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
Category Archives: Karens Notes
15
Mar
Mar
“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
08
Mar
Mar
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.
22
Feb
Feb
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
15
Feb
Feb
To be fair the chances of me completing a book called “Finish” seem higher than for other books. The title alone stares at you, judges you a bit until it’s done. I’ve written before about my tendency to pull back right before something big is completed: Self sabotage, finishing your writing, and the power of
Karens Notes, Karen’s Marketing Tips, Plans & Strategy, Helping
How to identify your marketing strategy “themes”
08
Feb
Feb
Marketing strategy can feel confusing – and even pointless sometimes. Surely it’s mostly a bunch of talk, and if you have to go through it you will, but really you want to just get some marketing done. “Executed” is the marketing term, but I find that rather war-like and creepy sometimes, so I tend to
Helping, Karens Notes, Karen’s Marketing Tips, Sketchnotes, Plans & Strategy, Sales
The connected circle of space, and speed
01
Feb
Feb
“So I see you have values like creative space, and rest… but you also have impact and decisiveness,” an accountant said to me this week. “One is slow and measured; the other gives the sense of speed and movement. How do you see those fitting together?” What a great question. It’s one of my favourite
11
Jan
Jan
I’ve not always been ready to make resolutions at the start of January. Some years I pushed myself. This will be my year, I’d promise myself, as I bought or pulled out yet another notebook – or a series of notebooks, like one year when I wrote a different word on each one, like “creativity”
21
Dec
Dec
Company values are excellent things. And sometimes, they need to be revisited. Not because they aren’t right: but because in business, as in life, things change. Your perspective shifts. What was the right area of focus before doesn’t fit the way it used to. I’ve been discovering that’s the case for me and my agency:
14
Dec
Dec
Real client reviews and testimonials have some of the biggest impact in marketing, because they mitigate the buyer’s fear of making a bad decision. Your buyer is thinking something like: “What if this doesn’t work out?” “I’ve heard this before – it sounds good but it did last time too” “Will I really get the
