Art, Soul & Destiny… How To Find Inspiration?
Art, Soul & Destiny… How To Find Inspiration? I met Jill Steenhuis during an exhibition in a private house in Paris. The meeting was brief but the connection was instantaneously good. Jill is a very warm, big hearted and delightful women! At the time (November 2011), I was preparing a Networking event on Business, Art & Creativity and I offered her to participate. Her schedule didn’t allow it but we kept in touch from time to time. January 2013, Jill sends out the most beautiful and touching greetings message and announces the release of her book “Art, Soul and Destiny”. I replied to her greetings and to my great surprise generously offers to send me the book. Of course, I accepted and I received it a few weeks later! Wow! Thank you Jill! 🙂 Art, Soul and Destiny is a beautiful, thick, large book, the ideal size to enjoy Jill’s paintings to the fullest. It is an auto-biography illustrated with Jill’s amazing canvases. A wonderful, magical way to discover the journey of an extraordinary painter! In the silence and beauty of Provence’s nature, Jill describes how her senses are engaged, developed and so how her soul and art is. In the nothingness you find the core, the essence, and peace. Here is one of my favorite part, where Jill Steenhuis explains how she gets creatively inspired, how she interprets nature to trigger emotions through her paintings: “In my painting, the catalyst is nature – being immersed in it, my soul is moved to create. A multitude of elements envelop my being, embrace me, enter my soul. In the act of painting, my soul engages in a dialogue with nature. The mystery is before me. Silence – I must enter the realm of silence.” www.artinprovence.com “I must render, not state ; suggest, not complete; remain sensual, not intellectual; pure, not litteral; courageous, not safe and never misuse the powers I have been given. There are so many choices. Focus on one. Which one ? The one you love. How do I start – from the inside out or from the outside in ? Begin from within, placing your shadows to give birth to the light. In my silence I can hear. In my blindness I can see. In my spirit I can touch the mystery. ” Going through the pages of Jill Steenhuis’ paintings, poetry and deep wisdom; you will find pleasure for your eyes, for your heart and your soul. Almost a soft healing… Or at least you will feel a kind of soothing sensation. A feeling of her sweetness, of the peace she enjoys in her Provence sacred home probably… In short, Art, Soul & Destiny is a boog to read to nurture your soul! 🙂 So, now, you might wonder why do I share this on a Marketing blog? Because Marketers are also artists: Marketers are always challenged to keep being creative to promote companies, products and services. Artists are great models to learn how to be creative, where to find inspiration, how to vehicle emotions, how to find the essential of things. In Art, Soul and Destiny, Jill Steenhuis shows us that creativity, inspiration comes from observing nature and humanity. By embracing life with all our senses, we give our work a soul and we touch people’s hearts. By fully embracing a cause, you give it a soul, you can share what really matters and be remembered. Géraldine Cavagnon, GC&Cie
Marketing & Spirituality… How To Combine Both…
Marketing & Spirituality… How To Combine Both… Hello, Let me introduce myself and my business quickly… I’m Géraldine Cavagnon and this article is about my own Business: GC&Cie, a Marketing Business & Spirituality. First of all, what does GC&Cie stands for? GC is for Géraldine Cavagnon, me. Cie is: Companie for the network of independent people I’m working with. In other words, FREE people. -Yes, I believe in FREEDOM- A few months ago – or maybe more, I do not remember exactly – I posted a simple, “innocent” question on GC&Cie’s facebook page: “What do you think about Business & Spirituality”? Wooow… what a “touchy-feely” question, right ? ;-)… I love Politically Incorrect questions. They are the most interesting ones ! Raising true topics… I got a few answers… Some say it’s totally different, you cannot mix both. Some answered with the filter of their education, some with the filter of their religion… Anyway, it gave me the opportunity to observe the conscious level of people and I could clearly see they were not ready to hear my message. So I decided to let it go. BUT Today, I am in the mood to make a real answer. I finally feel like sharing my perspective on things. Some people will agree, other disagree but that’s all right. I just want to share my message and you will do whatever you feel like with it. So let’s start from the beginning… What is a business for? A business is an activity meant to provide a service or a product to other people using money as an exchange. The person doing the activity receives money and it allows this person to live being integrated in the society (rent or buy a home, buy food, pay the phone bills etc…) ; the people receiving the product or service are happy to enjoy something they would not do themselves by lack of skills or time. We, human beings, have the vocation to create, develop, organize life on planet Earth. We have a brain, a consciousness and it is our responsibility to keep it busy. [busy-business]. It is not the human nature to stay totally lazy and do nothing. I’m sharing this with you as I feel we tend to forget how wonderful work is, how important it is… We tend to forget what the meaning of work is and how meaningful it is to our lives. A business provides a product or a service, help to other people and it’s a beautiful reason to love working! What is spirituality? We, as human beings, have a body, a mind and a soul. Our body is the vehicle that is used by the mind and soul to accomplish things in the material world. -your vehicle is very important, take good care of it ! – Spirituality is NOT religion. Spirituality comes from your spirit. From you mind and soul. Spirituality is made of who you are, what you believe in. Your beliefs come from your education, religion, culture, people you met, your own experiences… From your beliefs as a body, mind and soul human come your values. What do you stand for? Business is made by and for people. People with their own value system. And these values determine how are they going to make business. Why do I believe in the importance of spirituality in business? I believe we need to create a better world. Smarter and fairer to everyone. I believe it is the responsibility of everyone to create positive improvements exactly where they are and now. What positive improvements ? Consciously try to do what we believe is the best for the maximum number of people in your environment (people and nature) and economically speaking. When we work with that mindset, everything we say and do becomes meaningful and important. It is so rewarding and it brings TRUE meaning to our lives, we become conscious of the positive impact we have on other people’s lives and on the entire planet Earth. (think about the butterfly effect) I know it might sound utopian… Well, OK. But people I know can witness that it is truly how I live, who I am. Even if, like everybody, I may have fears, doubts, feel discouraged at times; I am mainly focused on the positive side of things. Everyday I ask myself: How can I improve? How can I help? How can I make people feel happy? So, this is my message: please be conscious of what you do and say. Be conscious of how positive of an impact you can make on humanity and on the planet Earth. While doing business, think about it… Last but not least, I want to warmly thank all my customers and partners. These women and men who work hard every day (and sometimes nights) with passion to make a positive difference in this world, provide products and services that improve life on Earth. I want to tell them: YOU are LIGHTS. You do create a better world. You are the positive change you want to see in the world. It has been and it is an honor to work with you. THANK YOU Special thanks also to Reksider who inspired me to share this message. NAMASTE. Géraldine Cavagnon
Earn Your Independance! Create Your Blog
Earn Your Independance! Create Your Blog Saturday 30th of March, I participated to the seminar “Earn your independance” by Aurelien Amacker. Also Founder / Author of the blog “ReadMeImFamous” Aurelien has lots of experience as a blogger who makes money out of his blogs. What I liked the best about the seminar is the feedback from his and other bloggers’ experience as well as the figures on the methods that work and those that don’t. Moreover, Aurelien is quite involved in the American culture and knows what are the best practices and trends in the blogosphere… Thank you Aurelien Amacker, I got out of your seminar with lots of ideas to improve my offer and create new services! 😉 Stay tuned!… 😉
Light… And Strong !!!
Emailing campaigns are an excellent method to maintain visibility amongst potential clients and increase sales significantly and sustainably. In January 2013, we sent our Greetings Cards below to around 2000 contacts worldwide… And the results have been astonishing !!! Opening rate: 45,9% Clic rate: 2,2%
Your Projects Are Our Passion!
Your projects are our Passion! Such is the object of our emailing campaign sent in November 2012 to 2500 of our contacts worldwide! Results: Opening rate: 23,7 % Clic rate: 9,3 % Excellent results for an emailing campaign!
GC&Cie’s Portfolio…
GC&Cie’s Portfolio… Find some of our Communication projects in the photo album of GC&Cie’s Facebook page! http://www.facebook.com/GCcie A brochure for Rosamon Energia, expert in Energy audits: We also created the social media accounts on Facebook and Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/RosamonEnergia http://twitter.com/RosamonEnergia A catalogue for the Cement plants equipments brand Cementeco: A website for the revolutionary portable solar panels HelioCase: www.heliocase.com …And the accounts on Facebook and Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Heliocase/347017698692941 The entire team of GC&Cie is at your service to answer all your questions! We hope to see you again soon! The GC&Cie Team
Bring Your Visual Identity To Life!
Bring Your Visual Identity To Life! Business Schools and the best Marketers repeated for too long that modifying a visual identity, even a little bit, was the worse thing to do and even almost criminal… Today, things changed. To a statu quo era, we are now in an evolutive and dynamic era, where information Tsunamis are part of our daily life. How can we keep prospects and clients attention ? How can we keep a young and dynamic image ? (who wants to work with people still living in an old era, praising statu quo and old habbits ???!!!???!!??) With COMMUNICATION ! And even with revamping your visual identity! First of all, whatever your industry, product or service is, you need to communicate to create, develop and maintain your Brand Awareness. Having great products and services is good. Making sure your target knows you exist is better. Obviously, according to your industry, products and services, you will not communicate the same way, with the same tools and most importantly you will not choose to show your creativity on the same collaterals. Creativity must be adapted on a case per case basis. One thing is certain: no innovation, no creativity some way or the other, gives your prospects and clients the image of a stagnating company or worse, a declining company. Statu Quo equals death! So, take initiatives and dare communicating! Your logo and graphic chart are your visual identity. The colors, the design, the words that describe you and with which your prospects and clients recognize you instantly. (this level of Brand Awareness happens after having created and communicated in a way or the other with a certain number of collaterals (e-mail, mailing, trade shows etc…)) Innovate once in a while, surprise and you will captivate your prospects and clients attention much better and in a very positive way. Taking initiatives, adapting, creating, innovating in communication give a very positive image as these are now the words which will be used by your prospects and clients to describe YOU ! As a Marketing and Communication agency, it is very easy for GC&Cie to allow itself more frequent and visible changes than a medical products company for instance. (which doesn’t mean this company cannot be innovative. Only the communication tools, the degree of modification and the frequency changes). So we let it go and enjoy being CREATIVE! And to wish you a beautiful Summer, we created a new logo. Hopefully this will inspire you! GC&CIE WISHES YOU A GREEN AND SPARKLING SUMMER! To see the 3 logos evolution in a bigger size: http://www.facebook.com/GCcie
3 Main Components to Focus On To Build A Good Website
3 Main Components to Focus On To Build A Good Website Before starting anything, it’s necessary to ask yourself a few critical questions: ->What is the purpose of building a website? ->How does it integrate the Marketing strategy of my company? -> What information do I want to provide? BE PURPOSEFUL Always Keep In Mind What Is Your Website’s Main PURPOSE The main purpose of a business is to SELL products or services and make money. Likewise, a website is a Communication tool which purpose is to help you sell. If your website is not an e-commerce website, its purpose is still to “sell” your company, products, services providing the best IMAGE possible through appealing graphic design and quality content. Your website is also an opportunity to COMMUNICATE with your clients and prospects. It’s a source of information for them but it is also an opportunity to engage a conversation with them. Finally, the whole point is to get your visitor to ACT: download a document, subscribe to your newsletter, call you, e-mail you, make a purchase if it’s an e-commerce website… Building a good website is all about applying the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid ) through all components of the website. To build a functional and good website, you need to: #1 Have A Good STRUCTURE It’s a very important requirement to have a website that is well structured, organized… A good ergonomy is KEY ! What does mean an “Ergonomic” website ? -> Information classified in well-defined categories ->Limited number of tabs ->Limited number of columns Why ? ->To facilitate the visitor’s navigation ->The navigation is easier and faster to read, there more effective and agreeable: it gives a better experience to the user ->The information must be easy to find If the navigation is complicated, the visitor will leave the website immediately Example: http://crm.dynamics.com/en-us/ Generally speaking a website is structured with 2 columns. If the main page is composed of image slides then it is visually acceptable to have up to 4 column. Online visitors do not spend a lot of time on a website. They move on to other websites very quickly. The visitor should understand what you do, who you are and have a feeling of your professionalism from the home page itself and within seconds, preferably without having to scroll down. It means the messages must be really short, clear and simple. #2 Deliver Great CONTENT Great content means valuable information which is easy to read and understand. The point is not to win a prize in Literature; the aim is to get your point across and be remembered for your expertise. It’s about communicating effectively. In short, you want to: ->Communicate who you are and what you do, being easy to read and understandable by all ->Be perceived as an expert in your field: Write content that provides valuable information to the reader and sets yourself as an expert in your field. Use any certification, testimonials, PR pieces that supports your status of expert. ->Get the visitor to communicate with you, engage a conversation. Think interactivity integration, think Social Media ! #3 Create A Wow DESIGN What is a Wow Design? A design that translates your image as a company immediately: Dynamism, Action, Professionalism, Expertise, Openness, Happiness (who would do business with a team looking gloomy?), Interested and Caring for its customers… ->Colors must be harmonized ->Use of space must be well balanced ->The information must be easy to read, not cluttered Building a website becomes easier everyday and is getting cheaper and cheaper. However, building a good website, that leaves a positive image of your company and encourages traffic, is not as easy. It requires thought, a good strategy and some Communication skills… A company that has a good website and is present on Social Media reassures potential clients and does convert Leads into Clients. It’s worth spending time and money to make your website a Success ! Geraldine Cavagnon
6 Good Reasons To Be Fan Of GC&Cie!
6 Good Reasons To Be Fan Of GC&Cie! 1/ An « Executive Summary » Our objective: offer you an « Executive Summary » with Educational, Informational and Inspirational topics. No blabla, bullet points, facts, illustrations. 2/ Articles on Marketing ->Learn all the secrets Marketers do not want you to know… You’ll know everything you really need to know to market your company properly and easily 3/ Articles on Social Media ->Everything you need to know on Social Media: new features, new numbers, new trends etc… This communication channel evolves constantly. We keep track of its evolutions for you ! 4/ Articles on Sustainability ->We are going towards a sustainable way of life and working mode. It is essential for any company to be interested in those trends to know where the world is heading to and get inspiration from others that can be easily implemented on our own business. 5/ Articles on Personal Development -> To communicate effectively with your market, with people, it is fundamental to know Human nature. 6/ Miscellaneous Articles ->We give ourselves, at GC&Cie, the liberty to publish any news that we consider of Interest and inspiration for our community. Humor included. Everyone knows Humor is of general interest and very healthy… JOIN OUR COMMUNITY ON FACEBOOK & SHARE YOUR OPINION AND EXPERIENCE! https://www.facebook.com/GCcie/
Anyone Can Do Marketing!
Anyone Can Do Marketing! Nowadays, everything, absolutely EVERYTHING, can be learnt on Internet. And Marketing is easy! You just need to follow a PROCESS 1/ Think . Study your market and your competition . Analyze, organize, structure all information collected to put together a consistent Strategy and Action Plan with: required Human and Financial Resources, the ROI objective and a defined timing. 2/ Act . Tell what you do and Walk the talk . Set performance indicators for all actions . Measure the impact of actions lead 3/ Balance . Analyze what worked and what didn’t work. Understand why. . Invent new and better methods where results can be improved. What are the requirements? You need to: . Know the tools online and offline . Learn Marketing and Sales techniques . Keep informing yourself on the market of the company you promote . Keep informing yourself on the competition . Like or at least be interested in Marketing . Have ideas… LOTS OF IDEAS… In Marketing, you always need to come up with something new, different, better, innovative etc… . Know Human nature. To communicate effectively and touch people, you need to know them well! Last but not least: have or take the time to do all of that! So, when do you start? Where are you at in the process? Geraldine Cavagnon
3 Golden Rules Of Marketing
3 Golden Rules Of Marketing 3 essential points to develop your Brand Awareness and your Sales: A CLEAR & STRONG MESSAGE VISIBILITY FREQUENCY All of that on collaterals and communication tools adapted to your target! If you need some help to apply those principles to your company, CALL GC&Cie!