I love great marketing. When I see clever advertising, or an attractive brand, or an engaging headline, I smile. When an individual or company can cut through the noise, or do something differently, or use a turn of phrase in an interesting or amusing way, I notice. I experienced one of these great every day marketing examples this weekend and thought I’d share it with you to enjoy and appreciate too.

I took a small trip and stayed at Hyatt Regency DFW in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. It’s a rather nice hotel and the interior design is superb. It was also the most comfortable bed I have ever slept on in a hotel. My sweetheart and I both commented that we’d buy a bed like that for our home because of its comfort.

The hotel had also done a really nice job in the paint colors, the artwork, the rugs, the bedding – everything. It just worked and made even going to the ice machine an artistic, enjoyable experience. I remember thinking about how I could duplicate the look at home for myself because I liked it so much.

As I was gathering my possessions to leave I noticed a “Hyatt at Home” brochure. Hyatt sells everything I saw in their hotel! If I want to buy that uber comfy bed, I can! If I want to have that bedspread and those pillows, they’re mine. Isn’t that cool? Everything I experienced, down to the exclusive soap and shampoo, was available for sale.

To me, Hyatt has taken a huge leap forward to integrate marketing into their customer service experience this way. It’s clever and very calculated. Even if all you do is take that brochure, you relive their hotel experience. And, Hyatt doesn’t make beds and they probably don’t own a bath soap company. They simply negotiated a branding relationship with the vendors they already used to license and market what they were already doing. They looked at the total experience they were offering and figured out additional ways to monetize it for themselves – in a way that also benefits their customers.

Like I said – I adore great every day marketing examples. I think I will apply this one more fully to my own business today. How about you? Got any great marketing examples to share?

The last few weeks I have had the good fortune to attend several community events and they seem to have an overarching theme – moving beyond struggle and prejudice. As I shift my work and move more into woman empowerment advocacy and a bit away from pure business focus, I have had the good fortune to be introduced to several groups, so I want to start to share their info with you.

Beyond Words: founded 14 years ago by Nitsan Gordon–Giles, a professional dance/movement therapy counselor, this is a group that brings together Israeli, Arab, and Palestinian women to heal through movement, touch, and listening. I met Nitsan at a FLOW event last week and she was a gentle, focused and joyful person. She told her story how, as a child, she had to live in bomb shelters, and how she was tormented in US school by the other kids because she was the only Jew. Here is an excerpt from the Beyond Words website about why it’s important to undermine prejudice:

Why is it important to transform prejudices in Israel?

Mainly because as evidenced from our own past and that of so many others around the world, prejudice can lead to incredibly destructive, horrific actions.

Also if the “need” for prejudiced behavior is not addressed, it can be passed on to the next generation. In the Middle East prejudice permeates large sections of the region’s populations and transforming it in Israel is our responsibility as a sovereign state, and is within our reach, and possibilities.

We believe changes begin at home and in the community. As women are educated about their rights and taught to work through their fears and support one another, they realize that their lives could be different. Gradually they become stronger and better able to stand up for their own rights and the rights of their children. As their self confidence and awareness increase they are able to create a more open, loving, respectful and accepting atmosphere in their homes. Consequently their children grow up treating others with more respect, empathy and compassion and realize the many choices they have to solve every problem that do not include aggression and violence.

Because the Middle East is such a “hot spot” involving more than three of the worlds’ religions and much of the world’s supply of oil, the lack of stability in the Middle East affects and endangers the rest of the world and in fact the survival of humanity on this planet. It is therefore crucial to create programs that undermine prejudices and encourage dialogue, justice and a shared society.

As I prepare my Spirit to visit with Amma, my guru, this weekend in Dallas, I realize that I don’t respect silence as much as I could.

With the beautiful cacophony of chaos available in this modern world, I have not yet found a consistent time that I dedicate to stillness and silence. In the past, with some bit of inconsistency, I have known the joys and benefits of it. I logically get the value. But, still I don’t do it.

Today finds me making space for silence. I invite you to do the same.

A few days ago, as I was busily working at my home office computer, I heard a loud and attention getting thud at a window looking out over my backyard. Surprised, based on the volume, that the window had not been broken, I shot up to find out what had happen.

Much to my dismay, my window was to be the final thing one of the local birds saw as it passed into the next world. As my mind raced with thoughts of helping this often welcome visitor to my backyard, within a minute or two, those thoughts were no longer pertinent to the bird. Days later, oddly enough, those thoughts still continue for me.

As much I have tried to rationalize the bird’s passing, reconciling the happenstance that occurs for all of us in this crazy world we call Life, my mind wanders to the continuity of memory – the stubborn persistence of the colors, emotions, smells, songs, circumstances, and people that have been part of both the good and seemingly less good situations of my life.

Even today I can still vividly remember the final moments of my sweet dog Killer’s life two years ago. I can still touch that well of sadness in a moment like I am standing there right now, right here. I can still recall the first time I got a raise at work over 20 years ago – the joy, the satisfaction, the excitement. It’s easy to hear a song and have an entire decade of my experience come alive in full techicolor. I am certain I am not alone in noticing the power memories can have over the present.

The trick, it would seem, is to be able to let it flow over and through you and not allow the past to overtake your vision of Now. When the past weighs more than the Now, it’s not always so great. Honestly, isn’t a heavy devotion to the past the basis of prejudice? It’s not a Now experience – it’s a decision, already made, based on the past, being pushed into the future. Sometimes it’s not even your past but rather the experiences of your parents, or your friends. Maybe it’s not even based in actual experience or any actual facts, yet the emotions stay alive.

I would be remiss to not admit that many good decisions come from past experience – that’s the essence of learning, really. But, I believe learning has to continue to retain its value. Instead of letting an up-to-date analysis of situations rule, it’s just too easy to fall back to what I’ve seen before rather than collect additional information to consider. It’s like a shorthand method to help me through the many yes-no options I have during any – dare I say, every – day. Easy to understand but relatively dangerous to do.

It’s not usually in my best interest to let a stale view of the world continue forward. I recognize that an epiphany, or even a more gradual evolution of Spirit, can’t happen if I cling to the past. To deal with this, I’ve begun using The Sedona Method to move away from being locked into a long gone emotional state, which allows me to move forward with renewed joy and hopeful insight. It’s a simple set of questions that help me to let it go. I am certain it will help me in my business, in my relationships, and my life. It’s what I’ve had to use to let the memory of that little bird fade.

So, what about you? Want to share a situation where releasing your past helped you? I’d love to hear from you.

I enjoy mastermind groups, especially ones where the members really fit nicely together. This week, it was my turn to be in the hot seat with one of my groups.

This particular group is based on Law of Attraction concepts and includes life and love coaches, an artist, and myself. We bring our business or life issues to the table and ask for whatever help we need from the group. It is an eternal spring of epiphany, insight, enduring support, and creative ideas. It feeds me.

This last session, I talked about the transformation my life is going through, how I am shifting and how I felt I needed to go 40 days into the desert to figure out what to do next. One of the members told me she thought that I had already been in the desert and it was time to envision getting out. She also recommended to use my favorite every day actions to help me, so as I described the feeling I get when I am singing, she told me “Your Song is Your Eye”. Her statement felt like a lightening bolt up my spine.

They all commented next on how I use metaphor based in music and song to describe life -  harmony, flow, tempo, beauty, scale, performance, being in tune. I had never really noticed it so much, but it was dead on. Could music, which I so often neglect, and song, which I am always longing to do more of, really be such an instrumental vehicle of spiritual growth for me? Apparently.

So, I made the commitment to sing every day as a sort of meditation. And, for those of you who don’t sing, here’s what I have to do to sing well – I have to activate and allow my natural and trained talent, relax my gut, breathe deeply, use a gentle and purposeful push without too much force, allow the words to take on a life of their own, be aware of singing to an audience but not overly concerned about it, practice, have confidence, become the Song. It is an immediate feedback loop that sends beauty out and relaxation in.

My singing is my way of letting Life flow through me. When I am singing well, it feels like I am having a conversation with God. That may sound corny, but it’s how I feel. And, it wasn’t until it was brought to my attention by loving friends that I realized it. Indeed my song is my eye.

So, now I’m wondering about you. What is your metaphor or life story vehicle? Do you have one? Do you perhaps use gardening to describe your point of view – cultivation, careful tending, weeding, and harvesting the fruits of your labor? Do you use sports – competition, discipline, training, winning? No life metaphor is better than any other but I am beginning to feel we probably all have one. What’s yours? You’re invited to share.

Be well!

Vicki

P.S. Here’s a small snipit of Time After Time from my first practice session with my new guitar friend. It’s our first time together, and it’s just an open mic recording, but it is nice – and it only gets better from here. Enjoy!

I find myself at a crossroads. For some time now, I’ve blogged about the how-to for women entrepreneurs. I can honestly say that I’ve done that with a loving and well-meaning heart. I’ve shared what I know, my point of view, and the many experts I have met. I have enjoyed my work.

But, here’s the deal – I feel like a fraud.

You see, I have a confession to make. I haven’t yet seen the success I wish I had, the success I’d like you to have. It doesn’t feel right to blog about something I barely feel I know.

So, SmartWoman Guides is shifting – today, now.

From now on, I am not going to hand out advice or words of wisdom about going this place, or doing that thing. I’m not going to assert anything for you. I am going to speak to you from my heart, from the place I’m at as I focus, change, and dare I say it – mention the elephant in the room.

What elephant, you ask? Like many of you I have met, I have a tendency to give to others first. Instead of nurturing myself, honoring my intuition, and taking time for my inner dialogue, I keep giving. Service is important, but, as I have said so many times, you put on your own oxygen mask first. This, I guess, is my way of doing that.

I pledge to offer a more intimate and deeply honest revelation of myself to you. I will allow and fully own my thoughts and feelings about finding my way in this world, making a living, sharing my gifts. I will let example be the teacher. If there is anger, fear or sadness, I will not hide it behind a mask of optimism. I will express it and release it hoping that, by giving myself permission to be more real, you too will do so in your own life.

This blog will shift more toward the inspirational and motivational issues of being a whole, contributing woman in this wonderful world I call home. I’ll discuss life balance, finding pleasure, discovering purpose and how I’m doing outrageous things to move myself forward.

The “professional marketer” in me is screaming bloody murder, saying “Don’t make this all about you! Nobody wants to hear that! People want to hear about what’s in it for them. They don’t care about YOU.” I acknowledge my approach won’t appeal to everyone. I pray that you will discover something you can relate to here. If not, then I thank you for your support up until now and bid you farewell and best wishes.

But, if there is anything I can take away from my SmartWoman Guides experience so far, it is this – you, fine reader, are an excellent person. You have a wealth of knowledge, a depth of experience, and an amazing ability to touch the heart of the matter. I feel without a shadow of doubt that I am in such fine company as I welcome this renewed commitment to the exploration of Life that I cannot possibly lose. I am among friends and I feel blessed.

My highest hope for this experience between us is that each of us learns our path, that we walk it through self-reliance, and that we are a comfort to each other as we find our way. So, I am retiring the “teacher” mode and am going to just express Vicki, with all her glorious quirks, pitfalls, and attributes. I will be honored for you to just express YOU too -not the roles you play, but the real Self inside. Consider this your official invitation.

Thank you for everything!

Vicki