How do YOU know when it’s the right time to take action in your creative business?

Figuring out right timing is a key competency for entrepreneurs. You have to develop a sense of when it’s the right time to plan, to launch, to learn, to build community, to take an hour break and watch an episode of your favorite gloomy detective series on Netflix. (Seriously, now!)

Thing is, there aren’t often clear cut rights-or-wrongs when it comes to when to bust a business move.

It mostly comes down to what feels right or has been proven (through your own observation, tracking, and natural momentum) to work well for you and your Right People. Just because MY Right People like to invest more in learning and training in the Fall than at any other time of year doesn’t mean that YOUR Right People would follow the same rule.

Understanding what’s right for your business — in terms of your prime directive, goal-setting, and daily workflow — is a huge part of what my friend and collaborator Laura Simms (vizier at Create As Folk, where meaningful careers come to life) is teaching in Ready To Arrive. Ready To Arrive is a virtual bootcamp-style experience designed to help business owners refocus and recenter on the work that’s most meaningful to them. She invited me to be a Guest Teacher, contributing work around developing a clear brand message.

Because when the right mission meets the right message at the right time, it’s magic.

Here’s a Q&A with Laura about the original impetus for Ready To Arrive, and what it feels like to get off-focus in your brand.

ABBY: How did you get the spark to create Ready To Arrive? When did it — as an idea — first occur to you?

LAURA: I run a yearlong program for entrepreneurs called Cornerstone that addresses planning, focus, and legacy building. Each month I create new action-oriented planning pack for them that tackles a specific challenge in one of those areas. It usually takes me 2-3 hours to make a pack, so when I hit hour 5 on a particularly in-depth pack, I knew something was up. I decided to sleep on it before sending that pack out because something didn’t feel quite right.

The next day, I knew that it would be a disservice to deliver that material to the Cornerstone crew; it was just too much. I knew it could help some members, but for others it would be like throwing a stick of dynamite in their businesses just as they were starting a hit a groove. (Abby’s Note: Smart. Understanding the right timing and pacing for your Right People is a whole ‘thing’ in and of itself.) The whole thing was both beyond the scope of the goals of that program, and not complete enough to stand alone without further instruction; it would have been irresponsible teaching to present it to that group in that way. I started outlining what a complete version would be like and knew it needed to be its own course.

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ABBY: So how did you know that THIS program was right thing at the right time for your brand? As opposed to something else? I ask because, you know, creative entrepreneurs and decision fatigue. It’s real.

LAURA: I considered another topic to build a course around based off a half-baked e-book that’s sitting in the graveyard of forgotten projects on my computer. I was trying to decide between it or RTA, and the RTA content just flowed out, whereas with the other topic I felt like I was trying to glue popsicle sticks together — just one idea mashed onto another without real structural integrity. (Abby’s Note: Great sign it’s time to shelve that idea — at least for now — and allow something more ripe and ready to emerge.) So I went with the flow. Also, I’ve been experiencing some great things in my own business as a result of applying the RTA principles and am on-fire excited to share that with the right group of people.

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ABBY: Why do you think business owners and brand creators struggle so much with understanding “the right thing to do” in their business? Why is it so hard to figure some of this stuff out, when we’ve started this businesses so that we could be more in control of decisions?

LAURA: Simple: lack of clarity of vision. They don’t have a singular mission (one big decision), so they get bogged down with lots of little decisions.

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ABBY: So, when it comes to Ready To Arrive, why did you want to collaborate with me? What did you see that I could bring to the table?

LAURA: We’ve long thought of our businesses as sister brands (Abby’s Note: It’s so true.), so I’ve been on the lookout for a way to collaborate with you for awhile. I mentioned that I’d love to work with you sometime last year, but I didn’t have a specific project in mind. When I started developing the RTA content, I knew that message was an important component, but to use a term from RTA, that’s outside my Area of Excellence. But it’s right in yours! I knew you could bring depth and clarity to the message conversation that I never could. Also, I just like you and I thought we’d have a good time preparing something together.

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ABBY: I’m totally flattered and I LOVE what we’ve put together for that weekend in June. Participants are in for a treat.

So, this course is aimed right at entrepreneurs who know they’ve been keeping their businesses small and ‘under the radar,’ even if subconsciously.

They can feel that there’s a bigger purpose or destiny there, but they haven’t really let themselves step into it fully. Chances are, they’ve gotten off-track somewhere from their original intent or dream.

And honestly, haven’t we all been there? I know I have.

For me (Abby), losing focus tends to happen usually after one of three seasons:

1. An intensely busy and productive season in which I’ve worked myself to the bone and not taken enough time for rest and self-care. What I really need is some R&R, but I make up a story that burnout means I’m off-track, and so I start wandering, and over-analyzing everything, and second guessing my instincts. That’s when I start to get fuzzy on what the heck I’m doing in my business.
2. I’ve been taking in way too much of other people’s content — i.e. reading their blog posts, downloading their special stuff, listening to their podcast — because I admire them so much and appreciate their take, and I can no longer hear my own voice in my head because all I hear is theirs. This is the downside to being a sponge for voices like I am. I have to stay very centered and grounded in order to hold on to my voice.
3. I’ve been in comparison mode — watching colleagues too closely. I’m undervaluing my own contribution.

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So, Laura, my question for you is, how will YOU know if ever your business or brand gets off-track? What’s that historically feel like for you?

LAURA: This has happened and I HATE it, although I think it’s a totally natural part of brand evolution. I can describe it best as behavior: I start looking outside of myself and my work for the answer. I start thinking that a Pinterest board is going to tell me who I am, or try to force myself into language that just doesn’t fit, or let myself become overly influenced by what other people are doing. You wrote something once about not having to let everything that inspires you influence you. When I’m on track, I can see something great that someone else is doing and think (to quote Amy Poehler) “Good for her! Not for me.”

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ABBY: One last question. What are your Voice Values?

LAURA: They are Intimacy, Depth, Power, and Helpfulness, with a dash of Playfulness.

ABBY: Yes. That Playfulness is such a great accent. Without making space for it, your brand just wouldn’t feel fully Laura.

Curious about what a little (okay, a LOT) more clarity and focus could do for YOU? Join us this June 2015 for Ready To Arrive.

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This weekend, I got real with strangers.

I was lucky enough to attend a Brené Brown Daring Way Intensive. There were four of us participants, four women including myself, plus one man. We sat around an oval-shaped wooden table, at one end of which sat our facilitator, a rosy-cheeked therapist with a kind and motherly affect.

If you know anything about Brené Brown’s groundbreaking work around shame, vulnerability, empathy, and authenticity, you already know what I was in for. I was looking for a breakthrough in a specific area of my life. And I got it, or definitely started anew with a fresh perspective on myself.

As I went through the weekend, I found myself so inspired by some of the concepts that I kept scribbling things on blue post-its and sticking them inside my Daring Way binder. One of the ideas I came up with was this: I need to explain to you why Authenticity is NOT a Voice Value.

I’ve got 16 Voice Values but authenticity ain’t one. And here’s why.

Authenticity is assumed. It’s rightful. It’s omnipresent.

You may not always be feeling as authentic as you’d like to feel as you tweet or respond to a client email or write a blog post, but there’s an authentic part of you showing up in every area of your brand, from your web copy to your color palette.

Here’s some inside scoop on how I built my Voice Values methodology: part of the process involved listing out ALL of the qualities of ‘voice’ I could possibly detect, discern, and describe, and then crystallizing several related qualities into ONE emblematic word, like ‘Accuracy,’ or ‘Depth’ or ‘Excellence,’ or ‘Love’ (just 4 of the 16 there).

In my head, it sounded a little bit like this: “Well, there are some brands that lead with passion. They are all lit up-like. They feel spirited and joyful, even if they’re elegant and sophisticated rather than childlike or funny. So how would I describe that quality? Ah, Enthusiasm!”

But when it came to being real, to showing up, to being willing to be seen, I just couldn’t reduce that practice to one word.

Neither could I propose that some brands get to be more authentic than others. Because in my Discover Your Voice Values assessment, you come out with a ‘Top Mix’ of Voice Values — 3 to 5 that you naturally reach for and rely on more than the others. Who was I to suggest that someone’s “low” Authenticity value meant that they weren’t being as authentic as another? Nope. Couldn’t do it, wouldn’t do it.

Haven’t taken it yet? 48 questions, about 10 minutes of your time, and you’ll self-score your way to clarity on what’s naturally powerful about the way you tweet, Facebook, write blog posts, and email your list.

You’ll also learn a bit about why certain people are drawn to you and what you should watch out for as you grow your brand.

Enter your best email address below and click Go to get started. You’ll also be subscribed to our weekly Letters From The Interior, but you can unsubscribe anytime.

Every brand has the same opportunity to be authentic. And authenticity looks different on each of us.

Authenticity is a personal art, a practice, a permission slip you give yourself. And we are ALL on that journey.

If you could stand to step into a little more authenticity in your own brand, why not start with one of the most important pages on your site — your About page? The About page (usually the highest trafficked page on any solopreneur’s website) is where an authentic connection between your Right People potential clients and customers is forged, or forfeited. Let’s go for forged, you and me.

Don’t think that I’m teaching this course because I’ve got authenticity in my brand down.

My own authentic expression is a work in progress, too, and my Voice Values are only a part of what’s helping me get there.

Over 4 weeks in June and July, I’ll be modeling and demonstrating my own About page-re-writing process inside Write Your Authentic About Page. If you could use some solid, strategic teaching around the art of the About page, some quality support, and tons of real world examples to inspire you, please check out the course. It all starts Monday, June 15th.

In the comments, I’d love to hear:

What are you already doing on your About page that feels authentic to you and your brand?

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This is an installment of The Voice Bureau’s blog post series on Writing Your Smart, Empathetic Website. This series is written with active and aspiring brand creators in mind — those of you who know that your website should be your business’s hardest working “salesperson” — and want to make that more of a reality. Click here to visit the intro to this series, and to find links to all the other installments.

I’ve been writing business websites for over 5 years now — not a lifetime, but I’m no newbie, either — & I can tell you without hesitation which site page is the most angst-inducing for clients.

It’s the About page. (In case you’re curious, the second most angst-inducing site page for clients is the sales page. But that’s another blog post.)

As you sit down to start writing (or rewriting) your About page, this all-important letter to potential clients and customers about who you are and why you do what you do, chances are your feelings run the gamut from mildly flummoxed to rather mortified. For most of us, it can be a bit weird to write a page that will be cached on the web forevermore that’s supposed to be totally (but not totally) personal AND expressive of what makes you wildly hireable or buyable.

How do you distill a professional life’s worth of meaning, achievements, and perspectives into roughly 500 words of compelling clarity and connection?

Each copywriter you could hire will bring a different approach. Each business coach you could work with will tell you that different things are important to highlight.

For the DIY’ers, those of us writing our own website copy, we muddle through, filtering best practices through our own lens on what is important. And we hope our Right People site visitors will agree with us about what’s important!

The variety of viewpoints out there on what makes an effective About page are . . . numerous. This is why we see About pages that read like slightly amputated versions of War and Peace, and About pages that top out at 200 words and actually tell the reader nothing about the brand’s story or the creator behind it.

As you go to write your About page, any one or more of these questions may be tumbling through your mind:

• What’s supposed to go on an About page, anyway?
• What do my Right People — my target buyers or clients — really want to hear about me?
• I’m supposed to have a story. WHAT’S MY STORY?!?
• How long is too long? How short is too short?
• How do I not sound narcissistic when I’m waxing on about myself?
• What should get more emphasis — my professional accomplishments or my personal journey? Is there a golden proportion of personal to professional?
• Do I really need to talk about my hobbies, my kids, my pets? Will my industry not take me seriously if I mention that I take the Polar Bear Plunge every Winter?

The bottom line is this: you, sensitive, thinking business owner, want to write an authentic About page.

You know that depending on who you are and the work you do, this could look and feel quite different from one page to the next. One size does NOT fit all — though there is a flexible structure you can learn, a philosophy you can embody as you write, and a narrative flow you can tap into.

As you may know if you’ve followed me and The Voice Bureau for a while is that we offer copywriting services to solo and small business owners. But paying a premium for a deluxe copywriting experience is not the right choice for all business owners in our readership — yet MOST of our readership needs web copy.

I want to empower you to write your own site copy when that’s what you want to do, specifically the all-important About page.

That’s why I’m bringing back the second live-running round of Write Your Authentic About Page, our do-it-together, 4-week online course for solo and small business owners. You can learn more about it here.

Even if you don’t take the course, which starts in June 2015 and finishes in July, here’s an acronym for you to consider that could blow open your own approach to writing your authentic About page.

ABOUT PAGE PHILOSOPHY, IN A 5-LETTER ACRONYM

A is for ALIGNED

Your About page should be an apt reflection of who you are, how you show up, and why your work is meaningful to you and your Right People. You don’t need to put on airs or strive to be the next version of yourself, but a true reflection of how you deliver today. Note: Your About page is not the place for false modesty, but neither is it the place to paint yourself as the second coming of Beyonce 3.0.

B is for BALANCED

A well-balanced About page focuses on your business’s point of view, your personality as creator or leader, and your Right People’s interests, and finds a healthy ratio between the three. The three stories are very much related, you see, and your job as writer is to find the best entry point to tell that story.

O is for ORGANIZED

Like any well-constructed piece of writing, a good About page has a dynamic sense of narrative flow. First comes this, then comes that. You take readers on a journey that makes intellectual and emotional sense — whether they’re your Right People or not. And the Right people? They’ll opt-in for even more.

U is for UNIVERSAL

Your About page gives you an opportunity to tap into undeniable truths about human nature that your Right People will connect with. Yes, we’re all special snowflakes, but we’re all shockingly alike, too. Your About page should tell the story of how you’re both alike and different from others — so that people can feel the particularity of your universality. (We all love and recognize a good paradox.)

T is for TALK-WORTHY

The best About pages are memorable, engaging the reader’s attention with specific, concrete details that make them marvel at how you see the world a lot like they do, but a way they might never have thought to say it. Simply. True. (See Universal, above.)

I’d like to declare this the Year of the Authentic About Page. If you’d like some support in getting yours started and finished, please check out the course.

In the comments, I’d love to hear:

What makes an About page land with you as authentic, versus not particularly authentic? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

(Image credit.)

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Over the past couple of years, as I expanded The Voice Bureau from one-woman show (me) to boutique specialty agency, I found myself at a point where I needed to hire! staff! I was the most surprised of anyone, really. I didn’t see the day coming until it had already arrived.

Then one day, after months of over-busyness, I realized, Ohmygah. I need a couple other people to help me out with this business so I can continue to do what I love most and do best — which is, by the way, develop brand voices, bring creative direction and finessing to client copywriting projects, and create and teach courses for values-based business owners.

The first person I hired was Melissa Black, a truly wonderful individual who is now focusing on web design and creative support for small businesses. Melissa was The Voice Bureau‘s first Virtual Concierge. She was the first person to read emails from readers and subscribers, and my go-to woman (along with her charming husband, Bob) for all projects requiring tech support and implementation of creative touches, like photo editing and audio mixing. With Melissa now focusing full-time on her design clientele, there were some empty shoes to fill . . . and big shoes they were!

Enter Mia. Together with Katie Mehas (my Doyenne of Operations), she keeps The Voice Bureau‘s systems and processes running snag-free, ensuring a great customer experience from start to finish. In short, I couldn’t do what I love to do without Mia.

It’s time you met her, the most recent addition to our interior coterie. If you’re a current client or thinking of becoming one, it won’t be long before you have your first conversation with this woman.

Mia Pryputniewicz, Virtual Concierge at The Voice Bureau

MY TOP 3-5 VOICE VALUES ARE:

Clarity – Clarity is something that people always strive for, but never know how to ask for it. It requires creating boundaries and enforcing them, being okay with asking for help, and respecting that others may need more information.

Depth – I have a natural intellectual curiosity that drives me to find out more about subjects that interest me. I cannot give a quick and dirty answer; I want to make sure that all options are examined in order to make the best decision to move forward.

Intimacy – Similar to clarity, intimacy requires respect for others’ needs and boundaries. People want to be heard and acknowledged, and it’s important to respect that and tailor solutions to their needs without self-elimination.

[Abby’s Note: Discover your own Voice Values when you subscribe to The Voice Bureau’s Insider Stuff e-letter.

Enter your best email address below and click Go to get started.]

PERSONAL DETAILS

I live in the San Francisco Bay area with my husband Peter and a very silly Blue Heeler. I’m half-Filipina, born in Indiana, but grew up in New Mexico before defecting to California. I went to college with Katie [Mehas]. She and I have been friends since freshman year, and we were maid of honor at each other’s weddings.

PROFESH

I grew up in the restaurant business. I worked in the comic book industry both as a journalist/editor writing for Sequential Tart webzine and as an administrative/accounting manager at Image Comics. I’ve been working for nonprofits the last 7 years as an office manager and bookkeeper. Lately I’ve been taking on freelance clients, helping them set up the financial side of their businesses and helping workflow by doing customer service or project management.

I DO THE WORK I DO BECAUSE:

I think people struggle with things like the day-to-day boring admin stuff. It’s so valuable to help people by answering their questions, giving them guidance about solutions that work best for them, and in some cases doing the parts that don’t come naturally like looking at financials. It’s not an easy skill set to learn or enjoy, but I do.

I’m very proud of being a self-taught accountant. I used to have to explain financial numbers to artists and writers who would call me in tears asking why their books hadn’t made money yet, which taught me how to be compassionate while being factual. I’ve had CPAs be very impressed with my level of work, and a controller I work with says my work is the most accurate and best organized she’s ever seen.

FAVORITE THING I NOTICE ABOUT OUR VOICE BUREAU CLIENTS IS:

They are all really passionate about their work, especially if their work involves helping others realize their potential.

20 YEARS FROM NOW, I WANT TO BE ABLE TO SAY I’VE:

Traveled the world with my wonderful partner, written stories that people like, and helped my friends and loved ones be happy and healthy.

THE iPHONE/ANDROID APP I WOULDN’T WANT TO LIVE WITHOUT IS:

Oh, I can’t pick just one! Asana is my newest love, as it’s so useful to work with teams of people. Untappd, as I’m a huge beer nerd, and a social media app just for beer-drinking is pretty fun. Evernote is pretty darn important to me too; I have a huge Fitness notebook I share with my husband and some friends tracking workouts and physical therapy/training modalities. I also cannot live without Paprika, which is my favorite recipe box app.

FAVORITE BOOKS/MOVIES/MUSIC/ARTISTS:

I’m a huge comic book fan, particularly of more indie titles published by Image Comics. I’m in love with THE WICKED + THE DIVINE lately, which is the most recent comic series by the excellent team of Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie and is an excellent examination of the price of creativity as viewed in the milieu of pop star godhood. Other excellent comics titles I love: BITCH PLANET, ODY-C, SAGA, VELVET, PROMETHEA, HAWKEYE and MS. MARVEL. I also re-read CROSS GAME by Mitsuru Adachi every year when I’m waiting for baseball to start up again.

I’ve recently become obsessed with K-pop, which started because of the girl group 2NE1. It’s fun music, and because I don’t know Korean I don’t get annoyed by the lyrics. Otherwise, I love the classics: David Bowie, Queen, Paul Simon, The Runaways. I also have a love for DJ-focused hip-hop, like RJD2, DJ Shadow, or Dan the Automator. I’m also pretty sure Mos Def’s BLACK ON BOTH SIDES is one of the greatest albums ever made.

I have a love of Hong Kong cinema, especially for Johnnie To movies. He has such an offbeat style that really balances well with his tendency to do crime thrillers. However, my favorite of his films is THROW DOWN, which is about a down-and-out former judo champion who runs a nightclub. Not so much crime, very much slice-of-life.

It may sound snobbish, but I honestly love Shakespeare. [Abby’s Note: Me, too!] I fell in love with MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING when I was 14, and it’s still one of my favorite classic romantic comedies. HAMLET with David Tennant and Sir Patrick Stewart is so compelling, I watched it 5 times in two weeks. I also love Sir Patrick Stewart’s version of MACBETH, which has a setting inspired by Stalin’s rise to power, but ShakespeaRE-told did a fantastic adaptation of MACBETH starring James McEvoy that updated the language and the setting to a modern-day Michelin-starred restaurant. [Abby’s Note: That I must see.]

FAVORITE PLACES YOU’VE TRAVELED OR COOL PLACES YOU’VE SEEN

So far, Istanbul is my favorite place of all time. It was the center of world for a long time (there are ruins dating back to the Bronze Age), and has this incredible feeling of history. It was the seat of power for both the late Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire because it controlled a huge amount of the trade in the Mediterranean. Istanbul is dynamic and strange and a bubbling cauldron of thousands of years of religious, ethnic, and political influences while at the same time feeling young and vibrant. You can walk down the street past a Top Shop, then turn a corner and run into an 800 year old hammam. The food is amazing, there’s a huge music culture and the people are lovely. There is a very intense current of political tension right now, so I keep track of what’s going on there pretty regularly.

I’m about to go to Europe again at the end of April, this time seeing the Netherlands, Belgium, and Paris. I plan on drinking many excellent beers and eating a lot of waffles.

I also grew up in New Mexico, so I have a love of wide open spaces and stark landscapes. There is something about the desert that is a revelation, that cuts you open and lets the world pour in.

PERSONALITY TYPING? WHY, YES. I’M:

Enneagram Type 6 (The Loyalist) with a 5-wing (The Investigator) [Abby’s Note: This combo is called The Defender]. My Myers-Briggs is INFP (The Counselor) or INFJ (The Protector), depending on the test/day. I’m also a double metal Capricorn Monkey.

MOST PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO KNOW THAT I:

Have a good ear for languages. I don’t speak other languages fluently, but I can identify what language people are speaking and I pick up phrases quickly. [Abby’s Note: Noticing how well this trait melds with our focus on voice at The Voice Bureau]. It also means I mimic accents far too easily which embarrasses me from time to time (someone once assumed I was Irish because I was hanging out with a bunch of British boys during San Diego Comic-Con and picked up a terrible version of their accents). I should really focus more on learning other languages, but it’s really hard for me to learn grammar context.

I’m a huge San Francisco Giants fan, and try to make it to at least 3 games every year. I even score the games in a book when I go.

My tattoo on my back was designed by Katie. [Abby’s Note: Photos, please!].

I once drove 3½ hours from Las Cruces to Albuquerque to see DJ Shadow and the Quannum Records crew and drove back home at 2am after the show.

I used to train in Krav Maga and San Quan Dao. That’s actually how I met my husband — he was an instructor at the school where I trained.

I have a 22 year old stepdaughter whom I love dearly.

I actually learned to love working out, to the point where if I don’t get any exercise for a week I fall apart mentally. I even have a TRX suspension training certification, and lately I’ve been really into kettlebells and learning how to power lift.

SECRET FANTASY CAREER/OCCUPATION:

Super spy in the 1960s. I’m pretty sure that’s never going to happen. Basically I just want to be the awesome feminist version of James Bond. Or be Agent Peggy Carter, because she punched the patriarchy in the face every week in her tv show.

I’M FAIRLY INSATIABLE WHEN IT COMES TO:

Knowledge. If I become interested in an activity or subject I always want to know everything about it and I pride myself in being self-taught. I went to Istanbul in 2012 and fell in love with the Haghia Sophia, so I immediately started reading everything I could about Byzantine history and the Justinian era. When I learned how to knit, I would look up any technique online that I didn’t know in order to try new patterns. My friends used to refer to me as Mia-pedia, and my stepdaughter’s friends would call her to ask me a question about some subject instead of looking it up on Google.

In the comments, we’d love for you to:

Say hello to Mia and welcome her to The Voice Bureau!

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