Edited at 2:15 p.m. on March 19 (immediately following the call.)

Were you on the line with me? I hope so! (We had to score extra lines to fit everyone in–that was awesome! and nerve wracking!) The call went really well, if I do say so myself, except for that little interruption when Izzy decided he wanted to say hello! 😉 If you haven’t signed up, please do–I’ll send you the link to the recording. And, if you were on the line, please post any comments, feedback, or questions below. I can’t wait to hear about how you use what you learned to thrive your business and Thrive Your Tribe!

I don’t do teleclasses often, let alone free ones. My last teleclass was almost two years ago! I much prefer having my audience in the same room with me where I can see if people have questions, and chat with everyone after my talk. But, I also know that most of you are very, very far from Winston-Salem, NC and flying in to hear me talk for an hour just doesn’t make sense.

So, the solution is for me to quit my complaining about an “invisible” audience and offer you a telephone seminar on how you can make your ezine and blog a heck of a lot more profitable–right now.… Keep reading

Struggling to come up with the right stories for your newsletter? You’re not alone.

You know it’s important to share personal stories, but may not be quite sure what that should look like. You know it’s not enough to simply relay the story of the super cute thing Toby did this weekend, and think you should try to link it into your main story somehow… But, how?

One trick of expert writers is to use metaphors. But, these aren’t exactly the metaphors you were taught to use in school (e.g. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances.”). You’re not looking to write just a single sentence or two about your metaphor.

I'd heard good things about Michelle Goodman's The Anti 9-to-5 Guide so when I received a copy of My So-Called Freelance Life, I was looking forward to diving in. [This is where I'm supposed to insert that required paragraph of how the "crappy economy" absolutely positively means that people should be turning to freelancing to supplement their incomes right now that you're seeing appended to *everything* at the moment. But I refuse. So there.]

It's every writer's dream: to write an article that's so well received by readers that it prompts a rush of emails. When it happens to you, after that first flush of the thrill of genuinely connecting and communicating comes the challenge of responding. And then, as you answer the last reader email, your fingers crooked and cramped from all the typing... You slowly realize you have to write next week's article. And the question becomes how do you follow that success? Fortunately, there's an actual surefire formula and I'm going to share it with you.

The biggest theme in the emails I received about embracing strangers over dinner was how ready so many of you felt to give up blocks to your creativity, how eager you are to genuinely step up and step into what you are here to create. And that was awesome!

To me, there are few words more powerful than those written when we’re 100% ready to bring our message, our meaning, our purpose out into the light of day after keeping it hidden for so long, and I appreciated being entrusted with every single one of your emails. Thank you!

I just finished watching an inspiring video over on Marie Forleo’s blog (thank you, Marie!) and it really speaks to the conversation we had last week. It’s all about how we view creativity and art and how, perhaps, it’s time to stop pairing up artist and art in quite the way we’ve been doing (and why that pairing might just be a bigger block to your creativity than you’d think). I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

So, what’s your thing?

And, semi-related, Naomi’s post on what your *thing* is has become a rich conversation that you might enjoy after watching Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED video.… Keep reading

When's the last time you invited 50 strangers over for dinner? Unless you're Jim Haynes, I'd imagine it's not a regular occurrence in your life. But maybe it should be. Each week, 50-70 people (more when the weather's nice) RSVP and let Jim know they'll be coming for dinner Sunday night. And, each week, according to the articles, he's there to make guests feel welcome and to enjoy the community he's created. I wonder what that's like for him. I wonder how throwing open the doors to your home once a week for thirty years makes you a different sort of person.

I was just viewing my Analytics and found something really curious. Monday brings a flurry of visitors (both new and returning), while Friday's visitors stay longer than any other day. The site's still too new to draw any real conclusions from this, but as it's Friday, and it looks like visitors today have more time to linger, I thought a poem might be rather appropriate. How's this:

Sites get hacked. And when they do, it'd be nice if you were easy enough to find so that a good Samaritan could let you know about the problem. How can you make sure you're not the one, sitting unaware, looking into a mirror instead of seeing the person on the other side who really, really wants to get in touch with you? Here are the four things you'll want to add to your site immediately to make sure you're not impossible to contact should something go wrong with your website.

All too often, an expert slaves over the writing of a book only to deliver it to the publisher and... promptly forget about promoting it ever again. Today, let's take a look at 25 ways you should be promoting the heck out of your book, whether it's self-published, or traditionally published. (Haven't written that book yet? Read this list so you'll know what to do, and then send me an email so I can connect you with a fabulous resource for packaging your knowledge into a book your readers will love!)