ALL FB Ads Revealed: Create THE Swipe File of the Century!

10 Steps to Analyze A highly Converting Ad (so you can create one for yourself!)

THE MOST AMAZING THING HAPPENED: 

Facebook announced it was going public with all of its advertiser's ad campaigns!

You can now see every influencer, industry leader, or business who is running Facebook / Instagram ads and see their: COPY, AD CREATIVE, and ESSENTIALLY SEE THEIR ENTIRE PAID ADVERTISING FUNNELS!  WHAAAA???

Gone are the days of top advertisers ads being under a cloak and dagger, hiding in secrecy, only if you were lucky enough to be targeted by one of your peers/competitors/mentors would you be able to see their Facebook ad campaigns, and collecting them in their entirety funnel... it was near impossible unless they personally showed  you!

Step 1: Make a list of people who are well-known in your industry!  Look up their business page...

Step 2. Go to Biz Page:  You click on "Ads & Info"

This is on the left-hand side of ANY business page.  If it's a "WATCH" page with a video channel their Ads & info page is hidden in the THREE little dots on the far right-hand part of the page.

Step 3: You can look to see which ads are currently running.

If they're currently running, they're either testing an ad or running it because it is making them money.

Step 4: Analyze what product / who the ads are for: 

Are they lead generating (TOP OF THE FUNNEL), or are they retargeting an audience?

How will you know? Analyze are they introducing who they are, or are they talking to the audience as if they know them. "You were signed up for the webinar...and didn't come, catch the replay"<--- obvious retargeting..

"Course Closes Tonight!" <--- Retargeting a warm audience, versus cold.

You won't know exactly idea who they're targeting, but you can make some assumptions by the content of the ad...

Multiple types of creatives for the same webinar could be targeted to either COLD or WARM or HOT Audiences...   What I've discovered is usually if they're ads with the brand personality's / guru's face on them they could be going for warm here, otherwise, the face won't mean much to a super cold audience.

Step 5: Make a list of the types of freebies, promotions they're doing. 

Are they doing a challenge? Are they doing a Quiz?  Are they just running promos to a Webinar Landing Page?  

Step 6: Analyze the copy

What is the thing that hooks you in? A Fact? Are they challenging a belief?  Are they sharing a personal experience? What type of "call-to-action" are they requesting?

Step 7: What type of Creative Did they use for the ad? Pro Video? FB LIve? Iphone Video? Graphic Ad?

What type of creative did they create? A graphic ad: (Did it have an image of the guru, a cartoon, a cool pattern? What kind of fonts did they use)  Did they do a video? If so what did they say in the video?

Step 8: If they're running a replay ad / closing cart ad, watch their webinar and take notes/screenshots of the slides, look at their landing page, and their sales pages.

Step 9: Download an App called Full Page Screen Capture

This will download an entire page and put it into a PDF for you!... and download their sales pages for analysis... Do the same thing on their ads, so that way if the ads go down... you have them captured for future reference!

Step 10: Dance you just created yourself the world's best swipe file!

How to get inspired without "stealing"?

CASE STUDY: THE CLIENT WHO 4X'd THEIR CONVERSIONS IN 24 HOURS BY REVIEWING COMPETITORS ADS

One of my clients who was doing Facebook ads was getting mediocre results with their ads, looked at the ads of one of their competitors and discovered they were using an animation software & template that they actually owned.

The client took the SAME footage they had in their ads that weren't converting, put it in the animation program, produced a video that had different copy, different videos but similar in style as it was a template and their profitability went from every $1 they were spending to only a $1.80 in return, within 24 hours they went to getting for every $1 they spent, $4 in sales!!!! 

This increase 4 x return from this ONE thing within 24 hours just from analyzing their most successful competitors ads!  THINK OF THE POSSIBLITIES!

They ALSO caught a different competitor stealing one of their headlines.  So if they wanted to, they could report that to Facebook.  This is the power of this being available!

You never, I repeat NEVER steal anyone's headlines or copy -- word for word.  This is not ethical, it will get you in trouble legally and make you some enemies in the industry!

There are actually sensors in Facebook ads that if you have copy that is too similar, Facebook will actually warn you AND that person of your ad copy being too similar!!!  So don't do it unless it's a general industry term/phrase.

What types of things are they saying? What you can do is see how they reference something "FREE Training" vs. "FREE Webinar"-- How are they convincing the audience to buy from them?  How much copy are they using? How are they using testimonials?  What kind of technology are they using for their quizzes? 

Don't use the same style image, or the same pattern they're using, keep it on brand and original.  You can get layout ideas.  Example: Use a bold headline with a powerful image on a color background, that is inspiration... not copying.

Here's the thing, you're not stealing by getting inspired,  you're looking at the structure of something without doing things word for word.  You don't want it to be too close aesthetically cause it can create confusion in the market place!  Diff pics, diff colors, diff fonts... same layout, totally acceptable.

I teach a process in my membership site called The Social Launcher, called "DECONSTRUCTION / RECONSTRUCTION Method" (AKA DECON/RECON)  where we look at what successful ads are doing, and we analyze what made them work so that you can RECONSTRUCT them to create more profitable ads.

Why is this awesome?  You can see what multi-million dollar businesses in your industry are spending 10's of thousands of dollars on.  You know when you see the same ADS day in and day out on their page, they're the ones that are actually converting.

Why is this scary for some?  If you are an industry leader, you likely spend 10's of thousands of dollars on figuring out what works, this means a little guy who has spent no money can learn exactly what is working WITHOUT 10's of thousands in testing... 

Umm Pioneers being the first to get arrows in their back? (sad for them.)... Also it means an advantage for you if you're not said pioneer.

It also means you can see your competitors sales pages (even if you're not in their funnel), which often are only available for a limited time!  To see them just click on the ad.

What does this mean about evergreen funnels? Facebook does say on the pages that not all deals might be available to you. With the wonderful invention of a software called Deadline Funnel, whether you see the sales page from their ad targeting you, or you're stalking them through their business page, the deadline funnel could still make it so you can't access the sales page after a certain period of time! (yay deadline funnel!)

If someone isn't using Deadline Funnel, you'll be able to look at the sales page whenever they're running and ad for it.

How can you use this as some serious investigative research for your business? You can see what the most successful businesses in your industry are doing!  So here's what makes this more powerful than what is just on their website, or the random ad you would see before...

You get the FULL picture of their funnels... what they're doing for cold traffic, for warm traffic for Instagram stories, their retargeting for webinars.  Note the content of their videos!  Now they're is some educated guessing on which audience is for which, but honestly you can figure it out.

 

MY Personal CASE STUDY

I was shocked to find one of my main competitors does not do checklists as a freebie at the top of her funnel. While looking at her ads I discovered she had 5 different creatives pointed towards ONE webinar.  Based on my own experience, I know that the leads that have come from webinars are far more likely to convert than the cheaper leads gotten from checklists / resource PDF's...  So I find this information fascinating to see what types of ads I should be doing, versus just going for the cheap leads.

Then I could go analyze her entire webinar to see what was converting (she's been running the same webinar for years now so it's a good sign it's converting)

It was so helpful to decon/recon this as I create my own paid strategies, versus guessing, cause as we all know GUESSING is expensive!!!

I will report later on how this worked!

Did you love this lesson?  Do you want more lessons that are even more in-depth than this.

Check out my $1 7 - Day Trial into my membership site called THE SOCIAL LAUNCHER!  It includes mini-courses on tons of things in social media

Which kind of entrepreneur are you?

Aloha!

I just spent the last seven days walking the beautiful beaches of Hawaii allowing myself the rare luxury of "time to think."

One day, I was listening to Gary Vaynerchuck who was giving consulting to a client on his podcast...

... and he said to the guy....

"Maybe you need to go to Hawaii for a week and just think."=

I stopped dead in my tracks and almost squirted Kona coffee right out my little nose, cause that is EXACTLY what I was doing!  

(Hello there "synchronicity"-- my old friend!)

I have lovingly called this week a "Hawaiian THINK-CATION” and apparently, it's where I get my best ideas!  

The purpose of thinking was to find ways to shift myself and my business to create some of the best work of my life, and how to truly become a SOURCE for you...!

You know that feeling when you're BIRTHING a new idea, and it's super awkward,anxiety-filled, painful, scary and exciting all at the same time because you don't know if it's the right thing?  

... where you're just waiting for the intuitive epiphany to hit so you can breathe and take action...

Whelp, I went through ALL of that lovely pain for the entire week until ...It hit me like a ton of coconuts…(bahahaha!) 

.... I came up with something that I think might make you hula so hard... your skirt might fall off!

THE QUESTION THAT ENDLESSLY LOOPED MY MIND:

How can I help you create INFLUENCE and become a LEADER in your industry, and help you build a brand/business that supports that?

MY ANSWER:

I needed to create a MODEL for helping you see where you're currently at === and what needs to transform for "WHO YOU NEED TO BE" to become this influential powerhouse!

So I started to think of my entrepreneurship journey and I noticed a stark difference of the mindset, ways of being, in the first 4 years of my business.... versus now.  

I made a list of all the things that were NOT working prior to me launching in 2013…. 
Then I made a list of all the things I'm striving to be NOW.... that fuel everything I do.

Are you ready for this magic? You're definitely going to fall into one of these two categories...  I'm so excited!!  Look at the descriptions below and tell me...
 

WHICH ENTREPRENEUR ARE YOU?

THE HOPEFUL ENTREPRENEUR vs. THE INFLUENCER

---

"THE HOPEFUL ENTREPRENEUR" -  YOU 1.0

 

• Watches peers pass her by, wondering why she’s not the leader in her industry

• Is not making a full-time income from her business yet, so she can’t get out of her day job, or has to do something she doesn’t want to do to make ends meet.

• Suffers from overwhelm & analysis paralysis...so it takes forever to get things out

• Is always GUESSING on strategy and content creation 

• Suffers from website shame and/or does not know why it’s not generating leads, sales, or positioning her as an expert  (Actually you might even like your site, but it’s not working the way you want!)

• Is addicted to buying courses & coaching and not doing the work

• Sounds sales-y or over promotional in her content, without meaning to... she just NEEDS to make sales to survive!

• Is reactive… instead of proactive… and has a fear of failing and/or a fear of success

• Often suffers from a scarcity mindset: She won't give her best stuff away for free in fear that no one will buy from her if she does, or that she'll run out of the good stuff!

• She wants to value her time but has shiny object syndrome so badly she’s constantly jumping from thing to thing 

• Is panicking often, and doubting her decisions

• Is scared to hire help, because she’s trying to “save money”

---

"The Influencer"  YOU 2.0

• Is a leader in her industry and is known by other influencers

• Makes consistent income from her products & services and is scaling up

• Knows exactly what to do every day when she sits down to work on her business.

• Has a clear strategy of how content leads a customer to a sale
   

• Has a beautiful, professional, brand & website that generates quality leads and consistent sales

• Strategically buys courses when she needs them and implements right away

• Over delivers value in her content and giving her audience transformative wins to create influence

• Has an abundance mindset, believes in herself and is unattached to results

• Is proactive and know she will crush any obstacle as long as she doesn’t quit

• She’s learned saying "No" to things that don’t serve her is saying "Yes" to things that do. In other words, her time is gold and she treats it that way

• Only works in her genius zone, and has a team that supports her vision

WHICH ONE DO YOU RELATE WITH THE MOST?

If you rated yourself 1.0-1.5 The Hopeful Entrepreneur:
 

...and want to become the Influencer in the next year, I have something that will get you super excited.

I’m looking for beta testers for a course I’m revising.  The beta test is free, and the “experience” will be sold later to my audience. I need your help to flesh out this experience and gain some testimonials... AND I want to help you.

It’s called “The Influence Incubator”... It starts this Mon April 16 -20 - NEXT WEEK!

It’s a One Week experience with me online helping you flesh out your CORE BUSINESS FOUNDATIONS... what’s not working in your signature offering / who you’re targeting, and your way of being that is NOT working for you.

This experience is a group coaching incubator that will help you develop the foundation to become the Influencer I know you want to be!

I want to see if I can help you get a big win in a very short period of time.  This is my way of being of service to my community, but I only want serious participants who are actually going to do the work.

APPLY HERE to BETA TEST for “THE INFLUENCE INCUBATOR” (No Charge for Incubator)... 

In the incubator you will figure out:

• Are you doing the right kind of business aligned with your passions and personality?
• Have you adequately done competitor research on what’s out there and how your product/service is better? (Competitive advantage)
• Have you created a solid why to what you’re doing
• Have you interviewed 1-on-1 your ideal clients to truly discover what they want and need so you aren’t guessing
• Have you priced your products properly to meet the value you are delivering on
• Have you named your products & services that communicate easily what you do and who you do it for
• Is your brand & website creating a customer journey to sale?

By the end of the Incubator, you’ll have an 18 page plan of solid business foundations focused on helping you become an influencer, (even if you THINK you have them, you might need some serious revision and clarity) and I’ll be with you every step of the way.

>> APPLY TO BE A BETA TESTER HERE!  (No Charge)

---

If you rated yourself a 1.75-1.99…  “ALMOST an INFLUENCER”…

I have something that would be a better fit for you than the incubator.

“The Almost Influencer”
 

Has most of the traits of the Influencer above but does NOT have a brand or website that reflects the awesomeness of your offerings... If you’re working full time on your business and at least THREE of the following things:

• Have made at least 20k in your products and services in the last year
• You DO NOT have a website/brand that is consistently bringing you leads, and sales, and/or a brand that does not feel like YOU or you're looking to REBRAND
• You’ve spent over $20k in your business in the last year
• You have the desire to have a brand/website that is as professional as mine is

I want to give you a Brand/Website Assessment for free, to see if working in a small group or one-on-one would be a good fit for you.  

Normally I’d charge upwards of $1,000 for this assessment. <-- No charge for you.

>> "Almost Influencer - Brand / Website Assessment" (No Charge.)

Leave me a comment below and tell me what were your big ahas doing this?  What did you learn about yourself of where you are and where you want to be?  Also share this blog entry if you loved it!

Map Out Your Life for 2017!

A few weeks ago, I get this message from my friend Rachel Luna..

She wanted some girly business time because she literally lives 15 minutes from me in Oceanside.. and we wanted to decompress after the holiday.

 (Side note:  Check out her site, I designed it!  And its the example I use in Launch Your Brand! So you too can design a site like it!)

First, we thought Mani-pedi's, then we thought SUSHI, then we thought why don't we do life maps?!

I thought about all the years I've done life maps and the process I have gone through. The most impactful life map I've ever done came to me from my friend Citt Williams.

We were living in Tokyo in 2009 at the time and she had me do this exercise. (She was a badass documentarian that did documentaries about climate change for the United Nations)

She said "go through this Excel spreadsheet and find the things that are MANDATORY and HIGH, write a very specific GOAL in relationship to the ones you've scored the highest with."

I had put on the map that I wanted to make $5,555 a month, and literally within 24 hours, I got a job that brought my monthly income to exactly that! I drew a dog with a spot over her eye that I wanted to adopt, and within 3 months I had a boyfriend with a dog with a spot over her eye. I wrote the kind of bedroom furniture I wanted for my fantasy bedroom and within 1 month I had that. I wrote that I wanted a website that would change the face of design and branding. And whelp, I'm sort of known for that now?!

Here is the Spreadsheet for you to use: 

You take a piece of paper and split it into 4 quadrants one for each section of the map, and add a visual to each one that represents the goal.

I did mine in Photoshop Mix for Ipad (but I don't recommend this unless you have Adobe Creative Cloud, and the Ipad Pencil...and even then it's sort of tricky) the EASIEST way to do this is either draw out little icons or cut them out of magazines.

Or you can get on Pinterest and Print out images you find to add to the board. Remember this is for your personal use! (For business design this is NOT okay for personal use this is fine)

Then you post your map next to your bed or in your bathroom so you see it everyday and it reminds you of your vision. The images help with reminding you of the goal without you having to read!

I really hope you enjoy this exercise and once you do it please post your life map in the comments! I want to see what your goals are for this year.

Thanks to Rachel for filming half this video!

(Also note this before my lashes came off. Now that I look at them they do look sort of all over the place! Maybe this is a blessing!)

My Lifemap for 2017:

• Spend 6 months of year traveling in Europe, UK and Australia.
• Develop a "For Purpose" organization that gives to worthwhile causes such as Habitat for Humanity and foster care programs
• Consistently bring in $97,979 a month
• Embrace divine feminine energy through spirituality
• Create a pinup body that I love. (I superimposed my head on Marilyn's bod)
• Get more speaking engagements that make an impact.... maybe TED? But at least 3 workshops a year!
• Dance 3-5x a week
• Have enjoyable dinner parties with new friends
• Hire a team of rockstars to support my business: social media content dev, project manager, assistant

And find my Jason Schwartzman - funny, sweet, motivated, successful, (age appropriate 30-42) who loves me a tiny bit more and wants to start a family asap!

Tell me in the comments below what your goals are for 2017!  

And if you create an awesome life map, post below and I'll give you encouragement!

How to Create Color Schemes & Get Inspiration from Magazine Covers

Last week,  I went to a cabin in Whistler BC this last week to work and play! One of my amazing design students, Cindy, let me stay in her cabin!  (Ahem, Brag Alert:  it was more like a: A 3 story mansion with hot tub!!!) to write and work on updating the Launch Your Brand Program (to be released this week)  Keep your eyes peeled for tons of fun goodies coming your way this week!

Can I get a high five!?  Nothing like getting biz done, in style!

I seriously have the best relationships with my students... we really do become branding besties! Thank you again, Cindy!!!! 

How to Find Color Inspiration to Use in Your Brand

I found an issue of Cosmo UK Edition and fell in love with the color scheme.  So I bought the magazine to see what I could grab from it, decided to throw together a quick tutorial for you!

I thought it would be a PERFECT opportunity to show you how to get inspired by colors (and headlines for blog entries or lead magnets) you see in the world and then use them for your business!

First I take you through the steps of finding inspiration, then you photograph the inspiration with your phone, or with a scanner and you pull this into Adobe Color to pull a color scheme.  It's quite awesome to start to find color schemes in the world and be able to use them.

Now, you want to be careful here not to create brand confusion, I am definitely not recommending stealing the brand colors of a competitor, creating a brand or website that looks like theirs and confusing the crap out of everyone.  That would be wrong.  

But you can find the color scheme of a beautiful photograph you find, a magazine cover, a photo you take, stock images or illustrations you find, etc.  Just make sure they aren't brand color combinations.  This cover of Cosmo did not use their brand colors.  

Remember color + fonts + image style do make up the feel of a brand, so it also is related to a combination of those things for it to really create confusion.  If you don't use the exact combination and make things VERY contrasted (very different), then you'll be fine!

In the book, "Stealing like an artist" By Austin Kleon (which is a really great book by the way) mentions in the book about "remixing" and the idea here is to take an idea already out in the world and make it better.  

You want your own unique perspective, and you want to mix 2 + things to make something new, instead of stealing ALL of the things from one source.  

Stealing from one source is plagiarism, stealing from multiple is research! - Wilson Mizner

Take Action!

Create a unique color scheme from something you find on Pinterest, or out in the world, and use Adobe Color to create a color scheme following the video tutorial from above.  Then post a screen shot of this color scheme and explain what you'd be using it for in the Free Facebook Community!

Did you love this lesson?  

"How to Get What You Want From a Designer"

A few days ago, we covered the beginning of the story of how I launched Gabrielle Carsala's brand "Badass Bliss," this last month, who was a super amaze-balls dream client that I worked with over the past few months.   If you missed it, part one is here.

How to get what you want from a designer...

Design clients usually fall into 3 categories: the ones that know EXACTLY what they want (the "smarty-pants"), the ones that have NO FLIPPING IDEA, and the dream client (which Gabrielle falls into, and we'll get into that in a minute).

The "smarty-pants" and the "no-flipping-idea" category of clients can create major problems for the designer. The first kind will show up with the fun stuff done, colors and fonts picked out, look at someone else's website and say I WANT THAT...before they even meet with a designer or have a proper brand strategy.  

These clients come to a designer almost as an art director with a "do this, do that" approach... without any real knowledge of why certain fonts and colors, style might not work...or why copycatting someone else's design style might not be the best idea.  Their inflexibility generally gets them what they want, but is that really going to be the best thing?

This approach is sort of putting the cart before the horse, and not always the best way to get a best brand identity, nor one that feels like you (especially if they are copycatting someone else.)   

What the "smarty-pants" client needs is someone to get to know them, understand their vision, their industry, and create a vision WITH them, and talk them out of all their bad ideas.

Then there is the second group of design clients, who don't know what they want at all, and they expect the designer to be a mindreader. They can't find anything they like because they just don't know.  They say things like "I don't know-- just make it pop!" 

A good designer, will take them through a guided process to help them figure out what they want, and justify to them why certain decisions should be made regarding things on trend, industry, and communication of adjectives that their ideal clients will resonate with.

A dream client, like Gabrielle, (falls into neither of these categories and the has best attributes of both) had an idea of how she wanted her brand to "feel", but flowed through the process with me to figure out what was going to work, with my lead.

A good way to not fall into the previous two traps, is to have a clear idea of how you want your brand to "feel" let your designer guide you through a process with mood boards so that you both can get on the same page.  Mood boards become a necessary (and fun) part of the process!  This is because it's a way to communicate with your designer visually, and your designer visually with you.

WHY COMMUNICATING VERBALLY WITH A DESIGNER, DOESN'T WORK...

The problem with communicating verbally versus visually with a designer, is that for example, the definition or idea of luxury to a designer might be different than your idea of luxury (which might be traditional, classic, and the designers might be modern.) Hence why mood boards are SO important, so that you are communicating to each other with visual examples instead of verbal ones.

Before getting any photography done, designing a logo, or picking out colors, there is a very systematic process you should follow...

Before you do any design, these must be decided:

1. Concept - What is the message you are communicating for this parent brand (this many times turns into the name of a biz or a tagline)
2. Theme - What possible visual themes could support that message (designer will generally come up with some, and you should too with designer guidance)
3. Mood Boards - They refine your ideas in a visual way.  Seeing this can help you eliminate ideas before you invest in a designer, or any time designing anything.

To have a super strong brand you NEED to have a strong concept (message) and a variety of visual options via mood boards (visual theme) to decide the best route to go.  

Concept (The Message) : Badass Bliss

Theme Ideas:  Badass Dorothy (The Wizard of Oz), Badass Lifestyle, Badass Luxury, Badass Vintage Neon Dorothy

Mood Board #1: Badass Dorothy from Wizard of Oz

Notice Dorothy with the machine guns, spikes, etc.  The badass part is being communicated with those items.  The bliss part is the end of the yellow brick road.  Every single image either says Dorothy or Badass.

View fullsize

https://www.pinterest.com/youcanbrand/dorthy-her-bad-ass-life/

Mood Board #2: Badass Vintage Neon Dorothy

Same philosophy as above, but this one integrates vintage and neon elements for a different spin on the badass element!

View fullsize

https://www.pinterest.com/youcanbrand/vintage-neon-dorthy/

Mood Board #3: Badass Lifestyle: (THE CHOSEN ONE)

This one was the chosen concept because it was most closely aligned with the realistic vision that Gabrielle had for her clients, which was to live their best lives through having fun, being confident, adventurous, stylish, care-free, and being able to get over shit and get things done!  So girlfriends, sparkles, cotton candy, private jets, all became the inspiration for the photography shoot.

View fullsize

Now what do we do with these mood boards to use for the brand photography.....  Whelp, that's in the next part of this series coming next week!

In the comments below, share which of the three client categories you fall into, and what your biggest take-away from this blog entry was!

Extra HELPFUL CRITERIA FOR FINDING A DESIGNER:  When trying to find a designer-- find one that has a distinct branding process, go through that process with them, and be as flexible as possible. It's a team effort, you need to be guided out of your bad ideas and into the best version of your vision.  Also keep in mind, a designer will NEVER hit it right the first time, and sometimes it takes quite a few times before you are speaking the same language, so be patient. I call this "Failing Fast!" -- gotta get to the bad ideas first before the good ones emerge.  Same thing for those who are DIY'ing their brand.

...If you want to start design your brand, check out:

Live Your Brand. Live to Break Records! - Part 5

Lesson 9 - "The World Will Be Saved By the Western Woman" - Dali Lama

If you missed Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4 of the series, click on the links to catch up!

After roadtripping with some of the strongest, most independent, fabulous entrepreneurial women, it has become apparent to me that we are in a serious transition happening in the world.  Women entrepreneurs are stepping into their power, living the lives they want, and not apologizing for it.

We are truly becoming the leaders in our communities, and in our families we are becoming more of the bread winners.  We are in a time where women have more possibilities and opportunities than ever before.  We still have a ways to go, but the message to get here is if you want anything in this life you can have it, (not even if you are a woman, but ESPECIALLY because you are a woman.)

I feel so blessed to have met Nicole Marietta (one of my most brilliant LYB students) on this road trip, because her positivity and talent in writing and design, is so inspiring to me.  I feel so excited that I inspired her to start designing, and she has inspired me to keep teaching women like her on how to live their "bliss" through doing things that thrill them.

I feel so thankful for people like Angelica, for introducing me to her amazing family and reminding me to let loose a little bit (like any 21 year old should!), and she taught me that you can get upgraded to the Presidential Suite of any hotel if you just are willing to ask firmly for something you deserve.

The camaraderie of your tribe / followers, the people who love and support you help make you your best self!  I am so thankful!.

One of our amazing breakfasts at Sweedeedee.  These girls are seriously "Golden Sauce"  hahahaha!

Lesson 10 - Let's Break a World Record at The World Domination Summit

Not even one day after my sweet new lady friends went back home, one of my favorite people in the world Gary Ware, who was a close friend from San Diego, came for a visit to Portland for five days for The World Domination Summit, put on by the famous writer / blogger Chris Guillebeau.

Gary is such a sweet, kind-hearted, and thoughtful person... He is mid-process of launching his own info product called Breakthrough Cocktail, for youth who are just graduating from college and who need soft skills to get a great job, utilizing their degree. He builds confidence, and guides them to achieving greatness first through preparation versus learning by failing first.

Because I was allowing him to stay with me the entire trip, he booked a bunch of fun things for us to do during his stay. one of them being breaking a world record of the world's largest yoga chain.

Gary and I, getting ready to get our YOGA on!

The World Domination Summit was unbelievable, the speakers were fabulous.  If you have ever thought about going, the best way to describe it is like a perfect mashup of This American Life podcast with a Ted Talk.  We heard some of the most inspirational speakers in the world share their stories of struggle and triumph.  Every part of it was fascinating and incredibly inspiring.

Back to San Diego to Close Out My SD Life....

So after five glorious days of breaking records with one of my besties, eating my way through Portland and playing hostess with the mostestess, I had to fly back down to San Diego and pack up all my things to ship them.

Picasso's Birthday Picture.  He's so embarrassed he's even covering his puppy bits.

I did a five day juice cleanse, and got SUPER clear about what I want out of this little thing called "Life."  I got myself some Pinup bangs,  I had a birthday party for Picasso, (he just turned 1) and prepared myself.

I then flew back to Portland to start my new life and start writing this blog series.  And you'll never guess what the first full day as a Portland resident was...

Amelia Earhart's Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The End. (Well actually it's the beginning...but you know!)

Don't be a stranger!  Big things are coming this way....

We are at the end of this five part series... but of course just the beginning of our journey together.  Whether it's related to me helping you learn graphic design and branding through my Launch Your Brand Program... or following my dating adventures through the soon to be released WanderLover.com (you can sign up for notifications if you click on this link)

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to follow, support, learn, laugh and love with me.  I feel your energy and it keeps me so excited to keep going and building bigger and better things. I also hope it inspires you to do the same!

Launch Your Brand in 30 Days or Less Starts Aug. 4 -- Prices are going up after this session!  Registration is cut off as of Sunday Aug 3, 4pm PST.  Space is limited and has sold out twice before.  I have a few spots open!

I'm taking less students for this Aug 4 session, (so space is super limited) because I am also working on a beta program called Launch Your Design Biz.  This is because 15% of the people who have taken LYB Program, put their businesses aside and have started freelance design careers.  I HAD NO IDEA THIS WAS GOING TO HAPPEN!!!  SO EXCITING!

I'm then taking those aspiring designers and have started giving them leads the come through my company.  This is soon to be released and it's called The Student Design Agency.

Sometimes I get to art direct with them, and it's amazing because I am giving my students business, and also generating revenues doing more of what I love which is working with aspiring designers to develop amazing brands.

It's amazing seeing people who have never touched Photoshop or Illustrator before, end up leaving my program and getting clients.  Nothing thrills me more than this!  When I created the program to help entrepreneurs DIY their brand and design, I had no idea this was going to happen and it's thrilling to see them start to surpass even my own abilities. (albeit a bit humbling too!) 

Here is one student's Before and After shots!

AFTER

Post the class, here is what she did on her own!  EMPOWERMENT!

Live Your Brand. Live Your Boy Craziness! Part 4

If you missed Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 of the series, click on the links to catch up!

Lesson 7. When You Figure Out What You Want in Life, You Want Your Life to Start as Soon as Possible

We picked up Nicole Marietta in San Francisco, and jetted off on 10 hour drive we did in one shot on Sunday afternoon.  We made it into Portland about 1am.  We spent this very long car ride telling stories and listening to This American Life podcast, and Radio Lab. (If you have never heard of either of them, check them out at once!!)

The next day, was Angelica and Nicole's first true Portland brunch experience and we went to Slappy Cakes for breakfast.  Slappy cakes is yet another brilliant concept for a business.

The graphic design / branding / interior design of this chain of "Make your own pancakes" place is quite amazing.  It has the fun factor for people with kids, but it has fancy cocktails, a super cute retro modern 70's vibe for the adults.  In the Portland location, the staff is very hip.  

The host at the restaurant kept smiling and giving me oogly eyes, and I was SHOCKED.  It had occurred to me, that I hadn't had a guy inadvertently check me out randomly, in the entire 2 years I lived in San Diego.   

Then we sat down with Portland's weekly free magazine, and I looked at the listings for concert after concert of some of the best indie bands you could think of, fun art shows, street fairs, and while San Diego has some of these things, there was this whole vibe that was focused for the 25-45 year old creative that was really speaking to me.  I had lived in Portland for almost a decade before my two year stint in San Diego, but I had this whole new appreciation as Angelica and Nicole were saying --- WOAH Portland is amazing!!!

And I thought to myself, yes, this place is incredibly cool, why am I denying myself to come back here and start my life?!  The design work here is incredible.  You have Wieden + Kennedy one of the most creative ad agencies in the world.  Nike and Adidas headquarters are here.  The competition might be fierce for graphic design, but I've never had problems finding work here.

My biggest revelation is how can I collaborate with some amazing graphic designers and illustrators to improve my Launch Your Brand Program (Starts Aug 4.) because there are so many that live here!  Look at the cover of the weekly magazine for crying out loud, good design is EVERYWHERE here, and is so important for finding examples to blog about!

 It was becoming PAINFULLY obvious to me that I needed to move here.  To make things even more amazing, we went to some free concerts that night, and a very cute hilarious guy bought me a drink.  Also something that never happened in the entire 2 years in San Diego.

 I was sold.  Portland wants me back!

I called my mom, the next day "I'm moving back to Portland" -- She was like "WHAT?!?! NOOOOO!!!!!"  And I proceeded to break her heart. I think she thought I was going to live with her forever, or at least secretly hoped, and here I was having to put her through empty nest syndrome all over again.

That's when I realized the only reason why I was staying in San Diego was to be closer to her.  This really isn't the right reason to live somewhere, when you end up sacrificing your own inspiration and dating life just to make your mom happy.  (I just love her so much!)

We had a wonderful 8 months of living together, it was time for me to go, so I literally got an apartment in the Mississippi Ave neighborhood the very next day.  I could afford the fanciest apartment, in the hippest neighborhood because Portland prices were so much cheaper than SD.

I moved in 5 days later, had the entire apartment furnished in 48 hours.  Shit was happening fast and I couldn't have been more excited.  The place that I moved into was like a fancy dorm for 35 year old entrepreneurs with exceptionally cute dogs.  I thought that I had died and gone to heaven.  

I am still in heaven. I am home.

Lesson 8. Putting Together Ikea Furniture on First Dates is a Great Way to See If Your Compatible

After living in San Diego for two years, and one of those years being single was probably the worst year I've had in my life, regarding love and dating.  Just to give you an idea of the type of men Portland vs. San Diego, I did a quick snapshot so you can see the difference.

San Diego Men

Portland Men

This is literally a random sample.  This doesn't mean that there aren't great men in San Diego, this just means the style of men that live in San Diego aren't the kind of men that I'm generally attracted to, nor are they attracted to me.  There are more conservative points of view, I'm fiercely liberal.  There are more military men, or guys who have normal jobs, I want to date an entrepreneur.

Let's face it, I've got more curves than a circle, and a great majority of these men they want a blonde marathon runner.  And I want an artistic, entrepreneurial nerd, who thinks my body is fantastic. Potato....POTATOE.

So I moved into my amazing apartment on July 5th.  I furnished in 48 hours, and started to get asked on dates.  So what did I do?  I bribed men to put together Ikea furniture for me, by cooking them steak dinners for a first date.  It's the single best social experiment, I've ever done to find out compatibility.  

WanderLover.com

If you have enjoyed this series so far, and want more fun stories.....(YouCanBrand.com really isn't the place to talk about this dating stuff)

I'm launching a new site called WanderLover.com to talk about dating, traveling, food, and social experiments. It hasn't been released yet, but enter your email below if you want to find out about what happened with the Ikea experiments! The site is set to launch in the next few weeks!! 

One of the upcoming experiments is to fly to San Francisco to hire a "ManServant" for the day.  This has got to be one of the best business ideas I've ever seen!!!!  I will have him feed me grapes, sing to me with a guitar while I take a bath, and dote on me all day. Cannot wait for this fantasy (it's not a gigolo service, but instead a G-Rated pool boy / errand boy/ sort of experience and I cannot wait!)

Have you ever discovered that where you were living was affecting your inspiration for work?  Did you find the men to not be fitting?  Share your story in the comments below!

Or visit Part 5, The Series Finale "LIve Your Brand. Live to Break Records"