September Happenings In Williams, Arizona!                                               Williams-Grand Canyon Chamber of Commerce monthly board meeting will be Friday, September 17th from 11am to 1pm @ Williams High School Viking Grill. Board meetings are open to the public. For more information contact Jan Shirley at 928.635.0273 Ext. 203 The Williams Chamber of Commerce Ambassador Mixer is set for Friday, September 17th from 5pm to 7pm @ Wild West Junction.  hosted by Wild West Junction and Williams Habitat for Humanity. The 50/50 Benefit will go to Habitat for Humanity.  Mixers are open to the public. Mexican Independence Day- Saturday, September 18th. This cultural festival including vendors, food, dancers and games will be held at Cure... 09/16/2010

International Intrigue!  Do spy novels peak your interest!  How wild is your imagination? Father Serafim Gascoigne Author of "The Landing Place"  will be a guest on CarraRileyLive  9-9-10 at 2 p.m. PDT in Williams, Arizona.  Reverend Serafim Gascoigne was born in London in 1944 and has lived in the USA for fourteen years and currently in California. He served as a Russian linguist in the British Army in Berlin during the 'Cold War' and also worked as a German interpreter. In Berlin he came across first hand experiences of Russians who had lived in Siberia, committing their stories to memory to be used later for his own writing. After leaving the army he taught in London and rural parts of England, and was a pioneer in computer education in the 1980s. During this time he published educat... 09/03/2010

Personal Responsibility DISCLAIMER.. this is NOT a political party post! This is about our personal responsibility as an American Citizen, to exercise the right to vote!                                     We have it, do we use it? The Declaration of Independence includes POWERFUL words! "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, layi... 08/30/2010

Join The Crowd! part 5 of 5 Cosmic Shift Happens™                                           A picture tells a thousand words.  Have you ever felt like someone is messing with your head?  As the Cosmic Shift Happens™ you will soon learn that if you think someone is playing with your head, they very well might be. The fear of the "head games" keeps many people from actively participating in online venues. Joeann Fossland. a national speaker along with being a Master Certified Coach and I have joined forces to create an e-book to help people be able to navigate the Cosmic Shift™ and feel good about engaging online.  We would like to invite you to JOIN THE CROWD in a world wide collaboration of online citizens to create a "crowdsourced" e-book.  Our vision is to make it easy for people to p... 08/22/2010

Cosmic Shift Happens™ part 4 of 5  Digital Tools Cosmic Shift Happens™ part 3 of 5  Get in the Game!                         Cosmic Shift Happens™ part 2 of 5  Are You A Digital Citizen? Cosmic Shift Happnes™ part 1 of 5  Cosmic Shift Happens Where is the consumer going for their information on a listing? When a consumer drives by the home today they may see the sign and they may not. What the consumer sees depends on how they process information.  A digital citizen just sees a notification that a home is for sale so points their phone at the house and instantly gets information. They don't call you, the listing agent, they call their digital agent if they want to see it because they have all the information in less than 30 seconds in front of the house. For sale sign.. do you see it?  ... 08/18/2010

Information overload! Some days the cosmic cow pie of life just gets overwhelming with "things to do." Connecting the dots just don't get done as fast as they should. Reading e-mail is no longer fun... or is it just me?  The most irritating part of reading the e-mail are the "forwards" from some people who are still living in last century communication spheres!  How many times have I gotten the same forward? delete, delete, delete, delete. Having received so many warnings on things that can harm me I am now prepared..... we all should have major behavior modification with all the information we have received from our e-mail inbox!  A big thank you to my facebook friend 500 "TEA" (fun story) for sending me a compressive summary of all the things I should know now! Thanks "Tea" this ones ... 08/16/2010

Car Collector Dream Day in Williams, Arizona 2010 Cool Country Cruise In It was a beautiful weekend for a cruise on Rt. 66 and the collector cars were here from all over the country! This delightful event was a great place to meet other collectors, get out of the heat and relax! The Miss Rt. 66 pageant was held today and April Z was crowned Miss Rt. 66. The Cool Country Cruise information was provided by the Williams Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the Miss Rt. 66 pageant. Registration was located on the far east end of Rt. 66 at Twisters 50's Soda Fountain and Route 66 Place 417 E. Route 66. The Miss Rt. 66 pageant was held at the Christmas Shop across the street.   36 Trophies were awarded in the following categories. Twisters Choice Best of ShowBest Rat Rod (NEW THIS YEAR!) B... 08/14/2010

How Influencial Are You?  Have you ever asked that question?  You are connected to people on linkedin, friends with people on facebook and have followers on twitter but HOW influencial are you really? Do you want to know if what you post on social media is having an effect on anyone?  Fast Company Magazine has created a project to find out just how influencial you are and it is easy!  Click on the link below... register and start sending out your own url to see just how connected you are!  (pssst there is a great reason to click.. you will have your picture in the November issues of the Fast Company magazine) Click Here Need to know more....the information below is directly from the site: "ABOUT THE PROJECT We started with a simple question: Who are the most influential people online ri... 08/13/2010

My House Is Not Selling And I Want To Buy Now! This is the dilemma I heard from a Broker I was talking with recently who was frustrated with a seller. The seller has an overpriced condo in an area which is not easily accessible from a main street. The seller wants open houses and newspaper ads to ger her condo sold so she can move on to a bigger home.  This sounded to me like a familiar problem. The broker had given the seller the statistics of the sales in the complex and the prices.  The seller still did not want to reduce the price of the house. I shared with the broker the four key factors that sell a home: Price Terms Condition Location As we talked about the property the answer came down to PRICE, as it usually does. I asked the broker if she had heard of "conditional marketing" a... 08/09/2010

Safeway Sale Stimulates Cosmic Cooking! Sounds strange.. but that is the way the Safeway ads work for me! When I read the weekly ads my Creative Cosmic Cooking genes kick in and I start to have some fun construing economical dishes! This week the Williams, Arizona ads included 3 green peppers for $1.00 and last week yellow corn 5 for $1.00. Think about the value here!  $0.33  per pepper and $0.20 per ear of corn!  Cow Tip: Meal plan from grocery sale ads!  You can actually create your shopping list on line and it will organize by category.. so planning healthy meals and saving money could not be any easier if you use the Safeway tools. If you use site you can also get the weekly coupons added to your club card so no paper going green! The ad made me start to think about Stuffed Green Pe... 08/02/2010

Are You  A Step Monster? Yes, I am!  Or I should say: I have been a Step-Mother for 35 years in August.  Many times the Step-Mother in a family is considered to be a MONSTER just like the character in Cinderella. I don't think I was a monster and only the kids can tell now! We had a lot of fun but that was because I came from a divorced family and knew what I didn't want to experience again. Family relationships are a factor in all major decisions. The differences can become daunting when buying or selling a home if there are issues going on within the family unit. Eleanor Spackman Alden  from Denver, Colorado has written a life changing book for step family members to help adjust to new family dynamics in her  book, "StepWisdom." Meet Eleanor Spackman Alden, LIVE in Williams, Arizona o... 07/31/2010

Do Constant Mortgage Changes Have You Singing The Blues? How can a buyer shop for a lender and feel safe with the decision? Is the New HUD closing statement good or bad for consumers? If you would like to have the answers to some of those questions, join Gene Mundt on CarraRileyLive.com to get the inside scoop on how to deal with the changes. Mark your calendar for  Friday July 30, 2010 at 9:30 a.m. CDT to hear mortgage professional Gene Mundt on CarraRileyLive.com.  Gene will help "connect some dots" with guidelines that home buyers need to know about right now. Gene is a professional mortgage banker from Naperville, Illinois. Gene will be explaining some of the recent changes in the mortgage industry's practices, and how the changes effect today's buyers. Gene will talk about the new ... 07/26/2010

Half Way Through 2010, How's That Workin For Ya? Have you created some plans, set some objectives or identified goals for 2010 and are you on track? The mid point of the year just past and it IS time to look at your strategy to assess how it is working.                                      Looking at the 2010 plan: What is working?  Keep doing that! Do the financial outcomes need to be adjusted? What needs to be changed in the strategy to accomplish your objectives or goals? What is not working?  Stop doing it and take it off the list! Do you know what really makes you tick?  Is that your passion? Are you living your passion?  How can you live your passion?  Is Plan A really working? Could Plan B possibly be a much better alternative? NOW is the perfect time to start to get a jump on 20... 07/21/2010

A Good Day On Facebook! This evening, I was busy getting ready for Monday and thought I would check facebook one more time before closing the computer. I read the update from Liz Miller and was singing praises for social media!  Now that  is the type of sharing I would like to see everyday on my facebook wall!           The update reads:  Liz Miller " I have a referral for you in Williams.  Just Call Liz!  You can see from my response to her comment that I was dialing right away to connect. Carra Riley:  Woo hoo...Liz love the new picture.... I am dialing now. I called Liz, we talked, made the connection and the client will be in the loop tomorrow!  I sent Liz a Thank you on her real estate page, Lake Havasu City Area Real Estate with an open invitation to post some of "great deals" on ... 07/18/2010

Classic Car Show AND Miss Rt 66 Pageant, Williams Arizona Coming soon! August 14, 2010 10:00 AM  Community Events room at Christmas Tree Gallery 420 E. Route 66 Williams, AZ 86046 Williams celebrates Route 66 with a tribute to their youth and the "Route 66" pageant. The pagent is open to area girls 14 to 18 the winning contestant will represent Williams at the Miss historic Route 66 Pageant in Seligman during the Fun Run May of 2011. The Pageant will be held in conjunction with the Cool Country Cruise-In Go back in time and enjoy the 1950's again on Route 66. This Classic Car Show had over 270 entries last year! This show is a regional favorite with trophies given for various classes. Enjoy a burger burn Friday & Saturday. For online car registration visit www.route66place.com          ... 07/11/2010

Breakfast With The Babies At Bearizona! Williams, Arizona is home of Bearizona a Drive-thru Wildlife Adventure. The perfect place to come and enjoy the mountain atmosphere when either riding the rails or driving to the Grand Canyon. It was a beautiful summer day to have breakfast with the new babies at Bearizona and watch their jovial antics.                                              Meet Cassidy and Kid the new fox babies.                                                  Check out Foxy and Memphis the new lynx babies and Sig the baby Bob Cat on the video! Owner Sean Casey and his family were gracious hosts sharing their love of the animals with all in attendance.            The Bearizona blog series started with the soft opening May 22, 2010. See the bear cubs getting frisky in this... 07/10/2010

Need Your Help And Vote Through 7-3-10 I really did it!  Got out of the comfort zone and put it all out there! I had to apply several chapters in "Cosmic Cow Pie...Connecting The Dots"  to my thought process to move on and just DO IT!  So that is what I did.   Yes, there were are pits in my stomach because of the UNKNOWN. Every time we go on a listing or interview with a buyer there is a chance it will not work out but that does not stop us from doing what we do.  We just keep on plugging away working toward our goal. One of my goals is to : "Connect on the right level with the right people to make a difference"  To that end I have submitted a video to the Oprah Winfrey Network as an audition for a new talk show on her new network. The name of the show:  Cosmic Cow Pie.  Please Listen t... 06/26/2010

A Funny Thing Happened on Rt. 66 June 11-13, 2010 the Arizona H.O.G. (Harley Owners Group) Rally was held in Williams, Arizona. Bikers were in town from all over the world and the Williams, Arizona was alive with the sound of booming engines.  I was "working the street" with a book signing event in front of my favorite Rt. 66 restaurant, the Grand Canyon Coffee and Cafe. I purchased a Biker "wannabe" vest to fit in see what would happen as I sold my book and buttons on the street.  I had lots of fun meeting the most exciting people just wanting to soak in the magic of Rt. 66.  As the day finished up a couple inside the Grand Canyon Coffe & Cafe  stopped me as I was putting my sign away for the next day.  We started talking about what I did as an author and a consultant for small busines... 06/20/2010

Blog Ranking SEO 101 for Beginners Part 2 of 3 Content Blog Ranking SEO 101 for Beginners Part 1 of 3 Title Part 2 of this very elementary beginner post series will discuss CONTENT in relation to SEO, Search Engine Optimization ranking on Google, Bing, MSN, Yahoo, and other search engines. This is a follow up to the Rain Camp in Las Vegas where Ben Kinney presented information on this somewhat complex topic. His presentation helped me formulate a plan for this post content.    From Wikipedia: "Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results.".  Another term that could be associated with SEO ranking is "google ... 05/26/2010

Fun Tool From FLICKR FLICKR.com is a FREE site and resource to manipulate and store digital images and videos. Once you upload a photo you can obtain a url for the image, re-size it, share presentations online with an embed code or link. Take screen shots and create links or re-size and edit to use as a jpeg if you don't have a tool like snagit. You can create groups for your customers or clients to upload their photos and establish a fun online community sharing pictures. Think about the possibilities for your local communities.  Set up groups within your personally branded account for schools, for events or a specific subdivision and it's activities or amenities. I created a group called "Bearizona" in my Flickr Cosmic Cow Pie account to share with anyone who has come to Williams, Ari... 05/24/2010