Tag Archive for: Paula Rizzo

Make These Two Lists Everyday to Boost Productivity

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Do you ever sit down to write your daily to do’s and the list just goes on and on? It can be really discouraging. But, just because your list seems never ending, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible to finish all your tasks that day.

Ruth Carter, a lawyer I met in a virtual mastermind group for entrepreneurs called ShankMinds, was having just this problem.  So I suggested a creative solution to this problem.  I told her to make two list per day.  A before lunch list and an after lunch list.  

Now each morning she divides her page in two and splits her to do lists into things to do in the morning and things to do in the afternoon. She wrote about how much it helped her here. It may seem simple, but splitting your list into two can make your day seem much more manageable. Read more

The Secret to Getting on TV

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“How do I get on TV?” It’s probably the question I’ve been asked most often in my career.

If you’re new to this blog — shoutout to all my new followers in China, Japan and the Netherlands now that my book has been published there — I’m thrilled to welcome you.  The new readers may not realize that not only am I an author and productivity expert but I’m also a television news producer. That’s my “day job,” and I’ve been doing it for more than 15 years.

I put my producer hat on at the BlogHer16 conference in Los Angeles as a featured speaker this past week.  I was alongside my close friend and colleague Terri Trespicio.  We talked to bloggers in all categories: health, wellness, politics, food, money, etc., about how to take their message and pitch it to the media. We talked about how to become a go-to expert and what really stands out in the eyes of producers and editors.

That’s how Terri and I met after all. I booked her for a TV segment when she was a senior editor for Martha Stewart’s Whole Living Magazine. And years later when I started this blog – I pitched her a related idea it in the magazine. Fun, right?

Since Terri — as a former magazine editor, radio host and now a branding strategist and media coach — gets the same question about being on TV as I do — we’ve decided to team up.

We’re going to release a 4-week online course this September about how to get and keep media attention.

It’s called Lights Camera Expert! It’s designed for entrepreneurs, authors and experts of all kinds. We will be teaching you how to crack the media code, craft the perfect pitch and crush it on air — click here to join our list to be the first to hear all about it.

As a thank you we’ll send you our free ebook called, “5 Things You Should Never Say to a Producer.” We had a lot of fun putting it together.

We are so thrilled to teach something so near and dear to our hearts and help bloggers, authors, entrepreneurs and business owners boost their brand in the media.

I’d love to keep you posted on my newest endeavor Lights Camera Expert — check it out here and please tell anyone you think might be interested as well.  Appreciate your support!

Come Visit Me In LA

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Since the first time I attended a BlogHer conference in 2012 I always wanted to be a speaker there. And now I’m getting to do it! I know many of my West Coast blog readers often feel left out as most of my events happen here on the East Coast. However I’ll be making my way over to you August 4th-6th for BlogHer16.

I’ll be there with my television producer hat on filling BlogHer attendees in on how to get and keep media attention. Something that is so important to bring eyeballs, credibility and clients to your business. I’ve booked thousands of guests and know who will make the cut and who won’t. I’m excited to share what I know.  Plus I’ve been on the other side as a guest when I promoted my book Listful Thinking.

I’m going with my friend and colleague Terri Trespicio. We’ll be speaking together on a panel called Crafting Your Pitch and Cracking the Media Code. Terri used to be a senior editor for Martha Stewart so she handles the print side of the discussion.

We’re asked to talk about this topic so often we’re even creating an online course together called Lights Camera Expert.  It’s aimed at teaching authors, experts and entrepreneurs how to get and keep media attention. I’ll tell you more about that next week.

If you’re in LA and are interested in meeting content creators, social media stars, entrepreneurs, top brands and activists, you should come by and say hello. If you sign up through my link I can get you a 30% discount on tickets! Just enter my code SPEAKERFF30 at the checkout.

See you in LA!

Best Free Resources for Life Long Learning

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For the first 18 years of our life we are focused solely on learning. Kids these days are learning every day by going to school, and still learning when they go home and watch cool songs with a learning theme. We study, make flash cards and brainstorm new ideas. For some of us this learning goes on well into our twenties with college. But once we leave university, most of us move on from learning into the workplace and never really go back.

I loved learning when I was a kid and I always make it a point to learn something new whenever I can. As a journalist I’m naturally curious and one of my favorite parts of my job is that I get to become an expert in many different subjects even if just for a day.

Just because you’ve left school doesn’t mean you have to give up on life-long learning. In fact, many of the long-term bucket lists that I see include learning a language or new skill. But these long term goals tend to get overlooked because they can be quite costly or because people don’t think they have the time to achieve them. Read more

A Trick to Make Traveling So Much Simpler

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Jay and I at the Colosseum.

I’m feeling refreshed and reinvigorated after returning from Italy and Switzerland last week with Jay and a few of our friends. Jay and I went to Rome on our own — taking a tour inside the Colosseum and the Roman Forum plus having our favorite pizza in the world at Baffetto.

We also ate our way through through the Testaccio neighborhood. If you go to Rome definitely take a food tour with Eating Italy Tours — it was a highlight. And I’ve recently had to follow a gluten free diet as a complication of my appendix rupture and they were so sweet and accommodating about it! Don’t worry if you go somewhere like Tuscany instead of Rome, they still have Tuscany Tours that show off all the food that Italy has to offer. You won’t miss out on the amazing food of Italy!

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Eating my favorite pizza at Baffetto.

Then we were off for Geneva to meet up with our traveling friends Peter & Nicole and Nancy. We hopped in an SUV and drove an hour to Montreaux for the 50th annual Jazz Festival there.

The jazz festival was lots of fun with wonderful gourmet food, wine and lots of cool music. The town of Montreaux itself is really adorable with lots of shops and restaurants. Plus it’s right on a lake so the views are amazing. A note if you’re ever in Switzerland – it’s super expensive. Think 35 dollar cheeseburgers and 15 glasses of wine (and the pours are miniscule.)

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In the adorable town of Montreaux, Switzerland.

Off to Lake Como from there with a 4 hour drive through the Swiss Alps. Such a cool experience to drive through nearly untouched mountainsides. We saw snow capped mountains and lots of animals on our twisty travel. Those roads are all over the place and obviously very high up. It was a bit unnerving at times but we made it through with good music and snacks!

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The beautiful Lake Como!

We stayed in a small town called Varenna and absolutely loved it. It was so charming and picturesque. We were in love. We stayed at a villa called Casa Stacy and I highly recommend it. Not only did Stacy make sure we had everything we needed but she also hooked us up with some fun excursions. We went on a boat tour of the entire lake and had a private wine tasting that was amazing.

On a boat with our friends Peter and Nicole

On a boat with our friends Peter and Nicole.

Then it was off to finish the trip in Milan where we got a full tour of the city and got to see The Last Supper thanks to Milan Day Tours. It’s so interesting to see ancient art up close. When I saw the Mona Lisa I was a bit underwhelmed because it’s so tiny. Not like you’d expect. But this piece by Leonardo di vinci is huge. It takes up an entire wall and I thought it was in very good shape. We learned all about the restoration and history. I’m glad we did that tour.

My vacation was full of amazing food.

My vacation was full of amazing food.

Trick to Make Air Travel More Bearable

Our travels throughout Italy and Switzerland went off without a hitch. Air travel is usually the biggest headache for me when I’m on vacation. But here’s the trick I promised — get Global Entry. It’s amazing how much time you save.

Global Entry gives you several benefits for 5 years and a $100 price tag. First you are eligible for TSA Precheck within the United States. That means you get to basically skip the line at security, keep your laptop in it’s bad and forego taking off your shoes and sweaters.

Then when you travel internationally there’s another perk – you get VIP treatment when you return home and go through customs.

We just had to scan our passports and fingerprints. We got a printed pass and brought it to the customs officer. It took us about 7 minutes to do this. So from the time we landed to the time we were in a taxi at JFK heading home — just 37 minutes went by. That is a far cry from the usual experience we have when coming home internationally.

Other than the cost — the other catch is that you have to go for an in person interview to get access to Global Entry. It’s a pain to carve out the time in your calendar – I totally get that. But I have to tell you – not having to wait in line and prolong an already long trip was key for me. I’ve been trying to mitigate stress in my life and this is definitely one way to do it while traveling.
If you go for Global Entry let me know how your experience is. I’m giving mine two thumbs up!