Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

June Pop Culture RoundUp!

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I don’t know about you but June just blew right by – work has been crazy this month (in a good way!). Luckily I had some sunny evenings and weekends to get caught up on my pop culture!

Reading

I finally finished Fellside! It’s very different from The Girl with All the Gifts – I really enjoyed Fellside and wish I’d read it faster. There’s a ton of characters and they do all come together but I set it down too often and forgot about it. But if you’re looking for a good summer mystery/wait is this real? kind of story – I’d recommend it!

I blew through The Sound of Gravel after post apocalyptic stories, books about polygamist cults are probably my most-read genre. This is a memoir I’d heard about when it came out, the woman who wrote it now live in Oregon. It’s a really sad story about a girl growing up in a polygamist cult in Mexico and traveling between the US and Mexico. I wish the story had spent more time on what happened after her escape (she evidently raised her younger siblings- not a spoiler, it’s on the jacket cover!), but it was a good book if you like the genre.

I finally caught up on my comics the other day, my current comic shop is closing so back to my old shop (with better deliverability). I’m excited for where The Walking Dead comics are headed with this new war, and Ms. Marvel is heading into the Civil War universe which I’m excited to see. I also really enjoyed the first issue of Han Solo, which I wasn’t sure if I would.

And I finally started City of Mirrors! I’m just a few pages in, I was worried that I wouldn’t remember where the story left off since I read The Twelve & The Passage when they came out, and they’ve done a good job so far of reminding you what happened without making you feel like an idiot. Hopefully I’ll have some good time to read over the holiday weekend!

Watching

The Americans finished their 4th season and it was incredible (obviously) – and I am so curious where they will take it next season, a lot of great opportunities await! This is a show I will continue to tell you you should watch. It’s my favorite show and I love the family dynamics most of all.

Game of Thrones – Welp, lesson learned, Norm will NEVER miss a meal. What an amazing finale! I can’t believe we got the R+L=J reveal! And holy green slime, that was a pretty crazy opening 20 minutes. And Tyrion becoming Hand of the Queen was such a sweet moment, even if Dany is an idiot for leaving Daario in Meereen.

UnReal – This show is so fantastic and soapy but really good. If you haven’t watched it go rewatch the first season and get caught up. You’re welcome.

I finished House of Cards finally. It was a good show and okay that it’s over, this season fizzled out.

This spring I started Gilmore Girls on Netflix, and I finished it last week. The show holds up and is such a sweet and funny show, if you’ve never watched it, or need something light and fun to watch this summer, Netflix has all 7 seasons ready for you. And evidently I finished just in time since the new Gilmore Girls: Seasons comes out on July 1st! I thought I’d have to wait till the fall or winter, hooray!

Orange is the New Black is back and I am LOVING it! I think Lori Petty deserves all the awards for what a fabulous job she’s doing this season. More drones please!

Listening

I’ve been enjoying Ask Me Another lately – the trivia is fun when stuck in traffic as a go to distraction. But, I continue to wait for Thursday early afternoon when Keepin’ it 1600 arrives in my phone. I get excited when I have Thursday meetings so I know I can listen to the pod, it just gets better each week as this election intensifies. I’ve been bummed that The Watch isn’t doing an audio version of their Game of Thrones recap podcast as they did back at Grantland. But they do cover a few points from GoT each week on the pod which I appreciate. The Nerdist recently had a couple hostful goodness eps – I wish they were released once they did them, they were talking about the Oscars a couple weeks ago, which just felt too dated. But great to hear the sister wives on the show when available. And there was a really interesting interview with Chuck Lorre and Mayim Bialik that I’d recommend to folks!

Okay – that’s it for the moment, as we head into the holiday weekend – what’s on your pop culture to do list?

My Top 10 Newsletter Content Ideas

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the photo from this month's newsletter. But you knew that didn't you?
the photo from this month’s newsletter. But you knew that didn’t you?

When you start writing a newsletter it can be hard to know where to start. When I work with a client we first figure out what all they want included in their newsletter each month. For me – you know that I always have 3 things and a picture of Norm. (If you didn’t know that you can fix it here.) If you have a system in place for your newsletter each month it’s way easier to keep up on it. Here’s 10 things I’ve seen in newsletters that I think are great:

  1. Previous Blog Posts – if you have a blog and are updating it regularly there’s your content for the newsletter! You can also feature a topic and pick a few blog posts that go together
  2. Featured Employee – Have a team? Let’s meet them!
  3. Tips – Your Newsletter is not about getting people to buy something (always anyway) – it’s about educating them. Give them helpful information that makes them want to work with you.
  4. Feature Another Business – Do you often partner with another company or small business owner? Feature them!
  5. Specials & Promotions – is it your slow season? Great – how about if I sign up by X I get Y as a bonus!
  6. And You Are? – If you’re often updating your list or it’s been a while since you sent out a newsletter it might be helpful to feature your boiler plate or a quick feature of a specific service.
  7. Events! – Duh – are you speaking or holding a workshop or webinar? Make sure we know!
  8. Promote Yourself – if you’ve been featured on a blog or podcast or radio show – make sure to include a link to it! I was featured on a podcast last month and made sure to share that with my network.
  9. Pictures! – Please oh Please include images and graphics! My newsletter always includes a picture of Norm so you are guaranteed a cute puppy photo at the very least!
  10. Something Fun – Are you enjoying something right now you want to tell your network about? It doesn’t have to be all about work – feature a picture from your recent vacation or a short book review or a recipe you’re enjoying this summer (this would be weird for an IT company but great for a personal trainer or body work practitioner…)

Okay – that’s a good start right? Juices flowing? What else do you like to see in a newsletter? What else do you have in yours that I forgot to mention?

How Do You Get Found Online?

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IMG_2820Lately as I’ve been talking to clients, I’ve seen an increased request to get found online. But where do you start? Yes you can hire SEO firms to work with you on this, and depending on what you do that might be a great idea. But if you’re a small business owner like me, it may not be in the budget. So where do you start? Here’s what I suggest to my clients:

  1. Setup Your Google Business Page – First things first, start with the big guns. Make sure to completely fill out your profile and add photos and your logo! I also have my blog posts automatically posted to my page so that it’s regularly updated. That way people know I’m alive and kicking, and by people, I mean the Google bots.
  2. Setup Bing Places – Why? Because we live in the Northwest and people actually use Bing. Bing Places is great because you can set it up and forget about it.
  3. Depending on your industry I recommend a few other options: Yelp, Angie’s List, and Houzz are three of the most popular.

There’s a ton or sites out there you can choose from but making sure that the main places that people are finding you are claimed and your profiles are completely filled out is the key. Here’s three resources that I use and recommend for clients:

  1. Moz Local – this website tells you all the spots you’re found online and what’s missing.
  2. Google Analytics – if you have your analytics setup then you can see each month where your traffic is coming from. If I see a new referral source to my site I make sure that my profile is filled out on that site to increase my chance of being found.
  3. Odd Dog Media – my friends over at Odd Dog Media are a great web development and local SEO firm. If you need a company, they’re it. But if you don’t have the budget, they wrote up this awesome and simple guide to Local SEO.

Questions? That’s what I’m here for!