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The simple truth, you control your brand. Yep, from how much you charge to who you serve, what you do, to how you do it - you choose it all. This also means you choose the brand relationships you have as well. Now choosing your brand relationships may not sound sexy and you may think, “What is there to choose?” the truth is that defining your brand relationships are essential to have the profitable, fulfilling, and successful brand you want. And when your brand relationships are on point, you can say goodbye to the clients that never convert, the unappreciation, nickel, and diming approach, and always wanting massive extras. Yes, your brand relationship, when done right- puts all of this in its place. Here is how: Define all of the types of brand relationships you have. Yep, everyone is not created equal, and nor should the relationship. From your above list, write what you want out of each of the relationships as well as what the brand needs from each of the relationships. In a third column, write HOW you would enjoy fulfilling your half of the relationship and how you want the other party to react. Is there a defining moment when the initial relationship is over, ie, services rendered? If so, what is the cue and how does the relationship transition? In a different color pen, write what you can or already do within your brand to create that result. Once you are clear about the intention of every relationship, what to do, say, implement and act becomes crystal clear. And all of those moments of self-doubt or “should I shouldn’t I” fade away too. Besides bringing you a lot of personal peace, you also create clear roles and expectations for your staff and clients. Helping them see you as the true expert and leader that you are.

We all know testimonials are the “gold mine” for our businesses to get more customers, have our customers say “yes” faster, and get repeat business. Far too often, testimonials are lackluster. Testimonials are, "We appreciate the service. It was a great value." But none of that tells the story to your potential client of why in the world they should say yes to you. How do you get your existing audience to give testimonials that tell a story? Well, it's pretty simple. It's three simple steps. You have to ask the question that starts from the beginning. You know, far too often, we simply ask for a testimonial in general, and we're not specific enough. We need to be specific and specific to the beginning of the work with you. Before they started work with you, what was going on? By getting your audience’s answer in a sentence, you're going to begin to not just get a complete story as a testimonial, but you're going to begin to get proof of where your current audience is. With this simple answer, your audience can identify with your former clients and your brand. Once your audience knows where your clients have been, they need to know what to expect. You must frame the process or transformational nature of your service or product. Your audience needs to know that there is a process. Lastly, your audience needs to know the long-term transformation. So since working with you, since having the product in your life, and since using the system - how has your client’s changed? Showing this is essential to show the long-term nature of your work and their relationships with your brand. Remember, your audience isn’t just looking for their problem to be solved. They're looking for an amazing experience along the way. Creating the right story for your testimonials can do all that and much more.

How to write a personal brand statement is quite simple. A personal brand statement is a statement about what you are about. It is not a statement about who you are, aka a mom, dad, brother, consultant, etc. it is a statement about what you are, what drives you, excites you, and sets you on fire. If the thought of writing your official “personal brand statement” sounds too clinical, collegiate, or stick up your bum boring- ask yourself, “What is my Soulfire®?” Your Soulfire® is what lights you on fire. You have had it since you were a kid- what makes you ridiculously happy? Discovering your Soufire® is easy as long as you are honest with yourself. Write out everything you loved doing as a kid, teenager, young adult, and now With each action of pure enjoyment and love, ask yourself, “why?” On a clean sheet of paper, tally up your “whys” (Trust me, you will see a repetitive theme.) Write your brand statement Personally, by the time I got to number 3, everything pointed to me as either creating beauty, sharing beauty, or protecting beauty. Now my methods of “beauty” are different: personal style, interior design, brands- but they were all based on creating something beautiful. And presto, there is my brand statement: “My soul’s fire is to create, share, and protect beauty in this world.” It came to be and hasn't shifted in 24 years. So what’s your Soulfire® statement? I mean, what is your brand statement?

For many of us in business, we dream big. We dream of “Disney” big. Meaning we're going so far, so beyond, so life-changing, so revolutionary. That's how we dream, but that's not how we work. Most of us work focused on the here and now and the day today. But that's not how Disney became a success. That's not how large corporations like Coke or Apple, or Microsoft became a success. They became a success and still are successful today because they think long-term and short-term. You're only thinking short-term. How can you change your thought pattern so that you can be a successful entrepreneur in the short term as well as in the long term? You have to be willing to see the forest from the trees and then just sometimes see the trees. When you look at the forest, when you're looking long-term, you're planning big. You have to understand that large corporations have planned a decade out. How far out do you plan? Most entrepreneurs don't plan really past a couple of weeks out. They may make vague ideas like, "Yes, I'm going to make a sale sometime in the fall," but there's no true plan. There's no true motivation or action to create the product or build the event. If it doesn't just happen, it doesn't happen. That's not how large corporations become a success. They strategically plan long-term visions and back all of that into short-term steps they can take. They're not just focused on the logistics of the everyday. They're always consistently adding and building for their future. That's how they become a success. That's how they become revolutionary and how these large corporations tend to have the perfect item at the perfect time, which means you can too. It's simply an act of planning. instead of just focusing on what's on your schedule for the next couple of days, focus on what should be your life for the next couple of years and what you want your business to be a decade from now. How does that look? Think big, dream big, just like Disney and just as Coke does. They don't plan small. They go large. Go large and give yourself the time to grow into that. You don't have to produce a product and instantly get it out. It can take a bit of time to develop, and sometimes those products that maybe take the longest to get to market can be the smartest when they get there because you can think through all the details, really plan out the experience, and take a pause to not have to constantly create and then execute. You can slowly create, build a plan, build a strategy, grow the market, and have the market in place when you're ready to truly launch. True success comes from a short-term and long-term view, so make sure that you're not just looking at the short-term success of your business, but you're looking at the long-term success too.

We live in a day and age of originality. Everyone wants to be an original, one of a kind. Let's be honest. They all want to be in their version of Lady Gaga, but the truth is, is that most of us tend to, well, minimize that original nature along the way, especially when it comes to starting our businesses. In the beginning, we don't care. It's open season, balls to the wall of being our original self, and we get a lot of attention for it. But then, when we decide to be "serious" about taking our business seriously, we tend to tone that back, so our crazy rocky road personality or rainbow sherbet personality kind of becomes a little mellow little less rocky, and a little more vanilla. In doing that, we end up making one of the most cardinal mistakes most startups make and most people make as we get older, which is we stop doing what we want and start becoming everyone else. Now, we don't consciously do this, of course. Of course, we say, "Well, it's for the betterment of the relationship. I'm just toning this down so that way, we can make better connections, so that way, I can serve more people." Still, in the end, you're putting yourself in a cage so that way, other people can feel safe around you. When you start minimizing and limiting your originality, you then start telling other people on the subconscious level that yes, you too agree that your true personality is not A-okay. You need to be minimized, which means that that person has all authority in their mind and subconsciously in yours to help you minimize your personality even more. This can happen in relationships personally. This can happen in professional partnership relationships. This can happen to your clients. This can happen in so many ways. The truth is that in the end, when you start to minimize yourself when you put your personality in the cage. You end up not just hurting yourself, but you end up hurting the ones that you're meant to serve because they're seeing you as well. They loved your crazy rainbow sherbet personality when you came out, and then they wondered, "Why did you sell out? Why did you go small? Why did you change the way you talked? Why did you change your aesthetic? Was it you, or was it because of what other people thought of you?" Then, that makes them think that they can't be their original selves. In today's age, entrepreneurs are the true influencers in society and more. It's our responsibility to truly show up as who we are and to be very cautious and unapologetic about how we change our aesthetics and our appearance. Are we doing it because it's a natural evolution? Then, great, go for it. But if we're doing it because we're playing small, trying not to offend others, trying to please the masses or anything else that gets us away from our rainbow sherbet original selves. Then we're not doing the right thing, and we're not just hurting ourselves. We're hurting the ones we say we're here to serve. Forget about being vanilla. Forget about being polite, being nice, o doing anything other than what is authentically you because in the end, if your intention is not to harm others but to help others and to be of kindness, love, service, and light into this world, you don't have to worry about how you show up. You know your intentions, and your heart, so in everything else, play full out, original you, and don't allow anyone to tame your rainbow sherbet ways.

Have you ever experienced that moment where you thought you were receiving one thing, but in the end, you felt like the queen of the world? That every detail and kindness was extended to you. Hours felt like minutes. You loved the people, the conversations, and the interactions at hand. It is these moments that we live for. And it is these moments as brands that we need to create through everything we do, even our marketing efforts. Modern marketing has changed the landscape on many levels regarding how people interact. Real-world has made way for virtual, and instant has replaced exceptional. Or at least that is what everyone wants you to believe. But like all good marketing, being not like the rest of the crowd is essential to standing out. So how do you stand out, and create an out-of-the-box experience in a timely and cost-effective manner? Choose platforms that show your status. Doing what everyone else does isn’t going to get you noticed. Choose platforms that naturally elevate your expert status and present you as the expert you are. Create a higher caliber. There is always a balance between getting things done and delivering a higher caliber of experience. Always edutain. Yes, you aren’t boring your audience to death with facts and statistics, and nor are you here to do a song and dance for your audience either. Everything is about edutainment. Media Matters. Traditional media outlets are still go-to instant social proof platforms. Consider working directly with traditional media outlets or choose platforms that the traditional media will notice. Consistency is key. Like everything in business and in life, consistency is key when it comes to creating an out-of-the-box marketing experience.

Many people love being an entrepreneur because they think it means they have no schedule. They think the idea of having to wake up at a certain time and go to work at a certain time goes away. On many levels, it does for an entrepreneur, but staying in this constant vacay mode of not having to have an alarm clock or a day planner is going to kill your business in the end. The truth is your schedule is your greatest friend when it comes to your startup and simply being a success. When you don't have a schedule in mind, and you just have a list of to-do's, it can become overwhelming, and it can become easily push-off-able. Then you don't attain anything. You end up spending days where you get one thing accomplished when you could've gotten three things accomplished or four things accomplished, and then you don't make the success and the progress you want to make, which makes you frustrated. You can solve all that by actually having a schedule. Now I think paper schedules are best because your subconscious mind works better when the pen is in hand and papers at the touch. But if you're an online person, just write it down and, more importantly, stick with it. The idea is that you're going to do a Facebook live at two o'clock if you don't have any intention of doing it. Your schedule is a way to keep you in check and point and keep you moving forward. It's your absolute best friend when it comes to being a success and getting stuff done. If you're looking at other entrepreneurs wondering how in the world they are doing all of that, how are they writing the books and growing their businesses and being everywhere? It's because they have the schedule, and they're working their schedule. Their schedule isn't working for them.

Like it or not, you are your brand. And though you may sell your existing business at some point, until the day you die, you will forever be your personal brand. Here are 5 ways to master your personal brand. Do know that your look matters. How you show up in the world matters. Dress for you, but always dress your best. Don’t worry about staying or being the same. No one wants you to be the same person all the time. Be consistent in showing the world all of who you really are. Do know how many impressions you make daily. The average person makes around 10,000 impressions a day online and offline. While the average professional who uses social media for their business makes around 50,000 impressions in a day. Don’t let others box you in. People naturally will want to define you. Choose the relationship and the expert role you want to play before you’re given one. Do always speak for yourself. Never let anyone speak for you. You write your post, back your words, and say your peace. You must fully own who you are.

Helping people think outside of the societal box is one of the greatest advantages of entrepreneurs. But selling new ideas, beliefs, and stories that go against our social programming can be challenging. How do you sell a new idea to your market when they don’t even know they want it? Find the social story at play. Our audiences and industries all have social stories that influence us for good and sometimes for not-so-good. When we understand what the story says, we can speak to or against social programming. Connect with the subconscious triggers. As human beings, we live our lives over 90% of the time with our subconscious minds driving us. This means our fears, anxieties, doubts, and hesitations are what is running your audience. Speak to these unspoken and show them how your new idea speaks to their unspoken. Talk to the heart and not the head. No one moves from the logical side of life. We are heart-driven first. Show your audience how your idea fulfills the desires of their hearts and dreams. Aka doesn’t sell the logic. Sell the heart. Selling a new idea to your audience isn’t an impossibility. It is possible when you follow these three simple steps.

We all have heard the expression, the company you keep reflects upon who you are as a person. There is even the idea that the five people that you communicate with daily influence your life more than anyone or anything out there. The truth is the company you keep does matter on many levels, especially during the startup phase of life. Because when you're growing a startup and a business, you're in massive transformation and change. And you need people around you who support that change, that vision, and in turn, support you. It isn't necessarily about having the most positive people around you as much as people who have your back. When you are around people who get you, you have good connections and good ties. Energetically, they bring you up. They bring your spirits up, allowing your mind to be more creative. Also, the literal connections that you make can be potential contacts and collaborations. But the energetic connections that you make also help make you be your best. It makes your copy sound better. Your social media posts sound better. Because when you're coming from a place of stress or self-doubt, all of that feeds into everything you do online, offline, visually, and verbally. If you want to make your sales better, your marketing smarter, and have more clients say yes to you, then you better be careful about the company you keep and make sure that the people around you believe in you, have your back, and are positive influences all around.

Many people say that what other people think of you is their business, not yours. But I disagree with that. Here is why. Though what other people think of you is their choice. The only way to create change within the relationship and, in turn, influence the other person is to know where they are starting from. And that starts with you understanding how they perceive you. Once you understand the other parties’ biases, interpretations, and potential areas of misunderstanding, you know how to course correct the perception and consciously influence the relationship. So yes, you should know what other people think of you.

When trying to stand out with your brand, some people show up like peacocks while others show up like pigs with lipstick on. Here are the dos and don’ts to stand out with your brand. Do be classy. Whatever you do, always bring the highest level and standards possible. Don’t be showy. No need to be intentionally showy. If you bring your “A” game, the right people will notice. Do have a purpose. Have a reason for your brand to be seen. Don’t be a drama queen. We already live in an overly dramatic society. Don’t add to it for self-indulgent reasons. Do know your worth. Having your brand be seen isn’t about competing with anyone. It is about clearly knowing, defining, and standing in who you are and what your brand is about.