Put down the Pinterest boards. Quit crowdsourcing your vacation on Facebook from your know-it-all friends of friends or relatives. Trust in the professional travel experts and take a vacation from doing it yourself! Recent data from American Society of Travel Advisors’ study shows that you will increase your happiness delegating the grunt work to the experts and save money to boot. I certainly don’t mind having my trip and the logistics planned by someone else every so often so I can truly take a vacation from it all!

With the first quarter of the year well past us, the initial pressure of beginning the New Year on the right foot is long gone and many are well settled into life’s routines, personally and professionally. But even everyday processes can be stressful and give cause for concern when it comes to our wellbeing. Certified International Health Coach Melissa Rosenstock shares more on how personal and professional wellbeing can be made a focus moving forward. With April being Stress Awareness Month, her comments on the topic are especially insightful...hope it gets you working on your overall health and wellness journey.

While I don’t have pets and probably won’t ever given the fact that I travel often and live in a small space, I do see folks travel with their pets all the time and always wondered what that process was like for them and their little babies. Figuring out how to travel with pets internationally can be easy though with some homework done ahead of time. Read on for some tips and steps to have your pet with you every step of the way. If you're hoping that you can travel internationally with your pets, the good news is that it is possible to do. While there may be a few hoops to jump through and different regulations that you'll have to follow, it's a safe bet that you can rest easy knowing that your pets can join you on your travel journeys. Before you start booking a trip right away, you'll need to become familiar with these tips on how to travel with pets internationally. 

In today’s often overly connected world, it’s no wonder the National Day of Unplugging – a relative newcomer to the list of recognized holidays – is growing in popularity. National Day of Unplugging is a 24-hour global respite from technology between sundown on Friday, March 1 through sundown on Saturday, March 2. (They even provide the signs above to tag them on social!) Easy for me to participate – I will be heading off to a conference for writers of color in San Diego later in the day and lasting all weekend long so probably won’t be attached to too much technology and doing my part for those hours.

The New Year is here and we are all feeling pretty optimistic about a whole new set of months ahead to get business up and moving. Updating the latest information on all your professional presences is a given but do you also update all your imagery? The visual is as important as the verbal. Photographer Lin Marty knows that firsthand, working with entrepreneurs on their personal brand and the pictures they use to convey that. Headshots are a part of the effort but there is more so here she is sharing some of her tips on the topic!