One of the best decisions I recently made going into the New Year was making the commitment to bring art, rejuvenation, yoga, massages, and flow back into my life consistently while setting the intention for all these to help expand my life and my clients.

I took action on that by taking myself on an overnight solo artist retreat prior to New Year’s Eve.

Well, the days following proved that listening to my intuition was spot on. My creativity soared as did my senses. I felt more alive, saw things more clearly, connected more with my heart, and had more physical energy than months prior.

I had not painted art in almost 5 years (which was always a jolt for my creativity). During the retreat I was inspired to reconnect with this part of my authenticity I had long neglected.

So I stepped into Clara Berta’s art studio (the host of the retreat) and produced what I later named “Golden Sunset.” I had no idea what I was going to paint, but with her guidance, this is what emerged. :)

I’m encouraging you for 2012 to listen to your heart more and your head less. They work together but please allow your heart to take front seat, ok?

It’s the seat of your wisdom.

With that said, here are a few tips how to live your life more authentically, which will SHINE through your personal brand in all your marketing:

1. Invent your own life. Live according to your own ideals of happiness. Allow your imagination to set fulfilling goals for the New Year and have the courage to go after them till complete.
2. Live passionately. Radiate your vital energy; it’s contagious and inspiring to others while raising the vibration around you as you pay it forward.
3. Learn and evolve. Commit to continually learning something new about life, your business, and relationships. Evolve.

When you take care of your inner life, your outer life (and brand) succeeds.  Here’s to a fabulous year where lives are enhanced and dreams are realized because of heeded the call of your heart.

One of the best decisions I recently made going into the New Year was making the commitment to bring art, rejuvenation, yoga, massages, and flow back into my life consistently while setting the intention for all these to help expand my life and my clients.

I took action on that by taking myself on an overnight solo artist retreat prior to New Year’s Eve.

Well, the days following proved that listening to my intuition was spot on. My creativity soared as did my senses. I felt more alive, saw things more clearly, connected more with my heart, and had more physical energy than months prior.

I had not painted art in almost 5 years (which was always a jolt for my creativity). During the retreat I was inspired to reconnect with this part of my authenticity I had long neglected.

So I stepped into Clara Berta’s art studio (the host of the retreat) and produced what I later named “Golden Sunset.” I had no idea what I was going to paint, but with her guidance, this is what emerged. :)

I’m encouraging you for 2012 to listen to your heart more and your head less. They work together but please allow your heart to take front seat, ok?

It’s the seat of your wisdom.

With that said, here are a few tips how to live your life more authentically, which will SHINE through your personal brand in all your marketing:

1. Invent your own life. Live according to your own ideals of happiness. Allow your imagination to set fulfilling goals for the New Year and have the courage to go after them till complete.
2. Live passionately. Radiate your vital energy; it’s contagious and inspiring to others while raising the vibration around you as you pay it forward.
3. Learn and evolve. Commit to continually learning something new about life, your business, and relationships. Evolve.

When you take care of your inner life, your outer life (and brand) succeeds.  Here’s to a fabulous year where lives are enhanced and dreams are realized because of heeded the call of your heart.

What started out as an experiment 3 years ago has turned into the preferred way of life. One month before my wedding, I decided to eat gluten free to see what effect it had on my body. In 10 days, I was down 4 pounds. Knowing this was water weight only, I was intrigued by the thought that my body was holding onto extra water because of gluten. I pretty much decided on the spot that I didn’t need gluten and I could live without it just fine!

Over the next year and a half, I proclaimed that I was NEVER (ha ha) giving up dairy because I loved my cheese and I was already gluten free. That was in 2009. In February of 2010, I decided I could give up dairy for 4 months to clean out my system and strengthen my digestive system.

Did you know that about 80% of your immunity comes from your digestive system?

Several nights a week I would experience congestion before bed so I knew it was something I was eating or drinking that was causing a problem. After getting the results back of my Alcat test, I made a video to share all the products I picked up in order to substitute my favorite foods as an easy transition into a new diet.

After completing a few months of dairy free living, I added it back in. It was no shock to have the congestion come back and I realized that maybe I need to remove it from my diet period. When it comes to gluten, I rarely have it. Maybe once every 6 weeks-but I plan for it. I take some enzymes and usually have it while I am on my menstrual cycle because there are days I am more bloated anyway.

I still consume some dairy but I have cut down dramatically. Cheese was a part of my daily diet and would appear in often 2 meals a day. Nowadays, I probably have cheese once a week. The substitutions I made when I eliminated it for 4 months have stuck. I use mostly coconut creamers, almond and coconut milk and buy hemp or coconut ice cream if I want some dairy-like dessert. The products I have been using have become my favorite products and I honestly don’t miss the cheese.

My friends, before the wedding, would tell you that I was a cheese-a-holic. And I clearly was not ready in 2009 to even consider it. But as time went on, I realized that it is ONLY food and at the end of the day, my health and body are important to me. I found some suitable substitutes and my palate has changed. Thank god.

Growing a garden has been the best way to enter into a healthy marriage with my food- this reference is from the food chapter of Fit 2 Love: How to Get Physically, Emotionally, and Spiritually Fit to Attract the Love of Your Life.

Our garden is small and we don’t currently have enough planted to produce vegetables for lunch and dinner every day. When we do, I get very excited about finding new ways to prepare what we are harvesting. But right now we are in mid-season. The eggplant is growing, the tomatoes are in process and the zucchini is starting to take off but none are ready to eat.

A few months ago, I was interviewed on film for a documentary about Raw Food. The chapter in Fit 2 Love was a missing piece in the film about our relationship to what we consume and how to nurture a healthier relationship with food.

I consume raw products but I have always thought it was too hard and unrealistic to eat Raw 100% of the time. But I have hit a point in my life where I love focusing on my food and I need a new goal! Going raw for a week or two seems like the next step for me.

Here is the trailer for the movie, I am in frame 3:26. The Raw Natural Movie that is due out this summer!

TheRawNatural.com

I have one or two people who are going to be doing this experiment with me. If you’d like to join me, we start soon!

What started out as an experiment 3 years ago has turned into the preferred way of life. One month before my wedding, I decided to eat gluten free to see what effect it had on my body. In 10 days, I was down 4 pounds. Knowing this was water weight only, I was intrigued by the thought that my body was holding onto extra water because of gluten. I pretty much decided on the spot that I didn’t need gluten and I could live without it just fine!

Over the next year and a half, I proclaimed that I was NEVER (ha ha) giving up dairy because I loved my cheese and I was already gluten free. That was in 2009. In February of 2010, I decided I could give up dairy for 4 months to clean out my system and strengthen my digestive system.

Did you know that about 80% of your immunity comes from your digestive system?

Several nights a week I would experience congestion before bed so I knew it was something I was eating or drinking that was causing a problem. After getting the results back of my Alcat test, I made a video to share all the products I picked up in order to substitute my favorite foods as an easy transition into a new diet.

After completing a few months of dairy free living, I added it back in. It was no shock to have the congestion come back and I realized that maybe I need to remove it from my diet period. When it comes to gluten, I rarely have it. Maybe once every 6 weeks-but I plan for it. I take some enzymes and usually have it while I am on my menstrual cycle because there are days I am more bloated anyway.

I still consume some dairy but I have cut down dramatically. Cheese was a part of my daily diet and would appear in often 2 meals a day. Nowadays, I probably have cheese once a week. The substitutions I made when I eliminated it for 4 months have stuck. I use mostly coconut creamers, almond and coconut milk and buy hemp or coconut ice cream if I want some dairy-like dessert. The products I have been using have become my favorite products and I honestly don’t miss the cheese.

My friends, before the wedding, would tell you that I was a cheese-a-holic. And I clearly was not ready in 2009 to even consider it. But as time went on, I realized that it is ONLY food and at the end of the day, my health and body are important to me. I found some suitable substitutes and my palate has changed. Thank god.

Growing a garden has been the best way to enter into a healthy marriage with my food- this reference is from the food chapter of Fit 2 Love: How to Get Physically, Emotionally, and Spiritually Fit to Attract the Love of Your Life.

Our garden is small and we don’t currently have enough planted to produce vegetables for lunch and dinner every day. When we do, I get very excited about finding new ways to prepare what we are harvesting. But right now we are in mid-season. The eggplant is growing, the tomatoes are in process and the zucchini is starting to take off but none are ready to eat.

A few months ago, I was interviewed on film for a documentary about Raw Food. The chapter in Fit 2 Love was a missing piece in the film about our relationship to what we consume and how to nurture a healthier relationship with food.

I consume raw products but I have always thought it was too hard and unrealistic to eat Raw 100% of the time. But I have hit a point in my life where I love focusing on my food and I need a new goal! Going raw for a week or two seems like the next step for me.

Here is the trailer for the movie, I am in frame 3:26. The Raw Natural Movie that is due out this summer!

TheRawNatural.com

I have one or two people who are going to be doing this experiment with me. If you’d like to join me, we start soon!

The jungle is dark, humid and dense. Birds of all kinds sing and call, while other animals rustle through the underbrush. The adventurers hack through the plants with their machetes to blaze a passable trail. It’s hard work, and it had to be done so they have a clear path to get where they’re going.

Is your website like that jungle?

Recently, I met someone at a conference and wanted to learn more about them while following up. So, I carved out a few minutes to check out their website. I was totally and completely unprepared for what I found there. 87 pages of information about their services. Not 10, not 20. 87.

This is a common mistake that small businesses make – they put all the information they possibly can about their businesses on their website, and make a mega-huge website!

They think that if they just make the information available, then maybe someone. anyone. will stumble upon it and hire them. That they have to put everything they have out there in order to get attention.

And then they’re surprised when their mega-website doesn’t bring them a flood of clients. But here’s what happens: their site becomes dense and thick, and people who come to the site get overwhelmed by all of the information available.

They take one look at your menu – with all the pages and sub-pages (and sometimes even sub-pages) and then they have to make a decision. Will they start to hack their way through the jungle of your website, or will they click away from your site?

You don’t want your client to have to make that decision.

Like those adventurers in the jungle that we talked about earlier, your website visitors need a passable trail through your website. They need that clear path to get them into conversation with you.

When your visitors come to your site, they need to make the transition from finding you, to learning the information they need to know, to contacting you and connecting further. And you want to do this simply and quickly as possible. while keeping their desire and need to talk to you high.

Here are a few quick tips to clear a path through your website that will make it easier for people to go deeper with you:

• Create your website with your ideal clients’ questions and needs in mind – what do they most want to know when they arrive?
• Dedicate some time at least every 6 months to review and prune your site as needed – and to identify areas where you could improve what’s there.
• Remove old offerings that don’t apply to your current genius or your clients’ needs.
• Strive for relevance – don’t treat your website as a trophy case for all you’ve done and developed.
• Keep page counts low, and navigation simple.
• Test shorter-form sales pages against long ones and see what works better for your audience (short is working well these days).
• Swap long ebooks and dense copy for short and snappy video.
• Choose a first step that you’d like people to take in your business and direct the bulk of your website’s energy towards making that happen.
• Be discerning with your copy – if it’s not impactful and interesting, then ditch it (if you don’t want to delete it forever, you can switch the page to a “draft” in WordPress).
• Put only your best work in your blog and/or portfolio. Weed out the rest.
• Focus your efforts on getting visitors to sign up for your mailing list so you can take your conversations further there.

Which of these tips will you start using today to create more connection with your website visitors, and to clear their path to working with you?

Guest Writer – Erin Ferree

Erin Ferree is a branding coach, design genius and strategic thinker. She loves connecting the dots between passion and profit, mixing strategy and inspiration and shaking things up. She’s branded over 450 small businesses in the last 10 years. Erin works with entrepreneurs who want to help more people and create an open, honest, inviting brand with integrity – instead of using icky, pushy, sleazy marketing tactics and trickery. Learn more at http://brandstyledesign.com

A well-designed logo is one of your most valuable assets. At its best, a great logo encapsulates your brand principles across all of your marketing materials—business cards, letterhead, brochures, email newsletters, websites, and blogs. It expresses the core message of your brand succinctly: with a single glance at your logo, viewers will grasp your uniqueness and want to do business with you.

Knowing the key elements of an effective logo and how they work will help you not only to communicate clearly with your designer, but also to make an informed final choice on the logo that expresses your brand the best.

An effective small business logo is made up of three different parts: the graphic, the font, and the colors. Let’s see how each of these logo elements represents and enhances your brand.

1.     The Graphic

The graphic element in a logo can be an icon, an illustration, a pattern, or even a well-designed line. Whatever its shape, the graphic is versatile. It should be able to collaborate with the entire logo, and stand alone as the emblem of your brand.

There are three main features of the graphic to consider:

• Shape: Select a shape with a meaning that integrates your brand’s story. It should be bold and eye-catching, but not overdone. It must display across different media and in several sizes, so it should not be too lightweight, either.
• White Space: Line is not all there is to the graphic. It also includes white space. The human mind loves to be able to identify and complete things. White space allows it do that with a recognizable or a hidden shape (like the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo). The white space in your logo can activate the minds of your audience, so make the most of it.
• Scalability: Test your graphic (and entire logo) in color and black-and-white and at various sizes to make sure it retains its identity.

The Typeface, or Fonts

As Robert Bringhurst says in The Elements of Typographic Style, “Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form, and thus with an independent existence.” Fonts express the depth of your brand and bring it to life. There are a few things to consider in order to make that happen:

• Use two complementary but contrasting typefaces. Two fonts will add dynamism to your logo, but if the fonts are too close in appearance, it will look like you meant to use the same font, but used the wrong one by mistake.
• Match your font to your business style. For example, a kickboxing studio would be ill-served by a classy script font, just as an etiquette company would be by a homey, handwritten font. Every font carries an implied meaning, and that meaning should be aligned with your brand. Here are some examples to help inspire your imagination:

A serif font like Liberation Serif (download) is timeless, classic, traditional, stable, elegant, historic, corporate…

A sans-serif font like Sansus Webissimo (download) is contemporary, innovative, modern, masculine, forward-thinking, progressive, simple…

A script font like Exmouth (download) is elegant, personal, refined, sophisticated, feminine, polished…

A handwritten font like Redstar Regular (download) is casual, comfortable, relaxed, easy-going, personal…

A decorative font like Androgyne (download) is fun, unique, attractive, eye-catching, out-of-the-box…

3.     The Color Palette

Color speaks directly to the emotions, so if you want to draw an audience, select your color palette with care. Your choice should be based on two things: the emotions you want your brand to evoke, and the story your brand tells. In other words, “I used blue because I like it,” isn’t a good enough reason to choose a color.

Most importantly, the color palette of your brand and your logo should be based on what resonates with your target audience the most. Follow these two key guidelines to find the best colors to galvanize your clientele into action:

1. Keep the number of colors in your logo to a minimum, aiming at two, maybe three. A logo with only two or, at the most, three colors will be focused, clean, and memorable; too many colors can dilute your brand message. (The overall brand color palette may contain several more colors.)
2. Understand the meanings and histories of your colors. Doing so will help you make the most of them to communicate, reinforce, and enhance your core values and your brand story.

Visit Colour Lovers for great resources on selecting colors and a color palette. And don’t forget to check out the Bourn Creative blog series on the meanings of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, grey, black, white, brown, pink, turquoise, gold, silver, and beige.

It’s Elemental…

Your logo is much more than something that looks pretty and uses your favorite colors. Each part of a successful small business logo—the graphic, the typeface, and the color palette—collaborates to represent your unique niche and brand personality. When selected carefully, these elements will reinforce and enhance your brand story, create a more meaningful connection with your audience, and reap clear, positive results that make all the difference to you and your clients.

A well-designed logo is one of your most valuable assets. At its best, a great logo encapsulates your brand principles across all of your marketing materials—business cards, letterhead, brochures, email newsletters, websites, and blogs. It expresses the core message of your brand succinctly: with a single glance at your logo, viewers will grasp your uniqueness and want to do business with you.

Knowing the key elements of an effective logo and how they work will help you not only to communicate clearly with your designer, but also to make an informed final choice on the logo that expresses your brand the best.

An effective small business logo is made up of three different parts: the graphic, the font, and the colors. Let’s see how each of these logo elements represents and enhances your brand.

1.     The Graphic

The graphic element in a logo can be an icon, an illustration, a pattern, or even a well-designed line. Whatever its shape, the graphic is versatile. It should be able to collaborate with the entire logo, and stand alone as the emblem of your brand.

There are three main features of the graphic to consider:

• Shape: Select a shape with a meaning that integrates your brand’s story. It should be bold and eye-catching, but not overdone. It must display across different media and in several sizes, so it should not be too lightweight, either.
• White Space: Line is not all there is to the graphic. It also includes white space. The human mind loves to be able to identify and complete things. White space allows it do that with a recognizable or a hidden shape (like the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo). The white space in your logo can activate the minds of your audience, so make the most of it.
• Scalability: Test your graphic (and entire logo) in color and black-and-white and at various sizes to make sure it retains its identity.

The Typeface, or Fonts

As Robert Bringhurst says in The Elements of Typographic Style, “Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form, and thus with an independent existence.” Fonts express the depth of your brand and bring it to life. There are a few things to consider in order to make that happen:

• Use two complementary but contrasting typefaces. Two fonts will add dynamism to your logo, but if the fonts are too close in appearance, it will look like you meant to use the same font, but used the wrong one by mistake.
• Match your font to your business style. For example, a kickboxing studio would be ill-served by a classy script font, just as an etiquette company would be by a homey, handwritten font. Every font carries an implied meaning, and that meaning should be aligned with your brand. Here are some examples to help inspire your imagination:

A serif font like Liberation Serif (download) is timeless, classic, traditional, stable, elegant, historic, corporate…

A sans-serif font like Sansus Webissimo (download) is contemporary, innovative, modern, masculine, forward-thinking, progressive, simple…

A script font like Exmouth (download) is elegant, personal, refined, sophisticated, feminine, polished…

A handwritten font like Redstar Regular (download) is casual, comfortable, relaxed, easy-going, personal…

A decorative font like Androgyne (download) is fun, unique, attractive, eye-catching, out-of-the-box…

3.     The Color Palette

Color speaks directly to the emotions, so if you want to draw an audience, select your color palette with care. Your choice should be based on two things: the emotions you want your brand to evoke, and the story your brand tells. In other words, “I used blue because I like it,” isn’t a good enough reason to choose a color.

Most importantly, the color palette of your brand and your logo should be based on what resonates with your target audience the most. Follow these two key guidelines to find the best colors to galvanize your clientele into action:

1. Keep the number of colors in your logo to a minimum, aiming at two, maybe three. A logo with only two or, at the most, three colors will be focused, clean, and memorable; too many colors can dilute your brand message. (The overall brand color palette may contain several more colors.)
2. Understand the meanings and histories of your colors. Doing so will help you make the most of them to communicate, reinforce, and enhance your core values and your brand story.

Visit Colour Lovers for great resources on selecting colors and a color palette. And don’t forget to check out the Bourn Creative blog series on the meanings of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, grey, black, white, brown, pink, turquoise, gold, silver, and beige.

It’s Elemental…

Your logo is much more than something that looks pretty and uses your favorite colors. Each part of a successful small business logo—the graphic, the typeface, and the color palette—collaborates to represent your unique niche and brand personality. When selected carefully, these elements will reinforce and enhance your brand story, create a more meaningful connection with your audience, and reap clear, positive results that make all the difference to you and your clients.

People love to buy but hate to be sold to. In contrast most business owners love buyers but hate having to sell – this may seem like a marriage made in heaven until you consider there are hundreds of competitors all looking for a few select buyers.

If you are attempting to break out from being the best kept secret in town but feel like another card carrying business person who is forgotten as soon as you walk out of the room there’s a solution you’ll love that has nothing to do with handing out hundreds of business cards or any slick ridiculous closing tricks.

Drop the “sales mask” and be yourself – people are looking for valuable, trusting relationships.  The best action you can possibly take for both your business and your prospective customer is to make it easy to buy.  Life is busy and difficult in fact we receive over 60,000 messages each day which causes our brain to actively weed out what is valuable information to what is not.

How do you make it easy and show value – don’t worry I’m giving you four actions that make it easy! Start by writing down all the value you bring to the table, be creative add additional services if you don’t WOW yourself and practice your pitch.  Being WOW shows your prospect how your company is different from all others – in fact your WOW factor and your close ratio will be closely linked.  If you don’t WOW – you won’t sell!

Here are four true WOW creating strategies:

• Get familiar with multimedia presentations and innovative marketing materials – provide compelling valuable information -   have leave behinds such as a flash card a disc and a hard copy – do whatever it takes to make it different.
• Create proposals that include impressive letters of reference or testimonials
• Practice your pitch and write out every answer you can think of to possible objections
• Dress for success not only will you feel confident you’ll look it as well!

Yes is takes time to WOW, but would you rather make one WOW presentation and sell or a hundred mediocre presentations that go nowhere? I thought so – Happy Selling!!

The purpose of your Copywriting Action Plan is to get clear on how to best connect with your ideal clients and identify the marketing materials you’ll need to do that. Once you’ve reviewed your Copywriting Action Plan you’ll want to consider all of your copy, present and future.

Here’s a list of some items you may need or want to add to your current list of projects to update your Copywriting Action Plan.

Consider all that apply to your current or future efforts.

Online/Internet:

• Downloadable special reports to educate and build relationships with your ideal clients
• Landing Pages
• Rewrites of current web content that isn’t getting the results you’d hoped for
• Sales Letters
• Squeeze Pages
• Website copy
• Bios (including speaker bios)

Internet Marketing Support Materials:

• Articles for article marketing
• Affiliate Program Plans
• Email Support
• Autoresponders
• Blog Postings for your blog or guest posts
• Email promotions
• Ezine or Electronic Newsletter Content
• Press Releases
• Video Scripts

As you can see there are many options for you to consider when creating copy (and we haven’t even touched on your offline efforts).It all hinges on your plan and strategy and that’s exactly why you need a Content Strategy Plan (often referred to as an Internet Marketing Editorial Calendar).

Your Content Strategy Plan helps you determine what you’re going to share with and promote to your community throughout the year and then breaks it down into monthly themes that are the basis of your marketing messages including articles, blog posts, videos and even potential promotional ideas including PR angles.

Your Content Strategy Plan will ultimately help you be more productive, save time and increase your income.

It can help you

• Have a clear plan for the next 12 months so you don’t have to do the last minute scramble to get your ezine, video, blog or articles out there
• Develop your yearly marketing theme so everything you do supports your big vision and revenue goals
• Create outlines and topics for your monthly marketing — especially your ezine and social media topics so there is no more guesswork
• Get fresh perspective to move you forward quickly and succinctly
• Plug and play your content with a clear plan to achieve your goals
• Own a plan that is all YOURS with foundation in place to move forward and the flexibility to revise as needed
• Enjoy peace of mind because you are ahead of the game and ready move forward in your business

Developing your Content Strategy Plan is essential to getting better results. After all, you cannot achieve your goals if you don’t have a strategy. Knowing how you’re going to educate potential clients about your business and what you’re going to offer is a vital part of your business success.