Have you ever felt like you have reached your limits? Whether it shows in your writing, business creation or time management – you are not alone! Below, learn how to develop strategies that will make you feel more productive, take your adventure to the next level and keep you in line – we’ll even tackle the stuff that keeps you up at night. Let Karen Post and the Oddpodz team lead the way.

1 – Does branding countries, government programs and leaders really matter? 3 part series that includes insight, strategy and recommendations.
2 – How to quickly sway opinion, sell product & make a point – with wordplay Metaphors can make a difference.
3 – Energize your entrepreneurial engine. Attend 3-day conference in Tampa. Engage in networking opportunities with students from all over the country as well as business professionals.
4 – Entrepreneur essentials – Bandwidth limits, saying no and time off. There are only so many hours in a day, what will you do with them?

For last weeks wrap up, click here.

Also, don’t forget to check out:
Slimy scam, smart business model or insightful day?
3 smart chicks, 10 ideas to breed more loyal blog readers
Greenwashing and other recycled business sins

I hate to break this news to you, but I’m breaking a promise. A few months back I told you I would blog every day in at least one of my three blogs, marketing/branding, entrepreneur or free biz finds. I’ve given it my best and believe I’ve pumped out some good and useful content since then. It’s not easy to write every day, but then again when you follow the tips I’ve learned to make blogging easier, it can be done with joy and without much pain.

Then came being an entrepreneur, running a small business and life, and my noble commitment became a big challenge for me. One that was causing a high degree of stress and maybe this over demand place I signed up for was even jeopardizing my health.

This past month has been monumental. I traveled to Saudi and made history, spent a week in New York City, got inspired, did my thing for the local economy, was featured in the New York Times and then went to Nigeria where I was a guest lecturer to an audience of 500 marketing and leadership professionals. All while blogging daily, servicing my consulting clients, managing my team of support personnel, writing a new book for McGraw-Hill called Brand Turnaround and playing 15 matches of tennis.

Then, just as I got unpacked, I signed up for a week-long comedy school that included a five minute bit, complete with memorized new and hopefully funny material. The class was in Tampa, produced by Jeff Lawrence of the Laughing Buddha Comedy School, who preforms around the country and is based in NYC.

I attended the first class on Tues., it was fun, saw many of buddies Frank Robertson, (a broadcast and media consultant) and Scott Farrell, (a proud stay at home dad) and met some great new friends too, Susan Guidi, another entrepreneur who runs Advanced Ultrasound Services in Tampa.  All in all, it was everything I wanted it to be. I’ve done comedy school before, so I knew the basics going in. And I knew there would be homework.

That night, I couldn’t sleep, I tossed and turned about all my commitments and now this one with a short deadline. Then I experienced a major anxiety attack, where you feel like you are going to have a heart attack and really die!!! YIKES!@#%!!!!

After about an hour of this agony, I got up, rubbed my big, happy, crystal Buddha’s belly on my dresser and had an important epiphany.

This is freakin, self-inflicted stress and pain and you, Karen Post, can stop it. I pulled out my writing pad and made a list of my: “had to do, must do” responsibilities. Comedy class was not on the list.

What was on my list: finish my book, take care of my clients that I am under contract with, and take care of me. The rest will have to wait and I know it will take care of itself.

My brain has a certain amount of brand-width, there are so many hours in day and I do not want to do anything that is not my best work. PERIOD.

The moral to this story and the 3 entrepreneurial essentials.
Know your band-width and respect it.
1) Don’t kill yourself, know your limits, and say no to things that are not in the top priority zone, especially if they can impact your true goals and dreams.

Exercise your rights as an entrepreneur.
2) As an entrepreneur, you get to control a lot, so don’t fail to use this privilege and power.

Change your mind  and alter your plan, if you need to. And don’t beat yourself up for it.
3) It’s OK to opt-out and change your mind and that’s what I’m doing. This is different than dropping someone in the grease with no back up options. This was not my case, no one was going to be disappointed if I didn’t take the comedy class at that time. I called my comedy instructor and told him my situation, my plate is over-floweth, I have to deliver my best stuff, my book, my clients, my team and right now just can’t do the class. He understood.

My game plan forward.
I’m taking an official break from daily blogging. For the next 4 weeks, my head is immersed in client service and completing my book and taking care of me (tennis, massages and a trip to Aruba to write and recharge).

You may see some random blog posts during my hiatus, but not making any commitments, as I’m islanding it in Aruba island for a week, I’m speaking at the Southeast Entrepreneurial Conference in Tampa on April 1 and I’m addressing Pizza Hut’s Annual Franchise Convention in San Antonio.

In my absence, my fabulous assistant, Lauren, will be spot writing on Internet marketing. Lauren has been with me for almost 7 months now and I believe she is the 8th wonder of the world. She’s an Internet and social media whiz and teaches me a lot everyday. I know she will bring some great articles and tips to the blog. Jocelyn one of the co-founders of Oddpodz may kick in a post too. She’s in Savannah, building her consulting, research and branding practice and helping other entrepreneurs succeed too.

So until next time . . .

Preparing for a far away trip can be challenging. Karen Post and the Oddpodz team learn how to take a stressful situation and turn it into an achievement. If you missed last weeks wrap up, click here.

1 – Sponge Bob would be proud of me. I’m soaking up stuff at a very high speed. Traveling is only part of the adventure.
2 – Ouch! Global travel can hurt. How to manage your health on the road. An education on why to take extra precautions.
3 – Why being in the right state is critical. And I’m not talking about Florida. What happens when goofy thoughts enter your brain.
4 – How to reduce the sting in charging service fees. Being nickel and dimed may turn out to be a valued convenience.
5 – 18 steps toward stress-free, fast-lane, more fun and darn good writing. Tips that will make you want to dump your notes.

Be sure to also check out:
Are you brand battle ready at the frontline?
Top 10 best brand stories
How two websites almost killed a baby

The importance of branding and the reason it must be done was the focus for this week’s blogs. To view last weeks wrap up, click here.

1 – Is morning marketing more meaningful? Or do night owls rule? Don’t fight your waves of brilliance, do what works for you.
2 – Less stress. More life. Tighter brand. How the small things in life can minimize your travel nightmares.
3 – Nightline, girl power and baba ghanooge. Adventures and inspiration from 8,000 miles away.
4 – Lights, camera, Saudi action countdown. The creation of a lasting customer experience and why brands are critical for success.
5 – Can a strong brand make a visit to the dentist less painful? Why a Nazi commando or a pushy used car salesman never win the fight.

For more branding ideas, view:
The #1 strategy that is giving me more money, influence and balance.
How I earned the #1 spot on Google.
Does your business card scream “I’m broke, clueless or stuck in 1980″?

Over a month ago I committed to write in my blogs daily. To date, I’ve kept my promise. In a previous post,  I recited 10 ways to make blogging easy. It’s a good post and the advice does work. Until you have a night like tonight.

I’ve been deep into the book writing and felt very stuck – I shared that with you yesterday. Today, I was almost in the flow zone, then at 9PM had unexpected company, opened a bottle of wine, it’s midnight, chapter not finished, and no blog post in sight.

The #10 way to make blog writing easy is my friend and savior tonight. It’s called the excuse card. I don’t use often, especially when you commit to your readers.  But if you must use it, at least make the excuses are creative.

Here goes .  . . four excuses for my lameness

• My dead dog Maxie (who lives in dog heaven) flew in for the night and ate my  notebook with my blog draft on it.
• Loss track of time, I’ve been on the phone with Tiger Woods advising him on how to get his brand back.
• Someone slipped a mushroom on my pizza, I hate mushrooms and now I’m hallucinating.
• I’m part human and really sorry to disappoint you.

Anyhow tomorrow is a new day. I will do my best to get unstuck on the book and and write a distant blog for you.

For more life balance, view our ta-do list.

I’m excited, anxious and very proud.

About a month ago, I got a call from a major Saudi company inviting me to address 300 of their team members on branding. They are the national airline; the Saudi Arabian Airlines. They learned about me through my Google ranking and were convinced I knew my stuff from my websites, videos and blogs.

I was surprised as Saudi still practices many gender divisions. And they selected me, a woman business expert on branding.

I had to immediately report to my contact – the VP of marketing and a member of the company for over 32 years. He was knowledgeable, kind and equally enthusiastic about the new business relationship.

We ironed out a deal, discussed their objectives and my program: Why brand? Which focuses on touch points, social media,  customer experiences, and all the details that go with it.

While I thought I was pretty worldly, I was really in the dark concerning this country and their culture. As many of you will have opportunities to do business around the globe, I’m pleased to share what I’ve learned in preparing for the trip so far and will blog regularly from abroad. After my trip to the Middle East I will head to NYC for 6 days and will share more insight from my journey there.

Marketing lessons.

• If you can do business abroad, make sure your web site reflects that.
• When a lead calls you, qualify them immediately. Discuss budget, objectives, terms.

Communication lessons.

• Even if your contact speaks great English, don’t assume they can read all your emails.
• Don’t use local slang, speak clearly and in a concise manner.
• Speak to others involved in the project. For me, it was the other speakers, John Tschohl,
  Steve Martin, James Belasco and Gerrie Smith with a UK firm called Honour that  has a history of working with the client. All provided so much valuable insight and they are now my new global friends.

Travel lessons.

• You must have a visa to enter Saudi. This takes some time. For a couple hundred dollars, I engaged a DC firm to facilitate the process. A1passport and Visa Express was great to work with. They handle everything. They take your documents to the embassy and secure the visa.
• Get to know military time.
• Pack your international electricity plugs for your computer.
• For limited over seas flights, don’t risk missing it, get to NYC a day early, just in case.

Cultural lessons.

• Do your homework. Understand and respect your client’s values and traditions
• Talk to others who have journeyed there. In this case, other women.
• Modify your content, so its effective, yet not offensive . Go light on US examples, include world case studies.
• Jump in their shoes. Be relevant.

More next week!

Check out our other marketing blogs too.

Starting this week, we are providing a weekly wrap up email from Karen Post’s Oddpodz blogs on marketing, branding and entrepreneurial matters. In case your week went flying by, here is what you’ve missed from:

1 – 2nd chance. 2nd book cover. 2nd wind. When something does not work the first time, don’t give up – just give it another shot.

2 – If you have ever tried calling internationally, then you will relate to Global phone mess – a lesson in assumption and learn why you should always plan ahead.

3 – Can a good tease convert, engage and conquer customers? We think so. Learn how to get attention from your market, before you give them all the goods.

4 – In 5 Super Bowlicious marketing practices for any size business, discover the trends and how to apply big game marketing strategies to your own business.

5 – In How to make achievements a national holiday, learn 5 ways to turn your achievements into a holiday and why it’s important to celebrate them.

6 – Don’t even think about calling me a senior or reminding me that I’m over 40 is a reminder that marketing towards the young boomers has changed.

7 – Have you learned How to juggle multiple projects and keep your cool? If not, here are two approaches that can help.

Too much email, but still want easy access to the content for from Oddpodz the place for creative-minded entrepreneurs? Then, sign up for the RSS feed and read via a feeder or in your web browser.

And thanks for your continued interest and support!

Karen has joined the daily blogging club! Use the RSS feed to get everyday insight or sign up for the Oddpodz ezine, which is a summary of blog posts that is sent out bi weekly.

Here is a wrap-up of the last 15 days:

1 – In Mystery of pricing exposed. How much would you pay to look smarter?, Karen Post highlights the fact that we tend to forget: behind every decision we make, there is a price. From this standpoint, ask yourself ‘How much am I ready to pay for a particular situation?’ In order to do so, Karen recommends Eduardo Porter’s book The Price of Everything: Solving the Mystery of Why We Pay What We Do. Check out Karen’s literature choice and the awesome trailer, here.

2 – In You know you are engaged when you take your laptop and Seth Godin to the bathroom, Karen shares with us 4 tips she learned from the Seth Godin’s recent webinar she attended (and could not get away from…!). Engagement is one of the primary sources of success. Even during challenging times, do your best to keep engaging in what really matters. The four tips also discuss guest bloggers, blogging frequency, Twitter and not giving up. Learn from Seth and Karen here.

3 – In 10-steps to making writing your blog easier, Karen gives great tips to help each and every one of us to enhance our blogging experience. Keeping up with a consistent daily post is harder than what we can expect. Try out Karen’s 10 ta-do’s and bring your A game when blogging. Check out Karen’s list here.

4 – In The #1 strategy that is giving me more money, influence and balance, Karen discusses her focus on trying to align all of her business ventures. These strategies can be good for your business as well. See how she does it with Oddpodz here.

5 – In 3 productivity tips to prevent eye strain & pain from your computer, Karen shares a few tips on how help your eyes if, like the average business worker, you spend more than 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, in front of a computer screen. See what Karen does to avoid painful eyes and how to stay productive here.

6 – We have all asked for feedback on a project and found that good feedback does not always necessarily mean nice feedback. In Hard candy advice. Why sweet is not always better, Karen tells us about the feedback she received from a recognized author concerning her book proposal. Although it might not have been nice to hear, she definitely received helpful tips. See how she used her advisor’s insights to the fullest here.

7 – In 4-simple habits of champion goal-getters, Karen lists 4 qualities that a well-driven person should have. From setting clear objectives, to surrounding themselves with focused people, some day-to-day habits are essential for anyone who attempts to be a successful goal-getter. See what makes Karen a goal-getter here.

8 – Productivity is a powerful thing. In Save at least 5 hours a week. Subscribe to RSS feeds, Karen tells us how to increase our weekly productivity and to save precious hours. Stop surfing the web looking for pieces of information you want from your favorite websites. Make the news come to you – learn to use RSS feeds here.

9 – In Feet and footers should both be sexy, Karen mentions one of her pet peeves: feet! And also the footers on web designs. Have you checked your website/blog footers lately? You might want to reevaluate and see if they’re eye catching. But before doing so, see what Karen thinks about feet and footers here.

10 – In A crazy combination that works. Bad spelling+psycho cats=$30M in cash, Karen tells us about a crazy success story. Ben Huh, former journalist, bought a website: I Can Has Cheezburger and turned this misspelled domain name into a venture that just raised $30M! See how Ben did it here.

11 – In How to scale up the experience you deliver in 4 dramatic steps, Karen deals with a notion that is really important in the start-up world: scalability. How can a company use all the space available to communicate and sell their products? Learn more about scaling-up your business here.

12 – Want to be a standout brand? Avoid these 5 costly mistakes discusses tips every business should follow if they want to standout from the pack. To become a memorable brand, Karen Post talks about what to do and what not to do here.

Off to a mondo start for the New Year, we hope these stories add to your life and success.

1 – In 3 gifts that should be on everyone’s holiday wish list, Karen mentions three entrepreneurial qualities that will help any business owner to move forward. If you have not offered yourself anything during this holiday season, it is now time to make it up with (a) intention, (b) empathy and (c) confidence. Karen lets us know why this combo will make you a successful entrepreneur here.

2 – In How to turn competition into sales, Karen explains a mantra that we have all been hearing in business: “Competition is good!”. In this article, she shares one of her experiences listing three tips that will help you to make allies out of your current competitors. Read how to use competition for your business’ sake here.

3 – In Entrepreneur Corner features Karen Post on branding your small business, Karen invites us to listen to the Entrepreneur Corner online show hosted by her friend Lisa Malloy on January the 10th. The show can be seen here. Karen and Lisa will bring their expertise on branding development during half an hour. Check the program of the show here.

4 – In Step up your progress, passion and perspective, Karen wraps up 2010 by listing several moments that made her year a success. But, as usual, she also gives us the takeaway lessons that she learned on the way. Check out the Karen’s lessons of 2010 here.

5 – In How I earned the #1 spot on Google, Karen talks about the one thing every entrepreneur wants for their business: Get top ranked in Google search. Thanks to different tasks based on keywords, content publishing and tags, the Branding Diva made it to the top for the “branding speaker” search.

6 – What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the word ‘price’? In Mystery of pricing exposed. How much would you pay to look smarter? Karen Post talks about a fabulous new book she recently read that will get you thinking about how critical and motivating prices in our lives really are. To read more about this book, and to read Karen’s review, click here.

Check out the ta-do list and follow the same path here! And congrats Karen!

Last Oddpodz wrap-up of 2010! The O-Team wishes you happy holidays and hopes 2011 will bring you much joy and success.

1 – In Mind freeze, is there a fast way to thaw your thoughts? , Karen shows us the extent to which procrastination hit her during one weekend. For those who know Karen, this doesn’t sound like her. But hey! We all have our ups and downs and it’s okay. What really matters is our ability to always challenge ourselves to find new efficient ways to beat procrastination. Karen also gives us an insightful source that I advice you to check out. Read Karen’s article here.

2 – Yeah we all have ups and downs, and in Tiger Woods and other Monday morning losers, Karen gives her 7 insights to get through an unsuccessful period for whatever you are doing. Read Karen’s 7 steps to be a winner here.

3 – In Can a monkey make our mail better? , Oddpodz switches email services to Mailchimp from Feedblitz. Is this tool the best solution? Karen talks about why the company changed, new features and challenges. Read email story here.

4 -In Trading your time for money is a mind set you can no longer afford, Thomson Dawson shares his point of view concerning a matter that we all meet in our business: time. He argues the fact that in the society we live in, getting paid on a timely basis is no longer what needs to be done. It is now all about the value you add to your customers’ business and the level of satisfaction they get from it. Read Thomson’s ideas here.

5 – In Do you have what it takes to be an unstoppable entrepreneur?, Karen becomes a box office critique. Her entrepreneurial lifestyle got energized with a movie break. Karen gives us the take-away advices she brought back from the viewing of Unstoppable (With Denzel Washington and Chris Pine) and her thoughts on Love and other Drugs. Check Karen’s few entrepreneurial-minded thoughts here.

7 – In If you are going to tweet, why not make it really sweet, Lauren Angrick lists 5 tools which help your business to manage its twitter account and followers. FriendOrFollow, Twitoria, WeFollow, Twellow and Just Tweet it all get Lauren’s thumbs up. Read Lauren’s reviews here.

6 – In Coupons, Groupon and gambling with a brand, the Diva is back and we love that! Karen hits strongly and tells us why she is not a coupon fan. According to her, if you are peddling a premium product or service, couponing can hurt a brand. However, she also understands that the world is made up of many diverse market segments and a discount play can work for some offerings. Also check out her thoughts on Groupon, this startup which deny Google’s $ 6 billion offer here

8 -In Inspiration and gratitude from 30,000 feet, Karen shares her experiences from a week in the Big Apple. NYC is such a source of inspiration for any entrepreneur and KP filled up the box of ideas and kept us updated on what’s hot in Manhattan! Thanks to Google’s holiday gift, this article was sent from the sky via FREE Internet service to all on her flight, check it out here!

9 – In Hitting the streets in NYC, flavors, history and tired feet, Karen shares her journey from the streets, food tours, dining and marketing. Have a bite of the Big Apple experience here.

10 – In What Jimmy Fallon taught me about marketing, Karen tells us the insight she got from attending NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show. From customer service, to enhancing the brand experience to how humor feels good and should be incorporated in business. Great points to read and get inspiration from here.

11 – A weekday radio program geared towards small businesses invited Karen back to their show. View Small Business Advocate radio show to feature Karen Post to learn tips on how to retool, recraft and reinvent your venture and stay tuned for the posted radio segment here.

2010 was great year. We hope you gained as much as we did from our journey together. If there are specific things you’d like to learn about next year, please drop us a note.