This new, mid-pandemic era (it isn't over yet) has caused employees to reconsider their careers, jobs and take a close look at how fulfilled they are at work. In fact, more people in the United States are searching "what is the purpose of my life" on Google more than ever before. The data suggests that this search went from "unpopular" to 3X more popular than other searches!

This isn't the first time we've heard about the importance of purpose at work. In fact, a few decades ago, this was such a hot topic that corporations invested vast resources to go further than the standard mission and vision statements to generate corporate purpose statements. And, it worked for a while. But now more than ever before, there's an urgency to help employees find meaning in what they do each day at work - and that is something you're either going to provide or allow them to create on their own with the resources of your competitors.

People are seeking books, investing in online...

For many years, the startup lifestyle thrived on the overextension of one’s time, talent, and wellbeing while building a business on uncertainty. Even before the pandemic, startup employees experienced unhealthy amounts of stress in their daily lives.

Now we are over two years into the pandemic and workers across the world have been working long, uncertain days, with little or mostly zero human interaction. Formerly, the spirit and dream of working for a startup were sold as a “fun” experience that allowed workers to think outside the box, contribute, innovate from within, and grow faster professionally.

Today, we are finding that startup founders and CEOs are feeling the disconnect from their teams without an end in sight on remote working. CEOs are up at night concerned about the wellbeing of their employees but left with little bandwidth to connect with everyone because of their own priorities of revenue generation, investor relations, and...

Last weekend, I watched the first episode of Serengeti on Netflix. It was amazing and humbling to see the bravery of the females, especially the lionesses.

As an expert in bravery and leadership, I am obsessed with understanding the challenges and superpowers of female founders and leaders.

Watching the humble, selfless, protective lionesses care for their cubs and each other is extremely reminiscent of the same behavior of female founders that I've studied. For example, lionesses are willing to go out on their own and leave the clan for the safety and wellbeing of their cubs. These incredible creatures exhibit bravery by putting the needs of their cubs before their own needs. Clan status, ego, food...nothing is more important than the needs of her cubs.

It is interesting to note that female founders are also more likely to incorporate social responsibility initiatives. Brave.

Female founders also start companies that solve female problems. They are intentional about the problems...

Do you ever wonder what the difference is between people who are successful and those who struggle but never seem to get there? At the core of these differences is one simple thing – successful people know and understand their ‘why.’ This understanding manifests itself in everything they say and do.

Your ‘why’ is the underlying reason for the goals you set and the things you want to achieve. If you can identify and understand this, you can approach all areas of your life with passion and authenticity. Here are the 5 habits of successful people who live according to their ‘why.’

1. Unbridled Enthusiasm

Successful people approach everything they do with unbridled enthusiasm. You can see how their eyes light up whenever they talk about their business. They can talk about it all day long and never get tired.

This enthusiasm helps when things aren’t so exciting or when faced with a difficult task. A successful person knows that every...

Marketing on social media takes a bit of creativity. You have to adapt your marketing message to the platform and audience in order to reach your target market with your offering. The only way to get it right is through a bit of trial and error, but here are some guidelines to get you on the right track:

Choose the Right Platforms for Your Audience

The first step is to choose the right social media platforms to use. The best way to do this is to find out where your target audience hangs out and use the same platforms they use.

Each social media platform is different so it’s important to understand the characteristics of each:

• Facebook. Facebook is the largest social media site. It’s a place where people interact with friends over common interests.
• Twitter. Twitter is used for quick news and updates. People here are looking for the latest information on topics they care about.
• Instagram. On Instagram, users share photos, images, and other visual content.
• ...

The most crucial step in creating an effective marketing message is identifying your target market. Your message needs to speak directly to their needs and explain how your product or service meets these needs. How it does this is the single biggest factor that determines the success or failure of your marketing. So, if your marketing isn’t working, it could be because you haven’t yet defined your target market clearly enough.

What Is a Target Market?

A target market is a set of individuals who share common characteristics. A person in this group is the ideal end-user for the products or services you offer. In other words, this is the group of people who can best use what you’re offering. It’s important to define who this group is so you can craft your message just for them.

Give Your Message Focus

The right targeting gives your message focus. You can’t be all things to all people and if you try to be everything for everyone, you’ll...

When you’re crafting your marketing message, you need to know your customers and your product well so that you can explain how your offer solves their problems. But there’s one more party you need to examine very carefully: your competition. Here’s why you should spend some time studying your competitors when creating your marketing message:

Set Yourself Apart in a Competitive Market

The goal of your marketing message is not just to explain how you solve people’s problems, but how you do so uniquely. In other words, what makes your offering different from other offerings on the market? In order to understand this, you need to know what your competitors are offering so you can set yours apart.

Gain Insights into Your Target Market

Studying your competitors can help you gain insights into your target market. You can see how they’re communicating with their audience to get ideas. See what pain points they address in their marketing messages....

You only have one chance to tell your audience about the unique benefits your product or service offers. In order to do this, you have to craft the right marketing message that will grab your target customer’s attention and convince them to buy. Here are the 5 steps to crafting a compelling marketing message.

1. Know Your Audience

The first step is to get to know your audience on an individual level. You need to understand who they are and how they feel before you can sell to them. In order to do this, you should create a customer profile that includes demographic information as well as data on their values and behaviors. You need to identify the struggle they face so that you can help them overcome it with your offering.

You may have a good idea of your target audience already, but in order to create an effective profile, you need to use objective data from the members of this market segment themselves. Find out where your audience hangs out online and go there to...

Your marketing message explains to your target audience the unique value your product or service offers. Before you can explain this, however, you need a solid business strategy first. With this in place, it’s much easier to drill down and clarify the message you need to get across to your market. 

Identify Your Ideal Customer

The process of creating a business strategy starts with identifying your target market. Who is the person who can best use what you have to offer? Start by creating a detailed customer profile that identifies the one person who would benefit the most from your product or service. This is your ideal customer, the person you’re focused on attracting with your marketing message.

For example, you offer coaching services for small businesses just getting started with digital marketing. You would create a customer profile of a small business owner, identifying their demographics such as age and location, along with their core values,...