Brand and Logo Design for Forgiveness to Freedom by Julia Stege of Magical Marketing

If you have been struggling in any way with your brand, your message, what to write, how to name your stuff, or even how to create your authentic marketing funnel in a way that attracts your perfect customers, here are the 6 steps I take my high-end branding clients through to clarify their wildly attractive authentic brand.

Step 1: Attraction Planning ~ The first step to creating an authentic brand is to define what you really want so you can start attracting it. The most powerful tool I’ve discovered for this process is the Attraction Plan created by Perfect Customers, Inc. You can get that at http://www.MagicalMarketingToolkit.html

Step 2: Branding from the Heart ~ The second step is about integrating your Attraction Plan into your brand in the process I call Branding from the Heart. In short, to start the Branding from the Heart Process, ask yourself what your true life’s passion is and start writing down the words that define that passion. When you combine your passion with what you offer to the world (your products, services, and results) you have the basis for a totally unique, wildly attractive brand! The formula is Tick Words + Offering Words = Authentic Brand (I demonstrate this in more detail in the webinar)

Step 3: Your Authentic Brand Message & Visuals ~ The third step is to take what you created in Step 2 and craft your unique brand message and visuals. When you use your “Tick Words” to describe your offerings and combine those with visuals that reflect your personality and purpose, those who are a match for you are drawn to you by their intuition. In fact, they are so drawn to you that it might even be painful for them NOT to buy from you.

Step 4: Your Wildly Attractive Offer ~ Once you have defined your brand, the best way to attract perfect customers is to put up a website and develop a wildly attractive free offer so you can start capturing names and emails online. Your free offer should be a first step in your own program. This helps you to build a fan base of folks who are in alignment with your message and offering. As you communicate with your peeps on a regular basis, those who are ready to receive your help will step up!

Step 5: Authentic Marketing Funnel ~ Once you have clarified your brand and have a free offer, you want to apply your brand to your products and s

ervices and create a cohesive funnel from your free offer to your paid offerings. This involves creating streamlined offerings that guide your customers through the steps of your program.

Umbrella Brand: When you have a lot of different offerings, you want to create an Umbrella Brand that captures the essence of all of them. How? Share what makes you Tick! Your passion and purpose are what unites everything you do. Create your brand to reflect your passion and all you do will fit cohesively under it!

Step 6: Bringing Your Message to the World  You know what you want.  You have your Authentic Brand. You have your Free Offering. You have your Products and Services. Now go out networking, in person and online and share your passion authentically.  Connect with people of like mind and heart. Give give give, and watch what the Universe brings you!

IF THIS IS A STRUGGLE FOR YOU, HERE’S HELP

Don’t let being stuck on what to say, what to offer or how to promote yourself authentically, keep you from getting your message and unique gifts to the world. My programs are specifically designed for out-of-the-box creators like yourself to finally attract your tribe and inspire a revolution. Come to the next presentation of my complimentary webinar Branding Basics for Conscious Entrepreneurs. Learn More and Register Here.

In January of 2012, I finally created our Magical-Marketing.com website in WordPress. I noticed within 3 months our Alexa.com rating on the new site was twice as good as our established GraphicGirlz.com  site. Currently the Alexa rating for Magical-Marketing.com is about 5 times better than GraphicGirlz.com which we still keep live. This is true even though graphicgirlz.com has been up for 15 years and has many more sites linking back to it.

And that’s only one reason we love WordPress. There are many great reasons to change over to WordPress from HTML, Vista Print, Yahoo, GoDaddy, Joomla, or other platforms that I decided to create this list. Here are 10 good reasons to make the change from whatever platform you’re currently on to the WordPress Platform.

1. Google Loves WordPress!

Google loves a site that is clean, fast, organized, updated frequently and includes a blog and WordPress ranks at the top.  Within 2 months of launch, our Magical Marketing website ranked better by 100% than our HTML Graphic Girlz site that had been indexing for 15 years. Also, there are countless plug-ins available for WordPress that will assist you in setting up your SEO like meta tags, title tags, description, links and much more.

2. WordPress Has a Great Content Management System that Anyone Can Use

click on image to zoom

WordPress has a user-friendly backend that is similar to programs like Microsoft Word, making it simple to update text, photos and media content yourself. Also WordPress is continually improving its Content Management System, adding features such as threaded comments, galleries, revision histories, trash, custom post types, and more.  And if you have an assistant, it’s likely she already knows how to use WordPress and can update that for you. If she cannot, there are thousands of WordPress maintenance providers out there for a reasonable price.

3. WordPress Has Cool Widgets That Can Be Moved Around

Widgets are boxes of content that usually show up in the side bar or footer of your WordPress site. These boxes can contain media like photos or videos, testimonials that rotate like a slide show, and interactive elements like opt-in boxes and subscription forms. If you look in the column to the right you’ll see great examples of useful widgets: the opt in box and banners in the side bar plus the Twitter feed, blog roll and events list in the footer. WordPress provides a few dozen widgets to easily place on your site, and custom widgets can be made as well. It’s very easy to move widgets around in your Theme, a handy feature when you want to temporarily emphasize a specific action on your site.

4. WordPress Has Awesome Plugins for Flexibility

WordPress programmers around the world have created a plethora of plug-ins that allow you to add great photo galleries, image sliders, shopping carts, forums, maps, and other great functionality to your site, and they’re easy to install. On the Magical-Marketing.com website home page you see the beautiful slide show at the top of the page … that’s a visible example of a plug-in. Many folks love the Membership Plug In that provides passwords and protected content to members.

5. WordPress Blog Makes Your Site Wildly Attractive

WordPress has the best blogging platform available anywhere. WordPress Blogs feature useful elements such as categories, tags, threaded commenting, gravatars, easy theming, widgets, fantastic moderation controls, anti spam solutions that make using it a breeze. Plus, including a blog to a WordPress site is a great way to attract and involve visitors, and to keep Google paying attention. The Magical-Marketing.com blog attracts hundreds of unique visitors each month who stay an average of 8 minutes. This gives them plenty of time to see what else I have to offer on the site. Your blog is the most attractive page on your site so if you don’t have one, your site visibility is suffering.

6. WordPress is Exceptionally Accessible and Mobile Friendly

WordPress sites are programmed to easily show up on iPhones, BlackBerry, Android, iPad, as well as alternative browsers such as text only browsers. Never worry about your site not showing up on someone’s browser or phone.

7. WordPress is Mighty Secure

We use Genesis WordPress Platform which keeps the parent theme separate from your custom theme, improving the security of the site and protecting your content from hackers, etc. WordPress also offers plug ins to prevent spam and other intrusions.

8. WordPress Theme Designs Can Be Customized

Your WordPress site can be created to look just like the site you already have, or you can use a pre-designed theme, or create a new custom designed theme. We work with programmers who can take any design I create and make it into a fully functioning WordPress website.  One great thing about WordPress, your themes are independent from your content, so you can edit or swap out themes at any time and keep your content and functionality in place.

9. Your WordPress Website Can Grow With You

There are no limits to how much content, photos, galleries, plug-ins, themes you can continue to post on your WordPress site. There is no limit to how big your blog and website can grow nor to the number of visitors you can receive. WordPress is used by billions of websites – from the simplest of independent blogs to large brand name websites like Flickr, People, New York Times blog and many more.

10. We Can Convert Your Current Site to WordPress for as Little as $500

You may already have a website design that you love (maybe we designed it for you years ago!) and you don’t want it changed, except to include an Integrated Blog. If you have always wanted to be able to post to and update your site yourself, we can convert your site to WordPress as is and include an integrated blog for as little as $500.

Here is one rave review from a happy client:

“Julia–Thanks so much for converting my site from html to WordPress as I requested.  It was done as agreed, you kept me informed along the way, and I truly appreciate your efforts.  I was especially pleased with the quick turnaround because I know how long these things can take if not done by a good company.  You are a true professional and stand behind your work.  Thanks again!” ~ Peggy Nelson

If you would like your current site converted to WordPress

or if you would like to explore other options for a new WordPress Site, please call Julia at (707) 823-3316 or use her online scheduler at http://www.schedulewithjulia.com to schedule an appointment.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, wildly attractive logos and websites, and smart Internet marketing techniques. If you’re ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia’s free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com

These original souls probably received very little encouragement at first because nobody had ever done what they were setting out to do. It wasn’t a certain success, in their minds. It hadn’t been successfully tried before.

It’s the Catch 22, you have an original idea or process which is great but then since nobody’s tried it, nobody is certain it will succeed, so nobody supports it. If you still pursue it and you succeed, then everyone wants to follow you.

Here’s a typical scenario. Someone with a brilliant idea, let’s call her Ms. Originality, does something completely new and out of the box. Then when she achieves success with it, she creates a system for others to follow in her footsteps. The problem is, the followers are trying to conform to Ms. Originality’s style or process and it doesn’t work for them in the same way. It makes no sense but it happens all the time.

So here’s the challenge; how to be your completely original and almost freakishly different self and still be prosperous?

That is the question Prosperity Muse Mimi Quick and Magical Marketer Julia Stege will address in their upcoming special webinar “Being a Prosperous Freak: How Being Different Makes You Prosperous” on Wednesday, May 22 at 11am PT.

Both Julia and Mimi have created successful businesses by being different, and they want to help others to be prosperous by being themselves.

“Your authentic self is the most attractive thing about you, but when all these coaches tell you to follow in their footsteps, you sacrifice your originality,” warns Julia. “Mimi and I want to give you valuable tips and strategies that have helped us to maintain our own freaky, individual style while succeeding and prospering in our businesses.”

Mimi  emphasizes, “Life is all about embracing WHO YOU REALLY ARE with Love and Stepping out powerfully with your amazing gifts and being in contribution the way that is best for you..So how can you begin to do that now? That’s exactly what Julia and I will be sharing with you in our special call.”

During this complimentary webinar you will

~ Learn about what stops you from being fully you

~ Discover how our clients have succeeded by being real

~ Learn tips for clearing resistance to authenticity

~ Explore what patterns bring you forward and which drag you back, and how to change that

~ Clear the cobwebs from your unique vision and set it in motion

~ Celebrate your wildly creative, super freaky, outrageously different, opulent self

~ Experience a shift in how you approach business and life from now on, as a Prosperous Freak!

Mimi Quick (left) and Julia Stege (right) Facilitators

Program: Being a Prosperous Freak: How Being Different Makes You Prosperous

Facilitators: Julia Stege and Mimi Quick

Date: Wed. May 22, 2013

Time: 11 am PT / 12 pm MT / 1 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 7pm GMT /

Register Here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/580679858

Lenin on stage during the 1917 Russian Revolution. Colorized by Julia Stege

Back in the ‘way-day’ (in my late 20s) I used to be a full-time revolutionary. I spent day and night studying up on ideas of freedom, the voices of rebels throughout history, especially what worked and what didn’t work about what they did. I worked with a group who were studying these ideas to try and implement them in our community. And so we experienced what worked and what didn’t work to inspire folks to change their world for the betterment of the world.

Of course I studied Karl Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, V.I. Lenin and all the famous revolutionaries of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, and what they did right and what they did wrong in the pursuit of absolute freedom.

There was a story about Lenin that particularly captivated me, one where he had an amazing breakthrough in his thinking that he refused to share with the world.

You see, even the most famous revolutionary in the world
can be afraid to reveal his unique discovery.

Back in the early 1900s, most of the progressive ideologues believed that humans are conditioned by their circumstances, specifically workers are a force for revolution but they can’t lead themselves. They need the intellectuals who have the smarts and the vision to lead them.

Lenin was at the forefront of those who believed in the small group of intellectuals needed to lead the revolution, and he laid out his plan in 1902 in a book called “What Is To Be Done.” But in 1914 while in exile in Switzerland, Lenin was studying the dialectical philosopher G.W.F. Hegel and had a breakthrough, or what we today might call, “an awakening.”

After studying dialectics which reveals a movement through contradiction to freedom, Lenin saw the creativity of cognition, that is the innate creative power within all humans.

“Man’s cognition not only reflects the objective world, but creates it. The world does not satisfy man and man decides to change it by his activity!” V.I. Lenin

What this breakthrough meant specifically was that the workers could lead themselves to freedom. This was not what Lenin shared with the world, however. Upon his return to Russia to lead the revolution of 1917, Lenin re-issued “What Is To Be Done,” thus paving the way for the Stalinist dictatorship.

Why did Lenin keep his breakthrough to himself?

Nobody really knows why Lenin didn’t go out to all the workers and share his breakthrough. You’d think someone like that would always put their beliefs out there, even if his ideas were at odds with all his revolutionary cadres. But when we look back at history, we see time and again leaders failing to live up to their historical imperative.  We can just imagine what the Soviet Union would have been like had Lenin and the Bolsheviks created a new kind of society that recognized the, “creativity of cognition” and allowed true creative freedom and self-expression to flourish.

What can we learn from Lenin’s mistake?

Rally for Education Rights I helped to organize in DeKalb, Illinois in 1989. The banner reads, ‘ Free Your Body, Free Your Mind, By Any Means Necessary” (colorized by Julia Stege)

We are all visionaries. In the middle of the night, great visions come to us that prompt us to contribute to the betterment of humanity and the world. Then as dawn breaks on a new day, we hide our authentic selves and retreat to the same-old-same-old, sharing some milk-toast idea or tip with our peeps, get back to the daily grind of work and keep our great breakthroughs to ourselves.

We will never know what impact our great vision could have on the world if we refuse to share it.

I know what it’s like. Do you think it was a no-brainer to share this story about Lenin with you, much less even admit I’d even read Lenin? But I’ve been thinking Ie have a greater responsibility to our world than just to create a successful business for myself, and I’m being called to do something about it.

What great gift or vision have you been keeping to yourself in the name of ‘keeping it professional,’ or,  ‘not turning off my potential clients,’ or ‘not having it all together yet?’

What is the legacy you really want to create for this world through your business?

I’m here to help you clarify and express your purpose through marketing that attracts your tribe and inspires a revolution. If you need help determining your next steps to sharing your purpose through your branding and website, please apply for a Magical Strategy Session with me and we’ll  work out a plan for you together. Just visit http://www.MagicalStrategySession.com to get on my calendar.

“I’m trying to appeal to a more main-stream audience now so I don’t think I should mention spirituality on my website even though that is important to me in my personal life.”

“I don’t want to sound to woo woo so I was thinking of changing my message or offering.”

“I’m afraid of turning people off if I share that about myself.”

“I’ve been advised by three people in the last week not to use the word ‘Soul’ in my business name. I think that means I should take their advice.”

“I was told it’s not professional to x-y-z (whatever your real self-expression is).”

I guess the Universe knew just who to send these folks to because I seem to be the only one advising them to use their most authentic self as the measure against everything they do in their marketing. I know that in the middle of the night their purpose is calling them to share it with the world. All this advice about being professional and not turning people off is thwarting their ability to get their message to the world.

And for many, right now in this moment that feels like a good thing.

What, a good thing that they’re being advised not to be authentic? How could anyone feel that’s a good thing?

The reason is that being authentic is scary to them.

Being authentic means being vulnerable. It means showing your Soul to the world and opening up yourself to possible criticism, which in itself isn’t so bad but when it’s about your SOUL, that can be too hard to bear. Or so it seems.

I remember when I was afraid to let folks know I was into the magical aspects of life. I was afraid folks would think that I was spacey, ungrounded, deluded or insane. Then I changed my brand to include the word “Magical” and all that changed. I started attracting folks who are attracted to the magical so they love my unique brand.

Last year I came to realize that I’d been afraid to share my rebellious, even revolutionary side. I have a particular passion for civil rights and a desire to replace all anti-human, anti-nature systems with those designed to promote and support freedom, self expression and the preservation of our natural resources. I’m still working out how I can integrate my passion for social change with my marketing business. One way I’m doing that is by sharing this with you.

What can you share with your people that you haven’t shared before? What authentic expression can you send to your peeps that will reveal a deeper side of you, your Soul’s purpose? Share in the comments field below. I’d love to hear from you!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, wildly attractive logos and websites, and smart Internet marketing techniques. If you’re ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia’s free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com

Graphic Girlz Logo and Post Card Design Self Marketing

Our  businesses are always evolving, but we don’t always rush to change our  brand with every change in our business, because brand consistency is so  important.

However, there comes a time for many of us that we realize  we have outgrown our brand. That happened to me in 2011 but this  realization was long in the coming.

In  2006 my business changed radically. That year I became a certified  Strategic Attraction CoachTM and began integrating the Attraction  Consulting  into my design business. Through the deep inner work  inspired by the Attraction Planning process, I saw more clearly what is  most important to me.

At that time I started calling myself The Magical  Marketer, created the Branding from the Heart system, and began teaching  conscious entrepreneurs how to attract their perfect customers with an  authentic approach to marketing. Clearly  I had moved beyond my original brand, “Graphic Girlz” into a whole new realm of marketing.

However, for years I kept my old brand because I already had a decade of marketing  invested into it. I needed to work with a couple of high end branding experts to help me make the necessary change to the Magical Marketing brand.

Now I have been working with Magical Marketing as my brand for over a year and my business has grown, more people are visiting my website, and I’m getting more inquiries and referrals than ever before.

Standing here and looking back, I wonder why it took me so long.   An even better question is how can I help others before they’ve been living with an outdated brand for too long?

So  I have come up with 4 Sure Signs that Your Brand is Outdated. Check  these signs against your brand to see if your brand has been outgrown by  your business.

Outdated Brand Sign #1) Your Brand is about a specific offering but you offer way more than that now.  For instance, Graphic Girlz is clearly about Graphic Design but I offer  Brand Strategy and Attraction Marketing Services. That’s a good sign  the Brand needs to expand to cover all the offerings.

Outdated Brand Sign #2) You have had a philosophic shift that your brand doesn’t reflect. For  instance, I created Graphic Girlz as a graphics services partnership in  1995. In 1998 my partner left and I had a deep spiritual shift which  led to involvement with Law of Attraction principles.

Outdated Brand Sign #3) People express confusion about what you actually do.  I  recently had someone I’ve been networking with for years say to me,  “but you don’t do logos, do you?” When people who know you are confused  about your offerings, it’s time to upgrade your brand message.

Outdated Brand Sign #4) You are embarrassed to show your brand to anyone.  Do you apologize when you hand your card out because your brand is not a  great representation of your brilliance? This is a sure sign that it’s  time to upgrade your branding. An embarrassing brand is not an  attractive brand!

Are you ready for a brand that is a true reflection of your vision, your purpose, your personality and your attraction plan? Shining your light to the world is your destiny. Let me help your light be a beautiful, authentic and wildly attractive one.

Apply for your complimentary Magical Strategy Session at http://www.magicalstrategysession.com/ or call Julia at (707) 823-3316 to schedule your appointment.

“Our life is the creation of our mind.” ~ Buddha

Quote art by Julia Stege of Magical-Marketing.com

You may copy and share this quote art as long as you do not edit the image in any way and include the above credit lines.

“Blessed is he whose fame does not outshine his truth.”  ~ Rabindranath Tagore (One of George Harrison’s favorite poems, read by wife Olivia while accepting her husband’s induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame)

George Harrison was always my favorite Beatle, but he was more than a rock star to me. Looking back it’s difficult to measure the impact George had on my life. As a teenager, I listened endlessly to George’s musical poetry and contemplated the nature of humanity and God. He was the first to introduce me to spirituality. His songs helped me to see beyond the illusion of material reality and into the realm of the divine.

While watching Martin Scorsese’s HBO documentary on Harrison’s life called “Living in the Material World” I was reminded of George’s deep mysticism and the courage with which he brought his message to the world.

In the film there’s a clip where George says he thought a lot about whether or not to release his song My Sweet Lord which exposes Harrison’s yearning for oneness with God and extolls his belief that all religions are one.

“I thought a lot of people were going to really hate me because people fear the unknown. I felt like I was putting my neck out on the chopping block. But at the same time I thought ‘Nobody’s saying it …why should I be untrue to myself?’ I came to believe in the importance that if you feel something strong enough, then you should say it.”

Harrison’s courage was rewarded with a #1 single and the satisfaction that millions were being introduced to spirituality through his music. Conformity rarely comes with such rewards.

Harrison’s Example Can Inspire Spiritpreneurs

Many of my clients who are spiritually oriented entrepreneurs fear that marketing their businesses requires a degree of inauthenticity. They fear if they are ‘too honest” they might receive negative feedback by those not ready for their message.

Like George, many of us have worried that we’d get flack for being visionaries, for seeing the world differently, and for insisting on something more real than material accumulation for its own sake. George risked his rock-star status by staying true to his spiritual principles.

Many of us have feared we might lose our businesses if we follow our passion. But I believe the opposite is true. In a world where conscious entrepreneurship is on the rise, millions are seeking an alternative to unconscious materialism. Your unique offering could be the alternative those millions are seeking right now!

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of his birth, let’s be inspired by George Harrison’s pioneering spirit and share our true hearts authentically with the world. Our websites, ezines, blogs, social networks and community gatherings offer us a platform from which to share what is most important to us and to experience the bliss of attracting a following of like-minded, like-hearted fans. Let’s allow our passion to inspire ingenuity and transformation. The world desires, and deserves, nothing less.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, wildly attractive logos and websites, and smart Internet marketing techniques. If you’re ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia’s free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com

Even if you have a lot of customers now, you could benefit from having a larger percentage of those being perfect customers rather than pain-in-the-butt customers, right?

And if you have a dearth of customers of any kind, a surge of new, perfectly aligned customers would be welcomed.

My advice is not to suddenly amp up your advertising budget and blast your message far and wide, inundating the world with your promotions. My advice is to take some simple, deeply intuitive actions to help you align with your desire and meet the folks who are seeking you right now.

Here are 5 ways to attract more of your perfect customers

1) Do Your Attraction Plan

If you are currently not attracting the right people to your business, it’s time to create or recreate your Attraction Plan. The Attraction Plan helps us to gain consciousness about what we really want, and that awareness helps us recognize our perfect customers and draw them to us.

2) Create a Compelling Brand Message from the Heart

Your brand message is the most important element of your marketing. What you say about your business and offerings will either compel or repel your perfect customers. That’s why I work with each of my clients, whether they are logo or website design clients, to clarify their message first. Your message should include reference to your perfect customers, your unique gifts and your purpose. That way those who are aligned with you will recognize you and be compelled to connect with you.

3) Give Away Great Content that Keeps Them Coming Back for More

When you give away useful content (advice, tips, audio, video, etc) your perfect customers are able to check out what it’s like to work with you before they commit. I have clients who checked me out for years before stepping forward to work with me. The reason they stayed with me that long is because I give away great content that helps them attract their perfect customers even before we work together. Your free offers are the key ingredient to attracting perfect customers online.

4) Communicate with the World from your Online Oasis

Your brand message and free offer need a home base, one that represents you online. We call Magical Marketing websites an “Online Oasis” because it’s a beautiful, inspiring place online folks can visit to experience you, get some great information, and connect with you. If your website doesn’t represent you or your message well, you won’t attract your perfect customers. It’s when your website resonates like you and compellingly displays your free offer that you will start attracting people who are aligned with you. Your Online Oasis provides a platform for your expression day and night.

5) Get Help!

If you are not attracting enough of the right customers, you are not getting your message or your gifts to the world the way you could be. It’s important to get professional help with your brand and website if you want your business to expand and grow in the right direction. Any investment of time and money you make into these foundations of your marketing funnel will be returned to you exponentially as you attract more of your perfect customers.

Here are some ways I can help you now:

1) Get your Attraction Plan at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com and start working on it 5 minutes in the morning and 5 minutes at night for the best effect.

2) Come to my next complimentary webinar “Branding Basics for Spiritual Business Women and Conscious Entrepreneurs” on Wed. March 20 at 11am PT. I will be sharing my formula for a successful brand message along with other secrets to attracting your perfect customers online.

3) Apply for a Magical Strategy Session and Website Analysis with me. If you’ve been suffering with a boring brand or website for too long and know it’s time to step up your game, I invite you to apply for a Magical Strategy Session and Website Analysis with me. We will connect for 30 minutes in a no-obligation review of what you’re doing now, what you want to attract, and how to get you there. Due to my limited schedule, these are offered on a first-come, first-served basis to those who qualify by filling out my survey at http://www.magicalstrategysession.com

Even the most popular brands change when it’s time. For instance the Apple logo has changed radically from its inception in 1976.

Have you been using one brand for a long time even though your business has changed? Are you holding back your message because your brand cannot contain your new perspective? A lot of business owners believe that they should never change their brand, but this is a misconception, one I held for many years.

Due to that misconception, I kept the same brand for years beyond significant changes in my business that warranted a new brand, and my business suffered. I thought that keeping the same name and message was important for continuity, but what happened was I confused potential customers, and a confused customer won’t buy.

Holding on to an outdated brand is a bad idea for a number of reasons including that it

• Keeps your perfect customers from easily recognizing you
• Gives the impression that your services are outdated
• Confuses people about who you really are
• Sends the message that you don’t care about your brand or your business

In effort to help you avoid the downsides of an outdated brand,  I have come up with 5 Sure Signs that Your Brand is Outdated. Check  these signs against your brand to see if your brand has been outgrown by  your business.

1) Your Brand is about a specific offering but you offer more than that now. I speak to a lot of business owners who achieved a certain level of success with a brand based on a specific offering, but when they made changes to their offerings, they kept the same name. For instance, a woman who was a massage therapist created a Massage Center but when she expanded into holistic healing, she kept the same name and tagline that didn’t include the new offerings. When your name is holding you back from attracting folks interested in all you have to offer, that’s a good sign the brand needs to expand to cover all the offerings.

2) You have had a philosophic shift that your brand doesn’t reflect. For  instance, in 1998 I had a deep spiritual shift which  led to involvement with Law of Attraction principles. Looking back, I should have changed my brand then even though it was successful and growing in popularity. I did eventually change the brand to match my philosophy and became instantly more successful. What would have happened had I changed it in ’98 instead of ’12? Nobody will ever know.

3) People express confusion about what you actually do or how you can help them.  If a lot of people act confused when you explain what you do, or if your website fails to attract any interest, that’s a good sign that your brand message needs clarification. You want your message to be an clear, authentic, and compelling reflection of your business offerings and your unique gifts. Instead of a confused look, your message should inspire excitement and interest in your perfect customers.

4) You are embarrassed to show your brand to anyone.  Do you apologize when you hand your card out because your brand is not a  great representation of your brilliance? Do you shyly admit that your website is not current or a poor reflection of your offerings? This is a sure sign that it’s  time to upgrade your branding. An embarrassing brand is not an  attractive brand!

5) Your logo looks like its from another era. It’s one thing to embrace a vintage look (like we did for SpiritualDiet.com) but another thing altogether to have a logo that just looks outdated. Even the biggest brands change over time. For instance the Ford logo has changed radically since its inception in 1903. The Apple logo (above) too has changed it’s symbol over the years. You may just need to tweak the logo to keep it a fresh representation of your business.

If you’re like many of the business owners I speak with, you have been living with an outdated brand for too long, but you’ve been afraid to change. I know how you feel, but I also know I was leaving a lot of money on the table in my business because my brand wasn’t a true reflection of me. If you have any of the above signs of an outdated brand, please do yourself and your business a favor and make the effort and the investment to upgrade your brand now. When you do you will notice a magical shift in the kind of clients you attract.

Are you ready for a brand that is a true reflection of your vision, your purpose, your personality and your attraction plan? Shining your light to the world is your destiny. Let me help your light be a beautiful, authentic and wildly attractive one. Apply for your complimentary Magical Strategy Session at http://www.magicalstrategysession.com/ or call Julia at (707) 823-3316 to schedule your appointment.