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Cruisin’ To Divine Insight

by Mynde Mayfield on March 5, 2010

I’m back from a long 8-day cruise of the Mexican Riviera. Second cruise of my life. Probably not the last even though my girlfriend, Andrea, and I have both reaffirmed some travel preferences (we like to stay longer at a destination to experience it more and cruising is really not about that so much).

It’s more-or-less day two back at the proverbial grind. And what I’ve noticed is NOW is the time when clarity comes… not during the vacation. Unless of course, you intend to take a vacation like that… with solitude and quiet reflection. Which may not guarantee you gain desired clarity, but hey, we do still intend to find it.

This wasn’t that kind of vacation.

Three Divine Insights

Now that I’m back, and actually deciding on things I’d like to do. And what’s important to continue taking action on… yati yati yah (I am not minimizing; life is IN the yati!)

First,

Live Healthfully. Which means getting my health & wellness thang in gear. It has slipped. A lot. Which is OK. Well used to be. I’ve been saying to myself, “Mynde, you’ve been in a huge die zone for the last 3-4 years.” But now it’s starting to sound a little bit like an excuse.

I’m grateful for all the support and opportunities to begin again. All around me. Seriously. It’s everywhere. And I’m so glad I see that.

Me: Today, am I willing to participate in my wellbeing & healthfulness?

Me: OK

Me: In what way would you like to participate?

Me: I’d like to drink more water/tea. I’d like to eat proportionate, well balanced meals. I’d like to take vitamins & supplements. I’d like to take a walk. I’d like to go to the gym. I’d like to be strong, fit & healthy today.

Next,

Writing is epic shit for me. Charlie Gilkey time. Yeah, his appearance is pretty regular here, on msquared. Well and on Twitter (@CharlieGilkey), and in my head in tiny bits and pieces of conversations & concepts. Charlie talks about doing “epic shit” and I’m sure he’s mentioned where he first grabbed the idea but I don’t remember that part of it. I only remember “epic shit” and contemplating that.

I had no answer for awhile, which was OK. I’m happy to say that I noticed a difference in how I treated myself while in the uncertainty of not knowing what my “epic shit” might be. I did a really good job at being gentle and relaxing, instead of giving myself epic knockouts (which I am highly trained at).

Yesterday, Charlie’s vlog mentioned it again. Epic shit. And I realized that for NOW (thank you Steve Hagen for your book on Buddhism which I read on the cruise), my epic shit is writing.

Writing in any way where I’m not hiding behind something else. A corporate product, or set of processes & diagrams and/or especially my own perceived notions. The mantle of relationship… as in businesses, with trees. Or I guess even personal, romantical ones also.

Writing is a way of stepping out. Using my voice. Being who I am. It’s practice. Because it’s not always easy and I don’t always want to do it. And at other times, I realize I’m healthier when I do, like eating well and exercising regularly.

So writing, and being me (with my grammatical errors and run on sentences, and extra 20 pounds or whatever) is my epic shit. For now.

Finally,

Self-compassion is the key to everything. While cruising, I read two books. However, here in this post, I’m only going to talk about one. The one I’ve already mentioned called Buddhism, Plain & Simple by Steve Hagen.

And I read this book and did some noticing. Because Buddhism is about awareness and noticing and stuff like that.

And what I noticed the most was my own judgment. How it flies up in a nano-second. I would look out my eyes and see something and instantly have a thought of judgment about it.

I mostly noticed how my judgment leaned into negativity. And it sucked. And then I noticed how much I wanted that to be different. To be more neutral. To have the ability to suspend my judgment for just a nano-second longer. Get better at that. Practicing over and over until I was maintaining a bigger gap of innocence with others (and myself) before jumping into judgment. Innocence, for me, is that place where we have not assigned labels like good/bad, black/white, male/female, right/wrong.

And not necessarily because of the book I read, but probably because I was in a Buddha-state-of-mind I recalled a quote “All compassion begins with self-compassion” or something like that.

And anchored again that any kind of change starts with self-compassion. And my judgment is a sore spot that I can heal with self-compassion.

The decision to see my own judgment, began with self-compassion. Getting back into my health & wellness routine will begin with mounds and mounds of it. And the new story I’d like to tell about writing is, that each time I begin, I sit down with self-compassion first and continue all the way to the publish-button finish line.

That’s what I’ve got; two days post-8-day-cruise vacation. In case you were wondering. ;)

{ 2 comments }

3 Simple Tips For Writing Blog Post Titles

by Mynde Mayfield on February 10, 2010

Client: My blog post or article titles suck. Do you have any ideas to share with me?

What a good problem to be having. It means you are writing more. You are passing through those voices of perfection that, in the past, have kept all your good ideas locked up in your head. It means you’ve opened Word on your computer and put some words down. Or, if you’re old-fashioned-like, you opened your notebook and scribbled some goodness out.

It doesn’t really matter the way you did it, only that you did.

And now, one more time, perfectionism is showing itself, this time asking you if you know enough about titling your blog posts. The right way.

And here’s what I’m saying, “It’s right enough for right now!”

Please, try it on. See how it fits for you.

And then, read what’s working for me, and then chuck it all out the window and remember to just keep writing.

The Importance Of Killer Post Titles

So when I was in corporate, I had the privilege of working with some hired-in copywriters. It was always so fun to give the consultant the “creative brief” (an outline of what the project was about) and see what came back.

I was always surprised at the headlines. And I learned early on, it’s really the secret to getting your readers past the two-second threshold (we’ve only got about that long to pique a reader’s interest and convey to them that what we got is what they’re looking for!)

So headlines obviously become a very important thing in getting your web presence on.

My Approach

Sometimes, when I’m writing a post/article, I already know what the title is going to be. But that’s only sometimes.

I go ahead and title my draft the title I think I’m going to be using.

Mostly, it serves as an anchor point. I can go back to the title, while I’m writing the article, and it helps me stay focused. Because when I write, I usually do not know each and every word that will be written before hand. There is a lot of trust in the process. At least for me.

So I open the Word doc, write the title, maybe a few bullet points of things I want to highlight (if I know the post might be a long one or a “how-to”) and then let my fingers do the talking, literally.

Sometimes, after editing the post, the title actually sticks. Sometimes. Though this isn’t usually the case.

What I find is that after the article is written, I can scan it and pull directly from my own writing a title that suits the article much better than the one I originally chose.

And then I go through the process of applying some basic rules that I’ve learned from other expertish people. People I met in corporate. And people I’ve met out here, on the intertoobs.

3 Basic “Getting-Started” Places

This is not meant to be a comprehensive this-is-how-you-do-it kinda guide. This is meant to be a beginning point for getting better at writing killer post titles or headlines.

  1. Numbers. As in, “3 Must-Haves For Your Blog” How many times have you seen that one? A gazillion, right? So again, this might be great for when you know ahead of time exactly what you’ll be writing about. And that’s exactly how I wrote my last installment; with a topic in mind and I narrowed down to super simple. Three things. Kinda like what I’m doing here with this post.
  2. Problems. Because that’s one of the top reasons anyone is online looking at anything to begin with. They want help with a problem they have. When we say the problem in the headline, we are actually speaking directly to our perfect person’s need. When a person feels seen or heard (a common thread in humanity) we’re on our way to making the deeper connections that happen after the 2 seconds part. The part about where you and they intersect. Also, speaking to solutions as much as problems can be very effective too so try switching it up.
  3. Short. Short, sweet, to the point. Remember, two seconds. Most people are scanning online. Sorting through boatloads of information. Likely in information overwhelm. Two seconds. That’s it. Short & sweet. And if you are getting your social networking on, you’ll want to make it re-tweetable by keeping the tweet length down; aiming at using around 100-120 characters of the available 140.

In case you are wondering about the all-inclusive comprehensive guide for writing killer post titles or headlines, I recommend CopyBlogger’s Magnetic Headlines blog post series. It’s got plenty for your perfectionist to chew on.

And personally, I’m not so sure there is a right or wrong as much as there is a getting better at it. I find this approach helps me have more fun with myself and my writing as I go.

Did this post support you? Buy me a cup a coffee with this link to my tip jar. :)

{ 4 comments }

3 Must-Have’s For Your Blog

by Mynde Mayfield on January 28, 2010

Let’s face it, the blogosphere is a big and intimidating place when you’re just starting out. The internet provides us access to so much information.  It can be overwhelming.

The best way I deal with overwhelm is to break my steps down into ever smaller steps. This helps to keep me in action, versus panicking about all the stuff I get to read and learn before actually doing something.

I’ve prepared this post to help you do just that… get it back to simple and easy. And give you three easy places to start and grow from. Because your web presence will grow. It’s the nature of everything.

Must-Have #1: Domain Name

If you are the type that needs it explained for you before you can move forward, I get that. I’m kinda like that too sometimes. It’s like my questions or non-understanding of something prohibit me from moving forward, no matter how much I try. So if you need a full explanation of what a Domain Name is, please check out this post in my Tech Savvy 101 series or click the big banner that says Web Presence Essentials.

A Domain Name is going to help you feel like your web presence is more real & legitimate. Even though you can get a sub domain name for free when you create a web presence on a free service like Blogger (which I recommend for new new newbies who think they’ll never be able to do anything more than email). Many people simply can’t hang with the http://yourwebsitename.blogspot.com.

Your free sub domain works just like a regular domain name except there is no way around the required …blogspot.com part. That’s why it’s free. Because Blogger is doing advertising. For some people, this feels not as legit or real or professional than if it just simply said http://www.yourwebsite.com.

A Domain Name is one of the most inexpensive parts of creating a web presence. For as little as $10 a year, you can have that professional, more legitimate feeling for your web presence by purchasing a domain name. I recommend and use GoDaddy (here’s my affiliate link). You can purchase as many domain names as you like and point them all at a single web presence.

Once you have purchased your domain name, you can apply it over the top of your Blogger web presence or use when you set up your self-hosted WordPress blog.

Luckily for you, I have already outlined how to use your GoDaddy domain name with your Blogger blog. And, if you are ready jump into WordPress, using GoDaddy’s WordPress Hosting Package (here’s my affiliate link) is the easiest way I’ve found to use a custom domain with WordPress. As part of the set-up process (which I’m happy to help with), you’ll be required to select which domain name to attach your hosting to.

So must-have numero uno is a domain name!

Must-Have #2: About/Contact Page

The next most vital part, when you are just starting out, is an About page. Typically the about page might contain some biographical information about you, the web presence owner. Some like to include their credentials or education and on the less formal side, just a short write up of who they are, in their own writing voice.

If you’re not sure where to begin and what exactly to put on your About page, start with simply providing your contact information. Think about the ways in which you’d prefer to be contacted by people on the web visiting your website or blog. Do you prefer email over phone calls? Tell them! Outline it. It’s best to help your visitors do that thing you want them to do.

We have a rule in the designing/usability world… it goes “Don’t make’m think!” You know what happens when we have to think too hard to figure something out? Yep, we end up bailing on the process altogether or telling ourselves, I’ll do this later.

So make it super easy for people to know how to be in touch with you by using an About or Contact page. Combining them into one page is a really great start for beginners.

Must-have number two is an About/Contact page.

Must-Have #3: Email Subscription

Last and oh-so-not least is an email subscription feature (or link). Email subscription is a way that readers of your blog can receive your posts by email. This way, readers don’t have to remind themselves to go check out what you’ve been up to because every time you write something new, it appears in their email box.

Now by default, your blog will come with another type of subscription service called RSS. I will try not to go all scary on you here. But this is good information to know.

RSS is typically for intermediate to advanced web users. It’s for people who don’t want to increase the noise in their email box (the amount of emails they receive). Instead, they use a free online service called an RSS Reader (Google has one, and Bloglines is another one).

When you sign on to your RSS Reader account, BINGO, all the blogs you’ve ever subscribed to show up in reading panes, making it easier to digest the information you’re interested in.

The good news here is all blog platforms by nature include this link invitation to have your readers subscribe by RSS. So there is nothing you really need to do. However, not all blog readers (including your blog readers) may be as technically advanced and may prefer receiving an email from you instead. So providing the email subscription link in addition to the already provided RSS link helps you cover your blogosphere booty for more of the web-reading population: the tech savvy and the getting their tech savvy on.

So how to you get email subscription added to your blog? The service you’ll want here is called Feedburner and it’s free. You set up the account, it provides you HTML code and you install it as a widget on your blog.

Don’t worry though, I’ve already written about RSS Feeds and Feedburner and the post includes a short 5-minute video tutorial  on using Feedburner.

So that’s it! The 3 must-have items for any beginning blog/blogger. Now that wasn’t too painful was it?

If you’re interested in getting your web presence started, I have packages starting as low as $99 that include all 3 must-haves (naturally).

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How To Use Your GoDaddy Domain Name With Blogger

January 27, 2010

Prefer a printable version? Download the PDF.
A frequent question I hear from people I’m helping is “If I choose to use a blog to create my web presence (specifically Blogger), can I use my own domain name with it?” The answer is Yes.
If you don’t care for the “.blogspot.com” that comes with your free Blogger [...]

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Does More Traffic Mean More Clients?

January 26, 2010

On Sunday, I signed up for Michael Martine’s 5-day course on blog traffic-building. It was free. And he’s a big fish in the blogosphere. So I figure he knows what he’s talking about.
Today, I listened to module one – which is about blowing up the myths everyone who’s ever built a blog has. Like blog [...]

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Comparing – A Gift For Learning To See Ourselves?

January 21, 2010

I have this habit. I used to not even see it. Now I see it, but at the same time, still see myself doing it and wonder if I will ever stop. Or what thought I might have that finally releases me from this habit’s grip.
Comparing.
I remember Tom Stone saying something like 80% of our [...]

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After Sedona

January 15, 2010

Nature shows me the pattern of regeneration. Which strengthens my sense of Faith. I breathe it deeply & repeat.
Nature. Saying so much, often in complete silence.
Nature. Resilience that builds beauty and perfection slowly, over time. Patient.
Nature. Ever-changing transformation. With each torrential downpour or earthquake on the other side of the world.
Each and every thing [...]

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2010 Mercury Retrograde Calendar

January 15, 2010

The When, Where & How-Long
Of Mercury’s Retrograde Cycles in 2010
This calendar will help you figure out the when, where and how-long’s of Mercury’s retrograde cycles for 2010.

2010 Mercury Retrograde

Begins

Ends

Shadow Ends

April 17
12:37 Taurus
9:06 pm PT (4/17)
May 11
2:40 Taurus
3:37 pm PT
5/28/10

August 20
19:03 Virgo
12:59 pm PT
September 12
5:23 Virgo
4:09 pm PT
9/27/10

December 10
5:56 Capricorn
4:04 am PT
December [...]

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2010’s First New Moon

January 14, 2010

If you’ve been feeling like 2010 hasn’t really gotten started yet, you are not alone. Green lights and gates fly open in a big way today (11:11pm Pacific). Lots of planetary action in an already active environment. I’m pretty sure everyone’s been feeling it.
It’s Saturn’s time. Winter. Capricorn. And it is Twenty Ten’s first new [...]

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I’m Dying Over Here

January 7, 2010

Alanis dropped a lil bomb on me yesterday while I was walking in my neighborhood. And I couldn’t help but smile to myself as I strolled in the California sunshine, reminded about a recent conversation on discovering the initial curiosity for wanting to pause and take a closer look at the larger concept of fear.
“Fear [...]

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