Business Consultant and Coach (Linked In Profile)

Tiffany Bass Bukow is a serial technology entrepreneur who founded a business accelerator in Florianopolis, Brazil that provides mentoring, support and early seed money to promising high growth technology startups.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

ASTIA: Since 2000, served for 12 years on the Advisory Board of a Business Accelerator where I help devise their business growth strategies and hone their offerings for entrepreneurs who have raised over $1B in funding. Participate as a venture conference panelist, business plan screener, pitch evaluator, and mentor to dozens of Astia entrepreneurs.

BOLSA CHEIA: In 2010, co-founded Brazilian personal finance company that was chosen as one of the most promising socially conscious for-profit business ventures in the world by the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards, McKinsey Consulting and Insead Business School. 

HEALTH SERVICES COMPANY: In 2007, created and self-funded a global company that matches professional health services with clients who have unique needs. Due to the innovative implementation of SAS cloud technology to manage operations, achieved profitability after 2 years and continue to grow steadily with a virtual staff of 10 and paying clients from 11 countries. 

THRIVE MEDIA: In 2004, founded and self-funded a socially conscious life affirming TV and radio media company and sold it to Viacom in 2007.

WELLS FARGO: In 2001, closed a million dollar web services consulting deal with one of the biggest banks in the world. Hired and managed a staff of 20 to complete the project on time and budget.

MSMONEY.COM: In 1999, raised $2.5M in venture money, made $1M in first year of operation and educated over 10 million people in 10 years. First Lady Hillary Clinton appeared at MsMoney's launch live on TV.

TIFF.COM: In 1996, started one of the first website development companies that grew from 1 person to 20 in the first year of business after securing contracts with Fortune 100 companies (AOL, Xerox, Sun, Microsoft, Bechtel).

Specialties

Venture capital, angel investing, seed capital, business accelerators, business incubators, mentoring women, women in business, women entrepreneurs, business coaching, management consulting, social entrepreneur, social media, marketing, technology, personal finance, financial services, public speaking, business writing, digital media, email marketing, social media, website design and development.

The Quest for Perfection

This article offers an amazing insight into women's quest for perfection. After watching Jane Fonda on Oprah say it took her nearly 65 years to figure out she was "good enough", I think it is imperative that we learn this lesson a little earlier!


CNN Article:
The quest for perfection is exhausting and unrelenting, but as hard as we try, we can't turn off the tapes that fill our heads with messages like "Never good enough" and "What will people think?"


http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/11/01/give.up.perfection/index.html?hpt=C2


Read it!


And remember ... you are good enough just the way you are. 

Planning for the Life You Want

Are you living the life you want - the life you dreamed of?

If not, what is holding you back? 

Most people tell me that their financial resources are holding them back. Women especially feel that a life full of splendor and magnificence is only for the Rich and Famous and that they must have an abundance of money to be happy. Too often then settle for the stifled and mundane instead and figure that is their lot in life. They don’t realize that real abundance comes from peace, joy and freedom and NOT from money. It is the Freedom to do the things you want to do because of your wise financial life planning.

I would guess that everyone at some time has settled for less, when in our hearts we probably knew we could have had so much more. However, we were just too tired of trying or maybe too afraid we would fail to go after what we truly wanted. We let our negativity win. And that is our enormous soul-depleting loss.

In the past, typically out of laziness and not feeling up for a taxing negotiation, I would let my husband make many of the important decisions, such as what the next family vacation was. With only a few weeks off a year, this time away can set the tone of our family life for a long time. By letting go of what I wanted, I ended up with something I absolutely did not want, such as spending 10 years staying with my in-laws at their tiny house in Miami for our vacation (typically for 2-3 weeks at a time). I know, for most of you, I need say no more why this isn't my dream vacation. Yes, we saved a lot of money avoiding hotel costs, though the financial saving benefits were not enough for me to justify it. We could have spent the same amount of money and did something that added a lot less stress and bonded us together as a family.

At the start of this year, I decided I was going to stop settling and absolutely going to get what I WANTED out of life and not just for the little things, such as the family vacation, but also the big things, such as creating a new company and moving to Brazil. My husband is learning to adapt to my new style even though it means he gets less of what he wants. I figure since he spent the last 14 years as captain of the family, it is now my turn to get off the sidelines and dive in for some fun game play and glory.

So far my efforts are paying off! I started a new company with my cousin Thereza this year and it was chosen as a finalist by the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards. Out of 600 global applications, we were one of fifteen companies selected. So now, I am off to Paris for a nearly all expense paid 10 days at one of the nicest hotels in the world so our company Bolsa Cheia can be honored! Now that is a lot closer to my dream vacation than 2 weeks at the in-laws!

In just a few months, once I changed my thinking about how I was going to live my life, everything started to magically line up. I set a vision to have a magnificent vacation and move our family to Brazil. I didn’t let my lack of financial resources hold me back from having these thoughts even though the exact details of how my plan was to be carried out weren’t clear. I just focused on what I LOVE TO DO and what I do well, which is to apply my entrepreneurial skills and fearlessness to create new business opportunities.

As a result, I ended up getting exactly what I wanted in a round-about way. I didn’t create a new company just to get my dream vacation, it just worked out that way. I didn't create a company just so I could move to Brazil, though it appears that is what will happen.

The wonderful point of this story is that YOU can do this too. There is no secret to my success. Create a plan for the life you want and commit to it. Not the life your friends, family or co-workers want for you, but the life YOU want - the  LIFE that gets you jumping out of bed every morning eager to begin. Then be sure to solidly hold that vision in your head. Perhaps you might want to even create a vision board and post it on your wall to help remind you of your goals every day. Then summon the creative genius that is lying within all of us waiting for its wake-up call to help you achieve your goals.

Though I didn't do a vision board for my vacation specifically, I have done something similar in the past. When I was 16 years old, I had a picture of a convertible RX7 in my locker in school and then moved it with my to my college wall for 4 years. When I moved to San Francisco 7 years later, I bought my dream car! Though the exclusive car seemed impossibly out of my budget at the time, I never gave up hope.  It took me 7 years and an unexpected windfall of money to achieve my goal, but I did it.

The same thing happened when I was looking for an apartment. I stood at the corner of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco and stared a row of flats and said to my girlfriend, "This is where I want to live!" It was NOT close to our price range. Though, 5 years later, I moved into that exact row of Flats I was looking at. Due to the good fortune of rent control when my boyfriend (now my husband) had inherited when he rented the place, we were able to move in at about 2/3rds off the average rental price. Did I let my lack of financial resources hold me back from dreaming of the life I wanted? No, I didn't. Did I actually need abundant money to move in there? No, because of the special situation with rent control.

Amazing things can happen to you the same way if you just open your heat and mind and allow yourself to dream BIG!

I have dozens more stories just like those above that I will share throughout the year. So stay tuned!

Does Your Advice Come From TV?

Are you an ardent watcher of Oprah and her cadre of experts such as Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, Suze Orman and Jean Chatzky? Or is television the last place you would turn to advice? Along with many of my friends, you might not even own a TV, let alone trust it for advice.

I have gone through life-coaching training and the advice from life-coaching experts is NOT to give "advice" in the classical sense. Instead you should steer people in the direction of resources and finding and trusting their own inner wisdom that holds the personal solutions they need. So when I watch "in your face" advice TV that comes so boldly out of Dr. Phil when giving relationship financial advice, or Suze's mouth during her fiscal fitness sessions, my body instinctively cringes. Yet, it is exactly this type of personalities that thrive in TV ratings. Why?

When I was recruited to go to London to host a TV pilot called Live Your Life at Half the Price potentially for BBC, I jumped at the chance. After 10 days of filming, I had a new perspective of TV production "British Style" (think British Tabloids). They didn't really want my personality as is, they wanted me to channel the same type of energy that Suze Orman has and call the subjects naughty (with their money) and they need to get their act together, or else! They wanted a sassy American to come in and shape up their citizens spending and debt habits.

Later on in my career, I was called in to shoot a TV pilot for CNBC for your average investor called Main Street Money. I had a blast with my co-host Mr. Money: aka Mark Rothstein, however, CNBC also wanted me to be someone I really wasn't, with over-the-top Mad Money Jim Kramer-esq antics. I did the best I could making comments and asking pressing money questions to guests such as Mint Founder Aaron Patzer (who I initially thought was a handsome soap opera star on the set to film his next All My Children episode - how funny he was my guest and probably thought I was Mad Money's daughter with my crazy hosting approach.)

In both cases, these shows taught me an important lesson, which was to honor who I really am. If "in-your-face" advice and commentary that appeals to the least common denominator is not my style, then I shouldn't do it. We women need to honor and follow our true calling in life, which will lead us on the shorter path to success. So as an alternative, I created a TV network called Thrive Media  and steered clear of "their" way. My way landed me a nice big fat paycheck in the bank. After I sold Thrive Media to Viacom, Disney launched a similar network (Live Well ) and now Oprah is about to launch her network OWN, which I am eager to tune in.

You might be wondering if I get my own advice from TV. I would say no, though I do glean a lot of valuable information from TV, especially Oprah. I file and store it away in my brain and circle back to tune into my own inner wisdom channel for personalized solutions only it can provide.

So if TV isn't your thing, keep in mind Ms.Money has nearly a thousand terrific articles on personal finance education at MsMoney.com.

I hope you click on over.
Tiffany

A Feminine Manifesta

A Feminine Manifesta
All HAIL to the Goddesses Lily and Karen who have created this spectacular book. Though it is diminiutive in size, it is packed with the knowledge women so desperately need to create more happiness and success in their lives.

Watch the YouTube Video to see a glimse of their sparkling personalities. Though nothing can capture the pure essence of actually spending an afternoon with them. I had the luxury of taking a relaxing lunch talking about how we were on the same path of helping make the world a better place for all Goddesses. Ok, we included some chatting about our men too.

My husband happened to call literally one minute after I was raving about his remarkable balance between the Yang (masculine) and Yin (female) energies that balance all lives. Though he isn't perfect by any means (like the rest of us mortals), he does have a good grasp of many things the book talks about in relationship to men.

The afternoon was full of endless giggles. So much so that I am sure the entire restaurant turned around when I laughed out SO LOUD (that you could have heard me from across the street)when Lily and Karen said they videotaped their entire adventure On the Road to No-Oprah (for her open casting calls in L.A. for her new network). Their on the road to no-where adventure did go no-where particular (besides pure fun) since it didn't lead to a spot on OWN. Which, by the way, I can't wait to see!! And I am wondering where is the Ms.Money show? Isn't Suze about to retire and they need some new young blood?

We had a couple synchronistic moments during our sharing that only a true believer of a magical Universe that aligns up for your wishes could fathom. What is this you are saying Ms.Money? You are talking about the Universe, magic and goddesses? Uh - yes. Well, I am writing this after a nice glass of Shiraz with dinner.

How else do you think I was able to get the First Lady (Hillary at the time), to show up in my office for my company launch if I didn't believe in some sort of divine intervention along the way. When you conceive, and believe, you can achieve - as long as you continue to utilize all your resources and best efforts to make your goals happen in multiple creative ways.

What makes the book especially poignant for me are the segments on how women too often view other women (even their best friends!) as adversaries rather than allies. I could never be where I was today if I thought that was true. During some of my darkest moments where I had trouble believing in myself, it wasn't the men in my life that raised me up, it was the thoughts of my dearest soul sisters and their unfailing love for me that gave me the inspiration to keep going. And though I grew up without sisters, I have filled my life with so many now that I feel empowered enough to actually think that I can make a difference and make the world a better place. After educating 5 million women in the world about money, I certainly have my girl friends to thank and should maybe give myself a little pat on my back for even allowing their love into my life (which apparently for us business orientated women can be quite a challenge).

Ladies, I can not recommend enough that you read this book A Feminine Manifesta and learn what holds you back from living your best life so that you can fine tune your actions and draw in a spectacular new future so full of promise that even you will be awed.

Are You Being Overcharged Too?

Nothing irks me more than knowing I am being overcharged, whether purposely or accidentally. Except for finding out about the mistake too late to fix. We all know that life gets busy and we let things slip through the cracks. One of those things should NOT be reviewing your credit card statements monthly. Or if you are the more diligent type, you might want to do it weekly just to make sure things are in order.

In the past my husband and I both make the mistake of letting this important review task go for a few months and he lost $800 because a surf shop in Brazil charged us twice for the same surf board. I was charged over $500 by Globat for domain name services I told them I didn't want on the phone with their President. In both cases, our credit card company would not resolve the issue, nor would the company.

You think the credit card company is on your side, but actually they aren't. You have to go to extreme lengths, which might be more time than it is worth to have something resolved. I tried to get Mastercard to refund a $500 airplane ticket that I had cancelled on the phone with American and their phone service rep must have forgot to do it. I explained several times to Mastercard that I had made the call, but they sided with American Airlines. The funny thing is that I had re-booked and paid for a new flight as a result of cancelling that first one and they still didn't consider that evidence enough that I cancelled the flight. I probably could have wrote half a dozen more letters and made more phone calls until I pestered them so much that they reversed the charge, however, my time was more valuable at that time in life.

The reason I am writing this blog today isn't about the big ticket items above, it is about the small items. I have to ask myself, if you are only overcharged $1 for something, is it worth waiting 10 extra minutes for customer service to refund you? And if it isn't a $1, then is it $3? What amount of money are you willing to forgo to allow yourself to relax, kick back, ignore the monitor and the check out stand, and fully trust your cashier?

I was at the local grocery store today where it is one of the few places that sell raw milk since Whole Foods discontinued selling it. At this store, I was a little more conscientious than usual shopping since I know it costs 25% more for food there than at Whole Foods, which is already 25% more than your average grocery store. So when I was at the checkout stand and my tiny organic cauliflower rang up at $3.99, I figured that was high. I decided to double check the price on the way out and it was indeed what I thought: $2.99. I made the decision to tell the cashier to refund the difference. However, this seemed like such a big surprise to her that she didn't know what to do. They had to do price check and then I had to wait for her to finish 2 people ringing up their carts, and then she processed my $1. 10 minutes lost. I think 10 minutes of my time is worth more than a $1.

So if you want to avoid waiting for a refund (and wasting that 10 minutes), you might keep a watchful eye on the monitor as you are being rung up; whether it is Target (which is notorious for overcharging), Macy, or your local grocery store. Mistakes happen all too often, and whether you are just catching $1, $10, or even more, every little bit helps as you save for your financial plan so you can live the life you plan.

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I had to add one more comment a few days after the original post because I just noticed on my bank statement that is charged me the same $25 monthly charge twice. I wrote a note to them asking why and they refunded the double charge. So strange! At least I caught it this time.

Nagging Inner Critic

At the Pachamama luncheon yesterday I met a life and business coach, Francois Levannier, that was truly inspiring.

Francois himself is an exception role model for people who feel they may be held back from reaching their dreams because of a lack of financial resources. Francois didn't that let money (or the lack of it) stop him from his dream of a life of travel. He toured the world, not for 1 year, or even 2 - it was 7 years! Way to go Francois!

I noticed in his blog he makes reference to pop culture and music as a way to bring more light into your lives through self reflection. I often do this too! His blog post on the success of Susan Boyle struck in inner chord within me. No matter how many times I have succeeded in the past, I still have this nagging inner critic that often questions what I am doing!

Here is a snippet from Francois blog below. Read the entire blog here:
http://loveyourlifeandbusiness.blogspot.com/

His website: www.loveyourlifeandbusiness.com/

Why does Susan Boyle touch us so deeply?

The truth is that we all have a bit of Susan Boyle in us. And this is a story about the triumph of our supreme gifts and talents over our nagging inner critic, imagined weaknesses, and perceived insufficiencies.

It is a story about the triumph of Love over Fear.

Characterized in an older language, it is the mythical triumph of Good over Evil.
Being a witness to that triumph fills us with hope and restores our faith.

Susan Boyle is a reflection of the disowned parts of ourselves that aren’t as glamorous and as easy to look at as our shadows or insufficiencies. We’d rather look away to find something shinier outside of ourselves. Yet, when we look at those parts free of judgment and give them a chance to be seen for what they truly are, they reveal surprising gifts and unleash their tremendous potential of Love, Compassion, and Understanding.

As a matter of fact, if you look at ANYTHING in the world with curiosity and without judgment, you will see only Love.