Overview of Carol James, Entrepreneur, Author, Speaker, Workshop Facilitator and Consultant

InspiredLiving.com has been my life’s work and passion since 1996. The site began as a place for me to share articles I wrote about dealing more effectively with stress, living a dream career and being healthier. I had been exploring those topics since 1981, the year I began my own journey to a healthier, happier, more inspired life.

My website grew as I grew. I continued to write new articles and carefully hand-picked articles by other people as the topics expanded to include nutrition, holistic wellness, air purification, water purification, how to neutralize wireless electrosmog, environmental stewardship and other health and wellness topics.

I also hand-picked all the products I wanted to carry. My intention was to build a place where people could find answers, be inspired, de-stress, laugh, think, search for products, sign up for one of three newsletters and more.

Writing and teaching has always been a part of my career, beginning with my first sales job back in the early 70’s when I was selling real estate loans. As the new kid on the block, I was given all the impossible loans, the ones no one else could get funded. Of course, in my hands, anything was possible and I was able to get them funded. I realized that the agents didn’t really know how to put together good deals, so I developed and facilitated a little workshop to help them qualify buyers better. I ended up as the top sales person during my first year.

The next opportunity to develop a training program came when I was selling accounting and medical billing systems. I created a mini accounting course to teach the bookkeepers the basics of accounting, and then taught them how to use the software to computerize the business. I also developed a practice-building workshop to teach them how to attract more customers. I figured that the better they did, the better I would do.

Another opportunity turned up right after I launched my first software and consulting business when I attended a one-day dealer program for a product I carried. The day was worthless to me, so I put together what I thought the training program should be – four days that covered technical support, customer training and support, advertising and marketing and product presentation and sales – and presented my plan to the owner. I spent the next year and a half traveling to a different state every month to facilitate my program and to consult with computer dealerships to implement the training into their business. I even invited one dealer at each class to bring in a “live” prospect who wanted a presentation, and I did the presentation in front of the class, requiring complete silence from the class during the presentation, then we discussed it afterwards. The software company’s sales went from a mere 10 per month to over 100 per month by the end of the first year.

I decided to add a computer dealership to my business, which grew to include nine employees. That was the beginning of the end for me, though, because we were all software people, not hardware people. In the early eighties, even before IBM came out with the PC, I was selling multi-user computers systems, and eventually networked systems. Unfortunately, nothing was compatible, nothing worked easily, equipment failures were common and knowledgeable techs were far and few between.

That was the worst stress I had ever experienced in my life.

For the sake of my health, I decided to close the computer dealership, and was able to get nearly all my employees hired with customers. Another writing opportunity appeared just a few days after I closed my doors: the company for which I had developed the dealer training program was developing a new, full-featured accounting software program and hired me to write the technical and application manual. I ended up testing all the modules, too.

The big earthquake in San Francisco happened shortly after I finished the project (I lived in the Bay Area at that time), and I was faced with the question: what next?

Good question. What next, indeed?

So I started to look at the want ads to see what type of work businesses needed done – a great way to find projects – and was intrigued to discover a training administration software program. Upon further research, I found a skills management software program that included job profiling, skills assessment and development, career development and training administration software. I knew that was my next path.

I gained many new skills with this business, facilitating group sessions to define job requirements, which I would then use to write job descriptions that included tasks, skills, knowledge and training. I would consult with the managers, human resources and training departments about customization and implementation, then train employees and managers. It was a perfect business working out of my home in the beautiful Flagstaff Arizona mountains, traveling to various US states and abroad for short on-site work, and writing job descriptions from the comfort of home.

Because I was able to have long blocks of time off, I indulged in activities that helped me to better understand how life happens – how do I get the experiences I get, and, more importantly, how can I have more experiences that feel good and less that feel bad. That was a continuation and expansion of the health trek I began in 1981 in seeking a life in which I could do what I love and love what I do, exude robust, youthful energy, flow easily in life and explore who I could be and wanted to be.

From that period in my life the spark that became InspiredLiving.com was birthed and I decided to build a website, even though I had never been on the Internet before. But that was nothing new to me; my first job setting up a computer dealership for an office supply company was my first experience on a computer.

And so I bought FrontPage web page builder software and began building InspiredLiving.com, which has grown to over 900 pages filled with all the great products I found and use and inspirational and motivational articles, fun energy-shifting pages and educational ones. I also maintain a blog – www.inspiredliving-blog.com.

During that time I also began developing workshops for different markets:

• Restarting Your Career for the Institute for Future Work Force Development
• Enhancing Your Effectiveness As a Manager for Bank of America.
• Grace Under Fire: Balancing Security and Client Relations, An Interpersonal Skills Workshop for Security Officers for Sony Studios

My favorites were the life-skill workshops, such as, Communicating More Effectively, Making Better Decisions, Achieving Goals the Easy Way and Using Stress Wisely. Workshop Resume

I just celebrated InspiredLiving.com’s 20th anniversary, and as the business focus has refined over the years, I am now entering the next phase of my life and business, a phase I have probably been preparing for my entire life and career.

In this next phase that has already beginning, I’m returning to speaking, teaching and mentoring to help people to become healthier and to live with more passion, vitality and kindness in every aspect of their lives: body, mind, spirit, profession, environment and lifestyle. I’ve launched a new business for this endeavor, SandBlasting Reality®  

My first workshop offering is Up Your Odds of Business Success.

Stay tuned. More to come.

Carol

My Passion

InspiredLiving.com and everything it stands for is my passion. I designed the web site to help people embody their highest vision of themselves. To date, there are over 800 pages of health and wellness promoting products and resources.

I’ve set out to pull together those things in life that support wellness at the highest level in all areas of our lives:

• Our environment – the air we breath and the water we drink, cook and bathe in.
• Our nutrition – the food we eat.
• Our health – the vitality our body experiences.
• Our livelihood – the work we do that brings us joy.
• Our thoughts – the attitudes we have, the choices we make and the thoughts we think.
• Our friends – the people we know and the friends we keep.
• Our spirit – the love we give and the good we do.

Background Summary

The philosophical approach of my work evolved from my personal and professional experiences, including:

• Thirty years as a small business owner.
• Over 25 years consulting with business owners.
• Fifteen years of career, lifestyle re-patterning and stress reduction coaching.
• Over 30 years of my ongoing research, studies and direct experiences exploring emotional intelligence, human potential, personal effectiveness and stress management.

Philosophical Approach

My work is inspired by a philosophical approach that brings a spiritual, whole-living, balanced approach to work and living that is based on:

• Self-awareness.
• Self-inquiry and reflection.
• Mindfulness.
• Self-responsibility.
• Compassion.
• Mutual respect.
• Recognition and acceptance of our differing values and concerns.
• Freedom of expression.
• Taking action from a point of inspiration.
• Doing more of what we love.
• Expressing our full human potential.
• Living and enjoying life to the fullest.
• Becoming and having all that we dream of becoming and having.

FREE Monthly Newsletters

We publish four FREE monthly newsletters. To subscribe to any or all newsletters, click here: Subscribe to Newsletters

• Inspired Lifestyles News – Inspiring, motivating and empowering quotes, stories and articles
• Healthy Lifestyles News – Articles, resources and products for living a healthier, more vibrant life
• Inspired Biz News – Articles, stories and resources for a more spiritual, whole-living work environment
• InspiredLiving.com News & Sale Announcements – Sales events, new products and specials