Melissa Cassera of Cassera Communications on story spinning: your business's story is as much about YOU as it is about your business. In order to craft this, work hard to incorporate the EMOTIONS, DETAILS, and CHARACTERS into it.
Mike Michalowicz, serial entrepreneur and author of the best-selling Toilet Paper Entrepreneur: Here is his formula for success: YOUR BELIEFS + WHAT YOU FOCUS ON = APPARENT ACTION. If you believe there is an opportunity, it will absolutely happen. If you believe the economy will crush you, it absolutely will. Changing your thought patterns will change your business. Also, set your 10-year vision for your business. Anyone can achieve anything in 10 years. Your vision must be crystal clear and it must be big. But you have to achieve your goal in a zigzag pattern...that is, set your 90 day plan and achieve it, then re-calibrate and set your next 90 day plan, and so forth, because headwinds change and you must adjust.
Ayesha Matthews on branding: Decide what your core values are and make sure every aspect of your user experience reflects those. An awesome product is a necessary precursor to a good branding campaign.
Sydney Biddle Barrows - the infamous Mayflower Madame! - on creating a compelling customer experience: You need to understand what business you're really in, and create a unique selling proposition around that. For example, as a madame she was not in the escort business but in the fantasy and the trust businesses. (An interesting example, we know, but very effective as an example of a simple, well-branded business at the time - albeit an illegal one!)
Thanks to Angela Jia Kim, founder of Savor the Success, for organizing the event. We look forward to connecting with all of the great people we met there soon.
Warmly,
Lauren & Cari