much smaller and more people will download them because they do not have the .exe extention.

The biggest drawback to distributing PDF eBooks is that affiliate links become visible when the mouse hovers over the link. This is not a problem with compiled HTML eBooks because the status bar can be removed from the eBook.

Warning:

the document

white papers

Here is one site I found that will take you through the process step by step...
http://www.richkits.com/how-to-make-your-own-ebooks-for-free/

How to Make Money Online

2011-11-09T12:53:00.001Z

Get rich with the flick of a switch?

“Ways to make money online”, search for it and you’ll find hundreds of them. Some are legitimate and real methods for making money online and others are scams and get rich quick schemes. Although there are so many different ways to make money on the internet, making money online isn’t always easy or quick. It takes hard work and dedication. Yes, there are some online jobs that are easier than others and there are some quick(er) ways to make money, but if you want to make real money, you have to put some time and effort into it.

Earning money online is no different than making money offline. If you want to work at home, you need to have the right mind set. Forget about making money with a push of a button, free money or the magic money making method that is going to get you rich over night. Though internet itself is a virtual world, there is nothing virtual about the need to work to make money online.

Earning money online takes hard work and consistency. But, if you are willing to put enough time and effort into it, there are number of ways you can use the internet to make extra money. Here are a few:

Making Money with Affiliate Programs 
This is by far the best way to make money online, at least in my opinion. You are basically selling other people’s stuff for a commission. You can find digital products like e-books and short reports to promote on sites like ClickBank and PayDotcom. Affiliate Marketing for beginners.

Make Money on eBay 
Believe it or not, there are lots of people who don’t know how to sell on ebay. You can sell their stuff on ebay in exchange for a commission. You can take this one step farther and turn it into a bigger business by buying wholesale items and selling them individually on ebay. Don’t forget that garage sales are often good places to find worthy items for a fraction of the cost. eBay for beginners.

Create and Sell E-Books or Programs
You can make e-books about anything. If you have some knowledge about anything, whether its a recipe or a how to do this and that. Its not as hard as you think. You can take that step further and create a DIY program. Look at some e-books that are selling for £10-£50 to get an idea what people are willing to buy. How to make an ebook for free

For full details, more free articles, visit our website www.vivasystems.co.uk.

Selling on E-bay

2011-11-09T12:46:00.000Z

There are many different ways to make money online. some online money making methods like Affiliate Marketing are so profitable that can become your home based business and your only source of income you will ever need, and some like Paid surveys not so profitable, but can still help you make couple hundred dollars a month, which in this south going economy is very much appreciated. with the rise of internet popularity which is growing tremendously, an online based business can be as profitable as ever. some of these online money making methods will require some investment and some don’t. but either way many of these online money making strategies can be quit profitable if done right. an example of such a method that doesn’t require a big investment and can be quit profitable is selling on Ebay.

Ebay is by far the most well-known online based action site. using the already established reputation of Ebay, you can build an online business that can make you more money than you could ever imagine.

There are many successful Ebay sellers who used Ebay as a platform to launch their home based business. but in order to succeed in building a home based business that will be a great source of revenue, such as an Ebay store, you need to take some very crucial steps that will prepare you for the road ahead. it may take some time to go through the process, but it will ensure your success in making more money with Ebay or any other online based business built on the idea of buying low and selling high. lets take a look at 3 of the most essential and important steps you can take to make your online business a success.

1. Research And Find A Profitable Niche
This is the most important part of any successful business. researching and finding what product or service can convert. you need to find a product or products that are hot and are in great demand. this is not very hard to do. keeping an eye on what sales the most on Ebay, and using their seller research tools, will allow you to easily find what kind of product are hot sellers and in great demand. of course not any product is going to be profitable. that is where you have to combine this part with the step 3 to find a product that can bring you bigger profit than others.

2. Find legitimate Wholesale/Drop ship Companies
After deciding what kinds of product you are going to be selling, its time to find a place where you can buy the products at a wholesale price. this step is by far the most difficult challenge in your journey to running a successful Ebay store, finding a legitimate and trust worthy Wholesale/Drop ship Company. while a simple search on Google reviles hundreds of wholesaler and drop shipper from all over the world in any niche imaginable, 80% of those are not trustworthy companies. scam in wholesale industry is quit a big problem. while scammers can be all over the world, for a beginner i recommend choosing a company that is located in united stats(or any country that you live in), so you can track their business easier and make sure they are legitimate.

3. Start Small And Grow
After deciding your product and finding a legitimate wholesaler, who you can trust to buy large quantities of the chosen item, it is time to get started. but you want to start slow and build up as you go. don’t make the mistake of many beginners who spend all of their money on buying case loads of stock before they even know how eBay works. starting small and building up gradually is an important aspect of any successful business. not only it keeps your risk to a minimum, but also it allows you to test the water and get your feet wet before you take a plunge into it. many power sellers on Ebay agree that this method is the best way to learn and grow your Ebay business, while keeping the risk involved at a minimal level. you will be surprised how much you learn and grow by selling just a couple items at a time. build on that and take your Ebay business to the next level.

Tip
An important part of any business, specially a home based business based on Ebay, is being organized and documenting each and every transaction you make. that will allow you to keep track of your progress, which can contribute greatly in your success as you will be able to look back and find your high’s and low’s.

Ebay can make your dream of having your own online business come through, if you put enough effort and persistency into it. The 21st century is going to make the use of internet, a normal and even a bigger part of daily lives of people around the world who are becoming more and more comfortable with the idea of shopping online. thanks to many great ideas such as Ebay, for a smart person who is trying to build a great foundation for rest of his financial life, making money online has never bee easier. fallowing these three basic but essential steps will guaranty your spot amongst many others who make a living by taking advantage of ever increasing online shopping popularity, and building a solid online business that can bring you thousands of dollars, month after month.

A Beginner's Guide to Affilate Marketing

2011-11-03T20:07:00.001Z

To a beginner, affiliate marketing may sound like a complicated and though to master money making method. But the truth is affiliate marketing is far from being complicated. In fact it’s one of the easiest online money making methods to understand and execute. Affiliate marketing is simply the middle man concept, that has moved from the brick and mortar markets to the digital online market, and found a new identity. It’s a simple yet powerful way to make money online, in which the affiliate (middle man) earns a commission in return for generating sales/leads.

Using affiliate marketing, the seller is expanding his chances of success by reaching more potential buyers through the efforts of his affiliates, and the affiliates make money by selling a ready product, without having to take any risk by investing any of his own money. While it takes some general knowledge and hard work to be a successful affiliate marketer, the one thing that set affiliate marketing apart from other online money making opportunities is the fact that it doesn’t require any special skills or years of training to make money as an affiliate marketer.

Just like any new job or skill, as a beginner affiliate marketer you will face many challenges, but if you truly follow these 3 simple steps, you are sure to succeed as an affiliate marketer.

Choose A Niche
The first step is to find a niche in which you are interested and/or passionate about. Like any other job, doing what you enjoy is an important factor in your success. You can use search engines and online forums to find what people are buying or taking about. Pick one and stick with it. Jumping from niche to niche will not get you far. An example of hot and profitable niche would be the diet and weight loss niche.

Find A Product To Promote
Now that you know what kind of market you are going to promote in, it’s time to find a high paying, easily marketable product to promote. This can be done by using affiliate marketing networks such as Clickbank,Commission Junction and etc. Register with some of these sites for free, and search their marketplace for the kind of product you are looking for. Upon getting accepted, you will be given a special link with your own affiliate id encrypted in it, which any time someone uses that link to go to the merchant’s sale page and buy the product, you will be paid a commission. Keep in mind that using more than one affiliate marketing networks, gives you a better opportunity for finding many different related product, since not all merchants use the same AMN to find affiliates. An example of a good product for diet and weight loss niche is obviously a diet plan, fitness program, e-book, gym membership and etc.

Promote And Promote
Here comes the last but most important step for making money with affiliate marketing, promotion. Now that you have your niche and product picked, you need to find ways to promote the product you chose. This can be done in many ways. You can either setup a website or a blog and start driving traffic to your site. You can also use a review site, where you write reviews and articles for a product is a simple yet effective way of promoting a product through your site/blog. Article marketing is another great way to promote products and services.

Another way would be to use sites like yahoo answers or e-how and such to answer or write how-tos related to your niche, and including your special affiliate link in it. Considering how many millions of people use these sites everyday, it is the easiest and fastest way to promote a product. In fact this is the number one way seasoned affiliate marketers use to make money. Because it’s a very targeted market.

Meaning since you are answering questions related to your niche, the people who ask the questions are most likely already looking for such product. Plus it’s totally free, since you don’t have to buy your own website. Also, since these sites are already getting huge amounts of daily traffic, you don’t have to worry about driving traffic to them. Instead you can focus all of your efforts on writing good articles that will lead people to buy products your promoting.

Affiliate marketing requires a lot of time and effort, but if you are persistence enough and are willing to put enough time and effort into it, the rewards are great. After all affiliate marketing is one of the oldest and best ways to make money online.

Sales is persuasion

2011-11-03T13:38:00.002Z

Sales is persuasion. Everyone sells something every day, and often many times a day. The techniques that you use to inform and persuade others are extensively developed in professional salespeople, but everyone can use them.

Persuasion: the Basics

Persuasion is the skill of guiding people toward making a decision.

Whether you are a real estate or cars salesperson, a retail assistant, or a rather nervous suitor, persuasion can help you get your message across and, possibly, accepted by another — a transaction.

You can persuade others by appealing to their reasoning, their emotions, or both. Besides verbal persuasion, there are other ways to help get your point across.

Appeal to Reason

Reason is a description or explanation. It's the facts. When buying a product or service, purchasers want to know what it is, how it works, and what benefits they will derive. You, as a customer, want to know this. Your customers do, too. Depending on what you are selling — a simple product, a complex service, or a concept — you can appeal to others by using various types of reasoning, such as logic, rhetoric, and proof. Following are some examples to illustrate.

Logic: “You want something that will clean stubborn stains on enamel and XYZ has been proven in scientific tests to clean enamel easier and better than any other stain cleaner.”

Rhetoric: “XYZ is the best stain fighter available.”

Proof: “Let's test XYZ on this stubborn stain.”

These simple examples offer three ways that you can appeal to a person's reasoning to help you convince them of the validity of your facts. You probably recognize these phrasings from the thousands of ads that bombard you daily. That's because advertising, too, uses persuasion.

Appeal to Emotion

Emotion is a strong human feeling, such as love, hate, anger, fear, and compassion. Salespeople and other persuaders often use emotional appeals to help make a sale. Should they? That depends on what is being sold. Selling real estate, for example, involves the buyer's reasoning, of course, but it also is an emotional purchase. So it's appropriate to use emotional appeals to help sell a home. It isn't an appropriate tactic for selling industrial control valves.

Emotional appeals are frequently used in advertising, religion, propaganda, and sex. For example:

“Imagine living in the nicest home on the block.”

“Find full acceptance at our church.”

“Immigrants are taking over our jobs.”

“Buy me a drink?”

Many consumers still consider appeals to their emotions as primary elements in their decisions to buy. However, a growing number of educated consumers expect salespeople to only use emotional appeals when they are appropriate to the product or service, and they will stop buying if the appeal is inappropriate.

Aids to Persuasion
The art of persuasion is highly developed and utilizes a variety of tools to make the sale. Voice control is one of the most important to the seller. The voice can be used to help persuade customers with reason as well as with emotion. Voice is a primary tool in telephone sales, as well as body language.

You'll also need to understand common personality types and how to persuade them.

Whatever type of customer you serve and whatever type of sales job you have, the art of appropriate persuasion will be one of your greatest sales tools.

How can I find out more about the Art of Persuasion:

Books I like:
How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie(ask me about my Book Club on this book)
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

Online Resources for Influence
http://www.changingminds.org/

The Power of Branding

2011-11-01T17:52:00.000Z

A brand is the visual, emotional, rational, and cultural image that you associate with a company or a product. Here are some well-known branding examples.
When you think Volvo, you might think safety. When you think Nike, you might think of Tiger Woods or "Just Do It." When you think IBM, you might think "Big Blue." The fact that you remember the brand name and have positive associations with that brand makes your product selection easier and enhances the value and satisfaction you get from the product or service.

While Brand X cola, or even Pepsi-Cola, may win blind taste tests over Coca Cola, the fact is that more people buy Coke than any other cola and, most importantly, they enjoy the experience of buying and drinking Coca Cola. The fond memories of childhood and refreshment that people have when they drink Coke is often more important than a little bit better cola taste. It is this emotional relationship with brands that make them so powerful.
A brand is not just a logo, ad campaign, spokesperson or slogan. Rather a brand is a product of the millions of experiences a company creates with employees, vendors, reporters, communities, and customers—and the emotional feelings these groups develop as a result of their experiences.

A brand is the sum of all the characteristics that make your offering unique:
• Reputation
• Customer Service
• A Promise
• Price
• Feeling
• Attitude
• Logo
• Product Line

Every business has a brand, whether they like it or not, whether they realize it or not, whether or not they have an expensive ad campaign or a new logo. A company has a brand whether it’s selling bread, beer, oxygen cylinders, accounting services, or chemicals. Even cities and geographic areas have brands – think New York, Los Angeles, Cape Cod and Detroit. Some cities have such a strong brand identities that they have products named after them to leverage this image—like South Beach Diet, LA Fitness.

Your business has a brand. It’s the sum of everything your organization is, says, and does.

The only question is, are you in control of your brand? When you are, your image will be clear and your results will be consistent. When you aren’t in control of your brand, the marketplace will let you know. You can see it for yourself with companies like AOL. They placed much emphasis on an initial push for consumer business which resulted in big sales, but whose service wasn’t able to keep up with the demand they created. Until AOL built greater capacity the results were dissatisfaction–even anger from consumers diminished trust.

Branding = Trust
Consumers—whether for business or personal products or services—select brands they believe will serve them best, even if that brand is priced at a premium.
American Express, for instance, has created a culture of service that provides so much perceived brand value that many consumers are willing to pay more for “privilege” to use the card. The success of the personal card has allowed AMEX to continue to grow and create new brand extensions: Gold, Platinum, Blue, Plum, and Black. These extensions already have an advantage in the minds of consumers before they are even launched because they carry the AmEx brand.

Here are more brands that command a premium: Starbucks – you’re buying a lifestyle, an image, the cache; Mercedes Benz – engineering, quality, performance, consumer service. I’m sure you can think of plenty of others.

Toyota shares all of these attributes and in some cases provides better quality than Mercedes, so why isn’t it seen as a direct competitor? Toyota isn’t positioned as a premium brand in the minds of consumers. What did they do to compete in this market segment? They created a premium brand: Lexus. Both Toyota and Lexus brands share engineering, chassis, design elements – the brand is what differs in the minds of the consumer.

The branding goes beyond the vehicle – you find branding in everything that Lexus does:
• the way the salesperson first approaches you in the showroom
• how he/she is dressed (in a suit vs. Saturn salespeople in polos)
• the layout of the showroom
• the choice of building materials and interiors—slate floors, leather chairs
• the waiting areas
• the cleanliness of service areas
• the branding of Lexus continues after the sale

Lexus has received JD Power’s highest customer satisfaction rating for years. Now, this isn’t simply because Lexus has so many fewer problems than BMW or Audi or Mercedes, but it is due to the level of customer service – this is how Lexus extends its brand – through a brand experience.

Powerful branding makes for a strong brand experience

Mc Donald’s
o Fast Service
o Consistent Food Taste and Quality
o Consistent Pricing

NetFlix
o Convenience
o Service
o Speed
o Cost

Ritz-Carlton Hotels
o Hotel Design
o Location
o Customer Service
o Restaurants
o Quality of Products In-Room

Think about how your business could control and strengthen its brand through the brand experience. In order for your company to build its brand, it must strategically set a level of expectations through consistency of…

• Customer service
• Customer acquisition process
• Messaging (including your voice and tone)
• Customer touch-points
• Marketing and communications

Understanding your brand starts with discovery
When you go looking, you’re much like a gold prospector—often discovering assets that are already there: valuable attributes and ideas that exist deep inside the business, but have not been brought to light. Of course you could also find our share of fool’s gold: attributes and attitudes that hinder the good experience you want your audience to have with your company. As the process of discovery goes on, it becomes easier and easier to see the attributes that make your brand uniquely valuable and to determine which aspects of your business aren’t in alignment.

The first step in discovery is to understand which audiences are important to your company and what each of their experiences has actually been. What is your business doing, saying, and how is it acting? Is this in alignment with what makes your brand special? Where are you missing opportunities and where are there potential contradictions? This will help you learn what to capitalize on and what to correct.

What makes up a brand identity?
A typical brand identity includes a brand name, positioning statement, category descriptor, organizational values, brand archetype, and the brand's key purchase factors with their tangible and emotional benefits (brand associations).
A good brand name gives a good first impression, is easy to remember, and evokes positive associations with the brand. The positioning statement tells, in one sentence, what business the company is in, what benefits it provides, and why it is better than the competition. Imagine you're in an elevator and you have 30 seconds to answer the question, "What business are you in?" The category descriptor lets your customers know what "hook" to put your branding on in their mind or where to file your business in their “mental Rolodex”.

Linking your internal business values with your brand builds trust with your customers. Brand archetype and personality adds emotion, culture, and myth to the brand identity by the use of a famous spokesperson (Bill Cosby - Jello), a character (the Pink Panther for Owens-Corning insulation), an animal (the Merrill Lynch bull), or an image (You're in good hands with Allstate).

Ensuring Long-Term Branding Success
So many businesses will invest a tremendous amount of time and effort to develop their brand and think they are done. But they’ve just begun. The most important, fundamental thing a company has to do over time is to ensure that the experience its audiences will get from the organization will be consistent with the brand. This is called managing the brand.

You can spend a lot of money and time in communicating your brand, but unless your employees deliver the brand the right way, it’s a waste. A business with a healthy brand is one where every employee understands what the brand is about and their role in delivering that brand. Never underestimate your staff – they are the ones who deliver your brand to the world.

The Secret to Creating a USP that sets you apart from the Competition

2011-11-01T17:47:00.000Z

If you’ve studied marketing at all, chances are you’ve run across the phrase Unique Selling Proposition, or USP. That’s because having a strong USP is critical to marketing your business effectively.

You see, your USP is what sets you apart from the competition.

It’s the reason why—all other things being equal—someone would choose to do business with you instead of the guy down the street. It is also the reason someone should buy your product or service over anyone else’s.

If you can’t tell your prospects why what you offer is different—or better—than the competition, they have no reason to buy from you other than price. And price is not a good differentiating factor. Because, thanks to the Internet, there is almost always someone out there who is cheaper than you.

Unfortunately, a lot of entrepreneurs don’t understand what makes a USP effective. So they end up focusing on a “USP” that isn’t really unique at all.

Let me give you an example…

I have a client who’s a chiropractor. With six other chiropractic clinics within a two-mile radius, he really needs something to differentiate him from the doctor literally down the street.
So I scheduled a brainstorming meeting with my client and his staff to talk about what they provide that might be both different, and valuable, to his target market.

Throughout the meeting, everyone kept throwing out features like:

Convenient hours
In-house X-Ray machine
Relaxed, kid-friendly atmosphere
Treatments for infants through elderly
Payment plans
Emergencies seen same-day
The staff has a pleasant, upbeat energy
The doctor has 12 years of experience
On-site massage therapist
They use special exercises to strengthen and loosen your spine before adjustments

Of course, my client was positive that convenience and experience were what made him unique and worth choosing over his competition. And at first glance, it seems like could be true.

Except for one problem…

Nothing on the list was any different from what the other chiropractors were already doing and marketing. He was simply not going to stand out from the competition.

How do I know? Because I spent an hour doing a very simple competitive analysis.
I called all the other clinics in the area with a short list of questions, and took a quick look at their Websites and Yellow Pages ads. Then I compiled all the information into a basic spreadsheet.

The result?

At a glance I could tell that every single thing my client was so sure made him different, didn’t. In fact, every chiropractor I talked to offered, and advertised, the exact same services and conveniences.
What would have happened if I hadn't taken the time to survey of the competition? We would have wasted a ton of time and money on marketing that was not going to make his practice stand out from the crowd.

The bottom line is; a competitive analysis is one of the most valuable tools you can use to come up with a USP that drives effective marketing. After all, you can’t be sure what you offer is unique unless you know what everyone else is offering.

You can use this technique to discover all kinds of information that can have a tremendous impact on your marketing—and your success.

How do you do your own competitive analysis?

Start by creating a spreadsheet for all your data either on paper or in Excel.
Down the left side put the names of your competitors. If you don’t know who your competition is, do a quick search online and in your phone book.
Label the columns across the top with all the things you think might be part of your USP, plus columns to list their products and/or services, hours, location, specialties, guarantees, special offers, experience or expertise, and USP (if you can tell what it is).
Visit the competition’s Websites, pick up the phone and call them with a few questions, and look at any advertising and marketing materials you can get your grubby little mitts on.

By the time you finish filling in your spreadsheet you should be able to tell at a glance what makes you different. Once you know your USP, be sure to communicate it in every piece of marketing or advertising you do. Soon you’ll become known for what makes you unique, and people will be dying to get what only you can give them.

Does Exercise Curb Appetite?

2011-10-28T14:22:00.001+01:00

Ever wondered why you get so hungry after exercise? Exercising like a good'n but just can't get those last pounds off?

This is what I found out recently after always being starving after short runs.

Doctors and scientists have known for years that regular exercise can help us lose weight.

Unfortunately though, it’s not a sure thing. Many people exercise regularly, but still struggle to get the weight off and keep it off.

So what’s going on?

Firstly, weight loss is only partly exercise controlled as we know but the ratio may just shock you.

Weightloss is 30% exercise and 70% diet. So exercise is not enough to reach your goal weight and weight loss on diet alone will likely not lead to long-term lifestyle change and increased health and vitality.

Moderate Exercise Stimulates Appetite

It turns out that exercise, especially moderate exercise, such as walking, light jogging or swimming, can actually make it more difficult to lose weight.

Moderate exercise does burn calories, but it also stimulates the appetite, and can lull you into a false sense of security, causing you to eat more calories than you’ve just burned.

It seems that most people tend to overestimate the amount of calories they’ve burned after exercising, eating more than is necessary afterwards.

In one Canadian study, subjects completed a brisk walk which burned a total of 200 calories. When asked to estimate the number of calories they burned, however, they averaged a whopping 825 calories.

This disconnect between estimated calories burned, and actual calories burned, can easily lead to eating more than necessary after exercise, nullifying some of the effects of your hard work.

There is some good news, however.

High Intensity Exercise Curbs Appetite

Intense exercise, that is, exercise where you are breathing hard enough to make conversation difficult, can reduce levels of ghrelin, while raising levels of peptide YY.

Ghrelin is a hormone that stimulates appetite, while peptide YY lowers appetite.
The end effect is that after completing an intense exercise session, most people don’t feel like eating for a while.

Regular exercise also increases the sensitivity of the neurons in your brain, which control the feeling of satiety.

So, consistent exercise sessions can help bring you more in tune with your hunger signals over time.
The more accurately you can sense your hunger, the more accurately you can eat in amounts that reflect your calorie needs.

Of course, regular exercise has very significant health benefits, apart from hunger regulation.
It boosts your mood, builds muscle tone, improves your oxygen uptake, and keeps your muscles and joints strong and able to function efficiently, amongst other things.

Metabolism Boost

Exercise, especially high intensity exercise, also contributes to what is known as the ‘afterburn effect’.
After an intense workout, your metabolism stays elevated for a period of time. Your heart and respiration rates take a while to return to normal, and the muscle tissue which have been broken down during the workout, need to be repaired.

These processes require energy, which has to come from your body’s glycogen or fat stores.
This effect can burn up to about 100 extra calories, in addition to the energy used from your workout.

Don’t Overestimate

Just be careful you don’t use this as an excuse to eat more. 100 calories is roughly the amount of calories in half a chocolate bar, a large apple or small banana.

So to sum it up, intense exercise can reduce your appetite in the hour or so immediately following your workout. And, consistent exercise, can refine your sense of hunger, giving you more accurate feedback regarding your true energy needs.

Just be careful that you don’t use exercise as an excuse to overeat. It is very easy to find yourself consuming more calories than you burn.

The bottom line:
Skip the cool-down nibble. Doing that five times a week will saves you up to 500 calories. That’s the equivalent of the spin class you don’t actually take!

Why Most Smal Businesses Don't Work

2011-10-26T11:51:00.003+01:00

Businesses start and fail in the United Kingdom at an increasingly staggering rate.

For full article go to www.lisabarwise.com

Employee to Self employed: 4 Top Tips for Making the Leap

2011-10-26T11:38:00.005+01:00

The leap from employment to self-employment is a big one. It can seem that you are entering uncharted waters – and many newly self-employed people feel that they are alone in their endeavours.

But you are not alone.

To read the full article go to www.lisabarwise.com

Business Advice

2011-10-21T16:52:00.005+01:00

Everywhere you look, there's someone who wants to give you some type business advice. They want to tell you what product or service you should use, how to use them and what you would benefit from their business advice. Most of these people fall into one of two camps.

To read the full article go to www.lisabarwise.com

Top 10 Ways to Choose a Great Network Marketing Company

2011-10-14T15:00:00.002+01:00

There are a few network marketing opportunities that are just scams. There are far more that may be well-intentioned, but have a poor track record, for any number of reasons. So how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? Here are ten tips to help you pick the right network marketing opportunity for you.

1. Has the company been around for at least 5 years?

If you want the efforts you put in today to pay off for many years in the future, choose a company that has proven that it will be around for the long term. 90% of all network marketing companies FAIL within their first 2 years. You don't want to invest your precious time and resources (not to mention your future) in something that may not be in business next month, do you?

2. Is the company well capitalised?

In other words, does it have the cash that it will need to grow, to maintain a solid infrastructure, to attract talented management, to keep pace with technology — and, of course, to pay your commissions! (I prefer publicly traded companies because they're required to disclose their financial condition in DETAIL every 90 days to the SEC and other governmental agencies. You may not be able to obtain this information on a private company, so you'll be taking a risk on its financial condition.)

3. Does the company offer products or services that are unique?

That is, they're not readily available elsewhere (especially at a discount) and they're not just another "me too" product that has loads of competition.

4. Is there a genuine need for the product or service?

You've probably heard horror stories about people ending up with a garage full of expensive water filters - the reason that happens is because only other distributors will purchase the product at that price! Your product or service must fill a REAL need at a fair price - and there should be a large untapped market for it. In other words, it MUST provide tremendous value, so the customer is the biggest winner.

5. Is the product or service trendy or a fad?

You can't build long term residual income (i.e., your retirement!) if the product or service only has short term appeal (e.g., beany babies, etc.). Think long term instead. Is the product or service something that your customers will continue to use for a long time?

6. Can you generate immediate income?

So that you can finance your marketing and expansion efforts from cash flow.

7. Does the marketing system take full advantage of technology?

Not everyone is a sales type, but ANYBODY can plug into a system and tools that do the selling and sorting for you!

8. Is the person who is introducing you to the opportunity committed to YOUR success?

If they are, the company is strong, and the product or service is a winner, (and, of course, you're willing to learn) you WILL succeed. There's a big difference between a "sponsor" and a "recruiter." A sponsor coaches. motivates and trains and a recruiter just signs people up and in most cases, abandons them.

9. Is there a way to build your business part-time without losing your full time income?

The company must have automated systems that can do the heavy lifting (i.e., selling and sorting) for you so that you can use your limited time efficiently.

10. Will you have FUN?

Although this may not be an element of your current JOB, we think it's important! You should have a lot of fun with your business partners while you work together to build a long term business and your financial army.

So there you have it — ten criteria for selecting a superior network marketing opportunity. Of course, even with a great company, there's no such thing as a free lunch. You WILL have to work! But, with the right opportunity (unlike your job), it won't have to be forever!

The Real Problem with Network Marketing

2011-10-14T13:58:00.000+01:00

HINT: It's not the business model itself

From Scott Allen, former About.com Guide

It never ceases to amaze me the extreme polar views on the topic of network marketing and MLM. Some people are passionate about it in the extreme, and there are even top celebrity authors like Robert Allen, Mark Victor Hansen, and Robert Kiyosaki doing it and advocating it. Yet, in many circles, you might as well declare yourself a leper as admit to being in network marketing.

So, what is the problem with MLM and network marketing?
Maybe it's the pyramid structure? But you can't really take issue with the tiered compensation structure—almost every large sales organization in the world has that. Salespeople get commission, and sales managers get overrides or bonuses on top of that, and sales directors on top of that, and VPs on top of that.

Or maybe it's the fact that you have to pay to participate in it? But that can't be it—that's a standard franchising model. And I assure you, the franchise fee of most traditional franchises dwarf the sign-up cost of any MLM program by comparison.

Now certainly, there are illegal pyramid, or "Ponzi", schemes. This is where the money is all being made off of signing up other people, with little or no real product ever being delivered. But in spite of whatever perceptions people may have, the fact is that Amway, Excel, Meleleuca, PrePaid Legal, USANA, and many others have sold millions upon millions of dollars of products to happy customers, many of whom are NOT also reps. So, there may be a perception problem here, but if so, the perception is out of line with the reality.

But surely the bad reputation MLM'ers has some more basis in fact than the occasional illegal pyramid scheme?
The real problem with MLM is not MLM itself, but some of the people it attracts. Network marketing is just a business model, and it really amounts to "micro-franchising". Its upside is that it has a very low cost of entry, with the potential for exceptional revenue, and there are those who achieve that.
But those same things that make it attractive make it attractive to many who are NOT really qualified or prepared to become business owners. The salient characteristics of MLM make it attractive to people who:

have not done well in their business or profession and have little money saved up to invest
have no previous experience owning or running a business
have no previous experience in sales
have little or no experience developing business relationships other than that of employer/employee/co-worker
are not satisfied with their current level of income
have unrealistic expectations of the amount of work involved compared to the revenue realized

Don't get me wrong—I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with any of these things, or that this describes even a majority of network marketers—only that it describes a disproportionate number of network marketers, and that many of them never do anything about it. As a result, many network marketers end up:

over-selling the opportunity
inappropriately discussing business in social situations
coming across as desperate
over-focused on new recruits and neglecting existing customers as a result
being either inaccurate or deceptive when talking about their business

Again, I'm certainly not saying that this describes a majority of network marketers, but it does describe enough of them to tarnish the reputation of the rest. To pre-judge someone based on the basis of a small minority of people in that group is horribly unfair, but we must realize that most prejudices have some basis in reality, even if it has been distorted.

So what's the solution?

There's a first time for everything. And network marketing/MLM is a great opportunity for people to have their first business, their first sales role, etc. My point is this—recognize it for what it is: it's a business, and you are a business owner. And if you've never owned a business before, if you've never done sales before, if you've never networked before, you need to learn about how to do so, not just from the network marketing/MLM experts, but from established experts in those fields.

Network marketers who are serious about building a business should be reading and learning about business fundamentals, the latest sales and marketing techniques, strategies for networking and business development, etc., not just swapping tips at your team's weekly or monthly meeting. Act like a small business owner, and people will treat you like one.

Vitamin Truths and Lies

2011-10-12T17:46:00.001+01:00

Are you still relying on vitamins to keep you healthy? Learn the truth about which supplements help and which ones you can toss. (From Reader's Digest - April 2010)

Once upon a time, you believed in the tooth fairy. You counted on the stability of housing prices and depended on bankers to be, well, dependable. And you figured that taking vitamins was good for you. Oh, it's painful when another myth gets shattered. Recent research suggests that a daily multi is a waste of money for most people—and there's growing evidence that some other old standbys may even hurt your health. Here's what you need to know.

Myth: A multivitamin can make up for a bad diet
An insurance policy in a pill? If only it were so. Last year, researchers published new findings from the Women's Health Initiative, a long-term study of more than 160,000 midlife women. The data showed that multivitamin-takers are no healthier than those who don't pop the pills, at least when it comes to the big diseases—cancer, heart disease, stroke. "Even women with poor diets weren't helped by taking a multivitamin," says study author Marian Neuhouser, PhD, in the cancer prevention program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle. More...

Myth: Vitamin C is a cold fighter
In the 1970s, Nobel laureate Linus Pauling popularized the idea that vitamin C could prevent colds. Today, drugstores are full of vitamin C–based remedies. Studies say: Buyer, beware. In 2007, researchers analyzed a raft of studies going back several decades and involving more than 11,000 subjects to arrive at a disappointing conclusion: Vitamin C didn't ward off colds, except among marathoners, skiers, and soldiers on subarctic exercises. More...

Myth: Vitamin pills can prevent heart disease
Talk about exciting ideas—the notion that vitamin supplements might help lower the toll of some of our most damaging chronic diseases turned a sleepy area of research into a sizzling-hot one. These high hopes came in part from the observation that vitamin-takers were less likely to develop heart disease. Even at the time, researchers knew the finding might just reflect what's called the healthy user effect—meaning that vitamin devotees are more likely to exercise, eat right, and resist the temptations of tobacco and other bad habits. But it was also possible that antioxidant vitamins like C, E, and beta-carotene could prevent heart disease by reducing the buildup of artery-clogging plaque. B vitamins were promising, too, because folate, B6, and B12 help break down the amino acid homocysteine—and high levels of homocysteine have been linked to heart disease. Unfortunately, none of those hopes have panned out. Instead, the AHA offers some familiar advice: Eat a varied diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. More...

Myth: Taking vitamins can protect against cancer
Researchers know that unstable molecules called free radicals can damage your cells' DNA, upping the risk of cancer. They also know that antioxidants can stabilize free radicals, theoretically making them much less dangerous. So why not take some extra antioxidants to protect yourself against cancer? Because research so far has shown no good comes from popping such pills. More...

Myth: Hey, it can't hurt
The old thinking went something like this—sure, vitamin pills might not help you, but they can't hurt either. However, a series of large-scale studies has turned this thinking on its head, says Demetrius Albanes, MD, a nutritional epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute. Vitamins are safe when you get them in food, but in pill form, they can act more like a drug, Albanes says—with the potential for unexpected and sometimes dangerous effects. More...

Truth: A pill that's worth taking
As studies have eroded the hopes placed in most vitamin supplements, one pill is looking better and better. Research suggests that vitamin D protects against a long list of ills: Men with adequate levels of D have about half the risk of heart attack as men who are deficient. And getting enough D appears to lower the risk of at least half a dozen cancers; indeed, epidemiologist Cedric Garland, MD, at the University of California, San Diego, believes that if Americans got sufficient amounts of vitamin D, 50,000 cases of colorectal cancer could be prevented each year. But many—perhaps most—Americans fall short, according to research by epidemiologist Adit Ginde, MD, at the University of Colorado, Denver. Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin: You make it when sunlight hits your skin. Yet thanks to sunscreen and workaholic (or TV-aholic) habits, most people don't make enough. More...

So here's the Reader's Digest Version of the truth about vitamins: Eat right, and supplement with vitamin D. That's a no-brainer coupled with a great bet—and that's no lie.

For more on this vexing subject:

Nutrients, Not Just Vitamins, Are Key to Anti-Aging

Are Natural Cures Bad for Your Health? (Health magazine, Nov. 2010)

Could a Daily Vitamin Pill Cause Skin Cancer? (Daily Mail, UK, Sept. 2010)

Do Multi-Vitamins Cause Breast Cancer? (Dr. David Katz)

Remember: Juice Plus+ is whole food based nutrition in a capsule or chewable; Juice Plus+ is not a vitamin supplement. Juice Plus+ is also backed by solid research proving that ... it works.

To fully understand the difference between traditional vitamin/mineral supplements and whole food (including Juice Plus+) please watch the video featuring Dr. Richard DuBois below.

The Real Cost of Eating More Fruits & Vegetables

2011-10-12T17:30:00.000+01:00

Let's assume that most of us actually liked eating fruits and vegetables (a BIG assumption since most of us don't even come close; only a quarter to a third get the full recommended daily servings of fruit and vegetables).

Would they even be able to afford it? Because as we showed a few weeks ago, just one individual's daily portion is A LOT of food. A lot of EXPENSIVE food.

There are many ways to get your fruits and vegetables, but few disagree that fresh is best. They taste better and hold on to the most nutrients. Yet, the produce aisle is one of the most expensive sections of the store. Many people I know say one of the biggest deterrents to eating their daily fruit and veggies is the high add-on to their weekly shopping bill. No wonder everyone flocks to the processed food and confectionary aisles instead!

Or ... do we only think it's more expensive? Has anyone actually stopped complaining long enough to figure this out? By eating more roughage, will we be able to reduce our intake of other not-so-good foods and cut costs there? And how hard is it really to eat the full recommended amounts of produce every day? Will we feel and look so much better that it's worth the extra price?

A full investigation was in order. I spent a week carefully tracking my fruit and veggie consumption, trying to eat the full amount of each every day. And then I wrote down exactly how much eat bite cost me.

The bottom line:

I consider myself a healthy eater, but I was still surprised to see how much more fruit and vegetables I should be eating: a third more vegetables and at least twice as much fruit as I usually eat! I haven't been in the habit of snacking on fruit. My produce weekly shop came to £29.02 -- just for me. Throw in extra things for my 5-year-old son and that brings us up to £35.55 just on fruit and vegetables. My family spent about £12 more than usual on fruit and £16 more on vegetables for a total £28 increase on top of our typical £55 per week cost.

So was the extra £28 worth it? Absolutely. First, there's the investment in our health. According to a new documentary, Nourish, we all spend less than 10 percent of our income on food; meanwhile we spend 16 percent of our income on insurances such as our contribution to National Insurance, life insurance and private health insurance. Of course there are many different factors going into the high cost of health care beyond the junk we eat, but our highly-processed, cheap diet is definitely making us sicker. Besides, which of these two would you rather pay more for, food or health care? I don't have a lot of money, so when I do part with my precious funds I'd rather it go to healthy (and delicious) food.

By eating more fruit and vegetables I ate fewer empty calories. This was probably the biggest surprise, but snacking on all that fruit made me lose my appetite for the cookies in my pantry. I found vegetables that pulled double-duty as sources of nutrients and belly-fillers, what would ordinarily be some side starch that adds calories and little more. All in all I felt fed down to my cells, not just "full."

And then there's the joy of eating. The proportions on my plate changed from the traditional meat-starch-veg to meat-veg-veg, from brown and beige to a more vibrant array of colours. Who wouldn't want to eat like this more often?

Calculate how much fruit and vegetables you should be eating at FruitsandVeggiesMatter.

Are you willing to spend more to get more fruits and veggies into your diet?

Almost all of us need some way to bridge between what we actually eat and what we need to eat for good health.

For us Juice Plus+ is that bridge. What's yours? At about £1.10 a day (that's £7.70 a week) an adult could have 26 fruits, vegetables and berries a day, it's terrific value; as each adult can sponsor a child (between 4 yrs. and full-time college age) to get their Juice Plus+ free! So that's only £2.20 a day for a family of 4!

Please watch the video below to fully understand this concept.

How to Beat Stress with Food

2011-10-12T17:12:00.004+01:00

(Daily Press, Newport News, Va.) -- Coming into the holiday season often brings stress along with fun, but certain foods may help your nerves -- without packing on pounds.

"There are foods that really do have calming properties based on how their specific nutrients are used by the body," says Gloria Tsang, a registered dietitian and founder of the online nutrition site HealthCastle.com.

Here are five smart moves:

Work citrus fruits into your meals. These fruits are rich in vitamin C, which research has shown may help lower blood pressure and other physiological reactions during stressful situations. Oranges, grapefruits, lemons, limes and kiwis are all good choices.

Switch to whole-grain carbohydrates. All carbs temporarily boost levels of the "feel-good" brain chemical serotonin, but many of these "comfort foods" -- think cookies and chips -- aren't so good for the rest of you. Go for healthier options such as whole-wheat pastas and whole-grain, air-popped popcorn.

Brew a mug of hot tea. Green, black and white teas have half the caffeine of coffee but offer the same comforting warmth. They also are packed with flavonoids, natural antioxidants that may help blood vessels relax and lower blood pressure (dark chocolate and blueberries are other flavonoid-rich foods).

Pick dark green vegetables. Produce such as broccoli, collard greens, spinach and kale are high in B vitamins, which may help fight anxiety. Research suggests people with low levels of these vitamins are more likely to have depression than those with normal levels.

Snack on nuts. They're also high in B vitamins, as well as magnesium, a mineral involved in production of serotonin. Almonds and cashews are particularly rich sources of magnesium; they're also packed with protein to keep hunger at bay. Just watch your portion sizes.

If you can't, don't, or just won't eat the recommended 5-7 servings of fruits and veggies every day (in a rainbow of colour), then why not let Juice Plus+ bridge the gap? I do and I love it!

The video will really open your eyes.

Runners need more fruit and veg

2011-10-12T16:51:00.000+01:00

Fruits and vegetables are vital for good health, especially when we do so much with and to our bodies as runners. So Runners, here's how to eat more!

By Liz Applegate Ph.D.

The produce aisle at your local grocery store stocks almost every food you need to reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and many other health ailments. Yet few runners eat as many fruits and vegetables as they should.

Many produce-skimpers fall into one of two categories: those who avoid fruits and vegetables because they don't like them or don't know how to store or cook them, and those who want to eat more of them but aren't sure of the best types to buy.

This second group often wonders if conventionally grown produce contains cancer-causing pesticides and if organic vegetables harbor harmful E. coli or other germs.

Whichever category you fall into, I'll tell you what you need to know to enjoy more fresh produce. Then be prepared to pile your plate with five to nine daily servings.

Clean Cuisine

Should you choose organic fruits and vegetables because they're cleaner and safer than those sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals? Probably. Organic produce and grains do have lower levels of pesticide residues compared with conventionally grown food.

Of course, you're better off eating conventionally grown produce than eating no produce at all. And the cleanest vegetable is the one that you wash well. Use these tips when choosing produce and ridding it of pesticides and bacteria such as harmful E. coli:

Opt for organic for certain produce. A handful of fruits and vegetables-including spinach, apples, peaches, and strawberries-tend to have particularly high levels of pesticide residues. These levels may be risky, particularly for children. So for these, organic may be your safest bet. And take extra care when washing them.

Wash uncut produce. Use cool running water while scrubbing lightly with a vegetable brush.

Don't soak your fruits or vegetables in a detergent or bleach solution. Your produce may absorb these substances.

Remove the outer leaves. Peel off the outside layer of leafy vegetables such as lettuce, bok choy, and cabbage.

The Great Nutrition Debate

For years, consumers and researchers have been trying to pinpoint the most nutritious fruit or vegetable. The problem is, no single fruit or vegetable contains high amounts of every nutrient you need. For example, tomatoes and watermelons are high in the phytochemical lycopene, but garlic contains more allicin, and potatoes contain more potassium. Instead of focusing on a handful of power vegetables, try to eat a variety.

Some people also wonder whether particular farming techniques can influence a food's nutritional content. A handful of studies has found a slightly higher vitamin-and-mineral content in some organically grown foods. This is because some organic farming techniques such as crop rotation and the use of animal manure replenish the soil with nutrients. (Organic foods grown without these techniques are usually not higher in vitamins, which is why studies often conflict.)

In the end, any brightly colored fruit or vegetable, whether organic or conventionally grown, is a good source of nutrients. Instead of focusing on which fruit or vegetable you buy, pay more attention to how you store and cook your produce. Follow these tips:

Consider buying frozen. Fruits and vegetables that are frozen at their peak retain most of their nutrients.

Eat them quickly. The longer fruits and vegetables sit on your counter or in your fridge, the more nutrients they lose.

Keep them fresh. Store produce in a plastic bag, free of water, in the produce bin of your refrigerator. You may want to purchase a produce "life extender" such as Extra Life or Fridge Friend, which neutralizes the ethylene gas given off by some produce and slows the decaying process.

Are You Eating Enough? Here are some quick-and-easy ways to add extra produce to your diet:

Stock up. If you keep your freezer loaded with frozen fruits, you'll always have the ingredients on hand for a fruit smoothie. Stock up with frozen or canned vegetables so you'll always have them to add to soups, casseroles, and stir-fries.

Add vegetables to every dish. For example, slip cucumbers, tomatoes, and dark leafy lettuce into your sandwich. Add chopped greens, such as kale or spinach, to a can of soup. Grate carrots, jicama, or radishes into your salad.

Take them on the side. Serve yourself two cooked or raw servings of vegetables at dinner. For example, if you're steaming broccoli, simply add cauliflower for an extra serving.

Snack on dried fruits. Dried fruits contain almost as many vitamins and minerals as their fresh counterparts. Carry dried papaya, apricots, cranberries, or other dried fruit in a sealed plastic bag for easy snacking.

Substitute fruits and vegetables in your recipes. Take your favorite chili, stew, or meat loaf recipe, cut back on the meat, and add diced onions, peppers, carrots, leeks, or corn. Or take any bread, muffin, or cake recipe and add cranberries, raisins, crushed pineapple, grated carrots, pureed prunes, or chopped dates or figs.

Runners need far more than the 5-7 servings that the rest of the population needs to eat every day. Juice Plus+ is the way to bridge that gap.

Juice Plus+ has been studied in serious athletes, with, so far, three studies published been published:

Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 2006 (full article) - Study findings: Juice Plus+ supplementation for 2 weeks attenuated the rise in protein carbonlys after 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, even after a 1 week washout.

Journal of Nutrition 2007 (full article) - Study findings: Several indicators of oxidative stress, immunity, and illness improved in 41 highly trained men (special forces) consuming Juice Plus+ for 28 weeks.

Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 2009 (full article) - Study findings: Exercising at 80% VO2max intensity, the Juice Plus+ group (compared to placebo) had lower baseline protein carbonyl levels after 16 and 28 weeks and no exercise-induced protein carbonyl increase. Human mercaptalbumin, another marker of exercise-induced oxidative stress, was also significantly lowered.

The video below provides more information on the 'Juice Plus+ Fitness Effect'.

The Juice Plus+ Fitness Effect

In this video Fitness Professionals, Athletes and Medical Doctors (many of whom are also serious athletes) advocate a Rx for Health & Fitness:

~ exercise

~ stress reduction

~ hydration

~ nutrition

~ supplementation For more information, click here.

Flu Fighters in Your Food

2011-10-12T09:57:00.002+01:00

New Research Points to Ways to Boost Immunity by Making Sure Your Diet Has the Right Nutrients

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

As we are coming into flu season, there is a lot they can do in their own kitchens to help fight off disease and build a strong immune system.

Scientists in the growing field of nutritional immunology are unveiling new evidence of the complex role that nutrition plays in fighting off infectious diseases like influenza. A diet rich in nutrients such as vitamin A (beta carotene), found in colorful fruits and vegetables, and zinc, found in seafood, nuts and whole grains, can provide the critical fuel the body needs to fight off disease, heal injuries, and survive illness when it does strike, experts say.

For the full article go to www.lisabarwise.com

Health is Wealth

2011-10-03T19:50:00.001+01:00

Transform Your Health for Life

We’re living in exciting times. Never have more people had more opportunity to pursue the life of their dreams, a life rich with extraordinary personal and professional achievements. The opportunity is here now for us individually and collectively to make the transformation from worst to first—literally from the worst shape of our lives to the best. And for us, as a nation, to make the change from the most unhealthy modern nation on Earth to the most healthy, in every way. Over the years I’ve discovered three essential steps to begin and sustain this process of transforming your health for life.

1. Accept Your Ability and Responsibility 

We have the ability to create stunning changes for the better in our bodies and lives. It’s exciting and empowering to consider the scope of this ability; however, it’s not always as exciting to accept that along with our ability to transform comes the responsibility to do so. Until that responsibility is accepted, the ability lies dormant.

2. Make Being Healthy a Priority 

Over the past years of focusing on my own well-being and fitness, I’ve discovered that when people highly value their health, they do what has to be done to become healthy. So when I see people who are overweight, underweight or who are suffering from entirely preventable illness, I know they do not yet place a premium value on their well-being. In many cases, this includes people who are achieving successful results in their business endeavors and other areas of their lives.

Here’s what else I know: Achievers make progress where results are highly valued, because that’s where we focus our time and attention.

 3. Set Specific Health and Fitness Goals 

I’ve learned as much about becoming healthy and strong from Jim Rohn and Tony Robbins as I did from any book or video on Health & Fitness. As an entrepreneur and health coach, I’ve studied both the fields of personal development and now health & wellness. Once I learned the fundamental facts about exercise, nutrition, fat loss and muscle strengthening, I needed proven strategies to put that knowledge into action. “Get in great shape,” is not a goal. It’s a wish, a dream, an idea. “Within 12 weeks, I will lose 10 pounds of fat.” And, “Within 12 weeks, I will eat 5 portions of fruit & vegetables a every day.” Those are goals. They are specific, measurable and challenging.

It’s not about genes or luck Anyone who’s achieved success knows it’s more than a matter of mere luck. When I prepare to succeed by consciously scheduling my workout time in advance, and I commit to it just as I would an important business or doctor appointment, I find it easy to follow through; no “thinking” is required. I do the same with my meals. When I schedule what I’m going to eat, what time and in what quantity, before the day begins, I don’t waste any time or conscious energy figuring it out on the fly.  These three essentials constitute a practical and powerful method for becoming healthier, stronger and more energetic. When practiced consistently, this is a surefi re way to realize your true potential to transform your health and enjoy a richer quality and quantity of life.

For more information or an invitation to the next Wellness Event in your area, simply contact Lisa on 0800 242 5467.

10 Ways to Sell Even More

2011-09-27T14:42:00.001+01:00

Selling is not just about technique. There are some additional ways you can improve your sales performance. Here are ten that are often overlooked.

1. Ask why – if your prospect turns you down, ask why; you want to know the reason. You will also then have an opportunity to argue your case.

Read the full article at www.lisabarwise.com

10 Strengths That Will Make You Successful

2011-09-27T14:32:00.001+01:00

Starting and building a business is not easy. You don’t need to be able to see your new venture through tough times as well as good. Here are ten things to look for in yourself that will help.

For the full article go to www.lisabarwise.com