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Strategically Branding Our Expertise (and Future!) by @lieshapetrovich

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Strategically Branding Our Expertise (and Future!)

by Liesha Petrovich | Featured Contributor

We can’t open Instagram without stumbling across someone calling themselves a guru. We see dozens of paid sponsorships with someone trying to promote their latest book, course or community. And we can’t watch the news without pundits telling us how we should think.

Who are all these experts anyway? And how can we brand ourselves as skilled, experienced and savvy professionals in our field too?

Very few get labeled as an expert on accident. Sixteen-year-old Greta Thunberg is a world-famous climate activist who absolutely knows her stuff. But surely there are other experts out there that know more about climate. Thunberg accidentally became an expert after staging a strike outside the Swedish parliament demanding that they cut emissions by 15% per year. Now she’s a global phenomenon who was just named Time Person of the Year 2019.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Branding is everything these days so don’t leave this important factor up to chance. Since we’re unlikely to fall into expertise, here are a few ideas that can kick off our own strategic branding plans.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Done well, video offers us the opportunity to promote our thoughts to a huge segment of the population. And I’m not talking about the crazy viral videos that are only meant to get clicks for ad money. I mean the type of content that promotes the star as a leader in their field. And this works in every niche out there.

The power of video cannot be overstated. Here are a few mind-blowing statistics:

  • YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of total internet users
  • 45% of people watch more than an hour of Facebook or YouTube videos a week
  • More than 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube each day

Here are a few examples of people and businesses that have a strong history of solid content that showcases their specialties and gives value to the viewer:

DIY building: Ana White
Finance: Fisher Investments
Small business/Etsy: Mane Message

It doesn’t matter what type of industry we are in. Photography, martial arts, beauty, and dog training all have expert channels. When we have something important to say, something that will promote our personal brand, saying it on video is a great first step.

Get Personal and Authentic

Think about the brands and people we admire the most. Oprah, one of the richest women in the world, came from extremely humble beginnings. Apple was founded by three guys in a garage. And one of my favorite social media stars, Tiffany Jenkins, is a recovering addict.

We know their stories because they’ve been open about telling us. The story matters because it shows how they got from Point A (an unknown) to Point B (someone we look up too). Tiffany, a social media star with 188K subscribers on Youtube and almost 4 million followers on Facebook, shared her addiction story with the world:

We don’t have to share our deepest secrets to brand ourselves as experts in our fields. The idea is to be authentic. If we came from money and used someone else’s money to start our business – own it. If we stole from Peter to pay Paul to start our business – own it.

Our story is what made us the people we are today. Just remember that our authenticity is what builds our brand’s trust and that’s the foundation everything else is built upon.

Share Something Valuable

This is the moment of truth when it comes to branding our expertise. This isn’t something we can fake or outsource. We actually have to be experts and share something valuable!

One of my favorite podcasts is Lessons from the Universe with Jennifer Hall. In a podcast called Let Them Go, Jennifer explains:

“Obligation is no reason for attachment. If a relationship has run its course, lost its mutual respect, or grown toxic to anyone involved, it is time to let it go. Sometimes, the most loving, compassionate thing we can do for ourselves and others is to simply let them go.”

Jennifer shares her wisdom on her podcasts, website, gallery/quotes and live events. Even if spiritual new agey stuff isn’t our thing, we can certainly appreciate the tiny empire she’s built. And it all rests on us (the consumer) belief that she’s sharing something valuable. She’s branded herself as an expert in her field and worthy of our time.

We have a lot of choices when it comes to how we share our knowledge. Books, eCourses, Facebook groups are all ways we can start to put our knowledge out there. Again, it starts with an authentic desire to help people and that’s what drives our brand’s image to expert levels.

Consciously Create Our Branding Strategy

Very few of us will ever stumble on expert status with a path on accident. Instead, the experts consciously create a strategy that lifts their expertise beyond their peers. This is especially important to think about now if we ever want to:

  • Land our dream job
  • Want to start our own businesses
  • Charge higher prices for our experience

It doesn’t matter what industry we’re in or where we are starting from. And it doesn’t matter if we’re not experts – yet. Mapping out our strategy now is how we get to an expert level later.

Passion and Profits: Consciously Creating a Blog by @lieshapetrovich

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“Do what you love, the money will follow”

That sounds amazing in theory, but how do we actually make that work? Marsha Sinetar discusses her book by the same name, Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood, and discusses living an authentic life. We all want to be happy and genuine, yet we aren’t on some magical journey where we get to live our best lives because we are passionate about something.

We have to consciously create a pathway to our own success.

Many of us blog because it’s a platform anyone can use to connect with the world. We get to design our tiny part of the universe any way we want. And with the right tools and strategy, we will never have to choose passion over profit.

We can have both.

Choose Good Works

It starts with choosing a topic that satisfies our soul and brings something positive to the planet. It’s choosing to be profitable but not at the expense of others. It’s the belief that money is the consequence of doing good works.

This concept isn’t new. It’s actually one of the steps on the Buddist’s Eightfold Path. Called the Right Livelihood, it means making a living through “ethical and non-harmful means”. What we put into the world has a direct impact on our overall well being and contentment. I know that’s a lot of spiritual huey for some, but it’s easy to see how choosing the right livelihood would promote a happy and harmonious life.

We can choose something we are passionate about and that we can profit from. Start with asking ourselves the following questions:

  • What excites us?
  • What topic could we talk about all day long?
  • What never feels like work even after putting in a 12 hour day?
  • What do we love that would bring good karma to the world?

Choose a Monetization Strategy (or two!)

Although we’re focused on doing good works and writing about what we’re passionate about, we always have to remember that this is a money-making operation. And there are a lot of ways we can monetize our sites. For example, here are 4 ways Jenny Lawson, from The Bloggess, makes money from her site:

  1. Link to her book and where we can buy it
  2. Link to her shop on Zazzle
  3. Promoting things in her blog (she doesn’t do this often but it’s a possibility)
  4. Selling advertising space

Affiliate marketing is another fantastic idea for bloggers. In 17 High Ticket Affiliate Programs to Dramatically Increase Your Profits, Spencer Mecham explains how being an affiliate for Hostgator works:

“The cool thing is that people who sign up for Hostgator only have to pay $20 to sign up, then you as an affiliate automatically get $200. So you don’t have to convince your audience to purchase high-dollar products to get a nice commission from Hostgator.”

We can choose from thousands of different affiliate programs and work with the ones that are both reputable and profitable. We can choose to sell in ways that are honest and upfront. I’ve turned my back on sleazy sales tactics but never lose sleep when I’m making money selling something I’d buy myself.

Create a Digital Product

This is one of the funnest things we get to do. We get to share our knowledge and expertise in eBooks, online courses, video tutorials, patterns, and guides. And we can DIY the entire product ourselves when this once would have cost us thousands of dollars to accomplish. Chris Dalziel, from Joybilee Farm, created a very cool DIY Herbal Apothecary course that she promotes on her homesteading blog:

What makes blogging the ideal platform for digital products is we are already writing for a niche that’s interested in what we have to say. As we’re building our audience, we’re also building our potential customer list. It’s the perfect business relationship!

And when we blog with good intent and write with a genuine desire to help people, it shows in our sales.

Rethinking What it Means to Be a Blogger

I’m surrounded by artists. A friend just made me a beautiful drawing of my daughter and I. My mother just painted me a lotus flower watercolor. I can’t draw a stick person.

But I can write.

I’ll never have the eloquence of Virginia Woolf. And I’ll never be able to spin a tale like J.K. Rowling. Yet, I can write about eCommerce for days. I love writing about new business ideas or how amazing a new productivity tool may be. I’m a total business nerd and that’s okay. Because there are millions of other business nerds out there that understand what I’m saying.

I’ve made a conscious choice to not sacrifice my soul just to make money. Of course, I need to make a living and pay my bills. Rather than choose profit over passion, I’ve built a business where I can have both. It’s not easy, but it is possible.

And it never truly feels like work.

Stressed and Sick? Embracing a New Way to Work by @lieshapetrovich

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Photo courtesy of Canva

by Liesha Petrovich | Featured Contributor

I remember the date my body started shutting down.

I was supposed to work and volunteer for the 4th or 5th weekend in a row. I hadn’t had a true day off in months. I wasn’t sleeping and my head was spinning with the news of another possible recession.

I woke up with excruciating pain and a complete sense of hopelessness. And all I could think about was how I was too busy to get sick right now. I have always prided myself on my strength. I’m a black belt and teach karate. I’m tough both emotionally and physically. I am not someone who backs down from a fight.

Until I was forced to accept that I’m only human. Sounds easy, but it was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done.

I had to accept that surviving isn’t the same as thriving. Living means more than being able to overcome adversity. It also means peace, grace and even selfishness. When we’re tired of being sick and tired, the only way forward is to create a new way to live.

And that starts with chucking our working our fingers to the bone mentality.

Everything’s Connected

I’m very, very good at compartmentalizing my life. Business is business and my personal life is entirely separate. Yet, only a fool believes that one does not influence the other.

Because, of course, they do! It’s all connected!

Photo courtesy of Canva

One of the best measures of a person’s overall health is their sexuality. A healthy libido is a strong indication of an overall healthy individual. A reduction in sex drive can come from a number of factors including stress and not enough exercise/sleep. But it’s not just a lack of interest that’s troubling. In fact, 32% of women report lower self-esteem from a decrease in their sex drive!

How can we be successful when our self-esteem is lower and we’re stressed out?

This is just one example of how our personal health impacts our professional life. Our new way of working begins with understanding that our overall success begins with our personal health, including stress and anxiety and not pretending that we’re robots that have the ability to turn off our emotions at will.

Redefine Success

I used to define success with the amount of money in my bank account.

While that’s obviously important, it’s not the only measure of my success. Now I measure success in a hundred different ways:

  • Am I contributing lasting value to my clients?
  • Does my work live up to my personal values?
  • Have I made a positive impact on someone today?

We are overwhelmed with inspirational quotes like:

“If you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes a sacrifice”

No wonder I had a skewed sense of success. I was brainwashed into believing I wasn’t effective unless I was sacrificing something – mostly my health. Yes, hard work and commitment are essential and that’s not debatable. But it’s not the only thing that should define our success. Instead, let’s start redefining our success with the wise words of Dr. Wayne Dyer:

“Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.”

Instead of defining our lives with a narrow definition of success, we need to broaden that to include our wellbeing and overall sense of peace. Celebrate the small victories and moments that just make us smile:

Photo courtesy of Canva

Self-Care Is Our #1 Priority

Like many other working moms out there, I put other’s care above mine for many, many years. I tried and failed, to do it all. It wasn’t until I literally worked until my body couldn’t function that I realized I had done it all wrong.

Photo courtesy of Canva

Because there’s one simple truth when it comes to living a balanced, healthy life: We cannot be successful when we put our needs last. We can’t take care of anyone when we’re not healthy and we can’t run a successful business when our stress levels prohibit us from being our authentic, creative and enthusiastic selves.

In Lost Your Spark? Jumpstart Your Creative Juices, I shared the following:

“The world is chaotic and stressful. Sometimes it’s hard to tune it out and find a semblance of peace. And it’s almost impossible to be creative when your thoughts are a jumbled, spinning mess.”

We cannot be the leaders we’re meant to be when we can’t think straight. We need to stop with the lame excuses and start creating a plan to put our health first. Because if we don’t, stress will stop us dead in our tracks.

And then we won’t be working to save our business, but our lives too.

Feeling Hopeless? First Steps to Fix Our Complex Problems by @lieshapetrovich

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Feeling Hopeless? First Steps to Fix Our Complex Problems

by Liesha Petrovich | Featured Contributor

Stress. Frustration. Hopelessness.

Anyone who’s ever run a business can relate to these feelings. Along with the occasional euphoria of landing a lucrative contract, hitting our sales goals, or reaching a 1000 followers, running a business is a constant rollercoaster of emotions.

Photo courtesy of Canva

When it comes to our most complex problems, we can get stuck at the first step. We think: What in the world do I do now? Although we shouldn’t minimize our serious problems, every solution starts with taking the first step.

Here are a few ideas that may help us figure out what that may be:

Problem: We Need Money

No one wants to talk about this. Money is such a touchy and sometimes embarrassing question. Who wants to admit they have bad credit or enormous debt? Who wants to admit they sometimes have to eat Ramen instead of going to trendy cafes with their friends?

Photo courtesy of Canva

But we actually have a few options when we need an injection of cash into our business. Our first step is checking our credit score to see what our options may be. Credit Sesame explains that:

“This scoring range starts at 300 as the poorest score and goes up to 850 as the highest range possible, or excellent credit. Specifically, bad credit ranges from 300 to 629, fair credit ranges from 630 to 689, good credit ranges from 690 to 719, and finally, excellent credit which ranges from 720 and to 850.”

This information gives us exactly where we are on the scale and what our options may be. With good credit, we can go directly to the bank and/or a credit card company. There are special programs for women entrepreneurs but they may take longer to apply. If we have bad credit, we can talk to our local credit unions and see what options they have.

NEXT STEP: When we’re faced with immediate financial issues, always seek professional help. I’ve found credit union loan officers to be the best source of information. They don’t work on commission and provide fair counseling when we’re desperate to find money solutions.

Problem: We Are Overwhelmed

Being busy is a good thing. Being overwhelmed isn’t.

My personal definition of being overwhelmed, after many years of experience, is the state of not being able to handle the immediate issues in our lives. It’s being frazzled, frustrated and clueless all at the same time. We don’t know where to start first because there are so many problems dropping all at once.

Photo by Nikko Macaspac on Unsplash

Crawling out of this dark place starts with a few basic facts. First, we have the power to change our situation. Second, there are answers out there. In It’s Time To Deal With Your Stress Before It Kills Your Business, I shared the following:

“Starting and running a business can be a terrifying thing. Yet, we don’t have to do it alone. Successful business owners build a network of support and are willing to ask others for help. It’s a simple solution to a complex problem. Don’t suffer in silence – reach out and ask for help.”

We’re all unique individuals with different problems. But the first step towards reducing our stress and feelings of being overwhelmed starts with the same basic action:

Ask for help.

Whether it’s outsourcing, delegating, or finding the courage to start saying no, changing our mindset from “I can handle everything” to “I need help” isn’t a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength.

Next Step: Get organized. There are plenty of planning systems and lifestyle options. I personally love Bullet Journals and minimalism. Find a system that fits our life and keeping the chaos at bay becomes easier.

Note for those in a dark place: There’s no shame in seeking professional help if we’re depressed and overwhelmed. Make the call if needed.

Problem: We Need More Customers

Switching gears to a much lighter, although incredibly important topic. Running a business is a constant journey of ups and downs. The highs make us euphoric and the lows keep us up at night.

When we need more clients or customers immediately it’s probably because our cash flow has dried up and we’re in real trouble. The first step is to make the phone ring as fast as we can. Anna Dixon shares the following ideas in 23 Creative Sales Promotion Ideas to Drive More Business

  • Give away free samples
  • Give discounts to a specific group
  • Creating timely ads to increase urgency

We can choose a few that best suit our business and marketing budget. Try one, track the results, and change course if it’s not working. A quick influx of cash may be enough to get us through a few dry months.

Next Step: The only way to keep customers flowing in is to fix our broken sales pipeline. I personally love marketing automation tools that do amazing things to turn prospects into customers. They may seem overwhelming at first, but they are worth the investment.

The First Step Is Always the Hardest

We live in a world of Instagram success stories. Where we sometimes believe that everyone else is thriving while we’re struggling to keep our head above water. It’s isolating and makes us feel like failures because we can’t seem to do what seems easy for everyone else.

We all face problems and it’s insane not to admit that. It’s also paralyzing for many who feel hopeless and have no clue where to start. Just remember the first step is always the hardest.

And the next step is always easier.

Stop Waiting and Start Your Business Right this Minute by @lieshapetrovich

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Empowerment is everywhere. 

It’s an energy that is palpable in all corners of women’s lives – especially business.  

Photo courtesy of Unsplash

Female entrepreneurs are driven, committed and have a strong desire to achieve; or in other words, they are ambitious. Ambition is what keeps us going when the inevitable challenges in business arise. It keeps us focused on the positive and provides the push we need to keep pursuing our dreams. 

Yet, we still have to overcome biases in our professional lives. One study at Columbia Business School found that:

“Students rated ‘Howard’ and ‘Heidi’, equally competent, but they liked Howard, but not Heidi.”

Although this is clearly nonsense, our only choice is to keep moving forward and using our ambition to fuel our business growth. When enough of us showcase our skills and competency, we will start to break down misconceptions and biases. Here are a few ideas on how we can overcome stereotypes and increase our success. 

We Have More Options than Ever Before

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We don’t need permission to start a business and we don’t need to wait to start our dream business. We have plenty of options, opportunities, and tools at our disposal. Here are a few ideas:

It’s Easier Than Ever to Secure Funding

This is no one’s favorite part of business but it is vital to growth – We need money to make money. If we don’t have enough personal resources we need to secure outside funding. We can work with a traditional lender to secure a business loan or credit line. If we need cash fast, then we can look into same-day business loans. There are also programs specifically for women:

“SBA loans aren’t a cookie-cutter or one-size-fits-all type. They offer more than 10 different categories of funding programs, including ones designed for Veterans, women and minorities.”

We Can Plan SMARTer

We all need to start with a plan. We start by outlining our ideas and getting them down on paper. While this may seem tedious, it is an important step toward solid growth. We need to see our thoughts so we can break them down into manageable tasks. In How To Make Your Smart Business Plan Work For You In 2019, Elaine Slatter explains how a realistic goal works:

“Given the business climate you are working in, are your goals realistic?  If the economy is going into a tailspin and you are in the luxury market, for example, trying to achieve a projected 40% growth may not be achievable.”

We Have Amazing Tools at Our Fingertips

We live in the digital age, so it’s not surprising that we have amazing tools that help us build our business. In Top Free Tools for Busy Solopreneurs, Ella Gibbons shares free tools that help us:

  • Set up payment processes
  • Help us avoid costly unprofessional mistakes
  • Stay organized
  • Increase productivity while staying healthy

We live in a miraculous time. With the right idea and a lot of hard work, we have never had more opportunities to become successful business owners. 

We Can Overcome Missteps and Mistakes

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I’m a huge believer that mistakes are inevitable and we should use them as important learning tools. When problems arise, as they always do, we can find a solution. 

So this approach didn’t work, so what’s next?

We can channel our ambition into action by being a problem solver. Here are a few ideas:

Never Stop Learning Attitude

A true leader never stops learning. Read about our industry, study our competition and never stop filling our minds with knowledge. This keeps us at the top of our industry’s innovation and fuels our mind for solution-seeking. 

Plus there are many options learning including online courses, networking groups and social media forums. 

Stuck? Learn How to Brainstorm

Sit down and write down all the thoughts that come up. Don’t judge any of the thoughts – anything is fine!. Just build on them, ask questions, flip ideas around and see what we can come up with. In How to Brainstorm: 5 Ways to Get the Creative Juices Flowing, the Lucid Chart team shares different brainstorming methods including mind mapping:

Surround Ourselves With Like-minded People

This is one of the first bits of business advice I ever learned and it’s still true today. 

By surrounding ourselves with people we admire and respect, we can find mentors and trusted advisors. It’s priceless to have folks to bounce ideas off from while learning what it takes to be successful. 

Stop Waiting! It’s Time to Be Brave, Ambitious and Bold!

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There has been a slow, but positive, shift in the world when it comes to women and business. We know despite advancements that inequality remains. As women, we’ve chosen to let this inequality fuel our fire.

We used to sit on the sidelines waiting for others to take chances. We avoided risks for a wide variety of reasons. Maybe we lacked confidence, money or education. Yet, these are no longer good reasons not to start today – they are just excuses. We now have more tools, support, and opportunities than ever before! 

We don’t have to wait for the “right time” anymore. We can create the right time whenever we choose. 

Stepping Boldly Towards Empowerment by @lieshapetrovich

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by Liesha Petrovich | Featured Contributor

We each have our own personal journey towards empowerment.

We each come from unique circumstances, life experiences and financial opportunities. And we all have our own hopes and dreams. We see powerful women and we want to emulate their success. Especially, the amazing rags to riches stories of women like Oprah Winfrey and J.K. Rowling.

Yet, many of us will never have an easy path to empowerment. The World Bank explains that women are facing an uphill battle:

“Girls with little or no education are far more likely to be married as children, suffer domestic violence, live in poverty, and lack a say over household spending or their own health care than better-educated peers, which harms them, their children, and communities.”

Finding success in business is difficult enough. Add in inequality issues and it can seem impossible. However, in the world of women’s empowerment, this idea comes up all the time:

“If only I knew this when I was younger; life would have been so different.”

I say this all the time and wish my younger self knew a fraction of the hard-earned wisdom I have now. I became empowered purely through necessity and determination. I didn’t have a clue and stumbled my way towards self-sufficiency. Thankfully, there are great ways for young women to bypass a few decades of feeling powerless.

Learn How Dreams and Manifestation are Connected

With the right training and mindset, it’s possible for younger women to learn powerful skills at a younger age. Bonnie Bucker, PHD, set out to empower young girls and women by creating a movement called Dream Your World, a program for girls and women ages 8-29 to learn now to dream, manifest and create positive changes in their lives. The idea was for Dream Your World to hold online conferences to empower young women regardless of where they were lived.

Bonnie and her team partnered with webinar platform Clickmeeting to reach a global – and often underserved – audience with coaching, classes, workshops and support. Together, they created the global, online event, Dream Your World Into Being. Bonnie explains how she was able to connect with young women from around the world:

“We wanted to have a conference FOR THE WORLD and 17 countries were represented. This is, first of all, amazing!”

Regardless of education or poverty levels, young women from around the world can learn about empowerment. And they can all bring their voices back to their communities where the real change begins.

Helping Women Entrepreneurs Find Funding

We hate to say that it all comes down to money. But no matter how much bootstrapping we do, sometimes it just comes down to money.

Since we know women with little education are the most vulnerable to financial limitations. Operation Hope Small Business Empowerment program hopes to change that:

“Many people in low-wealth communities have big dreams, but no way to put them into action. Those in underserved neighborhoods often have difficulty getting start-up funding for businesses due in part to poor credit, lack of capital, and limited access to bank services.”

Many years ago, I participated in a similar program for my own business. Not only did I get funded, but they helped me refine my business plan. They happily answered my questions and help us create a long-term savings plan that allowed us to survive our crucial first few years.

Talk about empowerment!

Don’t Like Things? Change Them!

One of the most empowering moments in our lives is understanding that we actually have a lot of power. Throughout history, women have identified problems and offered solutions. Although most of us haven’t been the ones in power to enact those plans.

But now things are changing. In fact, the number of women running for Congress has more than doubled since 2016! That’s 431 women running for office nationwide!

This hopeful trend is amazing, yet it’s not the main point. You don’t need to run for office to become empowered (although that’s a great idea!). You can make phone calls to your representatives and ask them to support legislation to end the gender pay gap. Join your kid’s PTO, volunteer to coach, or even start a new side business. Support local and online women-owned businesses that share your social values. The boldest step towards empowerment is understanding that we have many options.

Because there are no limitations on us except the ones we put there ourselves.