Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

I Took a Week Off and so Should You

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take a vacationLast week I took the week off. It was awesome. I didn’t do much, an overnight away, pilates, hanging out with Norm, reading, but the #1 goal: Not Working.

Earlier this summer my friend Mary Lou wrote in her newsletter about taking a vacation. It was the kick in the butt I needed to make it happen. I figured out my tasks for August and realized that if everything went as planned, I could take the week off. A whole week. It sounded like a dream, but not a reality. I’ve taken a long weekend here or there, but most of my “vacations” have been over holiday’s where there’s a lot of traveling and family and “busy-ness” and I needed to CHILL. Sure a week on a beach would have been awesome, but it didn’t happen this time. And that’s OK. It will next year (already scheduled!)

Walking away from my inbox and my task list for a week was just what I needed. I’m back to work this week and refreshed, energized and ready to go. And guess what happened while I was gone? Nothing! Clients were fine, newsletters were scheduled and sent out, no one panicked.

It’s time to stop making excuses about why you can’t afford a vacation or you have too much work to do. For your mental health and the health of your business, it’s time to take a break.

August Pop Culture RoundUp

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Screen Shot 2016-08-26 at 12.40.52 PMWell this summer flew right by didn’t it? I can’t believe it’s Labor Day weekend, crap fall is right around the corner! August has been a fun month and as usual, a great pop culture month! Here’s a few of my favorite things from the month – make sure to share yours in the comments!

Reading

I finally finished City of Mirrors – and it was wonderful. What a great ending to a very cool trilogy, it couldn’t have ended any better. I do wish I’d read all 3 of these books closer together, and this book was LONG and seemed to require more of my attention to details than I remember the other two. Anyway, I highly recommend it!

Then I grabbed Amy Schumer’s Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo new book at Costco and read all but 30 pages in one day. So I’d say it was okay…I LOVED this book. Amy’s about my age and although we’ve lead very different lives, she’s incredibly relatable and obviously hilarious. Her chapter on being an introvert was fantastic!

I also caught up with some comic books last weekend! I’m up to speed on The Walking Dead (I’m excited for this new story line!) and Ms Marvel (fun tie in with the Civil War II story – loved Miles Morales showing up!). And I read the first 5 issues of Black Panther. I’m not sure if I’ll keep with the series in the long run, but it’s going to stay in my subscription box for a while!

Right now I’m in the middle of Before the Fall by Noah Hawley, who is the creator of the Fargo TV series that I love. The book is good so far with a bit of a mystery…

Listening

Jason Derulo “Kiss the Sky” is my song of the summer. I can NOT get enough of it, and after you hear it, you won’t either! Between this and Justin Timberlake’s new song on repeat, I think you know how road trips have been!

As usual Podcasts keep me going. The Nerdist had a great Hostful Goodness episode that made my week. And the interview with astrophysicist Summer Ash was FASCINATING! Mike Birbiglia’s episode was also awesome and so was David Schwimmer surprisingly!

On WTF Marc Maron did a really good interview with Kristin Wiig. She doesn’t interview very often and so it’s fun to hear her open up and talk about growing up and her time at SNL and beyond.

And of course I’m always up to date on The Watch and Keepin’ it 1600. 

Watching

I mean what else did you do in early August but watch Stranger Things? My husband and I don’t do scary movies or horror and when I heard it was Spielberg-ian I was all over it. And then those first 5 minutes were terrifying and I wasn’t sure we’d make it. But with a lot of late afternoon binging we made it and it was SO WORTH IT. If you missed this series yet, stay inside this weekend and watch it! You’re welcome.

Oh Mr Robot – how I was hoping that prison wasn’t real…but it is, and now I think we know who knocked at the door at least. I’m really loving the addition of the FBI this year.

My husband and I finally finished on The Night Of and it’s fantastic. It’s a limited series so you don’t have to worry about sticking with it forever. Pretty dang great. Especially if you were a fan of Serial. That very final scene in John’s apartment was so great…

I finally finished my summer binge of Jane the Virgin. What a great show! It’s very funny and clever and light and easy. If there’s a Gilmore Girls sized hole in your TV viewing heart, this is a good place holder till November 25th.

It’s been a good pop culture month around here – who about you?

5 Ideas for Better Speaker Follow-Up

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norm being difficult
I didn’t have a good pic for this post, so here’s Norm being a puppy

I was talking to a friend of mine a while ago about speaking and list growth. She mentioned when she talks she encourages attendees to go to her website to signup and download her giveaway and get added to her newsletter. Then she mentioned her conversion isn’t great for this. So we talked about an alternative to get more subscribers to her list when she speaks. Here’s what I suggested:

  1. Ask for a list – When I speak at an event I always ask for a list of attendees WITH email addresses. Let’s be honest, email is the currency of choice (besides cash, duh) when speaking. If I can’t get a list of attendees (which is OK) I ask if I can have a signup form passed around or I will do a drawing for a free phone consult or something along those lines. Pro tip – MailChimp has a sweet app you can download to save yourself a lot of time. 
  2. Pitch the follow-up email – When I speak I mention that I’ll send them a couple of things in the follow up email they’re going to get. “If you give me your card and write X on it, I’ll send it to you after the event.” “I’ll send you an example of this after the event, just make sure to give me your card.” Let them know they’re going to expect something after your talk.
  3. Write the follow-up email before you talk! You know exactly what you’re talking about and what you’re offering or pitching at the event. Save yourself the time and energy and write that follow-up email before you walk into the room. You’ll thank me later.
  4. Get that follow-up email out within one day – Ideally you’ll have time that afternoon to input all the emails into your newsletter program and hit send. If you’re using the MailChimp app it ‘s super easy to do this, if you have a box of business cards to input, turn on some Housewives, pour a “reward” drink and input those bad boys!
  5. Do the Follow-up – People this isn’t hard. If you’re speaking at an event make sure that if someone asks you for something specific or wants to buy into your program but has questions, DO your follow-up. Once you hit send on that email you’re going to get responses, so make sure you have time blocked out to do the follow-up from your event.

What other follow-up best practices do you have when you speak?