The women (and a few men) at the retreat were gracious and brilliant, sharing their expertise and insights in facilitated mastermind groups, over meals, and by the pool. Being a part of such a supportive and smart group has been such a wonderful experience!

And, I won’t lie and tell you we didn’t spend the whole day after enjoying libations by the pool! It was warm, relaxing, and fabulous… and the views were stunning.

The resort was humming with activity as they are preparing for what was rumored to be a $2 Million dollar event that is part of the 2011 Google Global Science Fair. We’ve been watching them build rooms and stages, and completely transform the spaces at this resort for days and I got interested. Guess what? This year was the first ever Google Global Science Fair and three American Girls swept the awards winning more than $100,000 in prizes and an amazing array of life changing gifts and opportunities.

With my recent trip to LA for Success Summit and my trip to Scottsdale for Ali’s Millionaire Protege Club Platinum Retreat, I’ve really gained some smart nuggets and take-aways that I want to share with you: (RIGHT: Me with Pat Perkins and Doreen Rainey)

• Don’t bother to waste your time in the race to the bottom. Hold firm on your pricing – those who won’t pay aren’t your ideal client.
• Never discount – you’re just competing with yourself.
• You need to know where you are right now to know how to get to where you want to go. Invest in getting total clarity.
• Put at least 15 minutes on your to-do list every day for you and only you.
• Find little ways to make each and every day extraordinary.
• Give the gift of unexpected gratitude to another at least once a day.
• Snail mail is the best way to stand out because too many business owners are looking for fast, cheap, and easy, and relying on Facebook to do all the work.
• Get more interaction and interest with your networks on social media sites by asking questions and participating in the conversation that ensues. Respond to everyone.
• The success of any action ultimately comes to action.
• Make a decision and go with it. Stop second-guessing yourself. That is just fear holding you back because once you make the decision, action is required.
• “Because I said so” sales is over. You must show value.
• Just because you identify a trait or characteristic in an ideal client, doesn’t mean you need to use it in your marketing. Some things are just used to help create an underlying take-away, feeling, or perception.
• Don’t forget to update your bio with new accomplishments.
• Ask everyone how they found you and WHY they chose you. Use their answers to guide your marketing messages. People don’t always buy for the reasons you think.
• Don’t worry about competing with others in your industry. Package your services with additional value-added items so your prospects can’t compare apples-to-apples, and you stand out.
• Working too much for free? Think about turning your F*R*E*E strategy sessions into paid sessions. Then if they want to become a client, put their investment toward their program/package price.

Live events are one of the ways I re-energize, refresh, and re-engage with my own inspiration and creativity. I love the energy, the people, the networking, and the things I learn. One of my favorite things about Ali Brown’s Millionaire Protege Club Platinum Program are the live retreats. This year there were three and this was the last one (boohoo) of the year.

If you’re not attending live events or you’re not part of a structured high-level mastermind program, I highly recommend it – as long as it is the right one for you!

• Branding a Business
• Branding a Person
• Branding a Thing

Branding a Business
When branding a business, the brand is built around a value, an idea, or a service. The relationships and the connections formed are with the brand name and the values of the brand itself, instead of an individual person or product. With this approach, the brand may have multiple products or product lines, services, or programs under its umbrella, and team members or employees are easily interchanged.

Branding a Thing
When branding a thing, the brand is built around a single product or a program. With this approach, the visual design, the message, and the marketing all revolve around the branded item. The focus is on how the consumer interacts with it, how it benefits them, and how they feel about it.

Branding a Person
When branding a person, the brand is built around the charisma, talent, and expertise of a single person. This person is the celebrity face of the brand. The voice is their voice, the marketing and the message comes from them and the visual brand uses their photo and likeness. With this approach, the brand completely revolves around the celebrity or expert, and the team or employees in place exist to support them.

In many cases, businesses have multiple brands that may include all of the above. Take a company like Apple — Apple is a branded business that sells branded things like the iPod and the iPad, and has Steve Jobs, a branded celebrity leading the company.

Or take my multi-millionaire, business coach Ali Brown — Her company Ali International, LLC is the branded business, Ali herself is the celebrity expert for brand and the face of the company, and she offers branded products like her Millionaire Protege Club, her Online Success Blueprint System, or her Product Launch System.

Which approach you choose to take when branding your business will depend on the type of business you are starting and what your goals for the business are.

If you want to grow and then sell or franchise your business, building a brand around you and your expertise isn’t the best idea. Instead, you’ll want to build the brand around the business. If you are developing a product and you hope to one day sell it to a larger company, branding the product itself would be the best course of action. In both cases, by branding the business or the product, the brand equity that has been built will be protected when the brand changes hands.

If you are a service-based entrepreneur, branding yourself is often the best choice because you are the brand — you are who the clients will work with, you are the person behind the marketing, you are the voice and life of the company.

In many cases entrepreneurs start with one main brand and evolve and grow into multiple brands.

For example, there is the celebrity chef who builds a brand first around himself, then expands his empire by opening a restaurant; or the chef who first opens a restaurant and then earns his celebrity by reputation. The chef may then expand his empire even further by launching a line of spices or cookbooks.

The key is to pick one primary brand and decide whether you are branding a business, branding a person, or branding a thing.

After LA, the family headed up to Lake Tahoe for a long weekend.

We rented a very cute house right outside Tahoe City and we’re having a blast! Yesterday we took on a 16-mile bike ride from Tahoe City to Squaw Valley and back. The weather was gorgeous, sunny, and warm … and there is still snow ALL OVER!

I’ll be honest. The ride (with my kindergartener on the back of my bike) was a little overly-ambitious. I haven’t really worked out much in the past two years and it kicked my butt! At one point, I was exhausted and wasn’t sure I was going to make it back to Tahoe City … but during the ride I started thinking about how much this experience parallels some of what we go through in business.

As we move forward, we go over little bumps and small hills; we hit potholes; and have to work hard to make it to the top of some large mountains… But we do it. We continue to push forward and we push ourselves even when we want to quit because we LOVE what we do – and the end result is so much better than we imagined.

So remember… When you feel like giving up or moving on, don’t! Downshift your gears, and keep on pedaling. You may be moving slower, but with each turn on the pedal you’re moving closer to your goal.

Best Wishes and Incredible Success —

Jennifer Bourn

I went into the experience with high expectations and no attachments – Meaning I chose to be open to receiving exactly what I needed from the experience, no matter what that looked like.

I spent two days immersed in information. I was working ON my business and working with absolutely inspiring and insightful entrepreneurs. I even took the results of the survey I just asked you to take part in with me and created a plan of action to implement new ideas and provide more of what you asked for!

This year is already bringing about big changes and even bigger opportunities for Bourn Creative, and I know it will for you too – the key is taking action, even if it is just one baby step at a time.

Remember, a lot of baby steps eventually make a big impact!

Two things attracted me to Ali originally. First was the idea that I could use my expertise in branding, web design, and marketing to build a business online and help more people outside my local market. Second was the idea of building a “lifestyle business” – a business that creates the lifestyle you want for yourself and your family.

I’ll be honest. Both of those didn’t happen successfully for me at the same time.

My first Ali event was the Online Success Blueprint Workshop. That particular event was a game changer for me. I realized that I already had all the pieces of the “blueprint” and the knowledge to implement it myself. I just needed to get to work and take action in the right order.

After the event, I did take action and I was able to attract more clients that I ever thought possible. I was busy … TOO BUSY! I has so much business that I didn’t even have time to respond to new business inquiries. I was working 14-16 hour days just about 7 days a week. I was making A LOT of money, but I was exhausted and stressed out!

I felt like I was in quicksand, desperately trying to claw my out, but it wasn’t working. I didn’t need any more business. Frankly at the time I couldn’t handle any more business. I knew that I was losing business simply because I was too busy to respond to the inquiries.

I had built a successful online business, but I didn’t have anywhere near the lifestyle I wanted for myself or my family.

Then came Ali Brown’s Shine Event – a new event with a new focus. I heard the message loud and clear. I needed balance. I needed help. I needed to stop doing everything myself.

Shine motivated me to evaluate where my business stood. I had to take a hard look in the mirror and admit where I was failing. I realized the first person I needed to bring onto my team was a business manager / project manager. I also realized that being so busy meant that I wasn’t charging enough.

So I hired my husband Brian as my business manager, more than doubled my rates, and got to work on creating systems and processes to better manage my business and workflow.

Change didn’t happen overnight. It happened a little bit at a time, baby step by baby step.

It took about six months to make the changes that needed to be made in my business and this year, sitting in the audience at my second Ali Brown Shine Event, I realized that finally I had achieved both a successful, highly profitable online business, and the lifestyle I wanted for myself and my family. For the last six months, I have been working HALF the amount of time I was working before and my revenue for this year has already surpassed my revenue for all of 2009.

This year, my message again was loud and clear. Stop creating and start monetizing. Leverage is the key word for my next phase in growing my business and I look forward to sharing the journey with you.

If you’re interested in making the same type of changes in your business, I encourage you to visit the Bourn Creative University, fill out the form and request more information about our 2011 Marketing Acceleration Training and Mastermind Program – there are three levels of membership to choose from, so you can pick the one that best fits you and your business!
 

Wondering why?

I attended Ali Brown’s 2009 Shine Event in Las Vegas and well, let’s just say it didn’t completely live up to my expectations. I had attended amazing events by Ali in the past and this one, other than the fabulous networking,  just didn’t cut it.

Here’s the low down on my Ali Brown 2009 Shine Event experience:

• BAD: The event didn’t really deliver what I was expecting from the sales materials and recycled the same content from past events.
• BAD: Some of the presentations seemed out of touch with the everyday entrepreneur. The business model content simply glossed over and generalized.
• BAD: There was way too much wanna-be celebrity hype. The sales pitch fest and promotions for Ali’s Millionaire Prodigy Club Mastermind was really, really long and took up quite a bit of the event.
• GOOD: Ali always draws an incredible crowd of success-focused women entrepreneurs (and a few smart guys too).
• GOOD: The networking was incredible and the opportunities to meet talented individuals to work with, partner with, and joint venture with were everywhere.
• GOOD: Real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran and Academy Award-winning actress Marlee Matlin were two of the guest speakers and they were not only inspiring, but they rocked the house!
• GOOD: There was a lot of audience interaction and participation and Ali threw a great party at the Tao night club!
• GOOD: I left feeling motivated, empowered, and completely validated that I really do kick butt!

Interested in hearing more about my Ali Brown 2009 Shine Event experience? Check out these blog posts:

• Ali Brown’s Shine Event: I Didn’t Really Come For All The “Woo Woo” Junk
• Ali Brown Shine Event: Billionaire Entrepreneur Coach Makes Social Media Blunder
• Ali Brown Shine Event: A Smart Entrepreneur’s Networking Dream
• Ali Brown Shine Event: Golden Nuggets of Wisdom for the Entrepreneur Mindset
• Ali Brown Shine Event: Why I Said No to Advice From a Billionaire Entrepreneur Coach

Now with that said, I’ll share with you why I registered for Ali’s 2010 Shine Event during her first early bird special.

I know most of the basic “teach-it-at-an-event” online marketing stuff already – It’s what I do. Will I learn new nuggets of information, new insights, and new ideas? YES. Will I learn a new approach or way to think about the strategies I am already using? It’s highly likely. But honestly, that isn’t why I registered.

I registered because I am looking forward to another great opportunity to meet and network with powerful women entrepreneurs from around the world. Some of my most cherished friendships and business partnerships have blossomed from initial meetings at conferences just like this one.

I also knew that Ali loves her audience and her business. Last year’s Shine event wasn’t as great as it could have been and I think they did make some mistakes… but I knew that would push Ali to make this year’s Shine event bigger and better than ever.

And I was right. Recently Ali’s team updated the Shine website with the details for the 2010 Shine Event happening November 2-4 at the Wynn in Las Vegas and the event has definitely been upgraded.

Here’s why I am happy I have already secured my spot.

1. Candace Bushnell, the critically acclaimed, international best-selling author of Sex and the City – the basis for the HBO hit series and two subsequent blockbuster movies is one of the featured speakers!
2. Liz Lange, founder and president of Liz Lange Maternity, a fashion and retail pioneer who has single-handedly revolutionized maternity style and society’s perception of pregnant women in nine short years is one of the speakers!
3. This year I can choose from multiple concurrent sessions. This strategy is super smart on Ali’s part because whether you’re a new business owner or a seasoned entrepreneur, you can choose the sessions you want to attend based on your level of experience and what information is most relevant to you and your business right now.

What about you? What do you think? Did you attend Shine last year? Will I see you there this year? I’d love to hear from you!

*Just for the FTC: From time to time I do choose to be an affiliate for certain events or products that I use or attend myself. I am an affiliate of Ali’s and I’m sure you can tell, that I am always honest and never sugar coat my opinion to make a sale or get a commission. If you want to check it out and not go through an affiliate link, check it out here: www.shineevent.com

At the end of the Ali Brown Shine event, I was speaking with some ladies in the lobby area and one asked me if I had my brand/business card evaluated by Ali’s billionaire business coach during one of the breaks.

No way.

I have to say they were a little surprised. You see, they had assumed that as a branding/marketing expert that I would love to get advice from someone so important.

When they asked why I wasn’t one of the women huddled around this billionaire business coach for jockeying for a few words critiquing my business card, my answer was simple.

I don’t care.

Yep. That’s right. I said it. I don’t care.

Let me explain… I’m a graphic designer. I actually have my Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design. I have been designing brands, websites, logos, and sales materials since 1997 and I’d like to think I get design.

I spent a lot of time designing my logo and developing my own brand – a brand that is totally and completely representative of me. I love it and almost everyone who sees my logo or visits my site comments about how much they love it.

Plus, my brand is consistently represented both online and off and nothing anyone says will convince me to change my brand.

Why? Because it IS my brand.

I am sure that some of the biggest brands in the world have people that criticize their logo or their marketing from time to time. But do you see them changing their brand because of one person’s opinion? No. They know who they are. They know what their business represents. They are confident in their position.

So my message to you today is to stay true to your brand and what represents you. Let anyone who criticizes your brand have their say and just let it go.

Have confidence in yourself and confidence in your business. Stand firm in your brand both now, and in the years to come. Soon you’ll see that others will be attracted to your brand and advocate for your band right alongside you.

This past week I have been blogging about my experiences at the Ali Brown Shine event in Las Vegas, which I have to say, attracts a phenomenal group of entrepreneurial business women (and some men) from around the globe. In fact, the networking at Ali’s events is fantastic and if you attend, you are guaranteed to meet and be inspired by women who are stepping into their own power and truly rocking the business world.

What also amazes me is the genuine desire to give that these women have. Almost every woman I met was genuinely interested in my business and how they could help me. How awesome is that?! Likewise, they were so excited to share about their business and passion that just meeting them gave me a boost of energy and inspiration.

Today I want to share with you just a few of the entrepreneurs I met:

Lisa Rickwood, Creative Virtual Assistant
I met Lisa at the VIP party Thursday night at Tao night club. Lisa is a fun and dynamic woman with a creative talent that she dedicates to helping other entrepreneurs look good. Lisa can help with writing, editing, transcription, audio editing, voice-overs, and more. Check out her website at www.escapethepace.com.

Dr. Megan Harris, The Chiropractic Wellness Studio
I actually first met Megan in line at the Venetian to register and check in! Megan is a smart, savvy chiropractor who offers healthy solutions and lifestyle choices for her clients. When it comes to the chiropractic world, I am a total skeptic, but Megan is the total opposite of any chiropractor I have ever met, and she has a head for business. Check out her site at www.drmeganharris.com.

Amy Hillenbrand-Brock
I sat next to Amy on the first day at Shine and was delighted to meet another artist. Amy, a former interior designer is now pursuing fine art and painting full time (she is awesome by the way!) and is using her love of interiors as the subject for her fine art. Check out Amy’s website at http://amyhillenbrand.blogspot.com.

Tom Buford
I first found Tom on facebook and then interviewed him on a teleseries I did in early 2009. I was so excited to meet him in person at Shine. Tom is a business success mentor and helps entrepreneurs like you see the value in yourself and charge what you deserve. Check out his website at www.chargewhatyoudeserve.com.

Erin Kurt
I also met Erin at Tao! She is warm and friendly and had on a dress that was just awesome. Erin is a parenting coach and helps families and working moms juggle their to-dos and find the so-desired work-life balance. Check out Erin’s website at www.erinparenting.com.

Kelly O’Neil
I met Kelly at Ali’s 2008 Online Success Blueprint Workshop and have kept in touch through Facebook and Twitter since. Shine allowed me to reconnect with Kelly and talk shop. Kelly is the marketing to the affluent expert and hosts the Marketing to Millionaires event. Check out Kelly’s website at www.marketingtomillionaires.com.

Tina Forsyth
I was checking out Tina’s website the week before Shine and was amazed when she ended up sitting across from me at lunch one day! Thank you universe. Tina works with coaches, consultants and online business managers who are looking for guidance and support on business systems, building their teams or product development. Check out her website www.onlinebusinessmanager.com.

Nika Stewart
Nika and I met at Ali’s 2008 event and since then have worked together on a couple projects. Ali’s event was a great opportunity to meet up again in person! Nika is a fabulous interior designer and coach to other interior designers, helping them build businesses that support their dream lives. Check out her website www.nikastewart.com.

As I mentioned earlier, these are just a few of the fabulous women and men that I met and hob-knobbed with at Ali Brown’s Shine event in Las Vegas. I am so grateful to all of the amazing entrepreneurs I met and I look forward to building long-lasting relationships with many of them.

If you’re looking for an event that will feed your business mindset and provide top-quality networking opportunities, I highly recommend you head to Ali’s next event.

One of my favorite things to do after I attend live events, conferences, and seminars is to read through all of my notes from the event and write down all of the most important ones in my journal.

Rewriting those notes and positive words of encouragement helps me remember them. It also helps me reflect a little further on what they meant to me and why I wrote them down.

Today I’d like to share with you some of the nuggets of wisdom I jotted down at the Ali Brown Shine Event, where I not only got to hear from Ali and her team speak, but from Real Estate Mogul & Business Consultant Barbara Corcoran and Academy-Award Winning Actress & Activist Marlee Matlin!

Here are some of my golden nuggets:

• Be true to you and make decisions based from where you want to be.
• There is no magic pill, but there can be magic as long as you do the right things.
• Your purpose is your big vision. Your business’s purpose is to make money.
• Know what you suck at and delegate it.
• Do what you love. Know whats important. Give back when you can.
• Bad marketers blame failures ont he economy.
• When you have an idea, look at the competition. If there is competition, find a niche not being served. If there is no competition, evaluate if there is really a need.
• How you position yourself determines what people think of you and how much they will pay.
• Stay open. Influences can come from anywhere.
• Why would the universe give you more if you are not taking care of what you already have?
• How do you know what product to develop? It s what you get asked for over and over again. It may not be exactly what you want to do, but it is what they want and it will get your audience into your funnel.
• The hole you give through is the hole you receive through.
• Organization and systematization are the two most important tools in business.
• Quick decision making under pressure is the key to turning failures into successes.
• There are two types of people, expanders and containers. Every business needs one of each.
• Marketing = Communications and relationships with people who need your solution.
• Only focus on and take the next step. Master it fully before taking another step.
• Never stop believing. You have no reason to doubt.
• If you want to grow, you need to make time for growth.
• When you want it bad enough, you’ll make it happen.

I hope at least one or two of these golden nuggets resonated with you. Shine was a great few days to allow me to focus more on my business mindset. If you are looking for support with your business mindset, I highly recommend you check out Ali Brown and Shine for 2010.

The Shine event was a mix of Ali and several others speakers. There was a buzz humming through the room on the first day of the event and everyone was looking forward to hearing Ali’s billionaire entrepreneur coach speak.

I was especially looking forward to the presentation because it was on branding. As a trained graphic designer, former corporate branding instructor, and current brand strategist for entrepreneurs, I was interested to hear her insights on branding.

I wanted to hear her thoughts on branding a business versus branding an individual person. I wanted to hear some strategies about building a strong brand and brand equity. I wanted to hear how she would communicate to the room how much your brand can do for your business and what a difference it can make.

A special packet just for notes was passed out for the talk, so I was thinking this is going to be good! But what I wanted to hear and what I did hear were two completely different things.

What I heard was:

• How much the Ali brand has changed over the years.
• Examples of Ali’s design and some brainstorming.
• What the Ali brand is becoming.

While that information and the examples shown were great in promoting the Ali Brand and showing her growth, not a whole lot of that would help a non-branding expert in developing their brand.

I heard several people around me whispering something along the lines of, “That’s great but how do I apply that to my business,” and “Yeah, but how do I do that.”

Seeing the progression of the Ali brand was interesting, but I was getting a little bummed at the lack of content and we were already over halfway through the presentation!

Finally we started to get to some content – not all on branding, but at least it was content. We covered things like:

• Map it out and actually do the doing.
• When you want it, make it happen.
• Start somewhere. Start small. Make a Sh!t load of money.
• Be a brand guardian. Make sure your essence is true and present in all you do.
• A brand has a consistent look through every piece of marketing and representation.
• Stay open. Influences can come from anywhere.
• Don’t use many different designers. Stick with one who truly understands your brand essence.
• Make sure your brand clearly communicates what you do.
• Your identity is the verbal and visual expression of your brand.

Then I threw down my pen, I stopped taking notes,
and I said, “Oh no she didn’t!”

This billionaire entrepreneur coach then stood on that stage a told everyone in the room that having their photo on their business cards is stupid. This is ironic because last year Ali told people putting their photo on their cards was a good idea.

We were also told that our logo stinks if it doesn’t communicate exactly what we do all by itself, with no tagline. This I also disagree with. There are huge brands that are extremely successful that have logos that in no way communicate what the business does or what products they sell. And, what about the people who are their business, and their business name is their name. Heck, even Ali’s logo doesn’t say much alone.

She then told everyone that including social media profile links on your card is stupid and that no one cares. She said social media links have no place on a business card and that we’re all just wasting our time with social media and clearly our businesses aren’t successful because too many of us screwing around on Twitter all day which is irrelevant.

WHAT? Are you kidding me?

Um, Ali used both to promote her event and she used a Facebook event page to encourage networking on the site prior to the event.

These blanket statements, in my opinion, were a very bad move. Clearly she didn’t research her audience that well and clearly she doesn’t “get” the social media revolution that is taking place.

I don’t know about you, but I get a lot of business from my endeavors on Facebook and Twitter and a lot of speaking invitations from my LinkedIn profile. These social media sites have also allowed to me connect with people pre- and post-event to share photos, info, and stay in touch.

I’d have to say that statements like these make me wonder if this billionaire is out of touch. Maybe when you get that rich you can completely ignore social media and social networking – I get it.

What I don’t get it being so frank and sort of snarky about it on stage in a room full of women who are looking to you for advice and looking up to you as a successful woman business owner, especially when most of the room has their photo and their social media profile links on their cards!

What a way to make a lot of fabulous women feel really insecure about handing out their business cards.

How do I know people were self-conscious about it? Easy, almost every time I was handed a card at the event, the giver made excuses for having their photo on it or for including their social media links.

I for one say don’t make excuses. I have my photo and my social media links on the back of my business card and I am dang proud of my card.

That billionaire entrepreneur coach is wrong.

I love cards with photos and social media profile links because I remember you after the event and can find you to connect online. Those links help me to build relationships with those I meet and continue the conversations we had.

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein wrote a blog post on this same topic that I love.

So, with that said, I have to wonder, was the standing ovation she received because of the amazing things she has done for the Ali Brown brand (which are impressive), or for her presentation? I’ll leave that up to you.