Archive for the ‘Tips’ Category
Where is the Dapper Snapper?!?!
I’ve been making Dapper Snappers Kids Belts for 2 1/2 years now and I have lost more of them than I could count. How? Well, I think it’s the sock-eating dryer monster. I think it saw an opportunity for something even tastier than socks. Yeah…That’s what it was… Okay, maybe not. But losing a Dapper Snapper is so frustrating because you don’t know you’ve lost it until you HAVE TO HAVE IT RIGHT NOW!!!
Customers have been asking me for a solution to the missing Dapper Snapper problem for quite some time. The problem is that I’m the least organized person I know, so the solution evaded me until recently. It’s another example of ‘If something doesn’t have a where to be, it could be anywhere.’ So where oh where could I put Dapper Snappers where I won’t lose them? I think I found a rather simple solution that uses something you already own. That’s right! I’m not inventing a Dapper Snapper Keeper. I’m not asking you to buy anything. I’m not even suggesting you go out and get something you don’t already have. It’s this simple…
TADA!!! See how easy that is? You can snap them around any hanger and hang them in the closet or, better yet, in your laundry room. This way you will always know where they are, because they have a where to be.
Blessings,
Where?
If something doesn’t have a where to be, it could be anywhere.
I am the most disorganized person I know. The pile of papers on our counter is an amazing, mountainous amalgamation bills, junk mail, coupons, preschool drawings/crafts, and cords to unknown electronics that are probably long gone. But about a year ago, while visiting my bestest friend, I noticed something they did that was so simple that I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t think of it. Every time they came into the house, they would remove their shoes and put them in a basket. This basket, filled with various pairs of shoes, was nothing extraordinary. It was just the simple answer to a problem I’ve been battling for years. Where are my shoes??? I’m proud to say that for the past year the answer to that question has been, “In the shoe-bucket!”
But it wasn’t until a couple days ago that I realized that that simple organization concept could be applied to anything. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. It doesn’t have to have a bunch of compartments or labels or color-coded tabs. Keep it simple. I want my kids to get organized as well, so I took the Bug to the Dollar Tree and bought these little totes for her to store her art stuff in. Crayons in one bin, markers in another, etc. She is too much like me, in that whatever it is, it won’t get put away unless there’s a place it’s supposed to go.
Getting organized doesn’t have to be a huge ordeal. Getting just one thing organized can save lots of time, frustration, and sanity. Your stuff could be socks, kids belts, or emails. That is why I put Hubby to work on creating a program for me to help me stay organized in a very important part of my business. I can’t afford to spend so much time flipping back and forth between websites and emails trying to keep tabs on situations when it could all be in one place. Hubby is building me a virtual shoe bucket. I need a where for all my stuff to be to feel organized.
Do you have a where for your stuff? What’s your one thing?
Blessings,
New Year, New Rules 1: The Fellowship of the Tweet
I’ve been trying for a while to put into words my Twitter philosophy. It’s hard to explain when, where, why, or how I decided to follow someone. But I came across this article by Mitch Joel of Twist Image which lists most of the reasons I wouldn’t follow someone. Here’s a part of the story as quoted from Mitch’s article:
The type of people I will never follow on Twitter…
- No bio. If you can’t even bother to write 140 characters about who you are and why anyone should connect with you, then ask yourself, “why would anyone follow me?”
- No picture. This is baseline stuff. It’s an online social network. I’d like to know that I’m connecting to a fellow human being and I’d like to know what you look like.
- Not in the same language(s) I speak. While I can appreciate that you are competent in English and interested in following me, I simply don’t have the skills to follow someone who tweets in a language I don’t speak.
- Playahz. Anyone who changes their “s” to a “z” doesn’t get followed. I’ve seen bios like: “followz me for the goodz.” And all I can think is, “ummm… no.” I get that it’s friendly and fun… it’s just not my style.
- MLM. I’m sure there are many happy Multi-Level Marketers who see the Internet and Twitter as an amazing business opportunity. More power to you, but it’s simply not an area of interest to me and the majority of tweets are self-serving.
- Get rich quick. From helping someone get more followers to making millions online, I’m simply not interested in these types of tweets.
- Life coach. Tweets filled with inspirational quotes and peppered with “buy my system” messages are real turn-offs. While I value those who work in professional development, the majority of life coaches I come across on Twitter are pretty snake-oil salespeople-like.
- Motivating women to be their best. I’m all about equality. Period. From race and gender to sexual preference, but I’m not interested in tweets to empower women… though I am sure that there are many women who will be. I just don’t happen to be one of them.
- I’m a nice person. If you have to say – right off the bat – in your bio that you’re a nice person, that’s a personal red flag. I’m sure you are very nice, but use the limited space to tell me what you’re about and what you’re up to. It’s like a business saying they have “integrity.” If you have to say it, you usually don’t have it.
- If you follow me, I will follow you back. I see this more and more in bios on Twitter. That’s a turn-off. I want to follow people of quality not quantity. I’m not looking for more followers or to follow more people. I’m looking for quality people to connect to. Not number jumpers.
- Social Media Guru. So much has been written about the “Social Media Guru.” I’m fine following people who have self-anointed themselves like this. That being said, I won’t follow any guru, expert or specialist who only has 40 followers. If you’re an expert (in whatever industry you serve), you should have more people interested in what you have to say… especially if what you have to say is about how to engage people using Social Media.
- Realtors. No offense to the realtors of this world, but the majority of them are just leveraging Twitter to post their listings or scour for more opportunities. If that’s working for you, then great. I’m not looking to buy a home or a commercial property. There are also a slew of realtors who are interesting and use Twitter to connect in a more human way to the mass populous (those folks are great and should be followed!).
- If you don’t follow anyone back. If you don’t follow anyone back (we see this with a lot of celebrities and television personalities), it’s hard for me to be interested in following you. The message I’m hearing is, “this is a one-way broadcast” and I’m not interested in any interaction. As with everything, there are exceptions to this, but if you’re on Twitter, it would be wise to look at it as something more than another blow horn.
While this explains how I feel for the most part, there’s more to it for me. I’m a consummate researcher. I want to know if the person whom I’m following is going to tweet junk all day and clog my Twitter stream or if it’s someone worth connecting with. I, like many of you, want to make new friends and share the trials of parenthood or entrepreneurialship or driving behind the really slow person. So I’m adding to the rules!
I will not follow you if:
- You only tweet links of stories. Whether you’ve written or read them, I am not going to follow someone who won’t be bothered to interact with me. Which brings me to the next rule:
- You don’t interact with anyone else. As I said, I like to do my research. Twitter has a great feature where if you are looking at your followers and you click on a name, it will show the last 3 tweets for that person. If you haven’t interacted with anyone (replied to a tweet or retweeted) in the last 3 tweets, I probably won’t follow you. But I like to research, so I most likely will click on the “more tweets from” link to make sure I’m not missing anything. I want to give you a chance.
- You have a low follower to following ratio. If you are following the maximum 2,001 tweople and you have 36 followers, it ain’t happnin!
- You are following and being followed by an insane amount of people. Obviously, if you are following 20k+ tweople and are being followed back by just as many, you won’t be interested in anything I have to say and vice versa. You can’t have any meaningful conversation like that.
- You retweet horrible things. I don’t watch the news for a reason. I am not interested in hearing about horrific things that should have never happened but they are only talking about to get viewers. That means if you tweet a lot of that crap, I’m not following.
- You unfollowed me. I mean…c’mon! If you follow me and then unfollow me the second I follow you back, I will know. I’ve got resources. I get alerted when these things happen. Plus, every once in a while I do a good Twitter housecleaning.
- You never tweet. That’s just…well…dumb.
Well, that’s my take on it. Follow or don’t. 
Blessings,
PS. I follow Ellen and she follows me back!!! HA!!!
PS.PS. I forgot to mention Kids Belts!
Back To School Potty Training
Check it out! My very first guest post on my blog!
Back To School Potty Training By Kay Green, Copyright 2010
Do you have a child enrolled in preschool this fall but not yet potty trained? Are you feeling stressed knowing the school rules say they must be fully potty trained? Well we have the answers. There is a way to potty train your child in just a couple weeks or less. Some moms have used my system to potty train their child in 3 days! So where do you start?
- Set a date to begin. Clear your schedule and plan to spend 3 full days with your child with no activities outside the home
- Purchase 12 pairs of the thick cotton training pants (yes 12).
- Get 12 small prizes for your child ( dollar tree is great option).
- I usually get a larger gift as reward for 5 days dry.
- Have a timer, food treats and a good attitude.
- The day before you begin remove all diapers and paper pull-ups out of your house..
- You will need 2 nylon covers (for night/nap)
- I also let them watch a Potty video every day the week before.
- A potty doll that wets helps the process along.
THE SYSTEM KEYS: Cloth underwear and timer!
HOW IT WORKS: Train the DOLL to go Potty. CLOTH UNDERWEAR! Take the child to potty often. Set a timer. Give immediate positive reinforcement when they go in toilet. Practice walking to the potty, clean up and change clothes for every accident.
MY CHILD: With this system Haley did not go in potty at all first couple days. We quickly changed after every accident. She would grab herself and say uh-oh when she went since the cloth makes the feelings wet and uncomfortable. Third day she said uh-oh and had not gone in panties so I took her to potty and she went. We clapped, shouted, got a treat, called daddy! Over the next 3 days every day was less accidents and more successes. After a week she had it mostly down so I could take her out. I used nylon pants over cloth to protect when out and about.
DAY ONE: I taught Haley how to have the doll go potty in the big toilet rewarding the child when the dolly goes potty. We played this game off and on all day. Watch the video, and read potty books. This is the teaching day.
DAY TWO: POTTY PARTY: I tell her she is a big girl like dolly. Put her in CLOTH training pants give her lots to drink. Every half hour check panties. If dry praise then take her to potty. If goes in potty reward with candy or sticker and lots of praise. Expect lots of accidents the first couple days until they get the uh-oh and are still dry. REWARD EVERY SUCCESS! For every accident help her run to the potty and say Uh-oh we must potty in the toilet then help her change into dry pants. Practice walking back and forth from the place of accident to potty.
TIMER: Use your timer. At first I set it for 30 minutes. I take her in every 30 minutes until we have a dry day. Then I go to 45 minutes until we have a dry day. Then I move to 1 hour. I continue sending them to the potty every hour for several weeks. Then as they start asking to go potty you can move the timer to 1.5-2 hours.
BED TIME: For nap and bed put a sheet protector under the sheet. Put on two pairs of cloth training pants and vinyl pants over. Change them to dry panties immediately upon waking. Use vinyl pants over cloth training pants only when out in public or in bed.
CONTINUE for the next 2 weeks. Praise every success. Help change every accident quickly. At the end of 2 weeks you will be having more successes than accidents. I find most kids really get it in this 2 week period.
PULL-UPS VS CLOTH: I get asked often why they cannot use paper pull-ups. Every mom I have known training with pull-up takes 6-9 months. The child simply does not get the uncomfortable, out of control, wet feeling with paper. CLOTH is the only way (in my experience) to potty train in 2 weeks or less. It really is the key.
ACCIDENTS: You may experience accidents again a couple weeks after training is complete. The solution is simply to go back to using the timer (set for 60 minutes) again. Usually the accident occurs when the parent stops sending the child to the potty regularly. The timer is a reminder to the parent and the child that it is potty time.
PRODUCTS: You can find a number of helpful potty training products at http://www.mypreciouskid.com/products/potty-training-products.html
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Kay Green is a Wife, Mother of 4, Grandmother of 3, Business Owner, Small Business Mentor, Potty Training Teacher, and New Mom Mentor. Kay owns My Precious Kid – Child Safety & Baby Gear Store in Hillsboro Oregon. She has been writing articles on parenting, building business, potty training and other unique subjects for the last 9 years. She loves helping other moms feel successful in parenting.
You can follow Kay at these locations online:
WEB: http://www.MyPreciousKid.com
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/MyPreciousKid
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/MyPreciousKid
BLOG: http://www.mypreciouskid.com/blog/
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On a side note, Kay is AWESOME! I consider her my business mentor and a good friend. She also sells Dapper Snappers! Thank you Kay for this wonderful post! You totally rock!
PROMPTuesday: 5 Customer Service clues
Thanks to San Diego Momma, I am writing a post on PROMPTuesday: Make a list. And because I got miffed at a never-to-be-named manager of the-store-I-love-to-shop-but-will-remain-anonymous, I’m writing my list on customer service. If you need to know anything about me, I am BIG, I mean HUGE, on customer service. For me, it all boils down to the title of a book my husband once told me about that I never read but means everything to me; Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. I believe it 100%.
So, here are 5 Customer Service clues
1. It’s all about attitude. If you are not in the right frame of mind to deal with someone difficult, then step away and let someone else do it. A bad attitude will show itself not only in your body language when you are face to face, but in your voice when you are on the phone, and even in your not-so-well chosen words in an email. So watch yourself!
2. Give a little extra. You know how you are supposed to turn the other cheek? Give them the shirt off your back? Well, to the crankiest customers, you may have to do just that. But it will pay for itself in the loyalty you earn from that one customer.
3. When someone presents a problem, get creative. If you don’t have the answers, you can find them. And if you can’t find them, make them up. If it’s your business, then you make the rules anyway. If it’s not your business, then do your research.
4. Keep your customer happy by keeping in touch. Don’t leave them hanging, wondering if they are just being placated until they forget what it was they needed.
5. The Golden Rule, people… Treat others as you would want to be treated. It’s as simple as that…
So there you have it! Do you have anything to add? Post a comment!
Beam ‘n Clean
I’ll share with you one of my all time favorite cleaning tips in this video! Plus, as an added bonus, 2 kitchen tools I can’t live without! Enjoy!!!
PS. If you have a tip, please post a comment here or email me at Mama [at] ToddlerTechUSA [dot] com.
Not the Greatest Parent…Well I wasn’t until…
Okay, so let me be the first to admit (before my kids grow up and start the “Remember when Mom…?” thing), I have been known to not be the greatest parent. GASP!!! WHAT?? The inventor of my favorite product was always the greatest mom in all of the world??? Say it isn’t so!
I am a product of my parents parenting skills, which weren’t that great (parents – okay people, skills – not so good). I did the best I could, and like 99% of us, I was trying to do things differently/better than my parents did. I think that in a way we all strive to raise our children better, be the parent we wish our parents were, give them everything we didn’t have and more. I’m not talking material things either. I’m talking about the quality of the relationship we have with them. I’m not saying my parents were necessarily bad. They did the best they could and tried to do it better than their parents. But frustrations get in the way, yelling happens, and parenting is well…hard. Yeah, I know somebody warned me and I just didn’t listen.
I have a friend who, in my eyes is the perfect mom. She has her child under control at all times, has always been consistent, and is the perfect Betty Crocker type. I am incredibly jealous of her. She has more patience than anyone I’ve ever known. And she’s the perfect hostest of all things partyish. I don’t know how she does it, but she does it well. But enough about her…
I am not her. I’m not perfect by a very long shot. But I have discovered there is help out there. In joining a moms group and bearing my soul to complete strangers, I found that we all go through the same things. And I’ve heard it only gets worse as the kids get older. So getting started in changing those behaviors while they are young, not only their behaviors but my own as a parent, is so critical. I didn’t want my kids to remember me as the mom that screamed at them all the time and always told them no. I didn’t yell all the time, but I admit that I yelled way too much.
And let’s not forget that I’m setting the example for the kind of parents my kids will grow up like. If all I ever do is yell, what are the chances they will too? Pretty good. I want to be the kind of parent that I want them to grow up to be like. I’m going to fall short in a lot of ways. It is to be expected. But I’m going to try like the dickens! But where to get started???
Well, Hubby and I have always been very big on communication. It’s why our marriage is so strong. We talk about everything. So shouldn’t communication with my kids be the biggest part of raising them? Yelling was the form of communication I needed to change into something more positive. And I found a way to do it!
There is a program called Talking to Toddlers. When I first started to listen to this audiobook, I was very skeptical. It seemed to me that what I was hearing was hooey. But then I decided to challenge myself. I mean, if I was serious about changing my ways, shouldn’t I give this thing a try to see if it works? So I listened…
In Talking to Toddlers, author Chris Thomson talks about communicating with children, not just toddlers, in a way I had never even thought of. In what Chris calls “Unique Language Strategies for Parents”, he share’s techniques that REALLY work! It’s not only taken the frustration out of situations that could have completely exploded, but seriously built the groundwork for great communication with my kids.
This is an audio course that you can download and put on your iPod, iPhone, or other MP3 listening device. Or, if you’d rather, you can get the CD set shipped to you. There are 12 audio lessons. You listen to only one lesson per day and it takes less than 20 minutes, and then do the homework with each lesson. You HAVE to do the homework. I cannot stress this enough. But it’s easy, and in most cases quite fun. I mean, you can actually use some of these techniques on adults. There is no fluff to it. It’s powerful stuff. He dives straight into teaching you the skills that you’ll be able to use immediately with your kids.
Not only will you get the entire Talking to Toddlers audio course – (nearly 3 hours of content), but you also get:
- A printable “cheat sheet” – it breaks down all of the audio tracks into their key points along with the “homework” assignments that go along with each lesson. He’s already written down the key points for you!
- The 60 day guarantee – You are either satisfied, or he doesn’t get paid. The digital files are yours to keep. But trust me, you won’t need the guarantee. It will work.
- BONUS – you’ll also get a copy of “Show Kids the Fun”, a digital (PDF) activity book that is packed with great ideas to entertain your kids without spending a lot of money. You can’t beat that!
This is definitely going to be the program to save your sanity! I know it’s saved mine. Well…what I have left of it… So go check out Talking to Toddlers! You can get a FREE lesson to try out and not even have to buy anything if you don’t wanna.
Even in the free lesson, you will really get a sense of the kind of guy Chris is. I mean, he’s genuine and honest. He’s upfront about everything.To top it off, he’s got a Canadian accent that keeps trying to sneak out.
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| ***I was sent the products mentioned above for free without expectation of review and I was given no other compensation. The review is written based on my opinion. To see my full disclosure policy, please go here. |
Protection in the Sunshine State
Since we moved to Florida 6 months ago, it’s been a challenge to get used to certain things. See, in Oregon, where I’m from, we only have 2 kinds of ants that invade our house, Carpenter and Sugar. Every once in a while there’s the invasion of the fruit flies. Here in Florida, we are constantly trying to figure out what bug is bugging us this time, and is that ant a fire ant, and why are there lizards in my bathroom. The weather is a shock too. For the first few months it reminded me of oregon, only a little warmer. Oregon is gloomy and rainy for 9 months out of the year with temperatures in the 40s & 50s. Summer there is short. The chances of getting a tan are very small unless you want to spray it on or fake-n-bake. We Oregonians don’t like the heat, because it’s dry and it’s just as hot in the shade as in full sun. But seriously…who needed sunscreen? Goodness, we go out into the sun once and burn, and then we are fine for the rest of the year.
Well, Floridians love being outdoors. Sunscreen? Every day, every hour, all the time. Wait…sunscreen? What?!? My Oregonian beliefs are shattered as I burn not once, but 3 times in just a couple months, the last time being a 2nd degree burn. To be fair, I did wear spf 15 that time, but I failed to reapply. That whole concept of Florida being nearer the equator and therefore nearer the sun just doesn’t register with me. (Must be the moss that grew in my brain from being waterlogged for so long.)
Now… I do, and always have put sunscreen on the babies for planned outings in the sun. They have never burnt. But the stuff I have to put on them is like Elmer’s Glue. It’s sticky, doesn’t spread well, and won’t wash off my hands. I suppose that’s good for them, but I’m not real thrilled about it. Plus, once they are slathered, everything sticks to them, including every speck of that fine Daytona Beach sugar sand. Ugh!
Well, belonging to an awesome group of Mompreneurs has its privileges. One of my fabulous sisters in biz, Holly Thaggard, founder and CEO of Dr. T’s Supergoop!™ was kind enough to send me a few samples of her toxin-free sunscreen since we don’t have it available in stores in Florida. Dr. T’s Supergoop!™ is an awesome sunscreen doesn’t have any of those possible carcinogens such as oxybenzone and paraben endocrine disruptors. There are also no sulfates, phthalates (yeah, I can’t pronounce that one either), synthetic dyes, fragrances, proplyene glycol, nano-particles, or padimate 0. And it’s gluten free.
I have to admit that I am partial to the Dr. T’s Supergoop!™ Swipes because they are so easy to use. My son, who is sensitive to everything (and by sensitive I mean Drama King) loves Swipes too because the heat of my hand on it makes it warm to his skin. Lotion is “too cooooooooold!” And spray? Forget it!
And that, my friends, is one happy boy. Super Dude loves Dr. T’s Supergoop!™ Swipes!
I slathered the Bug and myself in Dr. T’s Supergoop!™ Everyday Lotion and let me tell you, it’s amazing! Not greasy at all, Dr. T’s Supergoop!™ Everyday Lotion goes on evenly and dries silky smooth. No more sticky, paste-like sunscreens for us. This family is going all Dr. T’s Supergoop!™!
Want another great reason to buy Dr. T’s Supergoop!™? How about this…Holly (@Supergoop on Twitter) is a mompreneur who, like the rest of us mompreneurs, works continually to make her business a success while carrying on all the duties and responsibilities of being a loving mom to two small kiddos (my own kids’ ages) and a loving wife. It’s hard enough work to raise a family, let alone strive to make a small business prosper in a market full of big corporate competition during a down economy. So give Dr. T’s Supergoop!™ a try, and if you want to go one further, request of your locally owned stores (natural food stores, baby boutiques, pharmacies, etc) that they carry it too.
Word of Mom, and mouth, is the best advertising for us small businesses!
I was sent the products mentioned above for free without expectation of review and I was given no other compensation. The review is written based on my opinion. To see my full disclosure policy, please go here.
The Program
Before & After just 4 months!
I started doing a program to help me lose weight and get healthy. I believe in it so much, that I’ve decided to become a Health Coach to help others do what I’m doing, losing 2-5 lbs a week while eating 6 meals a day!
If you are tired of the way you feel, want to lose weight, get healthy, and feel better, then email me at MrsCaz <at> Gmail <dot> com for details. Health Coaching is FREE!
So email me and get started on the new you today!
Waste Not: Lettuce Share
Here is my very first Vlog post: Lettuce Share. Enjoy! Don’t forget to comment…