Did you find 2024 challenging? I did! One of our CEO clients in the luxury real estate industry shared in a coaching call that “2024 was tough personally and professionally,” and I couldn’t agree more! Perhaps you felt that way?
High Fives for 2025!
While there is still uncertainty, it’s a new year and there are new opportunities to create new challenges and new memories. 2025 is exciting for us because I launch my latest book: Exceptional Experiences: Five Luxury Levers to Elevate Every Aspect of Your Business—I could not be more thrilled for you to meet this new book and her cover is gorgeous (want to be the first on my list to see the cover and learn more about the book? Click here!)!
What’s your word?
If you have been following along for a while you know that for the past 20+ years I have created a contextual word each year to set the theme, and it’s a decision-filtering system for me.
This year my word is—drumroll please—EXCEPTIONAL.
One of my favorite things each year is sharing this exercise with clients during keynote speeches, facilitating strategic retreats, and 1:1 Executive coaching sessions—I love when they tell me their words!
Think of this contextual word (or phrase) as your decision-filtering system for the year.
Last year my phrase was “elevate” and we heard from our clients in luxury travel, hospitality, and financial services how our Luxury Mindset Research helped them elevate their sales conversations, change their marketing strategies and help them communicate more powerfully—that makes my heart full! (Let me know if you’d like us to help you with that too. You can watch some of our short videos on the Luxury Mindset here.)
Remember, luxury is not about being expensive. Luxury is about experiences! Luxury is a mindset.
Luxury can be:
- The luxury of time
- Freedom to choose
- An emotional connection
- Attention and connection
- How someone (or something) makes you feel
Luxury is personal.
So how does “exceptional” tie into our Attention Pays and Luxury Mindset work? So glad you asked! Choosing to be exceptional in all aspects of your personal and professional life will help you show up as a stronger leader at work, home, and in your community.
It might be personalized attentive service from your favorite store, extra soft, high-thread count sheets at a hotel, a kind handwritten thank you note on beautiful stationery from a friend, taking a new employee to lunch, or a compliment from a stranger on your outfit when you step into the elevator. Luxury is all around us and we can pause and take in or create these exceptional experiences for those we come into contact with each day. (Did you know I call these Champagne Moments? Something that makes you smile or your heart full.)
In our research study, we discovered that luxury is defined as long-lasting, high quality, authentic, unique, integrity, accountability, and transparent—it got me thinking these are the same qualities your team wants to experience from you as their leader. These are the same qualities that win you not only fans, but advocates.
We share this model in our consulting and keynotes, showing that true luxury leadership is about how you:
- Communicate
- Activate
- Elevate
… everything! The result? Not only the mindshare you crave, but the market share you and your stakeholders want. Are you ready to join me this year in creating exceptional experiences?
Share your word or your intention with me, and let’s choose to make 2025 our best year ever.
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