About this column
Voice Notes is an occasional special feature. We take you inside the online brand presence of a business owner we think you should know — through a dozen evocative sentence-starters.
Abby (Chief Voice Bureau Officer) says:
I really like Nathalie Lussier’s tagline: Digital Strategy To Match Your Ambition. In fact, there’s something about Nathalie Lussier I’ve always liked, from the first moment I encountered her online. Part tech geek, part online marketing teacher, part cheerleader (she’d be the bookish one), she’s someone whose site I search when I want a really practical “how-to” answer to a tech question that ties in with my overall content marketing strategy. And geez — the woman is just nice. She brings a fresh, clean, youthful, and yet stable energy to the digital marketplace of business owners — one I always appreciate.
I’m delighted to bring you this Q&A with Nathalie.
Nathalie Lussier, Digital Strategist
Nathalie Lussier is the digital strategist at Nathalie Lussier Media. She turned down a job offer from Wall Street to start her own business straight out of college. She helps driven, creative business owners understand the profit potential and exposure available for their business online. From her site: “Clients and customers rave about her ability to simplify the complex, and make technology and digital strategy easy to understand and implement.”
Find Nathalie on: Twitter; Facebook; Pinterest; YouTube; Google+
Personality typing? Why, yes!
I’m a Virgo, and my My Myers-Briggs type is INFJ / INTJ (borderline Feeling and Thinking).
I knew I’d ‘come into’ my writing voice when I:
Stopped sounding like my mentors, peers, and favorite authors. When my ideas came to me away from the computer, too.
I do the work I do because:
I believe that we’re living in a different world than we were even just a few years ago, and I want to inspire other women and men to create the work that lights them up, while serving others, too.
If I could invite 3 people to dinner to give me their take on my work in the world, I’d invite:
Steve Jobs. Cindy Gallop. Richard Branson.
An unlikely source of creative inspiration for me is:
Romance novels, walks in the park with my dog, and funny YouTube videos.
The best moment in my work week so far has been:
Announcing my free, no-pitch 30 Day List Building Challenge, and seeing the responses come in! [Abby’s note: I’ve signed up!]
Three words to describe the way I feel about my visual brand identity today is:
Growing trees. Spacious.
One thing I know for sure about my Right People is:
They’re smart, they get shit done, they love thinking differently, and they’re out to make a difference in the world.
If my business were a movie, the title would be:
Imagine That
The best compliment I’ve ever received from a client is:
“You’re not trying to fit me and my ideas into a cookie-cutter system; you’re looking for unique and creative ways to help me put my work out into the world.”
If my clients only hold onto one piece of advice from me, I hope it’s:
Ideas have a shelf life. Act on them before your ideas expire. That means taking action on your great ideas and not letting them get stale!
If I couldn’t do the work I’m doing now, I’d be:
A sexy librarian. [Abby’s note: See the photo she submitted for this post.]
In the comments, we’d love to hear:
I’m curious about what Nathalie’s Voice Values are. Now that you’ve read this Q&A and taken a look at her site, any guesses, fellow Voice Values junkies?
Hello, you.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Ideas DO have a shelf life. That’s why I kill any idea that’s sat on my idea list for more than a month… because it obviously wasn’t worth pursuing.
That is a fascinating point of view that you both share. I personally don’t hold that philosophy. I find that I marinate ideas for yeeeeeaaaaarrrs — and certainly months and weeks — because they’re just not ready yet. I don’t have all the parts, all the insight, that I need to act upon them yet. I wouldn’t LOVE acting on them as much if I put them out there not yet fully formed. But that’s what works for me. ;)
Ooh that’s interesting Abby and Paul! Different ideas have different shelf life/expiration dates though. There’s one idea I’ve got that I’m not planning on working on until after I have babies. But it’ll be ready when I’m ready.
Other ideas of mine are really “short term” and need to be used quickly or they expire! :)
I lean on the side of Abby. Maybe not months, but for sure I need my ideas to marinate for a while. Not just sleep on them, but see them grow up, get past their terrible twos, then become horrible teenagers before they mature enough for me to use them.
Also I normally have so many ideas that I practically can’t do them all at once ;)
I suffer from “new shiny object” syndrome and if I were to jump on all my ideas, I’d never finish a thin!
xx
“Get past their terrible twos.”
Love that, Solveig. I can relate to being in that season with ideas!
Oh wow I love how you see your ideas as children growing up. I totally agree that I have more ideas than I can actually implement, but I guess you gotta go for the best ones and prune the rest. :)
Ooo, love the quiz at the end.
First though. I like her. (Hi Nathalie!)
My guesses for her Voice Values (based on a super-quick first impression):
Innovation
Clarity
Power
Playfulness
Love
Nice interview. Thanks, Abby.
Crap. Now I can’t remember if I meant to say Audacity rather than Power. Scheiße. Oh, I said that. Oh well, it was a fun quiz nonetheless.
Hi Susan!
I loved reading what you perceive as my Voice Values, it’s a really interesting thing to see what you think. :) <3
Hmm, might have to switch out one of those last two for Accuracy. Not sure though. I bet she’s pretty high in all of those.
I think you’re right on, or probably very, very close. I see ALL of those at play.
Love Nathalie! And love her take on ideas having a shelf life – I can definitely resonate with this. Particularly when it comes to writing blog posts. Idea comes. I take notes. And I don’t finish it. Time passes and so does the idea. Very rarely do I come back to ‘old’ ideas when it comes to writing blog posts.
However, I also resonate with your take Abby. Some of my ideas have been brewing for a while now waiting for that right moment when everything is aligned. An energy shift occurs too and then I know it’s time.
XO
Ideas are interesting little packages, aren’t they? They invite us to unwrap them in many different ways! I so resonate with the ‘energy shift’ you feel when it’s time to bring a big idea — or a little one — up into the light. Works that way for me, too. :)
Always a good job right here. Keep rolling on thohgur.
Ooh Susana!
This made me think through the analogy a little more… and perhaps our ideas are like fruit that need to ripen on the vine before they’re ready. But once you “pick it” you need to be able to eat it or give it to someone who can, before it “expires”. :)
What an interesting time to come across this conversation. I was just telling my husband on the weekend that it was time to do some major de-cluttering in our office. Time to get rid of all the old notebooks that are half written in with ideas & course notes – my reasoning – if we hadn’t actioned them now, then they clearly weren’t the right ideas for us. And being in the tech world where things do move really quickly, I agree with Paul – these dusty ideas have long passed their shelf life. Time to clear the space to let the new ideas in :)
Oh I’m in the tech world too Helena, so I think that might be where we’re all agreeing on the shelf life idea. :)
Amen for clearing space to bring on the new ideas!
Thank you for featuring beautiful & inspiring examples of online brand presence.
And the format (short question + short answer) is just a breeze to read.
XO