Peace and quiet to write: when was the last time you had that for your business?

It doesn’t take much to distract me these days. *ping*…another message on WhatsApp. *bleep* another request from a child on messenger. *ding ding* another notification on one of my bazillion Viber groups.

The world we live in is uber connected and increasingly noisy and demanding of our attention. Whether it’s your phone, your iPad, your laptop, your watch, your wallet, there’s almost always something pinging away pulling your attention from whatever it is you’re trying to do. My world has become SO much noisier since the pandemic forced us all online for everything, and even more so since I moved to Manila.

On the one hand there is so much inefficiency and old fashioned administration here. Paperwork in triplicate signed by 75 people for the simplest things, long lines and manual processes for the smallest of tasks, and receipts a foot long for everything. Everyone gets a job which means it could take 3 people to help you purchase a bottle of water: one to zap the barcode on the bottle, one to bag the bottle and attach the receipt, and one to check the receipt. But on the other hand, you can order and pay for a customised cake via a bakery 10 kilometres away and have it arrive on the back of a motorbike with a bunch of flowers from a florist 5 km away, all via one app, in a matter of hours. EVERYTHING is done via Viber or WhatsApp. Shopping, school parent groups, medical appointments, social catchups, embassy groups, emergency alerts, driver comms, the list goes on. And the Filipinos are one of the biggest TikTokking nations in the world and are obsessed with photographing and IGing everything. This country operates entirely on the phone and wifi network. Noone, not even the very poor, is without a phone. In fact I’ve witnessed first hand some communities where food is almost a luxury, and yet there is always a mobile that is connected. Continue reading →

Client feedback rewards

Awww. I so appreciate positive feedback!

I don’t crave it (like I perhaps once did as a child!) but as a coach, where your results can sometimes feel a little intangible, it’s so fabulous to get direct feedback that you’ve hit the mark and made a tangible, positive impact. In fact, client feedback is necessary. It’s really the only measure for a coach. It helps you improve, learn and respond accordingly. It helps you know what’s working and what’s not – for you and your client. If I’m honest though, I don’t solicit feedback nearly as much as I ought to anymore. I will do a formal feedback session if I’m running a specific training event or a retreat, but I kind of forget to ask my regular coaching or copywriting/editing clients what they thought of the job I did!

So it’s a bonus when the feedback comes unsolicited and unprompted.

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Don’t let ‘safety’ inhibit you: do something that makes you come alive

Sometimes old clients reach out to me because they feel like they want – or need – a change of business direction. It’s common, especially after a good few years in business working alone, to feel the call for change. It’s even more common after something crazy happens in your world to divert your attention or make you look inward. Ahem, global pandemic and lockdown anyone??

The change may not always require a completely new product or service offering however. It may be a collaboration or partnership of some sort. It may require an expansion of the team. It may be you need a new location or surrounds to operate from. But other times, it’s a deep desire to do something new.

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30 reasons to fire – or not hire – a client

Does the idea of working with a particular person keep you awake at night, tossing and turning as you sweat it out, hating on yourself for ever letting them into your world but unsure about what to do about it? You know you can help them but every interaction is killing your soul.

Well, it’s time to put your own needs first and say enough is enough: “I don’t love working with this client so I won’t do it anymore!”

Here’s the news flash – it’s YOUR business and you deserve to only work with people who serve you as much as you serve them. And guess what? When you release them out into the world to find another solution, you’ll actually be doing them a favour too – they’ll find someone more suited to their needs/personality/temperament/demands!

It’s a natural normal inclination at the start of your business journey to want to work with anyone who is keen to work with you… because money is money right? And a client is a client, right? WRONG! I used to tell this story a lot to my coaching clients, particularly those who were new in business… Continue reading →

My husband left me

…6weeks ago to live in the Philippines, and it’s taken this long to write about it.

In fact, it’s been a long time since I wrote at all! Yes, I’ve been crazy busy with all the things that happen and need to be done before and after your partner relocates overseas (and leaves you behind with two kids, 6 animals and a big ole property to sort out!), but in truth I’ve also just been resisting it.

And I’m only just beginning to understand why.

I checked out a few months back…drastically reduced my social media interaction, stopped marketing myself, stopped networking, stopped creating, and just did the small jobs for existing clients that trickled in. Then it dawned on me that I was ‘taking a break from my business’. January is always an intentional break, but this year, the break simply continued… almost without noticing it. You’d have thought that after last year I’d be chomping at the bit to get back in a room with people and talk shop and create and do, but in fact, my reaction was just the opposite. It wasn’t until recently when I started getting concerned messages as to my whereabouts online did it dawn on me that people come to rely on you to show up in a certain way and to be a certain presence in their life. I don’t say this to big note myself, or suggest that people ‘need’ me in their life, but it’s curious how many gorgeous souls checked in on me to see if I was alive!

As a fiercely independent gal, who likes to rely on noone, it really made me sit up and think: “why on earth are people worried?” And yet, as someone who teaches everyday storytelling and online presence it should have been bloody obvious! I help people build and lead communities through the power of words, and insist that they then have a duty to do the right thing by those communities to maintain trust, add value and strengthen relationships, BUT I didn’t do that for my own. I let my own community down. I just disappeared. Said nothing. Added nothing. Continue reading →

Covid musings: December already?

Can you believe it’s December? What craziness is this that has warped the time paradigm this year? Seriously, I swear the clock has actually sped up. I don’t know about you but I’m equally excited and terrified that Santa will arrive in just 24 days and that 2020 is nearly over.

I had such BIG plans for this year. Two overseas writing retreats for my clients were booked and planned, a small Aussie workshop tour was ready to roll out, my next book was going to be published, and my decision to become a mother was never going to be questioned !!!!

But alas. The world had other ideas.

Covid musings

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The key to effective social marketing during Covid (and other uncertain times)

Effective social marketing during Covid requires you to listen, be human and stay connected. Baseline? You need to know your customers inside and out.

Overwhelmingly, the most popular question I’ve received lately is: “what should I be posting on social media right now?” And it’s a fair enough question too, because there is so much uncertainty around what’s right, what’s wrong, what’s perceived as politically astute and what’s not, what’s appropriate and by whose standards, and what sounds just downright delusional. So I want to talk you through what I believe is the key to effective social marketing during Covid – and by the way, this works in any uncertain times.

Tough as it may be, as a small business owner you can’t afford to stop marketing or selling right now, and that therefore includes posting (strategically) on social media. Why? Because your followers are spending more time online than they ever have before, which presents you with a unique opportunity to deepen your relationship with them and increase brand affinity. The challenge however, is that you can’t just pretend that it’s business-as-usual either, or you risk coming across as tone-deaf to an audience who potentially have heightened anxiety and sensitivities. Continue reading →

What do I know

As we come to the end of another week of lockdown in Melbourne, and the dust settles on my cabin-fever-homeschool-Mum nerves, I realise it’s been a while since I asked myself a really important question. I wonder whether it’s also been a while for you too? That question is this:

What do I know?

The reason it’s so important is because unless we know what we know…like, really know, it’s almost impossible to help others learn what we know and grow with what we know.

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It’s my business birthday

5 years ago TODAY my business changed direction. The Content Coach was born! It’s my business birthday (of sorts!)

My biz had been running as a copywriting and content strategy business for almost 5 years already, under the name of How You Say It. But I had a sore neck…a sore back… and I was done. Done sitting at a desk into the wee hours of the night writing for other people. Exhausted trying to sound like other people all the time. I wanted – needed – to do something different.

I also wanted to leverage my experience more widely, globally. I wanted to use my time better – stop trading each individual hour for $$. I wanted to teach the man to fish (metaphorically!) – I was done fishing for him.

It was a crisis point for me.

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Focus: answer this one question

I was talking with a client during a session yesterday about how it feels kind of like that period between Christmas and New Year when you have no idea what day it is and no inclination to find out! I honestly feel like I’m in a bit of a time warp, weirdo bubble space which is kind of nice but kind of not. I feel full of contradictions. I’m in this place where I’m still working, but not as much as I’d like… but then I remember that it’s officially school holidays now which is when I reduce my work hours anyway… but that’s usually because I want to spend much needed time with the kids and get out and about and catch up with friends we haven’t seen all term, which we obviously can’t do now, and I’ve already spent 2 weeks at home with the kids so, well…..y’know….and then I’m relishing the time to renovate the house and garden, so I’m actually really busy and not at all bored… but then we all wish we could go somewhere else and see other people and do different things…. it’s just so darn WEIRD!

How about you?? Continue reading →