Of business and butterflies
Is the "message" of your business clear and ready to take flight?
There's something I see many business owners, coaches, and entrepreneurs going through, and it's time to give it a name.
As a business owner and entrepreneur, your livelihood bubbles up from the cold water spring of your core. You're a manifesting engine (even if you don't *like* the word "manifesting"). You're a factory of ideas, messages, and happenings.
You are the recipe, the cook, and the kitchen.
What all this means is that you are much more likely to stop dead in your tracks and say "HEY! This isn't the right direction anymore!" than people who are called Employees. This is called being in alignment with your work, and as an entrepreneur, you sometimes find that what you've been doing for awhile isn't awesome anymore.
And when that happens, it's often kind of scratchy. Uncomfortable. Inconvenient.
So I'd like to remind you of another shape-shifter, in the hopes that its life might offer insight into your own.
Enter the butterfly... or really, the caterpillar. This is a different sort of butterfly effect from the "a butterfly beats her wings in South America and there's a dust storm in Tehran" thing. It's about what phase of business and creating you're in.
Caterpillar Phase- You're out of the egg and crawling, life is good, you're moving along just fine, feeling the sun on your back. In this phase in your business, you have harvested an earlier idea, direction shift, or strategy and have "grounded" it into your habits & way you do business.
Cocoon Phase- The day comes when it's time to build a little chrysalis around you, and withdraw from the outside world. In this phase in your business, you see or learn something that triggers you, or calls you deeper into your practice, service, or business. You may notice that what you used to love doing isn't "doing" it for you any more.
"Liquid Goo" Phase - Did you know that a caterpillar actually melts down inside the cocoon? It's neither caterpillar nor butterfly... it's just ooey-gooey goo. In this phase in your business, you may feel lost and utterly out-to-sea. You know that your heart isn't in what you used to do, sell, or offer, and you may also have a sense of where you'd like to go. But there's also an "oh, brother" irritation with all the change on the horizon. Do you *really* have to go back and redo your message and all the stuff you've already created?
Butterfly Phase - Time passes, the sun rises and sets, and lo-and-behold, the goo has congealed into a majestic, beautiful butterfly, with bright, vivid colors... and the ability to fly. In this phase of your business, you are ready for an audience--and ideal clients! You are clear on your message, you know how to package your products and services, and you have a vision for the support team and budget you need to emerge in your shimmery-winged splendor. People see this, and feel the energy behind what you are doing. As a result, they are drawn to your marketing, programs, and products (it almost looks like magic).
Can you recognize which phase your business is currently in? If you've been having trouble marketing your products and services lately, there's a good chance that you are in Liquid Goo Phase. And your difficulty attracting clients and closing sales is because you are trying to pilot a cocoon. Your message isn't fully developed, you're not totally clear or comfortable with what you're up to, and so you're putting mixed signals out into the world.
No matter the phase your business is in, knowing where you are can only help. It keeps you from spending on projects that you're not ready for. It prevents you from being hard on yourself. It gives you insight into how to best spend your time, or whose help you need to move your business along to the next phase. And, perhaps best of all, it reminds you that eventually, once you have gone through each phase completely, you are bound to fly.
Photo courtesy of me, and my trip to the Miami MetroZoo, one of the coolest zoos I've ever visited.
How to eat a donut
Want proof that all is indeed well in the world?
Eat a donut.
But don't just eat the thing. Really taste it. Savor it. Allow it to overtake your senses, and steer you to a place that reminds you that life really is sweet. (And that to enjoy it, you need to be just a little naughty!)
This morning, I had the pleasure of tasting la dolce vita again. Like a visit to the fountain of youth, a trip to my favorite donut shop in the whole world has a magical way of reviving and revitalizing me.
And while Mighty-O Donuts really are the best donuts I've ever tasted, it wasn't just the fried dough that's delicious. It was the moment.
The whole reason I was in Seattle this weekend was for my friend Christy's wedding. Christy & I were in grad school together. She's still a classroom teacher, and I went on to be an "outside the classroom" teacher. When we were in school, we occasionally went out for donuts, to sip some of that legendary Seattle coffee... while we dished on the events of our days.
The cool part was that we never took a donut for granted. It was something celebrated, something special. Before that first bite, we'd often tap our donuts together. A kind of donut "toast." Without really intending it, we'd created a ritual around eating donuts, of all things. A momentary pause where we felt the mouth-watering anticipation of eating something indulgent, and a flash of gratitude, to be doing it together.
Several of my Seattle friends used to meet me at the donut shop in those days. To partake in the ritual. I remember my friend Annie once showing up at the soup kitchen I worked at, looking rather disheveled. It was the week before finals. "I haven't washed my hair all week," she said. "And haven't even thought about laundry." She gestured down at her outfit, best described as a "sweatsuit." But she'd managed to buy dozen donuts, and was eating one a day, as a kind of countdown calendar. "So long as I have my daily donut," she said, "I figure everything is going to be okay."
I moved away from Seattle six years ago. And I find that I don't really even like most donuts anymore, in an interesting twist. But I was secretly delighted when I found myself with a little extra time before my train left today... and Christy & I went out for donuts & lattes before brunch. ("Like an appetizer to our breakfast!," we reasoned.)
And, sure enough, one taste and all over again, the meaning of donut-eating coursed through my system, plump with all its reminders of a life well lived. Savor life. Show up for your friends. Get disproportionately excited about little things. Eat salads, but don't only eat salads. Being naughty is fun. And there's nothing quite as wonderful as a little dessert before breakfast.
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This is being written on the train to Portland. How cool is that?! I'm taking an early holiday to visit old friends who knew me even before I was born... and then gather with my sweetie Mark's family in Breckenridge, Colorado mid-week. I'll be back at my writing desk in Miami next Monday, November 22.
On Vacation: Why Time Off Makes You Smarter
Hitchhiking to Jackson, Wyoming.
Little Neck, Massachusetts
5:17 pm
This just in:
Going on vacation can actually help your business grow.
(Ridiculous, I know, but hear me out here. This one's gonna make some of you downright itchy!)
As a recovering perfectionist and pure-bred workhorse, I know all about the idea that doing “a little more” work each day gets me further ahead. (Ahead of what, I’m still a little foggy on. But surely, it’s something completely and totally awesome...)
That said, guess what I did after I had more business than I knew what to do with in June…
I took a big, fat, hairy five-week vacation.
To be totally honest, it was an experiment. Could I possibly leave work that I love behind, and sneak off to ride bikes through Yellowstone National Park, visit loved ones in Montana and Massachusetts, and go on walkabout? I did it when I was someone else’s employee…
…but was that even possible when you’re your own boss?
(Insert disembodied, booming, divine-sounding voice here. With bright beaming stage lights, too, if you’ve got ‘em handy:)
Yes!
Not only is it possible, it’s necessary.
Here’s the fear: that if I leave my business, all my clients, prospects, and projects will shrivel up and die on the vine.
And here’s the truth:
Get over yourself, darling!
Let’s not beat around the bush here. Vacation makes us better, smarter, more attractive people. Here are 3 reasons why:
1. You’ve got to leave your “familiar” to stay on your toes.
Stephen Covey in his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says something awesome about making time to “sharpen the saw” of your mind and expertise every week. Vacation does this on a deeper level. If you do the same things, talk to the same people, and solve the same problems day after day, eventually you’ll run dry. Fact. Getting out of your routine puts you on the path of new learning, new ideas, and new directions.
And if those things don’t grow your business, honey, nothing will.
(For instance: In my "civilian life," I know that hitchhiking is a horrible, dangerous, do-you-have-a-death-wish? idea. But when you're on a bicycle in Yellowstone National Park and need to get somewhere fast, you don't have a lot of choices.
The photo above is of my friend Elizabeth, who's a psychologist in her civilian life, and me, in the minivan of 3 kiddos from Omaha, en route 77 miles to Walmart in Wyoming because little Arla managed to lose both her left shoes camping. I learned plenty about her 8-year-old brother's take on technology during the ride. And had to leave my familiar to do it.)
2. Good ideas find you more easily.
As small business owners and entrepreneurs, we tend to dwell in “transmission” mode. Broadcasting, communicating, and connecting. But vacation can move us into “receiver” mode. Where we relax enough to listen to those “still, small voices” within us.
Which is where grace, serendipity, and insight live.
Case in point: talking with my dad, a Human Resources professional, about how he helped one of his neighbors who was looking for work this summer.
They were working on the fellow’s resume, and my dad said something awesome about using words that show you are a thoughtful person who knows your line of work... but also that you're a person who uses language that's "just a bit more interesting" than the tired, overused language that everyone else uses. ("He's a salesman who listens. How many salespeople know that their skill involves more than just talking?")
“Sparklewords,” he called them. This hit me like a lightning bolt: this is what good copywriting is all about! (And why hadn’t I come up with that?!) I never would have met that idea had I stayed at home, working. I had to get out, into the larger field of life.
3. You’re better looking.
Sunday’s Boston Globe just had an article about “the next chapter in civil rights,” which they termed the “beauty bias.” Apparently, people want to work with people who are attractive. Shocker!
But if that’s the case, then it’s just one MORE reason to take a vacation.
Relaxation, leisure, and joy have the strongest anti-aging effects known to humankind (though we still keep talking about botox and surgery as if they were the real secrets to staying young that nobody talked about).
If you’re looking to attract your ideal clients—whether it’s through your website, networking, content marketing or any other campaign—your happiness, calm, and satisfaction are very real ingredients in your success.
So whether you’re working on building a smarter website or growing your business, I wish you an inspired, restorative and fabulous vacation. Let me know how it goes. But only after you’re back in the office.
Why Killer Copy Must Get Away With Murder
“…And you must murder your darlings.”
The most chilling words I’ve ever heard. Not uttered by a psychopath. But by one of my writing teachers*.
And when it comes to writing copy that sizzles like a shrimp kabob on a hot summer grill, there’s no better piece of advice I can give.
Why Your Darlings Need To Go
Because you really love what you do…
…But the rest of us just don’t get it.
Say, for example, you sell cardboard boxes. And because you’re a person committed to doing what you love, you can’t get enough of the stiff corrugated stuff.
In this example, you know all sorts of tidbits about where the pulp comes from. The weight each box can hold. The name of the guy who had the original patent, and used the stuff for wrapping thingmabobs.
So when the time comes to create a website, article, or brochure, these sorts of things are top mind.
Know what I say to that?
Off with their heads!
The cold-blooded truth is that your audience – be they clients, customers, fans, or people who have yet to join your tribe – aren’t thinking about that stuff. So you’ve got to kill off your perspective in order to connect with the perspective of your people.
(The salespeople at big box computer and audio stores are notorious for not doing this. Instead of telling you how a certain tech doodad will help you get your X, Y, and Z done in half the time it takes you now, most seem hard-wired to tell you about the number of gigahertz, megapixels, and bits. This is what happens when your darlings live to breed. You leave with a printer that takes a small foreign army to install.)
After Your Darlings are Dead
Many businesses have copy that doesn’t work because it’s focused on the wrong thing. It talks about “all the things we do” instead of “how this will help you solve your itchiest, burning-est problem.”
What we’re actually talking about here is “features” versus “benefits.”
Features are all the different aspects of your product or service. These are your darlings. Benefits, on the other hand, answer your reader’s question: “What’s in it for me?”
In other words, how does your cardboard box make my life easier?
Find and speak to their darlings, and they’ll want to speak to you.
Here’s How
Think through the specific problems you solve for your people—clients, customers, fans, readers, whatever. Put some good ole elbow grease into translating the your service or product into the value it adds and the way it enriches the lives of those who use it…
…and you are bound to be successful.
It’s the difference between a business that describes itself as “a mechanic” and one that says: “When you call us with a flat tire, a live human being picks up the phone, and dispatches a tow truck within the half hour. Along with a chocolate chip cookie that’s on the house.”
So go ahead, and kill off those darlings. Let me know how it goes.
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*(Hugo House. Seattle. Lovely organization, by the way. If you even happen to find yourself on Capitol Hill, I recommend checking it out. It’s the sort of living, breathing cultural hub that I have such a soft spot for. One that works with high school students, readers of the New Yorker, emerging writers, big name writer-types, prisoners, and punk rockers. Another entry for the Orange Guide.)
