I got to speak to a group of 55 women entrepreneurs and business executives the other day about how to stop wasting time with social media marketing and start growing business with it. I didn’t expect to have an epiphany but I did.
The audience was a mixture of two different types of business owners: those who WANT to build business with social marketing but don’t know how to start; and those who have been using social media sites and blogging to raise brand awareness but haven’t gotten any new clients from time invested.
My two biggest concepts I wanted them to understand and embrace were these:
1. Social Media Marketing is really about building relationships.
2. Focus on relationship-building and don’t let technology trip you up or stop you from moving forward.
I see too many women entrepreneurs who are allowing technology to intimidate them or stop them from making their dreams come true. I drove home the point to them to get past the fear of the “techy stuff” and instead, use the tools of technology to actually build the life you’ve always dreamed of having.
A couple of the powerful tools I mentioned were Google+ Hangouts and Google+ Communities. I talked about harnessing the power of a Google+ Hangout and using it to communicate with friends and colleagues and potential clients. And I explained how you could start your own Google+ Community based on your subject matter and attract clients by helping them before they are clients. You can also start a community of like-minded people that support each other, share resources and advice and lift each other up the ladder of life.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear from several of the ladies afterward that they were going to start doing their own Google Hangouts and start their own communities on Google+, where the “noise” level is not nearly as high as in the crowded halls of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
As each person shared her action step with me, I become more and more excited to see they “got” my message: don’t let technology stop you from creating the life of your dreams. Use technology to HELP you build that life you envision.
My epiphany
One woman excitedly came up to me and began telling me she loved finding out about Google+ Hangouts and Google+ Communities and what SHE could do with them for her own tribe and her business. And that’s when it hit me: I can be a bridge to connect these women entrepreneurs to the tools of technology so they can build their dreams. In that moment, I became the person I’d always wanted to be: to empower others. Empowerment through education, enlightenment and efficiency of Internet marketing tools and technology.
Even though I’ve known for a long time that my purpose in life is to help others by empowering them, I did not fully embrace that until that moment.
I’ve hesitated too long. And I think there are others who feel the same way. You might be reading this right now. It’s time to act. It’s my time. It’s your time.
I’m seeing this happening more and more, both online and in person: women empowering the women around them. Like concentric circles. And their circles create more concentric circles and the ripple becomes a tide in an ocean full of entrepreneurial women, building a new world with digital media, their brains and an Internet connection to plug into the matrix of online matriarchs.
Don’t get me wrong: I love men. But until women earn as much per dollar as men do, and until women of color earn as much, as well, I will continue to do as much as I can to get rid of that “Ad Men” mentality left-over from the 50’s and 60’s.
My big question to you today is: Do you keep hearing that 2013 is the breakthrough year for you but a small part of you thinks “yeah, but how can I really shift my business into a profitable one when, half the time, I feel like I’m falling behind and overwhelmed?”
That’s how I felt last year and, really, when I look back, that’s how I’ve felt for the past few years. I kept planning my life, planning my goals, purchasing programs that promised to help me achieve my goals but nothing really clicked into place. And that led me into a winter hiatus of my eZine. I put my eZine on pause and actually stopped blogging for several weeks. I figured if I weren’t “walking my talk,” then who was I to advise my peeps?
But I’m back and hoping you’re still there with me because it’s time to break through and blossom into your true self!
My new website is coming, just as surely as springtime flowers are about to burst through the ground, despite any last-minute winter storms. And, so, too, are YOUR goals, dear friend. I’m not going to allow anything, (myself included) hold me back any longer from achieving my own goals.
Action is the key to the door that unlocks your future
I don’t have a magic wand that I could wave over you right now and instantly make YOU richer, happier and (fill in the blank with what else you’d like in life!) but I do have my brain and my laptop and Internet connection. All you have to do is simply read and apply some or all of the advice I share in my blog and eZine and you’re taking action. Action is the key to your door that unlocks your future. It makes your future start to happen!
Start with one action step. Just one and when you’re ready to take another step, go ahead. Just keep moving forward.
Want to know what it was that made ME shift? In a nutshell, I learned that I had to stop planning; I had to stop dreaming; and I had to stop wishing. Instead, I had to take action. Obviously, I was already taking action but there was a part of me that was holding myself back from being living my true purpose.
I was afraid I wasn’t really that important. But, like Marianne Williamson said:
“We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? … as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
So, that’s what I’m declaring I’m doing in my blog and eZine and videos and all the content I share: I am letting my light shine so that I may unconsciously give other women permission to do the same. I’m still going to share tips, strategy and advice on how to increase your online visibility with social media, SEO, good web design and other online marketing tips but I’m going to mix in my business advice and my spirit, too.
If this doesn’t sound like the type of content you’d like to read and soak up and empower yourself with and if you want to close this and move on, I totally understand. But I hope you’ll come along with me.
Sometimes all that planning can make you feel overwhelmed and stuck and afraid to move forward
I used to believe that, simply by affirming positive statements, wishing and dreaming for my future self and future life to appear, that then it would suddenly all appear. And I do believe in vision boards and writing down goals and creating action plans. But I realized that sometimes all that planning can make you feel overwhelmed and stuck and afraid to move forward because there was so much to do.
In the coming weeks and months of 2013, let’s really shift into high gear and build momentum together because…as Marianne Williamson declares:
Your playing small does not serve the world
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” – Marianne Williamson
