Shari Feuz

You already know that regular exercise plays a massive role in boosting energy levels, enhancing appearance and increasing confidence. Regular workouts also enhance creativity and release anti-aging hormones. Daily workouts are a successful women’s must-do. The good news is that you can fit everything you need into 20 minutes a day.

Gone are the days when an effective workout was a grueling, two-hour ordeal. Here are five ways to get the most bang for your buck from each workout and keep it under 20 minutes:

1. Say goodbye to hour-long treadmill excursions. Twenty minutes of high-intensity intervals burn more calories and boost metabolism significantly more than a 60-minute, moderately paced jaunt. Try 30-second high speed sprints on a treadmill, bike or elliptical with one-minute intervals of lower intensity in between. Aim for seven-to-10 high-intensity intervals.
2. Get swinging — a kettlebell, that is. The American Council on Exercise (ACE) demonstrated that participants burned approximately 20 calories per minute during a typical kettlebell workout. That is a whopping 400 calories in a 20-minute workout.
3. Don’t mess around isolating tiny muscle groups. Instead, perform compound-strength movements. These are weight-training exercises that use multiple muscle groups and more energy. Multi-muscle strength-training movements such as squats, lunges, presses and pulldowns should be your first choice in the gym.
4. Combine strength and cardio training into a circuit. Twenty one-minute intervals will cover all of your major muscle groups, and keep the heart rate elevated for maximum health benefits and fat burning. For example, do a one-minute station on a bike, lift weights at the next station, skip rope at the next and so on, alternating a strength exercise with a cardio activity.
5. Don’t fear the bulk. Lift heavy weights and take your muscles to a high level of fatigue during resistance training. There is no faster way to tighten and tone your physique.

Shari Feuz B.A. is a fitness professional with a passion for guiding people to achieve mastery over how their body looks, feels and performs.

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• 4 to 5 really ripe Haas avocados (the big, green Florida ones have no flavor), peeled and cut into half-inch dice
• 1 small white onion, chopped fine
• 1  medium-sized ripe tomato, diced
• 1 or 2 serrano or jalapeno chiles, seeded and chopped very fine
• 1  cup cilantro, chopped fine
• Juice of 1 to 2 limes to taste
• Salt to taste

Mix the avocado, tomato, onion, cilantro, chiles, lime and salt, slightly mashing the avocado as you mix. Taste and add additional chiles, lime and cilantro, according to your taste. Serve and enjoy!

Bonus secret: If you save two or three of the avocado pits, clean them and put them in the middle of the guacamole, it will keep it from discoloring.

Serial entrepreneur Anne Maxfield created The Accidental Locavore to take the mystery out of farmer’s markets, and show the average person how she cooks with what’s local and fresh.

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Joseph Puglisi

Long-time CIO Joseph Puglisi got hooked on computers in high school. “I’m a tech junkie,” he admits. “My son once remarked that I had garnered more Twitter followers and connections than he had – and he was 20 at the time.” That was four years ago.

But then, it’s not surprising that a man on the cutting edge of technology would be intrigued by social networking. “Having the nose for the ‘next big thing’ has always pushed me to the edge,” Puglisi says.

No kidding. In the past six months, Puglisi has garnered more than 8,000 followers on Google+, where he posts his View from the Bridge blog daily.

It all started in July, when Puglisi was hunting for his next technology position. “I was answering other people’s blog posts and questions, and participating in conversations,” he says. He decided to share his thoughts on a daily basis, Monday through Friday. He hasn’t missed a day since his first blog post in mid-July.

After exploring Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare (just for fun) and LinkedIn for its professional contacts, Puglisi has become a strong advocate of Google+. The attraction is the Google+ video plugin Hangouts, which Puglisi calls “the secret sauce.” “This is the first face-to-face social network. It is a wide-open field with almost endless possibilities,” he says.

“There’s something about Hangouts that makes it easy and comfortable to sit and have a conversation with someone,” he adds. “It’s like sitting around the counter or in a booth at a coffee shop. People come, and people leave.” And you have the opportunity to look in one another’s eyes.

A GooglePlus Hangout with KOMU Reporter, Sarah Hill, top right, and Joseph is on the bottom, second from left

His advice on using social networking in your job search:

“You have to be yourself in the social networks. Project your strengths; inform and help others. It somehow comes back to you.” You have to have a compelling profile on LinkedIn. But for Puglisi, Google+ is the “professional social network.”

“By that I mean you can socialize with circles of people clustered around areas of interest. GP has a lot of technology people – as you would expect. But it also has a lot of musicians, artists, writers, etc. I got involved with television news people, and this took me in a whole new direction,” he says. In fact, it shifted him job-hunting emphasis completely.

Initially, Puglisi was looking for an opportunity to join a management team to provide direction in business and technology. That’s the role of the CIO today, he says. “You have to be more of a businessman than a technologist.” The key is applying technology – or process – to the business to accelerate that business.

Today, that means cloud computing. In the past, it meant hiring a third party, such as ADP, to do your payroll.

“We’ve been pushing our computing needs out to third parties as long as I’ve been in the game,” he says. Though it has a different flavor to it, cloud computing is essentially outsourcing. Being able to swipe a credit card via smartphone is new, but it’s still involving a third party in your transaction.

However, Puglisi’s present goal is a job in the CIO space surrounding the news media. He wants to seek a fellowship at a journalism institute to study and develop a model for the evolving news industry. He’s been impressed by the handful of television stations that have married social media technology with their routine daily broadcast. He points to KOMU-TV 8, the broadcast lab for the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Last September, that station was the first to include guests from around the world who interacted in real time and on air using the Hangout technology.

Puglisi characterizes each social network differently. Facebook is the social network. And although he uses Twitter, its drawback is its evanescence. “If eyeballs aren’t on the stream at that particular instant, it’s here and gone.” LinkedIn is a place to post a resume, so headhunters will  come and find you based on your credentials. To Puglisi,”It’s a clinical environment.”

Google Plus, on the other hand, is like a public park. “You can go, spend time meeting interesting people, engage in chess, take a tai chi class. Anyone can come in there.”

He even has observations about WomenCentric.net, where he now serves as an advisory board member. “It has a style to it that makes it appealing to women. And it allows women to share topics of interest and share with each other.”

Puglisi is firmly convinced that there’s a place for niche social networks. “The challenge is to find that place and be the best.” Google Plus hasn’t crushed Facebook. Cable networks haven’t eliminated ABC and CBS. “If you have good content, there’s room out there for everybody.”

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Holly G. Green

By Holly G. Green — Guest Blogger

The first responsibility for business leaders is to create a very clear picture of what winning looks like for their organization.

The same holds true for your personal life.

If you want to get the most of out life, get obsessive and relentless about winning! Here are three simple steps for setting yourself up to win.

1. Get clear. Define what winning looks like for you with as much specificity as possible. Paint a picture of what your life will look like when you have won. Where will you live?What will your home look like? What will you have accomplished from a personal standpoint? How will your family and personal relationships have improved? How will you have grown personally?
2. Get focused. Set clear goals in three to five areas — such as income, personal development, family relationships and health — and identify the things you will need to do to achieve them. For example, if your goal is to spend more time with family, what will you do differently in order to make that happen? Take one Friday afternoon off each month? Commit to no work on weekends? Make a list for each goal you set.
3. Get visual. Humans are highly visual creatures. We move toward what we see in front of us. To stay focused on winning, surround yourself with visual reminders that reflect your vision of winning. Write your goals on one sheet of paper and review them every morning. Put sticky notes on your bathroom mirror. Prompt yourself via your smartphone. Embed your definition of winning into all aspects of your life, so that you never lose sight of where you’re going.

The best performers in any endeavor all have a relentless focus on winning. Make winning a primary focus of your personal life, and you’ll come out ahead in 2012!

Holly G. Green, CEO of The Human Factor, Inc., is a consultant, keynote speaker, behavioral scientist and author of the best-selling book, More Than a Minute: How to Be an Effective Leader and Manager in Today’s World.

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Elle Swan

Business Name: Swansense International

Business Web address: www.elleswan.net

Experience: International speaker, lifestyle coach, television personality, athlete and author

15-second elevator pitch: I travel the world, teaching women how to rise above mediocrity in health, wealth and love.

Books you are reading: The High-Beta Rich: How the Manic Wealthy Will Take Us to the Next Boom, Bubble, and Bust, by Robert Frank; The Producer, by Wendy Walker; Elle-evate by Elle Swan

Goals for 2011:

1. Complete flying lessons
2. Become fluent in French. From my earliest memories as a child growing up in Michigan, I’ve been drawn to France. As a young girl I vowed to go there; and when I spent three weeks there on my second trip to Europe as an adult, it was everything that I imagined it would be . . . and more. It is a place that I will return to many times, and being fluent in the language will make it all the better!
3. Build my Club e membership to 2 million.

What are you passionate about? Teaching and supporting women to rise above mediocre living. I have spent many years fine-tuning a three-step process that helps women recognize their resistance to change. This awareness helps them make the best choices on a daily basis, and each day they rise higher and higher because they no longer have internal/emotional blocks holding them back. It is the same process that I used to overcome obesity, drug addiction and poverty.

What makes you nuts? Illiteracy

Top 3 “Bucket list” items

1. Travel to Outer Space. When I came back to life after overdosing in an abandoned van 11 years ago, I came face to face with timelessness. This experience showed me that there really are no limits to what we can achieve. I am planning to be a participant in the Richard Branson Space Project. He is already going full force with the most brilliant minds in science, and I will go before my 50th birthday!
2. Record a jazz CD in honor of my father. My father could hear most songs once and play them by memory. Jazz and gospel were his favorites. I love the sophistication of jazz, and that is why I will make a jazz CD.
3. Win a Nobel Peace Prize. I see myself winning a Nobel Prize for demonstrating and teaching the world how to shatter the fear that causes them to lead average boring, depressing lives. I had the honor to be a guest on a radio show with Ghandi’s grandson. During the discussion he agreed with me when I said that the “new violence” within our culture is the directed toward ourselves. Self-love is an action, not something just to say because it sounds good.

Elle’s top tips for upwardly mobile women

My mission is to inspire women in what I call the trifecta: health, wealth and love.

1. Health: Never eat foods that contain ingredients that you cannot pronounce.
2. Wealth: Never, ever say the words “I can’t afford it.” Instead, ask yourself, “What can I give the world that will allow me to afford it?”
3. Love:  Love yourself first.

Elle Swan’s Vibrant Living philosophy has been recognized multiple times on FOX, NBC and PBS. She’s the Vibrancy Coach for ABC Las Vegas. She publishes the weekly newsletter Be Fit, Live Rich and she is the author of Your Mind Over Habits: A Woman’s Guide to a Happy Life and a Vibrant Body. Connect with Elle at elle@elleswan.com.

Marion Licchiello-Lenz

By Marion Licchiello-Lenz — Guest Blogger

Vision boards have been around for a long time. I started making vision creations in my mid- to late 20s. I am now 47, so it’s been almost half my life. I continue to create my vision boards year after year because they work. For me, having a vision board is a welcome addition to any written goal, thoughts or spoken words when it comes to something I want to accomplish.

In other words, for me there is nothing as powerful as my vision board to create and achieve the life of my dreams.

For me, a vision board is part of goal setting; it involves putting my thoughts and dreams on paper in a more creative way so I am able to see them each day. The key to taking in something and retaining it — whether it is an affirmation, a saying or a thought that you see or think about over and over again — is constant repetition until it becomes a part of your being. This is the reason hypnosis works so well when you listen to a session over and over, because when things are repeated over time they become a part of you. With a vision board you see the life of your dreams day after day until it becomes etched in your head, and ingrained in your mind and soul. That’s how I feel about my vision boards. I’d love to know your experiences with them, also.

Now that I told you how much I love, believe in and adore vision boards, let me tell you about creating one, in case it is unfamiliar territory for you. When I conduct my workshops, I usually have members of my class sit and get quiet for a bit or journal while thinking about what they truly want out of life; it is usually for the year ahead, but we also create specific boards as well as long-term ones.

I ask participants to think about all areas of their life — family, health, education, career, spirituality, wealth, friends, travel/vacation, love, relationships and success. The list can go on and on, depending on your terminology. Once you establish some of these thoughts in your head and/or on paper, you’ll look through magazines, books and websites, and begin cutting out and printing out the life of your dreams. Pictures will jump out at you or resonate with you; cut those pictures out.

Of course, there’s more to this exercise than cutting out pictures and pasting them onto a board. What you are doing is thinking out and planning what you want for yourself in the upcoming months or year. You are expressing your thoughts and dreams in your own creative collage; in this way, you’ll see it on a daily basis and make it part of your everyday focus. Whatever you focus on consistently is what you get. I’ve seen it happen for myself and for others repeatedly over the years. I’ve come to appreciate the power of the vision board, and I would like you to have the same faith in it.

I also created a couples board with my soon-to-be ex-husband. Although we are no longer together, our vision boards did work for us when it comes to the specific things we want in life.

When we were dating, we made a board filled with pictures of brides and grooms getting married on an island. The brides were all wearing a type of dress that was not my style, but the pictures were beautiful, and we cut them out because we wanted to get married and then go to a beautiful island on our honeymoon. We never intended to married on an island. But after looking at those pictures each day for months and months, we eventually did decide to get married on an island. At the time, we didn’t realize why we made that choice. While shopping for wedding gowns with my best friend, one particular dress kept popping out at me in every store, and I ended up buying it. It wasn’t what I normally would have chosen. Guess what? After the wedding, I noticed that every bride in the pictures was wearing that type of dress.

I have watched this happen over and over again for more than 20 years. I can tell you story after story,  but I’d rather you experience it yourself. Create your vision board, look at it daily and feel the emotions of all the pictures and sayings as if they had already happened.

Have fun creating the life of your dreams. It only takes a few hours, and they will be the best few hours you spend this year; believe me.

Marion Licchiello-Lenz is a self-empowerment coach, personal trainer and certified vision board coach. She will soon be doing online workshops. Contact her at getmotivatedwithmarion@yahoo.com.

Nell Merlino

Nell Merlino is a woman on a mission.

Her vision: Encourage as many as 1 million women entrepreneurs to grow their business to revenue goals of $1 million and more.

“If 1 million women get to $1 million, it creates a minimum of 4 million jobs,” says Merlino, observing that you’ll hire four to six people if you grow your business.

Merlino is the founder and president of Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence and Make Mine a Million $ Business. Since 2005, she’s helped hundreds of women reach their financial and business goals. Now, Merlino is amping up to reach thousands more.

At first, Make Mine a Million $ Business held regional contests nationwide, selecting 10 winners at each site. Those winners received funding, coaching, financial advice and marketing assistance. In 2009, she scaled up by creating an internet competition that 1,500 women entered, taking advantage of webinars and coaching opportunities and striving for a $100,000 prize.

Now she’s amped up the process even further, with M3 1000. Merlino’s latest goal? Help 1,000 female business owners reach $1 million in annual revenue in 18 to 36 months. To help women accomplish that, M3 is holding localized “pitch parties” all over the nation, where women can practice before coming to a large-scale pitch session. At the large-scale events, held last year in Philadelphia and Colorado, as many as 150 women have the opportunity to pitch their business over the course of two days. The seventy-five winners selected at each event get group coaching calls to help them address their issues and alleviate some of their growing pains.

Merlino says M3 1000 reverses previous practice by giving women a chance to pitch before asking them to fill out a pile of paperwork. “It’s an easier entry point,” she says. “They need to do the pitch and see what kind of help they can get before they do the paperwork.”

And, Merlino enthuses, it’s working. She’s seen women work out business deals at the local sessions. One woman, laid off from her corporate job, was raising about $20,000 on the side teaching newlyweds how to cook. Two young women attending the pitch party were makeup artists for brides, skilled in the field of social media. They asked whether the woman had a presence on websites for wedding showers. That advice led to a whole campaign and wedding shower package. Already, the business has reached its $75,000-a-year goal.

“What I see is stunning creativity every third or fourth pitch,” Merlino says. “You see what women are capable of, and what the market is missing. It is one of my favorite experiences — Where you see women moving from ‘How am I going to take care of myself?’ and drawing on their brains and expertise to figure that out.”

Merlino’s goals for 2012? “Scale, Scale, Scale. I’d love to do a session toward the end of the year where we work with 1,000 women over a couple of days. The more we do this, the more the confidence grows. It’s a self-seeding tornado.”

American Express OPEN is a longtime supporters. Now Sam’s Club has signed on as a partner. Coca-Cola has introduced the Adelante tour, aimed at Latinas. Grand Rapids Opportunities for Women (GROW) and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation have teamed up to provide the Blast!  Business Accelerator Program. All of these initiatives allow more opportunities for women to succeed, Merlino says.

“We have a consistent track record,” says Merlino of M3. “In a climate where everyone’s trying to figure out how to create jobs and grow businesses, we have this extraordinary experience.” In fact, says Merlino, 30 percent of the women who participate in her programs reach the $1 million level.

“I’m looking for as many ways as possible to get more women growing and moving,” Merlino reports. She’s always envisioning something new. Last September, Merlino rang the bell at the Stock Exchange – and suddenly, she started thinking in a new direction. “Which business is going to end up traded on the New York Stock Exchange? That’s another level of growth and aspiration,” Melino enthuses.

By Liz Theresa – Guest Blogger

Last weekend, I spruced up an old beat-up dresser in my room. I’ve had this dresser for so long, I can’t recall not having it. Heard of shabby-chic? I have too. It’s a look I’ve always craved. But this was just plain shabby.
On an impromptu trip to the Burlington Mall (a huge mall if you ever frequent the Greater Boston Area), I was browsing my favorite corner of the mall: Betsey Johnson, Free People, and Anthropologie– all stores I wish I could buy EVERYTHING in.
Anthropologie brings out my delicate feminine side so I’m usually drawn to their adorable frocks and sunny sweaters. This time though, my eyes went to a different nook in the store where they keep their collection of eccentric odds and ends. This is actually my favorite part to browse.

Since it was a clearance sale, they only had 2 or 3 of any one type of dresser knob. You want shabby chic? That means being daring enough to buy 6 different knobs altogether and installing them on your piece.
The moment I was home, I raced up the stairs to my bedroom to begin my project.
And the results were super chic. Also my dresser appreciated some much-needed paint touch ups. No more struggling to open my drawers. No more settling for shabby.

And it only cost me around $40.00.

Do you have a piece of furniture like this in your home?

I’d love to hear about it!

Grace Belangia

If you have to get on an airplane these days for work, you might as well make yourself comfortable because so many things are out of your control when you travel.

I travel every month by airplane, train, bus or ferryboat, and here are some stress-relieving tips I use to make the trip more enjoyable.

1. Plan as far in advance as possible. Book the ticket. You will have a better chance at a good seat assignment, now that airlines charge more for certain seats. I always favor the window facing the sun. I like to see sunshine. If you’re planning to attend a conference or trade show, you usually have at least six months to plan for hotel and transportation.
2. Give yourself an extra hour to get to the airport. You can always use the extra time in the airport to freshen up, get a snack or enjoy the gift shop. You cannot control traffic, bad parking spots or long lines in security. Once you get settled into the airport lounge, you can relax a little.
3. Wear something comfortable but not too sloppy. I am always amazed at the flip-flop crowd and tight clothing in the airport. Comfortable shoes are key. Dark clothing covers spills and, between sitting and walking for a whole day, this is not the time to try out the new high heels or a winter white mini-skirt.
4. Bring a colorful pashima or scarf. It covers your cold arms, doubles as a pillow or blanket and, if you are wearing dark clothing, it will not look like you are headed to a funeral.
5. Make sure all the electronic equipment that you need is charged and ready to go. Perhaps surprisingly, I get a lot of work done, both personal and professional, on trips. Lots of waiting gives me time to catch up on email, photo management, the endless to-do list for on-line ordering or just surfing the Web.
6. Splurge on a light read. It will distract you from late planes and will keep you from checking your watch every five minutes. Plus, worst-case situation — if your electronics fail, your mind will be pleased.
7. Bring an empty water bottle, and fill it once you get through security. I always pack a few powder drink packets, and I stay hydrated when I fill it up at the water faucet. It’s cheaper, too.
8. Keep your luggage to a minimum. If you are taking a nonstop, consider a gate check for your bag. You do not have to worry about overhead space, and you won’t be charged a luggage fee. I take one rolling luggage and one large shoulder bag, enough for a four-day trip.
9. Sometimes it’s worth spending a little more money on transportation to avoid extra stress. If I am in an unfamiliar city, I like to take a taxi straight to my destination. It is not worth the hassle after a long day of travel to try to coordinate bus routes, travel times, luggage, transfers, etc. Just get in a taxi: Let the driver deal with traffic and get you to your destination – assuming it is reasonable, of course.
10. And finally — I cannot stress this enough — de-stress. Enjoy yourself; relax. There are so many interesting places on Earth and amazing people to meet. Try a local restaurant, seek out a cool souvenir and visit the community art museum. Take in at least one sight when you travel. Ever city is memorable, so make it a priority to give yourself permission to have a “momen.t” The laundry, dirty dishes and homework will be there when you get home.

Here are some website links to help you take advantage of some of the tips above:

Airline Seat Assignments

Water bottles

The Pashima Store

Airport Lounges

Carry-on luggage

Grace Belangia is a freelance writer who has been traveling since she was 6 months old. Planes, trains, boats and bikes, her bags are always packed for her next travel adventure.

Talk show host Yvonne Kandi

Yvonne Kandi is a mother, a successful music producer, a Realtor and a real estate investor, as well as an expert in wealth building, business development and marketing.

Working together with her husband in the music industry, Kandi says, “We built a very successful career for ourselves. We have several gold and platinum records. Many of the songs in the publishing house are heard on TV commercials, television shows, movies and soundtracks.”

But focusing on the business side of the music industry wasn’t feeding her creative side, she realized. In 2010, she decided it was time she became a talent herself.

She created the Yvonne Kandi Show, a TV talk show and companion radio show in Philadelphia covering lifestyle and business issues, including finance, health, beauty, fashion and entertainment.  Many of her guests are national personalities. ”I’m very proud and honored they would do The Yvonne Kandi Show,” she says. The radio shows are available on her website, theYvonneKandishow.com, and you can find episodes of the TV show on YouTube.

With plans to take the show national, she’s working out an arrangement to air it on ABC’s Live Well network.

“I don’t think really small,” Kandi says. “I’m just one of those people who want to climb higher mountains than maybe other people do. “

Kandi says her creative side dates back to her childhood. “Since I was a little girl, I was talented and whimsical. I used to sing and dance a lot for my family. I’m also an actress, and a very good one.” That particular talent is on the back burner for the moment, though. “Right now I’m enjoying doing my show. It makes me feel alive.”

Because she was already in the entertainment industry, it wasn’t hard to make the transition to television. “If you’re in one genre, you have a good idea of what has to happen in another genre,” she says.

The biggest challenge is maintaining her stamina, mentally and physically. “This business is highly stressful,” she says, “and you need to take more frequent breaks, more self time, than most people. You have to do that to keep the stress down.”

Her advice for women who want to shift gears and try something a little different from the norm?

1. “If you want to do something, you should do it now. Procrastination is the worst thing you can do when you have a dream. You don’t live forever; don’t be afraid to where it would stop you.”
2. Take little steps. “Make a plan and put the plan into effect, and work toward that every day.”