When we find what our "thing" is as well as the most vibrant and authentic way to
communicate it, we move into in a state of more consistent flow, celebration and joy.
What are you celebrating these days? Is it a birthday, an anni, a rocking business month or just a great night's sleep you want to scream from the mountain tops? Or if you're a true city girl ~ from the rooftops? No matter how small or large you may think this "thing" is, celebrating it in whatever way you're comfortable with is also celebrating you ~ both are important.
What important phone call did you make? What important decision have you made around the pricing of your offerings? How many lines did you write of that book proposal (some days I simply celebrate opening a new word document and writing something as simple as three lines and saving it). My celebrating sometimes comes with a simple candle lighting, others it comes with a walk around the block and yet others it comes with booking myself and my men a trip.
Acknowledging yourself (celebrating the baby steps, crawl and leaps) are all an important piece of our success puzzle. What we focus on grows.
I spoke at an event last week where I made celebrating a big theme. It's top of mind for me, of course, because, as many of you know, I'm celebrating 12 years in business.
12 years!
I'm so excited and proud of all that the business (and the woman behind the business) has accomplished in supporting other female business owners in making happiness their business by creating their authentic brands. There's nothing better than seeing a women light up because we've hit on her genius and the expression of that genius!
The daring and dashing dozen have been grand. Life has been grand. It's been 12 years that have taken me to live abroad twice (once for four years and the other for two), to a handful of US cities (four to be exact), that's gifted me with a son (born in Holland!) and a dozen years that, all in, continues to bring me much joy today.
These 12 years have been the best of my life. Let me take a moment with that sentence actually…
These 12 years have been the best of my life.
(that was me celebrating)
Recently, as you know, I've been celebrating this awesome anniversary with my brand tour. It's been a busy time filled with travel but being a modern-day gypsy with an international business, it's par for the course. Here are just a couple shots from my last stop in San Francisco:
The Clift Hotel, San Francisco
Bubbly to celebrate not only MGI but each of the
I must say that another thing that's also continually brought me such flow is focus ~ a keen and clever way to *do* business. 🙂 You could also call it being on-purpose. Focus in my business, in my expression and in my to-do's everyday has brought me ENDLESS amounts of joy! (Trying to BE for everyone never brought me much fulfillment and offering "everything under the sun" also didn't do it).
The Fire in Focus
We can't move the needle if we don't have focus.
As women we have so many [too many] awesome ideas, stories, skills etc that play into our businesses and our success or our failure. Branding, then, is not only an exercise in self-expression but an exercise in focus!
An exercise in focus…
So before I continue planning my Portland, New Mexico and Canada stops (I have a wee bit to do), I want to leave you with two pieces that will not only help in creating your most haute (HOT) brand and profitable expression but get you on your way to celebrating all of that which will continue to go so right once you put this into place more consistently:
• What's your soul and sole focus in this business? (You can do "everything" and promote and market "everything" but it won't mean even half of what you want it to mean to your ideal party people). So, what is not only your genius skill that others will wildly raise their hand for (what will they invest in at the highest level?).
• After we delve deeper into your soul and sole focus, we then ask what your particular *brand* of self-expression around that focus is. What is it? In order to humanize the business we must first infuse it with human qualities. What are the top three human qualities that make you fabulously unique? Creating brand personality includes equal parts uniqueness in your market, making sure you’re being authentic to what it is that you stand for and creating an expression in both regards that really moves others to share what you've got (HAUTE BRAND FORMULA: unique + authentic + shareable (or wildly relevant) = one sizzling brand personality).
We *all* have an attractive, sustainable and authentic brand in us. What's yours? And can you allow even more focus, expression and celebration into your life to watch your business soar even more? To watch and feel yourself as a woman soar?
Until next time, ladies, strut your stuff on the catwalk of life as if you're the only couture creation, because, guess what?
You are.
You are.
You are.
Enjoy your business, enjoy your life!
p.s. Celebrate, you couture creation, you!