Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

Content Development

Stop Overwhelm with a Tangible Beginning and End

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The quickest way to get out of overwhelm is to create a tangible beginning and end. Put some boundaries on what you set out to do. Notice how great you feel when you complete it. Chunk your projects into smaller piece so you can see and feel them end.

Set boundaries

Define a few steps you need to take next. A very powerful way to set boundaries is to create in a series. A series has a beginning and end. It has a predetermined size. It is a short enough project to feel the satisfaction of completion. When I started my podcast “Reflections of a Deeper Song” I would have been overwhelmed if I didn’t break the possibilities down into smaller segments.

Cornerstone content builds a strong foundation

As with any project, the foundation is the key component. Why are you creating this? Who are you creating this for? What do they need to know first? What foundational information do you need to provide for them to ultimately get the big picture? The first element of any project is to create the cornerstone content that is the core explanation of the basic elements of the series. This clarifies your project for you as well as for those who will consume it.

Outline your ideas

Step into you beginner’s mind and begin to list the steps needed to understand your message. As you outline, capture those wisps of ideas you need to o bring into physical form. As you capture your ideas, organize them. Keep only the ideas that strengthen your message. Examine your outline for natural learning chunks. Those are the small segments you will work on with a tangible beginning and end that will keep you from feeling overwhelmed.

For instant, I began my podcast with Cornerstone Content just as I would in blogging or teaching a course. That episode clarified the direction of my work and generated ideas for future series. That choice of a foundational series allowed me to easily develop the first series of episodes. That’s it – a beginning and an end. As I work new ideas will emerge but confining my project to s series with a well-defined beginning and end, keeps me focused and assures that I complete my work.

Completion encouraged more completion

The more often I work in a well-defined and focusee series , the more I find my completion and posting rate increasing I have five posts in the Find Your Tribe series. I wrote them easily because the ideas built upon each other. They flowed so easily that I was able to schedule them ahead and suddenly I had free time to focus on another project! See how that works?!

Keep your work short

Writing in a series also helps me develop an idea and still keep my content short. That means I can complete a post more efficiently. I can produce a short video. I can focus on expanding one concept at a time. In this day of information overload, that makes my work more consumable

Keep your To Do List short

I choose “Three Impactful Things To Do Today.” I do them. With whatever left over time I have, I do something else.

My days have a focused a topic: Monday-Articles, Tuesday- Podcasts, Wednesday-Production, Thursday-Courses/Videos, Friday-Loose Ends, Saturday and Sunday – “Me Day.”. Each day Having a specific focus for each day steadily moves each aspect of my work further towards completion.

Having a tangible beginning and end eliminates feelings of overwhelm

Create a tangible beginning, middle and end that can be done in the period of time you have assigned to work on it. If I have an hour, my goal is not to proof an entire ebook, but it could be to edit and proof two chapters. That gives me a feeling of success, of completion, of moving the project forward. End is not “The End”. It is the end of that small chuck that you have chosen to move from the beginning to the end.

“Every new beginning comes from 
some other beginning’s end.” – Seneca

How will you chunk your work down into a tangible beginning and end?
To Sing a Deeper Song consider:

01-How The Deeper Song Community Emerged (podcast, 20 minutes)

02– The Hole In Our Life Called Loneliness (podcast, 20 minutes)

03- Planting Roots and the Fundamental Need for Security (podcast, 20 minutes)

The Set Aside Day

How Not to Make Plans

How to Manage Your Energy to Become More Productive ‎

Nature Does Not Have Deadline, Why Should We?

One Way to End Procrastination 

View Decisions as Experiments, not Final Choices.

COME SING A DEEPER SONG
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DEEPER SONG PROCESS  ‎

12 Ways to Fine Tune Your Writing for Greater Impact

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I have greatly improved the impact of my work simply by taking time to tend to some details. It is not about improving the writing; it is about setting the post or newsletter up for success by handing the back end.

Fine-tuning will help you reach more people. Fine-tuning will help your work have greater impact.

1. Do the SEO work. Through my Rainmaker Platform I have access to Scribe which helps me create strong SEO statements for reach article. It also has an analysis tool in that program which I have yet to use but is high on my fine-tuning list.

2. Post in multiple places. Rather than rely on RSS feeds, I am emailing my posts to my entire community list. It turns out that Aweber can also send those posts to social media. Check each platform for word count limitation. Post to social media by hand, if it’s the only way, but post those articles! I’m finding Google+ and LinkedIn to be the most responsive for the people I seek to reach.

3. Full post or “Read more”? I have no research on this but I’m going for the full post. An extra click to read more is a decision to be made. Continuing to read takes no effort even if they scan.

4. Keep is short. This is my latest lesson. Break it up if you have to. Make one point and create a series that holds the next point. People are inundated by content. Make yours a filling snack.

5. Make it scanable. I write with a lot of subheads because it’s how my mind works. Bolded first sentences or actual subheads help a person quickly find the parts they want and need to know.

6. Put links in your articles. Try to add one hyperlink for every 120 words of body content spread out evenly down the page. Of course, the links must be relevant. I keep a list of relevant links for the areas I address on a separate document for easy access.

7. Use outline templates when you write. An outline of content steps helps me make certain I have stayed on track and offered the reader the stimulus they need to become engaged.

8. Notice what other people are doing. I got a fabulous idea for my newsletter from someone else’s newsletter. It is a weekly personal growth challenge with the invitation to email her what they discovered. What a great way to begin a person dialogue. Adding that feature helped me create the strongest newsletter I’ve done in years because it also helped me focus on one idea and that kept it short.

9. Be clear about your focus. I want every interaction to move us both forward –  me while I write it and you as you read it. Sometimes an article is good only for my own clarity and needs to be totally rewritten to share. Review your work from the reader’s viewpoint – did you give them enough foundation information so they could fully absorb your idea.

10. Use the calendar in WordPress. I have a very good system for tracking articles in progress but I am changing it. I will still compose the original article in Word. By using the WordPress calendar, I will move it into an almost-final draft form sooner. That allows me to do the SEO work and set up the links so that when I return in three days to review it with a final fresh eye, it is ready to go. Scheduling your posts ahead helps you see and control the sequence and gives you some breathing room for other projects. I do have to schedule the follow up posting to my list and social media but scheduling a post for automatic delivery helps break the process down into smaller steps.

11. Read it out loud. You can hear the rhythm, the colloquialisms you need to take out, and the long sentences in which you can’t get your breath. If you listen while you read, you’ll also catch parts that need clarification. Now that you have lived with your idea and have some distance on it, how can you strengthen your headline?

12. Allow enough time to leave it and return in a few days with a beginner’s mind. This is a vital step. It allows you one fresh, final look before publishing it. This is not about perfection; it is about clarity and relevance.

Yes, this attention to detail mean you need to spend more time setting up your post or newsletter but I know I’m putting some wind beneath its wings when I take time to fine tune the backend of my offerings.

The Imipact Equation is a Gold Mine of Clarity!

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The most difficult aspect of starting a business is clarifying your purpose – who you reach, what you do for them, and what makes you special.  You are too close to your ideas, too familiar with yourself.  It takes some well-worded, on-target questions to help you define you and your business. The Impact Equation by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith poses powerful questions that help you clarify who you are, who you serve, and exactly what you need to offer.

The Impact Equation asked questions that made me think

Working through this book, I made choices.  I discovered intentions. I redefined myself.  Most importantly, I narrowed down my purpose.  That increases my focus and affects my choices.  This whole process of simplifying what you do into very few words not only clarifies how to communicate that core meaning to others, but it offers you a very clear guidepost for the rest of your decisions.

The Impact Equation helped me uncover a powerful metaphor for my work

The metaphor for your work turned out to be an exceedingly powerful exercise for me.  What I discovered built off decisions I made using the Triangle Method and brought me to the core of what I do in life: “ I help the mud settle so you have a clearer view.” When I shared that with a friend, she understood it on many levels and knew immediately that it was the core of who I am.   That metaphor is over-achingly on target for everything I do, in my work and in my interactions.  Being clear that is my purpose will affect my writing and my personal interactions.  This is powerful stuff.

The Impact Equation helped me uncover larger my goals

When you have a ton of ideas, it is easy to get off-target.  You need a way to choose the best idea to get the greatest results. The Impact Equation shows you how to identify your larger goal along with an organic guidepost for making decisions. My goal is to encourage self-awareness that supports positive change. My guidepost is how I help people successfully work within the natural cycles of change.  That is a major help in choosing my next project.

The Impact Equation made me look for the emotions I play alongside my message 

Another soul-searching, self-aware question that is asked in the book was “What emotions play alongside your message?” Our main connection is through emotion, it’s important to identify the emotion you illicit in your work.  I think I encourage curiosity, self-discovery, determination, the joy of standing on your own and (I can only hope) insights and wisdom that help people make positive change.

The Impact Equation turned me into a TV Studio

What are you broadcasting from your business and in your life?  My TV studio is Positive Change. I help people embrace change, choose to change, accept change and create positive change.  What shows could I build around change? That exercise identified my Cornerstones Content.

The Impact Equation helped me identify my weaknesses

This didn’t feel as fun as the other exercise but I really do have a very large missing piece of the Impact Equation that I need and want to find ways to fill.  My work is cut out for me.

The Impact Equation questioned the people I keep around me.

I know this part, you are most like the five people you hang out with.  What I had not considered, which this book helped me do, is that my level of expanding will be constricted by that comfortable, non-changing crowd.  I need to hang out with people who inspire and challenge me.  I need to be with people who expect me to grow and change.  I need to find new steeper curves to climb.

The Impact Equation encouraged me to think beyond what I know

This was a huge nudge for me, not because of a need for new ideas, but the need to change my outreach strategy to accommodate the increasing number of ways there are to communicate.  It’s very easy to stay comfortable with what you know and how it has been up until now. Times are changing and you have to stay on top of the opportunities.  This book helps you realize the breadth of useful and powerful platforms and determine which ones best suit your needs.

The Impact Equation encourages awareness

An important criteria presented in The Impact Equation was “Does the idea stretch me – help me grow?”  That’s going to be my measuring stick for everything I do from here on.

The Impact Equation encourages me to package my quirks

This was one of those great ah-ha moments.  Of course we need to build on the very qualities that make us different, unique, weird, and quirky.  Embrace those unusual aspects of yourself.  Make them the core of what you offer.  Celebrate your freakiness (Why I Love Being a Freak)

The Impact Equation is powerful stuff

Our journeys are ours to make.  Mine in mine and yours is yours. Use this book to dig deep, to identify the form your passion needs to take, and the manner in which you can use your passion to change lives. Read this book with a pen and paper at hand and respond to the questions as they come up.  Your answers and insights will build on each other and help you broaden your impact.  Consider working though the book a second time.  The Impact Equation is a major clarifier.

Have You Checked For Changes Recently?

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close-lookThere are two elements that are constantly changing in your life that you need to consider:  the changes in the environment of your business and the changes in yourself. 
 

Check for changes in the environment of your business

My friend’s business had been built on her ability to help writers publicize their books.  However, two major changes have occurred in the field of publishing – marketing itself has changed from selling to educating and the publishing business has broken wide open so anyone can self-publish a digital book.  Those major changes in her field meant that she has to complete rethink who her target community is and what she wants to offer them.  Publicizing a book is and always has been about your platform.  Should she start offering courses on platform building?  Did she want to work with the beginning author or did she want to work with people who had been writing for a while?  Who you work with and what you help them do are two vital decisions that will dictate how you repurpose your business.
 

Check for changes in you

My interests have shifted.  I am looking for ways to stay relevant as I gradually move into retirement.  That’s what I want to think about.  That’s what I want to figure out.  That’s what I want to write about.  That has shifted my target community from people interested in creating information products to entrepreneurs who are facing retirement with ideas still calling them.  I now have to figure out what that target community needs from me and what I am willing to offer.  It also requires me to let go of what I have created so far and look at what I am willing and eager to do next.  Letting go is hard to do, but you have to let go in order to embrace the new.
 

What have you learned?

A major reason you might make a shift in your business is that you have developed a new skill.  As I got better at creating information products, I positioned my coaching practice to specialize in that. I don’t have the skill of staying relevant in retirement yet but I’m figuring it out. What new skills have you learned that you can put to use in the service of others?
 

Has your passion shifted?

It was a shock to find myself becoming uninterested in doing what I had been doing.  I no longer wanted to coach people in developing information products because I already knew how to do that.  I wanted to go exploring.  I wanted to learn something that was new to me and more relevant to my interest.  My passion shifted and I had to change my business to accommodate it.
 

Check for changes in your community

When you shift your business, you don’t have to develop a new community; you just have to notice how they are changing and address those changes. For instance, I’m aware that members of my community are growing older just as I am.  Their needs are changing.  They are beginning to look at slowing down, at retiring, and they will face the same challenges I am.  Of course, I could go try for a new target audience but why would I not simply find ways to keep on serving the people who already know me, those I have already served.  All I have to do is identify what they need from me now that I am willing to offer.
 

Watch for the signs

I’ve been thinking about this repositioning change for several months.  Not knowing what I wanted to do made me feel stuck and even lost.  I finally figured out that at the very least I would write about the topic of creatively moving into retirement. It was a topic I was exploring on a personal level and I knew it was relevant for others.  However, personal expansion is esoteric.  It’s much easier to coach someone to create an ebook than to help them find and develop their passion.  I watched my own progress, observed the questions I asked myself and I began to see how I would coach people – the questions I would ask, the exercises I would give them, the sequence I would use to help them unfold.  I wrote down a coaching sequence.  I love to coach and if I choose this path, I can help people move in this new direction.  What signs are showing up in your life that are asking you to change?
 

Redefine your offer

What do I want to offer?  What do people need?  What form does this take?  I can write.  I can teach courses.  I can coach.  I will write articles.  I will create self-discovery exercises that help people make strong choices.  I will help entrepreneurs who are moving into retirement with all their creative juices still flowing, to repurpose their passion and talent so they can slow down and still feel productive and relevant. I will encourages awareness and help people find balance.
 
Who do you help and what do you help them do? How does that need to be modified because both you and the market have changed?

  

Out With The Old, In With The New

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This is one of those times I get reflective about how I’m doing and where I want to go. How can I make the next quarter better? Or the next year? Or the next five years? Am I headed in the right direction for me?  Am I headed for success?

Am I still going where I want to go?

How has my vision changed?  Can I see myself playing bigger, reaching more people, touching more lives? Have new paths opened up that I want to follow or explore?  Starting right this minute, what do I want to attract, create, and manifest over the next twelve months?

Write it down. Make it concrete. Prioritize. What’s at the core of all you do that you want to keep doing? Why do you get up in the morning and do what you do? What is your passion and are you still following it?

What new skills have I learned?

We are constantly learning and changing. What have you learned, discovered, experienced that has brought a new realization or insight that you want to incorporate into your life and business?  Have you added a new credential? Is there a new venue you want to explore?  Have you met new people to partner with? Write down your skill sets, see how many ways you can use them. Prioritize them and build them into your business.

What’s working and what needs to be phased out?

Get real with your dollars and cents. What is earning you money? What is fun but doesn’t bring in income?  How can you streamline your costs? What help do you need to get?  Shed the worst 10% of everything you’ve got – that includes clients, products and time wasters. That leaves room for you to add 10% more of the great stuff.

What are my goals for the year?

Only take the steps that forward the goal you have chosen for the year. That will keep you on target and produce more relevant results. Do you want to get more clients? How many? What do you need to do to make that happen? Get a coach? Do more networking? Do more referral education?  Pick tangible goals with measurable results and track your success. That helps you know what to keep and what to toss at your quarterly 10% house cleaning toss.

Re-price, Repackage, Reposition

The easiest way to increase income is to re-price – as in raise your prices.  Don’t look at what you do according to the time it takes you to do it. Look at the value it produces and price accordingly. When I coach a person in developing an information product, it’s not about the time we spend together or the time I spend strengthening the content, it’s about the value of the results she will get with the content we produce. Even more important is the knowledge she obtained that she can reuse again and again to make more  information products. That changes our thinking, doesn’t it?

Repackage – position your offering so people sign for longer periods of time. That allows them to make the buying decision only once. I ask for a three-month commitment because the decision-making process takes time.  The completing of the project is a snap after the decisions are made.  Some coaches have a six-month or twelve-month commitment.  How much time do you need to get the results you promise?  The coaching process is about change and that simply takes time. If you are settling for a three month commitment, look for other offerings you can make to up-sell that client to a longer coaching package. Keep finding ways to serve those loyal customers who already know and love you.

Chunk your products up or down. Present the same material in new formats. I broke a five-week telecourse down into a series of eight ebooks so people can access the information at a lower price point.  Breaking that information down also gave me the chance to expand each topic.

Reposition your offerings to a new target market. As I move into semi-retirement I have discovered a whole new set of personal challenges.  How do I stay relevant?  Who am I if I am not my business?  My passion to learn and teach and write remains but my interest has shifted.  I now help entrepreneurs who are moving into retirement with all their creative juices still flowing, to re-purpose their passion and talent so they can slow down and still feel productive and relevant. I’m focusing on personal growth. I help my clients find balance.  My business background can help them downsize and reposition their business. My spiritual background can help them prepare for retirement.  It’s the same me with the same skill set. It’s simply a different focus for my offerings.

Move more deeply in service

If you continue to move more deeply in service, to continue to find ways to support, nourish, guide, encourage, inspire your target market, you’ll be happy and they will keep coming.  Don’t throw out everything. Don’t start over with everything new, but take time to reflect on how you’re doing and how you’d like it to be different. Then simply take the steps to make it happen.