day 1- the paris apartment project

bonjour everyone and happy new year! i hope yours is off to a good start. mine has already been up and down but as of today has a focus and purpose. it’s going to be a bit of a stretch since i’ve always resisted change and structure but i wanted to share my new plan with you. i’ll be working hard this year to restructure my business to free up time and resources to do the things i’ve always dreamed of. that being said, i’ll give you the overview and you can decide whether you’d like to come along or (gasp, but i’d understand), unsubscribe.

this year i turned 50. i think it’s inevitable that one looks back on life and also ahead at this point. your 20s-40s are about accomplishment and career but when you get to this halfway point, it’s not a midlife crisis per se as much as whether or not your life is where you want it to be and what you can do to make it so. i’ve known many of you since i started TPA in 1993 and have been working hard on it  every single day since i was 20 something years old. i can’t lie, in the last year or so i truly burned out. i wanted more out of life that just work, and my business, as much as i love it has taken up a lot of time and not produced the money for freedom i’d hoped it would and know it can. so now i’d like to change all that. i’d like to find my purpose in life, to figure out where i can give service and figure out where i can help. maybe it’s not going to be what i imagined it would look like at all…

but letting go of my preconceived notions of grandeur is actually allowing it to unfold on its own. and i don’t know if this will truly affect anyone but can it count that it’s helping me? i’m going to say yes, cause you have to put your own oxygen mask on first and as cliche as it is, you have to start somewhere.

so what does ‘day one’ look like?

well, it’s going to be incremental but setting the foundation is something that i’m realizing instinctually so this first day included winging the video so i couldn’t obsess over getting it perfect. it also included getting acquainted with youtube by uploading it here:

it’s going to be on the downlow unless you subscribe to the channel, as that seems to be one of the major  ways we can share info, views, generate content and get inspired.  it’s not an enormous day one but i’m accepting that it’s ok to do one new thing, like a video. more importantly it’s the commitment i’m making to myself to show up. it’s going to be hard but that’s why i’m putting it out there, so i’ll be held accountable even if it’s just by me.  so that’s about it for today cause after all, as scarlet says, tomorrow is another day and do have to get back to business as usual which means keeping up with the paperwork and starting to organize one corner at a time.

ok last but not least, i’m soooo sorry that i didn’t get a chance to announce the winner of either madame chic or the paris cocktails book giveaway so….drumroll…hold on i have to go to the random number generator:

paris cocktails winner is Robin McGraw

and the winner of madame chic (polish your poise) is Meterrilee so please ladies get in touch with me as neither of your contact info on your comments was live.

ok one more thing we have more in store. i happened to get another copy of The Paris Style Guide since there was so much interest in it and will announce the winner on friday. you know the drill, just leave a comment to enter.  one final final note on the giveaways. i’ll be hosting them once a week as part of this new regime. along with that is also something i’d like to share regarding the TPA project. publishers love to have you giveaway books. it promotes the sales, gets word out and blogs are great vehicles to showcase the book both inside and out. so two things: if you don’t have a blog, maybe it’s time to think about starting one. (you could review books)!  and secondly, if you do have one, contact publishers and ask them to send a copy for review and giveaway. how does this help our businesses? well it gets us talking, sharing information, it gives us something to look forward to, it builds community and promotes something we all love without limit: BOOKS!

ok, it’s 5:30, time for the earlybird special, have a great night and thank you for being here!