I recently attended a leadership conference where I was asked "what do you have on your Done List". Immediately my mind went into over drive thinking about all of things I need to do; totally over-looking the things I have completed.

This concept of acknowledging or writing down my accomplishments was foreign to me. I was brainwashed into believing that the only way to be productive and accomplish your goals was to create and maintain a "To Do List". No one ever mentioned that in order for me not to be frustrated and stressed out that I also needed to maintain a "Done List".

Companies spend millions of dollars to create, promote and maintain brand awareness. Present a woman a light blue box and she will automatically get excited thinking it’s a gift from Tiffany’s. When a child sees “golden arches” they will immediately start asking for French fries. Branding is defined as the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies a product from other products. Using this definition, Tiffany’s and McDonald’s are examples of branding at its best!

Branding is not a practice only associated with corporations. Individuals should also brand themselves, which today is termed as “personal branding”. Personal Branding involves defining one’s areas of knowledge, physical appearance, social and executive presence and overall self-packaging in a way that uniquely distinguishes one individual from another.

Meeting new people can be exhausting and awkward. You spend the first few minutes stating your name (which for some reason always sounds like you’re hearing it for the first time), providing your job title (depending on what you do, this may take a while to explain) and/or your marital status and number of children you have (this topic for some people could be quite complicated and too much information for an initial meet and greet).  

This being the modus operandi for most introductions, we are programmed to believe that who we are is defined by what we do, our marital status, or the number of children we have.

When was the last time you enjoyed spending time with yourself? When was the last time you enjoyed a movie, sat at a table for one or just pampered yourself with a nice bubble bath, candles, music and maybe a glass of wine?

Unfortunately many of us do not schedule regular "me time". Some women - especially women with children - may think it's selfish to spend time alone, some may not consider it necessary and don't schedule it as often as they should, and some never even considered "me time" an option.

It is said that you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep. I used to think this was something adults told children to ensure they didn't associate with the wrong crowd. However as I continue along my journey I’ve adopted this mantra as one of my 10 "secrets to success".

Over the past ten years my circle has changed. Some friends have come and gone and others are now playing a different role in my life. There was a time when I resisted this type of change, thinking that ALL friendships were for a lifetime.

Are you currently working full time while pursuing your purpose driven business? If your answer is “YES”, congratulations, you are part of an elite group of Career-preneur. What makes this group elite isn’t its cool name - a hybrid of the words career (professional) and entrepreneur - but the way in which its members simultaneously learn and grow as employees and CEOs. One could say that Career-preneurs have the best of both worlds