Meet Nancy Mills: Nancy Mills the Publisher/Creator of the first-ever Spirited Woman 2012 Directory: Resources for an Inspired Life! (www.thespiritedwoman.com/directory), is a leading women’s visionary. The founder of TheSpiritedWoman.com (www.thespiritedwoman.com), a global empowerment community for women, she is also the publisher of the popular Spirited Woman Blogger Team, and the host of the “Spirited Woman Visionary” conversation series, where she is known for her inspirational insight and interview style. A frequent radio and TV show guest, Nancy speaks internationally on women’s empowerment issues from letting your voice be heard to her belief in the Every Woman Visionary (www.TheSpiritedWoman.com). She has appeared in publications such as USA Today and been interviewed on popular television shows like The Today Show.
WMI: From where does the concept for Spirited Woman derive?
NM: I went on an unexpected trip to Montana in 2000. In fact, I had no plans to go there – the trip really just knocked on my door. While there I was staying at a woman’s home – which was right next to an Indian burial hround. She and I went for a walk. At the edge of her property was a huge rust-colored rock – shaped in the face of a woman. I shouted, “That rock is in the shape of a woman’s face. Did you realize that?” She answered, “Yes, we call her Spirit Woman.” It was then I had my life-defining “moment.” I turned to her and said that is what I am doing for the rest of my life. Of course, I had no idea what I would do or how I would accomplish it.
WMI: Nancy, what is a spirited woman?
NM: A Spirited Woman is a woman who lives through her passion, knows that she is unstoppable. She believes there is a flame that lives within her. Sometimes, it is not always lit, but she knows it is always there. On the whole, she lives life through her creative essence.
WMI: You make creating business success look easy. That said, have there been challenges along the way as you’ve continued to progress toward your business goals? Please tell us about one to two of those challenges?
NM: There have been HUGE CHALLENGES along the way. Business models change all the time (or at least they should) and you have to roll with the waves of change, which is oftentimes hard to do. The two biggest challenges I had involved getting my website up and getting my trademark registered. In 2005, it was my dream to have a website – millions were already up and I knew I was behind the curve. At the time I was living in Santa Barbara, California. Well, I simply couldn’t find a web designer. I moved back to Los Angeles, where I am originally from, and found someone. I had saved for two years to pay for the site. Well, long story short, I stupidly gave the designer a check for $1,000 (payment in full) and I never heard from her or saw her again. Basically, she ran off with my money. That was the negative. The positive was that I was forced to create my own site. I was one of the first people to use a “blog” as the basis for a site (a blog-based website), and because of it, I have become a frontrunner in all types of social media. It just got me going and I lost my fear.
In terms of the trademark for “Spirited Woman,” well that was a two year nightmare. Two years of my life! I registered the name – we got it approved by the Trademark office right on course – but then the next step is you must publish it for I believe six weeks – to see if anyone contests the trademark application. Well, this really big company came along and contested it. They had millions more than I had and they were extremely threatening via a paper trail. I worked with three different attorneys – it was the last one that literally saved my business life. I was a stressed out mess – because what most people don’t realize – is that in today’s world – your trademark really is all about you being able to maintain your URL. That is what I was in such fear about. The registered trademark I could forego – but the URL loss would have put me out of business. By a fantastic twist of fate – they backed off – and I am the proud owner of the registered trademark: Spirited Woman. I got it two years ago in March.
WMI: What two to three specific marketing/promoting strategies do you implement offline to continue to grow, expand and strengthen the Spirited Woman platform?
NM: That is a good question. I realized a long time ago that “content” is the name of the game. Translated in English that means – a site gets really good search engine recognition if there are a lot of posts on it with a wide variety of topics that are relevant to the concept of your site. We are all about women inspiring women, empowerment, a daily dose of positive news. So I created, almost four years ago, an international Spirited Woman Blogger Team – an extremely talented group of writers from around the world. Each one submits a post or two a week. We have well over 5,000 posts on our site – which gives us an excellent ranking with Alexa and gives us wide scope and range with Google. If you “Google” us we come up thousands upon thousands of times with hundreds of sites linking into us.
WMI: Do you plan on making the Spirited Woman directory an annual issue? What’s your vision for the directory?
NM: I absolutely plan to make the Spirited Woman Directory: Resources for an Inspired Life www.thespiritedwoman.com/direcory) an annual directory. Our premier digital version was launched in December, 2011 via an extremely successful “Sharefest” on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/thespiritedwoman) inviting women to celebrate and share their creative visionary self. It was during that Sharefest that we launched the 2012 Directory. At one point, we had over 100,000 page views. In the digital 2012 Directory, women were involved from six countries and 25 states. It is filled with uplifting stories from woman visionaries from around the world. There are over 15 different categories of subjects – from Health & Wellness to Creative Arts to Transformative Business. Designed as a powerful social media tool – our global reach is massive. If you Google “Spirited Woman Directory” now, only two months after the launch it comes up hundreds of times – on other blogs, sites, newsletters, etc. all over the world. I am very proud of that.
WMI: Tell us about your Telechat author series. How do the chats work and if authors wanted to participate in future chats, how would they contact you?
NM: I believe I did my first author chat in 2006. This too, was way ahead of the curve. I myself am a member of PEN (http://penusa.org/), a leading international group of writers. Since I live in Los Angeles and when I started Spirited Woman, I lived in Santa Barbara – I was privileged to get to know many well-known authors. That said, my selling point at the time was “Hey, guess what? You can do the interview without leaving your house and in your pajamas!” It worked like a charm – plus as I said before we were way ahead of the curve and it was novel to do. I stopped doing these interviews in 2009. The interviews are simply stunning, but it was a tremendous amount of work for very little return.
WMI: You’re an experienced mentor, having mentored more than 50 women who lead and operate a diverse range of businesses. Did you have a mentor early in your career? How do you think this has impacted your career long-term?
NM: I never had a mentor and I feel it has dramatically impacted my life and career. Everyone needs someone to believe in them – everyone, someone who has been there and done that – so to speak.
WMI: For creative business leaders who are seeking mentors, what five qualities would you recommend they look for in a mentor?
NM: Integrity, passion, the ability to grasp businesses quickly, the ability to keep you on point and someone who is a good reflector of ideas.
WMI: I love your blogs. Your voice and tone is very engaging. Do you consider yourself to be a “natural born writer?” What makes you say this?
NM: I don’t write very often for Spirited Woman (www.thespiritedwoman.com), I leave that up to our blogger team (http://www.thespiritedwoman.com/go_blog_blog_blog) and our guest bloggers. Of course, occasionally I do write blogs. Yes, I am a natural born writer – I have never taken a writing class in my life. My “voice” comes through my writing. In fact, I would say, writing is my primary way of self-expression. It almost feels as if it is channeled through me.
WMI: Which have you found to be more effective at reaching and engaging your target audience – your newsletter or your blog? How so?
NM: I don’t know the answer to that question. I think the blog brings in more “new” people to Spirited Woman. They find us through the search engines and through other links on other sites. But, I think the newsletter keeps them more actively engaged and loyal.
WMI: What’s next for Nancy Mills and Spirited Woman? Where do you see yourself and your business in the next two to five years?
NM: I see the Directory aspect of the business growing globally. Next year I want women involved from more than 6 countries and 25 states. We had 70 women in our first directory; I would like at least 100 in our next one. We continue to do extremely well with our Spirited Woman Top 12 Pick Lists (www.thespiritedwoman.com/top12picks) – it is a wonderful, inexpensive social media marketing tool for solo-entrepreneurs and authors on a budget, and I have just begun The Sisterhood of the Sacred Scarves (http://www.thespiritedwoman.com/prayer_scarf) – which I love. Through this concept we sell collectible Spirited Woman Prayer Scarves. Each scarf comes with a virtual ceremony. In winter, we invoked Goddess Brigid. In spring it will be the Spring Equinox birthing our creative visionary selves. The scarves are our connectors. A portion of all proceeds go to establish the Spirited Woman Foundation http://www.thespiritedwoman.com/foundation/ – which will ultimately provide women from around the world an opportunity to heal through actions of empowerment.
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