It's The Fifth and Final Day of the Brand with Purpose Challenge! You can find Day One of the challenge, here and Day Two of the challenge here, and Day Three of the challenge here and Day Four of the challenge here. Today, we're going to take everything we brainstormed and wrote down in the challenge workbook and use it to map out the month by month calendar for next year. I've asked you what you will make it a priority to create next year. If you've decided to write your book or launch your...

It's Day Four of the Brand with Purpose Challenge! You can find Day One of the challenge, here and Day Two of the challenge here, and Day Three of the challenge here. Today we're going to think through what we need to launch in the coming year to increase our revenue. What program or service is it time for you to launch? What is your existing audience begging you to bring forth? What have people asked for your help with this year? Does it make sense to create a course or strategy session...

It's Day Three of the Brand with Purpose  Challenge! You can find Day One of the challenge, here and Day Two of the challenge here. Today we're going to focus on what we need to promote in the coming year to increase our visibility. What vehicles are you using to promote yourself next year? What times of the year will you be reaching out to media? What conferences and events will you apply to speak? As you've heard me say before, your expertise is likely more relevant at some parts of the...

It's Day Two of the Brand with Purpose challenge! If you missed Day One of the challenge, listen to that episode here. Today we're going to focus on what we need to create in the coming year to optimize our personal brand platforms. What you are going to add to your platform? What can you evolve?  To give you some examples from my own brand platform, in 2016 I launched the first iteration of Package Your Genius Academy group program, and it has become an anchor program in my business. But in...

I’ve done some fun daily challenges on my podcast this year - in June and October I podcasted everyday of the month.   As we approach a new year and decade, I wanted to do another daily challenge, but I wanted to do it with you.  For this podcast challenge, I’ve carved out time for us to work together over 5 days to accomplish one big goal: map out our plan for 2020. Welcome to the 5 day Brand With Purpose Challenge! Eek!  I’m so excited! The mission of Brand with Purpose is simple: it’s a...

There is a simple mistake I see often with my personal branding clients, and those who are setting out to package their genius. I've even made this mistake myself. When it's time to finally get paid from our genius, we often start with the question "what can I sell?" instead of thinking in terms of what our potential customers need from us. While so many people start the brainstorming process here, there's a far more customer-centric way to begin brainstorming products and services that will...

During a series of enrollment call with potential students for my most recent cohort of Package Your Genius Academy, I heard a refrain I hear so often when speaking with people who are considering making the investment of time and financial resources.  "Maybe this can wait..." For reasons that differ for everyone, putting ourselves first is often the last thing we think to do. Putting our own needs and pursuit of our own personal fulfillment comes in dead last after immediate work...

This is a replay of my personal branding MasterClass Becoming KNOWN - The 5 Essential Shifts to Unlock Your Personal Brand Authority. When it comes to building your personal brand, at a certain point it becomes less about your skills and talents, and more about your comfort with putting them out there. If you've worked in your industry for a decade or more, you're likely skilled beyond question.  You need a new set of skills to shift how others perceive you. You need a new strategy to step...

When it comes to building your personal brand, at a certain point it becomes less about your skills and talents, and more about your comfort with putting them out there. If you've worked in your industry for a decade or more, you're likely skilled beyond question.  You need a new set of skills to shift how others perceive you. You need a new strategy to step into your worth, and communicate that confidently to others.  You need to step into your BRAND AUTHORITY. And this doesn't come...

Today marks the official end of my September podcast every day during the month challenge.  And can I tell you a secret? I failed...spectacularly! I missed six full days of the challenge, and since this is my second daily challenge for the year, I technically failed in comparison to the challenge I completed in June.  But even though I missed six days of the challenge, I still came out ahead in terms of listener engagement, downloads and growth as a podcast host. Score! Which made me think...

If you ever find yourself feeling too busy, too overwhelmed, or too burdened with to dos and it's standing in the way of you packaging your genius and making the impact you're meant to make on this world, you need to generate a surplus. And while it seems counterintuitive, much of that surplus can be connected to making more time (I know, I know -  you're already stretched thin) for yourself. But this is a personal experiment I've been conducting in my life, and the results have been...

We hear a lot about self care - how to get it, why we need more of it, and what does or doesn't constitute it. But lately I've been made aware of the residual effects and payoff of self care - how it benefits me long after I'm in the practice of doing or getting what I need.  And it makes everything related to my ideas, my planning, my long-term thinking crystal clear. If you struggle with overwhelm, anxiety, irritability and lack of focus, I highly recommend you thinking through the self...

I recently discovered a truth about myself I had been unable to see for years. I realized that I had been telling myself a story that simply wasn't true. While the story was rooted in my personal experience. I fail to take into account the fact that my situation has changed.I was holding on to a truth that matched a past version of me. Can you say the same? How many times have you decided who you are and what you can do based on who you've always been and what you've always done?  You can...

Even when we fail the first time, our dreams are worth fighting for. Package Your Genius Academy was a dream of mine that almost didn't happen. I failed launching the program the first time, but have since gone on to work with 7 cohorts - now enrolling my eighth. One of the things I often reflect on is what might have been lost if I hadn't gotten back up and tried again. When I think of the lives that have been impacted directly by the academy, and even more importantly, the people I'll never...

Believe it or not, I'm a hardcore introvert.  Networking events are my least favorite thing right after small talk. But I realized at some point that if I wanted my business to grow, I'd have to get in front of new people.  I needed a way to show strangers what I knew and what problems I solve if I ever wanted new clients to hire me. Enter the media. What other way can you get in front of thousands while only interacting with a handful of people to make the interview happen? But most...

From The Spruce.com: Not all plant seeds are ready to sprout as soon as you put them in the soil. Some hard-shelled seeds need a bit more coaxing and some need a temperature change to trigger the end of dormancy. Scarification (cracking the hard outer shell) and stratification (fooling seeds into thinking they've been through winter) are two simple techniques that will save you a lot of frustration when starting seeds. Stratification and scarification occur naturally when seeds stay outdoors...

When it comes to working the land - especially in the Southern region of the United States, this time of year is an exciting time because it marks the season of harvest. But it can be a potentially dangerous time for the farmers who aren't quick enough to get their year's work out of the ground. It's essentially a race against time to harvest before the winter rains when anything you've left out in the field will be rendered useless. Unpicked fruit will be left to rot. A fortuitous...

High achievers typically do such great work that they're often recruited for opportunities, courted by associates, even pursued by friends.  Instead of being the aggressor, it's not uncommon for them - despite all of their success - to find themselves in the passive role of waiting to be chosen. It's what they're used to after all. If this resonates with you, and you're not in the field you want to be in, on the career track you want to be in, or in a relationship that serves you because you...

Every living thing has its own set of base level requirements for survival.  Every living thing also has its own set of factors that would make it hard to grow. Last but not least, every living thing has certain factors that would take it to the next level and cause it to thrive, regenerate, multiply. The same is true for us. Each of us has our own set of must-haves, deal breakers and multipliers. A part of radical self discovery is paying attention to all three in order to get the clearest...

I was reflecting back on a few of my incredible clients and the reflection reminded me what it is I do that matters, and more importantly, WHY I do this work.   As I was thinking about the simplest way to describe what I do, I realized that at the core of my work I help people remember who they are -- even if you've never truly been able to articulate your understanding of yourself, or if you knew it very clearly at another point in your life but somehow drifted away from yourself and forgot,...

As you are on the road to package your genius, and you're a high achiever who is used to always being the best, I want you to remember: No matter where you place sometimes just finishing the race is a form of winning when you're doing something new.   *** If you know you have valuable gifts inside you, but you are unclear which race you're running and where's the lane for your gifts and talents, I welcome you to apply for the opportunity to get that clarity during our visibility academy where...

Sometimes limits are in our heads, telling us we can't go any further when we have just a little bit of gas left in the take. Other times limits are deeper, and our exhaustion is our body/mind/spirit's way of telling us we need to rest. But the beautiful thing about life is, for most things, we get another day to try again. If you had to put down a work project, take a day off from cooking dinner for the family, or skipped a workout - you can get back on track.  Don't beat yourself up if you...

My mom retired a few years ago, and in the time since, she's been living her best life. She had a goal to see all the states in the lower 48 of USA and as of today, she's officially done it.   She left for a road trip for her birthday early last week, headed with her bestie from Tennessee to New England.   When she initially told me about the trip, I remember catching myself getting wistful. "I sure wish I could take off for ten days at my own pace to see the sights," I thought to myself....

We've been talking a lot about purpose, but I want to change the conversation and switch gears back to visibility because it's one of the reasons you're here. In this two-part episode on op-ed writing, I share 5 questions to ask yourself to get closer to the op-ed you want to write. In part two, we'll talk to a journalist who will share how we can reach millions of people with our words.    

Do you remember your favorite teacher from when you were in school? Or a teacher who could make a subject you usually didn't like come alive? Or better yet, a teacher who could break down a subject in a way that could make you understand even when others couldn't?   And they may have been saying the exact same thing or reading from the exact same textbook as all the other teachers who taught that subject, but for whatever reason you could just hear it better from them?   Well someone out...