This guide will help you get intentional about who’s in your own Familiar 5! 

Friends + Family are always the most popular and supportive way to initiate your founding business community, would you agree? Friends, Family, and Facebook: but this has little to do with strategy and a lot to do with happenstance. You’ve got a lot to learn about how you operate and what you are selling during this initial time, but once you are past this round, you can start to multiply your impact and income in a more powerful way.  

Going back to the days of accessing my own “Facebook,” it was 2010 and I was starting my photography business. I’d use the tools that were BRAND NEW such as boosting posts for a few dollars with lookalike audiences, mastering the pixel, and integrating the concept of tagging and making my content public to share and expose my work to others. Also, using hashtags to find people I have never met before and creating 2nd or 3rd-degree connections with my friends along the way. 

t was tiring work and I had no realy way to expect results or people to “bite” from the things I was sharing. However, it got me started and worked until it didn’t.

Have you tried to use this approach in the past? How did it work out for you?

I want to share with you what happens after this, a more strategic way to build a stronger, more impactful community! 

A ‘Familiar 5’ consists of 5 supportive partners that you touch base with every 5 days (one person per week to follow up with) and they need to be familiar with these 5 concepts: 

Familiar with your Growth plan.

Share where you are now, where you are headed, and what some immediate next asks you have for this week, this month, and this year may look like. If you are outward and communicative about your growth and what it looks like, you are painting a picture in others’ minds about what they can be aware of to support you.

Sharing your plan to grow with others not only allows you to be heard and understood, but receive feedback, receive referrals, and receive the abundance that comes with putting your growth vision out there into the universe! 

Familiar with your ASK pertaining to what you want to sell (clear on your offerings) for the week. 

Believe it or not, I work with so many entrepreneurs who know what they do and what offering they provide, but fail to get specific on what they are asking for this week or this month alone.

If I asked you, “what are you promoting this week,” is that clear for you? If you know this, are you sharing it with your Familiar 5 in a way that they can easily tell at least one other person that they would encounter this week who may be a good fit? 

Getting really clear on asking for who and what this week to help your familiar 5 give someone that first next step with you can be a huge, but easy-to-implement shift! 

Familiar with your Impact Statement & Mission

We just worked on this at the February 2023 CEO Days - are you being impactful enough?

If you would like the self-guided version of this, check out our CEO Days Workbook and dive a little deeper into the steps of creating an Impact Statement and Mission for your business.

Make sure your people know this, can amplify it and can help attract those who will rally your mission and build a community around the power of an impact statement! 

Familiar with your Network & who you need or don’t need to attract

If you are like me, you may network A LOT and have a lot of people you’ve reached out to or followed up with. But, how deep are your connections and how powerful is the relationship with this sum of people?

Take time to really know who is in your network and how they can mutually benefit from this connection. No one you meet is by mistake and everyone you have encountered is in your network and life for a reason. I hope you can take a moment to explore what that looks like and get more familiar with the win-win experience of the people you are already connected with!

Familiar with your Style & personal brand - some people just won’t like you for you! 

How familiar are you with a “good fit” person - how do you know if they are good/ bad for your future goals?
If you are clear and confident with your own personal brand, and how you can identify what your own spin on things looks like, it will help you to be specific with how you are bringing in folks and being like a magnet to build your own community, just the way you’d like to. Using a stronger palette of brand flair, go deeper into the repetition of your fonts, colors, and stylistic choices. The things we say without using words help to access parts of the brain that can really turn up the volume on the power of your brand and the impact that you are making on the right-fit people. 

---

Side Note:  if you are in BNI (Business Network International) , you may think I stole this “gains” acronym, but it was completely by happenstance. It truly is an original Dana Magnus 3am thought! 

What is a growth plan? Let’s start there. This is where you are headed and what you see yourself growing toward. Your business has the potential to reach hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands of human beings over the next few years or even the next decade What does it look like for you to grow into your next level and how can you showcase the growth you want to experience with these people? 

Have you ever heard the expression, “junk in, junk out” when it comes to nutrition, habits, and overall wellness?

As wellness is one of my top 4 values (being #2 on my list), I find this exercise along with regular attendance at CEO Days an essential part of keeping up with the health of your business and marketing “department.”

Do you ever evaluate the health of your marketing?

Maybe you feel like you are abiding by your plan, but do you know when it is actually working?

Here is a list of ways to look at your marketing and diagnose where you should be focusing on your efforts!

Please give yourself a rating of 1-10 in each area. 1 being weakest, 10 being strongest!

1. Look in the mirror

   First of all, what do we see? Take a look at your emails, your social feeds, put yourself on the listening end of your spoken elevator pitch- what do you notice? 

   Often, we can pinpoint what we like/ don’t like about others’ marketing, but what about doing a little self-check? We notice from others if their messages or posts made any sense or if it just seemed annoying. Have we taken a look at our own marketing content?
   
   

   1. Does this marketing content make me PROUD of my abilities or do I feel like I’m not giving it my best shot?

   2. What would I rate myself (1-10) on my efforts?
      Rating__________
      
      

2. Look at the metrics

   Data is easily accessible on our platform’s analytics dashboards- have you logged into these?

   Maybe you are taking a look too often and need to make some little “wins” along the way to keep feeling good and guided from these metrics. 

   1. Are my metrics clear and do they make sense?

   2. Am I using the application properly?

   3. How would I rate my performance on these platforms? (1-10)
      Rating__________

   
   

3. Look at who’s engaging vs. who’s looking

   1. Sent an email and ever notice who opened it, but they need a follow up?

   2. Do you have fans on your social media that you haven’t asked to become a client?

   3. Are you getting lots of positive feedback from people, but they never buy?

   4. How would you rate your overall engagement
      Rating__________
      
      

4. Look at what’s up to date

   Go through and make sure all of your systems are up-to-date and consistent

   Log into your multiple platforms- are they all saying the same thing?

   1. Do you see consistency or breaks or confusing elements across all of your systems or platforms?

   2. How would you rate your marketing “freshness” and being accurate with your information?
      Rating__________
      
      

5. Look at feedback

   If you are making a multi-platform funnel or sales flow, don’t stop testing and coming at the process with a critical eye

   If enrolled, ask MKTG Group members in Slack or friends and family to give you honest feedback and say, “who do you think this is intended for what problem am I solving- is the solution clear- would you buy it if you were in my customer’s position, why or why not?
   
   

   1. Do you regularly ask for feedback and how your marketing makes others feel?

   2. How would you rate your overall ability to get honest, non-biased feedback
      Rating__________
      
      

Marketing Health Analysis

Where do you score and what can you improve on?

Come up with a plan

1. If you notice some things need to be nursed back to health, don’t try to do everything overnight, let’s map it out!

2. Come up with a game-plan (below) to space things out and alleviate stress and anxiety around making these big changes:

3. Once you have all of your notes logged in, you can add to your calendar or plan out which weeks in the Impact-Driven MKTG Group, you’d like to work on these things with Dana’s 1-1 support help, the MKTG Group’s support slack channel, or on your own during our accountability work sprint time!

I’d love to hear about your marketing “health” and what you got out of this analysis! If you are interested in working together to nurse your marketing body back to health, let’s schedule a strategy session today!

Photography by Jungle Branch

Are you hungry for a more juicy and delicious way to market your vision in 2022?

A marketing “umami” strategy reminds me of the perfect combination of elements coming together to give your diner the experience of a lifetime. Sweet, savory, bitter, sour, and salty. 

WHAT’S ON THE MENU?

Are you hungry for a more juicy and delicious way to market your vision in 2022?

A marketing “umami” strategy reminds me of the perfect combination of elements coming together to give your diner the experience of a lifetime. Sweet, savory, bitter, sour, and salty. 

All great leaders have a salivating VISION for the future, that’s why we follow them and want to eat up every “bite”. The insights and ideas bring perspective, bring empowerment, and bring hope- that’s why they are so irresistibly impactful. 

I believe that all entrepreneurs who are building a personal brand can be mission-driven the moment they start to really get intentional about their marketing becoming a way to inspire and educate their community. 

When it comes to measuring the impact of your vision, consider it’s value by how often it’s accessed, experienced, and utilized. All chefs love to see the plate cleaned as the best complement. Think of your marketing department as the same way eating up every part of your vision! 

A marketing “umami” strategy reminds me of the perfect combination of elements coming together to give your diner the experience of a lifetime. Sweet, savory, bitter, sour, and salty. 

For entrepreneurs struggling with carving out time and focus to work on their own marketing when it doesn’t come innately intuitive to them, you may relate, I put together a quick list of 5 ways you can simply share your vision. Mark one of these prompts into your calendar spread out over the next 12 months and enjoy the simplicity of knowing it’s being broadcasted easily and quickly!

1. GET FAMILIAR
   Right out of the gate, this whole list wouldn't work unless you can quickly and easily access your vision statement. Did you even write one yet?
   
   Your vision for the year can be: 

1. A video of yourself talking it out (5-10 minutes)

2. A few pages of it written out

3. A collage/vision board put together by mixed media or assembled digitally

4. A playlist of music that describes your experiences that you want to have with artists, styles, and lyrics that are intentionally gathered

5. A recipe of a dish that has all of the ingredients, along with the flavors and sensations of taste that you are after - how can a delicious cheeseburger relate to your business goals and the results you are after? Is it responsibly raised meat with locally gathered greens and a beautiful steamy stack of ingredients perfectly standing still with the most perfectly seasoned french fries and a Belgian quad beer to wash it down? That’s what mastery tastes like to me!!!
   
   

Whatever the way your brain is wired to reference the way you dream up to keep yourself referencing a guide for yourself, make it a finished piece! And then put your vision somewhere visible to you to access for the following exercises below.

2. GET VISUAL
Use this prompt to help your vision become something, well, to visualize! Use your imagination, creativity, pictures, references, and other elements that resemble your vision.

Perhaps you have a dream home you pass to / from your commute every day, or a song that brings out feelings that you also want to feel when you live out your vision in your business. Use those to tell a story or support a post in your marketing. 

When you explain it deep, wide, and with every detail you can describe, you are helping others “get it” and understand your vision. You can share it as a statement, as a video, as a graphic or photo, or with key phrases or keywords.

3. GET CHOOSY
You are clear with who needs to hear about this vision. It’s one thing to scream something loud and clear on the rooftops for everyone to hear, but you may be missing out on getting more intentional, creating a stronger pull with knowing the audience and focusing on them.

For example, when sharing my vision, I am using adjectives about the community I want to attract. Words like, “passionate, purpose-driven, inspired by social justice, environmentally-focused, responsible for their dreams, driven, experimental, humorous” which can detract people as much as it attracts people.

4. GET CLEAR(ER)

Are there other ways you can talk about your vision after sharing it or presenting it? I love doing market research at the beginning of the year with colleagues and new connections about “does this whole idea or concept even make sense?” and do the edits. Put out a few different iterations of your vision: short, long, in different places, and with different creative elements to let it get digested by different audiences who will find it useful and relevant!

For example, you may have used the cheeseburger recipe, but try to then take that and elaborate a bit more, or shorten it up, “I want to have my business stacked with clients enough to keep me full, but excited to come back for more once I get my appetite back- I want to rate my business 5-stars on yelp when I look at it with the level of service and quality I put forth!”

5. GET CONSISTENT
Last but not least, you are consistent with your vision and share it often. This work and these messages do not end on January 31st. You bring this vision into all of your meetings with your team, new people you meet, on your website, on the back of your business card, and weave it into the way you talk about your offerings. 

1. Add your vision into your offerings

2. Add your vision into your meetings

3. Add your vision into the way you introduce yourself while networking

4. Add your vision into your branding & messaging

5. Add your vision in all conversations you have and describe ways that the people in front of you, on the other side of your social media messages, email marketing pieces, etc. play a role in your vision

If you are stuck creating a vision, I highly encourage you to start with a simple way to visualize a vision using the “umami” five basic taste sensations.

If you like simplicity, just start with a power phrase or word and let the details work around you each month.

As always, if you are in need of additional support around this vision and carrying it out into your marketing, the Impact-Driven MKTG Group supports you each week to put your vision into action!

Powerfully declare what your year will be in a word or phrase.

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful celebration reflecting on 2021! Do you feel ready to “TURN ON” your most impactful year yet in your business?

My power word for 2022 is “MASTERY”
I know this past year tested me in so many ways and although my profitability and performance weren’t anything to put on the shelf, I’m beyond grateful for the lessons that helped shape a new direction for me to focus on in 2022.

I want to fulfill all of the things I’ve started with an approach to master the skills, the intentions, and the systems that I had initiated over the last 2 years and make more prideful & profitable results from my efforts.

How about you?

If you are someone who just can’t get with the idea of mapping out a giant complicated, multi-layered plan for your marketing or your business, you may want to take a small, very small, effort to set a powerful direction for yourself.

Words are powerfully linked to our subconscious and conscious mind

If your brain hears a certain word, you assign meaning. You recall experiences. And you feel what that word means emotionally and physically in your body.

What if each day you can wake up and make a small statement or phrase around ONE word that you wish to assign to 2022?

How can that one word said every day give you a nudge in the direction you desire to think/feel/ act on?

Select ONE word and make a commitment to using it regularly

To start a brand new year, I want to give you one challenge- pick a single word to name 2022.

Next, each morning, each start of the week, or at the beginning of each month, create a phrase that assigns meaning around that word. Make those your written verbal, and visual pledges to yourself that you can use to stay in alignment with what you desire the year to be.

Use these words + phrases in your marketing

Have you heard of the Law of Attraction? It’s about pulling inward what you desire, who you desire, and manifesting outcomes that help make anything possible!

What you are putting out there is what you are going to receive back. Using the MKTG Dashboard Process, a MKTG Brand Strategic tool, you can plug your words and phrases as themes and sub-themes into your marketing plan, making your intentions front and center of everything you are talking about.

The best part about being consistent being clear, and being communicative about the things and words you are sharing is that people will receive this, understand this about you, and start to associate that powerful word or phrase with your branding. It’s such a beautiful thing!

Being Intentional

Keeping your intentions small and bite-sized, like using just one word at a time, is what I hope to encourage empowerment and confidence in you so that you can be all that you need to be in order to live out your business + life’s mission this year.

If you’d like to learn more about setting regular intentions, make sure to subscribe to the Sunday Intentions newsletter!