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Donna Maria 's Blog
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I don't usually post recipes here, but since my latest adventures include stepping up my fitness game and eating more healthfully (you can join me and others doing the same on Twitter using the #FitCEOs hashtag), I thought I'd share something easy, healthy and delicious. This recipe is adapted from "The Joy of Not Cooking: Vegetarian Cuisine Cooked Only by the Sun." There's an interesting story behind the book and my relationship with its author, Imar Hutchins. You can read it at my blog.
Here's the recipe.
Ingredients
1 ripe avocado
squeeze of fresh lemon juice
1 small tomato (I used an orange heirloom variety, which is why it’s so lightly colored in the photo)
1/4 red onion
1 small garlic clove
1/2 tablespoon tamari (I used reduced sodium)
Spike to taste (I used gluten-free)Instructions
- Halve the avocado and remove the stone. Scoop out the avocado and cut into square chunks. Squeeze the juice of a quarter lemon on the avocado chunks and stir to make sure juice gets al [...]
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Over the years, I have received numerous guest post submissions for my blog. I have only accepted one. Others have been cheesy attempts to advertise to you, and a few have been submitted by people who threw something together and submitted it to dozens of blogs at once. I know you wouldn’t have appreciated posts like that, so I politely declined.
These days, I’m receiving increasing numbers of submissions, a few of them quite good, so I created some guidelines so people know what will and will not be considered as a guest post at the Indie Business Blog. I thought I would share them here with the Savor Ladies because you might want to use my invitation as an example for your own blog! Here's the substance of my invitation.
TOPICS
As you can see from the upper left column of my blog, my blog covers Advocacy, Fitness, Leadership, Small Business Success and Social Media, and there are sub-topics underneath each one. I will accept submissions in any of those topic areas.
POST [...]
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Yesterday, I started using the pedometer given to me as a surprise Christmas gift. I decided against a morning run so I could prepare for the hearings on the Colorado Safe Personal Care Products Act, which ran from 3:30pm to 8:44pm EST. According to my guest on yesterday’s Indie Business Radio Show, one should aim for 10,000 steps daily to achieve maximum fitness, especially if weight loss is a goal. When I went to bed last night, my pedometer read 2,789.
This morning, I made a different choice. After taking my children to school, I headed for the gym for a 2-mile run. (Well, I walked really fast for a mile and ran for a mile.) When I got off the treadmill, my pedometer read 6,411. And it was not yet 9:00am.
It’s not as if I haven’t finished a run before 9:00am before. I’ve done before although I have not been at all consistent. What’s different today is the pedometer, which objectively reflects the dramatic difference that comes from one simple decision.
I’m nowhere near [...]
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Yesterday was another fun FaceBook Friday! If you missed the previous FaceBook Friday about ways to attract people to your Fan Page, you can read it here.) This week’s question was aimed at getting a sense of what small and independent business owners consider when decided whether or not to join a competitor’s FaceBook Page. Turns out, they think about a lot!
Below are a few of the many well articulated thoughts of the people who responded to the question. You can read all of the comments here. As always, IBN members are marked with the Indie leaf, and the links are to their Fan Pages, if I could find them!
Emily Caswell: “I suppose in some fields this would be a thorny issue, but in this particular group people (even competitors) are so generous and helpful, I don’t think twice about supporting their businesses.”Lisa Rodgers: “Some of my favorite people are ones I have met through social networks and they also happen to be my competition. I’m happy to support them and be [...] -
If you sell cosmetics, please be aware that there is legislation pending in Colorado that will operate to significantly increase the costs of selling your products in that state. It may even cause you to have to stop selling your products to spas, retails stores and consumers in that state. The Colorado Safe Personal Care Products Act is under discussion in the Colorado legislature now and hearings are set for Monday in Denver at 1:30pm. This video provides an overview.
While this particular law is pending in Colorado, other states are lining up to follow Colorado's lead. If this happens, the federal cosmetics regulatory structure, which has produced companies selling the safest and mostinnovative personal care products in the world, will be stood on its head and it will become impossible for all but the largest corporations to launch or run a cosmetics business in this country.
As founder and CEO of the Indie Beauty Network, I have been advocating on this issue since 2008 at t [...]
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Next Monday, March 1 at 1:00pm New York time, Kimberly Linton will be my guest on Indie Business Radio. You can see from the photo below, Kimberly means business! I recently stepped up my fitness efforts in order to put a healthy body alongside a healthy business. I plan to start Kimberly's virtual fitness training program on March 1, and you can join me at a discount and get a chance to compete to win your choice of a $200 gift card from Amazon.com or a TRX portable home gym that allows up to 400 exercises!!
More about that in a minute. To jump start my program, I started going to the gym on a more regular basis. I have also picked up my running, after nearly 4 months off, and eliminated almost all meat (beef, chicken, pork and fish) from my diet. I have also declared Wednesdays to be "WorkOut Wednesdays" at the Indie Business Fan Page. You can see all of the great ways we encouraged each other to higher fitness heights on FaceBook last week at this link. I hope you will jo [...]
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Publishing consistent, focused comments at influential blogs in your field can help expand your sphere of influence more effectively than just about anything else. I call this "comment blogging" (I think I just made that up), and I do it reguarly. If done consistently over a period of time, comment blogging can result in new client prospects, exciting collaborations and even features at other people's blogs.
No doubt you’ve been encouraged to increase traffic to your blog by contributing blog comments that link back to you. This is great, just be sure your comments always add something of value to the discussion.
Sharing a vanilla comment is good if that’s all you have to say. But when you come across an issue that you feel passionately about, or about which you have some expertise, sharing in more detail can boost your credibility and encourage others to connect with you.
Sharing a vanilla comment is good if that's all you have to say. But when you come across a discu [...]
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When my son began preparing for pre-school not too long ago, one of the things we did to help him prepare was to recite his elementary school's pledge. It’s short, sweet and a good reminder for small business owners and everyone in general about our responsibility to pursue excellence. Here it is.
As a student, I pledge to:
- Make good choices and be responsible for my own actions.
- Use manners, kind words, and actions to show respect for others and myself.
- Arrive on time daily with a positive attitude, take acre of my materials, follow directions, and be eager to explore learning opportunities.
- I expect excellence as I soar to new heights and discover success!
