Marketing Brand

Photo by Igor Ovsyannykov on Unsplash

In a recent training class, the instructor asked students how we deal with stress; what coping mechanisms do we apply? Part of my response was asking for help when I need it.

That portion was mostly targeted toward my entrepreneurial career. Although Lifted Up officially opened a year ago, I more recently recognized that there were aspects to my business that I was NOT the right person to be handling. That meant I needed to find experts to help me.

Trying to be your own expert in all areas of a small business can add significant stress and may even cause failure.

My original website for Lifted Up was too soft, too feminine. My home page read like a blog post. People had to read a lot of copy before they figured out what I do.

I had written the entire website’s copy myself. So of course I loved it! Do you recall the fable of the naked emperor preening in a mirror over his non-existent fabulous clothes? Exactly.

After my start-up year, knowing my website needed an overhaul, I gathered the business cards of website developers I had met at various functions. The best test, I decided, would be to carefully examine the developers’ own sites. After all, if THEY didn’t have a fantastic site, why would I want them to develop mine?!

One was a disaster, replete with typos. Another looked as though it had been culled from various WORD documents in different fonts. Two others were just plain confusing.

But BlueSkyPhoenix, as its name implies, rose above the others. Owner Michelle Coe is amazing. She’s bright and quick, yet also a thoughtful thinker, considering implications instead of rushing ahead.

Of all Michelle’s strengths, my favorite is this: She discerned my desired level of involvement in the project and was willing to work collaboratively with me. Not necessarily agreeing with me 100%, you understand. Tough love was necessary at times.

Here’s a perfect example of our collaboration:  I needed a new tagline…a few words after the company name to sum up its essence (as in Nike’s Just do it or Disney’s The happiest place on earth). The topic of a better tagline was one of the first items we discussed.

Since I’m a writer (and spent some time studying the creation of effective taglines), I came up with my own:  Say something that matters.

Michelle mulled it over, we talked about its meaning, and together decided that this new tagline was indeed the essence of Lifted Up.

While my former tagline (Where healing words change lives) fit my blogging style, it was confusing to people who tried to understand what my business does.

Say something that matters covers Lifted Up’s entire offering of services, including my blog.

With tremendous expert help from BlueSkyPhoenix, today I’m proud to kick off my brand-new website. Whether you’re a member of my tribe of blog readers (and thanks to each of you!), an event planner, or a company leader wanting to schedule on-site classes or coaching, I invite you to take a look at my site. Let me know what you think.

And oh yes….the tagline for BlueSkyPhoenix is a perfect fit as well:  Be brand new.

Thanks to them, Lifted Up is just that.