KickAss Copywriter

Hello,

Today’s a surreal day for me.  As the old saying goes, “what doesn’t kill me, only makes me stronger.”

I’m back, after a year’s sabbatical.  Lot’s of moving around, visiting, exploring myself and the world … trying to discover what I want to do/be next. 

Yet, I’m still a writer, copywriter and author.  I write.   I study people and life.  And I write about it.   I’m also an Elf, as I discovered on a little test I took on Facebook.  Pretty cool.   

The surreality I refer to is the happenings in my life of late.  It’s one of those things that others would find too hard to believe, unless they saw it close up — or had some experience of the same sorts.

Are you ready for this?  The dominoes started to fall, with a speeding ticket a month ago.  This was quickly followed by my getting the dreaded ‘boot’ on my car, while parked downtown Fredericksburg, VA on a recent summer’s eve.

The police drive around, taking pictures that feed into a database of  offenders.  My offense?  Failing to report to the Commissioner of Revenues that I’d moved out of the city last year.

They still had me on their books, and I owed ‘09 property taxes.   My, everyone’s getting really aggressive about collecting.  Have you noticed that, yet?  You will.

Next shoe to drop was my garnished bank account, by a large credit card company.  No ‘due process,’ so I wasn’t allowed to tell my side of the story to a judge.  No, Virginia is one of the few states that allow this kind of ‘Gestapo’ treatment of its citizenry.

All my money … gone!  In one fail swoop, without warning.  Gone.  And that included the reimbursement of funds, taken by the ‘boot’ company.  And everything else that came into my account, before I had a chance to stop it. 

Oh, and let’s not forget hefty bank charges for insufficient funds for some auto-payments that I couldn’t stop in time — or even remember.

And what can I do about it?  Well, I’ve petitioned the court for a hearing, so am waiting to see if I’ll get my day in court.

Have you ever tried to exist, without any money and NO bank account?  Everything I do is online, so now I can’t pay for anything online, nor can I even have my PayPal account anymore, so clients can pay me!

Yes, this is America.  So, not only can one’s assets be seized by city, state and Federal Governments — the credit card companies can do it, too.

Following this interesting, little adventure … next, a water pipe burst in the basement, where my office is located.  My laptop didn’t make it, but my printer survived.  I’d preferred the other way around.  Not sure about my fax, yet.

My granddaughters were here, visiting, through these various fiascoes.  What a time to have all your money seized!

Oh, silly me.  I almost forgot.  To add more insult to injury … the gauntlet finally fell on my new site.

For months, I’ve been trying to get a certain SEO company to finish my new site.  Promises, stalls, more promises, more stalls.  And, finally, the truth:  It wasn’t going to get done.  It baffles me that people don’t keep their word anymore.

So, this copywriter is having a lazy, rainy Saturday.  I think it’s all just now sinking in.  It’s really quite a jolt to the ole system, let me tell you.

If it’s true that what doesn’t kill me, only makes me stronger, I should be strong as steel by now.  Aahh, yes, this too shall pass.  I know it always does.

And, I’ll have a little bit more experience to add to my already rich set of experiences to assist me in understanding the human condition.  Without going through some of these hard times myself, I wouldn’t be able to connect with those who have.

I wouldn’t be the copywriter I am.

You know, I’m not sure anymore, but I used to think I created everything in my life, in order to learn.  If this is true, it really sucks!  However, it certainly gives me a depth of understanding and empathy I would not otherwise possess.

I am grateful.  I’m still standing.  I’m still smiling.  I understand.

Yours in understanding,

Carolyn

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

I’ve just listened to and read something amazing … and I want to share it with you!

You’ll see a great video, with the ‘bad ass’ guy, from the movie, “The Matrix.”  He’ll be talking about some scarry stuff, like the next Influenza Pandemic that most experts agree will happen.

We’re unprepared.  There is no vaccine and no antibiotic to counteract the virus.  Bad news for one and all. 

The worst outbreak the world has seen was in 1918, when 40 million people died, globally.

Then, the report goes on to discuss ‘mental viruses’ and how they infect entrepreneurs.  This is really good stuff!  (Not the best written, but the content is so insightful.)

You can travel deeper down the rabbit hole, by taking the red pill.  I suggest you absolutely take the pill. 

Charge forward and take off your rose colored glasses, as you have the chance to really SEE what’s preventing us from becoming and achieving all we can be.

It’s a 14 page, NO B.S. report called: PANDEMIC - Bird Flu of the Mind: How Underground Mind Viruses are Relegating Millions to “Living Death” and What You Can Do to Protect Yourself and Your Family

If that title sounds serious, that’s because it is serious.

The fact is, Mind Viruses are destroying the lives and business dreams of thousands of entrepreneurs just like you.

You’ll find an amazing phrase used.  Instead of ‘entrepreneur,’ they use the word ‘transfopreneur.’  Why?  Because most entrepreneurs want to transform their world in some way …

* for themselves

* for their families

* for their communities

* for the world

Go ahead, be brave and check out the red pill.  Your entrepreneural success may depend on it.

Go to:  http://www.givemetheredpill.com/letter.htm

Here’s to a higher octave marketing!

Carolyn

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

I think the only thing that’s certain in life is this:  Change.

Good times come, good times go.  Bad times come and they also go. 

As a wise one once said to me, “And it came to pass.”   Different from, ‘this, too, shall pass.’

What he meant by that had a much more profound meaning than simply saying, ‘this, too, shall pass.”

He meant that it came, in order to pass … or, so it could pass.  The experience came, it was here, it was good or bad — and then it was gone.

I think his message was most profound!  And it jives with many other mystical or Eastern philosophies. 

Perhaps a good metaphor could be a hub and a wheel.  As the wheel goes round and round, the hub stays constant.  Life’s circumstances and experiences change, going round and round, but the constant within me never changes.

So, the question I must ask is: 

Do I choose to identify with lifes ups & downs, good and bad times … or do I choose to identify with the constant, never-changing Self?

A case in point — in the space of 2 weeks, I secured and lost about $13,000.00.  Now, I don’t know about you, but to me, that’s a LOT of money!   
When it looked as though the money was a definite, I was very happy.  But when each project fell out, one-by-one, and for totally different reasons … I wasn’t very happy at all.

Truth be told, I was downright depressed.

Then, I reflected on what a wise teacher from long ago used to say … “and it came to pass,” so I asked myself what was the lesson here for me to get, gall dern it!

OK, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and asked for the answer.  The answer came …

Be the hub.

Be happy and content, despite what befalls me.  Good, bad, acceptance, rejection … it’s all just part of the wheel of life, going round and round, collecting some debris (bad); then washing it off in the next rain (good).

Hard to do?  Oh yeah.

In case you’re interested … part of the money I lost was due to a marketing guru-type, who just flaked on me.  I spent an inordinate amount of time with him, jumping through his hoops.

I justified it, because it would likely lead to a lot more work and even a revenue share.  Never again.

The next one, the client had a falling out with their investor and was put on hold.  OK.

The third one was due to my fee being too high.  Oy vey …

Now mind you, I qualified him on the 45 minute phone-con.  I even asked if he had a budget for the project, because I didn’t want to write a thoughtful proposal, if he didn’t have enough money to spend. 

“No,” came the answer.   No budget.  He wanted me to send a proposal, elaborating on what I would do, and we’d go from there.

I complied, and he was floored!   Why not just tell me what he thought the project was worth to him in the first place?  Amazing.   
I think I learned something from this:  Always, always get a client to tell me what they *think* a project is worth. 

If it’s waaay off … I’ll just walk.  Or, if I tell them what I would charge and they agree to it, then I’ll write it up.

I was happy.  Then I was sad.  Then I decided to be happy, despite what happens on the wheel of life. 

These last 3 episodes were just too close together to be coincidence.  Aahh yes, but I don’t believe in that anyway.  “Coincidence is where God chooses to remain anonymous,” I read somewhere.

So, if nothing happens by accident, an awake person looks for what’s really going on here, methinks.  For me, for now, at least one of my lessons is:

Don’t let my happiness depend on what I label good or bad.  Because, as sure as shootin’ … it WILL change. 

So, I choose happiness, despite what befalls me. 

To help ensure your happiness with your marketing efforts, devote a proper budget, keep your word and have rock-solid funding before calling in a marketing strategist and copywriter. 

That way, we’ll all be happier, and you’ll get kickass marketing, with a high ROI!  

Carolyn

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

Monday morning blues … I think it probably resonates to most folks, at least in America, don’t you?

I don’t know about other cultures, but in ours I think it’s a pretty common malady to wake up in a fog on Monday mornings, wondering what happened to our weekend?   
Maybe, today feels particularly ‘premature,’ because my dog got sick on Saturday and ended with an emergency hospital visit in the middle of the night on Saturday.

She’s OK.  Apparently, she had an allergic reaction to something.  What, I don’t know, but her eyes were very swollen and she had hives all around her snoot, with at least one that we found on her body.

After an antihistimine injection, along with a steroid, she was much better the next day, thankfully!

This is the best dog I’ve ever had in my life!  She’s also a therapy dog, who gives love to so many.  So, when something happens to her, my whole world is put on hold … until she’s recovered.

I wonder, then, if the real meaning behind Monday morning blues is that we have to ’snap out of’ our real, important life of just being with family and friends – and re-enter the world of commerce, where we have to get into our business-mind and get out of our being-mind?

I’m fortunate enough to work from home, and I still feel the MMB!   
This week, I commit to combine my being-mind with my business-mind and to remain in a state of calm and flow. 

Do you have anything to share about Monday Morning Blues?  What do you think it’s all about?

If you’re a business owner, and your marketing seems like it’s about as exciting as the MMBs — seek out a marketing strategist and copywriter to give your marketing a swift kick in the pants!

Oh, blue Monday, I accept you and all that you represent.  I now transform my thinking to include you as a welcome guest.  Today is today.  It’s all I have.  I will bless it as the opportunity it is.

Here’s to the enjoyment of Mondays!

Carolyn

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

It’s Sunday — two days before the blessed event, when everyone in Christian-dom celebrates Jesus’ birth.

I’ve never read anything that proved when Jesus was born, but somehow I guess the scholars have concluded it’s true.

This is a rather peculiar time of year for me, as I claim neither Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Muslim-ism or any other ‘ism’ for that matter.

 But, I do enjoy the spirit of giving! 

And do you notice how everyone’s just a little bit nicer to each other, during the holidays?  (With the exception of pulling and tugging in the stores or fighting for the coveted parking places.)    J

I’m a normally-giving person, though I’ve tried to learn some tight-ass business tactics to survive – which aren’t part of my true nature, really.

Well, seeing that I’m always prone to becoming infected with the Christmas Spirit, during the month of December … I’ve also operated in that Spirit with my clients this month.

For instance, I drastically-reduced my fee to accommodate the budgets of two new clients this month.  And I also included much more than agreed to.  (I like to over-deliver.)

 Usually, my clients really appreciate the extras I provide!

But for these two novice clients, they simply didn’t see the value in all the extras I’ve given them.

Like instead of writing just one headline and sub-head, I wrote 4 or 5, so they can test them.  (Testing is crucial for online searches.)

And I provided the latest studies and best practices with this client … all of which was extra, yet vital to the success of his site.

 What other copywriter does that?  Or any other business person for that matter? 

Stunned, I realized that neither of these novice clients was able to appreciate what this meant in terms of ‘value added’ services!

So, these are some lessons learned to carry into 2008:

*  Never reduce my fee, in order to accommodate a client’s budget.  (If they can’t afford me, they can hire a junior copywriter.) 

*  Only provide them precisely what I’ve agreed to and no extras, since they can’t see the value.

*  Require the entire fee upfront, because some will even ignore the signed agreement to pay the other half upon final copy approval and not when his web designer gets it on his site.  (One just did that, too.)

Yeah, I know, I’m a woman.  We’re natural givers … 

but in the business world, maybe over-delivering weakens my value, rather than increases it.

In 2008, my business model is going to be …

I’ll give you exactly what you’re paying me for, and it’ll be high quality … but without extras.

I think this confirms the age-old adage that folks don’t appreciate anything that’s free.  We’ll see how my new resolve serves me.

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com

Where Mediocrity is Outlawed!

(But you only get what you pay for.)

I’ve been so off kilter, since Thanksgiving!

Do you think it’s a legitimate excuse for us bloggers to neglect our own blogs because a holiday interfered with our sacred schedule?

I see some gracious nods in agreement out there, but I also hear my all too familiar responsible voice saying, “The answer is simple.  You’re just lazy.”

Humm, is that true?

I’m not sure the lazy label actually tells the whole story.  I think there’s more to it than that — at least with me, anyway.

One of the contributing factors that I’ve noticed over the years is that I really like to hibernate in the colder weather.

Maybe I’m part Polar Bear?

No, really, this malady usually sets in around Halloween and goes through New Year’s Day.

So, maybe I’m simply responding to the season’s change the same way all of nature does … all of nature is preparing for its dormant state, so why not us?

We all are, after all, so connected to nature’s rhythms … if we are ‘in tune’ enough to realize it.

Too bad our culture doesn’t allow us to slow down, sit by the fire, contemplate and re-connect with our inner selves, during this time of year.  I think we should allow some time for this.

http://www.kickasscopywriter.com