Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Do You Want To?

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norm!
Norm refused to get out of the car to go to the park the other day.

I’m pretty vocal about not being on Facebook which means that when I talk with clients or colleagues and they talk about what they should be doing, my first question is “but, do you want to?”

I had this conversation yesterday with a small business owner who was trying to figure out HOW to set a blog on their site. I asked, do you want to blog? And the answer was (as I expected) no. There’s a difference between what you need to do for your business and what you think you should do for your business. If writing on a weekly (ish) schedule stresses you out, then maybe a blog is a bad idea. Maybe harness that power to one great post that becomes your monthly newsletter. If Twitter stresses you out then just don’t use it. You’ll find clients other places, I promise.

As a small business owner you need to do what works for you. Having a blog is great, I use it as a way to help readers get answers to marketing questions and to see a bit of the method to my madness. But if you hate writing then don’t do it. If your target market isn’t hanging out on Pinterest then don’t worry about not being there.

Here’s a New Years Resolution you can keep: Before you start anything NEW ask yourself “do you want to?”

December Pop Culture Roundup

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bad ass princess leiaI’ve heard a lot of people refer to 2016 as a Dumpster Fire. In a lot of ways this feels true, and it’s pretty easy to agree with it when Prince, Davie Bowie, George Michael, Alan Rickman, Sharon Jones and too many more to list have passed away. And then as I walked into Rogue One (for the second time) the other day I heard about Carrie Fisher’s heart attack. And then just after Christmas I came back from walking the dog to the terrible news of her way too early death. And then in a cruel twist Debbie Reynolds died the next day. Are we living on the Death Star? It kinda feels like it lately.

When I haven’t been sad about the extreme loss of talent this past year, I have been enjoying a lot of talent (living and recently passed). Here’s a few of my favorites this month…

Watching

Rogue One was exactly what I needed this holiday season! It was fun and a great story and I enjoyed it all the way to the very last scene. I thought it fit great into the Star Wars Universe and couldn’t believe how perfectly it lined up to Episode IV.

I also finally watched the Amanda Knox documentary on Netflix. I was living in Issaquah when her story all unfolded and was fascinated by it. If you remember the story, this documentary was a great recap with a lot of information I wasn’t aware of. It also made me think about the way the media portrays murder suspects, especially women. I  had made a lot of assumptions because I only caught part of the story, I was glad to have watched this and stand corrected.

My dad’s been visiting over the holidays and thanks to a suggestion from my brother, we binged Marcella this past week. It’s a British crime series (always a good start) and I am proud to say that I called it on the killer 3 episodes to the end. I will say this – the first 7 episodes are great, and the 8th (final) episode has some bad writing and does a few dumb things. But it still all wraps up and leaves a few pieces hanging for another season.

I caught a cold a couple weeks ago which meant the DVR is all cleaned up! I’ve really been enjoying Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath on A&E. I’m fascinated by cults and scientology is a pretty popular one. To get so many interviews and insights into this religion has been a fascinating watch. And because we all need a guilty pop culture pleasure, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Ladies of London helped nurse me back to health.

Top Chef is BACK! Hooray! And a Portland chef is (spoiler alert: was) on! I’m enjoying having past contestants back (except John, I hate that guy) especially Sheldon! Top Chef is the perfect antidote to dark winter nights.

Reading

I’ve been catching up on my comic books lately. Ms Marvel is having a good run that I’m enjoying, and I’m still enjoying Clean Room. I picked up the new Hawkeye (written by and starring a woman) and can’t wait to dive into that series. I’m also enjoying World of Wakanda, probably more than Black Panther itself.

I did find time to get ONE more book in this year and it was fantastic. Station Eleven is a book that’s been on my short list for a while, and earlier this year a friend of mine, knowing how I enjoy post-apocalyptic fiction, recommended it which was the icing on the cake. I read it in just over a week (which is fast for me, there’s a lot of pop culture to consume in my life, plus this pesky job!) and I LOVED it! The way the characters stories weave together and the storytelling style was something I’ve wanted in post-apocalyptic stories for a while now. If this is a genre you enjoy, add it to your list!

Listening

I haven’t been driving as much thanks to the snow, or walking as much, thanks to the snow so it’s mostly been me trying to keep up with Keepin it 1600 and The Watch this month. However, I did find time for a few great interviews on Fresh Air. The Trevor Noah interview was fascinating, as was (I’m as surprised as you that I enjoyed this) Megan Kelly. And I’m downloading the Carrie Fisher interview from the end of November as I type this. I just caught the final hostful episode of the Nerdist and it was a perfect ending to the pod for the year.

As we end 2016 what Pop culture have you enjoyed this year? What’s on your pop culture bucket list for 2017?

How Do You Handle Unsolicited Requests?

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If you have a contact form on your website, EVEN with a CAPTCHA to help with spam, you’re going to get the occasional spam request. If your industry isn’t in your title, or your title leads people to believe you’re in a different industry, you get emails like this one that I received last week…

unsolicited requests

Good Day indeed! Typically I just delete the emails, but this one was worthy of a screen shot and an Instagram post.

If you are contacting some one through an online form hoping that eventually they’ll hire you, here’s a couple of suggestions:

  1. Know what their business is. This isn’t hard – it’s on my home page. I’m not a dog groomer. I also have a short haired dog who you can clearly see, on almost every page of my website, doesn’t need to be shaved.
  2. Check for Typos – we all make mistakes, but do a once over before you hit submit
  3. Be Specific in who you want to talk to  – “Hi to Everyone at Yellow Dog Consulting” – when it’s very obviously a one woman/one dog show. You can find out my name pretty easily….
  4. Be Polite – Alex is polite but pushy. He doesn’t bother to ask if I am accepting guest blog posts. He clearly hasn’t looked at my blog to see it’s been a while since I had a guest blogger, AND that I have never written about dog grooming on my blog.
  5. Give me More Info – I know literally nothing about this guy and he doesn’t give me any info. They wrote a new article (good for you) do I want to share it with my readers (please cast your response in the comments below!)?
    • Who are you?
    • Why are you an authority on this topic?
    • How did you find my website?
    • Do we know anyone in common?

The next time you’re contacting someone via a form, take into consideration how you respond to these requests and make sure you’re handling it in a way that you would appreciate.