book Archives - Page 3 of 3

book

You’re invited to brunch

My book, Market Yourself, is now available for pre-order and I'm celebrating by inviting you over for brunch*!

If I could, I'd take you out to Plant, order up my favorite pancakes and chat with you about your life, your business and your marketing. We'd sip soy lattes and giggle over the huge cinnamon rolls.
But we deserve it! Because sharing your thing, putting it out into the world, is hard.

Since you can't come over for brunch**, we'll have to settle for this – an online celebration of both my book and your business.

Because I was thinking of you as I wrote this book. I thought about the process you go through as you learn to think about your product, and as you learn to think like your people. I arranged and rearranged the book to make it a system that will walk you through every aspect of getting comfortable with your marketing, and growing into bigger and bigger things.

For example, I know it can be tricky to get that craft show patter just right (I've been in a LOT of awkward craft show booths!), so the Offline Marketing chapter starts with just chatting with your friends about your project. Then you branch out into your community. Finally, you're talking to total strangers about it – but instead of being scary, it's easy because you already know what to say, how to say it, and what the soon-to-be-fans might ask.

If you've got a creative business, go here to grab the book while it's still in pre-orders and you'll get a plate of Pre-order Specialness:

Everyone who buys the book before May 9th will get an invitation to a live, on-the-phone Q+A session with the me!
You’ll have a chance to send in your questions before the call, listen in as I answer your questions, AND receive a recording (mp3) after the call. Invitations will be sent out the week of May 14th.
1/2 off a Right Person Exploration. Your discount will be sent the week of May 14th.
You’ll be entered to win a FREE, 30 minute, one-on-one session with me. On May 10th, we’ll choose 2 winners. Each winner will get an email with a probing questionnaire (so I know all about you before the session), and when you return it, you’ll schedule a time that works for you. The session will be held over a text chat and you’ll get a transcript when it’s all over.

This brunch is for everyone!

Mindy let me share my tips for staying inspired during a big project (like the book!)
I'm brunching with Jamie, and chatting about how dreams really DO come true right here.
During brunch with Jessika, I'm sharing the super-simple marketing equation.
And tomorrow, we're chatting live, during the #omhg twitter chat, at 1pm EST.

For more brunching goodness, sign up here to find out where I'll be having real, in-person brunches, workshops and conversations around the country!

Thanks for joining me for this brunch!

*Why Brunch? Read this story of brunching vs. launching

**If you are close by, let me know and I really will take you out to brunch!

Find your FAB: features, advantages and benefits

The day I turned in my manuscript, I immediately went to the library and stocked up on books. Every kind of book. Books about writing, about faith, about veganism.
Imagine my delight when the very first book I read post-book, reiterated what I had written!

My book is a system for talking about your thing from two angles: what makes you and your thing unique, and what your people (the buyers) want from your thing.
Write to Sell starts right off with your customers and figuring out what they want. In fact, the first chapter starts like this:

If you've ever written anything for your business (a product description, an about page, an email) then you're familliar with the struggle to put what you know and think about your item out of your mind and focus on what your customers care and think about what you sell.

And as Write to Sell points out, your buyers are only thinking ONE thing about your product: What's In It For Me?

This is where makers get mixed up. They think that buyers are thinking “Oh, this is handmade! I love handmade! I want to buy it!“, so they write about how handmade it is, what they used, what their process is like.

In reality, buyers are thinking “Oh, this is handmade and buying handmade is better because….(it reinforces my self-image as someone who doesn't buy mass-made stuff, it's sustainably-made, it makes me feel like I'm supporting an artist, it's longer-lasting, etc).”

Your job is to fill in that blank for the buyer, to explain why buying this handmade thing is, in fact, better.

The author shares a helpful equation for filling in the blank.

Features ->Advantages -> Benefits

For example:
Feature: my Monthly Yarn Mail is spun-just-for-you and sent automatically, once-a-month
Advantage: You get the colors you want, delivered right to your door
Benefit: You don't have to “hunt” for the perfect yarn, it comes right to you.

Let's do another example, this time with something technical:
Feature: This bag is double stitched
Advantage: It's very strong
Benefit: You never have to worry about it busting, even if you have it stuffed full of your kids toys and food and books.

Walking through this equation in your product description or sales page makes it obvious to the buyer why they care and it how it benefits them.

What's the FAB of your product?

It’s time for the contractions

In Do More Great Work, the author describes the creative rhythm as expanding and contracting, imagining and doing. I think a lot about the cycle of creativity, the flow of inspiration + doing, followed by a time of quiet not-doing…but I've forgotten the rhythmof every creative endeavor, the rhythm of expansion and contraction. Of breathing in inspiration, ideas, big dreams, and then breathing out, narrowing in on the things you will do.

We creatives LOVE the expansion part. We soak up inspiration, we breathe in dreams, we acquire ideas. Magazines, classes, pinterest…it's all one big inhalation, one glorious expansion of all possible things, zooming infinitely outward.

But the exhalation, the contraction, the doing…well, that's not as glorious. Not as tweetable.

But if anything is ever going to get done, if you're going to write that book or finish that project or launch that line, there has to be a point where you stop inhaling and you start exhaling. You zoom in on what you will do.

In narrowing your focus, the outer stuff, the stuff you decide not to do gets fuzzy and eventually falls out of the frame.
And while this doesn't look so exciting, exhaling and contracting can be filled with enthusiasm, an inner propulsion that glides the project out of your head and into the world.

I'm here.

I've inhaled inspirations, stories, examples, and dreams. It's time to exhale, to breathe out the last bit of the book. To hand it on time. To contract narrow my focus to only the book and the Starship* (for the next few weeks).

Are you inhaling? Is it time to exhale?

*This means you won't be seeing me on the blog, in your inbox, or anywhere else (except for Instagram, and the Starship) until February 8th.

The Map-Making Guide is my personal exhalation process. Turn dreams and wishes into measurable milestones and do-able to-dos. The Starship will be starting the map-making guide together, with weekly check-ins, this Wednesday. Join us here, if you like.

What are Right People, re-visited

In writing the chapter on Right People (for the BOOK!) and getting ready for the new class, I couldn't find a better way to explain it than I did in a post I wrote last year…so instead of trying to find a new way of saying it, let's just have a look at that older post:

“Your Right Price will be right for your Right People”

I said this in the Pricing class and a few people piped up to ask , “But who are these Right People? How do I find them?”

We’ll talk about the how to find the Right People and how to make them happy in this class, but before you register for that, let’s answer the basic question:

Who are Right People and why do I care?

I first heard the term from Havi, when she said:

Your Right People need whatever it is you have in whatever form you give it.

I read that and thought, yeah, ok.

But then I started to explore it (and talked to Havi about it in more depth).

As I experimented, it reframed and transformed every area of my business.

Let’s start with a definition, from Havi:

Right People = anyone you like and appreciate who likes and appreciates you.

My definition, as it relates to our crafty pursuits:

Right People = the people who love and adore your thing, the way you do it and you.

Your right people is anyone who really loves what you make.

This includes:

customers
friends
cheerleaders
mentors
partners

Not all of your Right People are going to buy from you, but even those that don’t will sing your praises to new Right People.

Without a focus on your Right People your business may be:

Unfocused: Which way should I go next? What should I make?
Uncertain: Will this sell? Where should I advertise?
Insecure: Will people like it? Is it worthless? Will anyone ever buy?

Focusing on your Right People can reverse all that.

When you’re talking to your Right People, you can be yourself:

Because that spark of YOU is what spoke to the people in the first place, it’s why they are here, checking out your thing.

When you talk to your Right People, you know what to do next:

They’ll tell you what they want either directly (I want yellow!) or indirectly (yellow sells out quickly).

When you share your thing with the Right People, you’ll make sales:

They will feel a sense of kinship or a recognition of awesomeness and it will *click*. Yes, this is for me.

It’s not about manipulation, convincing or cajoling.
In fact, it’s the opposite! When you speak to your Right People, you don’t have to persuade them that your thing is right, they will feel it.

Sound awesome?

Learn how to do it October 12th in the Right People class. We’ll cover the specific how tos of finding your Right People, talking to them, learning from them and keeping them blissfully happy.

Notes from the BOOK: A spoonful of my own medicine.

Notes from the BOOK is a weeklyish peek into how the BOOK is taking shape. Lessons learned, moments of bing, and excerpts.

Last week I wrote this for the book:

“Get clear on YOUR strengths and your product's unique awesomeness before you start thinking about your customers. If you do it the other way around, you'll create something bland and not-you. Your you-ness is the main selling point when you make something by hand, so we're going to do everything we can to make sure we don't dilute it.”

And then I got stuck.

I couldn't write another word.

I outlined my next few points, the rest of the chapter…but I couldn't seem to turn my outline into coherent sentences (even the above sentences are a little murky for me, they're sure to go through a rigorous editing before they end up in the book).

A few days later (3 days of no writing! The world was caving in around me!), I recognized something else lurking, some un-book-related stuckness. I've been feeling a bit drifty about what I want to do next (I know, I know, the BOOK should be project enough). This sense of unease seeped into every other aspect of my work.

I didn't feel like my Work has a Mission. It seemed random, piece-meal and unfocused.

So I went in search of a Mission.

Many journal pages, and days, later I talked to Jay about it.

His first, uncluttered response: Isn't your Mission to Be Tara?

Oh, yeah.

I spent another few days trying to figure out what this meant for my business.
Obviously, it's not a business model. It's not a marketing plan. It might be my personal mission, but how could it lead the business?

Uh, what did I write up there?

The first job, when you're selling something so very YOU, is to get clear on what that YOU is and then make all decisions from that. Your strengths, your vision, your you-ness guides everything (in fact, my whole BOOK is about HOW you make smart marketing decisions based on your you-ness).

The drifty, unfocused feeling came because I lost sight of that.

I've been making decisions based on what I thought I should be doing.

On other people's definitions of my business.

And other people kept thinking I was a consultant.
So I had to set up my site like a consultant.
I had to market and make offers and products like a Consultant.

Except I'm NOT a consultant. I'm not a person-who-knows-better.
And I'm so totally not a coach (unless it's napping. I could totally be a napping coach).

I'm Tara.

(my own Tara, not other people's versions of Tara)

An explorer.
A writer.
A sharer.
A big-sister (a smidge more experienced, a little bossy, mostly goofy).
I share that here.
I create tools and spaces for you to do YOUR OWN exploring.

In those tools and spaces, I'm a silly, friendly, encouraging fellow traveler. I share my path and help you figure out yours, all while protecting and respecting YOUR experience.

Knowing that, respecting that and paying attention to that Tara-ness IS a mission.

It is a business model.
It is a marketing plan.
It guides my decisions.
It helps me focus.
It keeps everything coherent and heading the right direction.

And back to the BOOK…

The last week of not-writing, it was my own good sense trying to fight through the what-everyone-else-says clutter to assert itself in my life. To bring me and this place and everything I do in alignment with what I was writing.

(why yes, it is a little frustrating that I didn't recognize it before spending a week gnashing my teeth)

What's your mission? How does it want to assert itself in your business?

A Birth Announcement

Last week, I signed a contract with Cooperative Press to write a book.

It will be about, well, what I write about: marketing your crafty goodness.

And just like that, my tiny sweet BOOK (that's what she insists on being called) came into my life. She's small and tender and not ready to go out into the world. Or to be poked at. Or questioned.

But we're spending time together each morning, BOOK and I.
I write her letters and she tells me what she needs to grow up (since I haven't found the What To Expect When You're Expecting Guide to Raising a BOOK).

And today (with my publisher's blessing), BOOK wanted me to announce her entry to the world.

We (BOOK and I) are accepting well-wishes, excitements and congratulations (in the comments, or on Twitter, or with gifts).

(just kidding about the gifts. sorta)

Over the next few months, as I write (er, raise) BOOK, I'll be sharing more details (she's very into story-telling and we've some pretty great stories already) but if you're anxious to hear about her release date (since she's a Southern girl, she'll probably want a debutante ball) you can sign up for Cooperative Press's newsletter.

And if you'd like a chance for your craftybiz to be featured in the BOOK, make sure you get twice-monthly SparklePointers, so you'll get our request for your stories, later this fall.

Well, that's it.
We are…mostly Too Excited. Overwhelmed with oh-my-goodnesses and Ready to Party!

Party!

Curious how I got a book contract in less than 2 months after deciding I wanted one? I used the Map-Making Guide to get clear, figure out what needed to be done, and then, yep, do it.

52 books in 2010

In 2010, I made a goal to read 52 books.
first books of 2011

No wait, come back! This isn't another round-up of my year kind of post, I promise! I'm just going to talk about the best books, ok?

Even though that's 1 book a week, the actual reading didn't turn out like that at all. Many weeks I read no books and many weeks I read 2 or 3 books. I finished the 52nd book the week before Christmas and…haven't finished another book since then.

I had very few rules.

I couldn't count a cookbook (or knitting book) unless I actually cooked a recipe (or knit a project) out of it (unless it was a mostly-words book, like Gluten Free Girl).
I am always allowed to quit reading, at any point. No guilt.

Instead of talking about every book or just listing them (you can see the entire list here), I want to share the surprises.

Oh, and I'm linking to their GoodReads page because I did not buy them (99% of the books were checked out from my library), so it seems disingenuous to tell you to buy them.

However, if you're like my friend Jamie and want to own every book you read, I strongly suggest using IndieBound to find an independent bookstore to buy them from. If you don't have a bookstore near you, you can buy from my favorite, Malaprops.

Now, for the books!

The books I did not expect to like

Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

It's Young Adult fiction! It's set in an apolyptic future! Not usually my thing. But so good.

It was Kim's review that convinced me to check it out and she was right! I finished the first book in 5 hours one night (yes, I stayed up until 3 am finishing it), it was that great.

Finding your Own North Star by Martha Beck.

I didn't really know anything about Martha Beck other than she was in Oprah's magazine. That was enough to convince me her stuff would be too cheesy or woo-woo for me.
Plus, I sorta already HAVE my North Star. I'm already doing what I love.

But when Eileen and Brianna both rave about the smartness of Martha, I knew I had to give it a shot. And this book was great. I learned all kind of skills for dealing with my own stuff and helping my CraftyBizzers deal with theirs.

The Happiness Project

I only picked it up after loving Bluebird by Ariel Gore (which I read just because I love Ariel Gore), because I like to put together my own little series around a theme (why yes, I am a geek).
I'm not really into improve-your-life programs. I'm all about improving my life, but not through traditional, do-this-next-steps. I thought that was what this book is.

But it's totally not. Gretchen puts together a plan to research and learn more about her own happiness and in doing so shares helpful information without being preachy.

Most proud of myself for (finally) reading:

Jane Eyre

Seriously! How have I not read this before? Sweeping, epic, beautiful.
And I still can't get over what a contemporary role model Jane is.

Did not like as much as everyone said I would:

Girl with Dragon Tattoo

Wayyy too violent for my sensitive self. I've experienced enough violence in the real world that I try to avoid it in my own imagination.
The action was gripping and I couldn't put it down until I finished.
But I've been haunted by the violent imagery every since. Really wish I had never read it.

Dune

zzzzzz.
Couldn't finish it. Could barely keep reading.
So full of science-y description.

But it's a sci-fi classic so I tried REALLY hard to read it and like it.
But I just couldn't.

Best business book

Book Yourself Solid

I loved Trust Agents and The Art of Non-Conformity (I read both of these guys blogs (Chris and Chris) every week and their books have the same friendly, helpful voice), but Book Yourself Solid had the most new-to-me, detailed, do-this-next helpfulness.

If you can get past the constant Book Yourself Solid phrase. You've been warned: the author says “Book Yourself Solid” several times a chapter.

And you?

What was the best book you read last year?
I'm trying to read 60 books this year, and I need a few more for my list!

Handmade Marketplace – book giveaway!

I have one copy of Handmade Marketplace to give away,
read to the bottom to learn how to win.

(photo from karichapin.com)

Oh, I can not tell you HOW excited I am about this book!

I was honored to be interviewed for it, to serve as part of the “Creative Collective” – the group of makers who contributed bits of our own experiences.

That was crazy exciting, but then I got the book in my hands.

And oh, I'm far beyond excited to be included in it, I'm thrilled that this book exists.
I'm thrilled I have something to recommend, as a complete resource, when someone asks “How do I start a crafty biz?”

It has everything a crafter needs to know/think about/plan for in selling their crafts. Craft shows, marketing, making their thing, wholesale, everything!

I have read a loooot of business books.
Most of them are geared to big businesses.
A few are aimed at truly tiny businesses (my favorite: The Boss of You)
Even fewer are about craft businesses (and the best, by Barbara Brabec are over 20 years old)

But this is the first book for us.
Crafters who blog. And podcast. And sell online.

Obviously my review is wildly biased because the book is filled with people I adore (Kari! Kim! Diane!)…but my mom (who is totally out of the online-craft-world loop) called me last night to say “I can NOT put this book down! It's teaching me SO much!”

Thanks to the kind people at Storey, I have one book to give away to a commenter!

To enter: leave a comment with your business question and I'll choose one commenter randomly and announce the winner next Friday!

PS. I met the author (and everyone else mentioned in this post) on Twitter. Being a part of this book is just one of the fabulous side-effects of loving Twitter.

Knit Green – Book Review

I received my copy of Knit Green 2 weeks ago. Since then, I have been pouring through it.

Now, I should warn you – I am NOT unbiased about this book – I sold my photographs to the editor and they appear in the book. This is the first time I've seen my name in print, in a bound BOOK. So yeah, I was more than a little excited when my copy came in the mail!

That said, I was prepared to just scan the book and put it on my shelf (or let's be honest, on my coffee table where I can casually flip to my pictures whenever anyone wanders into the room). I've been reading and researching eco-friendly fibers since I first thought about starting a yarn business, over 4 years ago. I didn't think this book had a lot to teach me.

Whoa.

I was wrong. So very wrong.

This book is FULL of things I didn't know or couldn't find the answers to.

Part of the book's brilliance is in it's layout. Each chapter tackles a different angle of “green” knitting: Biodiversity, sustainable farming, vegan fibers, maintaining folk traditions, fair trade, organic, recycling, buying local & changing habits.

Each chapter has a well-researched article on the topic, followed by 2 – 3 patterns using yarns that embody the characteristic.

While most of the patterns aren't for me (I hardly ever knit from patterns, so *most* patterns aren't for me), the fact that the author gives you real applications for what the book is teaching is refreshing.

The real gem in this book is the articles. The articles are worth the price, even if you never knit any of the patterns, if you are concerned with making concientious decisions in your knitting.

And don't let the whole “green” thing scare you away. The author never becomes preachy or pedantic. She seems to share my belief that knitting “green” needn't be a major life-changing commitment; it can be a slow path to making decisions you are comfortable with.

Shop Indie Bookstores

Book: Knit Green, written by Joanne Seiff
(since we're all about the shopping-local, why don't you try to find a local indie bookstore through IndieBound?)

Previous 1 2 3