Top 10 lists are always difficult because of who (or what) you leave off, but I’m going to take a chance anyway and share with you the 10 most influential women in my business right now or in the past.

Of course, there’s no way that I can really rank them in order, so I will cheat and list them alphabetically instead (by first name) :)  Regardless, I send each of you listed here a hearty thank you and appreciation for the role you’ve played in my success so far and in the future.

Anita Johnson

Anita JohnsonIf you’ve been a customer of mine anytime over the last couple of years, there’s a chance you have met Anita online. She runs my help desk and I couldn’t have a better person than her. I know that I can never adequately put in words how much I appreciate what she does for me and my business. Reliability, initiative, and care are difficult to find these days, yet Anita does so much in those areas.

Carrie Wilkerson

Carrie WilkersonThe Barefoot Executive inspires me, holds my feet to the fire, and is a vocal fan of internet marketing training. Because of Carrie, I connected with a mastermind and a new business coach that’s having fantastic results for me. She’s always connecting me to the right people at the right time. And the birthday party she threw for me and Mark Shilensky in California was awesome! I’m also keeping a keen eye on everything she’s doing in business, including her growing association of work at home women.

Deb Micek

Coach Deb MicekOne of the reasons you are even reading this blog right now is because of Coach Deb. The technology of QuanSite (Blogi360) that she helped develop runs AskBobTheTeacher.com. And if you got hear because of Twitter, you can thank her too, because I learned a lot from her. But mostly, the entire philosophies behind her new media marketing and tribal marketing ideas are at the core of how I run my business.

Del Williams

Del WilliamsShe’ll likely be surprised to be on this list, but Del Williams is the re-tweet queen on Twitter. So most of the time when I’m thinking of something to say on Twitter, I think, “Would Del retweet this?” I know that many of my 11K+ followers came directly from her spreading my messages online! And I loved finally getting to meet her at an event this year.

Donna Fox

Donna FoxDonna has been my business mentor longer than anyone else, and has helped me in a lot of different ways. Her advice and coaching on financial matters is helping me eliminate my debt and restore my credit after a decade of teaching myself into the basement of my financial house. The way she and Paulie Sabol coached me in the heyday of i5Gold and after made significant turning points in my business. And the way she organized the first internet marketing seminar I went to (TIMME2) made a major impact on the trajectory of my business. Her platform presentation tips before JV Alert in February 2009 also had very profitable results for me. And I always look forward to events where she’s going to be, like the internet marketer’s cruise in January :)

Donna Kozik

Donna KozikI haven’t known Donna too long, but she’s helped me write my first book, Take Action, Revise Later, which will be published soon. I always knew I wanted to get a book written, but she was the one that finally got me over the major hurdles. Now, I have version 0.8 in my hands, and I know it’s just the first of many to come.

Felicia Slattery

Felicia SlatteryTeaching with Felicia on stage at 2 events has certainly been a highlight of my year. But more importantly, Felicia’s helped me keep things in perspective as I continue growing in business. She’s a raving fan, and always pushing me higher. She’s also a frequent tweeter, and I know that we have a lot of collaboration ahead of us in the future!

Kelly Fuller

Another person who will likely be surprised about being on the list is Kelly. We don’t talk too much anymore, but Kelly was my de facto sponsor/upline in Ameriplan, which was my first real push into business. She’s been influential in a lot of ways, but I’ll highlight just a couple of things here. First, she’s always been there for her team, but without pestering or badgering them. I’m not promoting it actively now, but I know whenever I wanted to she’d be there to help. Second, she connected me to the WAHM.com forum back in the day. And it was in that forum that I came up with the username BobTheTeacher. So indirectly, Kelly’s responsible for my entire brand!

Joyce Jagger

Joyce JaggerAnother inspiring woman who influences me is Joyce Jagger. She was one of my earliest students in internet marketing, and has been involved in just about all my courses I’ve ever taught (maybe even all of them) and she implements what she learns. She’s also been a long time coaching student, and I’ve learned a lot from her as I’ve coached her. I won’t tell you her age, because you’d never believe me if you heard it. But let’s just say that her webinar coaching series for embroidery businesses, and her use of Camtasia and internet marketing are excellent for any age trainer. Plus, if I ever release a crappy product, I know I’ll get it in the ear from Joyce!

Lynn Terry

Lynn TerryI had heard of Lynn for a long time, but never connected with her until an event in Orlando this year. What a brilliant person to know! About five minutes into our first conversation she said some call her the Ralph Nader of affiliate marketing. Her approach to business, the way she works with her customers, and her pursuit of excellence without sacrificing any of her ethics are tremendous. And her ClickNewz blog is probably the best community blog in internet marketing. With her as an example, I’ve challenged myself to execute my own business like Lynn does hers.

Melanie Benson Strick

Melanie Benson StrickMelanie has a way of appearing to saunter along in a conversation and then ask an anvil of a question at just the right time (you know, the one that bonks you upside the head?). Working with her in a coaching program the last few months has given me some much needed focus and clarity on managing my growth.

Nicole Dean

Nicole DeanIf you missed the Star Trek Sub, please go back and read the 5 guest posts Nicole blogged for me. Nicole is an idea generator and her approach to business with balance has been inspiring to me. She laughs frequently, and like no other (which is a good thing!). She reminds me to have fun in business at all times. Her approach to affiliate programs has me re-tooling my business in that area to match what she does more closely.

Okay, so that’s really 12, and I should probably do at least 20 because I know there are a few more that I should mention. But I’ll save that for a second edition later on.

I hope you’ll get to know each of these incredible women, and let them impact your life in some way.

Bob Jenkins

p.s. Have you been impacted by any of these women, too? I’d love to hear how with a comment below!

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