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Seminars and Classes
by Barbara Winter
These days there’s plenty of information available via the Internet covering just about every topic you can imagine and for a business person this is great news. Much of that information is being offered in the form of seminars, workshops, classes and, more recently, in a format known as teleclasses.
While often we can get all the information we need by reading a book, sometimes attending a class away from the home or office environment is more conducive to the learning.
If you’ve got a seminar coming up, here are some tips to help you get the most from the experience.
Support the teacher. No kidding. Your responses—
Be ready to learn. For a few hours, leave your problems and concerns outside the classroom and let your sense of adventure lead you. It can be like a mini-vacation from your normal routine so suspend any resistance you've got and be willing to entertain new thoughts.
Get the best seat. Come early and take a seat right up front or at least the best vantage point so you can see and hear everything that’s going on. Closer to the front has less distractions.
Take two sets of notes. Naturally you’ll be taking notes from the information being given but you're also going to get ideas as you go along so write these down, too, so you can remember them later but then get back to the teaching at hand.
Take classes regularly. While expanding your knowledge and expertise can be fun and interesting, you’ll also see your self-
When Barbara Winter was growing up in a small farming community in southern Minnesota, she was the kid who was always saying to her friends and younger sisters, “Let’s make something and sell it!” This entrepreneurial spirit continued throughout high school despite the lack of encouragement from her family, teachers or school counselors.
Putting all thought of self-employment aside, Barbara became a high school English teacher. That was followed by brief careers as an employment counselor and interior decorator. While feeling frustrated and discouraged, she came across a book called Supergirls: The Autobiography of an Outrageous Business. It became her handbook.
Gathering her courage, she started her first homebased business before there was even a name for this work-at-home phenomenon. Drawing on her growing passion for personal growth and development, she created a pioneering program for women called The Successful Woman. Those early ideas morphed into entrepreneurial seminars, including Making a Living Without a Job and Establish Yourself as an Expert. Those programs became wildly popular with adult education centers around the country.
In 1986, she began publishing Winning Ways, a newsletter now in its 19th year, to share inspiration and information with small business owners. Barbara is also the author of Making a Living Without a Job (Bantam) and Jumpstart Your Entrepreneurial Spirit (Sogno Bella). In addition, her articles have appeared in numerous magazines, newsletters and online.
Believing that our own business can be an incubator for the human spirit, she and Nick Williams joined forces to found the Dreambuilders Community in 2003. Their intention is to help artists think more entrepreneurially and to help entrepreneurs think more artistically. Working with this international community of inspired businessowners has confirmed Barbara's suspicions that the entrepreneurial spirit has no nationality.
Besides her unwavering passion for the joyfully jobless life, travel and reading, Barbara’s latest project is discovering the joy of creative grandparenting. Her dream is to become the muse to entrepreneurs throughout the world. Visit Barbara online at barbarawinter.com.
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