Hola!
For the past two weeks, I've been living the "dream"... playing tennis
daily, going to the beach (though I'm still pasty white as you can see
in the photo,) eating too much and having lots of fun.
But in between it all I'm still waking up early, answering backlogged emails, revising my website and just plain working. And when not actually working, then worrying about work.
Yesterday I arrived in Vail for the second half of my vacation,
eager to ski (my favorite activity in the world) but instead I find
myself... working. And worrying. Again. Why?
Before I tell you about my personal epiphany, let me tell you what's coming up for January/February, then I'll come back to it. This month's value offering is at the end of this email (yes, I put it at the end in hopes that you'd read everything in between. So sue me.)
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Upcoming Workshops, Events & More
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MIAMI WORKSHOPS - January/February 2010
Strategic Planning Pow-Wows, January 26th & 27th, 2009, at AnexOffice on South Beach. Join a very small group of people in this intimate conference room setting for one or two half-day sessions to plan your business and/or marketing strategy for 2010. Strategic Planning Pow-Wows Info & Signup.
The Headshot Workshop is back! February 5th, 2010 (or by appointment)
If you are serious about creating a compelling, cohesive and personal-brand-oriented online presence, you need a great professional portrait... not to mention a one-on-one session with yours truly ;) See the results for yourself. Sign up here. Below is our pic from the Headshot Workshop. Love it!
MIVISTA Marketing Mastermind Launch - Join me and an intimate group of highly motivated Miami-area professionals once a month starting February, 2010 to help you transform your business! Topics include: lead generation, sales strategies, online marketing, email marketing, networking/referral marketing, pricing strategy, SWOT analysis, and more! Click here if you're interested, to download the one-sheet.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
If They Don't LOVE It, It's Just SPAM - Denver, Colorado, January 14th. How to combine in-person networking with email marketing to create a network that regularly delivers leads & business. Also featuring Zak Barron of Constant Contact. Info at www.ItsJustSpam.com.
Get Connected 2010, January 29th - 31st, 2010. Several influential speakers, including one of my personal heroes, Dr. Ivan Misner, will be at this 3-day conference, where I'm honored to present "Stop Drowning In Business Cards." More info at www.GetConnected2010.com.
SPONSORSHIP & EXHIBITION OPPORTUNITIES
The Empowered Woman Success Summit, June, 2010. A 2-day extravaganza for businesswomen. Complete with networking, workshops, amazing speakers, shopping, an expo and more. We're expecting between 600 to 1,000 women. Download the event deck for complete information on sponsoring or exhibiting.
& MORE
Want to work with me personally? Thinking about sponsoring a workshop? Want me to speak for your organization? Here is my updated media kit, including programs and pricing, for January 2010.
Questions? Contact Jessica Lurie: jessica@mivistainc.com or (888) 531-3830.
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...So why am I working through my vacation? Problem is, I'm still working hard, instead of smart. Oh sure I've made progress since last year but the truth is I'm still in a place where my business relies way too much on me. Ugh.
 I want to live my dream life now, while I'm young enough to enjoy it, not in some distant, amorphous future. Some people scoff when I say that... and to that I say an image is worth a thousand words (==>)
In any case, I know what I want, and to do it, I need to become more productive and laser-focused on those parts of my business that are really working, and drop the rest.
To that end, for 2010, here's what I'm going to do:
- Do less of what is time-consuming, stressful and not all that lucrative (i.e., open workshops and seminars that require tons of promotion) and do more of the corporate programs, speaking engagements, and the Headshot Workshop, which are lucrative and fun.
- Outsource more activities to free up my time to focus on more lucrative ventures (I just found an amazing Virtual Assistant that I can't wait to start using!)
- Accept that sometimes "good enough is good enough" and that not everything will always be perfect (most things will be though).
- Develop special programs for loyal clients and fans (like the new Mastermind) because they generate more business than the rest.
- Create and deliver info products (ebooks, audio, video) for sale from my most popular workshops.
- Say no to "opportunities" that are not aligned with my goals, particularly requests for volunteering of my time and energy.
- Stay focused on the positive (easier said than done, you know?)
- Schedule "me time" for working out, self-care, health, rest and FUN!
So there you have my 2010 plan in a (very small) nutshell. The above was what I got after taking myself through my own "2010 Strategic Planning Session."
What about you? Do
you want to increase sales? Become more profitable? Try new methods of
advertising? Develop new products, services or offerings? Or like me... work less, make more?
Success requires direction and focus. Without concrete, achievable goals and strategic planning you're just "blowing in the wind."
If you'd like to nail down your goals and develop a plan to reach them, I highly recommend attending our 2010 Strategic Planning Pow-Wows.
So that's the theme for January. GOALS. PLANNING. EXECUTION.
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Scroll down for this month's value offering. I've included an updated version of The Online Branding Checklist as well as an older video that goes along with it. I'm including it because our next big initiative is to offer our most popular workshop "You The (Online) Brand" as an info product (that's what I've been working so diligently on).
This year (this DECADE!) is going to be awesome.
Enjoy!!
Michelle Villalobos
(vee - ya - low - bos)
never-boring, always-engaging workshops and seminars on sales &
marketing self-improvement, especially for women & entrepreneurs.
www.MichelleVillalobos.com
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Making A Great Online First Impression: Your Online Branding Checklist
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The Online Personal Branding Checklist
I. Define Your Brand II. Own Your NameI. DEFINE your brand. Do it as narrowly as possible. Consider these questions:- What do you want to be top of mind for?
- How do you want people to PERCEIVE you? Consider your TARGET market.
- What WORDS (keywords) would you like associated with your name every time it appears? Choose words that describe what you do, what industry you do it for and how you do it differently than others. For example: Michelle Villalobos, sales, marketing, social media, workshops, public speaker, motivational speaker, woman entrepreneur, etc.
II. OWN Your NAME. Note! You don't have to do them all!! Take it slow. Do one at a time... 1. Have a presence, a profile, in one major spot that accurately and fully reflects your brand. Best place: your own website or blog. If you don't have either, another good choice (for now as a placeholder) is LinkedIn. Why LinkedIn? Because it gets crawled by Google. A lot.2. Create fully fleshed out profiles on LinkedIn, Plaxo and Google Profile (at least). Describe yourself using those key words that are associated with your narrow industry or field. Make the profiles public.3. Buy your URL. Redirect it to LinkedIn if you don't have a personal website. 4. Stake out profiles with your real name on Social Media Sites (at least: Facebook, LinkedIn; Twitter). Even if you don't plan to use them, don't let anyone else get them.5. Be HUMAN! Show your face. People want to do business with people, not with brands, or logos, or companies. Start with a great picture of yourself. One that is aligned with your brand and your niche. Here are some examples from our recent Headshot Workshop - next one is February 5th, 2010 or by appointment. Yes, that was a plug ;)5. Set up Google Alerts for your name. This way you'll know when Google comes across your name in any new materials, like newspaper stories or online reviews. [If you're on Twitter, go ahead and set up some Twitter Alerts too using TweetBeep]. As you get addicted to alerts, you might want to add alerts for your brand, your industry keywords & your competitors.6. Become a "Voice of Your Industry." Think of ONE way that you can you deliver value to your target on a regular basis, and in what format? A 1-minute YouTube How-To? A blog? Inspirational quotes? Twitter? Only pick what you know your audience/target market/potential clients want. (FYI: we DON'T want to know about what you had for breakfast, whether you're stuck in traffic, or if your kids are driving you crazy.)7. Build your email list. How? Offer free stuff. Get their email address in order to give it to them. 8. Advanced: If you're feeling pretty good about this, try incorporating social bookmarking into your repertoire. Check out Digg, Delicious or StumpleUpon. Why? So you can stay on top of
good industry-specific info that you might want to share with your
network. If you're feeling overwhelmed, skip this step!
9. Be active, consistent and PATIENT. How long do you REALLY think it should take? Triple that.***The biggest mistakes I see?- Spam/promotion focused approach - DELIVER VALUE, the rest follows...
- Not listening
- Not having a solid idea of what you want your brand to be and say to the world
- Overuse/abuse
- Fail to measure benchmark. You need to know what's working and do more of it
- Getting stuck in what you want to say, instead of what people want to hear
Want more? Have questions? Suggestions? Additions to the above? Post them on my blog. I'll answer ANY and ALL questions posted there (please don't email questions).
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Making A Great Online First Impression: Your Google Results & Your Home Page
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An older clip on how to make a great online first impression... Includes a case study of my own website's evolution from awful to successful. Enjoy! 
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