Tag Archives: focus

X: Xenophobes Will Stay Poor

Posted on April 26, 2012 | 1 Comment

X: Xenophobes Will Stay Poor

I wonder how many A to Z challenge bloggers used the word Xenophobe today? I know of two. (http://sociologyfornerds.com, if the post is up).

I’ve learned an important lesson in recent months. I’ve been a freelancer for almost 20 years, and a full-timer for the past 13. Yet it took me this long to realize that being a xenophobe is bad for business.

We conduct a lot of our work online and via email. Most of our interactions look like black squiggles on a white page, and that little stream-of-consciousness voice in our heads may be the only sound we hear in a given day. Except maybe for the cat purring in the sunshine.

I describe myself as introverted; my happy-go-lucky friend Shane describes me as socially awkward. I started to notice a creeping xenophobia a few years ago—too many struggles with the mortgage company, too many arguments with the neighbor. My daughter grew up and moved off to college. I was turned off to people and shut myself inside my house and just focused on my business.

But recently I’ve been given a great gift: people. I was chasing a shiny idea and all of a sudden realized there were people out there, people with interesting stories and beautiful challenges and great responsibilities toward sustaining the world.

These people woke me up and are the direct First Cause for a new business I’ve launched. I’m determined to bring my knowledge to other freelancers, to share challenges for a time and help others leap higher, faster. The FOCUS writing series is gestating in my brain, but soon it’ll pop out into the world as a fully-grown offering.

And I have people to thank for that. My brush with xenophobia has passed, and now it’s time to do business.

If you’re interested in being one of the first to hear about Launch Day, please grab a copy of my ebook and share your name and email with me using the box on the right. People rock!

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Posted in AtoZ Challenge, FOCUS, Marketing Yourself

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V: Vacation Time!

Posted on April 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

V: Vacation Time!

You’ve worked hard enough. You’ve worked enough 24/7 shifts with your business, your kids, your family, your home, your schooling, and all the other 10,000 things you do each moment.

Take a vacation, already!

Most freelancers long wistfully for vacation time; kicking back at the beach or around the campfire, jetting off to exotic places like northern Minnesota or the hopping nightlife of Atlanta. We dream of vacations many more hours than we’re actually ON vacation, and it seems to take two days to detox and settle in anyway.

Here’s my checklist for planning a vacation:

  1. Tell all my clients I’ll be gone, and pad the time off with a week at either end so I can handle their last-minute emergencies.
  2. Make sure I work extra hard in the weeks leading up to vacation, and polish off projects that have been hanging out there.
  3. Never start on a new, crazy idea within a month of vacation time. (I have to scold myself for this one; I love shiny things.)
  4. Get my email newsletter list and messages in good order so I don’t leave something undone.
  5. Bring along my pen and paper so I can plan out my next years’ goals.

It might seem silly to plan my next year while on vacation, but there’s something so genuinely wonderful about sitting in the woods with no technology and just thinking. I reflect on where I’ve been, what I’ve done, who I’ve done it with, and where the next few months will lead me in my business growth. That’s precious time well-spent—plus I get to reconnect with my husband and my internal self and all is well after we get home.

Get your house in order before going on vacation. Really, truly leave the technology behind at home. Don’t fret about missing emails or opportunities. Just go, and be. It’ll all be waiting for you when you get back.

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Posted in AtoZ Challenge, FOCUS, Motivation

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U: Understand Your Target Market

Posted on April 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

U: Understand Your Target Market

Here’s an exercise that will help you develop empathy with your audience so you can understand WHY you’re writing what you’re writing. It’s part of the FOCUS training exercises, but I’ll release the password so you can access the exercise and get a taste for what I’m talking about in the FOCUS series.

Click here: http://10000seeds.com/conqueringcontent/focus-develop-your-empathy/

Enter the password when prompted: focus

If you’re intrigued, put your name and email address in the opt-in form on the right. I’ll send you more free exercises that will help you build your professional freelance writing business.

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Posted in AtoZ Challenge, FOCUS, Write Better

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M: Make Time for Creative Writing

Posted on April 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

M: Make Time for Creative Writing

It might sound kinda funny that I recommend creative writing as a way to build your freelance writing business. After pounding the keyboard for six hours on articles, autoresponders and sales pages for clients, who has room in the mental labyrinth for poetry and fiction?

Make room, my friends. Make room for beauty, song, freedom, creativity.

If you take 30 minutes at least once a week to write creatively, you engage your whole brain and senses. This improves the fun-factor in your work writing, which admittedly can be a drag sometimes. Anything you can do in your business to get into the flow helps you earn more money in the end as you write better and faster.

Write poetry, flash fiction, short stories, journal entries, philosophy, spirituality. Do not write blog posts (unless they’re for your personal blog), business marketing content, ebooks, white papers, or any other kind of work.

Have fun and play. Remember why you fell in love with the freelance writing lifestyle in the first place. Go back in your memory to the first time you wrote something for joy, and rewrite that joy now as a smarter, wiser person.

Do you write creatively on a regular basis? If not, why not? If so, what do you write—and what do you do with that writing?

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Posted in AtoZ Challenge, FOCUS, Write Better

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L: Lean Into One Fear Today

Posted on April 13, 2012 | Leave a comment

L: Lean Into One Fear Today

mississippi riverWe all know that fear holds us back from achieving our goals and dreams. Blah, blah, blah, right? I haven’t got time to bleed! Ignore something long enough and it’ll go away! Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill! Insert silly cliché here!

Today I’d like you to spend just 30 minutes thinking about one fear that holds you back in business. Have coffee with this fear and ask it probing questions: Where did you come from? Why do I let you hang around? What would happen if you went away? I want you to feel this fear in your body and mind and heart and just let it happen without fighting it or solving it or shoving it under the mental bed.

Lean into one fear and surrender to it, knowing that you yourself are safe and what’s happening in your head is all in your head. There’s no danger here; it’s all just thinking.

Fear is a touchy subject. Leave a comment below if you’re comfortable; otherwise, just know that you’ve done a good thing for your business by leaning in and listening to one fear. Maybe, just maybe, it’s not quite as scary as it was 30 minutes ago.

I’m currently writing out the exercises for the FOCUS Training module “Motivating Yourself When You’re Self-Employed.” These four exercises can help you overcome fear of risk and stay motivated throughout the years you’re freelancing. Grab a copy of my free “Pretty Darn Good Writers: Become Great” to get notified when the FOCUS Training is released into the wild.

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Posted in AtoZ Challenge, Evelyn's eBooks, FOCUS

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