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This is Part 2 of a 3-Part series on the questions my past Vision Coaching clients {Note: this service is no longer part of my current mix, but you can check out how I currently work with people here} most popularly bring to our work together. This series is a gift to my readers during Valentine’s Day week. Special thanks to my previous clients and my Inklings e-newsletter subscribers for weighing in on this.

If you missed Part 1 in this series, you can find it here.

Part 2 of this series is about Your Personality & Your Platform. Specifically, whether and where the twain should meet. There are two sorts of questions I get along these lines and they go like this. . .

1. Is it okay for me to bring my personality into my online brand? If so, how much of me gets to be a part of the brand?

2. Why would people pay attention to me rather than to the 10,000 other things competing for their attention online?

Creative entrepreneurs often need permission to infuse their personality into their brand. If you hang out in pro blogging/internet marketing circles long enough, you’ll absorb the axiom to make it all about them. It’s not about you. No one cares about you.

Oh, but they do. A little bit. In the right places.

As with so many things in life, timing is everything. Especially when you’re talking about yourself.

Human beings are the reason your business exists. You are a human being. Human beings like to do business with other human beings. This is nothing new.

The real question then, is how much of yourself to reveal and for what reason.

Here are my guidelines for sharing personal information within my platform, which I strongly advise my Vision Coaching clients to consider adopting for themselves:

1. Personal information must be shared for a purpose that moves your audience forward in their own journey. This includes what you blog about, what you Tweet about, and what you share on Facebook and all other social media. Save the extraneous stuff for personal relationships with peers and very special clients. Keep your brand messaging clean.

2. Personal information should never cast you in a light that makes people feel sorry for you or see you as weakened. Caveat: Yes, we all go through stuff. Chances are, every one of us reading this post is going through something right now. But the way you shape the story of your Stuff radically impacts the way you’re regarded as a competent, delightful-to-work-with creative entrepreneur. Some stuff is sacred. Save the down-and-dirty for a personal blog unattached to your business. There are exceptions to this rule, of course, like catastrophic illnesses and things that are going to make a dramatic impact on the way business gets done. It’s okay to show people you’re a real person, just don’t use your audience’s attention gratuitously.

3. Personal information should be shared in a way that models something admirable, attractive, or useful to your right people. Many will disagree with me on this point — this is where we get into the bit about authenticity — but I hold that as a solopreneur, especially as a solopreneur, you are commissioned to shape a platform that gives you the best chance for business success. Unless you want an extended network of friends and confidantes who might someday think about buying something from you. If they have the money. {If that’s what you want, that’s cool. But just so know, you and I are not on the same page. I want a rich, creatively satisfying business life with a hot list and a clear vision and a well-honed message.}

Now let’s address the second question: why would people pay attention to me when there are so many others out there doing great work, not to mention so much scuz out there doing crappy work but shouting really loudly?

Let’s make a list. Your right people will pay attention to you . . .

Because you’ve got an unique gift and you’ve built your platform in a way that lets other see that.

Because your messaging is clear. There’s no doubt about the story you’re telling and the value you’re providing.

Because you’re where you need to be online, as often as you need be, doing what your people want to see you doing.

Because you infuse your personality exactly when and where it needs to be throughout all of your touches with your people.

Because you cultivate the level of accessibility that works for you and your brand.

Because your ethics are straight up and you don’t waver.

Because you’ve got a great thing that they can’t get anywhere else in quite the same way you provide it.

Because you hang in circles where ideas are rich, conversation is hoppin’, and people are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Notice that you are the one who’s in control of all of the above. And that is a great place to be.

What concerns do you have about infusing your personality into your platform, and connecting with your right people? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

See you in Part 3! By the way, if you haven’t yet signed up for my e-newsletter, now would be a good time. You can get on the list right here. You also get a 10-part e-course on Creating a Truly Irresistible Niche.

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This is Part 1 of a 3-Part series on the questions my Vision Coaching clients most popularly bring to our work together. This series is a gift to my readers during Valentine’s Day week. Special thanks to my previous clients and my Inklings e-newsletter subscribers for weighing in on this.

First, my definition of entrepreneurial vision:

Inklings, foresight, intuition, plans, dreams, goals, big picture conception of what your work in the world can look like, according to your unique predilections for using your gifts and talents — in detail, in vivid color, and well articulated.

Photo by Whitney(; courtesy of Flick Creative Commons.

Part 1 of this series is about Your Vision & the Big Picture. Without a doubt, the two questions I most often get asked in this realm are. . .

1. How can my entrepreneurial vision really come to fruition when I have so much competing for my attention? Is living for a vision realistic?

2. How can I be content with where I am right now while I’m working toward my ultimate vision, while keeping forward momentum and not settling for the status quo?

The fact that these are two of the questions my clients bring to our work together is revealing. It shows that you’re thinkers and pragmatists, people who don’t feel at ease until you’ve got some traction and a foundation beneath your dreams. You don’t even want the pie in the sky until you can feel the ground beneath your feet. You want the lay of the land first.

So let’s get grounded in reality, where I know you like to be.

There’s no magic pill that will orient your life toward accomplishing your creative work above all else.

There will probably never be a time when all you’ve got to be concerned about is fulfilling your creative urges and tending to your business. Don’t get it twisted — the only people who get this luxury are the hermits, the misanthropes, and the monastically creative. If you were that type of creative, you’d already have that set-up. But you don’t, so you’re not.

So you have other stuff on your plate besides your business. Of course you have a lot competing for your attention. You’re a 21st century entrepreneur living a 21st century life. You’re a partner/parent/caretaker/employee {if you’re part-time self-employed}. You have offline relationships and friendships, a family life {yes, parents or siblings who live five hundred miles away count}, your hobbies {non-monetized creative pursuits}, your self-care {health, fitness, spirituality}.

If you’re in an online space where complex and invigorating ideas float by like pollen seeds being blown off dandelion fluff, you have even more competing for your attention. {We all know that chasing these pollen seeds can comprise the better part of an 8-hour day.}

So how do you make sure your vision comes to fruition in the space and time you have left over?

The key for you, 21st century entrepreneurial spirit that you are, is re-laying your foundation in your own mind.

From this moment forward {this moment, as you’re reading this post}, it’s no longer about establishing your vision in the cracks of what already exists in your life. It’s not about fitting your vision in between the realities you’ve already created — relationships, home life, hobbies.

It’s about establishing your vision as the foundational layer in your mind that connects all the rest of the stuff together, and letting the rest of your life flow around it. The “rest of your life” is so important. Your entrepreneurial endeavors are, too. Equally important. You’ve got to see and treat them as equally important if you want to begin to live them out.

Living for a vision is realistic if you treat your vision as though it were your incipient reality.

I’m not advocating for airy-fairy dream-chasing.

I’m advocating for conscious, leaning into it, consistent, micro action-oriented, intentional pursuit of your vision, starting from the foundation up.

I’m advocating for getting clear on what you want, for writing it down, for articulating it wildly to a few trusted confidantes. {I do this and it helps so much for reminding me what I’m about.}

I’m advocating for you and your one life in this skin.

About the second question — staying content in the now while you keep your forward momentum — that’s a tricky one.

The best advice I can give you is this: stop trying to know it all now, do it all now, see it all happen now.

You watch a movie one scene at a time; you don’t upload it to your brain in a second. If you slow each scene down, the movie plays out in frames. And if you analyze each frame, each one is a portrait of micro movements made by the actors in the foreground and the extras in the background.

Things happen in their time, not in ours. Trust that not all of the pieces and players are in place yet for you to accomplish all that you dream of, or else it already would’ve come to pass.

Patience, my friend. Patience, purpose, and preparing the foundation for your vision.

Can you relate? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

See you in Part 2!

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Tori Deaux from CircusSerene.com

In this thirteenth episode of the Creative Solopreneur Podcast, I’m talking with Tori Deaux from The Circus Serene.  Tori is an artist and a ringmistress of the “OH NOEZ!” that crop up when creative people push their comfort zones. She’s the voice of #Emmit, the zany and precocious right-brained business plan {search #emmit on Twitter and you’ll see what I mean}, as well as the creator of the upcoming Habit Habitat.

Here are links to the people and ideas we talked about:

• Havi Brooks, The Fluent Self
• Jennifer Lee, Right-Brain Business Plans
• Michael Port’s “red velvet rope” from Book Yourself Solid
• Tori’s definition of ‘quirkipreneur’
• Third Tribe
• Hugh McLeod, Gaping Void
• Emmit on Twitter
• LaVonne Ellis

Listen in as Tori shares what her ‘circus serene’ metaphor really means, how she leads her community of quirkipreneurs, how to individuate yourself from your mentors, and why corporations are emulating the strengths of solopreneurs.

Right click here and select Save Link As to download the podcast to your hard drive, or left click to play in-browser.

P.S. Tori will be hanging out in the comments to chat. :)

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I’m an audio junkie.

Whether it’s a podcast or a one-off interview, if it’s audible, I’m into it. I’ve been addicted to several interview-based podcasts for years now, and finally in 2010 launched my very own podcast. As a result of my longtime observance of the art form, I’ve gleaned some lessons about giving good audio and I’m going to share those with you today.

Photo by A. Germain courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons

For my own Creative Solopreneur Podcast, I’m constantly scanning the blogosphere for original entrepreneurial voices that I want to bring in front of my audience. Here’s what I’ve learned in six months of scouting interviewees and then chatting them up.

It’s my job to vet interviewees ahead of time for the following characteristics:

• viable business concept that’s actually, uh, a business

• active social media relationships

• a clear understanding of his or her audience and the willingness to try to relate to my listenership, and

• an ability to tell a story well not only through the written word but also out loud.

If you’re considering doing audio interviews for your own site, know that not everyone who rocks the written form will also be an ace at audio. Understandably, unless the interviewee already has audio of him or herself out there, this is the most difficult characteristic to check for. Someone can give great blog post but not come across quite as effectively when speaking. Often this isn’t discovered until the interview is in progress. I’ve heard plenty of dud interviews in my time. Only on other people’s podcasts, of course!

If you’re the one being interviewed, it’s key that you’re able to communicate the following:

• a short, addictively shareable story about what you do {Gentle Reminder: an audio interview, unless expressly designed for this purpose, is not the place for you to give an oral autobiography}

• a working knowledge of who your audience is and what they want and need from you and

• an inkling of how your offer is relevant to the audience of your interviewer

• a few sound bite-y stories {sixty seconds or less} that communicate the value possibilities you can offer to your clients — this creates evidence and suggests social proof, so it’s not just you saying “hey, I do this,” you’re saying, “hey, I’ve done this — lots of times”

• what sets you apart from every other business concept similar to yours in the industry {Say you’re a copywriter who writes for small, creative businesses? So are a dozen other people listening to the interview! So what else you got underneath that hood of yours?} Note: this is about communicating, as viscerally as you can, the why and the how of what you do.

• your PERSONality. Remember, most people who bother to hire a creative solopreneur want to work with a person, an individual, not just a textbook-y expert. Let people in.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Being the interviewee is hard! It’s also great fun, and the more you do it, the better you get. Here’s my most favorite interview I’ve ever given.

What are some qualities you’ve noticed in positively captivating interviewees? Who do you love to hear in interview? Tell me in the comments.

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