Most Recent Blog Posts

The Myth of the Magic Words

The Myth of the Magic Words

Even if 93% of all communication isn’t non-verbal, it’s true that at least a portion of your communication has nothing to do with what you say, but rather how you say it. But what does that mean about writing? Emails, sales letters, Tweets, blog posts… If all the other person has to rely on are the words you’ve used, that’s all the communication that’s happening, right?

Erm. Not exactly. Even setting aside all of the possible visual cues (like images, typography, line length, capitalization, etc, etc), communication is never as black and white as the words on this page.

See, the people you’re communicating with, they’re not robots. Which means that they’re participating in the communication. Which means they’re responsible for about half (and usually more) of the communicating that’s getting done. If they’re scanners instead of readers, they’ve just missed that very important point you’ve made about how their participation results in the meaning they get (for example).

Not only is there “their” role in the communication (or, in the case of this article, your role), but there are also nuances at your disposal. Nuances like punctuation. Word choice. Sentence length.

Paragraph length.

In fact, in many ways, punctuation can be used to take the place of tone of voice and facial expressions.… Keep reading

How to make your ideas fleshy… Not fishy.

If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you don’t have much trouble coming up with ideas. They wake you while you’re sleeping, and distract you from your current project while you’re awake. They tantalize and tempt and just generally look so much more interesting than whatever happens to be on your to-do list at the moment.

There’s so much to learn, so much to explore, so much to share and say! Where most of us get stuck is in the fleshing things out, the adding depth and dimension to those ideas. Juicing up your metaphors until they’re rock solid, tangible, and resonant… that’s where most entrepreneurs stumble.

How many times have you seen someone in your industry develop a fantastic, creative hook only to… Let it fizzle. They don’t take the time to carefully steward that idea to maturity, instead they rush to make it public before it’s had time to fully cook. And, as a result, they wind up with something half-baked. It has a lot of promise, but not a lot of meat.

Some entrepreneurs do great (financially) with these half-baked ideas because they’re constantly leaping to the next thing, and they’ve built up a big enough audience that there are people willing to make each leap with them.… Keep reading

Says Who?

The Fortune Teller by aussiegall on Flickr.I used to spend a lot of my time raging against bad business advice. Complaining about it to my non-business-owner friends who’d roll their eyes and wish I’d get a more relatable hobby. Obsessing over just why those “experts” were so freaking wrong and how they were leading people astray and had they No Integrity?

Nowadays, though, I’m over it. Sure, there’s more awful business advice out there than ever before. More people telling you you MUST, ABSOLUTELY DO THIS or your business will fail. Telling you if you do that you will be an outcast for ever. Just plain blathering on about things that, unless they have a magical crystal ball somewhere, they couldn’t possibly know.

But, I’ve finally come around to knowing something: I get to decide. I mean, I knew this before, and it was part of what pissed me off so much about the lousy business advice. (For instance, I know an “expert” who tells local businesses if they don’t create a page on Google, their business is doomed. Doomed! ‘Tis bullshit, of course: be on Google or don’t–that is not going to be the factor that determines the success or failure of your business.)… Keep reading

How to Kick Your Competition Out

Over the last two weeks, I’ve released a video series for my newsletter subscribers. In the videos, I’ve been revealing how over the past 10 years, I’ve marketed my business in a way that all but exploded on me last year–leaving me frustrated, confused, and completely burnt out. It’s been awesome hearing from readers about how they’re enjoying just how authentic and vulnerable the videos are, and how much they’re learning from what I share.

But there’s a flip side. On the one hand, my tribe is rejoicing and clamoring for more. And on the other, a number of not-so-right folks have ditched the list. What’s been awesome about those folks who’ve decided to stop getting my newsletter is this: they were mostly my competition.

Now, I don’t actually have much “competition” in the traditional sense. There are a number of people who do what I do whom I genuinely admire, have collaborated with, or would love to collaborate with in the future. (And they’re all still on the list–yay!) But, every service professional has a handful of folks who hang out on their list to “keep an eye” on ’em. Those people who just subscribe to see what you’re up to and possibly steal it.… Keep reading

Back Alley Writing


As I sat here thinking: I must write a post today. I must write a post today. I must write a post today. I realized that it’s not as simple as clicking my heels together three times. It’s also not as simple as pulling out my list of articles I want to write for you (which is a very, very long list, indeed!), nor is it as simple as turning to my own resources on Writer’s Block.

What do you do when the tricks don’t work?

Because, see, sometimes, as much as you might want to write something, all the tricks in the world won’t make the writing happen. Sometimes, as much as you really want to get something written… the writing refuses to happen.

So, today, I thought I’d share something with you that should only be used in cases of dire emergency. Seriously, before you try this technique out, promise me, you’ll only break it out when it’s absolutely necessary. You’ll think it’s a harmless trick… But the truth is, this one trick can keep you from ever finishing anything, ever again. (Because it’s so much fun, and because it makes editing a lot more work.)

I call it Back Alley Writing.… Keep reading

Reverb10: Defrag

“Reverb 10 is an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next. The end of the year is an opportunity to reflect on what’s happened, and to send out reverberations for the year ahead. With Reverb 10, we’ll do both.” (I took that straight from their site–forgive me, but they said it better than I could.)

Like Sarah J. Bray, I won’t be publicly posting my responses daily, but today’s was great inspiration for a blog post and for a computer-y end-of-year reminder (see the very end for that).

Looking back over 2010, the word that best suits my year as a whole is: Defrag.

I’ve mentioned that this year has been complicated for me. Professionally, it’s been a big year–so much adventure, so many amazing projects, so many thrilling clients. And, as “they” say, running a successful business is a crash course in personal development. Growing, personally, in leaps and bounds this year definitely made the business growth a little tricky. (In the past, I’ve prided myself on being professionally productive at all costs. I would never miss a client deadline, regardless of hospitalization, personal crisis, or “Panic Friday” (when one or more clients drag their feet on approval and then all write on the same Friday that It Must Be Launched On Monday!!).)… Keep reading

A Formula for Coming out of Hiding

Business owner brand archetype for visibility

In the habit of hiding, I talked about how necessary it is to surrender to times of hiding out. Sometimes, hiding is a fundamental part of moving on to the next stage; sometimes you need to rest, be fallow, absorb, and go (relatively) unnoticed. For myself, I’m an expert hider. I can go months without visiting Twitter, blogging here, or logging into Facebook. Basically, the only inbox I can’t avoid for quite as long is my email inbox. And, even that, as close friends know… I have been known to neglect.

Sometimes, we just plain don’t feel like participating, and though the social media gurus of the world will probably disagree with me… I think that’s absolutely fine. I think we’re all entitled to be private when we want to be, whether that’s with certain sections of our lives or during certain times. It’s okay to step back and not participate.

But, sometimes we really want to participate. We’re eager for connection. We want to belong and jump in and conversate… But we don’t know what to say. We think we have to be _______ [witty or powerful or friendly or cranky or any one of dozens of other characteristics various social media folks proclaim are the core of connection], and we’re just plain not sure how.… Keep reading

The Habit of Hiding and Breaking a Promise

Hello darling! It has been 6 months since my last published email newsletter. Sure, I’ve been here writing for you. But, I haven’t been appearing in your inbox.

So, where have I been? Making professional website design for new sites, helping clients launch newsletters, or get started publishing newsletters in html. Website redesigns galore! Writing website copy. Along with about a dozen monthly newsletter writing projects.

But though I’ve been busy taking great care of fabulous clients… I’ve also been hiding. See, I’ve written oodles of blog posts (many long hand) and created some fantastic content for the site (like the currently unpublished Treatise Against Transparency). And I haven’t made very much of it available for you. Because I’m a chicken, sure. But also because I’ve gotten so exhausted by my high levels of output–copywriting, new designs, redesigns, articles, websites, sales pages, products…–that I had to hide out and stop producing my own stuff in order to keep up. And, because I can’t *actually* stop writing for you, I just slowed down the pace of publishing it.

Unfortunately, what began as a much-deserved break became a habit. I got used to writing blog posts and not pushing publish.… Keep reading


Jessica Albon


I'm Jessica. Award-winning writer and designer. Since 2001, I've helped companies all around the world get seen, get heard, and Thrive their Tribes.

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