There’s this blogging community that has about 1,000 internet marketers in it.  I would love to join but it’s “invitation only”.  So I asked one of m partners who is a member if she could get me an invite.

I was told that I am well respected by this community and place in the top 5 of people they would take advice from.

Yet, she wasn’t able to get me an invite because I’m not an “internet marketer” … I’m a “JV Broker”.

That really got me thinking …

Just because I specialize in joint ventures, does that mean that I am no longer maketing on the internet?  Nope!

For over 10 years now (wow!  It will be 11 year next month as a matter of fact!), I have made a full time lving on the internet.  For the past three years, I have specialized in organizing joint ventures for other people.  Again, on the internet.

And yet, somehow, I seem to have lost my identity as an internet marketer.

• How could I have let that happen?
• Now that I have retired from brokering joint ventures, will I ever get my identity as an Internet Marketer back?
• Do I want to be identified as an Internet Marketer?
• What the heck am I anyway?

As I sat here pondering these questions, I seemed to get even more confused.  So I thought hat I would ask you for your opinions as well.

You see, in our society, labels are very important.  At a very young age we learn to  put labels on just about everything.  That’s part of why it hurts so much when someone calls you a name.  They’re placing a label on YOU.

When someone labels you, that label tends to stick.  It actually becomes something that you are known BY.

• If someone calls you a name like “Tubby”, you tend to be known as being fat.
• If someone calls you a “Snob”, you tend to be known as being an arrogant person.
• If someone calls you an “Internet Marketer”, you tend to be known as someone who ________________________ (just fill in the blank with your definition).

All these years I’ve called myself a “JV Broker”.  That suggests that I do nothing more than organize the actual joint venture itself.

However, that was not what I did in my business.

In my business, I was much more like a marketing consultant than just a pure JV Broker.  In other words, I didn’t just bring the prospective JV Partners in, I truly helped my clients plan and organize their promotions too.

Sure, there are many JV Brokers who only bring the people in, but I wasn’t one of them.

Now that I’ve retired from brokering JV’s, I’ve gone on to become a Coach, a Mentor, a Founder of an Association, and any other numerous labels that come with running my various businesses on the internet.

What it is that I call myself, though, will drastically impact how others think of me.

It may also impact what groups I can participate in (as I’ve already seen).

How do I want other people to think of me?  To remember me?

I know that I want to be more than just a JV Broker, that’s for sure.  That was such a minor part of what I have done for so many people.

Some of the labels I would like to have include:

• Coach
• Mentor
• Alliance Liason (i.e. I foster and facilitate joint ventures, strategic alliances, affiliate programs, and any other type of “alliance” you can think of)
• Founder of elliances (i.e. the person who built this Association of Entrepreneurial Alliances from the ground up)
• Wife
• Daughter
• President/CEO of The Abundance Group, LLC (this is my company that’s been around for almost 11 years)
• Friend
• Internet Marketer (i.e. someone who has a strong knowledge of what it takes to market and sell products or services using the power of the internet)

But I can’t seem to come up with a single label that would truly define me as a person.

Maybe you can help me with this one and tell me …

If you were describing me, Gina Gaudio-Graves, what would you call her if you were describing her to your spouse or significant other?

Would you use any of the labels above?

Would you make up another that I have left out?

Tell me what you call yourself, too.  Maybe it will give me some ideas!

To Your Abundant Online Success!

Gina Gaudio-Graves

[I’ll fill this in when you help me figure out what it is that I should call myself]

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 20th, 2007 at 12:19 am and is filed under Joint Ventures, Internet Marketing. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will appear immediately, but I reserve the right to delete innapropriate comments.