Latest / Postcards to the Universe / Angela DiMarco

Transcript

Angela DiMarco · Postcards to the Universe

0:09
Welcome to Postcards to the Universe with Melissa Capria. Do you believe in magic?
0:15
What if you were told that all you had to do was get a
0:18
little creative and work a magic spell to bring anything you can imagine into your
0:23
life. Here on Postcards to the Universe, we will share manifesting tips,
0:29
postcards, creativity, abundance, and prosperity. Here's your host, Melissa Capria.
0:39
Hey guys, and welcome to Postcards to the Universe with Melissa creating the
0:43
life you crave. It's Wednesday. How are you guys doing today? Did
0:49
everybody experience what the eclipse? What was it? Monday? God, the
0:53
days are just flying by. I can't believe we're already in April. By
0:56
the way, I feel like it was New Year's like just yesterday. So
1:00
the eclipse was pretty cool. I've heard, you know, all these really
1:03
cool things about I actually was talking to a woman who's a psychic, and
1:07
she said to me, if you're good, everything's going to get gooder.
1:11
If you're bad, everything's going to get batter after the eclipse. So I
1:15
don't know exactly what that means, but I guess we'll see. But I
1:19
have a really cool show. Today, I have my friend, we've actually
1:23
become friends, Angela DeMarco On, and she is a branding and marketing expert
1:29
and she's also an author, and she is going to join me here in
1:33
just a couple of minutes. I want to say thank you to my regulars
1:37
who join me every week. It means the world to me that you keep
1:41
coming back and listening to my show and downloading it. I really appreciate it.
1:45
You have no idea how grateful I am. If you're just joining me
1:49
for the first time, I want to give you a big, warm welcome.
1:53
I hope you keep coming back a little bit about my show. If
1:57
you don't know, we are recording live, so we're live right now.
2:01
All my shows are recorded live. And if you ever, if you do
2:06
like the style of my show and my guest and you want to go through
2:08
and listen to some older shows, you can do that anytime you want.
2:13
On the Own Times Radio Archives, all the shows are listed and you can
2:16
listen at your convenience. And I also take my show and I put it
2:21
on my website postcards to the Universe dot com on the podcast section, and
2:25
you can go through them and see the guests that I've had on I have
2:29
a variety of different guests. I like to mix it up on my show,
2:31
and if anybody resonates with you, you can listen to it, you
2:36
know, at your leisure. So I hope that you enjoy it and you
2:38
keep coming back a little bit more about me. If you've never heard my
2:43
name before, I am an artist. I'm a photographer, and I am
2:46
an author, and I have a book, hence the name of the show.
2:51
My book is titled Postcards to the Universe, Harness the Universe's power and
2:55
manifest your dreams. And what I did for my book book is I took
3:00
thirty manifesting stories along with the postcards that people contributed. And a manifesting postcard
3:07
is kind of like a vision board, but it's just on a smaller scale.
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We pick one thing at a time that we want to manifest in our
3:15
lives. I photographed the postcard, and then when their story showed up in
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their reality, I shared their story. So there's thirty of those in my
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book, and it's broken down into life themes, which is career, money,
3:30
health, love, relationships, all that good stuff. So if you're
3:36
interested, and I hope that you are. You can find my book Barnes
3:38
and Noble. You can find it on Amazon. I put a bunch of
3:44
writing exercises in the book, so it helps us get really clear on those
3:46
things that we do want to manifest. And I also have some fun manifesting
3:53
games in the book, you know, to manifest better health and more money.
3:57
I have a lot of money games in the book because you know,
4:00
we could all use that, right. So it was a lot of fun
4:03
doing the book. And the book came out at the end of twenty nineteen.
4:08
I cannot even believe it, right before COVID hit. So my my
4:14
photographic the way I photographed the postcards changed very much during COVID. During those
4:19
especially those two years, we were basically lockdown, right. So I decided
4:26
that I wanted to rephotograph all the postcards in the book, and so I've
4:30
been doing that, and I've been releasing them each week and a little blurb
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of their story, so you can see the differences if you have the book
4:40
or you buy the book compared to what I'm doing now, so you can
4:43
see how much I've changed. Because as an artist, we're always growing and
4:46
we're always I mean, we're always growing and changing as it is, but
4:48
for an artist, our work is always changing, so it's it's very different
4:53
now than the way it originally was done in the book, which is kind
4:56
of interesting. And I also decided that and I wanted to do live readings
5:00
from my books. So I take the story from the book. They are
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about five minute videos. I share them on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn,
5:12
and YouTube and you can follow along that way too, so you could see
5:15
me reading each story from the book, and then I show you the postcards,
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so I hope you follow along. I hope that that's interesting to you.
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And if it is, if you do follow along, say hi,
5:27
you know, let me know that you're there. It would mean the world.
5:30
So that's what I am doing. I have a couple of workshops going
5:34
on too, which I'm super excited about, and you can see those on
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you can see everything by the way on postcards to the universe dot com.
5:43
You just go to my website and I have everything listed links to the show,
5:49
the podcast, my blocks, my book, my social media, and
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my workshops and one that I am super excited about out because it is all
6:00
about using gratitude to manifest It's called Manifesting through Gratitude. It's a visual journey.
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It runs five weeks Thursday evenings six to eight pm. We recycle the
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workshop when you know, when it completes, we start a new one.
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I think that there's going to be a new one coming up May or June,
6:19
I'm not quite sure, but somewhere around there. And we use our
6:23
camera phones as a tool for manifesting. And we're going to use gratitude all
6:29
the things that we already have in our life to be grateful for. So
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we're going to add some power to that. So it's a lot of fun
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and I hope you join me. And I also teach a how to make
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a manifesting postcard workshop, which is a one day thing. It's a lot
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of fun, and of course I'm always asking please send me manifesting postcards.
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If you want to learn how to do it, check it out on my
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website. The address is listed there, and you know, send me one
6:58
and just let me know that I to expect one coming in the mail.
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I get so excited when I get them. I swear to God, I'm
7:02
like a kid in a candy store. I love it when I get postcards,
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all right, So let me get to my friend and my guest,
7:10
Angela DeMarco So in the realm of practical design leadership, Angela specializes in guiding
7:16
businesses to express their unique brand with authenticity and creativity. With over thirty years
7:24
of experience in branding, marketing, and advertising, she possesses an intuitive knact
7:29
for uncovering the soul of a company. From shaping your visual brand to connecting
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with your audience, Angela's goal is to empower you and your organization with a
7:40
sturdy foundation. As Phenom Publishing's Chief Creative Officer, Angela collaborates with Phenom's authors
7:49
to create a design for their books that expresses the promise and premise of the
7:55
experience the reader will have between the covers. I love that her book,
8:01
which is titled Uniquely You Update Number fifty two, is a compilation of emails
8:07
written over the course of a year and a half. Great ideas for business
8:11
businesses are a dime a dozen. So join Angela as she bravely opens every
8:18
closet and cupboard to share her open hearted journey of starting up Uniquely You.
8:22
By sharing in its origin story, you will witness the birth of a bright
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eyed first time entrepreneur as she fumbles, stumbles, and gets back up again
8:31
to launch a new kind of company fitting for our current new kind of world.
8:37
The story provides the reader with a peek into the mind of a true
8:41
visionary as she finds her sea legs. So the best way to connect with
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Angela is on her LinkedIn. So if you go to LinkedIn, you just
8:52
go to Angela Marie DeMarco and you can find her. Hey, Angela,
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welcome, thanks for being here. Heylyssa, you know, oh my gosh,
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I was listening to all of the good stuff that you have. It's
9:05
like that you do, and I was like, oh my god, oh
9:07
my god, everything is so good. It's so good, so good.
9:13
Your book is so good. I was just awesome. And I'm just like,
9:16
I'm like hearing you on behind you. So so you know, it's
9:18
like so cord that you've done and accomplished and the work that you do for
9:22
people is honestly, you should feel so good for yourself. So so proud
9:26
of you. Oh thank you. That was such a nice compliment. I
9:31
really appreciate that. So Angela, tell everybody a little bit about who you
9:37
are and how you got into the work that you're doing today and like what
9:43
inspired you, you know to start the phenom publishing? So okay, I
9:52
grew up in advertising in New York City basically like from my career perspective,
9:56
And in two thousand and eight, I was working an agency and I was,
10:01
you know, halfway up the food chain in the creative department, and
10:05
we had massively offs, you know, the whole world went put and I
10:09
started. I collaborated with a couple of friends who also got like kind of
10:13
laid off, and we all did our own thing where we started to bring
10:16
all the stuff that we got from this big agency experience to bring to like
10:20
the little guy, you know, and and with costs that were effective and
10:24
just really kind of were able to connect with these business owners and give them
10:28
this top level service to really help move their businesses forward at not you know,
10:35
huge agency prices. And that kind of like launched me into really getting
10:39
to know the owners of these businesses and really feel like a connection with them
10:45
and what they were doing and then bringing that out in their brand. So
10:48
I was working as I was doing this, and then I went back to
10:54
I wanted to go in house, and I went to I was a director
10:56
of marketing for a manufacturing company, you know, nice cushy face stop figures,
11:01
all that good stuff. And it was all through COVID and I was
11:07
just like something just was not right. I just was not happy. But
11:11
we were saving up for a house and all that stuff, and then I
11:15
lost the baby while I was there, and that losing Joshua put me on
11:22
a spiritual journey just to look inside myself and really know who I am,
11:26
why that experience was, and all that stuff. And basically I started going.
11:35
I met with like you know, I don't know if your listeners know
11:37
of these people, but like Aaron Dowdy and Victor Odo. They had like
11:41
you know, there's like YouTubers who would do spiritual stuff. And I took
11:46
a workshop with Victor Odo and it was really cool. It was twelve weeks.
11:50
Every Sunday we met and we talked about like different ways to connect with
11:52
your higher self and like this is freaking cool. And then after the twelve
11:56
weeks it was over. But the purpose of that was to really figure out
12:01
what your purpose was, like, what's your soul's purpose? Why are you
12:03
here? And once I would say on October, I wrote down this idea
12:11
for a business, this online university business and uh, and we'll get into
12:15
how you're related to that and uh. And then we bought the hot and
12:20
then I was working with Dana Dana Sardano, my co hosts and on our
12:26
podcast and our you know, co founder and best friends and all that stuff.
12:30
He had painting and painting for me with me, like as I saw,
12:33
like me and my kids, you know, with Joshua and the painting,
12:37
and we did an intuitive guidance session and it was really cool. I
12:41
was like, oo, can I have this idea for a business And she
12:43
was like, oh my god, you have to do that. It's gold
12:46
and uh. And so then for a year I was just working on the
12:50
business on the side while I was at this job. And the more that
12:54
I worked on my purpose, the more the job sucked. Every day it
13:01
says, like you know, every little thing, like the stuff that they're
13:03
worried about. I was like, oh my god, and like the lack
13:07
of you know, his contribution that I had. So I just was like
13:11
miserable. And then we bought our house and I looked at my husband and
13:16
I was like, I have to quit now, I have to go work
13:18
on this like I did have to, There's no way. So that was
13:22
December. It was really interesting, December third, two years after I had
13:26
the two years after I lost the baby, with my last day of that
13:31
job. So on the day it wasn't planned. And so December third is
13:35
jub Joshua Day for everybody who's out there listening Joshua say, celebration and transformation.
13:43
So worked on the business, created us this online university, and it
13:46
was awesome. We launched June twenty six, twenty twenty two, called by
13:52
uniquely you dot com with the letter you like a university and it was really
13:56
really fun for a while, and then by October of that we were running
14:01
it for about three months. We were successful, courses were running, workshops,
14:05
people were people, wives are being changed. Awesome. But something in
14:09
it was like no longer fun for me. And I've come to realize in
14:13
hindsight that my joy was in building the business and creating something from nothing.
14:18
The technology everything I was on fire when I was I was doing it,
14:24
and then when it was like maintaining it, I was like what you know?
14:28
Yeah, you know. So at that point Dana and I looked at
14:33
each other and we were like, well, what do we really want to
14:35
do? And Dana had written she'd written two books and one she had published
14:41
with a publisher in London or in England, I don't know exactly where,
14:46
and it just wasn't the experience that she was hoping for. So she was
14:50
like, I think we should just republish my book with self publishing, and
14:54
like, well, why don't we just make it up? Why don't we
14:56
just create a publishing company. It was literally as simple as that, and
15:00
we published her book first, and then a friend of ours was our first
15:03
author, a Marie s. Gordie wrote Happy Hour at the Water's Edge,
15:07
awesome fun, fun books. And then we decided to publish Dana's second book,
15:16
to Code in the Wouio Beyond the ten Decota in thea Woo Woo,
15:18
which is brilliant. And then I decided to put a book together and we
15:22
published that. And also we have like a catalog. Yes, so those
15:28
of you who are listening, if you want to look up, I had
15:31
Dana Sardana on my show. I can't remember the date offhand, but if
15:35
you search back in the archives, you can find that interview, so you
15:39
can listen. And I am on their platform. That so if you go
15:43
to my website and you click on the workshop, what it does is and
15:46
you decide you want to do it and sign up, it takes you to
15:50
find uniquely you dot com. And that's so. So you're the one who
15:54
designed that whole badass platform then really yeah, literally you have the pixels puss
16:03
yeah, like wow, ye yeah, Well see what's really cool? And
16:08
I understand being a creative person, it's in the creating something that brings the
16:14
spark if you have that, if you're that kind of a person, it
16:18
is it's in creating the piece. And that piece just happened to be the
16:22
platform for us to do the workshops and and the thing. But you know,
16:25
mine is a photograph or whatever it is or digital you know, composition
16:30
or whatever I'm doing. Right, that's like where the joy and the passion
16:33
in the spark is. So I totally understand that. Once it was up
16:37
and you're like, all right, now what am I gonna do? Curiously,
16:40
like I'd like kicking attired and like is there something I could fix?
16:42
Like I wouldn't my developer, I'm like, hey, I think you guys
16:48
put the back end on something they're like, okay, so yeah, so
16:55
so what we're what we're doing now is pretty cool though. So so from
17:00
Phenom Publishing, we then decided to create kind of like a like a parent
17:06
company called Uniquely Phenom Collaboration or UPC, and it's Uniquely Senam dot com and
17:11
it goes to everything that we do. But so what we've decided is that,
17:17
like we love the publishing part of our business, and we call these
17:21
brands so pename publishing as brands. Find Uniquely you dot com as a brand.
17:26
Our podcast Going Commando with Angela and Dana is our absolute favorite of all
17:30
the things that we do because it's Dana and I chatting away. You know.
17:36
We record our episodes on Monday mornings, we catch up for our weekends.
17:40
Dana's like chock full of wisdom, so it's just like all of her
17:44
wisdom and me getting into other guidance in real time for people. It's just
17:48
so much fun. So we have a podcast there and so the platform itself,
17:53
you know, we've got you We've got a handful of you instructors,
17:56
you know, just incredible people on there. But it's not a priority for
18:00
us. So we've decided to offer it like as a clone of what we're
18:07
doing, keeping finding equal you dot Com, but offering it as a clone
18:10
for other communities that would want to offer this online learning. It's really really,
18:15
really cool. So it's really fun because then I get to recreate this
18:21
whole platform for somebody else in their brand and I'm like, yeah, you're
18:23
going to get back into the love of the game, you know. Yeah,
18:27
Well it's such a great platform, and I think it's so appropriate and
18:34
perfect for the world that we live in, this digital age right right now,
18:38
because you don't need to be like I'm in Florida, Angela. You're
18:42
in New York still, right, You're still in New York, right,
18:45
Yeah, so you're in New York. So like we could do a class
18:48
together, a workshop together, and we don't have to fly, I don't
18:52
have to book a hotel. Not that there's anything wrong with workshops in person,
18:56
because some of those are really really fun. But sometimes you can't get
19:00
something and it's really something you would love to do, but logistically it's just
19:04
not going to work out for you or maybe even financially, you know,
19:07
plane ticket, renting a car, a hotel, food, When you could
19:10
do it from the comfort of your house, which is what I love so
19:14
much. And it allows more like minded people to find each other in such
19:19
unique ways, don't you think? Oh yeah? And you know what really
19:25
differentiates us from other like learning platforms is that we we like, like,
19:30
tell me about how you experience our training, our training program, budies that
19:34
teach, Like, how was that for you coming in as a as a
19:38
creator yourself to come in and create a workshop? Did that Was that a
19:42
positive experience for you? Oh? Yeah, definitely, definitely as a positive
19:48
experience for me. It was really easy to follow along to figure out how
19:52
to put it together. I mean, anybody who's ever sent out a zoom
19:56
link right and you're the host of a link to have a meeting or whatever,
20:00
could put this together and literally like could put something you know, could
20:04
present in five minutes if you don't have any kind of technological experience, if
20:11
you just go through it a couple of times and once you get it,
20:15
you just get it. And what's really cool about it is I liked the
20:19
fact that I could upload onto the formatting what I have on my computer.
20:30
And as a visual artist, that's great. I could show examples of postcards
20:36
I could create you know, I could share a PDF document and I could
20:40
share it with everybody who signed up for the workshop, and it's really easy
20:45
to follow. And then it's recorded, so if you miss anything, you
20:49
could go back and listen to it and watch it. And it's yeah,
20:52
I just thought it was seamless. Once you understand it, it's seamless.
20:56
That's awesome. Yeah. We try to pride ourselves on the side that,
21:00
like, you don't have to worry about like your students signing up, you
21:03
wear about the billing, you've got, any of that, Like, we
21:07
take care of all that for you, so you can literally just gow up
21:10
seat your workshop and engage and enjoy and uh. And it's just we try
21:15
to make it as easy and seamless for our instructors as possible. Oh yeah,
21:18
no, that is the good part of it too, because you don't
21:22
have to you don't have to be like chasing everybody down, like okay,
21:26
like you guys do all that. Like, so that's that's the partnership that
21:30
the creator has with you, is we create what we want to sell,
21:34
and you guys are the ones that say, okay, got it, and
21:37
you know, send everything out to everyone. So it takes one less to
21:42
do job away from the creator, which is kind of nice because you know,
21:45
I mean our to do our to do lists are a mile long,
21:49
right, I mean totally yes, I call it. By the way,
21:56
Oh can I can? I can? I can I borrow that? Okay?
22:00
Course of course, Dane and I will be like I should like pull
22:03
up your to dollis, let's see what's going on. That feels so much
22:07
better. I like that so much better than I gotta do this. It's
22:12
like, no, my to dollast right, No, that's so awesome,
22:22
all right. So for anybody who's listening who already has or wants to,
22:30
you know, become an entrepreneur or like wants to start a business, like
22:33
what is I know the list is, you know, not sure, but
22:37
what is like the first thing that you tell your clients? Because you do
22:41
you do the coaching? Also do you do you take up? You guys?
22:44
You guys do the coaching. Also, like if I came to you
22:47
and said, I have this idea but I don't know what to do with
22:49
it, help me, you would help me like narrow down what is what
22:55
it is that I want to do and how do I want to share that,
22:57
right, Yeah, So I mentor early home, early stage founders,
23:03
people with ideas from from ideas to like you just started and you're not sure
23:07
what to do. But my mentoring is more in the realm of branding because
23:12
ding is really really important as far as that goes. So my first recommendation
23:18
is always to sit and ask yourself, what is it you're doing? Really
23:23
define your vision and your mission. What are your values? You know,
23:27
one of our number one values is don't be a jerk. Yeah, audience,
23:36
but really you don't have to be you don't have to be PC for
23:38
my audience. But that's okay aole, right, yeah, but that's that's
23:47
my that's like my number one. Don't be an assole. Will be good
23:48
to you see each other for symbiotics. But but really, if you know
23:53
who you are from the get, it really helps the decisions that you have
23:57
to make as you kind of like understand what's going on like with your life
24:02
and whatever. And then the second is if you have a job you hate
24:07
and you're wanting to do something on the side, just plan accordingly, don't
24:11
you know, don't burn the bridge down and like, you know, flip
24:15
everybody off. And try to go do your thing. It will come.
24:19
It will come. You just have to have patience, you know, and
24:22
take a little basic to get there. But be strategic about it. Don't
24:26
be like, you know, off the rails when I quit my job.
24:29
No, remember I was working on the business for a year. I'll quit
24:32
my job. I did in five weeks. Notice, help them find my
24:36
replacement. I was very responsible about it, and I took the time off
24:40
I needed in between and things like that. So it's really about strategy planning
24:45
and then just digging in and knowing who you are. Yeah, that makes
24:51
sense. And a lot of people listening are maybe doing a job that they're
24:53
doing because they have to pay their bills, they have to take care of
24:57
their family, but they're not enjoying it. And there's always there's something else
25:02
that they have a dream that they might want to create, and maybe it
25:04
starts out as a little bit of a hobby. Right, So you can't
25:07
just quit your job and have no income coming and think like, Okay,
25:11
it's just gonna I'm gonna start this tomorrow and it's just going to take off
25:15
and start making me money. I mean, that's not really realistic. So
25:18
you do have to be strategic and and start putting some energy there while you're
25:25
still doing what you're doing until you can, like you said, till you
25:29
can leave your job, you know, and go there, right because for
25:33
a lot of people listening, they just don't have that option where they could
25:37
be like, oh, I decided I wanted to be you know, my
25:41
brand is this, and I'm going to start doing all these videos and doing
25:45
all this stuff, and I could leave my job. You know. It
25:48
just doesn't work that way. So we have to be realistic about what your
25:52
vision is. Yeah, absolutely, you know. It's also like, you
25:56
know, that's something to take a look at too, if you if you're
25:59
really busy, if you're kids, if you have whatever, and you say,
26:02
where are the pockets of time that I can allocate to this, to
26:04
this, to this new endeavor And if it's like, Okay, I work
26:10
from home and I have like an hour break for lunch. A lot of
26:14
stuff I did was during my lunch break or after my kids went to sleep.
26:18
So I and then it begins, you know, like if I had
26:22
the help, I would I would just I would steal time. And then
26:25
it's I worked really hard, I worked late into the night, many many
26:27
many nights because I was doing a full time job, full time mom and
26:32
this, you know, building this business. So it did, but it
26:37
was exciting. It was the grind phase as you will. But it was
26:40
so exciting to fantasize and dream about what this would look like and then,
26:44
oh my god, the day I started to do it, Oh my god,
26:47
that's all in my book, Like it's all that excitement of starting the
26:52
business. Like I take people like you're right there with me as I start
26:56
the business. So oh I love that. All right, We're we're going
27:00
to take our break now because I want to talk when we come back about
27:03
branding. So everybody states, yeah, So everybody stay tuned and I'll be
27:07
back in just a couple of minutes. Conscious Media for conscious Minds Own Times
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29:08
Universe, Creating the life you crave. Do you believe in magic? What
29:14
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Radio with my show Postcards to the Universe, Creating the life you crave at
29:56
four pm Eastern Time. I share tips on creativity, abundance and prosperity,
30:03
and you will be introduced to the coolest guests, trailblazers, mystics and creatives
30:07
who enrich our lives. Hey guys, and welcome back if you're just joining
30:18
me. I have Angela DeMarco as my guest, and we're talking about marketing,
30:26
branding. She's an author, she is yeah, she knows her stuff.
30:30
She's a creative. I love Angela and it's so funny like me,
30:36
you, Me and Dana were the Italian girls, right, Like we should
30:38
come up with like like the three tenors you know, or something more like
30:44
yes, yes, the three tenors of forget about it, Oh my god.
30:53
So branding, branding, branding everybody nowadays, you know, I mean
31:00
some people they're their own brand, right just their name alone is their brand.
31:03
So how do we brand ourselves? Like, what is the first step
31:10
in branding? Let's say, let's take it past. We have our name,
31:15
past, we have our product or we're selling ourselves or whatever it is,
31:18
our book that's already done, So how do we get it out to
31:23
you know, the masses? Like, how do we do that? So
31:27
there's two different there's two different things. One brand thing is kind of like
31:33
an internal tool and then marketing is really how you get it out right,
31:37
So if you if you understand the distinction between the two. For me,
31:41
my approach to branding is all about authenticity. It's all about knowing who you
31:48
are, what your product is, how it's different, and all that good
31:52
stuff for you, and then and then making sure that everything you do is
31:59
consistent with that kind of message. So the way that I approach branding with
32:05
clients is I'll show them a picture of an iceberg, a dissection at the
32:07
water line, and if you look at an iceberg, the tip of it
32:12
is probably only twenty five percent and then seventy five percent is under the water.
32:15
That's your foundation. That's the stuff that nobody sees. That is your
32:20
brand. That has to be that's your brand, that's your foundation, your
32:22
core, your values, why you do what you do, what keeps you
32:27
up at night, all of those things like why do you tick even,
32:30
like what's your favorite color and why you know? Like all of these things
32:34
are really important. So when I approach a company, so we're working on
32:40
a client right now, and we have three meetings with them. The first
32:45
meeting is to talk about like who they are, where they came from,
32:47
And we spend a good two hours just all the people talking about this.
32:51
And anybody who has their own business or their own idea can do this.
32:54
Just talk with a friend, talk with somebody who knows you, you know,
32:59
like where's is coming from, all these ideas whatever. The second step
33:02
is to talk about your competitors, your landscape, where who you're speaking to,
33:10
really coming up with like who your ideal client is and creating some kind
33:15
of avatar for that person, like give them a persona take like a generalization
33:21
of who your most perfect person to buy your book is or whatever it might
33:24
be, or use your service, and give them a name, give them
33:28
a personality, and really understand who they are, like the Outlet's create the
33:32
sims character. What kind of house do they have, what kind of family,
33:36
what's their situation, where do they live, what's their income, these
33:39
things so you have a clear picture of who you're talking to. And let's
33:43
say you name that person Tom. So then when you're talking to Tom,
33:49
you do all of your marketing and you're talking to Tom and you're reflecting on
33:52
the things that you know from what you've discovered. The third step is to
33:58
really dive into the specifics of your product, your service, whatever it is,
34:05
being as concise as you can about what it is you do or sell,
34:09
being concise and specific so that Tom can see himself using your stuff and
34:17
relate. And you have to approach the marketing side of it. As you're
34:22
having intimate conversations, you're revealing the authenticity of your product. Don't fake it,
34:28
don't pretend you're somebody you're not, don't be anything more. And also
34:32
try to just be you. If you're yourself, you will have so much
34:37
confidence in what you're out there saying because nobody can dispute what is true.
34:42
So if somebody tells you like listen, I don't know if that's good enough
34:45
because the bloody bloody blah and someone so all over it is doing that,
34:47
You're like, okay, but I'm doing this and you can stand behind it
34:52
with empowerment and it's just so much more effective and stronger. Tom will be
34:55
like, yeah, there's my girl, there's my product. Okay, that
35:01
makes a lot of sense. So as a brand, and you know,
35:07
you guys do your social media. You're you're very familiar with social media.
35:10
How you know, you hear you read the things hashtag. Then it's don't
35:16
hashtag. Then it's you know, do this and don't do this, do
35:21
this, do this? How do you get your brand to stand out on
35:25
social media? Social media is like it's like, you know, a haystack
35:34
and you're one little strand right in the middle of that stack. It's like,
35:37
how do you stand out? How do you get people to find you?
35:44
You know, So this goes into digital marketing and that is definitely not
35:47
my area. Of expertise, and I'm not the best to give advice on
35:52
this because so our podcast is on YouTube, we're on Spotify, we're on
35:57
Apple Podcasts, and forgive me the strame going by I live next to the
36:00
train tracks. Okay, worry so our podcast. If I can tell you
36:07
the amount of messages I get on the daily about how people can grow my
36:12
YouTube channel and do all of this stuff with me too. Yeah, And
36:16
honestly I tried one. One guy was like, let me just take two
36:21
of your videos and I show you it'll work, and then we can work
36:24
together. And I was like, listen, you know, we're sure you
36:29
could try. It doesn't mean we're gonna work together, but if it's successful,
36:30
we can have we can talk. And he did his little thing,
36:35
and he put all the hashtags in and he did these things, and first
36:38
of all, he raised about our contents and then he was like and then
36:44
it didn't didn't perform me. He's like, oh, well, I guess
36:45
it didn't work, so here are my rates, and I was like,
36:47
are you kidding? And then he went off on me because about how crappy
36:53
our content is. This is our content. So Dana and I have made
36:58
a conscious decision not to do the tricks, the tips, the trick and
37:05
the algorithm playing the algo games, and honestly, I don't know if that's
37:08
what's going to work. Our intention is not necessarily to become like YouTube sensations,
37:15
but rather we want to be picked up by a network and become a
37:17
show. So we have a different intention. I will tell you the advice
37:22
that I got on LinkedIn, because I know, like you're you're heavy in
37:27
Instagram and you've got a great following and TikTok is growing. But you know,
37:34
with TikTok, I don't know if it's going to be around because there's
37:37
you know, the rumors that they're trying to ban TikTok in the US,
37:40
So I'm not I still add everything on and that I do on Instagram onto
37:46
TikTok, and I'm going to keep doing that. And then if TikTok is
37:50
going to be around, I notice I do get a lot of responses from
37:52
TikTok, so I will really put more effort into that. You know,
37:57
yeah, while it's around, you might as well. Yeah, So those
38:00
are those are like not our game as much, but because going Commando is
38:07
not just a show based on our credibility of who we are. So our
38:09
big, our big social media like play is really LinkedIn. That's where Dana
38:15
and I hang out and spend most of our time. And I was given
38:20
advice probably back in July, and it was you need to you need to
38:24
post consistently at least once a day. You need to comment on Now this
38:30
is I never achieved this, but fifty comments with like good. Don't just
38:37
be like hey, You're like to have comments on other people's content and posts
38:42
that are relevant and helpful. You know, they add value. I think
38:46
I got to like twenty five or thirty, and I'll tell you that exercise
38:51
introduced me to some really great people. And my followers are from like eight
38:55
hundred, I'm almost a seventeen. I've like nearly doubled my followers, but
39:00
organic. It's like by real, so real connections that I've made. I'm
39:04
not going for the numbers again, this is just by connecting with people.
39:07
So we post our reels every day. Other Dana and I also post a
39:10
bunch of other content and that's where we've had a lot of success as far
39:15
as the people that we've met, like the the work that we've done to
39:20
the date. It's thee that are better because of the people that we know
39:22
on LinkedIn. Yeah yeah, no, I know because I follow you guys
39:28
on LinkedIn, and I see that's where you spend your most of your time.
39:30
So I agree. I think spreading yourself as a creator, and if
39:36
you're doing all of it, like you have every job in your brand right
39:39
now, until you can hire other people, you know, you spend your
39:45
time where you feel the most connected. So if it's LinkedIn, it's LinkedIn.
39:49
If it's Instagram, it's Instagram. If it's Facebook, it's Facebook.
39:52
You know, whatever it is, TikTok, it doesn't matter, because when
39:57
you try to spread yourself too thin, it gets over whelming and nobody has
40:02
time to spend, you know, four hours, five hours a day on
40:07
all the social media platforms. I mean, unless that's your job, right,
40:10
unless that's what you do all day, right, and that's not I'm
40:15
not interested in that. I'm not interested in being a you know, social
40:20
media brand expert or whatever they are, whatever it is, whatever it's called.
40:23
You know, Like I want to talk about postcards. I want to
40:27
talk about what I'm doing. I want to share the visuals I want.
40:30
That's what I love to do, you know, doing the workshops and doing
40:34
that kind of stuff. That's where I want to put my energy. Yes,
40:37
I want to share on social media, but I don't want to be
40:38
there five six hours a day. And I noticed that it's not authentic when
40:45
I force myself to do it. It's I don't feel it right, right,
40:50
I don't feel it. Yeah, so our scheduling, I allocate time
40:57
every Sunday to post my schedule, my reel for the week, so I'm
41:00
not every morning, you know, doing it. And yeah, there are
41:05
scheduling like tools out there that make it really easy. And the scheduling tools
41:08
do push it all out for you, like I think the HubSpot has like
41:12
a thing with it, all of them. There's so many freaking tools out
41:15
there. But I don't want to be responsible for commenting. Like I hang
41:19
out with LinkedIn and I'm the majority there. Dana does the YouTube and the
41:22
commenting there, and then we both have like our things and Instagram. She
41:25
handles and manages because it's otherwise it's just too much. It's just too much,
41:30
and it is it's like when you when you know who your audience is
41:35
when you know your tom or whoever it might be, where does he hang
41:38
out on social you know? Where where do you like to engage? I
41:43
have Instagram. I love for stupid reels. That's where I get all my
41:45
stupid reels and Dana and I have them back and forth. But I don't
41:51
like that in the comments you have to be like LinkedIn bio or whatever the
41:53
stupid thing is. Like, I like it. Use everybody what they need
41:57
right there, you know, could it easy? Yeah? Yeah, no,
42:00
I definitely know exactly what you mean. Well, just to follow this
42:04
up, so what advice do you have for anybody who's listening. You're because
42:07
you're talking about building real relationships for for us, for those of us that
42:13
have brands, to make connections with our people or our toms or our clients.
42:19
What would you recommend? So I always, I always love just having
42:28
the offline conversations. I love like contests. I love engaging people and having
42:32
them interact with my content. So you'll see that like in a lot of
42:37
our real copy, Like when we put the post copy, it's like a
42:39
question, and we're always asking people to kind of like give us their thoughts
42:45
because that's how you truly engage with people. The fact that people can send
42:51
you postcards and you think it's like just to do is so awesome, and
42:57
just keep doing that because that's true engagement. And then when people get nods
43:00
or acknowledgments on like your show or in your book, whatever it might be,
43:07
it's really really really cool. It kind of like gives them incentives to
43:10
be that. So I have the sweet little grocery store guy when I go
43:15
in. I gave him a sticker a couple months ago. When I go
43:19
on and he's like, hey, yeah a lot. I'm like, why
43:22
so little moment of fame. I one person who knows me, and I
43:27
did a shout out to him and he was like, oh my god,
43:30
he shouted out so right. It really helps. It really helps to just
43:34
bridge that that that boundary that's invisible boundary between like being being truly connected.
43:40
And so I believe it's just if you can find ways to engage with people
43:45
and then give them the platform, share your platform with them, it'll help
43:51
a lot. Yeah. Well, my two favorite things are getting the postcards
43:55
and photographing them, so that's like one, and then doing the show,
44:00
which is even though the show I'm not going to say it's not work,
44:04
because it's work, but I love doing the show, and it's not It's
44:10
authentic because people I find the right people to be my guest, and the
44:15
right people find me. I don't have to go and try. I'm never
44:20
going crazy to try to fill my roster. I'm never like scratching my head.
44:24
Like I get emails, I get introduced, somebody says, oh,
44:30
you have to meet this person. You have to talk to this person.
44:32
So I love building those connections. So now that I have you on the
44:37
air, what I need to do is I should I got to get away
44:39
to get all my guests to do a postcard. So that's what I got
44:43
to start doing because I got to combine the too, So I got to
44:45
come buf with something creative. I just thought of it talking to you.
44:53
Okay about it? There you go. Okay, you heard her, you
44:59
heard her, you heard her, she said it live. I will go
45:05
to the website, make a note. They're going to make a postcard.
45:07
Okay, done? Yeah, maybe I should do that. On my sign
45:10
up to be a guest on her show. All you have to do is
45:14
create a manifesting postcard and send it maybe I should start doing that, you
45:19
know what, I'm going to think about how I could do that so I
45:21
can roll it out somehow where like I would love to get the postcard before
45:24
they're they're on the show. You know, I have to figure that one
45:27
out. That's pretty cool. Time. Yeah, there was plenty of time
45:31
between hours, so it's it's definitely a great exercise because then you could have
45:37
time to know if there was any if it came true. Yeah, yeah,
45:42
yeah, look super cool. So good. I might have to have
45:47
you help me, you and Dada help me. So okay, So what
45:53
should we not be doing? Like, what as a brand and as a
45:58
business should we not be doing? Take Well, one thing is to take
46:04
ideas and suggestions with a grain of salt. Don't don't be inauthentic. Just
46:14
that's that. That's the crux of it. People will sniff out inauthenticity and
46:17
they won't like you, they won't trust you, they won't have faith in
46:22
your brand if you're saying something but acting a different way. And and just
46:27
to remember, your brand is in everything you do. Even if you have
46:30
a business, your brand, You are your business' brand, even though it
46:32
has a logo and a name like post post universe it is Melissa Caprio,
46:37
right, and you're being watched. So if you look at somebody, how
46:43
they they treat a waiter or a waitress, and if they're not kind,
46:47
if they don't, if they overtip because they're too generous, like well that's
46:51
too generous. It's the wrong way. But you know what I mean,
46:52
like like like a they conect their food in a way. How do they
46:59
treat people? How do they cheat people on LinkedIn? How do they cheat
47:01
people on social media? Like? Where are they? Because that if it's
47:07
not consistent across the board, you will not gain traction. That's this is
47:13
it. You will not gain traction. You will not gain respect. And
47:16
even if your brand is kind of like you know, if you're a person
47:21
who's kind of closed off and just factual, that's totally fine. Just do
47:24
that all the time. Don't be super effusive in one set and then be
47:29
factual with somebody else because they're going to feel slighted or like do I know
47:31
who you really are? Because that's uncomfortable. Think about going on a date.
47:37
Right, Oh I'm going through, I'm wiping, I'm getting my you
47:39
know, oh you look all handsome and all these things, and you go
47:42
on the date and they're like totally different and you're like, well, yeah,
47:45
no, so don't do that. Yeah, that's that's good advice.
47:51
Yeah, And that's why I, you know, even on my personal social
47:54
media page, like, I'm very sarcastic, I curve, I say stuff.
48:00
I have a little bit of a wicked sense of humor, you know,
48:02
but that's who I am, and that's fine. But every once in
48:06
a while there'll be something like I want to say to somebody that I'll be
48:08
like whoosh, and then I catch myself. And that's why I don't bitch
48:14
on my social media about stuff, because life is imperfect. Yes, I'm
48:17
all about manifesting and being in the good vibration, but I'm not always there,
48:22
and sometimes, you know, you just want to vent, and I'm
48:23
like, don't do it. Don't do it because people are paying attention,
48:30
you know, Like so yeah, it's true, you're right. So okay,
48:35
So I want to talk a little bit about phenom publishing. How are
48:39
you open to getting if anybody's an author who's listening submissions, Like, what
48:45
are you and Dana doing about that with your phenam publishing, how are you
48:49
getting your authors? So at this point in time, you know, we're
48:53
we're just building our We're still building our catalogs. We have Phenomenal that we
49:00
got we just if anybody goes to phenom dash Publishing dot com, we have
49:05
a book called Forever Connected by Paolo TREPUCCIONI. Oh, my frickin' god,
49:10
this book, I just have to say, I just have to say.
49:15
It's it's it's like a fantasy dungeons meets dragon kind of thing, but it's
49:20
also based in reality. And it's this dual story with two protagonists, and
49:25
it's his writing is delicious. I don't know how I play it. So
49:30
Paolo has found us, but Sina and I because it's the two of us
49:37
in the integrity of the work that books of the author and maintaining their story.
49:43
We only take one project at a time, so we are currently backlogged
49:46
at the moment. But if somebody has a completed manuscript, we do not
49:52
accept books that are like ideas, because ideas are if I'm a dozen what
49:57
we If you go to phena Publishing dot com, we have an inquiry page
50:00
and you can submit an inquiry for our consideration to get put on our waiting
50:06
list, and it requires submitting your first and last chapter, or your prologue
50:12
and epilogue, or however your book is structured, and and then well we'll
50:17
assess the manuscript and see if we're a good fit. Because it's not just
50:21
about us taking books and getting it out there. It's about, honestly,
50:25
we become partners with our authors, and it's a highly collaborative process. That's
50:30
beautiful creative process where we edit together, we designed the cover together, and
50:37
we really maintain the integrity of the author's stories. But right now, yeah,
50:42
so right now, we're not we're not like backlog we're backlogged, which
50:45
is awful. Yeah, yeah, no, that's a good thing. So
50:49
and it's fiction or nonfiction, right, it depends on the book. So
50:52
it doesn't have to be nonfiction or it doesn't or doesn't no, no,
50:55
no, no, it's poetry on the book. Okay. Yeah, and
51:01
we just asked that. Obviously it's your own content that you're writing about.
51:05
You're not like we're somebody else's content. You know. Yeah, that's called
51:09
can't do that, or you can copyright infringement. Let's not do that,
51:15
Okay, So now what about the finally you say, somebody listening may be
51:19
like, oh my god, I have this fantastic workshop I would love to
51:22
give. I would love to be on a platform like that. What about
51:24
find uniquely You being a presenter on there? How? How how would somebody?
51:31
Could somebody do that? Or do you select? Do you hand select
51:36
your people? We have gotten to the point where we've hand selected because,
51:39
like I said, we're not We don't do any marketing or anything like that.
51:44
You know, we just have a handful of you guys. If somebody
51:46
really did want to come on, though, we do have if you go
51:50
to find uniquely You dot com underneath the I forget what the tab is,
51:54
but we have something becoming you instructor or monetize your content something like that is
52:00
an application and more about what we do. So it is we still would
52:04
bring someone on, absolutely, but it's not something that we're recruiting actively for.
52:08
But it's something that just says, you know, would love to meet
52:10
you. Yeah, okay, good to know. No, that's good to
52:15
know. You got to check it out because there's a lot of great classes,
52:19
courses on there and some really interesting presenters. So yeah, so for
52:22
everybody, guys, please check it out. So, Okay, it's really
52:29
scary to put yourself out there, right, to put yourself out there.
52:32
You know, you have a great idea, there's something you really want to
52:36
do. You have a spark, a fire, a passion. What advice
52:38
would you give to somebody who's like really scared, like to take that first
52:43
step? Oh? First, I understand what are you scared of? What
52:50
are you afraid of? What would what would happen if you fail? What
52:53
would happen if you succeeded? What would happen? What are you afraid of?
52:59
Yeah? Being seen? You know? And why are you afraid?
53:02
Then that goes into likes Dana's thing, like what what's the root of that
53:07
fear? Right address that fear and then you won't have that fear anymore,
53:09
and then you go out there and crush it. Yeah, it's really it
53:15
really comes down to it comes down to what the fear is. Do you
53:20
feel like you're not worthy of attracting that? You? Are you? Are
53:24
you not deserving of it? Are you not capable? Are you're not like
53:29
store? If you're capable, Because if you have the idea, obviously you're
53:31
supposed to do it. That's what I think you're getting. You're getting the
53:37
message from your higher self that's saying like, this is where we want to
53:39
go. So here's the idea, Now do it. So all you have
53:44
to do is say what is what's keeping that door closed for you? That
53:49
unlocks your door? Yeah? I love that because that's what I think too.
53:52
If you have the idea, you're meant to do it. Yeah.
53:55
And it's interesting that you said the worthiness thing, because that's the first thing
54:00
we do in any of the workshops is we go we hit the worthiness first.
54:06
You have to feel you deserve what it is you're asking for. Because
54:09
it doesn't matter how many magic tricks we do, spells, candles we light
54:15
in, since we burn dances chance. If you don't believe you're worthy of
54:20
receiving what it is that you want, it's never going to come. So
54:24
worthiness is the most important thing. Yeah, oh my god, So Angela,
54:29
we only have like a minute and a half. So is there anything
54:31
that you really want people to know about you or you want to you know,
54:36
or you want to say to us. I really if anybody is looking
54:40
to start a business or you know, a side hustle or whatever, it
54:43
is. I do recommend my book because when I so find uniquely you dot
54:47
com, I mean a uniquely You update number fifty two is a series of
54:51
emails that I wrote to our community as I building a business, and it
54:54
has a lot of my like fumbles and you know, just not being able
55:00
to it's craziness. But I was not worried. I did not feel worthy
55:04
of it, but I still did it anyway, and I think that that
55:07
would help people feel a sense of camaraderie too, and the sense of energy
55:10
to get their spark going. So it's available on Amazon. Uniquely You Update
55:15
number fifty two the birth of a Branded Entrepreneur by me Angela DeMarco, and
55:21
I just highly suggest it and recaut me on LinkedIn, like let's be friends.
55:23
Seriously. Yeah yeah, LinkedIn is her thing. So if you want
55:28
to talk to Angela, go find her on LinkedIn and it's Angela Marie DeMarco.
55:32
That's your LinkedIn yep, yep, And okay check her out going Commando
55:37
with Angela and Dana and support our show please. Oh god, yeah,
55:40
it's a great show. It really is. I love your guys' conversations.
55:45
Oh my god, thank you so much. Angela, was such a pleasure
55:49
having you on with me today. All right, everybody, thank you so
55:52
much for listening to Postcards to the Universe with Melissa creating the life you crave.
55:57
And as always, I'm wishing everyone a wonder full week filled with joy,
56:00
abundance and love. Peace,