Volume 1, Issue 4

February 2006

Message From The President

~ Kathy Har dtke

well as the freedom to I would like to direct

choose from a vast your focus and atten-
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: array of ways of life, tion within to the
Member Spotlight 2
ways of living life power of who we are
Renee Swanson more than ever before as women with our
2 Your Light is including how we per- very individual and
Wor k/Lif e Bal ance 3 Your Power ceive our realities. unique gifts we offer
to the world…not the
Calendar 3 Where does our power With that in mind, I power of what we
come from and what share with you an have and can attain
Contac t Inf o 4
does it mean to have awareness of a deeper outside of ourselves.
power. To some, power that we as We simply need to
power means a suc- women today are un- unleash the light
cessful job, high earn- covering within our- within w ithout fear of
ings, control over oth- selves that is bringing who we are and how
ers or simply control our lives to a whole others may judge us.
over our own desti- new and more re-
nies, to name a few. warding level of suc- I recently watched the
To others it is simply cess, joy and happi- movie “Coach Carter”
freedom of choice. In ness. As successful and heard a quote
the past we have re- women today we do that clarifies the
flected on choice and have the power of power I am speaking
how women today community, choice of and is as follows:
have more choices as and freedom however

Save The Date!

Mario Tricoci in Crystal This open house will in- Color!! (for color it has to
Lake has invited all WLN clude the following: be something completely
members to an open different )
house on February 13th Nail polish changes/ Par-
from 7-9pm. affin dips and Make Up Hope to see you there!
Application.
They are located at 625 In the Spa:
Cog Circle in Crystal Massage: 10 min mas-
Lake, phone number is sages in the chair
815-477-7887. Blow Dry, Styles, Cut and

V O L U M E 1, I S SU E 4
Member Spotlight—Renee Swanson
Many of you probably had the
pleasure to meet Renee Swan-
son of Beach Body Tan at one
of the recent WLN meetings.
Renee is the owner of Beach
Body Tan located in Huntley.
Recently, Renee answered a
few questions about herself and
her business, below is our in-
terview.
How did you get involved
with the WLN?
Kim Perkins spoke with me
about WLN. Her personality
won me over and I thought if
the rest of the group is like
this. I will be impressed, as it
turned out they were a group of
Dynamic women.
Tell me little about your
background and your cur-
rent job/business.
My Career was in Marketing
until my children were
born. Then I decided to work
only part-time to raise children.
Then my life took a turn when
my husband was disabled at
work and we decided its now or
never. And I had already had a
trip planned and paid for with
the girls. When I got back from
Success Stories
Please remember to keep send-
ing me your WLN success sto-
ries. Let us know how the group
has benefited you, either profes-
sionally or personally. How an-
other member has assisted you
in increasing your business by
giving you a referral, or some
other way.
Let us know the group is working
for you, we would love to hear
from you!
Page 2
Palm Springs I didn't want to I am very competitive so in my
leave the sun. So we decided to mind it is not an option not to
open Huntley's First Exclusive succeed.
tanning and airbrush tanning
salon . You can reach Renee at (847)
659-1144.
What is the biggest chal-
lenge that you've come
across owning your ow n
business?
You need to always remember
your family comes first.
What advice would you give
others wanting to start their
own business?
Make sure you have a suppor-
tive family to be there for the
children when you can’t. I have
a wonderful Mother in law that I
can’t thank enough.
What is the best part of your
job?
My clients. My asst manager
said one day, " I can come in a
bad mood and these customers
of yours are the best. They are
always so much fun. I couldn’t
stay angry if I tried.”
What motivates you to suc-
ceed?
E-mail your successes to:
anita. smullin@att.net
Don’t
Forget!
 Page 3

Work-Life Balance First Aid

1. Clean, organize and purge your desk. Update your files and replace
all torn files. Buy new files, in different colors, and organize them by color:
green for financial papers, purple for clients and so on. Be sure to label
all the files, and then organize them alphabetically within each color
scheme. And never, ever put the word "Misc" on any file--once you file it,
you'll forget what you put in it. If you can say out loud what the file is, you
have your label.
2. Be like Santa every day of the week. Make a list and check it twice.
There's nothing more satisfying than checking things off your "to do" list!
Make a list every night of all the things you need to accomplish the next
day. Do this every night, including the weekends, so you get in the habit
of relying on your to-do list to help you get things done.
6. Choose one or two goals you want to accomplish this year with
your business. Maybe it's to make more money or to land more clients.
How will you accomplish that goal? What amount of money w ill you make
this year? How w ill you do it? Type that information out in a clear sentence,
put by your bedside, and read it every morning and every night to help
inspire you to reach your goals .
7. Get rid of any office supplies you haven't used in the past year.
Return them to the store for credit or donate them to your favorite charity.
The less clutter there is in your office, the more happiness there'll be in
your lif e. If you buy a new printer, donate the old one. You don't need two
printers--the old one is just taking up space. This goes for everything in
your offic e.

3. Use only one calendar. Choose the one that works best for you: one
on your computer, a handheld one like a PDA, or a paper one on your
desk. Then get rid of all your other calendars and use just the one to
record and keep track of everything. If you're maintaining more than one
person's schedule, like your children's , use different colored inks to re-
cord information for each family member.
4. Make a note on your calendar, one week ahead of any event,
about what you need to do for that event. Do you need to buy wine to
bring to a housewarming party? Do you need to send flowers for your
mother's birthday? Whatever it is, make a note.
5. Make a list of your goals. Write down at least 10 goals you want to
accomplish in your lifetime. Be specif ic. Then put the list away and up-
date it again next year.
8. Start planning now for the 2006 tax year. Label a box "2006 Taxes,"
and put it in your offic e. This box w ill hold all your 2006 tax-related docu-
ments throughout the year: bank statements, receipts for business ex-
penses, online statements indicating what bills you paid and charity re-
ceipts. At the end of the year, remove the contents from the box and make
tw o piles--business and personal--for your accountant (or for yourself, if
you do your own taxes). The box w ill be the one place you put everything
that has anything to do with your taxes. It sure beats searching for the
paperwork at the end of the year.
9. Update your rolodex. Clear out all the cards of people you never called
last year. I can tell you that if a year goes by and you haven't contacted
them, chances are, you'll never call them. If you feel you need to keep the
information, put all the "maybe I'll call them one of these days" cards in a
file and label it that.
10. Feng Shui your desk and surroundings. If it's good enough for Don-
ald Trump, it's good enough for you!

Tips from Entrepreneur. COM

Upcoming Events

February 2006

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28

Feb 6 - Board Mtg, 6:30pm at Claddagh Feb 8 - WLN Mtg, 5:30pm at Biaggis
Feb 13 - WLN Mario Tricoci Night 7-9pm
 Wome n’s Leade rship Network Mission (WLN)
To empower women to succeed in business personally and
professionally through networking and education while build-
ing key relationships and having fun!

Questions with newsletter contact:
Anita Smullin
Phone: 815-788-1653
E-mail: anita.smullin@att.net
S T R ON G. A M B I T I OU S .
S U C CE S S F UL .
American Business Women’s Assoc iation Mission
(ABWA)
To bring together businesswomen of diverse occupations and
to provide opportunities for them to help themselves and
others grow personally and professionally through leader-
ship, education, networking support, and national recogni-
tion.

We’re on the web!

www.womensleadershipnetwork.net

Message from the President (continued from page 1)

Continued from pa ge 1
“Our deepest fear is not that we
are inadequate. Our deepest
fear is that we are powerful be-
yond m easure. It is our light not
our darkness that m ost frightens
us. Your playing sm all does not
serv e the world…there is nothing
enlightened about shrinking so
that other people won’t feel inse-
cure around you. We were ALL
m eant to shine as children. It’s
not just in som e of us. It is in
ev eryone and as we let our own
light shine, we unconsciously
giv e one another perm ission to
do the sam e. We are liberated
from our own fear and our pres-
ence autom atically liberates oth-
ers.”
Today, let’s begin to open up this
power within us to those that we
have held back. We give our-
selves and others permission to
be authentic to our core. We
no longer have to cower behind
those that can’t handle our
success, our light and our own
unique gifts. We are who we
are for a reason. The closer
we come to uncovering these
parts of ourselves the closer
we come to our own personal
truths and the more successful,
joyful and complete our lives
will be. A subtle knowing re-
turns and a sense of trust en-
compasses us as our fears melt
away allow ing our lights to
shine bright. We are living our
truth and our passion while our
power lights the path for others
to follow and join in our jour-
ney of success uncovering their
own truth and power along the
way.
Who do you hold back your
power dulling your light for fear
of losing them as a friend, as-
sociate or family? What area
do you find yourself cowering
for fear of standing tall? When
will it be time for you to let
your light shine and experience
your own unique power?
Maybe, just maybe it will be
someone you love that you
show your power and light to
that models your courage and
changes his or her life forever…
© Strategic Success, Inc.
January 31s t , 2006