A few weeks back, our very own Rock Star, Vanessa Hickman, wrote a blog about how Photos Bring Your Brand to Life. She invoked the oft-used expression, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” And she’s right. So right. Images make us feel something. Want something. Want to be something.

We emotionally connect.

Powerful, relevant visual assets are hugely important in any marketing plan. Whatever the medium – photographs, videos, or infographics – compelling imagery makes people connect more, remember more, and engage more. Powerful images can stay with you for a lifetime.

It made me think, what imagery have I found most compelling throughout my life? What has moved me, stayed with me?

And so, drumroll please….here are my Top 5 Imagery Moments:

Farrah Fawcett’s Iconic Poster. It was the 70’s. I was just beginning to become aware of beauty and what that meant, and this Farrah Fawcett poster exemplified it for me. That hair. That smile. I wanted to look just like her. This poster was my first memory of being influenced by an image and all that it suggested.

Janet Jackson’s Pleasure Principle Video. It was the 80’s and this early video of Janet Jackson dancing alone in a warehouse struck such a chord with me, I watched it over and over and over again. She was strong and talented and beyond cool. Storytelling imagery in the form of video was taking over the world.

The 90’s Supermodels. You knew them so well you need only use their first names – Naomi. Linda. Tatjana. Christy. Cindy. They were impossibly beautiful, they ran in a pack, and they epitomized glamour in the 90’s. Everything they endorsed benefitted from the association. It was print media gone mad.

Carrie Bradshaw. I don’t know many women who don’t identify with the Sex & the City ladies, and for me, Carrie Bradshaw was my spirit animal. The styling was pure genius and every outfit told a story. The designers and brands that she wore on the show got tremendous exposure, and the world of product placement in film and television was exploding.

Misty Copeland’s Under Armour Commercial. A new decade and a new sensibility. Strength. Tenacity. Belief. And a seriously genius commercial with a tagline: “I will what I want.” I made my daughter watch it, I loved it so much. Watch it here. I defy you not to become inspired by this new breed of spokesman that is now becoming a brand ambassador.

It’s a whole new world of brand imagery.

So tell us, what imagery has spoken to you and why?

After you have done the heavy lifting and spent the necessary time and effort putting together your brand identity, don’t fall short when it comes to your message and execution. Make sure your content is relevant and captivating and then proceed to shout it from the mountaintops.

This is the time to fearlessly spread your message.

And we mean fearlessly.

It is not the time to vacillate. Go big or go home! You have a story to tell. Getting your brand message out is critical. You must believe that in your particular niche, you are the voice of authority.

This fearless quality is what can be the turning point to success – or not. Even if it takes some time to penetrate your consumer base, this confidence and conviction is what keeps you moving forward. The delivery and construction of your message may be refined over time, but it needs to be confident and consistent. Because as our Chief Rocker always espouses; marketing is an art, not a science.

It’s hard and it’s scary when you put yourself out there. But, people will respond to your conviction and confidence. It’s inspiring. Tell your story.

Good day to you, friends, colleagues and cherished clients!

It’s a very special time here at Front Porch Marketing, as the month of March marks our five year anniversary.

Once upon a time, I gathered the “Porter Posse,” some of my trusted friends, brightest business and marketing minds and family, plied them with delicious food and drink, and shared my dream of opening a boutique branding and marketing company. That evening spent brainstorming would form the early framework of life on the Porch, and the love and support received provided the momentum needed to make it happen.

And so, in honor of our anniversary, here is a samplin’ of five rockin’ things we’ve loved about branding and marketing businesses along the way:

1. The Porch grew! It started with one fearless leader, but along the way we added diversity, depth and experience—one person at a time. Today, we are eight core team members strong!
2. Two words: Dream. Clients. Again, we started with one. One Dallas-based luxury brand. Today, we partner with an amazing cross-section of independent-thinking entrepreneurs who are passionate about their businesses. They have challenged us and fortified us and we are thankful to have each and every one of them.
3. We picked up a prestigious certification: WBENC. And we are darn proud of it. The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides a world class standard of certification to women-owned businesses throughout the country. No small feat, we are honored to have risen to the challenge and make the cut for two consecutive years.
4. Every day, we get to do what we love. Yes, branding and marketing! We are mad about it—branding, strategy, research and competitive analysis are at the core of everything we do. But we also rock the other pieces of the puzzle—advertising, communications, planning and mapping, email marketing, public relations, sustainability initiatives and social media strategy and implementation.
5. Our Clients’ success stories became our success stories. When our clients rock, so do we! Nothing is more gratifying than starting from chicken scratch, forming a plan, implementing a shared vision and watching it come to fruition. We recently highlighted two successful case studies on our website: PeopleResults and Empire Baking Company.

Thanks to all of you, the Porch is rockin’ after five great years!

Julie Porter is the chief rocker at Front Porch Marketing. You can follow her, julie_porter, or her company, itsfrontporch, on Instagram and Twitter, juliedporter01 or ItsFrontPorch.

Throughout high school I was told to focus on my weaknesses in order to be a well-rounded student for college applications. While I have always loved history and English, math and science were never my strong points and were subjects I strived to have a purely basic understanding of. Instead of being encouraged by my high school counselor to explore my interests in history and writing by enrolling in challenging courses, it was suggested that I take science courses instead to “round out” my application.

While my counselors stressed the importance of having an overall knowledge of basic core subjects, colleges wanted to know what made me unique and what I was passionate about in school. This contradiction is a common not just for students, but also for many business professionals in today’s world.

My college professors have given me a different perspective in this matter, and have showed me the importance of utilizing strengths and coping with weaknesses. As an assignment for my business leadership course I read the book Strengths Finder 2.0, and took a “strengths” test that followed at the end of the book. This personality test reveals your top five strengths and suggests jobs that correlate with those strengths. There are many different ways to find your strengths, but the Strengths Finder 2.0 test revealed key insights to me that I had yet to think of.

When are people happiest in their jobs?

Instead of encouraging you to “correct” your weaknesses to be an attractive candidate in a job application, author Tom Rath promotes the idea of harnessing one’s strengths to be as productive and happy as possible. The book asks if, “you have the opportunity to do what you do best everyday?” Statistically speaking, people are happiest when their jobs showcase their strengths, and allows them to make a difference and be productive at work. If everyone was a well-rounded employee, their strengths would not be utilized and thus productivity and efficiency would decrease.

When you examine the most successful people in the world, you notice one thing they all have in common – they know what they do best and they DO IT.

“Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power.” – Shirley MacLaine

Most of us know that negativity impacts our emotions and mental health, but it has been medically proven that it also negatively affects your physical health. By causing stress, fatigue, decreased immunity and more, repeatedly focusing on the negative could end up affecting everything in your life.

Personally, I believe that everything happens for a reason, and every day I do my best to find the positive in situations and be grateful for all that I have. One of my favorite quotes is, “If you want to feel rich, count all of the blessings you have that money can’t buy.”

It’s certainly easier to stay positive on some days than others, and I am no expert on finding personal positivity. I am, however, well versed on the importance of staying positive when dealing with the media, especially when the reason the reporters are there is not ideal. The impact of negativity on your image and/or your company’s image is severe, and it can be incredibly difficult to rebound from negative publicity once the damage is done. It takes time, money and effort.

So, what can you do when the media come knocking on your door? Here are a few tips:

* Treat the reporter with respect – Something bad has just happened, and the last thing you want to do is be nice to the person shoving a camera in your face or asking you questions. But, remember, they have a job to do and a boss to answer to. If you treat them with respect, they are more likely to do the same for you.

* Stay positive (when appropriate) – Express passion and confidence and smile. This is especially important when being filmed on camera.

* Treat competitors, clients, contractors and vendors with respect – There should be no need to speak about or on behalf of any other parties involved, but if a specific question arises, stay respectful and move on quickly.

* Be responsive – Don’t fight or pick the wrong battles.

* Avoid negative phrases – Make what you say count and do not repeat a negative. A 5- to10-minute interview will be edited down to one or two quotes or a five-second soundbite. Don’t let that quote be negative.

Remember – “Being positive does not mean ignoring the negative. Being positive means overcoming the negative.”

Daylight savings time, warmer days and busy baseball fields are here, and when spring arrives, we usually feel another year is moving forward more quickly than a fastball! As we turn the corner to the second quarter of the year, it’s a great time to slow down a bit and think about how we can get more fresh air, brighten up our homes, and breathe some life into our one of our all-time favorite events – the business team meeting. Yes, I just said the dreaded word, meeting.                                                                                                                                           

It’s time to spring clean your meeting!

Why? Because none of us gets excited when hearing we have to attend another meeting, and most of us have heard or said it numerous times, “that meeting was a waste of my time!” Folks, if time is our most valuable asset, how can we stop spending it in unproductive meetings, and what will it take to change-up the agenda and make it worth it? If it’s time for spring cleaning, where do we start?

We start by changing our thought process to get rid of the old and start with the new. The traditional meeting that is set and run by a boss, who does most of the talking, and calls on individual employees to report their progress, does nothing to engage the team.  I have run these types of meetings in my prior work and learned the hard way that the bored looks, fidgeting, and glances at the mobile phones were caused by my failure to recognize the needs of the team.  I learned that I needed their help in changing everything about how we ran meetings, including thinking of them as “our meetings” vs. my meetings.

Once we are willing to think differently and engage with each other in change, it’s time to ask a ton of questions. Getting feedback is critical, so be persistent until the team is open to talking about the type of meeting wanted. If you have flexibility in date, time, location – put the question to the team and ask what works best. If you can involve everyone in setting the agenda – do it! Ask open-ended questions such as – what do we want to discuss, who do we want to hear from, what do we want to learn, who should we invite and why? Throw out old paradigms and bring in fresh ideas and perspectives from everyone on the team.

As the agenda starts coming together, someone on the team must organize it and everything else about the meeting so everyone gets the most out of the time spent. An advanced communication should be sent to all attendees to include date, start and end times, break times, location, dress code, names of attendees/guests, meeting objectives/agenda and if food or drink will be served. All of this information can be included in one final agenda document, and also available at the meeting. An organized meeting produces the best results, and everyone leaves feeling their time has been appreciated and well spent.

Spring cleaning isn’t easy, but we all know it’s worth the effort. As you consider thinking differently, engaging with each other to make changes, and organizing yourselves for more productive time spent, keep in mind two key things:

• If you are a leader, understand meetings are not all about you and engage others in helping you improve the time spent together. To have a successful meeting requires you to listen.

• If you are a participant, share your suggestions for the agenda well before the meeting and be willing to speak up during the meeting. To have a successful meeting requires you to contribute.

Finally, when you attend a meeting think about how many times you have asked a family member to put their technology aside at the dinner table or when speaking with you. We should all do the same in our meetings. Unplug and engage.

Your meetings will rock! Get to that spring cleaning friends, and we’ll see you later on the Porch.

You’ve cultivated your own personal brand. You’ve pulled together an impressive resume, collected letters of recommendation, completed service hours, cleansed and monitored social media profiles. You are a model citizen waiting to hear the results of your application. Only, this isn’t a job application, or even a college application. This is the high school entrance process for magnet and private schools in Dallas. You heard me – high school.

These are 13 and 14-year-old students … and this is a typical experience for parents of middle schoolers this time of year.

I know I’m dating myself, but in my day, attending school was a relatively simple matter: application plus test and voila, you’re either in or you’re not. No big deal. In today’s uber competitive world, however, our young teens begin a grueling process that starts the year before. There are test prep classes, interview skills seminars, tutoring appointments, essay drafts, service hours and school tours. They begin building a resume that we never even dreamed of dealing with until college.

It is the crafting of what will become their personal brand.

In many ways it’s become a little too much. The transition from middle school to high school is fraught with plenty of landmines without this element of pressure added. But modeling the appropriate behaviors goes a long way in getting them through it. By reinforcing the process, not the outcome, it can become a learning experience. Along the way these children will learn resilience. Let’s face it, these are the years when teens face some of their first real rejection. It’s not easy.

Let me be clear, I am NO expert. We have one child and are muddling through with lots of good company in a wonderful environment filled with friends and other parents who are willing to share their experiences and offer tips. It’s an amazing village.

The good news is that there are plenty of options. With good counselors and faculty shepherding families through the process, the students will realize that the universe is watching out for them and whatever school they attend as freshman will be a good stepping stone for the next chapter of their academic experience. And the process teaches them that personal branding is an important part of their lives.

Everyone has his or her own morning routine – mine happens to include hitting the snooze button at least once, a big cup of coffee and a quick scroll though Twitter.

Twitter is how I keep up with friends, keep up with the news, but most importantly- how I keep up with marketing. By following my favorite branding and strategy experts, I am able to learn their insights from decades of experience that I don’t have.

Over the past few months, I have curated a list of marketers that I follow to cover all the marketing bases, and here are just a few of my favorites.

Seth Godin (@ThisIsSethsBlog) – Author of the book, Purple Cow and others, where he discusses how to transform your business and yourself by being remarkable, posts daily about permission marketing and tips on how to be the “purple cow” in a field full of competition. His twitter is purely reposts of his blog, which ranges in topics from how to turn your creativity into a profession, to how to power a digital future for your brand.

Jay Baer (@jaybaer) – If you want a daily update on all different aspects of digital marketing, follow Jay, as he is the most re-tweeted person in the world among digital marketers. His posts include influence marketing workbooks, six step playbooks for handling social media complaints, and everything in between.

Ann Handley (@MarketingProfs) – If content marketing is your thing, then definitely follow Ann, as she is “waging a war on mediocrity in content marketing.”

Bonin Bough (@boughb) – He is currently chief of media and eCommerce at Mondelēz International (formerly Kraft Foods), and specializes in digital strategy that crosses paid, earned, owned and shared media. Posts a great deal of social media tips, and if you know Front Porch Marketing, you know we LOVE all things social media.

Marie Forleo (@marieforleo) – Guru of how to achieve the perfect work/life balance. Posts about how to build a business you love, increase customer trust through social media, and increase productivity in every day life.

Robert Caruso (@fondalo) – Another expert content and digital marketer, who tweets about innovative ways to improve your social media, tips on how to increase brand awareness for startups, and how to get results in B2B marketing.

Kim Garst (@kimgarst) – As one of Forbes top ten social media influencers, she is the queen of social selling strategy. Her tweets range from Facebook advertisement jumpstart guides, tips on how to keep the cost of SEO down, and “cheat sheets” for selling on social media.
Bryan Solis (@briansolis)- Expert on digital marketing who provides step by step help for brands looking to transform their digital approach to create a brand experience.

Neil Patel (@neilpatel) – If you want to read a little bit of everything about digital marketing, Neil is your guy. As a Forbes columnist with years of experience in marketing, he combines motivational business tips with the knowledge necessary to succeed as a modern marketer.

While these are just a few of the hundreds of successful and influential marketers to follow on Twitter, by reading a few of their posts daily I am able to keep up with the ever-changing world of marketing. In addition to following experts in the field, a lot of successful marketers follow venture capitalists, as they see and predict new innovation that affects most industries and markets. Effective and influential marketers have to keep up in order to connect with their target market, so why not utilize social media to do so?

Rachel Mains is an intern at Front Porch Marketing. Follow her on Twitter.

I admit it, I’m a little obsessed with the Academy Awards. I’m maniacal about seeing as many of the nominated movies and performances as I possibly can, I read all the nominee’s profiles in glossy magazines, I watch them charm talk show hosts on television, and by the end of it I fall a little in love with the people I hope will win.

It wasn’t until I started working here on the Porch that I realized just how big a role marketing played  in these hallowed awards. Film is big business, and winning an Oscar translates into big dollars for the winner. It’s no wonder, then, that Oscar campaigns are born from basic marketing tenets:

You Must Have A Marketing Plan.  For Oscar nominees, a marketing plan involves promotion of  their film, their performance, and themselves in a way that appeals to voters and the moviegoing public. It’s a specific, multi-platform approach designed to build support and influence voters.

You Must Commit to the Investment. I was shocked to read that big studio Oscar-winning films will have had $10 million dollars spent on their campaigns. Studios know that an investment in marketing pays dividends, so they hire PR and marketing firms to guide them every step of the way.

You Must Know Your Brand. Much like a business, an Oscar marketing plan is built on the nominee’s image (their brand, if you will), and in all promotion, the message must stay true to that brand. As an example, this year’s best actor winner, Leonardo DiCaprio, who is normally reclusive and whose reputation is more party boy than serious adult, went on talk shows to portray himself as accessible and even had a well documented meeting with the Pope. Brand, brand, brand.

You Must Utilize Your Resources Wisely. Historically, print ads in trade magazines like Variety and Hollywood Reporter have been costly but successful in the Oscar world; but with readership in traditional  publications shrinking, a reallocation of resources is taking place. Social media is a must (yes – #LeoForOscar was a thing). Attending relevant events such as film festivals, making the rounds on high profile talk shows, and being accessible for major media profiles all have their place.

These Oscar campaigns show the value of strong marketing! Marketing is essential for your business. Having a plan. Investing in the plan. Knowing your brand. Being true to your brand. And knowing how to reach your customers.

The power of good marketing is far-reaching! Hollywood knows it. Do you know it? 

Photo courtesy of @thegemjuicebar

On the porch, we LOVE social media. We are OBSESSED with leveraging and analyzing it to benefit our clients.

Although … I am the mother of a 14-year-old teenager, and I should probably be writing this post about how to lock down your child’s devices … but that is for another day.

Instagram is one of my favorite social media networks at the moment. Not only is it a rockin’ sales driver for our clients, it is also not riddled with advertising and other noise that some social media networks have evolved into.

Here are some of my favorite Instagram accounts today:

• crazysexykris – Inspirational and uplifting.
• liveinthedetails – Emotive.
• the_luxury_list – Luxurious.
• mommasgonecity – Darling dogs and children.

And, of course, a few of our rockin’ clients’ accounts:

1. ellenhoffmandesigns
2. feizyrugs
3. thegemjuicebar
4. suzandavidsondesigns

I would love to hear what you are lovin’ on Instagram and with whom I can refresh my feed. So share!

Julie Porter is chief rocker at Front Porch Marketing. You can follow her, julie_porter, or her company, itsfrontporch, on Instagram.