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Check out our latest entrepreneurial-driven content geared toward helping startups and small businesses grow their brands.

The Benefits of Endurance Training and How You Can Start Today

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Benefits of Endurance Training

There are various types of fitness. Some of us like to focus on long-distance running, others are all about quick cardio boosts or cross fit. One form of exercise training that I find to be very effective and rewarding is endurance training.

What are the Benefits of Endurance Training? According to Wikipedia, endurance training can be defined as “the act of exercising to increase endurance. The term endurance training generally refers to training the aerobic system as opposed to anaerobic.” Aerobic exercise refers to exercises that get your heart pumping — swimming, skiing, running. Exercises that work out your heart and your lungs.

Now let’s ask another question: what exactly are the benefits of endurance training?

● Obviously, endurance training is a health benefit. Training your body for endurance means you’ll have to make lifestyle changes to take up the cause. No more drinking, smoking, excessive eating, and fatty foods. You need healthy lungs and healthy blood to get the full benefit of endurance training.

● By training your muscles and growing them, you also develop your bone density. This is also helped by changing up your diet and eating better.

● When you train your body, you train your immune system. You may not know it, but being unhealthy in a variety of ways can also make you more susceptible to diseases and bacteria.

● Have you ever complained about your metabolism? Your metabolism isn’t something you have to just live with. Endurance training enhances your metabolism, making it easier to burn fat and build muscle.

● If you have diabetes, endurance training helps you improve your insulin sensitivity. If you don’t have diabetes, The Benefits of Endurance Training can help to prevent its onset.

● Finally, endurance training gives you…endurance! The more you train, the easier exercising becomes. This also applies to all forms of exercise because your muscles build and your lung capacity grows.

How to Get Started on an Endurance Training Journey

Now you know the incredible benefits of endurance training…now how do you go about making it work for you?

● First, get used to drinking lots of water. You’re doing to need it if you want to begin the Benefits of Endurance Training.

● Start small, then work big. You won’t be running a marathon after only a month of endurance training.
● Warm up before you exercise. Stretches, squats, jumping jacks, lunges…they all help prepare your body for harsh training.

● Get the right wardrobe. You don’t have to spend lots of money — just make sure you have the right footwear and clothes that help you stretch and stay cool.

● Also focus on strength training. See those weights up above? You’re going to need those to regularly train your muscles to be strong and flexible.

● Endurance training isn’t a game of working out three times a day. It’s about the quality of your training and the longevity of your training program.

● You’ll also need to add more protein and carbs to your diet. These promote energy, and you’re going to need a lot of it.

The Benefits of Endurance Training sounds sort of intimidating, doesn’t it? Don’t worry — while it’s a commitment, and certainly not easy in the beginning, the results are certainly worthwhile.

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Business Meeting Mistakes Many Entrepreneurs Make

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You can’t call yourself an entrepreneur if you haven’t gone to at least one business meeting. Business meetings are a useful tool and standard part of business. They allow you to share ideas, knowledge and projections with a team of people or your staff so that everyone is on the same page.

As an entrepreneur, you’re likely to be the one heading these meetings, which means you’ve got some responsibilities here to set the tone and lead the team. If you can’t successfully accomplish this? Your meeting is in trouble.

The best way to fix this problem is by knowing what mistakes NOT to make before ever setting foot into your meeting location. Here are a few that are common, but that should be avoided at all costs.

Not Being Prepared

This is one of the biggest meeting sins: not being prepared before starting the meeting. As the meeting leader, it’s your job to make sure that you know exactly what you’re talking about. You need to be able to answer questions correctly and inform the team as accurately as possible.

Whether you can achieve this by writing an outline or using notecards, know that you HAVE to make sure you’re prepared to the best of your ability. There’s no faking it until you make it in meetings — if you aren’t prepared, it WILL be obvious.

Being Robotic

On a similar note, there is such a thing as being TOO prepared. Let’s say you write down all these important facts and figures on notecards and read them off to your team. Someone asks you a question about the information…but you totally draw a blank and have no idea what to say.

You can’t just go into a meeting with hard facts — you also have to have comprehension and confidence. Be able to talk about what you want to discuss fluidly and accurately at the same time. Be prepared to answer questions that you may not be totally confident in.

No Purpose In Mind

It’s great to have weekly staff meetings…but why? Do you have an objective every time you call your staff together?

You should. Whether it’s something as simple as refining an existing business practice or talking about a new partnership, every meeting should have a clear purpose and talk about a problem to solve. Without an agenda, you’re really just rambling co-workers.

You Don’t Listen

Finally, one of the worst things you can do in a business meeting is make it all about yourself. When you bring people together, the idea is that you can all communicate and share ideas with one another. Many bosses decide to use business meetings to push their own thoughts and agenda, but that’s not respecting their employees.

Even if you have explicit directives you want to give employees, make sure that they also have time to share their thoughts. Listen to what they have to say. Even in cases where you disagree, employees appreciate knowing that you listened and thought about what they had to stay instead of not caring to listen at all.

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The Best Ways to Stay Hydrated During Your Summer Fitness Journey

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Summer is here, and so is the heat! The hotter it is and the more you exercise, the more likely you are to get dehydrated. That means staying hydrated in the summer is more important than ever.

You already know that you need to drink lots of water when exercising, but the necessity is two-fold during the summer, when you’re likely to sweat more when exercising outside and in general. However, drinking enough water every day is difficult enough as it is. How do you stay hydrated during the summer when you’re also someone who exercises a lot?

First, understand WHY hydration is so important. When you exercise and don’t stay hydrated, your ability to exercise is compromised and your body gets tired more quickly. As you lose fluid in your body through sweat, your heart rate increases exponentially. Sweat is also how your body cools itself, so without ample water you’re very likely to overheat.

Pre- and Post- Workout Water

There are certain rules that are suggested to be followed, like drinking three cups of water before and after your workout. But who actually measures out their water into cup-sized rations?

A good way to make sure you get the water you need is to either buy bottled water or a self-filled water bottle in comparable size. Drink one water bottle or a full self-filled water bottle serving before you allow yourself to workout. Afterwards, drink another bottled water or the same amount of water that you initially filled your own water bottle up with before you get out of your workout clothes.

Eat Your Fruit

Most fruits have a very high water content value. They aren’t called juicy for no reason! When you bite into a pear or apple, the moisture you feel inside is the water naturally contained within the fruit itself.

It can be tiring to have to drink glass after glass of water every day, but you have other options. Fruits like kiwis, berries and watermelon all have high water concentrations that can’t replace your entire day’s water needs, but they can supplement them. Other fruits with a high water concentration include grapefruits (and other citrus options), plums and cantaloupe.

Start Eating More Soup

It’s a pain to have to eat hot soup when it’s already so hot outside, but trust me — soup is a great way to stay hydrated. Cold soups are also a great option if you want to go with a dinner option that’s cooler than steaming broth.

Unlike water, broths and soups come pre-packed with nutrient value, include sodium that can help stabilize your levels in moderation. Depending on the soup ingredients, you’re also getting those added nutrients as well.

Dress Up Your Water

Finally, you don’t have to drink straight water all day long. Using lemonade or tea mixers in moderation can add some variety to your daily drinking while still giving you a lot of water that you need for exercising and hydration. For added health benefits, look for drink mixers that don’t contain calories or artificial sweeteners.

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4 Powerful Key Steps to Becoming an Entrepreneur

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4 Powerful Key Steps to Becoming an Entrepreneur

Every Fortune 500 company existing today started as an idea — a dream, even. But with hard work, diligence, and the right plan, these business owners turned their tiny startup idea into a multimillion-dollar company.

Startups Houston – The point is that everyone starts somewhere, and who’s to say your tiny idea won’t one day grow into the next big thing? It’s possible…you just need to know where to start!

It takes a lot to become a successful entrepreneur. These are the first four baby steps you need to take in order to get your idea off the ground, but remember: hard work is required throughout your journey!

  1. Settle on Your Startup Idea

It’s one thing to have a tiny idea or a concept, but before you can truly be an entrepreneur you have to have a fully realized business idea on your hands. It’s not enough to think “what if something existed that solved this problem?” It has to be more concrete: “I have a solution to this real world problem.”

This isn’t to say you have to have the entire business ready to go from the jump. Worry about branding and packaging design later; these are extemporaneous details at this point. The very first thing you have to do is fully realize your startup idea and get it onto paper.

  1. Set Some Realistic Goals

Now that you know what your business is going to be, ask yourself this question: what do you want to do with it? Is it a restaurant franchise you want to take global? Is it a QVC-type product you can sell in rotations? Or is it a social media management company that you wouldn’t mind selling off in five years?

No one’s saying you have to plan out your entire business’ longevity and stick to some rigid plan, but a business made without goals in mind is a business that won’t succeed.

  1. Gather Data

Startups Houston – Before you can shop your idea around to people who can help make your dreams reality, you have to have some sort of hard data on hand that proves your idea is a good one. For instance, you’ve made a prototype of a small machine that professionally cleans toilets, sinks, and other bathroom fixtures. How does it work? Who all have you gotten to try this product?

Now think about harder data: what is the market for this product? Who will buy this product? How much does it cost to make vs. how much you’re willing to sell the product for? From concepts to facts and figures, you need to gather data that will convince people your product is worthwhile.

  1. Pitch Your Idea

Startups Houston – Finally, you can’t truly know how the market will react to your product or business until you actually pitch the idea. Depending on the type of startup you have in mind, this could be distributors or partners interesting in pushing a product. It might be your initial group of startup employees or a company that you want to B2B partner with.

When you pitch your business idea to interested parties, some may not be enthusiastic — and that’s okay. Listen to feedback. Sometimes you need to start all the way back at square one, but this information is vital to creating a startup that truly succeeds.

Keetria is an entrepreneur, wellness advocate, and brand strategy coach for creatives & entrepreneurs with 16 years of public relations expertise working with some of the world’s leading brands, startups, media personalities, and entertainers. If you would like to work together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

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How to Make Processes Which Maximize Your Productivity

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Maintaining high productivity is a struggle we all face.

As I sit writing this now, I can’t help but see the city skyline bathed in sun through the windows which line the room. The warmth eeks through the open doors and windows and the urge to nip out for lunch swells inside me.

At the same time, the political scene recently has been a flurry of big moments and captivating narratives – the headlines call out to me.

But I have to write.

I have to focus.

How do I keep my focus when surrounded by distractions? The answer I’ve found which keeps me pinned to my chair and my fingers glued to my keyboard is the art of following a process.

I’ll explain to you why I’m such an advocate for processes, what processes I use, and how you can build the processes you need to drive you forward each day.

Why processes are vital to your productivity

Let’s start with a simple stat.

According to Kermit Pattison, writing for Fast Company, interruptions are costing you a lot of time. In fact, the average time wasted as a result of switching tasks is 23 minutes and 15 seconds.

If you’re trying to complete multiple tasks per day, you put yourself at risk of losing a considerable amount of working time. In short, your productivity could be taking a nosedive.

By following a process, you can keep your mind focused not just on the task at hand but clearly on what task you’re going to do next. Instead of finishing one item on your to do list and wondering about what to get cracking with next, you flow straight into the following item.

This fluidity and clarity in your workflow seems almost too simple to make any meaningful change. I mean, it’s only careful planning, right?

Well, yes. But planning is crucial to your success.

Most of the time we don’t recognize the weaknesses in our own workflows because we’re so engrossed in them. So, here’s a tip. Check out a tool like RescueTime which you can install on your computer so that it tracks everything you do. It will see what websites or programs you’ve been using and then generate a report for you to show you how you allocate your time.

Don’t build your work practices on what you think you’re doing, build them on what you’re actually doing. You’ll see your inefficiencies more clearly and be better equipped to tackle them.

The processes I use to write these articles

At Process Street, we have a rule that you must make a process for any task you expect to do more than twice.

Let’s look at two of these processes. One general and one task specific.

The general one is how I approach my working day. I use Trello for my task management and each day I start off by sorting through my tasks to see what I wish to accomplish that day. I then take each task which I want to complete and move them into my To Do column.

Anything in my To Do column gets done that day. Anything not in my To Do column does not.

This act of defining what I need to focus on helps me gain focus. I can then go into each task and think about what needs to be done to accomplish my goals. If it’s a research task then I will put a short checklist in my card outlining the steps I expect to take. If it is a common task like writing then I know I will use one of my premade processes to follow.

In each card I note the amount of time I expect the task to take and I order my cards to clearly show which I’ll do first through to which I’ll do last.

This initial planning starts my day off with a moment of considered thought and saves me probably an hour or more each day.

If I’m going to be writing an article that day for our blog, I’ll specify which of my custom built processes I intend to use. Our pre-publish checklist is one which we share across the team and have all contributed to building.

This checklist is engineered to make sure every article we publish adheres to the high standards we set ourselves. There are a lot of small steps involved in this quality control:

  • Check every link points to the right place
  • Make sure all capitalization adheres to our style guidelines
  • Run spell check in American English
  • Make sure all images are coded correctly with keyword optimized alt tags

There are 30+ steps in our pre-publish checklist. That’s a lot of steps to remember without a process. Time after time our process guides us in the right direction and makes sure we don’t miss simple mistakes.

This process gives us quality assurance.

How can you build processes which work for you?

Building processes is a long term strategy.

Not just because these processes help create consistent quality or garner small productivity gains every day which add up over time, but because processes exist to be improved.

Start off by noting down all the steps you can think of which contribute to the completion of a task. This is your base process.

If you work within a team, it’s a very good idea to collaborate on this process creation. You can compare approaches and priorities which can improve the overall performance of the team, while moving toward a standardized approach to establish consistency and improve the scalability of your team, in case you look to hire further members.

Begin following the documented process you have drafted and take note of a couple of key variables:

  • How long does this take me?
  • Are there any tasks which I’ve left out?
  • Have I included unnecessary tasks?
  • What does my team think of the process?

Each of those questions will tell you something different, and each will point you in a different direction for optimizing the process.

Once you’ve systemized your business through these processes, it is much easier to create performance metrics to target – ones which are realistic and don’t negatively impact on quality.

With better performance metrics you can more accurately predict output and, in turn, overall company performance.

Understanding your own productivity and knowing how to measure it is the first step to really understanding your own company and recognizing effective ways to improve performance.

Build processes, productivity, and your company

Don’t take my word for it.

I’ve given you the necessary tools to test your own performance for yourself. I’ve laid out the steps required to begin to implement processes and to track their performance.

Try it out for yourself and see what the results are.

The most successful companies in the world are ones with strong operating practices. That’s no coincidence.

Use your own productivity as a base from which to systemize your business, and start today!

Have you used process optimization in your business before? Let me know your success stories in the comments below!

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4 Free Online Tools to Help with Small Business Marketing

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Marketing is easier now than ever before, but that doesn’t mean it’s a walk in the park. You need to know a little bit about psychology, analytics and best practices in order to be a great marketer, but you also need great tools to accomplish your goals and visions.

Luckily it’s possible to achieve your marketing dreams while on a budget. There are tons of free online marketing tools out there, and here’s four I’ve really come to love.

Pablo by Buffer

Visual content is winning these days. It’s not enough to tweet — you also need an image attached. Posts with just text don’t get the same kind of engagement statistics that posts with images or videos do. Explainer videos are more popular than text-based how-to guides — and the same goes for infographics.

Don’t worry if you aren’t exactly inclined when it comes to photography or graphics. Sites like Pablo by Buffer let you choose an image, edit and crop it to fit your social media and business theme. Quickly add text to any image, as well as your logo.

Answer The Public

Your audience has burning questions, and they want answers. What are these questions? Some you can reason out with analytics data, interviews and some research, but that still doesn’t paint a total picture of what information your audience is really looking for.

If you want to know how to truly give your audience content they can find valuable, use Answer the Public. This tool allows business owners to search through keywords and questions posed by Internet users based on keywords related to their business. This makes it easier to produce content that your audience can actually find useful, promoting your brand image and garnering more organic hits.

Moz Local: Check Listing

What is your business NAP? This acronym stands for the most important contact methods you have available: your business Name, Address and Phone number. Get it now?

Your NAP is essential to marketing online, but how this information shows up can vary depending on the particular search engine you’re using. Moz Local: Check Listing allows business owners to enter their business link into the generator and receive information about how their business shows up across popular search engines like Bing, Yahoo! and (of course) Google. This gives you a good picture of how your customers view you online.

Portent’s Title Generator

Finally, Portent’s Title Generator is perfect for those who want to work on their content marketing strategies. A catchy title is the easiest way to get someone to click on a blog or article you have hosted on your website, but not everyone is great at coming up with a valuable yet intriguing blog title.

The way this generator works is that you come up with a subject and type it into the field provided — that’s all the work you need to do. If your business is focused on cosmetics, type in “cosmetics” or “makeup.” If you’re an entrepreneur interested in public speaking, type in “motivation” or “positivity.” From there, all it takes is the click of a button and you’ve got tons of creative titles to choose from.

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3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Settling on a Branding Scheme

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Branding yourself or a business for the first time can be scary. After all, your brand is your business image and identifying feature. It’s something you should put a lot of thought into, isn’t it?

Yes. Sometimes business plans are stalled due to branding concerns, that’s how important branding can be for a business. When it comes to your own brand, you need to be just as diligent. You assert that diligence by asking important questions.

Your questions should be focused on one thing: brand completion. These questions should lead you to finalize your branding decisions, further cementing your brand as a true winner. These three questions in particular can help you develop a truly killer branding scheme.

“What would my brand look like if it was a person?”

I’ve talked about it before, but your brand has a personality. In fact, it is the representation of your business’ personality. What else has personalities? People!

If you’re trying to pin down who your business really is, actually look at it from the angle of it being a real, living person. What does your brand look like? What do they sound like? Are they in their 40s with three kids? Are they black or white, or maybe another race altogether? Are they a male with entrepreneurial goals?

Establishing a face helps you put into perspective the voice that goes along with that face. If when you finally pin down who this person is, you can further shape your business’ brand identity.

“Do I know how people will react to my brand?”

If you’ve ever seen an article about a huge branding mistake and wondered “how did they let that happen?,” it’s usually because those who create branding schemes have tunnel vision without outside perspective. When the only opinion in the room is your own, it’s easy to think you’re 100% right.

Getting outside data is always important when it comes to branding. This helps you identify the public response to your branding. It’s not always as salacious as a branding strategy being offensive or downright horrible — sometimes it’s the little things that can really make a difference. Analytic data can help you fine-tune your brand from the inside out.

“Is this a brand I can live with forever?”

Make no mistake — you can change your branding down the line. In fact, many businesses do exactly that in order to revitalize their image. However, just as many brands remain the same, or only implement small tweaks, during the longevity of their business.

You may not stick with your brand as is, but the branding strategy and scheme you choose should be one that you could feasibly use for as long as you’re in business. The biggest takeaway is that your brand scheme can’t be slapped together — once it’s final, you have to live with it.

Think of branding questions as exercises in creativity and business knowledge. Asking and answering questions like these helps you stay in touch with the heart and purpose of your business. The more thought you put into your branding, the less likely it is that your business will be a flash in the pan.

Keetria is an entrepreneur, wellness advocate, and brand strategy coach for creatives & entrepreneurs with 16 years of public relations expertise working with some of the world’s leading brands, startups, media personalities, and entertainers. If you would like to work together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

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#Fitness Myths to Avoid this Spring and Summer

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Spring is in full swing and summer is approaching at a breakneck pace. Before we know it, fall will be upon us…but in the meantime, we’ve got some exercising to do!

Summer is largely about fitness, whether it’s getting ready for bikini season or being active outside with friends and family during school and work vacations. It’s also a time period where you see a spike in fitness novices trying to get out there and embrace fitness wholeheartedly. These newbies look for information online and on television from those they think they can trust — the secrets to achieving perky butts and flat bellies.

Sure, there are fitness secrets out there that do work, but there are many more myths out there that are way too good to be true. If you’re interested in getting fit this year, avoid these fitness myths like the plague.

“Lots of sweat = lots of fat burning.”

It’s a phrase that’s commonly tossed around: “more sweat, less fat!” Some exercise junkies use this as a mantra, and their confirmation bias comes out when they lose the pounds after rigorous exercise routines.

The truth is that sweat has no real correlation to how much fat you’re burning off. Sweating is biological and helps to regulate your body’s temperature. Sweating at all is a good indicator that you are pushing your limits, but there’s no correlation to sweating and fat loss.

“Crunches are the best go-to exercise.”

Make no mistake, crunches are great for exercising your core and abdomen. They’re a great beginner’s exercise that is easy to utilize for measuring your exercise journey. You’ll find them hard to do at first, especially if you’re trying to do them quickly, but they’ll become easier over time.

However, they shouldn’t be your exercise crutch. Many believe that crunches are the quickest way to a flat stomach and lower body fat, but that certainly isn’t the case. The best way to lose fat is to burn a lot of calories, but crunches don’t actually burn that many. Don’t rely on crunches alone if you want a beach body this summer.

“The longer you’re in the gym, the better off you’ll be.”

Finally, there’s a common myth floating around that the harder you push, the faster you’ll lose all that weight you want to get rid of. In fact, the opposite is actually true. Of course it’s a good idea to go to the gym, but continuously going to the gym with no breaks leads to fatigue, injury and weight gain.

Why weight gain? Your body eventually needs to rest. When you do take a day off, your body will desperately cling to the calories you take in and you’ll be set back for your next gym visit. Schedule rest days regularly. This also helps to keep you motivated to go to the gym — don’t risk burning yourself out and quitting altogether.

These are just three common myths you’ll find, especially online. When you’re researching information on fitness, always do your research and never trust the first article you see.

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4 Business Podcasts Women Entrepreneurs Can Appreciate

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Podcasting is one of my favorite forms of media nowadays. It’s easy to relax in a bath or run on the treadmill while listening to one of my favorite podcasts — they’re audio streams that are easy to consume and don’t require a lot of effort to understand, more often than not.

I love showing women empowering resources, and this post combines this love of empowerment with my love of podcasting. Here are four podcasts I think any female entrepreneur could appreciate.

The School of Self-Mastery – Adrienne Dorison

If you want an amazing podcast that covers a wide variety of topics that focus on entrepreneurship AND life as a woman, Adrienne Dorison’s podcast is the first you should check out. The School of Self-Mastery is about living life as an entrepreneur while also juggling life as a woman, from raising children to taking time out of your schedule to live a healthy life.

On the business side of things, Dorison often interviews successful business owners and utilizes her experiences and their info to teach important business lessons. These span many different fields, from marketing to financial responsibility.

Online Marketing Made Easy– Amy Porterfield

You typically listen to a podcast not just to learn about what someone is doing, but also how they’re doing it. This is especially true when it comes to podcasts about business. If I had one suggestion for podcasts that really go into the how of business success, Online Marketing Made Easy would top the list.

Amy Porterfield is a master at interviewing a guest who owns a business, and from there breaking down how they achieved their goals. She’s an expert at online marketing, frequently explaining how to monetize marketing strategies to her loyal listeners. Her advice is certainly worth paying attention to.

Profit. Power. Pursuit. – Tara Gentile

It’s always fascinating to learn exactly how a successful entrepreneur runs their business. There’s no one true path to success — we all make things happen in different ways! What makes me successful may not make you successful, and vice versa. No podcast explores this concept more aptly than Profit. Power. Pursuit.

Tara Gentile interviews a business owner on this podcast, then expertly breaks down their path to success. This means that a variety of business topics are covered based on the business in question. She’s also a professional speaker, so this topic is covered quite frequently.

SOB: Style of Business – Keetria

Time for a bit of shameless self-promotion. I’m all about female empowerment, and my own podcast (Style of Business: The Podcast) reflects this. While not every episode may focus on the topic of women in the world of business, many entrepreneurs I interview are women who have become highly successful in their field.

In general, my podcast topics include tips and tricks for entrepreneurial success, branding ideas and global viewpoints from the perspective of business owners around the world. We all have different ideas, methodologies and success stories, and I believe sharing these experiences with one another can lead us to our own, individual successes.

Take a listen, will you?

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Incredible Nature-Based Destinations for Spring Break

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A lot of vacation time happens during the latter half of the year. There’s the summertime, Thanksgiving, Christmas or other holidays, New Year’s Eve…then the vacation days slow down once the next year rolls around again. It’s not longer about taking a few days off at a time, or even weeks at a time, but instead a day here and there.

That is, until spring break rolls around. Spring break can be a time for anyone to take off and enjoy the warmth of spring, from college students to entrepreneurs who just want to take some well-deserved “me time.” However, spring break shouldn’t be about partying and other irresponsible activities. Instead, consider spending some time reflecting during a nature-based vacation where you’re totally at peace.

Playa Tamarindo, Costa Rica

If you want a mixture of fun and nature, Costa Rica is the country for you. Tamarindo is a tropical location that has amazing beaches, great nightlife locations and other outdoorsy fun activities. Costa Rica has the added benefit of being rather small, so you can come for Tamarindo and stay for other inland cities that also contain great activities. If you’re indeed a nature lover, visit one of their parks and see the country’s bird and butterfly species. The country is home to the famed Blue Morpho butterfly, a must-see for anyone interested in bugs.

Denali National Park, Alaska

While Alaska may be quite a ways away, Denali National Park is certainly worth the trip. Alaska is perhaps where you can find a true look at wilderness up close. For most of us, the scenery of Alaska is unlike any we’ve seen in the continental United States, so the imagery alone is enough to visit for. Park-goers can be dropped into the tundra via a helicopter, hike through the Alaskan wilderness and encounter amazing creatures while there.

Asheville, North Carolina

Another town perfect for anyone who likes a little responsible fun with a nature twist, Asheville is simultaneously home to a plethora of breweries and is a gateway town to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Tourists both national and international flock to the city every year during spring break to take in the local culture and hike through the mountains. Other popular activities include horseback riding, animal watching and mountain biking. While on your hike, it’s possible you’ll see creatures like elk or the American black bear.

Big Island, Hawaii

Many don’t know that Hawaii isn’t just the name of the only island state in the U.S. — it’s also the name of the state’s biggest island! Known as Big Island, the largest portion of the state is home to amazing natural wonders, like the volcanic coast of Kona. A must-do activity when visiting Big Island is snorkeling — snorkelers have the chance to see and dive with manta rays and other oceanic sea life. There are island tours constantly ready to take tourists around the large island to see all of the incredible sights. If you want to relax while surrounded by true beauty on your spring break vacation, this may be the option for you.

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