I am giving a heartfelt shout-out to one of those mentors, John Cromie. Alison’s husband, friend, and father of their two boys. Their marriage is ending, but their 22 years of friendship will endure; that is Alison’s hope. Of course, they will always be parents together. This kind of transition is difficult to navigate because one person is excited about discovering their authentic self while the other is grieving the loss of the person they thought they knew. Hugs to you all.

If Bill and Melinda Gates can untangle their 27-year relationship and wealth and still work together, I am hopeful Alison and John can emerge from this transition respecting each other and their relationship. They are working out the co-parenting quite well.

Gwyneth Paltrow popularized the term “conscious uncoupling,” coined by writer Katherine Woodward Thomas in 2009. The term has caught on. If you have “grown as far as you can in a relationship,” as Bill and Linda Gates tweeted last Monday in a joint public statement, the decision is clear. Resilient relationships allow each other to grow differently. These aren’t pain-free relationships. These are healthy, growing, respectful, and loving relationships that allow each other the freedom to evolve, whatever the outcome. It is what Alison and John are doing.

Three terms Alison came across in her identity research. New terms to me, and maybe to you, too.

• Bi-curious: where you feel attracted to someone of the same sex. Alison is not a fan of the term. You will find out why.
• Compulsory Heterosociety: society’s way of promoting heterosexuality as the only acceptable lifestyle. We are raised with no other options and taught that even thinking outside the societal norm is wrong.
• The third term was found in a forum with bisexual women called Am I a Lesbian? Masterdoc. This is a series of articles to help women understand themselves. This is the document that helped Alison realize she is a lesbian and not bisexual.

We review Alison’s three marketing tips for start-ups from our 1^st conversation. The 3^rd tip and alert you of a revengeful plot Alison helped solve with a client.

1. Make a lot of mistakes. Fail quickly, learn, and move into the next thing. Look for progress, not perfection, especially with web design.
2. SEO really only works if you build content. Be consistent. Start small. Be thoughtful. Have a long perspective in mind. Shift as our world shifts.
3. Clean up your Google My Business profile. Then, keep it updated.

The dark side of a client’s tech person endeared Alison to the wellness community. Alison was hired to help a chiropractor figure out why her website couldn’t be found in a Google search. Sometimes, the website would even show up on other sites. Alison and the chiropractor figured out why.

Before leaving the chiropractor’s office, a hired tech person who didn’t like the chiropractor put this malicious coding on her website: Emotet Malware Detection. The malware steals sensitive and private information, according to the Black Cat Security website. Black Cat Security provides steps to dismantle malware. Google is aware of this type of malware and boots websites with this type of malware off the web to protect others from it. Alison replaced the coding, rebuilt, and optimized the site while her client created blogs around keywords to get indexed and ranked on Google. A wonderful ending to a frustrating and disheartening situation.

This reminded me of The NYTimes Daily podcast hosted by Michael Barbaro. (Only I say, Kai Ryssdal, my bad. Kai Ryssdal is the leading business host of Marketplace on National Public Radio). Michael Barbaro covers a two-part podcast true story about a scorned Canadian woman ruining people’s lives online. The legal system isn’t equipped to protect us from these kinds of scams. We are on our own to build back exploited reputations. See the Episode Resource page to hear the episodes. DOWNLOAD

Alison has a special gift offer for you. Get $10 off Content Planning Made Easy Workbook with code WEMENTOR.