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Will the real you please stand up? We know that to create engaging social media content and engaging marketing content, we need to be authentic and we need to be transparent, as the buzzword goes. But, yeah, let's be honest, 99.99% of us fail to do this. We intentionally or unintentionally edit ourselves, from how we show up to what we say to how we interact. Because we're scared, our audience won't like us. We're scared that it's not politically correct because, because, because. There's a fear that we may be rejected, may not like us, may cause a lawsuit, or it could just cause some negative juju on social media. But whatever it is, it scares us to stop. It scares us to stop being authentic. It scares us not to truly show up. It scares us to just simply checklist off the to-do list or do a Facebook Live, or create a post, but not fully give it our all. And in the end, our business suffers, our brands suffer, and so in the world do our audiences. How can we rid ourselves of not truly showing up? Well, not giving a damn is a good way to start. And yes, that's so much easier said than done, depending upon if you're a people pleaser, depending on the social stories you have, but the truth is that when you just tell like it is to your bestie, that's really what your audience wants. They want that rawness. They want that truth. Just like you're going to tell your girlfriend not to go back with that man. How can you begin to do this in a way that is you but yet, won't make you feel like you're going out naked? The easiest way is to simply talk to the wall as if they are your best friend. Whatever it is, getting those expressions, getting that tone, getting that energy, is a great way to then translate that into social media content, into the marketing content. And yes, no matter what you say or do, someone will not like you, and that's A-okay. It's better to be not liked for what you believe in than to be not liked for what you don't believe in. Make sure you show up as fully as possible and realize it's not a jump into the deep situation. It's a toe in the water, foot, ankles in the water, calves in the water, a slow-going process. Because in this day and age, where everyone has a voice, everyone has a platform, ironically, no one has anything you need to say. When you have a unique message and way of saying it, guess what? Your audience is craving to listen to it.

We would all love to believe that every single friend and family member that's in our lives currently well wants the best for us, but the truth is that as you grow as a business and a person. Your friends are going to freak out. It just happens. It happens because they love who you were, not maybe who you're going to become. And that can be scary. It's human nature. We don't like change, yet change is what's all around us. Change is the universe. And though this is a fact, people still don't like change. When you change, when you grow, when you hold yourself differently, speak differently. Your priorities become different because of your business and because you're evolving as a human being. Your friends tend to freak out. Don't let this scare you. Let this be a positive warning sign that you're on the right track. At the moment, it will hurt because these are your friends, but understand that this is a sign that you're growing and they're choosing to stay where they're at. Both are great. Both are beautiful. Both are blessed. Both of you should move on. There's no point in trying to keep old relationships when they aren't going to serve you or them. Both of you will be frustrated because neither of you will be honoring the people you're growing into. When your friends freak out, it's okay. Just bless it and keep going. Use this potentially negative experience as a positive warning sign that you are growing as a human being and as a business owner all in the right direction trust me; more friends will come, more friends will go. It's the circle of life and the circle of growth.

We all know that the marketplace isn’t getting less noisy. Lives, stories, ads, funny hats, and being a total goof is seemingly what it takes to stand out from the crowd. But is it? Let’s be honest most brands don’t want to be on social media 24/7. They don’t want to create a buffet of free content in the hopes of clients. And they don’t want to make a fool of themselves. So what is a brand to do? First off, let’s get the record straight. Recognize that blogs and regular social media are the basics. Creating free creates an audience that wants everything for free. If your audience dictates to you about what foolish outfit or endeavor you are doing next- it means you are their joker, not their leader. Now that we have that said let’s talk about ways to stand out. Traditional media is your friend. Traditional mediums like television, print, and large publications hold social proof better than any testimonial. If you are better than the average, then you have to do more than the average. The average entrepreneur barely blogs and randomly post. You have to choose better mediums to get your message out. That means going beyond your blog. Go beyond a solo post on your business page. Collaborate, sign up to be an expert, and get your solo book published. Be consistent. Consistency is the one thing that few brands do well. Consistency is a long-term game regarding your marketing efforts, but it works. It is possible to stand out from the noise. Stop playing the games and up your efforts go beyond the ordinary.

Just pick up any women’s magazine or jump onto Facebook, and you will see countless quizzes that declare to know what your style says about your personality. Now I’m not sure what those quizzes are based on, but let me share the science and psychology side of various aspects that make up your style: Do you wear shoes that make noise when you walk? Shoes that you hear before you see declare that you will own the room and you aren’t afraid of it. Does your style involve a lot of contrast? A love affair with high contrasting colors says you are not afraid to make a statement, Do you love the relaxed fit over structure? Your casual style reflects that your life’s obsessions are elsewhere. Are you all about the classic standards in life? Classic lines and clean structure says you love organization, boundaries, systems, and relationship roles. Do you wear the items that have the most sentimental value for you? If so, you are driven by your relationships before yourself. Are you into small, understated jewelry vs. bold statement-making pieces? Small and understated reflects the idea that you don’t need to be seen to be successful at your work. Do you keep your clothes long after they have been worn out? Your dedication to your clothes shows you are dedicated to other areas of your life.

Whether you intend to build your startup into a legacy brand, a sellable corporation, or just have some financial fun at the moment- you are the common thread. You must like and enjoy this business, at least at the moment, to invest your time, energy, and resources into it. What is it about this project that has your passions going? If you are unsure, you better find some clarity quickly. Because without clarity, most likely, your thrill-seeking interest will fade fast, and this will be for naught. One way to find this clarity is understanding what drives your passion from a personality perspective. Neuro Emotional Relationship Intelligence® (NERI®) uses your biology, psychological programming, subconscious perceptions, and relational triggers to best understand what drives and motivates you in life. The cool thing is that once you know your unique combination (typically a blend of 2-3 of the profiles), you can see what about your startup has your juices flowing. What it also shows you is how to best keep you in the creative flow, not get bored or burnt out. Want to know what NERI® combination you are? Click here

What do you do when you hate social media? For many great entrepreneurs, we don't instinctually love social media because it's not how we would instinctually connect with an audience. We use our creator methods to connect if that's through art, visualization, or our intellect. But the truth is that jumping on social media and telling people all the nitty-gritty about who we just seem so unauthentic. Yet social media's a much-needed tool. How can you maximize social media for your brand's benefit without feeling like you're selling your soul? It's simple. You have to remember that social media is a tool. As simple as that. It is a method. It is just one tool in your toolbox of how to get your business and your message out there. It isn't the be-all, die-all, end-all, and it isn't what you have to use all the time. But just like with any tool, you have to choose how and when, and where you use it, meaning you don't have to follow the standards if you don't want to post two to three times a day. You don't have to do the seven to 14 suggested Instagram stories a day to grow your audience. You can do what works for you. Now just like if you use a hammer to try to be a paintbrush, not going to the prettiest results. But you're instinctually choosing what to do, meaning that you're not having to follow the path of what everyone else says. Also, just like any other marketing method, it's a marketing method. And if your audience isn't engaging with you, then it may not be the right tool for the job. We have to stop being so blind when it comes to social media. Social media can do a lot for certain businesses and brands. If you level the playing fields, it can allow you to get in front of your audience with little to no cost. But that doesn't mean that's where the audience is at. And that doesn't mean that that's the right thing for you and your audience. Stop looking at social media as the holy grail of all marketing gods and realize that it is one simple tool in your entire marketing toolbox of what you can use and do. You can choose to take the hammer out and use it, or you can choose to keep social media in the box. It's completely up to you. But begin to choose because just in that simple act alone of making a choice, you no longer have surrendered your free will to play the social media game. You can empower yourself, your brand, and your market and turn your audience to say yes to you in a way that you have chosen that works for you. And that is half the battle.

Let's talk about Autobots. You know them. They're everywhere. From your Facebook page to your website, they're supposed to make it look like you're always there to serve your customers. But do they? Are they smart when it comes to growing your business relationships and in turn, creating social proof for your brand? Well, it all depends on your brand. If your brand is an online version of Walmart per se, in the sense that it is supposed to be fast, get in, get out, and get what you want, then yes, having a tuned-in Autobot can help. Your Autobot can answer your audience's questions in a quick second. But, for most entrepreneurs and brands, Autobots aren't that helpful. Autobots say things like, "We'll get back to you." They answer questions you don't have to and in turn, create frustration within the brand relationship because it says you're not there for your audience. Giving them the information they requested in a nonintimate experience creates more frustration and isolation between you and your audience, not inclusion. So, when do Autobots work, and how do they work best? The truth is Autobots work when you have very simple questions to be answered on your website or on your social media platform. Autobots work when speed is key such as in impulse buying things. Autobots can work if you take the time to tune them in, meaning that you have taken the time to discern which questions your audience has and be able to answer them in a way that truly does holistically answer the question in full - not leaving any more questions for your audience. If that's possible, then Autobots work. If that can't happen, don’t use them. For many luxury brands, Autobots simply won’t work because a luxury brand is all about creating individuality and exclusivity. Having a general answer to answer your audience's question makes them feel like they're part of the crowd. When in a luxury brand, you want your audience to feel like they are different, a completely original person. But what you can do is create ways to say, "Hey, we so appreciate your question. We appreciate you being on the website. Here's a phone number you can call if you have a question." Or, "We're not live-chatting right now, but put your message in, and we will answer you within the next 24 hours. We're so appreciative of you being here." It is better to just put the live bot on hold and not have it be an auto one. This way, your audience ask their question and give them a personalized answer. If your brand or expectation of your brand is all about personalization, customization, and relationship, then having that Autobot probably isn't the smart way to automatically make some money.

We have all been there. We are interested in a product, and we either get no description that leads us wondering “So what do I get” or we get way too much information where I am left wondering, “ When does this page stop scrolling?” There is a fine line between communicating your message and verbal diarrhea. Far too often, many brands cross this line to completely communicate their message, benefit, and value. Add on top of that the misinformation about why long sales copy works, and people ramble and ramble and ramble, all to make you say “yes.” The truth is that your audience is completely overwhelmed with information. They don’t have time to nitpick an offer or break down all the logistics to see the cost/benefit analysis. They don’t want to scroll and scroll for days looking for the information. And they also need the details presented entertainingly. Yep, you are competing for the same brain space that the funny kitty video, blockbuster movie trailer, and gross pimple-popping video are going after. Your audience needs a snapshot of the results you create and the logistics of what it takes to get there in an entertaining and enticing package. Yep, a short and sweet song and dance are what we are going for here. Nothing like a challenge, right? The good and bad news is that your audience is always evolving. So if you don’t hit it out of the park at the first launch, your audience may grow into your message. The bad news is that if you are completely on point with your brand’s message at the moment, it won’t last forever or even a few months. Our audiences are evolving at a 4-6 month rate. So what connects with them now won’t be as impactful of a trigger in just a few short months. What does all of this mean when trying to create a concise yet killer message? It means you have to understand the true motives and mindsets of your audience. Here is how you do just that. Step 1: How does your client look, feel, act, and move when fully embodying your product? Step 2: Where are your audience’s mood, mindset, and emotions now? Step 3: What will the struggles and successes along the way as they embody your work? Now that you have the heart of the matter in mind, it is about crafting those 3 perfect paragraphs that tell the story of: Paragraph 1: Where They Want To Be Paragraph 2: Where They Are Paragraph 3: How They Get There All the while showing how your product is their partner on this journey of them up-leveling their life. Grab our fill-in-the-blank concise copy swipe file and always have your perfect message, perfectly said.

The idea of sharing your unique approach and wisdom is nothing new. Yet, honestly, do we? We often edit ourselves, pay others to edit us, or outsource the task completely. No matter what you do, it is not you being truly you. How can you get out of your editing and into your unique market groove? Talk it out. Our speaking voice is more natural and relational than our written tone. Plus, with the increased use of Siri and Alexa, conversational copy converts better. Know your stories. Stop sharing other people’s analogies. You are creative. Share your own. Show your work in action. Don’t talk about it. Use video and your expert status to show your work process in action. Own your true transformation. Your work transcends the tangible. Share the intangible. Be as creative as you truly are. Don’t share your story, the message, or marketing in the same ol’ way. Be creative. Be original. Be you. And don’t let anyone stop you.

Sometimes have to let it go. If it is a relationship, a goal, or an idea that you had from childhood. Whatever it is, sometimes keeping it is not to your advantage. Yet, how do you know when you should let it go or when you should dig in deeper? Just because you're having opposition to it, to your goal, to your relationship, to what you're striving for, doesn't mean that that opposition is the road sign to stop. Sometimes it just means you're on the right road. How can you discern the difference between when you should let it go and when you should keep going? Are you still passionate about what you're going after? Are you committed to the “why” and open to the “how”? If the answer is yes, then don't let it go quite yet. When you're committed to the end goal, it doesn't matter how you get there as long as you get there. But many of us along the way are more committed to how we get there than when or if we get there. And that's when we should consider letting it go. Being attached to how you get to something, to the end goal, will be greatly disappointing. You have to be attached to the “why.” Because when you're attached to the “why,” you're going to be more open to being a creative problem solver, and you're going to be more flexible in finding what works. With society changing so quickly from technology to how we do relationships, being attached to the “how” keeps us stuck in old-school thinking. It doesn't keep us proactively moving forward, which is what you need to achieve your goals. So, if you're attached to the “how” of it all, let it go. But if you're attached to the” why,” keep going. Should you let it go? It depends on when and where it's happening. Be attached to the why more than the how, and be focused on what is truly in your intention in your heart. When you do that, it's clear if you should let it go.

Now more than ever, we are constantly creating content, not just visual but also verbal. When we are in an obsession mode of having to produce so much verbal content, if that's for a website, social media podcast, blog series, article, or just, well, your work in general, the truth is our tone of voice tends to change. Most women tend to put on their "professional voice" when it becomes business, but yet when they work with their clients, they're a little more casual and a little more relatable. We end up creating a mixed message when we end up writing a verbal copy in a certain tone but then speaking either on a podcast with our clients or on a blog series in a completely different tone. Then, after this duality has lasted long enough, our clients aren't confused. We're confused. We're confused about who we are. Should we be super casual best friends, or do we need to be professional and hold that professional standard for ourselves, as well as for our audience? The confusion then just creates a lack of communication altogether, which of course creates a lack of consistency, which of course creates a lack of cash flow for your business. How do you find and refind your actual voice of how you show up in this world? First off, you have to know what you want to show up as. When we are clear about how we want to be viewed as professionals, it's amazing how everything from our nonverbal communication, including our tone of voice and the words we choose, conspires to our benefit. Still, we must know how we want to show up in the world. Do we want to be that super polished professional? Do we want to be that fun, casual, casual, playful professional, or do we want to be our client's best friends? Whatever it is, it's completely fine as long as it is your authentic choice. Then when it comes to understanding our voice and how we show up in the world, our nonverbal communication does take over. It doesn't require a lot of thought after we're crystal clear on what we're about. Our tone naturally does clarify itself. The words we choose naturally do clarify themselves, which then creates a more clarified message because everything from your nonverbal communication, and tone of voice to how you show up aesthetically in your style, all say the same message, making your client clear about who you are, making yourself even more crystal clear about who you are, and in turn helping you to be consistent. How do you break the patterns you currently have? Number one, completely change up your environment. By changing up your environment, then you change up the pre-program expectations of what you do. If you always write your articles or newsletters at your desk, don't write them at your desk because you're going to end up with the same tone and verbal aesthetic as you always have. Change your style. Yes, changing your physical style does change how you perceive yourself. If in your mind a true expert wears high heels, then you need to wear high heels even if it's around your house, even if it's just sitting at your desk. Whatever you do, you need to ensure that your style matches how you see an expert and, in turn, yourself. Ironically, all this outward change does change the inward dynamic. It changes how your tone shows up, and it also changes how you communicate overall. No more lengthy newsletters just because. No more struggle of just looking at the white page with a blinking cursor on your screen trying to figure out what to say next. Your authentic voice will come out, and then, in turn, your authentic message comes out. But it begins with understanding your true intention of what you see an expert as and how you see yourself in this world. Dream big. Be big. Be bold, and more importantly, be you.

When we talk about knowing our worth, many of us instantly think about pricing, how in the world we price our service, our product out there. Knowing your worth has so much more to do than just the logistics of pricing because the logistics of pricing are just that, logistics. How much time does this take? What is the raw cost of goods? How much delivery fee or back-end work is required, and how much does someone need to be paid to get such a job done? Most of the pricing is logistics, yet for people who are service-oriented or design-oriented where they're creating the product, the truth is our worth truly does reflect in our price, so how do you know your worth? You have to know what kind of brand you have. If you're a low-price leader, then guess what? Low price is where you're at. It isn't about your worth. It is truly about volume in sales that will then say you are valuable AKA you are worthy, but most of us need to be thinking of ourselves as the luxury high-end brand that we are. It's less about volume and more about the experience because that's why many of us have gotten into the businesses we have today. Because we love the experience we want to create for our audience, and our audiences love the experiences we create back. With that in mind, it isn't about volume. It is about intentionality. It's about making sure that we don't shortchange or take a shortcut of actually delivering the right experience. Who doesn't know the difference between when someone genuinely asks you if you would like help or service and when someone is just giving you some placated answer that they know they're supposed to do so they don't get in trouble? There's a big difference in the experience. Even little details of putting a ribbon around a box or tying it onto a bag versus without the ribbon. Even the quality of the ribbon. Double satin? Are you using that kind of stiff polyester stuff that you feel would give you a rash if you touched it for too long? All of these details reflect what your worth is from your perspective but also reflect the worth of who you are to your audience, so make sure that you know the type of experience you truly want to deliver. What gets you off is an okay question regarding business because if you don't love it, how will your audience? Lastly, you need to make sure that you understand the actual result you're creating. It's so much more than the tangible. It's so much more than making someone look good in a pair of jeans or making a business more financially successful. What you're delivering for your audience is so much more. Now don't go egocentric and think that it's all about you because it isn't, but make sure that you understand the true process of what you help your audience experience. Your customer’s experience because understanding that truly begins to define your worth for yourself, your audience, and in turn, your price point as well.