Chrissanne Long

Chrissanne is CEO of Maximize Digital Media, a full-service digital marketing agency focused on meaningful and measurable online marketing campaigns to help businesses use the Internet to increase their bottom line. Maximize serves both small brands who are looking for new ways to “show up,” as well as larger, well-known brands looking for ways to more effectively engage their customers.

Her very first  “side hustle” was the online forum that is now comprised of 6,000 community leaders, citizens and business owners who collaborate and share. They are the Lakeland Business Leaders, and they represent the voice of the small business community in the Lakeland, FL area.

Today, her newest side hustle, is here, with Be Awesome Daily – a new adventure in which she imagines a place for aspiring bloggers, and purveyors of awesome can come together and lift their voices in a harmonious cacophony of messages of inspiration, support, kindness and a place for the ideas of being awesome can grow and spread – to create more awesome in the world.

The Power of Possibility

Her secret to success? One simple question: “What if?”

This is the question that drives her, pushing her forward to new achievements each day. While these same words once stopped her from taking action–what if I fail, what if they say no, what if I make a fool of myself–they now inspire her. What if we all could collaborate and make something amazing happen? What if we took a chance and created a platform that allowed people to share their message, not just with their own audience, but with an audience that reached beyond? What if we tried where others have failed?

“To me,” she says, “the most exciting conversations start with the words ‘what if.’ When we talk about possibilities, there’s no greater rush of adrenaline for me.”

Despite her success, Chrissanne remains humble, describing what she has learned about herself as the most surprising part of her Lakeland entrepreneurial journey.

“I don’t see myself as anything special. I don’t have any advantages or specialized skills that no one else has. Nothing I do is unique. And, that used to hold me back,” she says. “Along the way, I have learned that simply being me is enough, and I have been able to stop worrying about what people think. The number one key to successful marketing is knowing your target audience, and being able to fully embrace who you are so that you can bring the right customers in your door. I have learned that is the same thing in life. Those that aren’t interested in connecting, or think everything I do is too cheesy, just aren’t our target audience for Be Awesome. And that liberates us to just worry about being the best we can be.”

Her unbridled passion seeks to unleash the awesome that she is convinced is lying just below the surface. This project, and her life goal is to help more people find their own awesome, or simply share it boldly with the rest of the world. Enough of the hate and anger. Let’s just Be Awesome!