The Awesome Factor: An Inspiring Guide for Embracing Your Greatness and Pursuing Your Dream Business

By Aymee C. Buckhannon

Inside this book you will find key actionable steps to help you identify and embrace your passion and turn it into a business you love. I will share with you my personal story of how I became a home business entrepreneur, and my proven go-to solutions on how to stay focused on your goals, how to brand your business, and the simple steps you can take to launch it online. If you are looking to start your own business and want to find more clarity and assurance to keep moving forward, then this book is for you. From identifying your passion to putting it into action, my wish is for this book to inspire you to take a Leap of Faith, and to gain the confidence & the believe in yourself to go forth and release your Awesome Factor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Mar 27, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504329811

Aymee C. Buckhannon

Aymee is a blog coach, a personal branding consultant, a visionary, a witty inspirational speaker and a writer. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, a rewarding 14+ year career for a Fortune 500 company, a proven successful business in the network marketing industry, and has been a mentor and consultant to many women. Aymee has been able to inspire others she has come across in her professional and personal path to pursue new business ideas, realize new personal development goals and has offered guidance and motivation in the manifestation of their dreams. Her ultimate goal is to reach many more, starting with this book as a vehicle. Aymee came from Spain with her parents in 1984 and completed high school and college in Arizona. She still lives in Arizona with her husband and children. Her free time is gladly spent reading & learning new things, taking pictures, playing with her kids, and fulfilling her obsession with rom-com movies. One of her craziest thoughts has revolved around one day writing a fiction book. There is still time to realize all kinds of dreams, one at a time.

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Copyright © 2015 Aymee Buckhannon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-5043-2980-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-2982-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5043-2981-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015904131

Balboa Press rev. date: 04/27/2015

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Part 1: The Discovery

1. The Magic of Being You

The Awesome Factor

Living My Life by Default

Nobody Does It Quite Like You

2. Decide

Making the Commitment

3. Attitude

It’s Not Just About Having a Positive Attitude

4. Focus

Look—a Squirrel!

5. Inspiration

Use Your Passion as Your Fuel

6. Meditation

Tuning Out the Noise

Part 2: Implementation

7. Crafting a Meaningful Brand

The Brand Inside of You

First Steps for Creating Your Brand

Brand Equity and Communication

8. Taking Your Business Online

Creating an Online Presence with a Blog

The Three Basic Building Blocks of Any Blog

Social Media

9. The Different Flavors Of Success

Great Examples of Women Making It Happen

10. Unleash Your Awesome Factor

In Summary

To my children, Cristian and Isabella. May you have the courage and perseverance to follow your dreams and build your lives by your own design. You are my most beautiful accomplishment. And to my stepson Joel, you can start today building the life of your dreams; you don’t need to wait until you are older. You are incredibly talented.

To my husband, Cecil, your self-driven path to health coaching and meditation pushed me beyond my own limitations into discovering what I wanted to do when I grew up, even though I was already grown up. I am thankful for your relentless dedication to your own dreams, for encouraging our children to think beyond the ordinary, and for believing in me when I didn’t believe in myself.

To my parents, you did everything exactly how you were supposed to. In looking back at my childhood, I am always amazed by your advice and everything you gave us. You are amazing parents.

To my siblings—winning! Just kidding. I am glad you are reading this book, even if you don’t get past the dedication. Your being so much smarter than me has always inspired me to try harder. I love you guys. Now it is in writing.

To all who had a hand one way or another in helping me make this book a reality: Cecil, Molly, Monica, Rebecca, Erica, Scott, Michele and Kim. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your advice, your edits, your support, the laughs we shared along the way and your contributions.

To myself, you are who you think you are. Thank you for having the perseverance to follow through and manifesting this book.

Preface

I live my life with idea mode on 24/7. I don’t invent things, per say. I just love generating ideas for new business development and marketing strategies. I can picture the brand, the tagline, the layout of the website, the response in the market, and the different things I would do to stand out and be unique. I have done this several times for myself.

When someone wants to talk about a new business idea with me, my brain lights up like a fireworks show with excitement and possibility. The problem is that often I have too much to share, but the people listening are not as ready to move forward as they thought they were. I get stuck (in my head) thinking about how I would push forward if I were them. Of course, all my ideas for them are thought of in vain. Oh, if those people only knew how grand they were and the amazing futures that awaited them.

I have so much to share, and there are thousands of people out there who are ready to listen and do something with this that I decided to capture it all in this book and let it change the world—or at least whoever is ready!

Introduction

When I first came up with the idea to write this book, I was so excited. However, every time I sat down to start, I would get so overwhelmed with how much work there was ahead that I would need to take a mental break. Yes, I needed a break from starting, if you can even imagine that!

I would find anything that needed to be done before writing that first paragraph: Googling stuff, designing the cover (which actually did get done before the book writing began), getting feedback on Facebook on whether I should even write this book, buying new shoes, etc.

I went through all the obstacles and challenges that I cover in this book. We are all prone to facing the same stops along the way. Recognizing that it is happening and pushing ourselves to move forward anyway will make the difference between doing and thinking about doing.

You were born to be yourself. You are here to offer the world a unique perspective. The world is already a different place because of you, and the exciting part is that it will also change because of you deciding to follow your purpose. We are all here for different reasons. Your reason is just as unique and totally awesome as the next person’s reason.

I hope you will recognize the obstacles that are keeping you back or taking you off track and decide to push forward and prevail. This book will inspire and guide you by offering you several ideas about how to identify what you want and then help you organize it into something you may be able to pursue as a business. To find the courage to do what you love, you will also need to find the courage to let the real you shine through. It is quite different to feel good about being yourself and doing what you love versus doing what other people think you should be doing.

Sometimes it takes knowing we are not the only ones experiencing a struggle to help us regain clarity and realize we all have an awesome factor inside of us!

This book is not an autobiography—even though I sometimes use my own examples to illustrate points. It is also not a personality-type book. This book is about you having such a remarkably unique aspect that others will inevitably feel drawn to doing business with you. I refer to this as the Awesome Factor. In order to have a remarkably awesome business, you will need to recognize that you are totally awesome. This is not a bad side effect.

If you are a creative, business-minded individual who is looking to manifest your ideas and unique skills—and turn them into a profitable, cutting-edge business—then the content of this book will be helpful to you. Although I recommend you read chapter by chapter in order, feel free to read the ones that appeal to you most first. I hope you will enjoy, apply, and recognize that your gift is valuable to the world. Go wrap it up and share it!

Part I

The Discovery

Chapter 1

The Magic of Being You

Greatness doesn’t come from what you do, but from who you are.

—Marie Forleo

The Awesome Factor

We’ve all heard that great customer service will set you apart from other businesses selling the same product. There is no doubt about this.

I’ve walked into a business establishment and have walked right back out because of the sheer smugness or rudeness of the person behind the counter. Customer service is important in your business; you don’t want people to go next door because they are dissatisfied with you. But that’s not all you need. You need a secret sauce that makes your business unique and authentically you.

The Awesome Factor is about having something so remarkably unique in the way you do business that people will come to you regardless of your competition, simply to experience your brand. People want to have great experiences, they want to feel good when they do business with other people, and they want to rave to their friends about these awesome experiences.

The economy is only bad for people who are unwilling to make changes. This is a bold statement,