We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Cara Walker a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Cara, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Everyone defines success differently, but I can almost guarantee whatever personal definition you have for what success means to you it will likely fall within one of three buckets (fulfillment, financial gain, & freedom with your time)
Well the really beautiful thing is, you can have all three. How do you do that? By attaching your life to something larger than yourself. The reason you get up in the morning to work on launching or elevating your business has to be connected to a larger mission and purpose in order to see success.
Here’s top 3 tips I’d give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business in today’s culture:
1. Identify a business you can launch that merges your skillset & your passion. Your skill will help you succeed & serve your customers. Your passion will fuel you, help you do it with excellence and keep it exciting along the way.
2. Don’t just build a business, build a brand. From the very beginning have values and a mission. Take a firm stand for something and be known for doing it really well.
3. Focus on being a solution for your customers and act from a place of service. Don’t just focus on making money, instead aim to be a person and a brand of value.
Cara, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
It’s about harnessing your purpose to step into your fullest potential so you not only elevate yourself, but also elevate the world.
Founder of PrettiPassionate & the PrettiPassionate Marketing Group (PPMG), Elevation Strategist, speaker, coach and marketing maven Cara Sherice specializes in just that.
Cara has worked with major brands such as L’Oreal Paris, CoverGirl, Ulta Beauty, State Farm, and many more to identify unique opportunities in the marketplace to own their story, make an authentic connection with their audience and confidently launch marketing campaigns through strategic storytelling.
She got her start over 10 years ago with her first leap of faith right out of college in pursuing her passion of working in NYC and navigating the media & entertainment industry as a marketing powerhouse. Along this journey of chasing destiny she offered her expertise to major media outlets such as ESSENCE, iHeartRadio, and Complex Media where she worked in marketing strategically helping them to earn millions of dollars in revenue by creating a compelling vision for their marketing campaigns, the strategy to achieve that vision, and inspired action to bring that vision to life in several markets around the US.
She’s helped her clients execute marketing campaigns that transformed the lives of people around the world and helped to create powerful narratives that encourage people to believe in possibilities. She took her biggest leap yet in leaving her successful 10-year career back in 2019 to pursue her passion & purpose 100% with PrettiPassionate.
With the same understanding she used daily to develop marketing campaigns, she identified the missing puzzle piece in the lives of a diverse audience of women & men who beg the question: how can I design and own a passionate undeniable life & business? Her answer to that was to create PrettiPassionate to help them develop a deeper relationship with themselves, find more meaning & then identify a strategy to take life-changing leaps toward more passion, more income, and more freedom.
PrettiPassionate is revolutionizing the way the world approaches personal development, launching business, branding, and marketing those businesses. PrettiPassionate is geared towards transforming the conversation around life and what it means to truly live. And since customization is key for Cara, designing a quintessential package of life’s greater possibilities is what fuels her.
The goal with PrettiPassionate & PPMG is to plant a seed of discovery that encourages people across the globe to dig deep to uncover their unique purpose & vision for their life, why they want it, and the strategies to achieve it. To help them identify their mission on this earth, their message and how to effectively get that message out with new age marketing & branding. PrettiPassionate is more than a business, this is a lifestyle and movement with an environment that offers the space to connect with other like-minded women, as well as gain new ideas and perspectives on life, so they can begin the groundwork to taking action in their purpose.
PrettiPassionate is a platform that offers support for women on their journey to self-discovery. By providing online & in-person experiences that help to uncover their true passions, the end goal is to build and strengthen their confidence to live life fearlessly. We offer a suite of services, products, digital & live events for members and non-members that cultivate new connections, collaborations, partnerships, advice from inspirational women across the country, and shared experiences with those who are prettipassionate about what life has to offer.
By letting others know that your story is your superpower and it’s OK to be vulnerable and ask for help; Cara is committed to funneling women with the tools to develop a strategic approach to life, the type of value they want to add to the world, and how they want people to feel in their presence.
What motivates Cara is the challenge to be more innovative while creating new ways to connect, empower, and market that forces her to grow and explore new layers of operating at her highest potential; knowing that there is a vision bigger than she can imagine. Cara doesn’t just want to be remembered by what she did, but how she made people feel and knowing she was able to plant a seed that encouraged others to follow their dreams of living a remarkable life of abundance that they love.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
In my market what helped me to build my reputation is identifying my value and then leading with that. Whenever I have the opportunity or want an opportunity to work with someone I always lead with how can I be a person of value and contribute to what they are doing, Verses leading with a mindset on how I can take from this person. People can feel that authentic, genuine energy and it makes them want to work with you, connect you to other opportunities, and really invest in seeing you win.
I also am about my business! I always make sure my work ethic surpasses me with what I deliver and how invested I am to see it done with a level of excellence. A few other things that have helped me build a reputation is being knowledgeable about my industry & not being afraid to take risks, consistency, and transparency.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
The best source of new clients for me has been in-person connection. People need to know, like, and trust you before they decide to work with you and become a client. When you are face-to-face with someone that know, like, trust happens at lightening speed because they can feel genuine energy and have a conversation with you without all of the distractions we find on the internet or social media. Referrals have been a big source for me as well. When you do your job well, with excellence, and passion people feel excited and compelled to share. It’s almost like they’ve found a hidden treasure or secret sauce that they want everyone to know about.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.prettipassionate.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carasherice/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CaraSherice
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cara-walker-4a471917/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsSaPCylpSNble1M4YIGU8A
Image Credits
@benjamiindutton