Savor the Success - Business Network for women entrepreneurs

Alternate headline: It Takes a Village to Make <insert name here>

After several months and plenty of contemplation, it's finally here. The proof that hard work, dedication and an entire team of people can create something fabulous. That something fabulous is my new website: http://www.melissaslifelessons.com

Now, don't mistake this blog post for shameless self promotion (although, yes, there is a little bit of that here as well). The point of my posts, as with all the others, is to teach you something based on something I've learned. A life lesson.

So, today's life lesson is showing you exactly what goes into building a visual brand. After spending thousands of dollars over the years building ineffective websites based solely on what colors I liked, or what template was the easiest to manipulate, I decided that if I wanted to promote myself as a true professional, command high paying speaking engagements and go after spokesperson opportunities, I need to clearly articulate who I was through my online presence.

You see, I've never had much of an issue communicating my brand offline, but online was a different story. After hearing how much younger I looked in person than on my website and how my bubbly, silly personality didn't translate on my cherry red, painfully plain site I decided to call in the experts to clearly do what I was incapable of - creating a visual brand.

So I started with Savor member Ayesha Matthews Wadhwa of http://www.pixink.infoto create my new visual brand including my website. After our initial consultation, I realized how much time and effort goes into good branding. The first mistake I was making were the colors I chose to represent myself. Ayesha chose orange and yellow, colors I formerly never wore or used EVER, but realize they are happy and vibrant just like me. She also guided everything from the styling of my photos to the fonts to layout and copy. She is truly a guardian angel to all things visual.

But it didn't stop there. My site is serving multiple purposes - appealing to conference planners to book speaking engagements, appealing to brands to book me as their spokesperson and appealing to consumers who want to read my blog, sign up for my newsletter and essentially make up my following. This took the work of Jennifer Tuma Young, a super savvy Savor member who taught me the nuts and bolts of what people want to see and why (from someone who already does it successfully!) My 7-figure club led by our own Angela Jia Kim, who banded together a group of ladies to support one another in undertaking massive projects and kept us plowing forward. And each time I faltered, I enlisted the help of Janice Hoffman from Success is Sweetest to give me another 30-day project to keep me on track. There's nothing like accountability to keep you going.

Then, of course, there were the photographers like Lora Carr who captured happiness and fun like no other. And all of the producers that booked me on their shows so my press section wouldn't be sad and empty. And lastly, the family and friends (especially my darling husband) that gave me inspiration to write the About Me section and help readers connect with the 'real' me.

I hope you all enjoy my adventure and the final outcome and encourage you to take a good look at your own visual identity in 2010 and make sure it's really YOU.

Happy Holidays!

Melissa's website can be found at www.melissaslifelessons.com