OMG, my neighbor won a Grammy award this Sunday!

As you can imagine, I’m psyched beyond words for her and immediately wanted to celebrate her life changing career success with you all here at YoungandSuccessful.com….because well, that’s what we do, but also, because I thought you’d all appreciate the little taste of this experience up close and personal.

Living in Los Angeles is a pretty surreal existence. Sometimes it’s a little over the top, often it’s fascinating (mostly due to the crazy characters who reside here), frequently it’s perplexing (attitudes, values, paradigms, etc.) but the real reason most live here is for the unbeatable lifestyle – the relaxed atmosphere, the beauty, the beaches, the amazing weather.  Sure some come to be discovered, others to escape the cold, and the rest in search of a better life.

Anna Joseph moved to LA from Minnesota to launch her career in the entertainment industry like countless others.  For the past few years, she’s been a wiz at producing commercials and more recently started to take on some other projects – one of which was a music video.  Long story short, the “Boom Boom Pow” video featuring the Black Eyed Peas was in part, her creation.  And Sunday, they took home the Grammy for Best Music Video.

As I watched the awards that night (with my other favorite neighbor) I couldn’t help but look beyond the glitz, the glamour and the stage show that was put on to celebrate and publicize it all.  When Taylor Swift talked about what it was like to be a kid in high school dreaming the impossible – to one day win a Grammy – then experience it actually happening that night, she reminded millions around the world that many on that stage have had journeys similar to ours.  She ruminated about how those of us who start out all filled with fire and ambition, hungry to succeed, are all told at some point or another that much of what we dream of is unreachable…but clearly it’s not.
Listening to Taylor was a reminder of that.  But helping Anna get ready for the actual Grammy’s herself was the best proof I could ever imagine.  And I really wanted to remind you all of that.  These kinds of successes really do happen.

Anna is the sweetest, nicest, most considerate, professional and talented person you could meet.  She’s real, authentic and dedicated to giving everything she can to everything she does.  She’s one of those people that you hope experiences a success like this…but still, you never dream it will actually happen.  And yet, it does sometimes!

For the past month our building has been a buzz with getting her ready – dresses, hair, makeup, planning.  Her sisters and niece and father flew into town this weekend.  Everyone else at home huddled by their televisions with bated breath.  Those in town got all dressed up, went to the parties, escorted her to the awards show, bit their nails as they waited for the category to be called, then were right by her side when it all happened.  Totally surreal.

I know you don’t all personally know her, but I wanted you to share in this experience because it’s important for us all to see come to life.  All this hard work, the late nights, the pain, the suffering, the dedication, the commitment…is worth it.  Not always, but often enough to make the effort worth it.  Plus, how much more exciting are our journey’s than everyone else’s?  We lead these crazy lives because we want more out of life and we’re all curious to to see just how far we can go.

As you’re thinking about your path so far and all the things you aspire to do, take a look at this video and put yourself in Anna’s shoes. It is possible.  This level of success can be yours.  Anna is living proof.

Just because we’re at the end of January doesn’t mean were letting you off the hook with your resolutions just yet. You may already be into the groove of the new year, but odds are there are still many things you can do to set yourself up for great success this year! Here are a few tips to keep you in the strongest state of mind:

1. Surround yourself with success
“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future,” is a great saying because it’s true! The people and influences we surround ourselves with play a huge role in how we think, act and form our own aspirations.  Rearrange your environment to include more positive, proactive, prosperous, generous and happy people.

2. Commit to making this your best year yet
Banish the doom and gloom attitude of ‘09!  All that fear and pessimism is barely going to get you by, let alone help you knock things out of the ball park.  Switch up your attitude to expect success.  Plan for it.  Build your daily life and plans around achievement and doing what you need to to get to the next level.  Reject status quo.  Instead, make it your fall back plan.

3. Solidify your career plan
If you’re not already committed to a well thought out path, stop RIGHT NOW and look at where you are, what your options are, and be more strategic with every new step you take.  Stop wasting time!  Get a grip now on how to leverage your talents, interests and style to make work something you love and are excited to talk about.  For free help, YSN’s Career Planning tool will help you discover your best path to success in as little as 20 minutes!

4. Show your appreciation
Tell the people you love that you do more often.  Articulate your admiration for your mentors, tell your neighbors how grateful you are for their kindness. As for clients, colleagues, managers, employers, don’t forget how critical they are to your survival and success.  Let them know how much you appreciate their trust and commitment in you and your company.  Little emails, notes, texts, calls and quiet conversations over coffee can really make someone’s day and reinforce your relationships.

5. Combat stress with healthier habits
Next time you feel sluggish, frustrated, fired up or depressed, pass on that third cup of coffee and take a walk around the block, go for a jog, hit the gym, cut up some fresh fruit, nibble on some protein, down a bottle of water, of just put some headphones on and listen to music you love with your eyes closed for a bit.  Not only will you get away from the stress for a few minutes, but you’ll feel stronger when you get back, and you’ll remind yourself that subtle little things you can do like this do make a difference, not just personally but professionally too.

6. Stockpile your options
Opportunity truly is everywhere.  Today, more than ever, you need to have a solid idea of your options so you’re prepared for anything.  Don’t let life or the economy sideswipe you or knock you around like tennis shoes in a dryer.  By lining up opportunities and having backup plans at the ready, you’ll feel more confident, less vulnerable, make smarter choices, and start to pay more attention to what really makes you happy and gets you closer to your goals.

7. Get your career on the fast track
Did you know that every day you have the opportunity to do little things that can make a significant difference in your success? That if you get a better grip on how to best position yourself, package your experience, and build your credibility, people will pay more attention to you and treat you with more respect?  If you surround yourself with experts, advisors, and mentors you’ll make smarter decisions.  If you arm yourself with the right information and insights, you’ll be smarter and probably make more money. Let us show you how with our NEW  Fast Track to Success: 30 Days to Transform Your Life and Career Program!

8. Plan things to look forward to
Looking onward and upward keeps us moving forward and helps maintain our excitement and enthusiasm for what’s to come.  Make plans to go check out a big conference or seminar you’ve been reading about.  Organize a get together with a bunch of friends who really inspire you. If you’ve been working like a dog, schedule a sleep day to shut off your phone, stay in bed, nap, watch movies and rejuvenate.  Set a goal to achieve with a deadline so you can go celebrate when you hit it.

9. Become a tourist in your own town
Start to enjoy your own surroundings more.  It doesn’t matter where you live.  Start to explore like you’re new in town.  Go check out the sites, restaurants, even libraries or theme parks that you haven’t seen or been to in a while. Drag a friend along with you and have a blast.  Find a new appreciation for the place you call home and the fascinating and funny characters who live in your city, town, village or neighborhood.

10. Build your community, build your career
Getting involved in local causes, charities, fundraisers and committees can not only help you make an impact in your own backyard, but you’ll make some great friends and connections too.  Rallying behind a cause (whether local, national or global) gives you a very special opportunity to work with community leaders, entrepreneurs, corporate execs and other special people you might never have met.  Joining forces with them builds unity, camaraderie and a real sense of community.  Best of all you can make a difference in the lives of others…and the rush you get from that is second to none.

For the tens of thousands who lost their jobs this year, and the millions of others fearing for the jobs they still have, YSN.com’s Jennifer Kushell shares these tips to survive the initial shock — and bounce back like a star.

1. Breathe. Stay calm.
The worst decisions are made under pressure, stress, or in a state of fear. Don’t allow yourself to be rash or irrational; keep your wits about you and commit to making it through this in one piece. Get a sense for what this layoff really means to you and what the real repercussions will be. Assess your safety nets: What are your back up plans? (All the way down to spending time with the folks in your worst case financial scenario.) Hopefully you’ve done enough to guard against that, and if so, take some solace in the fact that you’re prepared to weather a little uncertainty.

Links:
6 Steps to Survive Being Laid Off
Remember to Breathe
26 Steps to Stay Calm when the Situation Goes Bad
7 Powerful Relaxation Techniques

2. Look at this as an opportunity.
You know what they always say, “It’s not what happens to you, but what you do about it.” That might not be what you want to hear right now, but think about it: This sudden change could have a silver lining — so commit yourself to finding it. Take some time for yourself, even just a few quiet hours alone and reflect on all the things you truly liked and disliked about your job. What would you have done differently? Were you there because you had to be, or because you wanted to be? Ask yourself how you can now take the next step learning from your past experience. Is there a chance to take a step up? Or to change industries or careers entirely if you weren’t as happy as you wanted to be? So many times, abrupt changes like this are exactly what people need to get out of a rut and move on to something they’d really love to be doing.

Links:
Find that Silver Lining
Attitude is as Important as Skills

3. Audit your online identity.
Start paying close attention to your reputation management, to the platform that you’ve built for yourself online (if any) and to what new people will perceive about you when they google you. If you don’t like what you see online, or want to take control of that first impression you’re giving off, build a professional identity you can be proud of with a PROJO – your professional mojo. It’s a next generation resume/portfolio that you can share with contacts, add to/promote in your signature line, build out and keep up to date with your latest accomplishments to ensure that when someone searches for you, they find the “goods” on you, but the good!

Links:
Build your PROJO
Clean Up Your Online Act!
Manage Your Online Reputation

4. Stay connected to your network.
You probably have a lot more friends, colleagues and supporters than you realize. Survey your address books, PDA, business card files and social networks to see who’s really in your inner circle and wider network and who might be able to help lead you to some new prospective opportunities. Talk to friends and family and see who they know.

Then start reaching out to catch up with everyone you can. Befriend old friends online, shoot out a bunch of emails, even invite a few for coffee or drinks. Start talking to everyone you can! Ask your contacts who else you should be talking to, then reach out to them. Update your online profiles with the latest news and let people know that you’re actively exploring your options. This is not the time to hide out and wallow. Just make sure you force yourself to smile and at least appear to have a positive outlook for the future! Repeat the mantra to yourself: “onward and upward!”…until you believe it.

Links:
Keep Those Contacts!
Networking Your Way to a New Job

5. Assess your financial situation.
The first serious thing you need to do once you have the ability to think calmly and rationally (see #1) is to figure out the true state of your financial affairs. If you can, sit down with a financial consultant who will know how to ask you the right questions to get a proper assessment. Take a very careful look at any severance (if you’re lucky), benefits packages (like insurance policies, 401ks, etc.) that you may be able to “roll over” from your old company’s plan. (Take care of this right away too!)

Links:
Create a Budget — and Stick to It!
YSN Secrets #20: CAAAAASH

6. Ride the coat tails of senior execs.
If you’ve done a good job of befriending and staying tight with your bosses and other senior management, it might just pay off in real dividends now. Keep in close contact with them!!! The more connected they are, the faster they will probably find their next great opportunities and look to set themselves up for success in their new spot. When that happens, seasoned execs take quick steps to surround themselves with people they know and trust. They build teams from people they know — and that could include you! Make it known that you’re up for the new adventure if you are.

7. Use your leverage.
What can you do to leverage the experience you’ve had so far and the skills you’ve been building? What do you know that others want to? (Besides proprietary trade secrets!) How can you use what you’ve learned to your benefit and to others? You don’t have to play hardball or let your ego run wild to put your experience and expertise to work for you in a positive and proactive way. A great way to do this, and make some quick money, is to do some consulting work. Taking a few projects on will keep you in the game and buy you time to figure out your next move. Who knows, you might actually like it so much you decide to make it your new business!

Links:
Tips to Help You Stand Out in Your Profession
Learn to Understand Your Own Intelligence

8. Open yourself up to new opportunities.
Employment prospects or ideas you hear about from friends and relatives might not sound quite right at first, but give them a chance to explain — and yourself a chance to explore a bit. Don’t limit your attention to a very narrow set of options right after a layoff. Try to imagine yourself working in a whole new scenario and consider whether you might find happiness in some other industry or way than you’d previously envisioned. Ask a bunch of questions…even just to humor yourself. You might actually learn something you never expected or discover a connection to something that does actually fit you.

9. Stay healthy…or make this your big chance to GET healthy.
Whether you’ve been really diligent about taking care of yourself while employed or have totally forgotten what an athletic shoe feels like on your foot, make your health a major priority now. Take the time to sleep, get some fresh air, walk, run, do some yoga — whatever makes you feel your best. The endorphins will help a lot in bringing a smile and positive outlook to your face. You’ll also project more confidence as you go out to pursue other opportunities. You never know who you’ll meet along that run either!

10. Use this as preparation for the next big shake-up in your life.
Right now this might seem like the end of the world, but the good news is that if you can weather this storm, you’ll only be better prepared for the next one. Though we’d like to say this will never happen again, the truth is that life is a cycle of ups and downs, and preparation is the key to surviving it all.

If you are ready to look at the big picture, listen to our Secrets of the Young & Successful podcast series and create the life you’ve always dreamed about — no better time than the present! You can also come and talk to others about what’s happening to you in our discussion forum. You never know where the next great idea or opportunity is waiting…

Good luck!

Taking a personal inventory and assessing your current resources will save you time and money! If you’re going to go into business for yourself, one of the best things you can do is know what you’re getting into and whether you have access to the resources necessary for you to succeed.

Entrepreneurs always underestimate what they will need to start their businesses. Honestly, anyone can start a company. But only a small percentage of those who try manage to build successful firms. In one way or another, the reason for failure usually comes down to resources. Businesses that fail most often do so because they lack money, industry expertise, or a viable strategic plan. These are all inputs, or resources, whether they are intellectual capital (knowledge) or monetary capital.

Use this chart (to the left) to take a personal inventory of your resources as they apply to starting your company. If you do not yet have your business concept solidified, use the chart to identify how well equipped you are to be in business in general. (For example, under “knowledge” assume that you will need to know how to manage money, create financial statements, have some management or entrepreneurial experience, understand a particular industry, have a better-than-average skill that you will use, and so forth.)

As soon as you have nailed down your business idea, recreate this chart and do it again. You might even want to keep it around while you’re in the planning stages, updating it until you feel confident that you have the key resources that you will need to begin.

Feel free to add more resource categories and, if possible, in the description/specifics column, order according to importance, giving each item its own line. Then simply check off the appropriate boxes, identifying how accessible each resource is to you right now. It is important that this list reflect your present situation so that you don’t neglect something that you need to learn or obtain.

Study the completed chart carefully and update it regularly. You may want to recreate it on a piece of paper, draw it on an erasable board, or put it on a spread sheet so that you can more easily edit it. It can be of enormous help to you in starting your company the right way, the smart way.

Healthy Returns: The Importance of Taking Care of the Business…Of You

We dedicate so much of our lives to work, school, community service projects, and new ventures that we often forget we need some attention, too. All too often we neglect what could perhaps be the most critical component — our health. Relying on the “work hard, play hard” mentality to get by can act like a charm for a while, but eventually it takes a toll.

A few months ago, I found myself sinking into a bit of a depression. I’d just finished a huge project that had consumed my life for the past year, had come off the high of a successful final event and crashed. I think I slept for something like 15 hours on my first day off, but had a lot of trouble bouncing back to my normal self. A few days of dragging turned into weeks of diminished capacity.

I’d certainly pushed my physical, mental and emotional limits on the project, but even when it was over, any of the bad habits lingered and kept me in what I’d soon discover was a rather self-destructive zone. I figured I’d just snap out of it at some point, but instead had the good fortune of having dinner with some friends who changed my perspective on my weakened state of health and performance. In fact, over the next few months, they’d actually change my life.

Ashleigh Bravo and Shawn Leege own a private training and nutrition company in Los Angeles called New Life Private Training. Every time Bravo asked me when I was going to start working out with them, I’d blow off the idea, citing how busy I was. But seeing her and Leege at dinner, looking and feeling fabulous in the midst of dealing with their won entrepreneurial growing pains, suddenly inspired me. The next morning I was in the gym with Leege, who put me on a weight-training, cardio and nutrition program that represented the polar opposite of the terrible habits I had defaulted to time and time again. That meant no more sugar, caffeine or processed foods, but tons of water, fresh fruit, vegetables, protein, and lots of exercise and sleep.

Despite the initial shock of quitting cold turkey all that I had grown  to depend on, I quickly became addicted to this new way of living. It was a little brutal at first, but somehow the challenge became a wonderfully exciting one I was suddenly determined to conquer. Every morning I’d meet Leege to work out, and with in two weeks I started to see a noticeable difference in how I looked, felt and even worked. I soon was jumping out of bed earlier than ever, glowing with excitement and energy, and even turning a few heads.

It’s been a few months now and, admittedly, my travel and work schedule (and, yes, the reckless abandon of a vacation, too) haven’t allowed me to be as diligent, but I have maintained some outstanding new habits. My favorite is starting each day with a good sweaty spin on the elliptical machine. With music blasting through my iPod, CNN on the TV, and newspapers and trade journals draped over the bars, my body springs to life, the adrenaline starts pumping, and my head fills with creative ideas and solutions. In these 30 or so minutes, my day starts with a bang. (sure beats dragging myself out of bed each morning and pumping myself with caffeine to wake up!) Perhaps the most valuable takeaway, though, is the epiphany that my overall performance is directly connected to how well I treat my body. Just think of what you could do with all that extra energy, stamina and confidence. Enhance your own health and happiness, not to mention your image as a leader, and become an even greater role model and inspiration to all those you work with.