The world has changed so much over the last 2 years.  The pandemic destroyed some businesses and created others.  People who had been working for the same company for years, decided to jump ship and branch out on their own, but there were some who were thinking about making the leap and decided that they just maybe to old.  I'm here to tell you that you are never to follow your dreams or start a new journey.  

I totally understand this mindset, because society has taught us that by the time you hit 50 you should be slowing down and getting ready to retire.  I have to admit, at one point I fell prey to this way of thinking.  I've been an entrepreneur for 25 years and I haven't hit my big multimillionaire goal that I had set for myself.  I was beating myself up about that because I was quickly moving past 50 and started to feel like time was running out and that I should be thinking about retiring and planning my next trip.  That's what most retired people do I think.  They retire and travel around the world, my only problem with this is that I'm not a big traveler, so if I did decide to retire, what the heck would I do?  Probably nothing accept lounge around the house and gain weight from watching too much TV.  I'll pass on this way of life for right now.

I turned 55 this year and instead of planning to retire, I was launching a new division of my company.  You see what I realized is that I don't have to give into what society says I should do.  My birthday says I'm 55, but my mind says I'm 30.  Thirty was when I jumped in with both feet into entrepreneurship.  Now here I am 25 years later jumping in with both feet into my new venture which is creating a new division for my company.  I still have a lot of life and excitement left in me and I plan on living a life that I love doing the things that I love.  

Have you ever heard of Huffington Post of Huff Post as some call it?  Well Huffington Post is an online newspaper or media site that was started by Arianna Huffington.  She had this great idea for a news site, called a few friends and hit the ground running.  Arianna was 55 years old when she started the company.  Today Huff Post is uber successful and Arianna sold it a moved on to other endeavors.  Like Arianna I still have many things that I want to do after I hit my goals, so I don't think I will ever retire and I'm sure I will be way past 55 years old when I start my next venture.

I shared this story with because, you may be on the fence about whether or not to start a business at the sweet age of 55.  If you are, what I would suggest is that you take some time to think about the type of business that would make you happy.  Whatever you do, don't chase money.  This is one of the worse reasons to go into business.  Follow your passion and turn that into a wonderful business that fulfills you.  If you are afraid to get started, start your business as a side hustle.  You don't have to go full time until you're ready.  What's really important is that you just get started.  The last thing I would share is to make sure that you invest in your business education.  Hire you a coach, so that you can skip the line on learning certain things.  You may have to hire a couple of coaches depending on your business needs.  Don't waste time trying to learn everything yourself, hire people that can help you who already understand what you are trying to accomplish and who can show you the shortest route to get to where you want to go.

I hope that you found this article helpful, inspiring and motivating.
Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
Audrey
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f you're anything like me and you love your community, then you might talk about it all the time.  Hence is why I do the Good Morning Gwinnett Show 4 days a week live.  It's been almost 4 years since I launched the podcast and I love it just as much today as I did when I first launched.  

I wanted to be more involved with my community and I love to share stories and podcasting has allowed me to be the voice of my community.  When you launch a community podcast people will start to invite you to tables that were unavailable to you before.  What you must realize is that podcasting is a big part of new media.  As a podcaster you can break a story in a New York minute without having to get approval from anyone.  The other great thing about starting a community podcast is that you can become a community partner.  You can shine the spotlight on people and places in your community that you love.  You can also become a marketing arm for small businesses who don't have the time to start their own podcast.

If there are causes that you care about, you will be able to share those messages with listeners around the world.  There is just so much you can do as a community podcaster.  The more you talk about your community the more people will look to you for that up to the minute news.  

The best part about taking this podcast journey is that you can make your podcast whatever you want it to be.  You're not locked into a certain way of doing it.  It can be the way you want to serve your community.  Just listen to an episode of Good Morning Gwinnett.  The way the show is formatted is entertaining, informative and empowering.  It's also fun for me to produce, otherwise I would not be going live 4 days a week to do it.

So don't sleep on podcasting.  It could change your life and shine the spotlight on your community.

WTF is Web 3.0 & The Metaverse?  Well according to all of the experts it's the next level of community & commerce in virtual and augmented reality.  I know you are probably wondering what does this mean for your business, and I'm glad you asked. 

As I started down the slippery slope of launching my NFT, I started to get a better understanding of Web 3.0 and what it would mean for my business.  I know I don't want my business to be left behind and I don't want your business be left behind in the world Web. 3.0 either.   Although some experts are saying that Web 3.0 is about 5-10 years out, I don't believe that.  Just like I was able to launch an NFT in 30 days without knowing what the heck I was doing, I will be moving my business into the Web 3.0 and the Metaverse the same way.  The reason I can do this is because of all of the amazing technology that is available right now.  As a business owner you need to be thinking Web 3.0 now, on the consumer side it will probably take about 5 years in my opinion before most of the mainstream consumers to catch up, but when they do you already want to be in place and ready to do business with them.  You don't want to be on the same track with them just starting out and trying to catch up to the business owners who decided to take the leap into the Metaverse now.

The first step in getting your business ready for the Web 3.0 is you must make sure that you have a website.  Having a page on Instagram and Facebook is not considered a website.  You need to have your own website hosted somewhere on a hosting site.  Make sure that business objectives are clear, because this is going to be real important as you move into the era of Web 3.0 and the Metaverse.

As I share the steps in moving your business into the Metaverse I will be sharing the tools, techniques and strategies that I am using to move my business.  The first thing I will be doing is updating this website with Web 3D.  The way that I'm going to do that is to use a software called www.Spline.design.  Now let me just say this.  If you are not technically savvy that's ok, because you can always go to Fiverr and hire someone to do anything you need done.  The key is to hire them.  Don't sit back and hem and haw about you not being technically savvy, just hire the person and let them know what you need.  If you're not sure about what you need just follow this blog and I will be sharing what I'm doing to move into the Metaverse and you can do the same based on your business needs.

The time is now.  Join me as I move my business into the Metaverse and you do the same.

​Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
Audrey

Ugggg!  My NFT Is Not Selling!!!!!! Now What?.

This a little bit disappointing to say the least, but I'll keep pushing forward.  If I sell one NFT I will consider the collection a success.  I knew going in that this may be a challenge, because I'm not a young white male or Gary Vee and my artwork isn't a crypto punk or a bored ape.  As I did my research I noticed that this was the type of artwork that was selling, however I did see a woman's collection that was doing really well, but that was few and far in between.  

I thought about starting my own discord page, but I don't have the time or the interest to manage that.  I did tweet about my NFT collection and got some hearts back.  I think I'm going to double down on Twitter.  I'm going to go back to Fiverr and find people who have a huge Crpto or NFT following on Twitter to see how that turns out.  I've heard that many in the NFT world hangout on Twitter.  I'm on Twitter too, but it's my podcast that is syndicated there, I'm not there talking about NFTs, but this may have to change.

I have my NFT set to expire in 6 months, so I still have some time to sell some of the collection.  It would be great to sell the entire collection.  I want let the fact that no one has bought yet stop me from marketing the collection in every way that I can think of that's ethical.  I knew that this wouldn't be easy, so I'm here for the long haul.

Stop by again to see what's happening with The Madam Butterfly NFT.  By the way if you want to check the collection you can do so here https://www.MadamButterflyNFT.com.  If you are stuck in your business and need help getting clear schedule a Clarity Chat.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
Audrey

Hey everyone.  As you have been following me down this path of launching my NFT, I've been sharing all the things that have happened that made me questioned why I started the NFT in the first place.  Anyway I stopped feeling sorry for myself and found a software that would generate my NFT collection for me or so I thought.  Autominter which is the software that I found started out working what I thought was fine until after 3 or 4 days I still didn't have a collection.  My page just kept spinning and nothing was being generated.  I tried a couple of different ways to generate the collection, but nothing still.

Someone suggested that I go over to Discord where the developers had a discord community and see if I could get some help.  I did that and I guess there was a developer there, because someone gave some advice on what I may have been doing wrong in one area of creating the collection and that advice helped. I was on my way finally, until I wasn't.  I got stuck again and so did many other people who had paid to skip the line with this software.  We were all just stuck in limbo with nothing happening.  Finally I just got fed up and said screw this mess, let me do some more research and see if I could find another software and thank God I did.  I consider the $68 I paid Autominter an investment into helping them fix the software that could be great.  Autominter lets you generate up to 10,000 pieces of artwork if it actually worked and that's a huge time saver if you are creating a huge collection.

After doing some more research I came across a software site I had used in the past to develop my no code mobile apps, but I wasn't happy with them, so I went to another platform.  I noticed that they offered an NFT generator of collections up to 1,000.  My original plan was to generate 5,555 pieces, but at this point I would just have to roll with the 1,000 pieces just to get this over with.  I started to use their software and ran into on snag, but the developers quickly solved my problem and I was on my way to generating my collection finally.  I was so excited, because at this point I had been working on the NFT about a month with no luck of creating my NFT collection without knowing how to code.  

https://www.Appypie.com is the company that I used to create my collection.  To generate 1,000 pieces of art took about 20 minutes. And most of all it didn't cost me $68.  It cost me $48 for the year and I can generate more collections and also do other design work using the software. What a huge difference.  Now my complete collection is done and I'm ready to go live.

Stop by tomorrow to find out what happened next on my NFT launch journey.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
Audrey

Welcome Back!  So where did I leave off?  So I took a couple of days off because I was stressed out trying to figure out how to create my collection.  I almost gave up, but something said keep going don't give up.  Instead of giving up I did some more research looking for ways to create my NFT collection without knowing how to code and found a company that had software that creates your collection for you.  OMG, now I'm so excited, because I don't have to worry about trying to read the lips of the guys who are talking so fast explaining how to get the code and drop the code to create the collection.  This software will create my NFT collection for me automatically.  Yeah Baby!!!!

The company that I found was called Autominter.  It has a paid version and a free version and I was thinking omg this can't get any better.  I can create my collection of 5,555 pieces and it's free to do it. I have hit the jackpot, or so I thought.  I started doing more research and found that yes it was indeed free, but if you wanted to create your collection right away, then you don't want to use the free version.  There were people who used the free version and their collection had been sitting in que for two weeks.  Now, I knew that there was no way I was going to sit in que for three weeks, so I decided to skip the line and get the paid version.  

In order to get the paid version I had to create a crypto wallet which I had no idea how to do, so I went to my Coinbase account which is where I have Ethereum and there were instructions there on how to connect my Coinbase wallet to my Coinbase account, so that I would be able to move my crypto around.  Ok I can do that, I thought and I did.  OMG I'm almost there.  That's what I was thinking until I connected the wallet and tried to create the collection.  I had heard that Eth gas fees were extremely expensive and that I should use poly eth.  Autominter gave me that option, so I was happy to do just that.  So I connected my wallet to poly eth and I was off to races, that was until I ran dead smack into another wall and bumped my head.

OMG!  What Now?  I connected my wallet and paid Autominter $68 to skip the line so that my collection could be done right away.  Well that's not what happened.  After I paid the $68 I uploaded all of my layers and started the creation process.  I was going to create 5,555 pieces.  I hit the button to create and I got a message that said  because my collection was so large it might take some time to render.  I thought to myself, well that's ok.  I can wait a few hours if that's what it's going to take to create the collection.  Well a few hours turned into the next day and I still didn't have a collection.  SMH!!!!!!  Tune in tomorrow to find out what happened next.

Check Out My Collection
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Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
Audrey

I know by now you've probably heard of this thing called an NFT and are probably wondering what the heck it is.  The easiest way for me to explain it is to say think of an NFT like a collectible car or a baseball trading card.  People love collectibles like art and all kinds of trinkets, so an NFT is that, but in digital format at the moment.  

I invented a line of collectible dolls in 1999.  They were the first plus-size fashion dolls to hit the doll scene in 2000.  I ran that company for 5 years before I dissolved it and moved on to coaching other entrepreneurs how to start and run businesses. Fast forward to today, I decided that I wanted to dip my toe back into the collectible industry and launch an NFT and boy what the heck was thinking when I decided to do that?

Well I was thinking that this NFT thing looked exciting and fun.  I thought that I would create some artwork from a picture of my Madam CJ Walker Tribute doll that I had gotten done and launch my very own NFT.  Shoot, how hard could it really be, I thought?  Well that was a month ago since I started my NFT journey and there were days I said to myself forget this crap.  It's stressing me out.  I was tempted to throw my NFT project on the backburner, but every time I attempted to do so, something would say try one more time.

So let me walk you through my journey up to where I am now in the process of about to finally launch.  So the first thing I did was name my NFT Madam Butterfly.  I wanted to use Madam CJ Walker's name, but I didn't want to run into any legal issues, so I just changed the name.  I decided on using the word butterfly because I love butterflies and it made since.  I had already launched a community for women in business called The Butterfly Squad.  www.TheButterflySquad.biz. As I looked into the NFT world I had another idea for The Butterfly Squad that I will tell you about later after I actually launch Madam Butterfly.

The Journey Begins

• I had a picture of the doll I wanted to turn into a NFT already 
• I took that picture and uploaded it into Canva and created 28 different versions of it and I added 22 different layers which included flowers, trees, stars, butterflies and moons.
• I decided I wanted to launch an NFT collection of 5,555 pieces of unique art.  I know you're probably thinking why 5,555 pieces and the reason I chose that number, was because all of 2021 I saw multiple fives all the time.
• Now I had to figure out how to create 5,555 pieces of art, because I surely wasn't going to sit there and do it on Canva.  That was out of the question, so I set out to find a way to do without knowing how to code, because I don't know how to code.  I did some searching and there were about 5 videos that came up that said that you didn't need know how to code, but in reality you had to be able to follow along with them to see how they took the code from one platform and put it into another platform and this pretty much drove me bananas.  They were talking and moving so fast that I could not grasp what they were saying, so every time I would start watching them I would get frustrated because the video was blurry and they were talking too fast.  This is where my excitement started to take a nose dive.  I was starting to get stressed out and wondered what the heck was I thinking trying to launch an NFT.  I took a break for about two days and I started back again.  To find out what happened next stop by tomorrow as I continue my story of my NFT Journey.

Until Tomorrow
Make It A Great Day
Audrey

So last month I was looking for ways to level up the Good Morning Gwinnett Podcast and blog.  I started to hear about the Metaverse and set out on a journey to see how I could incorporate the Metaverse into my business.  The more I looked, all I could find was explanations about what it was and a lot about NFTs.  So I dug a little deeper into NFTs and realized that people were selling ugly artwork and making millions.  So I dug a little a deeper because now I was intrigued at what the heck NFTs were and why were people going crazy over them. 

What I discovered was that NFTs (Non-Fungible- Tokens) were a way for people to sell digital art to collectors.  It was a new spin on collecting stuff, but in the digital age.  Now, I understood the whole thing about creating collectibles, because I am from the world of doll collecting.  You see I invented the first plus-size fashion dolls and they were collectibles, so I understood why collectors were so excited.  

Once I got the gist of the whole NFT thing, I started to think about launching my own NFT around one of my dolls.  I created a tribute doll to Madam CJ Walker who was not only the first Black self-made female millionaire in America, but she was the first female self-made millionaire in America. So, I started the journey of launching the NFT and I'm almost there.  My collection is created and my NFT will be live soon, just in time to celebrate Black History month.  This wasn't a simple thing to do for someone who doesn't code and very unfamiliar with the space, but  I figured it out.  Now that I understand the NFT process, I'm back to looking at how I leverage my business in the Metaverse.

The more I do my research the more I understand that the opportunities for entrepreneurs to do business in the Metaverse are unlimited.  I've already figured out how to take Good Morning Gwinnett into the Metaverse. 

What I realize is that in order for entrepreneurs to do business in the Metaverse they are going to have to become knowledgeable in coding or they will have to create a plan and a budget to pay someone to help them.  If you want your business to be a part of the quickly approaching Web 3.0 you'd better start planning now.  It's not mainstream just yet, but it will be in about 18 months.  So if you want to give your business a jumpstart into the future, start now learning what you need to know about doing business in the Metaverse now.  Don't wait until the market is saturated and then try to come in, because your customer will have to cut through all of the noise to find you. 

Now that my NFT is about to launch, I will start working on my plan to launch Good Morning Gwinnett into the Metaverse.  I have a great idea of what that looks like, now I have to go do some more research on how to launch.

That being said, this podcast and blog will be going in new direction, which I'm calling Your Business 3.0.  I will be talking about NFTs, Metaverse, AR/VR and growing your business in the Metaverse.  So make sure to continue to follow the podcast and the blog to learn about how to navigate the future of technology and how to leverage it to grow your business.  I hope that you are as excited as I am about Your Business 3.0.

Before I go deep into the Metaverse I will share my NFT journey with you in the next few posts, so that you can follow along and see the outcome.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
Audrey

Attracting customers to your store is one of the most important aspects of running a business. You can do this by using a variety of techniques, such as advertising, social media marketing, and more.
Advertising has a variety of techniques that can be used to get a message out to the public. These methods range from writing an ad, which includes a catchy slogan and an interesting image, to advertising outside of a store, such as on the side of a bus.
​
There are a number of different strategies that can be used for social media marketing. The right strategy will depend on the goals and objectives of your company, as well as what type of company it is. There are a few general approaches to social media marketing which include:

• Social Media Ads
• Contest
• Polls
• Content Production etc.

These are only a few general approaches to social media marketing which include community building, content marketing and engagement.

Engagement marketing is a new way to grow your business. It focuses on creating and nurturing relationships with customers and potential customers. Engagement marketing provides a platform for entrepreneurs to share their stories and connect with people in emotionally meaningful ways.

One way to attract more customers is by using local marketing. This involves promoting your business locally by partnering with other businesses in your area or hosting events that will draw people in from the area.
One of the best ways to get people in your area is to host events that will draw them in. You can hold fundraising events for charity, or more personalized events like a block party or barbeque for the neighborhood. One of the most popular types of events are food truck rallies.

Another great strategy to use to grow your local business is to issue press releases about milestones in the company. Press releases will alert your local media about what you have going on.

Press releases are a powerful way of getting information out to the media on your behalf. These releases are customized announcements, so they are more attractive to journalists than automated spam. A press release on your event, product launch, or new hire will get picked up by local media sources, which will drive traffic to your website and help you build name recognition in the community.

I hope this article will help you continue to grow local.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day
Audrey

This article is for you if you are a new business coach who is stuck and confused about how to market your business. As a new business coach, what type of client would you say you're best for? What is it that sets you apart from other business coaches and why should you be hired over someone else?

The key to marketing your business is understanding who you are and the needs of your target audience and then figuring out what messages will resonate with them.

If you want your marketing campaign to resonate with your target audience, it's important to understand their needs and what messages will engage them. It's also a good idea to conduct some market research so you can better understand the wants and needs of your target audience. Conducting this research will help you in several ways, such as by giving you feedback on your product or service, identifying what features are most important to end users, or even preventing marketing disasters.

Local marketing is an excellent place to start when building your small business. Local marketing can provide you with a steady stream of new customers, increase your brand awareness in the community, and help you build customer loyalty. You can go deeper by focusing on hyperlocal marketing.

Focusing on hyperlocal marketing is one of the most promising strategies for small businesses. The internet has made it easier for every company to be accessible to potential customers, but there are some challenges that come with this. Some of the challenges that come with hyperlocal marketing are:

Hyperlocal marketing is a new breed of marketing where businesses try to go after customers within a certain radius. The main pros of this type of marketing are the ability to target your audience and the potential for higher ROI. The main cons are that it can be expensive and time consuming.

The best way to launch a local marketing campaign is to start with a plan and set goals. What do you want your campaign to accomplish? Do you want more clients, more leads, or more awareness? If so, create a plan and set goals for each goal.

I hope that this article help you get unstuck and provides you with some clarity about your marketing and how to grow your business.  If you are still stuck and need more help Click Here To Schedule A Clarity Session.

Until Next Time
Make It A Great Day!
Audrey