I attended the Art of Leadership for Women conference at the Vancouver Convention Centre in June. It was a real treat to gather with so many other women professionals (and a few men!) to see what the slate of speakers would say about leadership. The headliner was Arianna Huffington, who was great. She spoke for […]
Every summer, Vancouver is host to the not-for-profit, professional Shakespeare Festival known as Bard on the Beach. Bard on the Beach stages productions in two large tents on the Vancouver waterfront. Productions include Shakespeare plays, related dramas and special events. The shows typically run from June to September. A couple of nights ago, my family and […]
Recently, I’ve been writing a number of case studies for one of my clients. This client is a business coach who delivers high quality, personalized training programs to new and established freelance writers. As with many entrepreneurs, he’s been so busy building his business and putting together his team that he hasn’t had time to […]
Recently, I was working with a company that manufacturers and sells health supplements nationally. I was revising its existing web content and writing some blog posts on its behalf. When I reviewed the company’s site, I was excited to see that had some amazing user testimonials. Some of the testimonials were first-person written accounts. Some […]
In case you somehow missed it, the GDPR took effect as of yesterday, May 25, 2018. As you likely already know, the GDPR (i.e. the General Data Protection Regulation) is an EU regulation that brings greater data privacy protection to EU citizens. But the GDPR doesn’t just apply to businesses within the EU. It also […]
Recently, I attended parent-teacher meetings at my son’s middle school. If you have children in school, you already know the drill. You have a few minutes to sit down with each of your child’s teachers to see how he/she is doing and get the story behind the marks. And naturally, one of the teachers my […]
You’re probably already familiar with lead magnets—even if you’re not familiar with the term. Basically, lead magnets are those free download offers (e.g. a report, worksheet, etc.) that you get in exchange for sharing your email address. For many small businesses, lead magnets are a useful tool for generating leads. They help you identify prospects […]
Many years ago, a client gave me a free ticket to attend a local health food expo. During one of the presentations, the speaker asked the crowd, “Who is McDonald’s biggest competitor?” and promised to give the first person with the right answer $50. A low rumble arose from the crowd as people tossed out […]
I always recommend that my clients keep a list of all their marketing articles, such as newsletter articles, blog posts and guest posts. This isn’t an onerous task when done from the outset. But even if they’ve accumulated several years of posts, it doesn’t take much time to compile a list. Then, as I write […]
As a small business owner, I’ve very sympathetic to the many challenges of running a business. And I’m even more sympathetic to those in the B2C space, who have to try and keep “the masses” happy. So when I encounter poor service or a rude salesperson, I’m apt to let things go. But not always.