Entrepreneurship - Page 4

How to Take Your Leadership Skills to the Next Level

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Whether you work for someone else or run your own business, good leadership skills can have a very positive impact on your professional success. Great leaders have what it takes to guide their teams toward a common goal. Despite common belief, no one is born a natural leader. Anyone has the capacity to thrive in a leadership role with the right education! Check out the following resources from Keetria to take your leadership skills up a notch.

Get a Formal Education

While you don’t need a formal education to become a leader, pursuing a formal degree or diploma can prove invaluable.

  • Formal training will teach you tried and true leadership methods that you can employ in your own business.
  • Attending university is a fantastic opportunity to network with other leaders.
  • At school, you will learn how to think critically and take other perspectives — key traits of any effective leader.
  • Earning an online MBA degree is a great option for working professionals.

Learn on The Go

If you’re short on time, find creative ways to fit learning into your day! Audiobooks and podcasts are great for learning on the go.

  • Listen to podcasts while cooking dinner or cleaning the house.
  • Play an audiobook during your daily commute.
  • Read e-books while waiting for appointments.
  • Find ways to learn on the job.

Improve Your Communication Skills

Communication plays a key role in leadership. If you’re looking to improve your leadership skills, try learning how to be a better communicator.

Learning how to be a good leader won’t happen overnight. Every day, dedicate some time towards learning and practicing the skills that will help you succeed.

Keetria is an entrepreneur, wellness advocate, and brand strategy coach for creatives & entrepreneurs with 16 years of public relations expertise working with some of the world’s leading brands, startups, media personalities, and entertainers. If you would like to work together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

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Top 5 Podcasts for Creatives & Entrepreneurs

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The podcast market is well and truly spoiling us creatives and entrepreneurs! Whether you are a creative, an entrepreneur, or a creative entrepreneur, a good podcast can be insightful, engaging, and inspiring. Let’s show you five of our favorite podcasts so you can develop your skills and refine your life, all while driving the car or cooking your dinner!

Being Boss

A great starting point for any creative entrepreneurial freelancer. If you are daydreaming about quitting your job, or you have been in charge of your own life for a while, there is a wide variety of insight into routines, mindset, marketing, processes, and everything else involved in doing the thing you love. The hosts Emily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon provide a warm and engaging partnership that reminds us all that we’ve all got to start somewhere.

The Strategy Hour Podcast

We’re not all business-minded in the strictest sense, even though we run a business. If you are looking for marketing tips and strategies to grow your business, this is a podcast that will truly inspire you to work harder at doing what you love. The hosts Abagail Pumphrey and Emylee Williams from Think Creative Collective may have successful six-figure businesses, but they share the nitty-gritty details on how hard it was on the way up. Truly, this is a podcast about the meat and potatoes parts of running a business. The variety of entrepreneurs providing in-depth, real, and human perspectives on somewhat in-human components like sales and affiliate marketing make it a wonderful aural stepping stone to becoming a creative entrepreneur.

The Tim Ferriss Show

The lessons in running a business all begin with the lessons you learn yourself. Tim Ferriss has constantly searched for the “minimum effective dose” in his life, whether it’s working smarter, becoming physically fit, or running a business. And this long-running podcast provides an amazing insight into anything that you want to get better at. Guests like Tony Robbins have shone a light on what they do when they wake up in the morning, and others from a variety of industries remind us all the goal is simple: to learn function at our optimum. When you are trying to run a business, this is crucial.

Badass Creatives

If you are on a mission to change the world, this is the ideal podcast. The host Mallory Whitfield provides a plethora of personal and business advice for creative types. It’s one for those creatives who are looking to delve deep into the creative process, without necessarily going down the typical businessy aspects. While the host is a marketing expert, she is also an artist and speaker, which is an inspiration for anybody that may feel stuck in the digital realm but just dream of becoming creative in the most freeing sense.

Creative Pep Talk

If you want to build a creative career, you may feel you have to make concessions in life. If everybody around you is trying to talk you down, you need a pep talk like this podcast! The host Andy J. Pizza is there to give you insight and interviews with a wide variety of creative professionals to show you that everybody experiences difficulties in trying to achieve their dream!

Keetria is an entrepreneur, wellness advocate, and brand strategy coach for creatives & entrepreneurs with 16 years of public relations expertise working with some of the world’s leading brands, startups, media personalities, and entertainers. If you would like to work together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

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Communication Skills Every Entrepreneur Must Master

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Being an entrepreneur means being able to communicate with your employees, your shareholders, your customers, the list goes on… Here are a few tips to communicate effectively

Communication Skills for Entrepreneurs – Being an entrepreneur is more than just coming up with a great idea. It’s more than simply putting that idea to practice, too. As an entrepreneur, you more than likely are going to spend 99% of your time working with others to bring your ideas to life. If you can’t communicate your thoughts and ideas to anyone else, well, unless your business plan calls for a one-person show, you’re out of luck. 

Communication is a critical skill for all entrepreneurs. Even the best idea will never grow if the person who came up with it can’t communicate it effectively. Communication doesn’t just mean talking, either. There are many skills within the subset of communication, from body language to writing to negotiation, which are all critical to success as an entrepreneur. 

Eric Porat, an online entrepreneur shared with us six key communication skills you must master as an entrepreneur. 

1. Listening

Communication Skills for Entrepreneurs – Listening? You might be confused, but a good listener is on the fast track to becoming an excellent communicator. Entrepreneurs are often so caught up in their own brilliant ideas that they don’t stop to hear the thoughts of those around them. It’s a recipe for disaster.

Try to always focus on the person speaking to you and be sure you can summarize what they said in your own mind before you choose to respond and build on the conversation further. Good listening skills will allow you to serve your clients and manage your employees more effectively, because you’ll be able to identify and respond to their concerns and thoughts.

2. Conversing

Conversation is one of the most basic forms of communication, but because of that, it’s also the foundation for almost every interaction you’ll have as an entrepreneur. Basic conversations with your employees will build trust overtime, and they also can help you realize issues before they blow up and become serious. Meanwhile, a chat on the subway with a stranger just might become a sales opportunity.

If you can learn to speak in a friendly way (listening goes a long way here), you’ll be able to apply it to tons of situations, from sales pitches to conflict resolutions and more.

3. Conflict Management

Communication Skills for Entrepreneurs – Conflict management is one of the key parts of being an entrepreneur. Many managers spend nearly half their day dealing with conflicts. It might be between two employees who hold different opinions about their work or responsibilities, or it might be two of your vendors who had some sort of lapse in communication. 

In all cases, the trick is acknowledging both sides. Put yourselves in the shoes of each individual and figure out why they’re upset and what their point is. If you can’t understand both sides, you can’t resolve the issue. Come from a central ground and give each side their fair due.

Also, if you want to resolve conflicts successfully, you need to learn how to push back productively when an employee is in the wrong. That said, make sure any and all pushback is polite and productive, while remaining non-personal. A good plan is to focus on clarity at all times in conflict management. If you can communicate your thoughts clearly and concisely, it makes it a lot easier for people to listen and understand where you’re coming from.

4. Body Language

Much of communication is nonverbal, so mastering your body language is extremely important. Also, if you’re good with body language, you’ll learn to understand your employees and clients much better just from watching their body language. Posture is extremely critical. Sit or stand straight, keep your shoulders back, and hold your head high. ALWAYS look people in the eye and avoid fidgeting. Keep your hands out of your pockets, as well. 

These are mere basic techniques, and there are dozens upon dozens more. Becoming a body language expert is a great way to master communication subtly, because most people won’t even realize what you’re doing, but YOU will. 

5. Presenting

As an entrepreneur, presenting will have to be your bread and butter. You might be presenting your financials to investors, presenting your services to a client, presenting your business to a buyer, or something else. Even presenting the ideas behind entrepreneurship at an event or convention of sorts may be something in your calendar one day. 

Be clear, be concise, and remain poised at all times. Avoid talking too fast and avoid interjections like “um” at all costs. Good body language, like we talked about above, is critical when presenting. If you can present well, you’ll excel in a variety of settings, so work on your presentation skills today!

6. Writing

You don’t have to be the next Hemingway or Faulkner, but you do need to learn how to write concisely, communicating your thoughts in written form as simply and clearly as possible. Email is probably the most common form of communication in the modern business world. Texting and Slack messaging aren’t far behind. You MUST be able to communicate your thoughts clearly via the written word and avoid misinterpretation as much as possible. Being a skilled writer is a great way to become a superb manager.

Keetria is an entrepreneur, wellness advocate, and brand strategy coach for creatives & entrepreneurs with 16 years of public relations expertise working with some of the world’s leading brands, startups, media personalities, and entertainers. If you would like to work together, don’t hesitate to reach out!



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Why I Wrote “Courage Is A Muscle”

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When I begin writing the manuscript for what is now Courage Is A Muscle: Using Heart to Power Your Entrepreneurial Dreams, I didn’t have any specific intentions of what I wanted to do with the material once it was completed. I imagined the book would be largely about entrepreneurship but it ended up being more than that. Check out the introduction here.


Getting Started

I consider myself a writer and I write frequently, most of the time using pen and pad. I’ve always sketched, written short stories and poems along with all the creative journaling you can imagine. Since I was a child, I just enjoy the process. But, this particular project ended up being more than just another writing exercise, doodle, or creative blog. This time, the project and the process was completely different. And, the COURAGE journey is still unfolding. Needless to say, it’s been extremely insightful and far from anything I could have ever scripted in my imagination!

It started with an impulse. I just felt the nudge to write several months if not weeks leading up to me finally opening up my laptop and writing the first sentence. It’s funny because I kept getting the nudge to write and would often mention to family members and friends that I wanted to write but never truly got started. I knew I wanted to write something. For whatever reason, I stalled to get started until I begin to remember the inner conversations I had with myself, about my grandma. Within this manuscript, lies several lessons on courage, faith, and the importance of trusting yourself, and also building yourself.

In the Writing

When I started writing I looked forward to rereading all the material I wrote and thinking about why specific information came to mind. As I continued writing, I noticed how the different memories were given new life as I thought of them. I also found myself laughing aloud when I wrote a specific sentence or thought about the episodic adventures of my entrepreneurial journey. 

It’s funny how it’s always later on that we realize the significance of those memorable moments in our lives, whether it be something like a birth of a child, a wedding, or a funeral – how oftentimes these moments serve as reference points for starting over (aka getting our shit together), starting something new, or at least coming to terms where you are in your life – whether you like where you are or not. Writing helped me to rethink and to revisit the different steps of my entrepreneurial journey.

As I looked back on where I started to where I am now I realize that each step was important because it gave me the time and space I needed to grow. In the same way, we grow as we reach the many milestones of life. Now, with this information, I can see my way forward. Recalibrate. Do things differently or don’t do certain things at all. This particular piece of writing is what Courage Is A Muscle ended up being for me.


What I’ve Learned

Even though I didn’t start with a clear intention – other than to share entrepreneurial nuggets with my audience – Courage Is A Muscle also ended up being a bit of a memoir.  In hindsight, I realize how much I had to step outside my own comfort zone to share my experience with others. A bit more exposed and vulnerable; I ended up being okay with that. In the process, I also realized that the vulnerability of sharing much of ourselves with others isn’t as scary as our inner critics make it out to be.

Yes, people judge and criticize but I’ve learned that it’s really none of my business how another person runs their race. I may not like it or agree with it and I don’t have to – I do my best to stay in my lane. I found the more I laid it all out in my writing, the freer I became. It’s like I was able to tap into that encouragement my grandma offered years before — we can do anything we put our minds to.


To Sum It Up

At the end of the day, it takes courage. This book has allowed me to take a huge step in the right direction — outside of my own head. There’s much more I could add to this but I’ll let it here for now. I hope that you’ll enjoy Courage Is A Muscle as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

Courage Is A Muscle: Using Heart To Power Your Entrepreneurial Dreams is now available in Kindle & Paperback on Amazon.

Keetria is an entrepreneur, wellness advocate, and brand strategy coach for creatives & entrepreneurs with 16 years of public relations expertise working with some of the world’s leading brands, startups, media personalities, and entertainers. If you would like to work together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

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The Importance of Sharing your Gift with the World

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the importance of sharing your gift

Updated: March 2024

If we had to agree on one factor that makes human beings unique, it would be the gift of individual creative expression. No matter how small the gift or talent may seem, we each have something special to share that sets us apart from anyone else. Although many of us share similar gifts, we each have our own way of expressing them. Many of us can inspire, motivate, empower, or encourage others without being aware of it. 

Sharing your gift is a way to give back to the world, not because you have to but because it allows others to learn, grow and advance in ways they have yet to experience.

Throughout history, we have heard of people from diverse backgrounds who have shared their gifts or abilities and later become well-recognized for their contributions. Not that recognition should be your primary motive for sharing your gift although public recognition and appreciation from others can happen. 

From novice writers who have found their calling in writing books or poems to talented athletes who have pushed performance boundaries within their sport, we all have something to offer. When these talents are shared, we allow others to enjoy the uniqueness of our gift.

Whatever sets you apart from others is the source of your creative abundance. Your gift and your creativity serve as fuel for others. Taking action will inspire others to do the same. And as the old saying goes, gifts are meant to be shared. Again, you’re not seeking appreciation or validation for sharing your gift – your main focus is to share it. Those individuals drawn to experience your creative talent are the ones who will appreciate it most. But, no one benefits if you’re unwilling to share it first. 

Sharing your gift also provides knowledge for others. So in sharing, we help others navigate their journey. 

This is why we need to move beyond whatever self-doubt or fear we experience. We fuel self-limiting emotions even more when we debate whether we’re talented or good enough to share our work or ideas. By highlighting your gift, you eventually move beyond the fear of being judged and criticized. And again, more importantly, we allow others to experience what it’s like to share in those gifts, which can encourage them to do the same. 

1. Create a Space Online

You could start by creating a blog, social platform, podcast, or YouTube channel that focuses on a topic or subject that lights you up. Any outlet where you can express your ideas through your talent is an excellent place to start when sharing your gift. If you feel stuck when trying to determine the best option for you, ask yourself these three questions:

Who is my audience?

What platform(s) do they use (where can I find them)?

How will using this platform help me reach my audience?
One of the biggest benefits of creating an online space is that it’s something you can do from anywhere in the world. This means you can create a blog from your bedroom or a website from your local coffee shop. A space online allows you to share your work with a broader audience.

Are you a Creator who wants to share your story?

2. Try Volunteering

Check out organizations in your area that are involved in events or discussions that allow you to contribute your gift in some way. This could be through a speaker organization that can help you cultivate your talent or an animal shelter that allows you to work within their organization and work directly with animals waiting to be adopted. 

Volunteering is also a great way to flex your creative muscles. You’ll be working with people with different talents than you, which can give you a new perspective on how to approach problems. You’ll also work toward a common goal, which can help you think outside the box and make connections between seemingly unrelated topics.

Consider the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data (2022): a staggering 23.9% of Americans volunteered their time. This translates to millions of people sharing their gifts and making a positive impact.

3. Start Performing – Take Action

Whether a speaking engagement or open mic comedy night, putting yourself out there through action is a great way to share your gifts. Consider performing. Even if you’re hesitant about getting on stage, do it in fear, knowing that you’ll get better and better over time. 

Talent is like a muscle: it will atrophy if you don’t use it. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you don’t practice and hone your skills, you won’t get very far. Your goal is to stop sitting on your gifts and start giving them.

Benefits of Sharing Your Gifts

1. Personal Fulfillment

Sharing your talents allows you to express yourself authentically and pursue your passions. This can bring a sense of personal satisfaction and joy as you engage in activities that resonate with you deeply.

Sharing your gifts not only enriches your life but also positively impacts others. Our Creative Strategy Sessions offer expert guidance and tailored strategies to help you effectively share your talents. Unlock your full potential and showcase your creativity with confidence by joining us for a session today.

2. Building Connections

Sharing your gifts isn’t just about expressing yourself—it’s also about building connections and forming meaningful bonds with others who share your passions. Whether you’re collaborating on a project or simply swapping stories and insights, your gifts have the power to bring like-minded people together.

In doing so, you not only create a sense of belonging but also foster a vibrant community where everyone’s contributions are valued.

3. Personal Growth 

Stepping beyond your comfort zone, embracing risks, and challenging yourself are essential for sharing your gifts. This journey of personal growth involves learning new skills, overcoming obstacles, and expanding your horizons.

By daring to explore the unknown, you enrich your experiences and evolve into a better version of yourself.

4.  Developing Creativity and Innovation

Sharing your gifts not only stimulates creativity but also prompts fresh exploration of diverse viewpoints and ideas. This fosters innovation by inspiring you to experiment boldly, embrace calculated risks, and challenge the status quo.

As you push the boundaries of conventional thinking, you open doors to unprecedented possibilities and pave the way for transformative breakthroughs in your field.

5. Making a Difference

Sharing your gifts extends beyond personal satisfaction—it’s about making a difference in the wider world. Whether it’s sparking inspiration, advocating for important causes, or fostering positivity in your community, your contributions have far-reaching impacts. 

By embracing your talents, you play a vital role in creating a brighter future for all.

6.  Happiness and Well-Being

Research demonstrates a clear link between assisting others and utilizing your abilities intentionally to enhance happiness, self-worth, and overall life fulfillment. By leveraging your talents to make a positive impact, you cultivate a sense of significance and direction in your life. 

This connection between giving back and personal well-being highlights the profound benefits of sharing your gifts with the world. (source: APA PsycNet)

7.  Reduced Stress and Anxiety

Helping others and feeling connected to a community can have a calming effect. Studies indicate that it lowers stress hormones and induces a state of relaxation. 

This connection underscores the therapeutic benefits of both giving and belonging. (source: NCBI)

Conclusion 

When we have something – a talent or gift – that gives us an endless flow of creativity, peace, freedom, or empowerment, it shows that others could benefit too. When we decide to share, we support the potential for the endless opportunities our gift affords others.

Also. when we keep our gifts to ourselves, we end up diminishing our creativity because we’re not putting anything out to receive new creative energy. Stifling creative energy often leads to dissatisfaction and frustration in our lives. We end up with a surplus of drawings, crafts, and other skills that never see potential.

Many of us tend to discredit ourselves when it comes to our gifts. We agree with the inner critic who often taunts us with the internal noise of doubt, unworthiness, indecision, and fear; These are common characteristics that keep us from advancing our talents to the next level. 

Are you ready to ignite your creativity and share your unique gifts with the world? Don’t wait any longer: schedule your Creative Strategy Session today! Let us work together to develop personalized strategies that will help you reach your full potential and succeed.

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5 Lessons on Entrepreneurship I’ve Learned from other Women Entrepreneurs

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5 Lessons on Entrepreneurship

Women Entrepreneurs Houston – Over the course of my entrepreneurial journey, I have had the pleasure of meeting some pretty remarkable women who are all flourishing in some area or another in their respective fields.

On multiple occasions, I’ve interviewed women from varied backgrounds for my podcast SOB: Style of Business, connected with them in the gym, during events and collaborated on projects. From the upbeat marketing professional who has built her business on bringing people together through networking to the inspirational fitness entrepreneur who encourages everyone she comes into contact with to always give their best, there is something to be learned from watching the way these ladies operate in the world of business.

While each of them has their own strengths, talents and abilities, I’ve noticed several commonalities that continue to emerge time and time again.

In addition to the handful of lessons that I’ve listed below seeing a group of women support each other through thick and thin has been very inspiring and it motivates me to do the same. It’s been a privilege to regard these attributes as invaluable lessons in which we can all use to our advantage.


Lesson One: Fitness and mental health is extremely important

Whether it’s through quieting your mind during meditation or practicing breathing techniques during yoga making sure your fitness and mental health are taken care of our top priority. In order to excel in anything, having a strong mind and body will sustain you in every aspect of your business. Whether you find yourself in multiple brainstorming sessions with a client or having to haul in a boatload of supplies to your office space, having the strength on both fronts is key.


Lesson Two: There is no try

We all know running a business can be difficult and there are unexpected challenges but having the fortitude to persevere is beneficial for the long game. When obstacles come about you can either choose to move through whatever is holding you back or choose not to do anything at all.

One of the best lessons I’ve learned is this one. You either do it or you don’t. There is no try. Do you try to make it to work on time? You either do or you don’t. One thing I do know is that once you’ve stepped forward in making an effort you’ve made it through half the battle and the rest is a matter of things working out.


Lesson Three: Transitions are completely acceptable

In a world of change, things are bound to take on a different shape, form and even meaning. One thing I’ve taken away from being around other women entrepreneurs is that it’s okay to move on to something new. As we grow and mature, things that once captured our attention or inspired us can quickly turn into something of the past and it’s okay to move on.

For many of us, we get into a routine of always trying to help and please others that we forget about what makes us happy. When we finally realize that we’ve outgrown our space and it’s time to move on, we should accept the change in season and gracefully move forward with smiles on our faces. Transitions and change are a part of our personal growth and development.


Lesson Four: Enjoy what you do

Women Entrepreneurs Houston – We oftentimes start our careers with a sincere passion for making a difference and being able to contribute in ways that allow our creativity to blossom but years of our everyday routines can bring about indifference and a strong desire for a career overhaul.

As discussed above, transitions are okay. In fact, transitions give us an opportunity to start fresh and tap into other things we’re great at. One of the biggest takeaways from starting anything at all or starting something new is to actually enjoy what you do. If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing and you think the money will sustain your happiness you’re wrong. That song you’re singing to yourself will only play for so long before you’re begging for a new tune.


Lesson Five: Knowing your Why

Women Entrepreneurs Houston – Just as important as the other lessons, knowing your way is something that most of us don’t figure out until we’ve experienced enough to know what we don’t want. The reason why knowing the why is important is being clear about your goals will help you focus on what’s important and weed out all the crap that isn’t. We can also forget our why.

During times of burnout, I’ve learned it’s important to look inside myself to see if the work that I’m doing is something I enjoy. And more importantly, I had to ask myself why was I doing this type of work and if people were actually benefiting from my contributions. Whether your why is to open a yoga retreat center or to save money for a family vacation, the fact that you know your why is something solid you can rest upon even when distractions come about.

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6 Powerful Strategies for Building Self-Confidence and Positivity

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6 Powerful Strategies for Building Self Confidence

It’s certainly true that some people are naturally more confident than others, nobody is born with endless amounts of self-confidence. So, if you want to boost your self-esteem and become a more positive person, it is something you’ll have to work at.

Here are six simple tips that should provide inspiration on the journey to becoming a more confident person.

1. Surround Yourself With Positive People

Positivity begets positivity. Make a conscious effort to surround yourself with positive, confident people, and it will soon rub off on you. Let them be your inspiration as you drive each other toward greatness.

2. Visualize Your Future

Anything is possible in this world, but you won’t get anywhere until you’ve pictured yourself achieving those dreams. Aside from giving you the self-confidence of knowing you can do it, this step will prepare you for those situations once they arrive.

3. Push Yourself Further

A lack of confidence is often characterized by self-doubting and a fear of taking on new challenges. Whether it’s doing something that scares you or learning a new skill, a continued sense of self-improvement will work wonders.

4. Deal With Rejection

Whether it’s your personal life or career, not everyone will agree with you or see value in your ideas. Make a conscious effort not to take things personally, and this immunity will ultimately lead to self-confidence.

5. Take Care Of Yourself

Self-care and self-confidence are very closely linked. Be sure to take care of your physical and emotional health to feel stronger and more positive than ever. Focus on becoming the best version of yourself to unlock heightened confidence.

6. Focus On Achievable Goals

Even if your goal is to accomplish something truly incredible, it’s important to create milestones along the way. Aside from providing guidance, having milestones in place removes the fear that the mountain ahead is unconquerable.

Being self-confident won’t suddenly protect you from all the negative thoughts and episodes of self-doubt, but it will bring positivity to your world. You’ve got this.

Keetria is an entrepreneur, wellness advocate, and brand strategy coach for creatives & entrepreneurs with 16 years of public relations expertise working with some of the world’s leading brands, startups, media personalities, and entertainers. If you would like to work together, don’t hesitate to reach out!

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Conquer the New Year with These 4 Top-notch Marketing Tools

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Marketing Tools

Digital Marketing is always evolving and there are always new and exciting tools being introduced in the market to make digital marketing more effective. If you have a business, you need to know which of these tools can help you be the best that you can be. The right tools can help you stay updated with the latest trends, help you get organized, and can optimize your efficiency. Here are some tools you need check out this 2018:

Flock

Flock is a communication app for teams. Flock allows you to bring your team together to chat, share information, meet via video conferencing and push efficiency by using its productivity features. You can even integrate all your apps in a single platform. Once you sign up, you can create one big team and hubs for smaller teams. Flock is also faster, slicker and has a more intuitive interface compared to other team communication tools.

Sendy

Sendy is one of the hottest tools in email marketing today. It’s a self-hosted email newsletter application backed by Amazon’s Simple Email Service. Sendy allows you to send attractive emails easily to your email audience and receive a detailed performance report afterward. And the best part is, it’s a lot cheaper than other email marketing apps in the market. You can send 20,000 emails for only $2! If you have less than that, let’s say you only have 10,000 subscribers, the cost can go down to $1. Now, that’s a deal you won’t find anywhere else.

Ptengine

Do you get frustrated when your website visitors suddenly leave and don’t convert? When you have a business website you want to find out why people are leaving your site. Ptengine is a heat map application that records every visit, click, scroll on your site and turns the data into a heat map to help you visualize at what point your customers are abandoning your site. Are they leaving because of usability problems? Pricing problems? Do they find the copy confusing? Once you’ve identified the issue, you can now make adjustments on your site and convert customers better.

Google Trends

Google Trends is a unique tool because it lets you know what people are searching for every day on Google Search. According to statistics, there are 3.5 billion users on Google Search daily and over 50,000 searches every second. Among the 50,000 searches, as much as 20% are from new users, which means that there’s always something new to discover. Google Trends can sift through all the searches and show you, by using keywords, what’s trending worldwide. It will give you an insight on what consumers are really looking for and predict market trends. To see the data, all you need to do is type a keyword or the industry name and press “Enter.” It’s that easy.

Now that you know some of the best tools you can use this year, give one of them a spin and let us know what you think.

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How to Gain Clarity When Starting a New Venture

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Summary:

In this 44th episode of SOB: Style of the Business podcast, the host Keetria has a solo discussion about ways to maintain clarity and not get distracted when starting a new business venture or project.

Show Notes:

  • Focus on what you want to gain momentum.
  • Why do you want what you desire?
  • When you know why you want something, you can put the right actions forth.
  • Do the things that align with your goals.

3 Key Points:

  1. Focus on what you want to obtain.
  2. Understand the reason why you want what you want.
  3. Do the things that align with what you want.

Tweetable Quotes:

–   “The more that you focus and concentrate on what you want, the more…you bring

in similar thoughts or ideas that are related to what you want.” – Keetria.

–   “Know why you want what you want.” – Keetria.

–   “Once you know your “why,” then you can put forth the action to actually achieve

your goals.” – Keetria.

Resources Mentioned:

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Best Online Resources for Aspiring Public Speakers

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Aspiring Public Speakers

Being a public speaker can be much more than just a hobby, a side hustle or something you do to further your business image. Many people make a career of it, speaking at various venues around the country and even around the world. While confidence in public speaking comes naturally to some, there’s still a lot of skill involved in giving public talks. If you want to improve your public speaking skills, there are some fantastic resources that you can learn from. Here are some of the best online resources you can enjoy if you want to become an incredible public speaker.


TED Talks

TED talks are not just interesting, they’re also great resources for learning about public speaking. Watching TED talks on any topic that interests you gives you a chance to watch how some of the best public speakers do it. There are also plenty of talks that focus on public speaking or related topics. Some of the highlights you might want to watch include ‘TED’s secret to great public speaking’, ‘How to speak so that people want to listen’ by Julian Treasure, Amy Cuddy’s ‘Your body language may shape who you are’, and ‘How I beat stage fright’ by Joe Kowan.


Toastmasters International

Toastmasters is a huge public speaking group, which has hundreds of thousands of members around the world. The Toastmasters International online resources are helpful for anyone looking for tips on public speaking. They have lots of articles you can read that cover plenty of topics with practical advice. Of course, you can also join a Toastmasters group if you have a local chapter. You can learn from other members and, of course, by getting up and giving some talks yourself. There are more than 15,000 clubs across 135 countries, so you can probably find one that works for you.


National Speakers Association

The National Speakers Association offers resources for professional speakers – and aspiring professional speakers too. Their website features some handy resources and a calendar of events. By joining the NSA, you get a host of benefits, such as virtual courses, community access, Speaker magazine, and plenty of tools and resources. You can also earn a Certified Speaking Professional designation if you want to prove that you’re an expert in public speaking.


Executive Speech Coach Blog By Patricia Fripp

There is a huge number of blogs covering the topic of public speaking. Patricia Fripp’s is one of the best resources available. Her blog covers a range of topics, many of which relate to doing better business. For example, a recent post covers how to sound intelligent in a speech or sales presentation. Many posts are accompanied by videos, which gives you a more visual way to learn more about doing well in speaking engagements. She also has a brother – Robert Fripp – who is not only a professional guitarist but also a public speaker.

Become an expert public speaker with these resources and start building your public profile. Of course, you also need to make sure that you have something to say.

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