• Branding

    5 ways to develop your brand voice

    5 ways to develop your brand voice

    When I first started my business, finding my brand voice was the hardest part of branding for me. I wasn’t used to blogging and I never used social media. I was only used to writing term papers for class or emails for business, so my writing tone was formal/professional. Here are 5 ways to develop your brand voice. These tips are how I was able to develop my brand voice.

    5 ways to develop your brand voice

    01 Use what you have

    If you don’t know how you want to sound, don’t let that hold you back from starting. The hardest part of anything in life is just getting started. I think of everything as a work in process. You can always learn on the go.

    The only thing you have to do is start. My advice to anyone who’s on YouTube, podcasting, blogging, creating content for social media, or anything that requires your voice or writing, is to be yourself. What does that mean? Talk like you talk and write as you talk. It’s that easy.

     

    Be yourself

     

    Why should you be yourself? As an entrepreneur, especially if you’re a service based entrepreneur, you’re going to speak to your audience or clients on Skype, Zoom, a phone call, or whatever you use to communicate with a client,  so you want them to feel like they already know you. If you’re different in person, then people might get the wrong idea.

    We’re not actors. We want to be authorities on our topic. A real, authentic person who knows about their industry. Now, there are some things you can fake and that’s confidence and a positive attitude. No one is comfortable putting themselves out there, so you have to fake it until you make it.

    02 Just start

    Earlier I touched on getting started and how it’s the hardest part of anything. Don’t be a wallflower. Yes, it’s fun sitting in the back and observing everything around you, BUT imagine how fun it is to be part of it.

     

    Take the first step

     

    Never in a million years would I have thought I’d have my own business, blog, newsletter, or be active on social media. I loved reading blog posts and watching YouTube videos, and now I make them. Before I started using social media, I hated it. I only liked to use it to stalk my family, friends, and my favorite celebrities. So for me to use it daily is jaw-dropping.

    Do you know how afraid I was to launch my website? To post my first Instagram post? To hit publish on my blog post? Every time I had to post something, I felt like throwing up. But guess what? Now it’s nothing to me. You have to get comfortable with the uncomfortable.

    Why am I telling you about my fears? Because every time I wrote a blog, email, or social media post, I had to use my voice. As I kept going, my voice evolved and I became more confident. I’m not going to say that I’m 100% happy with my voice, but I have come a long way from my beginning.

    That’s why the start is the biggest thing you will have to overcome.

    PSSST,  let me tell you a secret if you’re starting from scratch, you’re not going to have a big audience. I’m not trying to be mean, but it’s true. I have more views on my posts now than I did when I first started. You might think it’s bad news, BUT the time to experiment is when you don’t have an audience.

    If you’re someone who’s followed me since that first blog post, email newsletter, and/or social media posts, THANK YOU and I APOLOGIZE! I know that my beginning work was horrible, but thank you for supporting me so far on my journey. *bow of gratitude*

     

    Thank you

    (more…)

    Continue Reading

  • Business, Productivity & Work-Life Balance

    How my wrist injury helped me revamp my business

    How my wrist injury helped me revamp my business

    Before I get into how my wrist injury helped me revamp my business, I want to give you a peek inside how I was living before my wrist injury happened. I was working more than 12 hours every day. Since I was working so much, my health took a back seat. I already gained like 30 lbs because I started eating foods that were more convenient to save time. Not only that, but I was exercising less. I use to exercise 4 to 5 days a week for about an hour a day, but now I was exercising for 30 minutes for 2 or 3 days a week.

    I had the mindset of ‘If you’re not hustling, you’re not succeeding’. My butt was in my chair all the time and my family was definitely annoyed because I was spending less time with them. Then, one day, I was doing a wheel pose after a cool down, and I hurt my wrist. I didn’t really know until the next morning, but I brushed it off and kept working, so the pain increased. It got to a point where I couldn’t do anything. I had to quit working.

    I’m a failure

    Not working, made me feel like a failure. This was the lowest point in my life because I had to depend on everyone to do everything for me. Not only wasn’t I working, but I couldn’t do any household chores or cook. I was useless. All I did was sit around the house feeling depressed while watching TV. To make things worse, I gained another 20 lbs.

    While I was in my depression, I realized I needed a change. I started hanging out with my family more and I was becoming more of a human being instead of a robot who was always working. I also decided to work on some courses that I bought, but hadn’t finished.

    During this time, I had an epiphany. There were so many things that I wanted to do, but couldn’t because I was always busy working. What’s the point of working all day, every day if I wasn’t happy? Because of this, I decided I needed to work smarter not harder to create a balance.

    How my wrist injury helped me revamp my business

    It’s all over

    The first thing I realized after my wrist injury was my business is nothing without me. I couldn’t do any work without my wrist. If I can’t work, I can’t make any income. This was an eye-opener for me. How can I take days off, have sick days, and so on if my business can’t survive without me?

    At this point, I can’t say that my business will survive without me, but I have systems in place so I don’t have to work as hard as I did when I first started. (more…)

    Continue Reading

  • Web

    Am I ready for a Web Designer?

    Am I ready for a Web Designer?

    Am I ready for a web designer? If you’re wondering if you should hire a web designer, there are a lot of things to consider. If you’re doing things on a whim because everyone has a website, just know there are things web designers have to consider before they even start designing your site. In this post, I’m going to cover everything you need to prepare before you hire a web designer. If you don’t have this stuff ready, then it could put your website launch on hold.

    Everything you need to prepare before you hire a web designer

    It’s mine!

    I want to hope that you’re not starting a business on a whim, but you probably don’t want to hear that from me right now. Before you start a website, you should already have a foundation for your business. Here is a list of questions that you should have an answer to before you start your web design project.

    • Do you have a business name?
    • Can you tell me who your target audience is?
    • Do you have a host and domain ready for your website?

    Once you’ve cleared this first level, then it’s on to the next.

    Have your copy ready

    Now it’s time to think about the copy (aka the words and what/how you want to convey them) for your website. You can hire someone to do this for you or you can do it yourself. I write the copy myself for my website, but if I had to do it all over again or if I get a chance to rebuild my website, I would definitely hire someone to do it for me. I find writing copywriting very time-consuming. Not only that, but I’m sure a copywriter would do a way better job than I’m doing.

    If you’re going the DIY route, then I suggest doing everything in a Google Doc. You can create a separate document for each page. Here’s a list of pages that you will need on your website:

    • Home
    • About
    • Contact
    • Services
    • Each individual service
    • Products
    • Each individual product
    • FAQ

    Once you have all the copy written for your pages, then organize them into a folder.  When you hire a web designer, you can just share the folder with them.

    On Wednesdays We Go Rogue

    (more…)

    Continue Reading