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  • Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and youre watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business

  • and life you love. And this is Q&A Tuesday. Today’s question comes from Veronika and

  • she writes,

  • Hi Marie. Goodness, my friend sent me one of your videos the other week and I’ve been

  • hooked. I’ve spent ages watching them and every minute I learn something not only about

  • how to handle situations in my business, but also about myself. Many, many thanks. Here’s

  • my Q, and honestly, I find it a little bit embarrassing. I finally found a way to channel

  • my creativity into something I love: making dolls. I recently launched my website and

  • have written a press release to send out to mags, approached boutiques to stock my dolls,

  • and am keeping my Facebook and Twitter updated. My problem set in when I started researching

  • the market. Sure, there are a lot of people making dolls out there, but I started feeling

  • intimidated by one particular person’s success. I think she’s amazing. She’s worked hard

  • to get where she is and it took her quite a while too. But I’m a little jealous, she’s

  • everywhere, praised left and right on the internet and on TV and in the magazines that

  • I would like to get into. I’m worried that if everyone is so caught up on one person,

  • they won’t recognize anyone else. And now I’ve begun to doubt myself and started thinking

  • that my press releases will end up in the bin and that people will think my work is

  • behind the trend. Can I ever get noticed if someone else got there first?”

  • Great question.

  • The first thing I want you to know is that there is no need for you to be embarrassed.

  • I believe that every human being on the planet, at some point or another, has felt intimidated

  • and jealous of someone else at some point in their career. In fact, below this video

  • I’m gonna put some links to earlier episodes of MarieTV that weve done to teach you

  • some healthy ways to deal with competition and also ways to stand out from the crowd.

  • But the big message you need to hear is this, and yes, it’s a tweetable: “There’s

  • always room at the top.” -Daniel Webster

  • That’s right, Daniel Webster said that. And you know who else said it? Adam Ant. This

  • is so bad, I can’t even dance to it.

  • Think about any industry. I mean, let’s take acting for example. There’s a lot of

  • A-list actors, you think about comedians, or even think about the music industry. Right?

  • There’s lots of A-list pop stars and hip hop stars and country music stars.

  • When it comes to press it’s actually really good news when someone runs a story on your

  • particular niche, because it means two things.

  • Number one, that publication will run your kind of story. Have you ever noticed that

  • magazines run the same themes again and again? It’s a good thing.

  • Number two, it proves that there’s interest in your category. So other magazines are gonna

  • be looking to cover that same kinda story, but from a fresh angle, and theyre not

  • gonna wanna cover the same person again and again and again.

  • So here’s the thing Veronika. I went ahead and took a look at your site and it’s amazing,

  • but there’s a ton more that you could be doing to up your game that has nothing to

  • do with the competition. So let’s go over to the computer and take a look right now.

  • Alright Veronika, here we are on your homepage. So were gonna start right at the top. While

  • we always love keeping things simple, I think, Miss Veronika, this one is a little too simple.

  • And what I mean is there’s not enough copy. So you say right here, “Veronika Lavey Design,”

  • but that honestly could mean anything. Youre selling handmade, vintage inspired dolls,

  • so remember, youve got to instantly connect with your audience and communicate that you

  • have exactly what they need.

  • You also fail to mention that you do one of a kind custom dolls, missy. This is huge and

  • should be all over your site. So my suggestion is to come up with a good, direct, and clear

  • headline that mentions something about vintage inspired, handmade, and bespoke dolls, and

  • it should go somewhere right here where someone can see it the moment they land on your site.

  • Also, there’s just one image of a doll right here. And here’s the thing, you do such

  • gorgeous work so you could easily showcase more of it by adding some kind of slider where

  • you could just literally slide through the images, beautiful rotating images, of all

  • of your work.

  • So now let’s go to your about page. So were shifting over to your about page, and youve

  • got this great little picture here of a little doll riding a dog, which is awesome. But here’s

  • the thing, there’s no picture of you, and people love seeing the genius behind creative

  • endeavors. It could be a shot of you working in your studio or the kind of shot a magazine

  • would take of you. Just doing this one small adjustment will help the media see you as

  • you want to be seen. So that’s another change that I would recommend.

  • Now if we go up, were gonna go to your gallery page. So, again, adorable idea with

  • this little clothespin and all the little pictures hanging, but when I click on one

  • of these images, it’s gorgeous. I can see this beautiful little girl, I can see the

  • puppy, and I can see this gorgeous doll that youve made, but there’s no caption and

  • I can’t click on anything, nor can I scroll through to the next image. I have to go back

  • up and X out and then go back down and X out, and it’s kind of laborsome for your audience.

  • So I think that you can upgrade there. You’d wanna be able to scroll through all these

  • images, put captions on, and then, of course, you should be able to click on those dolls

  • and go right to purchase them. After all, if we see these beautiful things, were

  • in the moment, were like, “Oh my goodness, I wanna buy one of those.” We should be

  • able to click through and purchase.

  • And then, finally, I’ll go back to your homepage for this. This is a big one. There

  • is no opt-in, my love. And if youve been watching MarieTV for any amount of time, you

  • know you need an opt-in. Every single business needs a list of prospects and customers. You

  • should be building a list of people interested in hearing about new dolls and, of course,

  • sales if you offer them. So especially in your market, which is collectible, heirloom

  • dolls, your customers are gonna wanna know right away if you designed a new piece because

  • once those one of a kind dolls are gone, they are gone forever.

  • So that should be enough to get you started, but honestly woman, you need to get your butt

  • in B-School the next time we run it. But for now, you can go over to JoinBSchool.com and

  • get some free video business training.

  • That was my A to your Q Veronika, I hope you enjoyed it. Now I would love to hear from

  • you. Do you have stories thatll inspire Veronika about finding more room at the top?

  • Or do you have other ideas to help her fantastic business get even better?

  • As always, the best stuff happens after the episode over at MarieForleo.com, so go there

  • and leave a comment now.

  • Did you like this video? If you did, subscribe to our channel and share it with your friends.

  • And if you want even more great insight and resources to create a business and a life

  • that you love, come on over to MarieForleo.com and make sure you sign up for email updates.

  • I put some good stuff in email that I just don’t put in my videos.

  • Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams. The world needs that special gift

  • that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I will catch you next time on

  • MarieTV.

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and youre watching MarieTV, the place to be to create a business

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