Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

Hear Me Speak in May!

by // Leave a Comment

If you’re a business owner in the greater Portland area, you’re in luck! This month I am speaking at not one but TWO events in town, join us!

On May 11th I will be speaking at the Portland Conscious Women Entrepreneurs group led by my friend and fabulous business coach, Mary Ann McNulty. The topic is: Plant Seeds Now For Fall Harvest: Understanding Seasons & Cycles in Business. I will be talking about Follow up (big surprise!), it will be a fun and interactive event!

On May 18th I am speaking during International Coaches Week for the Oregon ICF Chapter. This event is open to the public – don’t be shy, it’ll be a lot of fun! I’ll be speaking on 3 Guaranteed Ways to Grow Your Business With Follow Up a topic I think we all know I enjoy speaking on!

It will be a fun month of speaking around Portland! And if you’re a solo practice attorney in Oregon, I’ll be speaking to a group in June for CLE credits, oh boy!

If you can’t make these events, you’ll find me at OEN’s Pub Talk and at eWomenNetwork this month as well. Where are you networking this month?

April Pop Culture Round Up

by // Leave a Comment

pop culture round up - read The Underground RailroadIt’s amazing what two trips and a week’s vacation can do for my pop culture consumption! I hope your April has been great – spring is arriving and the tulips have bloomed!

Reading

As promised, I finally got some reading done while on vacation. Hooray! I’m way behind on my comics, so a heads up for what’s in store for May…

Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? – As a fellow Friend of the Pod I was excited to check out this book by former White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Alyssa Mastromonaco. This book was WAY funnier than expected and incredibly thoughtful. It’s a book I wish had been around when I graduated from college. I strongly encourage it if you’re interested in politics, behind the scenes of the White House, or being a woman in an incredibly male dominated industry. I can’t wait to read more from the author! (PS: It would be a great graduation gift…) AND – just saw this exciting news about the book!

The Underground Railroad – This book had been on my list for a while, and it just happened to win the Pulitzer Prize the day before I started reading it. Clearly I have excellent taste. I’m not sure “enjoyed” is the right way to review a book about the underground railroad. However, it was captivating and well written and interesting and thanks to vacation, I read it in just 3 days, which may have helped. There’s a lot of characters and a fantastic story about one young woman’s escape from slavery. You need to read this book before the TV show.

Truly Madly Guilty – I loved Big Little Lies as a book (and TV show), and The Husband’s Secret from Liane Moriarty. So I was pumped for her newest book to come out. And it’s super boring and goes no where and has lame characters I couldn’t give a crap about. Previous books by the author have had a good twist in them that have made me audibly gasp. But this book not only had no twist, it had a super boring story about lame people with mundane issues. Skip this and re-read Big Little Lies instead.

What’s next? Comics. The second trade paper of Mockingbird came out while I was gone last week, so I picked that up at my comic book store this week. What a fantastic series…

Listening

I started and finished S-Town this month. It was such a great story. The twists and turns of Woodstock (AKA Shit-town), Alabama and it’s residents was a lovely and fascinating story about small town America and one man with many demons. It’s nothing like the first season of Serial, but if you like Serial, you need to try this…

Besides my usual line up of Pod Save America and The Watch (catch the Damon Lindelof episode about The Leftovers), I didn’t listen to much else this month for podcasts. What podcasts are you enjoying lately?

Watching

Big Little Lies – I read the book a few years ago, so while I knew who died and one other mystery, I forgot the other two main mysteries of the show. Even if I’d remembered them all, this show was so well done and so gorgeous that I didn’t mind knowing what happened. I’ve never been a huge Nicole Kidman fan, she’s fine but I don’t seek her out. Holy crap, was she incredible and will win all the awards…

Homeland – my husband and I got way behind on this season, so vacation seemed like a good time to binge and catch up. I think Homeland is a series better binged. So much happens in each season and so many story lines that having a couple days to binge makes it easier to catch everything.

The Leftovers – This series amazing. You need to be watching it. The first season is so dark, but this season is awesome and I’m excited for what Australia has in store. Plus, Wu Tang Trampoline is the best scene of television in 2017.

I’m really enjoying this season of The Americans and although it seems like it’s trying to slow burn to the series finale next year, the stresses on Paige this season have been interesting to watch. I also watch Billions, and Pastor Tim is a hedge fund guy on Billions which is super weird to watch at the same time.

I’m so glad that iZombie is back! We also caught the Netflix Abstract series episode about Tinker Hatfield, the Nike shoe designer/genius. If you like Nike, Oregon or shoes, you need to watch this episode at least!

Fargo is on the DVR to get caught up with – I’m hearing great things and can’t wait to catch up this weekend. And, I am super excited for The Handmaids Tale – I loved the book and am a bit terrified that the show may be too close to real life, but Elizabeth Moss is awesome, it’ll be great!

What pop culture have you consumed this month? What’s on your short list?

6 Things You Should Include on Your Website

by // Leave a Comment

6 things your website needsI spoke earlier this week to a group of new business owners. It’s always fun to talk to people when they’re just getting started! The variety of questions and overwhelm is understandable. One thing I talked about was having a website. It doesn’t need to be a big crazy site, but it does need to have some basic information. There’s a lot of things to consider when you start your business, but having a basic online presence is part of this.

Here are 6 things I suggest you consider for your website:

  1. Contact Information – Yes this seems obvious, but I had a client years ago who talked about “hire us” “work with us” “contact us” but no email, contact form or phone number to contact them…
  2. Physical Address – If you’re a physical location, you should have your physical address so I can drive there and see you! You won’t find my address on my site because I work from home and I don’t want people showing up unannounced!
  3. Phone Number – A lot of people like to call rather than email. It drives me crazy, BUT it’s important. If you use your personal phone for work (like me) and need the general public to contact you by phone I suggest getting a Google Voice account setup.
  4. Email or contact form – Make it easy for me to contact you. Include your email address or have a contact form on your website.
  5. About Us – Your about page is the story that sells you. This is why you do what you do and why you’re so awesome. This may also be some history of  how you got to this point. Be a real person on this page. If you’re really that passionate about what you do, make sure we get that from your about page!
  6. Services – What would you say you do here? List out your services – it doesn’t have to be exhaustive but I need to get a good idea of what you do and how I can hire you or buy your product. Pricing is optional on this page. I don’t list my pricing on my site for a variety of reasons, but if it makes sense for you to list your pricing, go for it!

This list isn’t exhaustive at all, but as a small business owner just starting out, I think these are a few of the essentials. What other pieces are a must have on your website?