I am embarking on a personal journey to see just how many positive things I can consume in 3o days.

Inspiration for this came from a little book I read last night. “Your Spectacular Mind” came with a birthday card from my aunts last month and I’ve had it on my desk waiting for a good time to enjoy.  I’m so glad I finally made the time because it was a very good read.  (Written by Dave Williams if you want to check it out yourself.)

Halfway through it’s pages I realized I’d been lacking in quality input lately – watching too much television, wasting a bit too much time puttering around news sites, etc.  That’s what led to this goal.  I’m going to focus on reading, watching and listening to only the most positive things I can find.

Have you ever done this?  Do you have any suggestions for positive input?

A couple of great sources I’m turning to are Pandora, where I can choose music that makes my heart smile – and iTunes where I can find podcasts on all kinds of topics I enjoy.  I’m also finding some great positive content in my Netflix streaming movie account.

If you have any great suggestions for me, please do share!

I’ve been doing this thing over on Solo Smarts for awhile now and I want to make sure you’re check it out.

It’s called Win. Fail. Give.

Some things we do work out well.  Some don’t.  It’s important to plan little ‘time out’ periods for your business during which you evaluate what’s working and what isn’t.

I set a goal to do a mini eval every week (well, I’m trying to) and I’m blogging about it on Fridays.

See these recent Win. Fail. Give. posts:

December 11, 2011

November 9, 2011

October 31, 2011

And the first one – where I explain more about why I’m doing it.

Walking around with pink and purple hair was powerful and I suppose I thought that being bald would be similar – but it isn’t.

Pink hair seemed to invite comment and questions.  Purple hair won me a lot of compliments.  Bald brings silence.

It’s not uncomfortable – exactly the opposite.  It’s a considerate one – a careful, thoughtful, non-reactionary silence.

They don’t stare and they don’t ask questions.

I’m guessing that they’re assuming the worst.  A woman walking around with a freshly shaven head might be going through something serious and they don’t want to say or do anything that might upset me.

My baldness is voluntary and certainly no cause for concern, but I appreciate the thoughtfulness of others.

Even if I do miss the attention I was enjoying with the kooky colors

P.S.  My St. Baldricks fundraiser is all over, but you can still make donations to them if you want to.

Well, it is done – I am bald.

It’s funny that I thought of today as the ‘last day’ of my St. Baldricks fundraiser.  How ridiculous that is – for heaven’s sakes I’m going to be bald for weeks now LOL!

My son’s girlfriend volunteered to shave my head. She has a great love for doing unusual things with her hair so she has experience with the clippers.

We did take pictures and we did video tape the final moments as she shaved my head down close to the scalp.  I’m just too tired to get that video put together tonight – so please be satisfied with this for now:

Yes, I am one tough looking mama now

Today was a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday spent with family.  I hope that you were able to spend at least part of your day with someone you love and feel loved by   It’s a great privilege if you did.

As I wrap up this day and recorded a final ‘purple’ video for my St. Baldricks Fundraiser (which ends tomorrow) I have to say that I feel very blessed.

My life isn’t ruled by a child’s fight against cancer.  I don’t wake up every morning wondering what battle my child will face during the day and I don’t lay my head to rest every night in fear of what tomorrow may bring.

That’s the reality for so many moms and dads out there who’s child has been diagnosed with cancer.

Thinking about it makes me want to cry – and be grateful there is an organization like St. Baldricks doing such important work – funding childhood cancer research.

I had the sweet freedom to decide to take a few weeks out of my otherwise normal life and get a little crazy with my hair to spread the word about what they do.  For that I am thankful.

For those of you that think I’m doing something heroic by shaving my head – put that idea out of your mind.  THIS is nothin’.  THIS is easy!

What families face when childhood cancer comes into their lives – THAT is heroic.  THAT is amazing.

My thoughts on this last ‘Purple Day’:

If there’s anything I’ve learned from my years as an internet marketer, it’s that I’m always going to be learning.

I definitely learned something with my St. Baldricks Fundraiser and that is that online fundraisers should be fast and furious – not slow and steady.

Let me explain

I’ve been doing fundraisers on the net for several years.  It all started with a friend’s need – then another and then another.  I reached out to the online community and raised hundreds of dollars and then over a thousand.  In the last effort over $7000 was raised.  In every case the money was raised fast – which very little advance notice.

When I decided to do this St. Baldricks fundraiser I thought if a fast, last minute fundraiser can raise so much money – a carefully planned fundraiser should be a piece of cake – so I confidently set my goal to raise $5000.

I pre-warned my community about the fundraiser so they could plan ahead.  I pre-organized several key partnerships to help me spread the world.  I gained the support of many marketers with a large circle of influence.  With all of this great planning and cooperation, I fully expected to see a huge response to the fundraiser!

And then…  pffizzle.

From the last week of October to now I’ve raised an embarrassingly low amount: $168.00

If you could only imagine how ego deflating that is LOL!

Here’s a peek into my thoughts:  “But I’ve got a great tribe of generous people! I’ve got awesome key partners spreading the word!  I’ve done everything right – how can this be going so bad?!”

Obviously I didn’t do everything right.

I looked back at all of the fundraisers of the past. They were grassroots driven, urgent and personal. I looked at my St. Baldricks Foundation fundraiser and while I see certainly see the urgency of it – I’m guessing others don’t.  St. Baldricks is a national charity.  It’s been around for years and will continue to be there for years to come.

It’s not that people don’t care about St. Baldricks, I’m not saying that at all. I realized though that by giving my fundraiser an entire month to play out, I failed to create a sense of urgency.

I expected that the extra time would build excitement, instead it seems to have built in procrastination!

There is no doubt in my mind that my circle of influence intends to support me in this, they just been thinking ‘I have time – no hurry’.

Ok, so lesson learned.  I’ll stick to fast and furious fundraising in the future

And, since we only have FIVE days left before I’m set to shave my head on Black Friday – let’s shake off all procrastination!

It’s Purple Week! 

My hair has been yellow, pink and now it’s purple.

Purple is the color of Passion and I am passionate about making the most of this last week – and raising all of the money I can to fund childhood cancer research.

I am pulling out all the stops and have a few good friends stepping up to help me.

NOW is the time to give and it IS super urgent!

Make a donation to St. Baldricks this week and walk away with some great internet marketing resources as a special thank you

How it works:

Make your donation direct to St. Baldricks at this link, then forward your gift receipt to me (email it to support@momstalknetwork.com)  to claim your Thank You Package as detailed here:

$10 Donation Thank You Package

• Free Mom’s Talk Network Christmas Gift Guide Listing

$25 Donation Thank You Package (Worth $46!)

• Free Mom’s Talk Network Christmas Gift Guide Listing
• Nicole Dean’s Blog CPR $17 Value
• Easy Article Marketing Course $29 Value

$50 Donation Thank You Package (Worth $104.50!)

• Free Mom’s Talk Network Christmas Gift Guide Listing
• Nicole Dean’s Blog CPR $17 Value
• Nicole Dean’s Sales Page Sense Report $17 Value
• Easy Article Marketing Course $29 Value
• Smart Blogging Skills 15 Week Course $29 Value
• One Free PLR Article Pack from Easy PLR $12.50 Value

$100 Donation Thank You Package (Worth $301.50!)

• Free Mom’s Talk Network Christmas Gift Guide Listing
• Nicole Dean’s Blog CPR $17 Value
• Nicole Dean’s Sales Page Sense Report $17 Value
• Easy Article Marketing Course $29 Value
• Smart Blogging Skills 15 Week Course $29 Value
• One Free PLR Article Pack from Easy PLR $12.50 Value
• Three Month Membership to Solo Masterminds $147 Value
• One on One Coaching Session w/Kelly McCausey $50 Value

$250 Donation Thank You Package (Worth $1241!)

• Free Mom’s Talk Network Christmas Gift Guide Listing
• Nicole Dean’s Blog CPR $17 Value
• Nicole Dean’s Sales Page Sense Report $17 Value
• Nicole Dean’s Outsource Weekly $324 Value
• Easy Article Marketing Course $29 Value
• Smart Blogging Skills 15 Week Course $29 Value
• TWO Free PLR Article Packs from Easy PLR $25 Value
• One on One Coaching Session w/Kelly McCausey $50 Value
• Lifetime Membership to Solo Masterminds $500 Value
• One Month Mom’s Talk Network Full Sponsorship $250 Value

Remember, these are only claimable for gifts made THIS week – so head on over to my St. Baldricks Fundraiser page to make your donation today!

It’s Pink Week in my St. Baldricks fundraiser and my hair is indeed VERY pink.

Dyeing my hair different colors sounded so fun back on October.  I imagined that it would really help me draw attention to the fundraiser – and while it has helped me capture a few new eyes online – it’s the offline world that’s really reacting to it.

I put the pink color on my hair on Sunday afternoon and with the first swash of hot pink goop I had a moment of real panic.  “This is SO bright!  Is this absolutely crazy?  Oh my goodness – what am I doing!?”  Later as I combed through my glossy pink hair I decided it wasn’t so bad – it looked kind of cool.

I recorded this video and took the picture you see here in this post.  It felt good and I thought to myself, “I can handle this.”

Then on Monday afternoon I had to run out to Meijers. I jumped in the car, looked into the rear view and the panic came back.  I walked through the store so fast and kept my eyes down – I felt so conspicuous! I was sure that everyone was staring but I wasn’t about to look around to confirm it.  I got my shopping done and zoomed back home to hide.

Tuesday is my day to volunteer at the women and children’s shelter in Lansing.  I seriously considered making up an excuse to not go – but I sucked it up and went.

Is Pink Confident & Friendly?

To my great relief, people at the shelter responded with interest and even some admiration.  One of the shelter leaders complimented my hair right away and said she wished that she were gutsy enough to do something like that.  (I sure wasn’t feeling gutsy at the moment so it was a nice compliment.)  I got to tell quite a few people about St. Baldricks and my plan to shave my head next week.  Nobody had a negative reaction – to my face anyways.  Who knows what some people may have thought and kept to themselves.

What was great was that people who hadn’t previous talked to me, obviously felt comfortable talking to me with pink hair.  I wonder if it makes me more approachable?

Since then I’ve run lots of errands and been several places.  I no longer rush through and avert my gaze.  I found that I got a lot of smiles from strangers, way more than usual.  Strangers spoke up and complimented my hair.  They asked about it, how permanent was the color?  I found it interesting that they assumed I’d be willing to talk about it.  I was willing – and happy to have another chance to mention St. Baldricks.

Is Pink Sexy?

Today in particular I noticed how differently men treated me.  As a 45 year old woman that weighs close to 300 pounds, I’m used to men treating me like I’m invisible.  With this hair, I’m certainly not invisible to anyone, but I can’t believe how many more men say hello to me.  Does the pink hair trump the weight in some way? Does it make me appear more sexy? What a nice idea LOL!

Is Pink Bad Ass?

I had a flat tire today.  The people at the little garage in town got me in quick and took care of it.  As I paid for their services the gal at the desk was smiling at me with this deep approving ‘look’ on her face.  I knew what the look was about.  She was saying with her expression  ‘You’re a rebel and its awesome!’. I walked out feeling at least a full inch taller than usual.

What do you think?  How do respond to people who do really unusual things with their hair and appearance?  Do you make assumptions about them, good, bad or otherwise?

So far my experience has been pretty great.  Enough to make me look forward to next week’s purple goop

Changing  hair color is all part of the plan to raise $5000 for St. Baldricks Foundation.  Changing my hair color to a bright yellow – was not part of the plan!  I was going for a white platinum blonde – the perfect prerequisite for a bright pink to come later this week.

Last night, when my hair was still a bit damp I tried to convince myself I’d come close.  But this morning,  my young great niece’s first words if the day erased my delusions:  ‘Aunt Kelly, Why is your hair yellow?‘

Oh well, I’m going with the flow – or should I say glow?

If you haven’t already, would you make a donation to St. Baldricks this week?

Also, would you take some time to spread the word about my $5000 goal? Any social media buzz you can send my way would be so appreciated

Thanks in advance!!

Last year I was snuggling with one of my great nieces when a commercial came on for St. Baldricks Foundation.  It pulled on my heart strings so I looked up the organization the web.  I learned that they do great work, raising money and awarding grants to those who do childhood cancer research.

With a name like St. Baldricks you can probably guess how they do their fundraising… volunteers, both individuals and group, come together to raise awareness and cash – and as the website says, ‘Make a Bald State for Kids with Cancer’.

Make a Donation to St. Baldricks Here

Yeah, that means what you think it means – volunteers have their heads shaved!

Strangely, this didn’t scare me off.  As I looked around their site and viewed pictures of men and women getting their hair buzzed off -  thought to myself, ‘I have to do this!’.

I don’t know why I felt so sure about it.  I have not personally been touched by childhood cancer.  No one in my family and no one in my circle of friends have ever fought a battle with childhood cancer. So this isn’t ‘personal’ as it probably is for lots of other people – but it is important to me.

I can’t imagine what a family goes through when their son or daughter falls ill and gets a cancer diagnosis.  My heart breaks for parents who lose a child and for the child who survives their cancer but grows up with lasting physical challenges.  It’s not possible to think about it and not want to take up the fight against it.

I realized there is no time like the present.

I was chatting with a friend about St. Baldricks this past week told her how I wanted to participate – maybe next spring – and then it hit me, why wait?  I’d already waited over a year.  Why put it off another six months?  What am I doing that would keep me from going for it?  Nothing!  I went back to the website and signed up right then.

Besides being hooked by their commercial, I’ve chosen to work with St. Baldricks because their system for distributing funds makes good sense to me.  I like that they are making specific grants to individual researchers who are tightly focused in a particular issue.  Like this grant to a doctor at the Indiana University School of Medicine.  I’m glad that the money we raise isn’t poured into some large, nameless, faceless organization.  We see who gets grants and what they’re focusing on.

My goal is to raise $5000 for St. Baldricks by Black Friday, November 25, 2011 – and on that day I’ll have my head shaved live via streaming web video

Take a good look – I won’t have this hair a month from now!

Wanna Help Me?

I’m promoting the fundraiser over on my blog network.  We’re going to have a lot of fun with this and do everything we can to get donations.

Make a Donation to St. Baldricks Here

I would appreciate any and every way you would help me get the word out.  Tweets, Facebook shares, blog posts, email blasts, tell a friend – anything would be great!

To prepare would you…

• Follow me on Twitter  and Circle me on Google Plus so you can retweet and share my updates.
• Follow Mom’s Talk Network on Twitter and like Mom’s Talk Network on Facebook for the same reason.
• Plan to share the fundraiser with your circle of influence once or twice over the next month?  You can link to Mom’s Talk Network, the fundraiser is featured on every page.
• Contact me about interviews – I’d love to talk about St. Baldricks and my fundraising goal!  (Email: mom@momstalknetwork.com)

By the way, all donations are made directly to St. Baldricks through their website. This keeps it simple and secure for everyone.

Thanks in advance for your support – let’s link up and take a serious swing at childhood cancer!

Hopefully it won’t surprise you to learn that I like myself.  Despite a lifetime of negative media messages, passive aggressive behavior from others and a general lack of kindness from the world at large (something we all live with to some extent) I just don’t dislike myself.

There are a lot of things about myself that I don’t like – but the me deep inside – I like her.

Not saying that it’s always been this way. My sense of self and appreciation for who I am comes from a secure foundation.  (Jesus loves me.)

Don’t roll your eyes at me.  I’m not setting out to preach here – just had to say it.  I feel valued because God values me.  That is all.

Because I like myself, I’m generally kind to myself. I don’t have a lot of negative self talk going on inside my head these days.

Self talk – it’s the inner sound track of your mind.

Some of us don’t really talk to ourselves in our thoughts – but most women I know do.  We provide a running commentary on our day.  Complimenting job’s well done, criticizing mistakes and failures.  Sometimes it’s mild, other times it’s vicious.

Consider the following situations and see how negative self talk compares to positive self talk.

It’s the afternoon, your mind isn’t moving as fast and it’s harder to focus.

• Negative self talk: Here comes my afternoon blahs, I’m not gonna get anything done now.
• Positive self talk: I feel the afternoon drowsies coming, time to take a break and clear my head.

A client emails you with corrections for a project you turned in the day before.

• Negative self talk: Oh no – she must think I’m an idiot.
• Positive self talk: Great, I can fix these up and get them back to her in no time.

You realize you forgot to put clothes in the dryer last night.

• Negative self talk: What is the matter with me? Why can’t I do anything right?  I have nothing to wear!
• Positive self talk:  Oh well, now I have an excuse to wear a nice dress to run my errands.

Your mother gives you a back handed compliment on your new hairdo with her usual criticism chaser.

• Negative self talk: Nothing is ever good enough for her – I’m such a disappointment, why bother to try anymore?
• Positive self talk:  As usual, mom can’t be pleased – oh well – I like it!

You find out a group of friends got together for coffee and you weren’t invited.

• Negative self talk:  They must not like me, I wonder what I did to make them mad at me.
• Positive self talk: Bet they had a nice visit – I’m going to remind them to call me up next time.

We all make mistakes.  People around us do and say hurtful things – on purpose and on accident.

Self talk is the voice of our inner interpreter – it’s telling us how to digest these things.

Negative self talk says it’s our fault, we did something to deserve what happened or what was said.  Basically, we suck.

Positive self talk says it’s OK, learn something from mistakes, shake off failures and move ahead.  Make like a duck and let insults roll off your back.  Just because it was said, doesn’t mean its true.

Next time you notice your own negative self talk, think of how you can turn it into a positive and say that to yourself instead. It won’t feel right, you might not even believe it – say it anyways.  If you practice positive self talk, it gets easier and more natural.

A few great things will happen.

As you interpret your life in a more positive light – life actual starts to seem more positive.  In truth, it may be just the same – but your experience of it is improved.

Because you’re happier, you take more positive step and your life can actually improve!

When you make a habit of being kind to yourself in your own mind, you’ll be more mindful of the unkind things said to you – you might just find yourself sticking up for you – and getting more respect and consideration from others.

When you’re kind to yourself, you’re even more likely to be kind to others. When you’re kind others…

See?  It’s a ripple effect.

There’s no risk involved in practicing positive self talk.  Only good can come from it.

So go for it.