Growing up, my family moved frequently. No one was in the military, it just took my folks awhile to decide where they wanted to settle down. By the eighth grade, I’d gone to something like 10 different schools. I learned to adapt, and adaptability has served me well.

In my professional life, I’ve adapted to many different working environments, from the classroom to retail establishments to office settings. Working from my living room for the last three years has been by far the most comfortable workplace! But, it is time for a change. Beginning on May 28, 2013, I will begin working full time as a writer for  Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology. Not many jobs would be worth exchanging my pajama pants for more traditional office garb, but I did not hesitate to take this one! In addition to writing articles, and editing some student-submitted articles, I will have some input on the social media policies and activities of Psi Chi.

So, what will become of Smiling Tree Writing, both the blog and the business?

As for the business, I will continue to serve the majority of my current clients, but become very selective about taking on new ones. The blog will continue very much as it always has – that is to say, sporadically and unpredictably. There is a strong likelihood the Independent Writing Series will be expanded, simply because the business of self-publishing fascinates me. I still firmly believe that we are witnessing a shift in how books are written and distributed that is as important as the invention of the printing press.

It seems that people all over are undertaking big changes recently. Friends in Phoenix, Boston, and Northern California have found jobs; new cars and new babies and new relationships seem to fill my Facebook feed. Maybe it’s just that I’m experiencing a change so notice these things more, or maybe there is a bigger shift going on. What do you think? Are you taking on new challenges lately? 

 

 

 

 

Read More

From Friday evening until Monday afternoon, the modem that makes the phone and internet service in my house work stopped working. At first, I was annoyed because I wanted to see what was happening on Twitter and Facebook. Then, I was worried because, “What if client’s were trying to get in touch with me?” So, throughout the day Monday, I was anxious, but also secretly a little excited that by the time I finally checked my email, there

would be a couple of requests for work, or at least requests for more information in there.

Stop laughing. I can hope.

Of course my inbox was full of LinkedIn updates (I’ve got to turn those emails off somehow!) and spam from Amazon.

So then I started thinking about what I would have done all day Monday if I hadn’t been chasing a new modem. The answer has me re-thinking the whole idea of focus.

When you need clients (as I do) you need to spend a fair amount of time marketing. It’s awfully easy to put things under the heading “marketing” that probably shouldn’t be there. For example, reading through the discussion threads on LinkedIn daily is not really marketing. Posting updates to Facebook five or six times a day does not increase sales. Reading news stories, following election coverage, looking at photos of hurricane damage…well, you get the idea. I spend too much time doing all of those things.

This week, I am going to spend some time sharpening my focus. Here are a few important things, just off the top of my head:

Spend more time writing. Instead of checking Facebook, write a paragraph or two of this blog, on some of my personal projects, or guest posts. Those are better marketing projects than reading discussions on LinkedIn, or using any other type of social media networking. Social media has its place, but it is a limited place and should not take up much time during the work day.

Send more emails. Since my specialty is email marketing, you might imagine I’m right on top of clicking “send.” Remember the story about the cobbler and his barefoot children? Well, my own email list is sadly small because I have neglected it. When things are slow, I should focus on building that list, writing interesting stuff to send to the people on it, and otherwise following the excellent advice I give clients. (By the way, if you would like to receive my newsletter, go ahead and sign up.)

Make more marketing calls. I have always had good luck with just picking up the phone and calling people. It’s one of those things, like washing the dishes, that I dread for hours or even days before just biting the bullet. If you hate making calls, try only calling companies you have researched carefully. If you see something that indicates they might have a need for your service, it’s usually a pretty easy conversation. Making one or two calls instead of reading about the latest outrage committed by a politician is better for your business, and probably your spirit, too.

Keep a backup list handy. Your daily list probably consists of things that must be done right now. It’s really easy to waste time after everything on that must-do-now list is done. It is far more productive to keep a backup list of things that you want to work on but think you don’t have time to work on handy. I want to write fiction, but trick myself into believing I don’t have time to dedicate to it. If I limited the time I spend clicking links my smart friends on Twitter share there, I’d have more time for writing fiction.

What are your best focusing tips? How can I make sure that my time is spent doing things that will result in a higher number in my bank account?

Read More

Yesterday, I spoke to a potential client on the phone. We had already met in person, exchanged emails, and talked in detail about the work he’s considering paying me to do. His main question yesterday: What’s the difference in a blog and a newsletter?

It was an interesting conversation for lots of reasons. On the surface, the answer to his question seems pretty simple. But his real question, the one he didn’t know how to ask, was different. What he really wanted to know was how to use his blog posts and he email list differently for marketing. He couldn’t quite grasp the difference between subscribing to a blog so that you get an email when there is a new post, and a newsletter. I’m not sure he understood it any better when we hung up.

We have more marketing tools than ever before. Most are easy to access, and many are either free or very low-cost. How do you choose which ones to use? What is going to make the biggest impact in the least amount of

time? (Note: I didn’t say for the least amount of money. These days an investment of time is often more costly than an investment of dollars.)

“It depends” is generally not what business people trained during a different era and comfortable with a different set of rules want to hear. They want me to sell them something. They want me to list all the reasons they should use email marketing, or social media, or whatever they are thinking about doing, and make them feel good about it the way someone selling ad space might have done at a different time.

But blog posts are not ads and email newsletters are not direct mail, and social media is not the same as Chamber of Commerce networking events – and ad space is still relevant. The digital marketing tools at your disposal can be used successfully in lots of different ways. Your personality, or your brand depending on the size of your organization, plays a huge role in how you should approach marketing. If you prefer a suit and tie, you are probably going to be more comfortable using LinkedIn than Twitter. That’s a broad generalization, but sometimes those are useful.

The individuals who are most successful in digital marketing are not afraid to be who they are, warts and all. If who you are is buttoned-up, perfectly coifed, and pulled together all of the time, then you should choose a niche that celebrates rigidity and formality. Everyone else will most likely find you a little boring. Sorry to be brutal, but it’s true. Humans who make mistakes, laugh, cry, and succeed despite struggles are interesting. They have stories to tell and people like stories.

I’m still struggling with how to explain clearly, simply, and accurately why my potential client should generate different content for his blog and his newsletter because what he really needs to do is share his story – with an audience likely to find it interesting.

Read More

Trying to lose weight? Find more customers? Manage your time better? Get your finances in order? Find a job?

If you have been pursuing any of those goals for awhile, you might feel like there is a secret formula that you just can’t figure out. If you could just tweak your resume and cover letter, find the right combination of words to go on the page that will automatically unlock the good-job door…If you could just balance your calories and nutrients in the right way, take the right exercise class, run the right number of miles each week, then you

would look like a fitness celebrity…If you could just figure out which bill to pay first, how much of your income to save, what the best, most profitable investments are, you would never feel financial stress again…

There are plenty of books, training classes, and expert-led seminars that promise to teach whatever it is you want to know – the thing that you feel pretty sure will make your life a stressless paradise of ease, compared to what it is right now. You may have already spent hundreds of dollars on those products. But the secret formula is very simple.

Don’t stop trying.

That’s the key to success in whatever endeavor you are wholeheartedly pursuing. Keep going. If you give up, you will never figure it out. But if you keep trying, your chances are much better.

There are plenty of quotes from successful people that are more eloquent than “don’t stop trying.” Here’s a old one from Ovid: “Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”

And another, this one from Vince Lombardi: “The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather, a lack of will.”

The problem is that the short-term gratification of poking around on Facebook gives us a nicer feeling than taking the risk of being rejected while making cold calls. It’s easier to watch movies on the couch than volunteer, even though volunteer work will expand your network, give you a good feeling and maybe help you find your dream job. Eating pizza and drinking beer is much easier than going for a run and cooking dinner, but it sure won’t help your weight loss efforts.

I have been teetering on the brink of giving up on several of my personal endeavors, but here are a few things that are helping me continue toward my goals:

1. Talk to friends – My friends tell me that I need to keep going. They remind me of what I have accomplished before, of plans I have laid out, of things I said to them when they were down, of the fact that giving up is not a good option, of other people who have walked my path and reached their goals. They make me laugh when I need it, they tell me it’s okay when I’m sad. If you feel like giving up spend some times with your friends.

There is one caveat, though, and that is to make sure the people you look to really are your friends. Everyone has “friends.” People who you care about but who are not supportive of you and your efforts, who think that even trying is silly, and who encourage you to give up. Stay away from those folks when you’re down. In fact, you might want to consider staying away from them all of the time!

2. Do something – If you gave in and ate the pizza and drank the beer, take yourself for a walk. If you didn’t make your sales calls, send out a few emails. If you over-spent while shopping, find something to sell on

craigslist. Even if you took two steps back, taking one forward will get you moving in the right direction again.

3. Forgive yourself – Sitting around beating yourself up because you are 39 years old and you have never come close to meeting your professional goals will never, ever help you get where you want to be. You have to let the mistakes go, and carry on. Just don’t sit around feeling sorry for, or berating, yourself.

4. Adjust – If your plan isn’t working, make a new plan. Think about fitness, and the zealots you have met. There are people who will tell you that Paleo is the only way to go, and just as many people who will tell you that vegan is the only way to go. No matter your destination, there are different routes to get there. Your path might be more circuitous and tortured than the paths of others, but so what? Isn’t getting there the thing?

Since this post is basically a letter to myself, can you add anything? What advice would you give to someone who is ready to throw in the towel and stop chasing a dream? 

 

Read More

Almost everyone has some sort of big thing they want to do, and most of us have a few. You might want to start a business, write a book, become a martial arts expert, pay off your debt, learn to cook, or some other project that will take you months or years of dedication to accomplish. Whatever your goal is, you might feel like you just don’t have enough time or money or energy or knowledge to reach it. But you really do.

Several months ago, my husband and I were trying to sell a house. We weren’t getting many calls because it wasn’t a great house. It needed a lot of work and most people aren’t interested in a house, however cheap, that needs a lot of work. One morning, and old man called to ask about the house. I told him everything I knew that was wrong with the house, and he declared it was just what he was looking for. Because I am not the greatest salesperson in the world, (the house is still for sale), I reiterated just how bad it was, and urged him to come take a look at it. He answered by telling me the story of his first house.

Somehow, when he was very young, the man acquired a piece of property. He said that he was in his early 20s, and working as an apprentice electrician at the time. He told everyone he was going to build a house, and everyone laughed at him. He said that the day he started digging for the foundation of his house, he had $30 in his pocket. He used it to buy block. He said that everyday, after work, no matter how tired he was, he did a little work on his house. Even though he didn’t have much money, he used every extra penny to buy what he needed for his house. And, after about two years, the house was finished. The old man told me, with pride in his voice, “And that was just the first one!”

Although he didn’t buy our house, his story stayed in my head, because he described exactly what you have to do in order to finish something big.

Step 1: Make the decision. In making a decision to do a big thing, you are making a commitment to yourself.

Step 2: Get started. It’s easy to get stuck between step 1 and step 2. The old man had to actually pick up his shovel and start digging a foundation. He didn’t just sit on his property and dream about a house. You cannot finish what you don’t start.

Step 3: Ignore the people who laugh at you. Or who say that you can’t. You should consider the obstacles, but don’t let them stop you. There are always going to be naysayers, but you don’t have to listen to them.

Step 4: Work. Work. And work some more. The sentence “Everyday, after work, no matter how tired he was, he did a little work” makes it sound easy. You can take baby steps, but you must take steps. Whether it is everyday, every week, or on in a less routine manner, you need to be working toward your big thing regularly.

Step 5: Give yourself some inspiration. Big things are frustrating. Life is busy. Those two facts conspire to to put an end to most dreams. Find some way to stay interested in and dedicated to your big thing. Collect images on Pinterest. Join a club, association, or forum of other people interested in the same thing you are. Keep a notebook handy to jot down ideas that are pertinent to your project. Find a way to stay excited about your big thing.

Step 6: Remember that you have time. There has never been a human on earth who had more time than any other. We all have the same 24 hours. You may have children, a job, a spouse, and other responsibilities that take up your time. Ultimately, though, you get to decide how to spend your 24 hours. If your big thing is really important to you, you will dedicate some of your time to it.

Step 7: Give yourself permission to mess up. Do you think that the old man did everything perfectly on that first house? He didn’t mention it, but he probably messed up a lot. He was learning, after all. You will be learning, too, because you’ve never done your big thing before. You will screw up. Don’t let it stop you.

 Are you working towards a big thing? What would you add to the list? 

Read More