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

Book Review: Peace from Broken Pieces by Iyanla Vanzant

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

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

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!

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

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

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