Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

3 Recent Mailchimp Updates That May Affect Your Business

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3 Recent Mailchimp Updates That May Affect Your BusinessThere have been a few changes with Mailchimp lately that I recently shared with my clients and now that we’re all squared away I wanted to pass this along to you as well!

  1. Mailchimp has changed (again) what you get with your FREE account. ARG. Any NEW account from this point forward will not be able to schedule a newsletter – they just have to hit send when it’s ready to go. I chatted with Mailchimp about this and they said this will also happen if you are inactive for 12 months. SO – don’t go a whole year without talking to your audience on Mailchimp! Let me know if you have questions on this.
  2. Change to User Setup – With the last round of changes free accounts can no longer add users to their account. HOWEVER – as a Mailchimp Partner I am setup as an agency so I can be added and it won’t count against your user count. Here’s instructions for how to get this setup if we work together OR if you have another service provider who qualifies as an agency.
  3. Squarespace users – (This is unique ONLY if you have a Squarespace account, if you don’t I only had 2 points for you) If you have a subscribe form on your website and have received any emails saying that the account no longer can connect to Mailchimp – that’s correct. First do follow the instructions in the email and attempt to fix the issue. That’s worked for a couple of clients. However, my recommended work around for clients still having an issue is to setup a Zap in Zapier. You can talk with your web developer about this – let me know if you have any questions.

mailchimp partner

Like most software, change is the constant at Mailchimp. I still believe they are a great tool and resource for small business owners, AND they are a company who have mouths to feed and bills to pay. It’s a bummer that the free resources are increasingly limited, but hopefully you can work within the confines or upgrade to a paid account. Either way, I’m here to help if you need me!

February Pop Culture Round Up!

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I finally read a book! I was on quite the dry spell this winter and I am SO happy to say I read a book – and I read it in 3 days which is really fast for me. YAY ME. Here’s what I read, plus my other favorite pop culture distractions this month…

Reading

I read The Family Upstairs last weekend. It’s a book I heard about a few months ago from Entertainment Weekly (I think that’s where I heard about it…) it’s about a woman who inherits a large home in London on her 25th birthday. She was adopted and she finally discovers who her birth family is. It has two of my favorite topics – adoption AND cults. It was a fun quick read!

I also caught up on some comics while we were at the coast earlier this month. Brian K. Vaughn did a stand alone The Walking Dead comic called The Alien that was a quick read. It was good, not great, but did tie in well to the story as a whole. I also finished Kelly Thompson’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch, it was cute but not amazing (which she often is -I read most of her comics).

I’m 150 pages into The Starless Sea. I really like the current day story but it alternates with a book (one chapter about a person in the present, the next about a book they have) that is a SLOG to get through. I was talking with a librarian last week and she agreed that it’s a really hard read. I trust the author (she wrote The Night Circus which I LOVED) but man alive is it a challenge to read…

Listening

Justin Timberlake and SZA just came out with a new single for the Trolls: World Tour soundtrack and I am here for it all spring and summer…

I am really enjoying the latest single from the Jonas Brothers – What a Man Gotta Do. I never expected to be a Jonas Brothers fan but here we are. Also – if you missed the Seth & the Jonas Brothers go day drinking last month on Late Night it was worth the time. And has my new favorite musical rhyme. Please let me know what you think it is after you watch.

I’m listening to 30 for 30 – The Spy who Signed Me and it is a really weird story and mostly is a great reminder that female athletes are paid TERRIBLY and we need to stop that.

I’m enjoying (when their audio is level) Capitolizing which is a very niche podcast – it’s 2 Oregon State Senators who recap what’s going on in the capitol each week. I just discovered it and it’s nice to get some inside scoop. I’m also listening to a LOT of Politics Now and Think Out Loud as Oregon is in the midst of our 35 day short session and the Republicans walked out (seriously – they left the state and bragged about their tickets to somewhere warm…) on Monday so there’s a LOT to keep up with.

And I was ON a podcast this month! Digital Marketing Masters had me on their pod to talk about email marketing for small business owners. We also talked about HillHub and the Hillsboro Chambers Small Business & Entrepreneurs Council. It was fun and worth a listen if you miss the sound of my voice.

Watching

I finally started watching The Outsider on HBO and it is SO GOOD. The PI is an amazing actor and the story is so creepy – I can’t watch it late at night I’ve discovered. I also watched the pilot of Locke & Key which is based on a comic book series by Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son – also Stephen King wrote the book The Outsider is based on) and it was super fun. More family oriented in its mystery but I enjoyed the pilot and will binge the rest soon.

I watched the pilot of Briarpatch and enjoyed it, now to keep going. I didn’t love the pilot for Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist but my friend emailed me about it a month ago when the pilot aired and so I decided to try the next couple of episodes. I’m caught up (through ep 3) and I have to say – I am really liking it! I tried the pilot of High Fidelity (on Hulu) and couldn’t get into it. I like the movie and Zoe Kravitz though, if you continue to watch and like it please let me know!

This final season of Schitts Creek is so great. I need a case of Moira Rose please…

While at the coast my husband and I finally watched The Battered Bastards of Baseball which is about the Portland Mavericks – an independent baseball team in the late 70’s. It is a crazy fun story. If you live in the region you should watch it. And if you like baseball and live anywhere in the world you should watch it. They had their own dog ball boy, this team was so great…

A couple of weeks ago I recorded Date Night (yes the Tina Fey/Steve Carrell movie) and it holds up. It was the perfect Valentine’s Day movie my husband and I discovered. Speaking of older movies – last weekend I finally watched The Campaign (from 2012 with Will Ferrell) and it is ridiculous and hilarious and was a perfect Friday night movie with friends.

Okay, I think that was enough pop culture for one month. What kept you entertained and distracted from politics and coronavirus free this month?

Announce Your News Early & Often!

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This year instead of writing original content – I’m going to try something new. Updating content I’ve written over the past 9 years that I think still holds up and/or could maybe use a revisit. First up – one of my very first blog posts from February 2012…

How falling off the radar and coming back with a BANG can fill up your sales pipeline in a day

 

As you know, I recently launched Yellow Dog Consulting. I’ve had the idea since early 2011 and started the company in May 2011 but didn’t announce it to the world until October. After sending out my first email announcement mentioning an upcoming event, I had 75 emails by the end of the day. I also had coffee appointments, drinks, lunches and more by the end of the week filling up my month(s).

If you have a monthly newsletter you’re forgetting to use, or even if you’ve been off the radar, who in your network hasn’t realized they miss you until you reach out to them?

Try it. Make the commitment to send out a newsletter or just an announcement, open coffee, dog park meet up,  15 minute phone consultation, whatever it might be, just “reach out and touch someone,” (but don’t make it weird, OK?)

What’s Changed in the Past 8 Years?

I stand by this blog post whole heartedly. Just yesterday I met with someone who recently started their own business. I told them this exact story. Then, my FIRST piece of advice was to announce what they are up to. Build your list of colleagues and send out “What am I up to Now?” newsletter. Share some services you’re offering, ask what events people are attending, share events you’re attending.

The goal of this announcement is to make sure people know you’re alive and kicking and open for business. And then keep it going. Send a monthly newsletter with updates, client wins, additional services that you are now offering because you realized it’s what people want and need. Starting a business is scary. Take the time to share your GREAT news with the world, I promise they will welcome you with open arms!