The Next Internet Millionaire

You've hearded of "American Idol". "The Last Comic Standing", "Dancing With the Stars" and Donald Trump's "The Apprentice"...as television viewers we get hooked on these reality shows. Each week we tune in to see our favorites move closer to the prize...we critique each performance, vote the people we think deserve to move forward and cheer them on, while celebrating the fact that our least favorites have finally have been booted off the show. It can be addicting! My husband groans every time a new reality competition show comes on, because he knows thatI love these television shows...he knows he is going to get hooked too. Well, reality TV has invaded the internet with Joel Comm's "The Next Internet Millionaire".On August 15th, you can tune in on your computer and watch six men and six women vie for the title of being"The Next Internet Millionaire". Joel Comm and his group of entrepreneurs are tapping in to the new internet phenomenathathas burst on to the scene with the introduction of YouTube, MySpace and now...ABC's icaught.Comm believes that some day television will be obsolete and that we will be finding all of our entertainment through the internet and he is out to prove this fact through the first reality show via the internet.

You may ask why I know about this new phenomena...well...the woman who has been the most instrumental in my writing, speaking and internet career...my life coach...Christine Schaap is one of the contestants. Christine is the author of "Bring It On", abook devoted to women"embracing midlife". Schaap is the creator of the popular web site named Path Partners, which ispresentlyone of the few, if onlyweb site that deals with women in Midlife Crisis.Most web sites are devoted to men in Midlife Crisis and their spouses who are suffering from the pain and hurt that can occur when a man decides to embark on the often destructive journey. Schaap wrote her book as a result of her own midlife experience and complimented the book with her web site that offers her book, articles, support groups, an active forum and coaching opportunities. From what was a difficult learning experience, Schaap has taken lemons and turned them in to lemonade by creating vehicles that help others through their own midlife crisis. In a four year period, Schaap has gone from ahomeschooling mother of five to an author,life coach, speaker and now internet entrepreneur.Christine's journey is a demonstration of the huge possibilities that are awaiting all of us as we embarkon journey in to our second adulthood.

Fabulous at 40, Schaap has stepped up her game by taking on the challenge offered by Joel Comm and his group of entrepreneurs in the "The Next Internet Millionaire". JoinJoel Comm, Christine andthe other contestants this Thursday, August 15th, when they make groundbreaking internet history when "The Next Internet Millionaire" debuts.

Click here to get to the "The Next Internet Millionaire":

http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=640861

Click here to check out Path Partners:

www.pathpartners.com/

Searching for the Elegance of a Woman

I recently spoke to a literary agent about the premise of a book I am writing called “The Elegance of a Woman”. The beginning of the conversation went very well as she heartily agreed with my premise, the target audience and the subject that I would dealing with throughout my book. It was when she asked me what the proposed title of my book would be and I told her. The phone went quiet for several moments and for the first time during our conversation her tone went very serious as she stated “I’m sorry but I don’t think elegance will sell.” I was dumbfounded. “What do you mean you don’t think elegance will sell?” She paused for a moment and then launched off telling me that elegance would probably only sell in the south, which is where I am from and that the rest of women in the country don’t really give a d*mn about elegance. I asked her how this could be true when there are so many books out now about women like Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn and Jackie O. She dismissed this by saying that it is just our countries interest in nostalgia. I pushed her further by saying, “What about all the fashion designers that are pulling designs from the closets of these very same women?” She asked me what designers I was talking about. I quickly fired back Isaac Mizrahi, Halston, Channel, Vera Wang, Tommy Hilfiger and others. “Oh, well, they aren’t designing to create elegance…they are recreating classics,” she countered back. I agreed that indeed these designers were bringing back classic designs, but what was the one element that made these women and these designs “classic”…it was their elegance that they represent. I also pointed out to her that nostalgia is the bringing back the best and what was good about a certain era and isn’t the elegance of an era a consistent element that is celebrated? Ignoring my comments she then launched in to a repertoire of her experience in the publishing world, stating that she has her finger on the pulse of what will sell and what will not…”Elegance will NOT sell to the general public at large! You need to change your title and approach with regaining women’s elegance. Women won’t buy it!” I quickly thanked her for her advice telling her I would get in touch when I had made the adjustments as she had suggested. CLICK!

I sat in my office following this phone call completely dumbfounded, defeated and questioning what I thought to be a new and innovative approach to what women are missing or have lost in their lives today. I had spent hours researching and reading every book on the market dealing with second adulthood, baby-boomers, midlife transition/midlife crisis, women’s interests and issues…I could not find anything dealing with this idea. Then I thought….”Hey…wait a minute…this woman assumed that I was raised in the south…she thinks that because of this fact I totally embrace this idea because of the southern elegance that has been ingrained in me…that is taught and encouraged from birth here in south.” Well, little did this woman know, I was born and raised in up-state New York, influenced by a “Yankee” and immigrant history… I am married to a Midwestern man with Midwestern ideals, lived on the west coast, Midwest and Canada. I have lived in many different cultures including Japan and Europe and have friends that are natives of South America and the Middle East. One river that runs deep and silent under each of these cultures is the elegance of their women…it is not their classic nature or nostalgia. At that very moment, I decided that it would be my quest to bring elegance back to the women of America, if not the world….a big task…maybe I am biting off more than I can chew…but I was not going to let this literary agent tell me what all my research and what my own heart and gut was telling me to be true.

So, I ask you, as women who are fabulously forty and beyond, what are the elements of an elegant woman do you embrace or believe you have lost? Are you ready to explore this with me? Let’s do it together…let’s prove to the world that the women of today are as elegant as the women that have preceded us…elegance DOES sell!