A short, interesting read that can be picked up or put down according to your schedule. Probably a good book to read on a lunch break or work commute.
The author takes upon himself the challenge of writing autobiographical thoughts down while commuting to work. His point is that sleeping on the train on the way to work is an utter waste of time after spending the previous night snoozing.
His recollections are random ranging from funny to trivial, to serious. While the book is amusing in spots, I would not classify it as a comical read.
If you are looking for light reading that can be readily interrupted, this book is a good choice for you.
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Copywriting Essentials: 4 Myths That Keep You from Writing Compelling Copy
You’re stuck. You’re not seeing the leads you want for your business. You’re offering quality products and great services but only a few people are buying from you.
You might be tempted to believe that the problem is that your platform isn’t big enough or that your website isn’t interactive enough. But for many small business owners and solopreneurs, these problems are usually the result of poor copywriting.
The good news is that persuasive copywriting is an essential skill that can be learned. But first, you have to understand that some things you might believe about copywriting are actually myths that are harming your business.
Myth #1: Copywriting is all about selling.
Some small business owners believe that copywriting is the equivalent of going to a cocktail party and screaming “Buy my product!” to every person you meet. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Copywriting is about so much more than selling your product or program.
Copywriting is about serving your audience. You can use persuasive copy to address your customers’ concerns, help them make smart buying decisions, and offer solutions to their needs.
Myth #2: Copywriting is all about action.
Many small business owners and solopreneurs think that every piece of content they create has to have a call to action, but that’s not true. Most of the time, you’ll be creating content to increase your customers’ awareness of your business. . This can be called the “know, like, trust” factor.
The ‘know, like, trust’ factor is about guiding your potential customers through the buying stages. In the first stage, the know stage, you’ll give potential customers content that informs them. In the second stage, you’ll share content that makes your brand likeable. The third and final stage is known as trust. It’s the point where your customers will decide whether they should purchase your productive or service.
Myth #3: Copywriting is all about you and your business.
Copywriting isn’t focused solely on you or even your customer. The best copywriting strikes a balance between “about you” and “about your reader”.
You want your copy to show your understanding of and compassion for your ideal clients’ situation. Your copy should highlight that your business cares and why your brand is the best one to choose.
Myth #4: Copywriting is all about making your brand look perfect.
Persuasive copywriting isn’t about positioning your brand as perfect. It’s about connecting with your reader on both an intellectual and emotional level. Your potential customers want to know about your expertise, but they also need to know that you understand them. One simple way to do this is to share stories about your brand. Don’t be afraid to include stories about your business’s failures.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that your copywriting is set in stone. Even expert copywriters create several drafts before they find a version that truly connects with their readers. The important thing is to keep testing your copy until you find what works best for your business.
Journal Your Thoughts
Which of the copywriting myths do you struggle with the most? Why?
What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to copywriting?
Do you tend to make your copywriting all about you or all about your reader? How can you strike a better balance?
5 Steps to Reach Your Readers on an Emotional Level
When it comes selling yourself and your brand, it’s essential that you understand that your potential customers want to do business with people that they know, like, and trust. This is even more important if you’re a coach or service provider. Your potential clients may wonder if they’ll enjoy working with you, how you can help them, and if they’ll get their desired results.
This is where persuasive copywriting can help you. Copywriting will allow your ideal client the chance to know, like, and trust you. It also gives you an easy way to answer their questions before they even ask them. But before you start writing your copy, there are a few steps you’ll need to take.
Step #1: Identify Your Client
Describe your ideal client as detailed as you can. You need to be specific about their fears, frustrations, and feelings. Use forums and social media groups to see what words your ideal client uses to talk about their situation. Knowing how your potential clients describe what they’re dealing with will allow you to create copy that connects with them.You also need to think about what your potential client’s desired end result would look and feel like. For example, if you help overwhelmed working moms find time to prepare nutritious food to feed their families, then the end result might be less dinner time stress, more family time, and healthier bodies.
Step #2: Focus on your qualifications.
Next, think about how you’re uniquely qualified to help your potential clients. Describe why you’re qualified as a professional (education) and/or as a person (experience). You’ll want to offer proof of your qualifications in the form of diplomas, testimonials, and endorsements. These qualifications can be placed on the ‘home’ or ‘about’ page or a dedicated ‘testimonials’ page on your website and blog.
Step #3: Describe the milestones.
When you have a clear picture of what results your clients can expect from you, then you’ll want to think about the journey they’ll take. Try to describe the milestones your ideal client typically encounters during their journey. For example, if you’re a weight loss coach, one milestone might be losing the first ten pounds.
Don’t focus on just the good milestones. You’ll also want to consider the setbacks clients may face as well as the emotional aspects of their journey. For example, a setback might be gaining three pounds one week.
Step #4: Think about your clients’ objections.
Once you’re confident that you understand your potential clients’ journey, you need to take a moment to consider their objections. What hesitations might your client bring up when they’re ready to hire you? What are they afraid of if they take that first step? For example, if you’re a fitness coach that helps obese patients lose weight, you might find that potential clients are worried about visiting a gym for the first time.
When you understand these objections, you can offer solutions. Keep in mind that solutions don’t always have to be complex. You might simply tell clients that the first gym session is all about coming in and getting comfortable with the equipment, no workout required. Now, you’ve subtly eased a potential client’s objections to taking that first step toward fitness.
Step #5: Describe the action steps your reader would like to take.
Now that you know the journey your clients are on, it’s time to guide them to your product or services. You can do this by thinking about the action steps readers need to take when interacting with your content. For example, you might have a call to action at the bottom of your blog posts for joining your email list.
When you send emails to potential clients on your list, you might have a call to action at the bottom of each email that invites your subscribers to set up a free consultation with you. You want to continually invite your community to keep taking action. By doing this, you’ll have a list filled with valuable leads.
Understanding your client is the first step toward creating more persuasive copy. When you genuinely care about your clients’ journey, it will shine through in your copywriting efforts.
Journal Your Thoughts
Who is your ideal client? Why are you passionate about serving this client?
How will you be helping your ideal client? In what ways will you accomplish this (one-on-one coaching, webinars, etc)?
How will your clients’ lives be different after working with you and your brand?
Getting Started With Persuasive Copywriting: The First 3 Pieces of Content to Give A Makeover
When you’re ready to create some persuasive copywriting, you may be overwhelmed and wonder where to start. There are three places where your copywriting skills really matter and this is where you should start. Once you’ve mastered these three elements of your website, you can go on to tackle other areas of your site.
1. Your ‘About’ Page
The ‘about’ page on any website is usually the most visited one. That’s why it should be clearly labeled. Don’t use a cutesy name in the hopes that more people will click on it. You’ll just confuse your website visitors.
Your ‘about’ page should share your journey and cover why you’re qualified to help potential clients. Spin your journey into a story format that readers can relate to. For example, if you’re a business coach, you might share how you struggled to get your own business started for several years before finding success. By sharing your story, you’ll make it easy for your potential clients to relate to you and show them that you’re qualified to help.
2. Your ‘Services’ Page
Your ‘services’ page is your chance to stand out from other solopreneurs that offer similar services. But don’t cram every single service you offer on the same page. That will overwhelm visitors and they may leave your website before reading through all of the services you perform. That’s why it’s smart to have each service listed on a separate page of your website.
You want your service pages to show that you understand your ideal client and can deliver what they need. Then you should explain how you work and what end result your ideal client can expect. For example, if you’re a social media strategist, don’t tell potential clients that you can handle their Facebook advertisements. That’s vague and doesn’t describe what you can do. Instead, you might tell potential clients that you can increase Facebook ad conversions by 20%.
Now, include an easy next step, like joining your mailing list. Direct your visitors to your freebie sign up page with a helpful link, like this one: ===> Add Your Download Link to Your Free Report <===.
By doing this, you stay connected to potential clients that are interested in working with you but aren’t ready to hire you quite yet.
3. Your ‘Home’ Page
When it comes to your home page, you have less than seven seconds to make your first impression. You want that impression to be a good one.
When someone visits your home page, they should be able to tell immediately if they’re your ideal client or not from your copy. If you’re a social media strategist that works only with small businesses, then your copy shouldn’t be aimed at large corporations. It should be focused on small businesses and how you can help them.
Your home page is also your chance to state why you’re uniquely qualified to help. Don’t use the same wording you did on your about page. Instead, keep your qualifications to one or two sentences on your home page. If a visitor is interested in knowing more, they’ll click on your ‘about’ page for the full story.
Next, offer social proof on your home page. If you’ve guest posted on several popular blogs, share their logos. If you have testimonials from prominent clients, post those on your home page, too. If you’ve been interviewed in a magazine or podcast, be sure to add this information to your home page as well.
Before you post your new copy on your website, be sure to have a professional editor or proofreader look at it. An extra set of eyes can help you avoid embarrassing typos and make sure that your copy shines.
Journal Your Thoughts
How are you uniquely qualified to help your clients? Is this information on your about page?
How can you put more of your personality into your website or blog so that you stand out from other solopreneurs offering the same services?
What’s the story behind your brand? Does your copy showcase it or do you need to give some of your copy a makeover?
Saint Patrick the Forgiver: The History and Legends of Ireland’s Bishop
Written and Illustrated by Ned Bustard
As a historian, I am familiar with the life of Saint Patrick, but this beautiful picture book written in rhyme presents Patrick in a novel way for both children and adults.
The line cut illustrations in brilliant colors combined with the rhymes that are fun to read and roll off the tongue compel readers to revisit the book and its lessons. Bustard integrates the larger-than-life legends about Patrick, but lays bare his personal human struggles. How could he forgive the slave captors who had kidnapped him and obey God’s calling to voluntarily return to the site of his captivity? Children immediately realize his torment and feel how difficult it might be to forgive.
This book is a good choice for Christian parents seeking to explain the role of St. Patrick in Ireland’s history or for educators teaching about the St. Patrick holiday. It teaches them a valuable lesson about forgiveness.
Highly recommended for children of all ages and adults who enjoy reading a well-written rhyming picture book that educates the mind while pleasing the eye.
– Reviewed by Barbara Ann Mojica, children’s book author, for Net Galley
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I am a parent, grandparent, author, historian, and educator with forty years of experience as a teacher, principal, and school district administrator serving children in both the general and special education populations. I provide parents and teachers with tools and resources to accomplish their goals.
A family enjoys a picnic in a local park. When a bottle-cap falls off the table, their dog Buddy runs away with it. He just wants to play fetch. But that bottle-cap finds itself on an unexpected journey when different animal groups in the park commandeer it to use for fun. The boy runs around trying to regain possession while readers are treated to a riotous adventure.
The funny picture book features huge, colorful illustrations and large font. It is a fun read aloud for adults or beginnng readers. Characters are multicultural and diverse including children with disabilities.
Highly recommended for children ages two through five.
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This short little guide is about productivity boosters that will help you get more done in less time. Why is that important? Or let me ask a better question. Why is productivity important?
We all have things we need to get done.
We need to go to work to make enough money to support ourselves and our families.
We need to get groceries, cook dinner, do the laundry, feed the dog, drive the kids to after-school activities, wash the car, mow the lawn, clean the bathroom…
And we need to sleep for about eight hours a say on average to recover and regroup.
The list goes on and on. I think I made my point. We all have a lot of stuff to do in any given day. And that day only has 24 hours. We don’t get more, we don’t get less. Time is a finite resource. And that right there is why productivity matters.
We don’t get more time in our day. And much of what is on our to-do list is non-negotiable. It has to get done. The only thing under our control is how fast we move through our task list. And that’s where productivity comes in and why it matters.
If you can make it through that list just a little faster and get things done more efficiently, that leaves you with more time to do the things you want and love to do. With that in mind, let’s move through these three powerful productivity boosters.
Before you get to work on anything, look over everything you need to do and figure out what is important. What matters, what doesn’t? By cutting out things like busy work, unnecessary errands, and the likes you can greatly boost your productivity. Focus on the important stuff, on the things that matter and make a difference.
Have you heard of the 80/20 rule? It’s used a lot in business and marketing but applies to the rest of your life just as much. It states that 20% of your efforts give you 80% of the results.
Let’s say you’re working on a home improvement project. 20% of the time you spend working on the project will result in 80% of the progress you’re making. The rest of the time, you may be doing busy work, looking for stuff, or just standing there staring at what you’ve accomplished (or how much there’s left to do).
The key to boosting your productivity is to identify the 20% of the work you do that result in 80% of the results. Then just focus on doing that 20% work. Yes, you can cut your workload quite a bit and end up with more and better results. All you need to do is to do more of the 20% stuff.
The only hard part is identifying what the high productivity tasks are. Set aside a little time and review what you’re doing and what’s giving you the best results. Those are the tasks and activities you want to focus on most of the time to boost your productivity.
Write them down and then make a list of what you need to get done today. Start with the things that will have the biggest impact. This will ensure you stay productive even when your workday is cut short. Give it a try and see if prioritizing and making a list doesn’t help boost your productivity.
The next big profitability booster is to put yourself on a deadline. It only makes sense, doesn’t it? Think back on times when you were on a tight deadline. When your boss asks you to wrap up a report for him in an hour, or when you’re trying to get the house cleaned before the in-laws show up for a visit.
When we have a deadline, we tend to work a lot more efficiently and effectively. We don’t let the little stuff distract us. We put on our blinders and get stuff done.
There’s something called Parkinson’s Law which states that work will expand to fill the time you give it. If you have all day to clean the house, it will take you all day. If you have a 45 minute warning before friends show up, it’ll get done in 45 minutes. Sure, it may not be as much of a deep cleaning as the all-day job, but the 80/20 rule applies here as well and your house will be much cleaner than it was an hour earlier.
Now let’s talk about putting yourself on a deadline on a regular basis. It’s pretty simple. Grab a kitchen timer, or use an app on your phone, and start using the timer to have a deadline for all your tasks.
Challenge yourself to get stuff done much faster than you are right now. It will force you to focus, stop wasting time, and it will boost your productivity. In other words, you’ll get a lot more done in a lot less time if you’re using a time. Try it.
Let’s talk about getting in the flow. It’s that almost magical state of mind where work becomes effortless, and you get more done then you ever thought possible. I’m sure you’ve experienced it at some point in the past. You get so involved in a project or task that you forget about everything else around you. You are focused and your brain cells are firing at twice the normal speed. You make decisions with ease and just work through you list of tasks without letting anything or anyone interrupt you. It’s a great feeling and it’s an amazing productivity booster.
Start by taking advantage anytime you get into the flow. Buckle down, work hard, and get ahead whenever you find yourself in the flow state. That along will boost your productivity, but just think how much more you could get done if you could get yourself in the flow on demand.
To make this happen, start paying attention to what it takes to get you into the flow. Identify what exactly brings it on or what’s happening when you get in the flow.
Once you have that information, try to replicate it whenever you have some work that you want to get through quickly. Go through the same routines, recreate the setting that gets you in the flow, and just start practicing.
I’m serious. Like meditating, getting into the flow gets easier with practice. Before you know it, you’ll be able to generate short bursts of flow on demand. Take advantage of that new “super-power” and increase your productivity whenever you need it.
And here’s a handy little tip. It will get easier to get into the flow when you know exactly what you’re working on and when you know what you’re doing is important. That goes back to productivity tip #1. And having a deadline helps you get into the flow as well, which is what we talked about in productivity tip #2. Both of those combined will help you get into and stay in the flow on a regular basis, while helping boost your productivity overall.
In other words, all three productivity boosters in this report work together – in synergy – to help you get more done in less time. And that’s a beautiful thing.
Let’s wrap this up and get back to work. All three productivity boosters will help you get more done in less time. And that leaves you more time for the things that are important on a more personal level. It gives you more time to spend with your loved ones (be they family or friends), it gives you more time to pursue your hobbies and passions, and it gives you time for some well-deserved rest and relaxation. Isn’t that a goal worth striving towards?
We all have only one life to live and within that there’s a limited number of hours. We may not know exactly how many hours we are given, but we know without a shadow of a doubt that it is not an infinite number. That’s why it’s important to stop wasting time and letting work drag on and on. Instead, give these productivity boosters a try, make them part of your daily routine, and get more done in fewer hours.
It’s well worth it when you take control of your time, and you get to choose how you want to spend it. That’s the real benefit of time management and increased productivity. It isn’t so we can do even more work. It’s so we get to choose how we want to spend our time. Yes, some of it will be spend on work and chores, but the better we get at working on those things quickly, the more we have leftover at the end of the day to spend on things and people we love.
Amy’s dad is ill and she must temporarily move in with her grandmother. She cannot anticipate the adventure that awaits her when she discovers the fairy land of Titania.
This is the first book of a well-written series. The characters, whether human or fantasy, are carefully detailed and endearing. Language is descriptive and appealing with enough twists and turns to keep the plot lively and interesting.
I would highly recommend the book to its middle-grade target audience, but I must admit adults will find it just as enjoyable.
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What Am I? Christmas: A Picture Book of Read-Aloud, Rhyming Christmas Riddles
Written by Shana Gorian
Illustrated by Art Porta
A beautifully illustrated Christmas holiday picture book!
Children (and adults) love solving riddles. This book could easily become a family holiday tradition passed down from one generation to another. These rhymes contain riddles about easily recognizable holiday objects appropriate for all ages from preschool on up.
Suggested for families and classrooms. Siblings or classmates might even want to turn the fourteen riddles into a competition to see who might get the most correct answers. Fun for all ages.
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This past year has been a hectic year for many all over the world. People have been coping with all that life brings in many ways. One way is working on self-care practices. There are many reasons why introducing practices of self-care into your life can make a pivotal difference in your life. For many, these practices and habits get overlooked in the chaos of the day, particularly during the busy holiday season.
What Is Self-Care
Self-care is defined as any activity that is intentionally meant to care for our mental, physical, emotional, and even spiritual health and wellness. Certain activities are common self-care practices. This means taking care of yourself so that you are healthy physically, and mentally.
You are at your best so that you can work, interact with friends and family, and you can do all the things you need to and want to in a day. This can look very different for each individual but some common self-care activities are listed below.
Self-Care Practices:
Yoga
Taking a hot bath to relax
Enjoying a cup of tea
Journaling
Meditation
Spirituality Practices
Getting a massage.
Listening to calming music
Cutting down on screen time.
And many more.
Why Is Self-Care Important
Adding self-care practices to your life has many benefits. Self-care is shown to reduce stress. In addition, many people feel that making time in their lives for self-care practices improves their own mental health greatly. Many people also report greater levels of happiness in their daily lives when incorporating self-care practices.
Taking care of yourself can also improve physical health. In addition to self-care on a personal level, self-care is a factor when facing illness, disease, or disability. Many health care professionals are adopting an integrative health care style approach that includes checking in with patients to help them seek balance in all aspects of life. This helps people facing illness or disease recover faster, better, and more successfully overall.
Tips To Practice Self Care In Your Life
Get enough sleep
Balance your commitments and priorities
Make a weekly schedule
Say no to optional tasks or events you don’t want to take on.
Stay on top of physical and mental health
Exercise
Allow quality time for friends and family.
Making space for self-care in your life provides great benefits to physical and mental health. Some aspects of self-care are personally enriching and fun.
Self-care is not selfish; it is vital to being a well healthy and balanced person. This lets you face whatever life throws at you without breaking your stride.
Are you tired of shopping frantically trying to find that perfect gift? I wanted to share with you an Advent calendar that focuses on the giving rather than receiving.
Read down to the end of the page for instructions on different ways to assemble and use this calendar and get into the holiday spirit!
How to Put Your Advent Calendar Together:
1.Print background on one-sided on paper or card stock.
2.Print next two pages double sided on one piece of paper or card stock.
3.Cut out the daily shapes and then arrange the pieces on your background. You can tape or glue the top of each piece and fold over for the message on each day of the month.
Alternatively, you could print last two images double sided, hang them on a string with a clip or tape and then remove one new circle each day.
March 19, 2023
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