FORBES List: Top 20 Most Influential Women  to Follow on Twitter

What an honor and privilege to have been chosen by FORBES as one of the Top 20 Women for Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter for Business, Marketing and Technology Advice.

When I reflected back, I realized that there were 10 teachable highlights I would like to share with you that you might find helpful:

1. Be visible – In order to be successful you have to be seen and be heard.

2. Be an Up lifter – People love my DAILY DARES on Twitter – pick something that fit your brand and your style

3. Be consistent – when using Social Media, you are better off not having an account or a profile at all if you aren’t willing to post consistently

4. Choose to make a difference and lead with your heart

5. Get your personality in there. The beauty of social networking is it’s driven by relationships. You build relationships by letting people see who you really are. That means showcasing your personality.

6. Be transparent and approachable by showing a certain degree of vulnerability – we all like to connect, engage and do business with people with know, like and trust

7. Have the right mix of tweets and posts by sharing, educating and promoting

8. Persevere even if you don’t feel like it or don’t see immediate results … every time I felt like giving up on writing the DAILY DARES and providing my daily dose of inspiration on Twitter, The Daring Woman Fan Page, or on my personal profile, invariably on those days, I would get messages and/or comments thanking me for being such an inspiration in their life… because it was exactly the kind of hopeful/empowering message they needed to hear that day or crediting me for some successes they’d achieved as a result of daring themselves by me daring them. You just never know who you might reach with your posts and tweets and the impact you might have on someone’s life.

9. Have an impeccable presence and positioning – you never know who is watching you… I had no idea that Natalie Sisson from Forbes was watching me.

10. Realize that Social Media is a very powerful, inexpensive and profitable brand and business building tool and strategy to turn conversations and connections into clients and/or partners. Case in point, I was chosen on the Forbes list, I was offered a 6+ figure position by being found out on LinkedIn and have collaborated on many projects with people I connected with on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Click on the link to read the article, you will likely recognize some of the names:http://blogs.forbes.com/work-in-progress/2010/07/26/top-20-women-for-entrepreneurs-to-follow-on-twitter/?boxes=Homepagechannels

Do you get up every morning excited because you’re riding the wave of your dream?  Is your life a kaleidoscope or have you been living in black and white?  Have you been holding back or settling for just a little less (or far less) than you deserve… a little less money, fun, freedom and laughter?  Is your true life waiting for you to show up so that it can begin?   Don’t let it be You!

Why Take Chances?

Self-confidence and resilience are the invisible rewards of being willing to step out of our comfort zone.

Women are less likely than man to take some risks.  While playing it safe can be a good thing sometimes, like not driving too fast, taking some risks – particularly those scary emotional ones can be a critical factor in living a happy, fulfilled life.  DARE yourself, and you could start the business you’ve been dreaming about, get the degree you’ve always wanted, learn to become an eloquent public speaker without fear, or enhance your social life by meeting new friends. 

What Daring Women have come to know for sure is that life begins at the end of their comfort zone and that there is no reward and pleasure in playing safe and small.

Getting Over Your Fears

The first thing is to realize that everyone has fears.

The second thing is to change your perspective and realize that playing it safe is also a risk (and it might turn out to be your biggest gamble of all).  Not taking any chances is as much a decision as taking that first step toward a change.

Once you are willing to confront your fears and manage your emotions, you can begin to embrace the change as a chance to move forward, to grow and learn, to achieve a goal or a dream.   From that place, you will start making choices based on your desires and wants, not based on your fears, limited beliefs about yourself and others and you feel uplifted and empowered as a result.

Dare to break free from old patterns, limiting beliefs, habits and bad experiences.  Create new ways, form new empowering habits and a new paradigm for your life.  Just get started! Begin seeing yourself as a born risk-taker and start telling yourself you are one. Scary sometimes, yes, but much more empowering than scary.

How Do I Dare to Take RISKS?

§ When a situation arises, or when you are plagued with fear, ask yourself, what would a bold, daring and confident woman do in this case?  How would she handle this situation?  Would she be paralyzed by fears or would she let herself soar in her vision and start moving in the direction of her dream?

§ Remember to boldly take action daily on what matters most to you.  I wonder how much time is spent daily on stuff that doesn’t make a difference. What if you made a commitment to yourself right now to spend time daily taking action and becoming 100% absorbed in activities that make a positive impact on others, your business, and your life?

§ Dream Big. If your dream is big enough and you want it badly enough, the problems don’t really matter, they are simply inconveniences.  When you know exactly what you are shooting for, you will turn any setback into comeback and you will overcome any obstacles or challenges you’ll encounter along the way.  Remember that it takes the same amount of time and energy to dream small than it does to dream big.   Don’t settle for small dream.   Dream Big and be Bold!

§ If life is a game then play the life game to win. Is your primary concern one of survival and security instead of focusing on creating and attracting wealth and abundance in your life?  Remember how you do one thing is how you do everything!  The secret to success is not to try to avoid, get rid of or shrink from your problems; the secret is to grow yourself so that you are bigger than any problem, obstacle or challenge.

DARE YOURSELF YOUR LIFE IS WORTH IT!