Category Archives: brand + message

Take off your fancypants.

Published June 19, 2012

Quit trying to dazzle people

True story: before I wrote copy, I wrote short plays.

The last play I wrote was based on my friendship with two dear friends. It was a deeply personal piece called “The Things We Lost (Socks We Miss The Most)” about 4 women who go into the woods in search of everything they’d ever lost in their lives. (Heady, right?).

I loved that play so much. Sometimes I made myself cry when I was writing it, because it was so personally meaningful to me. I felt that I was being vulnerable and taking risks… expressing how much I loved and …

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The world’s worst geishas.

Published June 12, 2012

It’s not about you. It’s about them.

Picture a geisha.

She’s lovely. She’s charming. She knows how to tell stories and dance and play an instrument. Her wit is disarming. She makes you laugh and can speak artfully. She asks you questions, and she is genuinely interested in what you have to say.

It would make you feel like the world revolves around you. Wouldn’t it?

But then the conversation takes a turn. She starts talking about how it took her several hours to do her hair and makeup. She tells you that she’s been taking fan dancing lessons in a little town outside the city every …

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4 things to do when you don’t know what to write

Published June 5, 2012

There is something about pen and paper that shifts the way you think

Sweet petunias!

Hopping horseradish!

Sparkling seahorses!

I knew this day would come.

The day I reveal to you that I don’t always know what to write about.

It’s perfect, actually.

Because it’s Monday night, and I just got home from improv class. Where a bunch of adults agree to suspend the normal rules of interaction, talk gibberish, make things up, and see what happens.

(Tonight, I was a stewardess, a scuba instructor, and a 14-year-old auditioning for the Village People).

And the whole thing about improv is that whatever you do is okay. Which is a message that we Recovering …

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5 Simple Steps to a Clearer Message

Published May 29, 2012

Is your message "mealy"?

There’s a rampant problem out there, superstars. And it’s gutting your ability to win raving fans and high-caliber clients from your newsletter, website, and emails.

I call it the “mealy message.”

Have you ever bitten into an apple that’s mealy?

They may look all shiny and red, but when you bite into them, they make your mouth say “yuk”! The texture is all grainy and gross. The flavor is bland. And no amount of convincing can get you to take another bite.

Mealy messages are the same.

And if you can’t get your readers to keep reading… if you can’t …

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Is your message attracting cheapskates?

Published May 22, 2012

Tire kickers + cheapskates are not ideal clients

This whole “message in your marketing” thing is a slippery fish.

But it’s a slippery fish that really can make or break your business.

Case in point: if your message and words are attracting clients who can’t afford you. (Or worse: who can afford you, but don’t want to.)

Now, of course, it makes sense to look within to your own beliefs about money and self-worth.

But it also makes sense to look at your message and evaluate what you are “putting out there.”

Here are some of the ways your message may be attracting cheapskate clients:

1) You talk …

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