20 Quotes to Manifest Your Authentic Brand

What you think is what you become. If you are interested in finding and becoming their your best success, it’s important to repeat to yourself positive mottos, affirmation, prayers, and mantras that bring out the best within you. Here are 21 quotes meant to bring out your authentic brand.

On Your Values

Your values are your brand’s center of gravity. Everything you do, believe, and attract in your life rely on the values you hold dearly. Examine your values closely and share them within everything you do.

Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.

– Ayn Rand

We have many ways of pursuing happiness. While some lead to outcomes that extend our lives, true joy, others can lead us on paths of personal destruction and desolation. How you translate and express your values is the measure of a successful pursuit.

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

– Simon Sinek

Your motivations the by-products of your values. If you value family you are motivated to tend to family duties. If you value fun you are motivated to have it. The why you do it results in the actions that people can see.

 When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier. Roy E. Disney

A wonderful benefit of discovering your core values is that you give yourself a framework for making decisions. If the decision benefits your value you can be confident in taking it. Define your values early on and often during your success journey to ensure you adjust to the weight of the decisions you will take.

The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values.

– William S. Burroughs

success quotes burroughs zinga hart

We discussed this at our Purposely Chosen Women workshop! Anyone who has read this blog, knows, education is not just stuffing people with fact and theories, it is the drawing out of one’s inner success. [Hence my motto: Draw out your success!] Education is the fuel of entrepreneurship and the foundation of your major is to discover your values, the values of others, and how to align the two in a prosperous way.

 Define what your brand stands for, its core values and tone of voice, and then communicate consistently in those terms.

-Simon Mainwaring

On Your Style

Your brand style is everything you do. While it does include dress, it is also your attitude, how you treat others and what you will not put on the negotiation table.

All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. — John Kenneth Galbraith

There are many people in leadership roles and then there are great leaders, what distinguishes them, thus forming their own style, is the ability to go against the grain because your values will not allow you to act otherwise. This is precisely why your ties to your values are so important as they tie back to your actions, which, when expressed, are the basis of your style.

“Taste and style is beyond clothes. It’s in food; it’s in quality. Working out, healthy bodies, organic food—they’re all part of the same thing.”
-Ralph Loren

Your style is a way of living, so it truly permeates in all the choices we make. Whether it is company goals or personal goals, they will blossom from your sense of values and how well you apply them to all aspects of your life. Strive to see how your values express themselves in all the domains of your life and if you must find ways to innovate.

Your true power is not in your difference but in your consistency of being different. The world will always adjust to consistency, yet struggle with change.”
― Shannon L. Alder

Staying consistent plays a huge role in how you stand out over your success journey. Yet, staying consistent does not mean staying the same, it means staying true to your purpose and values by adjusting when necessary.

Create your own visual style… let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others.
-Orson Welles

 

Setting a pre-defined look and feel that encapsulates your brand is a helpful way to be memorable to others. Start a Pinterest board or clothing capsule to simplify your brand and then grow your style from there.

success quotes zinga

Style is joyful if you allow yourself to have joy.
-Stacy London

Have fun with your style. If you have your values in place, you will be able to experiment and stretch the limits of your actions and decisions. If you are thinking tightly controlled, then your style and demeanor will come across that way. Have fun and find happiness and have a style that attracts that.

On What Others Think

Speak to your audience in their language about what’s in their heart.
– Jonathan Lister

We can not control what others think, but we can do our best to communicate with them. This comes from speaking directly to them and to what their values are and what they care about.

If you get bored with social media, it’s because you are trying to get more value than you create.
– Fast Company

Social media is a key tool towards communicating your brand with others. Yet, in my line of work, I stumble across many small business owners wary of using social media or adamantly against it or just plain uninterested. A big shift for them is when I align the value they bring to others in real life to the brand they want to build on social media. Social media is an extension of you and the value you bring, making it much more than just an online billboard. Find creative ways to express your value and then translate that to your social media channels.

A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is — it is what consumers tell each other it is.
– Scott Cook.

Building off the billboard analogy above, your brand is never completely yours or completely under your control. Know what others think of your brand and be grateful to those who give you honest and constructive feedback.

Making promises and keeping them is a great way to build a brand.
– Seth Godin

This goes back to being consistency. This is the simplest way to build consistency with others.

Never doubt a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
– Margaret Mead

Eventually, you may need a team to grow your success. Ensure the people who join your team is committed to your values, and stand firm on their own values. A team of people building a brand could be world-changing.

success quotes mead zinga hart

On Staying Authentic

May your  success journey be long and adventurous. People will connect with you and may even contribute ton your personal growth and change, but staying true to you comes down to you. As you grow to your fabulous success ask yourself: is this true to me?  Your values will make your decision quick and how you express it will develop the style that others talk about.

Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender, it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.
– Stephen Covey

Patience is a virtue, and a virtue is a value that most people agree upon. Choose patience during your journey because there will be errors and mistakes, but there is no need for self-inflicted harm or aggravation. You are putting thought into who you are and that effort alone is an act of success.

Truth is a point of view, but authenticity can’t be faked.
– Peter Gruber

Sometimes your brand will be skewed by what others say of you, but what will be indisputable is how you act. Stay consistent with who you are and the truth will reveal itself.

success quotes gruber zinga hart

Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes but they don’t quit.
– Conrad Hilton

Once you’ve decided to pursue your purpose, don’t quit! Pivot, pause, or pass, but don’t stop the pursuit. You need to maintain your momentum.

Too many companies want their brands to reflect some idealised, perfected image of themselves. As a consequence, their brands acquire no texture, no character, and no public trust.
– Richard Branson

Choosing a style for your brand and living your brand are two separate acts. While it is useful to have a vision of what you want sticking to only presenting the vision, will rob you and your community of your true value. Focus on bringing your value to others and use your vision to enhance what you do, this is where you build your personal depth.

 Everyone who achieves success in a great venture solved each problem as they came to it. They helped themselves and they were helped through powers known and unknown to them at the time they set out on their voyage. They kept going regardless of the obstacles they met.
– W. Clement Stone

Your journey will unfold before you no matter what. From those who never make a move to those who make all the moves, you will be faced with decisions to make about who you are, what you prefer, and how you will act. Branding is a simplified way of giving you and others a tangible understanding of who you set out to be while living on this earth. When you find your purpose and set your values, the obstacles will be worthwhile.

What’s Stopping You From Building Personal Momentum?

momentum-quote

Hey you,

You got the juice. You know it.

I know it.

Your purpose, the one that’s scratching at your spirit, is always ready to be at play. You just need to find ways to let it out and to let it be creative. Lucky for you, if you attach your purpose to goals you can even find ways to make personal achievement within the milestones in your life.

Yet, milestones take movement, and the greater the milestone, the greater the persistent movement and energy you will need to meet it.

Simple enough, but we know that life has a way of throwing other “stones” in our way. They are the obstacles.

The missed connections, broken laptop, endless interruptions, and other technical or non-technical difficulties that delay us momentarily.

Or they could be the big ones, suffering from a loss, a major financial setback, or some other life event that causes you strife.

You want to pursue passions in your life but within the time and energy that you already have. How do you keep a steady momentum to help you achieve anything you set your mind to? How do you get past the bouts of energy followed by low-productivity and distraction?

First, you need to find what’s stopping you from building momentum.

There could be several reasons:

  • Lack of purpose
  • Lack of process
  • Lack of support resources

Lack of Purpose

You need to know why you want to achieve your goal. You need to have a reason greater than any excuse. Then you need to set a purpose for every move you make towards your goal. Constantly reflect on the why behind what you do while fulfilling your goal’s needs.

Lack of Process

When you know what the goal is that you want to achieve, the next step is figuring out exactly when, where, and how you will fit the work into your schedule. Attach your work to life triggers like “I’ll review my strategy after morning coffee or I’ll reach out to new contacts every Friday”. How you shape your schedule will depend on your style.

Need some guidance? Try the Passion to Process workshop.

Lack of Support Resources

Given the greatness of the goal, you will eventually need others to gain further momentum. Resources, in the form or people or organizations, will help you form new connections and open new pathways towards your final vision. You need to think of how you work connects to the larger framework and then find the people who could be key to meet.

There are plenty of great groups online or in person that can be there to support you.

Building momentum takes time. You can do it, and given your effort and ingenuity you will build speed. If you need to press pause on what you’re doing and set aside time to just strategize. The peace will be key to helping you sort yourself and gain clarity.

So what’s stopping you? Comment below or send a private message.

Creation: The Critical Component to Your Success

Welcome Success Seeker!

This next one is for you. 

Someone once told me, you attract your self in others. I imagine, with this knowledge in mind, that those who read this blog (many thanks btw!) are a bit like me. In this sense, you might be introverted with an eye for big dreams, ideas, and visions and a passion for placing others in line with their success. Sweet.

I get it, what a rush! The complexity of human life, a life of which you seek clarity and productivity. Not just any productivity, though, but purposeful productivity! The kind that people would gladly do if there were no limits in their way.

Yet, while some of us on the path to success may be confident in our steps forward, others are only beginning their journey. So this next move for you is perhaps the pivotal move you must master in order to move your success forward. That move is:to create. 

What is creation? Such a vast word will need some boundaries for the purposes of this correspondence

creation

Pronunciation: /krēˈāSH(ə)n/

NOUN

The action or process of bringing something into existence Oxford Dictionaries Online

 

 

This sums up the act of success brilliantly. Whatever you are trying to accomplish, it probably has yet to be accomplished. This means it is not yet in existence, so the only way to do so is by creating that existence. To grow in confidence in this act of creation, practice creating anything at all. Whether it’s a blog post, a video, a new recipe, a fun class, or anything that you want to use your two hands to create, do it!

Do it often.

6 Google Keep Tactics to Achieve Long Term Goals

There are 40 million active small business pages on Facebook.How do you stay active while growing your start up-

 

A friend read my  5 free tools article and inquired: how do I use Google Keep as a tool for sustaining success?

First a bit of back story. It has been a long journey to personalizing a system that is flexible enough for the many pivots I take in a day, yet is reliable enough to store my voracious need to collect, organize, and connect different bits of information others or I create. Crafting such a system brings deeper respect for leaders who did it before any internet options. I too remember such a time, when the internet could only be accessed during library hours or 3rd period computer class. So like many leaders, I adapted to using the classic:

Pencil and paper. Winners from the start, but in the end, the techno-lover in me knew there had to be a system that could act as a virtual replacement for my ever-expanding need to realize my mission of showing the world the value of education is abundance. What could that system be?

Enter: Google Keep

Friends and colleagues know, I am well-versed in using Google as a tool to get things done, I am surprised it took me so long to use this app the that captures information and stores it anywhere I can log in with Google. In fact, it was two years ago, when a fellow entrepreneur Erica introduced me to the tool. I tried Evernote, Weekplan.app , Trello, Asana, Workflowly, To-Do, Momentum, and a plethora of other tools and apps, in the end, my enthusiasm for them waned. They seemed to be missing some key component, which turned out to be: integration with my current internet life. 

Success tip: Over the long haul, it’s easier to integrate systems that go with your flow.

How does Google Keep integrate so easily?

  • Flexibility – Google Keep allows you to capture notes, video, pictures, voice-to-text recordings, and lists. With a single tap, you start a new post and then you can capture your information in the mood you see fit. In addition, you can easily share via email, color code, or set reminders
  • Simplicity – Because of its post-it note style, Google Keep has minimal options and little navigation beyond what is on your screen. This simplicity keeps you focused on capturing the current thought.
  • Integration with Google Accounts – My favorite part of Google Keep is that it integrates wherever Google exists. I’m an Android owner so I have a quick app connection, and it is connected to Google Chrome and Chromebook. The best part the notes you take can be connected to Google Drive. Helping quote snippets of ideas become full articles or team documents with an easy transfer.

Tactics for how to use Google Keep:

  • Install it on your phone and mobile devices
  • Get comfortable with voice commands ideas
  • Use reminders strategically
  • Let go of perfect
  • Have a schedule for reviewing it
  • Use a simple color coding system.

6 google Keep Tactics to Sustain SUccess

 

One Thing Your Goal Absolutely Needs For Success

Welcome to a new week everyone!  I’m happy to know you are still present.

I’m still here sharing what I can, my everlasting reminder that YOU are the key to your success. How you nurture, care, comfort, and create your Self over time will determine much of your outcomes on your success path. Of course, the only way to work on oneself is to spend time reflecting inwardly on who we are, why we are who we are, and who we are becoming. So I’m glad to have you here reflecting with me. If you ever want to share, comment below or send a message.

Now back to my life’s call-to-action of nurturing humanity’s Self-success, there are many quick tricks a success seeker will learn over the years. We adhere to the importance of following up, strive to listen to others, and remember to stay focused, but many of us have an essential go-to move that we know will ensure we make it happen.

Here is my go-to:

_
Write it down.
_

Yup, that is one absolutely, positively essential move needed to make sure you get your big goals done.

Now wait a minute, Zinga, I don’t care for writing… 

Okay, maybe you don’t. Maybe you are so attuned to your learning style that you have transcended the most basic tools for retaining human memories: the paper and pencil. I get it and I understand. If you must; find another medium, but the message remains the same. If you want to achieve your goals, you must first bring your imagination of a goal into reality, by any means necessary. This means making a physical prototype of your goal. Writing is a basic, yet effective way of prototyping your vision. Of course,there are other ways, and I am an avid advocate of working within your learning style to get things done.

In fact, I created an infographic on ways to keep your vision (i.e. the long-term goal) ahead of you.

Zinga Hart Success Quote

But there are some key benefits from solely writing down your goal to make sure it gets done. One study covered by NPR and conducted by the University of Toronto demonstrated that when students wrote down their motivations and faced their obstacles on paper, the achievement gap disappeared between genders and races. This powerful act of writing our goals into being allowed typically underachieving student groups gets us to organize our thoughts, which allows us to resolve stressors while finding the mental fuel for our passions.

So our One More Move for this week is to do just that. Write down those goals, and if you’ve already written your goals down go over them again and perhaps refine the sentence even further.

But..Zinga…What about me the non-writer? 

First,  you should send me a message with your the goal you have in mind or schedule a 15-minute chat, we can customize a solution together. Then there’s that infographic I created just to get you started right away. Let me know what you think and if you have any tips for keeping your goals ahead of you!

 

 

Feel Your Vision (1)

 

A Case for Linking Online Presence to Your Success

For anyone asking Purposely Chosen Women is underway and going well! At the last session, we discussed our personal brand and how it to our goal keeps us focused, while it attracts the people who are meant to support us in our lives. Going through this session really impacted my own insight on how branding performs as a tool for our own personal success. First, a quick definition of branding to keep us on the same page.

Simply put, your brand is your promise to your customer. It tells them what they can expect from your products and services, and it differentiates your offering from that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want to be and who people perceive you to be. – Entrepreneur.com Small Business Encyclopedia 

I say you branding is what your circle thinks of you even when you’re not around.

The highly subjective amorphous blob that is your brand could easily spin out of control if you are not true to your core. Your core purpose that is, the one acts as a gravity pulling all the pieces and people you need to establish your destined imprint on the world. The practice of personal branding acts during your movement towards success.

What we are really here to talk about though is online branding. Your online brand can be a highly controlled and targeted simulacrum of your real-life brand. With some focus and effort, you can start building your promise all line for your ideal community to see. This allows you to gain leadership and trust online, which are key components of success.

How it Helps

It helps create internal awareness

When we reflect on our online brand and actively establish it, we concern ourselves with questions about who we are and how our thoughts are portrayed. We center our internal beings on our internal voice of purpose, which allows us to connect to our inner self on a regular basis.

Cultivates external awareness

If you never communicate, people will never you. While there are many forms of communication, online  branding allows us to create our own personal archive of our communications. Whether it is writing a blog or showing a video of our perfect piece of grilled zucchini, the internet affords audio, video, and written formats for communication. Find the ways that you are most happy with and stick to it!

Builds our expertise while gaining

Online branding is not only who you currently are, but also who you are becoming. This means your moving to a future state that may not exist. Will fill this path to the future with experience, learning, trials, errors, success. What we learn and the fruits of our labor are the pieces we share with the world. By building our brand we strengthen our capacity to know all about our core purpose. From building a business to baking cinnamon rolls, we can become an expert on the things people know makes us special.  More importantly, people can trust to expect that we know something about our  special something.

dream motivational quotes zinga

Where to Start

Start with the online brand presence audit. Answer some of the following questions below and consider how you can begin to build your foundation or improve upon your already built foundation.

  1. What’s my one-sentence message to the world?
  2. How often can I consistently communicate this message?
  3. Where and how do I want to communicate this message online?
  4. What’s my style?
  5. What impression do I make on others? (Ask 3 or more people)

How to Grow

When you are armed with this information, think about and create some goals for your online presence growth.

Stick to a select amount of online platforms, such as WordPress, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. Then follow these tips.

  • Never stop listening – As you grow, your circle will too. Listen to them for constructive input, new trends to try, or even for inspiration.
  • Stay consistent – Your brand is dynamic and growing, so it requires a certain amount of consistent activity to keep a pace of growth. Find a way to consistently build and do consistently.
  • Change accordingly – Review your brand for areas to change and improve. Whether it’s from some input of information or your frequency of presence. Change when it fits your core purpose.

How can I be consistent and change at the same time Zinga???

Well, that’s just the balance of life. As long as the change is a part of your core purpose and aligns to your true values, you will be staying consistent.

What am I missing? Certainly , there are a TON of tools, platforms, and mediums to grow your online brand. Get started today, and you can msg me for my personal online brand audit checklist.

Until next week.

 

audit your success journey

Audit Your Success Path with these 5 Questions

 

audit your success journey

Your success is the purpose of this blog.

Those who have been on their own success path for a while know there is a point where stopping to review, assess, and align is key to re-clearing the path that leads to  your final vision.

How do you know when it is time to audit your success path?

While sometimes there may be huge red flags, like falling into deep addiction or burning out on a project you really cared about, most of the time there will only be subtle clues like debilitating procrastination, overbooking yourself with priorities, and a feeling overall stress.

Whatever the signals will be for you, the outcome will be clear you are not moving forward in ways that matter.

While there are many audits we can perform, financial, social media, productivity, etc. the one for our personal success will only take connecting with our inner selves and openly reflecting and receiving on the answers we bring out. These five questions will help you dissect what points in your success path could use some focus and where you are doing well already.

1. What are my current priorities?

2. How do they align with my larger purpose?

3. What ways am I dividing my time on a daily and weekly basis? How do that support my larger purpose?

4. How consistent am I towards working on my success?

5. What is draining my energy and how  would I rather invest this energy?

While audits can be a deep exploration of your current status, you can use these questions as a way to begin to unfold what might be holding you back, which in turn gives you a place to find solutions. It is absolutely imperative that you listen to your honest answer, whatever it may be. I’m not reading your answers and no one else is, so there’s no need to be polished/pretty/etc. If you do want to discuss your answers  know I’m always here 🙂

 

Comment or Contact Me Anytime.

3 Time Saving Tools for Entrepreneurial Parents

Kids definitely have their future cut out for them. I, as a young Millennial parent, still have hope for them. Sure there is strong evidence of deep flaws in our systems of civilization, there is still hope that the human spirit will overcome, create, and innovate in response to the needs of the world. The spirit of the entrepreneur lives strong.

But what happens when the entrepreneurial spirit collides with the child spirit? Suddenly the burning obsessiveness that Napoleon Hill says we need to focus on to truly transmute our thoughts into reality, is interrupted, by tiny hands that want to type like Mommy on her keyboard. Those tiny hands love to explore, to help, and to just be, and as someone who doesn’t want to suppress her inner spirit, I have to find ways to fit in time for goal work and family time. Luckily, there are some tricks of the trade to help balance nurturing her and my purpose.

Tool 1 # Baby Gates

One big tool has been using baby gates, not to wrap her up, but to wrap up our stuff. us the baby gate to place around the entertainment systems and other places where she prefers to reach and grab. This way what is freely available she is okay to play with and the glowy electronic buttons are off limits.

Tool #2 Timer

One great quality about a good entrepreneur is we could just do stuff all day. When focused, we do and do and do and the effects are amazing. Yet, balancing our time takes an accounting of our time. When feeling pressed for time, set a time limit and focus happily and completely on what you want to do. For instance, when I get home from work spending time with my daughter is a key source of happiness, but I also have signed up for responsibilities that require me to respond to people, so I set a timer for getting things done. Whether it’s 40-minute session for story time or 20-minute email crafting for my team, by setting timers I am freed from time. One of my favorites is the Pomodoro timer, which sets the time to 25 minutes.

Tool #3 YouTube

Yup, I said it, YouTube has some pretty useful educational videos for toddlers and children. One thing I like to focus on Baby Einsteins. As a double benefit, a lot of the music could double as white noise, which has a minimal distraction for a parent who needs to focus. Just check out one of the episodes below:


Of course, there are plenty of other ways to use tools to help with raising kids while living up the entrepreneurial lifestyle.  What do you use? How do you balance? Like, I’d really love to know…I’ve spent 1.5 decades raising kids and have yet to find the perfect formula.