Align Your Life Purpose with Your Business for Greater Impact, Profits and Fulfillment.

I believe in the power of branding on both a personal and professional level. When your life purpose and business focus are aligned, you can create an incredibly high-impact brand that changes the lives of others while bringing you unbelievable levels of fulfillment and happiness.

Sure, you can do good work in a business that isn’t perfectly aligned… but you’re always going to feel like something is missing. You’ll feel drained at the end of the day and you’ll find yourself on a roller coaster of ups and downs, with the downs becoming more prominent. You won’t feel motivated and you won’t feel fulfilled.

When you’re in alignment, not only will you begin to produce GREAT work, but you will find yourself buzzing with raw inspiration and energy around the clock! You will LOVE your clients, marketing your business, creating content and you’ll LOVE diving into each and EVERY work day. Monday will lose all meaning and you’ll find it hard to shut down and not work all day and all night.

How to determine your purpose in life.

1) Get Clear on Your Personal Values

Our personal values clearly define what we consider to be important, meaningful and essential in our lives. If you value integrity, then you don’t believe in telling a lie of any size, you never disregard the law and you believe in being a fair, honorable person. If you value innovation, then you believe in thinking outside of the box, constantly pushing limits and high-level, creative thinking.

You need to be 100% clear on your personal values if you’re going to discover your purpose and successfully align it with your business.

Action Step ›› List out all of the words you feel best represent your personal values. Narrow down this list to 3 – 5 values that are absolutely indisputable and are, in your eyes, essential to the way you live your daily life. Some example words include integrity, timeliness, compassion, creativity, innovation, community, respect, honor, service, etc.

2) Listen to Your Inner Voice

While it does take practice, learning to listen to your inner voice and truth is not impossible. In my experience, your inner voice will speak to you about your purpose or passions in what I like to call simple truths. Simple truths are simple statements that pop into your head over and over, to which you don’t respond with rejection, disbelief or even acknowledgment.

Simple truths will start out as passing thoughts that will make you pause. The longer you ignore these truths, the more frequent they will become! They will begin to tug at your heart and cause you a great deal of distraction as they turn from small to LOUD and nagging.

If you want to find your true purpose in life, you have to learn to listen to those simple truths.

Action Step ›› Make note of the simple truths that have been popping into your head for some time. Remember that these will be things you don’t necessarily argue against or believe at the time they occur. The ones that pull at your heart are usually the most telling.

3) Get REAL and be HONEST!

For just a moment, stop worrying about what everyone else expects of you, what you think you should be doing or what makes the most sense. What do you really, REALLY want to do with your life? What do you feel CALLED to create in the world? When you envision your ideal life, what are you doing? Where are you and who are you with?

This isn’t as easy as it sounds… You may find that your answer continues to change the more you think about it. And that’s AWESOME because the more times you attempt to truthfully answer this question, the closer you’re getting to discovering your true purpose in life.

If the answer to this question doesn’t make every single cell in your body burst with excitement, emotion or intense flutters of fear and KNOWING, then you’re not there yet. And if you don’t REALLY know what it means to feel those things in every single cell of your body, then you most definitely aren’t there yet. Because when you know, YOU KNOW.

Action Step ›› Answer the question, “What do you really, REALLY want to do with your life?” until every cell in your body screams in excitement or you burst into tears of joy and relief (or fear :D). Go. And don’t wimp out on this one, it’s the most important part.

Leave a comment below and share your thoughts on this post!

Simple Steps to Help You Own Your Expertise and Better Communicate Your Message

There was a time when the thought of chiming in on a conference call would make my voice small and squeaky while my heart would race uncontrollably. A time when having to present artwork to a client or talk about my services to a new contact would cause me to awkwardly fumble over my words.

And the networking events… oh the networking events!

I can’t count the number of times I would sit there, reciting what I was going to say over and over in my head, only to stand up and be so distracted by my pounding heart and shaking legs that I would sit back down (much sooner than anticipated) and wonder if I even said my name right!

Sometimes just the thought of having a phone call, whether job-focused or just to talk about project collaborations, would render me a useless, nervous wreck! I would spend far too much time wondering what they were going to ask me and then how I would respond. And then when the questions finally came, I would trip over myself because I was trying to remember what I thought I should be saying!

The importance of living in the moment.

One of the most important things I’ve learned in the last six months is to live in the moment. This means being fully aware and present for your life and all your interactions. Listening fully and, more importantly, staying out of your own head!

When you’re busy overthinking the conversation, what you’ll say next, what you should have said or even wondering what the other person is thinking of you, you’re not truly present and you’re not fully engaged in the conversation. Whether this conversation is a one-on-one call or your speaking to a group is irrelevant. The point is that you’re not engaged and your message becomes clouded.

Additionally, if you’re busy over thinking your appearance, trying to say things the way you think you should or distracted by your own nervousness, people will feel an immediate disconnect. They either won’t get the right vibe or won’t understand what you’re trying to sell them. Either way, this is no good when you’re trying to build a business around a very important message!

Step out of your head and into your genius.

Where you’re passionate you flow.
Where you flow you sell.

When I finally made the commitment to stay out of my head and just be in the present moment, things got a lot better. I’m able to easily answer client and prospect questions, chime in on conference calls with authority and get up in front of a group of people with much greater ease! Here are some simple steps you can take to do the same:

• Stop over thinking things.

  If you have a call with a big prospect, yes, do a little research and be prepared, but don’t over think yourself into a fit of fear! If you spend too much time worrying about every little thing that could be said, you will find yourself stumbling and off beat. Do not plan out everything you’re going to say! If you need to, write yourself an outline for guidance.

• Listen. Then answer from your heart.

  When you’re really, truly present for the conversation, you’ll find that the words flow with enormous ease. It’s an amazing thing. You’ll hear the question, and before you know it you’ll hear this amazing and powerful response coming from YOU. A response that flows straight from your heart and is more powerful than anything you could have crafted beforehand.

• There is no such thing as perfect. Just be YOU!

  You don’t have to speak eloquently and sound like the world’s greatest speaker, you just need to be REAL. Living in the moment gives you a direct line to the genius and expertise that I KNOW you have inside of you. When you feel called to make a difference and drawn to providing society with solutions, you have a direct line to the creative source. All you need to do is trust that you were packaged the way you are for a reason and start spreading your message!

Take action now and leave me a comment below!
I would love to hear your thoughts and personal experiences!

Three Ways to Determine if Your Branding is Effective and You’re Reaching Your Ideal Clients

Since launching my website and refocusing my business, I’ve seen an influx of new followers on Twitter. Every day I get excited to check and see who’s started following me because I know I’m going to have the opportunity to check out some pretty awesome people doing some amazing things in the world.

I’m loving all the new people that are connecting with me because all these new followers are my ideal clients. They are people who are passionate about making a difference in the world and are actively doing so! This brings me right into today’s topic…

How to Determine if Your Branding is Effective

When you’re building a business, it’s easy to get caught up in the many parts and pieces of creating your brand… but how do you determine if your brand strategy is effective? Today I bring you three easy ways to determine if you’re effectively reaching your market.

1) You fans and followers are ideal clients.

When your ideal clients start liking your Facebook fan page, following you on Twitter and commenting on your blog posts, you know you’re doing something right! This means your content is on target, your message is clear and your professional image is in line with your values and audience.

If you find that you’re attracting the wrong group of people, then you need to determine where you’re off message and make the necessary tweaks. Are you attracting women when you really want men? Are your newest followers life coaches when you were hoping to bring in more health coaches? Take a look at the inconsistencies between your ideal clients and who is actually showing up. Shift your content, messaging and approach as needed!

2) People “get” who you are and what you do.

When your brand strategy is effective, you won’t find yourself having to explain, over and over, who you are and what you do. People that land on your site, stumble across your Twitter or Facebook or inquire about your services will have a clear understanding without further explanation on your end.

If you do find yourself constantly explaining your business or services, than you’ll need to take a closer look at your brand strategy, both visually and verbally. Does your website visually represent who you are and the services you provide? Is your content clear and on-message? Are your sales, about or other informative pages detailed or are they vague?

Get with a trusted friend or find some ideal clients that are open to letting you pick their brains. Have them read through your copy or visit your website and tell you their first impressions without any preceding information from you. Make note of the points they experience a hang-up or get confused. These are the areas that will require some reworking and may be your graphics or your content.

3) You’re converting visitors and fans into customers or subscribers!

It’s really important to note that for this to be a solid indicator of effective branding, you have to have been in business and actively marketing for longer than a few days. Your business and target market will determine the exact amount of time, but if you’re brand strategy is effective and marketing is a part of that, you should start to see visitors and fans converting into customers or subscribers! The more on target you are, the higher your conversion will be.

How to track your conversion rates is a topic for another post, but if you’re getting a relatively large volume of traffic to your site and you’re not seeing any sales or people opting into your mailing list, then something isn’t right. Do you have a clear call to action? Is your website well-organized? Is it easy for potential customers to navigate through your site? Is it visually appealing with high quality content?

If you’re not converting, your site, opt-in or store may not be compelling. You may not be giving them a reason to subscribe or explaining your products and services in an irresistible manner. It may also be disorganized without a clear hierarchy of information, causing people to bounce right off your site.

What to Do if You Think Your Brand is Ineffective

One of the easiest things to do is to have a professional brand audit such as the one I offer under my services above. You’ll have the chance to work through both a brand questionnaire as well as an ideal client exercise that will help you gain clarity around your goals and target audience. Once these things are determined, all facets of your brand strategy are reviewed to ensure that you’re in line with your values, messaging and your content is being created to attract your ideal client or customer. You’ll receive a clear plan of action that ensures you’ll start seeing results in no time!

Additionally, you can ask trusted friends and family members to look through your website or materials and get their initial reactions and interpretations. Sometimes as entrepreneurs we just spend too much time with our businesses and we can’t see things the way the majority of people do. Getting a fresh set of eyes can make an enormous impact on the effectiveness of your brand.

Lastly, track down some ideal clients that you know or that friends and family can connect you with. Have them take a look through your materials and get a feel for how it sits for them. You can also talk with them about their needs, ideal solutions and what sorts of things they’re looking for from a business like yours. This will give you unparalleled insight to then revamp your brand strategy going forward.

Take action now and leave a comment below with your thoughts!

Have a question about branding that you’d like answered? Leave a comment or contact me!

How to Overcome Your Inner Critic in Order to Create an Unbelievable Customer Experience

I’ve been working on putting together a program around my most favorite topic in the world, personal responsibility. I’ve spent every moment of free time over the past few weeks totally immersed in the many exciting ideas and possibilities and it’s been an absolute blast.

Monday was an especially exciting day… you know those days when you’re thinking about all the possibilities and you start to have some really fun and unique-to-you ideas? You know, those little things you’d LOVE to do that not only fit within the scope of your project or business, but are totally one-of-a-kind concepts blending some of your favorite things?

Let me tell you, I was BURSTING at the seams with some exciting ideas… one of which involves upcycled notebooks (love upcycling… and notebooks!), mixed media art covers (mixed media is so MY style) and some fun little ways to create a unique and interactive experience for the members of this program. I was SO excited by the idea that I immediately went on hunt for where I could find some lightly used notebooks… and then it happened.

Self doubt and the inner critic.

No one but me would like these silly notebooks.

It’s going to be extra work and no one will even use them.

This is a dumb idea.

People will think I’m a five year old with my silly crafts.

You get the idea.

Self-doubt is that nagging little inner critic’s voice that tells you anything unique or different is wrong or dumb. In one of my favorite books, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, this voice is referred to as your Censor. According to Julia, the Censor is “part of our leftover survival brain. It was the part in charge of deciding whether it was safe for us to leave the forest and go out into the meadow.”

Basically, if it hasn’t been done before (and these unique-to-you ideas usually haven’t), your inner critic goes on the attack. This paragraph from The Artist’s Way sums it up best:

The only sentences / paintings / sculptures / photographs it likes are the
ones that it has seen many times before. Safe senteces. Safe paintings.
Not exploratory blurts, squiggles, or jottings. Listen to your Censor and
it will tell you that everything original is wrong / dangerous / rotten.

But here’s the truth…

Your unique ideas are what set you apart and
create an outstanding customer experience.

In a world of mass-production, non-existent customer service and unimaginative concepts, it’s the little things that make all the difference. When you pour love, passion, inspiration and original thinking into your business, product or service, you’re creating something truly unique. It immediately shows your potential buyer who you are and that you really LOVE what you do. Better yet, it makes a clear statement that you’re passionate about providing an extraordinary and unparalleled customer experience.

I want to share a couple great examples that come to mind for me…

• Marie Forleo and the Rich, Happy Hot Programs

  Marie is my mentor and I’ve been fortunate to attend her Rich, Happy, Hot LIVE event as well as participate in her Adventure Mastermind program. Marie is a shining example of someone who has taken her passions and blended them into her business in ways that are fun, educational and totally HER. With a love for marketing, business, music and dance, she’s created promotional music videos, incorporated dance (and even a dance WHEEL – think wheel of fortune but with music genres for an instant dance party!) into her live events and has brought her love of fun adventures into her mastermind program. Things like travel adventures, boudoir sessions, pole dancing and of course, regular ol’ dance parties. By doing so, she’s attracted an abundance of adoring fans and customers that share her love of marketing and good times!

• Hands in Helping Out Volunteer Group
  
  I love to volunteer and have been to several different types of volunteer events. Some of them are programs where you agree to volunteer for certain amounts of time… some of them are one-off events. Some have training. Some just welcome you and provide some snacks and information. The awesome folks of HIHO (a volunteer organization based on Oahu) do things differently. They’ve taken their love of volunteering and community and created something along the lines of a membership program, complete with fun rewards! As a member, you share your interests at your orientation and get invited to volunteer at events that fit your preferences. Additionally, you get invited to fun events like ice cream socials! Instead of creating another volunteer group, they’ve created something around their love for community and conversation, successfully crafting an experience that’s impossible not to love or want to be a part of.

Blending your passions for massive success.

Now that you’ve read a couple examples and had a little insight into my own personal experience, what are some ways you can create a unique experience for your customers while doing fun things that you absolutely LOVE? Here are some tips to remember as you brainstorm ideas:

1. Don’t listen to your inner critic.

   This can be easier said then done, I know. But next time your inner critic pops in to say how silly an idea is or tell you that you’ll never make any money doing whatever it is that you want to do, I want you to say, “Thanks for sharing.” And CARRY ON. If it lit you up from the get-go, before self-doubt had a chance to rear it’s ugly head, it’s going to be a hit because you’re going to pour everything into it and your excitement will be contagious.

   Take yourself out of your head and get back to work!

2. Take action. Take action. Take action.

   Whether or not you create success in your business comes down to whether or not you’re taking action. The longer you sit with an idea, the more self-doubt you’re going to experience and the more opportunities you’ll have to talk yourself out of your best ones. When you get an idea that lights you up, run with it. The best way to find out if it’s a good idea is to get it out there and see how it lands with your audience. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

3. Stay true to who YOU are.

   Just because some people are successful creating membership programs and music videos, doesn’t mean you’ll be. You need to focus on the things that you love and not the things you think people will love because someone else did it. If you’re doing it because you think you should and not because you’re so excited that you couldn’t possibly be doing anything else, then you need to stop and re-evalute what you’re really passionate about creating.

So I want to know, what’s your craziest business idea?

How to Turn Your Greatest Passion or Biggest Idea into a Profitable, High-Impact Business

When you’re passionate about a cause or making the world a better place, it can be hard to envision how you’ll create a profitable business around that. Sure, you’re enthusiastic about it, but just because you love to talk endlessly about the topic, devour every book on the subject and drive your family and friends insane, doesn’t mean it’s a viable business… right? WRONG.

I don’t care if you’re passionate about health, animals, the environment or educating underprivileged kids, you can absolutely build a business around it. By themselves, your passion and ideas are enough qualification to build a profitable, high-impact and fulfilling business.

Where you’re passionate you flow. Where you flow you sell.

You can make decent money doing a lot of different things in this world, as I’m sure you’re well aware. However, if you want to make massive quantities of money while doing what you love then you need to get honest with yourself about what really lights you up inside.

From my own personal experience, I know this is not always as easy as it sounds. Sometimes it’s hard to admit to yourself or anyone else what you really, REALLY want to do. It’s time to shed your fears and discard all internal and external expectations because you’ve got lives to change!

If you didn’t have to worry about what your partner thought, what bills you need to pay and what people would think of you if you quit your cushy job or went in the complete opposite direction of your hard-earned and expensive degree… what would you LOVE to do all day, every day WHILE making an unbelievable income?

Here’s a huge hint: The one area where you find yourself with fire in the belly, emotional and with endless things to say is usually where you’re true passion lies. When you’re on this topic you’re in the flow. Where you flow, you have to power to change lives, sell solutions and make an enormous impact in the world. Where do you flow?

Look for inspiration in someone else’s business model.

Once you’re clear on where your passion lies, you may not be clear on how to build a successful business around it. Because you’re so knowledgeable on the subject, you sometimes have a hard time stepping back and seeing all the amazing gifts YOU have to give to others who are less educated and in desperate need of your wisdom and guidance.

Maybe you love talking about animal rights or health and fitness. Maybe you want to help underprivileged kids learn about science and the environment. Whatever your passion is, there’s a profitable business model to support it, along with endless ways to pair it with your skills and interests.

When it comes to other companies and entrepreneur’s businesses, you can find inspiration by looking “under the hood” of their model. Are they giving talks and lectures? Holding workshops? Creating programs that go into local schools or community centers? Are they developing information products or holding webinars? Did they write a book? Whatever they’re doing, make note of the parts and pieces that get you excited and fit well with what you’re most passionate about communicating to the world.

Write… and then write a whole lot more.

One of my favorite business tools is my journal. When I’m looking to tease out a new idea, I like to write first thing in the morning, every single day, and aim for three written pages. By writing longhand, you slow down and move yourself into a space that allows for inspiration, ideas and brillance to flow.

If you’re not sure how to build a business model around your passion, grab yourself a notebook and get to work. You can start by asking yourself, the question from above, “What would I love to do all day, every day?” With journaling, the key is to let your answers flow out unedited. Write exactly what comes to mind no matter how petty, incomplete or random it feels. When you let the clutter spill out onto the page, you’re making room for clarity to come.

As you write, you’ll start to feel lighter and excited. Little idea buds will pop up and you’ll start to see a clearer picture of the many exciting ways you can make money talking about the things that bring you joy and fulfillment.

Take small steps forward. RIGHT NOW.

Every successful business started with the first step. While your grand vision may be overwhelming, seem out of reach or appear to be incomplete and slightly blurred… the first step is anything but. It’s simple and it’s the needed action that will move you closer to bringing your vision to life.

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

What is one small step you will commit to taking RIGHT NOW that will help move you forward?