Exerpt from my upcoming book!! Scene about Jen and Suzie of Foxy Originals!

“Ready ladies?” our pilot Marlon asked. “Get on board!  We had better get going if we are to get back by ten p.m."

   I was the first to board the plane, then Elle and Charlotte.

 “What would you girls like to drink?” our flight attendant, Lauren, asked.

  "I will try a virgin strawberry daiquiri this time," I said. Elle ordered the same and again, Charlotte asked for a sick bag.  She swiftly walked away to the kitchen, where I could hear the sound of the blender whipping and crushing. In a matter of minutes she was back, handing Elle and I wide-mouthed glasses by the stems, filled with an icy froth of strawberry liquid.
  
  “I am so excited!” Elle exclaimed, taking a long sip of her drink. “I had no idea that this camp was going to be so amazing."

  I agreed. The plane jolted to a start and I could feel the bumping of the undercarriage as the wheels traversed the dirt runway of the island, and then, nothing.  The bumping stopped and we were rising higher and higher into the air.

An hour later, the plane landed in Melbourne, Australia, where we disembarked and were whisked away in a large SUV.

  Five minutes later, we arrived at a small cafe, with childlike wooden lettering reading, The Cubby House, across the front entrance. It was made entirely of wood, which was painted turquoise.  Once inside, we told the barista that we were looking for Jen and Suzie of Foxy Originals. She led us out to the back of the café, which faced the ocean. She pointed out two girls with blond hair and caramel highlights. They were both sitting with their backs facing us.

  “Hello,” Elle said, as she walked towards their table.

  The girls turned to face us and smiled. They both got out of their chairs and introduced themselves.

  “I’m Suzie and this is Jen.” They both gave us hugs. “It’s so great to meet you!”

“You, too,” I said.

“Yes, we are so excited to meet you,” Elle agreed.
“Well, sit down with us.”

Jen led us over to the table where three seats were waiting for us. I noticed that the girls each had sketchbooks.

 “What are you doing with those?” I asked excitedly.

 “We are coming up with new designs for our next collection,” Suzie beamed.

I was so excited that they, too, enjoyed art and sketching.
A waiter came to us and handed us menus. He had a cute Australian accent.

 "My name is Keith and I’ll be back in a jiffy to take your orders."

"Thanks," I said and opened my menu. The cover was a child's drawing of the cafe. On each page of the menu was a colorful drawing of the different drinks served.

  "What are you having?" Elle asked Jen and Suzie.

  Jen flipped through Elle's menu to the back page and pointed.
I looked over to Elle's menu.

 "Cubby Cap," I read aloud.

 "What's that?" Charlotte asked.

 "It's their cappuccino.  It's so good, they shake sprinkles on the top of it so it makes the milk look like a rainbow swirl," Jen said, showing us her cup.

 "That's perfect for me."

 Elle closed the menu and placed it beside her. We all agreed that a cappuccino would be a good choice. Charlotte and I piled our menus on top of Elle's.
Like a moth to a candle, Keith zipped over to our table when he saw our menus closed and stacked.

"What can I get for you?"

 "Three Cubby Caps," Elle said, "but can I please have mine with skimmed milk?" She smiled.

“To easy,” he said and disappeared inside the café.

 “So, how do you like the camp so far?” Jen asked. “It is so exciting that you are getting to experience what being an entrepreneur really is about at such a young age.”

 “It's been really exciting!  We had a class the first night about leadership and it was a scavenger hunt,” Charlotte said shyly.

 “That is so much fun,” Suzie said, making Charlotte feel a little more comfortable.

 “We started Foxy pretty young, too. We were students,” Jen said. “We were nineteen when we met each other, both starting University in Ontario, Canada,” Suzie continued.

 The waiter came back with three cappuccinos, in regular sized teacups that looked like they were part of a princess tea party set.

 “Aren’t they cute?” Jen gushed.

“We love this place, the branding is so great,” Suzie agreed. “It is supposed to resemble a child’s play house. That is what the name means.”

 “Oh, now I get it.” Elle took a sip of her cubby cap.


“You have to remember that every aspect of your company has to match the personality of the brand,” Suzie agreed. “That is one of the reasons we come here, to get inspiration.”

  Elle realized that she had forgotten the sweetener and plucked a splenda packet from the cup in the centre of the table.

 “After we met, we found that we had a passion for jewelry,” Jen said.

  “And we both had the idea that we wanted to be in business for ourselves,” Suzie added. “Within a week or two, we registered our name, Foxy Originals.” She handed each of us a business card.

 "Wow, thanks so much," I said and slipped it inside my sketchbook for safekeeping.

  “How did you pick the name?” Charlotte asked examining the card.

Elle took a sip of her cappuccino and smiled.

 “We had a sleepover one night and went through the dictionary and chose one from that,” Jen said, taking a sip of her coffee.

“It is really cute,” I said, fondling my necklace.

 “Thanks, it wasn’t all as fun as choosing a name. We also wrote a business plan, which was a detailed five-year plan. We had the basis for our company that we could follow and keep on track with our goals.” Suzie said with a serious look on her face.

 I watched as Charlotte’s face mirrored Suzie’s.

 “But don’t worry,” Jen said. “Writing a business plan isn’t as hard as you would think.”

Charlotte’s face softened to a small smile and she sipped her cappuccino slowly.

  “Did you make the jewelry yourself?” I asked, twirling my finger around in the foam of my Cubby Cap, making rainbow swirls. I couldn't help but think how much Kandace would love this place.

“We sure did,” Jen said, looking over at Suzie. “Our first products were the floating bead necklaces which we handmade originally, with $900.00 in total on beads and tiger wire.  We got a wholesale license to buy the product.”

“Remember how much time we spent making the jewelry with beads and wire by hand?” Jen reminded Suzie.

“Yes! And then we started to sell our jewelry on campus to our friends. And we took it to different stores,” Suzie added.

“That is amazing! Every girl in school must have loved you,” Elle gushed.

Jen and Suzie both giggled.

  “Before we knew it, we had come up with another idea for a new type of jewelry,” Suzie said.

“We tried a few pieces using Suzie’s parents’ metal manufacturing company,” Jen added, “and this helped us quite a bit.”

“We made a few different styles of metal necklaces and two of the three styles were reversible, so there were two different styles and colours on both sides of the metal.”

She pointed to necklaces that we were wearing. Elle smiled and posed, lifting her necklace away from her chest, while gazing up fluttering her eyelashes.

“That is when we started designing our core business and that was the reversible metal necklaces.”

“We design two collections a year, fall, winter and spring summer. Right now, we are working on our summer collection,” Suzie said, pointing to a few black and white pencil sketches she had in front of her.

 “I was so excited when I saw your sketch books,” I said pulling out my own. “I draw, too.”

  “That is a fantastic skill to have, Madison,” Susie said. “You can use it for anything in life, especially for coming up with product designs for your own business someday.”

 “It is nice that you have the time to get away from work and come out here, to come up with new ideas,” Elle said.

“You got it, Elle,” Jen remarked. “You have to hire people that you feel are as good or better than you at doing a specific job and trust that they are going to do well in that role to help your business grow. This way, you are not stretched too thinly and can oversee everything on a grand scale.”

“That is why we are able to travel the world to work on new collections and when we get back to the office next week, our business should be doing well, if not better, than it was before we left,” said Jen.

“Wow, I would love to have your life,” Charlotte sighed
.
“It is pretty great,” Suzie said.

Jen nodded in agreement.

“Excuse me, but I have to use the bathroom,” Elle said.

Charlotte and I knew she wanted to fix her makeup, as she was very particular about it being perfect.

The waiter came out to see if we were finished with our drinks, Elle winking at him as they passed each other.

“Separate bills, please,” I said to him.

“Thanks so much for your time,” Charlotte said. “We really had fun talking to you.”

 Once Elle shuffled back from the restroom, she told us that Marlon was waiting outside the café. We gave Jen and Suzie a big hug and departed.

 

Stay tuned for more:)

 

xoxo Entrepreneur Girl

Lesley Scorgie

The air was cool and crisp that day, I had butterflies in my stomach as Oprah introduced herself.
 

 "Hi, I’m Oprah Winfrey.  And you must be Lesley."

 "Yes, yeah, of course it's you and yes, it's me, too."

  But let’s go back. As a little girl I was pretty normal. I did the same things that other little girls did, road my bike around, hung out with my sister. Growing up, I had to work and earn most of the things that I owned because we did not have the income.  Both of my parents were in school and so everything that I had, outside of the bare essentials, my bicycle, my shoes- everything- I had to earn money and pay for myself.  This gave me a knack for money management at a very young age.  At the age of ten I was inspired when I realized that through Canada Savings Bonds, I could take my birthday money and invest it and  that one hundred dollars could grow into one hundred and thirty-five dollars seven years down the road. That was also my introduction to the world of personal finance. It made a lot of sense to me, and I wondered why other young people didn't do it, too? It was a great way to earn free money, meaning compounded interest, obviously.  Nothing's ever free.


   In my grade twelve year of high school, a local newspaper called my school, very randomly, asking if there were any odd or interesting students that could be profiled.  That week I had been helping my teacher talk about money management to my class, sharing lots of stories about my own experiences.  Right away, the teacher thought of me.

"You've got this interesting hobby, and it's very unusual," she said to me. " I want to nominate you, what do you think?"

  I agreed and met with the paper.  They wrote an article called, Wiz Kid, which was really funny because there was nothing wizardly about me.  The task of investing and saving was pretty straight forward.

   

 

When the  article was published, it appeared as a front page story and caught the attention of not only Calgary, where I am from, but across Canada.  One day after school, while I was perusing the financial section of the newspaper, the phone rang. There was a voice I didn't recognize on the other end.  She asked if I wanted to meet Oprah Winfrey, saying that she was one of her researchers and that she had seen my article. I didn't believe it at first and I actually hung up the phone.  She had to call back, saying, no, no, it really was the Oprah Winfrey Show, and we would like to chat with you. That started a stream of interviews that led to my appearance on Oprah, in 2001.

When I got back from the show, I was offered lucrative television contracts, book deals, you name it, and every day people were calling for what I called a little piece of me. But I was seventeen and applying for university, my original plan.  It took me sometime but I made the best decision of my life and went to school.

   

One of the things I've learned over the years dealing with PR, media, books and television, is that the whole industry comes and goes but your education can't be taken from you.  Every time you take a step towards bettering your knowledge, doors fling wide open!  An education bursts doors down because as time passes, the markets become more competitive for jobs, for money, and an education is going to be the one thing that will set you apart from your peers. It is something that no one can take from you. It doesn't matter if you become a baker or designer or a business woman, your schooling shows that you can think at a higher level.

   The University of Alberta, where I got my Bachelor of Commerce, was also where I got the inspiration for my first book, Rich By Thirty, sitting in classes learning details about my peers who had never heard about personal finance.  They had never considered reading a book on the subject, and really Rich By Thirty was born in my marketing class where I started jotting down notes. There was my market niche- young people, why would they buy this book? Because there was nothing else like it on the market, and it was from a young person to a young person, the key selling position of the book, and then the content just flowed from there. It took a few years to put together.

   

When I was trying to get a publisher for Rich By Thirty I was told thirty nine times, no , this is a bad idea! We're not going to publish your book! On the fortieth try, a reluctant publisher took me under their wing and I signed a contract at twenty one years old to publish Rich By Thirty. That publisher did not think that it would sell. They actually used a poor paper quality in the first print run of that book because they did not want to invest in my idea.  You would open the book and the spine would snap.  Rich By Thirty came out on book shelves shortly after I graduated from University. I was nervous but very excited and in the first six weeks of being on the market it became a best seller.  We had to go through four or five print runs in the first year. The reason it became a best seller was not me getting known in the media and promoting it. It was all the teachers, all the students, the parents and the organizations that I had ever volunteered with, that I had ever gone into a classroom to spend time with the kids. It was every organization that I'd ever helped even pick up trash on the side of the road or help build a playground at a women's shelter- every person who’s life I had touched in some way- had gone out, and they had not only bought one book, they had bought three, five, ten and we sold thousands and thousands of books in the first few days! Then it went into the best seller status in the first six weeks!

   The purpose of this story is exactly why, as a young person, you want to devote your- self to giving to others. The returns pay off in ways you wouldn't believe!

   After Rich by Thirty, I opened Rich By Inc., which is my company based on financial literacy.  I do speaking and writing, consulting work and also have both of my books, Rich By Thirty and Rich by Forty, underneath that company.  Whenever opportunities arise where I can work with students, parents or corporations, that's what my business focuses on.


   

Surrounding yourself with great people is also very important, with people that are different from you. We have a tendency in our lives to surround ourselves with people who are similar, if not identical, and that's because we are comfortable with them. However, it's when you surround yourself with people who are different, who are bright and who challenge you to grow, that's when you're going to see massive personal growth, growth in your business, and personal fulfillment.

   I really feel strongly that it's who you know and with whom you surround yourself that helps create the future you are hoping to create. It was around the time that I was fourteen or fifteen, when I started benefitting from the coaching and advice of people who were a little older and somewhat wiser than me. One of them was a teacher at my school and another was my aunt, a very successful business woman in the Toronto design world with offices in Toronto, New York, Paris and London. She has recently sold her business and done very well. She mentored me, taking me under her wing  to date, at twenty eight years of age.  She is still my mentor and still teaching me things about life business balance.  She has also taught me to build wonderful friendships for personal growth, both meaningful and challenging.  These friendships take time and dedication but they are vital to your personal growth.

  Start with someone you admire who is somewhat accessible to you.  In everyone’s life, you have family, teachers, youth groups, a church group or a club or a sports team, or maybe something else.  Look where you are and see all the things you are involved with right now, then think about who in that group of people you seem to like and look up to. When you have found one or two, it is as simple as asking them whether they would be comfortable meeting with you from time to time.  Perhaps they might offer you some tips  and advice as you grow and develop in your school and your career. You can use the word mentor, networking or admire.

  Oftentimes, pursuing your passion is followed by success. The harder you work at your passion, the better you become at it and the more likely it is that it will transform into a successful career, or achieving a goal that you have in mind.

   I would also say that we, as young girls or even young women professionals, often get caught up with being one hundred percent right.  We have to be one hundred percent sure that our idea is going to fly, and I am here to say that is not the case. You really only need to be seventy percent sure that you are onto something good and go with it. You can put together the remaining thirty percent as you go and it gets better every percent that you add on, because you get better with time and practice. You really truly get better when you actually try it.  It doesn't matter what age you are, if there is something that lights up your life and makes you smile and creates a spark in you, go for it!

For more info about Lesley and to Order her books go to http://www.lesleyscorgie.com/

xoxo Entrepreneur Girl

Dreams Really Do Come True!

Have you ever wondered how some girls just seem to have everything they could ever want?  Or are super successful at everything they do? This is your chance to learn how you, too, can get everything you want and be successful. What do you truly dream of? Do you want to be a prima ballerina? Get an “A” on your next math exam? Or even make the volley ball team? You can do whatever it is your heart desires, through goal setting, creating a dream board and surrounding yourself with successful, like-minded people.

Set Your Goals:
First of all, you must think of things that you really want- they can be anything! You then must write them down as goals. Your goals should be written in very clear and detailed sentences, be very specific.  If you would like to have a solo in your next dance company show, one of your goals could be:  by June, 12th, 2013, I will be on stage in a pink tutu, with my hair up in a bun. I will be dancing on stage to my own solo of Swan Lake.  Make sure that you are very descriptive with specifics on what you will be wearing, doing, where you will be, the exact date by which this will be accomplished, and finally, the description of your dream as it will be when you have achieved or received it. You may write out as many goals as you would like, there is no limit to what you can achieve when you have the desire and make time.
Write out all of your goals and then place them where you can see them every day, like on your bathroom mirror.  Read your goals out loud to yourself five times in the morning and five times before bed.  This will get you to really be thinking about them and will help you take action on achieving them.
Next, you must break your goals down into a daily “to do” list to put them into practise. Break each goal down into small steps; everything can be achieved with hard work, preparation and small steps.  If your goal is, by June, 12th, 2013, I will be on stage in a pink tutu, with my hair up in a bun. I will be dancing on stage to my own solo of Swan Lake. Your daily to do list may be, to practice dance everyday for one hour, in order to increase my dancing ability.  If your goal is: to be a  published author by May, 15th, 2013, with a book about how to be a successful girl, then your daily to do list will have, one hour per day doing research and another hour per day writing.  It is far easier to achieve your goals if you break them down into small, manageable pieces.

Set Up Your Dream Board:
Take out a large piece of paper or a cork board.  This will be the base of your “Dream Board” that you will be creating for yourself.   A Dream Board is a collage of anything you dream of having, achieving, being, going and anything else you can think of. For example, some of your pictures may include schools you might like to attend, books that you want to read, places you want to go, jobs that you may want to have- it is totally up to you!  Next, you are going to cut and paste images of these dreams, from magazines, drawings, anything you can think of.  If you want your room to look a certain way, cut out the colour you want it to be and put it up.  Cut out a picture of the type of bed you want.  Put this up in a place where you can see it every day.  Visualizing what you would like in your life keeps it on your mind at all times and will get you thinking about ways of achieving your dreams.

It’s All About Your Friends!:
Surround yourself with friends who are success-minded and dream big, just like you.  These friends should make you feel confident and good about yourself.  Friends who are negative and complain will only bring your confidence and mood down (yikes!).  Surrounding yourself with friends who dream big, just like you, will enable you to help one another achieve your goals and dreams.  Start a group meeting once a week or as many times as you can meet, with a few girls and go over all of your goals together.  This will help all of you decide what steps to take towards achieving your dreams.   During your group meetings, each of you should write out all of the successes that you have achieved from birth until now.  It can be anything from awards won, to volunteer activities you have done.  In doing this, you will be able to see how successful you have been already.  You will be successful if you have the desire to dream big, because when you dream big, anything is possible!

xoxo Entrepreneur Girl

Chelsea Eubank is the Founder and Designer of Faithful Fish.

People may say that Chelsea has lived a charmed life, she went to a private school, where she was a cheerleader, is tall and pretty, and became a successful entrepreneur at age 17.  She says she is very thankful for all these things, but points out that people would be shocked if they knew her whole life story.
Chelsea has a severe learning disability which means that she has an IQ just like everyone else, but when it comes to subjects like language and math, she performs well under her IQ. In the first grade, Chelsea was moved from her regular class to a “contained environment” where there was one teacher, one student teacher and six students with disabilities. They all had their own “special” table at lunch and had recess by themselves, but they didn’t care because they all had so much fun together. By the third grade, Chelsea started realizing that she was different from other kids, and it made her feel really upset.  She told her parents that she thought everyone else in school was smarter than her. Chelsea’s parents would say, “Lots of people are smart, but you are clever and there are not many clever people in the world.”  This helped Chelsea feel better, and it gave her the hope and strength that she needed to move on.  Around the same time, the kids at her school started to make fun of her, so her parents decided that it was time to take action and send Chelsea to a private learning disability school called Mill Springs Academy, in Alpharetta, Georgia. It was the perfect place for Chelsea to be. Things started to look up for her, she met some amazing friends, she became a cheerleader, and was known as the best-dressed girl. This led to her friends paying her to be their personal shopper and to organize their closets, how amazing is that!
In May 2005, Chelsea’s dad called her, crying, and told her that her Uncle Rusty had died of a heart attack at forty-two. Little did Chelsea know that this was just the tip of the iceberg.  The following September, her Nanny passed away two weeks before her seventeenth birthday. She remembered feeling really upset, but at the same time peaceful, because she knew that her Nanny was now in heaven with her Uncle Rusty.  This made Chelsea think more and more about her faith.
Chelsea’s dad went on a trip to Florida to help his mother after his brother, Rusty’s, death.  While driving one day, she had the sudden urge to call him, she never broke the rule of talking on her cell phone and driving, but today she felt she had to break it. She called the house and her grandmother answered the phone. As she went to get her dad, her grandmother started screaming, and then someone yelled that her dad was dead!
Chelsea called her mother and started crying because she knew something was terribly wrong.  When she arrived home, her mom was with her aunt. Her mom told her that her dad had passed away. Everything was happening so fast. Just before Christmas that year, Chelsea’s grandfather passed away, and her grandmother passed away four months later. She had lost five people in her family, so brokenhearted, she cried and prayed like never before.  She started thinking about God and the importance of her faith.
Chelsea decided to seek a positive lesson out of her losses.  Rather than let them affect her negatively, she decided to put all her emotions toward something that her deceased relatives would be proud of.

Chelsea decided that she wanted to wear something that showed her faith.  She searched everywhere, but couldn’t find anything, not even on eBay.  It occurred to Chelsea that she needed to create this clothing line herself. She sat in her room drawing out designs to put on polo shirts, t-shirts and hats.  This was the very first time in her life that she had done any type of artwork before, and discovered that she was much better than she thought.  Once she had some sketches, she began thinking of names for this clothing company.  After many names, she finally decided on: Faithful Fish.
Chelsea showed her mother what she intended to do, and her mother suggested that she should write out a business plan.  She had no idea how to go about doing this and so she read every book that she could get her hands on that explained how to start and run a business (this was a feat in itself, having a learning disability).
Chelsea’s mom saw just how dedicated she was through all the hard work she poured into her business plan, and so she helped her with the trade marking process and also lent her the money to get her business going.
Her next step was to create a survey to get some advice from her friends as to which of eleven logos was their favorite.  Also, she asked what their favorite shirt color was, how much they would pay for the polo shirt, etc.  The information that Chelsea received from the surveys was very helpful, and made the choosing of a logo much easier for her, because they all chose the same one!
Chelsea’s mom was her strength and her mentor. Every day she would go into Chelsea’s room and stroke her head, saying, “It’s up to you to have a happy day or a sad day.  Only you can make the choice to search for the good stuff.”
    After finalizing everything with her tagline “Live-Work-Play-Pray” trademarked, she started the process of finding quality polo shirts, t-shirts, and hats in bulk quantities.  Chelsea wanted only the very best quality products, because if she was going to “wear her faith,” she wanted her company to represent excellence and value.
    Chelsea’s next step was to find screen printers, and embroiderers. After some careful searching and negotiation, she found the best companies to work with.  When all of Chelsea’s products had arrived, there were hundreds of boxes stacked around her house.
  
She started small by having home shows and going to her church events. Chelsea then hired a website company to create her site, and began selling her products online at www.faithfulfish.com.

One day while Chelsea was volunteering at a golf tournament, the ex-coach of the Atlanta Falcons (Dan Reeves) told her that he loved her shirts.  He then placed an order for $3,500 worth of shirts and hats!  After he had received his shipment of product, Mr. Reeves called her and her mother from a Christian store where he was raving about Faithful Fish, and they said that they wanted to carry the clothing line.  Things were getting pretty exciting for Chelsea, the line was growing faster than she could have ever imagined.
Soon the sightings began, the first was on a ski trip in Colorado where Chelsea saw two girls wearing her, t-shirts, and the second was while attending a mission event, she was shown a picture of a woman wearing her t-shirt in Costa Rica.  She was so excited to see that so many people had an interest in her clothing line!

Chelsea feels so blessed that she has created such a positive company that so many people love, it has been a lot of work and perseverance, and even though business is going well it still has its challenges.  The best advice that Chelsea has ever received while starting her business is to keep on going regardless of what doors get shut in your face.  Believe in yourself and your company.
The hardships along the way have only made Chelsea stronger, if anyone had told her that she would be running her own business one day, she would never have believed them.

Chelsea feels that the greatest gift that she can offer now is to give a portion of her profits to charities, and as Faithful Fish grows, so will her ability to give to the people who need support.
Chelsea is looking forward to making Faithful Fish a “lifestyle designer brand” for the faithful.
“We are all blessed with our own unique abilities.  All we have to do is constantly, work with passion, and ask for help along the way.”



xoxo Entrepreneur Girl

Secrets to Helping you Get at Part Time Job!

In order to be able to start your own business, you will need to get a part time job to help you fund your business in the beginning. Here are some amazing tips to help you get a part time job you will love.

Ring, ring.
You are wakened by the phone, it is 8:30 in the morning.
Who could that be, you wonder?
Five minutes later...
I got the job, you yell at the top of your lungs!
This could be you!

Using creativity, a fabulous cover-letter and acing the interview, you will be sure to get the job you have always wanted.

Stand out:

Creativity is the number one way to get yourself noticed out of a mountain of applications. Have you ever thought about creating a folder for your resume?

To do this you must take a look at what the company does. If you are applying for a job at a cosmetics company, take a close look at their packaging, look at the colours that they use. Is there a way that you can make your resume folder look similar to their packaging? You can use anything you would like: decorative paper, ribbon, jewels- it’s up to you. This will really get you noticed and, chances are, you are going to be the only one who really takes the time.

Make an Impression:

Add a cover letter to your one page resume, as this will give you a chance to tell your potential employer about yourself.  Your cover letter should be about three paragraphs long.  Write enthusiastically about the job for which you are applying and why you are applying for it. Then, describe who you are and why you would be perfect for the job.

Dress to Impress:

Lauren McGee is the youngest Financial Advisor at Assante Wealth Management in Peterborough, Ontario.  She gave me some advice on how she dresses when going for an important job interview.
You want your clothing to convey a message about yourself to those around you. Funky jewellery, a bold print on a dress or shirt, and even ballet flats can help you make the right statement about yourself, while standing apart from the other interviewees.

If the position is more corporate, there are some additional rules to follow. No scuffed footwear, wrinkled or tight clothing, jeans, sky-high stilettos or running shoes. No exceptions.
It would be nice if people in our society were not judged by their appearances, but the truth of the matter is that we are every day. Be aware of the image you are broadcasting to the world every time you leave your house, but especially when you are headed to an interview. The old saying, “dress for the job you want rather than the job you have,” is absolutely true. Clothing does make a statement about what we want and how we want to be treated by others. Dress for success and give yourself an edge over the people that haven’t figured it out yet.

Ace the Interview:

Go to your interview fully prepared, research the company to which you are applying  and learn as much about it as you can, including the names of the top executives.
Make sure you arrive at least a half hour early to your interview as this will give you time to calm down and fix your hair or makeup in the mirror, ensuring that you look your very best. Take a notepad in case you want to jot anything down during the interview.  Have another copy of your resume on you in something that will keep it crisp.
You will be nervous so try to relax, take a few shallow breaths and exhale deeply. Concentrate on relaxing every muscle in your body.
When you enter the interview room, be yourself, think of something that will "wow" your interviewer, like, why you would be an asset to have around. Your interviewer wants to see that you would be someone with whom people will enjoy working.
Act naturally, making sure your hands and legs are uncrossed, as this shows tension.  Smile and sit up straight, don’t play with your hands or touch your face.  Make sure that your answers are thoughtful and not single word sentences, speak with enthusiasm about the company and the position you are applying for.   Lastly, have some questions prepared about the company. In the end, your interviewer will almost always ask if you have any questions for them.

Follow these steps and you will be sure to get any job you want!

xoxo Entrepreneur Girl

May All of Your Holiday Wishes Come True!

My Trip to Interview Kim Kiyosaki

My heart was racing. The low, deep voice of Stephen King boomed from the car speakers as I twisted and turned down the two lane Arizona highway. On the horizon, the twilight sky turned from pale azure into a deep cobalt blue.

 I was very high up on a hill, trucks whizzing past me as if they didn’t see me at all. That was when I realized that I didn’t have my head lights on! My palms were dripping with sweat as I fumbled frantically to find where the darn things were. Why hadn’t I check before I started driving?

   Beeep! A loud truck flew past me! This was it, I was going to die.

  About six months earlier into my interviews for Entrepreneur Girl, I had  received an email reply that I had been expecting for about a month. It was from Kim Kiyosaki, the co-founder of Rich Dad Poor Dad and founder of Rich Woman. I had been reading the Rich Dad series of books since I was sixteen and so I was super excited to interview Kim. I decided that this was one interview that I would do face-to-face.

   
Kim lived in Arizona where her head office was located and this would be my very first trip on my own (as I told you in the previous article). So I went into my savings account where I had placed my serving money. I booked my trip through Orbitz, where $1000.00 Canadian got my flight, car and hotel for a week. Such a great deal!

   

I arrived in Arizona and picked up my car, typed the hotel address into the GPS and headed off to the Holiday Inn. It was mid-afternoon by the time I had settled in and was contemplating going on some kind of tour.  At the front desk, I asked if there was anything going to the Grand Canyon. A man in a blue suit, named Jonathan, told me that all the tours were booked up for the next few days. Thanking him, I decided that I would just sit by the pool and go over my interview with Kim.

   Outside, the air smelled sweet and the water sparkled on a kidney shaped pool surrounded by chairs.  No-one was around. Seating myself on a long cushioned lounge, I started to work. After about an hour the warmth of the sun faded. It was too dark to see the page I was reading, and I was getting hungry. Off I went in my car to the closest fast food place and took it up to my room.

  I have to admit, I felt a little lonely. Then I thought to myself, what am I doing?  There is a whole state to see. I decided I would go on a tour by myself! After all, I still had a full day before my interview with Kim. I logged online to find the exact address to the Grand Canyon, in between bites of a chicken salad.

  Just then, I saw a text from Evan, wanting to Skype. I loaded up my application and saw that he was already online. During our conversation, he told me he was following my flight the whole way to Arizona on the internet. I thought that was cute. I told him about how I was going to go to the Grand Canyon the next day.


The following morning, I packed what I thought I would need, got in my car and started to drive. The Grand Canyon was going to be about a four hour trip, so I cranked the music and started singing at the top of my lungs.

  I passed Route 66 and kept going and going. The roads twisted and turned for miles. Finally, I arrived at a small park.  The GPS had led me into a grove of trees! This isn’t the Grand Canyon, I thought. I couldn’t believe that the GPS was wrong- it never had been before!

   I decided to head to the nearest gas station. It was a little while up a dirt road and I needed to fill up, anyway. Inside the station, I spotted a Stephen King audio book series (I love his work). Thinking that it would be great for the long trip home, I picked it up and brought it to the cashier, a scruffy looking man with a long beard and wiley eyes.

 “Is the Grand Canyon far from here?” I asked, as he rang my order through.

 “You’re pretty far from the Canyon,” he said “It’s about an hour up that- a- ways.”

   He pointed to the window, up a dirt road which seemed to lead to nowhere.

 “Thank you,” I said cautiously, and grabbed my things.

 It would be dark in about two hours and I had four to go, to get back to my hotel. The guy freaked me out, as well, so I got into the car, locked all the doors, and peeled away, looking back in my rearview to make sure he wasn’t coming after me.

  When I finally got into an area with people around, I stopped at a mall and entered the address for the Holiday Inn, put in the Stephen King CD and headed back. I hadn’t found the Grand Canyon and it was getting late.

  The next thing I knew, trucks were whizzing past me! I’m going to die, I thought.  I need to get off  this highway to find the headlights so that they can see me!

  Finally, I hit a switch and the lights flashed on as a truck swerved out of the way, an inch from rear-ending me. I was alive, but still jittery. I turned off Stephen King, it wasn’t helping.

 When I finally got back to my hotel room, I went straight to bed.  Enough excitement for one night!

 The next morning I woke up bright and early. I had the meeting with Kim in a few hours and I wanted to be fresh and ready for it.

  

 When I pulled up to the Rich Dad head office, I noticed that it was in an industrial area, in a low, long, grey building. Inside had all of the Rich Dad paraphernalia and books that they had created. I was getting really nervous, but I made sure I stayed confident.

“Hello, I am here to interview Kim,” I said to the lady behind the desk.

“Just a minute,” she smiled and went into the back room.

  A second later she was back.

 “Come with me.”

  She led me down a hall and into the boardroom where a tall, pin thin blonde haired woman met me and shook my hand.

 “Hello, I’m Kim,” she said, “So nice to meet you.”

 I was amazed that she thought it was nice to meet me, who was I, anyway?  To her, I was somebody.

Just then Kim’s assistant entered with a coffee for her.

“Here is your non-fat latte,” he said and placed it in front of her. I was in awe, it was so amazing that she had her very own assistant.

A moment later her husband, Robert, walked by.

“Robert, you have to meet Natalie,” Kim said to her husband, “She is the girl writing the Entrepreneur Girl book.”

 Robert smiled at me, shook my hand and said hello.

  “I’ll leave you girls to it,” he said and left the room. He seemed like he was really busy.

   Kim and I chatted for about an hour. I asked her, as I do all of my interviews, if I could record the session to write out the interview later and she happily agreed. After the interview, we took photos and she told me that if I needed anything else to be answered that I could contact her.

This was someone who was super busy with her own business taking the time to help me out!

After the meeting, I had the rest of the afternoon to spend in Arizona and I decided to go shopping! While at the mall, I bought a thank you card for Kim and on my way back to the hotel I dropped it off to her, back at the Rich Dad offices.

 You can never underestimate the power of asking for what you want. In most cases, people are very happy to help you, and the worst they can say is, no.

XOXO Entrepreneur Girl