The Women’s Success Summit VII: Shameless Self-Promotion

On Tuesday, May 21st and Wednesday, May 22nd 2013 I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Miami Women’s Success Summit at The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse in Wynwood. I heard about the event through two very talented and hard-working women, Maria Elena Holguin from Holguin Interiors and Luly Balepogi from Luly B. They both spoke wonders about the event and about its founder, Michelle Villalobos, a skilled and successful business woman. Signing up was a no brainer!

 

The summit’s theme this year was Shameless Self-Promotion, something that I and many women struggle with. We tend to believe that promoting ourselves shamelessly is self-centered and can be interpreted as bragging. We get insecure and start to make up excuses for not being up-to-par with what we really want. Well, this summit trumped it all. In order to get business we have to stand up and lean in. We have to push ourselves and get out there. Let the world know who you are and scream it out loud. Don’t be ashamed! This is your life, your business, your money!

Upon getting all of the tools and inspiration to get moving, I decided that the most important thing for me now is to focus on my direction. Consequently, I have started to brand myself as a product. This is something I was already working on and surprisingly I was actually doing pretty darn well without the help of the summit. Yet, the summit gave me more information on how exactly to execute several things such as logos, business cards, focus, niche, media marketing and most importantly what questions to ask to get my branding to clearly define my authentic self and my goals.

I can proudly tell you that my success story has already begun! Of course, you will see and read about it here on my blog. Here are some quotes and notes from the summit that hit home:

“What makes you successful as a business person is being authentic.” –Michelle Villalobos (Founder of the Women’s Success Summit and personal branding expert)

“You have to enjoy what you do. The moment you stop enjoying it, you are doing something wrong.” –Denise Jacobs (Speaker, Author and Creativity Evangelist)

“When you’re in your flow, you are energized at the end of the day and not drained.” –Jody Johnson (Co-Owner, President and Master Coach at ActionCOACH Team Sage)

“In not delivering your message for impact you end up delivering your message for approval.” –Mina Shah (Former Peak Performance Strategist and Speaker for Tony Robbins)

“You need self-imposed deadlines!” -Jessica Kizorek (Founder of BadassBusinessWoman.org, author, philanthropist, artist and master documentary filmmaker)

“You have to reach those people who need you desperately… You make people beg by solving their problem… This is your time.” –Eli Davidson (author of Funky to Fabulous and creator of various programs that help turbo charge business growth. Columnist for the Huffington Post)

Ingrid Hoffman (host of Simply Delicioso on the Food Network) reminded us that we have to tell our true story including the good, the bad and the ugly because that makes us who we are today. She was a breath of fresh air for me during the summit. Real. Raw. Delicioso!

In the end, I highly recommend this summit to anyone in need of a push in launching a product, a business or taking a leap of faith. My take-away was the following; Whether you are a small business owner, trying to make it in _fill-in-the-blank_ industry or trying to climb the corporate ladder, you have to BE YOURSELF and not be afraid to promote your talents, skills and overall charm! Clients want to work with people, not robots! Let’s get moving chicas!

Thanks for reading!
Z~