Posts Tagged ‘cathy-goodwin’
Hey, Client, This Is Me! Sell With Your Writing Voice
In a crowded market, clients will be seeking personality as they read what you’ve written — they’ll click right past pages that feel “been there, read that.” They’re looking for a voice that says, “Hey, client, this is me!”
They want to know not just what you deliver — but how. Will you be funny or serious? A perky cheerleader or a sardonic commentator? Will your view of life be based on “believe and it happens” or “what you see is what you get?”
Here are some tips to add your own voice to your writing.
1. Write from the heart.
Too excited, passionate or angry to sit still? Best time to connect with your voice. Grab a pencil and scribble ideas as you jump around the room.
2. Say something new.
After forty articles on time management, your readers know about cutting projects into manageable chunks and setting priorities. Ho hum. Try “better than zero” or “turn your life into a time warp.”
3. Tape yourself talking to a good friend about a product.
Do your words sound different when you speak than when you write? Transcribe the tape into an article for easy reading.
4. Picture your ideal client (you do have one, don’t you?). Imagine that she is gushing about your service to a friend — highly recommending you. What words does she use to describe your services? What emotions come through?
5. Cut. Then cut again. When you have to trim your piece to meet a word count requirement, notice that you’re left with the most essential words — all yours.
6. Write fast. Get the words down before your inner critic has a chance to participate. Edit later.
7. Reveal yourself: family, mistakes, secret dreams. When you feel just a bit embarrassed, or feel your private persona has become more public, you’ve probably just touched your audience’s heart.
8. Be concrete — not abstract.
As writing guru Natalie Goldberg would say, “It’s a geranium, not a flower.”
9. If you’ve had voice training, be especially alert to creating the bland and the blah.
Julia Roberts could hold an audience while she reads the telephone directory. Your copy has to stand alone, without dramatic oratory. Exercise 3 may not work for you.
10. Don’t be afraid to break the rules: use slang and contractions. And it’s okay to begin a sentence with “and” or “but.”
Just tread carefully on the rules of grammar and spelling. “Your about to head off for you’re great adventure” can be a credibility-buster.
About The Author
Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker, editor, and consultant. She helps clients who want to use writing to sell and sell what they write.
Promote Your Business and Get Paid for Doing It!
How can you gain credibility and exposure for you and your business, reach a motivated audience, develop a far-flung network, hone your presentation skills — and get paid to do it?
Many writers, artists, speakers and entrepreneurs have found an answer: they teach classes in adult education programs.
Adult education is big business. In the new century, “change” is a hot topic and learning is no longer confined to traditional degree programs. As people want to grow their careers and enrich their lives, specialized programs have evolved to reach this market.
Some teaching venues require at least a master’s degree. Others allow you to share your unique skills, from designing brochures to tarot reading. Temple University’s continuing education program has offered a half-day class taught by a cleaning lady. The subject? Speed cleaning. If a target market exists for your business or if you have knowledge that people can use on the job, chances are a target market exists for you in the world of adult education.
By entering this world, you can demonstrate your skills to a receptive audience, meet some terrific people, learn more than you expected and even have some fun. Teaching requires more than a good speaking voice and a knowledge-filled brain. Every minute you are in the classroom, you are marketing yourself to your students. You must keep students involved for up to eight hours. Since the average adult attention span is about fifteen minutes, you have to design exercises, activities and questions. You have to deal with the unexpected. Students will arrive late, ask off-the-wall questions and challenge your expertise. Occasionally, students will be rude, insulting or even abusive.
Most people who teach find themselves exhausted after even a short class, yet also exhilarated. Teaching can be a high when everything goes well. The secret of successful part-time teaching is to identify your purpose in teaching and fine-tune your skills to your target market.
You want to reach students who are also potential customers. If a school features astrology and visualization, your course on finding the lowest mortgage rate won’t fit, unless you suggest people consult the stars to meet their financial goals.
People who have added teaching to their promotional toolkit report finding success and fun along the way. One public relations consultant gets forty percent of her clients from adult education classes. A writer has developed a secondstream of income and a never-ending source of ideas. The opportunities are available to everyone, everywhere.
Want to learn more? Read Cathy Goodwin’s ebook, published by intellectua.com: How to get started teaching in adult ed programs. For more information, contact Cath.
About The Author
Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., is an author, speaker and career/business consultant, helping midlife professionals take their First step to a Second Career. http://www.cathygoodwin.com.
“Ten secrets of mastering a major life change” mailto:subscribe@cathygoodwin.com
Contact: cathy@cathygoodwin.com 505-534-4294