Ode to you, Creative Heroine…

As a creative woman, I know you want the yes you give in life and business to be an oaky, full-bodied YES. In fact, you live for the oaky, full-bodied YES. (me too)

As my book How to Be a Walking Momtra says, "Focus on your happiness so you can RAISE happiness". Life ticks in a beautiful way if we give the full-bodied YES to Self first.

Throughout the last 14 years in business for myself as well as the last 9.5 years as a mother, giving from this "overflow" is where my greatest happiness and success have come from (sure, there are other contributing factors to happiness and success, however, in keeping myself full or "filled up", I've primed my internal environment to be able to give to the degree I lo-hove to give to others).

It's this generosity of spirit that has grown my brand and contributed greatly to the equilibrium in my family life.

In short, we are able to contribute to the joy and success of others in a greater way by making sure our cups runneth over…

Personally, I can be a better mom, Branding and Success Coach (to name just a couple of my titles) by being more in tune with what my body, mind and spirit need to be able to give and give greatly.

When we give to Self first, things feel different, work better and the quality of how we perceive EVERYTHING softens and is enriched.

Everything falls into place.

When we give from the overflowing cup vs. the cup desperate and thirsty for a few drops of tea or water, we are able to affect our brands, businesses, children and other important relationships in a way that truly stretches everyone's happiness. Everyone wins when you win.

It's worth a more consistent try, well, let's call it a more consistent DO.

How to Give the Oaky, Full-Bodied YES to Self First

1. Make it a must. Make YOU a must.

2. Make this your mantra: I focus on my happiness so I can RAISE happiness (in my family, community and world). Repeat this at least 3x every morning or when you most need it.

3. Clear your weekly calendar of the people or projects that are depleting you. Find that space, that clearing for what you truly need and love.

4. Start doing the things each week and specifically each morning that truly fill you (you and only you). How we start our day and our week is likely how we end it, so start by diving deeper into you first thing: take the hike, hit that early morning yoga class or do that 10 minutes of meditation. And, if the early morning hours prove to be too difficult, no problem, no need to go into overwhelm. Create time for you each day during the block that serves your life (the important thing is that it happens). How will you savor life (and give to Self) each and every day? What will those ten minutes or hour be filled with?

To your week of the oaky, full-bodied YES. Cheers.

Life is good,

Life is good, why not dance on the metro?

Someone asked me the other day what this last year felt like having turned 40. Hasn't it been amazing? 40 is GREAT!

My answer: Yes, all of the above, I feel like I've dropped into me.

Truthfully, though I've felt this "dropping into me" every year in life, I'd say that the last 4-5 years I've experienced the biggest quantum leap in celebrating this comfort in my own skin. You too?

Which leads me to this and it's something I've shared with you before ~ our greatest authentic brand and your greatest happiness depends on you more and more fully "dropping" into you.

It depends on:

Expressing more of who you really are…

Doing this includes a level of transparency that leads to trust…

It includes a big dose of true human to –> human (not business woman to –> human) connection that leads to long-lasting relationships and the growth of our business…

It includes an extra serving of detachment (non-attachment for us yogis) from what others, especially those that don't fall within our ideal client or friend sphere, think.

Becoming even more you is what creating a great, authentic brand is all about and it's what being in alignment is about.

Your leadership, greatest brand and greatest happiness depends on how aligned your thoughts, words and actions are.

And it's what your business and bliss depend on. Being the kind of leader who shows up as 150% herself every time, whether it's via her newsletters, how she speaks and holds herself at a dinner party or in a VIP day with a client. 

Sure there's a level of elegance and professionalism that allows clients to feel supported, organized and well taken care of, however, we need not be a different person in our business than we are in our personal life. (For years after leaving the corporate advertising world and starting my business 14 years ago, I used "is this professional?" as my communication filter…boy was I wrong and boy did it feel bad).

Enter the wisdom that comes with time and asking the right questions: I now know that the filter is definitely "Is this in alignment with my mission, values, message and with what I say I most desire in my life?"

How would your brand communication change if you used this filter too?

How to drop into you (3 tips):

3. Understand that you will not appeal to everyone; you will polarize. Not everyone is meant to be your client (or best friend). With this understanding and acceptance that some will be repelled by what you have to say and how you say it, you can more easily shout what your movement and message is all about from the mountain tops. As the kids say, YOLO.

2. Get still. What makes you truly happy? Keep listening, go on that daily hike, buy the guided meditation app (and actually use it)…find more time to just BE vs. DO. Being driven and action-oriented is valuable as entrepreneurs and so is taking time to sit by the lake, river or ocean pondering what it is that we really want and who it is that we really want to be and gift this world…

1. Write your most transparently elegant Facebook or blog post yet (that delivers true value to your community AND that really shares more of who you really are!) and, after spell-checking, without further delay, push send! Many times dropping into more of who we are takes some cold turkey'ing it. So, what do you really believe? What do you truly value? What have you wanted to say or share but haven't for fear of what others might think or say?

No one is watching you or judging you as much as you think they are. I promise. They're too busy thinking about what to say or not to say in their next Facebook or blog post.

Enjoy your business, enjoy you life, until next time, Creative Heroine!

Have a beautiful dropping into YOU weekend.

Life is good,

Many of us nurture the feeling or belief that we never have enough time.

So then we don't.

But maybe that rumbling, that feeling, is merely signaling that we need to shift gears, work in our genius way more, and work with and commune with people that enliven us, that add to our joy and that either make time stop (love and romantic relationships are great at this) or simply open up the idea of what 60 minutes can really do and feel like (I find the more I work with people on my own business who are working their true gifts and *in* their genius, this is exactly what happens).

Have the rumbling?

Do you need to work with or commune with people that make you feel alive and that add to your daily joy?

Life is good,

p.s. Can't wait to share some of the brand and leadership tips I'll be giving at the Running with Heels dinner 3/30 with you. xo

This week my love to you comes in the form of sharing the Five Keys of Great Branding with you.

This soundbite was another part of the talk I gave in England in November (you might remember that I’ve shared the mp3s around Creative Blocks and How to Nurture Your Creativity in the last few weeks).

Here’s what you'll get a taste of in this five-minute clip:

• What branding really is means for creative women entrepreneurs like us.
• What a great authentic brand IS and what needs to be in alignment in order to …
• What self expression has to do with success.
• What ONE thing you need to tap into so your audience ALWAYS remembers you.
• What feeling you want to gift the world through your work and why this is important for your brand…

Enjoy, Creative Heroine, in joy: https://soundcloud.com/michelle-ghilotti-mandel/five-keys-of-branding-1

Life is good,