We have seen the incredible way in which meaningful content delivered through text message can inspire people to action. Now we want to give your organization the ability to communicate with your members in this unique way. We are very pleased to announce a new platform that will allow you to:

* Customize your own content and edit any time

* Our two-way communication feature allows you to take polls and get honest answers to questions

* Explore multiple opt-in options for the best results

Your message, everyday, in the hands of those who need it!

For more information please contact:

Robert Foster - RFoster@ILiveInspired.com

Chris Deutsch - CDeutsch@ILiveInspired.com

This week kicks off National Recovery Month and our friend Nikki Sixx asked us to post some information on the work he has been doing to raise awareness for recovery/treatment issues. When we saw what he has been up to over the past year we couldn’t say no.

Last September we were fortunate to be in attendance at the annual National Recovery Month luncheon when Nikki gave a stirring speech about his own recovery and the need for more of an emphasis on treatment in this country. During that speech Nikki made clear that he was not just an advocate of recovery, but eager to take his own action to further the cause. We are happy to report on his success.

Over the past year, Nikki has been busy promoting the Heroin Diaries soundtrack with his band, SIXX:A.M., going on tour with Crue Fest, and following up Life is Beautiful (the number one rock song of 2007) with Tomorrow.

Additionally, Nikki has raised over $500,000 for his charity, Running Wild in the Night, and is half way to his goal of 1 MILLION DOLLARS for the music program through proceeds from his book, The Heroin Diaries. He was recently honored at a Covenant House Gala for all of his efforts, and is now working on bringing attention to September as National Addiction Recovery Month by encouraging people to donate to the cause.

We thank Nikki for continuing to promote National Recovery Month and for his amazing work with Running Wild in the Night.

We started I Live Inspired to inspire people through daily calls to action. We invite you to tour our site, check out our story and explore our content, all of which is available as a daily text message.

Today we are profiling Marguerite Kelly who we are proud to say writes the messages for our Inspired Parenting community.

Marguerite Kelly was the fourth author to take a leap of faith and agree to become an author for I Live Inspired. This was shortly before we launched the site and we were eager to bring in an established author to write messages for parents. We couldn’t have dreamed up a better person to contribute than the award winning author of The Mother’s Almanac (Doubleday, 1975), The Mother’s Almanac Goes to School (Doubleday, 1989) and Marguerite Kelly’s Family Almanac (Simon and Schuster, 1994). Marguerite Kelly is has also been a nationally syndicated columnist with the Washington Post since 1975.

Marguerite’s messages are not geared toward one particular age group but are rather a combination of practical child rearing advice and parenting philosophy that can be applied to nearly any situation. She believes that parents should treat their children with respect and responsibility, that parents should allow their children the freedom to make choices and discoveries for themselves but to also hold them accountable for following through with these decisions. She has adapted traditional values to help modern families with modern issues deal with parenting. As the topics of her column illustrates, there is no shortage of questions and concerns facing the modern family.

Perhaps the biggest bit of feedback we have received from parents about Marguerite’s messages is that she is encouraging to parents. She urges parents to trust their instincts and makes it very clear that any problem facing a family is an opportunity for parents to understand their children more deeply and find a solution that is just right for them.

Click here to read some of Marguerite Kelly’s Washington Post columns.

You can also click here to sign up to receive her daily parenting message.

Klia was also recently featured in the Washington Post Magazine’s June 15, 2008 edition. Check out this excerpt of the article:

A SMALL GROUP OF CO-WORKERS sits on a circle of chairs in a darkened room. Eyes closed, they listen to their meditation instructor’s soothing voice as she helps them settle in for the session. “Obviously, our bodies are already here,” Klia Bassing says, “but our minds still take awhile to catch up.”

For these employees, a 45-minute break from the stress of work is a welcome respite. For Klia, her work has become a respite itself.

Klia, now 32, was in her mid-20s when a friend suggested that she try meditation to help her with compulsive eating issues. At first, she says, “I thought, no, that’s weird and new age-y, and if I go to any meditation group, they’ll brainwash me and make me give them all my money.” But meditation helped her realize that her cravings had more to do with anxiety than hunger, and that she didn’t have to stifle those feelings with food. The changes were so powerful that she decided she wanted to teach. “I just love the practice so much,” she says. “It’s a great honor to pass it on to other people.”

Click here to read the entire article.

The NADCP is doing amazing work in the recovery community by providing an alternative to the criminal justice system for non-violent drug and alcohol offenders. The specialized courts consist of partnerships between dedicated judges, prosecutors, attorneys and treatment facilities. Since 1994 the number courts has grown to over 2,000 and expanded to include juvenile, family, DWI and hybrid courts.

We recently had the pleasure of meeting hundreds of drug court employees and volunteers at the annual NADCP conference in St. Louis. The pride, enthusiasm and dedication that we encountered was truly inspiring, and we are thrilled that I Live Inspired is part of the effort.

We are currently working with courts to offer our messages as part of the incentive program and as graduation gifts. We look forward to continuing to build a relationship with courts all over the country.

If you are a member of the NADCP and would like to offer our service to your clients please email us. We would be happy to discuss the many ways this can be done.

Rob Foster

Chris Deutsch

support@iliveinspired.com

Last Wednesday we got a call from WUSA channel 9 news in Washington DC. They had read about us in Newsweek, were intrigued by our story and wanted to do a piece on us. We were thrilled and admittedly a little nervous. At around noon Gary and Keith showed up at our “office” and began setting up. Our nerves were soon dissipated by easy conversation and a disarming quality that Gary and Keith had obviously honed over the years by interviewing nervous media novices. It turns out they both had met the Dalai Lama and thought it was pretty cool that his teachings were available as a daily text message. We shot the piece and chatted for a bit and naturally the subject turned to people we find inspiring. Gary told us the fascinating story of Brian Wilson of whom he is a big fan. I’d encourage anyone to read about his journey.

The news story aired that night on WUSA, we happened to be in Baltimore for a meeting and missed it live but caught in online on the way home. We thought it was excellent and want to thank Gary and Keith for a job well done.

This morning we had another big break…a twenty-five interview segment on Sirius satellite radio’s Catholic Channel. Specifically we were guests on Gus Lloyd’s morning show ‘Seize the Day.’ We had decided that we both would do the interview but since speaker phone is not suitable for radio we decided we would both be on separate cell phones. We figured that we would use visual cues to determine when one of us would take the lead on an answer but it became clear in the first ten seconds that with the delay, this would not work.

Rob retreated into another room and I moved to the kitchen. Despite losing our visual we were able to navigate the interview without talking over one another. Gus was a great interviewer and asked us pertinent questions and allowed us to give our full answers. We were very happy with the interview and even happier that some of our friends and family got to hear it.

Last week we asked some of our subscribers what they liked most about their I Live Inspired daily text message. Here are a few answers:

“What I enjoy most about this service is using the scheduled time it arrives as a ritual. When it rings me I read it and take time to arrive exactly where I am at that moment. I design it to provide a glimmer of presence in whatever it is I’m doing the moment it hits me.”

“I like it as the best alarm clock I’ve ever had….”

“I like being reminded that everyday is an opportunity to DO something positive. The messages are a good balance between general encouragement and very specific small steps. I like both.”

“Choosing to have a positive message delivered to start my day is my affirmation that I am in control of my day. It is also a comfort to know that a community of people do the same thing everyday.”

As Francine Ward has written, you can’t think your way into right acting, you must act your way into right thinking. We are creatures of habit which is often viewed as a weakness - habits tend to have a negative connotation. We believe in building positive habits through daily reflection and action and our text messages are written specifically to this purpose.

We are excited to announce the launch of our “Mother Teresa’s Meditations” community. Mother Teresa was one of the most prominent spiritual figures of the twentieth century and her words continue to inspire people all over the world. We are proud to offer her wisdom through our service.

The unique “My Message Scheduler” function allows you to receive inspiration from different authors on different days at different times. So far we have had a tremendous response from people who who have customized their accounts. Heres what mine looks like:

When you become a member of I Live Inspired you will have access to all of our inspiring authors. You can now receive messages from different authors on different days at different times!

Check out my custom delivery schedule (note the later delivery times on the weekend):

During the sign up process you will be asked to select a community to join. After signing up you will be able to login to your account and customize your message delivery program. The choice is up to you!

“The big secret in life is that there is no secret. Whatever the goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.”-Oprah Winfrey

We are heading back to Washington DC and our home city’s warm weather, cherry blossoms and beds. We were down at Harpo studios this morning. They taped two shows today and from we hear that Ms. Winfrey may be leaving town for the next few days. We wanted to stop in one last time before driving back and say our goodbyes. We did not get our 7 minute meeting this week but we have opened up a dialogue and we will work hard to achieve our goal. We know we have a platform that can help Ms. Winfrey further inspire and we are as eager as ever to present it (when we do come back we are thinking we may fly).

We are currently in the car, have about ten more hours to drive, and we are thinking about the trip and it’s overall results. Someone asked yesterday if we would be disappointed if we didn’t get our meeting. The truth is this trip has been about so many things: a chance for Rob and I to continue our commitment to the mission of living inspired through action, to grow closer as business partners and friends and gain further insight in to what I Live Inspired is all about. It was about the Harju family and Rich and anyone else who stopped to offer us food or a place to stay for no other reason than they simply wanted to help. It was about small diners, flat roads and long nights in cold tents. And of course, It was about all of you have followed along and posted comments which have lifted us up every step of the way and those of you who were moved to take an inspired action. It was Rob getting the kite out of the tree, the people giving out free hugs in downtown Chicago and the coincidence with Mr. Stacker. How could we be disappointed?

The reason Rob and I have worked hard to be more mindful in our daily lives is so that we don’t get too focused on outcomes and miss out on the experiences along the way.

Leaving Chicago [YouTube]

We were helped out tremendously on this walk and there are some people we need to thank:

Peter for putting together the increasingly popular ‘Walking Inspired’ video.

Kyle for taking the rambling words of this blog and formatting them with links, pictures and videos.

The Harju family and Rich for teaching us about hospitality and what it truly means to live as ‘people for others.’

Geoff for his cinematography on the roof and for letting us crash in the new apartment.

Wendy for hearing our story, offering advice and covering our story on the Independent Street blog on the WSJ.com.

Daryn Kagan for her continued support on DarynKagan.com.

Liz for the birthday dinner and for writing about us on her blog.

Amy at New Balance for the new shoes.

All our friends and family who kept the comments coming and everyone else who dropped us a line and let us know they were following along. We can’t thank you enough and hope to continue to be in touch.

And of course…..The Friday morning Chester, PA crew.

YouTube Channel - I Live Inspired

And willing to work we are…our 7-minute meeting with Oprah is on the horizon. In the meantime we are making friends all over Chicago. We are cheerily greeted every morning by Duane at the front desk of the our ‘apartment’. We then head to the restaurant next to Harpo and get our coffee from Rachel. Mr. Stacker is a busy guy so we don’t always see him but we are sure to let the front desk know that we say good morning. From then on we are meeting delighted Oprah fans and, as in the case yesterday, going to coffee with them.

Yesterday we had a brief break from the Harpo studios because our friend Amy at New Balance emailed us and said that she had called the Chicago store and they were waiting for us. We zipped over at lunchtime and were treated to new shoes, shirts and shorts. Many thanks to Amy and New Balance Chicago for their generosity, you have two customers for life.

Of course, we also have our friends from the walk and our friends back home who continue to support us and keep us motivated. We are working long and hard to accomplish our goal and every message we get helps us remain inspired.

Thank you all for keeping us in your thoughts. Finally, there are those who we have never met but who are enjoying our journey and letting us know it on our site and on YouTube. These are most exciting because it speaks to the reach this project has. Keep the comments coming!

Wendy Bounds at the Wall Street Journal has updated her blog to include yesterday’s activities. She also let us know that it is one of the most emailed blog posts on WSJ.com!