Brand confidence is the result of clarity and consistency. In episodes 111 and 112, I share the value of being clear and consistent with all aspects of your brand and your business. And the end result of that is brand confidence, the topic of episode 113. What is brand confidence? Similar to the definition of confidence, brand confidence is your customers knowing they can rely on your business, they feel sure about the truth your brand provides to them, and from an internal standpoint, you and your team feel self-assurance in your abilities and qualities necessary to support the brand’s rep ..read more

If you do a quick search on the power of consistency, you’ll find articles about business, habit building, recruitment, personal success, and customer services – just to name a few. I’m going to add marketing and branding to the list. Clarity paired with consistency are two important elements of building a brand. Clarity of who you are as a business and a brand contribute to clarity in marketing and messaging. But clarity of branding and marketing will not mean a thing without consistency. Consistency makes a difference In a 2021 Inc article, business strategist Eric Holtzclaw suggests cons ..read more

Clarity is critical for success in so many aspects of life – ranging from personal to professional. Are you clear on the purpose of your business? Of your life? Do you have clarity on what your brand stands for? Does your audience know and understand what your business can do for them – or that it is for them? Clear is kind, unclear is unkind Brene Brown first heard this phrase in a 12-step meeting. Now she uses it as a mantra for being open-minded, curious, and at times, vulnerable in her interactions with friends, family, and colleagues. I heard her reference this phrase while listening t ..read more

More to the point, where I’ve been? Excellent question and one I needed to answer before I was ready to start releasing new content. I’ve done that – this episode will give you some insight into what I’ve been doing and why I haven’t released a new episode since February. Take care of yourself I started this episode with a message about the business mastermind group I’m part of. We meet every Friday morning. This year we’ve decided to change things up a bit and have developed quarterly themes to discuss. During the second quarter of 2022, we talked about self-care. Eating habits. Time manag ..read more

“Am I crazy to have all these different business ideas?” A friend and client asked me this question over coffee recently. No, she is not crazy. She is just full of ideas – and those ideas all happen to be business opportunities. Multiple ideas leads to multiple income streams A LinkedIn contact challenged her followers to think about how many income streams they had and offered some suggestions to consider. My first thought was to think only about my business. But she said to consider ALL income, including your spouse, selling items on Facebook, as well as any investments. And in chatting w ..read more

My goal at the end of the year was to bring purpose to 2022. I paused production of the podcast, spent time with friends and family, and directed my creative energies to art and the opportunities that have come from it. How have you started 2022 with purpose? What is purpose? By definition purpose is: the reason for which something is done or created a person’s sense of resolve or determination or, as a verb, to have as one’s intention or objective Purpose vs authenticity John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing wrote a blog post recently outlining his predictions for 2022. One of them was tha ..read more

How hard is it to engage your customers in a conversation? For some businesses, it is easy. And for far too many, it seems to be quite challenging. But why is that? Is it the desire to be more efficient? Hit a growth target? Achieve arbitrary metrics that may or may not impact the quality of the work or service we provide? Or is it that we’ve become too focused on all the internal workings of the business that we’ve lost sight of the fact without customers, we don’t have a business? Honestly I think it is a combination of all these factors. Engaging customers helps the bottom line According ..read more

In a recent keynote address, Carol Cox suggested resistance comes with living your purpose. Resistance or tension comes with anything worth having and that includes living the truth of our purpose. October 2021 Favorites files As I do at the end of each month, I am sharing thoughts, ideas, and concepts that rose to the top in terms of what I’ve learned this month. This month I was a power podcast listener – five Marketing Book Podcast episodes, a couple Happier with Gretchen Rubin, a few Speaking Your Brand with Carol Cox and a couple of other random shows add to the mix. But it was a Speak ..read more

What if I told you there were three steps to get better feedback? Three steps that would lessen the stress you feel when faced with a performance evaluation. Carole Stizza has developed a formula that will do just that. When we go into a performance evaluation or ask for feedback from a client, we often start with a prescribed form. And as a result, we listen to the responses but neglect to ask questions. Carole shares this is often because we view an evaluation as a one-way conversation rather than an open dialog for questions and conversation. Her research lead her to realize when we did ..read more

What is return on relationship? The purpose of the relationships you have should be considered and reevaluated periodically. Especially after a year like 2020, when relationships of all kinds were pulled in various directions, aligning the value of the relationship with the purpose it serves is more important than ever. How do you figure out where your relationships stand? Think about the purpose. Is the original purpose of the relationship still valid? Has it evolved over time? Has it diminished? Maybe the purpose or the value of it no longer exists? Types of relationships to evaluate Duri ..read more