Material Monster

You are about to embark on the most exciting enterprise of your life — publishing a cook book! You will soon learn that writing a cook book is truly a fun, exciting and challenging project - more than you can imagine. Like me, you can publish your own wildly successful cook book. And if you ask me if I think publishing a cook book is worth the time and effort? You bet I do!

My cook book, Fit to Cook - Why ‘Waist’ Time in the Kitchen? sold over 250,000 copies (with, I might add, less than 10% of those sales coming from book stores). However, I wasted a great deal of time, back-tracking and scrambling in order to sell all those books because in the beginning I did not have a complete grasp of the publishing industry and the process of marketing a cook book.

Before you rack your brain figuring out how to write a cook book, and more importantly, how to publish a cook book, take some time to thoroughly research the why and what you are writing about, who you are writing for and when is the best time to launch your book.

Whether you want to get published or whether you want to self publish your cook book, the same basics apply - you need a good understanding of the publishing industry. Without the basics, will you know if your contracts are in order, that your book is the best it can be and that your cook book marketing plan is actually an effective strategy? No - but, knowledge is power. It is crucial that you take enough time to educate yourself about the entire publishing industry.

Understanding publishing, and the marketing of books, will clearly help you to identify why you are writing a cook book. Perhaps you are writing a cook book just to record secret family recipes or to have all of your own favorite recipes in a book format; maybe you are writing a cook book for a community or church fundraiser; or best of all, your goal is to create a bestseller. Cook books that are written for a very small group do not require business and marketing plans because you already know how many books will be purchased and who the buyers are. However, if you are planning to publish your own cook book for the mass markets, you need to understand that you have moved beyond author to publisher. That means that you are now a business person whose primary goal is the creation of a product to sell. There is no point in printing a book that no one will want to buy.

When I began writing my own cook book, I naively thought that it would be a two or three month process, and that in no time I would have a book on every book store shelf in the country. Ha, ha, ha, chuckle chuckle… Experience is a great educator, but who says that you have to learn the hard way? Obviously I had no idea how to publish a cook book in the beginning! However, through this article and via the publishing course that I and my partners have created, I intend to help you avoid losing time and money.

How did I create such a successful cook book? The short answer is research, research, research, and then more research. Thankfully I had the wisdom to do the research before going to print. But research can, and did, take years.

In my experience, after I learned how to write a cook book I had to learn all about cook book publishing:

copyright

trademarks

ISBN numbers

cataloging in publication data

printing terms like cover stock, bindings, signatures and bluelines

learning how to obtain printing quotes, (crucial in knowing how many books you can afford to print)

barcodes

graphic design (makes the difference between great sales and no sales)

editing (cannot, and I mean cannot, be done by yourself, friends or family)

titles and subtitles (they can make or break a book)

title search (avoid duplicating someone else’s title)

distribution

Next, I had to learn about how to start a business:

business plan

incorporation

toll free numbers

corporate logos and identity

websites

shipping arrangements

accounting principles

Most importantly I had to become wise about marketing:

writing a plan

researching competition

understanding target markets

going through the difficult but crucial process of choosing a book title

discovering the importance of a book’s cover - both the front cover and the back cover - and how to design the cover

looking outside book stores for buyers

learning the importance of publicity

discovering the essential need for a stellar media kit and how to create one

approaching the media and the importance of a good publicist

I learned, and I will share with you, a key point to consider when you are discovering how to write a cook book. Before you even begin to write your cook book, you must identify your target market. Who will actually buy your cook book? It is amazing that so many authors think that “everyone” will want their book, but that is not so. Not “everyone” is a target for anything! - not even the Bible.

Know who will actually buy your book. Interviewing the owners of cook book stores and specialty cooking stores can help you to identify cook book trends so that you know what people are actually buying. It is also a good idea to think of corporations and organizations that might benefit by using your book as a promotional item. Approach them even before you go to print, offering them special discounts, opportunities to place their information in a special printing of the book, advertising chances to offer your cook book as a “freebie” with the purchase of their product - just to name a few cook book marketing ideas.

If your cook book is targeted to busy families, the recipes must be easy to prepare in a short time period; if it is targeted to gourmet cooks, the recipes must be of the quality that you would expect to find in a four or five star restaurant; if it is targeted to a specific ethnic group, the recipes must be authentic; but if it is targeted to the mass market, your cook book must have a very wide scope with recipes that make any mouth water, and the ingredients must be readily available in grocery stores.

Once you have identified who will buy your book, you can target your marketing plan and your book design with your customers in mind, such as:

Where do they shop?

Where do they play?

What style of book appeals to them? - (research your competition closely).

What price are they willing to pay?

How many pictures do they want in a cook book? (a lack of photos can kill book sales)

What colors attract them? (spend time in book stores and libraries, learning which books have the most appealing appearance)

What size of book is currently popular?

What type of book binding increases sales?

Are they concerned about health or other issues?

Do they appreciate little stories, jokes, cooking tips or other information in the book?

Sometimes I took two steps forward then had to take one step back, but at other times I took one step forward and two back. Don’t waste time the way that I did - use my experiences to your advantage. Once you have a grasp of the basics, you can actually begin to put your cook book publishing and marketing plans into action.

Of course, a cook book has special challenges that other books may not have. Your primary goal is to give people unique, delicious recipes that they can create successfully in their own homes. That means that you have to measure exactly and your instructions must be clear and simple. You will have to test each recipe over and over until it turns out perfectly every time, then you will have to enlist other people to prepare those recipes independently of you. No matter what their comments, you must take the critiques of your testers seriously because if they do not achieve great results the chances are very good that your customers will be unhappy with their “flops”. Finally, it is a good idea to have the recipes tested by a professional home economist or other food expert.

Depending on the focus of your cook book, you might want to include nutrition information such as calories and fat content. Fortunately, there is now computer software that will do the calculations for you. You must also provide an index at the back of the book, and thankfully, software is available for this chore also.

Food photography is a special challenge of its own, requiring many tricks to make good look appealing. A good food photographer is a vital part of your cook book publishing team. Great attention must be paid to every minute detail, down to the grains of pepper in a dish and to the bubbles on top of a cup of coffee. Each photograph can require four hours of shooting time, if not more, so plan adequate time for the photo shoot.

The services of a food stylist are very helpful, but with research you can do a great deal of the food styling yourself. Find as many books as you can on the subject and practice in advance of the photo shoot. I learned simple tricks like:

sticking sandpaper to the plate to prevent food from slipping

using whipped icing or shaving cream in place of ice cream or whipped cream

placing a shot glass under a very thickly cut slice of lemon to prevent the lemon from absorbing the liquid underneath

using beef bouillon in place of “coffee”

using dish detergent to create bubbles in the “coffee”

using a blow torch to make meat appear cooked

and the list goes on…

Food styling is such fun, but it requires a great deal of time, even in advance of the photo shoot. You will need all of your “props” in place, such as dishes, cutlery, flowers, table linens, food items and backgrounds. Many companies will happily lend these items to you in exchange for a credit in the book - this can appear on the Cataloging in Publication data page at the beginning of your book.

When your book is ready to go to print, it is time to put your cook book marketing and publicity campaign into gear:

Decide on the best time of year to launch your book. September is usually the best month for Christmas sales, but you also face steep competition. Try to think of a time that is appropriate for your book, such as January for a healthy eating book, late Spring for a barbecue book, Valentine’s Day for a romantic book, Heart and Stroke month for a heart-healthy book, etc.

Produce galley copies.

Send galleys to appropriate book clubs (look at their websites to learn their submission requirements).

Research appropriate catalogs and send galleys to them.

Have your publicist approach magazines that review cook books (magazines have long lead times).

Stay in contact with any corporations and organizations that might use your book for promotions.

Find a reputable distributor to have your book accepted by the book store trade, as well as other retailers.

Contact non-book store book sellers.

When your book is ready to roll off the press, get your publicity campaign into high gear. You can have the best book in the world, but if no one knows about it, no one will buy it. The easy part is over - publicity and marketing now become your life. This part is the most fun, as you now reap the rewards of all of your efforts. Your goal now is to turn your cook book title into a household word. Go for it — publish your own cook book!

Ink Tree Ltd. helps authors publish, market and sell books. If you are considering publishing a cookbook, we will help you make it a success. http://www.inktreemarketing.com/PublishaCookbook.htm

Writing your own obituary sounds and feels a little strange, I know. If the idea doesn’t appeal to you, try pretending that you have just won an award and the newspaper is doing a feature story on your accomplishments. By recording what you wish to be remembered or acknowledged for, you will be able to pinpoint the values you would like to live by. And, by identifying your life’s values you will be more able to live them now and in the future.

Values are those things that are more important to you than anything else. Values pave the path for an ideal life. When we live according to the values we have embraced we live a life of fulfillment. If we neglect those values that are of great importance to us, we feel emptiness in our lives.
What would you like your legacy to be? How would you like to be remembered? Think of four of five words that describe behaviors and activities you have noted in your obituary or feature article. Perhaps you noted that you will be remembered for your community service, your love of family, your artistic abilities and your position as an expert in your field. What values do these suggest to you?

Community service would mean you value Contributing. Love of family could mean you value Relating. Remembering your artistic abilities, you would be acknowledging the value of Creativity. And, noting your position as an expert says you value Excellence.

Once you have identified the values you want to be identified with you can work on integrating them into your life in the present. You can create a life that holds true those values by choosing your goals to your fit your values.

If you want to honor the value of Creativity, for instance, you might have a goal of learning to sew or taking an art class.

Keep a list of your values handy and when contemplating a new goal, check it against your values. Values often shift over time. Someone, who once valued Adventure, may now place a higher value on Discovery or vice versa. It’s a good idea to check your values once a year, and what better time than at the start of a New Year.

Beth Densmore is a Personal Life Coach and Motivational Speaker who offers support, inspiration and motivation to those who are in transition and want to achieve a goal. For more information and more free articles like this, visit her site at http://www.newfocuscoaching.com.

Any company in today’s global economy must eventually face the issue that if it is not growing, it will be expiring. For most companies, mergers and acquisitions are too risky to be a revenue growth option. Organic growth, though low risk, may have some considerable limitations. A third option - alliances - just may be the right blend of risk and reward to accelerate your company’s revenue engine.

Over the past 15 years, the successful formation of alliances has emerged not only as a critical management competency but a revenue weapon as well. The top 500 global companies average 60 major alliances each. In 1999 Andersen Consulting Global Alliance Survey stated that alliances account for an average 26 percent of Fortune 500 companies’ revenues, up from 11 percent just five years earlier. What is more, companies estimate that alliances contribute 35% to market value with an expectation that alliances will contribute 48% to market value by 2007. Clearly, being a good business partner, regardless of the duration and objective of the alliance, has become a key corporate asset and competency.

If your firm has not successfully engaged in collaborate alliances, or if it has tried and failed, this article is for you. We will first briefly outline the advantages of deploying an alliance strategy to grow revenues. We’ll then take a look at the perils, goals, and principles of alliance management in hopes of encouraging you to engage professionals (such as Plenum Revenue Group) to seek out and manage your alliances.

Alliance Overview

Alliances are a fast and flexible way to access complementary resources and skills that reside in other companies and have become an important tool for achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. Alliances require leveraging valuable internal resources and current competitive advantages in new and innovative ways. Alliance formation requires a minimum amount of cash and can be formed with a number of alliance partners horizontally or vertically in numerous markets. However, as alliance formation is a fairly new growth option for most companies, they tend to bring some increased risk to the inexperienced. Regardless, growth through alliance formation has seen an almost explosive energy in the past fifteen years as a vital secret and silent competitive weapon by many companies. Most alliances formed between companies are not made public, either because the companies choose not to publicize the collaboration, they want to keep the deal confidential for competitive reasons, or because business journalists do not see them as “sexy” as mergers and acquisitions.

Finally, many companies have learned that an alliance strategy is a good preliminary step prior to an acquisition. If an alliance will not work, it’s more likely an acquisition would not have worked as well. But the lesson costs are far less with an alliance - typically 25% - 35% of the cost of a doomed acquisition.

Alliance Management

With all of the upside potential associated with collaborative alliances why do almost half fail? Is it possible management devotes more time to seeking out and screening potential partners in financial terms than to managing the partnership in human terms? Is it possible management promotes the future benefits of the announced alliance to their shareholders but fails to help managers create those benefits? Our long experience in alliance formation and management confirms such, because we have seen too often that management fails to provide a clear long-term objective for the alliance. Too often the goals and objectives for the alliance are not clearly communicated to the rank and file so that they may contribute to its success. Too often the alliance dies a silent death from neglect.

The critical skill . . . will be that of coordinating units that cannot be commanded but which have to work together. Peter Drucker

Managing an alliance can be frustrating: coordination must be the rule; diplomacy is a necessity; and the internal politics of allies are often confounding.

The process of managing an alliance is one of the best kept business secrets. It truly has been a mystery because it is not taught in any business school. Neither has it been effectively written down in any books or magazine articles.

The Shift From Strategy to Execution

Once an alliance has been initiated, responsibility for its success shifts from the strategists, deal makers, and top executives to the champions, alliance managers, and liaisons who seldom received any training to accomplish their task. It is amazing how innovative and adaptable some alliance managers have been to make their alliances “work.” However, for those alliance managers who lack such skills, the result has often been alliance failure, frequently with severe repercussions on their companies or to their careers.

Each alliance begins with a stated mission and purpose. As time moves along, alliance leaders are asked to answer for the alliance, to guide its course and to energize its people. Each new challenge creates an opportunity and presents a problem to solve.

The Ultimate Goals

The ultimate goals in alliance management are achieving the desired strategic returns and maintaining a win/win relationship. To successfully attain these two goals, the alliance manager must be aware of several critical factors that distinguish the management of cooperative ventures from usual corporate experience:

Managing the extended company requires new and different set of skills and control systems; The role of the middle manager in alliances changes significantly from tactician to strategist;
Flexibility will be vital in adapting to change and maintaining a win/win condition; The differences among the partners’ strengths, goals and styles will create conflicts as well as opportunities for success; Surrounding all actions must be a spirit of cooperation, constantly built and reinforced by the alliance team; and The process of governance for the mutual interests of all alliance partners is as critical as achieving the desired results. Successful alliance management requires the mastery of these factors by knowing the time-tested principles and processes on which they are based.

Critical Alliance Management Principles

The architecture of the alliance can be founded on two essential management principles:

Integration
Interface Management

The application of these two principles will be required on virtually a daily basis.

Integration

Integration empowers the alliance. Without it, the alliance will never hold together. Integration cannot be ignored. The alliance partners develop linkages and shared ways of operating so that can work together smoothly. They build broad connections between many people at many organizational levels. Partners become both teachers and learners.

Without getting into detail in this brief article, integration can be accomplished through:

Leadership (champion, alliance manager, management)

Teamwork (cross-functional task forces and teams)

Control by coordination (cross-functional decision making and problem-solving)

Policies and values (establishing and maintaining trust)

Consensus decision making (formal decision making)

Resource commitments (technology, personnel, capital, etc.) and

Lateral liaison (effective and timely communication and decision making)

Interface Management

Interface management involves the point of contact between two internal departments or any differentiated groups. Problems and complexities, whether organizational or technological, lie at the interfaces.

The role of the alliance integrator is to manage the interface to maximize people’s ability to get the job done. Prior to alliance commencement, interfaces should be identified so that the potential points of conflict can be isolated beforehand and personnel assigned to head off potential problems.

All Alliance Partners Must Be Winners

The two basic objectives of management are to adapt the changing needs of the alliance and to get results. Maintaining the win/win condition is essential; with the presence of this condition, no strategic plan, no legal structure, no formal agreement and operational schedule will overcome such a fundamental deficiency. An alliance partner who perceives a losing condition will not perform well and may eventually undermine the alliance itself.

Steven Mednick is President and Founder of Plenum Revenue Group, LLC. Based in Newport Beach, Calif., Plenum is a revenue development company for emerging and medium sized businesses. Working shoulder-to-shoulder with its clients, Plenum actively seeks out and delivers tangible revenue opportunities for its clients that drive incremental top-line growth and bottom-line results.

If it’s time to begin working on your business by exploring revenue opportunities that will position your company for future top-line growth and bottom-line results, please call us today at 949.218.8657 or visit our website at http://www.plenumrevenuegroup.com

If you’ve been eyeing those sleek new iPods, but you didn’t like the price tag, Uncle Same wants to help you buy one.

Before I go on, here’s the standard CYA…

I’m providing this as information only. It’s up to you and your tax professional to figure out if this is indeed a legitimate tax strategy for you. Now on with the show…

There are two principles at work here:

1) You have the right to deduct reasonable and necessary business expenses from your income before calculating tax on that income.

2) Continuing education to improve your business results has long been recognized as a reasonable and necessary expense.

So where does that shiny new iPod fit in?

If you’re like me, you have many hours of mp3 recordings on your hard drive– recorded conference calls, teleseminars, webcasts and other educational materials. I know I have well over 100 hours of such material on my hard drive.

There are also an increasing number of podcasts available dealing with business topics. Listening to those relevant to your business contributes to your ongoing business education.

There are also similar offerings on subjects like investing, tax planning, and so on.

Purchase your iPod through your business, and you can expense the total cost the year you buy it.

How’s this for leverage?

You (meaning your business) spends $200 for a new iPod. You write off the entire cost this year, reducing your taxable income by $200.

You load up that 4 hour webinar you’ve been meaning to get around to, and listen while commuting. You learn something that adds $200 to your bottom line immediately.

Congratulations! You just got your iPod for zero net cost.

And the iPod is so small and light that you can leverage a lot of dead time (commuting, waiting in line, workouts at the gym, etc.) into productive continuing business education.

And it even plays music!

Music to help you concentrate while writing that new article or newsletter.

Making that music a deduction on its own.

As one guru said, the proper question is not

“Can I deduct this?”

The proper question is

“How can I deduct this?”

John McCabe covers business topics like tax savings for the Success Letter, part of John McCabe’s Web Guides.

As an individual travels through changes in life, it is not uncommon to grow out of one profession and into another. Studies show that the average adult will change jobs many times and switch professions at least three times. A change in careers can provide an individual with a vast amount of knowledge and experience that is not only satisfying but also quite useful. As people are comprised of many facets, it is no big surprise that some feel the need to move from one vocation to another. It gives the opportunity to explore one’s own capabilities and get a better perspective of the world around them.

In order to makes these career changes, many will find themselves in need of the right education. Most commonly, an individual will go into an occupation somewhat related to the one they are already in. Luckily, the right education is easy to access thanks to online learning. One can get the skills and training they need at a good price. Plus, an individual can actually go back to school without any disruption to their current schedule. Earning the degree one needs to get a foot in the door can take much less time and employers largely recognize online degrees as legitimate qualifications.

Remember in the last message we talked about your directional pipeline and how sometimes you’ll be approached by prospects who just don’t fit with what you want to achieve? We looked at the different types of prospect - Desperate, Curious, and Inspired.

Well, now we’re going to have a think about what might happen if you realise you have some of the desperate or curious people as your clients. Oh, the shame!

One of the tools we use is called the Brand Power Wheel - not got one of these? Then you know the drill, send a blank email to: leanbrandwheel@aweber.com with “Send Me The Brand Power Wheel - I’m Missing Out - Again!” in the subject line!

The Brand Power Wheel really helps you to identify what’s important to you and the way you work, so you can see whether prospects (people who haven’t bought yet) and clients (those who have) fit with your values and beliefs.

What we find is that for many companies, doing this at an advanced stage in their business lives, they get a bit of a shock. I know we did! You might find that some elements in your brand power wheel are probably out of line. The good news is once you’ve lined everything up, you’ll have far more power and magnetism than your competitors and they’ll struggle to ever really comprehend the reasons why.

The Brand Power Wheel consists of layers (Belief, Capability, Action & Image, Externalities)- each layer, makes up an important part of your overall brand and communication. Working from the inside out will generally have a more dramatic effect on your final Brand communication than working from the outside in. You really need to see it - send a blank email to: leanbrandwheel@aweber.com with “Send Me The Brand Power Wheel - I’m Missing Out - Again!” in the subject line!

So, the first thing you need to do is set about lining everything up so that you can project a potent and congruent brand to your target.

I would just like to say that there is no right or wrong way to get everything in alignment. Some people may favour working on their own beliefs while others address capability with training. Some people will realise that their only blockage is in a sloppy image that doesn’t reflect the quality of themselves or their customers.

However you approach the challenge, you should do it based upon your beliefs, goals, and unique challenges.

There is, however, usually a hard way and an easy way…

Occam’s Razor
William Occam (William of Ockham) was a mediaeval philosopher credited with emparting the following wisdom…

‘Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitas’ (Plurality should not be posited without necessity)

Now this sounds a little bit too pompous and academic for my liking so here’s my simplification…

If you have to choose between two actions, models or plans that are both likely to create the same outcome then choose the simpler one.

If you apply this principle to your brand power and the rest of your marketing - you’ll quickly discover it’s effectiveness.

Applying Occam’s Razor and Sacking Customers

When we were faced with a Brand Power problem a few years ago, we went through this exercise again and discovered that nearly all of our beliefs, capabilities, action and image were lined up, but somehow we just weren’t getting through powerfully to our customers.

At this time we were working with and targeting large, multinational firms. We were being paid very well but:

* Our customers were happy to pay for our advice but rarely followed it through far enough to get results

* We had occasional skirmishes with middle managers in Marketing, IT and HR - so every project felt like a battle

* We became bored, tired and uninspired in our work and as a result began to feel that we weren’t giving our clients our best shot.

We looked into this more fully and realised that we were actually targeting and working with the wrong types of companies for us.

We’d taken part in occasional projects with smaller, more inspired and hungry firms and had really enjoyed the sense of achievement and the celebration of their success.

Small people in big firms really didn’t appreciate our approaches for a number of reasons. The biggest one being that people in large firms are battling for power within. They generally (there are bound to be exceptions) aren’t as interested in the firm’s success as they are in their own.

Marketing Managers wanted to spend more on marketing - not less. They wanted a bigger budget, more people around them and more things depending on them. This way they could grow their prospects, power and security.

What we were offering was in direct conflict with what they wanted and it had repercussions through all elements of management, from HR through to IT and Communications.

So who did want what we were offering?

Owners of small, inspired expert businesses did. People who were spending their own money on marketing loved what we were saying.

So looking at our current brand wheel, we could see easily what we had to do to get through. Sack our clients.

We changed our focus to small expert businesses, graciously (well almost!) sacked some of our best paying customers and set about positioning ourselves as a company that works with small expert businesses. Most of what we did, said, believed and were capable of lined up perfectly with our new target, so with an occasional tweak here and there, we began to get work with exactly the customers we wanted. And they really wanted us.

So, how did we sack our clients?

Remember Occam’s Razor and do it simply and elegantly.

We had a few to get rid of. One of them was our largest client for the previous 2 years, but when we investigated the economics of keeping that client we quickly realised that they were only just profitable for us. They were an 80 person consultancy. So our first strategy was to increase our prices by 100%. Now, remember we weren’t trying to get a price increase, we were trying to find a way of extricating ourselves from the relationship.

They said they’d pay. Bugger!

So, we held a very frank meeting with them (those of you who know us can guess how frank!) where we discussed what would need to happen for us to work together in the future. I must say we were blunt. The main and recurring issue with this client was that they “played” desperate ALL the time. Every requirement was urgent, every piece of marketing material was needed yesterday, they never planned ahead and they were always ungrateful! So, we suggested ways that might work in the future. They promised to try!

Now, some people may be thinking, wow - that’s so arrogant. And, you might be right. But, this is our business and if we’re not enjoying it why are we doing it? We knew what we wanted out of a client and we laid it on the table. They tried, but they were so ingrained in their old ways that it was impossible for them. So, we parted company!

We attempted a similar price raise with a few others we wanted to “sack” - with varying success. We tried a few other techniques, like recommending other companies who could satisfy them better than we could (we generated a few good partnerships with this model) and putting in longer timescales for projects. But by far the most successful was being upfront and telling them why we were releasing them!

I think Jim Womack - President and Founder of Lean Enterprise Institute http://www.lean.org says it most succinctly:
“Customers often have no choice but to purchase the waste along with the value”

When you’re working with clients who don’t fit your ideal client profile, who “play” desperate, who exhaust you and are never grateful, then someone must be suffering.

We realised that not only were we suffering (emotionally and profitably) but that our ideal clients were buying the waste along with the value! Sacking clients who don’t fit your ideal profile means you have a more efficient business and everyone succeeds.

Speak Soon,

‘Dangerous’ Debbie Jenkins
debs@debbiejenkins.com

(c) Copyright 2005 www.BookShaker.com

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According to the American Heart Association’s Heart Disease and
Stroke Statistics, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still the
United States number one killer of men and women of all ethnic
groups. The statistical update for 2005 utilized the statistics
compiled for 2002, or the most recent year that data are
available. Cardiovascular diseases include high blood pressure,
arrhythmia, valve disease, congestive heart failure and stroke.
Coronary heart disease (CHD) or hardening of the arteries is the
largest killer of Americans. There were 494.4 thousand coronary
heart disease deaths in 2002 including 179.5 thousand deaths
from heart attack. The deaths from CHD included 241.6 thousand
females of which 25.9 thousand were Black females. The number of
deaths from strokes for Black females was 9.6 thousand.

CVD* Profile: * 1 in 4 females has some form of cardiovascular
disease. * Since 1984, the number of CVD deaths for females has
exceeded those for males. * In 2002 CVD caused the deaths of
493, 623 females compared with 433,825 males. Females represent
53.2 percent of deaths from CVD. * In the United States in 2002,
all cardiovascular diseases combined claim the lives of 493,623
females while all forms of cancer combined to kill 268,503
females. Breast cancer claimed the lives of 41,514 females; lung
cancer claimed 67,542. * The 2002 overall death rate from CVD
was 320.5. Death rates were –265.6 for white females –368.1
for black females. * *In 2002 cardiovascular disease was the
first listed diagnosis of 3,164,000 females discharged from
short-stay hospitals. Discharges include people both living and
dead. The risk factors for CVD are not only common in the
African America community, they are also preventable. These
factors include high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol
profile, overweight & obesity, abnormal blood glucose and the
use of tobacco. Risk factors are preventable at an early age,
before manifesting as cardiovascular disease later.

Lifestyle choices for prevention include but are not limited to:
* Exercising 30 minutes daily * Eat vegetables, fruits and
grains * Eat a low fat, low carbohydrate, low cholesterol, low
salt diet * Eat fish, lean meats, poultry * Drink eight glasses
of water daily * Eliminate processed foods, sugar, pastry *
Reduce life stressors and/or reaction to stressors * Engage in
spiritual activities * Give community service Due to the urgent
need for ongoing intervention to reverse the trend of increasing
numbers of diabetes and obesity, heart disease and stroke, I
have partnered with the American Heart Association to provide a
community awareness program to help improve the health and
wellness of community residents. This program revolves around
the National Go Red for Women and Heart Health initiatives. To
help raise the awareness of community residents and its members
at large, of the need for heart health and the prevention of CAD
in women, I encourage women to join me on February 3 by wearing
red, in accordance with the American Heart Association’s
National Go Red for Women Day. In addition I ask women to
schedule an appointment for themselves and family members to see
their nurse practitioner, internist, or pediatrician.
_____________________________ *Source: The American Heart
Association

How do you treat money? What are your thoughts about it?
If you value something, you treat it with respect, right?
Well do you value your money then? Or do you treat it
recklessly, spending it whenever you feel like it?

Your attitude towards your money determines how you handle
it.

Money is supposed to serve you, to meet your needs and the needs of others. If you use it unwisely though, it won’t do
what it’s supposed to do for you. You actually repel money
when you use it the wrong way.

Your money is a valuable seed that can yield you great
financial harvests if you sow it properly.

Money is energy, and if you wish to attract more of it, you
must become money-conscious, and intelligent. Educate
yourself about money and how it works, then act on what
you learn.

A key to financial freedom is to save a portion of your
income and invest what you save. That way your money
goes to work on your behalf, yielding you returns while
you pursue other interests. Saving and investing shows
that you value your money. Your money will in return,
‘reward’ you by growing and being enough to meet your
needs.

Can’t think of where to get the money to save?

Why not try this: stop buying things on impulse.
What things, you say?

How about magazines, newspapers, cigarettes, snacks,
buying lunch instead of packing lunch from home. Do you
really need to have that CD single? Now I’m not asking
you to deny yourself of these things. Just that you
should budget for them. Factor them into your plans when
you get your income.

Another key to your financial freedom is to give away
a portion of it to the less fortunate. Remember how I said
that money was energy? Well, when you give it away, you
are operating from a place of abundance, and you attract
even more abundance to yourself.

As John D. Rockefeller put it, whenever you receive
any money,

. Give the first 10% to God or charity

. Pay yourself

. Save 10%

. Live within your means

. Account for every penny

Point is,if you look hard enough, you’ll find ways to
reduce unneccessary spending and increase your saving and
giving. Make these two activities a habit (and ideally
make all the above tips from Mr Rockefeller habits).

Value your money. Recognize its worth. Educate yourself
about it. Treat it with respect, and you will reap great
financial benefits.

Dr Kem Thompson is a Wealth & Success Coach, Speaker, Author. She teaches individuals how to create wealth with integrity, and achieve true financial freedom. Financial freedom starts with financial intelligence, so begin your education by signing up for the FREE newsletter, ‘Reset Your Wealth’ here: http://www.resetyourwealth.com