When I first started working with my client, Rebecca (real woman—fake name), she told me that she’d been losing business. More specifically, the enrollment in her pre-school was down. And she needed to bring in a new group of kids quickly, or the business would begin to suffer financially.

What’s more, Rebecca had been out of her business for some time. While she still owned and operated the pre-school she’d purchased nearly three decades earlier, she hadn’t been present to it in a number of years (she’d been kickin’ back and bein’ grandma). And she wasn’t sure what levers to pull in order to make things happen quickly.

Rebecca is positively PRIMETIME. She just turned 62. She’s an awesome implementor. She’s got the patience of a saint (she owns a pre-school, for goodness sake!) and is so delightfully pleasant to be around that I can’t wait to call her each week.

Rebecca is NOT, however, many of the things we think we must be in order to slay in business today. She’s not especially tech-savvy. She’s not a social media maven—in fact, it’s very new to her. She’s not experienced with marketing or advertising. She doesn’t have a blog, a podcast, an email list or a “following.” And she’s not working 60 hours a week, burning the midnight oil to make her business work.

Despite all of that, Rebecca solved her problem inside of 90 days. She replaced the students she’d lost and then added THREE TIMES AS MANY more, before she ever had to worry about the financial consequences of not doing so.

And here’s the clincher:
>>She did not advertise.
>>She did not do a big social media “campaign.”
>>She did not buy leads or make marketing investments.

Instead, she developed the three things that all great brands have:

–The RIGHT mindset for increased visibility and influence,
–The RIGHT message for impact and sales, and
–The RIGHT platform for her to deliver that message.

She revitalized her business and exceeded her goals by 300% in less than 90 days. Working part-time. At age 62.

Rebecca is wonderful and I love her. But she doesn’t have superpowers. She’s just like you and me. And if she can do it, you can do it, as well.

I’m hosting a LIVE FREE TRAINING about these three very specific aspects of branding. I’ll talk more about Rebecca and a couple of my other clients who are crushing in much the same way. PrimeTime women who mastered mindset, message, and platform and changed the trajectory of their businesses as a result.

Grab your seat for the training here.
But do it quickly. There are only 100 seats available.

And at the end, I’ll do a LIVE Q&A where you can ask me questions specific to YOUR business and YOUR situation.

Sign up.
Show up.
And then blow up.

Rebecca is one in a million. But her results surely don’t have to be.

Straight from the heart,
Juju

“To have that sense of one’s intrinsic worth… is potentially to have everything.” -Joan Didion

I used to cry on Sunday nights.

When I was 29, my roommate, Scooby, and I had a Sunday tradition. We’d wake up in our house on Balboa Island in Newport Beach and head up the freeway, through the traffic on the 405, past Santa Monica and up Highway 1 to Malibu. The drive is breath-taking, and as we’d inch closer to Duke’s and Paradise Cove, with the waves crashing to our left and the sun beaming through the windshield, everything we loathed or feared just fell away.

We’d spend the day with friends, laughing, drinking, playing hard… and then sober up and make the two-hour drive home through Sunday night traffic. It was always nearly bedtime when we’d walk through the front door. And by the time I had my face washed and my head on the pillow, the tears would begin.

I hated my job as a marketing executive in the financial industry. I’d worked my ass off to make it to the very corner office I dreaded. I hated the suits and the shackles and the rules and the pressure and the politics and the nonsense. Most of all, though, I hated that I couldn’t be myself. I was a loose cannon. A ticking time bomb. And I always knew, as I’d lie there on Sunday nights with tears streaming down my face, that it wouldn’t be long before my time was up.

And I was right.

Within five years I was married to the love of my life with a new baby boy and a business of my own that was just beginning to boom. And for the first ten years or so, I loved the shit out of that agency. I loved the freedom and the resourcefulness, the high-level problem solving and the client strategy sessions, the talented team of up-and-comers and the magnificent things they’d create.

But as time went by, the Sunday night tears returned. Only this time, I was nearly 49. And the sobs were born not from pressure, but from weariness. Not from shackles, but from choices that had run their course. On Sunday nights I cried because I saw an endless stream of Mondays before me, each one becoming less powerful and less productive than the one before.

I cried because I was through my prime… and my time was up. Because I wanted more, but I couldn’t even say what that looked like.

As I think about it now, it seems absurd.
Because now I know that this is PrimeTime.
Because I’ve built a new business and brand to support the size of my POTENTIAL.
And because I’ve unpacked the world’s most beautiful gift: a life that’s built from HEART and SOUL.

It’s Sunday afternoon, and I’m on fire. The San Diego sun is shining and Groove Armada is playing on the stereo. Diego the big, fat wonder-dog is lying next to me as I plan my upcoming week. And while I’m prepping for my client appointments and the interviews I’ll give, for my masterclass on Wednesday and live workshop on Thursday, I can’t help but think how LUCKY I am to get to do what I LOVE. How motivated I am to help PrimeTime women see their own potential. How TURNED ON I am by watching my clients break through and step up and ROCK their own worlds.

So look, my friend… If Sunday nights make you weary, or teary, or pissed off and resentful… meet me on Wednesday at my FREE LIVE TRAINING.

I’ll show you what it means to live and work from HEART and SOUL.

I’ll show you how to build a brand and business to support the size of YOUR potential.

I’ll show you what to do when you feel like your time is up, and you’re ready for more but you don’t even know what the hell that looks like.

And I’ll show you how to put the FUNDAY back in SUNDAY.

Meet me HERE on Wednesday. Because this is your PrimeTime, Baby. And you are everything.

Straight from the heart,
Juju

“A girl should be two things: who and what she wants.”

-Coco Chanel

When I was a little girl, I was a natural leader. Painstakingly organized behind a vision for most every event I attended or planned, I was generally out in front, making things happen. I have vivid recollections of my role as manager/director as part of my earliest childhood memories. From the time I could write I was making lists and drawing flow charts and diagrams with boxes labeled by category. I have a penchant for clipboards. I once got a whistle for a gift.

Even more vivid than my early memories of organizing groups is the sound of my mom’s voice as she called me away from the neighborhood kids or my brothers and into the kitchen: “Julia, can you come in here for a moment?”

As I’d sheepishly step forward, she’d wag her finger at me and say,

“Juju, your voice is the only voice I can hear from the other room. Why are you so LOUD? Do you have to be so BOSSY?”

I must have been five when I first heard that.

I was in my early 30’s when my husband and friends dubbed me (ever-so-lovingly) “The Minister of Social Policy” for our group.

As my father lay dying of cancer and I barked orders at the movers delivering the motorized reclining bed to his room, he looked at me wryly and said, “Look at you… always the Executive Director.”

When a group of German GSG9 soldiers stayed at our house years ago, they nicknamed me The Little General.

When I relive these moments—and scores of others like them—they provoke a swift and automatic sense of burning shame within me. A welling in my chest, hard like a fist and heavy like a boulder. These physical and emotional responses are nearly instantaneous, and each and every time they hit me I’m taken aback by their intensity.

It’s only now, at 52, that I can separate the way I feel about myself from the way I felt in the moments when one of my greatest strengths and personally-defining attributes appeared as an ugly stain.

Don’t get me wrong. This shame did not stop me from becoming a leader. In school I led clubs and cheerleading squads, ski trips and youth groups. During my corporate career, I Ied teams, departments, initiatives, events, and institutional change. For nearly 15 years, I led my own agency and myriad projects to re-brand and re-launch client corporations.

For decades I managed to live with a sort of cognitive dissonance around my gifts. They served me. And I hated ‘em.

But it wasn’t until I decided to brand MYSELF that I realized choking on shame around the core of who I am was never going to work.

Because branding is an act of bravery. And getting up every day and putting myself out there requires me to BACK myself. To PROMOTE myself. To RESPECT myself. And dare I say it… to LOVE myself.

It’s one thing to make shit happen on behalf of a client–to set standards, or request commitments from suppliers, or demand a well-executed plan because a CLIENT needs it. And quite another to require such things on behalf of myself.

It’s one thing to submit a proposal to a multi-billion-dollar corporation for strategic branding services, and quite another to look a woman in the eye and tell her what it costs and why she should work with me one-on-one as a coach.

In order for me to succeed at the level I want to play, I need to SHOW UP COMPLETELY. And even though I still have moments where I feel inexplicably gut-punched as I step onto a stage or provide constructive feedback to a team member or write a call-to-action saying, “…but do it now, because it won’t last long,” I STILL DO THOSE THINGS.

Because at 52 I KNOW that bossy Juju is Juju in all her glory.
And I also know that the thoughts, the memories, the gut reactions and the irrational fears will NEVER stop. I am hard-wired for these reactions. My insecure thoughts around my inner “Head Bitch In Charge” run as deep as the Grand Canyon.

I cannot stop the thoughts.
But I can sure as hell stop allowing them to dictate my actions and define the scope of my success.

You know why I’m sharing this?

Because I have this conversation with clients NEARLY EVERY DAY. Every PrimeTime woman I know who’s building a brand is stepping over some sort of shame, apprehension, second-guessing, or hiding around the very thing that makes her great.

Nearly every woman I know feels embarrassment or reticence around SLAYING her own competitive advantage.

Every PrimeTime brand I’ve helped to build is the result of some serious work around BEING SEEN AND HEARD.

BRANDING IS AN ACT OF BRAVERY.
If you want to increase your level of visibility, income, impact, or influence, you’ve gotta OWN THAT SHIT.

You’ve gotta put it on and wear it around like a fucking TIARA.

You’ve gotta get out of your own way and give the world what you were born to deliver.

So I’m not feeling one bit badly about TELLING you to come to my LIVE training next week.

You should show up live.

You should take 90 minutes out of your day to learn about the MINDSET you need to go next-level.

You should take the time to learn what triggers you (about you) that’s keeping you small.

You should let me be your mirror and show you what an absolute QUEEN you are.

And you should meet an entire group of women who are learning to step through their own fears and into their greatness every day.

There are only 100 seats at the training.
Grab one.
Show up.

So you can show yourself completely.

Straight from my big, bossy heart,
Juju

P.S. In next week’s FREE LIVE ONLINE TRAINING, I’ll show you how to FALL IN LOVE with the very thing that makes you different than everyone else. How to step through the discomfort of COMPLETELY SHOWING the core of your heart and soul. So you can build a brand that changes the world. Grab your spot here. And do it now. Because seats are limited.

This morning I got an awesome email from my homeowners insurance company. I love them. 

Seriously. My HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE COMPANY turns me on.

And here’s the crazy part: I’ve never even spoken to them. 

They light me up from a distance. (And before you blow this off and say, “Oh, Juju’s a brand nerd and she gets turned on by shit that’s totally boring to me,” hear me out. Because this is NOT your ordinary homeowner’s insurance.)

So, last year the hubby and I sold our family home in Arizona and bought a little love-nest condo on the golf course. We’re planning for the day next year when our son leaves for college (SCORE!!!) and we can work around the world and chase the endless summer. Anyway, it was my job to call around and get insurance quotes. Which sucks, really. Shitty job. As pleasurable as a root canal…

And then I came across a Google ad for Lemonade. This is what it said:

Forget everything you know about insurance.

Instant Everything.

Killer prices.

Big heart.

Big heart? Whatever. 

But I’m a sucker for a great differentiator, so I leaned in.

Every bit of it was true. I downloaded an app to my phone. And I had insurance in about 10 minutes. Never spoke to a soul. 

But THIS is where it all gets interesting: Lemonade is a “social impact” company. They “reverse the traditional insurance model.” Essentially, we pay premiums, they take a flat fee and pay claims out of the premium, and anything that’s left over goes to charity. 

They give the left-over to charity.

And they let me choose the cause that my premiums support. (I chose measures against human trafficking.) 

It was SO SIMPLE that I thought it might not be real. So I Googled some more, just because I felt like insurance should involve at least a LITTLE BIT of pain. And they checked out.

Never thought about it again.

And then this morning, I got an email from them. The subject line said: “warm and fuzzy.” (WTF? Did you ever get a “warm and fuzzy” from your insurance company?) And they showed me what I was part of. 

CLICK HERE to see what they did. (When you open this web page, it will look like a white screen with a headline. As you scroll down, the goods will appear.) Check it out. Then meet me back here at this email, so we can talk about it…

PRETTY F’IN COOL, RIGHT?

This company differentiated themselves in THREE CRITICAL WAYS:

1. Ease of transaction
2. Pricing
3. Social impact

They gave me THREE SOLID REASONS to choose them over the big boys. 

But you know what it all boils down to? HEART AND SOUL.

Lemonade brands and operates from heart and soul. And they touched mine.

Today I’m sending tens of thousands of people an email about feeling “warm and fuzzy” over homeowners insurance. A product that most people would choose SECOND to chewing broken glass.

What are you doing that’s making your customers tell people about you? Where’s the heart and soul in your brand that helps folks CHOOSE you? Where’s the warm and fuzzy? What are your customers PART of? What have you reinvented or re-tooled or turned upside-down?

Whose fancy did you tickle this morning?

I love you so.
Juju

P.S. Heart and soul is where it’s at, my friend. And if you want a brand that’s rich with both, I’ve got you covered. You can meet me and 50 PrimeTime women in San Diego for the PrimeTime Essence Experience. The entire 3-day experience was created for you to explore the heart and soul of your brand. Or, we can work together one-on-one as you build a brand that lights folks up  (Click here to see what other women are saying about working with me… and to schedule a discovery call.) Make your customers wake up and talk about you. It’ll change their lives…and yours.

In 2015, I closed shop at my corporate branding agency and decided to try my hand at marketing myself. More specifically, I decided to become an “overnight, global, Internet sensation.” It was a bold move. And when my husband asked me how long I thought it would take, I estimated five years.

I anticipated a LOT of things when I made the switch from “real to virtual” where my business was concerned. What I did not anticipate was all of the ridiculous and meaningless emphasis on figures. More specifically, “six-figure” and “seven-figure” companies.

Since the day I signed up for Marie Forleo’s B-School (my entrée into the digital marketing space), I’ve been pitched HUNDREDS of times in advertisements by consultants and agencies who tell me they can take my business to “six-figures” (and at least the same number who can take it “from six-figures to seven”).

Are all of these companies full of shit? It’s hard to say, really.

But the premise upon which they’re basing their promises is entirely meaningless.

So if you’re feeling badly about not having the perfect figure… stop it right now.

First of all, these “figures” everyone is talking about are revenue numbers. That’s the amount of sales your company makes. And what anyone in the real world of business understands is that revenue is POINTLESS without also understanding expenses. It’s the management of the gap BETWEEN revenue and expenses that make one an actual businessperson. It’s in that gap that we find our house payments, car payments, vacations, retirement funds, and college tuition for our kids.

But you won’t hear these hucksters talk to you about profitability or return on investment. Because those would be REAL promises that would require REAL long-term strategies. And ain’t nobody flashing around headlines that say, “Work real hard. Build your business over time.” What’s sexy about that?

Revenue numbers, alone, are meaningless. There are plenty of business owners with millions in annual sales who bring home less than $100K. And there are PLENTY of businesses—especially online enterprises—that spend more than they make. Or barely break even…

I know, because I’ve been in lots of groups with folks who tell me they’re “seven-figure-earners” and can’t afford a $200 hotel room. I’ve met guys who lease Ferraris based on their “figures” who can’t stay in the game longer than a year. I’ve met folks who had a “fifty-thousand-dollar month” with a launch that cost $40K… and nothing else all year long.

So regardless of what anyone tells you about your figures… you gotta focus on the RIGHT ONES for them to have any meaning.

And you have to get real about how long it will take and what you’ll have to put into it.

Think of five women who have businesses you admire. The ones who are really doing it right.

Did they blow up in a summer? Have six weeks to MASSIVE long-term success? Did they make it big because they built the right funnel or uncovered the “single secret no one is talking about” or “the proven method to fill your client calendar with no marketing expense?”

I already know what you’re gonna tell me.
They did not.

Long-term sustainable profitability doesn’t come from understanding how to use a marketing tactic any more than fine art comes from understanding how to use a paintbrush.

So if you’re feeling pressure to have the perfect figures, you can let that go right now.

Instead, focus on finding a NEED in the marketplace. Focus on understanding what people want and what will make their lives better. Focus on knowing and understanding those people inside and out. And focus on giving them what they need in a way that’s utterly delightful, entirely memorable, and different than the way anyone else provides it.

You know what’s more important than great figures? Heart and soul.

Straight from the heart,
Juju

Earlier this week, I was interviewed for a podcast by an amazing PrimeTime goddess named Joanne Smith. And she said something to me that I hear quite often—and that lets me know I’m on the right track:

“Juju, when I get your emails, I know they’re going out to hundreds or thousands of people, but I feel as though you’re talking DIRECTLY to me.”

This is not an accident. I just met Joanne on Monday, but I have her in my mind—and more importantly in my heart—when I write each and every email.

And if you want your ideal clients to really hear your message, you must deliberately hold your clients in your mind and heart and speak DIRECTLY to each one.

HOW?

By jumping into the conversation that’s already going on INSIDE THEIR HEADS.

Most of the business owners I coach understand that they’re speaking to an “ideal client” with specific hopes, dreams, fears and frustrations. Yet the conversation they’re starting in their emails and their marketing is just ONE STEP AWAY from what’s actually happening in their potential client’s head.

Here’s an example:

I recently asked a client what her customers really WANTED. And she told me, “They want to feel integrated. They want to feel aligned with their core values.”

Guess what this client sells?
That’s right. She sells coaching around core values.
Undoubtedly, this is a valuable service, and she’s damned good at it.

But my question to her was this: “Do you really think folks are opening their eyes in the morning and thinking to themselves, I hope I can stay aligned with my core values today; I’m feeling very desegregated from my deepest beliefs and desires?”

Her clients are NOT thinking this. They’re thinking about how being disconnected from their core values FEELS and SHOWS UP in their lives.

They’re thinking:

I hate my job. I’m exhausted from showing up every day and doing things I don’t want to do.

I’m so pissed off at Jim, but I can’t speak up. I feel stuck. If I say what I think, he’ll leave.

Why do I keep sabotaging myself? Why can’t I stay on task?

There’s so much on my plate, I can’t get everything done. I’m completely overwhelmed. Everything is falling apart.

Aligning with core values is the ANSWER to the questions in her customers’ minds. Not the question. In order to really speak to folks as though they’re the only ones in the room, she needs to go just ONE. STEP. FURTHER. with the conversation

There are lots of ways to get to the conversations going on in your potential clients’ minds. But the most effective way is to just ASK them.

I talk to PrimeTime women entrepreneurs every day. The fears and frustrations they experience are in many ways universal. The hopes and dreams they are pursuing are common in the second act of life. The feelings that take them down or stand in the way of their success are articulated to me over and over by different women. They beliefs they have around their worth and their value as they age are insidious and collective.

What many of these women don’t realize is that they are not alone. And the moment they realize it—the moment I hold them in my heart and demonstrate that I HEAR them and I UNDERSTAND them—they feel safe and loved.

That might feel a little woo-woo for you. Safe and loved? Really, Juju??

But let me ask you: How do you feel when someone really listens to you?

How do you feel when someone says, “I know how you feel. I’ve been there. That sucks for you. I’m here if you need me.”

How do you feel when you meet someone who GETS you and will never judge you for who you are?

How do you feel when you meet someone who finishes your sentences, seems to know exactly what you’re thinking, and feels just like you do?

This is how your potential clients should feel. It’s not a manipulation or a sales tactic. It’s an earnest attempt to really understand the thoughts that keep them up at night—or the dreams that keep them going.

What’s the conversation going on inside your ideal client’s head? Are you talking to her about things that matter? Are you holding what she really cares about in your heart?

With so much love,
Juju

P.S. If this kind of messaging is something you long to create, meet me and 50 PrimeTime women business owners in San Diego for an incredible immersion branding experience: THE PRIMETIME ESSENCE EXPERIENCE. Brand your heart and soul. When you’re finished, you’ll be able to speak directly from your heart and soul to the conversations happening inside your ideal clients’ minds. But don’t delay. There are only 50 spots. And they’re going fast.

Twenty-one years ago today, I walked into my c-suite office to find an incredibly handsome German man with beautiful long blonde hair and an amazing suntan, dressed to the nines in a Hugo Boss suit, sitting at my desk. I’d just come off a horrible bout with depression. One that had kept me out of work for nearly thirty days—following a divorce that had left me shattered. It was a time in my life when my confidence was shaky, at best.

But this guy in the chair? He woke me right up.

I was absolutely love-struck. It remains the most game-changing day of my life.

What happened next was also game-changing… but in a different kind of way.

Over the next couple of months, while in hot pursuit of the man of my dreams, I threw caution to the wind. Specifically, the caution around my rather stuffy employer’s human resources policies. More specifically… the policies around the executives gettin’ jiggy with the employees.

And before I knew it, I was up a new boyfriend, and down a six-figure job.

For the folks in my little corner of the financial industry who liked to talk trash, it was an absolute scandal. And for me, coming off of a divorce and some very dark days, it was nothing short of brutal. So much so that I left the industry completely… and laid low for a time. And my absence left LOTS of empty space for those trash-talking folks to fill in the blanks with rumors. (Some of which, I heard, were nothing short of outrageous.)

During my time out of sight, I was considering what it felt like to NOT be a corporate executive. (I LOVED it.) To try my hand at consulting work. (I LOVED it.) And to marry Jan–the man of my dreams in the Hugo Boss suit–and have his baby. (I LOVED it.)

And when the time felt right, I decided to open my own branding agency: The Hook.

As I began to plot my launch campaign, Jan looked me in the eye and said out loud what I knew to be true, but was loath to admit:

“Juju, you’re going to have to go pitch all of those marketing execs from the financial industry. They’re your best bet for new clients. They know you personally. They know what you’re capable of. You have to walk right into their offices, with your head held high, and tell them how glad you are that you left corporate America, how on fire you are now, and why they should hire your new firm.”

And as the memories of those dark days came flooding back, the relentlessly critical voice inside my head reminded me of why I’d chosen to lay low in the first place:

Juju, people are judging you. They’re talking about you. They will laugh if you pitch them. They will laugh if you fail. You’re not good enough for this. You should just pack it in…

But as I honed my messages and prepared my packages for delivery, something started to shift inside me. With Jan in one ear telling me how amazing I was (he was always my #1 fan) and my mentor in the other telling me I’d be foolish not to shoot the gun, I started to want the visibility more than I wanted to hide.

I started to practice what it would feel like to be seen by the very people I assumed were talking smack about me.

I stepped right through the fear and panic I had around being rejected and laughed at, into an entirely new understanding: that branding was my true purpose in the world… and that my new clients would be LUCKY to have me in their corners, fighting with all my heart for their success.

With the voice in my head screaming at me to stop, I forged ahead.

And I pitched like a mofo.

I chose 50 executives. Half of them “knew me when.” The other half were seriously big fish—the kinda folks you put on your vision board. I sent themed baskets to each and every one of them to announce my new website and the launch of my new agency—and to give them a very clear, very specific message:

Sometimes, all you need is the right Hook.

Can you guess what happened?

Every single one of them took my call.

Every. Single. One.

I quit worrying about what folks were saying about me. And started focusing on how I could serve them.

And from those first 50 pitches, I got my first five clients.

What I learned through this process—and I’ve seen time and time again with my coaching clients—is that it’s one thing to create a great brand with a tight message, a well-defined audience, and a clear call to action.

It’s another thing to have the nerve to GO BIG. The willingness to risk the rejection on a new scale. The confidence to believe that you’re worth it all and that the clients you’re DYING to serve would be LUCKY to have you in their corner.

The courage to listen to the still small voice inside, rather than the nasty one that lives rent-free in your head, is a requirement for next-level success.

Branding, my friend, is an act of bravery.

If you’re looking for a shot of courage—a dose of exactly the mindset it takes to PROMOTE yourself to the very people who you’re worried might judge or reject you—then meet me in San Diego at my first ever live event.

THE PRIMETIME ESSENCE EXPERIENCE

BRAND YOUR HEART AND SOUL

Meet me–and 50 remarkable PrimeTime women—for three days of mindset, messaging, and platform building. Three days of discovery, adventure, and fun in the sun. Three days that will change your mind about everything related to what you offer, why the world needs it, and exactly what you should say to people when you sell it.

There’s never been an immersion branding experience quite like this one. There may never be one again.

There are exactly 50 seats. And they’re going fast.

Whatever you’re afraid of, you can conquer it with heart.

It’s been 21 years since the day I chose to follow my heart. I’m still madly in love with Jan. That baby turned 18 last week. And I still work–every single day–on the mindset required for a brand to GO BIG.

I see you.

– Juju

P.S. The PrimeTime Essence Experience is a one-of-a-kind, 3-day, immersion branding experience for women entrepreneurs who want to increase their level of visibility, income, influence, or impact. It’s on the bay in sunny San Diego, and it’s gonna be absolutely LIT.

The first time I had a webinar, I asked my nephew and one of my closest friends to come over to the house to “man the phones” during the Q&A. It was a sunny November afternoon in San Diego, and I was ON fire.

I got a meat-and-cheese platter and some salted nuts. For after. When we’d be tired and excited about the results.

I knew what the results would be, of course, because I’d done all the things:

I’d taken two online courses in webinars—one from Amy Porterfield, one from Russell Brunson. I’d learned how to “Launch” from Jeff Walker and been through B-School. I’d had a sales page built and a professional slide deck. I. DID. ALL. THE. THINGS.

I don’t remember the event, itself. At all.

But I do remember what happened when it came time for people to ask questions, or buy, or call for clarification.
Nothing.
Nothing happened.
Crickets.
It was, quite literally, a non-event.

I know there’s no crying in business, but the next morning, I went ahead and did. My coach said not to take it personally—to course-correct and act. And after I got over myself, I did. I sent personal emails to people who’d shown interest during the run-up, and made connections in comments on social media, and set up calls with people who’d opened the sales emails…and before the cart closed five days later, I’d sold some courses and made some new friends.

It was very hard work. And nothing like the glossy photos of “solopreneurs” making money while they water-skied.

I did that webinar regularly for a year. I did it at least 40 times. Sometimes I slayed, and people responded. Other times I sucked, and people didn’t. One week I’d take myself to lunch because I’d discovered the Holy Grail. The next week I’d lie on the floor and stare at the ceiling, asking why. The only thing that remained consistent was the nasty voice in my head that told me everyone could do this…but me.

And then one day I was at a mastermind group in Boise, in my “hot seat” on the stage. (If you’ve never been in a hot seat, you share something of value with the group, and then share a business issue you’re having to crowd-source advice from the group.) As you might guess, I was crowd-sourcing advice about the wildly irregular results of my consistently regular webinars.

And Russell Brunson said, “You should sell from stage.”

And as I let his suggestion wash over me, it felt totally right.

And so I did.

I got a speaking coach, I got some gigs, I wrote a talk and practiced my ass off, and I delivered it. I had a blast meeting incredible women, they loved the inspiration I provided. And at the end of every talk, I presented my programs. And in every single instance, women responded and asked to work with me. Enthusiastically and consistently.

I cried exactly zero times.

You see, the stage was a platform that worked for me. I needed to SEE the women. To watch their eyes to know if what I was saying was meaningful for them. To feel their energy and hear their laughs and be there with them as they realized things. I needed a crowd.

I could never get that on webinar. No matter how hard I tried.

I learned a valuable lesson that day: your platform strategy should be determined by your strengths. Not by what the “industry” tells you is the next great tactic or sales tool.

My platform is relatively limited. I speak from stage, I send emails, I show up on Facebook, I have a couple blogs, and I do Instagram now and again. I LOVE those tactics, because they’re about sharing my words, my way. They light me up. They play to my strengths, and they work in service of my goals.

I even do webinars now and again. But I’m careful now to build in ways to feel the audience, to get their feedback, and to see them realize things.

So, what’s your platform look like? Are you slaying it? Consistently? And loving it?
Or do you feel pressured to be everywhere at once? Or everywhere the cool kids hang out?

Hit reply, and tell me why.

About three-and-a-half years ago, I walked away from a business it had taken me nearly fifteen years to build.

I was running a boutique branding agency—serving corporations in the financial and automotive sector. Neither of these were industries that set my soul on fire; in fact they rarely even sparked my interest.

But I was making money. And I’d achieved what so many women my age had set out to achieve: a business where I could work just a few hours each day and still earn a stellar income. I’d mastered the art of the “skate.”

I’d created for myself the opportunity to do only that work which I loved the most: strategy.

And so with each and every campaign, I worked with the client to extract the juiciest goodness—to get to the heart of the message that most clearly expressed their essence and was most relevant to the needs of their clients. And then I translated this message to a team of powerhouse creative talents, so they could translate it visually onto a page, a screen, a tradeshow booth, a new sales process, or anywhere else the client needed to walk the talk.

Something interesting happened when I got my way and delegated all of the tasks that hounded me or aggravated me…
When I elevated myself to one-trick pony…
When I found that free time I’d so desperately longed for.

The less I had to do… the less I did.

The slower my day became… the slower I became.

And as my challenges dwindled, so did I.

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