Every year I do a women of inspiration video reaching out to a few women that have impacted my life over the last year. This year I decided to focus on the women that are “Bringing Sexy Back” into business, as I truly believe in this power! Today I hand the sword over to these amazing woman!
Take a look at these women, do you know them?
If you do not know these women , I hope you will take some time to find them and meet them, they are amazing, true go-givers!
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
My first job out of college was working with abused and neglected teenage girls: sexually, physically and emotionally abused and neglected, drug and/or alcohol addicted, pregnant and/or parenting. Their world was defined by limiting beliefs. When I started developing self -esteem groups for them, I realized the power of what we tell ourselves. It’s everywhere! Now over 20 years has gone by and I still teach limiting beliefs. They are critical to building the Influence Factor in your life. Sometimes I think my clients think I am crazy when they sign up for the Social Networking Coaching Club and have to do a limiting beliefs activity with me! I do it with all my clients, it is even in my book, The Influence Factor
Even last weeks post was about our own limiting beliefs. My own limiting beliefs, and what I did to face some of them!
One of my corporate clients has recently asked me to take the first half of the Social Networking Coaching Club and turn it into online training on building a business brand. I am honored to do so, as they see that I teach so much more than “how to tweet”! I did this video to work with their 1099 contractors for the limiting beliefs section around building their business, and thought I’d share with you:
That last piece is so critical: Things that create negative emotion, that anger us about others, that fight or flight we often feel is often because of a limiting belief. Next time you feel that way about something ask yourself what the belief is that you tell yourself. You may be surprised.
For many of us, like the teenagers I counseled we did not first create those beliefs – others around us did, even if not intentionally. Eventually you have to own them though. For example, I remember growing up with a single mom who constantly talked about how BROKE we were. For many years I worked, and was broke. I worked harder and was broke. I worked more and was still broke. Until I realized that my moms voice had become mine. I worked to change it.
One technique I have taught when speaking is to tell the voice to STOP! But then, and this is very important, replace the voice with something new and powerful, or the old pattern creeps back in. I also wrote another blog about the power of I AM and how to rewrite those tapes
What limiting beliefs do you have that you want to change? What techniques do you use?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
A Warrior-Preneur is always up for a challenge that scares them a bit – personally and professionally. Recently, I caught a post on Facebook through one of my friends that Jillian Todd was looking for women over a certain age (and it’s not 30!) to pose for her for an article soon to appear in Examiner.com. The intention is about how older women step into sexy, confidence and knowing they are fully amazing even with age. Jillian specializes in “boudoir photography ”, so if you are not familiar, these are not your typical pictures!
When I saw the post I felt instantly excited and left a comment saying I’d love to! Well, guess what? Jillian followed up with me – gulp! As a warrior I was ready. As a woman I got nervous. What will people think of me? Yes, even I the warrior herself worried about that. Jillian assured me they would not use my name and only pictures that would be tough for people to tell it was me if I so desired.
I waited until the night BEFORE the shoot to think about what to wear for this, holy cow lingerie, huh? Then I got REAL with myself. I thought about what I say about sexy all the time- sexy is who you are, not what you wear or how skinny you are. Sexy is what you feel good in, not what others think is sexy. Sexy is what you exude when you are the BEST YOU. Sexy is willing to try something you have never done before and to take pride in what you learn. So I packed according to that…and I brought my sword.
Arriving at Jillian’s space yesterday was like going to a girlfriends house, she was comfortably dressed and welcoming. Her studio isn’t like you might think-it’s a studio and very professional. And the only mirror is TINY! (Simply brilliant) She looked at what I brought and was very complimentary and said she had other funs things we could try too. I never felt pushed to dress a certain way or to act a certain way. (I think that was my fear, that it would be like taking pictures for your boyfriend when you where in your 20’s!)
What Jillian did was allow me to be me and that is sexy. What Jillian is amazing at doing is helping you see the next level of beauty you have, that you might not see in yourself – while you are there.
Jillian sent me a few of my pictures for this blog (yes I put them in a little movie with some others of women she has taken, with their full permission of course), which I first saw this morning. It’s interesting what a woman’s first reaction is: “ohhh, ahh, wow! Ugh, what is that?” Emotions of pride, happy giggles and then the sudden critic. I again took out my sword, the figurative one, and told myself to STOP.
This little photo story shows you how incredible Jillian’s pictures are, and how diverse she can be (yes I included EVERY one she sent me this morning I did not self edit!!) I put mine at the end, it shows a great evolution we went though. It also shows her ability to take all women and have then feel what I felt! She specializes in pregnant women, women and couple photography.
You can reach Jillian at:
http://twitter.com/jilliansboudoir
So what’s the point? Maybe sexy pictures will never be your thing. I get that (although after doing this for the first time I feel that EVERY woman should experience it at least once) This is less about the pictures and MORE about the journey. BUT what is your inner warrior afraid to do? What might be that thing that opens your mind, heart and soul to new level of self acceptance, and authenticity which only improves your success? That is why I am showing my pictures, with my name, it aligns with who I say I AM (and my regular readers know that!). Am I now wondering which external critics will show up? Absolutely. BUT because I have embraced Ann, she’s not worried about them.
Where will you stretch yourself to experience something new that challenges you to align with who you are? To embrace that internal critic and grow?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
So many small business owners get on what I call the “marketing roller coaster.” One day they’re saying, “ Oh, my God, I need to market myself more.” Then they’re climbing that huge hill on the roller coaster saying “market, market, market, market.” After they eventually get to the top and clients come in, they’re enjoying the rush all the way down the hill, and then “Holy cow! I don’t have clients!” and it’s back up the hill!
Social networking helps you get off the roller coaster. It’s more like tending a garden — with consistent small efforts and attention, the seeds you plant will bring in a regular crop of clients. If you take small steps each day, your garden will flourish. This is my short story of how social media saved my business:
The truth is: social networking is a core business strategy. It’s not a fad, it’s not going away anytime soon.
Here are some interesting facts:
• LinkedIn was launched in May 2003. It has over 75 million registered users and 2.25 million login weekly.
• Facebook was launched in February 2004. It has over 500 million users and over 60% of them log in daily. The fastest growing population in Facebook is women ages 54-69. Over 70% of mom play games like Farmville on facebook.
• YouTube was launched in February 2005. There are over 2 billion videos watched a DAY. As of October 2010 over 1 billion subscriptions on YouTube-those are people asking to get notified when your channel loads a video!
• Twitter was launched in July 2006. There are over 100 million registered users and 40% login daily to the tune of over 3600 tweets per second. Regular users tend to be affluent, making more than $250,000 a year on average. Twitter indexes to search engines, so when used strategically, it expands your exposure.
The Key to your success? Know your target market and then develop a strategy to show up where they are. For example:
• Are you a speaker or coach where trust in important? Then build your YouTube presence.
• Do you work primarily with fortune 500 companies? Spend your time in the right LinkedIn groups.
• Are your customers moms? Get on facebook.
• Do you sell luxury or high priced items? Twitter is smart for you.
Remember, network online like you do in person and it will build your business.
Invest the time in your marketing online and it will reward you! Are you planning your marketing strategy for next year?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
There are many places on the internet to put your blog. Blogspot, Typepad, WordPress and Yola are 4 commonly used sites. There are many others and more popping up every day. Reality is this though: WordPress cannot be beat. Why?
the site stays cutting edge with all social media trends and technologies.
search engines love wordpress sites (probably because of their editing system) so posts rank better.
it is easy to change your look at feel of the site as you evolve and not lose content.
it is easy to brand.
it will grow and evolve as you grow and evolve.
it gives you plug-ins that help with your SEO (search engine visibility), when you use them of course!
The great thing about WordPress if you are willing to learn it (or hire someone to set it up -I have a GREAT person that I’m happy to refer) is it can develop into a full website that you can sell product, create a membership group and much more!
With other sites you might gain ease of use but give up visibility and flexibility. Which I do not recommend! That means you might have a slight learning curve, but long term it will be worth every minute. Therefore I recommend WordPress.
I tell all my clients to play around a bit, and first just build a free site on WordPress. You can play with themes and changes. And as you build your brand you will be happy you used wordpress. Eventually, if you want to be taken seriously, you will want to host your wordpress site (the difference is the URL: annevanston.wordpress.com is free, annevanston.com is hosted) Once you host your site, you will be even more thrilled with the add-on’s changes and true branding you can create!
Review 1 or 2 blogs that you like. You can go to Google and search for them by topic or industry if you like. You can also take a look at Blogger Monday with Ann Evanston, we have TONS of blogs to look at over there.. Review the blog and ask yourself:
1. Which platform (tool) are they on? One of the 4 above? Another? Was it privately developed? I look at the bottom of the page.
2. How often does the owner of the blog post?
3. Does the owner create links within the blog with searchable key words?
4. Does the blog have a subscription button?
5. Does the blog have a blogroll?
6. What to you like or dislike about the blog?
These questions are a great way to get you started to make your transition over to WordPress so you know what you want!
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
Every year I do a women of inspiration video reaching out to a few women that have impacted my life over the last year. This year I decided to focus on the women that are “Bringing Sexy Back” into business, as I truly believe in this power! Today I hand the sword over to these amazing woman!
