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Blogging Lessons from Seth Godin

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Blogging – A 2013 Goal

I’ve been putting my goals together for 2013, and blogging is a huge goal for me. So over the weekend I decided I wanted to learn what successful bloggers do to create content, stay focused and generate a unique voice. I wanted to know more about their blogging process.

One of the most successful bloggers out there is Seth Godin. Neil Patel summarized Seth’s process in his article, 10 Lessons Seth Godin Can Teach About Blogging. Here are his 10 lessons:

Blog, prune, experiment and repeat. Seth writes a lot. He tries out new thoughts. What sticks, he repeats.
Blog once a day. Whether you write one blog or 12 during the time, blogging daily is important.
Avoids comments and Twitter. Seth doesn’t waste time on having comments or participating on Twitter. Although he does have a Twitter account, it’s only a re-posting of his blog.
Don’t watch television or go to meetings. He blogs instead of television and has conversations instead of meetings.
Ship it or else it doesn’t count. You have to get your products to market.
Write like you talk.
Notice things. And keep track of your thoughts.
Use your blog as a proving ground. Try out new ideas.
Make blog posts, not money. Focus your blog on content and earning money outside the blog.
Establish what motivates you to get out of bed. What do you want to be the best at?

Taking The Lessons To Heart

Each of these has gotten me to think about my process. Even though I do many of these such as “write as you talk,” I don’t do all of them. I especially like #10. That has gotten me to focus on specifically what I want to bring to my audience.

There are so many experts to learn from. Who are some that inspire you?

Click here to read Neil’s full article…

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25 Business Ideas to Get You Excited Again

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Out Of Business Ideas and Discouraged

A recent theme of my clients is, “I’ll never make a living doing what I love, so I have to settle for X.” Person after person have walked into my office slumped over, sighing heavily with dark circles under their eyes wishing to do one thing and settling for another.

I know the last few years have been difficult for you. It’s not just the job, but worries about the house, paying for college or maybe just getting dinner on the table.

Don’t Give Up

It’s easy at these times to for go your dream.

Before you do, let’s look at what you’ll be giving up.

There’s a reason you pursued your dream in the first place. Remember when you started out. It was exciting. You could see this amazing future. You were thrilled to be offering your unique talents and services to others and equally thrilled when they wrote you a check for your efforts.

The world seemed full of possibility. Remember?

That world still exists out there. It’s just a little foggier than when you started out.

Worry Creates Fog

When you live in the world of worry, it will always be foggy.

“Worry is the misuse of imagination.” ~ Dan Zadra

All dreams require a little elbow grease at times to keep the wheels moving. The key is to keep the fog at bay. The way to do that is keep the original fire alive. It means getting back in touch with those butterflies that made you follow your dream in the first place.

25 Inspiring Business Ideas

On my personal blog, I wrote about 50 Ideas of What To Do When It’s Not Working for your personal life. These quirky business ideas will help break the habit of negative thinking, being caught in a rut and start fresh.

For you and your business you need to do a similar activity. Here are 25 ideas to rekindle the fire of your dreams.

Talk to a new entrepreneur.
Find a role model who weathered the tough times, but stayed true to their dream.
Never say I can’t. Instead say, “how can I?”
Volunteer. Not just donate. Get out face to face with people. Help at the local senior center, food pantry, soup kitchen, meals on wheels, church support group.
Rediscover why you started your business. Write it on an index card and carry it with you.
Delegate or hire out routine tasks. Focus on your strengths.
Make room for your passions every week. Don’t put them off!
Read inspiring biographies of entrepreneurs.
Create a feel good box where you keep copies of recommendations, positive notes you’ve received, thank you’s from customers and other things to remind yourself your doing a good job.
Help one person a week take a step toward their dream.
Teach someone something you know very well.
Plan breaks in your day.
Listen to motivating music.
Put visual reminders around you of what your working for.
See an inspirational speaker or watch one online.
Hire a coach.
Plan personal days into your calendar.
Daily and weekly review your calendar. Celebrate the successes.
Introduce two of your connections who could benefit from each other.
Talk to a 5 year old about their dreams.
Figure out what really motivates you and incorporate it into your daily routine.
Spend time every day visualizing the future without judgement.
Plan business brainstorming time for future projects.
Get more organized with your time.
Find personal support – a person, prayer, a group.

These are a few ideas to rekindle your spark.

We All Need Inspiration

I was lucky enough to attend several Leadership Conferences for Starbucks Coffee Company. I never left there uninspired. As difficult as the job could be day in and day out, the Leadership Conference reconnected me with the true reason I did what I did.

As an entrepreneur, you need to create those moments for yourself. How do you keep the fire alive, even when you’re a tired entrepreneur?

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We do a lot of brainstorming with our clients to get the creative juices flowing. Contact us if you’d like to chat (free consultation)

Seize The Day

by Jen Vondenbrink Posted in How To Articles, Inspired Entrepreneur, Personal Growth Articles

photo credit: lindenbaum via flickr

Whatever you’re meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible. ~ Doris Lessing

Unhappy Potential Photographer

A friend moaned and groaned about her job at dinner last month. Her passion is landscape photography.

Her dream is to be a full time photographer. She’s never pursued her dream because the timing wasn’t right. So since college, her camera is only dusted off for vacations…when she remembers.

You Always Have a Choice.

What if you were to decide right now to throw caution to the wind and shine a light on your desire? ~Cheryl Richardson

I’m not saying ditch the day job and head for Mount Everest. Instead stop burying your desires.

Seize the Moment. Don’t Spin.

One thing I work with my clients on is facing fears and seizing the moment. You’re provided with hundreds of opportunities every day to reach for your dream. Fear, however, sticks you back in your comfort zone.

A client recently came to me with a dilemma. She owns a business, but heard about a terrific position at a local company. She’s been wanting to get out of her business for a while. She took on the business because that’s all she thought she could do, and it’s never really taken off. Her dream, however, has been to work for a large company and travel.

“What if I take the job?” she said. ”What would happen to my clients?” “It would be great to have a regular pay check, I could finally get the new car I’ve been looking at.” ”What if I start the job and I hate it? Then I’d have to rebuild my business and it’s just now starting to pay off.”

Do you see what she’s doing? I call it spinning. She hadn’t even applied for the job, yet, but she already had herself disappointing clients, buying a car and leaving the company.

This is fear at work. She hadn’t faced her fears. She was living in them.

Have you found yourself spinning between your comfort zone and your desires? It’s exhausting.

The Work

The solution is to stop the endless brain chatter. To do this one of the best techniques comes from The Work from Byron Katie. Ask yourself, “Is it true?” If you say yes, ask yourself, “How do I know it’s true?”

These two simple starting questions in The Work helps you stop the “What Ifs,” the first step in facing your fears so you can seize the moment.

When I ask my clients, “Is it true?” and follow up with “How do you know it’s true?” it doesn’t take long for them to stop spinning. Once centered the doors of creativity open, and you can seize your desires.

Desires Equal Positive Energy

Today when a desire appears, instead of dismissing it, take a couple minutes and contemplate what it would feel like living that desire. If the “What Ifs” surface, use The Work questions.

I’ll be you’ll feel a surge of excitement as you think about pursuing your desire.

My desire is to publish a book. What are your desires? Love to hear about them below.

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Planning for 2013? Check out our Life Simplified Goal Setting Sessions from October – January 31st 2013.

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Free Resources:

Check out Leveraging Traditional and Social Networking.

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For Daily Inspiration: Join the Life Simplified Facebook Page.

It’s All About Them

by Jen Vondenbrink Posted in Business and Marketing Articles, How To Articles

Solving Customer's Problems To Create Sales

photo credit: blaineattacks via Flickr

It’s All About Them

You’ve heard it before. Social media is not about you. Selling is not about you. Being in business is generally not about you. It’s all about them.

Has it sunk in yet?

Last week I said this to a group. By the look of astonishment in the crowd, I learned this was new information for many. When trying to sell your stuff, it’s natural to want to tell people how great it is.

They Don’t Care

I hate to break the news, they don’t care.

Make all the claims you want. Support it with facts and figures. Until you can show them how it helps them in a significant way, you’re wasting a lot of time.

How To Sell A Bike

Dr. Wayne Dyer uses an example of presenting a bike to a group of people who’ve never seen one to illustrate this point.

You get up on stage with a bike. You tell the audience about this fantastic new transportation. All you do is sit on the little seat, balance, peddle and you’re on your way.

What do you think the audience’s reaction would be? My guess, a lot of snickering. You’d need to have someone try your new invention. Once on the bike, they could see how it easily solved the need to get places faster. Now they have a reason to buy it. You made it relevant to them.

In social media you can do the same thing. Share what your customers and clients are interested in. Talk about their daily issues. Give them a sample of what you do in a blog or article you’ve written. Come from their perspective and they will be more inclined to listen.

Your mindset mustn’t be how can I sell 10 widgets. It has to be, who needs 10 widgets.

Find Out What They Need

Here’s an activity to help.

Focus on one product or service.
Brainstorm different problems it solves for your connections.
Narrow it down to 1-2 challenges.
Go out and find content or create content that speaks to them. This is the what you’ll post on your social media, blog, website, etc.
Review your connections including your social networks and figure out who specifically struggles with this problem.
Direct them to your resources including your product or service.

By focusing in on the problem, your product or service naturally appears as a solution.

What problems do your products/services solve?

Blogging – A 2013 Goal

Taking The Lessons To Heart

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Out Of Business Ideas and Discouraged

Don’t Give Up

Worry Creates Fog

25 Inspiring Business Ideas

We All Need Inspiration

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