Happy Father’s Day! Celebrating all of the dad-figures, both biological and metaphorically out there! Leadership is one thing that reminds me of “dad”!  Now, let’s get to the Sunday Intentions: 

As always, we start off with a quote that helps support today’s lesson. Today is slighted toward my “weakness” but I hope it can help you today as well.

You are who you are. And there are some really powerful things you just shouldn't need to feel like you have to stick your nose in. Don't feel bad- get intentional instead!

“If you try to please all, you please none.”

— Aesop

Intentionality is crucial for us to become more thoughtful, compassionate, and caring leaders of businesses and in touch with our ethics - we are taking action on what our heart is guiding us to do. We truly help people and lead them into something BETTER that they can experience in their lives!

For you newcomers, welcome! Here’s where these Sunday intentions come from:

Each Saturday, although my alarm is turned off, black-out curtains are sealing every crack of light in our quaint 800 sq. foot Chicago apartment, something really powerful wakes me up.

But something rips me out of bed every morning that isn’t a chime, chirp, or blinding light. It’s my brain. It wakes up at the same time every morning and just rushes my frontal cortex with ideas. 

After a week-long of creating content, meeting with my clients, problem-solving social media strategies, and networking with new leaders - I still want to live out my mission further with ways to make the world a better place. Starting with the intentions we set for ourselves. 

I feel like being intentional & aware of who we are, what we are capable of becoming, and how we can really turn dreams into reality gives us a sense of control. As an enneagram 8w7, control is not a bad thing, it’s the way I see the world.

I tighten things up out of all of my reflective thoughts to polish up a key takeaway for you to receive at the same time, same day, or every week. Sunday Intentions. 

Why do we create intentions?

Take a few minutes to read this & instill “intentionality” into your life.

Running a business and leading an idea-generating role, you may always be looking to do MORE MORE MORE, which can take us on the fastest route to get confused, overwhelmed, & can lose sight of the purpose we are on this planet.

Before kicking off the Monday rush of all of the distractions and figure out why you are starting the week- practice answering these questions:

• What is my real purpose in being a CEO?

• Who am I truly serving?

• What can I teach, lead, or inspire?

• What does all of this work, time, and effort really stand for at the end of this journey?

This is important for me to share with you because life gets confusing when we surround ourselves with the external world around us. 

This week’s intention: Everything we do can be Intentional or it flops. 

I’m going to be vulnerable- as I often do in these weekly excerpts- about where I messed up big time. 

On Friday of this past week, I hosted my very first meetup for the Your Ethical Business Group. I was pressured by someone that I SHOULD make this a political conversation around current events. I’m not a leader in political discussion, mind you. Not at the very least! Also, I have tendencies to be a people pleaser (my enneagram type 7 trait) which wanted to make everyone have a good time & make it look like their time was well spent.

As an honest reflection to you- the meeting had WAY too much going on and this meeting was not at all what I had intended originally. Getting to know one another for the very first time in-person (on Zoom), introducing our businesses, and then answering 3 discussion questions around racism and Juneteenth. 

That person didn’t even show up, which I thought, why did I change the direction of the meeting to make it something I wasn’t trying to do?

I was trying to please someone thinking that’s what they wanted?!  I was NOT being intentional. 

Something I’m working on today with this week’s intentional reminder with you. We all mess up sometimes- but we learn and spending time to get intentional helps us resurface those amazing life lessons we sometimes forget. 

Here’s where Intentionality gives me that level of control to make things better

For the next meet up, I am intentional space for ethical leaders to create a new level of pressure-less discussion around how they navigate the challenging conversations they have with their clients, their community and their peers about doing the most challenging thing- the ethical & unpopular thing at times. It’s a really big weight to carry on our shoulders. Interested in joining? Your Ethical Business awaits you!

I know that I was doing my best to show up as a light on the Juneteenth topic, but I could have been intentional about incorporating a speaker, while I was the host of the meeting. 

I just wanted to demonstrate a real-life example of how important setting intentions are! 

For this week, I hope that you find something HUGE you are launching, teaching, speaking about, or a meeting with a client you may have to get even more intentional. Find out what you really want out of the experience and design it accordingly! 

This week’s Intention: 

There is a reason I am in the driver's seat of my business & the voice of my movement. I sometimes have a tendency to give in and not always live out my leadership as fully as I'd like to. This week, I intend to be mindful of what my default weaknesses are, but not let them overpower me!

Thank you again for yet another week of letting me uplift the way you start your week by reminding you to be a little more intentional today than you were yesterday. 

Have a fantastic summer solstice week,

Dana

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SUNDAY INTENTIONS
Each Sunday, I kick-off an intention-setting email to get centered on how to show up for the week as the world as a leader of your movement!

I suppose I don’t talk often enough about the fact that businesses that prioritize ethics, humanity, the environment, and simply doing more good than harm to our planet by existing is working - working well!

You see, when we think about the way the world of business works, yes it is true that corporations & big powerful entities drive decisions and make the impact on global levels to either help or destroy our planet and the people inside of it. But who gives these entities the power?

Consumer trends, motivations, and values is among the first few steps to really understand when creating any marketing plan. Without knowing what society looks like and how it fits into the world of business, you will have a very hard time speaking to, engaging with, and being relevant to people who will be part of your business community as consumers, referrers, or just advocates of your movement.

Each Wednesday, I encourage us all to participate in #WorldViewWednesday to continue to expand our viewpoint around society. Have challenging arguments to really listen to the other side. Read books & do some research on projects or topic areas you find most interesting to dive into. Learn something new! Get out of your own way, and break some old habits of a belief system that limits your own perspective.

I like to think - there are nearly 8 billion people on the planet- we truly know NOTHING!

Furthermore, if you are looking at the way consumers are behaving and what they truly value, I believe it is social issues. Especially if you are marketing to the highly influential groups such as Gen Z and Millenials- they absolutely LOVE businesses with a great triple bottom line, or B Corporation certified businesses.

I found this lovely resource to give you some sharable, or tweetable, quotes to dive further into the mindset and values of these groups and how doing good in your business is actually the way to go.

As your mission-driven marketing planner, I encourage you to start reflecting on some of these statics and facts and ask yourself, “what is the opportunity for me?”

We want to always be innovating and looking ahead. I invite you to do so with a conversation with me- let’s chat about what is possible for your brand and how you can bring more good into the world!

Plan for JUNE with this recap of CEO Days!

Missed our MAY session because of Memorial Day? This guided recording will take you through CEO Days that you can utilize on your own time!

To access the document, please sign up for CEO Days below:

Welcome to Sunday Intentions | May 10th Intention 

in·ten·tion

/inˈten(t)SH(ə)n/

a thing intended; an aim or plan

Finally; a little less chaos.  

I’ve started to shift my own plan on what regular, more juicy content I’ve need to show up for you with. I want to share with you after a two-month pause from sending emails, blogs, or doing any writing at all. It was SO needed.

March 16th may have otherwise felt like January 1st all over again with an opportunity to create a whole new business plan in this entirely new world. 

Maybe it comes as a surprise to you that your marketing planner here wants to give you more of a PLAN for the week to help shape your marketing- hmm, I think this feels about right! What do you think? 

If marketing is a call for “more,” than the plan to get more starts with having a purpose for what “more” is. Each week, we will be adding to the theory of what exactly more is defined as for our own selves. 

Why being intentional matters in marketing

The 7 years of marketing for companies other than my own, the idea of having this obligatory department called, “marketing” was always deemed to drive MORE as a quantitative thing. Never a qualitative thing.

The problem with my work started before I even began a single strategy, shared a post, or sent out a communication piece. There was always something missing from the start.

WIth The MKTG Brand, I decided that the beginning of all marketing needed a powerful start. A plan. And to lead with a powerful purpose. This made it incredibly difficult to feel any sense of satisfaction from even the most successful marketing campaigns created. It was a complete disconnect of purpose, plan, & execution. I do not want this for you!

As I am a completely different marketing strategist than I’ve been, using mission-driven marketing really is all about being more focused on creating a community & building alignment with qualities of human interaction & purpose. 

Being intentional with your marketing, your business, and the purpose on this planet is my goal for you to work toward as a process to shape the life you want to lead. 

Thus, this series is brought to you to kick-off Sunday Intentions from here on out.

I intend to lead you more with ways to get your mindset right about growth, how to approach growth efficiently, and to feel good about growing every step of the way using marketing that connects more than just a customer & transaction together. 

This week’s intention begins with your reflection: 

State your relationship with intentions- have you tried using them before?
Do they work for you?
Are you open to using this shift in the world in a pandemic to center back into yourself to follow your own intentions more closely? 

Intention for the Week 5.10.2020

This week, I will notice & embrace my deep purpose in my business & pay attention to where it's strongest, and where it's most weak in my day-to-day communication with the rest of the world

Live an intentional & purpose-driven week ahead,

Dana