Justine Simard: Success, Personal Branding and Entrepreneurship Online.

Ups and downs are a fact of life. However, for small business owners and new entrepreneurs fighting for their place in the world of business (and in the heart of consumers), the downs can be long, hard and taxing.

Instant success and wealth is rarely the rule when it comes to starting a business online, and especially for those ‘idea people’ entirely new to sales, marketing and management, the road to victory (or to making any kind of sustainable income!) is often bumpy and full of obstacles.

But, one must carry on, get back up and keep moving forward. Thanks to the recurring hurdles and constant challenge, growth is inevitable and drives those willing to use it.

Here are 10 tips to beat the entrepreneur’s slump:

Confirm your goals and define milestones. This will help you define your path, reinforce your ‘why’ and meaningful goals, and appreciate your progressive achievement.
Get strong. Entrepreneurship will never be for the passive, faint-hearted and gutless. Work on developing a strong success mindset, so that you can always grow from your setbacks and keep moving forward. Develop a positive, courageous, productive attitude.
Mind your health. Always make time to keep fit, relax, and enjoy life.
Prevent overwhelm. Keep things organised and work with a manageable to-do list.
Seek advice and express yourself. Share your experiences with a mentor, coach, networking group, friend or family member. Why not go public and share it all on social media or your blog!
Express gratitude. Appreciate how far you’ve come, and how powerful you are at realising your greatest dreams! Be thankful for the amazing opportunities surrounding you (and don’t forget to grab a few!).
‘Just do it’. Sometimes waiting for the right emotion prevents action. While you take action and ‘just do’ what you have to do, the motivation and enthusiasm will follow.
Take a break. If it’s all too much, take a break. It’s often a great opportunity to recharge and gain new insight on your goals and projects.
Get empowered. Develop new skills and knowledge to get more productive, confident and competent.
Focus on the process, while trusting the outcome. Celebrate small successes often. Enjoy the ride. Find creative ways to inject more fun and passion in your work. Trust that, through consistent and inspired action, you WILL accomplish your goals.

Life’s up and downs provide windows of opportunity to determine your values and goals.
Think of using all obstacles as stepping stones to build the life you want.
~ Marsha Sinetar

Here’s to learning, growing, rising and achieving great things!

Justine

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People build personal brands around their own unique values, interests, expertise, skills and passions. Yet, most marketers often feel that there are 2 entities defining them… personally and professionally.

This has been one of my greatest challenges as a business owner and network marketer. I’ve grown professionally in corporate working environments where there were the ‘professional me’ (exposed) and the ‘real me’ (private). My ‘private me’ rarely made it to work. My ‘professional me’ helped me get my job done and advance my career. I felt awkward at work parties and felt a profound lack of connection with my colleagues.

When I became an online business owner, I instinctively used the same approach. While I was starting to build my personal brand via my blog and social media, I still reluctantly bared all. My first profile photos were those of a professional, bland woman… with hardly any passion in her eyes or personal style in her clothes! Needless to say to those who know me, it was a totally inaccurate image of myself. So, there was the boring, professional, ‘expert’ me… versus the passionate, slightly-geeky, impatient, optimistic, creative, nurturing, cheeky, anxious, stubborn, proud, generous, and ‘genuine me’ behind the curtains… and behind the brand.

While the founding elements of my business and brand were real to me, they were no where to be SEEN. While I acted with integrity and personal ethics in everything I did, without lying or faking, I still revealed so little of myself that the result was… well, little.

So what’s changed? How did I become ‘at one’ with my overt authentic personal brand? I had to beat (and continue to fight off!) the FEAR and other counter-productive thoughts about personal branding and authentic marketing. Some of these thoughts are:

- No one is interested in who you really are.

- Your ‘fake you’ offers more value than your ‘genuine, flawed you’.

- Your ‘professional you’ will sell more than your ‘real you’.

- Exposing your authentic self makes you vulnerable and weak.

- You don’t have anything unique or valuable to offer.

- You cannot lead from the front… there are too many people in front of you.

Ouch. Did that hurt? If you think or feel like this (as I did and still do at times) you’re not only hurting your feelings, you’re hurting your business and your brand.

In an online marketing world where people want to build relationships, gain trust and truly engage and connect with people, those self-limiting thoughts and fears create HUGE obstacles for personal brand and small business branding.

Here are some tips to show your real self through your personal brand, and bring harmony to you, yourself and your brand:

Accept that who you are is good for your business and brand.
Understand that what makes you unique makes you memorable and valuable.
Use your authentic self to build trust and relationship, and genuinely engage your audience.
Rather than faking it, flaunt your ‘best self’ and include your aspirations and vision in the definition of your personal brand.
Grow as an entrepreneur. Gain the knowledge and skills you need to become awesome at what you do and to become a leader.
Accept that you are HUMAN. Don’t hide your weaknesses like the plague… rather, find creative ways to use them to your advantage and constantly learn from your mistakes.
Share inspiring or significant moments in your life (personal or professional). Open up! What inspires you will inspire others. What moves you will move others. What changes you will change others. What empowers you will empower others.
Conquer the fear! Forget about being judged, being laughed at, or looking stupid. If some visitors don’t like who you are, they don’t belong in your market anyway! Use personal development to get empowered and appreciate yourself and your unique value!

What challenges have you experienced in defining your personal brand and promoting it?

Justine

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We all need to prioritise. We’re all given the same number of hours every day (rarely enough hours!) to complete various tasks. When running a business, a home, a family and a life, prioritising can become a complex task.

As an online business owner, work at home mum of 2 preschool-aged children, business partner, personal branding trainer and mentor, marketer, wife and friend, I know what it’s like to have a massive to-do list and feel like I don’t have enough time to do it all. So I’ve spent some time to establish practical rules for prioritising my tasks.

Here are the 3 EASY RULES to help you prioritise:

1. Prioritise TASKS, not categories.

I often hear or read people saying that their priority is their family, their business, or their health. These are massive categories, and hardly a guide for efficiency. If you prioritise your family OR your health OR your business, how will anything ever get done in your other activities and responsibilities?

The key is to prioritise SPECIFIC TASKS AND ACTIVITIES within your categories.

2. Prioritise with TIMESPANS AND DEADLINES.

Prioritising something for ‘this week’ simply doesn’t cut it. How long will it take you to complete your task? When does it need to be completed? When will you spend the time to get it done? Whether your priority is fitness training at the gym, taking your kids to the playground, or setting up a new social media marketing campaign for your online business, you need to know when, how and how long.

The key is to determine TIME FRAMES FOR YOUR SPECIFIC TASKS AND ACTIVITIES.

3. Prioritise your PLAN AND FOCUS.

Once you’ve set your specific priorities and time frames, you have a plan! What you must now do is follow it, and allocate your focus to those activities within those time frames. Multi-tasking, while sometimes a necessity, is always done to the detriment of the main task at hand. So when you need your focus, plan for it and commit it to your tasks and time frames.

The key is to FOLLOW YOUR PLAN AND COMMIT YOUR FOCUS TO TIME FRAMES FOR YOUR SPECIFIC TASKS AND ACTIVITIES.

Prioritising tasks for your health, family, relationships and online business should never be overwhelming. When applied with those simple rules and a little bit of planning and goal setting, all your tasks can be completed effectively, without the stress and overwhelm.

PS: My awesome business partner Juli Parker did some fantastic training on this, including training on goal setting, taking action , beating procrastination and effective habits!
Get it at www.SpunkeBusiness.com >> Training >> Mindset Training

How do you prioritise? Got hot tips? Share them here!

Justine

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Tweet It! I often see people who are not getting the results they feel they are entitled to in their online business. Despite commitment and hard work, they continue to spin their wheels using ineffective strategies, or using valid strategies ineffectively. But most importantly, they wonder WHY their results don’t match their efforts. Let’s think [Read More...]

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When some of our most important and meaningful goals demand great focus and commitment, we often sacrifice the thoughts and actions directed at other goals. This often gives us a sense that we will reach the goal earlier, and be able to focus on our other goals once this one is completed. Although this may work for short-term goals, it is rarely an effective strategy for our long-term vision.

From Inspiration To Vision (How to squeeze more out of your ideas).

You get a thought. You get a feeling. You’re inspired. You take action. Then what? How do you harness that inspiration into GREAT VISION? Many people use their creative thoughts for immediate ‘consumption’. They get an idea, apply it and turn the page. Some great things may come out of the process, however is this really all there is to the original insight? Is there more juice to be squeezed out?

Me, Myself and My Brand: How To Be At One With Your Personal Brand.

Can You Explain Your Results?

Personal Branding: Not Just A Marketing Strategy

Personal Brand Evolution: Room To Grow!

Katie Freiling Is Back with CashInOnYou! (Personal Branding)

What League Are You In? (Network Marketing)

A Holistic Approach to Realising Goals.

From Inspiration To Vision (How to squeeze more out of your ideas).