It’s time for my 5th annual Visionary Leaders Summer Storytelling Series!
Storytelling has always been a passion of mine being a writer and journalist. When I teach authentic purposeful personal branding to my clients, the core of their brand story is composed from a compelling platform of struggle to victory (Hero’s journey). It’s designed to inspire and emotionally connect you to the brand. The story style becomes an inspirational experience, not necessarily an expose of their life
The brand story is purposeful and vulnerable. It creates connection. We see this everywhere on social media. All those finely crafted transparent stories allow us to relate to the person.
My celebration of 25 years as a creative entrepreneur is no different. Over the next month I will be sharing behind the scenes client success stories (my brilliant visionary entrepreneurs) as well as glimpses into my entrepreneurial journey from a young college graduate in 1983 who was afraid to be paid to write using my PR Journalism degree to living a dynamic, creative 22-year career as an entertainment publicist for celebrities, visual, and performing artists. That was followed by bringing my gig home in mid-stream to launch my own PR company in 1996 so I could raise my son.
That was a deliberate intention I promised myself in early 1990s when he was born. I was committed to being home for my son during his childhood. It proved to be the right decision given his robust, successful life he now lives at 30 years old. (Very proud of my guy)
That journey evolved in 2006 when I had a divine urge and direction (intuition) to evolve leaving behind my long-standing PR career because I wanted to impact more lives from a more meaningful place.
At the same time, my PR industry and the world were changing radically due to this thing called social media and online marketing. We all were learning how to translate our lives to a digital online format. Social media was the new PR then, and I had to innovate and reinvent me.
Through a year of discovery, I was led to coaching personal branding, social media, and how to monetize Facebook for entrepreneurs in 2008-2012. I invested year after year in my business by hiring stellar coaches to help me build this new online business model and how to coach my PR and personal branding expertise to entrepreneurs. It was a huge, uncomfortable learning curve. I had no idea how to coach what was in my head and heart for 22 years! Thanks to my coaches and a very disciplined schedule, I made it happen.
This led to courageous transformation after transformation over 13 years of who I was, what I coached and how much joy I was allowing in my life as a success coach and business strategist. I’ve had three brand makeovers in 13 years reflecting the changes.
My gift to you today is my free download, “The Emerging Entrepreneur Checklist,” summarizing what I learned in the first few years of building my coaching business.
When I look back at the actions I took and mindset shifts I experienced while being mentored by my stellar coaches in my first few years, I found these tips to be the most important that helped me build a momentum and initial revenues.
It’s important to know I used these with my coach guiding me to get to high five figures in the first year while in the midst of a debilitating recession (remember 2008-2010?) and starting from scratch after a 22-year solid career in Public Relations.
I hope this inspires you regardless of what stage you are in. It’s a good reminder of the basics for those of you who are seasoned entrepreneurs, too!
Next week, I will be featuring a client’s before and after story in celebration of Visionary Leaders Summer Series. Stay tuned!
Loads of love,
Marla
