In a given day, I read around 10 articles about business, entrepreneurship and how to survive the startup life. It took a while to find the perfect blogs to follow because I started to notice that most writers were more focused on quantity of posts over quality, filling them with fluff, thus the content was stale and repetitive.

After following (and unfollowing) many blogs, I’ve come up with a strong collection of inspiration and advice. The blogs in this list share valuable information that seems to always resonate with me. And I feel a great deal of satisfaction when I can later apply that helpful piece of knowledge to my business journey.

Bootstrapping startup founders have a unique position: they are looking for all of the advice and mentorship they can get, while they still have a hard time investing their precious time and money into attending business conferences.

Most founders juggle the idea of going to a conference because they are unsure if the advice, tips, and relationships they form will justify the cost. Although most conferences provide essential benefits to the founder, they are still shaky about whether or not to pull the trigger on the tickets.

After being in this situation several times, I’ve come up with a list of what to look for while decision making and why startup founders should attend.

First, I ask myself a few questions:

1. What is the number one thing I want to get from this conference? Is there a session or panel relating to it? If so, what value would that bring to my business leadership and growth?
2. Who are the speakers? Have they been known to give useful advice or entertaining stories that would benefit my business development?

Then, I look into the logistics:

1. Where is the conference? How much does it cost? How many days will I be unable to work on my startup?  Can I take my laptop and possibly knock out emails simultaneously?
2. Will my follower base find the content useful? If so, that’s kind of like working, right?

Finally, I convince myself it’s the right decision:

1. By listening to strong market leaders share helpful tips and information, I will become more knowledgeable about my business strategies and improve my startup’s overall performance.
2. After hearing advice from several professionals, I can improve my marketing and sales approach, social media campaigns and brand identity, thus creating more signups and increasing revenue.

Ohio Growth Summit is right around the corner and for those of you who are not familiar with the conference, it is a one-day event for business owners and entrepreneurs in Ohio to receive advice, hear stories and learn how to grow and manage their businesses.

For 20% off tickets to the conference, use the promo code: HolsingerOGS

Some of the speakers this year include:

• Anthony Iannarino, The Sales Blog
• Amber MacArthur, AmberMac.com
• Heather Whaling, Geben Communication
• Ryan Vesler, Homage
• Jim Canterucci, ELCircle
• Jess Ostroff, Don’t Panic Management
• Cheryl Harrison, SpeechBubble
• Justin Bryant, Think Brand Studio

In its ninth year, the Ohio Growth Summit is a one of a kind event designed to celebrate the innovative spirit of today’s entrepreneur. Founded and conducted by the Ohio Small Business Development Center at Columbus State, the Ohio Growth Summit brings together entrepreneurs and accomplished business owners who provide insight, strategy and resources you can use to grow your business.

Follow the conference on twitter at @OHGrowthSummit or #OGS13 

Building a startup is exciting and amazing but we all know too well, the feeling of complete chaos and loss of control. Some days I wake up and feel like my world is flipped upside down. I look at the calendar and can’t even believe that we are already halfway into the year. I think I notice the time more now that I no longer get a direct deposit from an employer. Sometimes I wonder, ‘how many more wake-ups until I have to give up?’ Unfortunately, that’s the cold, hard, truth when it comes to bootstrapping a startup.

The other reality I’ve faced recently is something every entrepreneur talks about: the extreme highs and lows of being a startup founder. I never quite understood it until these past couple months. When I receive an email about a new signup, it’s all confetti and balloons in my mind until the following day when a Google alert comes through about a competitor announcing a new feature and all I can do is sit on my bedroom floor researching the news and press releases on my iPhone. A week later, I get featured in a popular publication and have thousands of views on the website in one day, and minutes after that, an invoice from my attorney reminds me that I’ve spent more in legal fees than I’ve made all year.

It’s a risk… a challenge… and it takes a certain kind of appreciation to keep moving at full speed even when it’s foggy and you can’t tell from here whether the road has a sharp curve, a giant hill or a dead end.

Uncertainty.

Oddly enough, uncertainty has become rather comforting.

Over the past couple months, I’ve had to learn a lot and learn quickly. One thing I’ve been focusing on this year is truly making an effort to reduce my stress and stabilize my emotions through this time of uncertainty.

I’ve also come to realize that current events make me very nervous, worrisome and effect my productivity in a big way. During the election last year, I could barely sleep, wondering what the polls would show on election day and what that meant for our country. During the Sandy Hook, Aurora and Boston tragedies, I found myself spending time as a sleuth on nights and weekends digging as deep as possible to find answers. I’m not sure if this is just how my generation deals with crisises or if it’s because of my legal researching nature or perhaps just my strong curiosity in this time of personal growth.

After recognizing my lack of productivity and increase in anxiety during a troubling time, I realized I have to find another way to cope with stress and anxiety.

Here are a few of the techniques I find to be most helpful when stress takes over.

1) Meditate

It seems hard to start meditating at first if you never have but there are a few simple ways to get started.

Kevin Rose, Partner at Google Venture, suggests trying a 100 breath meditation, 30 day challenge. The gist of  this challenge is to eliminate all distractions and follow your breath to a count of 100. It stabilizes your heart rate and keeps you concentrating on breathing to escape all thoughts.

Joe Gascoigne, CEO of Buffer, describes how developing a daily habit of meditation has given him a profound effect on his life and his ability to succeed as a CEO. In his post he gives insight on the best reasons to meditate and tips on best practices.

2) Yoga

I’ve just started practicing yoga these past couple months and have simply fallen in love with it. Of course there are many different types of yoga, yoga studios in every city and several videos and articles about yoga but I just find that doing a little 15-20 minute yoga session first thing in the morning or in the evening before bed is a great way to get started.

This is my favorite morning yoga video and great for beginners: morning yoga – 15 minutes to wake up for a beautiful day

3) Journal

Something I try to do every day is write in a journal. It’s hard to keep up but if you can, you’ll be much more in control of your emotions. If you are unsure what to write or how to break into writing, here’s a good tip:

Try to focus on one of these topics and write everything you can about it.

• all of the things for which you are grateful
• all of the places you wish to explore and why
• the times in which you were most happy
• the people that you feel most yourself around and why
• the little things that make you smile
• something good about yourself, your business, your life

As you move through your day, focus on what you have written. It’ll help bring sanity to a stressful time.

4) Reflect

Marc and Angel have an amazing blog. When I am in need of inspiration or small stories to help me reflect on life, I take a look at some of their most popular posts. 60 Quotes That Will Change The Way You Think and 30 Things To Start Doing For Yourself are two of my favorite.

Zenhabits is also a great blog to find articles about finding zen in your life. Browsing through the archives, I always find articles that resonate with me.

If you make these a habit or routine, your life will get used to having those few little moments with yourself and you’ll be much more at peace. For even more inspiration to find zen in your life and business, take a minute to read this beautifully written post by Danielle Morrill.

For the past year, I’ve made juice a regular part of my life. I’ve always considered the possibility of sharing my love of the juice lifestyle with others but I wasn’t quite sure of the logistics: time, expenses, storage, delivery, packaging, etc. It’s almost impossible for me to think of starting a new venture while I’m working on NextChapter. But this weekend, I had some spare time and decided to test the idea. 

Juice by Janine is 100% all natural juice, prepared fresh in Columbus Ohio and frozen immediately in air tight jars to seal in all of the delicious nutrients!

What is all this about?

I’m not a doctor and don’t know everything about nutrition but I have been researching the benefits drinking juice for quite some time and find it to be one of the best things you can do for your body.

After buying a juicer, I began juicing each type of fruit and vegetable individually and creating concoctions in my kitchen until I mixed the most perfect recipes. Since then, I would juice a jar every morning for breakfast or lunch and found that 20oz of juice is just the right amount for a meal replacement. All of my friends began asking for recipes and wanted to know more, so I decided to make a round of juice for five select people that I knew would be easy to deliver. I packaged all of the jars with a note and sent them out into the world today excited to hear feedback.

The juice package that I made this weekend included four juices to be enjoyed as meal replacements:

Day 1: Breakfast – Lean Greens

Ingredients: Kale, Spinach, Cucumber, Celery, Apple, Pear, Lemon

Benefits: Kale is such a powerful ingredient. It is rich in vitamins and minerals like calcium which promotes strong bones and potassium which helps lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart diseases or stroke. Kale is high in fiber and detoxifies your whole body. Cucumber is a great tonic for encouraging healthy skin, hair and nails. It is also said to treat arthritis. Celery contains coumarin which helps with migraines and lowers blood pressure. Spinach is one of the most nutrient-packed foods and has more iron than any other vegetable.

Day 2: Lunch – Italian Picnic

Ingredients: Tomato, Carrot, Cucumber, Red Bell Pepper, Garlic, Apple

Benefits: Tomato has a magic ingredient called lycopene. It’s a powerful antioxidant that is said to have the nickname “the Cancer Destroyer”. Unfortunately, the body cannot create lycopene so we have to get it from fruits and vegetables. Garlic has been used to strengthen the immune system, lowers blow sugar and eliminate lead in the body. And finally, Bell Pepper juice is rich with Vitamin B6 and B9, both help control blood levels and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Day 3: Breakfast – Perfect Sunrise

Ingredients: Carrots, Orange, Mango

Benefits: Carrots are an excellent source of vitamin A, B and beta -carotenes (anti-oxidants). Carrots are said to help prevent cancer, helps maintain vision and promotes weightloss. Just to be on the safe side, don’t eat TOO many carrots every day because a recent study at OSU shows that having excess amounts of beta-carotene every day could be bad for you. (disclaimer)

Day 4: Lunch – Beauty and the Beet

Ingredients: Beet, Carrots, Apple, Lemon, Ginger

Benefits: Beet juice is an excellent purifier and cleanser of the blood. It is said to promote brain health in older adults by increasing blood flow to the brain. It is also been found that beet juice is high in folate and stimulates the production and repair of cells, which helps protect against premature aging and wrinkles!

How can I get my hands on this amazing juice?

Glad you asked! Over the weekend, I made roughly 90 jars and boy was that a job! I’m still considering the weekly jar package price and will know a little more by the end of the week. If the demand is high, then it makes sense!

If you are interested in buying a weekly package of Juice by Janine, shoot me an email that just says JUICE.  me@janinerenee.com