How to Create a New Website with Less Angst

March 2, 2010 By 1 Comment

It took about five months to design and launch the new The Brazen Soul website. I thought for SURE I could get it done way faster – after all, I am a workhorse, willing to keep at it hours upon hours until the thing gets DONE.

But that’s not how creative, collaborative project go. You can’t rush brilliance. And you certainly can’t convince everyone else involved in the project to take on your ridiculous workhorse ways.

Creative endeavors take t-i-m-e. Time. TIME.

And patience, which I’m constantly trying to cultivate but wondering if it’s just too far outside of my strengths.

That said, looking back I realize there are a number of things I could have done differently when creating The Brazen Soul website. I hope sharing them will make your next website project – or any creative collaboration – less anxiety-provoking and more streamlined.

Here are the five biggest takeaways I’ve had from my website redesign process:

  1. Direct communication with the Designer/Design team is critical. The Brazen Soul rebrand was really an offshoot of a plan to create a new website. I was working with a coach at the time and the further we got into the business details of a new website, the more clear it was that I really needed a whole new brand (actually, a new business name, too!). My coach was an excellent co-thinking partner and brilliant at helping me navigate the rebranding process. Handily, she had a design branch of her business that handled logos and websites. I like and trust my coach, so I hired her team on for this project. Turns out, her “team” was housed somewhere far far away, with a 9-hour time difference, and every single tweak or revision took from three to FIVE days. The process was excruciating. I did get a gorgeous logo out of the process, though it took something like 40 original concepts to get there (note: if you are anywhere past 5 or so original concepts, there is a serious communication problem/design skill situation.) The website creation process began to show the same patterns, so I bailed out of that arrangement relatively early. The lesson: Have direct communication with the creative team to ensure that your design wishes are heard and understood – as are deadlines and revision timeframes.
  2. Relationships make a big difference. I have a number friends who are designers. Most of them actually don’t like to work with solo entrepreneurs and small business owners. We are notoriously undecided and slim-budgeted, I hear. So, even if they would make an exception and work with me because we are friends, I didn’t want to be the one to affirm their preconceptions about entrepreneurs. The website developer I ended up hiring, Lynn, and I have worked on client projects together before as well as co-facilitated workshops and presentations together. She designed my previous website as well. As soon as I realized the error of my ways in my new website process, I called her. She hopped on my project immediately (with nary a sarcastic told-you-so comment, the lovely soul) and put me directly in touch with her favorite designer, Asha Hossain. Through lots of conversation with me, Asha (who is definitely working in the sweet spot of her strengths – she’s so good) designed a site I love. The difference in angst was night and day with these mutually respectful, collaborative relationships driving my website project. The lesson here: If you know that someone is really good and you have had great experiences working with them in the past, use them again. Don’t start anew with the unknown when the known is already great. (Jeez – this seems so obvious when I put it there like that. hmph.)
  3. A self-created wordpress blog can bridge the gap nicely. Designing and building a website takes a while, even when the whole team jumps on board immediately and everyone’s plates are empty enough to concentrate a lot on your project (which wasn’t entirely the process with mine, but damn close.) In my case, it didn’t make sense to use my old website since I had a very different new brand and business name. So, I took my amateur wordpress blog skill to the task. I went to www.wordpress.com (not www.wordpress.org, which requires your own hosting and a bit more technical skill) and chose a theme with a customizable header. After some frustration (required of most new technological ventures, in my experience) lasting a very short time, I had a temporary home for The Brazen Soul. It wasn’t fancy – but really, it worked beautifully. I made new connections every single day via that website – in all of it’s simplicity – and for me, that’s what it was all about – getting the new brand out there and creating meaningful relationships. The lesson here: Doing something now is way better than doing nothing and waiting for the perfect something (sometimes. In this case.)
  4. Let expertise drive the task while you joy ride in the backseat. Once the designer was on the task, it was all a lovely, awe-inspiring experience. We exchanged a bunch of emails about my business, the purpose of my website and details of my Brand Elan and Asha brought on her brilliance in design. Then the same process was repeated in functionality planning with Lynn of webprodigy.com. The more I let them bring the solutions and let go of controlling every detail, the more often I was happily surprised by their remarkable ideas and outcomes. The lesson here: Let go and your collaborators will bring exceptional brilliance from their strengths and Contribution.
  5. Pad the budget – time and money. Even with my workhorse ways and a ton of flexibility and commitment from my web team, the project took way longer than I hoped or planned. It just does. I changed my mind a few times. We had all these holidays in there like Christmas and New Years (annoying!). The copy wasn’t flowing as easily as I hoped it would when it came time for me to write some of the pages. We had all of those final itty bitty fixes that happen on any project of this kind. Of course, all of that mind-changing and great new ideas added design and development costs. I don’t regret a single one of those changes or additions in functionality – but I hadn’t planned for them either. The lesson here: Add at least 20% (I’m making that number up – but it’s about right for my project) to the time and budget for your web project so you have room to produce the most remarkable project possible.

I wish you great success on your website or other collaborative project. I beam happily every time I open up The Brazen Soul website so I know all of the time, energy and resources are worth it. Well, that and the fact that community is building beautifully through The Brazen Soul brand, just as I hoped. Let me know if I can be of service to you in any way as you venture into your project. I have a checklist for choosing a web team and a Website Planning Worksheet that walks you through the many planning details of creating a new website. I’d be happy to send them over to you if you send me an email with the request.

Thank you Martin Kingsley for the angsty guy image.

Filed Under: branding, design, launch, marketing, small business marketing, technology

What Is Your Expression Élan?

December 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

There is power in naming. It gives you a reference, a quick-check for behavior and other decisions.

We name lots of things: our feelings, our taste in furniture, our business focus. Yet, we rarely name our style of communicating. I don’t mean whether you are an introvert or extrovert – I mean the personality – the texture, energy… flair or angle of your language, tone, stories.

It’s too bad because, if you ask me, it is the magic missing piece in extraordinary business communication.

Your Expressionl Élan is what zings your business brand. It’s what makes someone smile unexpectedly when they come across your business name, or your latest blog post, or the title of the new service package you are offering. It’s the thing that keeps your potential client riveted to your marketing materials, in spite of being late for their next appointment to wherever.

On the surface, your Expression Élan is about style, yes. For those of you that are fans of the book by the same name (as I am), it’s similar to your Style Statement (but from the center of your soul, as opposed to the foundation of your style)- married to your distinct business style (watch for more on this in an upcoming post), with your verb (more on this in a later post, too) integrated. It’s also about values and unique strengths. It’s about the action you take, most of the time, whether you are working, playing or planning. It is the sum total of your personal flair, passion and Contribution style.

It sounds so exotic – and, it can be, if that’s your style. It can also be edgy, playful, artsy, intellectual… it can be any kind of descriptor that comes to your mind. Yet yours is already in existence. You simply need to reveal it.

To begin the process of revealing your own Expression Élan, consider these questions/prompts:

What rocks your world?

You are craving something intensely… what is it? What will you do about it?

You are feeling peaceful. Tell me about your surroundings…

Is your business more like a river or a valley? Wind or rain?

I want this adventure…

If you could will everyone in your community to take one basic action, what would it be?


Notice any themes showing up in your answers? These themes are windows into your Expression Élan.

There are three elements to your Expression Élan: Soul (at the center of you), Personality (the energy of your communication style) and Verb (what are you always trying to do?)

Here are some Expression Élan examples:

Transdendent Spunk Reveal (that’s mine!)

Generative Sparkle Soothe

Organic Artsy Play

So, what is your Expression Élan? I’ll give you more ways of revealing it over the next few weeks. Once you name it, then apply it to your branding and business communication, your marketing will take a full skyscraper leap in magnetism.

Filed Under: branding, design, entrepeneurialism, messaging, small business marketing

Naming Your Business

November 18, 2009 By 3 Comments

Naming your BusinessI found the process of naming my business excruciatingly difficult. And it’s not even the first time I have named a business. I named Eloquence Communication, though the process was hasty and ultimately I learned that was an ill-fitting name. I had a massage business many years ago which I struggled a bit to name (I named it Passages Bodywork) but it wasn’t at all “excruciatingly difficult.” I got most of the way through starting up an online retail store back in 1996 and the name came quite easily to me, Romantic Interludes (no, it wasn’t that kind of store, not exactly anyway – emphasis on the romantic.) I have helped clients with their business names – and helped create many taglines, too. I’ve even co-named three babies, quite successfully if I might say so.  So, it would stand to reason that naming would come easily to me. I’ve had some practice.

Well, it didn’t. Naming The Brazen Soul was the most angsty task I have had so far in my business.

I think there are a few reasons for this and I’m hoping that sharing them will help you in your process of naming your business – or anything really important to you, really.

  1. I’m an extreme perfectionist. This is not helpful. It is a hindrance and it gets in the way of many things. It’s why I don’t blog enough and why I avoid fashion (more on both of these in future posts, which I plan to do more regularly and less perfect.) I get overwhelmed with details and want to make no errors and it paralyzes me. I’m working on this, but it was in high state during the business naming process for me.
  2. I was afraid of what other people I respect would think. I love the word “brazen” – it totally captures the entrepreneurial life for me, and it’s unusual enough to really make an impact. One of my favorite bloggers (actually my very favorite blogger at the moment) is Penelope Trunk. She wrote the book Brazen Careerist and now has a company by the same name. I was simply afraid that it would annoy Penelope Trunk that I used “Brazen” in my business name. This is silly, of course, because Penelope doesn’t know me at all, doesn’t even know I exist, I’m quite sure. And even if she did, we have totally different markets and we do different things – she does career stuff for generation Y and I do entrepreneurial stuff, mostly with generation X people (with some of the leading edge of generation Y mixed in there.) And anyway, it’s just one word and words can be shared in abundance. I’m sharing this possibly ridiculous-sounding struggle with you because maybe you have some kind of thought process going on in your mind – some story you have been telling yourself that is getting in your way – that you can obliterate by taking a different lens into it. For me it was about answering the question, is this story I am telling about the word “brazen” really true? (Okay, it was also about having my business coach at the time laugh out loud at my concerns.) But the fact is, the story simply isn’t true. It’s just a story I created based on fear. It does matter what other people think – you want your target market to think, “hey, cool, that’s me!” – but the “afraid of what others would think” is a good indicator that you need a story-check.
  3. I was afraid of being wrong. Now, this sounds like it fits into both one and two – and it also sounds like I am one big giant scaredy cat. Let’s address both of those issues. First, while I am a perfectionist, I am not always this afraid of being wrong. There are a few of you reading this who are smiling knowing that I can sometimes get a bit caught in knowing I’m right, actually. (You are smiling, aren’t you?) But I lost confidence after realizing how “off” I was with the last business name I chose and the process of rebranding is expensive and time-consuming, so I really really didn’t want to be wrong again. I also knew I wanted a business name that was powerful, exciting and a bit unexpected, which is riskier. So, being wrong felt even more possible. And this takes us to the sort-of overlap with point number two, being one big scaredy cat. I got some negative feedback from people I really respect about the The Brazen Soul business name – some really direct and some more subtle, like “what’s wrong with your current business name?” – and I took that as a sign that I might have picked the wrong business name. Thank goodness, again, for my business/marketing coach who gently yet firmly reminded me that I had researched my market, that I loved this new name and that many of my real clients had enthusiastically affirmed their resonance with this new name.
  4. And finally, but I think most hugely importantly (yep – HUGELY IMPORTANTLY, I’m yelling here…), I had not completely described to myself my target market. I mean, described like “It’s Saturday morning, where are they going/what are they doing…” and “What books are on their bookshelf?” I had done some general analysis and description around ages, socio-economic status, gender… the basics. But until you know the intricacies of your target markets lives (in all of its variation as well as similarity), you can’t confidently call out to them and know they will recognize your call. This is tricky for those of us who avoid stereotyping. We know that people are individuals and should be seen and recognized as such. How can I guess what a whole market of people would do on Saturday morning? I hear you on this – I identify with the struggle. And yet, you can – to a useful degree. And I’ll write more about that later because it’s too long for this post. My point simply is this: in order to name your business powerfully, you must know in intimate detail the desires, pain, nuances and language of your target market. Then get it on paper and marry it. Your business name will arrive like the first child of your union (labor included, of course.)

I finally did name my business, as you can see, and I am quite pleased with the result. I love the juxtaposition of Brazen and Soul. The name totally describes the clients I have helped most powerfully, the ones who are most thrilled with our work together: passionate, driven, powerful, soul-inspired, courageous, edge-pushing.

As I look back on the naming struggle, I really get it where my opportunities for growth are for my next difficult naming process. I also know that when my next business naming client comes along I will so know how to facilitate their process even more powerfully than before. (Hooray for personal and professional growth!)

And since blog posts aren’t supposed to have this many “I” statements, let me switch around those four learnings into suggestions for your use.

The next time you are struggling to name a business, product, concept, idea… whatever, try this:

  1. Let go of perfection. It’s your enemy.
  2. Check your story. It may simply not be true – or most certainly it is not the only truth. Search for other truths that serve you better.
  3. Trust yourself. Do your homework, then trust your expertise, process, intuition.
  4. Study the hell out of your very best clients – or your dream client.

I have never been so jazzed about my work. I love my new business name and the benefits are already kicking in. My ideas are flowing more freely and to my great thrill, clients are coming more freely, too! Even now, even near the holidays, even in “this economy.”

Go courageously into your naming process. Allow yourself to choose a name that you love, that feels great to you as well as calls out to your market. And please, share your stories about the process with me. I’d love to know what things worked for you, what you learned – and see what names you came up with as a result.

Thank you, Randi Son of Robert, for this image.

Filed Under: branding, business planning, entrepeneurialism, launch, small business marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Movin' On – Brazen Style

November 13, 2009 By 1 Comment

motorcycle iboy daniel on flickrThe time has come to finally leap squarely – brazenly – into my new brand! I am so excited to finally be implementing in my own business the very thing I work so hard to create for my clients: a powerful brand that reflects my passion and soul.

Side Door Branding

One could ask themselves how I could have had a brand that did not do this from the beginning. After all, this is precisely what I get paid to do with others!

My only answer is this: I was afraid and I lacked clarity. (Gasp!)  When I finally officially started this business about two years ago after many years of doing pieces and parts of this work in various forms – and after dreaming all along about creating a business just like this – I came in the side door. I thought I would do this “part-time” while teaching at the college and taking care of our very young daughters. I rushed through the branding process, thinking that the services I offered were the really important element of my business. I knew branding mattered and I invested in quality design and marketing materials accordingly, but I just didn’t know how much the actual look and feel of the brand would matter, for my business building – and equally importantly, to ME.

It’s NOT About Eloquence

Slowly, comments from others as well as my own feelings of incongruity began to emerge. “Your brand is so beautiful!” they’d say, and while I loved hearing that they were noticing my brand in a positive way, it just didn’t sound right to me. I like beauty at least as much as the next person, but what I really believe in is powerful, authentic, soul-revealing communication used in business to attract your best clients. It just wasn’t quite getting there with the “beautiful” thing. Then people began referring to me as “the eloquent speaker” and making other very complimentary remarks about my eloquence – but all comments about their own communication were decidedly NOT about being eloquent. “I don’t want Eloquence per se, I just want it to sound really good so people want to buy my stuff.” Um, light bulb moment! My clients aren’t looking for eloquence. In fact, that feels lofty and too fancy.

It’s About Powerful Soulful Business

So, what are my clients looking for? They are looking for a successful business built around their passion and strengths. They want self-expression inside of their business so that they are making the most powerful Contribution in the world that is possible for them. They want to be fully themselves inside of their businesses and mix that style with the language and offering that truly magnetizes their clients and customers to their door. This is a courageous way to do business, this soul-bearing approach. It takes bold, audacious risk – and has huge payoff in satisfaction and financial reward, if you really hone in on your true market.

This is only possible if you are a Brazen Soul.

And thus, here we go… Join me at my new (temporary) web home and let’s carry on our conversation over there, where the place is currently being decorated much more to our tastes, yours and mine.

Image thanks to iboy daniel on flickr.

Filed Under: authenticity, branding, branding clarity, business planning, re-branding, small business marketing, style Tagged With: , , ,

Three Essential Brand Message Questions

October 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I recently did a very short talk at The Network of Entrepreneurial Women monthly meeting on ways to power up your Essential Brand Message. I only had five minutes (yes – ANOTHER five minute talk opportunity/stressor) to bring real value to this group. So many people sought me out to tell me how much the appreciated the three tips I shared that I decided to share them with you all, too. Maybe you’ll also find them handy.

Here’s the audio, in case you prefer to listen to my five minute talk instead of read this post.

Your Brand Message is THE most essential part of your marketing program. It is even more essential than your logo (gasp! How can that be?!) because it DRIVES your whole logo creation process, as well as all other marketing efforts. Unfortunately, the actual brand message is often overlooked by small businesses who don’t have a marketing team to handle that process. Not so for you now! Here is your Quick Guide to building a great brand message, broken down into two parts: Dig Deep and Say It.

I’m always talking about digging deep. That’s because a soulful inquiry brings about the most powerful message. You simply can’t get to really powerful messaging without a deep inquiry (the intensity can vary, depending on your “deep digging” prowess.)

Digging Deep involves three essential questions: 1. What do you stand for?, 2. What do you solve? and 3. What is your brilliance? If you can answer all three of those questions in your brand message (the internal version and your external version), you will absolutely magnetize your target market.

Let’s explore them a bit.

1. What do you stand for?

Are you committed to leaving a minimal carbon footprint? How can you show this commitment in your messaging and business decisions? Are you all about family? How can you make it easier for me to bring my kids into your restaurant – and infuse that value into your marketing messages?

2. What do you solve?

Your customers don’t care nearly as much about what you do as they do about how you make their life better. It’s simply true (and as a consumer, that’s true for you, too, I am certain) and you’ll craft a way better message if you focus on telling them directly how their life will improve by doing business with you.

A local printer business where I live has the tagline, “Anger management for printers”. Brilliant.

3. What is your brilliance?

I am positive that you have excellent customer service and a high quality product. I am so sure of this that you can leave those phrases out of your marketing materials altogether. Use that freed up messaging space to tell me what makes you distinctive from all the other [fill in your business/title here] out there. If you are the home staging professional who knows how to use Feng Shui principles to improve home sales, make sure you let us know that!

Once you articulate to yourself what you stand for, what you solve and state your specific brilliance, craft yourself a very clear message. At this point, think of this as “for internal business use only” brand message. Use this message as a reference for everything you do in your  marketing planning. Then, once you have it refined by using that message in planning, craft yourself a clever brand message made for your target market (much to say about defining your target market – for another post) letting them know the answer to these questions.

“We are your neighborhood grocery store.” (Trader Joe’s)

“Injury recovery treatment as part of your health care team” (Professional Massage Therapy)

“Creating positive change in people’s lives through simple shifts in their space.” (Eco-Deco Designs)

Right now, buyers want to know they are getting two high-level things from the companies they support: Value and Values. Don’t make them have to think too hard to see those things in your business. When I go to Trader Joe’s, I am hit over the head every time with their Value and Values. I get good food – often gourmet food – at really good prices (Value.) Plus, my daughters get stickers, balloons, little tiny super-cute shopping carts and a kid-size bench for coloring pictures while I stand in line (Clearly, TJ’s Values a family shopping experience – and boy, so do I!)

How can you revise your brand message to reflect your Value and Values more powerfully?

Filed Under: branding, branding clarity, business planning, marketing, re-branding, small business marketing Tagged With: , ,
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