Online Dating really is social media taken to a whole new level.

I began online dating four months ago and it occurred to me early on how similar the process was to the way businesses market their goods and services through social media.

Maybe you only have a LinkedIn profile, or you're a member of a few Facebook groups, perhaps you have a Twitter account, or you might even create a couple of Facebook ads each year to grow your business or "all of the above and much more..." you are using social media to grow your brand and your business.

Online dating is the same process!

Step One: Create your brand identity.

You must make yourself stand out amongst all of the other businesses, brands, DATING PROSPECTS. How will you do that? You'll describe your goods and services (or appearance and personality traits) in ways that appeal to and resonate with potential buyers. You'll appeal to their senses. You'll let your potential buyers know that you and your business are the ones to...

Ladies and gentlemen,

If you're an entrepreneur, this will come as no shock to you:

Being an entrepreneur can be tough.

If you put the word "entrepreneur" in a Google search, you'll likely get a definition of someone who has a business and that definition will probably use some phrasing like this: "...taking on greater than normal financial risks..."

Being an entrepreneur does not guarantee a consistent paycheck on the 15th and 30th of each month--unless you've created your own unique system to make this happen.

Being an entrepreneur does not mean that you have new clients waiting for you each and every day--unless you have created a working system that consistently brings in new business for you.

Being an entrepreneur means that you must make happen what you want to happen in your business. EVERY single day.

So why am I an entrepreneur?

Even though there are financial risks, I love being an entrepreneur. I love the fact that I create my own hours, (early or late, week or weekday),...

Facebook Live from Your Desktop!

Dreams do come true! Facebook has started rolling out the ability to broadcast on Facebook Live via desktop!

For many months, we've been able to livestream on the Facebook platform through our profiles and pages, but we needed to our mobile devices (phones, iPads, etc.) to do it.

Or we could go live on our desktop by also using OBS (free) or Wirecast (not free). For me, that was less-than-stellar...too much trouble. Not a one-click process.

No More!

Now you will have a one-click process! Well, you may need to wait a bit... 

When Facebook "rolls out" features, they don't tend to show rhyme or reason for how they roll things out. In the past, we've all just used the "wait and see if it's there yet" approach. (One day we all wake up and, magically, whatever we're waiting for on Facebook appears.)

And, just like I said, I took a nap today and when I awoke...I had the ability to broadcast on Facebook Live from my desktop via my page!

This...

I just had two amazing coaching sessions and I wanted you to know all about them! If you've never had a coach before, this is what it's like for me and for my clients:

Session #1: Group coaching with Entrepreneur School Scholars

Session #2: Private 1:1 session with new client

In this Facebook Live broadcast, you'll hear all about the topics and discussions from two different coaching sessions. 

Please let me know if you have any questions. bit.ly/chatwithbonnie

Work Smart & Hustle, my friends!

~ Bonnie

 The BEST Part of Being An Entrepreneur Is Also The WORST...

I love being an entrepreneur! In fact, there are so many things I love about being one, I'm going to list them for you here:

The things I LOVE about being an entrepreneur: 

• Calling all the shots

• Being in charge

• Making all of the decisions

• Being my own boss

• Deciding when/where/how/if I'm going to work

• Determining when/where/if I work each day                                         

Hmmm...As I look over that list again...

Yep, I also hate those very same things about being an entrepreneur.

Being an entrepreneur is hard. It's hard if you're a solopreneur and it's hard when you aren't.

Being an entrepreneur is hard if you have a team of folks helping you and it's hard when you do everything solo.

Being an entrepreneur takes hard work, determination, savvy and strategic...

I Took the Day Off Today...And Still Made Money!

I  took the day off today. (Well, technically, I did do a 20-minute business chat with a new client, but the rest of the day was spent not working.) I thought about working, I just did other things instead.

• Got a manicure
• Went shopping
• Drove my son from ACT training to weight training to basketball training
• Spent loads of time scrolling through Instagram

Besides that 20 minute chat, I didn't work at all...and I still made money. (hint: Entrepreneurs should have multiple streams of revenue!)

It was a really nice day. Beautiful weather, sunroof open, lots of happiness. When I reflected on my day today, I couldn't help but smile at the huge transformation my life has gone through in the past 13 months. I used to read loads of blog posts and articles about the "laptop lifestyle" and "working when you want" and I thought to myself, "It sounds so incredible, I wish I could be like them and have a business like that..."

Now I...

HAS LIVESTREAMING CHANGED THE SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD?

(As seen first in June issue of iBlog Magazine)

The answer is a resounding YES! Livestreaming has absolutely changed the social media landscape for brands as well as small business and individual broadcasters.

Livestreaming (live broadcasting) has been around for years, (remember Ustream?) but it has gotten miles of traction, loads of press and many tens of thousands of participants within the past year; particularly since March 26, 2015 when Periscope came on the scene.

Meerkat, the first Livestreaming app to appear in 2015, was actually launched three weeks prior to Periscope, but Periscope was very quickly acquired by Twitter…then Facebook Live was launched, and for now, the rest is history.

Regardless of the livestreaming platform you use and how often you use it, live broadcasting appears to be here to stay; in fact, my business was built on Periscope and at one time 100% of my clients came from seeing my Periscope...

(As seen in APRIL 2016 iBlog Magazine)

If you haven't added live viedo (livestreaming...live broadcasting...) to your social media marketing plsn, you are leaving money on the table!

Live video is the hottest and fastest-growing way to reach your audience and there are more and more platforms to utilize every day! Read on....

You may have heard a lot about livestreaming (broadcasting live) in the past few months, and with good reason. Livestreaming is the fastest-growing medium out there right now and people from all over the world are connecting 24/7 on these interactive, real-time social media platforms both personally and professionally in meaningful ways. Although I’m also active on more traditional social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, my business has been built off livestreaming, specifically Periscope, Blab and MeVee.

What is livestreaming and why are people flocking to it?

Livestreaming is live broadcasting and broadcasters and viewers from all...

It's not uncommon to makes excuses, I'd venture to say that we've all made excuses from time to time, even when we knew the outcome would be less than stellar. Do any of these sound familiar to you?

                    "I was too busy..."

                    "I didn't really want to..."

                    "It's too hard..."

                    "Now isn't the right time..."

Problems occur when we make excuses and the outcome isn't just less-than-great, it's harmful to ourselves, others, and, in the case of this blog post, our businesses.

As a business coach, I see a lot of entrepreneurs (knowingly and unknowingly) stunting (and completely halting) their business growth from hasty and poor decision-making. It's not news that every decision has at least one consequence, but if decisions...

If you have an online business or you're thinking about starting one, you've probably heard about webinars.

Webinars (seminars conducted via the "web") have been around for a long time and are often used for lead generation, education and sales. I googled "webinar software" and listed five of the options that came up below. The first three options listed are more traditional ones and are what many people use for webinars these days.

Webinar Jam

Got To Meeting

Easy Webinar

Meeting Burner

Zoom

Each webinar option listed above is different and there are many, MANY others out there! Some are "wrap-around" products that use Google Hangouts for the actual webinar, others are stand alone products. I use Zoom for all of my webinars, but I don't use the "webinar" option they offer because it's a lot more expensive. Instead, I limit my webinars to 50 people and operate from the regular "video conferencing" program. (I also use Zoom for 1:1 coaching, group coaching the masterminds I run...