In this issue...
We get to know Beautiful You Life Coach, Jo Kendall about work-life balance and she shares her secrets to staying grounded amongst it all.
GUEST INTERVIEW
LOOK GOOD ON ANY DEVICE
AUTHENTIC SOCIAL MEDIA
We get to know Beautiful You Life Coach, Jo Kendall about work-life balance and she shares her secrets to staying grounded amongst it all. Page 3-4
In this digital age, you need to ensure your business is well presented on all devices. We’ll show you how!
Sophie shares her five tips for staying authentic in your social media and shares the insider tools she uses to do so.
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DISCOVER YOUR BRAND ESSENCE Elle chats about the crucial elements to consider about your brand before designing a logo.
MOON PHASES & YOUR BIZ Truth be told, we’re secretly hippies here at The Goddess Sisterhood. We want to share our reasons for running our business ‘by the moon’.
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About Us
Elle is the goddess behind all of the beautiful design. Not only can she make anything look pretty but she takes charge of the tech stuff so that Sophie doesn’t lose her mind!
Sophie, our editorial and social media goddess. She’s in charge of creating content and editing the magazine as well as managing our social media.
Elle also runs JuJu Marketing where she works with blog-preneurs to find their style and get heard.
When she’s not working on the mag, Sophie runs Sophie Zen where she connects, supports and empowers women in business.
Welcome
To Issue One of The Goddess Sisterhood Magazine We, Sophie & Elle, are so excited to bring this project to life! When the idea for The Goddess Sisterhood came to us, we knew that we were creating something brilliant and seeing this issue come to fruition has made our month! The Goddess Sisterhood was born out of the desire to create a loving space for women in business and bloggers alike, to share their wisdom with each other. We want this to be a safe space for women to share their stories in business - the highs and the lows, but most importantly sharing how they overcome them! After a beautiful soul-filled session of Desire Mapping, led by Sophie, we sat down to map out our vision for The Goddess Sisterhood. With the launch of our very first issue, we wanted you, our gorgeous Goddess Sisters, to know our mission and values.
Our Core Desired Feelings For The Goddess Sisterhood Are:
Adventurous Beautiful Authentic Supported Empowered Goddess Sexy Sisterhood Blissed Out Connected Loved-Up Hippy Fest
Knowledgable
Enlightened
Our Mission For The Goddess Sisterhood Is: To create a space for women blog-preneurs that supports and empowers them with easy to implement, practical advice, with just a touch of ‘hippy’ mixed in. We are so blessed to have the gorgeous Jo Kendall as our guest interview. Jo is a sincere and downto-earth mindset coach, who shares her own story of balancing it all - and having it all - with us. Jo’s love for what she does bounces off the page, but be warned our Designer, Elle, was brought to tears by her beautiful words. We’re both also sharing some of our favourite tips on all things social-media, branding and a little thing we like to call ‘hippy-business’. Enjoy this issue, our heart-felt gift to you, gorgeous!
Soph & Elle xx 2
Beautiful You, Beautiful Me Jo Kendall embodies everything that The Goddess Sisterhood is about. Not only is she forging her own path in the life-coaching realm, she does so with authenticity and passion for every soul-sister that crosses her path. resonate and connect her back to that spark inside. For me blogging is one of the ways that I can help my kindred ones. Therefore I write with heart.
Thanks for being our first guest interview Jo. That means we think you’re great. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?
Owning a business and working for yourself can be hard. How do you find Thank you so much, I am really honoured to be here and I think you girls are pretty fabulous too. the balance? Do you have any secrets for I am a certified Beautiful You Life Coach and staying grounded?
blessed to work with women all over the world to connect with their truth, step into their This has been one of my biggest learnings power and beam their beautiful light out within my business. The elusive balance! into the world. I Working for yourself can specialise in mindset be hard but for me the and deep heart connec“I write for the woman that struggles are always worth tion. The work that I do it. Knowing that and honestly makes me jump needs to know that there is accepting that there will out of bed each and be ups and downs has everyday! I am a girly girl, been key. I would love nothing wrong with her. mama to my fur child to tell you that it will # h a r r y t h e c avo o d l e, all magically happen She is not broken. devoted wife, daughovernight (I am not saying ter, sister and that it won’t either) but She is not unfixable. all-round lover of life. for me it has been about I am obsessed with good consistently showing up. She is not unworthy or coffee and could even go as far as to say I Even on the notunlovable.” think I am a bit of a so-crash hot days! I coffee snob. I am a always ask myself this yogi loving gym junkie who loves to lift very, to-the-point question – “What’s the weights. Oh and I have a wicked sweet tooth. alternative Jo?”. The thought of not doing what I do and living my dream is much worse You’re a business owner and a blogger, than any discomfort I feel along the way. As I sure you know, it is when we lean into the we like to call it a blog-preneur. How am discomfort that beautiful personal growth happens.
important is your blog to your business? Could you have one without the other? What is a moment that changed your My blog is one of the key ways that I can serve life? and reach people. I write for the woman that needs to know that there is nothing wrong with her. She is not broken. She is not unfixable. She is not unworthy or unlovable. I write so she does not feel alone when she reads the words that I have penned down and maybe, just maybe, they will
I have been blessed with many beautiful, goose-bump-inducing, tears of gratitude, bowing-to-the-universe moments in my life and I am sure there will be plenty more. But one that changed my life as far as my soul work and busi3
ness is concerned was the Beautiful You Coaching Academy (BYCA). I had been following Julie Parker for sometime and, of course, adored her. So when I saw her coaching academy, something clicked like it never had before and I knew I needed to do it. I remember walking into the room on my first in-person-training day with this spine-tingling, heart-opening feeling that all of my life, all of my work, career and dreams had been leading to that moment.
Are there are any tools or resources that you couldn’t live without?
I love my essential oils and am very much an oil nerd. I use different blends for different reasons each and every day. Alongside diffusing oils, I also swear by body movement, meditation, quiet time for myself and dance parties in the kitchen when needed. Oh and vision boards are such a powerful tool. And the thing would have to be community - being When did you first know you wanted to last part of something bigger than just us has such a be a life coach and how did that play out? potency to it and will enrich you and your business.
Did it take some time to trust your natural instinct?
My whole life I have wanted to work in this profession. It is weaved deeply into my DNA I think [laughs]. It is most definitely my life calling and I have always felt really blessed to know, with absolute certainty, that the business of serving and helping others to lighten their load and connect deeply with their self was my business.
What is the big ‘why’ behind what you do? When you’re having a bad day, what keeps you on track? Serving. To serve others and, from my heart to theirs, allow light and love to flow. To hold space and the highest vision and belief for others and help them to see that and step into that. This keeps me going.
Jo’s Favourite Books:
1. Ferney by James Long 2. Women Who Run With The Wolves by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes 3. Return To Love by Marianne Williamson
Make Your Site Sexy On Any Device We all know first impressions count, but none more so than your when your dream client finds your online digs. So to help you put your best foot forward, we’ve put together our guide to making the best first impression possible!
With the majority of web activity occurring from a mobile device, it’s paramount that you’re putting your best business foot forward on every platform, not just the desktop. According to Hubspot, 55% of website visitors will leave in the first 15 seconds. So in order to impress your potential audience with your site, it needs to look it’s very best on every device. If your audience has to stretch and pinch their screen to see a blog post that looks like it was written for mice to read, then you’ve significantly diminished your chances of capturing their attention.
Well firstly, you need to grab your phone and type in the URL. Having a scroll around yourself will mean your familiar with all the ins and outs of how someone would navigate. This might seem simple, but you’d be surprised how many people never realised that there was a horrid pop-up stopping people from actually getting into their site! Here are the top things to consider when making sure that your site is easy as Sunday morning for mobile users to use:
year Google reformed the way they ‘rank’ sites according to the device they are using. If someone conducts a search for a topic related to you, using their smartphone, your ‘ranking’ in the search results will be seriously affected if your site is not built in a way that will respond to any device. We call this having a mobile-optimised or responsive site.
• Do all of the menu options work, including any sub-menus? • Does the user open and close the menu with ease? • Does the menu affect the layout of the rest of the site in any way? • Are your menu items clear and a suitable size?
How to check your site’s responsiveness
• Do your images come before or after the text they apply to, and does this seem logical? • Do the dimensions of your images suit the layout on a mobile device? • Are all your images centered, clear and a suitable size?
If you got a red cross, contact your webdesigner ASAP and schedule an emergency meeting to amend your site! If you got a big green tick, then good on you, but you’re not quite done yet.
3. Pop-ups
Although this first step will help ensure all your hard work in implementing SEO on each of your blog posts won’t go to waste, it doesn’t define the user experience that someone will have when they visit your site from a mobile device.
4. Fonts & Colours
1. Check your menu bar works on a mobile device Now it’s not all about the looks. Earlier this
2. Optimise your Images for mobile
Firstly, run your URL through Google’s URL checker. This was built specifically for informing you if your site would be adversely affected by googling ranking, according to whether your site was responsive or not.
By Elle Lynn
If you’re insistent on implementing pop-ups on a mobile device, ensure they can be dismissed easily, and only show on the first page someone visits on your site. The suggested minimum font-size for mobile devices is 16px. Make sure that your choice of fonts and colours also look good in this reduced format. 5
5 Tips For Being Authentic On Social Media (and not being OTT)
Authenticity is, without a doubt, the best way to establish relationships with your social media followers. But how do you be authentic without over-sharing?
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Don’t write when you’re feeling particularly sensitive about an issue.
It is great to be passionate about a cause but going on an in-the-moment-rant on your public page is a really bad idea. The main problem with in-the-moment rants is that they are in the moment. You might feel differently in a couple of hours and it might be too late to change it back. What goes online is very rarely erasable.
Don’t post something that you wouldn’t say to a person’s face.
This point follows on from the one above. If you really must go on a rant, make sure every word you say is one that you’d be happy to repeat. When in doubt, think it over. Save the status and come back to it after a delicious meal or long sleep.
Post when you’re feeling happy. Joy oozes authenticity!
Authenticity isn’t simply reserved for those who are riled up about an issue. In fact, I think the most authentic people are those who are insanely happy. Why not write a status after your morning jog? Post a photo of your gratitude list? Tell the world how much you love being alive!
Leave space for spontaneity
Scheduling is such an important tool for social media management but I try my hardest to leave room for spontaneity. The truth is – a post will not be very authentic when scheduled a month in advance, compared to a status written in the here and now. So when I’m scheduling my social media, I love to leave a few days free so that I can let my creativity flow.
Post at different times of the day
With that said, nothing is authentic about scheduling posts at a strategic time of the day. Nothing! It can be easy to get into the habit of posting on social media just after dinner because you know that is when everyone is watching. But if you post out of these times, you might be surprised at the great reaction! If anything else, it just creates some juicy, authentic variety!
By Sophie Wood
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HOOTSUITE I have been a self-confessed Hootsuite fan for a long time and just as I am writing this article, it has been announced that you can now add Instagram to the Hootsuite dashboard. So what exactly does this mean? Aside from posting and scheduling to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ , LinkedIn and Wordpress, you can now schedule Instagram. Next up, I vote Pinterest!
BITLY Bitly is seriously one of my favourite tools, despite being highly underestimated by others. Most people use Bitly as a website to shorten long links but I always suggest making an account. Not only can Bitly shorten your links but it also measures just how many people click the link. This is perfect for tracking click-through rates on links posted on social media.
ICONOSQUARE Iconosquare is Instagram’s answer to Facebook Insights. Giving you a rundown of all the data you could possibly need, Iconosquare is the only platform as detailed and extensive. My favourite sections are ‘Engagement’ and Optimization’. Iconosquare also provides a platform where you can engage with your feed, rather than just collecting data.
SQUAREADY Have you ever wondered how people create those clean, white borders around their photos on Instagram? Squaready is the major culprit. I love this app as it makes my Instagram feed stand out and look clean. With the option of three levels of thickness, there is a border for everyone.
CANVA Honestly, is there anything that Canva cannot do? A creative solution for social media users who don’t know how to use design programs, Canva allows you to create beautiful designs at minimal to no cost. The biggest benefit of the website is that it makes branding that much easier. Take some time to hone in on your vision then use Canva to make all your branding on point! 8
By Sophie Wood
Brand Essence
Vision + Goals:
Designing a brand that truly reflects your business
First and foremost, you need to be super clear on your vision and goals for the business. Here are some things to consider:
• What are you trying to achieve? • Who are you trying to help? • What problems are you solving? • What’s the big-dream? • What’s the purpose? Often startups jump into business • What fears or obstacles stand in your way? without really thinking through what makes their brand identity. Instead they Understand Who You’re Talking To: simply put together a logo that they If you’re in the services industry, then your believe to be their ‘brand’, without truly personal identity is going to formulate part of understanding the true essence of what your brand identity. However that’s not the only thing to consider. A primary factor in creating makes their brand. a brand that truly reflects your business is to understand who you’re talking to and what It’s super easy to design a good-looking logo these resonates with them. Do some basic days, especially with the likes of apps such as market research on your potential and Canva. Personally, I’m a huge advocate for start-ups current clients and find out the ‘bootstrapping’ their way, in the early days and not following: spending money on unruly costs where they don’t • Who are they? need to.
• What do they enjoy? • Where do they hang out? • Who do they interact with? • What do they want & need? • What do they fear? • How can you make their life easier/better?
However, whether you’re creating a brand from scratch yourself, or hiring a professional designer, there’s some important things to consider in order to ensure your brand is reflected in everything you do, and your logo isn’t just a pretty face. By Elle Lynn
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Get Specific. Stay Multi-Faceted. Niche. To some it’s a dirty word, and to others it feels like the freedom they’ve been craving. But there’s a problem with the perception of this word. Often people consider this to mean that they can only offer one thing, to one type of person. This is SOO wrong! You see, if you’re multi-passionate person, and you’re trying to take those multiple passions and shove them into one single offering, you’re going to end up truly unhappy in the business you’ve created. Creating this type of business means you’ll be throwing things off the ship along the way, leaving your business to be a shell of your multi-faceted self. So
here’s the thing. If you’re a multi-passionate, yoga-loving, kombucha-making, business-coach - be exactly that! Use your multifaceted personality to bring a totally unique perspective to a specific market. I guarantee, there will be people wanting a coach that understands the need to drink kombucha and contort the body in numerous ways.
You see, it’s not the colour of your logo or the font you use that truly reflect your brand, they’re simply just a tool used to help you convey who your brand really is to your dream customers and clients.
How do you want them to feel?
Think about how you want your dream client to feel when they first encounter your brand. Do you want them to feel like they’ve found their kindred spirit, guide, or teacher, when they discover you on social media? Or perhaps you want them to feel excited, passionate, in-charge, fulfilled, elated or inspired when they wander over to your website. Write down everything that comes to mind. This is the soul-center of your brand, the driving life-force behind every word you write and every graphic you create.
This is your brand identity. Creating The Brand Image. This is where the magic happens. If you’re not signed up to Pinterest, get on that stat! Because we’re about to get super inspired for creating a brand image that reflects everything you’ve outlined to be the soul of your brand; the brand identity. Start with using some of the words that you’ve mind mapped, and typing them into the Pinterest search bar. When you find images that reflect the feeling that you’re trying to convey through your brand, pin them to a special board. As you’re pinning, try and add comments about what aspects of the images bring out those feelings, so that you are prompted when you look back over your ‘mood-board’. From here, you should be getting a pretty solid idea of what images, colours, fonts and patterns are reflecting those feelings.
Before I start any branding exercise, I write a list of words. If you’ve ever done the Desire Map, it’s a pretty similar process. If you like, you can open this up to a group that is your target audience, and set them a challenge Get rid of all the ideas of what products and to add images that make them feel a certain way. services you’ll be offering and how much I’ll definately be using this technique for my next money you intend to make. This exercise is about re-brand! As it is such a fun way to gain real tuning into how you want your brand to make your insight into what your brand image needs to reflect in order to resonate with your tribe. customers and clients feel. Settle in for an afternoon, put on some great soulful music and get out the butchers paper because this is where your brand starts to come to life.
Finally, when designing your brand image, consider where you’re likely to be seen. If you’re logo is circular, and you need it for a whole lot of rectangular business cards, then you might need to get creative in how it’s displayed! 10
Launching According To Moon Phases Launching your website, services or product by the moon isn’t a new idea but here is our take on why we decided to launch The Goddess Sisterhood on a New Moon.
Elle and I were sitting on the floor of her sunroom when we came up with the idea for The Goddess Sisterhood. With a glass of tequila and an endless supply of butcher’s paper, we work-shopped the idea right then and there. When it came time to picking a date to launch, we jumped off the floor and ran to the lounge room where we consulted Elle’s Moon Phase calendar and decided to launch on the September New Moon. But why?
Another powerful Yang moon phase is the Full Moon. While the Full Moon can often mean strong positive energy, it has also been known to mess with emotions. If you are in a calm and happy mental state, then the Full Moon will reflect and harness this energy. Similarly, if you are feeling a little scattered, then the Full Moon may be a crazy time for you. The Full Moon is my personal favourite moon phase and I like to work with the energy to launch my products.
The New Moon symbolises new beginnings.
The Yin phases are everything in between including the crescent moon, gibbous moon, disseminating moon and balsamic moon. These moon phases are the perfect time to slow down and reflect.
Have you ever wondered why you’re feeling a little slower this week?
You should check the moon! It is really interesting to see how your The secret is to know how each moon phase effects body reacts to different phases. you, as each person will react differently. More Yang phases If you are still feeling unsure It is the ideal time to set of the moon include the first of what moon phase is best for intentions, start a new quarter and the third quarter. you to launch then start a lunar habit or launch a product. journal! Use it just as a normal While the New Moon is the journal where you write down perfect time to slow down and feelings and reflections but reflect, it is also governed by also note the lunar phase. powerful Yang energy. Yang refers to masculine After a few months, you will energy which is active, definately come to see patterns analytical, dominant and and cycles. aggressive. Basically, the New Moon means a whole lot of hustle!
Yang phases are all about doing while Yin phases are about reflecting.
By Sophie Wood
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The Goddess’ Guide To Launching An Online Product Launching online products is an art within itself. Use this quick checklist as a guide for getting it right.
4 Weeks Before
Write a detailed launch plan Tell your original subscriber list Start a mailing list of interest Start posting sneak peaks to social media
3 Weeks Before
Create an opt-in for your mailing list
Start pitching yourself for guest posts
2 Weeks Before Finalise the product for launch
Promote your mailing list and free opt-in
Amp up social media promotions
Write guest posts for websites and magazines
Launch Day
1 Weeks Before
Set up mailing list and website ready for launch
Contact your subscribers with exact details of launch
Launch product to website
Send email of product launch
Eat healthy and get lots of sleep!
Post launch to social media
Sponsor Facebook post (optional)
Celebrate with a glass of wine and your Goddess Sisters!!! Create Promo Images 12
Join The Sisterhood facebook.com/thegoddesssisterhood
@thegoddesssisterhood
thegoddesssisterhood@gmail.com
ISSUE TWO AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 12