Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

Several years ago I realized that there was a big flaw in my business model.  The FLAWED part of my model is that, after years of serving as a career coach for women, I realized that my business is simply too limited in focus and too narrow in terms of the types of products and services I offered, to be financially successful at the level I wanted it to be.

My narrow service niche (career coaching for women) — which I deliberately and intentionally designed — has turned out to be too confining and limiting for me.  Career coaching alone isn’t tapping into all the many marketing, business development, communications, and strategic planning skills, talents and experience that I’ve earned in my 20 years in the corporate arena.

I had chucked out the idea of using those marketing and business development skills (or, more accurately, before now it hadn’t even occurred to me to utilize these skills as a consultant) because much of my corporate experience had been so emotionally unsatisfying for me that I threw the baby out with the bathwater!  But doing so meant I was stopping myself from serving thousands more women whom I truly want to support, in ways I’m uniquely capable.

As a result, the financial and emotional success results of my business were limited for me as well.

Below are several core nuggets of learning from these past 10 years of shaping my new professional life and business: Read the rest of this entry »

Last night 43 women and 1 man gathered at the Trumbull Kitchen  in downtown Hartford CT to discuss the topic of personal branding – what is it, why is it important and how to develop and leverage yours.

The event was hosted by an amazing woman by the name of Tricia Brunton who founded The Females’ Center of Excellence and Leadership, Inc. (Xcel) in 2002 when she was a student at Northeastern University. A full time employee for Hamilton Sunstrand (a UTC company) with an expertise in all things financial, Tricia makes time to operate this non-profit organization to help women and girls grow, develop and excel in their career and lives.

Tricia is particularly passionate about mentoring. She has a Mentoring Program that unites female professionals and students based on any career and educational path. The aim of the Mentoring Program is to provide female students (mentees) with support that will assist them to achieve their educational and professional goals. Mentors also have an opportunity to get involved in the community and mold the leaders of tomorrow.

Tricia had invited me and image consultant Mallory Mason to be the panelists and to provide our insights and professional advice on personal branding. Mallory and I had worked together professionally on a new venture called Power Up Your Professional Image – an event based company that helps career-minded women get a stronger edge in the workplace and marketplace by polishing their image and confidence and building their skills and network.

Some of the questions that Tricia asked us included:

1. What is a personal brand and how to you create one?
2. What is the best way to identify your personal brand?
3. How do you define yourself to a potential employer or client?
4. As an employee, should I represent myself or my company?
5. how do I share my personal story without being too personal?
6. What is the best way to personify my ideals/values?
7. Does my dream job help with defining my personal brand?

What ensued was 60-minutes of lively interaction with the audience on the topic of personal branding and other aspects of career and image management. Below are some of the golden nuggets of wisdom and advice on the topic:

8 Great Ideas to Help Develop Your Personal Brand Read the rest of this entry »

Today is the fifth anniversary of my business formation as Kmc Brand Innovation, LLC.  As I reflect upon these past five years,  I feel compelled to share some of my lessons learned with you, my fellow motivated business leaders.

Truth be told, my business was born out of necessity. I was in-between jobs and found myself in a precarious position. No company would hire me (at least not in my time frame or on my terms).

What a gift this turned out to be!

A networking friend, Alan D. Weber (a marketing professional who retrained himself and is now qualified as a certified financial planner with Merrill Lynch) gave me a good piece of advice. He suggested that I start consulting as a way to “keep the pencil sharp.” He also said I would be able to answer the question “What have you been doing with your time?” with a respectable answer “Oh, I’ve been consulting with various clients during my job search.”

After my first consulting engagement, I quickly fell in love with the freedom, the challenge and the idea of paving my own way in the world of work. Finding my first client was easy. I met Optometrist Dr. Leora Berns of Avon Eye Care at a Soroptimist meeting. She was looking for a marketing consultant to help her grow her medical practice. I was looking for my first client. It was a match made in Heaven. (Incidentally, it was feedback from Dr. Berns that led me to discovering my brand, Marketing Motivator. )

Perhaps I was blessed with beginner’s luck, but the entrepreneurial reality set in as I struggled to land my second and third clients. My misguided marketing pitch “I can do anything for anybody, because I’ve done all kinds of marketing in my 22 year corporate marketing career” resulted in no bites. I have since learned that if you attempt to be all things to all people, you will effectively be nothing to nobody.

The key to entrepreneurial success is to focus and specialize. Read the rest of this entry »

I run into a lot people who are reluctant to dive into the inner workings of technology-driven marketing tools, including social media sites, blogging or even running their own web sites.

The excuses run the gamut from:

• “I don’t have the time.“
• “That’s a waste of my time.“
• “I don’t want to get that involved.“
• “I don’t like the computer that much.”
• “I hate the computer.”
  

If that sounds like something you’ve said recently, I have news for you…

Technology is not going away. It can help save you time and money and give you a competitive advantage in the marketplace and in the job market.

For the past year, I have spent every Friday morning on the phone with my “technology coach” – Robert Bronson of Best Web Presence.

Rob has taught me how to build my own web sites (all 5 of them in fact), how to produce, edit and upload my own video content, how to create digital downloads of my content and sell it on the Internet to produce revenue for my business. Nice.

Truth be told, when I first started to work with Rob, I went “kicking and screaming.” I didn’t want to learn this technology stuff, but I just had to learn it.

Fast forward one year later, my weekly coaching sessions with Rob are something I look forward to. The thrill of learning new things and being able to do the “technology things” for myself is just awesome.

If you need to tackle your own technology monster, I recommend that you reach out to Rob and claim your complimentary coaching session.

You may just find that the imaginary technology monster is just a misunderstood warm fuzzy.