Author Archives: Karen Reyburn

Tell your origin story: your ideal client wants to know it

karen reyburn 2011

“In the end, stories are about one person saying to another: This is the way it feels to me. Can you understand what I’m saying? Does it feel this way to you?” ― Kazuo Ishiguro This photo is me in 2011. Just started a new marketing agency to help accountants. Fresh from working directly for

Keep going, or give up? Consistency beats intensity

just keep going yellow mug st kilda

When it comes to seeing a result from your marketing, you know that keeping going is the way. Sticking with your email newsletter, your weekly YouTube or TikTok videos, your LinkedIn posts and comments…it has an impact over time. But it’s hard to tell sometimes if you’re speaking or writing or sharing into the void. Is

Friday night reset: sauna and sea and community

island sauna shack mull salen sunset

On Friday afternoon, I wrapped up my afternoon meetings, replied to the outstanding items from team members, and drove about twenty minutes to the sea and the wood fired sauna we have here on the island.  It’s a Friday night rhythm for me.  And the ONLY way this works is if I block it out. 

Keep Your Systems Simple

Creating (or updating) systems for your business feels really positive, like you’re properly scaling at last.  After all, that’s what they tell you, isn’t it? Don’t just do the work; build the systems. Train the team to use the systems and you have a scalable business which runs like a well oiled machine whether you’re

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Book subtitles, website messages, tag lines: The shorter the message the harder it is to create

accountants you are creative book karen l reyburn

This week, I had a deadline to get the full title and subtitle of my second book to the publishers.  No problem, I thought. I have so many ideas! I already knew what the core title was – “Accountants, you are creative too” – and literally had forty or fifty potential subtitle texts in a

A new brand isn’t merely visual: it challenges your entire business

“Think of your brand like a bouncer”, I said on LinkedIn this week.  Its job is to protect and help you from letting in those you don’t want in your club. And to protect the club (your business) from being so confusing that no one knows what you stand for, so they dither and eventually

On “going dark” – even for two hours

This week I took out two full hours to “go dark” – no slack, no email, no phone notifications: complete silence on everything except this one project.  The next day, I did it again. Same project (now halfway finished). Two hours, again. No connection with anything except the tasks before me.  I got it done.

Assume good intent.

creative headspace sketch of person imagining heart

You’ve had it happen. Probably even this week. Someone said something, did something (or didn’t), and you thought: “Well. That wasn’t very nice, because…” And your mind literally filled in the gaps. The truth is, we don’t know. That’s why our brains (wired for story) leap in to “help”. But since we are humans, full