Brandmerry Blog Archives
How to Create Consistent Content for Your Brand (Especially as a Beginner)
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So you know you want to create consistent content in your business, but you really struggle with the consistency part well in order to build a community of people who truly trust you and the work that you do kind gotta be showing up on a regular basis.
So in today's blog I'm going to share with you how you can improve your consistency when it comes to content creation.
If you read my recent blog where I shared my 4 Tools for Better Content Creation, then you’ll know I believe strong content is essential when growing a brand and business.
It’s ultimately how you build trust with your audience. And I made it a goal to do this from the very beginning. Over the course of 3 years, I’ve focused on creating content for my community that they want to see content that converts and consistently showing up for them, and as a result, I went from zero subscribers to over 5,000 people in my online community. So let's get into it. Let's talk about my top tips for you today to improve consistency.
1. You Have to Have a Plan
Now, if you read my most recent blog where I talked about focus as an entrepreneur, I talk about the idea of having a clear plan and getting all of those ideas out of your head into some sort of organization. The same goes for content creation.
If you're constantly flying by the seat of your pants, you won't be able to consistently show up online. This is why I'm a big fan of using a content planner and I know there's a lot of blah blah out there about should you use a planner, should you not use a planner?
If you're always planning, how can you be inspired? But here's my theory. If you could have a set plan for your content over the next 30, 60, or 90 days, then you will actually be able to be inspired because you're not constantly stressed out.
So my favorite tool that I encourage all my clients to use, is a content planner. That's why I created a free one and it is my top downloaded resource on my website to date.
If you want to go ahead and get your hands on this intense, content planner and extensive free resource, where I'm actually teaching you how to use it, how to organize your content every single month, how to come up with brand containers and how to keep track of where your content is in the creation process. Then you can go to brandmerry.com/contentcalendar.
The reality is you have to start planning. If you're new to the whole planning thing, just aim for a week of planning out content and there's another myth that I actually want to break right now. Content planning doesn't mean writing your posts for an entire 30 days.
Content planning means understanding what you're going to be sharing and how you want to deliver that. Then you can write the content in the moment if that feels best to you. One of the worst things that you can do when it comes to content creation is not plan because here's what happens and might be happening to you.
You know you need to post that day, but you get really stressed out because you don't know what to post about and then you whip up some content that ends up being mediocre. Content in isn't effective and doesn't convert, and if you keep doing that over and over again, then you're going to come to me to another mentor and say my contents not working, why not?
And sometimes it's as simple as having a clear plan.
2. Create a Theme for Your Content
In the beginning of my business, the idea of coming up with a new theme, a new topic every single day for my content was not going to happen. I had a baby, I was working a nine to five and I was building this business. So I had to come up with a different strategy, enter themes.
In the beginning of my business, every single week I would choose a theme based on my core brand messages. Now, core brand messages are a signature thing that I teach inside my program Roadmap to Freedom, but they are essentially linear messages that hold true for your brand as a whole. So let's say one of my core brand messages is around storytelling. So the theme that could be around story, every single post, piece of content, live video, email that I sent, blog posts that I wrote that week, would revolve around story and this seriously saved my butt.
Not only did it allow me to consistently show up online, but it allowed me to position myself as an expert because every single week I was talking about something that I knew a lot about. I was showcasing that.
And bonus tip if you want content that converts. Every single thing that I was talking about led back to my offer. The idea of weekly themes has evolved in my business and now I use a formula called brand containers. This is something that I teach in my free resource that I've talked to you about already; the content planner.
I'm giving you my top tips for coming up with your brand containers and how to organize your content in that way. So just another reminder to grab that free content planner at brandmerry.com/contentcalendar.
The idea of themes, whether it is theming out pillars for your brand or theming out your week based on what you offer is going to save you when it comes to coming up with content because you're not having to recreate the wheel every single day, which can be really exhausting.
3. Repurpose Your Content
If you want to know how I became the queen of content right out of the gate and have stayed that way for three years, it all comes back to repurposing. Here is the thing I don't know about you, but the idea of creating a piece of content that I love, putting it on social media and knowing that in 24 hours it's basically gone really pisses me off. So the idea of repurposing allows you to stretch the life of your content.
It means that you can post that piece of content on social media. You can email it to your list, you can post it on a blog post, you can do an Insta story about it and IGTV, video, a youtube video all around the same piece of content. And again, this is not only saving you time, it is not only saving your sanity, it is allowing you to consistently show up for your community, build trust, and really position yourself as the expert.
If you have this fear that you might be just saying the same thing over and over again to the same people, please remember the algorithm. This is the time when the algorithm is actually kind of working in your favor and they are making it so that you need to consistently be showing up. So if you post something on Facebook, the odds of someone seeing that on Instagram and in your email and maybe on your blog are super slim, so if you're not repurposing, you're actually doing yourself and your audience a disservice.
At the beginning of my business, I would really focus on just taking a piece of content, writing a piece of content for my email, breaking it down into smaller bite size pieces for Facebook or Instagram and repurposing that same content onto my blog. Now I'm more strategic with the way that I do it and have a clear posting schedule, but just to get you started, it can be as simple as copying and pasting seriously.
I know this tip was last, but one of my number one suggestions for you is to embrace re-purposing. It's going to save you so much time and energy in the long run and really simplify your content creation process.
There you have it - my top three tips to create consistent content in your business.
Don't forget to grab that content planner. This is really going to help you when it comes to not just planning out your content, but also coming up with ideas and understanding and kind of documenting where you're at in the content creation process. You can grab yours at brandmerry.com/contentcalendar.
Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!
P.S. Planning and creating your content doesn't have to be a constant struggle. There is a better way to research, plan, and create your content as an entrepreneur and it's all inside the Content Planning Blueprint!
The Content Planning Blueprint is perfect for online business owners who know the power of content creation but are tired of spending all of their time coming up with ideas, organizing their content, and wondering what will attract their dream clients.
In just a few hours, you'll have 90 days of content planned, a repeatable workflow to save you hours on creating and distributing your content every week, and content topics that will keep performing for your brand for years to come! Get your blueprint now >>
How to Improve Your Focus as an Entrepreneur
How to Improve Your Focus as an Entrepreneur
March 21, 2019
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As an entrepreneur, one of the worst things that you can struggle with is having shiny object syndrome, or as I like to call it, s.o.s.
It is so hard to move your business forward if you're constantly jumping from idea to idea, project to project or worse, never actually completing anything.
And honestly, it can be detrimental to your business and kind of your sanity as well. It can feel overwhelming not knowing what to work on, feeling really caught up because you're not able to focus. And if you are struggling with this, know that you are so not alone. So many entrepreneurs struggle with focus and productivity, and that’s what I want to talk about today.
If you don't know a lot about my story, I started my business with a one-month-old baby.
I quickly returned to work two months later was working a nine to five, figuring out this whole mom thing and launching this business from scratch. So optimizing my time, being really lasered in and being productive when I was working on my business was so, so important.
I hear from entrepreneurs all the time about the lack of focus, the lack of productivity, not actually feeling like they are moving their business forward in a way that is allowing them to break free from their nine to five or support their family or travel the world..Whatever that desire might be for you.
Today, I wanted to chat with you about my favorite tips for improving focus, especially as an entrepreneur.
1. FLEX YOUR FOCUS MUSCLE
The first thing that you need to know when it comes to focus is that focus is a habit. If you don't currently have a great method for focusing or you feel like you have squirrel brain (you're all over the place), then it has to be a conscious decision that you make.
To change this habit, you have to make the decision now and create an awareness around it so that you can start flexing that muscle. I often say that focus and productivity is like a muscle. The more that you do it, the more that you practice it, the stronger you will actually become.
It's really easy to stay in this same cycle, to stay in a bad habit. It's like a wheel you're constantly on over and over and over again until you make the conscious decision that you're going to step off of that. The same goes with the habit around focus.
If you struggle with this, then you have to be super aware and on it, on those moments when you're not lasered in and focus and pull yourself into that different mindset. Every single thing that you will create around a new way of focusing and productivity will require daily action on your part.
It can be really easy to slip back into old habits, but I really encourage you to make the decision now to start taking those small actions and you will eventually see that this just becomes second nature to you and you're able to not just get more done, but actually be productive in your business.
2. BRAINSTORMING SESSION
Your girl right here constantly, has ideas. And if I just let those ideas flutter around in my brain, I would always feel overwhelmed. So the key that I have initiated from the very beginning is a brain dump. Like didn't we all learn how to do this in elementary school? We're getting ready to write a report or write a short story and we have to do a whole brainstorming session.
That's exactly what you're doing here. I call it a brain dump because we're taking everything that's going on up here that's driving us freaking crazy and we're dumping it into a list and getting it out of here so we can focus on what we actually need to do.
If you are a creative entrepreneur or a creative person than I know those ideas are constantly coming at you and you can't quite figure out which one you should be focusing on to actually see results. The spinning, the constant spinning back and forth is what's keeping you stuck because you can't see a clear plan of action to get from here to here.
Oftentimes those ideas that we have might not be right for this moment, but we're so hung up on him. We're so clouded by all of the ideas floating around in our head that we can't actually map out our own step-by-step.
So getting these ideas out on paper; I prefer to use Trello for this. You can do a complete brain dump in Trello to get you started and you'll be able to see with your eyeballs the things that you need to do and the things that aren't needed in this moment.
My tip for you, after you do this brain dump, is to actually pull out the pieces that are going to make the biggest impact for you in the next 30 days.
This is a great habit to start getting into because you're looking at the bigger picture of your brand. I'm not going to overwhelm you and be like 90 days out. Like let's just focus on 30 days at a time. By brain dumping all of that information, pulling out the pieces that you think are going to be the most important in the next 30 days, and then starting to prioritize.
Again, I love Trello and for this next step after our initial brain dump, I recommend using some sort of tool like Trello. There's also Asana out there, monday.com, tons of options for you, and organizing those individual pieces into smaller actionable steps.
In the beginning it's gonna feel like snail-like motion, but eventually you're going to really create a rhythm. The only way to do that is to actually get clear on all the little bitty nitty gritty details that you actually need to do in your business.
With each of these individual projects that you have prioritized, I use Trello to create different cards for those projects and add in all the tiny steps.
The key here is for you to take that big idea and break it down into all the tiny little details that are going to help you get that done. Remember, it is in the small actions, we start to feel really overwhelmed when we're just looking at one big task and we're like, how do I get there? What do I need to do now? And we're Ping ponging around.
If you can break it down into these small little actions, put a little checkbox next to it when you are completed with it and know that, oh if I do all 10 of these things, I will get that done.
3. embrace your calendar + MAP IT OUT
Okay, let's talk about scheduling your time. I know you're an entrepreneur. I know that you decided to break free from the nine to five life or maybe you've gone part time or whatever because you want complete control of your schedule. You still need to use a calendar. I don't care if you are an entrepreneur, I don't care what you're doing.
You need to embrace your calendar by giving yourself time to schedule out these individual task is going to save you so much time and energy in the long run.
Remember, you don't always have to be scheduling every tiny little detail as you start to create this habit, but especially in the beginning, I want you to start scheduling and time blocking all of those individual tasks.
If you caught my post last week where I talked about content creation and the four tools and tips that I use, I talked about batch scheduling. This is also something that you need to get into the habit of scheduling, not just the tiny little parts, but also those batch scheduling sessions that you use in your business, whether that is creating content, filming videos, engaging with your audience.
Start putting those in your calendar as well so you can really see where you need to be laser focused and on which project and where you a little bit more breathing room and flexibility.
So again, being your most focused and productive self is a habit that you have to practice. You have to flex that muscle.
These tips are what's really going to help you get started in creating this habit. Remember, we need to get all of those ideas out of your magnificent brain, onto a piece of paper or some sort of computer software so that we can start strategizing how you're going to move forward.
After the brain dump, you want to identify the most important pieces, the ones that are going to have the biggest impact in the next 30 days. Then you went to breakdown each of those individual tasks into tiny little actionable steps and get them on your calendar. This way, you know every single day what you're working on, where your energy and focus needs to go and you know and you trust that each of those small actions is leaving to the bigger goal, the bigger picture and your business.
4. PRODUCTIVITY HACKS
Another thing that I absolutely encourage you to do is use something that allows you to take multiple breaks. One of the ways that you can increase your focus and productivity is not staring at a screen for like eight hours. Get into the habit of taking frequent breaks while you're working on something every 50-60 minutes is usually a good mark, but if you're the type of person who needs every 30 minutes to get up, walk around, meditate, do something, then go ahead and do that.
My favorite thing to use is those little cute productivity cubes and finally one of my brand new favorite tools that I absolutely love is called habit lab. It is a chrome extension and it monitors the time that you've spent on various platforms.
Nothing will break your focus more than your inability to walk away from Gmail or your horrible obsession with spiraling on Facebook.
If you find yourself wasting tons of time on Facebook or Instagram and Gmail, then you are missing out on your focus and your productivity and therefore you aren't moving your business forward.
Putting a chrome extension onto your browser is going to help you get into that habit of not going to that platform every time you have a little bitty break. Utilizing these tools is only going to help you, you guessed it, flex that focus muscle.
You want regular tips and tricks on productivity. Be sure to follow me on Instagram at instagram.com/brandmerrycoaching.
I'm talking about all the behind the scenes of how I run my business, how I manage being a mother, how we're traveling full time, how I work with my husband, the communication that needs to happen. It really comes down to being super productive.
Don’t forget to grab my free content planner, which will support you in improving the focus when it comes to creating awesome content! You can get that at brandmerry.com/contentcalendar.
P.S. Are we connected on Instagram? No? Well lady what’s happening here we’ve got to fix that. Come hang out with me on my favorite social media platform. Follow for inspiration and send me a DM to know we’re connected.
4 Tools To Improve Your Content Creation
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It is no freaking secret that if you want to create a strong personal brand, you need to be showing up consistently online.
There's a lot of information out there on what type of content to create, but we very rarely talk about how you can show up consistently for your audience and I can't stress enough how important this is.
If you currently have no content strategy and you're showing up periodically, if at all, then this blog is going to support you with my four tools that I use to create consistent content.
I absolutely love content creation and I really don't think that you can have a strong social media presence without it. I don't think that you can create a strong bond with your community if you aren’t consistently showing up for them.
Not to mention when you are showing up and delivering amazing content, you are positioning yourself as the expert that you are.
Therefore they know what you offer, why you will be great for them and they want to take advantage of the product or the service that you're laying out for them on the table.
If you aren't showing up for them regularly, how do they know who you are and therefore they probably don't trust you? A really strong content strategy is needed to build trust with your audience.
One of my favorite quotes, you'll probably hear me say it in about a hundred different times, is from Zig Ziglar and he says, “If they like you, they will listen to you. If they trust you, they will do business with you.”
Consistent content is one of the key pieces that you need to build trust with your audience.
If you want more content on content creation, just let me know in the comments below by typing “content please”.
Today we are going to talk about four tools that will help you create consistent content in your business.
1. ORGANIZATION
All right, I'm a Virgo. I get it. We're not all amazing and organization and planning and strategizing and all of that, but I'm telling you, if you are flying by the seat of your pants when it comes to content creation, you're going to keep struggling uphill and not in a good way.
Creating content on the fly is always going to feel like you can't come up with content ideas and you're going to be stressed out in the moment and writing emails. It's going to take like an hour as opposed to eight minutes because you do not have a clear plan in place.
Now I have a big fan of using a content planner and there's a lot of word on the street that planning out your content isn't great because you cannot be inspired. And I say, no, I do not believe that.
When you have a clear plan of when you are showing up for your audience, where you are showing up for your audience, and if you already know the topic, fantastic pencil that in there too, then guess what?
You're less stressed, you're less overwhelmed and it allows for inspiration to come more easily. Here's the beautiful thing about a content calendar.
You are in control of your content calendar so you can move things around as inspiration strikes, but there's not going to be any room for inspiration if you're constantly stressed out about what you're going to say to your community and how you're going to show up.
When creating a content calendar, having that clear organization really is key to a strong content strategy and therefore a strong personal brand.
One of my favorite ways to organize content is using my signature brand containers. Now you might be like, was that Michelle? So I made you a free gift. I have a free downloadable content planner for you, which includes a training video on the core brand container strategy that I use. It shows you how to use that to create content, how to organize content, and I've created, let me just say a very, very cool content planner for you.
You can get your hands on that with the link below or by going to brandmerry.com/contentcalendar.
So the first thing you have to do again is organize your content, have a very clear idea of what you want to say to your audience when you're going to say it, and where you're going to be showing up to relieve that stress and that constant overwhelm of, “oh my gosh, what am I doing today?”
2. GET A SCHEDULER
The second tool that you need to have as an online entrepreneur is some sort of scheduler. This is where you would input to your content and it would push it out onto your social media platforms.
Now I also understand there's a lot of, “oh my gosh, do schedulers work?. Do they not work? Oh my gosh, does it not give me the biggest reach?”
But here's the thing, if you're currently not showing up at all or you're showing up so sporadically that your audience has no idea who you are, then your reach is kinda sucks anyways.
So you need to be using a scheduler, especially in the beginning to get yourself into that routine to regularly show up for your audience and build trust.
Later on if you notice your reach isn't as great or whatever, you can stop using the scheduler if you want.
If you are starting out in your business, and even today I still use schedulers in my business and my reach pretty good. It saves my but time and time again.
My favorite schedule that for this is actually SmarterQueue. We're going to go ahead and link it in the comments below. I love SmarterQueue for a few reasons.
It allows me to post content on multiple platforms.
I particularly use it for my Facebook page and my various Facebook groups, my free one and my one to actually evergreen content.
I can create monthly posts that recycle in each of these groups.
So while there are a ton of schedulers out there, I personally love SmarterQueue because of the evergreen option. And so if I have a really great piece of content, I love to extend the life of it. So why not have a scheduler that does that for me and SmarterQueue is my top pick at the end of the day.
You just need to choose one. There are a ton of options out there. Play with them a little bit. It started with one and start scheduling your content. So you're showing up consistently for your audience.
3. CANVA
Can we, can we get an amen for Canva? Can we just for a second think about what it was like before Canva and how hard it was? I love Canva. I remember one of the very first blog post I wrote was all about Canva cause it was like all the only thing I knew how to do it in my business at the time.
I love Canva for several purposes. Here's the thing. Creating content needs to have a visual component to it. It's just going to make it stand out even better than if you were just to post something blab that just like everyone wants to scroll through. So having some sort of visual component that grabs the attention of your audience and then keeps them really engaged with the actual content, it’s key.
Canva is going to be your best friend there as well. The free option and a paid option. So you can take your pick. I use the paid option because it allows me to seamlessly create branded content, which is so important for me in my business. But y'all, most of my clients use the free version.
Here's why Canva’s so cool. You can create templates for all your different pieces and I'm such a big fan of bulk scheduling, which is why we just talked about the scheduler as tip number two.
But bulk scheduling allows you to sit down for a chunk of time, get in your zone of genius, right out your content, create your graphics and schedule so the rest of the week you can focus on building relationships and nurturing that audience, not coming up with the content, scheduling it and trying to do all of that while running a business.
So I love Canva because as I'm creating my content can go into Canva, find my favorite templates because they have them all laid out for you, customize them and add them to my scheduler. It is so very cool.
If you are not using Canva now, I highly, highly recommend that you check them out. I’m not even affiliated, just obsessed.
4. BULK SCHEDULING
If you struggle with creativity, if you struggle with getting your head in that space, into that zone where you can write and create that beautiful copy that resonates with your audience, you need to embrace bulk scheduling.
Bulk scheduling was a game changer for me at the beginning of my business because I had no other choice while working a nine to five having a new baby and trying to build this business from scratch, I didn't have a ton of time to actually create content, but I knew how important it was.
So along with a scheduler and the use of Canva and obviously the organization told that I made for you for free below, I use bulk scheduling to my advantage.
Back in the old days, I used to book schedule on Sundays. I would carve out three hours of time on a Sunday. I would sit down, I would write out all my content, design it and schedule it, and now I actually do that on Mondays.
Get into the habit of blocking out time in your schedule. You can do this. Whether you work a nine to five have children or full time entrepreneur. It does not matter if you can make it the same time every week even better because it will get your brain kind of in that routine of, “Ooh, tomorrow's content day. I've gotta be on my a game to write amazing content for my community.“
These four tools are so basic, they're so easy to start implementing in your business. I highly recommend you start tomorrow. Creating content is a non-negotiable.
If you want to create a strong personal brand and therefore a profitable brand through your content.
Don't forget to grab your lifesaver tool, the free content planner and my training video on brand containers. You can get that at brandmerry.com/contentcalendar.
Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!
P.S. Planning and creating your content doesn't have to be a constant struggle. There is a better way to research, plan, and create your content as an entrepreneur and it's all inside the Content Planning Blueprint!
The Content Planning Blueprint is perfect for online business owners who know the power of content creation but are tired of spending all of their time coming up with ideas, organizing their content, and wondering what will attract their dream clients.
In just a few hours, you'll have 90 days of content planned, a repeatable workflow to save you hours on creating and distributing your content every week, and content topics that will keep performing for your brand for years to come! Get your blueprint now >>
4 Steps to an authentic and revenue-generating personal brand
4 Steps to an authentic and
revenue-generating personal brand
March 7, 2019
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Personal Branding is all about you, right? Or is it? That tends to be the really big question. How much do we share? What do we share? What actually makes up a personal brand?
Personal branding is super hot right now and with good reason, but people struggle all the time with what does a personal brand actually mean? How much do we share? And I really want to lay it out for you in today's blog post.
Through showing up as my true self, I have been able to create a six-figure business in the online space and work with women every single day to lay a strong foundation, tap into their authenticity so that they can show up and make money doing what they truly love to do.
So today I want to break it down for you into some really actionable steps you can walk away, implement and start seeing your personal brand take form. There are four parts to a strong, captivating personal brand and I want to kick it off with a number one, my personal favorite.
1. Your Story
The first thing you really need to do as a personal brand is to actually identify your story. You need to identify the reason behind your brand. You need to identify the mission behind your brand and tap into the different ways that your story, your personality brings that to life.
One of the things that separate a personal brand from a regular brand is the personality behind it and so you want to be able to input you into everything that you do in the online space and there's no better way to do that and set yourself apart from other people than by tapping into your story.
I highly recommend looking at your business, looking at the brand that you want to create, and then look back at your story.
There are various chapters to see which ones connect to where you are now. This is going to help you get started and actually sharing your story in the online space and start to build that trust, like and know factor with your audience.
2. Your Superpower
Now I'm a big fan of the idea of a superpower because this is your little bitty specific niche that sets you apart from everyone else that makes you so irresistible. So for me, my superpower is my ability to support women and help them tap into their story.
Storytelling and branding is what I love to do. Every program, every video, every everything that I talk about always talks about story.
And so you want to find your superpower and you want to play this up through your personal brand. Make this a core element of your brand so you become that person, that go to person in the industry where people are referring you. “Girl, you want to know a story about branding? Go talk to Michelle”. That's ultimately what you want.
3. Know your audience
The third thing that you need to know is who the hell you're talking to. You cannot create a personal brand or you cannot show up in the online space if you don't know who you want to attract to that personal brand. Yes, a big part of branding is you, yourself. That's the big part of the personal brand, but if you cannot effectively communicate to your audience because you don't know who your audience is, then your personal brand will continue to just be you. There will be no community or fans around your personal brand.
So you really need to get in touch with who your audience is. Now, I'm a crazy person for market research. I love it, till the day that I die, it will be my best friend and I encourage you to do the same. But market research does not have to be scary. It can be as simple as having some conversations with people, creating a poll, emailing your list. If you have a list, just even five people and asking them some questions that are gonna help you get in touch with who they are, what they're struggling with, what they desire, and what's keeping them from the life that they dream of.
4. Messaging
And the fourth piece of defining a personal brand comes down to the communication or messaging. Now this is the last piece because you literally can not have this piece until you have one, two, and three.
So just a reminder, number one is your story. Number two is your superpower. Number three is who you're talking to. And now it's about how do you communicate who you are to your audience. In a way that has them wanting to take action.
A lot of people refer to this as the communication or the messaging. At the end of the day it's you showing up talking about what you do in a way that is appealing to your audience.
So I get this question a lot. “How much do I share?” “What parts of my story do I share?” And this is the communication component.
If you have a piece of your story that you think is really amazing, but you cannot connect that to your audience, it's not the right time to share that.
So some of the key things that I love to ask myself are, is this valuable to my audience?And what kind of value do they get?
This allows me to make sure everything that I'm creating with my personal brand, every way that I'm communicating it through my marketing, my email and my social media is always going to resonate with my audience. This is the key.
Make sure your messaging is clearly communicating the benefit of working with you, of your service, of your product, with your audience so they can really see themselves in the outcome of your product.
Now you understand what is needed to create a strong personal brand. It really comes down to these four pieces and I encourage you to take the time to dive into those pieces.
I love talking about storytelling. I love talking about marketing. If you want some more marketing tips that apply to you actually showing up and sharing your personal story then I encourage you to sign up for my free masterclass. I’m sharing How to Build a Better Brand.
If you want to get your hands on that, head to brandmerry.com/brandmasterclass.
Please share your biggest takeaways from this blog post and how you’re going to implement this information in your own business!
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Must-Read Personal and Professional Books for 2019 + 3 of My All Time Favorites
Must-Read personal and professional Books for 2019
+ 3 of My All Time Favorites
February 4, 2019
I remember a time when the only thing I would read was a Nicholas Sparks book - no joke.
Not to mention the only time I would even pick up said Nicholas Sparks book was on vacation.
I had convinced myself I didn’t have time to read or didn’t need to read (yes, I understand how ridiculous that sounds).
When I dove head first into entrepreneurship I became consumed with personal development, all my entrepreneurs know this feeling, and I became obsessed with learning as much as I could.
It wasn’t until I started seeing results from what I was reading that I realized this is an essential part of growing. Now I make it a priority to read weekly, both a mix of personal development and professional development books.
As we set out on our year-long (heck, maybe longer) journey of full-time travel I’m gearing up to load my Kindle with must reads.
Today, I’m sharing what’s on my reading list for 2019 + some of my personal favorites that I find myself re-reading or quoting on the regular.
MY PERSONAL FAVORITES
Anything Brene Brown, but seriously I’m not even kidding! Some of my personal favorites are Daring Greatly and Braving the Wilderness. If you struggle with perfectionism she is your girl!
The Universe Has Your Back by Gabby Bernstein. Struggle with trusting? I get that and this book changed so much for me in terms of leaning fully into my goals and trusting the process, even if I didn’t always understand it.
Girl Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis. I’m really hoping you have heard of this book, I mean how could you not, it took the world by storm and for good reason. It’s an amazing book and so beautifully told, I highly recommend!
MUST-READS FOR 2019
Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz
I’m halfway through this book and it is blowing my mind. If you’re looking for strategic ways to grow your business without working more this is a must read.
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
I’m obsessed with creating habits in 2019 and making sure that every single day I’m taking action to get me towards my goal and living a more intentional life. I’ve heard amazing things about this book.
High Performance Habits by Brendan Burchard
Speaking of habits, this book by Brendan Burchard has been a must-read for a while, but this year I’m truly diving into the idea of high performance and studying more of the psychology behind what makes people successful.
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
This book dives into what makes people truly successful! Did I mention it is a complete system? Sign this girl up.
Primal Branding by Patrick Hanlon
Branding is my jam, so I’m always excited to learn more not just about branding, but WHY people buy.
Michelle Obama DUH!
I want to know what books are you loving right now or are currently sitting in your Amazing shopping cart? Head over to Instagram and let me know!
