Last night I was explaining to a non-writing friend how I’ve learned over the years to implant a healthy dose of doubt and more than a little moxie into dealings with new clients. As she gasped and muttered “Oh dear” as I mentioned casually that even new clients are thought of in terms of how…
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Meme, Myself, and I
In a double team effort, Devon Ellington and Susan Johnston have both seen fit to lambaste me with two separate meme tags. The first one is seven random things about me, and the second is three writing tips. Seven Random Things: 1. I hate memes.2. Like Susan, I have an addiction to Starbucks chai lattes-…
Beginning Writers, Listen Up
If any of you out there are interested in some solid info on how to start, where to start and what to do once you start, toddle over to Michele Tune’s blog. Michele’s got a really cool three-part beginner’s series, and she spells it out for you pretty succinctly. What I like is she’s given…
Is There a Wrong Way to Network?
Seems like a stupid question doesn’t it? But if you think about it, you’ve probably been the victim of someone who’s guilty of bad networking. Let me give you an example: Years ago, a salesperson came to our house trying to sell us meat products. Mind you, she played it up nicely, saying the steaks…
The Year of Better Work Habits
So far, January is starting out well. Not that there’s a ton of work in my “pipeline”, but that there’s a lot more planning on my part. Today I’m off to visit a potential client a few hours away, and I hope the connection will be successful in terms of work. If not, I’ve made…
Do the Follow-Up Thing
As indicated by my previous post, following up with clients has been a bit of a weak area for me. However, the times I’ve managed to do so (and not sound like a bumbling fool), it’s paid off in some way. Either I get valuable feedback on how to improve myself going forward, or I…
Mistakes and What They Teach Us
I’ve often wondered why actors aren’t expected to study bad movies more often. Isn’t it true that we learn from our mistakes just as much as we learn from what others have done well? Over on Kristen King’s blog, guest author Steve Wagenheim gives tips for copywriting in 2008, one of which stood out more…
Most Talked About
Let’s take one more look back on 2007 and see what posts on this blog were tops, ‘kay? And instead of my rattling off a list of my ten most favorite whinings, I’m letting you do the talking. Literally. Your posted comments have determined the Top Ten posts of 2007. I’m talking about the sheer…
New Year, New You?
Let’s be honest; we somehow equate the beginning of each year with the chance to reinvent ourselves. And we do – for about a month. All our good intentions become crammed into the first week of the new year. Some are reasonable goals, such as contacting X number of potential clients per week. Others are…
Labor of Love
We have this project going in the bedroom – we’ve chosen an arts-and-crafts stencil and now we want to put a Swedish poem on the wall as a border. See, his godfather was the Poet Laureate of Sweden – Bertil Malmberg – and I thought it would be a fitting addition to our Swedish bedroom…