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Cures for the horror of the blank page
I was doing some research for a book publishing client. One of the projects we’re working on is creating a brand new lead generator, and I’m writing the email follow-up sequence. In my research, I came across this quote from Ernest Hemingway: “Writing at its best can be a lonely life.”(As an aside, I’d highly recommend his memoir – A Movable Feast.) When you’re writing or doing anything creative – you’re spending a lot of time alone with your words and ideas. It can cause some anxiousness, overwhelm, and even writer’s (or creativity) block. It’s real – the anxiety of staring at a blank (or canvas, social media post, and…
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Foolproof way to stop failing when it comes to launching new courses or products…
Have you ever had an idea for a course, product, or even a membership? What happened? Did you ever create and launch it? What were your sales? Did you ever launch it? Or maybe your sales were disappointing – what happened? These are all questions I ask my potential dream clients. As an influencer, you probably have several terrific ideas. Yet often, follow-through can be challenging. And even frustrating. It’s not fun putting months or even years of your time into creating something and never selling it, or when you do, your sales are so low it’s sometimes soul-crushing. I know this because this is something I work with my…
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Boots on the ground marketing…
Have you ever done any “boots on the ground” type of marketing? You know, the kind that involves going door to door, or maybe setting up a table at a fair or a booth at an event? This type of marketing can be the most rewarding and yet the most exhaustive as well. The interesting thing to note is that when it’s done well, it REALLY works. What does done well essentially mean: In Your Marketing Materials – Take a direct response approach where you’re using these 5 elements of the sales message: Check out my friend and stellar copywriter Julie– Make sure you have defined your dream client(s) and where…
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Changing Your Perspective
Thanks for all the comments last week on our fascinating adventure to buy a new home. All is well, we got into the house and doing some painting, and the official move is next week. It’s interesting how some specific things about buying and selling homes have changed because of the pandemic. Specifically, at closing, everyone being in the same room to sign all the papers and being able to celebrate afterward. Yeah, that won’t happen. We had a mobile notary who came over to the house, and we signed the mountains of papers, and after we were done – It just felt a little weird and anti-climatic. I knew…
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Coaching, copywriting, Entrepreneurs, Implementation, Motivation, Outcome, Overcoming Obstacles, Risk, Taking risks
I Did Something a Little Crazy
Have you ever stepped out of your comfort zone and done something a little crazy, or maybe out of your ordinary routine, or stretched your beliefs? Well, that’s what I did last week. I bought a course for $6,000. Ummmm, yeah, a little out there for me cuz I’ve not ever spent that amount of money on a course before. I’ve spent upwards of $25k on a year-long mastermind, and I’ve also spent $5k for a 3-day weekend training. And, I’ve spent $12k a year to be in Brian Kurtz’s Masterclass, which was like a mastermind, where we met three times a year in person. (Yeah, before the pandemic.) Plus,…
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How Sophisticated Are You and Your Clients? (Part 3)
When I first started out in online marketing, it never occurred to me to even remotely think or care about my client’s sophistication level when it came to my courses or services. There were way too many other things that sucked up my time – like – how to get new clients and start making money! Besides, how in the world does knowing WHAT my dream client’s sophistication level is, have anything to do with selling them something? I thought sophistication levels were only important when ordering wine, managing money, buying real estate, or dealing with technology. 😉 So if it never occurred to you to look at your dream…
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Understanding This One Concept Could Change the Way You Do Your Marketing…(Part 2)
I had this feeling wash over me this morning while I was writing this post… It was of wonderment and even hilarity about all the idea lightbulbs going off in my brain. The more I read and study about marketing and copy. The more my understanding grows deeper. Earlier, I’d had my head buried in a couple of books – E5 Method by Todd Brown and The Story Factor by Annette Simmons. As I was pondering the many popcorn thoughts running through my brain while I was trying to write, it stopped on this thought of a long-overused metaphor my therapist back in the day used to tell me… This moment felt like that – whenever I’d have a…
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Journey into the Human Psyche (Part 1)
Have you ever had a moment where you read something, watched something, or maybe a friend told you about something that totally grabbed your curiosity, and you had to dig deeper to discover more? Well, that’s where I’ve been these past several days… Ever since I started reading True Believer by Eric Hoffer, this journey into the human psyche has really got me incredibly curious. The fun part is my spouse Ally is just as fascinated by the human psyche. Usually, before she heads off to the hospital, we always have our coffee and talk. Lately, we’ve been reading aloud from True Believer and having some insightful conversations. (I do love being with someone…
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Confessions, Word Choices, & Websites
This is a little out there and something I noticed this morning when I was doing my morning reading. (I read at least 30 minutes every morning to stimulate my brain. Remember, I’m a learnaholic, so this fuels me and my day. 🙂 When I was reading, I noticed how this writer used the word “but” a lot. I mean, “but” is an ok word yet in my somewhat limited grammar experience, (Grammarly.com is my friend.) ”but” is a conjunction (i.e., a linking word) that’s used to introduce a contrast. So it always negates what comes before it. (Yeah, I did have to look that up to get the right…
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The Naked Truth – A Parable
I want to share a story with you: “Truth, naked and cold, had been turned away from every door in the village. Her nakedness frightened the people. When Parable found her, she was huddled in a corner, shivering and hungry. Taking pity on her, Parable gathered her up and took her home. There, she dressed Truth in story, warmed her, and sent her out again. Clothed in story, Truth knocked again at the doors and was readily welcomed into the villagers’ houses. They invited her to eat at their tables and warm herself by their fires. — Jewish Teaching Story” I found out that this story has been told and…
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Have You Hugged Your Customers Lately?
There’s been a lot of hugging going on this week for me, which I love since it feels like the pandemic madness of “no touching” is slowly being lifted as more people have gotten vaccinated. (In our little part of Northern CA, if you can believe, only 28% of folks have gotten vaccinated – hmmmm…) So what’s all the hugging about? Well, it was my spouse’s birthday this week, and yesterday was our 2 year wedding anniversary. So lot’s to celebrate and happy we can do that with friends. There’s just something about hugging. You know when you get a really good hug that lasts a few seconds more than…
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Are you manipulating people with your copy or are you using influence?
Last week one of my clients asked me if I write these weekly emails in advance and simply set them up to go out each week in an email campaign – interesting. That’s a terrific idea. I wish I could sit down and bang out 10 of these at once. Yet, that’s not my process. I have so many ideas and things I want to share with you each week. It’s more fun for me to write either the day before or the day that I send out the email. Like I’m doing now. 🙂 My goal is to have them fresh, interesting, and sort of my stream of consciousness of what I’m…
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Before Creating Something New – you have to do this…
After my email about swipe files last week, I had several folks respond with some questions about how to capture screenshots. Check out the “Note” at the bottom of this post to see a quick video I created to show you how to do it. Hope that helps! This week I wanted to share with you some specific ideas about how I believe we need to do a little disruption in our industries. Let me explain – I’ve talked about Bernadette Jiwa several times in my past emails. (If you don’t recall them – no worries, check out the P.S. for a link to my reviews of her books.) I…
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Don’t Ever Create Any of Your Content From Scratch Again
How many times a day, week, month or more, are you creating content for your business? It could be social medial content for posts, content for emails, blogs, write sales pages, optin pages, maybe notes or questions for podcast guests. Or maybe you need some scripts or templates for videos you’re going to create. Content, content, content is the name of the game in marketing. It’s always been content, now it’s really becoming a force to grow your business. Being successful in business, your marketing isn’t just about selling anymore. It’s about attracting, connecting, personalizing, and solving your customers’/clients’ problems. My favorite clients are the ones that have a ton…
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Getting Your Personality In Your Copy
Before I give you some of the mind-blowing lessons from what I believe is one of the greatest direct response marketing copywriters – Dan Kennedy, I wanted to share a quick story. Later in my career as an online strategic marketer, what was exciting to me was sharing the same stage with Dan at his request. Then later working with him and Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle for a year. Working with him and actually meeting with him on several occasions, not to mention the two writing contests I’d won where he granted me two separate live, in-person (obviously before the pandemic) 30-minute consultations about my business. What I learned from this copywriting…