Category Archives: how to be

Take yourself seriously

Published May 8, 2012

Fooling around with your marketing?

Stella’s undies are all twisted up. And it’s making her kinda crankypants.

I’ve been talking to too many service professionals who have their sights set on greatness.

They have some ambitious goals for their business.

They want some serious income. But the problem is…

They aren’t taking themselves seriously.

Because to grow your business with online marketing, you gotta take yourself seriously.

What does that mean, exactly?

You have to hustle. For example, you must hustle your buns to write your newsletter every week. Even when you are tired. Even when the day exploded on you and you’d rather

…

Posted in brand + message, copywriting, how to be

The tough love talk

Published May 1, 2012

You need more than online marketing to grow you biz

Dear ambitious service professional,

I love your drive.

I admire your moxie.

And I really, really want to work with you to craft your message and start your movement.

But here’s the thing: I am talking to too many smart business owners who have convinced themselves that all they need is online marketing + words to make them money.

And it just isn’t true.

Here’s a partial list of what else you need:

- a plan for how you will systematically promote your work
- clarity about what your business is and how you make money at it
- other …

Posted in brand + message, copywriting, how to be

The big 5 writing problems (and the cure)

Published April 24, 2012

Get the roadmap, I’ll help you make your message your own

When you intend to use online marketing to grow your business, there are 5 problems that crop up

1. Finding time to write everything
2. How long it takes to research, post, publish and send
3. What to write – a.k.a. your message
4. What to write – not your message, but which strategy to use
5. How to persuade people using words

I spend a whole 6 months in my Uncork Your Message lab teaching my clients how to do this. But I see this dense thicket of problems causing such trouble for service professionals—I can’t keep it to …

Posted in brand + message, copywriting, how to be

Like playing tennis on a plane.

Published April 16, 2012

Are you trying to be too fancy in your writing?

There’s two kinds of writing in this world, when it comes to marketing your business.

Regular and too fancy.

Regular is when you just say “here’s what I’m selling” and just—PLUNK—put it out there. A lot of fliers do this. Unfortunately, so do a lot of emails.

Regular writing doesn’t work so well when it comes to promoting your business.

Because regular writing rarely answers the question “what’s in it for me?”… which is the question that your reader is asking herself. Without talking in HER language about the results SHE wants, your stuff falls on deaf ears. Or …

Posted in brand + message, copywriting, how to be, how to write

How to start a rumor.

Published April 3, 2012

Loose lips sink ships – and get people reading.

Remember how rumors start?

Lean in.

Look to your left. Look to your right.

Lean in some more.

And with a twinkle in your eye, tell your confidante something totally hot and dripping with juice.

“Oooh, this is so good. Promise me you won’t tell anyone else.”

I mean, right?

We all know how it’s done, people.

The real knack is translating that kind of “delicious secret” energy to your copy.

Another way to think of this is: what are the best-kept secrets in your line of work—that you’re ready to share with the lucky ducks who opted-in to …

Posted in brand + message, copywriting, how to be, how to write