Kristie T’s Home Business Blog Fun, mom-geared work-at-home tips and advice on making money on the net.

I found a great example of true authenticity in branding. I joined a new Christian Women’s Business Networking group. And one of the women named Diana Gwilt has a business named FROG (Fully Rely on God) that is an errand running service. She has a fun domain name WeHopToIt.com. But my favorite part is that she has a prayer request page right on her business website.

I love that she isn’t afraid to get herself known as a Christian business. What a great example of authenticity and letting who you really are shine through.

If you live locally in Lake County Illinois, you’ll want to check out Diana’s website. Her errand service is great for busy moms. They do everything from light housecleaning, grocery shopping, and even walking the dog.

Doesn’t it seem like more businesses are stepping out and making themselves known as “Christian businesses”? Do you know of any Christian businesses online or in your home town?

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I hope you will join me in attending the Office Depot Success Strategies for Women Event. It’s called “Branding Yourself for Unstoppable Success“. There’s a killer line up of speakers including:

- Sandra Yancey - author of “Relationship Networking: The Art of Turning Contacts into Connections”
- Cynthia Kersey - best-selling author of “Unstoppable” (I have always wanted to see her speak!)
- Rosalyn Taylor O’Neale - CEO of Barnes, O’Neale and Associates
- Susan RoAne - author of best-selling books “How to Work a Room” and “What Do I Say Next”
- and “George Fraser” author of “The Complete Guide to Effective Networking”

There are also upcoming tour dates of March 27 in Washington DC and April 25 in Philadelphia.

Should be a stellar event. I will be attending with my press pass as a blogger covering the event. So be sure to stay posted for live “from the event” coverage right here on the Webmomz blog.

For complete details visit OfficeDepotSuccess.com or call 800-745-0398.

If you plan on attending the event, let me know. I’d love to meet you in person!

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I’m sure your library is probably as crazy as mine. But sometimes I think I have so many awesome resources, that I forget what I have. Someone once said that the only thing that will be different 10 years from now is the books you read, the people you meet, and the experiences you have.

I have more the enough books that I’ve read - that’s for sure. My goal for next year is to IMPLEMENT what I have read. No more learning (which will be hard - I love learning)

Well, here are the books I have in my library. I have read 80% of them. The others, need to sit down and read.

Is your library as big as this? - And there are LOTS of ebooks and books in the basement haven’t even accounted for here.

(more…)

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I was chatting with a mom in the mom mastermind forum which I am a member of about positioning statements. She is starting a new natural soy candles, bath and body, aromatherapy products store online. And she was having trouble thinking of a slogan.

I explained to her that a positioning statement is like a USP (unique selling proposition) or slogan. It’s your memory hook that you will incorporate in your logo, advertising, website, and elevator speech.

I am reading a great book now by Harry Beckwith called Selling the Invisible. It’s about how to market intangible service based products. The book, Selling the Invisible, recommends to create your positioning statement by answering these questions.

1) Who are you
2) What business are you in
3) What need do you serve
4) What’s different
5) What’s the benefit

Once you answer those questions, it’s a matter of putting that together in a short, snappy statement that makes you unforgetable and truly sets you apart from the competition!

If you enjoyed that, here are some related posts:

- Differentiate yourself
- 10 keys to a strong USP
- 6 Ideas for Unforgetable Memory Hooks

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I was having coffee with a friend yesterday who has started and sold several businesses for millions of dollars. Recently he started a small business training business. I noticed that recently he removed his name from the company name and switched to a more company based presence. In his opinion, owning a personality driven business can hurt you when it comes to an IPO. Venture capitalists believe that once the “face” of a personality business leaves, the company dies.

While having a business driven by a personal brand is great to get known quickly for what you do, if you plan on selling your business down the road, you may consider taking your name out of the business.

There are 2 exceptions to the rule that I can think of where the person behind the company became the company name and they achieved huge business success.

Mary Kay - that fabulous “think pink” makeup company
and
Ruth Chris - that amazing steak house.

For the time being, I am going to keep my Kristie T name for my training/consulting business. But I do have separate company names for Branding on the Net and Webmomz.

What are your thoughts on whether using your name in your business is good?

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Imagine sending a proposal to a client and having a postage stamp on it with your photo on it. Wouldn’t that be cool? Well now you can! Today I saw this post on Rookie Moms about how to create your own custom postage stamp. Rookie Moms by Whitney and Heather is a fun blog about two silly moms navigating their way through the challenging years of mommyhood. They offer a lot of fun craft ideas for moms. And that’s where I found this little idea about the personalized stamps.

A photo postage stamp would be a hip birthday gift for the person who has everything.
I personally could see photoshopping the picture and adding my own crazy fun wording on it before making it into stamps.

Or how about putting your wedding photo on when you send out the thank you cards.
Or imagine sending a “pitch” to the media using stamps with your picture.
What if you got stamps with your book cover on them? The ideas go on and on.

It’s $17.99 for a sheet of 20 stamps. So it’s a little pricier than your average postage stamp. But the coolness factor is way out there. You can get the photo stamps at Stamps.com

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One of the things I talk about in my Motherload Guide to Personal Brands that Sell is the need for experts to develop their own nomenclature. Nomen what you say? Nomenclature, your own system of words and terminology around your brand. I’ll show you an example of what I mean.

I tell you that I love what I do in my web branding work. I create brand building websites for some of the best and brightest authors, speakers, and experts to turn them into overnight successes. I am working now with a brilliant life coach by the name of Christy Carpentier who really “gets” the branding nomenclature thing.

Here are some of her unique terminologies around Christy Carpentier’s brand:

She is the ShIFt Coach (TM)

Her company name is Co-Volution (TM) - (a combination of coaching and evolution) Revolutionary coaching for the Evolution of You.

Her motto: Guiding People while they are knee deep in ShIFt. (TM)
(Notice that the IF is capital. In coaching, you ask a lot of IF questions of yourself. So she made that part of her brand.)

GIFted ShIFted (TM)
ShIFt Assist Coaching (TM)
ShIFt Soulyoution Seminars (TM) (notice the misspelling of solutions - smart!)

And her title? Why it’s Chief ShIFt Expert (TM) (CSE) of course - cool huh?

Just reading the names of her approach helps you to see her originality, creativity, and individuality. In a world of look alike “me too” coaches, Christy stands out like a glorious diamond in the midst of some cubic zirconia coaches. It’s a powerful way to define herself in the coaching community.

She has developed unique terminology for her approach to coaching. And you’d better believe she trademarked those bad boys. So don’t even think of “borrowing” those ideas from her or you’ll surely get a cease and decist notice. If you want to know more about trademarking your brand names, I wrote an article just yesterday on Trademarking your business name and terminology, sign up for our new Webmomz guru mini newsletter here to get that article.

Tell us who you know that has some great nomenclature. (Hey you learned a new word today!)

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Okay, if take two young dudes, put sunglasses on them, give them a computer and what do you get? A freakin’ awesome business idea that will make Awesome Jim and Awesome Dave of Awesome Million a cool million in cash.

These guys have an absolutely brilliant and hillariously fun idea. For 1 dollar, they will make you a 1 page mini website that declares that any person, place, or thing you know is Awesome! It totally taps into the whole vanity thing and everyone wanting to feel important. And Jim and Dave market it with such fun that I am sure they will be laughing all the way to the bank.

For instance a couple of their customers sites are:
- Beer is Really Awesome
- My Thong is Really Awesome

And I love how every day, they pick a random “awesome customer” to give $100 dollars to.

This is one of those great business ideas that you scratch your head and say, “Why didn’t I think of that!”

Check out Awesome Dave, Awesome Jim, and their totally awesome website Awesome Million here. (Did I say that it was awesome by the way?)

What sites have you seen with original ideas for making a million dollars? Share them here!

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Excuse me Steve, but your personality is showing….

This morning in my morning “blog walk” I was checking out the blog of personal development guru Steve Pavlina (definately worth bookmarking!). He has the all time funniest message on Steve Pavlina’s contact page that you really should see!

Here it is….

“Please use the form below to send me a loving, joy-filled, high vibration message. My spam filters will trash messages that would serve to lower my vibration, so if you feel the urge to vent negative emotions, to host a private pity party, or to otherwise put more energy into manifesting what you don’t want, I recommend you keep reading this site until you start feeling better. Either that, or request a private reading from my wife; she’ll help you get your life back on course.

Take note that I’m a male Aries (I know — God help us!), so please make your overall point at the beginning of your message as opposed to writing your life story first. Due to the volume of email I receive, most likely you’ll only get a telepathic response. If you happen to receive an auto-reply from my sixth chakra that says I’m away on an OBE, I’ll follow up as soon as my astral body returns. “

Now how’s that for a great sense of humor! Great branding Steve! I love it when people let it all hang out like that! Kudos to you Steve! We call all take a lesson from you on being ourselves in our business.

What are some of the funniest things you have seen people do on their websites?

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Would you like some nifty ideas on how to make your product thank you messages really convey your brand personality?

Attention Dog Lovers: SitStay.com has the all time funniest thank you notes. After you buy from them here’s what you get. Look for their fun branding tie in’s to “dog stuff”.

Message 1: An order confirmation that restates what you bought and says this about shipping, “We usually ship within 2 business days of receiving your order, except on weekends. We spend the weekends with our families and dogs. (Okay, that’s not Amazon’s approach, but SitStay customers are a different breed”)

Message 2: A request to confirm your opt in that reads in part: “Your email address has been submitted by you or someone who knows how much you love dogs… Once you click on the link… the SitStay dogs will add your email address to the subscription list…”

Message 3: The double opt in thank you note: “Ruff! The SitStay Dogs have added (your email address) to the SitStay.com Newlsetter mailing list… Now throw the ball!”

What a funny way to appeal to their dog loving customers. It truly positions them as a warm, playful, fun company who loves their dogs! It goes a long way to build connections thru their common connection - dogs!

How can you punch up the personality in your email responders? Have you seen any clever campaigns that you wanted to share? Share your branding ideas here.

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