Project FED Nigeria

It's been 4 months since my last blog post for Project FED. I had some personal issues to deal with in my life and those took my attention away from the Project. As a result, I wasn't showing up.  Not surprisingly, the Project languished without my presence. When I reflected on what was the lesson that I could share out of that experience, I realized that the most important part of success in anything in life comes down to showing up. Monday: How We Show Up Matters Of course, just showing up isn't enough. If we show up with the wrong intention or in the wrong way, we'll end up being overlooked, ignored, or even make it so that other people wish we'd never showed up in the first place. For Monday Marketing, we'll talk about the importance of how we show up especially when it comes to marketing on social media and when networking. Tuesday: Making Time To Show Up For Time Management Tuesday, we'll discuss the importance of finding time to show up and how we can...

 It’s Thanksgiving Thursday again and that means it’s time for our weekly celebration of Successes, Supporters, and Progress made on the road to transforming Project FED into a profitable venture that helps low/no-income earners make money online promoting products that support orphans in Nigeria. Celebrating Successes This week, we managed to reach out to 56 people on Facebook using our new social media sharing strategy . We sparked a whole bunch of new conversations and, more importantly, because I reached out privately to ask about the well being of people who hadn’t posted in a while, I discovered friends who were struggling and in need of prayer. Those human connections where we get a chance to make people feel truly loved and cared about are the ultimate success and the true goal of Project FED. Yes, I want to help people find freedom from financial fears and achieve financial independence while also serving the needs of those who can’t serve themselves, but the most im...

It doesn't matter how good your product, service, business, or project happens to be if nobody knows about it. Last week’s Strategy Sunday was a lesson in defeating discouragement that led to a rush of creativity that following week. You can find out more about that by reading about our Creativity Challenge . Today’s Strategy Sunday is a lesson in being a vessel that carries good news out into the world. I Struggle with Communication and Connection Most people who read my work find this hard to believe but communicating with others is not my strength. That’s actually what led me to become a writer.  I need time to process my thoughts and to put into words the things I’m thinking and feeling in a way that doesn’t hurt others. When I’m writing, my words flow smoothly but when I’m speaking off the cuff, the words that fly out of my mouth are rarely received the way I intend them to be. I also struggle with staying connected to people. I have a tendency to be a hands-off kind of...

Every week brings new things to Project FED, and this week is no different. We never know what to expect or when. When God is the CEO, the unexpected is what can be expected. Celebrating Success of a Different Kind Last week I talked about having gained a new client and how I was excited about the prospect of financial success that would allow me to invest in Project FED.  That wasn’t what God had in mind for me, though. I took that assignment without seeking His thoughts on the matter. Last week, we had a discussion where I clarified that some things my new client thought I was trained to do were not actually part of my job duties in previous positions I'd held. Monday, I was told that based on this information, I wasn’t going to be the right fit for what they needed.  I was paid a small portion but then side-lined for the time being. I felt relief. It freed up time for me to focus on Project FED and brought with it confirmation that this is what I am meant to be doing....

  Every Successful Person Seeks Mentors I spent from the age of 4 until the age of 36 trying, and failing, to start businesses. I didn’t have mentors. I didn’t seek them out.  I did read books, but while books are good, nothing beats a mentor who has been where it is that you are trying to go multiple times over and knows where the pitfalls are and what challenges lie ahead. Mentors can also help you check your blind spots. We all have them. These are areas of our life or our behavior that we don’t see the way that other people do.  Just as we use a mirror to examine our back because our head can’t turn around far enough to give us a clear view of it, a mentor is there to act as a mirror and help us examine the areas of our life that we can’t see on our own. This is why every successful sports team has a coach. Think of mentors as coaches who are there to help you avoid the obstacles and get past the roadblocks on your journey to success. If you're going to succeed at mak...

I am a goal-oriented individual. I have a target in mind that I want to hit and I tend to be single-minded in my devotion to getting there. That can be good, because it means I am relentless in my pursuit of any objective once I am convinced it is the right objective, but it can also be bad because it means I tend to focus so intently on where I want to be that I don’t take time to appreciate those who have helped me get there or the progress that has been made toward achieving the objective. That’s why I’m dedicated Thursday to Thanksgiving. Not the U.S. holiday where we set aside time for food, football, and family, stuffing ourselves full of food until we slip into a turkey-induced food coma as a means of celebrating the pilgrim’s first successful harvest and the founding of the nation we know as the United States. No, this is more of a universal thanksgiving. Celebrating A Major Success Many people who work in marketing know how difficult it is to get even well-established brands r...