Greetings!
September is usually when people get cracking on projects. But this year, my clients got active in August. After a wisp of a vacation, I'm charging ahead with several challenging assignments and my own brand refinement--most challenging of all.What do you do when you're ready to get going, but a critical piece is missing? Read all about it in the first article, "No Excuses."
The second piece is an update on my relationship with my new smart phone. Sometimes brilliant, sometimes silly.
I'll be presenting my signature speech, "Marketing a Company of One: Creating an Authentic Personal Brand" at the New Paltz, NY, American Marketing Association's annual Business Day Conference on October 15. Under the auspices of SCORE, I will deliver "What E-mail Marketing Can Do for You" at the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County on September 22. Contact me for more information or to book one of these talks for your organization.
I'm on Twitter. Follow me.
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No Excuses
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 "What do you do when the linchpin of your project is behind schedule?" You make lemonade, or, as my client Gloria Feldt puts it, you "use what you've got."
This is #3 on Gloria's list of "the 9 ways to embrace your power." And all of this is the subject of her new book No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power.
Forward Motion
The plan was that Gloria's new e-zine would announce her updated Web site and book publication all at the same time. Like a good consultant, I kept suggesting that we get started. But Gloria was sure the new site would be ready in time. When it became clear that it just wasn't going to happen, she decided to follow her own advice.
Originally, Gloria wanted the scaled-down newsletter to come in a plain paper wrapper. The idea was clever, but in the end, we did a sophisticated publication. Why? Because, as with Web sites, the most challenging part of the e-zine process is getting the right look and feel. We had invested several phone conversations talking about what needed to be in the newsletter. It seemed best to complete the plan.
Contact Lists
Like many of my clients, Gloria's biggest demon was the sorry state of her contact lists. She had moved from one email system to another and had used various hardware--PC, Mac and Blackberry. Each one had a different idea about how contacts should be formatted. And the process produced duplicates and various data errors.
It's a problem I can relate to personally. My new phone has lots of contact records--many of which are useless. The phone, being a tad narcissistic, thinks every number it gets is a mobile phone number. Duplicates (and triplicates) resulted when my contacts were migrated from my old phone and merged with contacts already in the new phone.
Anyway, Gloria's contact-list challenge is still going on. But the newsletter was successfully sent from aboard the ferry as I was returning from Nantucket.
Taking Charge
And by the way, No Excuses is a really good book. Gloria's message to today's women: "From the boardroom to the bedroom, nobody is holding us back now except ourselves." If women are still not sitting on corporate boards or taking charge of philanthropic projects, it's not because someone or something is stopping them. It's because they aren't taking charge.
If you're ready to take charge with your online communications, don't bother to check your contact list. Just send me an email, and we'll get started.
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Praise Technology
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For those of you who were wondering, my new phone and I are getting along much better. I keep learning new tricks, some of which are amazing. The voice recognition--handy when it works--sometimes astonishes me and sometimes makes me laugh out loud.
It's truly life altering to have such a powerful tool always in my pocket. My husband says I'm addicted. I don't think so. But then denial and addiction are all one word. Driving back from a George Clooney movie recently, we speculated about his age. In seconds I consulted Wikipedia. What's your guess?
Always On
The argument against these overachieving cell phones is that those of us attached to them (like the phones themselves) are always on. I confess to the temptation to just take a quick peek at email when I should be just letting go. On the other hand, there's a lot of freedom in being on top of what's happening in life. More than once I've been waiting to hear back about an appointment and was able to ease my mind about commitments while weeding my garden or taking a walk.
I found out a few years ago, while on vacation, that my real addiction is to the weather. I like to know where every storm cell is located and which direction it's moving in. I guess that comes from living in the country where the outdoors is all important. I also confess to playing FreeCell for breaks when I'm at my desktop computer. So no games are allowed on my phone.
Amazing Pace Though I'll reveal my age by saying this, I remember when new technology constituted the invention of small strips of paper that you placed over an error on the typed page. After you repeated the error to white out the mistake, you could then type it correctly. Before that, you erased with a special eraser. Years later the whiteout was built into the typewriter.
The breadth and depth of technology is, of course, staggering. But it takes a lot of flack these days. Studies of the damage to young people come out daily. But I still marvel at how much knowledge is at my fingertips (or in my pocket) just waiting to be revealed.
Send me your opinions on the topic, and I'll share them with Web Words readers in the Oct. issue.
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| Web Tips |  If your online searches leave you frustrated and overwhelmed, you should check out StumbleUpon.com. With over 10 million users worldwide, this free site allows you to indicate Web sites you like. The system will then keep sending you information suited to your tastes, coordinated with other members like you.
It's all organized by topic--over 500 of them. So if you're into cooking, StumbeUpon will send you customized food information. The site saves your favorite sites on a profile page and also makes it easy to share your finds with others.
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And Finally . . .
Shawenon Communications collaborates with small businesses, solopreneurs, professionals and not-for-profits to get their messages across in the written word.
We specialize in electronic communications, including e-zines and other forms of email marketing, Web sites and social media. We also ghostwrite articles and other business communications. As a solution provider, we resell Constant Contact's email marketing service. Thanks for reading. If you liked this issue, please click on the Forward email button below to share this newsletter with others.
You're also welcome to reprint material in this newsletter as long as it is unaltered and credited to the author. Be sure to send us a copy, too. If being reproduced electronically, the following link must also be included:
www.shawenon.com
Sincerely, 
Susanna Opper
Shawenon Communications413-528-6494
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Email Marketing
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Fall is the time to make things happen. Get your message out with panache.
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I'd love to talk about your situation. Give me a call at 413-528-6494 or email now.
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