Wanda Loskot is an accomplished writer, speaker and international business coach for self employed professionals. As the owner of Success Connection: Referrals and Relationship Marketing, Wanda provides "marketing tips, business strategies and coaching for people who LOVE what they do but HATE to sell!"

Raised and educated in Poland, she left her country and her career as a journalist with only big dreams and $100 in her pocket. "My immigration was a lonely journey," Wanda said. "I had no friends or family on the West to turn to for help. So, in the free world I went through many stages -- from the refugee camp in Treiskirchen/Austria to running my own real estate company in New York. But, before I got what I wanted, I paid my dues: babysitting, waiting tables, cleaning homes. And I even worked in a toothpick factory in Vienna!

"I also paid my dues on the Internet, spending over 7,000 hours experimenting, networking, advising but, above all, learning and ... making many mistakes (which now you can avoid by capitalizing on my knowledge)."

As a business coach, she now works with clients on four continents. As a writer, she has had articles published every week in countless publications, translated into several languages (including Chinese). The Success Connection was selected as one of the Ten Best Women-Owned Small Business Web Sites.

"In the past years, people from all walks of life have taken part in my workshops," Wanda said. "For two years, I produced a monthly TV program called 'Success Connection' - interviewing many outstanding entrepreneurs who shared their strategies with me. My weekly column, 'Secrets of Success,' appeared in eleven major newspapers in Poland. For my Polish readers also I created the American School of Success, which is the largest self-development Web site in Polish language."

Wanda continued, "But, looking now at my life, from the perspective of today, I would not trade these experiences for anything. Because all of that helped me develop my understanding of self and another one of the things I learned quickly is that there are no failures. In any case, failure never defeated me. Perhaps it was a result of my Polish upbringing, where you were doomed to fail at something all the time. If not in your professional life, then in the daily struggle. For example, at least half of the stories I wrote as a journalist were axed by the censorship -- you develop immunity after a while for that sort of thing. Then we had those shortages in stores, which meant that you had to go on the massive hunt to buy just a few rolls of the toilet paper.

"When you grow up in the reality like that, you develop an attitude that there are no failures -- only temporary setbacks. One of the biggest setbacks I experienced was another business, my real estate office. It was called Loskot Real Estate. I worked really hard to get started and finally, when I got established, I experienced a massive burnout. I mean *real* burnout. I remember very vividly avoiding the telephone. When the telephone rang, I thought 'Oh please, I hope it is not another prospect!'

"That was not a healthy thought for a hard-working real estate broker! I took a break from business. It was scary like hell, but I did it. I completely stopped selling real estate. That was a big turn in my life -- during that period, I discovered the value of passion, and balance and contribution to others. The things that are now so fundamental to my business...

"After 2 years, I returned. Much wiser. Much stronger. And, most important, with much more commitment to business, to clients and even to myself. I became successful -- but in a different way. I was not number one. It was not even on my agenda. I was there to service my clients and to meet my own objectives -- not to compete with other agents. It was then that I began to train sales people, which eventually expanded in the full-blown training and coaching carrier.

"What I learned from those temporary setbacks? One of the most important lessons was always that I am a survivor. Each setback was just making me stronger and better. I learned that we cannot learn without failing. Because those setbacks were the best learning experience.

"From those painful experiences, I also learned that a business is doomed to fail if it doesn't have a solid foundation: passion of the owners, sense of mission, solid systems for lead development and for delivery of the product/service. I learned that there can be no sanity if we cannot delegate. And that we cannot delegate if there is no system in place.

"I also learned that following the right model saves sanity and somewhere there, at that point of time, I realized that this is my calling. To teach people the sane way of doing business, so that they don't need to go through as much pain as I went through to discover it on their own.

"I got on the Internet initially because, as a business coach, I had an obligation to know what is going on. It was 1997, and it was time to explore the Internet as a medium. I never expected things would happen so fast: within months, my Success Connection was quite popular and I was getting coaching clients via Internet. Now I have clients on four continents!

"The Internet changed my life. Entirely. In a way I never imagined it could happen. I compare my Internet experience with my immigration. It was like entering a completely different country! Of course, my Success Connection, at http://www.loska.com, keeps me busy -- with the weekly MasterMind chats and coaching and teleclasses...I am now in the finishing process of launching a special program that will help all members of the Success Connection insiders refer business to each other.

"I also coordinate the mentoring program for the Association for International Business. AIB has over 10,000 members in 160 countries and it is the first truly Internet-based organization with awesome benefits. For details go to http://aib-world.org.

"The most exciting thing is my new Web site, InternetSuccessCoach.com. I just developed an intensive eight-week tele-course, which guides participants through a step-by-step process of developing Internet business. With weekly tele-classes, daily homework assignment, E-mail support, and even audio tapes.

"This is a true life-saver for procrastinators with different privileges and awesome opportunities.

"The core of my business until now has been professional coaching and, as a coach, I specialize in helping people systematize and build business through referrals. A vast majority of my clients come to me also through referrals because my clients have a unique awareness and refer me a lot of people. So, until now I didn't do much to actively promote my site and services. It just became popular.

"But that doesn't mean that it really happened by itself. I spend a lot of time building relationships -- with my subscribers, with participants of my chats, even with those who post regularly on my discussion forum. Not to mention my clients! There are two types of referrals: one type just happens -- another type gets orchestrated. So, I spend a lot of time to orchestrate my referrals.

"And I also do a lot to contribute in various discussion lists, writing articles. My articles are published all over the Web every week and my newsletter is definitely the most effective marketing tool.

"Somehow, even without trying very hard, my sites got listed quite high for a couple of important keywords, but on the whole I don't even care much about the traffic coming from the search engines. The dearest visitors to me are those who come to me via someone's endorsement. For example, if someone reads this story and gets intrigued enough to come and visit me, he or she is very likely to like my site, to stay and to become my friend. About 100 times more likely than a visitor coming from the search engine, no matter what keywords were used.

"And I treat these special visitors in a very special way, too!"

Wanda has served as a lecturer for college and university courses, and as a paid speaker for large corporations. She has conducted training courses in self-development, building self-esteem, dealing with difficult people, and building a home-based business.

When asked how she got her ideas for the business coaching theme on her Web site, Wanda responded, "One early spring night, years ago, I woke up in the middle of the night resolved to start an international organization which would teach people the keys to running an effective business, including marketing and communication strategies.

"While still selling real estate, I had experienced a surge of success when I used those same business strategies myself. Then I realized that every kind of business service could be systematized and replicated. I felt that I had an obligation to share that with the world."

Wanda Loskot is upbeat and positive and can be a wonderful example for any who hope for success on the Web. Be sure to visit her portal at loska.com - it will lead you to some of her other sites: InternetSuccessCoach.com, MakeYourBusinessWork.com, AdvertisingCoach.com , AttractionMarketing.com , SaneMarketing.com , WebFixReview.com - to name a few...

Kristi Sayles invites all successful entrepreneurs to her own site. Ms. Sayles is a wife, mom, teacher, and freelance writer. She has had several articles published both online and in magazines in several different genres. If you would like to see a collection of her writings, you may be interested in her eBook called, "The Day I Woke Up As An Ostrich -- An Odd Collection for Christians."