How can your brand [of woman] stand out? And, how can your business stand out in this online marketing heavy world? I have no tactics but do have truth sharing for you. The inspiration behind today's sharing…

My brother

As I was thinking about celebrating Thanksgiving this year, one of the things I was MOST grateful for was the time ~ 22 years to be exact ~ I had with my brother. Though he passed away six months ago, I live Dino strong. #livdinostrong

I can immediately bring up the feelings experienced during countless times with him as a baby, a boy and a young man. As I've shared in other writings, the times we spent traveling together, he living with me and our 17 year difference were some of the biggest and brightest highlights of my life. He was and still is an integral part of my me and why I am able to love hard. I remember writing my college essay on how babies ~ how THIS baby ~ brought my family even closer together and how he showed me to love generously through all seasons of his life.

It was truly a magical relationship and for ALL he brought to my days, I'lI be forever grateful.

One of the things I appreciated most about his and my relationship are the "just because" phone calls, texts and visits, especially when he was in college, most recently. The love and appreciation felt during the times when he or I were "just checking in" were the best. At the core, the purpose was to show love and it was very much felt. It wasn't to ask for anything or to DO anything but exchange the happenings of the day and give love especially if either of us were feeling down.

The quality conversation that ensued would always leave me better, fuller. And for that and those conversations, I am extremely grateful. We both gave and received so  much, simply.

Grateful people put this kind of "just because" energy and care at the center of their interactions…

My business

On the flip yet still very connected (what authentic anything is really about… connection), one of the other things on my gratitude list this year, is my business. I'll tell you why...

12 years in business…golden.

I'm grateful for this business I call Michelle Ghilotti International, a branding + coaching + empowerment Agency because…

• In growing a business the last 12 years that has grown me, I'm able to in a more refined or elegant way help other women and their beloved (business) extensions of themselves grow.

• It's so much more than a business. I not only teach and coach clients through purpose work but I work my purpose, everyday. The purpose behind the work I do is to help women and Moms live more fearlessly in pursuit of authentic lives and businesses, no apologies. I do this through the "filter" of authentic branding…helping women create memorable and self-expressed businesses. Every session, every talk or discovery call on this topic moves me. It’s the heart and soul of what I live for: to continue to be more myself every day, no apologies, and help other women be more themselves (and express it all) as well.

• Similar to the first bullet point above, in my business growing, I grow as a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister and citizen of the world. Being an entrepreneur and "business-building" to me is not solely about the money. It’s about the growth of all parts of me and of getting to use all the "bells and whistles" given to me. Entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial spirit at the core is about bleeding to the edges answering for ourselves the question of "how far can I go? and how far can I bring others with me?"

Inspired Action

So, before I leave for San Francisco with my men in an hour, I want to share the following points with you. I also want you to know that the idea to share in this way came to me just a few hours ago, amidst packing (not ideal :-). To that end, I'm adding "inspired action" to the gratitude list. As female entrepreneurs we work best under this spotlight, don't you agree? With that said, I hope you not only enjoy the sharing today but are moved to your own brand of inspired action around gratitude to those that help you business-build everyday, namely your communities of potential, current and past clients.

Gratitude for our communities

Sadly, I’m not surprised at how far away we’ve gone from the expression of gratitude in business, or, in other words, how low-touch has replaced high-touch, in many respects. As a result, I see less quality content out there and less quality relationships being forged. For awhile now, I've been asking myself what needs to be done? What needs to be done to change the way we market and DO business, especially online or in this online marketing (and inauthentic selling from the stage) world?

Though there's such gratitude for how the world wide web has helped spread the messages of talented people around the world so they (we) can be of greater service, there is one exercise we can work more consistently on: putting care at the center of our operation(s).

Grateful businesses put care at the center of their operation(s).

That said, what is the living legacy you want to leave behind?

Llisten closely to the answer so you can use it to paint with…to help you carefully craft what programs/services you offer, to decide what your company culture will be like, to help inspire the connected branding and marketing you'll put out there and to help you show more care and gratitude in all ways to your communities.

Every time we take mindful time to choose care over cash, we create powerful, authentic brands that have the opportunity to make not just cash but a difference. It's this DIFFERENCE that sustains you and takes us all to six, seven, eight figures and beyond.

Making a genuine difference is rooted in really caring about our communities, whether they're part of our "client" or "potential client" list.  This calls for showing that special touch not just after the tran$action's been made but BEFORE and maybe even months or years before it's been made.

Our communities deserve to be shown the most care because…

• They could choose anyone and don’t. They choose to give you their time, which they don't have a lot of.

• They could choose not to opt-in to your list but instead they do with total trust and many times even forwarding your newsletter to friends who need the love, light and learning you so beautifully share and give.

• They could wait or not worry about telling others about us, but, instead take time from a friend date and share what we have to offer, with excitement. To prove my point, many times, the people doing this are people we have never exchanged invoices or credit card numbers with…

• They could un-LIKE our business page (their newsfeed is getting cluttered) but instead they keep commenting on our posts, showing us the love.

In short, they, those who have and have not done business with us but love us just the same, make up what we LOVE to do and how express our purpose everyday…

THANK YOU

I am grateful for each of you that choose to spend your time and energy with me in  all the ways you do. And, I want to continue to bring more of us along the high-touch path where, even if we're heavily focused on online marketing at the moment, we don't easily forget how to authentically inject *us* or our true purpose and power into everything we do online.

Nurturing and really caring for our growing “lists” consistently (call them communities) twitter, facebook and instagram fans (ah, call them friends) and for our clients and ideal, potential clients (let’s call them the future of sustainable business) is what putting gratitude at the center of our businesses is all about.

Frankly, this is what our low-touch, online marketing heavy business world needs more of. Just as grateful people put genuine care at the center of their lives, grateful businesses put care at the center of their operation, not simply post transaction but pre-transaction.

Again, I’m not talking about “customer care” which focuses solely on injecting gratitude post transaction. I’m talking about injecting it pre-transaction, before someone ever  asks us about our programs or services and before we've ever branded them as a “potential client.” Because just as branding starts inside of you and with the mindset you bring to the business before you ever “brand” or “market” yourself, so, too does caring for your prospects. It starts long before…

Caring for people you may one day do business with starts here: being grateful for their time in choosing you before they’ve ever shown interest in spending a dime with you.

This is what creating an authentic brand and a purposeful business that out-powers the competition is all about.  

So, how do we express our gratitude in a world that seems so heavily focused about the extra buck (profit) before true service (purpose)?:

• Give of your time in un-expected ways. Surprise your clients and your social media following with that extra zing, even if it means an extra 10 minutes you feel you don't have. You have so much abundance in your life…if you want even more, you'll want to give more, it's as simple as that. [By this I don’t mean free time or free services so the question turns to you, how would “surprise” be best expressed in your industry and business? How would your following LOVE to see that expressed?]

• Allow for quiet time to produce quality content that doesn't only include learning but love through your sharing and transparency [Just as your mom appreciates a phone call once a week, so do your beloved communities. Work ON the business vs. IN it all the time].

• Use your gut…way more [Being grateful to and for our communities stems from using the belly brain way more often than the intellectual “I want more business” brain. In other words, being of true service comes from your gut].

And, before closing, we should all remember:

• Being happy doesn't make you grateful, being grateful makes you happy. 

• Living doesn't make you loving. Loving helps you live, really, really live. As Karen Salmansohn says “ThanksLIVING.”

And, of course, of my favorites borrowed from my book, How to Be a Walking Momtra:

• Gratitude is the only 'tude. 

Just as in the best relationships, where we give without expecting anything in return, our businesses benefit from more of this energy as well.

• How can you take learning from your very best personal relationships and use that to feed and fuel your business?

• How could you give more in ways that are alignment with your values, "just because"?

• How could you be a part of the positive PRE-transaction feeling of your fans/friends/community? [We know you have the post-trasaction process down]

• As you grow your business online, via multiple stores or with more and more employees, how can you keep the high-touch warmth *you* so love about *your* favorite brands? [Essentially, what do you love in doing business with others and bring more of that learning into your everyday].

Taking the time to stop in a day, a week or a month (from making money) to ask yourself these questions will only help you make so much more of a difference and cash in the long run.

Until next time, ladies, may you enjoy your business and enjoy your life, today, tomorrow and always.

 

 

 

p.s. I will be starting a complimentary GratiTuesday call series soon going way deeper around what I’ve started here: around purposeful ways to out-power your competition. Stay tuned for that information.

p.p.s. I'm grateful to all the ladies that will be joining me in Huntington Beach on December 6th for the 5th Brand Personality Tour stop! And to the friends who shared this stop with their communities. xoxo

p.p.p.s. Every season, I share a new "iiT Factor" playlist, something to keep us inspired and moving to making happiness our business. This one is themed Gratitude (but, of course), please take a listen and thank you so much for being a part of the international MGI community. You’re the soul to my heart: http://open.spotify.com/user/123488238/playlist/4x8rDgxFbbfiqmP3hLkPNa.

 

New Mexico, here I come! Thank you to the beautiful Jessica Eaves
 Mathews of Hautepreneurs for her partnership in this next stop!

Well, hey, at least I was home long enough to prepare for the next stop, service private clients, take holiday family photos (very, very silly ones dressed as celebrities!) and do a little ecstatic dancing! Ha.

As some of you know, I’ve been leading my brand personality tour in celebration of 12 years in business (New Mexico will be the 4th stop of 12!). I've also been traveling to seminars AND planning my second group branding program to be released in 2014. Exciting stuff.

This coming Friday, it's off to ABQ, I go (can't thank my friend and brand cohort, Jessica Eaves Mathews, enough for her and Hautepreneurs' support in making this next stop as elegant, classy and warm as the others have been).

Team work makes the dream work.

So…what's one of the main things I'm looking forward to in ABQ?

I can't WAIT to motivate ladies to continue to strut their stuff on both the catwalk of life and business. And how will we do that? Well, we'll do that through the filter of authentic branding! And through giving each woman their clarity around their particular brand personality.

Each of the 20+ ladies will leave with their unique brand personality, just as they did in Portland, New York and San Francisco so far. Because I know you're just as visual and a lover of eye candy as I am, here are some photos of the Portland weekend at the Ace Hotel (I'll be sure to share ABQ photos once I have them after this weekend):

I had SUCH a great time in Oregon (Portland is one of my all-time favorite US cities). Being a part of the synergy between women as well as a part of the ahas and brilliant ideas that day was something, well, that I live for.

So, before I get back to prepping for the next tour stop and my private sessions coming up, I have something for you!

I wanted to share a few things with you that I shared in Portland. My intention is always to help you too increase the fun, happiness and financial potential of your business and brand. Always and in all ways.

So, here goes:

#1. Polarize ~ You know you're on the road to creating a brand with powerful, authentic personality if you don't appeal to everyone. Remember that phrase 'if you're about everyone, you're about noone?" It's true. In order to make an impact (and impact your bottom line), you need to inch closer to being polarizing.

Now, I'm not saying to go out with the charge of polarizing, necessarily, but I am saying that to create a truly memorable brand that people remember (ahem, as a leader in your field), we must finally let go of all the restraints or stories we've been carrying around that keep us only half-way self-expressed (at best). How can you move more towards 80, 90, 150% of your true self…of who you really are, what you truly believe and what it is that your business is a stand for in this world? Not everyone will love you but those that will, will really love you…and these are the ideal clients that will invest in what you have to offer at the highest level.

–> Do the archaelogical dig on you. On ALL THINGS YOU. Then get help in putting back the most important pieces in the most compelling order (the branding process). Once you see how gorgeous you really are, you will want to strut your stuff every chance you get. Other than that, start doing things like ecstatic dance and your desire to be you unabashedly will grow, I promise 😉

#2. Lean-in: Just one of the many important reasons we brand ourselves is so that we really engage our tribe. We don't want to  create a lukewarm or default brand. We want to be on purpose with our digging and making sense of our story so that we can put the pieces back together in the most compelling way.

Your haute (HOT) communication that includes your focused message and brand story will makes the right people, lean in and lean in more and more every time. Think of all your brand's touchpoints (everything from your programs/services, speaking topics, social media, website, tagline, marketing etc) ~ are all of them pulling their weight? Is each word, visual, program, marketing piece you send out inspiring your ideal clients to lean in to hear more of what you have to say and offer? What sort of action do you want them to take right now (is it a new free teleseminar or a new program you're launching?) and are you putting enough mindful creative and strategic juices into the expression of what the value is? And of who you are and therefore the expertise and quality they will get once they connext with you more fully?

–> Get clear on the feeling you're selling (the feeling behind the solution) and infuse that into your communication at every turn. Feeling wins every time.

3. One Path ~ I once asked a Swami how to know what path to follow if both left and right paths looked as if they'd yield the same amount of happiness for us. In a room of about 100 people, without skipping a beat, he said, "You choose one path, one path at a time, next!?". Where have you, in your branding and business, been detouring, getting lost and switching directions what feels like every other day?

If you're not sure where you're going, clients will be even less sure. If you're not sure what you're selling (or what you need to brand), they won't know why they should say yes.

—> Stick to one message for a long enough time, stick to one point of focus and one "genius area"…pump up the volume on that, build your confidence around it and watch your bank account and happiness in business and life grow exponentially.

Make happiness your business by creating your authentic brand!

With that and until next time, enjoy your business, enjoy your life!

 

 

 

 

p.s. to keep up with all the amazing and top notch projects and businesses Jessica, my friend and partner in bringing my workshop to the ladies in ABQ, please visit her entrepreneur organization here: https://www.facebook.com/Hautepreneurs and her booming trademark service legal group company at http://www.leverage-a-lawyer.com/. She's the best in so many ways!

p.p.s. to see the list of where I may be off to next, check out my brand tour page at www.michelleghilotti.com/boutique-branding-tour/ .  If you would like me to consider visiting your city, email us at admin@michelleghilotti.com. Merci!

Check out this message from 35,000 feet on the way to Portland for the 3rd stop on the brand tour! Though my 12 year business anniversary was in September, I'm still celebrating by traveling domestically and internationally hosting brand personality workshops. Nine (9) more to go and I can't wait! www.michelleghilotti.com/boutique-branding-tour/

The video below is technically part deux of the message from last week (you can watch that one below too).

For new entrepreneurs (but I believe it applies to many of us in different stages too), it's so important to at some point flip the ratio of learning to doing….to even ~ dare I say it ~ put down the learning altogether for a bit, UP the belief in self and get more into the action.  (Most specifically, this may mean turning off the free webinar / closing out on that 5th class you just purcahse or on that new PDF you just downloaded from another website).

We get our 10,000 hours buy running them not reading about them. Agree? Disagree?

Or, in other words, growing into more and more success calls for mastering the art of doing. And, as the second video shares, the success we all want also calls for what I call dissolving vs. solving. Watch it now to see what I mean:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05Q4U4xDodY

And, here's the first video from last week that will show you how I started the conversation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfkDU06yrUM

What about this do you resonate? I'd love to read your comments so please leave one below and share with your friends, especially if they are new entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs attempting to grow into a larger level of success…let's inspire each other as a community to trust in our ability and, in the process, create more visibility and vavoom in our lives and businesses!

You know so much more than you think you do and ARE ready to get out there in a bigger way. Ready (or even if you don't feel 100% "ready"), set, GO!

Enjoy your business and enjoy your life!

 

 

 

p.s. What part of these video messages resonated? Would love to hear in the comments below!