Using your colleagues…in a good way
What is the most important lesson I’ve learned in this business? If I had to narrow it down to one, I couldn’t. But this morsel is in the top 5.
Know what you know and don’t know what you don’t know.
In other words, be the expert in your niche/field/industry, but it there are things that you don’t know - be totally honest about them. If you pretend to know things that you don’t, you’ll only get trouble. This is really about honesty. It’s also about integrity and good business.
When I don’t know something, I say that I don’t know it, and I say that I will find out. And here comes the colleagues piece. I am very fortunate to have a few brilliant colleagues to whom I can take these questions, to whom I can show my lack of knowledge. We talk to each other and we share information. We understand that we can’t possibly know everything and that the true sign of our professional IQ is our ability to ask the questions and admit that we can’t possibly know it all. Even when I think I know, I ask - because the more information, the better.
Know what you know. Don’t know what you don’t know. (and nurture your relationships with your trusted colleagues.)
Filed under Myth or Reality, Networking, The Business | Tags: best practice, colleagues, Networking, professionalism | Comment (0)Macs are Better.
I finally made the switch and word has it that this makes me smart. Apparently Apple users have a higher IQ than everyone else.
I love my little Macbook. It is so much better than my old Dell ever was. I’m navigating my way through, re-training myself in all of its ways, but it is as intuitive as they say. The biggest pain is trying to transfer my contacts and old mail (this was a bit of a storage system for me) from Outlook…I’m looking forward to it all being set so that I can close the lid of that mammoth PC monster forever.
I will say this: the single most wonderful thing about the Macbook in the eyes of this writer is that I can turn this machine on and off in a moment. When you have words churning in your brain that must get out on ‘paper’ immediately…waiting 5 minutes for your PC to load is infuriating and debilitating. My Macbook is heaven.
Here are some other perks I’ve relished so far:
- iWork 08 is amazing - templates and capabilities blow Microsoft Office out of the water.
- The UI (user interface) is a dream - simple, beautiful, supportive.
- The dashboard - how I love this! It’s four ‘got to find and open each of these apps separately on my PC’ in one simple little button: weather, time, calculator, calendar.
- Organization: I can have a bazillion apps open at once, and I can either see them all at once instantly or divide them into 4 get-able quadrants of my screen.
- The screen is so clear, so vivid - my eyes are thrilled.
- Size - small, light, friendly. Do you know how big my Dell laptop was? How heavy? The bag that I toted the thing around in was monstrous and awkward - it looked like it had been crafted in the 80’s.
If you are wavering, thinking about it, flirting with the idea - stop thinking and just be smart…go get a Mac.
Filed under Myth or Reality | Tags: Apple, copywriting, Dell, Mac, Macbook, PC, user interface, writing | Comment (0)A room of one’s own
Wait, that title seems familiar… Alas, those are Virginia Woolf’s words, not mine - but, the concept, oh, the concept. It is so important to have this space, your own space for your work. To leave the computer on, to leave 5 reference books open mid-look, to save a piece of pizza in your own mini-fridge. I crave this space! My writing space has been shared for years now. Don’t get me wrong - I am grateful that I have space to write - period. But I would love to have my own little shack. So, two things, 1. Where do you write, work, create - really and in your mind. And 2. Here is my dream shack…it lives in Chilmark, MA (Martha’s Vineyard) and was built as a community effort by the amazing South Mountain Company. I don’t need this exact one…but something like it, maybe with a little splash of color! Bring it on, Universe!
Writing Roads Featured on Expert Panel
I am excited to announce that I have been asked to join the Panel of Experts for the Fresh Start after Divorce Community. A Community designed to be a 24/7 Resource Center and support system for women during and after divorce.
Writing Roads is featured as the Writing & Marketing Expert - I can’t wait to help these women blast off new business ventures. I believe wholeheartedly that anyone with courage, vision, tools and mentorship can achieve a new life and a different financial experience. I’m looking foward to sharing my knowledge, experience and enthusiasm. I will be featured on the site via interviews, tele-seminars, product sales and articles.
The community was launched by Joanie Winberg, a coach, radio show host, author and speaker - she is dynamic and inspirational - for anyone…but specifically, I recommend this community to any woman who is dealing with divorce.
I’m honored to have been asked to join this eclectic panel - and hope that site is raging success. For more information about the community and how to join, go to www.FreshStartAfterDivorce.com.
Filed under News | Tags: divorce, expert, Marketing, online community, start-up, women-owned business, writing | Comment (0)The Search for the Incredible Designer
I wrote this blog for my Incredible Designer’s , Leslie Tane Design, blog as a guest blogger…but I think it’s important for all of you to read too…so here ’tis.
In my career as a copywriter, I have worked with many designers…the incredible designer, the good designer, the fine designer, and the ‘oh @#$%&, are you kidding?’ designer. I encourage you all to search for the Incredible Designer and then hold on to him/her at all costs. Treat this person like royalty - they are. And…if you are a designer - then BE the Incredible Designer. It’s who those of us that think any old font would work and have no idea what the difference between a jpeg and a gif are searching for.
Here is a list of what makes an Incredible Designer:
1. Artistic Brilliance. The Incredible Designer surprises you every time with her level of artistry, creativity and sheer brilliance.
2. Competence. The Incredible Designer knows so much. Web, print, techie stuff, marketing, printing, everything cutting-edge.
3. Patience & Kindness. When dealing with clients (hmm, hmm) that ask the same question more than 5x, have ‘just one more!’ edit and needed it done yesterday, the Incredible Designer never ruffles. And it serves him. It makes clients want to do better next time for this benevolent master of design.
4. Forethought. When discussing a new project, the Incredible Designer thinks of everything: specs, space, logistics, deadlines, national holidays, watering the plants…everything.
5. Reliability. The Incredible Designer never lets you down. When you turn your stuff over to her, you know it will come back golden.
6. Honesty. The Incredible Designer is always honest about his deadline capability. And, if he doesn’t know something he tells you he doesn’t…and then finds someone who does.
7. Integrity. Enough said.
So, why am I qualified to write this little blog entry? Because my search is over - and I swear she didn’t pay me to write this (in fact, I’ll have to talk her into posting it!) - Leslie Tane Hannus is my Incredible Designer. She is all of these things and more…
For incredible design visit www.leslietanedesign.com….and check out her blog - it’s a great example of what to do!
Filed under How To, Marketing | Tags: graphic design, graphic designers, Marketing, print design, web design | Comment (0)Permission Marketing or Avoiding SPAM
Many of my clients don’t like marketing. They like increased sales and exposure, but they cringe at the thought of self-promotion, cold calls, selling - and the cheesey father of all of these - SPAM.
This is why I love permission marketing…and the internet…and blogging. Referrals from trusted sources are the most qualified prospects, and blogging and blog marketing allow you to circumnaivigate the ‘cringe’ part of marketing and capitalize (literally) on the permissed, referral aspect.
It’s simple and based on the following concepts and action plan:
1. I sell my product/service online.
2. I have a list that I blog to regularly - they love me and trust me.
3. I am always looking for quality content to post on my blog for my list.
4. I find a ‘tangent’ site selling to my demographic, but selling a different product/service - we are not competitors.
5. We connect - I email or comment on their blog.
6. #1,2, & 3 are also true for this ‘tangent’ site.
7. We realize that we can help each other out.
8. I post something about this ‘tangent’ site on my blog, with a quality link, and a strong referral (that I wholeheartedly believe in). The ‘tangent’ site does the same for me.
9. We are both offering our lists something of value AND we have just received a quality referral from a trust source to a new group within our demographic.
10. Everyone wins…no SPAM, no cold calls, value to list, increased traffic, sales, happiness.
Filed under How To, Marketing | Tags: blog, blog marketing, permission marketing, referrals, spam | Comment (0)Moving past a block
Not that I don’t occasionally suffer from plain old writer’s block - but this past week (and hmm, hmm, the lack of blog entries) beat the band because I had the flu - so not only was I void of creativity, I also felt awful. While I wallowed in my own special brand of self-pity, I got to thinking about writer’s block and then ‘blocks’ in general.
Whether you write, design, coach, sell, teach or invent - whatever you do. Your work contains some amount of creativity or, at least, the need for energy to move forward. And, at some point, the energy disappears. So, what do you do?
Here’s what I do (and if you aren’t a writer, use the writing references as metaphors):
- Start in the middle. It’s that blank page thing again. When the long view of the project overwhelms, begin the work as if the momentum is already there. Fake it till you make it, in essence.
- Break it down. A variation on the theme above. If the entirety of the project is to massive, the psyche can take a beating which is a total energy-sucker. Breaking the project into small pieces takes away some fear, and once you conquer one of the little chunks, well, the rest is gravy.
- Tell yourself to shut-up. I know this doesn’t sound very nice, but my best friend from high school and I had a philosophy, ‘we’re going to get the assignment done, so stop worrying and/or bitching about it and just start.’ There is some comfort in this reality, that you do know, deep down inside somewhere, that you will finish - because you always do.
- And, finally - search the web. I find the internet to be the ultimate igniter. I just search my topic and start to read what people are saying and before I know it, I’m inspired or disgusted, I’ve formed my own opinion, I know exactly what I want to say (what must be said!)…and I’m all set, mission accomplished.
Caveat to this last suggestion: only search for your topic…if you are stuck in blocked land and you start tooling around the internet aimlessly, the whole day will pass and what will you have to show for it? 30 viewed YouTube videos, a new foot massager, and enough Brittney sightings to win you a subscription to Teen People.
Filed under Critical Copywriting, How To | Tags: copywriting, creative blocks, freelance commercial copywriting, writer's block, writing | Comment (0)
