Tag: small business

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

7 questions to help you ruthlessly prioritize

Posted on by Maria Ross

10-14-14 Prioritize (blog)

“Don’t put off to tomorrow what you can do today.”

How quaint.

I used to live by this mantra. But in today’s world of 24/7 smart phone access, juggling business/kids/relationship/self-care/community and an avalanche of data coming at us, it’s not really sound advice for staying sane.

As a new mama who owns her own business, I have graduated to a whole new level of “prioritization.” Whereas before I was overwhelmed by choices on when to write, create, strategize, serve clients, invent a new course, conduct a webcast…. limited pockets of time these days force the most basic decisions: Do I wash my hair or feed my son before daycare? Do I do a load of laundry, pay the bills, or finish that blog post? Do I eat or shower?

These days, you’ve gotta practice “ruthless prioritization.” (Tweet this!) Here’s how:

Something that has helped this Type A overachiever has been to ask myself 7 key questions before any task. Depending on the answer, you can decide to:

  • Do it right away
  • Do it by day’s end
  • Schedule it
  • Outsource it
  • Say no
  • Ignore it

When you’re having one of those crazy, busy, fire-drill days where it feels like your to-do list is as daunting as Mt. Everest, ask yourself these questions before doing each task. You may just feel lighter, less stressed and more in control:

  1. Is someone I care about depending on this and by a certain time? The key words here are “someone I care about and “depending.” This could be a client, a vital partner or a family member who truly needs you and needs you now. If you get asked for a favor by someone you barely know that will take time away from more important tasks, it can wait…or be politely turned down. When I choose to skip a shower on a crazy busy morning so I can feed my baby on time –  well, that’s  pretty much a no-brainer. The boy needs food. But please remember: often, someone else’s urgency does not constitute an emergency on your part – unless you choose to let it.
  2. Can I quickly deal with it and get it off my plate? When someone emails me for the name and number of that great designer I know, it takes me 2 seconds to send them the person’s contact card. Simple. Done.  If they want me to send an email introducing the two of them – something I may want to spend some thought on – well, that can wait until tomorrow.
  3. Does it generate revenue? We small business owners tend to waste time and energy on things that are not adding to our bottom line, which is sometimes totally okay. But on busy days, given a choice between updating a website page or conducting a paid client call….well, I don’t know about you, but I’ll take the money.
  4. Is there a point-of-no-return consequence for not dealing with this today? If a reporter from The Wall Street Journal asks for an interview today, heck yeah, make time for the call. You’re on their deadline and you could miss your shot at national press. If someone from a blog you’ve never heard of before emails you out of the blue and asks you to fill out a 10 question email interview?  You can schedule time to deal with that next week – and if they won’t wait, so be it. Other tasks in this category can include “Gotta pick up my only suit from the dry cleaner by closing time before my big meeting tomorrow” versus  “A colleague wants to brainstorm about a joint event that is not taking place for another 6 months.”
  5. Am I the only one who can personally handle this? Do you really have to be the one doing it? If not, give it to your virtual assistant, refer it to a colleague, or hire someone from TaskRabbit or Fiverr to deal with it.
  6. What happens if I say no?  Sometimes we think we have to do something when really, it’s just our own internal pressure.  I used to freak out if I missed a week of posting to my blog. But, really…is it a case of life or death if I miss a week to deal with something more important? Will my readers riot and take to the streets just because Red Slice did not post something new this week? The realistic answer is no. Everyone’s busy and while consistency is important, the sky won’t fall because my blog is not the most important thing in my readers’ world each week (but if it is, that’s totally cool…)
  7. Will it help me breathe easier? Sometimes, I choose to spend time catching up on email or another solitary project over the weekend simply because it takes a weight off my shoulders and allows me to relax.  So my husband and I sometimes schedule a “work hour” on Sundays and then put our laptops away. The payoff is an easier, breezier return to Monday.

So tell me: How do you manage your endless to-do list? What tips and tricks help you keep your head above water? Please share in the Comments below!

Photo Credited to Antoine Beauvillain via Unsplash.

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

3 ways to teach your old ebook some new tricks

Posted on by Red Slice

Today’s guest post is from Dina Eisenberg, AKA the Info Product Doctor.  Dina is all about turning your expertise into a passive income stream that will help you scale and promote your brand far and wide – how much do we love that?! Follow her @DinaEisenberg.

There’s a problem that no solo business owner or coach ever mentions: Excess ebooks.  These are the ebooks that you began but didn’t finish.  The ebooks that represent your last digital product or your work before your business pivot.  Right now, they are sitting on your hard drive waiting to be used.

Kinda like that amazingly beautiful dress you bought because, well,  it was gorgeous and you’ll need it someday (natch). I still have an adorable fuschia silk waiting in the back of my closet for my next cruise.  Never mind that I’ll look like a pink round tennis ball. It’s there to inspire me to get in better shape and dream of new travel adventures.

This post will, hopefully, be your inspiration to repurpose your under-utilized ebook content.  After all, you already spent the time creating it.  Why not put that energy to good use and make some cash from the content?

Recycle your ebook into a new online offering & gain a new income stream (Tweet this!)

What can you do with an aging ebook?  Here are three ideas How about you share your ideas in the Comments, ok?

3 Ways to Repurpose Your Old Ebook

1.Turn your ebook into social media content

Finding more valuable content to share on social media can seem like a job, can’t it?  Even using all the great curation tools like Scoop.it or Google Alerts which bring news to you, it still takes a lot of time to sort, compose, create an image and share.  Gosh, I’m tired just writing that.

Upcycle your ebook by using excerpts as social media posts.  Boost engagement on Google Plus.  Dab a little on your Facebook status.  Pick out a provocative question to ask in your G+ community. Quote an excerpt on Twitter with a link back to your blog.  Share a graph or chart as an infographic.

Hello. I can almost hear your eyes rolling back in your head.  No, this isn’t more work.  Quite the opposite.  Recycling saves you time, provides content and gives you a second shot at brushing up your writing.  By the way, you can find help to get all of this done for you.

2. Give your ebook a makeover

I love to get a few new clothes for spring to refresh my wardrobe and get ready for summer (yeah summer!!!)  Your ebook might do well with a makeover, too.  How about changing your ebook cover?  Their styles go in and out of fashion, too.

Upcycle your ebooks’ looks, inside and out. Most ebooks are created simply without a lot of book design, which is fine. But sometimes the wrong title or cover can impact sales.  An older book with less than stellar sales could be a blockbuster with a new look. One place I see well-intentioned authors go wrong is with  book interiors that are poorly formatted and look amateurish.

Interiors are tough, for sure, if you’re not an inDesign expert.  I’m not. I found two solutions for this.  Joel Friendlander is the book designer who created Book Design Templates  and he’s a genius!  He took what I consider the hardest part of being an independent publisher- book design- and made it dead simple.

You simply select a template.  I’m partial to Focus for non-fiction business books. Nice and clean. Purchase it.  Templates are very reasonably priced for one print-on-demand or one ebook template.  Check the Tool Time here. Try a single license and if you like it you can get a multi-license to use more templates.  You’re not limited to business.  I have my eye on a children’s book template to capture the stories my kids and I made up at bedtime when they were kids.

As for the cover, no worries.  I’ve gotten very good ebook covers on Fiverr.com, the online work marketplace. It’s all about understanding how Fiverr works, setting your expectations correctly and being precise.  I talk more about that in my course Outsource Easier (new release soon)

3. Transform your ebook into an online course

Online learning is very hot right now and it will be for a while.  Smashwords reports that indie publishers will represent 50% of the ebook market by 2020.  As an authority, you can be part of that.  You can teach your online course on a variety of online platforms like Udemy, Lynda.com and Ruzuku.  Don’t have a course?  No worries.

Upcycle your ebook into a new online course offering and gain a new income stream. Your ebook was written to solve a problem or help your tribe achieve a goal. Well, that book can be turned into a self-paced  learning experience. Each chapter could become a module that you further develop to include exercises and tools.  By the way, you don’t have to be a geek.  I made my first course last year with simple tools like Powerpoint, Screenflow and Vimeo.  And whatever technical piece I couldn’t do myself, I outsourced affordably.

To be sure your course is effective and students actually learn I recommend using the ebook, Bottle your Wisdom by Dr. Kelly Edmonds.  Her book solves the problem of crafting your course.  She helps you determine what to include, how to avoid content-crammin, and ways to really engage your students for learning.

What are some other ways you’ve reused ebook ideas? Would your ebook make a good course or webinar? Please share in the Comments!

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

How to cultivate your personal brand on LinkedIn

Posted on by Red Slice

Today’s guest post is from Sandy Jones-Kaminski and it’s a topic with which I know many of you grapple. Learn more about Sandy and her fabulous offer for you at the end! Sweet.

Have you jumped on the personal brand wagon yet?

Personal branding is still a hot topic, so I thought I’d share some of the ways that you can use LinkedIn to cultivate and reinforce your personal brand.

First off, let’s agree that your personal brand represents how you market yourself to the world (Tweet this!). It’s what comes to mind when people you know think of you, and it tells folks you don’t know what you represent, offer or are a go-to person for.

As an example, my personal brand is that of a connector, networking maven and person that can almost always find a way to make things happen. It’s funny to think that back in the late 80s I unwittingly started cultivating my personal brand when I ordered custom license plates for my car that said, “HAS A WAY” on them. I happily gave those plates (and my car) up when I moved from Chicago to San Francisco in the late 90s, but that part of my personal brand identity definitely stuck.

Define Your Brand

If you haven’t identified your own personal brand yet, I recommend you spend at least a half hour this week thinking about and then listing the things:

– for which you are known

– for which you want to be known

– you are most likely to say when asked, “What qualities differentiate you from your peers (or competitors)?”

Update Your LinkedIn Profile

Rethink your headline: Distill what you’ve come up with and use it to inform the edits you should make to your LinkedIn profile. Does you headline reflect what you are versus what your job title or role is? (There’s a place for title by your company’s listing in your job history.) On mine, for example, I currently have:

Networking Expert, LinkedIn Trainer/Strategist/Blogger, Social Media Marketer, Business Developer, Author, Speaker

Create a public URL: Additionally, if you haven’t set up your Personal LinkedIn URL yet, it is time. Look under “Profile” then “Edit Profile” to find “Public Profile” and carefully consider whether you want to use your name, business name or a nickname in the URL. This is a great link to share in your email signatures or on your personal business cards if you don’t yet have a website you’re proud of or a job or a personal Tumblr or similar page. For example, mine is http://www.linkedin.com/in/sandyjk

Improve your summary: Use your “Summary” as you would an elevator pitch, brief cover letter or biography, but do make sure that your personality comes through.

A much-challenged belief that LinkedIn is your resume online is inaccurate. Your LinkedIn profile summary is actually a less formal way to present your best possible self to the professional world and when would you ever want to sound like a robot to another human? Leave the robotic resume speak for the specific job listing within your profile, but even there, let SEO (search engine optimization) tactics guide your descriptions.

Focus on words you think a prospect, recruiter or hiring manager looking for someone like you would use to search the vast LinkedIn database.

Here are a few I’ve seen in the “Specialties” section and/or within the listings in the “Experience” section:

-executive, managed, global, delivered, sold, produced, developed, wrote, author, speaker, marketing, built, start-up, etc.

Make smarter status updates: Make sure your status updates (and tweets if you’ve linked Twitter to your profile) reflect the things/topics for which you want to be known and keep your self-promotion in line by using the Pareto principle (80/20 rule) and share insights or “on brand” content 80 percent of the time and only share your good news or accomplishments 20 percent of the time.

Share your expertise: Last, but certainly not least, peruse the groups you are a member of within LinkedIn for relevant to you or your industry conversations where you can showcase your personal brand by contributing meaningful insights, knowledge or ideas. This is a great way to build your reputation and awareness with people who don’t already know you or what you represent. But, a word of caution, it’s also a great way to tarnish your personal brand if you use your comments to solely promote yourself or business or as what’s called “link bait” to get people to visit your site or Facebook page.

Hope this motivates you to jump on the personal brand wagon!

About Sandy: As the Chief Connecting Officer of Bella Domain Media, and the author of, I’m at a Networking Event–Now What???, a #1 pick on the Inc.com 2010 Business Book Wish List, Sandy shares her insights and practical advice as a LinkedIn strategist, professional development speaker/trainer, and consultant/coach. She offers Mastering LinkedIn…Beyond the Basics: a customized training for individuals or teams already using LinkedIn at an introductory or intermediate level, and would now like to maximize their use of this powerful social networking platform. You can contact her via belladomain.com to schedule your personal or group training today. Mention Red Slice to receive $50 off your first session!  And sign up for her free newsletter full of LinkedIn tips and more!

Photo credit: Joneski’s

How often do you use LinkedIn? Do you find it valuable or are you still figuring out the best way to use it to promote your brand? Please share!

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Bring it on: Why you need to ask for criticism

Posted on by Red Slice

A guest post today from the lovely Betsy and Warren Talbot, writers, dreamers and global nomads of Married With Luggage (a business I proudly helped name). With the launch of their latest book, they shared some great advice on why and how to ask for constructive criticism and how it makes your business, brand and project shine in the long run. More on them at the end. Enjoy!

My husband Warren and I recently published our fourth book, Married with Luggage: What We Learned about Love by Traveling the World. Over the years we’ve learned a lot about what works – and what doesn’t – as both business and romantic partners. And one thing we know for sure:

If you can’t take constructive criticism, you won’t ever grow to your highest potential. (Tweet this!)

If we don’t pay attention to how our audience wants to receive our story, how to make it compelling and relatable to their own relationships, and using words that matter to them, then all of our experience and wisdom aren’t worth a penny of the $15.99 price tag of the book, because no one will buy it.

We asked trusted advisors, our own audience, and random strangers within our demographic to help us get this one right, and with their constructive feedback, I think we nailed it.

How We Solicited Feedback

Before we ever wrote one word, we talked about our idea with mentors and peers we trust. The feedback sent us in a direction we hadn’t considered before (memoir vs. self-help). We also dropped the idea of making this a course first. Smart friends counseled us to use the book’s popularity to create higher-priced courses later. Already, our project was off to a great start and we saved a ton of time.

If you’ve done the work of building a great network, don’t forget to use it. (Tweet this!)

The next component tested was the title. We came up with 20 variations of titles and subtitles, swapping them around until we had 5 good choices. Then we sent it out to three sets of people: casual followers on Facebook, serious followers on our email list, and total strangers in our demographic through a site called Pickfu.

The title we ended up with is not the title we would have chosen ourselves. We also discovered several words we were using that were off-putting to our market. Imagine if we had used those words out of ignorance and then wondered why no one ever bought the book?

For the book cover, we put three very different cover ideas out for a vote via email list, Facebook, and Pickfu. Again, the cover we would have chosen was not the one overwhelmingly picked by others. In fact, our favorite came in dead last.

After writing the first draft, we sent it to a professional editor for restructuring. We were too close to the project to see the gaps and overlaps, so we trusted someone else to show us the way. We then created the second draft based on this feedback.

Then the scariest part: sharing it for review. First I read the book out loud to my husband, awaiting his response to the story we scripted out months ago. Did he like it? Not always, and that was sometimes hard to take as a wife. But his feedback was invaluable in tightening up the storyline and highlighting our message of partnership.

Five people were sent second draft copies to provide detailed feedback. These five people are my trusted sources, the people who will tell me when something is not good. And boy, did they.

Finally, the book went back for professional line editing, a polish that I couldn’t do on my own. Packaging is as important as the message within, because if a reader can’t get past a crappy cover or terrible editing, they’ll never get your message.

How Feedback Helps

When I look at the finished product, I can only marvel. It is so much more than we imagined, a book that shares our experience and wisdom in a way our audience wants to hear it. And we could have never done that without asking for feedback up front and listening to what our audience needed.

We separated our egos from our work product, and the result was was a healthier self-esteem and a better product.

ABOUT BETSY AND WARREN:  Betsy Talbot and her husband Warren are the authors of Married with Luggage: What We Learned about Love by Traveling the World. Through their popular books, engaging weekly podcast, and revealing Sunday emails, they share the unconventional wisdom they’ve learned about living, working, and traveling together since 2010. Find out more about modern love and partnership at Married with Luggage. (Photo credit: Married With Luggage)

Are you asking for constructive criticism in your business? How? Where? From whom? When did such feedback save you from a major fail? Please share in the Comments below!

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

It’s here! 7 reasons to love Branding Basics for Small Business, 2nd Edition

Posted on by Red Slice

It’s a….book!

In what will prove to be the second most exciting Spring birth for me (our son is due in May), I’m pleased as punch to share the launch today of Branding Basics for Small Business: How to Create an Irresistible Brand on Any Budget, 2nd Edition (2014, Norlights Press) with all of you.

Even if you benefitted from the first edition, I invite you to check this one out in paperback or eBook format and let me know what you think.

Here are 7 juicy reasons why your brand and your business will get a boost from what’s inside:

  1. Content marketing as the new sales model: Since the first edition in 2010, content marketing has exploded on the scene and everyone is trying to figure it out. The book includes brand new sections on what content marketing is, how it benefits your business and increases your sales, and tips on what to create, how to share it, and time-savers for getting it done.
  2. Insights from your favorite excerpts: You’ll hear from Alexandra Franzen on how to weave magic with words; Sarah Von Bargen on making blogging easier and more fun; Sandy Jones-Kaminski on tips for effective networking to grow your business (even if you think you hate it); Jay Baer on effective social media; Amy Schmittauer on how to build a doable social media plan; Ann Handley, editor of Marketing Profs on content marketing tips; DJ Waldow on how to tackle email marketing to create a loyal tribe; and The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur himself, Mike Michalowicz about not just pursuing passion before profit but how to get to know your customers intimately. They share wonderful stories and generously gave their time to help you reach your business and brand goals.
  3. Fresh new case studies to inspire you: TCHO Chocolate, Blue Bottle Coffee, Happy Herbivore, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, Taylor Stich and more. All examples of small businesses started with passion and purpose that create loyal fans and killer brands without multi-million dollar marketing budgets.
  4. Social media made simple: I expanded the social media “how-to’s” section in Part 3 to include how to build a plan, how to manage your time and how to create delightful content that doesn’t keep you chained to your computer 24/7.
  5. To blog or not to blog: New content talks specifically about blogging, how and why to consider it part of your mix and ideas for posts when your creative well is running dry.
  6. Launch Week bonuses: Purchase a paperback or eBook format, send the receipt to info (at) red-slice (dot) com by April 7 and get your free digital bonus swag bag of business-building resources from experts you love, including worksheets, tips and an entire book from CRAVE’s Melody Biringer! More details here.
  7. A FREE teleseminar on April 2: If you read this in time, you can still sign up for my free launch week teleseminar, 5 Clever Ways to Boost Your Brand Online. Sign up here NOW as those on the call will have a chance to win 1 of 3 free signed copies or 1 of 3 free Red Slice Brand Bootcamp digital courses ($197 value)

Feel free to Tweet the love today or find other promo posts on this handy page. I’d be honored.

Thank you for your support as this 2nd edition went from idea to reality. I really hope you enjoy it and would love to hear what you think, so let me know once you’ve finished it or feel free to post an online review. Thanks!

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Are you a solopreneur? 3 perks and 3 downsides you can easily combat

Posted on by Red Slice

Going solo in your business is either a launch strategy or a deliberate business model choice. Sometimes you are just getting off the ground and you’re a party of One, doing everything from accounting to marketing to product development. Other times, though, you are intentionally creating a lifestyle business and don’t want extra complication from staff, tax requirements or overhead.

I’ve deliberately chosen a “solopreneur” model for my business and have no plans to build an agency. I like being in control, not managing people and being able to handle the ebbs and flows that writing and consulting bring. Plus, I find it’s easy to keep overhead low and ramp up or pare down by partnering with others as needed.

Being a solopreneur both rocks and sucks – but you can combat the latter (Tweet this!). Perhaps you can relate?

Three perks to being a solopreneur business:

  • Control: You maintain control over all business and marketing decisions. There are no politics to deal with or egos to soothe. After my long stint in corporate America, this is a godsend for my stress level.
  • Creativity: You can get crazy creative on marketing ideas, promotional pushes and even which projects you take on.
  • Speed: When you make a decision, you’re done and off to the races. No internal selling, pleading or persuasion required. I have decided on marketing efforts in the morning and implemented them by that afternoon, easy peasy. I can take advantage of last-minute opportunities and react fast.

OK, couldn’t resist a 4th bonus perk:

  • Selectivity: You can work with who you like, when you like. And if it doesn’t work out, you never have to sub-contract that person or continue with that client or customer ever again if you don’t want to.

With upside, comes downside, though.

Three challenges of being a solopreneur – and steps you can take to alleviate the pain:

  • Lack of collaboration: If you’re extroverted like me, one of the joys of working on a team is a meeting where you’re all hashing out ideas on a whiteboard. You can get out of your own head and vet ideas with other smart people. Working solo, you miss out on that sanity check from others and potentially limit your thinking, creativity or perspective. Those voices in your head may be leading you astray and you might never know it.

COMBAT THIS! Pull together your own makeshift Board of Directors or accountability group of other solopreneurs. Choose people you respect but who also come at things from a different point of view. I collaborate with a few key partners and often ask to bounce ideas off of them or seek their advice when making a major decision. Another colleague of mine often will email a close group of trusted partners to get a consensus or conversation going when she needs to make a quick decision. Your collaborative team won’t be handed to you when you work alone, spout one together yourself – and offer to play that role for others if they need it.

  • Loneliness: If you’re an extrovert like me, this is kind of related to the one above, but it’s more than that. I miss shared office moments, blowing off steam with others, lunch dates, heck even water cooler gossip. I even go in to my husband’s office or a coffee shop every now and then to work just to be around other people. Talking to the dog only gets me so far, and even gets bored with my running commentary and retreats to the other room every now and then.

COMBAT THIS! Get social on your own. Make time for coffee dates to form relationships with other freelancer colleagues. Join local groups and associations. Participate in online forums. Attend conferences. Force yourself out of your office at least 2-3 times per week just to be social. Or arrange phone  or Skype meetings with other solopreneurs where you can each just unwind for 30 minutes, laugh, share, vent and support each other.

  • Lack of resources: It’s all you, baby! You are chief cook, bottle washer and accountant. If you don’t do it, it won’t get done. Your  to-do list is never complete and there are always way more ideas than hours in the day or mental energy that you can expend. It can be hard to unplug when you are all you’ve got. And this can lead to stress, headaches, poor health and damaged relationships.

COMBAT THIS: Ask for help. You are not supposed to be an expert at everything. Why do you think companies and org charts exist? If you are not technical, outsource your website maintenance and design. If you hate writing, hire a part-time writer to put together your materials or blog posts. If you know something will never get done if it stays on your To-Do list, hire someone else to do it for you! The flip side is that this scarcity mentality helps you pare down to the most important tasks in your business right now. Save the stuff you love to do, or the tasks only you can do for your precious time and attention: everything else? Get help. Hire a virtual assistant. Send your receipts to a bookkeeper. One big caveat here: don’t barter for everything. You simply exchange one set of tasks taking up your time for another. If you want to really free up time, make the investment in paying someone else to do it.

Photo credit: 55Laney69 on Flickr

Your turn: Are you a solopreneur? What do you love best? What do you love least and how do you deal with it? Are you temporarily a solopreneur or do you have plans to stay that way? We want to know so please share below in the Comments!

 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Boost your brand: 3 tips to make blogging easier

Posted on by Red Slice

Blah, blah, BLOGGING.

If you just sighed in disgust, overwhelm or sheer panic at simply reading the B-word, I’d like to talk to you today. Blogging is, in my opinion, one of the single best ways to grow your business, boost your brand and hustle up some thought leadership street cred. Think of it like you are the editor of your own little magazine: press releases and pitching be darned! You have the ultimate in with the editor of You.com -YOU.

How can blogging help your brand and business?

  • It gives you a forum to promote your expertise and point of view
  • It’s SEO-licious, meaning you can write about your core product or service areas and search engines will develop huge crushes on you
  • It provides your target audience with information, advice, entertainment – all great things to build community and nurture future sales and customer loyalty
  • It offers you content to share in social media (for those days when you’re like, “What the heck should I tweet about?”
  • It gives visitors a reason to keep coming back to your site
  • It provides the press with examples of your expertise in case they are writing a story for which you’d be PERFECT

I could go on and on…. “But I hate writing,Mariiiiiiaaaaaa!” (enter whining) “I don’t have time.” “What should I blog about?” I will admit that I have it a bit easier, as I love writing – it’s my favorite form of expression. But even I have days where I face a blank Word document, with a blinking cursor mocking my lack of creativity. We all do. The muse does not always show up when it’s convenient for us.  (TWEET THIS!) Sometimes she’s out grabbing a caramel macchiato and surfing One Kings Lane for fun household furnishings.

So here are 3 tips for making blogging easier and – hell – more fun:

  1. Jot down every question someone has ever asked you about your line of work: Seriously, the juicy ones, the silly ones, the obvious ones, the annoying ones.  Are you a knitting store? How about “How can I learn to knit?” “Where can I find fashionable patterns?” “Isn’t this something just old women do?” Or are you a personal trainer: “What are the best super foods I should be eating?” “How can I start on Day One if I’m overweight?” “Don’t I need to be wealthy to have a personal trainer?” Perhaps you’re a social media consultant: “How do I start on Twitter?” “Which platforms should I be on?” “When are the best times to post on Facebook?” – or even “What questions should I ask to find a good social media consultant?” Got your list? BOOM. You just came up with 3 months worth of blog post topics.
  2. Rif on trendy topics: The Grammy’s are coming up. Can you relate something about your business back to music, a Grammy winning star or even something controversial that happened at the show? New movies come out all the time. Can you relate some tips about your products or services back to a popular film? These kind of posts are as fun to write as they are to read – and you can take advantage of trending topics when promoting the content on social media. For example, if #Grammys are hot, hot, hot the day after the event, you can use that hashtag to promote your post.
  3. Interview interesting people: Who would your target audience (or you) love to hear from? Are there related experts who complement what you provide that would be valuable for your readers? You don’t have to come up with all the blog post ideas yourself – sometimes the best thing to do is feature another interesting person with juicy nuggets of wisdom to share. Not only will your audience love it, but you create a built-in promotional partner – and you get to be generous and support someone else’s great brand so perhaps later they may support you.

Photo credit: Foxtongue on Flickr

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Got goals? 6 resources to get your butt into gear this year

Posted on by Red Slice

Hello, 2014! How the hell are ya?!

Now that you’re emerged from your eggnog-induced haze and dusted off the last of the New Years Eve glitter (why does that stuff always seem to stick around for weeks? It’s a mystery…) you are ready to tackle the new year. Right? RIGHT?!

But what does that mean, to tackle the new year? Sounds so adversarial, as if the new year is waiting to mug you and steal your wallet.

We’ve all done the rounds of “New Year Planning:” resolutions, goal setting, visioning, action plans. I used to go into each year with a set of goals organized by topic: Fitness, Career, Writing. That worked for a while….until the year I had major health issues. And then New Year Planning became much airier and flexible, which made me happier. I started thinking about only 2-3 big goals. Things I wanted to accomplish rather than do. Last year, I went a step further and simply picked 2 themes to guide my year, and I mapped every activity to them,

As you get this year’s  goals into gear, here are 6 resources that will add some awesome sauce to your big plans. Remember, any dream starts with a single small step. (Tweet this!)

Goal: Get my book written and published, damn it! Got a book inside you yearning to burst forth and illuminate the world? A book is always more than just a book. Much more. Writing a book could direct the course of your career for the rest of your life. It could lead to infinitely important connections, multiple revenue streams, spin off products, international relations. It could start a revolution. You need a plan.  YOUR BIG BEAUTIFUL BOOK PLAN (Click on Shop when you get there) is a digital program to get tyour word into the world — where it belongs.

Goal: Simplify and declutter my physical (and mental) life. Check out The Declutter Clinic from Married With Luggage. Warren and Betsy ditched their urban corporate life, sold everything they owned and now travel the world writing books, blogging and speaking about how to live your dream. The first step? Ditch the clutter. Get practical and fun strategies to organize, store and sell your stuff, breathe easier and make room for growth – whether you want to travel the world or simply create a more open environment.

Goal: Have an awesome website, blog and (sensible) social media plan that attracts mad traffic: Run, don’t walk and hire Sarah Von Bargen for a Clever Session or a souped-up Solution Session. This woman attracts tens of thousands of blog readers each day. She’s fun. She’s practical. And she’ll show you time-saving tips and tricks to make you “awesome on the internet.” Yes, I’m biased: she’s my writing partner in crime, and I also took a session myself.

Goal: Write better emails. Articulate everything better: Alexandra Franzen, self-expression guru extraordinaire, has got you covered. Sign up for her I Heart Email course starting Jan 10. Or if you want to just generally articulate your life/business/mission/manifesto in a clearer, juicier way, take one of her Write Yourself into Motion workshops (tour schedule coming soon, but get on her email list to find out first!)

Goal: Create an irresistible brand and marketing strategy for myself, my business or my cause: Put that donut down and get your business and brand booty in shape this year with my digital self-study MOMENTUM Pro. Through fun playbooks you can do at your own pace, I’ll walk you step by step through defining your mission, your target market, your messaging and your value.  All so your marketing efforts work. 

Goal: Create goals with soul and get more of what I desire: Turn goal-setting on its ear with Danielle LaPorte’s fabulous resources for living the life you want to live. The Desire Map (Click on Shop when you get there) is an interactive experience that maps your core desired feelings first and then informs how you plan your day, year, career, holidays and life.

Photo credit:  Es.mond on Flickr

Your turn: What are you “tackling” this year? Goals, visions, themes, desires? Please share in the Comments and I’ll share any resources to help you. Hopefully, others can chime in, too!

 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Give thanks + 7 ways to support your fave small businesses!

Posted on by Red Slice

Gobble, gobble. Turkey Day is coming up. But don’t forget the other, more greedy, consumer-driven “gobble:” Black Friday. Kill me.

I’m not saying I won’t shop online. But you’d have to pay me millions of dollars to drag my butt out of bed at 3 am like a crazy person and wait in line at Best Buy just to save $25. My time’s worth more than that.  I see those mobs on the news and think, “My God, this is what the apocalypse will look like.”

But I’ve got something better for you: November 30 is Small Business Saturday (and read on for something extra-special, oh ye small biz owners…)

If you’ve not heard of this gem, it’s your chance to support your community and local business owners.  When you shop independent, locally-owned businesses, 52% of what you spend stays right in your community, supporting local organizations and services.

Like many people, I’ll be finding some bargains online at Amazon and the like. But I’m also going to make an effort to support my neighborhood. Here are 7 ideas for you:

  1. Purchase gifts and cards at a local indie bookstore or independent card shop
  2. Enjoy date night with your significant other at a beloved family-owned restaurant in town
  3. On said date night, hire a neighborhood babysitter (hey, they are technically small businesses, too)
  4. Buy yourself something sparkly to wear for the holidays at a small local boutique. Bet no one else will have the same thing!
  5. Buy holiday decorations from a small indie crafts store (not the big chains)
  6. Hire a locally owned maid service to clean up after an exhausting Thanksgiving dinner
  7. Get holiday card photos taken by an independent photographer in your city

 

Your success as a small business means better communities, more local services and more innovation. I’d love to support you in your work and help you shine.

Happy thanksgiving, ya’ll! hope you have a wonderful day with friends and family, giving thanks for all we have to be grateful for.

 

Cash flow, creativity, and compassion are not mutually exclusive™

Which wine would your brand be? (Feel free to sample a lot just to be sure)

Posted on by Red Slice

If your brand were a vegetable, what would it be?

I know, sometimes brand strategy questions can seem esoteric and ridiculous. I mean, really, what the heck does asparagus tell me about how I can make smarter marketing decisions and attract more customers, sales and word of mouth?

But creating a brand analogy for ourselves can often help us make smarter decisions for our business. (Tweet!)

The only 2 questions on which I really ever probe clients in this vein are “If your brand were a person, place or fictional character, what would it be and why?” and “You are the (BLANK) of your industry” which usually ends up being something car-related. For example, we’re the “Porsche of our industry: fast, sexy and super expensive” or “We’re the Jetta of our industry: Fun, reliable, approachable and not too flashy.”

These exercises can really help you make sense of how your brand “stacks up” in a potential customer’s mind. As I talk about in my book, Branding Basics, you want to be intentional about where people slot you in their mental file drawers. Creating such analogies can help you wrap your head around determining the right tone, visual style and even brand voice for your efforts.

So here’s a fun Slice of Adventure for you today:

Given my love for all things wine, think about “Which wine would your brand be and why?”

Is your brand a peppery, spicy Zinfandel? Are you a crisp, clean Sauvignon Blanc? A bold Cabernet Sauvignon that can take on any hearty dish or complex meat with ease? A more exotic, quirky and harder to find varietal: a gentler yet berry-filled Carménère? Or perhaps a complex, eclectic blend such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape?

Maybe your brand is a rustic and traditional Chianti. Or an effervescent, bubbly, and high-style Champagne!

And don’t forget winemaker brands, either: Are you a mass market Mondavi or Yellowtail or a more affluent Silver Oak? Perhaps you’re even an exclusive, rare, luxury Chateau Lafite.

If you have a good grasp on who you are in relation to your competition, you can make much smarter decisions about content, voice, pricing and visual style so you attract the right people with the right message at the right time.

Creating a “brand analogy” helps you walk, talk and look exactly how you want (Tweet this!)

So now it’s your turn: think about your brand voice, personality, style, target audience and price point and tell us in the Comments below, which wine are you?