Who is Your Website For?

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

Authentic Blogging Breakthrough for Conscious Entrepreneurs

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

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

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

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!)

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/

The Umbrella Brand: How to Cohesively Brand Your Different Offerings

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

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.

What a Little Kindness Can Do For Your Marketing

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.

A Rumi New Year Greeting

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

Love

Julia

Will They Recognize You When They Find You?

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

What Do You Love About Yourself?

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.

Lester Says Keep It Simple

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.

Expressing the Depth of Your Beauty

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

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

Are You a Shy Marketer?

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