Evolving Myself and My Purpose Through Branding

As I have been going through this journey this last year and a half I have been hearing a word from many different sources.  That word is Branding.  It is a hot word in the direct sales community that wasn't there when I started.

So what is branding?  Branding is making you stand out from all of the other direct sales people in your company.  Its the reason that people go to you instead of someone else.  It is what draws people to you.  If you do your branding right people will remember you instead of someone else.  Its the difference between A & W Root Beer and Generic versions.

Let me tell you something.  When I first started hearing this word, I ignored it.  I felt I didn't need to brand myself.  I was who I was and people could either take me or leave me.  Then I kept hearing about it.  When you are hearing about it  almost daily even hardheaded and stubborn people like me take notice.

Last night I realized something, between this blog my Plexus business and my Fundanoodle business I have a unique set of views, services and products.  Rather than looking at them as separate entities, it would be easier to think of each thing as a part of a whole.  This is where branding comes in.

I already have this blog, a twitter feed and a business page all with unique world mom in them.  That is part of my branding.  I have decided to build a website around this brand.  With this website I can direct people to any of the things that I am doing.

As I evolve my blog you will eventually find a wider variety of content as I include writings on health, early education, personal development, business development, book reviews and other subjects that feel important in my life.  Above all I am a wife and mother.  You may even find me writing on various challenges and triumphs that I deal with on a regular basis in that aspect as well.

Lifestyle blogging are new words I am trying out.  I want to appeal to an audience with varied interests.  As I learn and grow through this experience you will find my blogs and websites will continue to grow and evolve with me.

Overall you will find this blog going through another transitional phase and some growing pains.  Bear with me as it does.  Hopefully it will become more than I could have ever hoped for.  Isn't that what all us want for our creations?

My launch has happened so now what

Yesterday was a nerve racking but optimistic day.  I posted my Facebook Launch for my new business venture.  I had a few people participate last night, but the other 17 people have the rest of the week to hop on and check it out.  No orders or play dates scheduled yet, but I am optimistic.

Here is the thing.  I can't place all of my hopes on this launch event.  If I want to have success at this business venture, I need to find multiple avenues of generating business.

I need to be out there talking to people and finding the groups that would find benefit in the products that I sell.  Today on my list is to contact a company that deals with special needs home school students and public ed spectrum students who want more support.  If I can get in with this active group that will allow me a platform to get my products out there as well as the services I offer.

Here are my other plans.  I am working with a referral group and I need to follow up with my sponsor to get the name of the person who requested my company come to a couple of events she is hosting in August.  I need to work with the one person who had requested a possible play date and I need to post something on my event today.

All in all just because I have officially launched doesn't mean I get to sit back and wait for things to happen.  As my own business owner I need to continue to make efforts to reach out to people and find new ways to market and build my business.  Constant activity is what will lead me to sales and a team at this time next year.

Staying upbeat and focusing on what needs to happen daily is what will keep my mind off of any blips and glitches along the way.

Facing the unknown

Today is the launch of my new business venture.  I am experiencing a variety of emotions. Excitement for the beginning of a new journey.  Anxiety over doing something new.  Fear that this one will be no different in its path as any of my others.

I am a big picture kind of gal that gets lost in the details.  I know what my ultimate goal is,  I know what needs to happen to get there and I am willing to work to do those things that are necessary.

Here is where I get lost.  What I want to have happen  as I do my work and what actually happens are usually two different things.  Its hard for me to have fantasized about events going overwhelmingly successful then have them only go so so.  Its experiences like that, that have me sweating and sick to my stomach.  It is hard to have things happen much slower than I would like.

I try really hard to not play the what if game.  What ifs have a tendency to go to extremes.  What if I fail again to what if I am so successful that I am not up to the task?

I was on a conference call last night and they were talking about doing Facebook live and other marketing strategies.  Here I am going I just started, I am not ready for that.  That is okay.  We are never meant to walk, run, learn, do etc more than we are ready for.

The thought of having a successful business can cause as much anxiety as failing for me.  I have a lot of experience with things not going where I want them to go and little experience with things going right.  I know how to act if things do not go well, but what will I do if what I set myself up for happens?

What I do not want to do is begin to sabotage all of the work I have done over the years and begin to unknowingly do things that will ultimately end my journey prematurely.  What I do want is to focus on each event and activity as it comes.  I need to focus on what I am doing now and not on what might happen.

As I launch my business, I know that I have done all I could to have a successful launch.  If I continue to focus on the activity and not on the outcome then I do not activate my anxieties and fears.  Even if my launch does not go as planned I will have learned valuable information and will be able to focus on other ways of building my business.  I have more than one iron in the fire and with time things will all come together if I keep producing activity.  The right activity will lead to what I want when I am completely ready for it.  These are lessons I have come know over the years.  Now to apply them with confidence and I am ready for the next step.

Becoming a Lifelong Learner

I  graduated from high school almost 29 years ago.  I did a little community college, but didn't graduate.  When I graduated that didn't matter.  You were still able to start at the low end of the totem pole and work your way to management.  Today that is not as much the case.  What has changed is the world view of education.

I saw little value in a college education when I graduated from high school.  My classes were all advanced and college prep.  I was burned out and didn't understand why I needed to take more of the same classes I took in High School.  I loved my cultural exploration, psychology and elective classes, but I didn't see the value in continuing with additional English, Math and Science classes.  Part of it was that I didn't have an end goal in mind, but part of it was being required to learn what someone else thought I needed to know.

Don't get me wrong.  I understand the need to learn things required to function at the career you choose to undertake.  That makes sense to me.  I don't even have anything against learning in general.  I just didn't want to waste my time learning something that I found no value in.  I tried to take the basic English 101 at the community college level.  The problem was that our first assignment was to summarize an article we were given.  I read the article and wrote a summary and was promptly told that was not what the teacher wanted.  The teacher wanted the main idea sentence.  Then why didn't the teacher ask for that?  I dropped the class and then I ended up dropping school.

If I wanted to go back out to the work world, that lack of a piece of paper that stated that I had a college education would stop me from getting a decent waged job.  In fact two of the jobs that I had previously, now require college degrees to do them.

Somewhere along the way the world at large forgot that there are more ways to become educated than going to college.  Now more than ever we have access to any information we want at our fingertips.  We can search the internet for articles, watch YouTube videos or if we wanted to go old school we could read a book on any subject we want either electronically or through printed media.  Knowledge is everywhere and yet it is only the knowledge in accredited institutions that seem to have value anymore.

I don't profess to be an expert at anything, but I have learned a little bit about a lot of different subjects.  I keep myself informed of what is going on in the world around me and if I find something of interest I look for more information.  When I need information for something I am trying to accomplish, I seek it out.  I have taken free online courses just because I enjoy the subject matter.  I have read countless books and articles.  I have talked to others who have done what I am trying to do.

Education isn't about getting a piece of paper so that you can get a job.  Education is about knowledge.  It doesn't matter how you obtain that knowledge.  It has been said that knowledge is power, but others have said its specialized knowledge applied appropriately that has the real power.  I seek after knowledge not because someone else has said I need it, but because I want it and that is what becoming a lifelong learner is all about.

Priorities and Branding

I have dabbled in Direct Marketing off an on for the last 28 years.  I have learned something from each company that I worked with.  Last month I joined a new company.  As I have begun to establish this new business I have realized something.  Even though I wanted to have the success and big income, I never treated any of my other companies like a business.

What do you mean I never treated the other companies like a business?  Well I never took the attitude that what I was doing was a business.  If I was able to make sales great.  Yes I talked to people and did a lot of activity trying to get each business off the ground.  I understood how each company worked and learned a lot about direct sales.  I still never got into the business mindset.

This business has started out with an entirely different attitude and outlook.  When I signed up with my new company I saw the tremendous potential it had.  As a start up direct sales company I wasn't going to find a consultant doing what I was doing every time I turned around.  The type of products I sell are specific to an age group and developmental level so it already narrows down my customers from everyone to only those who are caregivers or work with children in that age level or developmental level.  There is still plenty of flexibility as I can sell to parents and care-givers, schools, daycares, pediatric occupational therapists etc.  I can do vendor fairs, in home demos, online events or business to business.

At first all this flexibility and potential was a bit overwhelming.  I knew that I eventually wanted a big business, but my sponsor and spouse both said take a step back.  Only go as fast as you are able.  I had to set some priorities and schedules.  First of all I had to sit down with my husband and talk about what kind of evening hours I would be able to work that would allow my priority to still be my family.  I promised that I would only do 3 evening meetings a week and 1 big event a month.  With the networking and mastermind groups that I do that meant that those evening networking meetings would have to take the place of any sales appointments I could have.  I also had to talk about what his activities were so that I could plan around his evening schedules as well.  This was a first for me.  Actually negotiating when I could work.  This was done because of the belief I held of the success of this venture.

The next thing that happened was I got an email late Saturday night with someone inquiring about joining our company.  I was so excited I was going to hop on the computer and respond right then.  My husband stopped me.  He told me that I needed to set office hours.  I couldn't work whenever the opportunity came up.  If I started answering emails when it was time for bed then it would be a continued expectation.  I realized the wisdom in this backed up and went to bed.  Waiting to answer the email until the next day.

As I continue to establish my business and my branding I have had to make some decisions on how I plan to conduct my business.  I have to narrow down who I will market to and where to place my energy.  As my time is limited because I am homeschooling I can't market to all the possibilities. I have to make some tough decisions.  For me that means the easiest for me to reach.  That means parents and caregivers, that means homeschoolers and that means special needs.  As much as I would like to reach out to the schools, daycares, and other professionals working with children, I just donot have the resources to do so at this time.  That is not to say that if I am given an opportunity that I did not seek out that I won't take advantage of it.

My priorities are shaping my branding and I am okay with that.  By taking my business seriously and narrowing my focus, I will have a much better outcome.  By setting office hours and the evenings I can work immediately I am shaping the attitude that I work my business.  I am planning on who I will market to.  I am planning on when I will be marketing and I am coming up with a plan on how I will market.

By branding, setting office hours, making a business and marketing plan I am going at this business with a different mindset.  I am keeping in mind my priorities and I am better able to see my potential instead of the company's potential.

Why I blog

This morning I woke up and did my usual morning routine.  I did one thing that I don't normally do and that is check my Facebook notifications and messenger notifications because I saw a Messenger icon on my phone when my alarm went off.  I did this before I exercised when I usually wait until later in the morning.  On my Facebook notifications my daughter commented on a titter post about my blog from yesterday.  Her comment was about how she was the one who suggested that I do a blog.

Originally I created this blog a few years ago as a way to vent my opinions.  My only outlet before had been my family and my teenagers were getting pretty fed up with listening to me.  My blog lasted a few months before I decided no one really wanted to hear my opinions and I quit.  The couple of years between then an now saw a lot of changes and topsy turvy living.

When I saw a call for blog submissions for a large site I followed I jumped right on and submitted a piece thinking it would never be accepted.  Not only was it accepted it was the first piece for a series of guest bloggers.  At that time I realized that maybe I did have something valuable to say and there were people out there who wanted to hear it.

I still write my blog to have a voice, but the kind of voice I choose to share has changed.  Instead of having a platform to showcase my opinions and daily experience, I decided to write posts to uplift and encourage others.  As I write each post sometimes the things I create are things that I have learned that might help other people.  Sometimes I write about things that I am in need of working on.  I know the steps to take, but I need to internalize them and begin doing them myself.

I am certainly no expert at anything that I write.  Most of my inspiration comes from books I read, trainings I go to, speakers I listen to and difficulties I am having.  I am just an average Jane trying to live an extraordinary life hoping that my journey will help others along the way.

Really, if you find yourself in the things that you read in my blog share it with others.  Not so I can go viral and become widely sought after, but in the hopes that my words can reach more people and touch those who need to hear the things I am trying to say.

When things seemingly all fall into place but then fall apart

How many of you have had the scenario where it seemed like a project you were working on was coming all together with barely any effort on your part?You get all excited because things are going so well and you are on top of the world because everything is going right.  Then it happens the glitches start happening one by one and it feels like everything is falling apart.  You go from feeling all is right with the world to your world is coming to an end.

The above situation happens all the time.  How you handle this will make all the difference.  Do you go into panic mode and let fear run the show or do go into troubleshooting mode where you let your brain run the show?  What's the difference?  When you are in panic mode you are reacting to what is happening.  Everything is running on emotion and even if you are able to get it done, your stress level is at an all time high.  Your adrenaline is running and you are reaching for the closest solution.  When you are in trouble shooting mode you are looking at the situation in a logical manner.  There still may be some stress and adrenaline but it is giving you energy to see the situation through.  In troubleshooting mode you are looking for the best solution not the closest or easiest solution.

Being in panic mode often prevents a person from accomplishing all that needs to be done because they are not able to see past the immediate need.  Being in troubleshooting mode allows a person to look at the overall picture while still reaching for the end goal instead of just addressing the immediate problem.


If you look at things with an attitude of its all falling apart we are doomed  you will probably be right.  If you look at things with an attitude of how can we find a solution that will get us where we need to be, you will likewise be able to find that solution.

Basically if you are able to face unexpected challenges head on, you will be better off in the end than if you just get upset and react to those challenges.