It never ceases to surprise me how many times business owners get stuck making their websites shiny and perfect with all the bells and whistles — at $10k-20k for high-quality content and design — before they’ve had some success.

Bluntly, your website should never be the first thing you worry about when starting your business.

If we’re focused on the tool or tactic as the answer, we can easily miss the connections and opportunities that come from having clarity and confidence in our vision and voice.

The “pray and spray” method of marketing services and selling solutions instead of truly connecting with people who could benefit from working with us.

I was in my office feeling frustrated when one of my colleagues dropped these words of wisdom: “It doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be.”

Recalling that moment and how tiny we all are in the world is a reminder to me that we ABSOLUTELY DON’T MATTER in the grand scheme of things…

But it also reminds me that EVERYTHING WE DO matters in the day-to-day experience of being alive.

The longest relationship you have in this life is with yourself.

I didn’t always think this and used to prioritize every other relationship FIRST and take whatever was left over, if anything, for myself.

There are no “helpful” platitudes or sweeping answers for how to solve the world’s challenges. There is no short road to peace. How do we all make progress, and make change, when the world is a dumpster fire?

My mantra for this week has been to try to experience everything I’m doing like it’s the first time — to approach with curiosity and wonder instead of driving to an outcome or objective.

Subscribing to shortcuts and hoping for the best doesn’t work because it’s rare that applying someone else’s solution and strategy will immediately catapult you to their results.

In January, we’re supposed to start anew and be refreshed…yet seasonally we’re in a fallow period (and likely tired from the holiday season no matter our relationship to it). Winter urges us to go inward, to quit things — not add expectations and goals indiscriminately.

Whether it’s eating donuts — or embarking on your biggest business goals — you set the timing, not the calendar.

Your tomorrow is made from the actions you take today.

But, if we’re stuck in reactionary mode and acting from the same scripts that got us here in the first place, our actions may not be aligned with the results we seek.

Quitting things that aren’t aligned, that deplete you, that perpetuate patterns that don’t work, and that are formed by expectations — yours or someone else’s — will lead you to more peace, joy, and presence…aka the more meaningful things in life.

That, to me, is the definition of true success.

I have a lot of big plans for 2024, but for January my theme is PEACE. If you’re feeling that vibe too, here are a few things that may interest you.

I helped so many incredible humans truly SEE themselves, VOICE their visions, and become even more successful by being EXACTLY who they are and aligning their story and strategy to support their big goals.

The work I do helps people tell compelling & converting stories in their marketing to launch/relaunch their businesses. But, more importantly, it helps people get more clear, consistent, and confident in their marketing and businesses so they can make meaningful and valuable progress on their purpose and goals.

Nothing grows and evolves without curiosity. If we can’t challenge our minds to think bigger, we’ll never see other perspectives and act accordingly.

We’re not promised tomorrow or even later today — and the only thing that’s real is the moment we have right now.

That doesn’t mean we can’t plan or have goals, or that we can’t spend time to repair and heal what’s been done, but it does mean that we are present just as we are without judging the past or micromanaging the future.

Marketing becomes compelling when it’s able to combine storytelling with elements that are both familiar and foreign to make new connections in our minds.

Your brand, marketing, and communication strategies are NOT the same things.

When I talked to classes and spoke at graduations, I reminded students that the number one skill that employers hired for wasn’t technology or industry related… it was communication.

This past Tuesday, I took a “retreat” day. I do this a few times per year because meaningful progress often depends on a meaningful pause.

I took the retreat because I needed time to thoughtfully ponder my business for success and ensure that my upcoming work and services are aligned with the things I value most.

Many of my clients were interested in my format so I thought I’d share it here if you want to set yourself up for a more productive and aligned fall.

One thing has become abundantly clear since I left the corporate world 5 years ago: working 40 hours each week, every week except maybe 1 or 2, is too much. I resisted this idea, initially. And it took me a few years to find my rhythm. But it didn’t come from optimizing my calendar or gaining momentum on the neverending task list. ...Read on...

My clients come to me because they are looking for THEIR VOICE.
They want to find the right words to help their perfect clients find them and truly understand what they do and the outcomes they foster past a simple list of services and indistinguishable language.

The world is always in turmoil – there is always something unspeakable and horrible happening. The opposite is true as well and the goodness and kindness of people shine through every day.

This past Friday, we had the pleasure of hearing Roscoe Burnems, Richmond’s First Poet Laureate, share his thoughts on the theme of “Acceptance.”

As part of his talk, he gifted us with his words on topics of racism, privilege, gender roles, his son being a butterfly, the five things they don't tell you about grief, love and god and love, and more.

If nothing we do matters in the grand scheme of things, then nothing should stop us from relentlessly pursuing the good and kind things we’re here to do in the world.

I’m a firm believer in restarting. No, we don’t get a second chance at life and we can’t go back, but the single most important thing we can do for ourselves is to stop when things aren’t aligned, take a pause, and consciously hit the reset button.

This applies to marketing…and to our lives.

Waiting for inspiration — or permission, or readiness, or perfect clarity, or any of the other words that we use to mask our fear of stepping outside of our comfort zones — is exactly what is keeping us from finding it. Inspiration doesn’t come to us. We must go to it. We find it by taking the next step, whether we’re ready or not.

Human care is hard. Often, we don’t decide on what captures our attention, we just engage, react, and respond. Intention and pausing take energy, even if we’ve worked to make it a habit. But often they take less energy than running full throttle to depletion.

As a terminally happy person whose “effervescent spirit and juju are effusive and contagious” (quote from a fave client & partner), it’s hard to accept that “struggling” has been my pervasive undercurrent amidst the bright spots.

My word of the week is MOMENTUM.

I’ve been working with new and returning brand strategy and content clients who are building businesses, or bolstering them, and here’s a snippet of things I’ve heard last week:

New Year resolutions don’t make any sense to me. If I want to change my life on a random Tuesday in August, I’ll do it! (all Tuesdays are just made up anyway)

But, there is one thing about time that is very true: our time here is finite.

“It is what it is,” at its highest level, can be a reminder to be here now and not to force things. Or, it can be a call to our soul to act collectively to create a different story.

This is why I write about not missing your life…about how today is the good day. We are here right now. This is all we have. We owe it to ourselves to remember this when our world seems overwhelming.

What Can You Teach Someone in 5 Minutes? Today, I’m going to teach you how to relax.

When you find yourself stressed, here are a few steps you can take to bring yourself back into the present moment and anchor yourself in the now. Best of all, once you practice it, you’ll be able to use it without anyone knowing.

The things we know can be good for us. They can also be our biggest obstacle to living fully, authentically, and meaningfully.

All of my clients, whether they come to me for mindset and life help or for brand storytelling and strategy, have these major things in common: they are creating a new aspect of their identities and need the clarity to understand it; the words to voice it; and the courage, confidence, and system to live it.

All things touch. All emotions, reactions, and intentional actions we employ live within us. They are part of our programming - the things that get packed onto us as we live our lives. We discern these actions and reactions as part of our personality. They become our truths and our defaults.

Deeply embracing change isn’t comfortable. It’s nerve-wracking, confusing, frustrating, sad, and maddening. Changing things, or wanting them to change, can make us feel anxious, worried, helpless, and hopeless.

Letting go of the need to make things ok and not micromanaging the process allows the change process to actually happen, and usually results in more depth, clarity, and possibility. It takes work to not just jump in and try to fix our discomfort immediately. It’s often harder work to not perpetuate old patterns.

The pause is often mightier than the action.

For things to actually change so we can make meaningful progress, it means that we must let go of trying to make everything ok during the process.

Many humans want to feel peace desperately but don’t know how to achieve it. “Mindfulness” and “Meditation” aren’t twin unicorns that ride in on a trail of glitter to solve all our problems. These practices don’t end atrocities, but why are we really resisting our call for peace? And how do we start now?

We can’t wait for the outer world to change to make time to calm our inner ones. What’s your resistance to your own peace?

More often than not, escapist tendencies further deplete us rather than give us the recharge we’re seeking. Self-care isn’t what is done on the outside…it’s what is done on the inside. The inner work is what helps us build a life that we don’t need to escape from, but that we can enhance, expand, and experience.

I’ve always approached my brand writing business in this way, too. Content that really communicates value and who we are isn’t a shallow, quick-fix response. It’s deep, soul-fueled, and helps people understand why to hire us because they like, know, and trust us. It’s inner work as much as it is outer work.

Marketing doesn't have to feel hard. So often we default to describing products or selling offers when we’re marketing. And storytelling, a favorite buzzword in social media, is often done without considering how the story actually relates to potential clients and helps them make the decision to buy. If you want to connect with potential clients & not just pitch at them, join me (virtually or in-person) to learn how to tell a better marketing story. https://michellemercurio.com/sell-the-story

How do we go from knowing to doing and being? Because WE ALL KNOW. We are all our own best medicine to what ails us. The point isn’t to talk about advice and what we all know…or don’t know. The point is Resistance. We are all our own cure, yes, but we are also masterfully skilled at resisting our own help, and the help of others. Here’s the first step to end the cycle.

No fear? Or fearlessness? When overwhelmed with next steps, feeling resistant to showing up, or unsure of why you can’t just do your marketing, it’s not a procrastination problem…it’s a fear problem. How do you do the damn thing anyway?

Judgment is selfish. To judge others is really to judge oneself and to assume we’re omnipotent and able to see the full story every time.

How do you want to feel today? This is a question I use to guide my work and my life. Read on for what makes real progress… and to subscribe to “Be The Plan” on YouTube.

You can’t be a visionary changing the world for the better unless love is present within you and in how you serve others.

Undoing takes time. It’s more than the actions we must take. It is both an external process, and an internal one.

Making meaningful progress in life doesn’t happen in the big moments. The magic is in the small shifts that we make every day so we can feel how we feel without trying to stuff it down or manage it into something we’re not ready for. This is how we find peace with ourselves, so we can bring that peace into the world.

Success happens by first rewriting our scripts.

In life and business, some things can wait…and some can’t.

I got a lovely compliment today.

Be F&(^!~@ Bold.