I'm addicted to starting over. I like things to be new and fresh. I love learning new things on the job (or off). My husband? Not so great with the starting over. He once commented that "It's only a rut if you're looking down into it. When you're inside it, it's a groove." And yet it's time for my husband to shake some of the dust off his career, and for me to consider where the heck mine is going over the next few years.

On Monday, John McCain visited Pennsylvania, where he attended a meeting with small-business owners to discuss jobs and the economy. While his remarks on energy earned plenty of press coverage, his comments on strengthening small businesses, and thereby promoting future economic growth, were less noted. As such, I wanted to use this post to highlight some key aspects of John McCain’s plan to help them.

Are you willing to do what it takes to create what you really want in your business, career, and finances? It might sound like an obvious answer "well, of course!", yet when we hit tough choices, we often resist doing the very thing we need to in order to succeed. We stay stuck in our righteous position of what we think and what we've planned. I love the quote: We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. - Joseph Campbell How willing are you?

Vanessa, Subject To Change Even though I'm more like twenty-something times 2.5, I attended the "Twenty-Something Meet Up" at the BlogHer Conference. Why did I go? I keep hearing from nonprofits that one of the reasons they want to incorporate a social networking or media strategy is to reach a younger audience. So, having this opportunity listen was very valuable. Zandria did a fabulous job of facilitating the session. There were probably about 40 or 50 women in the room - not all were twenty somethings.

Update: On Wednesday August 8,2008 I was able to talk to Suzanne Elliott of Dress For Success. We would have chatted Monday or Tuesday but my schedule prohibited an earlier chat. In response to this post, Suzanne said that Dress For Success Worldwide is doing very well financially and that their budget has increased 40% this year.

If a year ago you had told me that I would find a tech guru--and a new web crush--in a self-described "tubby" Internet marketer from Moonee Ponds, Australia, I'd have told you to go to hell. Internet marketers? Aren't they the smarmy bastards behind those ugly machismo-juiced squeeze pages filled with photos of cars and mansions? Don't they fill my inbox with spam? What could I learn from such a person? Plenty, it ends up.