Secret Women's Business Network

Bad Times Happen

Lisa Hartwell — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:39:06 +0000

Yes, things have been pretty quiet around here lately. There’s a reason (or series of reasons) for that. And it’s prompted me to write a post about something that not many people talk about in the business world – especially not the online business world.

The Bad Times.

Most business coaches/mentors/gurus/leaders that you have contact with on a regular basis will never mention that bad times exist, whether in your personal or business lives…it doesn’t make for good reading. Many of them are selling “the dream” and I guess they figure you won’t buy into their program, teachings or training if they tell you about the bad stuff as well as the good stuff. The general gist is that things are great for you now but when you do XYZ (i.e. buy into their training) things will be amazing.

You know what? Even when you have a successful business there are going to be bad times. Those may be prompted by a personal tragedy, a business problem, or simply a feeling of doom (sometimes we just succumb to depression, negative feelings or the doldrums).

Shit happens…to everyone. There’s no magic solution to avoid the bad times in life so instead I want to urge you to consider how you’ll handle them instead.

There are many ways you can deal with problems and no single way will work for everyone. Some people swear by exercise to lift their spirits, others seek out family and friends. Of course, those may work for you in cases where you’re just feeling a bit down but they’re not the answer for major business problems or serious depression.

If you’re facing the bad times then the best thing you can do is seek help. If your business is facing problems, seek expert business help. If you’re facing depression then seek professional help via your doctor or a mental health expert.

The one thing you shouldn’t do is believe you are alone and that there’s something wrong with you because you feel rubbish when everyone else appears to be able to overcome those feelings.

You know all those super happy people on social media who express how wonderful their lives are, how wonderful their businesses are, how great the world is? Guess what? They don’t feel like that all the time. Some of them are lying as they say those things. Others are honest at the time but they fail to mention the times when things are tough and they are facing the bad times.

In my experience, some of the happiest people in this world also experience the worst depressions. They’re either extremely “up” or extremely “down”.

Now, that’s not everyone…but the next time you want to slap someone because they’re screaming from the rooftops about how wonderful life is, remember they may be putting on a front or they may be heading for some bad times themselves.

Before you start panicking that I’m dealing with depression, thankfully things are not that bad for me. I’ve dealt with much worse in the past and even then I’m thankful that those times were short and, with help, I was able to come out the other side relatively quickly. But a combination of sad times in my family life that knocked me mentally, and then illness both before and after Christmas that laid me low physically, mean I haven’t been particularly happy lately.

And that’s OK. It’s life. Bad times happen. I’m not alone and neither are you.

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Something for the Weekend: 29th October 2011

Lisa Hartwell — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:30:57 +0000

For those of you keeping track, there was no Something for the Weekend last week. Quite simply, I didn’t read or watch anything business-related online. I was away visiting family and friends and stayed offline as much as possible.

This week it’s the opposite…I have have been inundated with fabulous blog posts. Most of them are below but I will save a few for next week’s round-up. I’ve tried to group them together into obvious categories.

Search Engine News and Advice

Google To Begin Encrypting Searches & Outbound Clicks By Default With SSL Search - Google has started encrypting searches and this is bad news for us. This post explains in details what this means, although the best and simplest explanation I saw was in an Ed Dale video for the Challenge Plus and Immediate Edge, so if you’re a member go and watch it.

How to Get Dropped Rankings Back! - If you’ve ever suffered a major drop in search engine rankings, this post offers great advice on recovering.

Cool Tools and Resources

30 Best Online Photo Editing Tools - I featured a couple of photo editing tools in Cool Tools and then I read this and discovered just how many great photo editing tools there are online.

11 Coolest eBook Ideas Ever - Really useful information for using ebooks as part of your marketing (make sure you download the free manifesto at the end of the post too).

67 Elegant, Effective and FREE Website Graphics for Serious Online Publishers - A lovely present from Copyblogger – various buttons, backgrounds and other graphics.

Business and Personal Improvement

Ready to Give Up? 50 Things You SHOULD Give Up… Starting Today - I’m sure this post will resonate with many of you…Lynn Terry lists 50 things you should give up for improved mental and business health.

Why you don’t do what you should - 3 ways to turn “must dos” into “done” from a psychologist’s point of view.

How to Improve Yourself Gradually - It’s a concept we hear over and over again but still don’t always take note of…in order to improve at anything you need to build it up gradually.

7 Essential Pages For Any Small Business Website - David Jenyns lists 7 pages you should have on every business website, why they should be there and their purpose.

Thanks, as always, for the shares.

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Best Business Podcasts for a Long Drive and Maintaining Sanity

Lisa Hartwell — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:21:14 +0000

Over the last few weeks I have done a hell of a lot of driving to see family and friends. Unlike many people I know, I actually like driving long distances, which is just as well since I choose to live in Plymouth which is miles from anywhere. You know when you’ve traveled a particular route too often, when you find a desire to Tweet about the disappearance of the plastic camels from the side of the road, or have a rating system for the Service stops along the way. However, in order to keep myself sane on a long drive I find that listening to business podcasts can be a great help.

While I occasionally dip into a radio show or pop on a CD, I find listening to podcasts has a number of additional benefits:

Stops me going into auto pilot (music and radio can lull you into reverie)
Learning new things, hearing new ideas (or old ideas expressed a new way), hearing successful marketers reveal their tips and tactics, getting recommendations of other books to read and podcasts to listen to
Makes me feel like my time isn’t wasted (4 hours of learning new things or having knowledge re-enforced seems a better use of my time)
Entertainment – most of the podcasts I listen to have an element of entertainment and humor as well as useful insights

Best Business Podcasts

So, based on my recent trips, I thought I would share some of my favorite business podcasts:

Freedom Ocean is presented by James Schramko and Tim Reid and is especially aimed at helping beginners learn more about and master online marketing. This is useful whether you have a business already or are looking for a business model you can pursue. Even as an experienced marketer I constantly pick up valuable titbits from James and generally enjoy the banter between them.
Dominiche – The Art of Buying and Selling is presented by Ed Dale and Danny Batelic. Both of these Australians are well known in the online marketing space but the podcast goes further and explores buying and selling on all levels. Although this podcast was started back in July, last week was the first time I started listening and have since devoured most of their episodes so far. Ed is always amusing and Danny’s dry humor makes him the perfect foil.
Back to Work is hosted by Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin, and covers topics such as productivity, communication and work. Merlin cracks me up – I loved his You Look Nice Today podcast and wish he’d make more – and while this podcast is not branded as comedy it is highly amusing. I find Merlin’s mind fascinating – on the surface he appears to just jump from story to story and topic to topic without really ending the previous one, but has so much insight and information to share on improving businesses and personal productivity. One of these podcasts at a time is usually enough for me and I need to break them up with something else. They can also get more geeky than I can handle, and I’ve had to turn off in the past when they spend 20 minutes discussing keystroke shortcuts!
Small Business Big Marketing. This is Tim Reid again, this time with Luke Moulton (what is it about Australians and podcasting?), with more witty banter and loads of great advice for small businesses and how they can improve their marketing efforts. This podcast always reminds me of a radio format that was common in the 90s in Australia (not sure if it still is) of having two male presenters on air. Small Business Big Marketing has stood the test of time and I hope it will continue for many years to come.
This American Life. OK, so this isn’t a business podcast but it is a fascinating weekly podcast of the award-winning show on public radio presented by Ira Glass. From a business point of view it reveals the powerful effect great storytelling can have.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of my favorite business podcasts. If you’d asked me last year the list would have been completely different as 3 of the podcasts didn’t even exist, so it will be interesting to see which will still be broadcasting by this time next year.

There are a number of other podcasts that I would have loved to add but which I find I can’t listen to in the car due to the sound quality. Listening to a podcast through headphones is very different to listening in a car (I have a device that transmits the podcast from my ipod or a usb stick through the radio), as there is always more background noise. I find many podcasts upload their audio at too quiet a level or with one person loud and the other soft, or with too much static or hiss on the recording. It’s important to remember that not all people listen to podcasts in what you would consider optimal conditions, so if you’re creating a podcast try to make it sound as clear as possible.

Finally, I’d like to add another podcast which I didn’t listen to during my drives as that would be totally self-indulgent, but which I hope is a valuable business podcast to you. Trouble with Freedom is the podcast I host with Allison Reynolds and is aimed at people thinking of making the leap from their corporate (or other) job into self-employment and starting their own business, although it is helpful for anyone that is running a business. We try to take a realistic view of business life and cover both the good and the bad issues surrounding working for yourself.

All of the above podcasts are available on iTunes as well as their respective websites (follow the links).

What are your favorite business podcasts? Please share them below as I need to stock up for my next big road trip

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Something for the Weekend: 15th October 2011

Lisa Hartwell — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 17:27:38 +0000

I’m heading off for a mini break to visit family and friends, but if you’ve got some time on your hands then I hope you enjoy this week’s picks:

All Things Business Related

How To Save Money On AdWords Placements With Google Analytics - Fantastic post about linking Adwords to Analytics for improved campaigns.

How to Turn Facebook Fans Into Paying Customers - Another fab post from Jen at FBAdsLab, this time on the importance of having a Facebook conversion strategy.

The New Content Marketing Keyword Strategy - I wouldn’t call this a new strategy but Michelle does lay this content marketing keyword strategy in a very simple, easy to follow way.

Should You Be on Tumblr? Seven Business Case Examples - While I am a strong advocate for always having your own online real estate (that you conteol i.e. your own domain and hosting), Tumblr is probably the best of the free blogging platforms and I highly recommend you having a presence there. This post offers some great examples.

Thanks, as always, to those of you who shared these with me.

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Moo Christmas Cards Discount Code

Lisa Hartwell — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:08:51 +0000

I’m about to do 2 things I never do on this blog:

Blatantly promote an affiliate product
Talk about Christmas in October

As I’ve already mentioned, I’m a huge fan of Moo Printing (and based on the popularity of that post I’m assuming many of you are too). Well, they sent me an email containing a 15% off “secret” discount for their Christmas cards. Not too much of a secret though as they said I could pass the discount code onto my friends, and that includes you. The code expires on 20th October – just add the code CARDSYAY at checkout.

It seems wrong to be talking about Christmas so early but, as you’ll know if you usually send out Business Christmas Cards or personalized personal Christmas cards, you have to order these things fairly early to ensure you get them printed and delivered to you ready to be sent out in time for Christmas.

So, here’s your chance to be super organised this year and get some beautiful cards. Just remember to buy before 20th October (2011) and add the discount code CARDSYAY at checkout.

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