Tours Travel

Illinois Walleye Fishing

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Illinois is definitely not known for its excellent walleye fishing. Most anglers living in Illinois will plan their fishing trip to Wisconsin, Minnesota, Canada, or Lake Erie when they want to fill their coolers with walleye. There are a few spots where you can constantly fish for walleye and sausage and if you are within a short drive of these waters you can catch some good table fish.

When most people think of walleye, they typically think of fishing lakes and rivers further north, but in Illinois, it seems that some of the best waters for walleye are to the south. Some of the lakes in the southern part of the state that have many walleye are Lake Carlton, Lake Clinton, Lake Kinkaid, and Lake Evergreen. Head to the western Illinois area and you’ll find Pittsfield City Lake, which is probably the best walleye lake in the state for big fish.

Once you head north there are a few lakes to focus on to go along with some rivers. Lake Shabbona is located a couple of hours west of Chicago and is known primarily for its state record musks. People would talk more about fishing for walleye if you were allowed to fish after dark on this lake. There are many walleye in the lake with many trophy-sized fish, but the extremely strong fishing pressure here makes it difficult to land more than a couple of fish per outing and some fishermen who fish here never catch a walleye. It is a difficult lake to fish, but there are many walleye in Lake Shabbona. Your best bet is to fish in the middle of the week in low light conditions.

Fox Chain of Lakes is a popular boating and fishing destination. Walleye fishing can be very good here in spring and fall. Summers can be tough because recreational boaters are all over the lake and seem to get up earlier and earlier each summer. It is not uncommon to see someone on a jet ski at 8 in the morning during the summer. There are many lakes to fish in this chain and many of them produce healthy walleye populations the size of a keeper.

Another lake to the north worth mentioning is Pierce Lake, which is located in the Rockford area. This lake is stocked regularly, making it a good lake to fish for some walleye.

When it comes to rivers, experienced anglers can consistently fish for walleye on the Fox and Kankakee rivers, but they don’t even compare to walleye and sauger fishing on the Illinois River. Fishing tournaments begin in the early spring and many tournament boats reach their limit on the Illinois River. There are plenty of fish in the 3-5 pound range in the Illinois River and if you want to get in on the action, head to Starved Rock State Park.

For more information on the lakes listed above, along with some of the other places to fish in Illinois, take a look at our Fishing in Illinois page.

Arts Entertainments

Venus-Neptune Aspects – "First, you have to kiss a lot of frogs"

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“To find a prince, you have to kiss a lot of frogs.” This may be a mantra for the Venus-Neptune aspects, as finding a dream man or woman to merge with is your compelling quest. Unlike the Venus-Pluto or Venus-Saturn types who can turn their backs on love after getting badly burned, Venus-Neptune people get involved over and over again. Finding the perfect love is both his dream and his illusion. Feeling disillusioned with someone who is never clearly seen in the first place, they move on to another who triggers their soulmate fantasy, and to another and to another.

Kissing frogs can become a habit for them. Many are drawn to people who are hurt or failed in some tragic way, believing that they can rescue them with their love. They can fall in love with troubled souls or even rogues with a heart of gold, feeling their potential. This is, in part, an unwise use of Neptune’s compassion, a gift for perceiving the immaculate soul that underlies even the most troubled or destructive personality. The gift is best used in the service professions or volunteer work, such as mentoring a troubled teenager. However, even in the fields of service, people with these aspects should be careful lest shady boundary violations occur. Clear boundaries, in general, are not strong in this regard.

AstroDatabase biographies show that as a result of poor choices, notables with this aspect are a very married bunch, with four not infrequent marriages. Director Roger Vadim has been married five times, including such glamorous movie stars as Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda. Supermodel Cheryl Tiegs was married four times before settling down with a yoga teacher. The spiritual master, JZ Knight, Ramtha’s channel, got married five times at last count. Larry King still marries with great regularity after 70.

Any list of famous and infamous, of course, is skewed by the pressures and privileges of that lifestyle. While the divorce rate is now 50% in many parts of the country, it should be 80% in Hollywood. The marital histories of ordinary people with difficult aspects of Venus-Neptune are not always so extreme. Many of them, in fact, do not leave the companions that they should, following the advice of the country singer, the late Tammy Wynette. Wynette’s song “Stand by Your Man” made him famous. You won’t be surprised to find that it had a close Venus-Neptune opposition, with Venus in Pisces. Married five times, she obviously didn’t follow her own advice, but her song struck a chord in Neptunian women around the world that equated love with suffering. In the psyche of Venus-Neptune individuals, love and pain sometimes merge, and there is a romantic notion that the more it hurts, the safer a great love story must be.

Love and abuse

Wealth, fame, and looks are no guarantee of a great love life – witness the famous Venus-Neptune women locked in abusive relationships. Tina Turner, who owns the plaza, endured seventeen years of abuse from Ike before leaving. Pamela Anderson, who also has the plaza, came out of an abusive relationship with Tommy Lee more quickly. Loni Anderson, squared between Venus in Cancer and Neptune in Libra, had a painful marriage and a difficult divorce with Burt Reynolds, who himself has a trine between Venus in Capricorn and Neptune in Virgo.

Even the trine doesn’t always bring out the best in this regard: Nicole Brown Simpson had a trine from Venus in Cancer to Neptune in Scorpio. Although the Venus of OJ was 8 ° of a square to his Neptune in Libra, it was in conjunction with the Venus of Nicole, which closely squared his Neptune. (Justin Simpson, the son of OJ and Nicole, has an opposition between Venus and Chiron in Cancer and Neptune in Capricorn.)

With celebrity examples, domestic violence would appear more common with the square than with other aspects, but it must be emphasized that no aspect of the graph can be considered the signature of such a complex pattern. The full chart, plus the partner chart and how the two interlaced charts should be analyzed. As an example, look at the lists of singers Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston, shown on the next page. They had a stormy and allegedly violent relationship, and their domestic incidents, and drug abuse-related disorders, repeatedly made headlines. Whitney has Venus and the Sun conjunct in Leo square to Neptune in Scorpio in the eighth, while Bobby has Venus and Chiron conjunct Aries in an out-of-sign trine with Neptune in late Scorpio. In the fall of 2006, Whitney filed for divorce and went to rehab, hopefully ending her addictions this time.

Again, other characteristics of the charts influence the pattern. Bobby also has Mars in Scorpio conjunct Neptune on one side and his Midheaven Scorpio on the other, with Mars squaring his first house Aquarius Sun. His strong Mars indicates a volatile temperament, especially considering various planets in Aries. , including a narrow quincunx between Mars and Saturn. In the Whitney chart, another indicator of a volatile marriage is the Pluto-Uranus conjunction in its Descendant, opposite Chiron in Pisces in the Ascendant. Their stormy relationship and fiery chemistry were cemented by synastry, most especially the many connections between the planets that each have in fixed signs. Your Sun Leo and Venus are opposed to your Sun Aquarius. Your Sun squares your Scorpio Mars. Saturn in Aquarius conjugates its Sun and squares its Mars. She has a close square between Venus and Neptune, with her Neptune exactly in her Midheaven and her Venus square. The aspects of Saturn between them – your Saturn on your Sun and your Saturn on your Moon and Jupiter – add more durability and suggest that, in some unfathomable way, they gave each other a sense of security and stability.

© 2006 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

Technology

Science lesson plans – include programs kids will love

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Google Earth is a phenomenon that most of us didn’t know we wanted to be able to use. While some use it just for fun, educators have found that it can be a useful tool in the classroom. In fact, in many science lesson plans, teachers have included online options for exploring science outside of the classroom. Other resources, such as educational videos, introduce students to new scientific concepts that they cannot access only in the classroom.

Now, a new version of Google Earth will be released. This version will allow almost anyone to explore the oceans, view images of the planet Mars, and observe the changing regions of the earth over time. The applications for a science lesson plan are virtually endless, as students and teachers will have access to resources like no other.

Google Earth relies on software to provide users with access to geographic information through digital maps, satellite images, and Google search tools. The new version, Google Earth 5.0, was presented at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Speakers such as Al Gore and Jimmy Buffer touted the new program’s ability to educate the public about science in relation to our planet and beyond.

According to Gore, Google Earth 5.0 is an extremely powerful educational tool. Gore hopes that people around the world will use this new solution to understand what is happening with earth science. Teachers and students around the world will be able to rely on the program to enhance the science lesson plan to ensure that today’s students increasingly turn to science options in study and career.

The incorporation of the oceans into the new Google Earth platform was conceived more than three years ago when a scientist pointed out that the software itself lacked the water that covers almost three-quarters of the earth’s surface. Google Earth and Maps Director John Hanke highlighted this change and its importance to the success of the new release.

The ocean look of the new app can significantly improve the user experience and has endless application possibilities in the classroom. Students are already literate Internet users. This new app will enhance the science lesson plan as they will be able to go under the surface of the ocean and explore three-dimensional images of the terrain that exists under water.

Students can also access the Historical Images feature to archive satellite images of individual locations to see how the region has evolved over time. As the weather and other forces change, students will gain access to a world of knowledge through first-hand testimony.

What could easily be misinterpreted as a fun demonstration or imitation of a game is providing teachers and students with access to science like they have never known before. When the new Google Earth platform is used in combination with educational videos, the science lesson plan is not only innovative, it is engaging and fun to motivate students to learn.

Home Kitchen

What is the best kitchen plan for you?

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The kitchen remains the most popular home renovation project. On average, a kitchen remodel will yield a 75-100% return on investment. So as you plan, start by coming up with a design concept, one that fits the new or existing space and your family’s personality.

Generally, most kitchen plans tend to fall into 5 basic layouts.

1. Galley kitchen.

This kitchen design is often designed in homes where space is at a premium. It is an efficient use of space and consists of two opposing walls with a floor area of ​​approximately 3 feet. between countertops.

A great way to maximize space would be to open up one wall towards the neighboring dining room or family room with a pony wall (short wall) and introduce a cantilevered countertop with stools on the other side.

2. L-shaped kitchen

The L-shaped kitchen is probably the most popular kitchen design for many reasons. This particular design uses two adjacent walls and is best suited for the classic kitchen triangle.

This kitchen design offers great flexibility when it comes to locating your workstations and as a result makes preparing, cooking and cleaning much easier. Be sure to provide ample counter space between each appliance for work surfaces.

3. U-shaped kitchen

The U-shaped kitchen is the most efficient design. This plan uses three walls and provides great workflow by staying within the classic kitchen work triangle. In other words, placing one main appliance per side allows the cook to move and work effortlessly between the sink, stove, and refrigerator.

This setup also allows you to designate one side of the U as the bar area for eating with stools on the opposite side or, in the best case, space permitting, perhaps you can introduce an island within the overall space. from the kitchen.

4. G-shaped kitchen

The G-shaped kitchen plan is similar to the U-shaped kitchen design, with an additional peninsula or a fourth wall of cabinets.

You need a larger space to accommodate this type of kitchen design. Ultimately, it provides more space for food preparation, additional state-of-the-art appliances and dining room. It’s great for multiple cooks, but would work best by incorporating a second work triangle. This is easily accomplished by simply adding a second sink (perhaps on the peninsula), and both cooks use the other appliances.

5. Kitchen with island

Islands work best in L- or U-shaped kitchens that are generally open to another area. If you have the luxury of space, an island would be a welcome addition to any kitchen.

This floating cabinet allows you to socialize with your guest while cooking without feeling left out. The ideal size of an island ranges from 36 “+ wide by 72-96” + long. Allow at least 42 “from the edge of the counter to any adjacent work surfaces, and preferably another 42” for hallways and traffic. The islands can be designed at counter height (36 “), table height (29”), or a combination of both.

Auto

Generating wealth through land investment: reinvesting your earnings

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I am often asked by my clients and students how I made a fortune in tax-defaulted real estate investments. The answer is obvious, having conducted more than 5,000 real estate transactions since 2002 and making money on virtually all of them.

But then I realize that there is more to bargaining. The proper mindset must also be present to consistently earn money and to build that fortune over time.

And this is when my students usually stare at me blankly. All many want to do is make a deal that gives them 20K or 10K or 50K and then use that money to buy the Doo-dads and toys they craved. While I have a lot of toys and doo-dass, this is not what I recommend any beginning investor to do.

Instead of taking the profits from your first deal and spending it on that new car, you should take that money and reinvest it in your business. By doing this, you effectively and massively SUPERCHARGE your pool of money to work and over time can seek more and more bigger and bigger deals and make more profit.

Did you know that $ 10,000 invested with a 30% return (something readily available in the world of tax-delinquent investing) in just 10 years leads to more than $ 137,000, whereas if you take only 20% of the profit each year, will it? Do you just end up with less than $ 2,600? That’s the power of compound interest. Use it and you will succeed, work against it and it WILL KILL you.

So if your goal is to buy that new car for $ 40,000, you shouldn’t use the first few profits right away to buy it, instead you should reinvest it in your business, keep driving that old car you have until you’ve made enough money. that spending a little on that new car hardly hurts your wallet.

This is how the rich get rich and how they drive their cars. Most rich people don’t actually drive big cars, because they know what will affect their future earnings. Taking $ 50,000 out of your mutual fund today could translate into “lost earnings” of several million in the future.

Digital Marketing

Five Essential Steps to Developing Your Own Reality TV Show or Documentary

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These five steps will help you get on the path to developing your own reality TV show or documentary with a professional, well-thought-out concept and a solid 30-second pitch.

1. THE TASK: The first step in developing your documentary film or program is research. As you start to dismiss your idea, do your homework. Think of all the reality TV shows you have ever seen. Which ones did you enjoy the most? Why? Take notes on them and actively search and try to find the most successful programs that match your concept and ideas. You’ll need them to write an effective “sign-in line” for your Reality TV-style online video series, show, or blog.

2. THE TREATMENT: The second step in the process of creating a television talk show or documentary concept is to write a one-page treatment. If you are writing a treatment for a reality show or documentary, begin the treatment with a single, well-written, solid paragraph that catches the reader’s attention and briefly introduces each of the topics that you will cover in greater detail in the paragraphs below. he. Simple dead … right?

3. THE RECORD LINE: Once you have a solid treatment, you can move on to step three. You will need to create a really effective registration line for your reality TV show or documentary film. Remember that a Log Line is a short summary of your television show or documentary concept, it should give a short synopsis of the main plot, and what makes it different or unique, as well as what makes it similar to other shows.

4. THE ACCOUNT GUIDES: The fourth step in developing a good reality show or documentary film concept is to illustrate your point and that means creating storyboards to visualize your concept. You want to give the reader a visual feel for your TV show or documentary. Do some homework on branding techniques and look for royalty-free images to help illustrate your story. If your concept is for a reality TV show or even a movie or documentary series, don’t be afraid to take pictures with a digital camera or use stock photos to create your storyboards.

5. THE SINGLE SHEET: The final step in developing your concept for a television show or documentary film is putting all the pieces together into a single one-sheet document that includes your registration line, edited copy, some key images, and a summary synopsis of your reality show or concept documentary film. For a reality show or documentary film producer, this is the equivalent of a headshot for an actor or model, or a sizzling reel for a director or cinematographer. It is your business card and the only thing that someone will actually read to the end. You need to grab the reader’s attention right away or you’ll quickly end up under a bunch of other really great ideas, or quite likely under a thousand or more other really mediocre ideas.

Use each of these steps to focus on telling your full story in a clear and concise way. The reader will appreciate it and will probably give it time and consideration, which is probably 30 seconds or less. But again, it only takes a moment to make a good decision. Trust me, the media industry is glowing with content created in this exact way! If you follow the general guidelines in these examples, you will have a short document that explains your brand vision clearly and professionally.

Relationship

Perfect 50th Birthday Gifts for the Sports Fan

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Need a 50th birthday gift idea? Well, if the birthday girl or boy is a sports fan, I have some great ideas for you. Why settle for buying the same old stuff when a sports-themed gift will show that lucky 50 how much you care? When it comes to perfect gift ideas for sports fans, there are plenty of ideas to choose from. The following are just some great “fan” ideas for you to consider.

Autographed souvenirs

All sports fans love to receive a ball, card, or any item autographed by their favorite hero. Fortunately, these items are fairly easy to find on eBay or in hobby stores across the country. There are also websites that specialize in autographed memorabilia. Prices vary based on the rarity and condition of the item, but you should be able to find something to fit every budget.

Sports-themed gift basket

Gift baskets aren’t just for women anymore! Both men and women will enjoy a gift basket filled with items representing their favorite sport or game. An idea for a baseball basket could contain a baseball (autographed or not), a cup of baseball coffee, a couple of baseball cards from favorite players (rookie cards are usually the most sought after), and perhaps a couple of tickets to a game in the future. . You can substitute items for any sport, hunting, fishing, or even games like bridge. This personalized and personal gift is guaranteed to be a big hit at any birthday party!

Monogrammed or personalized balls

Inexpensive yet highly personal gifts, monogrammed balls bring a sense of pride every time the birthday boy plays his sport in the future. You can find companies online that are willing to initial almost any type of ball. Other sports-related items, such as bats, shoes, and gloves, may also be monogrammed. Personalized sporting goods are printed with a logo or slogan, something other than initials. It may be harder to find a company that does something custom than monogrammed, but those golf balls with the “Chin Up!” motto on them are well worth it.

Shadowbox sports scene

Shadow boxes are personalized in a similar way to gift baskets. However, the items in the shadow box remain in the shadow box and are usually displayed on a thin wall or shelf. Most of the time when creating a shadow box, miniature elements are used to create a scene related to the theme. For example, for a fishing shade box, you might have a small boat in a small mock pond with a couple of people fishing while the mock sun appears in the background. Shadow boxes are mainly used to give the owner a sense of nostalgia or escape from reality.

These are just a few ways to celebrate the sport of your choice with 50th birthday gifts. With a little imagination and a little research, there are endless options for the big sports fan day!

Gaming

My Internet Business Success Formula for Beginners – Your Proven Path to Success in 2021

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To put it mildly, online businesses are minting millionaires in droves and this is the best time in all of human history to jump online and create wealth for yourself and your loved ones faster than you ever thought possible. This is not utopian.

It used to take companies at least a hundred years to go from humble beginnings to global brands. Global brands like P&G (1837), Nestlé (1866), Heineken (1864) come to mind immediately.

On the other hand, Microsoft (1975), Apple (1976), Amazon (1994) and Google (1998) took less than 10 years to become household names.

Going big isn’t limited to tech giants. People are making a killing online in fields as varied and mundane as online training, fitness, and writing (also called blogging).

Take Brendon Burchard for example. He is an online coach that started around 2009. Today he has more than 3 million students in more than 100 countries. His impact is so massive that Oprah refers to him as “One of the most successful online trainers ever.” His net profit is estimated at N22million.

Another example is Ramit Sethi. He launched his first blog in 2004 and in 2018 it appeared on Fortune and Forbes simultaneously. In the same year, Forbes featured Ramit alongside Warren Buffet and estimated his net profit at $ 25 million.

Going big is not limited to men. Chalene Johnson, the global fitness icon, has an estimated net profit of $ 10 million, while Marie Forleo has an estimated net profit of $ 14 million.

While Chalene Johnson has been a household name as a fitness coach for over 30 years, Marie Forleo catapulted herself to fame in the past 10 years with the help of her Marie TV, online workout, training, and books.

The fastest, easiest, and cheapest way to succeed is to harness the power of the Internet. As the internet gurus say, to be successful online, do what works. In short, don’t try to reinvent the wheel.

The Internet is a paradigm shift. While it has created stupendous wealth for those who dominate its ecosystem, it has also accelerated the gap between those who know how it works and those who don’t.

Generally, whenever there is a paradigm shift, the knowledge base is reset to zero and everyone has to learn again. To learn fast and easy, you need to follow a proven path.

To be successful and thrive, you need to follow what I call the Internet Business Success Formula for Beginners. As you know, there is order in the universe. If there was no order, there would have been chaos. My Beginner Internet Business Success Formula is a short but powerful framework that shows you how to be successful online. If you follow it, you will be successful. If you don’t, you will fail.

The formula consists of 7 steps. Here they are:

Learn day and night

Despite its apparent plug and play simplicity, the Internet is a complex ecosystem. To be successful, you must learn day and night because change is fast and furious, and basic algorithms change overnight. Learning allows you to have depth and breadth and keeps you always green

Here are the highlights of the things to learn. Learn:

• How the Internet is evolving

• How to be visible

• How to connect with people

• How to create a list

• How to write scripts

• How to create products

• How to make your products visible

• How to earn money online

Be visible offline and online

Being visible requires that you increase your presence online and offline so that you are known and start to build credibility and seriousness. Here are the things you need to do to increase your visibility:

• Develop enduring intellectual properties (books, courses, learning guides, etc.)

• Have a base of operations (website or blog)

• Have embassies (social media platforms)

• Have listening posts (mailing lists, social media platforms, podcasts)

• Have satellite towns / cities (guest posting, befriending influencers on social media).

• Organize events and develop your own platforms such as the YouTube channel.

• Court the media

Build relationships

To attract strangers, visitors, friends, and turn enemies into loyal customers and true fans, you must build relationships. While it makes sense to have a broad base of relationships, it’s more important to build a true fan base. Here are the things you need to do to build relationships:

• Give away valuable things, like books and e-books, for free

• Communicate with your other influencers online

• Extend a hand of companionship to strangers you meet by offering advice.

• Help with specialized information whenever you can, for example in forums

• Make recommendations in areas where you have authority; do not be shy

• Bring people together as a connector

• Ask for help wherever a challenge comes your way, once again, don’t be shy.

Create a mailing list

Make building your mailing list a priority so you have someone to market to and sell to tomorrow. There is a furious argument online about what comes first: the product mailing list. As a beginner, don’t get distracted by these chicken and egg arguments. List and product are two sides of the same coin: your online business. Just keep in mind that with a list you can market what you don’t have through affiliate marketing, but a product with a list gets you nowhere. Also keep in mind that as a beginner you will not be able to do affiliate marketing. So build your list and pursue your product impartially. Here’s how to go about building your list:

• Start a mailing list from day one (at least now you know).

• Start with fruits that hang low, medium and finally high.

• Create a segmented list so you can personalize your messages

• Employ an affordable email or contact management system

• Invite people personally to join your list and be persistent

• Give away valuable incentives, such as books, video lessons, and more.

• Keep it up day and night

Have something to offer (create products)

Create products to sell so you can add more value to your followers. People will follow you because you have something to offer them. When you do, you will earn money, but earning money should not be your main consideration. When you get it right, the money will come. These are the things to do:

• Equip yourself with knowledge and wisdom

• Write and refine your intellectual properties to perfection

• Develop irresistible courses, events and platforms

• Mastering the technologies necessary for production

• Master the technologies necessary for delivery

• Be consistent and focus on things that will last, evergreens

• Specialize so people know what you stand for

Learn how to market and sell online

Marketing and sales are the axes that bring in money. The most successful online business owners excel at marketing and sales. Invest a large percentage of what you generate in marketing to generate more sales and continue to grow your business. Here are the things you need to do to boost your marketing and sales:

• Learn how to use marketing to grow your business.

• Understand the psychology of buying and buyer behavior.

• Learn to develop your business portfolio

• Learn how to create and optimize your sales funnel.

• Learn how to create sales scripts that convert visitors into customers.

• Learn to use social media for marketing.

• Learn how to configure your landing pages.

• Keep selling enthusiastically because selling is human, but don’t be a seller.

Key strategies for long-term winning

Succeeding sustainably online is a marathon. Commit to it for the long term. Learn about how online effort is monetized and where money is made along the value chain. Know that Rome, as they say, was not built in a day. If you go into online business like a sprint or a hundred meter race, you will give up too soon and fail. These are the things to do at this time:

• Master and refine your winning game plan

• Mastering the four phases of online business (learning, audience, product, sales)

• Develop a long-term vision

• Keep things always green

• Diversify into adjacent winning areas as you get more secure

• Develop offline assets to mitigate your online risks.

• Repeat and develop the principles of excellence.

There you have it, the seven planks that make up my formula for Internet business success. You might be wondering where the technology is, after all, we are talking about the Internet. The truth is that technology permeates all seven steps, but technology remains what it is, an enabler. Technology allows you to scale and reach thousands online, but in the end, relationships succeed. So we talk about high-tech, hi-touch.

In the long term, you must master the technologies that allow you to learn day and night, be visible offline and online, build relationships, build a mailing list, create products, learn to market and sell online, and master strategies to win at long term.

Knowing the technical aspects or the technology is important because it is about machines and the technology will help you scale and automate, but it is not a prime condition for the success of a beginner.

Online success is anchored in two magic numbers: a customer base of 10,000 and monthly recurring income of $ 10,000. You can easily achieve both by following the 7 Step Internet Business Success Formula I have given you in this article. Once you hit these numbers, you are ready to take advantage of technology to scale. That will be the subject of another article.

Health Fitness

My story: how I became a bodybuilder

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Hello, let me tell you how I became a bodybuilder. Like most medical students, he had little time or interest in hitting the gym regularly. I wanted to lose some weight, but the thought of exercising left me uninspired. Then I discovered aerobics and found out how you can burn body fat by raising your heart rate to a level in the range of 70-80% of your maximum cardiac output. I started using the “StairMaster” machine at a local gym and wearing headphones for a 20 to 30 minute session at an aerobic heart rate was no problem; in fact I ended up doing aerobic training almost every day for several months. I lost about 10 pounds of weight which was mostly body fat and dropped to 145 pounds.

One day while on the ladder I noticed all the dumbbells, weights, and weights that were in another area of ​​the gym and asked a member of staff what they were about. He told me that there were two ways to go: a slim, lean and compact body or a body with curves and rounded muscles. The second way, he said, was achieved by weight training while keeping body fat low with aerobic exercise after the weight training session. This, of course, required spending more time in the gym, but I was very curious what effect lifting weights would have on my now flat but lean body. In fact, someone in the locker room looked at me and said I looked like a teenager.

So, with the help of the staff trainers, I started exercising with weight 3-4 times a week. What I didn’t realize was that I had great genetics for muscle building and it was soon quite obvious that my shoulders and chest were getting rounder and bigger. I started learning how to isolate my muscle groups and started reading everything I could about bodybuilding on bodybuilding. After several months I was hooked and couldn’t wait to hit the gym and try new and different exercises. The trainers told me to give up aerobic exercise and that I would build muscle more easily. I switched my diet to a high protein / low fat / moderate carb diet and started eating 4-5 smaller meals throughout the day. The results were amazing and real; my self esteem started to grow and in the first year of bodybuilding I gained 10 pounds of muscle. Now he was definitely hooked.

Over the next 4 years my training became more intense as I developed different exercises that helped me isolate a particular muscle and feel the contraction while working with weight. I spent an entire summer learning how to isolate and train my back, which was lagging behind my chest, according to one of the senior trainers in the gym. I switched to a harder bodybuilding gym and added 10 pounds of muscle every year for the next 3-4 years, at which point I weighed 185 pounds with only 7% body fat. I had reached my genetic potential and got stuck at that weight by watching my diet and taking a bunch of amino acid tablets for extra protein.

I was preparing to compete while receiving compliments and stares. I felt like a transformed person and, in fact, I have much greater self-esteem and confidence now that I have become a successful bodybuilder.

Legal Law

How Accountants Can Carefully Cope With Changes In The Accounting Profession

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The accounting profession is on the same roller coaster of unprecedented levels of change as the rest of the world. We believe that we are used to change because that is the nature of accounting thanks to the changing landscapes of the courts, the business environment, technology and government. Now we also live in a world in which books, DVDs, taxis and hotels are being replaced by other alternatives. Banks are experiencing peer lending and accountant pressures from software that can quickly provide the same advice that only we could before. Lawyers are looking at the cannon of smart software that can predict court rulings.

What is changing for accountants?
The following five trends are affecting the accounting profession:

  1. Outsourcing: You know this has a very real impact on the profession when Google’s number one for this is an ad for a company that does nothing but offer outsourcing for accounting firms. It’s a wonderful way to save you time and money, but it comes with a variety of problems, such as the need to verify accuracy and the development of the profession.

  2. Advances in software and artificial intelligence: Accounting and tax research has been done online for some time, but artificial intelligence will only get smarter at predicting failures, conducting research, and making recommendations. While it will make our roles much more efficient, it will also bring a whole new set of challenges in terms of how we charge for time and how we make sure the advice we give is correct. Advances in software bring with them wonderful new ways to commit financial fraud, which we, as accountants, are expected to detect and advise our clients as well.

  3. Social mediaIt has now become part of how we market our accounting services, how we hire, and how we vet the people we hire. When it comes to our clients and investments, social media may reveal more data than any corporate assurance report on a company. It has become so ingrained in some of our lives that an accountant I know touches her smartphone in the morning to check social media before saying good morning to her partner.

  4. RegulationAlthough not new to our profession, it would appear that even more regulation may be on the way in the wake of massive tax evasion, transfer pricing, and money laundering as exposed through things like Panama documents. Our profession can also be part of enforcing regulations that we cannot even consider yet, such as how ethical an organization is in its behavior towards the environment or people. We may have to find ways to account for the environmental or social impacts of trade policies.

  5. A multigenerational workforce: For the first time in history, we now have four generations working side by side in the accounting workspace. We have traditionalists, baby boomers, Gen X and Gen Y working together. People are working longer now and that means that in some situations, there is a gap of more than 50 years between the youngest and the oldest employees.

  6. Alternative billing models: The traditional model of billable hours was not popular with our customers and could even be considered a rewarding inefficiency. New billing models have arrived and will continue to evolve as the use of artificial intelligence becomes more common in our roles. You’ll face tough decisions about how much to bill a customer when what would previously have taken 30 hours of detailed research and accounting can now be done in minutes thanks to smart software. Clients also seek certainty regarding their accounting rates for the year, and in some cases, they would prefer to pay a monthly advance rather than pay for piecemeal accounting advice.

Greg Hayes of the Hayes Knight firm has recently responded to all the doom and gloom that accountants are being told about these changes. He believes that while there are government regulators and small businesses, there will always be a need for someone to come between them. He says that accountants have always been the advisor and the trust of the business owner, and will continue to be: “You can’t automate relationships and you can’t automate trust.”

Interesting changes that have already happened
What changes have I seen professionals undertake already? Here are some:

  • Non-profit family law firm.
  • The use of emoticons in all emails by one company because putting a happy face at the end of an email ensures that the other party knows that they are not looking to escalate a dispute.
  • Network with other professionals, such as lawyers, bankers, financial planners, insurance brokers, healthcare professionals, or anyone else who can potentially refer you (and vice versa). This network is conducted not only face-to-face over coffee, but also through monthly seminars to which clients and a variety of professionals are invited. In one case, each month three people are invited to give a ten-minute presentation on what they are doing to see if there is a chance to work together with anyone else in the room.
  • A company has a ‘digital festival’ every six months to keep customers updated on some of the latest technologies they might be using in their business and any associated legal or accounting issues.
  • Apps that help people track what stage their file is at (for example, text alert when a tax return is submitted or when monthly spending has exceeded budget), when is their next meeting, government agencies that they will need for different problems, etc.
  • Strategic positioning of accounting offices in non-traditional physical locations, such as health or innovation centers.

How to consciously embrace change

As accountants and business consultants, we are traditional and conservative and are now being asked to embrace some of the biggest changes our profession has seen in years if we are to stay relevant. Change requires energy, motivation, and a certain level of discomfort as we enter uncharted waters.

Change can be a good thing. If you are old enough to remember cassette tapes that you had to roll up with a pencil when they broke, you will know what I am talking about. Have you ever been in a house that was sold? There was a frenzy of cleaning, moving and repairing things that he had tolerated for years. The day before the first open house, you take a step back and look at this resplendent house and wonder why you ever wanted to leave such a charming place. Your accounting practice could probably benefit from the same treatment. Take advantage of this disruption as an opportunity to practice innovation and see new ways of operating that you hadn’t previously paid attention to. You have a golden opportunity to transform the nature of your role, for example from trusted accountant to strategic business advisor.

Mindfulness asks you to recognize and accept the need for change. It is neither good nor bad, it is what it is. Coming changes are inevitable and we can embrace and prepare for them or we can practice denial and catch up at a later time.

Acceptance requires that we honestly look at where we are and then start taking the steps we need to get to where we want to be. Tackling change in one big leap is overwhelming, but if you can find one little thing at a time to change, you will slowly but surely absorb the changes that are coming. Start with something easy, like meeting or calling a new contact a week who could be part of your referral network.

Every time you take a step, no matter how small, to change the way your business is done, your brain gives you a blast of its internal reward drug, dopamine. Every time you take a step toward a goal or cross something off your “to do” list, dopamine is also the reason you get that nice little “feel good”. Open a Twitter account and feel good. Create a Facebook page for your business and feel good. Find ways to expand your referral network and feel good. Start small. Start anywhere and start embracing the journey of change that lies ahead.

Remember that it is neither good nor bad, it is simply an opportunity.