Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Network with Yellow Dog in September!

by // Leave a Comment

Hank and Fin
Hank and his new pal Finn out for a walk “networking”

It’s back to school and back to work time folks! Here’s a few places you’ll find me this month & a couple great events I think you may want to check out…

Monday, September 15th – Yappier Hour

The Woodmark in Kirkland hosts this monthly dog friendly happy hour. Hank & I are finally going to make it to the last one of the season! We’ll see you there!

Thursday, September 18th – eWomenNetwork Luncheon

You know my love of eWomenNetwork! This is a fantastic organization for women in business who are looking to grow their business, get education, and have a community of like minded people in their corner. This organization has been instrumental in Yellow Dog’s success!

Friday, September 19th – Tara Gimmer Headshots!

My friend Tara is back in town offering business headshots at the BARGAIN price of $99! If you haven’t done this yet, hop to it. Just like the kids are doing, get your back to work headshots, and show off that summer tan!

Tuesday, September 23rd – Beer Geek Girls

If you are a lady who enjoys drinking beer and wishes you had more lady friends to do so with, come join us! Each month we meet at a brewery or great beer bar in the Seattle area and make new friends. This month we’ll be at Pike Brewery!

August Pop Culture Roundup!

by // Leave a Comment

I feel like I’m in a pop culture rut at the moment folks. In fact I almost skipped my post this month. Then I re-read my July post, and realized I’ve read/seen/heard more this month than I remembered. And most of that is because of one thing:

Guardians of the Galaxy

8744d26d4f46e56d2353bd2ee6baa763Holy crap this was the greatest summer movie and so much more than I could have hoped for! Chris Pratt was PERFECT, Groot is my new favorite character, and the soundtrack, oh the soundtrack…I went with my good friend Mike and he and I sang through the ENTIRE movie. Luckily if you go to the movie at 11:45 AM on a Friday, the theater isn’t too packed and the other folks there don’t seem to mind…So for the month of August I haven’t shut up about Guardians of the Galaxy, and yes the soundtrack is on repeat in my car all summer…

A few other pop culture finds…

Reading

I haven’t been reading a ton, but I did get caught up on my comics the other day on the patio. The Walking Dead continues to go in a great direction with this new arc. I’m still LOVING Ms. Marvel & I just wish Lazarus came out more frequently.

I also grabbed Big Little Lies from Lianne Moriarty. I loved The Husband’s Secret last summer and this one is off to a great start. Sure it’s chick lit, but it’s August and all I want to do is read about catty Australian women, is that such a crime?

Watching

Oh Tim Riggins…I finally finished Friday Night Lights a couple weeks ago. And  you were all right, it’s the PERFECT show. Good grief it was amazing. If you’ve never watched it, add it to your Netflix queue and get watching! I promise you’ll love it.

We’re in the end of summer TV season, so I’m still watching The Bridge, Masters of Sex, and The Leftovers. All continue to keep me on my toes, and I’m getting excited for fall TV with Gotham, Homeland and maybe even the final season of The Newsroom…

Oh, and I finally saw The Lego Movie which was O.M.Gosh fantastic! Chris Pratt can do no wrong, can’t wait for Jurassic World next summer!

Listening

Besides the Guardians of the Galaxy Awesome Mix 1 (which seriously is on replay all the time. I’m listening to it right now as I type this), we did a road trip to Oregon and included a lot of podcasts. The Daily Show Podcast without Jon Stewart is pretty clever. I wish they’d come out with a second episode and start being consistent because it’s really interesting behind the scenes of a recent Daily Show episode.

Alright, that’s it for me this month. What’s been keeping you happy this August?

5 Things I Want in Your Email Signature

by // Leave a Comment

imageThe beauty of the email signature is that it’s versatile. And that’s great. It can show your personality (or lack there of), and it can have colors and font changes, whatever. But here’s the deal, it needs to have 5 things (besides your name/company/title)…

  1. Your Email Address – I know what you’re thinking “umm, I’m emailing you so you have it.” TRUE, but often times I will introduce folks via email and I copy and paste from the signature so they have all each others info up front. Another reason, if you are forwarding or adding someone into an email chain they can snag your email easily if needed.
  2. Phone Number – YES I need your number. Why? Because sometimes the response needs to be a phone call, and I don’t want to go hunting for it.
  3. Social Media– tell me how and where to follow you! Duh, this is an easy way to get more followers, and if I have an introduction to a new person, social media is a GREAT way for me to learn more about you (and vice versa).
  4. URL– I need a link to your website folks. Especially if I don’t know much about you, or you reference something on your site, I don’t want to go hunting for it.
  5. Mobile Signature – everyone has multiple ways of sending and receiving emails these days. If yours is short and to the point and maybe has a typo, let folks know that it came from your smart phone or tablet. And make it clever and personal to you. Your mobile signature really only needs to say “sent from my mobile device” it doesn’t need all the other stuff. Unless you’re traveling for a while and it’s best for folks to have your phone number too.

I know there are ton of other things you can add to your newsletter but most importantly make sure it’s clean and helpful for folks. I don’t need 5 ways to call you. I don’t need a fax number (I mean, really? Do I?) Your email signature is your digital business card, make sure I get what I need, so I can easily answer you every time.

So this quiet end of August work week, take a moment to review your email signature and make sure it’s representative of you, helpful to your potential clients, current clients and your network.