When I was introduced to doTERRA essential oils I was very excited about the power the products had to transform my health and wellbeing. I was less excited about the business opportunity because I knew I’d face an immediate challenge. Wes, my husband, summed it up pretty well when I told him that I was going to go all in with the business opportunity. He said “I don’t know where you’re going to sell it. Boulder is a really saturated market.” And he was right. Boulder Colorado is one of those strange places where you can’t walk down the street without tripping over a wellness business. I was already running a thriving pilates business here and I knew introducing essential oils would do well, but competition would be fierce. To build the kind of business I wanted that could have a global impact, I knew from the very beginning, I would have to take my business online. But here’s the problem – I didn’t want to be one of those people who was constantly spamming friends on Facebook with their “business opportunity” and products. I just didn’t want to be that person who was always in your face trying to sell stuff. At the same time, I knew people were hungry for information about wellness. When I started creating my online presence, I focused mainly on branding and telling a good story. Branding is creating a total picture of who you are and what you do as a business. It’s not just a fancy logo or website design. I’ve nicked named my brand “The Whole You” and it looks at being holistically healthy in all areas of your life, and of course, essential oils are the vehicle that gests you there. By focusing on the Whole You concept, I can talk about exercise diet and how that is supported by essential oils. But I can also talk about career and money as you can’t be holistically healthy if you are in a job you hate 40 hours a week. Good branding takes the pressure off selling product. It’s just part of the story and a natural conclusion to the conversation. Good branding seeks to solve a problem not just sell a product. And you need good branding if you’re going to operate online. Let’s face it, you can only say “Buy my stuff” so many times before people stop listening to you. If you want to create a brand around your business look at these 3 things: 1) What is your WHY? Why are you in business? Why are you passionate about these products? 2) What problems is your audience facing? How do you solve those problems? 3) What’s the emotional experience that you want your audience to have? Almost everything I create online comes back to these three points. I share why I’m passionate about deotoxing my home and my life. I create blogs that help solve issues my audience is dealing with. And I am always seeking to do that in a fun and entertaining way. Let’s face it, there’s a lot of people out there who do what you do. Thousands upon thousands of people work in your network marketing business. I don’t like to use the word compete, but you are competing in a crowded marketing for attention for an audience. Why I don’t like to use the word compete is that if you have a strong brand, there is no competition because YOU are the right solution for your target audience.   Originally published on doTERRA.com.