Magical Marketing Blog ~ Where Law of Attraction and Marketing Meet

Is your phone company committed to progressive causes?

2012-01-31T11:34:00.000-08:00

When you're paying as much as I do to own and operate my smart phone, you may want to know who does your phone company support?

Here's what I learned when doing a bit of research on the topic (I was considering an iPhone with AT&T) Here's what stopped me: AT&T has given a whopping $522,500 to House Tea Party Caucus members from 2009-2011. Think Verizon is better? Verizon Wireless pumped thousands into the campaign coffers of Rand Paul and Marco Rubio and Ron Johnson, all Tea Party-backed Senators.

We need real change, not lip service. That's why I take action with CREDO Mobile. CREDO is a mobile phone company just like AT&T or Verizon Wireless -- except, unlike them, CREDO works with us for progressive change.

CREDO gives 1% of charges to amazing nonprofits like Mercy Corps, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU, and they've raised over $67 million in the last 25 years.
As a CREDO Customer, I agree with their values AND love their service. But frankly, $67 million looks like chump change next to the $522 mil AT&T gave the Tea Party. That's why I'm promoting CREDO to my friends who support positive change, and they offered us both a sweet deal:

Here's the Special Deal
If you sign up to be a CREDO customer, they'll give you a CREDO bill credit for the cancellation fee on your current mobile contract (up to $350) and give you 10% off your monthly voice fee for 2 years, plus they'll give me $100. Pretty good, right?

If you want to find out more, go to http://action.credomobile.com/tellyourfriends2012/January/MSfriend.html

Or call one of their cool customer service people at 866-689-0099

Make sure to mention my name and phone number so I get credit!
My Name: Julia Stege
My Mobile Phone 707-843-1917

Thanks for reading.

Who is Your Website For?

2011-11-04T09:25:00.000-07:00

Wildly Attractive Website in progress for
Kalli Halvorson, feminist astrologer

by Julia D. Stege, MFA
The Magical Marketer
Magical-Marketing.com

There is a lot of consensus in the marketing field that runs almost directly counter to my whole philosophy of Branding from the Heart and creating Wildly Attractive Websites. Here's the key difference, almost all of my marketing and branding coaches, mentors, colleagues and friends have been taught (or teach) that your website is about the clients you are attracting, not about you.

Even folks I know who agree to the importance of being authentic ultimately claim that the marketing is for the ones being attracted, almost leaving the business owner out of the picture. This is why I have felt it necessary to pursue a whole new paradigm for marketing.

It seems so obvious to me that as Soul-preneurs who have created businesses that forwards our purpose in the world, we would want marketing that matches our purpose. We would want it to feel like the results you create in the world.

I ask, how can your site do this when
you and your purpose are not considered important?

I also ask, how can we really know what will attract our ideal clients? Can we really read their minds and figure out their preferences? I say, no, not consistently anyway. Everyone has an opinion, right? And sometimes they change, daily. Traditional marketing has you target your audience, but your audience (the target) is constantly changing. Therefore you are targeting something that may not be there tomorrow.

So how can your site be truly effective
when it's about such a moving target?

When we create our marketing from the center of who we are, that is constant, that is unmoving, and that is wildly attractive to those who are seeking us right now. It is so attractive because they are like us, they are going where we are going. And they need our help to get there.

By consciously applying the Law of Attraction to our marketing, we recognize that "Like Attracts Like," and therefore, when we're authentic, true, and even vulnerable in our marketing, those who are like us, who really get and appreciate us, are naturally attracted to us.

It's with this in mind that I boldly declare (and sometimes frankly not so boldly, it's hard to contradict my own coaches...) a Wildly Attractive Website is all about you and your soul's purpose in the world.
More on how to create a Wildly Attractive Website in future articles.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Intutive Branding, Soul SymbolsTM, Wildly Attractive WebsitesTM, and magical Internet marketing strategies. If you're ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia's free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com

George Harrison: Authentic Pioneer

2011-10-12T21:22:00.000-07:00

Reflections on Seeing Scorsese’s Documentary “Living in the Material World”

By Julia D. Stege, MFA

“Blessed is he whose fame does not outshine his truth.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore (One of George Harrison’s favorite poems, read by wife Olivia while accepting her husband’s induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame)

George Harrison was always my favorite Beatle, but he was more than a rock star to me. Looking back it’s difficult to measure the impact George had on my life. As a teenager, I listened endlessly to George’s musical poetry and contemplated the nature of humanity and God. He was the first to introduce me to spirituality. His songs helped me to see beyond the illusion of material reality and into the realm of the divine.

While watching Martin Scorsese’s new HBO documentary on Harrison’s life called “Living in the Material World” I was reminded of George’s deep mysticism and the courage with which he brought his message to the world.

In the film there’s a clip where George says he thought a lot about whether or not to release his song My Sweet Lord which exposes Harrison’s yearning for oneness with God and extolls his belief that all religions are one.

“I thought a lot of people were going to really hate me because people fear the unknown. I felt like I was putting my neck out on the chopping block. But at the same time I thought ‘Nobody’s saying it …why should I be untrue to myself?’ I came to believe in the importance that if you feel something strong enough, then you should say it.”

Harrison’s courage was rewarded with a #1 single and the satisfaction that millions were being introduced to spirituality through his music. Conformity rarely comes with such rewards.

Harrison’s Example Can Inspire Spiritpreneurs

Many of my clients who are spiritually oriented entrepreneurs fear that marketing their businesses requires a degree of inauthenticity. They fear if they are ‘too honest” they might receive negative feedback by those not ready for their message.

Like George, many of us have worried that we’d get flack for being visionaries, for seeing the world differently, and for insisting on something more real than material accumulation for its own sake. George risked his rock-star status by staying true to his spiritual principles.

Many of us have feared we might lose our businesses if we follow our passion. But I believe the opposite is true. In a world where conscious entrepreneurship is on the rise, millions are seeking an alternative to unconscious materialism. Your unique offering could be the alternative those millions are seeking right now!

On the eve of the 10^th anniversary of his death, let’s be inspired by George Harrison’s pioneering spirit and share our true hearts authentically with the world. Our websites, ezines, blogs, social networks and community gatherings offer us a platform from which to share what is most important to us and to experience the bliss of attracting a following of like-minded, like-hearted fans. Let’s allow our passion to inspire ingenuity and transformation. The world desires, and deserves, nothing less.

Authentic Blogging Breakthrough for Conscious Entrepreneurs

2011-09-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA
The Magical Marketer

A lot of people ask me if blogging is really all that necessary for conscious entrepreneurs. After all, it takes a lot of time (so they think) and energy to blog, and anyway, they don't really know what to write about, how often, or really WHY?

Is blogging really worth all that effort?

I can relate. When you don't know how to do something, it can seem daunting. You start to wonder, are people in your industry blogging regularly, and is it helping their business?

You know what I'm going to say, though, don't you? You know I'm going to say yes it's important to blog and yes it's totally worth it.

But WHY is it so important to blog?

There are a lot of reasons a blog is important, but they all boil down to being found online. People are looking online for solutions to their problems, and millions of them turn to blogs for answers. Also, people don't have to know about your blog to find it. Google gives blogs high ranking so it's easier for folks to find you when you have an active blog.

Statistically, blogging is becoming a central feature in any marketing campaign. Check out these numbers to discover why:

80% of media find topics and talent through blogs
Over 350 million people worldwide read blogs
Wordpress and Blogger both report staggering growth in blogosphere
50% of web consumers are likely to recommend a brand they learned about on a blog

OK, so everyone's doing it and your customers want to get to know you and a blog is a great place to do that.

I'm convinced, but what the BLEEP do I blog about?

Blogging is an activity that works better the more you do it. The challenge is to ongoingly create interesting and helpful blog posts that authentically reflect your heart-felt brand.

As a conscious entrepreneur, you want to be authentic in your blog so that not only can people find you, they will recognize you as well. When you share what you care about on your blog, you provide a window into your true self that helps your perfect customers feel more confident about hiring you.

I suggest you sit down and write out a list of topics of concern to you and your perfect customers. Think about the questions your customers ask you, the problems they typically face, and the various ways you know you can help. Since you will want to blog once or more weekly to keep your blog fresh, this list will come in handy.

Schedule a time every week to create your blog post, get out your list, and start writing. The beauty of blogs is that they don't have to be long, about 250 - 350 words is ample.

Complimentary Blogging Breakthrough Webinar on Wed. Sept. 28, 2011

If you want some inspiration on how to create compelling blog posts that forward your brand message consistently, you also may want to attend to my free webinar called "Authentic Blogging Breakthrough for Conscious Entrepreneurs" on Wednesday, September 28th at 1:30 pm.

I want to help you become blogging experts! You can learn more about the class and register at.

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/275989914

See you then!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with authentic branding strategies and wildly attractive designs. If you're ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia's free Magical Marketing Toolkit athttp://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com

Suffering from a Boring Brand? Here's Help

2011-08-08T21:28:00.000-07:00

I've been overhauling my brand strategy, message and look lately, doing my best to ensure my brand truly reflects my purpose and my offerings while being wildly attractive to my perfect customers.

To ensure I'm on the right path with my brand, I've even invested in branding and marketing coaching and programs with other experts in my field.

Yes, sometimes these other coaches don't fully relate to me because by most traditional marketing standards, I'm WAY "out there." As Abraham-Hicks says, "There's never a crowd on the cutting edge."

But the advice of these experts has helped me to clarify what makes me different while teaching me some techniques that even an 'out there' new paradigm Magical Marketer like myself can benefit from.

As usual, I have already translated this knowledge into tips and strategies that conscious, sensitive, spiritual coaches, practitioners, creatives, mystics, and tree hugging entrepreneurs like you can use.

So if you are experiencing even a bit of brand shame, confusion over what to say to attract customers, or you just want a bit of inspiration to help you get your heart-felt message to the world, I'd love to invite you to my new, updated, cutting edge webinar, "Branding Basics for Conscious Entrepreneurs." It's a no-cost 90 minute webinar I'm gifting to you so that you can stop worrying about what to say and start sharing your beauty and magic with the world in a way that attracts your perfect customers.

I know you and I are on the same path, because "like attracts like," and I haven't been hiding what I'm all about. When I help you get your message to the world, I'm actually forwarding my life path in the process.

This is how I help you to transform your life and the world while you're at it.

TITLE: Branding Basics for Conscious Entrepreneurs
DATE: Friday, August 19th, 2011
TIME: 1:00 pm PT / 4 pm ET
DURATION: 90 Minutes
REGISTRATION:
http://www.graphicgirlz.com/brandingbasics.html

This webinar is for you if you are seeking:

A Brand Message that Reflects Your Life Purpose
Inspiration to Develop Compelling, Attractive Keywords, Taglines and Posts
Instruction on How to Write Marketing Copy and Blogs that Truly Represents You and Attract the Exact Right People to You
Clear Direction on How to Unify Your Offerings Under One Umbrella
Get your branding questions answered LIVE during the Q&A portion of the webinar!

Don't waste time suffering over a boring brand!

I look forward to sharing this new paradigm for marketing that comes from the heart, promotes your life mission, and attracts your most perfect customers. See you on the 19th!

How to Know When It’s Time to Re-Brand

2011-07-21T21:08:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Our businesses are always evolving, but we don’t always rush to change our brand with every change in our business, because brand consistency is so important. However, there comes a time for many of us that we realize we have outgrown our brand. That happened to me recently. In fact, this realization is long in the coming.

In 2006 my business changed radically. That year I became a certified Strategic Attraction CoachTM and began integrating the Attraction Consulting into my design business. Through the deep inner work inspired by the Attraction Planning process, I saw more clearly what is most important to me. At that time I started calling myself The Magical Marketer, created the Branding from the Heart system, and began teaching conscious entrepreneurs how to attract their perfect customers with an authentic approach to marketing.

Clearly I had moved beyond “Graphic Girlz” into a whole new realm of marketing. However I kept my old brand because I already had a decade of marketing invested into it. Now, only after months of inquiry and frank critique by several coaches and colleagues, I’m clear that it’s time to put Graphic Girlz away and rebrand my business as Magical Marketing, and I’m working on a tagline now, something like, “Branding that Captures Your Essence and Attracts Ideal Clientele.”

I’ve designed a new logo that I’m happy with, and I’m well on my way to launching my new website (stay tuned for that coming early Fall) Standing here and looking back, I wonder why it took me so long.

An even better question is how can I help others before they’ve been living with an outdated brand for too long?

So I have come up with 3 Sure Signs that Your Brand is Outdated. Check these signs against your brand to see if your brand has been outgrown by your business.

1) Your Brand is about a specific offering but you offer way more than that now. For instance, Graphic Girlz is clearly about Graphic Design but I offer Brand Strategy and Attraction Marketing Services. That’s a good sign the Brand needs to expand to cover all the offerings.

2) You have had a philosophic shift that your brand doesn’t reflect. For instance, I created Graphic Girlz as a graphics services partnership in 1995. In 1998 my partner left and I had a deep spiritual shift which led to involvement with Law of Attraction principles.

3) People express confusion about what you actually do. I recently had someone I’ve been networking with for years say to me, “but you don’t do logos, do you?” When people who know you are confused about your offerings, it’s time to upgrade your brand message.

4) You are embarrassed to show your brand to anyone. Do you apologize when you hand your card out because your brand is not a great representation of your brilliance? This is a sure sign that it’s time to upgrade your branding. An embarrassing brand is not an attractive brand!

Are you ready for a brand that is a true reflection of your vision, your purpose, your personality and your attraction plan? Shining your light to the world is your destiny. Let me help your light be a beautiful, authentic and wildly attractive one.

Apply for your complimentary Magical Strategy Session at http://www.magicalstrategysession.com/ or call Julia at (707) 823-3316 to schedule your appointment.

4 Steps to Creating a Wildly Attractive Free Offer

2011-06-05T13:19:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

I’ve been studying many Internet marketing gurus over the years, and bar none they all say that including a lead capture system on your website is vital to successful online marketing. Unfortunately, most reluctant marketers, ie spritual business owners, healers, and creatives, don’t have any kind of lead capture system, and those that do rely on the old fashioned, “join my newsletter list” forms that tend not to work any more.

Imagine a regular flow of folks who just LOVE your stuff and can’t wait to hear more from you. The way to attract folks like this is to tap deep within to your purpose and your offerings and develop an irresistible free offer to entice your perfect customers to engage with you. The key here is to make your offer totally authentic to the experience of you so your people will have a good sense of what it’s like to interact with you. Here are my easy step s to do this.

Step 1: Consider Your Purpose and Gifts ~ The first thing you want to do is determine your purpose and create a mission statement for yourself (you can refine it for your website later if you want.) This will be simple and from the heart, your true raison d'être (reason for existence.)
For instance, mine is: “Discovering the beauty and magic in people and helping them share that with the world in ways that attract their perfect customers and transform the world.”
Relate this to your highest gift, your best offering. In my case, branding vision ie helping conscious entrepreneurs develop their authentic brand. Notice how the thing you do best comes easiest to you and makes your heart sing while helping people in ways that are needed.

Step 2: Determine Your “First Steps”~ When a new person begins to work with you, what are the first steps you want them to take? Are there certain questions you ask them? Assessments you make? Things they must consider before getting started? These first steps can be the basis for your irresistible free offer, which will lead seamlessly into your fee-based offer. When they experience this first step, they gain benefit whether they work with you or not. And if they love the experience, they will naturally want to continue.

For instance, I always have my clients create their Attraction Plan first to determine their true heart’s desire. When folks do their Attraction Plans they can often begin attracting perfect customers in a couple of days. So this is the most beneficial and worth while first step I can offer folks to get to know me. It begins to solve their problem (needing to attract customers) while introducing them to the multitude of ways I can help them further.

Another approach to this works for authors. You can give away the first chapter or so of your book and then have an invitation for them to buy the book if they love those chapters.

Step 3: Create Your Free Offer ~ Now that you have the irresistible idea, it’s time to make the actual offer. This can be done in a number of ways. I often offer free webinars and teleclasses and record them as free offers. My Magical Marketing Toolkit is a report with two short videos. I will be changing this soon however to be the complete Class 1 of Branding from the Heart including video and audio replay of my live class and the handouts. While still introducing them to the Attraction Plan, this free offer leads my perfect customers seamlessly into my signature program.

Step 4: Promote Your Offer ~ You will need to put a lead-capture form on your website and create a sales page to promote it. See mine at www.MagicalMarketingToolkit.com. Then you will want to let folks know about it. Put a little promo in your email signature, so all your emails let folks know, passively, about your offer. Mine is

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Julia Stege
www.graphicgirlz.com
What you seek is seeking you!
707-823-3316

Get your free Magical Marketing
Toolkit and start attracting perfect
customers now. Claim it at
www.MagicalMarketingToolkit.com
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Also, regularly let your folks know about your free offer through social media like Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and YouTube.

Let me know if you have any questions about creating and promoting free offers. I would be happy to answer them in future articles. Also, for those who have been capturing leads successfully on your site, let us know what has worked for you and your free offer may be featured in an upcoming post in this blog.

Your Ultimate Niche (Not in the Traditional Sense Of Course!)

2011-04-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

Have you have ever attended a marketing seminar and heard about the importance of discovering your "niche" market? Did you then go about trying to figure out what your niche is and having a hard time about it? Maybe you feel you don't even understand what a niche is?

niche (nch) n.
1.A cranny, hollow, or crevice, as in rock.
2.A very specific form of target marketing.

So a niche is either a tight space in a rock or a specific way to target an audience in marketing. Doesn't that leave you feeling that if you chose your niche you would be stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Many of you who have attended my live webinars know that I am not keen on target marketing in the traditional sense. To me targeting people sounds like you want to shoot them. And in fact many traditional marketers do actually find some innocent people and shoot them all sorts of messages designed to brainwash them away from their intuition. A lot of marketers don't care how they make their audience feel, I've noticed.

Standard niches would be something like a specific age, specific sex, specific locale or specific income bracket. But for folks who have a range of offerings that help a lot of different kind of people, this niche thing is just confusing and maybe even gets you angry. (If you're like me a lot of what traditional marketers say makes you feel helpless and inadequate! That is their intention by the way!)

So for a number of years I've been avoiding this conversation about niche marketing. People would come to my classes saying "Do I have to find my niche in this class?" and I'd say NO because with my style of marketing we ATTRACT rather than TARGET. But now I have discovered the Ultimate Niche and this time you're going to love it.

Ultimate Niche (uhl-tuh-mit nch) n.
1. Your favorite people
2. People who are on the same life path as you are

With my system Branding from the HeartTM, I have been teaching that sharing your purpose authentically will attract exactly the right people to you, people who are on the same path as you are. They are inextricably drawn to you, they love everything you do, and their inner voice is telling them to hire you! Remember "Like Attracts Like" and your most perfect customers are like you in the ways that are most important.

The only way your perfect peeps are going to find you and recognize you is if you share yourself truly authentically in your marketing. Then you will find yourself surrounded by folks who really 'grok' you deeply, and you also 'grok' them. You are in a unique position to help them go further on their path because you've been on that same path and have discovered ways to succeed. This is your tribe, your Ultimate Niche.

My Ultimate Niche are out-of-the-box entrepreneurs,
thought leaders and visionaries who have a big message to share about uplifting people
and transforming the world. What's your Ultimate Niche?

If you know you need help with the process of discovering, attracting and serving your Ultimate Niche, check out my new Branding from the Heart Intensive and discount packages for consulting and design at http://www.brandingfromtheheart.com/

Silly Rabbit, Twitter Isn't Just For Kids [Twitter Update]

2011-03-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Hardly anyone I know understands Twitter. I have been teaching (or trying to teach) folks how to use Twitter to attract their perfect customers for over 3 years and I'd guess about 1% of my students are following my advice. Apparently my success at attracting thousands of followers, most of whom are aligned with me in some important way, has not inspired my less computerly-inclined to follow in my footsteps.

Thing is, my Twitter following has ballooned to over 22,000 (up by 10,000 over the last 6 months) and I want to spread the word. Maybe a part of me realizes that as Twitter gains popularity and as my Twitter following endlessly expands, more and more people will begin to understand the incredible and unique power of twitter and they can come check out my Twitter posts and learn some simple steps.

Imagine for a moment that you have the power to send a link out to 20,000 people. Imagine if only 1% of those people click your link... that's still 200 people! Now can you can begin to grok the power of Twitter? Maybe you just don't know how to work it. I have boiled it down to the bare essentials that I use right here:

1) Make a list of your favorite, most resonant words... words you'd like to be found by and find others by. These will be your keywords.

2) Just create a Twitter account already: The first step is to get an account set up. Use your keywords in your name or just use your full name if it's available. Go to http://www.twitter.com and do it now. While you're there, you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/magicalmarketer

3) Get Tweet Adder [you can use my affiliate link HERE] This program will help you build a following by keyword, unfollow folks who aren't following you, and tweet day and night, all automatically (once you set it up) For more deets on Tweet Adder see my article on Tweet Adder at http://magicalmarketing.blogspot.com/search/label/tweet%20adder

4) Create a .txt file of 100+ quotes or tweets under 120 characters. Use your keywords, quotes by folks you resonate with, and your own tips and links to your offerings. Make sure you market your links about 20% of the time and no more. The rest of the time be uplifting and inspiring. Fill your Tweets section on Tweet Adder with your quotes (these can be uploaded automatically and saved and downloaded at your discretion.)
5) Tweet 24 times per day or more to build your following fast. Keep adding to your Tweet List till you have about 1000 or more tweets. Make sure you keep your tweets in your queue so they rotate. Nobody will notice and even if they did, when your tweets are really good, people won't mind seeing them more than once.

6) Automatically follow between 200 and 300 people per day. Use your keywords to follow folks of like mind and heart. Set your unfollow to unfollow any who aren't following you after 3 days. The combination of tweeting often and following lots of people will grow your following faster.

7) Report back to me here. Please leave your comments below to share your progress!

Go forth and attract!

The Umbrella Brand: How to Cohesively Brand Your Different Offerings

2011-03-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

"Umbrella Brand" is an industry term for an overarching brand used across multiple related products. Giant companies like Heintz, Levi Strauss, and Sony use Umbrella Branding to promote a whole range of products cohesively. For instance, Heintz recently launched a $8.3 million campaign to brand their slogan, "It has to be Heintz" which automatically promotes a whole line of products.

Many industry experts say that Umbrella Branding only works when the company has a line of very similar products. However, I have been successfully using the concept of Umbrella Branding when helping my customers create one brand for a variety of seemingly disparate offerings.

Many of my clients have developed a range of techniques, products, and resources to solve the variety of challenges their customers face. They are often confused about the best ways to market these offerings cohesively, and find themselves explaining their modalities to a confused audience. Umbrella Branding helps them deliver a cohesive and potent message.

Branded Banner by Julia Stege for http://www.raisemyvibes.com/

The key to my method of Umbrella Branding is
tapping deeply in to your core life purpose. When you clarify "What makes you tick," and develop that into a mission statement, you are on the way to creating an Umbrella Brand that will work for your chosen focus,
even when it changes, for years to come.

I created my own Umbrella Brand about 12 years ago called Life is Magic. I have a website at that URL http://www.lifeismagic.com/. It's sorely outdated I'm afraid, however I use it as my main email address (julia @lifeismagic.com). When I created the URL, I considered my passion for magic and how I have loved everything magical ever since early childhood. I thought about all my offerings, from graphic design to websites, to Law of Attraction consulting, branding, marketing consulting, social networking, and the wildcrafted herbs and juices I love to promote, and how they are all an expression of my love for magic. I even thought about the historical fantasy novel I'm writing which includes much from the shamanic realms. My umbrella brand will even work for that! .So Life is Magic is a perfect Umbrella Brand for me.

To start creating your Umbrella Brand, answer this question:

"What Makes Me and My Perfect Customers Tick?"

(It's the second question from the BEE-ing Attraction PlanTM which you can find at http://www.MagicalMarketingToolkit.com)

Drop deep within your heart to discover what is most important to you and start writing down the words that describe it.
Think about how you expressed that when you were a child, a teen, a young adult, and now.
see if you can discover the unifying principles from all areas of your life. When you discover this, you will be well on your way to creating your own unique Umbrella Brand.

Learn More about Branding from the Heart at http://www.brandingfromtheheart.com/

Don't Do What I Did and Why It Took Me So Long to Figure This Out

2011-03-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

@magicalmarketer

Sometimes the most obvious things are just not so obvious to me. I know I'm not alone in this. Looking back, it seems that my brain was on hold for the last several years while this obvious thing was escaping me. Now that I'm clear on my direction, the lack of clarity I had decided was OK for me and my business feels unbearable and unfathomable.

What happened was simply that all the while I have been talking about authentic marketing, I had resisted standing fully behind what I REALLY loved about my business and instead responded to what I speculated would be more successful. I prioritized my activities and my passion often came second. You could catch me talking about it now and again, what my true love is, what my real forte is, what my favorite conversation in the world is. To hear me talk about it you'd wonder at my willingness to do anything else, anything that was not centered solely on the passion of my life.

Can you guess what I'm talking about? Those of you who have taken my classes before can likely guess. I'm talking about Branding from the HeartTM : How to share yourself authentically in a way that promotes everything that you're up to. I have created a process around the funny little question from the BEE-ing Attraction PlanTM, "What makes me and my perfect customers tick?" and combined it with what I call Magical Keywords to help anyone brand anything completely authentically. My not-so-secret desire is to discover the beauty and magic in women entrepreneurs and progressive thought leaders and help them get the message out in a way that uplifts inspires millions of people to transform the world. On a practical level, I help people promote themselves consistently by sharing what's most important to them in a way that attracts their perfect customers.

And though I call myself an "intutive branding artist," and I have talked about Branding from the HeartTM and held classes on it and offered small consulting packages, I have emphasized teaching social networking because people knew they needed that, and they didn't understand branding (or so I thought). I have taught Social Networking classes for 4 years now, and though I have focused several classes on Branding from the HeartTM , I have never gotten around to creating a well-documented system, a home study course or a signature program for my this unique process.

And the reason it took me so long to
figure out that this that I was using my mind, and sometimes (especially in my case) the mind is a scary place to be.

You see, my poor brain is full of so many ideas of how to market, what to market, social networking, websites, blogs, and webinars, and on and on, I got confused about what I need to teach, and so I switched it up quite frequently and offered a huge array of services. I did well and increased my income in a down economy, but I was afraid that the thing I love the most, the thing I am a natural at and which I truly feel can transform the world, would not sell. I was listening to inner gremlins telling me, 'not now' 'people won't get it' and 'you're not ready.' This left me constantly responding to the needs of others without really working out what I wanted to focus on, my unique gift for the world.

So now that I've seen the light (and listened to my own inner guidance) I am creating a new signature Branding from the HeartTM System this year, and kicking it off with an Authentic Branding Summit starting in a few months. I feel as if all my energy jets are on full tilt and I'm blasting forward in the way I'm meant to be. And I'd like to invite you to help me get started with this.

I need your input to make
this system really great.

On Thursday, March 31st at 11 am PT I am sponsoring a no-cost webinar called, "Julia Answers All Your Branding Questions" where I'll be doing just that. I want to hear from you the biggest questions you have about branding, about getting the message out, about your visual and verbal identity, about how to share what you do with incredibly clarity of purpose. I want to know where you struggle the most, what keeps eluding you, and what would make the biggest difference in helping you share your message with the world.

So here's the deal: I'll answer all your branding questions in exchange for some information from you. The registration form for the webinar includes several required question fields that I need you to answer to the best of your ability. I know it will take a bit of extra time on your part, and to express my appreciation for your heart-felt answers, I'm offering you free all-access pass to my Branding from the Heart Tele-Summit this summer including unlimited download of all 13 session recordings that I will be charging $197 for during the promotional launch in May.

I'll also be compiling answers to your questions for my presentation on the March 31st, and I'll be selecting a couple of folks from our audience to coach live during the webinar. So let me know what you're struggling with and I'll do what I can to help you move through that into the kind of clarity I am experiencing now.

HERE'S WHERE TO REGISTER FOR THE NO-COST WEBINAR 'JULIA ANSWERS ALL YOUR BRANDING QUESTIONS' ON THURS. MARCH 31ST 2011 AT 11 AM

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/680729106

Let me help you skip the years of avoiding the obvious that I have suffered, and let's together create your authentic heart-felt brand.

Go forth and attract!

Are you ready for a brand that is a true reflection of your vision, your purpose, your personality and your attraction plan? Shining your light to the world is your destiny. Let me help your light be a beautiful, authentic and wildly attractive one.

Apply for your complimentary Magical Strategy Session at http://www.magicalstrategysession.com/ or call Julia at (707) 823-3316 to schedule your appointment.

Is Your Website Welcoming?

2011-03-10T16:45:00.000-08:00

A welcoming website is key to successful online marketing, yet sometimes what makes a site welcoming seems elusive. We know when a site isn’t working, it’s boring, or too busy, or you cannot find what you’re looking for, or it’s just plain confusing. But how do you make a site wildly attractive to your visitors and inspire them to take the right actions?
There are a lot of elements to a successful website, and different considerations depending on your business, but I have narrowed it down to four steps that are vital to any kind of business.

1) Clarify Your Message and Address Your Visitors’ Needs: The first step to creating a welcoming website is to clarify your unique attributes, what’s most important to you (ie your soul purpose) and how you help your clientele, and share this in your site copy. Start with your Welcome Message for your Home Page and make sure that it:

Addresses Your Visitors Problems and Needs
Illuminates Your Purpose and How You Can Help Them
Outlines What’s on the Site and How to Find It
Directs Visitors to Take a Specific Action (sign up for free download, call you for a complimentary consultation, invite them to a free class.

Now take the same approach to each of your following pages, making sure to speak from the heart about your history, your offerings, your resources and how to contact you. You don’t need to write a lot, just be clear in your message, how you can help them, and what you want them to do.

2) Make Your Site an Online Oasis: One of the most overlooked aspect to a welcoming website is the look and feel. Many marketing gurus tell you not to worry about pretty graphics, just use red headlines, arrows and opt in boxes to drive action. However, these techniques are over used and do not take in to consideration how the page makes your visitors feel. Another tendency these days is to use a pre-designed theme that many other businesses have used as well. Though the site may be beautiful, it is not unique. To ensure that your site is visually appealing, unique, and reflective of your purpose, make sure to:

a. Consider your message and purpose and what symbols represent you. Take a look around your office and living areas to see if there are common images that you tend to collect. Take note of what imagery makes your heart sing, what colors light you up, what fonts feel like you.

b. Go online and find images, or go through a stack of magazines while considering your purpose and personality and download or tear out images that appeal to you. You can use a paint program to arrange images on a vision board, of if you have magazines, a scissors and glue will do. Make your own special visual arrangement that can either be scanned and used on your site, or given to a designer as inspiration for an original design.

c. Incorporate your symbology, color scheme, and font choices in your website graphics. If you are using a pre-designed theme, select unique photos or if you are feeling creative, create montages with several images you love to create a unique site banner. Otherwise hire a designer to create custom site graphics for you, and make sure she sees your chosen pics.

d. When you love the look and feel of your site, it will look and feel great to your perfect customers, and they will get you on a more visceral level.

3) Integrate a Blog Into Your Site: Maintaining a welcoming site means keeping the content fresh and pertinent to your customers. When you have an integrated blog on your site, it boosts the value of your site to visitors, and Google loves fresh content. Your site will come up better on searches when you blog frequently. Many of my clients opt for a custom designed Wordpress site with integrated blog for consistency of look and ease of use. Once programmed, these Blog Sites are easy to maintain yourself.

4) Promote Your Site to the World: Once your site is a true reflection of your purpose, you will want to direct people to your site from various popular sites online, such as

Facebook
Twitter
Wordpress
LinkedIn
Squidoo
HubPages

When you network online authentically and share your purpose, people become interested in you. When you link back to your site from your social networks and blogs, it helps to boost visitorship, interest, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

I look forward to seeing your welcoming sites. Feel free to post your sites below and let us know if you are having any challenges in creating an online oasis for your business.

Are you ready for a website that is a true reflection of your vision, your purpose, your personality and your attraction plan? Shining your light to the world is your destiny. Let me help your light be a beautiful, authentic and wildly attractive one.

Apply for your complimentary Magical Strategy Session at http://www.magicalstrategysession.com/ or call Julia at (707) 823-3316 to schedule your appointment.

What a Little Kindness Can Do For Your Marketing

2011-02-05T23:07:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege

When we're thinking about marketing ourselves, we often think about practical matters, like how to reach our target audience and inspire them to buy something from us. After all, marketing is about promotions, right?

Well, yes and no. Marketing in the traditional sense used to be about targeting a niche and urging people to buy (sometimes scaring them in the process.)

But marketing can be about so much more than inspiring sales. Marketing can be about uplifting people.

I realize how strange this can sound to folks who fast forward over TV ads and spend way too much time deleting spam from their email inbox. The fact is not enough people see marketing as a way to uplift people.

But you can I can be different. We can take an industry that has gone astray and make it our own. And while we're at it, lets see if we can start a real trend.

What we can do is use the various mediums for marketing (like Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Ezines, and our own Websites) and use them to uplift and empower people.

We can promote other people, for starters. Retweet their Tweets, Share and Like their Facebook posts, or write kind words of praise on their Wall.

We can spread uplifting ideas that foster self-love, encourage transformation, and give people a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Whatever we do with the intention of spreading love and kindness has got to be a good thing.

And pssssst, guess what? You're bound to attract a perfect customer or two while you're at it.

Go forth and be kind, my friends. And please share in the comments below about how you're uplifting others online.

Marketing: for Love, or Money?

2011-01-23T16:47:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

When you think about marketing, if you're like most people, money will dominate your view. It's understandable. Marketing costs money, marketing gets you to spend money, and hopefully marketing will help you earn money.

But have you noticed that when you're too focused on the money, it's harder to attract perfect customers? There's an air of desperation about you perhaps, or just a tinge of something cheesy or inauthentic.

Most success coaches, especially those with a spiritual perspective, say that if you're too focused on the money, you're less likely to experience true fulfillment. Marsha Sinetar wrote, "Do what you love and the money will follow," and Joseph Campbell famously said, "Follow your bliss, and doors will open."

If only we would all remember these words when we are marketing! Even those of us with a business that is an expression of our purpose often see marketing as a necessary evil and do it exclusively when we need more money.

But what if we thought of marketing as a way to share our passion with the world? And what if we marketed when we were excited about our passion and our offerings and the myriad ways we can help people?

Can you imagine the people you would be attracting
if you marketed for Love?

This is my piece of advice for the week: Market for Love. Share what you love most about your business, even if it's not the part of your business that brings you the most money. Write a blog post about your life purpose and don't worry about producing an immediate result. Focus on how you can serve others from the heart and write something inspiring to them.

Here is the entire Campbell quote. Remember this as you are sharing your purpose with the world.

"Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track
that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living
is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn't have opened for anyone else." Joseph Campbell

Julia Stege is called The Magical Marketer because she helps conscious entrepreneurs to attract their most perfect customers with a unique combination of intuitive branding, wildly attractive websites, law of attraction principles and social networking strategies. Download Julia's free Attraction report and instructional videos at http:://www.MagicalMarketingToolkit.com.

Time for a New Attraction Plan

2011-01-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

It' the new year and everyone is talking about clarifying what you want in your business and in your life. Most coaches will encourage you to make a list of your goals for the year at this time.

To create a client attraction breakthrough, instead of just a list of goals, I like to create a new Strategic Attraction PlanTM. My plan focuses on the most important relationship to my business (in my case, customers) and includes all the qualities of my perfect customers, my purpose and theirs, and what I want including goals, boundaries, and ways of being. It is by far the most powerful tool I have found for getting what I want quickly.

To create your attraction plan, you will write the answers to four questions. I suggest creating a new page for each question and allowing space to revise and add to your plan every day this month. Keep a diary of what you have attracted (Signs of Land) and review the effectiveness of this activity at the end of the month. If you notice great results, I recommend creating a new plan every month and revising it daily.

Here are the four questions and the explanation for how to answer them.

1) What are the qualities, characteristics and attributes of my perfect customers? This is a long list of what I like about my perfect customers, what they're like, their personalities, how they treat me, the resources they have, how they find me, what is important to them, how they act, and so on. I can think of folks I've loved to work with in the past and what I liked about them, or I can think of client situations gone awry and what I would prefer. What kinds of people have you always wanted to work with? Describe them here.

2) What makes me and my perfect customers tick? Another way to put this is, "what is my true life purpose?" When you clarify this and begin sharing it with others you will realize that your perfect customers have a mission that is quite aligned with yours if not exactly the same. It is our soul fire that is the source of our attracting power. When our perfect customers get what makes us tick, they recognize us and choose us.

3) What do I want my perfect customers to expect from me? If you have ever felt at the mercy of other people's expectations, this is your chance to be proactive and determine what you want others to expect from you. Write down the offerings you want to deliver, how you want to be perceived, what you want to acheive, and what you want your days to look like.

4) Who do I get to be to attract what I want? For each item under number 3 that you have not yet 100% attracted, write it down here again. Then ask yourself, "who would I have to be to attract this?" What word or phrase describes the way you would be if you attracted this? Write it down next to the item you want to attract. Now go forth and be that quality and watch as what you desire is drawn to you.

Signs of Land

It is important to take note of what we are attracting on a regular basis. When a sailor approaches land from sea, there are signs of land long before actual land is sighted, like certain weather patterns, or particular birds, sea mammals, and plant life. Similarly when we set course for what we desire in life and business, there are signs along the way that what we asked for is coming. Perhaps you asked for clients who are fun and someone calls from a game company, or you have asked for a more spiritual experience of business and you attract an inspiring teacher as a client. Taking note of these "signs of land" will help you to acknowledge your progress and flow toward the realization of your dreams.

Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, Wildly Attractive WebsitesTM, Branding from the HeartTM, and smart Social Networking strategies. If you're ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia's free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com . WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include the entire article including this bio at the end.

A Rumi New Year Greeting

2010-12-30T14:34:00.000-08:00

May you touch the sky
with your heart-felt message
in 2011, and beyond.

Love

Julia

How to Develop a Habit of Conscious Attraction

2010-12-08T14:35:00.001-08:00

Law of Attraction says what we experience in life is largely due to how we think about life. As Success Mentor Zig Ziglar put it,

"It's not what happens to you that determines how far you will go in life; it is how you handle what happens to you."

And Wayne Dyer said, ""The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind."

If you have noticed that bad things keep happening to you, or that good things keep not happening to you, the culprit is your attitude of thought. These days it's easy to blame the economy, the radical changes in technology, and other issues facing the world, for our personal challenges.

But the fact is that some will thrive during challenging times, and some will not. Why is that?

The difference between the two groups is one will think about what they want and the other will think about what they don't want. Both are using the power of attraction, but one is using it consciously toward their betterment and the other is unconsciously focusing on what's wrong.

The key to attracting what you want no matter what is happening to the economy or the world is focusing on what you want with positive expectation. And I would add, stubbornly focusing on what you want despite the latest bad news or hard times hitting others in your line of sight. Get Help Here

Can we stop focusing on the problem and still solve it? The challenge is that we have developed a habit of thinking about, talking about, commiserating over, and trying to fix our problems; and that will only cause our problems to grow.

We need to develop a habit of conscious attraction, one that is focused on our goals, dreams and aspirations. When something challenging occurs in our circumstance (we are after all humans on the planet Earth... stuff happens) we need to habitually focus on the solution, the upside, the silver lining, and remain centered in our belief in well-being. This will bring all manner of positive people, opportunities, and ideas to us that will continually help us move forward rather than being sucked down into the morass of self-pity, suffering, and failure.

So how can we develop a habit of conscious attraction? Many say that it takes 40 days to create a new habit. If we do something every day for 40 days, it will become an integral part of our lives. Therefore, I recommend creating your Attraction Plan and refining it for 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes at night every day for 40 days. The key is to notice where your mind takes you down a dark path, and then create an opposite scenario for your Attraction Plan that allows you to think of your problem in a new way.

This is challenging to do on your own, which is why I have created the 40 day program, "Client Attraction Breakthrough: How to Attract Clients Fast in Any Economy" starts when you register, and I've slashed the price on this program by more than 1/2 since I offered it last year, only $101 instead of $249 which was the price for last year's group.

TESTIMONIALS
Here are some of the comments from my previous Client Attraction Breakthrough Groups about the success they attracted through this program:

"Delightful Success is my experience from the continunation of reviewing my Client Attraction Breakthrough Plan. I add to my understanding Daily and feel inspired with the direction I am guided to with this practice. This brings me new joy in my business!" Laura Mathieson

"My wonderful new client who adores me is paying me another month in advance, so two months total! Thank you & mille grazie, Julia & my SAP!" Christine Heuber

"This message is to let you all know that I will not be able to attend next week's Attraction class. On Friday, I was offered an opportunity which I believe supports and aligns with my personal desires at least for the next few years! Thanks for your support." Cynthia Isaac

"Part of taking my life to another level involves my personal growth in the arena of integrating this new marketing paradigm with the principles of the attraction plan. Again, thank you Julia, and thank you all in the group for being such wonderful catalysts for my growth. It is empowering and encouraging to know I am not ALONE on the journey." Lynette Streeter

If you would like to join us and receive support for developing a habit of conscious attraction, CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND REGISTER. Client Attraction Breakthrough is offered as part one of my Magical Marketing Series.

Go forth and attract!

Love
Julia

PS: Did you miss my landmark webinar with Iyanla Vanzant last week? You can still access that video free of charge on my website for a limited time only. GO HERE:
http://www.graphicgirlz.com/teleconference.html

Will They Recognize You When They Find You?

2010-11-29T10:10:00.000-08:00

The world is filled with hypey marketing messages that have nothing to do with the truth. in fact, most marketing mentors will tell you to market in ways that are 'traditional', 'professional' and frankly, boring! So it's no wonder that when Conscious Entrepreneurs head out to market their businesses, they often make the mistake of following tradition and including hype in their marketing because they were told that's the way to attract customers. And the problem with this approach is that their perfect customers will never recognize them this way.

The Law of Attraction says, "Like Attracts Like." So your perfect customers are like you, and they want the real you to shine through. When you shine your true authentic beauty to the world, you give your perfect customers the permission to do the same, and they will invite you to help them. But when you use traditional marketing methods, you appear like a robot, blending in to the crowd, never standing out.

What exactly is hype?

Hype is what we say when we're trying to put a smiley face over the truth.
Hype is what we do when we're afraid our authentic selves are not good enough.
Hype is what we write when we are copying someone else's sales letters.
Hype is what we wear when we think we have to fit in with the crowd.
Hype is salesy, smarmy and fake!

How can your perfect customers ever recognize you as the one they're seeking if you are faking it in any way?

Imagine your most perfect customer right now. Get a good picture of them in your mind. These are folks who really get you, your uniqueness, your inner beauty and magic. These people want only you because you are the only one with your special gift, your own approach to solving the problems your customer has.

Now imagine if you are copying someone else's sales letter, or using a design scheme that doesn't reflect your personality at all. Can you see your perfect customers getting confused and passing you by? Can you see how exactly the wrong people will be attracted to you?

So how to avoid hype and market authentically?

First, when you are writing your sales copy, blog posts, newsletters and other marketing pieces, write from the heart about what is most important to you and your business. Share authentically about your true purpose in life and direct your sharing to your perfect customers. Don't try to attract everyone, only those who will really get you and appreciate your special approach.

Secondly, use imagery that feels resonant to you, that reflects your personality. Pictures can be the most powerful magnet that draws the perfect people to you. When you choose imagery that opens your heart and gives you happy shivers, you know you have found the right ones. When your perfect customers see that, they will be intuitively drawn to you.

Third, be yourself. Don't try to 'act professionally' if that means holding in who you really are. Speak frankly, say what's on your mind, distinguish yourself from the crowd. Blending in is not helping your brand. A good brand stands out.

I'll Guide You Through The Steps to Creating Your Authentic Marketing Plan

Need help creating your authentic marketing plan? Check out my upcoming webinar series "Magical Marketing Mastery." I will guide you through the steps to creating your attraction plan, your heart-felt brand, and an online marketing plan that is fun, fulfilling and wildly attractive. Visit http://www.MagicalMarketingMastery.com

Book Review: Peace from Broken Pieces by Iyanla Vanzant

2010-11-28T13:57:00.000-08:00

The first thing I said after finishing "Peace from Broken Pieces" was, "I will never complain about my life again!" Iyanla Vanzant survived poverty, the death of her mother and abandonment by her father, beatings, denigration, rape and denial by her 'care-givers', and pregnancy all by the time she was 16, and still become a powerful adult able to inspire the lives of millions. In her latest book Peace from Broken Pieces: How to Get Through What You're Going Through, Ms. Vanzant spares no detail in taking us through the experiences of her life which reveal the pathologies of our culture.

Though Ms. Vanzant refers specifically to her culture as an Black woman, the experiences she endures and rises up from are not limited to African-Americans. Women of all cultures will recognize the alienated man/woman relationships described by Ms. Vanzant, and will benefit from her brilliant insights into how to rise above cultural pathologies.

Imagine having this kind of childhood and struggling through being a single mother in the projects, to come out a best-selling author and part of Oprah's TV faculty, only to lose it all and more. Iyanla invested 3/4 of a million dollars in health-care services when her daughter became ill with cancer. Her daughter died, her husband left her, her bank took back her home, and she was left penniless. And yet she rises again, and brings all of us who face difficult times up with her!

I have been a fan of Iyanla Vanzant since I read "In the Meantime" in 1998 which helped me heal my broken heart after the end of an important relationship. Peace from Broken Pieces comes to me at a perfect time.

At times my own struggles seem insurmountable and overwhelming. Reading Ms. Vanzant's book helps me to see that no matter what difficulties I face (or imagine I'm facing) and no matter how many generations old my challenges are, I can rise above and shine my authentic light to the world, and achieve peace and fulfillment.

I recommend this book for anyone who is facing challenges in these changing times and who is seeking a renewed relationship to peace, faith, and hope.

I invite you to attend a live interactive webinar with Iyanla Vanzant on Friday, December 3rd, 2010 at noon Pacific Time. The webinar is called "How to Get Through What You're Going Through: Healing the Barriers to Personal and Business Success." Visit http://www.graphicgirlz.com/teleconference.html to learn more and register.

The Cost of Serving Not-So-Perfect Customers

2010-11-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

The other day I had a melt down.

In hind-sight what happened was that my mind convinced me I had to do something for a client that didn't feel right in the moment with the hopes it would help me build my business.

Do you ever do that, overspend your time and energy trying to help someone who ultimately is not a match for you and your business?

If I dissect what happened into small pieces, I can easily see where my intuition was giving me warnings that I ignored in favor of what my mind was telling me about the potential boost for my business. This client was full of promises that I heard time and again over a period of several weeks. But they never materialized because the client ultimately refused to take any of my advice.

That's a good sign this person is not a perfect customer right? But I didn't see it. (Or I chose not to see what was staring me in the face)

My business coach, Cynthia Riggs The Biz Diva, has pointed out to me on a number of occasions that I tend to go for the "Shiny Bright Object" which is usually an illusion. So after giving me a bear hug and helping me wipe away a few tears , she asked me, "In what way is this person a match for your Ideal Client?"

Deer in headlights. The only thing I could think of was, "He has money."

Now as someone who teaches the Attraction Plan and advises my customers to specify who is perfect for them, it's ironic that I didn't see it. Unfortunately the cost of ignoring my intuition was rather dear. I wasted about 10 hours that I could have used on other marketing and/or product development activities and the emotional cost was pretty high. It feels bad to be disrespected that way. Perfect customers just don't do that!

I cannot get back that 10 hours of my life, that's for sure. But I can move forward with new conviction to recognize and serve my perfect customers, and to refer the others to service providers who might be a better match for them. I have taken the time to clarify the qualities, characteristics and attributese of my perfect customers again, and one of the qualities I'm emphasizing now is that my perfect customers really get me, they value my time and advice, and they make decisions quickly.

If you have noticed yourself serving some not-so-perfect customers or prospects lately, I suggest you get out your attraction plan or create a new one.

Make sure to enter the opposite qualities to the person who is not a fit. It may take some effort, but after focusing on what you want for even a little while, you'll start feeling better, moving back toward your center, and attracting the customers who are a perfect match for you!

Ready to Build Your Online Stage? Here's How

2010-11-05T15:19:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Have you been feeling the urge to get your message out to a larger audience, yet feeling resistence to using computers and the Internet to create your online stage? Last week when I was travelling home from Santa Fe, I met a woman on the plane who is in this same predicament. She has a successful healing practice in Europe and when I asked her what her big dream is, she said to teach to a wider audience and to be able to travel the world and not be chained to her office.

When I told her that I'm an internet marketing specialist who trains leaders how to do webinars she smiled, looked up at the sky and said, "I didn't ask for this!"

But of course she had! And so have you! That's why you were drawn to read this article in the first place. You have an important message to get out to the world. You were born to provide your own unique perspective on the issues facing us and our planet today. And the Internet provides the perfect stage for you, if you would only use it!

I know, it's alienating to most sensitive folks who haven't yet found a way to happily integrate computers into their lives. I'm here to make the transition easier. It's part of the reason that synchronicity led me to become one of the first designers to use desktop publishing and then the Internet. I've been doing it a long time and I have learned how to use these tools to create a public stage for my creativity and my life purpose, and I've helped my clients to do the same.

So how do you do build your online stage?

One thing I've learned is that trying to do to many things at once doesn't really work. You have to start with just a couple of new activities, get that rolling, and then add another and another, building your online stage one step at a time. Move at the pace that feels good to you and you will start to see results. Here are a few of my favorite ways to build an online stage.

FREE WEBINARS provide a global stage for you to share your message, your gifts, your tips and strategies designed to help your perfect peeps get rolling (or proceed further) on their path. You have a specific offering, a particular way to share that will attract those people who are a perfect match to you. Offering webinars allows you to present your work in an international interactive container with multi-media capabilities. You can share all kinds of pictures, slides, imagery, charts, photos, even live video if you want. Any kind of visual and/or auditory presentation can be displayed to your live audience, and recorded for download or replay later.

THE FACEBOOK PROFILE is still the most powerful tool you have for attracting a large audience of simpatico peeps. You can connect with up to 5,000 people and businesses and message every single one directly or collectively through lists. You can share any kind of media (pictures, videos, audios, links, blogs, websites...) with your people. Take it from someone who has taken 12 years to build an e-list of 2,000 - and in only 3 years topped out my Facebook - Facebook can be built fast! Now that I have topped out my facebook, I can go through my network and weed out any who are not a true match for me and my message. Soon I will have an emensely powerful network of completely aligned souls. And all it takes is a bit of time each day to connect with people you relate to.

LINKED IN ANSWERS is a wonderful way to share your expertise with others who are seeking answers. I have only recently begun to use this tool and have already attracted inquiries in to my services. What you do is go to LinkedIn and click "More" in the navigation bar, then "Answers" You will see all sorts of questions in a variety of categories. Select the categories appropriate for you and see how many questions you can answer there. I immediately attracted some "Best Answer" accolades which helps me build my leadership within LinkedIn. The more I answer, the more likely I am to attract people seeking answers. It's a wonderful way to help others, too.

Step Into Your Greatness and Shine!

2010-10-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in Santa Fe with the folks who brought us the BEE-ing Attraction Plan (also known as the Strategic Attraction Plan) that I use in all my classes and services. It was called the BEE-ing Attraction Wizard Retreat and the topic for the weekend was "Stepping In To Your Greatness."

In their typical laid-back, authentic style, leaders Jan Stringer and Alan Hickman guided us through the Attraction Plan and toward a clear statement about what makes us tick and who we're being in life.

The crux of the weekend was really taking a transformational journey into what is perfect for us, and shedding any resistance we had to getting our purpose, our true light. As our work dove deeper and deeper into what is most important to us, it became clear that stepping into our greatness is simply about first getting what makes us tick and then sharing that with others. What comes naturally as a result are those attractive actions which create the pathway to realizing that purpose.

As each of us shared what makes us tick, we experienced a profound relatedness to each other.

Even though most of us had just met for the first time, we felt like old friends sharing a common path. And who knows, perhaps we have met even multiple times on the cosmic journey through lifetimes.

And this would not have been possible if we hadn't all shared our purpose, so raw and vulnerable in the early stages of coming to the light. By the end of the weekend we all declared our purpose and intentions with the group and we said to one another, "I see your greatness."

What a blessing to be so totally seen, gotten, and supported.

It made me want to keep going with it, to extend our retreat online and share our greatness with the world. Of course it's what I do for a living: helping people share their purpose online in a way that attracts perfect customers. And I was seeing my vocation in a whole new light, in the light of my tick.

What makes me tick is expressing the magic and beauty of Creation and being a loving presence in the world.

I see that what I love to do is discover the unique magic and beauty of a person and help them express that visually and verbally online, through their brand, their website, their social networking and their whole marketing plan.

That's what my gifted webinar series "Attracting Perfect Customers Online: The Basics" has been about, really sharing your authentic self online to attract the perfect people to you, the ones who truly see and value your greatness. It has been my aim that those who participate fully in the series feel empowered to shine online and thrive through living their purpose large out in the world.

The magical Internet marketing steps revealed in the series are as follows:

1) Create your attraction plan and balance your energy so you are ready to receive.

2) Clarify your Tick Statement and define your brand message by sharing what's most important to you.

3) Write from the heart, share your gifts, talents and passions on your own blog.

4) Use Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter to get the message out to the most people and attract customers to you.

You may access the webinar video replays for this series by registering at http://www.graphicgirlz.com/teleconference.html

Here's to shining your greatness online!

Julia D. Stege, MFA
www.GraphicGirlz.com
What you seek is seeking you!
707-823-3316

PS: If you know you want to start building your authentic presence online and need help, feel free to give me a call and we'll discuss the possibilities and explore ways I can help you shine your greatness online!

Getting Good Google Ranking is as Easy as 1, 2, 3

2010-10-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

photo credit: Suat Eman

Getting to page one of Google used to be hard. Back in the early days, you would have to hire an SEO expert to do their tricks on your site, and then you would be lucky to have one listing on page one. Now with the advent of Social Media, getting to page one of Google has become easy as 1, 2 , 3. Here are the 3 keys to getting great ranking.

Step 1: Choose your Magical Keywords

Start by making a list of words that resonate with you, that mean something, that sing to your soul. These are your "Tick Words" - They reflect what makes you tick. Then make a list of words that represent your products and services, and the outcomes of your offerings. These are your "Offering Words". Visit the Google Keyword Tool (Search "Keyword Tool" at Google.com) and enter your words to see how often these words are being searched and note the most popular ones. Then create your keyword phrases with a combination of Tick and Offering Words, using the ones most commonly searched. These are your "Magical Keywords" that will attract your perfect customers. Create "long tail" phrases of 5 to 7 words for which we will optimize your site and social networks.

Step 2: Optimize Your Website

Optimizing your site is not as mysterious as it may seem at first blush. All you have to do is make sure your Choose your favorite 5 - 7 Keyword Phrase and populate your site with this phrase. If you don't have a site, create a blogsite on Wordpress.com to get started. Include your phrase in the following places on your site. Always remember: Google ranks pages, not websites. Each individual page needs to rank and stand on its own, so make sure each page is optimized for your keyword phrase/s.

URL or 'web address' ie http://www.yourkeywordphrase.com/
Page Name ie yourkeywordphrase.html
Page Title Tag
Headline and Subheads (H1, H2, etc in your CSS Style Sheet)
Links
Image Alt Tags
META Tags in the page coding
Labels and/or Tags on your blog posts

Step 3: Create Powerful Back Links

The secret ingredient to great Google ranking made easy are Social networks: The most powerful way to get to page one of Google is to create pages on high-ranking social networks and bookmarking sites that link back to your site using your keyword phrase. Make sure to sprinkle your keywords and keyword variations throughout the title, description, web address, headlines, and content of your pages. The best sites I use for this are:

Squidoo.com
HubPages.com
Digg.com
Delicious.com
Facebook.com (fan page)
Wordpress.com (new one page blog per key word phrase)
Blogspot.com (new one page blog per key word phrase)

Once you have gotten several properties to page one for your keyword phrase, then create new keyword phrases and new properties to link back to your site. Finally, if this seems either too complicated or too time-consuming to do yourself, hiring someone to do it for you is a good idea. Usually, one good new customer attracted online can pay for having these services done for you, so get optimizing!

Graphic Girlz provides all the services listed above. For a complimentary Search Engine Optimization Assessment, please contact Julia Stege at (707) 823-3316 to schedule.

SEO Strategies for Conscious Entrepreneurs

2010-10-12T06:14:00.000-07:00

Blogs are known as a wonderful tool for sharing your passion, engaging potential clients, attracting media attention, and building a compelling online presence. It is also said that certain blogs are good for your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or "Site Ranking" but the standard practice is limited to integrating a blog into your website and updating it as frequently as possible. Hardly anyone talks about the power of creating one page blogs that are specifically designed to get you to page one of Google.

I learned about this strategy about 3 years ago when attending a couple of free online courses offered by a group called Conversation Domination. Google really loves blogs and Web 2.0 pages (i.e. social networks) and hardly anyone in the SEO world uses these to get good ranking, so often you can be the first one to grab the main keywords from your industry. It's pretty much a 2 step process.

Step 1: Choose Your Keywords

I encourage you to select a 5-word phrase that includes a combination of practical words referencing your offerings and words that convey the feeling of your offering. You can use the Google "Keyword Tool" (just do a search for it at google.com) to see which words you're considering rank better. Combine those words with those from part 2 of your Attraction Plan called your "Tick Words" to come up with your Magical Keyword Phrase.

Step 2: Set Up One Page Blogs Using your Keywords

Though most people set up one blog and update it often, this strategy invites you to set up multiple one page blogs that you don't have to update. Use your keyword phrase as your blog title, blog URL, and headline. Also include these words in links that point back to your site to improve your site ranking for these words. Most of these platforms allow for a Twitter widget that feeds your Twitter news stream onto the page, thus updating it automatically whenever you update your Twitter.

Use the following high-ranking blog sites and Web 2.0 properties. These will let you duplicate your own content so you can copy and paste from one source document:

http://www.wordpress.com

http://www.blogspot.com

http://www.squidoo.com

http://www.facebook.com/pages

Another great one is http://www.hubpages.com but this one won't allow you to publish duplicate content, even if you wrote it. Write unique text for this one and limit links back to your site (max 2 links per site) or Hubpages will not let you publish.

Learn more about the benefits of blogging at my complimentary webinar, "What the Bleep to Blog About, and Why and Where, Too" Register at http://bit.ly/wtbtba

How Authentic Should Authentic Marketing Be?

2010-10-06T04:09:00.000-07:00

People have been asking me this question for a long while, "How authentic should authentic marketing be?" And I always come up with the same answer, "As authentic as possible." But what does that really mean?

There are a lot of reasons to be authentic in your marketing, mostly because being any other way is torture and doesn't attract the right customers. But people often want to know:

Do I share everything about my private life?
Should I reveal my business mistakes?
Is it ever appropriate to reveal my political or spiritual beliefs?

These are pertinent questions, and there is no one right answer. It really does depend on you, your personality, your business, your audience... such a number of things.

That's why I emphasize that by having the right attitude toward your marketing, your authentic self will shine through and you'll easily answer these questions for yourself.

Here are 3 key attitudes to adopt when creating your authentic marketing.

Attitude #1: I trust my true self is attractive to my perfect customers.

The first attitude is all about understanding how the Law of Attraction works and relaxing into your true power. When we understand that like attracts like, and that what makes us and our perfect customers tick is aligned, then being ourselves becomes the practical solution to attracting the right people.

Attitude #2: When I feel good, I'm more attractive (and I feel good!)
The second attitude is all about feeling good. The better we feel the more attractive we are to others, especially others who also feel good. When we understand this

Attitude #3: I know what's right for my business.
The third attitude is trusting your own knowledge and intuition about your business. When you have this attitude, you can listen to the advice of others without being pulled off your center and thrown into confusion and procrastination. Then you can implement what makes sense to you and leave the rest.

When you feel good, trust in your attractive true self, and are confident about your business, then making decisions about what to share and what to keep private comes naturally and easily.

PS: My answers to the 3 questions above would be No (be selective about what to share - use your intuition), Yes (show yourself as a real human being like Bush refused to!) and Yes (see answer to #2)

Don't Leave Out LinkedIn

2010-10-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

Though I've been 'on' LinkedIn for over 2 years, I've mostly used it as a professional profile rather than a networking tool. But last Fall I took a free class on LinkedIn and found out that the average income level there is $110,000/year, which means there are a lot of affluent business people on LinkedIn! That's when I started thinking about using LinkedIn more.

The thing is, I didn't jump into checking into LinkedIn daily until last week! Why? Because I had attitude about LinkedIn being only for managers, conservatives, and folks who frankly are not spiritually driven. Though this attitude has a grain of truth to it, with over 75 million active users, there are all kinds of professionals on LinkedIn, including the more magically oriented who are my perfect customers! It was when I shifted my attitude toward LinkedIn with the intention of paying more attention to my connections there that I received a "Sign of Land," ie a potential client called requesting a conversation about working together. I know that when I actually spend more time there, I'll be attracting even more potential clients and perfect customers!

Here are some tips on how to make the most of the time you spend on Linked In to attract your perfect customers.

1) Make Your Profile Shine! Your profile is the most important component of your LinkedIn activities. Make sure to include all your education and professional experience, all the jobs you held, the skills you have, the services you offer, links to your website, blog and other networks, as well as your interests. Upload a professional, attractive and recent photo of you that puts your best face forward.

2) Ask for Recommendations. "Recommendation" are a feature of LinkedIn that allows people to give you professional testimonials about your offerings, thus building your trust factor with the public. Make sure to connect with any clients who are on the network and request a recommendation from them. If you know anything about their work you can return the favor, even if you've never hired them. It's a great way to repay the favor.

3) Answer Questions. "Answers" is another powerful feature of LinkedIn. People ask questions on a variety of topics and you have the opportunity to answer, thus expressing your interests and expertise while directly connecting with others on the network in a helpful way. This is the key strategy I'm implementing now, going on LinkedIn to answer at least one question per day, and I'm already making some great business connections.

If we're not already connected on LinkedIn, visit my profile request a connection. It will ask you for my email, which is julia@lifeismagic. Looking forward to connecting with you there. And if you have any questions about LinkedIn, feel free to ask. I'll do my best to answer!

Free Webinar: What the Bleep to Blog About and Where and Why

2010-10-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

Register for Webinar Here

What Is Your Big Crazy Dream?

2010-10-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege

This weekend I went to Vacaville to the Be Love Farm to have a conversation at a long dinner table among folks committed to organic foods, personal expression, and global transformation. We talked and ate good food outide among the warm breezes coming off the grassy hillside. We heard from people who have created conscious businesses, cured themselves of illness with natural means, invented new methods and new products designed to forward human kind.

Being among people who have accomplished amazing things inspired me. But it was also painful.

It was painful because I was acutely aware of my desire to have a postitive impact, to reach millions of people and help them be uplifted and inspired to do their good works in the world, and the contrast between that and the reality of my current limited realm of influence and contribution. When I spoke to the group, I admitted I had no clue how to accomplish what I really desire without having a boat-load of money to do it. The response I got helped me to wake up to the resources I already have, and to start there and move toward my goal one step at a time.

I know, I want to leap, but that is not how change happens (most of the time.)

Being around people who play big makes me want to play big. So when I got home that night, buzzed on coffee and possibility, I lay in the dark pondering how I can get my Big Crazy Dream rolling.

I came up with an idea at about 3am (a good time for inspiration.) It will be an ongoing series of no-cost or by donation webinars where I have conversations with Thought Leaders and Big Players who are impacting the world in positive ways.

I could see how this project could really take off and attract thousands if not tens of thousands of conscious people across the globe. So instead of procrastinating, I reserved the domain and invited my first guest. I'll keep you posted when the series begins.

So what is your Big Crazy Dream? Are you holding back because you think you don't have the resources to get started? Share here what step you could take now to start realizing your dream. Of course, sharing is the first step!

Attracting Perfect Customers Online The Basics Invite

2010-09-22T12:52:00.000-07:00

Announcing Special Presenters for Branding from the Heart

2010-09-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

3 Keys to Making Marketing FUN!

2010-09-21T04:37:00.000-07:00

One thing my peeps tell me time and again is that they hate marketing, it's a drag, they feel overwhelmed, and it's not at all fun! Since part of my business mission is to help conscious entrepreneurs to create a marketing plan that is fun, fulfilling and sustainable, it hurts to see so many of you suffering over your marketing. So in effort to aleviate your pain, here are some essential keys to making marketing fun.

First Key: Share What's Most Important to You in Your Marketing!
One reason marketing is such a drag to many people is that they are using outdated marketing techniques that feel alienating, embarrassing, and hypey, including using scripts written by others (ie mentors), competitive language, and fear mongering. Authentic marketing is more effective for attracting perfect customers, so you want to dive into your soul and discover what's most important to you. Write blog posts, ezine letters, or website copy that reflects your passion.

Second Key: Connect with Perfect Peeps that You Love!
Marketing is a hassle when you don't like the people you are marketing to. It seems obvious but I remember a time when I was so nervous to go to networking events because I didn't like anyone there! Finally it dawned on me I should network with people I like. Then I'm much more bubbly, happy, smiley, and attractive! To attract more folks I like, I use the Attraction Plan and clarify who I want to attract

Third Key: Do What Brings You Joy!
I am always looking for ways to integrate what I love to do with marketing. One of my favorite things is to wander around Sebastopol placing my post cards, brochures and/or fliers arond in cafe's and on bulletin boards around town. I also meet and greet with local conscious entrepreneurs to expand my local network, and I love attending business breakfasts with other local entrepreneurs (ones I like!) When I am happy and uplifted, I am a magnet for what I want in my life.

When I'm having fun, I'm more likely to attract my perfect customers! Please share what you love to by commenting to this post and if you have questions about how to market yourself while you're doing it, I'll answer!

What's Your Online Marketing Vibe?

2010-09-14T05:57:00.000-07:00

"You can control your vibration. And when you control your vibration, you've controlled everything that has anything to do with you." ~ Abraham-Hicks

A lot of conscious entrepreneurs don't like computers, or going online at all. If you feel this way, you're not unusual. In fact there appears to be a trend toward thinking of going online or working on computers as 'anti-spiritual.' It's almost seen as a virtue to avoid electronics as much as possible.

Many of you only go online to do your 'due diligence' in getting the word out about your business. But did you ever stop to think about how your resistence to computers and the Internet effects your marketing efforts? If you've got bad vibes around computers, those bad vibes will impact the effectiveness of your marketing.

If like attracts like, then when you're being resistent, either folks will resist you, or you will attract resistent folks! To attract our perfect peeps online, we must make the effort to raise our vibrations before we go out to attract potential customers and spread the word about our offerings.

Here are some Vibe Raising Tips for Internet Marketers:

Tip #1) Check in to how you're feeling before you go online. Take note of any negative thoughts you are having about the computer or your ability to use it effectively and let them go. Take a deep breath and center yourself.

Tip #2) Focus on what results you want from your activities. Close your eyes and imagine some perfect interactions that may result from your internet activities. Picture your perfect customers finding you and contacting you. Feel what it's like to have a perfect customer call you ready to get started.

Tip #3) Limit your online activity to short periods with a specific focus. For instance take 15 minutes to expand your network, or 1/2 hour to schedule several days of Tweets. This way you can avoid burn-out and be more productive in the time you do allot to online marketing.
When you take the time to be conscious of your own vibration and how you are feeling as you market, your marketing efforts will become more attractive and you'll be a lot happier with the results!

Learn how to become a magical magnet for everything you want in Julia's upcoming workshop with energy balancing expert Deborah S. Myers, "Magic At Your Fingertips: Clearing the Blocks to Attracting What You Want in Your Business and Your Life" in Santa Rosa, CA on Mon. Sept. 27th. Learn more at http://www.magicatyourfingertips.info/

Does Your Marketing Look Like (Pardon the French) Crap?

2010-09-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

Today I received a letter from one of my favorite multi-millionaire sales gurus and one of her mentees inviting me to a teleclass celebrating the end of "info-crap" style marketing and the beginning of a more authentic passionate approach to promotion.

I thought this was right up my alley, so I clicked the link right away.

Do you think I was surprised when I visited the sales page to find it used every "info-crap" design technique in the book to get us to opt in?

Yup, there was the red 24 point Helvetica headline with the cheesy clip art image next to it, brightly colored arrows pointing at the opt in box, no compelling brand image, not even a logo to distinguish this thought leader from the rest. And to be fair to this guru, I've seen a multitude of other really smart and helpful business advisors using these same design techniques on their sales pages.. Why is that?

In fact, I have heard several marketing gurus specifically say that good design doesn't matter, that compelling graphics are more expensive than they're worth.

Yet these same gurus will pay 10s of thousands of dollars to get their sales copy right. Where is the disconnect?

What I have found is that more and more of us regular business owners are just as tired of "info-crap" designs as we are of "info-crap" verbiage and offers. Many of us refuse to opt in to sales pages that use these design tactics based on our intuitive hit that these folks couldn't be a good match for us due to their 'push marketing' visual aids.

I understand that folks on a limited budget have a hard time affording a good designer, but these thought leaders definitely have the resources at hand, but obviously believe design doesn't matter.

So this begs the question: Why does design matter?

It's a difficult question to answer in brief, but I'll give it a try.

When talking about the importance of design, I like to give the analogy of a networking event, because most of us can relate to that. You would never consider wearing really garish clothing to go networking, and stand at the center of the room shouting at people. When we use bold, boxy, red fonts and flashing arrows, that's exactly what we're doing: shouting at our visitors to, "enter your email address here!"

Usually when going out to attract our perfect customers live, we consider our clothing, hair, makeup and accessories. We want to communicate something about ourselves by how we show up. We always do our best to select clothing that we like, that looks good on us, and that reflects our personality. Translating that to our marketing, we want our sales pages to feel like us, to reflect our unique personality and mission, and to compel people to take actions like giving us their email, because the idea feels right to them.

The bottom line is that visuals communicate on an emotional level. The design of a web page is often called the "look and feel," for this reason.

Here are three tips I have developed for creating sales pages with design integrity.

Tip #1) Choose your color palette to reflect your own aesthetic. Don't use red headlines just because all the sales gurus say they're more effective. Use colors that make you feel good and they will likely attract your perfect customers as well.

Tip #2) Use images that communicate your personality and purpose. I like to tap into my message deeply and then go on sites like www.dreamstime.com that offer free or cheap stock photography and search for images that feel good to me in that state. I am looking for images that reflect what's most important to me, that inspire thoughts that are in alignment to my purpose, and that are beautiful. I stay away from anything too cliche or sales-y.

Tip #3) Use minimalism whenever possible. One common complaint about web pages is that they are too busy, too wordy, too ugly, and too confusing. Using white space and keeping elements to a minimum allows the viewer to consume your content without overwhelm, thus retaining a connection to their own intuition. Since your perfect customers are intuitively drawn to you when you are authentic, portraying your personal style in your sales pages will magnetize them to you.

These tips will help you communicate who you are authentically rather than with strategies designed to brainwash, coerce, or even scare viewers into buying. You'll find that using these techniques, those attracted to you will be a much better match for you and your business.

Are you ready for marketing designs that truly reflect your personality and purpose? Julia D. Stege and her Graphic Girlz team offer one-stop marketing shopping, featuring Branding from the Heart, Wildly Attractive Websites, Law of Attraction Marketing and Social Networking Services. Visit http://www.graphicgirlz.com for more information, or call Julia at (707) 823-3316 to ask for a complimentary marketing strategy session.

Why Would They Listen to You?

2010-08-18T10:08:00.001-07:00

One challenge that many conscious entrepreneurs have when they start creating authentic marketing is lack of self confidence. They often wonder, "Why would they listen to me?" Maybe you can relate to this feeling. It's really a fear that what you know so well is not valuable to your potential audience.

This is one of the saddest things I hear. It's sad because your passion, your purpose, and your unique knowledge is what is so compelling about you. It's what attracts your most perfect customers to you.

Sometimes we know this, but we still have the fear. Then what?

My suggestion is this: Sit quietly and close your eyes. Imagine the best customer you have ever attracted, the one who really gets you, values your advice and services, refers you to all their colleagues, and happily pays your fees. Really get a picture of them in your mind.

Now imagine sharing your true passion, your authentic self, and your most powerful offering with them. Imagine their delight! How does that vision feel?

Now let me tell you that I know from experience that all of your business relationships can be like this. When you market from the heart and confidently share your authentic self, your perfect customers are magnetically drawn to you. When you are delivering your valuable gifts to your perfect customers, the experience is uplifting, fulfilling and can be very lucrative too!

So go forth and attract by sharing your true passion with the world!

Have you downloaded your free Magical Marketing Toolkit yet?
Start attracting your perfect customers here.

What Do You Love About Yourself?

2010-06-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Last week I attended the Sonoma Big Ideas dinner featuring Terces Engelhart, an old workshop buddy and branding client of mine. Terces spoke about how love has transformed her business Cafe Gratitude over and over again.

One of the cards in the game we designed together asks the question, "What do you love about yourself?"(The Worth Card from the Abounding River Game is depicted to the left.) This, Terces tells us, has become a question each of their employees gets to answer every day at work. This is a key to the success Cafe Gratitude is experiencing, even in a changing economy.

We all know that self love is the first step to attracting what we desire,
we just don't always practice it!

When I work with clients on their branding, we do a process called "Branding from the Heart" which is designed to help them tap into what they love most about themselves and about live in general. This true heart's passion becomes the grounding for the creation of their business brand. When my clients succeed at communicating what they love most about themselves in a way that their perfect customers can identify with, business explodes.

Cafe Gratitude is an expression of the founders' fondness for contribution. When Terces and her hubby Matthew first came to me with their business idea, I could tell they were truly passionate about the impact they were about to make, and that they loved this about themselves. Working with them was inspiring because it reminded me to focus on what I love about myself and my life, and to integrate that into my business.

So, what do you love most about yourself?

Take some time to reflect on this today and give yourself the space to receive your own self-love. This will uplift you and make you immediately more attractive to what you desire.

How Authentic Should I Be?

2010-06-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

For over 10 years I have been instructing my clients to be authentic in their marketing, including their online marketing. Time and again I have heard folks telling me that they were advised that it's not professional to reveal personal things in a business setting, especially marketing, because it could turn prospective clients off.

But for our prospects get to know, like and trust us, or even recognize us at all, we must share things about ourselves that come from the heart. And social networks offer a great forum for sharing our true selves to the world. But a lot of my customers are concerned about privacy. They want to know...

How authentic should I be?

I was watching a video of Elizabeth Potts Weinstein, the Truth Evangelist, and she was making videos from her car, wearing a T-shirt and no makeup, just telling it like it is - even sharing about the details of her separation from her husband and raising their child. Those videos were very compelling to me, but I thought, "Wow, do we need to be THIS authentic?"

On the one hand, her videos put her on my radar and got her into this article! On the other hand, I don't think I should show up on my videos the way I usually dress (ie in my PJs!) and I don't always share my views on everything, or talk about my family in my marketing. I do, however, share about magic, the unseen realms, and social transformation in my marketing, conversations not usually had in the boardrooms of America (yet!)

Of course there are some people who will be turned off by my honesty, but when I'm being true to myself, that's OK. I'd rather those who are not a match for me keep their distance, and those who are simpatico with me to be drawn in.

I think there is a balance to be struck here, and it's as much your authentic truth to NOT share some things as it is TO share some things. I use my intuition to tell me what I need to say or do for public consumption, and what I don't. I suggest when thinking about what to share and what not to share in your marketing, take some time to listen to your gut. Be willing to make mistakes along the way. The ultimate goal is to create a presence that is a dynamic representation of you and magnetic to those who are seeking what you have to offer.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, Wildly Attractive WebsitesTM, Branding from the HeartTM, and smart Social Networking strategies. She is the author of the upcoming best-seller "Client Attraction Breakthough: How to Attract Clients Fast in the New Economy." If you're ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia's free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com

Can Marketing Transform the World?

2010-06-02T07:37:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

For my entire life I have yearned for positive social change and actively participated in movements for the environment, peace, and freedom. I have also been in the marketing trade since beginning my training as a teenager. And though I have donated my design and marketing services to causes I believe in, not until about a month ago did it occur to me that a new paradigm for marketing could uplift and transform the world, one heart-aligned soul at a time.

Most of my peeps are still resisting sales and marketing because the world is so full of hype and fakery, and that's how marketing is seen (for good reason.) When I was working in Manhattan in the early part of my design career, I found out that the traditional model of marketing was about targeting and brainwashing folks away from their intuition. Boy, that was NOT a fit for me, which is why I left New York after only a few years.

Recently I have begun to develop ways to market that actually help you and your perfect customers find each other through your intuition! It's all about sharing your passion in a way that promotes everything you're up to. It's irresistible to your perfect customers because you are simpatico, aligned, and destined to work together.

When you keep sharing your passion and relating it back to your offerings, it can really transform your life because you start attracting people who can help you move forward on your chosen path.

So how can marketing transform the world? Social Media is a great place to share your passion, and even that can uplift another. We understand that by showing our light, we give permission to others to share theirs.

But there's a way to take it one step further and really uplift another person, on purpose. We can actually promote them. Imagine if we make that shift to stop continuously promoting ourselves and take some time to promote other people who we know are offering great things to the world. Think of how that can make someone's day and how that can exponentially effect the others in their lives.

And think about how that will affect the light in which others see you. They will see you as an uplifter, as one who openly promotes their colleagues, as a giving person. You will be uplifting yourself as you uplift the world. And an uplifted world is surely a transformed one.

I would love to hear your comments about this new paradigm for marketing. Are you willing and ready to start uplifting others online?

For those who desire training in how to use social media to attract perfect customers and uplift the world, please check out the Summer 2010 Training Session for Social Networking from the Heart at http://www.socialnetworkingfromtheheart.com

What Makes a Website Wildly Attractive?

2010-05-18T09:26:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Back in the 90s when I first started creating websites for clients, there were very few businesses online. The biggest business was Amazon.com and most of the businesses going online wanted to copy whatever Amazon.com did, including making their pages both busy and ugly. Now obviously Amazon.com was successful as they are still one of the largest online retailers in the world. However, does that mean all websites that came later should mock Amazon? I always said no. That's why my slogan back then was "Abolish Boring Websites!"

The fact is, much of the website trends then and now are not appropriate for conscious entrepreneurs trying to get an authentic message out to the world. We don't want thousands of options, or ugly sales pages with big red flashing headlines, or hypey advertising claims designed to scare people into buying. We want our website to attract rather than attack our perfect customers.

So what are the components of a Wildly Attractive WebsiteTM?

1) It Starts with an Attraction Plan. To ensure your website will attract your perfect customers, you first want to define who your perfect customers are, what makes you and them tick, and what you want to offer. This process is different from choosing a niche to target. Rather, you are getting in touch with what is perfect for you. Your Attraction Plan will serve as the basis for everything that goes on your site. You can download your free Attraction Plan instructions at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com

2)Your Authentic Message Comes Next. How do you want to serve your perfect customers? What is your mission? Craft your website message from the heart and really share what is most important to you. Remember that "like attracts like," so by sharing yourself authentically in your website, your most perfect customers will be intuitively drawn to you.

3) Beauty is Important. When someone comes to your website, you want it to FEEL like you. The colors, shapes, symbols, style combine to offer a certain experience, or vibration, for the visitor. Since your site represents you when you cannot be there to represent yourself, make sure the site design is a beautiful expression of you and your message. Just as you would not attend a business networking function in your PJ's, don't let your online presence be frumpy.

4) Make it Google Friendly. Google searches are the #1 way customers find their vendors these days, so you want your site to be Google-Friendly. By selecting keyword phrases that are authentic, accurate and compelling and using them frequently in the Title, Meta and Image Alt Tags, Headlines, URL and Links, you have a better chance of coming up well for searches of that phrase. Also post your site to popular online directories and social networks to help your ranking.

5) Change it Regularly. Many solopreneurs are opting for sites that they can easily update themselves, like a Droopal or Joomla site. Others opt for an integrated blog like Wordpress. These options allow you to update your site frequently. This will not only help to keep the interest of your customers, but the search engines reward new content with higher ranking.

6) Brag About It. Though it's easier to get good Google ranking than it was in the past, you still want to spread the word about your site through marketing. The best places to brag about your website are at in-person and online networking spaces. Meeting people in person is still a vital element to your online marketing plan. Social networks also offer an incredibly viral platform in which to spread buzz about your site. Make sure you let people know how to find your site and what benefit they will receive when they do that (a free report or audio?).

7) The Question of Investment. Some business owners are surprised to find that a professionally designed and programmed website can cost them several thousand dollars or more. When compared to some of the free and inexpensive options for creating a site yourself, this expense seems unnecessary at first glance. I think of a website like a restaurant, a store front, or an office space. When a new business creates a public space, they either buy or rent a building and then they design it to be attractive to their customers. They select the right colors, fixtures and furnishings. They create signage that stands out while displaying the brand identity nicely. They make the space a professional representation of their product or service, and they can spend tens of thousands of dollars to do this. Consider your website to be your online public space and invest appropriately to represent you and your important heart-felt mission. When you attract your perfect customers online, this initial investment can be recouped quickly.

Over the years I have created dozens of Wildly Attractive WebsitesTM. You can see examples at http://www.wildlyattractivewebsites.com. To discuss how you too can have a Wildly Attractive Website, call me for your no-cost, no-obligation 30 minute website analysis.

Call Julia at 707-823-3316 to set up your appointment.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, Wildly Attractive WebsitesTM, Branding from the HeartTM, and smart Social Networking strategies. She is the author of the upcoming best-seller "Client Attraction Breakthough: How to Attract Clients Fast in the New Economy." If you're ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia's free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com

Let's Uplift the World

2010-05-07T12:26:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Social Networks are changing our lives. We are connecting with more people than ever before and having meaningful exchanges that have the potential to uplift us for hours if not days on end. I'm always looking for ways to uplift myself and others, and Social Networks like Facebook and Twitter offer easy ways to achieve this.

I'm thinking we could start a movement of uplifting people through social media and watch it spread via the amazing viral power of sharing!

We'll start with our own networks first. Even taking just 10 to 15 minutes at a time can make a huge difference in the lives of dozens of others. Here are some tips on how to do that.

TIP ONE: UPLIFTING THE LIVE STREAM

Facebook and Twitter offer a live news stream featuring the recent posts of your friends and connections. To uplift people, check out your news stream for interesting posts and respond to them. On Facebook click "Like" and write a comment about how you liked the post. On Twitter click "ReTweet" to post their tweet to your friends. This kind of interaction makes a huge difference to people and helps create a more lively conversation.

TIP TWO: DROP BY AND SAY HELLO

On Facebook you can go to your friend's wall and post something uplifting. Tell them you're thinking about them and ask how their dog is, or tell them you appreciate them in some way. Receiving nice personal notes like this can bring a smile and they'll be uplifted whenever they think about you. You can also join groups of like minded folks and visit the group pages to say hello and uplift others. Click like and comment on their posts and also post your own.

TIP THREE: FOLLOW FRIDAY

On Twitter, Fridays is the day to recommend people from your network to others using the #ff tag. Select several of your favorite peeps, folks who have ReTweeted you in the past, or mentioned you to their networks, and include them in your post.

Here's one I did today, since it's Friday!

@sparklekaz @cicacu_com @kar3n2@Jaineen @maryannhesse@LeahBtwo @LauraOBiering@MarieEpi @LiliaChambers@MandiLeigh1447 @SophieZo #ff

TIP FOUR: BE INVENTIVE

What other ways can you think of to uplift others through social media? It only takes a few seconds to make someone's day. Think of what could happen if more and more people are feeling happy? Let's uplift the world now!

Lester Says Keep It Simple

2010-04-29T13:43:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

The other day I was wandering around at a local parade when I saw a puppy for sale and brought him home, completely on a whim (with my husband's permission of course.) We named him Lester. My heart breaks open whenever I look at him. He reminds me that the simplest things are what makes life magical. Puppies are just pure love. That's a pic of Lester kissing my big Leonberger Starr.

With a puppy around, it's difficult to focus on the future, or to worry about the past. He is in present time only, and that's where he wants me to play. I'm cool with that because I know that's the best way to raise my vibration, to stay present and pay attention to the magic.

I can keep it simple in my marketing too. I think the best marketing is a short share straight from the heart. When our hearts are open and we share what we are present to right now, our perfect peeps are drawn right to us. They notice our true heart shining through.

What can you share about right now in your ezine, or your blog, or just on your Facebook wall? Focus in on the present and look into your own heart. What is waiting to be expressed? Share that and watch what happens.

How to Monetize Your Social Networks

2010-04-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Most of you know I've been teaching conscious entrepreneurs how to use social media for about 2 years now. During this time I was focused on how to expand your networks online by using sites like Facebook and Twitter, and how to get to page one of Google using sites like Squidoo and Blogger. I inferred that you could expand your business by expanding your customer base, but I realize now I didn't really talk a lot about how to monetize your social networking activity. In this article I will share specific ways you can increase your income through Facebook and Twitter.

Step 1: Create a Great Profile
The first thing anyone must do when they join a social network is to set up a great personal profile and include all their business information. We do this because we understand that our perfect customers will hire us when they know, like and trust us. Having a robust personal profile including pictures, favorites, and links back to our sites and blogs will give people access to learning more about us without having to visit our websites.

Step 2: Expand Your Heart-Centered Network
The next thing you want to do is expand your network of friends. You can locate people through other friends and associations you like, and by searching for certain words or phrases you resonate with. Expanding your online network is a valuable activity and it's key to monitizing your social media activity. When you make a conscious effort to attract the right people to your network, you have created a ripe environment for business transactions to bud, grow and flourish.

Step 3: Host Free Teleclasses
You have an expertise, and area of interest, a gift to share with the world. Create a free teleclass around this passion of yours and promote it to your network of friends on Facebook and Twitter. The larger your network, the more registrations you will get for your free class. Because you are offering the class by phone, people can access it from anywhere in the world. With your free teleclass , you have a captive audience who is ready to receive what you have to offer. Give them real benefit, something they can walk away with that will enhance their lives. Once you have given them value, they will want more from you.

Step 4: Make a Special Offer
Toward the end of your free teleclass, make a special offer that your participants are compelled to act upon, like a discounted consulting package, a teleclass series, or a product with a bonus. Give them a time frame, or limit the offer to the first X number of people so they are inspired to act. You will be amazed at how quickly you can fill your calendar with new clients using this process.

Lather, Rinse Repeat!
I personally repeat this process every month. I continuously improve my online profile, I expand my network and contribute to others, I offer free teleclasses, and then I offer programs and discounts to my participants. It's a magical process.

If you want some hand-holding through this process, I have created a 6-week program called "Teleclass Magic: Essentials for Expanding Your Biz from Home with Teleclasses" where I integrate social media training, law of attraction marketing, and teleclass basics so you can get started monitizing your social media activities right away! Learn more about this class at http://www.graphicgirlz.com/teleclassmagic.html

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, Wildly Attractive WebsitesTM, Branding from the HeartTM, and smart Social Networking strategies. She is the author of the upcoming best-seller "Client Attraction Breakthough: How to Attract Clients Fast in the New Economy." If you're ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia's free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com

The Ultimate Marketing Guide for Homebodies

2010-04-13T11:23:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

There are a lot of reasons to want to stay home. Maybe you have kids, or in my case, dogs, that you want to always be with. Maybe you love where you live and enjoy the comforts of home. Maybe you just hate driving or traveling. Or maybe you're just lazy and prefer to lounge around in PJ's all day.

If you're like this, you're a bit of a homebody. I'm a homebody too.

That's why I love to do business and marketing from home, and I've developed some key ingredients to being a stay-at-home marketer. Below I list these key ingredients and offer links to my services if you need help creating your ultimate marketing plan for homebodies!

The first key ingredient is a website that truly reflects your personality and mission. Of course I think it's important to invest in the right branding vision and message, and to have at least one professionally designed site to promote everything you're up to, and to represent you to the world. However, if budget is a factor, you can create an interim site on a blog like Blogger or Wordpress for free, and you can even customize it for a lot less than a full site. To make your site an authentic reflection of you, include text written from the heart and pictures that resonate with you. See examples of my site designs here.

The second key ingredient is a large Social Media network. I have consistently built my Social Media network for about 2 years and have over 10,000 connections online. Considering I was only able to grow my list by about 800 over the first 10 years I was online, exploding my connection base by thousands and thousands of peeps felt like a win-fall. And these results are available to anyone who spends about an hour a day connecting with people on Facebook and Twitter. Other Social Networks to consider are YouTube and LinkedIn. See a list of my Social Media Services.

The third key ingredient is group coaching or teleclasses. I have been offering teleclasses for four years now and they have helped me increase my income by almost 50% in the last 2 years alone. I use free teleclasses to promote both my group courses as well as my one-0n-one services. They have really helped me build strong positive buzz about me and my offerings. And the teleclass intensives I've offered have not only brought income, they have also provided me a platform to share my true purpose and develop my gifts. I feel strongly that anyone in business for themselves can and should use teleclasses to attract a wider potential client base and build additional streams of income while fulfilling on their life mission. Learn about my upcoming training "Teleclass Magic: Essentials for Expanding Your Biz from Home with Teleclasses"

The fourth key ingredient is a positive mental outlook. Without a positive metal outlook, attracting perfect customers and living the perfect homebody life is not possible. Not only is confidence our greatest business asset (it's what our customers need from us first and foremost) but maintaining a positive vibration is key to attracting all that we desire. Every day I make sure to spend at least 1/2 hour raising my vibration and balancing my energy. First I use the Attraction Plan to determine what I want and focus my attention there. Second, I am blessed to have learned the "Daily Clean Your House Flow" self-applied energy balancing by Deb Myers. You can learn these key accupressure positions at her website.

The fifth key ingredient is receiving support. I never could have even started a business without a lot of help, and I require help ongoingly. I have several coaches and virtual assistants to help me stay true to my mission and forward my goals. I in turn offer support to conscious entrepreneurs who want to attract their perfect peeps and to be empowered to express their purpose to the world. I'm happy to extend to you a complimentary 20 minute strategy session to clarify your most pressing marketing needs and offer some tips. Just call me at (707) 823-3316 during west-coast business hours.

I hope you find these resources helpful in empowering you to craft your ultimate homebody marketing plan. Go forth and attract!

Will They Care About Your Passion?

2010-04-07T10:27:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Only when we fully realize our perfect peeps are completely aligned with us on a sole-purpose level will we finally understand the utmost importance of authentic marketing.

There is a growing population of business owners, especially those who are spiritually oriented, who are attracted to an authentic approach to marketing. They understand that hype-y sales strategies are not becoming to them nor attractive to their perfect customers.

But when it comes to sharing their true life passion, their purpose, what really makes them tick, they get shy. They ask themselves, "Will people really care about my passion?"

This shyness comes from a fear of rejection, pure and simple. Most of us have been taught that business is no place for your passion. And it feels vulnerable to expose ourselves. On an unconscious level, we think even fake marketing is safer. The self dialog may sound like this, "even though this marketing doesn't really represent me, I heard this tactic sells, and I'd rather be rejected for this than my true life's passion."

The problem is that our perfect business partners and customers, those who are aligned with our purpose, will not recognize us unless we are transparently authentic in our marketing. And that means sharing what you are passionate about.

The first step is to determine what you are passionate about. Start with what you love most about your business and share that, in person and online. Share the client story that touched you so deeply, tears came to your eyes. Or if you need to start lighter, simply share a quote from your favorite thought leader that reveals where you are coming from. Notice how sharing your passion attracts people to you who would never have found you otherwise, ones who are truly your perfect match.

Why I'm Getting Retweeted Daily

2010-03-30T22:50:00.000-07:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

@MagicalMarketer

On Twitter getting "Retweeted" (having your post re-posted by one of your followers) is the highest form of praise. When you want to uplift someone or support what they're doing, you Retweet (#RT) them.

Retweeting has become such a central activity on Twitter that it is now a special link available from your Twitter Home Page. When you click on the "Retweets" Link and then on the "Your Tweets, Retweeted" tab, you can see all your Retweeted posts.

A little while ago I was experiencing very low Retweet rates.
Now I'm getting Retweeted almost daily. What caused the change?
I have a simple answer for you: quotes.

I recently selected over 100 quotes from online resources specifically designed to uplift and empower people, and inspire them to think differently. I started Tweeting these out several times a day and ... Voila! I get Retweeted as a result.

I had heard that quotes are really popular on Twitter, but this proves it. If you want to engage with your peeps and contribute to them on Twitter, I suggest you go on Google and search for people you admire and put the word "Quotes" in your query. There are a lot of great quotes out there. Select those which are a match for your message and your purpose. Use quotes to help people get to know you, like you and trust you. And watch your Retweet numbers rise!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR BLOG? You may if you include this entire blurb with it: Julia D. Stege, MFA, founder of GraphicGirlz.com, is known as The Magical Marketer because of her unique approach to client attraction. Combining beautiful designs with law of attraction principles and smart internet marketing tips, Julia helps her Conscious Entrepreneur clientele to attract perfect customers authentically. Julia is the author of The Magical Marketing Blog and the upcoming book "Client Attraction Breakthrough: How to Attract Clients Fast in the New Economy." Start your client attraction breakthrough at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com

Expressing the Depth of Your Beauty

2010-03-12T21:37:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

"Beauty represents the supremest living quality of thought. It is the glorious overflowing of fullness of love which indicates the presence of infinite reserves of power behind it... Beauty is the externalization of harmony." Thomas Troward*

I am a lover of beauty. Perhaps you could tell this by looking at my portfolio of designs . I have always wanted to fill the world with beautiful expressions of unique and uplifting ideas, and my clients appreciate this quality in the logos and websites I create for them.

But recently I have heard several different and unrelated internet marketing advisors declare that you don't need a beautiful website or brand to market your business. In fact, they recommend following basic template guidelines including garish bold red headlines on white pages with blinking arrows and opt-in boxes. They criticize "pretty websites that don't sell," as if it's the prettiness of the website that causes it to not sell.

I really feel that these Internet marketing advisors are throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Yes, of course we all know we want to build our lists and communicate clearly with our potential customers. But when we copy these basic site templates and follow standard sales copy scripts, the beauty that lies inside of us remains unexpressed in favor of mere utilitarianism.

I believe that this approach to marketing is so unappealing to Conscious Entrepreneurs because it ignores the infinite store of power that we represent, and that is only revealed through the beautiful expression of love.

As Thomas Troward wrote, "What is the most beautiful form in which I can express the good that I intend? That is the ultimate question for the true beauty which our work expresses is the measure of the power, the intelligence, the love, in a word, of the quality and quantity of our own life which we have put into it." The offerings you have for the world are an expression of your beauty, that's for sure. The question is does your marketing, your website, your blog reflect the depth of your beauty?

To start an inquiry, as Trower suggests, into the most beautiful forms in which to express your mission, your message and your gifts, start seeking out words and imagery that resonate with you. Collect cards, clippings, artwork, and objects that feel good to you and are a match for your vision, message and offering. Use these to communicate with a designer you have selected to help you visually express your mission in the world.

*Thomas Troward was introduced to me in a Recession Rescue with Rapid Results teleclass by David Neagle

Celebrating You

2010-03-04T00:02:00.001-08:00

by Julia D. Stege

I'm in the mood to celebrate myself because I'm turning 50 this Saturday and I deserve a little celebrating. I'm planning to celebrate all year and then be in such a habit of celebrating that I continue for the next 50 years. I think I have a good start because I've been sharing my passion in my marketing more and more.

Passion and marketing you say? Thought n'er the twain shall meet? How did our marketing get so far from our passion? Sometimes I wonder who invented the approach to marketing that feels so alienating that most people do whatever they can to avoid it. If you're like me, I bet you really love what you do.

So what can you do to love your marketing as much as you love serving your people with your heart-felt gifts?

Make your marketing a celebration of you and what you're passionate about. I know you were probably told somewhere along the line that marketing is all about your niche market and targeting them. And I'm not saying you shouldn't consider your perfect customers and what they need. What I am saying is that sharing your passion in your marketing will make the activity more appealing to you AND to your potential clients.

Take some time in quiet contemplation to discover what part of you longs to be expressed and blog about it, or send a note to your e-list, or post something about it on Facebook. It will feel really good to you, you'll be raising your vibration and attracting more of what you want, and your followers will appreciate your authenticity. Watch as they celebrate with you!

Authentic Marketing Essentials: How to Attract Perfect Customers Just by Being Yourself and Having Fun!

2010-02-23T10:13:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA
The Magical Marketer

Do you hate marketing? A lot of my customers tell me they hate marketing, and for good reason. My customers are thought leaders, healers, spiritual business owners, artists, and sensitive people who have a healthy distaste for anything competitive, hype-y or fake.

In this article I will debunk a few of the traditional marketing approaches my customers hate, and offer some alternatives to get you started.

Old Marketing Paradigm #1: You must put on a 'professional mask' in business and sqash your authentic self.

Business used to be boring. You had to dress in a suit and make polite talk, and most importantly, you had to hide who you really are in case people were turned off by your unique personality. Those using this approach have lost sight of what makes them most compelling in the world: their passion.

Positive Alternative: Recognize that you attract your perfect customers to you with your magnetic self.

The more authentic you are in your marketing, the more your perfect customers will recognize you in the market place. Express yourself and have some fun while you're at it. Your perfect customers will feel like they know, like and trust you and they will be drawn to you. Business relationships that begin with people sharing what's most important to them and are sprinkled with a bit of fun, will be more rewarding and last longer.

Old Marketing Paradigm #2: You must copy what others in your field are doing to compete for your share of customers.

In the old paradigm, business owners were instructed to study others in their field and copy their marketing techniques from a competitive standpoint. The idea is that there are a limited number of potential customers and you must steal your market share from your competitors. From the start this sets up an antagonistic attitude that runs counter to the offerings of Conscious Entrepreneurs whos aim is to uplift people. Also, using another's style or words will feel yucky and it will not distinguish you or compell others to work with you.

Positive Alternative: Share authentically from the heart.

You have a real passion for serving people and you really help them with their problems. Tap into why you love serving and how you serve others. Share about the results you have gotten for yourself and your peeps and share why that is important to you. Use your own Magical Keywords to allow your perfect peeps to recognize you. Show the real you and let your perfect customers choose you. Also, collaborate with others in your field or related fields. Open your heart to those who feel simpatico with you and see how you can serve people even more effectively as a team.

Old Marketing Paradigm #3: You must target a niche market and convince them to buy from you.

A lot of new marketers and old marketers alike will insist you need to select a target audience to market to. If you cannot choose a niche, you cannot even start marketing yourself. This causes many entrepreneurs to delay marketing at all, because they cannot decide upon a niche.

Postive Alternative: Determine the qualities of your perfect customers from experience and speak from the heart.

In the Attraction Plan, we are asked to Describe the qualities, characteristics and attributes of our perfect customers in detail to get a sense of who WE want to attract, who WE want to work with, who is a perfect match for us. Focusing on attracting from this standpoint does not require that you target an audience but rather magnetize those who are a perfect match for you.

So in a nutshell, here are the Authentic Marketing Essentials to remember:

Share yourself authentically in your marketing.
Toss away 'professional mask.'
Use Magical Keywords that resonate with you and your perfect peeps.
Attract perfect customers who are a perfect fit for you using Law of Attaction Principles.
Collaborate with others in your field, or in complimentary fields for mutual benefit.
Be yourself!
Have fun!

Are You a Shy Marketer?

2010-02-19T12:35:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA
The Magical Marketer

A lot of my peeps are really passionate about their heart-felt gifts and offerings, and yet they're shy about sharing those gifts in their marketing.

Maybe they don't want to come off as bragging, or like they are an ego maniac or something. Maybe they're just naturally shy when it comes to connecting with new people.

But mostly I think this shyness is a result of having been inundated with hype-y marketing messages our whole lives, and not wanting our heart-felt gifts to be muddied by something as crass as that.

I'm afraid that the pioneers of modern marketing were like snake-oil salesmen, pushing whatever they had to sell down the throats of the public with fear tactics, brainwashing, and lies.

As the marketing world grew, millions of dollars were pumped into campaigns designed to lure people away from their intuition so that they would buy things they don't really want or need.

Time has come when many of the more conscious variety of consumers, like the Cultural Creatives, are sick of hype-y marketing messages and do their best to ignore them. They certainly don't want to engage in that kind of marketing themselves.

The problem is that not many alternatives have been
successfully demonstrated, so many people wind up avoiding marketing as much as possible and miss the opportunity to attract plenty of their most perfect customers.

This is why I've been focused on creating a new paradigm for marketing that is authentic, comes from the heart, and attracts rather than attacks perfect customers. There's no need to brainwash anyone because your perfect customers are seeking you now.

Like Charlie Rose, the famous talk-show host, said in a recent interview, "If you can get someone to share their passion, that's the most interesting thing in the world."

Your passion is what the world is waiting for.

The question you want to answer is how can you share yourself so often, so deeply and so authentically, that your perfect customers can easily find you and easily recognize you as the one they've been seeking?

I realize that sharing yourself authentically can be a vulnerable thing to do, and it requires a bit of bravery. But when you do it, you will find the positive responses you get from your perfect peeps will be all the richer for your willingness to be real with them.

I have a variety of programs and services designed to support you to share your passion with the world in a way that promotes everything you are up to and attracts your perfect clients, business partners, and colleagues.

What makes me tick is being a Magical Creatrix crafting inspired communications that uplift and empower millions of people to transform the world. Let me know if I can help you get your heart-felt message out to those who are seeking you now.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, Wildly Attractive WebsitesTM, Branding from the HeartTM, and smart Social Networking strategies. If you're ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia's free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com

Overcoming Writer's Block & Crafting Your Heart-Felt Message

2010-01-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege

A lot of my clients get stumped when it comes to crafting their heart-felt message for blogs, sales letters, websites and the like. It's not unheard of that someone will tell me they have been stumped on this for over a year or even years!

I have a theory about why this happens to otherwise prolific and intelligent thought leaders who are venturing to give their message to the world. I believe it happens because somewhere along the line they were told there is a certain way to approach marketing and it doesn't have anything to do with what YOU love or what YOU are inspired to share. They say it has to do with some marketing technique that ultimately doesn't match your style and is possibly too hype-y for you.

When I give folks permission to write stream-of-consciousness about their passion and remind them that their passion is the most compelling thing about them, the floodgates open and the brilliance pours out.

My suggestion for getting over a writers block is to

1) Put the inner gremlins in an imaginary locked sound-proof jar. I learned this technique from Ann Lamott in "Bird by Bird" her book on writing. Make those gremlins mute before you do this excercise. No self criticism allowed.

2) Choose an aspect of your business that you are the most passionate about, that you love talking about. Just thinking about this aspect of your business and people actually paying you for it blisses you out. Write down the topic at the top of your page.

3) Now that you have your topic, go through your memory to find times you helped people using this technique. What was their challenge at the time? Write an introductory paragraph about the challenge folks had and introduce them to your brilliant method to solve that problem.

4) Now just tell the story of what happened. Write it as though you were talking to a very close friend who loves everything you say. Don't indulge in too much self-editing. Just let it flow.

5) Look back over what you wrote and if it needs editing, edit it for the purpose at hand. Blog posts can be very informal and story-like. Sales copy generally starts by identifying your customers' challenge, empathizing with it, then showing how you an solve that problem. Either way, this excercise will give you compelling, heart-felt content you can include in any of your marketing pieces.

Feel free to post links below to any marketing pieces you create using this process. I want to know how it goes for you!

The 10 Minute Blog Post

2010-01-07T13:28:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Today is the last day of Connie Ragen Green's 30 day blogging challenge. Her challenge was to write 30 blog posts in 30 days. I got behind at several points, especially during the holidays, but this is my 30th post and it's day 30. On some days I wrote up to 5 posts in one day!

I've learned a few things in that time about how to write valuable blog posts fast.

First, I determine a topic: For instance, "The 10 Minute Blog Post" My topic is always something I feel will be of interest to me and my perfect customers. Once I get the topic, ,all I have to do is relax and let it flow, writing stream of consciousness.

I also use basic essay writing strategies I learned in high school:

1) Write an introductory paragraph outlining what your post is about.

2) Write several paragraphs to support your point.

3) Write a concluding paragraph to tie it all together.

With blog posts, it's a good idea to use headlines, bulleted or numbered lists and short paragraphs, given people are mostly scanning your piece for information that will help them. They don't have a lot of time to read a lengthy article. I suggest keeping it to about 300 words if possible.

Once I have my blog post written, I go on to www.dreamstime.com and find a free picture to use with my blog. I go onto Blogger (my current blog software, though I am slowly shifting to Wordpress) and paste in my post, upload the photo and publish. I can easily do this in 10 minutes, and thus get at least one blog post done in a day. Today I created two such posts in one lunch break while sitting in the living room with my hubby and dogs.

Blogging is a great way to get found online, to create buzz about your expertise, and to build a visible brand. Give my 10 Minute Blog idea a try and let me know how it works. You can post your blog links in the comments below so we can see what you came up with!

Are You Learning Every Day?

2010-01-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Almost every day I set out to learn something new, whether that is by listening to webinars and teleclasses, reading books and blogs, or even just doing targeted searches online. I am a ravenous learner and that contributes greatly to my ability to effectively market myself during changing times.

And times are changing fast.

I was just looking over some of my earliest blog posts and I didn't even mention Facebook until September of '07 back when there were 'only' 150 million people on the network and I had a few hundred followers. Now Facebook has grown to over 350 million overall, and my followers have grown to 1,800+, making Facebook my #1 favorite tool for connecting with and updating my peeps.

I study Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, and other marketing and business strategies all the time. I even study the hard-sell marketing types who don't care about their impact on people or the environment, but they have good ideas for how to reach a broad audience.

Add to that my studies in the 'Metaphysical Arts', Law of Attraction, and other success principles.

This dedication to learning helps me stay on the cutting edge of thought and of marketing.

What do you study, and how often are you doing it? Please put your comments below. I would like to hear from you about resources you have found invaluable in your quest to fulfill your dreams!

Good Source for Inspiring Quotes to Use on Twitter and Facebook

2010-01-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Posting regularly on your social networks is a good idea. It keeps your name and face in front of your peeps and on their mind. One of the most popular and most read posts are inspiring quotes. I have found a great resource for quotes online.

Spiritual Quotes and Wisdom Sayings

http://www.squidoo.com/spirituality-quotes

This Squidoo Lens has quite a few quotes by Lao Tzu as well as a huge list of quotes sites and a variety of quotes submitted by readers. Here are a couple of the quotes they list:

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." Lao Tzu

"What the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind of man can achieve" Napoleon Hill

"You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." Albert Camus

Some of the links included are:

Inspiring Quotes on Love

Patience Quotes

Tao Te Ching quotes

Kahlil Gibran

Meditation Quotes

Inspirational Quotes

Website Review: Squidoo

2010-01-06T20:49:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

I learned about Squidoo.com two years ago during the Christmas break. I took a free teleclass from a Search Engine Optimization company who had a fresh idea to use Social Network sites to get to page one of Google. They explained how creating a free web page on an authority site can help you actually dominate page one queries.

Good Google Ranking

Squidoo is an authority site which simply means it's popular enough to rank well on Google. Squidoo says of itself, "Squidoo makes it easy for you to find useful overview pages -- called lenses -- written by real people. It's also a fun, simple way to publish your own lenses for free. Share what you care about. Get found. Get followed. Get influential"

Easy Set-Up With Few Restrictions

I wrote about Hub Pages recently on this blog, and Squidoo is a lot like Hub Pages. The difference is that Squidoo lets you publish content that you've published elsewhere on the web, and you can put as many links to your site as you want. Hub Pages might flag your page if you use duplicate content or link more than once to a site.

Squidoo lenses are easy to set up and most of my lenses appear on page one of Google for the title of the page. You can track your stats, interact with other Squidoo members, and if you need help, Squidoo has it's own SquidU.

I recommend exploring Squidoo as a great easy way to get to page one of Google for your keyword phrase. To make sure you stay there, update your lens with new content, especially media like videos, on a regular basis, and invite your friends to comment on your lenses.

Here are some links to some of my lenses that got to page one of Google:

http://www.squidoo.com/lawofattractionteleclasses

http://www.squidoo.com/lawofattractionmarketing

http://www.squidoo.com/leonbergers

http://www.squidoo.com/attractionmarketingsocialnetworks

DVD Review: Julie & Julia by Nora Ephron

2010-01-06T19:52:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

I saw Julie & Julia in the theater when it first came out and I loved it. I had gone with a girlfriend and my husband hadn't seen it yet so when it came out on DVD, I rented it.

I really liked it the second time around, too. It's the story of a blogger named Julie Powell who took on the challenge to cook all 524 recipes from Julia Child's cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in one year, and blog about it every day. The film contrasts blogger Julie's life to that of Julia Child in the early years of her culinary career.

I fully enjoyed the skillful depictions of highly creative and tenacious women performed by award-winning actors Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. They demonstrated how success requires persistence and focus.

I recommend Julie & Julia to anyone who wants to start a blog about their passion. Julie Powell wrote day in and day out for a while before developing a fan base. But slowly over the year she developed a strong following and ultimately attracted interviews, a book deal and a movie. This film really shows how dreams fueled by passion and daily focus and activity can create magic!

Product Discovery! Digg.com

2010-01-06T16:08:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

I know, I know. Digg.com has been around for quite a while, according to Wikipedia, since 2004. I've known about it for about a year, but I didn't finally start using it until last month!

Digg.com is a website that lets you find, rate, and share Internet content with your friends. It's also a great tool for getting to page one of Google. Because Digg.com is so popular, it rates very well with Google. When you want to promote a blog post you just wrote, for instance, you can post a link to it on Digg.com and improve the ranking for your post quite fast.

People within Digg.com can also find your post, so it's a double whammy. I used Digg.com to help icarevillage.com get two page one listings in Google for a competitive query within about a week.

I'm glad I finally discovered Digg.com so you can too. Let's use this tool to get our heart-felt message out to the world even faster.

Inspiring Creativity: Strategies for Staying in the Flow

2010-01-05T21:16:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Marketing requires an fairly steady flow of creativity so we can come up with a compelling message, frequent blog posts, sales copy for our products and services, the list goes on.

The question is, how to avoid creators block and stay in the creative flow?

My first suggestion would be to relax. Creativity is our birth-right as humans. It is a cliche that our best ideas come in the shower but it's also true. I definitely recommend showers, baths, naps, massages, walks in nature, or a stroll down Main Street to get relaxed and create the space for creativity.

Another strategy for inspiring creativity is to visit museums, galleries, libraries, music and book stores. Being around great feats of creativity does a lot to foster the growth of ideas.

If you like Google, then searching can be a great source for inspiration and ideas. Pick any topic and start searching. See what you find.

Don't worry, the stream is right there ready to be tapped!

Time Management for Social Media Marketing

2010-01-05T20:42:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Let me start this post by saying I am far from a time management expert. I pretty much resist time structures of all kinds. However, after years of coaching and studying success mentors of all kinds, I have learned that when you want to make best use of your time, plan.

To make sure you don't waste time on the social networks, take some time before you go online to decide what result you are going for and how long you are willing to dedicate to get that result. If you are familiar with Abraham-Hicks lessons on Law of Attraction, you have heard of "Segment Intending." Simply put, it's about focusing on what you want to come from the immediate segment of time in order to more powerfully determine the outcome.

For instance, you may want to post on your blog and promote it to your network. So rather than going all your social networks and checking up on your friends or looking at photos for an indescriminate amount of time (sound familiar?) you can set aside 15 - 30 minutes to write and post your blog, and then visit http://ping.fm to notify all your social networks at once.

Or another example, say you want to expand your network. Take a few minutes to decide which network you want to focus on and how long you are willing to spend. You may decide to search hashtags in Twitter, or visit forums in LinkedIn, or troll through groups and fan pages on Facebook to find folks of like mind and heart. Make a choice, set the timer, and go.

Just make sure that you stop after your allotted amount of time and don't get sucked into watching music videos or checking up on your highschool buddies!

Facebook Farmville: My New Favorite Abundance Attraction Game

2010-01-04T23:11:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

Many of you who know me are familiar with the game I designed for Cafe Gratitude called The Abounding River Game. This game was created to inspire an experience of abundance in the players. It's a wonderful way to transcend a poverty consciousness.

So knowing that may give you pause when I tell you I have found a new favorite abundance attraction game, one I can't claim to have created. It's called Farmville and you may have noticed your friends playing it on Facebook.

This game is a Flash based interactive wonderland where you can plow earth, plant seeds, grow crops and fruit trees, harbor cows, goats, chickens and the like. Then you can harvest these assets earning Farmville cash. It's amazing how fast you can grow your farm and rake in thousands of dollars in virtual money.

It really reminds me of the game Abraham-Hicks promotes where you deposit fake money into a fake account every day that you have to spend, increasing the amounts by $1000 every day. In Farmville, you actually feel like you are working for the money, and you can spend it on things like more seeds, tractors, buildings, decorations, and animals.

Another great thing about Farmville is making friends with your neighbors (ie other Farmville addicts like yourself) I have some really great neighborly relationships with a number of my facebook friends who fertilize my crops and send me great gifts that can help me earn even more Farmville coins. It also is a great opportunity to give to others. You'd be surprised who you can meet in Farmville, and how happy they'll be when you gift them a horse!

Farmville can give you the experience of abundance which we all know is the precursor to actual abundance. Give it a try. Come by my farm and say howdy!

Mastering Attraction Part IV: Being Attractive

2010-01-04T22:04:00.000-08:00

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

The fourth question in the Strategic Attraction PlanTM is "Who do I get to be to attract what I want?"
To attract what you want, you must be a vibrational match to what you want. In this part of the Attraction Plan we want to declare a way of being that is a match to our desire.

When you look at your Attraction Plan Part 3 for the things you want that have not yet manifested, ask yourself what way of being would attract that. Write a being statement beginning with "I am" and it is suggested you give your being a title to make the process more fun and memorable.

My Example: I want my perfect customers to expect me to live in an environmentally advanced home with great insulation, radiant heat and solar power.

To attract this I am being persistent and creative. I am the Queen of Being Green!

Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, Wildly Attractive WebsitesTM, Branding from the HeartTM, and smart Social Networking strategies. If you're ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia's free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com . WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include the entire article including this bio at the end.