What’s Your Purpose?

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.

Maya Angelou

 

I’m so thrilled to be running my one day intensive workshop called ‘How to Market Yourself Personally and Professionally’.

Over the years I’ve worked with a number of Natural Health Businesses, Coaches, Experts, Authors, Practitioners and Entrepreneurs and I’ve come to know that the key to achieving success in whatever field you’re in is about having the confidence and skills to differentiate yourself from the crowd and ‘put yourself out there’.

I meet so many talented people with amazing ideas and dreams but often a great idea or intention in itself is not enough and if we don’t have the tools to know exactly where to focus then the high visibility we desire or the challenge we dream of achieving alludes us.

A powerful idea can kick around for years whether it’s in a business or in your head, not because it doesn’t have strong merit but because responsibility hasn’t been taken for converting it from words into action. Passion itself cannot get results but when combined with intention and the right action then you can really fly!

In my workshop I focus on the following, which I believe are keys for success both personally and professionally:
• Recognise that YOU are your own brand
• Find your USP and own your YOU-nique Brilliance
• Gain clarity on your key messages
• Identify your ideal clients
• Know how to create a media pack
• Make a winning initial impression
• Learn what journalists want and what they don’t want
• Learn how to be a great interviewee
• Know the secrets of effective social networking
• Get the lowdown on creating compelling content for your brand
• Determine how best to promote yourself – Advertising versus PR
• Build your mailing list and community
• Become the GO TO Expert!

 

I’m passionate about helping people find their ‘thing’. Whatever your ‘thing’ is, your business or career choice, or your life dream, it’s all about YOU, and by realising and telling your story and being clear on your YOU-nique brilliance you can then see how you can get in touch with all the ‘best bits of you’ which helps you to know how to connect with people in the best way. You can then reach people effectively and inspire them and be inspired!

 

Personal Branding

Many of my keys to success work both personally and professionally because mastering the concept of personal branding and marketing is a powerful way of achieving self-actualization. By knowing your value you can set the best goals that allow you to do what brings you the most passion in life and work and achieve a higher sense of accomplishment.

Whether you have a business right now or are thinking of becoming self-employed, or maybe you are happy in your career but have a personal goal or challenge that you want to reach and are looking to make these big changes in your life, my process offers clarity to understand your skills, competencies, strengths, limitations, interests, and aspirations which empowers you to know what you have to offer, what you want and how to ask for it.

 

We were all born carrying a promise — a promise to make the world better — and there’s a yearning to make good on that promise that none of us can suppress forever.

Marianne Williamson

 

I want to invite you to create success for your life, career or business and learn the secrets for getting SEEN HEARD and SOLD, Join me and my special guest Social Media Guru Katie Brockhurst on this one day inspirational intensive workshop – Janey Lee Grace

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Book now to reserve your place! (please note that there are limited places available).

Early Bird price (before Feb 29th) £147 (save £100)

Buy your early bird ticket here NOW

How to Get High Visibility for Your Authentic Brand

Years ago in careers lessons at school children aspiring to be entrepreneurs, therapists, authors – unless massively successful – would probably have been laughed at.

People had one or two jobs for life and worked purely to earn enough to pay the bills and have one holiday, I’m generalising of course but today it’s widely accepted that we should aspire to follow our intuition and follow our dreams. The best teachers are those that are passionate about their subject, the most successful businesses are those that are started from passion and enthusiasm.

In my work recommending natural and organic products the story is often the same – people can’t find the natural product they need so they concoct their own and end up with a business. Examples of people I have worked with include a mother who found nothing worked for her child’s severe skin condition so she set about hand-crafting natural skincare products which worked and a NHS nurse who when suffering from severe stress in her life tried Mindfulness, realised how effective it was and now helps patients and runs courses for other NHS staff.

But just because you are passionate about your product or service doesn’t mean it will be ‘out there’. Experts, teachers, entrepreneurs often have the feeling that ‘If I build it they will come’!

Well maybe they will, the best clients always do come from referrals, but surely if you really have something worth sharing you will want to get that out to a wider audience. In fact I would go as far as to say that if you have a valuable message or a great product it’s your duty to share it. So once you’ve written a book or started a business, how do you get visibility?

In my Conscious Business courses I’ve identified these five tips:

5 Tips to Getting Visibility for Your Business:

1. You are the brand – Do you have absolute clarity on your USP?

Unique Selling Point

Consider whether you can put yourself at the heart of your brand. People do business with those they like know and trust, you need to be clear on your USP (your unique selling point) so that you know exactly what makes you different.

It’s critical because recognising that you are a unique brand will help you attract new ideal clients to you rather than sounding exactly like your competitors and everyone else in your field. New business owners often make the mistake of thinking that everyone knows their ‘niche’, recording artists will often say ‘I don’t want to be labelled – I just make great music, it’s no particular genre’…But the truth is it’s got to be filed in one or perhaps two categories, i.e. Country music and pop music. There are very few bands that really do sit across all musical genres, and are regularly featured in Kerrang Magazine alongside the latest mag about dance music!

If you make wonderful skincare you will want your products featured on the beauty pages of magazines, but if you have sixty products it’s unlikely you will attract coverage for your whole range, the trick will be to choose a ‘signature’ product, for example an anti-ageing product, and let that be your first ‘PR’ project. Then it becomes easier to target your marketing to that sector initially.

2. Create great content – Do you have awesome free resources?

Create Great Content

It’s well documented that free content is what people want, information, new ideas, recipes, how-to lists, advice, the list is endless and people don’t want to pay for that, it is however a brilliant way to attract and then potentially maximise publicity for your work. Some of the people who connect and enjoy reading your posts could become clients or customers at some point, many won’t, but if you have a heartfelt message to share, you won’t mind – it’s your duty after all!

You may think you aren’t a great writer, but if you have any knowledge, passion or info to share you can do it. Writing a book is a great calling card, you may not earn much money from writing a book but that’s not what it’s about, it’s a great springboard to other opportunities, in my own case I was often speaking about holistic recommendation in my work as a radio presenter, a publisher heard me (yes publishers do listen to the radio!) and asked if I wanted to write a book, it became a Number One Amazon best seller, and resulted in another career for me recommending and accrediting natural and organic products.

It’s not just books of course you can write e-zines, press releases, blogs – the list is endless but establishing yourself as the writer in your field can greatly increase visibility for your brand. At one point self-publishing was seen as naff, not any more, it’s becoming the new rock and roll. Don’t underestimate the power of being an Author – add three letters and you get ‘authority’, and as I’ve found from my work in TV and Radio, when producers or editors want to book experts to comment on a programme or news story, they often book authors as they assume a level of knowledge and commitment. If writing really just doesn’t float your boat then create audio or video content, so long as you find a way to share your message that will interest your potential ‘tribe’.

It’s a fine balance between how long you spend creating content and promotion, most people put hours and hours into their blogs, social networking and creating videos and then just cross their fingers and hope it will get shared and read and viewed, they pray that it will result in people coming to their site and signing up to their list but I would suggest that the emphasis needs to be on attracting people to read or view that content, if they don’t know about you yet how can they find you?

Yes you need to invest time in content creation, but don’t forget content can be re-written – you can repurpose and recycle your ideas – become a ‘green’ writer! You may need a couple of longer sessions to create some great blogs, social networking posts, record some videos, audios etc. but after those initial content creation sessions I’d highly recommend spending 20% of your time crafting content and 80% of your time promoting it. Seems a lot doesn’t it?

Bill Gates famously once said ‘If I had only one dollar left I’d spend it on marketing’

3. Stand in the spotlight – Are you a confident public speaker?

Spotlight

I’ve met many people who don’t feel confident as a speaker, and are unsure of their voice and worried that how they look may not reflect what they’re selling. In fact public speaking is second on the list on the greatest fears (number one is fear of spiders).

It comes down to great preparation, you know the five ‘P’s – Plan, Prepare, Practice, Preview, Present, there are other ‘P’s too, you may want to Ponder that you really have the right topic and the right call to action, and while it doesn’t sound the ‘P’ you will definitely need to be aware of your Physical Presence.

Remember too – ‘Poor Preparation Proffers Piss-Poor Presentation!’

Don’t get caught up over using power point, the audience want to connect with you, not a series of slides. If you know that confidence is an issue for you, there are many simple techniques available to help. You may have heard of Tapping techniques such as EFT – Emotional Freedom Technique and TFT Thought Field Therapy. If it all sounds a bit hippy dippy to you don’t dismiss it, I’ve had clients who were terrified to speak into a microphone who now do weekly radio shows as the expert in their field – after just a couple of sessions. It’s simple to teach yourself too so can be an extremely inexpensive way of solving even lifelong issues with confidence.

Make sure you construct a talk or presentation that is applicable to the audience (who hopefully are your ideal clients / supportive tribe – if not why are you doing it?) Ensure it will be interesting, captivating, emotional, though provoking – or all of the above. You must be enthusiastic and passionate about your subject – that’s key.

Don’t shy away from public speaking, get some training so that you are confident and if you are asked to speak at an event put yourself forward, it’s a brilliant way to market yourself and attract new customers who are exactly right for you.

4. Be a great interviewee – are you a great guest on TV / Radio?

on air

It’s not just local or national radio, there are lots of opportunities now to be interviewed and it can be a great way to market what you do. You may have a good product or service but may not be great at selling yourself, it’s really worth investing in some training and at the very least practice with a microphone, the first time I heard my own voice I was in shock! Get used to it and ensure that you pay attention to yet more ‘P’s – Pitch, Pace, Pause and Power, don’t get hung up about it though, unless you know you have a tendency to speak in a very high voice when you get excited, or speak much too fast, just make sure that it feels easy on the ear.

Learn to love the sound of your own voice! Remember a TV or radio interview is not an exam, be clear on your own agenda (have a listen to politicians) but of course you must connect and ensure that your answers acknowledge the questions.

Again it’s all about preparation, do the basics, make sure you know the programme you are being interviewed on, preferably listen or watch a segment in advance, be clear on the angle they are expecting from you and always be enthusiastic. Yet again it’s about the audience wanting to know more about you because they feel a connection. Don’t think its ok to rock up to an interview without doing any preparation, because you think you know your subject so it’s OK – you may know your subject but that doesn’t mean you have necessarily worked out how best to get that message across succinctly and in relatively short sentences. Know your key messages inside out!

For TV appearances beware of too much jewellery or jangly keys, don’t be camera shy, get your messages out there on YouTube, even if you haven’t been asked to be on TV, you can create a great series of YouTube videos which will attract your audience, keep them short though 3 mins max.

5. Get Social – Are you connecting with potential clients across several platforms?

Get Sociable

Don’t underestimate the importance of social media, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest et al, and anyone who thought Twitter was just frivolous, think again, it’s becoming a powerful free marketing tool and you can devise a PR strategy while making connections with potential clients.

Don’t make the mistake of using social networking just to advertise your wares, it’s about connection, make those connections so that people become genuinely interested in the content you have to share and then divert them over to your mailing list, that’s where the real collateral is, when people commit to wanting to be connected with you regularly they really start to take notice.

Of course it’s become harder now to attract likes on Facebook but there are free tools to help analyse data so that you can see when people are viewing your posts, you can also boost posts at a very low spend and obviously benefit from asking contacts to share your posts. LinkedIn also has analytical tools, so use them and find ways to share your content across all your platforms, as well as on your own website too. Follow and comment on posts and blogs by journalists, editors and producers whose shows / magazines you have identified would be a good match for you.

Writing Is the Best Therapy

I love presenting shows on UK Hay House Radio, Hay House is a publishing company that has the most eclectic mix of amazing authors on a range of spiritual and self-help subjects. For me with my current work in helping people to share their message with a wider audience it all comes to fruition when I get to interview best-selling authors who are making the world a better place.

Coming up I am going to be speaking with Lynne McTaggart and John Parkin. In one of the last series I spoke with Atasha Fyfe on Past Lives, and Richard Flook author of ‘Why Am I Sick’, it was a fascinating insight into how our minds can heal our body.

One highlight for me last year was interviewing Julia Cameron, the author, artist, poet, playwright, filmmaker and composer. Apart from being once married to Martin Scorsese she is most famous for her book ‘The Artists Way’ its sold over 4 million copies and to this day remains a classic on the bookshelves of anyone who wants to expand their creativity.

Julia has finally written ‘The Artists Way for Parents’ – hurrah! The premise is that we don’t have be ‘perfect’ parents (thank goodness says imperfectly natural me!) but we can foster creativity in our children and reap the benefits ourselves in the process.

Julia re-enforces some of the ideas from the original book – specifically that its imperative to write what she calls ‘Morning pages’. It’s literally that – write at least 3 pages of longhand writing every morning, preferably when you first wake up. I’m guessing you had to go back and re-read that – yes I did say ‘longhand’ i.e. handwriting – remember that? No laptops, tablets or phones, good old fashioned pen and paper! There’s something unique about letting the words flow onto a page.

Unsure what to write? Just write anyway, it’s a stream of consciousness, today mine includes…’Oops forgot to send a birthday card to Dawn…I’m feeling really excited if apprehensive about my next big speaking gig…why did I have that second glass of wine, I haven’t a clue what to wear when it’s this cold…’

You get the idea! It can be about nothing…and everything and interestingly the act of writing it down is very cathartic and brings peace. It’s rather like a creative form of meditation, in fact Julia says spirituality and creativity are intrinsically linked.

Give it a shot, if you are currently trying to make some sense of your life and work it’s one of the best tools I know to fast-track you to clarity.

If you are a successful entrepreneur it will help you gain clarity on your authentic message, if you’d like to write a book it’s a great way to start – remember my favourite saying ‘You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going’.

 

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Create the book that puts You and your brand on the map! In 6 months, plan, design, write and PUBLISH hard and digital copies.

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Having It All

I read with interest the interview a while back with Lynn Forester De Rothschild by Judith Woods. Lynn is of course happily married to Sir Evelyn De Rothschild, has had a glittering entrepreneurial career herself, and is the epitome of elegance and style.

She was obviously a charming woman and a joy to interview and when Judith said she was impressed that Lynn also managed to find time to work out for several hours in her home gym, Lynn said briskly…

’We women need to stop whining about the choices we make. We need to stop feeling put upon and taker a moment to reflect. It’s quite simple – do you want more time with your family or more involvement in your professional life? More time at the spa or your desk? There’s no right or wrong answer, just your own answer…’

Of course the issue for many of us is just that, what is the right answer for us? What do we really want?

I’m always surprised to find how many women simply don’t know what they want. They often believe in the power of positive thought, many could be crushed if they chose to lie underneath their pile of self-help books, and many have watched The Secret, they believe that their thoughts create their reality, they understand about cosmic ordering. But how to tame those wild thoughts and exactly what to order…that’s the million dollar question.

In many cases we end up in the position we are in by default, having a baby often leads to an enforced career change and then when the kids are in school there can be some agonising decisions as to where priorities lie.

If you’re at a turning point and something is nagging away at you, I’d strongly suggest you give yourself some time to meditate on what’s really important. Take an angel card and pose the question and trust your intuition when answers come, so often we ask a question, hear the answer in our head or get a clear sign but then dismiss it, usually because it might take us out of our comfort zone. Be open to new possibilities and instead of repeatedly saying…I couldn’t possibly start my own business….I wouldn’t have the skills to write a book, instead change it to a question. Ask yourself…How could I start my own business? How I could write a book?

If it starts to feel exciting you’ve probably hit on your purpose and the next set of questions should lead to how you can make a start, who could you ask for help? What could you delegate or drop in order to make time to fulfil your dreams and be who you want to be.

There was a very powerful end to Judith’s interview with Lynn Forester De Rothschild, when asked whether she really does ‘have it all’ Lynn quoted the philanthropist Carlos Slim who said…’Life isn’t about having, it’s about being’

Don’t worry about having it all, or even getting everything you think you want, but do ensure that you can be all you are meant to be.

 

 

How to be more confident – Stand Up, Stand Out Confidence Acceleration Event
20/21 February 2016, London

Stand Up Stand Out

Join Jo Wilson, Andy Coley and Janey Lee Grace for 2 days to improve your confidence and self- esteem & gain the level of assertiveness you need to put yourself first, get noticed or achieve the results you deserve in your career, business & personal life.

More information HERE>>>

A big thanks to my pal Shaa Wasmund MBE (she has just recently been named by The Sunday Times as one of their Top 20 Most Influential Entrepreneurs and by Debretts as one of their 500 Most Influential People In The UK! ) for giving this event a big-up in her recent newsletter too…

I’m Watching You!

Are you usually a fairly confident person – the life and soul of the party? Until, that is you have to make a presentation in front of an audience or speak in front of a microphone or video camera.

A recent survey showed that people are terrified of speaking in public – in fact the fear came above the fear of spiders, divorce and even death!

When questioned, participants said they feared making a fool of themselves, dropping their papers, looking incongruent, forgetting what they intended to say, and now neuroscientists at the University of Sussex’s Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science and Brighton and Sussex Medical School have identified the brain network system that causes us to stumble and stall just when we least want to.

The study reveals why your brain makes you slip up when anxious, it seems that the anxiety of being watched can have a disastrous effect on your performance.

They were able to pinpoint the brain area that causes the performance mishaps during an experiment using functional magnetic resonance neuroimaging (fMRI) and they found that people exert more force when they know that people are watching, so for example pianists unconsciously press keys harder when they play in front of an audience.

Scan results showed that an area of the brain that helps us to control our fine sensorimotor functions – the inferior parietal cortex (IPC) – became deactivated when people felt they were being observed interestingly how we perceive the audience will receive us also plays a part, if we believe that those watching want us to do well, we will perform well. But if we pick up negative cues, our IPC is deactivated and our performance falls apart.

So if you want to share your message in front of a wider audience and know that you will be called upon to give a presentation or a talk how can you best prepare and ensure that you will ‘shine’?

How you will perform is intrinsically linked with how confident you are – about yourself, the topic you are speaking about, and whether it will be well received, i.e. are those watching your ideal clients or community? If it’s a job interview is this actually your ideal job? Ask yourself how likely it is that those watching are likely to be open and supportive of you.

You don’t have to naturally be a super confident person, you can ‘fake it till you make it’ but the key to a successful performance is feeling entirely authentic about the message you are conveying and knowing that you are fully prepared.

Having a positive attitude is also important so a top tip is to visualise yourself coming away from the experience exhilarated and knowing you ‘rocked it!’

The authors of the study suggested that for example a musician before a public performance ‘could perform in front of his/her family and close friends and receive a lot of applause. Such experience would help to induce a desirable activation pattern in your brain and boost self-confidence.’

You too can rehearse before you do anything in public and I would highly recommend it – always read your script or your notes out loud, video yourself and watch it back, do all or part of your presentation in front of someone you know is on your side and ask for honest feedback.

The reality is that we do all feel some nerves when we are being scrutinised but make sure the butterflies in your tummy are flying in perfect formation! If you are totally authentic your passion and enthusiasm will come across and the audience will be with you all the way, so what if you do spill your water or drop your papers, we are all human – actually when the unexpected happens it can be the ice breaker that means people identify with you even more

So be willing to stand in the spotlight and shine – I’m watching!

How to market yourself professionally & personally – See Me on the Chrissy B Show

 

YOU ARE THE BRAND

£14.90 incl P&P

Special offer – We can’t compete with Amazon BUT we can give you fabulous ADDED VALUE… So order direct from this site, and you will receive FREE Module 1 (previously on sale for £97) of Janey’s acclaimed PR and Media Skills Audio Masterclass. Wow!

Are you an Expert, Author, Coach, Practitioner, Entrepreneur, or would you like to write a book or develop a business? Would you like to grow your business or attract more visibility for the work that you do? If you have a passion and a purpose, a product or service that you believe in, a message that you want to share, then this book is for you.

In this book, No 1 Best-selling Author, Broadcaster, and Business Coach Janey Lee Grace, who has worked in the media for twenty-five years as well as running her own successful business, reveals how you can achieve the visibility you need to succeed in the modern marketplace by putting YOURSELF at the top of your brand.

Get clarity on your USP, recognise the importance of creating compelling content, be confident and authentic, and get the inside track on making the right connections with both clients and your community and also producers and journalists. Turn your passion to profits, sky-rocket your visibility, and be inspired by the success stories of others.

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