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Recent Projects

It was a pleasure to talk to the people bringing new businesses to interesting and historic neighborhoods in Montgomery. #MyMGM – Cottage Hill’s Redevelopment Restores and Revives – PublicLayout-blog – Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce – AL, AL (montgomerychamber.com)

I also enjoy writing about community organizations. This piece for the Montgomery Business Journal highlights how a non-profit agency helps individuals with developmental disabilities train for, find and thrive in a job.  GiveBack: Win-Win at Work – PublicLayout-blog – Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce – AL, AL (montgomerychamber.com)

Writing and Publishing Tips

This was the first time I’d ever been interviewed for a podcast, and I enjoyed talking with the folks about TAB Media about my work as a writer for marketing and communications projects, as well as my novella, Miss Bertie Explains the Beginning of the World. Our conversation was through Zoom, which they recorded and also uploaded to their Youtube channel. The conversation is at this link …

Writing and Publishing Tips – YouTube

5 R’s for Navigating Change

If I picked one word that is the key to my life as a creative solopreneur, it is this one:

Resilience.

I wish someone had tipped me off to this word when I began my freelance writing career, but I had to learn it through experience.

I launched my journey as an independent copywriter 20 years ago. In 2001, I onboarded my best-paying copywriting client. Hooray! In 2003, that client went away. Oh, dear.

It’s been like that ever since.

There are cycles to business needs and business relationships. I can be there to meet the opportunity when it’s there, but let it go if it goes.

Year ago, I signed a temporary client. We discussed working together for a couple of months on a weekly editing project, at least until she could replace her assistant. Thirteen months later, she replaced her assistant.

I said goodbye.

When that assistant left, I came on board for another couple of months for regular editing work until she could replace her assistant.

Four months later I said goodbye.

This happened once more. A temporary assignment. This time it lasted two years before I said goodbye.

Some things go away, some things come back. Resilience enables a creative entrepreneur to let go as it goes but welcome it back the next time around. Or respond to the changed environment and regroup.

R is a great letter for words that guide: Resilience. Respond. Regroup.

And, of course, this one: Relationship.

Build that, and you may get them again on the Rebound.

3 Questions for Alarming Times

Last week, I had my first in-person meeting since the pandemic began. I’m a writer in Montgomery, Alabama, and I headed downtown for article interview. Everything went fine until I returned home to discover that my house alarm was blaring.

The problem was compounded by the fact that I could not turn it off. The keypad didn’t work. This was a full system breakdown, and I didn’t know how to pull the plug on the alarming noise filling my home.

Clearly, the writing assignment would have to wait.

I called my security company for help. The over-the-phone recommendations didn’t help. The rep pulled a tech off another job and sent him to my place to deactivate the alarm.

So my cat and I were there in the house for about 30 minutes while the alarm blared. These moments were stressful. I couldn’t think straight. My cat was confused and concerned. All I could do was wait.

When the tech arrived, he was polite, helpful, and efficient. I was relieved that he was there. He detached the wires, but the system was shot. I would need a new one. He returned first thing Monday morning – again, polite, helpful and efficient – and installed my new system.

Naturally, I can make an analogy to being a creative entrepreneur in this era of pandemic.

Sometimes the situation is like standing in the house with the alarm blaring, and I’m looking at the cat and saying “I’m sorry, sweetie, this isn’t easy for either of us.”

In this mode of panic, it’s hard to think straight. It’s hard to be creative. Later, when the house was quiet again, I had an idea: I could have gone to the electrical panel and shut off the power to the circuit that wired the alarm. I didn’t think of it at the time.

That’s what the first weeks of quarantine were like … “I can’t get my hair cut? I can’t go out to lunch? Church is closed for two weeks? I have to cook?”

All of which boiled down to this question: “How will I survive?”

Sometimes the pandemic is like an eternal window of waiting for a service technician. (“We have you on the schedule, and he’ll be there sometime between March and August.” Or: “I wanted to let you know he’s been slightly delayed so it might be January. Sit tight, and we’ll keep you posted.”)

What do you do while waiting? Well, you look around. You ask, “What needs tending to? How can I make use of my time.”

My question moved from “How will I survive?” to “How will I thrive?”

The latter is a better question because it brings more energy. It comes at the problem with more optimism and allows for creative thinking. I did make some choices: publish a novella, launch a podcast, increase my content production and paint my interior walls – all of which have provided a feeling of thriving even as I wait.  

Then there’s the third question.

Sometimes the pandemic is like, “I’m so glad that technician was able to help me.” He was polite, he wore a mask, he gave me plenty of space. And he made the house quiet again. Even in this strange time, he served at a higher level. He did one thing, in fact, that was quite extraordinary. He noticed that the plate for my front door knob had been installed backwards, which meant that I had to turn the knob to close the door.

I hadn’t thought about it. It never occurred to me that this plate, installed last year, had been placed backwards. He offered to switch it around, and I said, “Sure.”

That act represents how I moved to my third question. I’ve gotten through “How will I survive?” I have asked, “How will I thrive?” But the one going forward?

“How can I help others?”

With creative thinking and the energy that comes from a new question, I’m looking forward to discovering lots of new answers.

How about you? What questions are you asking today? Do they allow for creative thinking and renewed enthusiasm? If not, how can you change those questions? 

Is Your Creative Content Getting Seen and Heard?

One of the most frustrating parts of this pandemic is saying something quite brilliant during a Zoom meeting only to discover that you’re still on mute. “Click the button at the bottom left,” everyone on the call will willingly tell you.

So now you have a choice to either: 1) click the button at the bottom left, or 2) question the judgement of everyone else. Will you ask, “How do I know if that approach is right for me? What if I’m just not a ‘click the icon at the bottom left’ kind of person?” Or will you heed the advice: “Wait, this button?”

Content marketing can be like that too – in that prescribed theories don’t always feel as if they’re working. Plus, a lot of people are quick to tell you how to get your content strategies right, although it can still feel as if you aren’t being seen or heard.

Here are some suggestions for improving content creation and connections:

Provide inspiration. Most people could use a little dose of hope. Share it if you’ve got it.

Solve a problem. Think back to your own experience. If something was a problem for you, it’s probably a problem for someone else.

Be concise. Attention spans are short. A lot of your readers want to scan quickly.

Analyze results. If you’re not getting the results you want, is it the audience, the message, the tone, the timing, the consistency, the takeaway, the platform, the brand? At different times, I’ve dealt with all of these issues with content I write. In general, though, look for where you see energy and where you see stagnation, then go toward the energy.

Learn from the leaders. What organization or person similar to your brand is achieving content marketing success? I’m tempted to say follow that leader, but maybe I’m just not a “click the icon at bottom left” kind of person. So I’ll just say, learn from that leader, and then …

Play your own game. Content marketing is not one-size-fits-all. You can actually create your own goals, rules and measures for content success – and play to win based on your own values and strategies.

Minnie Lamberth is a full-time content writer focused on marketing, leadership and communications projects, as well as an inspirational author and creative encourager.

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

When to Cut Your First Sentence

I realized in hindsight that I didn’t have to include the word “podcast” in my podcast title.

Sometimes people adapting to a new format use their first moments to announce that they are adapting to a new format. I heard this yesterday as I listened to someone use his podcast introduction to basically say, “I’m recording a podcast.”

Earlier in the pandemic, I clicked to view a video of a gentleman who began his video by announcing that he was recording a video.

You can also figure out someone is new to web technology (or hasn’t updated website content in a few years) when you land on a page that says “This is our website.”

Our first sentences in any writing project are often about how we are trying to figure out what we want to say – or how we’re adapting to a new way of sharing this message.

So, yes, go ahead and work that out for yourself in your rough draft. But be willing to delete those first few sentences before you record, post or send. People can figure out on their own which format you’re using. Focus in on your message.

 

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Learning New Marketing Technology for Writing Projects

Is your learning curve accelerating? Mine sure is. Especially since I decided to launch a podcast and publish a book as part of content marketing strategies for a writing business.

This need to move quickly in and around digital platforms is probably best represented by the fact that I now have a Venmo account. Five days ago, I did not have such an account.  Then a request came in for a signed copy of my new novella … with the follow-up question, “Do you have Venmo?”

Within just a few minutes, I opened a Venmo account and responded, “Yes, I have Venmo.”

Over the last couple of weeks, I worked through the various issues of hosting a podcast … after I’d worked through issues of recording and editing a podcast. Prior to that, I figured out how to publish a book via Amazon KDP. So, yes, I’ve learned a lot.

But here’s the thing that hasn’t changed. Every time I come face to face with a new digital marketing platform or technological process, I feel overwhelmed. I enter with fear, uncertainty and confusion wrapped up in a big box of “How will this ever work?”

Yet here’s the other thing that hasn’t changed: I get to the other side of that question one step at a time.

A well-known book by Dr. Robert Maurer, One Small Step Can Change Your Life, is based on principles of Kaizen, a philosophy used by Japanese businesses to make improvements. The Kaizen method involves making an improvement by taking a small step – often the smallest possible – which reroutes the circuits in your brain that cause you to feel overwhelmed.

The Kaizen method is an effective way to approach learning something new – such as publishing a book or recording a podcast. Yet it’s also a useful approach for overcoming your resistance to doing something you already know how to do.

For example, you already know how to make up your bed, but you don’t feel like it. So you tell yourself, “I will put a pillow back in place.” That small step gives you the momentum to take the next one, and you end up making up the bed.

Obviously in your business life you might want to apply that process to a more profitable outcome. For example, the need to send a follow-up email to a prospect is pressing on you. You already know how to send an email, but you don’t feel like it. What’s the smallest step you can take to get started? Take that step, then move on to your next one.

 

 

Being Creative in Your Response to Change

This is a tale of two different responses. One entrepreneur looked at the changes that had taken place in the world and said, “This is a bad situation. Let’s keep our heads down, get through it and wait until the situation is better.” He did basic tasks while sending email that said, “We are waiting until things get back to normal. Hopefully they will get back to normal soon.”

That is a very understandable response. It takes imagination to reinvent your program while in the same job, with the same mission, with the same customers or target market. The events of 2020 were likely missing from most crisis management plans. Yet this is the moment we’re in.

Another entrepreneur looked at the changes that had taken place in the world and said, “This is a bad situation. Let’s help other people get through it too.” He met with his team and asked, “How can we be creative in how we respond?” Ideas began to flow. They tried different things – some worked, some didn’t. Even so, their creativity built their courage to try more things, which built their resilience, which built their motivation to keep going.

The qualities that are needed to survive and/or thrive – skill sets, creativity and resilience – are still available, even if they’re hidden within exhaustion and frustration.

If you’re feeling stuck, start with some simple questions: How can I see this situation differently? How can I deliver value? What’s a small step I can take? What I can I do for the next five minutes to help myself – or someone else?

For a while, I looked around and said, “I can’t believe all of this happened.” Now I say, “I can’t believe how resilient I’ve been since all of this happened!” Frankly, I wouldn’t have known I had it in me.

How about you? If you’re taking new steps, trying new skills, and overcoming unforeseen difficulties, that’s awesome. If you’re bringing your best to this test, take a moment to be grateful for how you’ve picked yourself up during a pandemic for the history books. Even if you can’t change the world today, it is possible to change your perspective.

Writer Minnie Lamberth helps clients craft marketing messages, develop writing projects, or create content. She is the author of Miss Bertie Explains the Beginning of the World and the podcast Your Creative Purpose.  

Making a Pandemic Pivot on a Shoestring Budget

As businesses shuttered while many of us were sheltering in place, I erased the plans for 2020 that I had enthusiastically written on my whiteboard earlier in the year. I didn’t want these words staring at me when the environment I had written them in was so different.

It was kind of like keeping operating instructions for equipment I’d discarded. Just not helpful. Turns out, plans for Earth 1 do not work on Earth 2.

My workload for copywriting and content marketing flipped as one client pulled back, another pushed ahead. The work I was doing changed. However, the whole world of contact-free, Amazon-delivery living opened up another opportunity to pursue in the meantime. I published a novella and launched a podcast, and I did both on a shoestring budget.

I used Amazon KDP for the novella, uploading files and making them available for my market. Amazon runs the business part of sales and shipping.

As I told a friend, “I don’t want to be in fulfillment. Do you know what fulfillment is?”

“No,” she said, “but it sounds awful.”

“It’s where you have to buy envelopes, put the books in the envelopes and go to the post office and stand in line to get them mailed. I don’t want to do that.”

Amazon was happy to take care of that detail via “print on demand” while I earn royalties at a level that is comfortable for my investment and effort.

My costs on the novella were editing and bar code. My writing was fairly clean, but I did pay someone to look over my shoulder and catch my blind spots. If I wanted to release a novella to generate visibility and credibility – and share a message of creative purpose – I did not want to embarrass myself with errors and/or unintended offense.

Fortunately, another friend offered to design the cover and interior pages. That was a big savings and also part of making a respectable presentation. I wanted the book to be physically pleasing when someone pulled it out of the Amazon box and held it in his/her hands.

Then I moved on to the podcast to promote the novella and the concepts of creative purpose that are within the story. I had a microphone. I used the free software Audacity to record and edit on my laptop. Pixabay.com has free music files I could plug into the intro and outro. I signed up for a $5 month plan at Libsyn for distribution, and I used Canva to create my podcast image for free.

If I can help you through your pivot, let me know. I’d be happy to discuss your ideas.

Minnie Lamberth is a copywriter, content writer, author, and now a podcaster of creative inspiration. 

Standing Out in COVID-19 Marketing

Now, more than ever, times like these show us that companies want us to buy their products. We’re getting overwhelmed by brands who understand how overwhelmed we feel, and we can’t help but notice the unprecedented use of the word unprecedented as marketers battle over who can help us maintain a sense of peace.

So, how can content marketers stand out in all of this “now, more than ever” marketing? That answer is found in those who actually stand out. Here’s what I admired:

Displays of Creativity. Besides the in-home videos by famous people, one of my favorite posts was simply “30 Creative Alternatives to the Word Unprecedented” by Hero’s Journey Content. It spoke to an overused word with diminishing effectiveness and gave a fun and useful set of alternatives for copywriting and content.

Reality Based. The world did change, and marketers were wise to acknowledge that. In the beginning, my inbox was filled with a mix of email marketing messages. Some saw an opportunity to provide genuinely helpful information. For example, a software security company sent out information on how to protect your data when working from home. Some wrote with information about changes in how they were operating. Those writers who made no mention of the circumstances seemed tone-deaf in how they ignored pandemic repercussions. But a few stood out by talking straight. I particularly liked the emails I received from John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. Three of his subject lines were: Why generating referrals is your best bet right now, How to get unstuck, and Keep investing in yourself. Good input.

Signs of Optimism. Actor John Krasinski launched a hugely popular Youtube news show direct from his home and dedicated entirely to optimistic viewpoints. Some Good News was sweet, funny, inspiring, uplifting and an otherwise joyful interruption to a lot of bad news. This was his self-funded show, yet brands joined in the fun to sponsor freebies and prizes he revealed to guests during his episodes.

Touching Tributes. Many tried to say in one way or another “we’re all in this together.” But some advertising teams really know how to bring together creative concepts and production quality to deliver a great ad with the right tone at the right moment. Kellogg’s did just that when the company produced a commercial that thanked farmers, line workers, truckers, and others who bring food to the table every day.

These are just a few examples of marketers who got attention for good reasons during a bad season. What did you notice? And how can you apply creativity, reality, optimism and heartfelt appreciation in the content marketing you produce? If you’d like my help, just let me know.

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Minnie Lamberth is a freelance copywriter in Montgomery, Alabama. Email [email protected] to discuss your next writing project.

Photo by Merakist on Unsplash