Who are you?  I am passionate about…

Regular readers of my blog have heard me (well, “read me”) talk about passion in the past. A lot, in fact.

Passion – and the excitement of getting right into it, getting my hands dirty, give whatever I do intense focus and the best I’ve got – sits at the core of my personality.

Enthusiasm for and commitment to a person, an event or subject is something I cannot do with less than 100%. Whether I talk about a book I love (as a copywriter, words are my passion, of course), revel in the glow a beautifully shot film can evoke, share my passion for my sports (diving, martial practice and holistic exercise) – or talk about and work in my business.

It’s catching!

And I find that passion is infectious: I converted a number of girlie girls to try krav maga, a full-on self defence style. Without trying hard I managed to get a better price with a vendor because he saw my passion for my work. And my clients are regularly repeat clients (and that’s the type of client all us entrepreneurs and business owners like best!) because, as one of them put it, I show “passion and care for their business, as if it were my own”.

Passion = Success

I am not telling you all this because I like to blow my own trumpet, but because it took me a little while to distill that passion breeds success. And you do not have to be an extrovert to show passion: quiet enthusiasm and commitment to your interests, work and clients works just as well.

Get it back! It’s worked so hard for you.

But even the most enthusiastic person has an off-day every now and then and finds it hard to muster the passion for what they do, and usually love. Be it that you have the ‘flu that’s going around (again!), your kids have turned the house into a right royal mess when you need some quiet time, or you simply need a break from the daily grind. Take it.

Take out some time for yourself to reflect on why you started that fitness programme that you are now neglecting, remind yourself why you took that job, or what motivated you to started your own business. Get your passion back!

Simon Smith from Southern Cross Coaching put it well in his recent blog post on passion and success. He says:

“The first point is that no matter what you do, you can – and people do – lose the passion for it. We forget the whole reason why we’re doing it. We forget what we love about it all. It slips away from us. At some stage, we all need to stop & make time to realise what we do, why we do it, & how much we really do enjoy it, and how much it really means to us – despite what might be some seemingly tough times.

The second point is that passion sells! Passion is contagious. People buy passion. Be it in your business, an interview, at home. And they will often buy your passion & enthusiasm over & above the most polished, unpassionate product or presentation. So, before any important business or sales meeting, before that interview: Stop! Think. Smile. You will make more sales, you will have better client relationships and better clients, you will do better business. And you will be a happier business owner!”

I couldn’t agree more.

How do passion and enthusiasm influence what you do?
How you see the world, your relationships and the work you do?
I look forward to your thoughts.

Until soon,
Daniela

The Meaning of… Azure

azure |ˈa zh ər|

adjective

bright blue in color, like a cloudless sky : white beaches surrounded by azure seas.

Welcome Back to

“The Meaning of…”

I started this personal project a few days ago on my blog. I have taken hundreds of photographs that I love and keep going back to. They evoke memories, feelings and always associated words. The other day, someone described the theme running through the photos I take, my style if you will, as a photographic haiku (|ˈhīˌkoō; ˌhīˈkoō|, a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world). I felt very touched and also proud hearing that my photos stirred such emotions.

As a copywriter, I love words, of course, especially the many subtle ways their use can convey so many different meanings. A photograph can have even a wider range of individual meanings – and scores of emotions – attached to it than copywriting (which is and has to be more precise) can create.

Born was “The Meaning of…”

I’d love to see you comment on my definitions, hear yours and invite you to share your photos, ideas and linguistic quirks and cravings on my blog. This project reflects my tastes and sensibilities, and is by its very nature a very personal and subjective view on the meaning and significance of certain words, which I captured in photographs I have taken.

Until next time,

Daniela

Welcome to “The Meaning of…”

As a copywriter, I love the beauty of words (how lovely is “juxtaposition”, isn’t it just rolling off the tongue?), their varied meaning, finding the right words.  But a good copywriter also needs to be able to work her or his craft alongside the design that accompanies the words created or to which the writing will match itself.  An eye for detail is necessary to spot beauty, create balance and entice the reader or viewer of both, copywriting and design or visual.

So I decided to start this little project “The Meaning of…”

It is a very personal and subjective view on the meaning and significance of certain words, which I have captured in photographs I have taken.
I’d love to see you comment on my definitions, hear yours and invite you to share your photos, ideas and linguistic quirks and cravings on my blog.

The Meaning of… Beauty

beauty |ˈbyoōtē|
noun ( pl. -ties)

1 a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, esp. the sight
2 a beautiful or pleasing thing or person

A very personal project on the meaning of words, captured in photographs.
By Daniela Cavalletti, www.cavacom.biz/blog

Do you like the idea of “The Meaning of…”?
Do you have any definitions of beauty you would like to share?
Leave your comments below, please.

Spinning Your Web: How influential are you online?

Fast Company’s The Influence Project

The Influence Project is open to anyone and everyone. All registered participants will have their picture appear in the November issue of Fast Company as part of an amazing photo spread. The more influence demonstrated by a participant, the bigger their picture will be. Even those with smaller social networks can learn something about their influence by participating.

To learn more, and register your profile, go to http://fcinf.com/v/chou or click here.

Contributors may discover that they are more influential than they think. Influence is not only about having the most friends or followers. It’s about being able to affect the behavior of those you interact with, to get others in your social network to act on a suggestion or recommendation. That’s what The Influence Project will measure.

The competition for 2010’s “Most Influential People” ends August 15 at midnight EST. Fast Company has created a blog dedicated to the project at www.fastcompany.com/influenceproject, where coverage will continue through the publication of Fast Company’s November 2010 issue.

Fast Company, an award-winning monthly innovation magazine and website, announced 
The Influence Project, a unique editorial experiment designed to answer the question:

Who are the most influential people, online, right now?

The Influence Project is open to anyone and everyone. All registered participants will have their picture appear in the November issue of Fast Company as part of an amazing photo spread. The more influence demonstrated by a participant, the bigger their picture will be. Even those with smaller social networks can learn something about their influence by participating.

Contributors may discover that they are more influential than they think. Influence is not only about having the most friends or followers. It’s about being able to affect the behavior of those you interact with, to get others in your social network to act on a suggestion or recommendation. That’s what The Influence Project will measure.

To learn more, and register your profile, go to http://fcinf.com/v/chou or click here.

The competition for 2010’s Most Influential People ends August 15 at midnight EST. Fast Company has created a blog dedicated to the project at www.fastcompany.com/influenceproject, where coverage will continue through the publication of Fast Company’s November issue.

What’s your favourite blog?
Which websites do you enjoy reading?
Seen an ad lately that stayed with you for a long while?

Chances are, their writers were saying something that mattered. To you.

They appealed to you because you could find out quickly what the writer was trying to say. And they were relevant, not just waffling on. They may have been funny, entertaining, educational, silly, serious, or even pure marketing.

What they have in common is good writing – with you, the reader in mind. They “got” what you need, what you were looking for. Rather than just going on about themselves, without saying anything that matters to you, their reader/client/prospect/fan. People and companies can get very wrapped up in their own jargon, their way of talking about their services and products, because they are just too close to the topic they write about. It’s their baby, after all.

Getting a professional copywriter like myself involved, does not mean you loose control of what’s written. A copywriter or editor helps you say what you want and need to say – but in a way that actually gets your message across.

Seth Godin, marketing “guru” extraordinaire, has this example of copywriting gone haywire on his blog:

“The firm will remain competitive in the constantly changing market for defense legal services by creating and implementing innovative and effective methods of providing cost-effective, quality representation and services for our clients.”

Now, I am sure you’ll agree: there are better ways of saying whatever it was the writer intended to communicate.

Remember: Communication is what’s received.

Now… fire away & let me know your thoughts on this topic.
Looking forward to hearing what you have to say.

Until soon,
Daniela

We are all prone to a good dose of procrastination or “what are my priorities again?!” struggles.

Some days (or weeks, months,… years) just don’t flow the way we want them to.

There are many, many different reasons why we tell ourselves that we will just do that particularly nasty-looking thing later:  The summer sunshine is too tempting, the winter cold too paralysing and plunging us into lethargy.  Or something needs to be done first, urgently. Now. Sorry, just can’t wait. Honest, the world will end if I don’t deal with that (more pleasant looking) thing right now. Uh-uh!

But let’s face it, most of these oh-so-urgent (read: preferred) things can wait a while.

What it really comes down to is this:
We all rather deal with the pretty prince(ss) than the ugly frog first.
That ugly amphibian can wait, thank you very much!

Well, it can’t.

More often than not, the things we like to do least are the ones that are the most important to tackle.
If not for what they are in themselves – the insurance for the car or business IS important, even if it is boring and mind-numbing to get through the forest of paperwork and jargon – then for the challenges they pose.

What is the real reason I keep postponing a particular task? Do I worry about spending money and my financial security, or perhaps about not understanding the insurance jargon and subsequently getting the wrong cover?

So, what to do?

I have used a few techniques to help me hone in on the nasty-looking items first, get them out of the way. I find that the smaller, less daunting tasks end up looking quite pretty afterwards – and are a lot easier and faster to deal with once the dread of  the ugly toad has vanished.

To kiss the ugly frogs good-bye efficiently check out Ask Rebecca How’s own Rebecca Well’s blog here.
Or perhaps you prefer to chuck a tomato at the little blighters? Try the Pomodoro Technique.

What works for you?

How do you set your priorities & overcome procrastination?

And now, I better sort that insurance out…
Until soon,
Daniela

Wow! Some information I gather, read, like, digest and get (very) excited about is just too spot-on to even try to change!
So, here is the text of marketing “guru” Seth Godin’s latest blog offering – shamelessly repeated in its entirety.

He poses some very important questions that are worth considering before you start any new project, job, venture or adventure.  I hope you will find his writing and ideas as useful and thought-provoking as I do.   Enjoy!

Until next time,
Daniela

If you’re starting out as an entrepreneur or a freelancer or a project manager, the most important choice you’ll make is: what to do?
As in the answer to the question, “what do you do?”

Some questions to help you get started:

1. Who are you trying to please?
2. Are you trying to make a living, make a difference, or leave a legacy?
3. How will the world be different when you’ve succeeded?
4. Is it more important to add new customers or to increase your interactions with existing ones?
5. Do you want a team? How big? (I know, that’s two questions)
6. Would you rather have an open-ended project that’s never done, or one where you hit natural end points? (How high is high enough?)
7. Are you prepared to actively sell your stuff, or are you expecting that buyers will walk in the door and ask for it?
8. Which: to invent a category or to be just like Bob/Sue, but better?
9. If you take someone else’s investment, are you prepared to sell out to pay it back?
10. Are you done personally growing, or is this project going to force you to change and develop yourself?
11. Choose: teach and lead and challenge your customers, or do what they ask…
12. How long can you wait before it feels as though you’re succeeding?
13. Is perfect important? (Do you feel the need to fail privately, not in public?)
14. Do you want your customers to know each other (a tribe) or is it better they be anonymous and separate?
15. How close to failure, wipe out and humiliation are you willing to fly? (And while we’re on the topic, how open to criticism are you willing to be?)
16. What does busy look like?

In my experience, people skip all of these questions and ask instead: “What can I do that will be sure to work?” The problem, of course, is that there is no sure, and even worse, that you and I have no agreement at all on what it means for something to work.

Ah, privacy…. Not the first thing that springs to mind when you are posting something out there, on the Net.

But here is a nifty little tool that allows you to shorten and also password-protect URLs. It can help you turn your very public information into something a little more private.  Or you could use it for a promotion. Or just for a bit of fun…

Here is an example of how it works:
I could tweet or post on LinkedIn “Found this great mentor and coach! http://trick.ly/35O“.  Anyone can see the link, but only people who can figure out my clue can discover the site my link is pointing to.

You can try for yourself on the trick.ly website here.

Until next time,
Daniela

Are you a soloist, entrepreneur, micro- or small to medium business?  If so, sometimes, as the owner of such a business, it can feel like you are all alone, out there on a big big ocean and only a few islands in sight.  But you are not alone.  And dry, solid land is there for the taking – if you know how to look for it and stake your claim.

In their book The Risk Takers Renee and Don Martin identify ten common traits, challenges and ultimately opportunities for entrepreneurs:

1. Trust your Instinct
2. Challenge Convention
3. Persist
4. Find your Niche
5. Spot Trends and Act
6. Fill the Gaps your Competition’s Left
7. Just Start – there is no Perfect Time
8. Get Creative in Marketing
9. Competitor’s Weakness = Your Strength
10. Never stop Changing
11. I like to add another point here: Be Clear and Consistent about your Brand.
    Ensure you communicate clearly, regularly and in an engaging way with your target audience, i.e. your potential and existing clients.
    Be relevant, give them something for free, don’t just hard-sell. Be professional, yet personal. Put yourself in the client’s shoes and think how you would like to be communicated with and treated.
    There is much you can do yourself towards this aim. Everything else a good copywriter and communications expert can help you with.
    Help is at hand – for all budgets.

Read more on how to get motivated, find your niche and not lose the edge over your competition here.

Until next time,
Daniela