At Bourn Creative we approach websites differently! And we want you to think about your website differently too …

I challenge you to stop thinking about the pages and the pieces you need to include in your site and how they are all going to fit together. That’s the old way of building websites.

Instead I want you to think about your site in a more strategic way.

I know “being of service” to your clients and audience is important to you. I know you want to follow your passion, help others, and make a difference in the world. I know you want to change lives – and you can.

But I also know that to do all of those things, you also need to make money. As one of my premiere clients, Suzanne Evans always says, “Money isn’t everything, but it touches everything that is.”

This is why your website exists – to make money.

But the key to a wildly successful website that works when you’re not working is a seamless blend of sales conversion strategies and being of service to your audience. When you can meld these two concepts into a website, you will get more clients, shorten your sales cycle, help more people, and make more money.

Learn How to Convert Visitors into Clients Without Having to “Sell” Them

The Bourn Family just got back from a week-long, tech-free camping trip at Burney Falls in Northern California. We lucked out with fabulous weather and enjoyed the downtime to relax!

This year we camped with Brian’s parents, my parents, and one of my sisters – it was the first time I have ever camped with my parents as adult with my own kids.

The trip brought back so many fun and memorable moments from my childhood – as my mom and dad continued the same camping rituals I remember with my kids:

Read About Turning Memories into Referrals

Last week I published a blog post on writing and using your mission statement. I shared what a mission statement is, how to write one, and why you need to use it and live it – how to turn your mission statement into your own personal uplifting affirmation or motivating mantra.

Here are some ideas to help you turn your mission into your mantra:

• Make it your screen saver
• Record it and put it on your iPod
• Use it as a bookmark in your journal
• Frame it and put it on your office wall
• Have it emailed to you automatically every morning
• Make it the background on your smart phone
• Print it out and tape it to your bathroom mirror
• Write it on a note card and keep it on your nightstand
• Write it on a sticky-note and put it on your computer monitor
• Record it as your alarm wake up greeting

Learn How Using Your Mission Statement Can Improve Your Business

So do you really need a mission statement in your business? Yes!

Your mission statement isn’t just part of a business plan, in reality, your mission statement, like your
core values, is a critical part in defining a successful brand and building a solid foundation for business growth and marketing.

It must convey your core values, your beliefs, and what you stand for, and it needs to communicate why your business exists and what you hope to achieve.

If your mission statement has meaning to you, it can be a powerful tool in guiding your company’s forward movement and your decisions. The key is infusing your mission statement into the everyday operations of your business and every aspect of your brand.

The problem is that most mission statements tend to be all statement (boring) and no mission (motivating).

Learn About Writing a Meaningful Mission Statement

If you have a blog, you know how happy you are when someone comments on one of your blog posts … you get a smile on your face and think to yourself, “Yes! Someone is reading my articles… people do care! Someone is reading my stuff!”

I don’t know about you, but when I receive new blog comments, there is this inner child that bubbles up and I get that feeling of “You like me! You really like me!” And it feels good.

I want you to share that warm and fuzzy — and rewarding feeling with your past and current clients and customers. Find their blogs and comment on one of their posts. Show them that you care and that you are paying attention.

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Your brand is what the consumers can see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. It includes the visual, written, spoken, and tactile aspects of your brand.

Visual Brand

Your visual brand encompasses all aspects of your brand that are represented visually. From your logo, business card, and brochures, to your invoices and envelopes, to your Facebook photo, avatar, and Twitter background, to your website, email newsletter, and blog, and even the clothes you wear, every time your brand is seen it is sending a message.

Learn The Difference Between Your Brand and Your Branding

Every successful business has values.

Values are the standards of behavior in a business. They are the operating principles that guide the business.

Some businesses look at values definition as a simple exercise to complete and get through — for these businesses, their values statement is just an empty, meaningless statement.

But other businesses, the truly successful businesses look at values definition as a core requirement to define their brand. For these businesses, their values are meaningful and the are infused throughout the entire business and live by them each day.

Your values represent what you stand for and what you believe is most important. They can’t be defined based on what others think they should be, or what you think they SHOULD be — they need to come from your heart and from the heart of your business.

Learn How Your Values Can Help You Make Better Decisions

Our 4-Week Brand Building Virtual Boot Camp, has already blown our last boot camp out of the water in terms of enrollment — So THANK YOU!

In the eight training sessions of this boot camp, I’ll be sharing some personal struggles I encountered while building my own brand and the simple and profound solutions I discovered. I’ll also be sharing the most profitable secrets I’ve learned and the basic changes I made that yielded the biggest results.

If you haven’t yet registered, you should do it now! The awesome bonuses, including my Blogging Checklist outlining the 11 different ways you can optimize each blog post are MUST-HAVES!

Now it’s Time For an Ideal Client WooHoo!

When your brand promise is clear and the right expectations are set for your prospects and clients, it’s EASY to attract your perfect client.

Another reason we’re shouting “WooHoo! Thank You!” (and doing a happy dance in my office) is that in the last two weeks, we’ve secured two new AWESOME clients who are our EXACT ideal clients.

And, want to know a crazy secret?

Learn How I Attracted These Ideal Clients

I’ve got a cool tool to share with you!

We’re working on some upgrades to our website and we’re adding a new plugin to our site and it rocks! The plugin, Comment Redirect, is one that every blogger should add to their blog to help better cultivate relationships with commenters.

Comment Redirect does what it sounds like. This plugin allows you to redirect first time commenters (when they hit the submit button) to a hidden page.

Why would you want to do that?

Well, let me share with you how we’ll be using the plugin – and why adding it to our site is more complicated that clicking “Install.”

Not only is that hidden page an opportunity for you to thank your new commenter, but it is also an opportunity to add even more value to their experience on your site.

Learn More About the WordPress Comment Redirect Plugin

Last week I shared some insights on sales and marketing upsells from the Happiest Place on Earth — Disneyland! This week, I want to share some more with you. This time about the Disney Way and the Disney Brand.

The photo to the right (Doesn’t that look incredible!) is a photo of our dessert platter at the Princess lunch!

Some people ask me why we love going to Disneyland so much… It’s because we know, like, and trust in the Disney brand and the Disney way of doing business.

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