Collaboration is truly the juice of business life

Today I spent a wonderful day with my amazing collaborator and dear friend Donna Steinhorn who multiplies any thought I have into a wonderful and worthy endeavor, rather than just a fleeting idea.

The first order of business was to work on our fantastic new concept called "From Branding to Buzz." It will be a program, and eventually a book, that covers all aspects of building a brand around yourself and setting the world a-buzz about what you do. In addition to that, we'll profile unusual and quirky individuals and companies that have made an impact with their brand, both on business and on the way that we see things. Lots of fun.

As an offshoot of that, we came up with a great program, toying with an idea I've wanted to work with for some time - marketing to and by women. It IS different than the old boys marketing. Did you know that women influence 80% of all buying decisions? That's CERTAINLY true in my house. Might be the big boy pulling out the credit card (and not all the time, really), but it's this chick right here who picked out the item.

So, get this, delicious and fun as it is I'm dying to write it down. The program is called - From Branding to Buzz for Brazen Babes. If you think that's edgy, you should check out the site that Donna found (she's also a master researcher) called Dickless Marketing. Who said that a dick was required to market effectively anyway? I'm frankly a bit fried from the testosterone in advertising and marketing. If I hear one more self indugent nitwit telling me how he's not small, I'm going to gag. And keep in mind, I'm a woman who LOVES testosterone. Just in the right measures and in the right places.

And we did some more work on ME - who am I anyway? I'm outgrowing my sweet site, Andreu Marketing Solutions, which has served me well and which will continue to operate under the umbrella of a larger structure I want to put in place. So we talked about it - what is it that my life is about recently? What am I here to contribute to this earth? We played with words like "courage," "brazen," "bold." And finally we came upon it. www.LivingUndaunted.com Isn't it hot? It's coming soon, currently parked at www.GoDaddy.com (best little place to get a domain name if you ask me).

Why undaunted? I didn't want fearless, cuz lord knows I have plenty of fears. I wanted a word to imply the overcoming of fears, going on despite the sheer panic that can envelop us all. I loved the sweet definition of "undaunted" at www.Dictionary.com "Not discouraged or disheartened; resolutely courageous - \Un*daunt"ed\, a. Not daunted; not subdued or depressed by fear. --Shak.Syn: Bold; fearless; brave; courageous; intrepid; adj 1: unshaken in purpose; "wholly undismayed by the commercial failure of the three movies he had made" [syn: undismayed, unshaken] 2: resolutely courageous; "undaunted in the face of death"

Sweet. Just what I aspire to be.

This is all in keeping with the work I'm doing, many of the programs I'm developing. I think back to Lance Secretan's amazing presentation at the Coachville conference in Orlando. He asked, "What is the thing that you see in humanity, that if we don't fix it will mean serious problems for us as a race?"

My thoughts on that are that we need to fix the disconnect between people - the "otherizing,"
this idea that we can live next door to people for years and not know their names. That's the external problem that's killing us. Internally, we need to stop holding ourselves small based on conditioning and the expectations of others.

The answer to that is definitely Living Undaunted.

So, lots more work to do, lots more development coming up. Stay tuned!

Today I am in love with possibility, with hope, with sweetness. I am in love!

Maria