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Investing in YOU is the best investment you can make. The brand of you is a living resume and case study.

I recently recorded a podcast about creating a personal brand. And if you follow me on LinkedIn (or any other social platform), you know that I’ve spent the past couple of months doing just that. I took the best of what I’m doing, what I’m thinking, and how I’m helping clients, and I am now sharing it with the world instead of hiding "my light under a bushel," hoping someone discovers me. I know you’ve been seeing me because I’ve heard from many of you, some of which I haven’t talked to in quite a while. What a treat!

The Five Ones brand was born out of my own personal ideals and the vision to build a business. Before I even had a website, I had an idea to create a blog called “Marketing Motivation.” When that didn’t pan out, it turned into this newsletter. Then, when I created the copy for FiveOnes.com, the words catalyst, momentum, and kinetic energy bubbled to the top. They describe my philosophy to a T.

In my copywriting reading travels this month, I scrolled upon this quote: “Momentum creates motivation. Motivation creates opportunity, and opportunity creates results.”

This is how I view my marketing services. If I can help create the momentum, together we can easily get to results.

So, what’s my advice this month? Buy into you. Live it. Breathe it. Bleed it. If you’re consistent in your efforts, whether it’s managing your boss, in your writing, in your deal-making, or whatever you do daily, your “brand” will shine through. It will help others feel and ultimately make a connection with you.

Think what you’re doing is cheesy? Only if it’s not 100% YOU. Now that's some #marketing #motivation.

Forward

My favorite way to start the day is to get up early while no one is stirring in my house and take a walk with the dog while listening to podcasts. I do enjoy true crime, but my go-to podcasts are ones that offer really actionable professional tidbits like the Boss Project: Strategy Hour Podcast. This one is about creating higher converting copy. Yes, please.

The best e-news IMO offer a quick and easy read (hopefully like this one) and uncovers super cool new s@#$! This one doesn't disappoint from the folks at Top Hat somewhere in PA. I'm a Washington Caps fan so I can't mention the place specifically, if you get my drift. I have a page at the back of my notebook where I stash away recommendations from their "try this" section that I'm excited to put to use. Give it a go.

For those stuck in the data points...I recently presented "10 Ways Your Fundraising Data Can Help Your Fundraising Communications" at the Association of Fundraising Professionals Icon Conference. Developing this presentation took me a year. YES, a year! I read over 750 pages of research and distilled it down to 80-or-so slides. Here are the main takeaways.

For storytellers looking for a better "system"...I created a roadmap for developing passionate, persuasive writing. It takes you step-by-step through planning, writing, and promoting your final product. Read about the process here.

For anyone looking for a reminder on value propositions...I recently spoke to a group of Georgetown students about how I help create value propositions using features and benefits. Here are the slides.

For curious minds...As mentioned above, I am always looking for the latest and greatest marketing tools. Here are my top picks I've been using: Markup, Pretty Funnels, Infogram, Gloomaps.

"Has anyone built a private online community on any other platform other than Facebook and had success? I am looking to build one and would like to weigh pros & cons of various hosting platforms."

This question dropped at the very moment I was putting together a blog post about building online communities. You can check it out here.

The age of private Facebook and LinkedIn groups has fueled the value of private communities. I hear this question often because if you're going to spend time building a community, it's got to be in the right place! Here are my pros and cons of building a community through a platform on your website versus using an existing platform, like a group in a public platform.

Thanks to the Facebook group The Daily Carnage for this question.

Just do it,

Copyright © 2021 Five Ones | Visionary Leadership and Marketing Momentum, All rights reserved.

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