Thursday, October 20, 2011

5 Reasons to Make Your Business Launch Even More Powerful With Ceremony.

Most people recognize the importance of ceremonies in their personal lives, to mark births, graduations, marriages, deaths and other big life changes. But one of the most important ways we interact in our communities is in the marketplace -- through our businesses.


Rites of Passage help people adjust to change and organizations go through many changes - some celebratory, some difficult.  
Grand Openings, Retirements, Opening a new location, Down-sizing are just a few ceremony-worthy transitions that businesses and organizations experience.


Nothing builds connections between people like ceremony when it is skillfully and meaningfully presented.   Ceremony can help bring a stronger sense a Purpose into your business activities and, as a wonderful side-effect, creates unbeatable marketing opportunities!


For example, one business ceremony that many people are already familiar with is the typical Chamber of Commerce Ribbon Cutting Ceremony.  The Ribbon Cutting ceremonies that I've attended are very nice and may create a pretty good marketing opportunity but I didn't experience them as creating strong personal connections and lasting relationships.


A trained Celebrant can enhance this typical ceremony in a way that is authentically meaningful for you and your business to create an experience that allows people to see your success as part of the whole communty's success.  


Here are 5 ways a Celebrant Ribbon Cutting Ceremony can create a powerful launch for your business:








1. Create a "pattern interrupt".  A custom-crafted ceremony looks and feels different from the very beginning.  People don't expect it so they pay attention! 


2. Attract a better attendance.  If people expect something interesting besides free wine and hor d'oeuvres they are more likely to turn out for your Ribbon Cutting ceremony and bring their friends. 


3. Create emotional connections.  We humans make most of our decisions from the Limbic area of our brains.  This is the area where we experience our higher emotions.  Successful marketers have understood this fact and worked with it, for good or ill, to influence our buying decisions for decades.  (Think of how you feel when you see a photograph of children laughing or a firefighter covered in soot or tropical  beach or a polluted river.)  We don't make most of our desicions from the rational Cerebral Cortex area of our brains.  That area just provides the "intellectual alibi" for the decision we made from our emotional brain.  Meaningful ceremony can create meaningful emotional connections with your businesses audience. 


4. Remember you BIG WHY.  Why did you start this business in the first place?  Sure, to make money but why do you want to make the money?  And why this business? Leading a business to success is not for the faint of heart.  It presents daily challenges.  If you didn't have a bigger WHY you probably would have chosen some other path for making money.  What larger purpose is your business serving?  A Celebrant ceremony can help you remember that Big Why, express it in a way that makes people want to support your business. 


5. Recognize the people who have and will help your business succeed.  In an enhanced Celebrant Ribbon Cutting ceremony you can acknowledge the partners, associates and vendors that you that they have made this business possible and you can express your intention that your success means success for them as well.  




A professional Celebrant can work with you, your managers and your employees to create and officiate ceremonies for your business or organization that are meaningful and authentic.  You contact me to set up a no-obligation call to Explore the Possibilities.  I'll be happy to talk with you about your intentions and ways we can craft a beautiful ceremony that will reflect your life and this part of your story.  




From my heart, 







Michelle Smith 

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Michelle Smith is the founder of Asheville Celebrant.  She is an ordained Inter-Faith Minister and Certified Life-Cycle Celebrant who helps people experience deeper, more meaningful connections in their families and communities.  Whether helping people create personal ceremonies for life’s big changes or leading public ceremonies that build community, Michelle  honors all philosophies, beliefs and traditions--religious, secular, spiritual, inter-faith and multi-cultural.   To explore the possibilities for honoring your own life’s transitions email Michelle at ashevillecelebrant@gmail.com to set up a no-obligation Explore the Possibilities call.

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