always believe ... keeping our ears (and heart) open

by tina blue shoes

It feels right to put some words of wisdom and magic out there before I get on the plane tomorrow. I am a nervous flyer and have to get up at 3am for the 6am flight out of Atlantic City (I am so not complaining) - the acupuncturist has a cure for nervous flyers that involved some chinese herbs that look like bb's (yes, the "you'll shoot your eye out" kind) being taped into my ears. I decided the idea of that made me a little more nervous than the actual flight so will be flying ears (and heart) wide open -

have a wonderful weekend everyone!

a new moon in aries and if prone to vacation jealousy close your eyes at this point

Every month the new moon brings an opportunity for us to connect with the energy of intention and opens up a gateway for us to “call in” a new beginning.

(when I talk to hubs about new moons - he says "not another one!", you might be thinking that, too - but it is also a wonderful little reminder that it is never too late to start over ....)

Yesterday's New Moon is in Aries - its magical powers last about 48 hours so get crackin' (first sign of the zodiac, self-starter, high energy and all that jazz) and lots of other planets are in Aries, too, so it feels like a new, new moon.

Walk in the moonlight if you can (there won't be much it's just a sliver now, but it's very powerful).

Make some wishes, (which are different than intentions - they are more magical and trusting I think, without the force of our own will behind them) set some intentions too though, plant some seeds ...

cat's vacation island (north captiva, florida) - please don't hate me

So, hubs and I are flying to Florida for a week, gulf coast - never been - just the two of us - first trip alone since 2007 - we are practically giddy.

Hubs always needs an entirely new wardrobe for vacation - this is the only time he ever thinks about his clothes, so to let him go hog wild (and because I have coupons) we head to Kohls.

I leave him in the men's department and wander around the rest of the store checking out vacuums and kitchen stuff for a long time. Suddenly I remember I am not shopping alone (like usual) and race to the front of the store where I figure he is probably in line to pay (without the coupons).

I look around. No hubs. I head back to the men's department and he is exactly two aisles from where I last saw him. "There is nothing here", he says. "Nothing?", I ask, suspecting exactly where this is headed. "No, let's go to the mall."

Now, this is not a ploy on hub's part to go to the mall - he hates the mall. This is a ploy to go to Sears - to look at fishing gear and not clothes and I am on to him, but since I need sandals and I am feeling vacation giddy I say "ok, the mall is better".

Hubs then spends an hour looking at fishing gear before wandering into the men's section and grabbing the quickest vacation wardrobe ever assembled.

Also while we were at the mall I will report that a woman comes out of the dressing room to talk to her husband. She is wearing a sundress that she had been trying on except she had accidentally left the top half completely unbuttoned.

And so, wearing nothing but a bra underneath, essentially flashes her ladies to the entire store.

Not only that but everyone was looking at her because she had just yelled her husband's name very loudly to get his attention

(it just kind of croaked out - I have no explanation other than possible spring allergies).

Oh, did I mention she was me?

@#%!!!

(dear everyone in the store - that one was for free - next time you all owe me drinks)

Now- my plan is to blog from our trip and include pics with my new smartphone, but we will be on an Island with major shelling potential and mama really, really needs to find some sand dollars so everything is pretty much up in the air at this point ...

I will be thinking about all of you working your little fingers to the bone while I am sitting on the beach drinking margaritas ... please don't hate me (at least I'm thinking of you).

synchronistic strategy part IV - do what I say, not what I do with this stuff

teach her locket - what are you learning?

So, my front page exposure had ended - my shops were still selling, but I was definitely feeling a change (ka-ching).

I started blogging regularly - like very regularly, like pretty much everyday.

Now, I didn't ask myself, like a normal business owner probably might - "How will I replace that lost exposure?, What changes will I make?" - I just replaced something I loved doing that now felt pointless (treasuries) with something new that I loved doing (blogging).

My content was all over the place.

Originally I thought customers would read my blog, but quickly saw that most of my readers were other makers, so I just kind of ran with that.

I never wrote my posts the way SEO people advise - no link backs,  no use of popular search words and phrases, no # titles that readers (and search engines) love - like "10 ways to make more blah blah blah" although I could have (sort of) easily done these things. I never promoted my blog. I didn't join blogger groups or comment on other blogs in any regular way, no guest blogging, etc.

(honestly I didn't do these things because I didn't have any time left - I had a business to run, a maker business with me doing all the making plus everything else and I was blogging everyday)

I see how I could have done this blogging thing so much better - especially in light of all the time I was putting into it - again the "connections" thing in terms of business exposure was not something that was on my radar in the way it could have been.

I have a friend who makes really cool, unique jewelry. She got into her first tradeshow in Las Vegas at the very last minute. She drove from several states away with a suitcase full of jewelry and a white table cover. She panicked a bit at set-up when she saw the beautiful displays in cash and carry jewelry which the other makers had obviously put a great deal of time, effort and money into but set her jewelry out on her white table cover and tried to look confident.

She was busy all day, the busiest table in cash and carry - later she told me she thought maybe her blank canvas had worked better than the other displays and I agreed that empty space can be beautiful and certainly her display wasn't fighting with the store owner's sensibilities - I did wonder though if even though she was the busiest table in cash and carry (I think because her work is amazing) - if she couldn't have done even better with a great display. We'll never know.

With my blog I'll never know either. I don't regret many of my blogging choices - because it has been a great learning experience and I have met so many amazing people but as part of an inbound marketing program you can learn from my mistakes.

Inbound marketing is about conversation - otherwise we are just talking to ourselves (which I don't mind so much although it drives Olive a little nuts) so if you are blogging for exposure try some of those things I didn't do. And don't spend so much time on your own blog that you have no time for anyone else's.

Having a clear focus on our audience,

(which for most businesses, when our blog is connected to our website, will be our customers)

establishing a content management system (in line with our brand), engaging with people through social media and trying new things

(but not too often and not too new - "the standing still" part of inbound marketing is important, the people who love us won't be able to attach if we keep changing things - we know how annoying all the Etsy and Facebook changes are)

are the best ways to create the kind of synchronistic strategy we need for the right customers to find us.

Inbound marketing is all about creating an authentic presence (after we have created our authentic, incredible makings) and being in the right place for the right people to find us. 

There are lots of great posts out there about how to use Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest and dozens of other venues to engage customers, so I won't go there. There are not enough hours in the day to do everything; don't try. We just need to make the right choices

I think our emotions will tell us which choices are right for us - the stuff we love is the very stuff that will line us up with our abundance.

and stick with them - this inbound stuff is a process. It takes patience.

There is not a lot you can do that will make your sales explode - there is a whole lot you can do to help your business expand.

As with everything getting really clear about the stuff we are doing, and focusing our attention and intention on that and not giving our attention to the other stuff - if we don't have time for it, either make the time or get it off our radar entirely - always gets the best results.

(One intention I have is to get more involved in Pinterest and Instagram this summer since pretty pictures are feeling about my speed at the moment plus I finally broke down and got a smartphone) xo

synchronistic strategy part IV - do what I say, not what I do with this stuff

My blog is getting a little 'know it all'y and this is not a good thing.

Since we often teach what we need to learn - it is easy to get a little carried away with this stuff and this is a slippery slope for business blogs.

(of course this is only a business blog if you squint from 5 yards while drinking your green tea with honey and doing a sudoku)

I only want to pass on information that is tried and true, in the sense that I have tried it and found it to be true (my truth is not everyone's truth) - we should always, always do what feels right to us.

We never want to take action steps to make up for our own lack of focus. Sometimes we take our inventory too early - we have to trust that life is enfolding perfectly for us, because it always is.

Anyhoo, back to synchronistic strategy and inbound marketing. I am going to be honest here and talk about all the ways I have mucked this up since they are more plentiful than the stuff I did right.

A few months (or weeks, I think my memory has been eaten from my years on aspartame - ditch all diet sodas if you haven't done that yet) after opening on Etsy I was in a treasury that hit the front page. It changed my business.

I started making treasuries - from my very first treasury my treasuries mostly got on the front page - no clue how this is possible but it's true - to be sure there were a lot less treasuries in those days. One day I had 3 treasuries on the front page in the same 24 hour period (treasuries I made, not treasuries I was in). I loved making them.

Anyhoo, people started putting me in a lot of treasuries - I didn't realize at the time that much of this was because I was making treasuries that got to the front page and there was a kind of reciprocity to the system. When my treasury got someone on the front page I never thought for a second that seller needed to put me into a treasury and I never put people in my treasuries for that reason either. Some people did this and honestly it did not occur to me for a long time.

Sellers in the forums were complaining that the same people were always getting on the front page, and if you have ever been on the front page you know it is priceless real estate - it was even in those days when Etsy was much smaller - the real payoff though comes to those who have a consistent presence there.

At one point Uncorked was on the front page at least twice a week and Polarity at least once a week (now I am on the front page about once a year).

The treasury system really helped me to grow my business - now this wouldn't have happened if I didn't have original work and great pictures - but I do not kid myself that the consistent front page exposure was priceless.

(there is a seller on Etsy with more sales than we could ever imagine - their work is absolutely amazing - well, in the earliest days of Etsy - before I was on there and I only know this because I once saw a bunch of screen shots of front pages for a few days on Etsy in 2006 and 2007, this shop was in every single front page treasury - not on the front page everyday but in every single front page treasury all day long - this is not to take anything away from this shop's amazing work - you could say this person helped grow Etsy as much as Etsy helped to grow this shop, but ... I'll just say front page exposure=priceless)

There came a day when the treasuries I made did not get to the front page anymore ... it was a very sudden halt. I wasn't sure if Etsy staff had changed, my eye for making them was gone or I was blackballed. I made a treasury under a friend's name to test my blackball theory and it got to the front page, so I knew that something had changed (probably just Etsy staff, they are people after all - I wasn't really thinking blackball, but it makes this story a little more exciting and I am a proud conspiracy theorist).

A few months (again with my memory thing the timing could be screwy), maybe a year later the treasury system changed and the serious treasury makers formed teams. I know people who are on multiple teams, who make multiple daily treasuries, who know what time of day to make what type of treasury live to get the best access. There is a science to it now. They still get to the front page a lot - although not as much as they used to either. Me - pretty much never.

The lesson here is not that I should still be making treasuries - there is always a gift in letting go and lots of good things have come from the multiple legs this has forced me to grow - although to be honest it was my ego that took me out of the game (if there was no chance of a treasury I made ever getting to the front page, ie me winning the game, I didn't want to play - I'm taking my ball and going home - wah) - the real lesson is about connections - the reciprocity of the treasury system is all about connections, without me making treasuries I wouldn't be in many either.

This is totally in sync with the new connections marketplace.

I did not learn this lesson though

as evidenced by the next thing I did.

back tomorrow with - the next thing I did.