You don’t need to call 15 different breweries to get a beverage sponsor for your medical clinic’s big event if you already have one in-house. You don’t need to spend hours finding the right attorney to draft new employee contracts for your restaurant if you already work with an employment attorney on a day-to-day basis.

A circle of varied clients is much more powerful than a circle of clients that are the same. You might feel comfortable plugging in your marketing formulas and tactics for attorney after attorney when you think you’ve mastered the legal marketing world. But step outside your comfort zone and go after all types of businesses. You can share budgets, trade product, cross-promote, cross-network and more when you mix up who you’re working with. Your contacts, your staff and, most importantly, your clients will thank you for it.

1. Before the presentation, go ahead and find a space to be alone. After finding a space, pose in a way that makes you feel confident. For a lot of people this is usually standing up straight, feet apart (sturdy on the ground), hands on your hips, back straight, and head up. You may feel silly at first, but trust me; your confidence will go through the roof! The last step to this is simply breathing in and out while thinking about positive thoughts. You know you’ve got this, now it’s time to show everyone else the passion you have! BE EXCITED!
2. Going along with this first idea is the art of persuasion. Before you can persuade anyone else with what you are speaking about, you first have to be persuaded. How well do you know what you are presenting on? The answer is probably very well, if you are in a position to be presented in the first place. So be confident that you are going into a room knowing more about this topic than anyone else.
3. When actually going into a presentation, check out the space before if you can. If not, no big deal! Now, body language; be open. Use your whole body when presenting, you want your audience to not know what’s happening next. If you’re constantly moving around the room and using your hands to talk, people are more likely to stay focused on you simply because the element of surprise. Now let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Palms up when you are talking! This opens up your frame when presenting, it shows that you are an open and trustworthy person. Lastly, make eye contact and hold it, try to connect with the people in the room.
4. Find a way to tell a personal story in your presentation, it’s another great way to earn trust in the room. You want it to be relevant to your audience, so don’t tell them about the one time you were a kid and fell in a lake while fishing, unless you are certain you can tie it back to the original topic. Make sure the story has some sort of twist, so right when your audience is losing interest, you gain it back with the climax of the story. For your conclusion, you need to have a defined ending. Why was this story important to tell your audience and what can they take away from it?

The most important part about presenting is to make sure you’re having fun doing it. Remember that you are in charge of the room at that time. Everyone has confidence in you to educate them on a topic so own it!

Blaine’s Pick: Abloom

Where: Domain NORTHSIDE

When: Saturday (April 15)

It’s no secret that the Domain is a great way to spend a Saturday. With all of the shops, restaurants and bars a fun filled day is ensured. This Saturday the Domain has a little something extra in store! All week long NORTHSIDE has been blossoming into a beautiful spring fantasy! Take part in the selfie scavenger hunt for a chance to win some awesome prizes from your favorite domain shops. You can also take advantage of deals from several of shops. For a full listing of events and discounts check out their Facebook Page.

Adan’s Pick: Black Heart’s 5 year Anniversary Party

When:Friday & Saturday (April 14&15): 9pm-2am

Where: The Black Heart- 86 Rainey Street

Booze, Live Music and Free Hot Dogs! Where else would you want to spend your Friday and Saturday nights than helping The BlackHeart on Rainey Street celebrate their 5 year anniversary! Be sure to try out their awesome Whiskey selection including one of our personal favorites Bullit.

Rachel’s Pick: Milk Shake & B’Fast Sandwich Pop up

When: Saturday (April 15): 12pm-3pm

Where: Peached Social House- 6500 N. Lamar

As social media manager, we saw (and craved) the milkshakes that the Peached Tortilla created during SXSW. This weekend there is a second chance to let these milkshakes become the love of your life! The pre sale tickets are all sold out but they are allowing walk ins to buy these beauties and breakfast sandwiches al la carte. Just an example of what you can expect the menu includes the “Saturday Morning,”  made with strawberry milk ice cream, fruit loops, lucky charms, cinnamon toast crunch and a breakfast donut. Saturday Morning with “The Saturday Morning”…sounds like a dream come true.

Delanie’s Pick: Austin Reggae Fest

When: Friday-Sunday(April 14-16): 3pm-10pm

Where: Auditorium Shores

Enjoy calming tropical beats, breath taking art and international eats in support of the Central Texas Food Bank. The line-up includes Aka Beka and Jesse Royal among other awesome Reggae artist. We love events that also give back to the community and this one is the perfect combo of giving back and having a blast! Be sure to grab you single day ticket or a three day pass on EventBrite!

Ensuring their presence and message are effective, likeable and have the capacity to grow is something every business should consider. What should your tone and voice be? How will you utilize the tool of social media to effectively market, maintain, and grow?

An active, well-tended business Instagram account can help you and your business in many and massive ways. Instagram itself even created their popular blog, Instagram for Business, or simply,

Business Blog.This blog features content on best practices, general tips, new insights and timely talking points. For example, recent posts on the blog center around the upcoming webinars to be offered, how to use sight, sound and mobilization to your advantage, and new in-app platforms to measure insights.

If you hit the right stride, your account with a flourish. If your business lends itself to playfulness and humor, perhaps you should capitalize on this and have your content reflect such a tone. Needless to say, playfulness and humor are surefire engagers, and followers love positive content. Balance your posts between business-centric announcements, events, and other general housekeeping alongside those fun and playful elements

Your business cannot survive without a community, which is why a community of followers on Instagram can help propel your success. If you cultivate, nurture and constantly engage, the positive outcomes will be easily felt and appreciated.

So even if you have adverse feelings towards social media and its potential impact on our culture, if you are in the business of being a business, you absolutely must have a social media presence—especially on the Instagram platform.

Images speak louder than words sometimes, and Instagram provides you with the capacity to craft your message with both.

Get on the Instagram train before you and your business are left behind in the dust. Need some help? Let us connect you! Email us at connect@vessconsultinggroup.com for more information on how Vess Consulting Group can help you and your business thrive digitally.

First thing’s first: hashtags are not pointless. Instead, they are anything but pointless. In fact, hashtags are an incredibly powerful and versatile tool to drive audience engagement and to be a part of larger conversations and movements online. If you run a business and you are not utilizing hashtags, you are not helping your brand…you are actually hurting it.

The format of a hashtag is quite simple: it is either a short phrase or a single word that is preceded by a pound symbol (#hashtag). Hashtags are clickable and will take you to posts that share the same hashtag and show you a larger conversation full of content related to your own post. Furthermore, if you include a hashtag in your post and your profile is set to public, it will provide others with access to the content you put online. Essentially, #hashtags are really great conversationalists: they get the topic going and foster a lively dialogue.

So, how can hashtags help you? Especially for business owners, hashtags are a #simple, #easy and #free (!) asset you should be utilizing to your advantage. If there is a viral conversation that is demanding everyone’s attention, you should join in. This way, people will see your post associated with a certain hashtag and increase your visibility. Increased visibility lands to more brand awareness. More brand awareness leads to better business. It can truly be that simple.

Just because it is easy does not mean it is always simple. It is quite possible to mess up and pick the wrong hashtag. For example, if you are a butcher shop and see that an anti-meat hashtag, or a pro-vegetarian/vegan hashtag is blowing up, then you probably should not join in on that particular conversation.

Instead, you should strategically pick the optimal hashtags for your particular brand. In continuing with the butcher shop example, it would be a smart move to join in on a conversation about bacon, or national hamburger day. The more natural and seamless the hashtag incorporation seems, the better. The last thing you want to do is force a hashtag into your social post. If you do this you will come across as fake, which can hurt reputation and generally damage your engagement efforts. Hashtag smartly and responsibly!

Your next social media post is begging for a hashtag. Do some research and find out how to best incorporate a hashtag into your social media strategy and watch your engagement explode and your follower count rise. Need some help? We’d feel #blessed to help you find your perfect hashtag and get your business’ social media booming.

There are many ways to go about networking and building your business relationships. Sometimes you can do so at a bonafide-networking event like a convention, a conference or something similar. But did you know you could network constantly? Even at events that are not directly related to your line of work? Read on to find out how to perfect your “non-working” networking strategy.

• Engage in conversation. Sure, this seems simple enough, but you never know what course a conversation can take and what doors or opportunities it may open and lead to. One way to make the conversation productive is to search for commonalities. Once you find some common ground and are comfortable, you can expand the conversation to other arenas.
• Make sure you are easily accessible. Maybe this means always having a business card on your person, or being easily located on services like LinkedIn. You want to be a presence people can follow up with after they meet you.
• Before you head to any event, you should make the effort to research who is going to be there in attendance. This way, if you get the chance to meet some key contacts you will be prepared and ready to engage in a productive conversation. Such preparation can also help you strategically maneuver through your time at the event. If you are there for pleasure, knowing there is someone is attendance you’d like to meet for business reasons is important to know. That way, you can carve out some time and expectations to engage with that person.

No matter how you choose to go about your “not-working” networking strategy, it is important to always remain positive, engaging and supportive. You should always be aware of and consider how other people are thinking of ways to network and consider you an asset to their efforts. Be helpful to others and they will likely pay it back to you.

A brand is not just a catchy logo—it is the core of your company. A good brand increases your business’s value, as it functions to communicate its pillars and missions. A brand is also not a single thing. Instead, it is any and everything related to your business and its ultimate potential.

Ultimately, a brand is the perception the public has of your company. How well do all your integral elements work together? A brand is the perception of your company’s product or service, how you promote said product or service, and how your reputation informs public opinion.

If your product and/or service is inherently good and solid, if your promotional strategy is genuine and effective, and if your customer service efforts are thorough and good, then your reputation will be positive. Thus, your brand will be positive.

If your brand is positive, it will generate success and positivity in many streams.

For example, a good brand is recognizable. This baseline fact informs a multitude of elements necessary for a successful company to function. Appearance is everything. If your company appears to be trustworthy and credible on its face, then you increase the likelihood that people will want to interact with you initially and in the future. Many elements lend themselves to creating this recognition. Good advertising, smart visuals (think logos) and the like situate a great, recognizable brand.

From here, trust is born. Coming off as polished and informed invite trust. Much like many other relationships, trust is a necessary pillar is sustaining said relationships.

Once these two baseline elements are settled and accomplished, much of the rest will naturally follow suit. For example, advertising and marketing tactics will be informed from your initial brand. It is important to lean in to the brand and let it generate how you interact and engage with the community around you.

With the word effectively distributed, you will engage your community, which leads in to increased financial success, which then invites an influx of interested talent to add to your company’s roster. All of these stages rely on a good brand.

If you can establish your brand and trust in it, then your company will flourish. A brand is the bedrock for all of your future successes. Put in the hard work in the beginning and set your company’s foundation from the very start.

Let Vess Consulting Group help build and promote your brand! Reach out to us at connect@vessconsultinggroup.com