Erin Donley:
Marketing her truth and yours.

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"I was looking for an occupation that I knew was really in line with my own truth," says Erin. "one that was engaging my creativity and integrity, where I was giving back in a deeper way."

Erin Donley's business, Marketing Your Truth, began with an ending. Erin's first job in radio sales taught her a great deal about media and marketing but after 8 years, she realized it was time to move on. "I realized that my talents and passions weren't really in radio sales," Erin says. " it was something deeper and I didn't really know what it was, but I wasn't fulfilling it in that environment."

At Ohio University, Erin majored in Interpersonal Communications which gave her an understanding about the psychology of choices people make. This helped her succeed in radio sales, and in making her own choices. "I had to change my whole lifestyle. I chose a lifestyle that was so opposite from the one I had," Erin explains. "I wound up taking a job at New Renaissance Bookshop and I've been there 3 years, now. It's been an intense search to find out what's true for me."

This search to find truth is the core of Erin's life and work. Through her work at New Renaissance, Erin learned more about herself through all the unique and different spiritual and metaphysical authors and businesses. Soon, she realized that there was a way she could help. "Their work was so amazing, really transformational and it was really helping people at a deep level," says Erin. "I believed in their work so much and I wanted to help them."

Erin could see that many of these soul-centered businesses needed help with their marketing. While they tried to promote their work, their message wasn't getting to the right people in the right way. Marketing Your Truth, Erin's new business was born out of her passion to help these people communicate with their clients and community. "My main passion is to help people talk about what they do in more effective ways," Erin explains. "I also help them with getting their message out, because there are so many options out there. I help them choose the one that feels best to them."

Messaging and marketing are not the only ways Erin helps these unique soul-centered businesses. She explains that it's important to help them build community that supports their passions, "Because in a soul-centered business, they don't want to build clientele in artificial ways, they want the right people to come to them. They want it to be an energetic match."

Erin Donley's, Marketing Your Truth, means getting down to the core, investigating the psychographics and finding the people who resonate with a client's product or service. First, Erin starts with the client's true message which might involve a 2 hour consultation. Some clients want on-going coaching on a monthly basis. Either way, Erin helps them with what they specifically need for their business. It might be getting a website built, business cards or developing a flyer. Or it could be coming up with social networking updates to post about their business or making a list of local businesses in town that might have presentation opportunities.

Whether it's a yoga school, massage therapy, or a Chinese medicine practice, starting your own business can be tough and Erin understands this from her own personal experience. She knows how hard it is to start making money for yourself in a business that comes so deeply from your heart. "I had so much anxiety about meeting people's expectations, making sure they got their money's worth," says Erin. "I've been able to create packages for people, where I spend 2 hours with them, but I'm spending 4-5 hours behind the scenes to be sure I come to the table prepared. When I've been a little more assertive about my pricing, I've found that I get more of the client I want to work with. Because I really want to help people, I want a really focused and driven person to come to me."

Community plays a big part in the process of building a soul-centered business and Erin believes, "You have to start engaging with people in your community. There are people out there to help you bring this into fruition." One way to do this is networking, but maybe not in the traditional sense. Erin works with her clients to figure it out, "How do I start building a referral based business with people who are leaders in my community, with businesses that I love, so we can help each other?"

Erin used her own advice when starting her own business, going back to her radio sales contacts and building from there as well as taping into the people she met working at New Renaissance. "I looked all around me in the spiritual community and fine tuned my message," says Erin. While writing a weekly column for the bookshop, Erin got more opportunities, " I talked to different authors, promoted different products and now, I have people come in and want to talk because they feel they've had a chance to get to know me."

Then Erin takes the time to get to know them and that's what makes her feel good about Marketing Your Truth. "I don't tell them what to say," she explains. "I help them discover within themselves what they really want to say, then I bring together people to help them, so it's about growing this community and having us all work together to move forward with all our causes."

To bring the best to her clients, Erin's always learning form her own experience as well as using the resources all around her at New Renaissance. From technology and social networking to personal growth seminars and the latest books about building a business that speaks to your heart, Erin strives to be as good a resource to her clients as she would want for herself. And sometimes that means slowing down instead of speeding up, "I had business plans, goals and projections," Erin says. " Then I realized I don't want to go that fast, I don't want to have that many clients, I want to really spend some time with the clients I have, nurturing them."

You can learn more about how Erin Donley can help nurture your soul-centered business by visiting her website Marketing Your Truth . You can sign up for the email newsletter and check out her monthly columns that take an inner look at Marketing Your Truth.