Get Your Vision Board Iphone/Ipod App and start moving toward your dreams today! Books by this Author 301+ Ways to Get Ahead: Business Success from Home If you want to kiss your boss good-bye, this book could be your ticket to a home-based business. Lots and lots of examples of possible home-based activities are included along with stories of real people from across the county who have their own businesses, from accountants to zen instructors.   How Branson Got Started How Branson Got Started is the captivating story of how a small Missouri town -- less that 5,000 people -- has become the world's live entertainment capital.   Internet Success with Fred This is a very good introduction to the Internet. If you're smart enough to get this book, you won't need another because you'll learn by doing.   The Emmett Till Book What happened to cause a young African American student's lynching in the Mississippi Delta? When Emmett "BoBo" Till threatened Mississippi's rigid Jim Crow laws this fourteen-year-old paid with his life. Till's murderers were set free yet his death spurred Rosa Parks to take her important stand in Montgomery. In this 50th anniversary, the case has finally been reopened with new and intriguing information.   Where Rebels Roost: Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited Discover unresolved Mississippi murders - untold stories of the civil rights era. Susan Klopfer's "Where Rebels Roost" reveals new information about unique, persevering and brave people -- many who were murdered and forgotten.   Feature Articles: - In Defense of Maurice Clarett... Click here for more >>

DeWitt, Iowa, a town of about 4,500 people, is one of these cornfield towns and was home to JoAnna Lund, the "cookbook lady" who in the second half of her life sold over 3 million cookbooks; she appeared on CNN, Home Shopping Club and even wrote a cookbook published by a major publisher.

Lund was a farmer's wife, and she knew how to spread a fine table whenever neighbors gathered to help with a big farming project. But following a divorce, she gained 60 pounds and soon became depressed.

When her son left home to become a soldier, the Iowan realized she wanted her health back and began creating healthy recipes for herself. She wanted to cook healthy food that looked, tasted, smelled and felt like what she had always eaten. But without the calories and fat.

When she started following her own cooking advice, JoAnna lost 130 pounds. Her recipes were not exotic. Not what you find in a gourmet cookbook, and they were not complicated. They simply represented good heartland cooking without the sugar and fat that take their toll.

Once JoAnna lost her weight, she wanted others to know they could eat common, good food and maintain a healthy lifestyle. So she set out to self-publish containing her low fat, low sugar, and good-tasting recipes.

Her bank loan of $1,000 was a three-month open note -- it was paid off in one month through JoAnna's perseverance. She got the word out by talking to people, speaking to clubs and organizations, taking her book to stores, and getting good publicity through hard work.

Lund's first cookbook sold over 70,000 copies and her second cookbook did even better.

The last time I spoke with JoAnna, she was heading to New York to meet with three top publishers -- all vying to publish her next book. Random House won out!

"I even get to choose which publisher," she told me. This was after accomplishing major sales on the Home Shopping Club.

Why did her business thrive? Here are 3 good reasons:

1. JoAnna Lund treated customers the way she would like to be treated. She invites readers and listeners to become part of the Healthy Exchanges Family. It is not a diet, she explained to me, it is a way of life.

This philosophy came from her heart and was her way of business life -- this was her bottom line.

For example, when her new cookbook was printed, JoAnna offered her existing customers 17 new pages (for $2) that could be inserted into their old cookbooks. She gave instructions on how to insert the pages.

2. New products and business plans were based on listening to her customers, discovering their needs and then responding. JoAnna listened with her heart as well as with her ears. Projects were not planned in isolation; she knew her customers and worked to meet their desires.

"As long as it is ethical, practical and enjoyable, I will do it," she said.

Once, speaking to a group of Jewish senior citizens, Lund was asked for healthy kosher recipes. A new book was soon on the way to the printer!

3. JoAnna stuck to doing what she did the best -- creating recipes, sharing hope, marketing, doing her radio program, public speak, writing, and appearing on television.

An impressed college business professor once told Lund she had a special marketing gene. Her business acumen impressed him.

Another smart move? She quickly turned bookkeeping and accounting over to professionals. "I've known of small businesses that have failed because the owners tried to do everything themselves," she said.

JoAnna Lund, who turned a 130-pound weight loss into a career, leaving a legacy of good cooking and smart business practices, died at her home from cancer on May 20 at the age of 61.