Is ‘Hugh Muir’ A Part of Your Life?
I know that this is a very strange title for a musing and probably has quite a few of you wondering, “Who the heck is Hugh Muir, and why do I need him in my life?” Keep reading and you’ll see why.
I’m a solopreneur. For those of you who’ve not heard that term before, it simply means that I’m self-employed and have no other employees in my business. It’s just me, myself, and my overactive imagination, the latter of which does come in handy since I’m a writer and editor.
Some days I’m crazy busy, and others I’ll have a few hours where there is nothing in my inbox for me to work on. It’s those ‘others’ that sometimes gets me into trouble.
A few years ago I developed an online buddy support system with another virtual assistant who is self-employed as well. He resides in another province so we communicate mainly through instant messaging and occasional phone calls (on his dime I might add, as I’m too frugal to purchase a ‘real’ long distance plan. Hey, VoIP works for me and is inexpensive! What can I say.)
Two days ago we were kvetching through instant messenger and got chatting about how some people have absolutely no sense of humour, especially irate clients who expect everything to have been completed yesterday when they’ve only sent you the work to be done an hour earlier. Since both of us have clientele from the US and Canada, we frequently switch back and forth between the two different spelling formats of each country. In his haste to type the word ‘humour’ in the IM box, he pecked out ‘humer’, then ‘humor’, followed by ‘humour.’ By this time I was snickering and since I was having one of my non-busy days, I responded, “Don’t you mean ‘Hugh Muir?’ That did it for me. I started laughing and couldn’t stop until I had tears running down my face and a stitch in my side.
It suddenly occurred to me that this one trait, my whacky, off-the-wall, slightly warped sense of humour, is what has gotten me through all the rough patches and obstacles I’ve faced in growing of my business. For example, when I first opened my doors for business and noticed nobody seemed to be beating a path to them, I got very scared. Then one day I simply decided that while I was waiting for those unknown clients to line up, I’d plant beautiful flowers along the front of my walkway. This way, I reasoned, at least they’d have something nice to smell when they arrived.
I firmly believe that if you can cultivate the ability to be able to laugh at adversity, or find something funny in a down situation, then you’ve developed an admirable trait. I know for a fact that laughter reduces the level of stress hormones and increases the level of health-enhancing hormones like endorphins and neurotransmitters in your body, plus it just plain feels good. Another benefit of laughter is that when you’re with other people and one of you starts chuckling, it sort of becomes this contagious ‘smiling’ disease. The next thing you notice is that most of your group is laughing as well.
Laughter is also a terrific ice breaker when trying to engage new clients in conversation. I’m not suggesting that you try to be a comedian and crack them up with witty one-liners every 2 minutes, but I’ve yet to see a book on business building where they strongly suggest that you NEVER smile or say something funny. In fact I warn all my new clients that I don’t have a very good filter on my mouth and to be prepared for the unexpected when talking with me.
So, the next time you’re feeling frustrated because your client list isn’t as big as you’d like, or your bank account isn’t even close to what Madonna pays her personal trainer, (I couldn’t find an accurate estimate here or I’d have shared it with you!), go ahead – laugh. It’s free; it feels good; you won’t gain a pound from it, or have to go to confession because of guilt. And you just might find that your day and disposition will improve.
Invite ‘Hugh Muir’ into your life. I can guarantee you he’ll be a very nice addition to your household and life.
PS – To all the actual real life ‘Hugh Muir’s’ out there, I do apologize for borrowing your name for this article. I’m certain that you’re very nice gentlemen and most definitely have developed your own sense of humour… or humor… or however you spell it where you live.
“Ground Black People?” – Best Gaff of the Week
Call me sick, call me totally whacko, but I thought I’d crack up laughing this morning when I read an AP posting entitled, “Cookbook pulped over ‘ground black people’ typo.” First off, I wondered why the writer had inserted the word ‘pulped’ into the title of the column. Were they trying to be cutesy and use a play on words, or did the actual headline include a typo as well? Had they meant to say, “Cookbook PULLED over ‘ground black people’ typo?”
Then I went on to read the article itself and that’s when I started silently snickering. Apparently the “Pasta Bible” recipe for spelt tagliatelle, (a hardy wheat type of pasta, and yes, I had to look that up!), with sardines and prosciutto, was supposed to call for black pepper, not ‘ground black people.’
Aha! Now ground pepper makes much more sense to me than the appalling bad typo ingredient.
This story reminded me of a bad cooking experience I had about 20 years ago. One Christmas I decided I’d make my Dad’s favourite dessert, namely my Mom’s recipe for Suet Pudding. (Don’t start gagging here folks – stick with me on this!) It was a fairly complicated pudding; I was in a hurry; and when I’d originally copied down the recipe from my Mom’s original tattered and batter-stained recipe card, I missed one crucial ingredient: baking powder.
Anyhow, this lovely concoction was steaming gently away, balanced precariously on a smaller pot inserted into a larger one filled with boiling water while I served the Christmas main course to the crowd. Now came the time to serve the piece de resistance, the Suet Pudding. (I’d also made apple pies for those of you who still have your face screwed up over the thought of eating suet.)
I removed the wonderfully aromatic pudding from the pot and instantly my eye’s register that something is really amiss: the pudding is still only about 2” thick instead of the lovely light and airy 6” version by Mom used to serve. My Dad gamely polished off a large portion of what I called, “Steamed brick on a plate,” but later that night after the hubbub of the day had ended, I had to figure out what I’d done wrong. Going back over the recipe, I couldn’t see any baking powder in the list, and I know that without that one tiny ingredient, you’ll always have pancake flat, ‘looks like lead’ cakes.
Moral of the story? Read everything you write at least THREE times before you publish it or try to cook from it!
Oh… and here’s the link to the ‘ground black people’ gaff if you’d like to read the rest of the article: http://bit.ly/9B73rB
Sometimes a Flower Isn’t Just a Flower
I woke up this morning to bright, beautiful sunshine flooding my bedroom through the slats of my window blind. This is the second day in a row where I experienced this wonderful phenomenon after a week that brought more snow, (blech!) and cold temperatures to my little corner of the east coast of Canada. At this point, any warmth or semblance thereof brings me comfort as I am not a winter person by any stretch of the imagination.
After breakfast, my hubby and I decided to go run a few errands. Even though the temperature still was in the minus Celsius range, we could feel the warmth of that wonderful sunshine beaming through the windshield. Both of us commented on how great it was to be alive on such a glorious morning. And the day just got better and better.
Upon arriving back at the house, we took our little Westie, Angel, outside to do her ‘business’ and I ventured around to the front of the house to marvel at how the snow was gently melting around the basement footing.
And that’s when I saw it – a tiny sprig of greenery popping through the thawing ground, yet still surrounded by snow banks. Whether it was a tulip or hyacinth daring to show its face to the world, I couldn’t be sure, but it was the first sign that spring is on its way to my region. Then this amazing thought popped into my head: sometimes a flower isn’t just a flower!
Somewhere this past winter, especially after seeing only grey-filled skies and snow-laden clouds for so many months, I had lost the wonderment of life, and of how precious even a smidgen of warmth can warm the soul and lift the spirit.
I found my ‘joy’ again this morning. The struggles of repurposing my business after suffering disappointment after disillusionment this past January melted away, just as the snow surrounding the little budding flower was slowly receding.
So, if that amazing budding greenery can dare to show its tenacity and bravery to show up well before spring is even official in these parts, then I too, can persevere and emerge victorious through my really minor trials and tribulations.
Sometimes a flower isn’t just a flower – it’s a sign that beauty and joy can be a part of your life… if you’ll just stick around long enough to see them.
Look out world. I’m back!
Does Your Content Match Your Market?
As a writer and editor, it’s my job to research many different websites when preparing content for my clients. While I’ve seen some beautifully designed and executed sites in my searches, it never ceases to amaze me that when reading some of the content, I’m left feeling slightly puzzled and perplexed. And do you know why? It’s because their words leave me with two major unanswered questions, namely, “What do you do?” and “What are you offering me as a potential consumer?”
In a lot of cases, the owner, (or content writer), of the website material hasn’t taken into consideration the actual target market or audience they need to reach in order to engage them in the buying process. I once asked a client who their target market was and they responded, “Well, everybody!” and looked at me as if I’d grown a second head.
“Everybody” is not your market. You need to separate the ‘body’ from this word and get specific about who will want to do business with you. By answering these top 3 questions before you write your content, you’ll be much closer to attracting the perfect clients to your business and ultimately increasing your bottom line.
1. What is the age range of your ideal client? This may seem like an odd question to ask, but it’s an extremely relevant one. If you’re selling a cutting edge new trendy jewellery accessory that you know your 24 year old niece loves, then write your content accordingly. Use current ‘hip’ wording that applies to that generation – something that will pique their interest and make them click further into your site to see your offerings. Using phrases such as “Our bling will make you sing” or “Feeling alone in the crowd? Wear Bling Things and stand your ground!” clearly states that it’s for a younger crowd.
2. What are your ideal client’s habits? Where do they shop? What are they currently reading, and what programs are they watching on television? The more you know about what your prospective clients do in their spare time can definitely influence your marketing collateral and website content. If you’re uncertain about their actual habits, consider sending out a short survey with tailored questions to people whose opinion you value before you write your content. As the old saying goes, there is no such thing as a stupid question, so go ahead and ask before you start writing.
3. What does your ideal client look like? I can imagine a few of you are thinking to yourself, “Why should it matter what my client looks like? I don’t care about superficial things like that!” Wrong! You do need to care about what your ideal client looks like and I’m not referring to whether they’re wearing a black pinstripe suit or sweat pants, (although that image certainly helps if your target market happens to be people who own clothing businesses or are CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies!) You need to have a clear vision in your mind of the person who will want your products or services. Be precise on the demographics as possible: what type of car/house do they own; where do they work; what type of food do they like to eat; do they shop at high-end boutiques or at chain retail stores; are they employed full-time, part-time, or stay at home mothers etc. These and at least 50 other questions come to my mind that you need to answer before writing your content.
I’ve only listed 3 of the many questions you need to know the answers to before writing winning website content and marketing collateral, but I’m certain you’re now armed with enough information to decide once and for all exactly who that ‘body’ in ‘everybody’ is.
Match your content to your client and you’ll create followers and ultimately sales. Because frankly, you’re in business to do business, aren’t you?
Something to Think About on A Chilly Friday
I was doing my morning reading from a wonderful book of inspirational poems, and today’s excerpt was called “High Flight.” I’d read these words before but had never known who was the writer, so like any self-respecting internet junkie, I did a search to find out who the author was and discovered it was John Gillespie Magee, Jr. But there’s a story behind this sonnet, and a rather interesting one as well.
According to Wikipedia, Magee was born in Shanghai, China, to an American father and a British mother who worked as Anglican missionaries. In 1939 he moved to the USA to live with his aunt in Pittsburgh and attended Avon Old Farms School in Avon, Connecticut. He earned a scholarship to Yale University – where his father was then a chaplain – in July 1940 but did not enroll, choosing instead to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force in October of that year.
He received flight training in Ontario at Toronto, Trenton, St. Catharines, and Uplands and passed his Wings Test in June 1941. Shortly after being awarded his Wings and being promoted to Pilot Officer, Magee was sent to Britain and was posted to No. 53 Operational Training Unit (OTU) in RAF Llandow, Wales to train on the Supermarine Spitfire. It was while at #53 OTU that Magee wrote High Flight.
Magee was killed at the age of 19, whilst flying Spitfire VZ-H, serial number AD-291. The aircraft was involved in a mid-air collision with an Airspeed Oxford trainer from RAF Cranwell, flown by Leading Aircraftman Ernest Aubrey. The two aircraft collided in cloud cover at about 400 feet AGL, at 11:30, over the village of Roxholm which lies between RAF Cranwell and RAF Digby, in Lincolnshire. Magee was descending at the time. At the inquiry afterwards a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggling to push back the canopy. The pilot stood up to jump from the plane but was too close to the ground for his parachute to open, and died on impact. Magee is buried at Holy Cross, Scopwick Cemetery in Lincolnshire, England. On his grave are inscribed the first and last lines from his poem High Flight, which is what I read this morning.
Here’s this amazing piece of prose that started off my morning:
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings,
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”
Magee is buried at Holy Cross, Scopwick Cemetery in Lincolnshire, England. On his grave are inscribed the first and last lines from his poem High Flight:
“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth -
Put out my hand and touched the Face of God.”
What a wonderful epitaph for a man who gave us all such a glorious sonnet.
Something lovely indeed to ponder on a very chilly December Friday morning on the windswept East Coast.
Yay! My new website is LIVE!
I am so happy to see my new website up and running. As all of you wonderful people out there know, getting a site ‘live’ can sometimes be trying, and this one was no exception. If it hadn’t been for my trusty website savvy VA friend, Jef Keep, of www.DailyPlanetVirtual.ca, I’m certain I’d be totally hairless by now!
For those of you who happen to stumble on this short blog posting, drop me a line and let me know what you think of the overall site – both the good, bad and the ugly.
In the now immortal words of Arnold, “I’ll be baaaccck” later this week!
Cheerio!
Marlene
New Research Shows We Might Not Survive an Attack by Zombies! (I kid you not folks!)
I, like many other millions of people, have MSN.com set up as my home page on my IE browser, simply because I like to glance there to catch current news events throughout the day. Often times I’m amused by blatant attention headlines, such as “Three thousand year old dog bones uncovered in farmers field” while some of them actually make me laugh out loud at their absurdity. But I just discovered one this afternoon that pretty much make me stop and look twice, just to ensure that I didn’t read the headline incorrectly.
“Zombie attack would be the death of us” screamed the headline. This definitely falls into the category of “What the ….?” in my books.
While I certainly appreciate the value of scientific research, (apparently this study was conducted as an exercise in mathematical disease modelling, similar to models used to track the spread of a pandemic), and for finding remedies to end the many incurable diseases we suffer as humans, this study makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me.
Call me stupid, call me lame-brained, call me anything you want but late for dinner as the old saying goes, but I fail to see the validity of studying the effects on human life as we know IF… and that’s a really big IF here folks, a mass zombie attack were to occur.
For those of you reading this posting who don’t believe that this study is legit, simply go to http://snipurl.com/qjosp and read the story for yourself.
Sigh. Just when I thought I’d seen, (or read!), just about everything….
Whoever Told Me I Had to Be Perfect Lied
I was sitting here tonight, quietly reading a great book by Jack Canfield entitled, “The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be” and one of the lines in the second chapter hit me like a ton of bricks. He said, “You don’t want to get to the top of the ladder only to find out you had it leaning against the wrong wall.” And pow! It just dawned on me that whoever told me I had to be perfect lied.
I know that a long, long time ago, back in my childhood days, I was often told that I had to be ‘perfect’ at whatever it was they wanted me to do. Be a ‘perfect’ little girl; eat your food using ‘perfect’ table manners; sit and be ‘perfectly’ quiet, and perhaps someday I would meet the ‘perfect’ person and settle down and lead a ‘perfectly’ charming life. Well, guess what – they lied!
I did all those ‘perfect’ things and not once did I win a prize for remembering which fork to pick up first when dining out. I never quite managed to sit ‘perfectly’ still for very long as I was a rather hyperactive child, but I do remember feeling ‘perfectly’ awful when I was punished for not sitting quietly in my chair and for interrupting grown-up conversations with questions. The icing on my ‘perfect’ wedding cake crumbled when my first marriage bit the dust and consequently my life went into a state of ‘perfect’ turmoil because of the divorce.
But guess what I just realized? I don’t have to be ‘perfect’ at anything except being myself! Who I am today is just dandy. I worry less about my appearance and am happy in my own skin. I have learned to embrace the quirks and foibles that make me a unique human being and I’ve stopped listening to the naysayers who may disagree with me. I’m entitled to be me and to voice my opinion. If you don’t agree with me, that’s your given right to have your own thoughts and opinions.
So, to end this ‘perfect’ rant, I’ll leave you with this thought to contemplate. Be ‘perfectly’ content to simply be. Because if someone told you that you HAD to be ‘perfect’…. they too lied.
Make Your Landing Page Soar
Wow! You’ve opened your door for business, (albeit via a website), and you’re anxiously awaiting your first sale. And you wait… and you continue to wait… and after 2 weeks nothing’s happened. Whoa! Wait a second here – what’s going on? Why aren’t the masses flocking to your website to purchase the latest and greatest shazam shiner or whatever product/service you happen to be offering?
Before you start revamping your whole website and spending thousands of hard-earned dollars on new graphics, designs etc., what exactly is your landing or home page saying about you and your company?
Click here to the read the rest of this terrific article – http://www.articlesbase.com/copywriting-articles/make-your-landing-page-soar–803780.html