Uniquity Builders has used Warmly Yours to provide radiant flooring to our customers.  I can testify that they have excellent products and they provide excellent service. 

From the marketing perspective, the prosperity of any business begins with its relationships – all relationships – whether it be between owner and client, owner and employee, or owner and supplier.  The saying, “people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”, holds more truth than ever these days!

See what you can learn from Warmly Yours that can be used in your own business.

Watch Warmly Yours Video Here

Here’s the scoop on CNN.com:  http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/08/11/happiness.heart.disease/index.html

What does this have to do with business?  Well, just about everything…  I would choose a positive coach or consultant over a negative one every time…  Wouldn’t you?  And now you have an even better reason to stay that way!

Here’s a short article to get you thinking along the lines of what social media can and can’t do for you, and what you need to do to start getting results on Twitter. 

http://ow.ly/2gCbH

What social media strategies are working for you?

“Women who’ve worked their way up the ladder have that grateful thing going, thinking, look what has been given to me, rather than, look what I have given.  We’ve worked hard.  The idea that we should be grateful is absurd.” 

I’ve been there and done that.  How about you?

If this sounds like you, I invite you to come join us help each other in our mission to create a more prosperous and positive world. 

Life is truly good!

Showcase Your Talents and Offer Your Services to our Members
 

All members can post information about their products and services on our website as a membership benefit! 

  See our business building tips, articles, and member news below.
            

Kim Castle, Co-creator BrandU™

I first discovered that there was a world outside of “me” when I was four and my mother said to me one summer at dinner. “Eat your peas Kim; there are kids starving in Russia.” 

My budding global consciousness showed itself again a couple years later at the beach in Miami. FL while I was digging a large hole in the sand.  I asked my mom where I would end up if I kept digging.  Her answer… “China.”

In the age of instant information, the far-away notion that there are people “over there”, facing life-threatening challenges daily, is replaced by a constant reminder that we as a species are growing too fast and too large for the people and the planet to withstand.

Add to this fact that, in this age of overwhelming choice, customers are craving a deeper reason to pay attention; a greater reason to buy from you.  Combine these and you have a powerful combination to experience greater profits as a result of aligning your brand to a greater good.

Here are three examples of brands that have caught on like wild fire and are doing a world of good in their wake:

LIVESTRONG:  Celebrity Cyclist Lance Armstrong turned his public battle with cancer into a hip consumer brand with the aid of branded partners Nike and Hewlett-Packard.  This brand raises money for the Lance Armstrong foundation which inspires and empowers people affected by cancer.

Is LIVESTRONG working?  Since its inception in 1997, through the sales of wrist bands, athletic clothing, and even electronics, LIVESTRONG has awarded more than $14 million in research and community grants.  The LIVESTRONG computer alone raked up sales of $2 million in a matter of months.

The win, win, win:  people get to wear quality hip clothes, cancer research gets funded, and folks feel they are a part of something greater… because… they are.

ONE:  ONE is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans – ONE by ONE – to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty.  It was founded by 11 of America’s most well-known and respected aid groups, including Save the Children US, World Concern, World Vision, and supported by many top celebrity heavy hitters including: Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Pat Robertson, Kate Hudson, Rick Warren, Jamie Foxx, Jars of Clay, Penelope Cruz, Dave Matthews, Salma Hayek, George Clooney and Bill Gates.

ONE aims to tackle such a global goal by one initiative:  band together in one voice.  This shows up in signing the declaration, participating in ONE events and of course the sale of t-shirts, and yes… wrist bands.  Hey… it worked for Livestrong.  The unique drive behind this brand is that they are not asking for your money. They’re asking for your voice. 

The win — if your brand is not already connected to a brand, then aligning with ONE might be a fast way “in”.

RED:  Created by U2 lead singer Bono to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world’s most iconic brands to produce co-branded products.  A percentage of each RED co-branded product sold is given to The Global Fund which helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Launched in March of 2006, Red has raised over $10 million for AIDS assistance and education in Africa just by the sales of items people would have bought anyway.  The brilliance in this co-branded venture is consumers don’t pay more for the product; the RED co-branded partner donates it from their profits.

The win, win, win:  People experience hip products and feel they are part of something bigger than them, AIDS assistance is given and large branded companies gets major good news PR.

These are just three high profile examples. There are thousands of other noble projects to connect to your business. 

To gain the most through a greater good approach, make sure the cause is aligned with your business vision and your brand values.  Not in a general ‘feel good’ way but in solid tangible terms. Just as tangible as you want your results to be.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman raises the question in his book The World Is Flat, “Has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?”

I don’t think so… as this time of change and shift in the Universe is empowering more and more business owners to wake up and realize that they can make more money just by aligning their attention and intention to the greater good.

Awww… what an amazing thing!

© Castle Montone, Limited.  Reprinted with Permission.

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by
Kim Castle, Co-creator BrandU™

Last week I was exercising near my home in Southern California by climbing hundreds of stairs along the canyon wall. It’s a way for me to break away from my business, so that I’m free to expand for an hour or so.

Out of the blue an idea for a completely new product came into my mind and I couldn’t get it out.  It grew so strong that it drowned out the Black Eyed Peas blaring from my IPod.

It started out soft like a “tickle” and before I knew it, my thoughts weren’t my own anymore.

I started seeing the product and how it would be constructed; all the way down to what color the stitching was and where the logo would go.

I got excited knowing that there wasn’t a product like this on the market and began thinking about how it would radically change the way people did things.

When I thought about the charity that would benefit from the overflow of the millions of dollars it would generate, my heart soared.  In fact I could already see myself contacting people who could connect me to manufacturers in China.

Before I knew it, I wasn’t climbing stairs anymore… I was soaring.  I was high off an idea — like the fumes of a gas.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you know the high I’m talking about. You may even be what I call an “idea junkie.” You know who you are.  It’s okay — awareness is the first step.

You also know the pain that often comes with it; especially the pain of not turning your idea into a real product fast enough and getting people to buy it as quickly as possible before the next idea comes.

When speaking to entrepreneurs around the world about branding, I often compare the “idea” of a business to a “gas” — like air.  It’s “there” in feeling, but it doesn’t have form.  It’s the translation from the idea into tangible form that traps so many and prevents them from ever getting beyond the high.

Is the “idea” of your business costing you everything? Here are four ways to tell, and what you can do about it.

• It’s not real — until you make it real.  Without getting your idea out of your head and into a tangible form, it’s still just a possibility—only serving you in the moments when you think of it.  There are many ways to make it tangible even at the beginning.

Example:  One client of mine, prior to working with me, paid thousands of dollars to have her book jackets designed BEFORE she even wrote the book.  Just beware that while this does get the idea out of your head and into a form you can touch, it’s done so with great risk.  Without first establishing the core of your idea from the inside, the outside influence could take you away from what the business or product really is.  That’s why the way we approach branding is so vital in the beginning of a business or product development.

• It’s so flexible — there’s nothing there.  Without putting up walls (or mental blinders) by establishing what an idea for a business really is and what it is not, you are at the mercy of the hundreds of potential business ideas that your brain is feeding you daily (each one is more exciting than the last). Trust that each idea carries with it a great potential.  But each is just an idea until it’s impacting a customer’s life. 

This is why the entire first half of our branding process doesn’t even involve the customer.  We focus on creating the house and the door that your potential customer will walk through and want to stay. Your idea is a solid half of the relationship you have with your customer.

• It’s worth nothing — until you add interest.  While you have experienced the idea, just having the idea is not unique.  At the same exact time, someone else could be having the same exact thought.  After all, we all feed from the same pond. 

What makes it unique is what drives your need to create it.  People don’t just buy because they have nothing else to do. They need a reason to choose one thing over another.  It’s the very same reason that drives you to take action on just a thought. 

• It means nothing — until it means something to someone else.  People can’t buy your idea unless they can connect to it in a way that impacts their life. 

Think about what it would be like trying to sell someone air.  It’s the same as selling them your idea.  If you truly want to move beyond the feeling it gives you, it needs to be clearly translated into a tangible and emotional experience.

That said; your ideas do have great value at the start of a business.  Without ideas, you’d have nothing to act on.  But ideas are just the spark to get you started.  They feel so great because it takes a lot of fuel to create something out of nothing.  That fuel is excitement.

By harnessing that excitement with form, foundation, reason and connection, you’ll have what it takes to share your idea “high” with the world.  And they’ll gladly pay for it.

© Castle Montone, Limited

by
Kim Castle, Co-creator BrandU™

Soul and business.  Business and… soul.  You don’t often see these two words in the same sentence — especially over the past 60 years of “I’m going make-it-until-I-drop… I don’t care who’s in my way” mentality.  

If you have “it,” you understand the concept without skipping a beat.  

If you’re looking for “it,” you feel a longing with every step you take in your business — even if it’s just the unspoken tug of unknowing.  

If the concept of soul and business in the same breath incites you to… uncomfortable levels… well… that’s a whole different article.

To understand the concept of the soul of business, you have to consider what “soul” means.  The challenge is… that it has a different meaning for each individual.  The context is flexible; it’s in the beholder. 

This is also where the fun and the power of business is… IF you know how to tap into it.

Soul Defining

Defining the meaning of soul is like defining the concept of reality — you make it up.  The real power resides in your meaning of soul; its application to your business and your unwavering command of that power. 

The dictionary defines soul as:

• the complex of human attributes that manifests as consciousness, thought, feeling, and will, 
• somebody’s emotional and moral nature,  
• the deepest and truest nature of a people or a nation,
• what gives somebody or something a distinctive character

These definitions come close, but lack that mysterious unspoken essence of something that is far bigger.  It’s that space that you fill up with… experience.

If you apply this unspoken power to business, both large and small, you will arrive at the very core of what makes a business tick — from why it was created to why it continues to exist.

Unfortunately, the problem is that most small entrepreneurial business owners focus their initial business efforts “outside” of their business core, and focus instead on marketing, on sales, on… proof.  

Then, if they are able to hold on enough to stay in the game, layer after external layer begins to form which solidify with tactical approaches to continue to market, to sell, to prove.

Eventually, this outer layer becomes heavy and can cause a business to implode if the core of the business isn’t established and maintained.  Or it could lose its way altogether if the wrong kind of funding is thrown its way.

Remembering the Future™ 

Over the past eighty years the way business is done has come full circle from the days of yore when you bought your soap from the general store, which was at the front of the grocer’s house, through the industrial revolution of mass production and distribution, to the return of the human to human connection — through the internet.

Unfortunately the way business has been communicated hasn’t kept up with this change.  

The old industrial model of advertising, of “sell the sizzle,” or as I refer to it, “chasing the flash,” is no longer enough for people. 

Consumers have the power of choice and they can feel if there’s “something” behind the flash or… not. 

Brand communication, including marketing and advertising, is on the cusp to a whole new way of consumer communication—a communication that has behind it a greater reason beyond the money for product exchange.  It’s communication that is fueled by the soul of a business.

The New Biz Buzz Word

If you polled a hundred people ages 25-55 about what they were missing in their lives and you were able to drill down to the core of their answer, they would say, in one form or another, an authentic connection.  

Even large brands, like Starbucks, Nike and even Apple, are starting to toss around words like real and authentic.  

Howard Schultz, the CEO and mastermind behind Starbucks, one of the most successful and often admired brands today, says, “Our rapid growth has led to the watering down of the Starbucks experience.  Our company’s soul is dripping away.”

In the New Marketing Manifesto, author John Grant notes, “Authenticity is the benchmark against which all brands are now judged.”

The dictionary defines authentic as:

• genuine and original, 
• shown to be true and trustworthy
• not a copy, real 

Where does this realness reside?  It resides in that mysterious space of the soul. 

Your Guiding Light Through the Unknown

As a business owner, you no longer have to be at the mercy of the unspoken unknown of what is at the core of your business. 

Taking your business idea through a process to define that soul shines a guiding light on everything your business is to be and every step you take to make it so. 

This result is a definitive and unique brand.  When done right, it gives you the soul of your business.  Once it’s in place, it never burns out; it might evolve with time, but it never burns out or changes drastically.

For the past several years, I’ve been saying there’s a global return to the soul.  It’s never been so true in business today. 

As a small business entrepreneur you actually have the edge over big brands on the authentic playing field.  You haven’t lost your business soul yet.  Then again… you may have not connected to it yet.  

The exciting thing is… that the process to connect to the soul of your business is now at your fingertips. But first you have to put down the tactics. 

You can always pick them back up… later.

© Castle Montone, Limited

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This is another great example of creating a marketing campaign that speaks to your potential clients at a level that makes them feel comfortable and creates an atmosphere of trust.  It’s finding out what’s important to them and providing it in a way that builds a lasting relationship, not just a one-time sale.

If you want to set yourself apart and build a business based on genuine, caring relationships, there are many lessons to be learned from this relationship marketing business model used by the Urban J Church.

*(As reported by Jeff Strickler of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.)

A powerful example of this concept is a new online tool created to make it easier for credit card holders and borrowers to manage their money. Zendough.com was created by the credit reporting agency, Transunion to help people see the big picture of their finances. It offers three ways for you to monitor your money. My Credit keeps you updated on your credit score and lets you easily see any inaccuracies and make corrections. My Identify gives you an indication of your risk of identity fraud. My Accounts provides a detailed listing of your credit accounts and debts in graph format.

Transunion offers this service for $14.95 per month, or $179.40 a year, and offers a free seven-day trial. In these economic times when many people are in the process of rebuilding their credit, this continuity program is a stroke of genius. It is just one example of how you can turn your product and/or service into ongoing monthly income, and provide a much needed service to your choice clients at the same time.