Annie Anderson | Blog

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A couple of days ago, I wrote that I thought a “throw-away” mentality has become prevalent in our society when I asked “Do you pay for quality?” And as I’ve continued to ponder this thought, as well as some of the things going on in my life lately, I came to the conclusion that we all need mentors.

You know, you hear of kids needing mentors and people to look up to help keep them out of trouble, give them a role model. But I’m not really talking about kids here - no, I’m talking about adults. We need mentors too.

I mean, let’s be real - there are a lot of things out here in this world that are just plain trying and it’s during those times, having someone to look up to is a life saver.

So, I sat down here to write this post and had this crazy thought -

Back a few years ago, I belonged to a mastermind group and I really enjoyed it. And I’d like to be a part of another one again which brings me to the crazy thought -

Let’s start one!

If you read this blog and you would like to be a part of a mastermind group of like-minded individuals, send me an email. You don’t have to be on the Pacific Coast or even in the US. This is open to anyone around the world who can get online or on the phone as a group at least twice a month and chat.

I don’t know all of the details yet but we’ll work those out soon. I’m going to leave this open for a week or two so if you think you want to be a part, don’t wait too long! I’m going to close the doors when I think we’ve reached enough people - which will likely only be about 7 or 8 tops including myself.

Oh - and by the way - the offer I made a couple of days ago at the bottom of the desktop backgrounds post is coming to end probably today so if you want one, email me fast!

In the arena,

Did you know I design blog headers and ebook cover graphics, too? Yes, I do. And you can get one now for the introductory price of $55 for a limited time. Just send a payment of $55 to me via PayPal along with a description of what you want. You’ll have a design within 48 hours.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

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Or do you have a “throw away” mentality?

In recent years, I’ve noticed what is, to me, a disturbing trend. I call it the “throw away” mentality. And basically what it is, is purchasing something without much regard to it’s quality and thinking “Oh, well, if it breaks/gets lost/malfunctions/whatever, I’ll just get another one.”

And this disturbs me. Greatly.

Why?

Simple. Because it’s seeping into other parts of every day life. Parts of life that should be respected, parts of life that should be held to a high regard, with integrity and moral responsibility.

For example, when I was growing up, my parents placed a lot of emphasis on who on I hung out with, who I called my friends. They taught me that making good choices when it came to relationships was paramount and that true friends don’t hurt you - whether that be physically, emotionally or by doing things such as drugs and other non-healthy behaviors.

But now-days, I’ve noticed there are many kids who seem to just be allowed to do whatever they wish, with very few - if any - rules in their homes. And I think this type of lax attitude imparts to todays youth that it’s ok to be reckless - “No worries - you can always change your mind later.”

Well, not so fast.

There need to be more boundaries. There needs to more thought and attention paid to what we’re teaching our young people. It’s simply NOT ok to be so casual with everything.

We must relearn to “pay for quality.”

We must be conscious of our choices and realize that everything does have a consequence. And we must teach our children that quality is always worth more in the end. If we pay for quality, I firmly believe we not only have a greater respect for our own things and lives, we also have a greater respect for the world around us.

Now, I’m not talking about being frivolous, either. No, just good, sensible choices that reflect respect for each other, for ourselves, for our environment.

And this goes for relationships, too. With The Teenager in high school this year, I’ve seen some kids with a different boyfriend/girlfriend nearly every week. I’ve seen an attitude from some kids that shows no respect for their peers, let alone those they call “friends.”

So the question is - how do we teach our children to have this type of respect and conscientiousness for not only each other, but for life and the world around them? Somewhere, there has been a disconnect in teaching these values and if it’s not corrected soon, we could see some pretty scary results when these kids become adults.

It’s only my opinion, but I also believe that the disturbing trend towards domestic violence is a direct result of this “throw away” mentality. Like it doesn’t matter how things or people are treated because there’s always another one, another can always be “bought.”

As a survivor of domestic violence myself, this is something that is always in the forefront of my mind. I do not want my children to ever have to be involved in that situation. And should they ever find themselves there, I want them to recognize it as quickly as possible and know that there are tools and support for them.

I think it’s time we get back to basic common sense, respect for ourselves and others, and learning to make good - and lasting - choices.

Our future leaders depend on it.

In the arena,

Did you know I design blog headers and ebook cover graphics, too? Yes, I do. And you can get one now for the introductory price of $55 for a limited time. Just send a payment of $55 to me via PayPal along with a description of what you want. You’ll have a design within 48 hours.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

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A couple of days ago, I wrote about a writer’s purpose and today I want to expand on that a little bit. But this doesn’t apply only to writing - it applies to business in all forms. No matter what business you’re in, customer service is one of the most important aspects of your company. And it should be a major part of your focus.

Because, in reality, it’s all about connecting.

Developing good relationships is the backbone of any business, whether online or off. As markets become unstable, buyers get more picky, prices go up, it’s going to become even more important to connect with clients and potential customers on a more personal level.

You’ve heard of social networking, right? If you’re online at all, you likely have. It seems that everywhere we turn, it’s all about social this, that or the other thing. We have websites to connect with each other such as myspace, linkedin, facebook and myriads more.

And their whole theme is all about connecting - new relationships, old relationships, changing relationships. Some are business, some more personal but they all share a common goal - to connect with others.

When I was training agents and investors in real estate, this is one of the key concepts I taught - that no matter else is going on, no matter any other circumstance, you must connect with people. It’s not about helping them or selling them something - those are secondary. If you can make that connection, you’re nearly there.

What does take to connect?

It starts with knowing what people want.

How do we know what people want? We listen, we ask questions, we dig a little deeper when necessary. We interact with them, show we care. We’re polite, yet assertive when need be. We leave the door open and allow interaction.

This is one of the things that make blogs so beneficial - it’s an open door that allows people to feel comfortable. It allows people to glimpse inside and get a feel for what’s going on before taking the proverbial plunge.

The whole goal of any business or relationship should be to connect. And then to keep that connection open and strong through communication, sharing and a sense of community.

What do you think makes customer service good? And what do you think customer service should be?

I’ll share some more thoughts on this later but I’d like to hear your thoughts to these 2 questions first. Please feel free to post in the comments. I love hearing from you!

In the arena,

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

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The failure of content

As a writer, I often help small business owners create content for their websites. I’m usually hired after another writer has backed out of the project for one reason or another. Sometimes I’m hired long after the original writer has flown the coop. Most of the time, I’m hired because the website isn’t working as well as it should or in the way that the business owner wants.

And the problem facing these business owners usually centers around content that is inadequate and/or unappealing. From a writer’s standpoint, it looks great. The failure is that the content isn’t written to compel the reader to take the next step. It isn’t written to inspire or to sell or even convert. It looks pretty, it reads well, but that’s about it. It’s stagnant, at best.

So, what does the content need to do? What’s the purpose?

The purpose of any writer, of any written content, is to convey to the reader a sense of urgency, something that moves them forward in the buying process. It’s purpose is to get the reader from one step to the next, whether that’s asking for free information or buying a product or service or both.

A writer’s job is to figure out the action a visitor to a website should take and get them to take it.

When I speak with someone about their website and marketing materials, I ask them a series of questions designed to help me figure that out.

Now, I do a lot of writing for the real estate market - that’s my main niche. And most real estate agents and brokers will tell you that it’s all about location, location, location. But I’m here to tell you - no it isn’t. It’s about selling homebuyers a dream - the American Dream. It’s about making things easy for them and helping them feel good about their purchase. It’s about appealing to their desires. Any good broker will be able to hone in on what a buyer really wants and sell them that ideal.

And a writer’s job is to help that agent or that broker look like a friend and yet professional. A professional who cares, is knowledgeable and can sell them that American Dream.

Writers create a mental image and the key is creating an image that reflects the business owner as well as the ideals of the target audience. The website must be comfortable to the website owner and it must also appeal to the buyer.

Image is just as important as content.

A poorly designed website will do nothing. In fact, the site owner might even be so embarrassed by it, they don’t share it with potential clients or customers! I’ve seen this happen many times. And the result is that the business owner loses money and has little or no return on their investment. Their business might even dry up because nobody knows about their website.

As they say, first impressions are everything. This is as true for the web as it is in person. Hiring a good writer is just as important as hiring a good designer. It could mean the difference between few sales and a booming business.

What’s your website saying?

In the arena,

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

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What a weekend! My brain is fried, I’m tellin’ you.

The Short Dude fell Thursday and bonked his head. Just in time for his 4th birthday Friday. You can read about it here.

Friday was spent between ensuring The Short Dude wasn’t going to puke and trying to cool down. Because it was hot. In Seattle, if you can believe that.

Saturday was shopping day. We met Gramma (her spelling) at Staples and got supplies for the kids. Do you know how much it costs to get school supplies for 4 kids? Even when Staples is having sales and things can be had for .09¢? Yeah . . . $78. I don’t even want to think how much it would have been had they been normal prices. And I won’t tell you how much we spent on clothes! 4 kids and clothes? Let’s just say one almost has to take out a line of credit on their home equity to pull it off!

The Teenager spent the night with Auntie Friday night so I took her clothes shopping today. What an experience. Ever shopped with a teenager? Let me rephrase that . . . have you ever shopped with an ultra *picky* teenager? Don’t. It’ll take years off your life.

On a more business-like note - I have some projects coming up in the next few weeks that I’m really excited about. A couple of them are in real estate which is fun. Real estate is one of my favorite topics. I also have a couple of projects in the design department as well as a few others. It’s always fun to work on projects that are in alignment with ones hobbies and joys.

It’s also the 3rd week of The Thirty Day Challenge. I’m way behind again and who knows when I’ll get caught up. I haven’t even looked at any of the stuff for the past 3-4 days and I’ll be too busy for most of this week to do so. I might have some time very late in the evenings but not sure if it’ll be enough to catch up on anything completely. We will see.

This week is also orientation for The Teenager at the high school. She’ll confirm her class list, get pictures taken, get her ASB card and pay for a bajillion dollars worth of stuff - PE clothes, ASB card, yearbook and other necessary teenager stuff.

And the 21st marks the first day of classes for me again too. I took the last 2 quarters off and it’s time to get started again. I still need to order books which I’ll probably do tomorrow and if I order through Amazon like usual, they’ll be here in time.

I’m not really ready for summer to be over, though. We’re finally just now getting to have summer-like weather here and it’s a bit sad to know it’s almost over anyway. Oh well! At least it’ll be quiet around the house for a few hours every day. I actually am looking very forward to that part! 4 noisy kids home all summer has meant a change in my writing schedule and it’ll be nice to get back to a more regular one.

I hope everyone had a great weekend and that your week ahead is wonderful!

In the arena,

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

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With all of the things going on around our house lately, I’ve learned the value of outsourcing. It’s a concept I learned more about when I read Tim Ferriss’ “Four Hour Workweek.” And although it sounded good, it didn’t really hold much merit for me until recently.

Now, outsourcing is something I’ve intended to do for quite some time because I did like the idea of it, especially for housekeeping and yard maintenance, but I’ve just not found the time to get it done and actually hire anyone. But since we’ve had all this fun with our plumbing, our septic system and water heater, it’s now on the high priority list.

Do you outsource anything? If so, what?

And if not, why not? Do you plan to do so at some point?

If you do, does it add as much value to your life/work as you thought it would?

Do you plan to outsource anything else?

I am going to start with housekeeping (vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, etc) and lawn mowing. Because even though my husband likes mowing the lawn, he doesn’t always have time to do it when it should be done. And it’s frustrating for me because I can’t do it for him. ;-(

The dilemma, then, is how often to have the housekeeper come? Twice a month doesn’t sound often enough (not for this family! lol) but twice a week I think is too much.

Or maybe I should just hire the teenager who lives in this household . . .

Make $10k in a weekend - “Too good to be true.” That’s the first thing I said when
I heard of http://tinyurl.com/5lq2g4. You can’t REALLY make $10K in a weekend. But I quickly bit my tongue once I saw the content. . .

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

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I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

There. I said it. And it’s true.

Now, don’t get me wrong - I love design and writing and coaching and real estate but I still feel like there’s something else - something I’m missing, maybe. I don’t know.

(Yeah, I know - how could I be missing something with my plate so full, right?? Yep, I wonder, too.)

But even as a child, I knew I wanted to be a writer. It truly is my passion. The way words come together on a page is magical for me. But even so, I still don’t really know what I want to be when I grow up.

(Mind you, I’m in my 30’s. With 4 kids.)

It’s just that often, I don’t even feel grown up. Sure, there’s responsibilities and bills to pay and those little people (who are getting so tall, I nearly don’t recognize them) to take care of. A house to take care of, a car to maintain and all those good things and yet, sometimes I think “What do I want to DO with my life?”

There are so many things -

• Travel the world
• Go on a cruise
• Learn to fly helicopters
• Teach
• Build an orphanage
• Live on farm with animals and a huge garden
• Start a non-profit organization to help others in need
• Travel the US in a motorhome
• Learn another language . . . or two or twenty

And stuff like that.

I read Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Workweek a while back and found I could relate to a lot of the information there, wanting to get to a point that my business runs itself more or less, leaving me free to do other things with my time. And frankly, by this age, I always thought I’d have it all together and be getting ready to do just that. Not so. It’s a little depressing at times.

All of this to say, it’s time to get there and ratchet this gig up to a new level. What do you think? Have you read the Four Hour Workweek? What are your thoughts and plans to achieve the lifestyle you want? Mine is finally beginning to seriously get somewhere.

Hey, I might even grow up soon.

Or not.

In the arena,

PS - Just found a great post by Cath Lawson called “131 Star Bloggers and Their Best Posts” and I’m honored that Cath would include me in the list. What a special way to say thanks to all of her commenters and readers. And so I’d like to say a very heartfelt Thank You to Cath for making my day, being so generous and for all the great things she shares with us on her blog. Do yourself a favor and check out Cath’s blog.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business - just as if it were her own.

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