Practice business the Twilight Way.
Trust me when I say that this post is not for teenagers or tweens, it’s for everyone. And, it’s actually about writing, freelancing and my other usual topics. I promise. It really does have a point.
Until this weekend, I’d avoided all the Twilight hype. Robert Pattinson didn’t do anything for me and I don’t really like vampires and scary things – so I just maintained a polite distance. But, let’s be serious, it’s a little hard to escape it when you live online (and have a teeny tiny addiction to celebrity gossip. As I’ve said before, I don’t drink, smoke, drug or eat white sugar – give me just this one thing!)
My in-laws and my millions of nieces were here this weekend. (There are 13 of them). And, I just so happened to walk by one of their makeshift beds on Saturday morning and there was Twilight, just sitting there. I thought, I’ll just read the first couple of pages, see what this is all about.
Swear to god, it was like falling down the proverbial rabbit hole. I couldn’t stop reading. I had no sense of anything going on around me. I just read. My sister-in-law was sitting next to me studying (grad school) and then suddenly she was getting in the shower, and I asked her when she got up and why she was all sweaty; she said, “About two hours ago – I went for a run and down to the pond.” I had no idea, but she totally got it because she read all four books in one weekend, in Florida, with her boyfriend, who she wouldn’t talk to because he wasn’t Edward or in the book (the vampire, the god of Twilight, for those of you who are still abstaining). Apparently that story is not a rare one.
Long story short. I read the first book of 500+ pages in about 7 hours. Woke up the next morning, went to buy the second book and read that one in about the same amount of time. Down the the rabbit hole, like I said. I have a company to run, clients to write for and a family to love…so I’ll wait to get the 3rd and 4th book until next weekend. As I read voraciously, I was asked by a bewildered adult if it was like Harry Potter. “No,” I replied. “It’s like 90210 with vampires.”
So, why, oh, why did this happen to me? I’m a smart, mature, 36 year old woman! The writing is good, but it’s not the best thing I’ve ever set my eyes on. It’s meant for adolescents, after all and that’s obvious. So, WHY?
When I made mention of my guilty pleasure on Twitter, many (and by many, I mean a lot) of women and a few men readily joined in my excitement. And, then, someone simply tweeted, ‘You are not alone’ with a link to a blog post by Erin Gates called, Pop Culture Digression: The Twilight Phenomenon Explained that just laid it out, all crystal clear like. (And her blog normally has nothing to do with this foolishness either, which I loved, of course because it made me feel like less of a loser.) Erin wrote this:
“Edward causes such a stir because his character is the perfect man. He’s handsome, wealthy, romantic and devoted. The mysterious, brooding bad boy who writes lullabies on the piano for his girlfriend but also rips out the throats of bad guys in defense of her honor. He says things like “You’re my own personal brand of heroin” and “I don’t think I have the strength to stay away from you any longer” (cue knee buckling). He is the perfectly impossible combination of poet, athlete, intellectual and bad ass- the human(ish) equivalent of a unicorn…Every woman wants to feel coveted, craved, defended and protected and well, that’s just what we get from reading about this fictitious character who was crafted to feed that desire (because let’s face it, we don’t always get that from our real life men.)
But, the thing is that this isn’t just about women being unsatisfied by their men, or every woman wanting to be ‘coveted, craved, defended and protected’ – this is about every person wanting to be ‘coveted, craved, defended and protected’. Whether you’re in a romantic, familial, educational, professional, client/freelancer, parent/child relationship – it doesn’t matter. We all want to be those things. And, if you read the books or have a heartbeat (um, or not, in Edward’s vampire-case) you’ll realize that the one ‘giving it out’ also gets quite a lot from the deal.
I’m ghostwriting a book for a client right now – and it’s about using client relations as a main factor to building a successful career (in a very different kind of industry from mine) – his main point is that if you make your clients feel outstanding, if you build the relationship genuinely – it will feel good to both sides, and most importantly, it will stick.
Everyone wants to be loved. The client and the writer. The boyfriend and the girlfriend. The guy at the desk at your printer and you as you drop off your order. It’s completely basic, elemental. We are addicted to the books because we get to live that kind of love vicariously.
Erin Gates also wrote this: (after she compared Twilight for the 18+ female crowd to Internet porn for the entire male crowd)
“It’s an escapist fantasy that allows you forget all the bull going on in your life and just enjoy the pleasure of a hot, undead teenager who would kill people for you and then buy you a brand new Audi for your birthday.”
We want the love, but we also just want to feel like everything’s okay and hopeful and safe for awhile. We want our attention taken to a good place.
I’m not suggesting that you tell your client, or the kid at the drive thru window for that matter, that “You’re my own personal brand of heroin” – you can’t be Edward and Bella in real life. Seriously, don’t. You’ll get arrested.
But I am suggesting that you experiment by taking it down several notches. What if you treat your clients like they’re truly special, with total respect, letting them understand that their business is safe with you, that you always have their best interests at heart. What if you really hold their attention with the work that you do and the person that you are.
Would they become addicted to your work and to working with you? Would it bring them so much joy and good feeling that they would be clients for life?
I don’t think that acting this way could create Twilight hysteria around you and your business, but who am I to say? But, even if it doesn’t take you that far, I can’t imagine how it won’t lift you a bit higher on the food chain.
Image credit: Angie22Arts
Filed under How To, Myth or Reality, The Business | Tags: business, client relations, edward cullen, erin gates, freelance copywriter, freelance writing, freelancing, twilight | Comments (11)Twitter? Big Brother? No One Cares?
Ah, Twitter. It’s an amazing marketing tool. It’s a bastion of information. It’s so much fun.
I advise my clients, colleagues and friends to use it. I teach workshops on its extraordinary benefits. It seems to be taking over the popular world (I mean Ellen’s on Twitter now.). ‘Everyone’s’ on it. Which is great….I think.
Twitter – and having everyone you know use it and follow you can also cause some interesting issues.
When your clients are following you – and you’re hanging out for 15 minutes or so in the middle of the day waxing poetic with your tweeps about bonobos, chocolate, WordPress, American Idol, hotdog sandwiches or any other fascinating subject – and your clients are watching, what happens? I can see it going a variety of ways:
- They join in on your conversation.
- They watch closely and learn from you how to have fun and engage on Twitter.
- They’re pissed that you aren’t working on their project.
- They thought you were too busy to get something done asap and are wondering how you have time to tweet at all.
- They are paying absolutely no attention to you, whatsoever.
What an interesting little predicament we’ve gotten ourselves into, eh?
Of course, we’re each entitled to spend our days how we choose as long as we get our work done – but suddenly people can look over our shoulders. (Interestingly, this is exactly what I sought to escape when I left the world of having a boss. You too?) And, it’s weird. Maybe you don’t think anything of this – maybe, wait for it, I’m paranoid and packed full of Jewish guilt!
‘Cause we’re allowed to spend some of our day marketing, right? And we can stop working while we eat lunch, right? And, Twitter has become paramount to our business visibility. And some days are super productive and some aren’t. And we can’t work 24/7/52/365 – or can we? Should we be expected to? After all, the internet never turns off, you know. And my Blackberry gets email all day and all night and doesn’t care for the concept of Saturday.
FYI, turns out my new boss is a relentless slave driver. I’m about to report her to the authorities – but if I sent myself to Mean Boss Jail, who would get all of this work done?
Your thoughts? How do we balance the transparency?
Image by Gerlos
Filed under How To, Social Media, The Business | Tags: business owner, client relations, client relationships, freelancer, Julie Roads, privacy, social media, Twitter, Writing Roads | Comments (12)raw authenticity and a huge mirror
Last week, I went to my monthly women’s networking event. Because I so love what I do, I enjoy these events thoroughly (really, can you believe I never tire of talking about myself?) This particular event was called ‘speed networking’ – a whirlwind of loudness as we all shouted our greatest hits to each other within the allotted 5 minutes. That said, I made several strong contacts…one in particular.
She’s in the business of Innovative Entertainment Marketing (independent, cause-themed films), and as we talked, we realized we had some very strong outside links to each other that ended up making our tête-à-tête more of a reunion than a first meet. We also have a mutual close friend that has been talking us up to each other for months, so we already felt like we knew each other.
Raw Authenticity
Anyway, when she found out what I do (copywriting, marketing, blogging, social media – in case you forgot), she said immediately, “I need to hire you. I hire bloggers/writers for every film.”
And then, I hugged her.
At the time it was a totally natural response, raw authenticity. Our conversation had been one big love fest. She hugged me back, we were all giddy, the conversation continued.
But, when I got into bed later that night…it started to nag torment me. Why did I hug her? What was I thinking? The voice over of the video playing repeatedly in my head (what I imagined the recipient of my hug must have been thinking): ‘Julie Roads is so desperate for work she actually hugs people that consider hiring her.’
Let’s have a realty recap: 1. I almost have more business than I can handle – but, hey – nice insecurity, Julie! 2. I was hugging her because it was my reaction to another notch in our ‘look at all that we have in common’ belt. 3. She hugged me back and kept on talking about the work.
A Huge Mirror
I woke up the next morning to a new voicemail, not from my huggee, but from a woman that I had serendipitously met a week earlier. Long story short: her family was playing on our community playset, we started talking, she got very excited when she heard about my work, took my card.
Her voicemail message was a bit of a love letter: “…have read your site and your blog, everything is so amazing, can’t wait to work with you, we met at exactly the right time…” We talked a few hours later and the love fest continued. In fact, she told me she had a crush on me and the idea of all that we would do together.
Now that is raw authenticity. No holds barred. She didn’t mean that she literally wanted me. Just that everything was converging in her life, I was a final piece, she couldn’t get over the synchronicity – her glee felt like a crush. More or less, she leapt through the phone and gave me a hug.
And as the receiver of this hug, it felt great. I found myself admiring her ability to be so authentic, not thinking she was a desperate, psychotic freak.
And then, I got it. There is it was, like a big, huge mirror right in front of my face.
So? I embraced my hug from the night before, and then, I let it go. It was just me being me, after all.
Filed under How To, Marketing, Networking, Social Media | Tags: Blogging, client rela, client relations, copywriting, marketing writer, Networking | Comments (10)Your Internet-Reality Dictionary
One of the kings of social media, Chris Brogan, has just published a brilliant article about people in the real world.
He talks about how those of us who live in this web world need to remember that the majority of the people we interact with offline aren’t online. And/but that fact should not deter us from sharing the internet with them.
These two points define my business. Personally, because when I leave you all, my daily achievements online aren’t all that translatable. Professionally, because my clients often look at me with fear, confusion or a blank stare when I mention words like blog, online social media and site traffic.
The key, Chris points out, is to explore the internet with these clients from their La-Z-Boy recliners, in other words, where they’re most comfortable. He gives some great examples that I’m going to expand upon. The point is that we, as internet marketing people, can show these reality-based folk that they already have the tools and resources – we’re just going to repurpose them. Think of this as your Internet-Reality Dictionary.
What you have: Real World — What you could have: Web World
Newsletter Blog
Networking Groups Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
Mailings (via the USPS) Email marketing/communication
Staff writers Bloggers
Industry Experts Bloggers
Radio and TV ads Viral video, vlogs, podcasts
Loud Speaker Email & Blog
Print product surveys Online product surveys
Marketing Department Online Marketing Department
PR Director Director of Community Development
Phone help center Company Wiki
Additions from readers:
Chris Ramsay: Water Cooler Gossip = Facebook, Twitter, IM’s, etc.
Deb: Phone calls = IMs
Research Library = Wikipedia/Google
Typewriter = Laptop
Endless meetings = Thank heaven, no parallel!
Endless meetings = Endless Web Ex and endless Skype – thank heavens for backside chat.
Happy Hour = Tweetup
Product Demo or Seminar = Webinar
________________________
Is it just me or does the internet pile look like the real pile on steroids. Its a no-brainer and it will take your business outreach global, quickly.
Chris asks us to be the people to share the internet and all that it has to offer. You are on, Chris – one of my favorite things to do.
I’d love to add your additions to the dictionary…bring ‘em on!
Filed under Blogging, How To, Networking, The Business | Tags: Chris Brogan, client relations, freelance commercial copywriter, internet marketing, marketing writer, social media | Comments (15)how to be a good CLIENT
I was about to publish today’s post when one of my marketing/designer colleagues just told me this story. After she hired me to write some taglines for a client (of her own accord because she wanted to add even greater value to the project), her client said she didn’t like them and from this point forward to only do exactly what she tells her to do. Well!
The client also rejected all five logos that had been presented to her, and the photo images that had been selected for her brochure. Her response to the taglines, logos and photos was, “I’ll just do it myself.” My colleague is left wondering why she was hired.
Now, there are a few things at play here. I haven’t seen the images or the logos, so I can’t attest to their quality…but I wrote the taglines, and I (and my colleague) thought they were very good (still that’s just a bit subjective). And, the client has every right not to like the work – it may just be missing the mark and/or she and my colleague may not be a good match. This happens and it’s totally legitimate…but, still, there are some bigger issues at hand. This client is making quite a leap over to “I’ll do it all myself.” What happened to, “…that doesn’t work for me, can you do this?”
Made me think about (and want to honor) those good clients…what is it they do that makes them so good…even special? Almost across the board, they:
1. Understand that writing, design and marketing in general are processes. That we work on things together, that there is a reason for drafts and revisions, that if it isn’t right the first time – we will get there. Sometimes, even they are just discovering how they really want to present themselves.
2. Communicate their wishes, needs, edits and time requirements, clearly and consistently.
3. Enjoy their work and take great pride in themselves, their companies and their images.
4. Place great value on the importance of marketing; they realize that marketing is a critical tool for the success of their business and that it is an investment.
5. Pay on time and make quality referrals – showing that they truly value me and my hard work.
6. Integrate flexibility for themselves and for me when necessary which goes under the category of just being human.
7. Act nice, kind, considerate, caring, real and professional roughly 97% of the time.
Anything to add? Tell us about your good clients…(please note: I’m encouraging positivity here!)…or if you are one of the good clients (aren’t we all as consumers?), how are you good…and why?
Filed under Critical Copywriting, The Business | Tags: client relations, clients, communication, copywriter, copywriting, flexibility, Julie Roads, Marketing, taglines, web writing, Writing, Writing Roads | Comment (1)
