We LOVE men!

Recently we announced that registration is officially open for the Contagious Confidence Conference for Women and so far, we have received many calls from men, asking if they can attend.

You bet!

This conference, the fourth in the series is Relationship and Communication focused and that menas, ladies, that you can bring the men you communicate with the most. That means you can bring a spouse, a friend, a significant other or a boss with you. Men are invited to join us during the morning session in which we will work on communication and personality styles, as well as how to use that information to better your relationships. You will love it!

After this morning session, men are invited to stay for lunch (for an additional $25) and then head back to their own office or lives. The afternoon session from 1-4pm is just us girls, so spread the word. We like the men in our lives and this conference would not be complete without them.

We look forward to seeing you there and encourage you to go to www.contagiousconferences.com to register and learn even more! See you on October 23!

It's Here! It's Here!

Hello and Happy Sunday!

If you have EVER had to repeat yourself to a colleague or loved one, keep reading…
If you have EVER had to scratch your head and wonder WHAT about what you just said was unclear, he-he, keep reading…
If you have EVER wanted to be able to communicate better or at least be UNDERSTOOD better… you get the idea…

It’s HERE! A solution to the communication and relationship breakdowns in your life is now available. Please join us at the:
Contagious Confidence Conference for Women: Relationships and Communication focus.

WHEN AND WHERE?
Thursday, October 23, 2008 at the Hilton Altamonte Springs Hotel
HOW AND HOW MUCH?
Go to contagiousconferences.com and click the BIG RED register now button (top right)
Tickets are $177 IF you register before September 1. $177 gives you one full day ticket and ONE HALF DAY ticket for your spouse, boss, or colleague that you wish to have a better relationship with or communicate with better.
WHAT’S NEW?
There will more interaction, more vendors, more of the stuff you like, a new speaker: Mr. Eric Schulman, and CHOCOLATE desert after lunch!
WHAT DO I DO?
Register today online or via phone (866-350-5323) or print your form and fax it to our office (407-877-8366)

That web address is contagiousconferences.com and the phone number is 1-866-350-5323.

Women Who Do Too Much

Good morning!
Today I had the opportuntity to read a calendar that my dear girlfriend gave me last Christmas. It is a daily calendar for "Women Who Do Too Much" and today's note made me giggle as it stood out and set me straight for a wonderful day.

The calendar stated:
"Just for today, I will try to live through this day only and not tackle my whole life
problems at once."

Have you ever tried to tackle your whole life in one sitting or in one day or with one list? he-he. Maybe that's just me. If not, let's work on that together - today is just today and let's live for today and be confident about our ability to handle anything that comes our way today. In fact, let's be contagiously confident that we can handle anything that comes our way today.

Stay Contagious!

Confidence can be robbed from the best of us...

Yep, you guessed it. Even the "Contagious Lady" has rough days. Who knew?

You know, the more blogs I read, the more I learn about people and the personal stuff they share. Hmmm....for some I might say "that's a slight over share" and others I find it interesting getting to know them. And then again it occurred to me that my blog is a bit less personal than maybe it could be. Thus, I thought I would share...

I don't know about you, but this week has been a doozy. There have been personal issues, engagements that did not go through, issues with people I like and those I wish I had reconsidered liking (hee-hee) and more. Yet every day with most people, I have found myself putting on the ever popular game face. The truth is that this week has probably been one of the worst. I have doubted my self, doubted my business, and wondered if I had any real direction in my life at all. Of course, most of it could be solved by digging my way half way down a carton of Haagen Dasz, but realty is I had to use all the tools I teach and then some to keep my confidence in tact. Confidence can be robbed from even the best of us and maybe it's time I made it clear that I'm not perfect, either. ha! Who knew??

Hope your week was truly fabulous and that you gave the game face a break and revealed your humanity. Stay Contagious!

Whoo-Hoo! Not just for WaMu...

Hello there,

Don't you say "Whoo-Hoo! I can't wait to go to work!" (or school, or the office, or the kids rooms, or whatever you do every day) every morning? Come on, sure you do. Well, let me rephrase that, I DO. But it took work to get there and it sure wasn't a result of free checking or overdraft protection or whatever the latest WaMu marketing perk is.

Contagious Confidence(tm) provides the guts that lead to the glory. It takes confidence, self-esteem, courage, charisma, and persistence, among others, to do what you love and make a living at it. You can do it and get to a place where you say whoo-who each and every day. No one said it was going to be easy and WaMu may make it look easy, but if you want free checking... go for it... if you want to wake up happy, being you each day... then let's start working on your internal confidence, your contagious confidence! (and that is not always a piece of cake, but you can do it.)

Here are some recommended readings for you that I have found helpful this week.

The On-Purpose Person - Kevin McCarthy
You Can Heal Your Life - Louise Hay
Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
Why You're Dumb, Sick, and Broke - Randy Gage

Stay Contagious and Confident!
Monica

Going to this conference is like...

Conferences are not for everyone... but this one just might be for you. We talk about self-awareness, financial confidence, health and fitness, and relationships. In fact, going to the Contagious Confidence Conference for Women is like getting a degree in life leadership... complete with the initials to put behind your name. Colleagues scoffed at me when I said I could create an entire contagious community and now then they watched me do it.

If you are a woman who wants to learn how to better lead her life, her own finances, her body along with her self image and her relationships and you wouldn't mind having that extra credential attached to your name, then this might be the series of events that you want to attend. Upon completion of the four Contagious Confidence Conferences, you will become a CL, or certified Leader of your Life, which you might find will also impact your life. Join us for our next event in October of 2008 or visit www.contagiousconferences.com.

Stay Contagious !

Thirteen Shocking Maneuvers that Will Save Your Sanity

Hello there,

It seems so many are "losing their mind" or just flat out "losing it" these days. Why are we all so on edge? hmmm... let's see... could be the 55 giant glass balls that we are all confidently trying to juggle. One person drops one and there is this domino effect - or rather, it becomes contagious. However, there are some ways that you can save your mind and save your sanity.

I must warn you, some of these maneuvers take a significant amount of contagious confidence to accomplish and carry out. However, when the voices in your head begin to run away with you, these are the very ways in which you can tell them to chill out and get your sanity, composure and confidence back.

1. Ask for help.. really... even it is hard and you feel like you might look silly, stupid, dumb, or less than absolutely strong and perfect. (trust me on this one)
2. Hire a coach for anything that you have been unable to work on for more than 24 months
3. Get Rest... plenty of rest, even when you don't have time and world says "go, go, go!". A ten minute nap qualifies as rest.. take one... or two..
4. Awfulize only at scheduled times and only for brief periods of time. Awfulizing is anything that begins with "Oh, my gosh, what if..."
5. Avoid the temptation to trust your first perception when you are stressed out
6. Realize and accept that not all people are as smart as you are in all areas (and encourage them to realize the same - yep that may mean they accept your shortcomings, too)
7. Give different (as opposed to difficult) people the benefit of the doubt more than once
8. Moderate your self-talk and say good things as often as you can - even when things look bleak
9. Remove yourself from negativity - walk away from the news in that doctor's waiting room, excuse yourself from conversations held by Eyeore him or herself!
10. Celebrate the very tiniest of accomplishments - you didn't buy that cookie at lunch, you let someone through in traffic - work with me here!
11. Confidently assert yourself and share your opinions, but leave the black witch hat and broom at home.
12. Spend your time being fascinated by life and what happens in it, instead of being frustrated by the multitude of things out of your control.
13. Lose the word "WHY" in your vocabulary and replace it with "Help me Understand" or "How" or "When" or "What's next" or "Next time"

and just for giggles... one more... to boost your contagious confidence and stay sane in a world that often times appears to have gone mad....

14. Walk around with a Chesire Cat sized grin on your face and when people ask you what you are so excited about... just mysteriously and with a bit of flair say "Oh... nothing". You will be amazed at how people will be attracted to that and how many times they will ask you to "go on... tell me!" .

So does this mean that people really do want to be happy after all? who knew?
Stay contagious!

Confident Type As need love, too!

In my chiropractors office yesterday, I was surprised by a phrase that I didn't think applied to me. He said - "When was the last time you went to have a massage?" and I'm thinking... oh yeah, in my spare time, I'll get right on that in between bon-bons and shopping sprees. He must have seen the look on my face and then he said "Even confident Type A people need love, too. Take care of yourself."

Yep, busted. And I bet I am not the only woman who takes care of everything else and everyone else, but puts herself last. In fact, here I sat in the chiropractor's office with sprained shoulder and a possible hairline fracture from my favorite rambunctious horse and instead of stopping to heal, I was asking him how quickly he could make it better so that I could get back to working full speed. And I am the one who tells other women to take care of themselves. eek!

Confident and even more so, CONTAGIOUSLY CONFIDENT women tend to confidently lead the charge that the are tough, cool under pressure and able to do it all. well, yes, we confident women can do it all, but as a friend of mine says "just not all at the same time".

All of you who were at our last Contagious Confidence Conference (may 2, 2008), I ask you... what have you done for you lately... it will boost your confidence to give yourself some love, too.

Stay Contagious!

I got a fun email today from one of our Contagious Conference attendees. She saw me sign an email I sent to her with "Stay Contagious!" and her comment back to me was that she never realized that kind of salutation could actually be a good thing! It was great!

In fact, you are contagious, whether you admit it or not. From the time you ride to work (whether you rode your broom in that day or not) to the time you get home, and even after you get home, your mood, your confidence level, your demeanor and pretty much everything you say and do rubs off on other people. Not sure you buy it... try hanging out with a child under six and see if they don't immediately pick up on things you do or say and then blurt them out later at the most inopportune moment. HA! Adults also pick up on things, they are just better at covering new behaviors than wee ones.

Stay Contagious!

What are you missing out on?

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I began thinking... a scary proposition all by itself. :) Then I went out to ride my horses and halfway through a polo chuckka (the time period in which one plays polo) my horse decides she is done and I mean so done that she puts her head between her front legs and shimmies her bottom sharply to the right and dumps me on the ground right on the very right elbow that propels so much of the movement in my right hand. Okay, so that was fun... but more importantly what does that have to do with Contagious Confidence?

Well, a couple of things...
- with limited use of my right hand and arm, I am discovering that there are many things that I have never learned how to do with my left arm that I am actually able to do better that way. Yeah for all the lefties of the universe, I now know your feelings about living in a right handed person's world. (Who knew that even my makeup containers are designed for right handers!) It is contagious confidence that helped me to turn a bummer event into a positive experience that has brought me to this conclusion. What kinds of activities are you missing out on due to fear or a lack of Contagious Confidence?

- the second thing is this... whining is not my best skill and when one is injured the tendency in our culture is whine about it. Someone might say, "How are you?" and then the response might be "Oh, I'm injured and here's how it happened, here's what happened and so on..." Though people are attracted to drama, they are not attracted to whining and if what I did what was whine, then I might miss out on some great conversations. What are you missing out on by showing your need for approval through the art of whining? When we whine, we display a lack of confidence that is indeed contagious! Instead show a full blown confidence level by telling yourself that "all will be okay" no matter your circumstances, and when others ask you how you are doing, say something like "I'm getting better by the minute!" (cuz you are!)

Stay Contagiously Confident!
Monica

I love you... but...

From the desk of Contagiously Confident Monica...

Think of the power of "I love you, but..." and it will help you remember to watch your use of the words But and However. Using either one will negate what you have said before that word.

More importantly, if you are contagiously confident about what you are saying, then there would be no need for a but or however. For example...

I think you are a great person... but just not right for me at this time. (you may think this person is great, but just not great for you... instead try this:)
I think you are a great person and at this time, I am not the right one for you to share it with.

You are a fine employee... but we are not able to keep you on staff as of today. (If they were so fine, you would find a way to keep them - bar none. Try this instead:)
You are a fine employee. I wish we could keep all of our fine employees. The budget just does not allow for it.

I liked your Contagious Conference last time, however, the money situation prevents me from going this time. (in this case, you are allowing the result that you did not like to cloud the feelings you have about that which you did like - the money situation. Instead try this:)
I liked your Contagious Conference last time. At this time, my money situation is such that I have to reserve funds for the essentials. Do you have a payment plan to make it easier for me right now?

The answer to that last one is yes - just ask! Those who exhibit contagious confidence, say things they are confident about, without the use of but or however and they Ask, Ask, Ask, Ask, Ask, Ask, Ask, and then ask again.

Confidence and Creativity: is there a Correlation?

Be careful: A lack of confidence can rob you of your creativity. A lack of confidence breeds negative thinking and negative moods, which literally block your ability to be creative. (As a side note, confidence is contagious and so is a lack of confidence! )

Here is one example:
You are on a tight budget, you see the economy as the worst it's ever been and you lose your confidence in your own ability to make your sales quota. This creates a lack of confidence about your ability to make it through the next few months. With all of your focus on this lack of confidence, you may bypass the ideas that could help you find new ways to make sales, new ways to save money, and new ways to achieve the same goals in times that you did not expect nor plan for. Creativity is one of the keys to success.

Here is another:
You reach your 40th birthday and instead of thinking of all the creative ways that you could celebrate, you get down, bummed and maybe even depressed about how you are now "old". Maybe you even lack confidence about your accomplishments to date or your ability to progress in your new age. (Hog wash, by the way) This lack of confidence takes away your ability to see all those things that you could do to celebrate, all those things that you could still achieve and contribute to. Without that creativity, your feelings only get worse.

It is not clear which came first - confidence affects creativity or creativity affects confidence, but the truth is they are connected. Perhaps this came to mind because tomorrow is my birthday and I am beginning to wonder if I have done enough or acheived enough for my age. Heck, instead of worrying about that, I am going to think of all the great things I have done, the great people I have met and find a way to celebrate with as many of them as possible tomorrow!

Have a great one and stay contagiously confident!

Do you overthink your confidence?

Look what I found on one of my favorite horse blogs: http://www.leadchanges.blogspot.com/ . Horses are my personal therapy and help to keep me confident. After all if you are not confident on the back of a horse, they can smell fear and will likely run you under a tree!

"Heard this joke today: Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are going camping. They pitch their tent under the stars and go to sleep. Sometime in the middle of the night, Holmes wakes Watson up: "Watson, look up at the stars, and tell me what you see." Watson says, "I see millions of stars and even if a few of those have planets, it's quite likely there are some planets like Earth, and if there are a few planets like Earth out there, there might also be life." Holmes replied: "Watson, you idiot, somebody stole our tent." I like this joke because it pokes fun at how we can overthink things instead of stating the obvious and dealing with the "now".

How many times do we over think whether an event is for us, a piece of advice is just right, where we are in life, how we can fix our confidence and self esteem or what is wrong with our relationships? Not all in life is complicated, but a lack of confidence in your ability to make a decision will sure slow down how quickly the great things in life arrive at your door!

Real Simple Magazine - Solutions don't work unless you are going to bake your banker a cake!

Today I read Real Simple magazine and came across an article on Your Biggest Money Worries (http://www.realsimple.com/realsimple/package/1,21861,1697911-1710778,00.html). It caught my attention because you can't walk out of your house these days without thinking about money and we will be teaching women how to have greater financial confidence on May 2. HOWEVER, the solutions mentioned for resolving your money issues in this popular magazine FLOORED me. They included things like:
- are you spending too much. spend less. (You think?)
- remove all but one credit card from your wallet. (okay, I'll give 'em that one)
- go get happy about something (Are you kidding?)
- make sure everything you buy is returnable. (okay, that does it!)

Not only are women looking for real financial solutions, they face a REAL problem and the solutions in Real Simple magazine are almost laughable. Sure, you can cut down on the Starbuck's and return that impulse buy, but here are some REAL facts that you also need to know to increase your financial confidence.

• 76% of women are eventually widowed
• 80% of these women were not poor when their husbands were alive.
• 70% of the USs elderly poor people are women
• The savings rate of a single woman is 1.5% vs 2.1% for single men
• In the first year after a divorce a woman's standard of living drops an average of 73%.

Now, you could say that these are due to salary differences or time away from work, but the real issue seems to be that women don't know as much about money and making it work for them in general, as their male counterparts do. Women are usually not taught money issues as children. They are instead taught how to keep a clean home, cook a good meal and take care of a family. Right or wrong, those skills do not impress a banker, unless you are going to bake him or her a cake. If you don't know your own credit score, your own bank balance, and for that matter, if you don't HAVE your own credit and own bank account, that will eat away at your CONFIDENCE in a serious way. Learn that stuf today. Your future, your retirement and your very survival through tough times such as these depends on it.

Top Ten Ways to Boost Your Confidence

The Top Ways to Boost Your Confidence

1. Spend time with optimistic, upbeat people
2. Go to Contagious Confidence events (filled with upbeat people looking for you) (http://www.contagiousconferences.com/)
3. Attempt to take less things personally (great link: http://www.queenofrejection.com/)
4. Be Fascinated with things, instead of Frustrated
5. Spend less time with the eyeores of your office or life
6. Learn the difference between confidence and self esteem
7. Ask others for help when you are unable to solve a problem yourself
8. Gain a greater sense of self awareness of what is really important to you
9. Take control over your own finances, health and fitness, and voices in your head
10. Realize that no matter what you are facing and the problems you may have, they are not representative of WHO you are, but rather just WHERE you are at the moment.

BONUS: Try not to engage your emotions into a problem too quickly. Once they are engaged, the situation becoms emotional and you lose all ability to be logical, rational, or objective. (For example: a piece of bad news that you take personally and begin to FEEL as if it were a personal attack leads to an inability to think about the bearer of bad news, the origin of the news, and the real impact of the news on you.)

Stay Contagoiusly Confident!
Monica

Keep your chin up...

There is a lot of talk about the economy, the real estate market, the money situation, the media, the news, the doom and gloom mentality... it can be real tough to wake up in the morning and think we are okay.

Keep in mind as you walk through your day -
- you don't have to get sucked in to all the negativity
- things may be tight and tough, but you will perservere and make it through this
- your finances are not about WHO you are, but merely a representation of WHERE you are.

Money gives you options. Money can give you power (in some cases). Money scares the heck out of people and many women, in particular, do not know how to talk about it or what to do with it, yet we are the ones who control most it, according to all the stats that you see.

If money scares you or intimidates you or you simply wish to learn more about it and how to make more of it, as well as what to do with it, when you have it... click here to register for our upcoming Contagious Confidence Conference for Women - Financial Focus.

http://www.contagiousconferences.com/pages/Contagious_Confidence_Conference_Financial_Focus

If you are unable to open that link, go to www.contagiousconferences.com and click on Conferences, then on Financial Focus. There you will see the power of this event and its information. You will find that this might be the best investment in your own financial future!

Keep your chin up and get all the information you can. What your attitude is about what is going on is completely up to you!

Monica

And now... for the rest of the story....

Here is the rest of the list of how businesswomen differ from businessmen. This list came from SirSpeedy Printing Center originally, but was shared iwth me by a participant at our most recent Contagious Conference. For the other items, see the post from 3/12. Enjoy!

He makes wise judgments; she reveals her prejudices.

He's a man of the world; she's "been around".

He isn't afraid to say what he thinks; she's opinionated.

He exercises authority; she's tyrannical.

He's discreet; she's secretive.

He's a stern taskmaster; she's difficult to work for.

So unfortunately true for much of our workplaces, but there are those out there who see the difference and embrace it. Do you? Stay Contagious!

How Business Women are Different from Business Men

As I just got a glimpse in the mirror of my super big hair today, I had to chuckle as no one will likely mistake what state I originally came from - Texas! That also made me think of the times when people have told me that Texan women have a way of communicating, a sense of bold confidence if you will, and that led me to think on the fact that WOMEN period have a way of communicating that is often different from men.

In fact, Sylvia from McCoy Federal Credit Union, a participant in our last conference, was gracious enough to share something with me that she had been given years ago. It is a listing of the ways that businesswomen differ from businessmen and it is worth a read. Here are some examples:

A businessman is aggressive, a business woman is pushy.

He is careful about details; she's picky.

He loses his temper because he's so involved in his job; she's __ itchy.

He's depressed (or hung over), so everyone tiptoes past his office; she's moody, so it must be her "time of the month".

He follows through; she doesn't know when to quit.

He's firm; she's stubborn...

I'll share more soon, but keep in mind how you may be perceived simply becuase of these differences. Are these true for your office?

Confidence and Glamour - not the same thing

For most of us, our confidence is associated with what we look like.
Well, just in case you are wondering, that is bologna and Romeo
(the horse in this picture) doesn't care what I look like. He just
cares whether or not I hang on and whether I bring him carrots!

The same is true with most of the people you hang out with. Most are not concerned with what you look like and for that matter most don't know what you believe YOU are SUPPOSED to look like. Confidence and glamour are not the same thing. Confidence is internal and glamour is external - usually only until you hit some humidity! (sorry, it's a Florida thing - bad hair days come often with the humidity we face.)

Be careful of the inconsistency in associating what you look like (Glamour) with what you feel like and believe about yourself (Confidence). You have control over both, but keep in mind which one is more important. We all can maintain our confidence even on those days of poor humidity, no makeup and hair on top of our head. Ha!

An Amazing Conference!

If you were there... you remember the potato bar....
If you were there... you remember Wendy Chant's great information!
If you were there.... you remember putting together another puzzle...
If you were there... you remember Monica helping you to "get out of your head" and talking about Our Pink World.

If you were not at the Contagious Confidence Conference for women on February 29, 2008, you missed a great conference focused on Health and Fitness and you liking you no matter what you look like.

A participant recently told me that she now sees "what she looks like as separate from who SHE IS" WOW!!! Just because you don't have a magazine cover body, doesn't mean you aren't a great person or have stellar qualities. That is what Contagious Confidence will do for you!

What was the point you walked away with? What do you remember? Stay tuned for more contagious confidence happenings and sightings.... :) And remember... you're cool, you ROCK, and you are you!

Stay Contagious!