Feed Your Head (Five For the Ladies)

Inspiration comes in many forms. In today's post I want to share some of the people, blogs, books, and music inspiring me lately. From PR to Pop!, this is what's feeding my head and what you just might want to feed yours.

I also wanted to target this post for women specifically because a lot of what I'm reading, learning, and investing time in happens to be female-focused right now. Once you take a look-see through my list, I think you'll figure out what I mean...

1. Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts - Look, I know it's a kinky name with all its implications, but after every woman seems to have read Fifty Shades this year, I feel I can share this book suggestion with you. Truth is, another inspiration on my list this week first told me about this book and as a result I have been embracing my pride and power as a woman more and more every day.

But Mama Gena is the focus here - not the book. The book is your primer to what Mama Gena is all about and a lesson in how to take back your power. It's an invigorating reminder to embrace life and bring everyone along with you as you live your life with passion!

Her blog is fun. There is a lot of talk about vulvas and vaginas (you'll adapt after blushing) and I signed up for her newsletter and daily messages she calls, "The Daily Fluff."

Fun. Positive. Powerful.

Check it out.

2. FitCyn - Cynthia D'Amour has been a longtime friend, mentor, and inspiration for me. She's creative and smart and driven and not a soul who knows her would dare disagree. I first met her when I joined the association community and became more involved with the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).

Over the past couple of years she's evolved from pursuing a healthier life for herself to sharing her weight loss journey with everyone online and people are eating it up! (Hey, no calories in brain food, right?) And her success is not only physically visible, but you can feel her positive energy radiating out...that's the kind of thing that just invites success to your life.

She's posting regular videos to her blog, many times without wearing a stitch of makeup after her workout (did I mention she's daring, too?), and she's developing a devoted community on her FitCyn Facebook Group. I watch her videos and love this woman for sharing so much of her life - struggles and success - and her willingness to reach down and pull the next person up the mountain with her.

3. Real Jazz station on Sirius XM - What does one listen to when she's busy being happy and making a purposeful decision to transform her life into what she wants it to be?

I was struggling with finding the right kind of music to allow for my happy thoughts and my creative thinking while writing and working throughout the day.

It needed to be upbeat. It needed to be mostly instrumental. It needed to inspire the kind of thoughts and activity that I was aiming for.

Enter: Real Jazz.

As a longtime lover of jazz, finding a place for jazz in my life on a regular basis shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was! I'd been listening to a lot of alternative and chill music...not so  much jazz.

Finding the right kind of soundtrack might just be what you need to do to put a little extra spring in your step!

4. Adele Cehrs - One of the most fun, authentic, beautiful people I've ever met; Adele is blessed with business acumen and a power in PR. In fact, she owns Epic PR and is regularly paid to speak on public relations topics with a natural talent for being in front of people.

She gave me invaluable business advice after starting my own company, Amplified Growth, and told me about the awesome show, The Pitch.

We are speaking together at the upcoming ASAE Great Ideas Conference next spring on the topic of big ideas and how to know if you've got a dud or a winner...yes, we are going to make this a really special session and I can't wait! You can follow Adele on Twitter @EpicPRGroupDC.

5. Sam Horn and Pop! - Strong women will introduce you to other strong women. After I missed the chance to see Sam Horn in person at ASAE Annual this year, Adele (see #4 above) suggested I pick up Sam's book, Pop. Adele and I now practically have our own little Sam Horn book club and I've purchased more of her titles.

Sam's advice stands out because she makes it actionable. Super actionable. It's almost as good as if she did it all for you.


There you go! I have more stuff that's lighting my fire lately, but those are the top five for this week. What about you? What's working for you? Got any suggestions for me to check out? Let me know in the comments!