As you may have seen, we released the Prose theme for WordPress today, and in honor of that, we decided to switch Remarkable Communication over.
I’m really enjoying the new look, and I hope you are too! I wanted to return a bit more to the “earthy crunchy” look I had early on, but keeping a nice professional design.
I was past 40 before it occurred to me that I could really be an entrepreneur.
Even the word always seemed to carry so much stress.
Mortgaging your house to make payroll. (And then having the company die anyway.) Dumping an unfair workload onto your spouse. Broken promises to your kids.
This is a guest post by Pamela Wilson
Last summer, in Boston for a few days on vacation, I wandered into a local mall.
I ended up in a store that specializes in soaps and bath-type products that look handmade, and have very basic packaging.
Here’s what happened.
Recently on the Remarkable Marketing Blueprint* forum, some folks were saying nice things about the space I’d created.
And I have to admit — I love it there. The members are generous and supportive, everyone is working their tails off and making progress like crazy. It’s exhilarating and warm and fuzzy all at the same time.
But here’s the thing.
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I recently got an email from someone whose comments aren’t going through on that other blog I write for.
I let him know that the spam plugin Akismet was probably snagging them, and he responded to let me know that was a “piss poor” answer.
Apparently I should dig through the tens of thousands of spam messages to find his comments. Which, given the tone of his email, I’m sure were constructive and insightful.
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Remember in the old cartoons, when Bugs Bunny fell off a 90-story building and then emerged shaking his head with a funny little rattle?
That’s kind of what I feel like. 
Yes, it’s a guest post! My friend and all-around wise dude Charlie Gilkey graciously offered me this guest post as a way to rouse Remarkable Communication gently from its slumber.
This is the second part of the How To Blog Like Shakespeare series from Charlie Gilkey. Check out How To Write For New Readers if you missed Part 1.
Regular readers are familiar with you and your content, so they’re already keyed into how you write and what you’re about. They’re also likely to be your friends, fans, champions, and customers.
The fact that they’re familiar with what you’re up to, though, can also make it more difficult to write for them. They might have already learned some of the stuff you’ve written for your new readers, so the way you write for your new readers won’t provide a lot of value to them. While they may have some favored themes and topics, to keep their attention, you’ll have to provide them something new.
I’ve been spending more time lately teaching folks who are new to marketing, and I’m finding it really fascinating.
The same themes come up again and again. These are people who had an interesting idea for a product to sell or a service to market, but they run up against a horrid scary intimidating wall: marketing.
(And even scarier, its evil twin, selling.)
It seems impossibly hard. It seems like something for “other people.” It seems like they’d need a personality transplant to make it work for them.
And I totally get this, because I used to feel exactly the same way.
If you’re doing any social media marketing at all, you know the drill. It’s all about showing up. Being your authentic self. Showing that you’re a trustworthy human being, making a connection, reaching out one-to-one.
The cornerstone idea of this blog is that if you can create more remarkable relationships with your customers, you’ll have a more remarkable business.
It’s fun and it works and it’s a great model. But it does have a significant downside.
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I have a friend who’s creating a business.
Actually, I have lots of friends who are creating businesses. And this is a story that reflects many of their journeys. One person inspired this particular story, but her story is the story of many people I know.
She got an idea she was passionate about. She collected great advice. She worked out a plan. She dreamed big. She found her courage. She leapt.
You know that expression “leap and the net will appear?” The net didn’t appear. In fact, it looked like it was the floor that was going to appear. Quickly.
