Disconnect to Reconnect

Disconnect to Reconnect

by | Dec 31, 2015 | Motherhood, Work Life Blend, Writing

It’s 47 degrees in the shade and I’ve been awake since 5am fishing with my unexpectedly angling obsessed daughter. I’ve also taken my three-year-old swimming twice, all the while allaying his fears that Santa won’t find us in the ‘holiday caravan’, and had an in-depth discussion with my teenager about the responsibility of assimilation in Australian culture.

We’ve now been driving for 2 ½ hours in flat, scrubby country with the ocean teasing out from behind the dunes and the big, blue sky almost too huge to believe. According to my phone, this expansive view comes with exactly no reception.

In fact, I’ve been disconnected for around 80% of this trip so far.

Had I not experienced the restorative effects (both personally and for my business) of being disconnected from the internet in the past, I would probably be panicking right about now.

As it happens, this time I have a spot of connectivity back at the caravan and don’t worry, I am making extraordinarily good use of it.

But apart from a quick evening session to check in and upload content, I am *gasp* disconnected.

It can be worrying to be unplugged from your business for any stretch of time, especially if your marketing relies on being online. However, here are some tried and true tips for putting this time to good use while maintaining your online presence.

Plan and Automate

Being disconnected from the online part of your business doesn’t have to mean you aren’t visible online. Although business may close up shop or slow down over the summer period, social media gets a boost with people spending more of their downtime online.

If you can manage to spend a couple of hours in the lead up to your time out automating your social media, your online worlds will keep ticking over even when you’re hollering at the kids not to lean quite so far over the cliff face to photograph a shark. Blog posts on your website, Facebook daily posts, paid advertising, and other online hotspots can either be totally or partially automated. You’ll be able to keep up your conversation with your clients and customers online without picking up your phone.

Get Old School

If writing of any description is part of the way you market online, just check how much more productive you will be without working on your laptop.

Yes, paper and pen.

Get your next quarter plan scribbled out. Write your next six months of blog posts. Map out some social media interaction for the upcoming season.

Without the distraction of all the flickering fluff happening on your computer, you’ll whizz through tasks faster than you could have imagined.

Breathe It In

Everyone needs a chance to breathe out the hard work of the preceding year and to breathe in the good stuff. Small business people are particularly renowned for eating, sleeping and breathing their business. But our families need us to connect with them too.

From a self-confessed social media addict, disconnecting from your online self, even if only for a couple of days, will seriously enable the reconnection to the reason many of us do what we do – our family.

For me, this is undoubtedly the most rewarding aspect of the unplugging, even if my two big kids tend to take the complete mick out of every landmark visit by verbally beginning a blog article in a falsetto voice, complete with “This is Jay Crisp Crow for Crisp Crow Communications” and elbowing each other in mirth.

The other experience to look forward to is the actual excitement about putting into plan everything you’ve thought of for your business when you get back to it. All those tinglingly good ideas that have had a chance to marinate in a mind not completely overwhelmed with daily business tasks, that’s a nice anticipation.

For now, wish you were here.

(P.S. Santa does find you in your holiday caravan. Phew!)

This blog originally appeared in the Swan Magazine and has been reproduced with their kind permission.

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About Jay

Jay Crisp Crow

Yep, really my name

If you’re here for the intuitive mix of done-for-you, make-you-cry copy or you want to learn all my secrets so you can DIY like a pro; sister, you’re in the right place. I’m a copywriter, editor, and copy consultant and coach for businesswomen ready to move away from the boring as bat poop churning out of content. Words that sound the same as everyone else’s. Bah humbug! I am terrible at writing my own blogs but smashing at writing for clients. I live in the Hills of Perth, WA, and work with women around the world through the technologically spiffy powers of t’internet. Yay for that!
Socially Crisp
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Why Get Social In Business?

Why Get Social In Business?

by | Nov 21, 2015 | Business, Marketing, Writing

I often indulge in a little internal chuckle when I get a message or phone call that begins with “I stumbled across your business page in my Facebook feed…”

Nope, you didn’t stumble. This was no accident. I put myself there. Right in your path.

I often hear business owners saying “I don’t like social media. I don’t see the point in putting any energy into it”. That’s a little bit like saying “I don’t like preparing for my tax return. I just don’t see the investment”. Nowadays, to run a sustainable business, there’s not much choice in participating in either!

Whether you’re selling a product or a service, if you’re building new business relationships or planning on boosting sales, even regardless of whether you have a business website or not, you’re eighty gazbillion percent (not a real number) missing out if you’re not developing your business through social media.

As consumers, we are increasingly discerning. We know we can buy product at the click of a button and perhaps pay a little less. If we decide this isn’t the way we want to go, we are looking for a relationship with the person we’re buying from. We like to search for you instead of being tracked down and we like to gauge who you are as a business person more than being sold to. Most of the time, we’ve inspected you online and pretty much made up our mind about your business before we’ve even clicked to buy, come into your store front, or sent you an email.

So, make it easy for us to get to know you.

Make it simple for us to get our hands on your content.

Give us lots of different places to check you out.

Now, here’s where if I am doing a workshop I like to throw in all kinds of stunning numbers. I’m not really a numbers girl, my accountant would wearily testify to this fact, but the kind of numbers that make you feel motivated to get social and get in the action are downright exciting. Google Social Media Statistics 2015 and prepare to be encouraged.

When I start with a new client, I like to go on a mystery hunt for their ideal customer. This is less like stalking, and more along the lines of who the customer is as a person, how they spend and, here’s the important part, where they ‘live’ online. I can tell you, many of us consumers ‘live’ on Facebook.

Nearly 80% of us are on Facebook regularly. Some of us every day. Many of us shop while we’re on Facebook. If you’re thinking, “I’ve never bought something from Facebook”, consider the links you’ve clicked that have taken you to a website OR the amount of times you’ve thought about needing a plumber, hopped onto Facebook, and asked for a recommendation. Around 90% of all businesses that are on Facebook right now are reporting sales from their business page.

One of the top questions I get asked at digital communication workshops is “Do I REALLY have to be EVERYWHERE?”

The answer isn’t too terrible. Yes, it would be nice if you were. Have a Facebook page, an Instagram business account, a LinkedIn profile, a Twitter account if you’d like. Pinterest is also an amazing, growing platform, especially if you deal with wellness and food, and if you’re selling to men, they tend to be on Google +. But don’t spend too much time on all of them. Figure out where your ideal clients will be most likely to find you and do most of your engaging there. The other social places can be a little quieter.

Think of your regular social media places like your favourite café; the best spot to meet someone and have a chat.

Once you’re set up, learn to schedule your Facebook posts so you’re limiting your Facebook Time Vacuum to just an hour a week. Spend less than 10 minutes a day on Instagram. Be on LinkedIn, so that customers can see you are who you say you are.

This kind of relationship building lets your potential loyal customers figure out if your business practices and ethics align with what they’re looking for. They begin to feel like they’re connected to you and, as a bonus, the filters on Instagram make everyone look good.

If you have a website, ensure when you start getting socially active you link all your social media sites to your site. This makes it easier for your new client to get around all your favourite haunts and increases the search engine optimisation (SEO) of your page.

I have a particular soft spot for start up’s and ‘ma and pa’ small business. I completely relate, being an ‘un-funded’ small business owner. My business feeds my family and pays my bills. It’s not a hobby.

So, I totally understand that the world of social media for business purposes can be both overwhelming and exhausting. Especially if you’re considering much of it is usually done at the end of a long day running your actual business.

I’m not advocating you spending hours and days and weeks on social media for a good return on your investment. I’m asking you to consider looking at social media as a really great platform to put deliver your business.

Right in the path of your most ideal client.

So they ‘stumble’ across you.

This piece originally appeared in the Swan Magazine and has been reprinted with permission of the Editor.

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About Jay

Jay Crisp Crow

Yep, really my name

If you’re here for the intuitive mix of done-for-you, make-you-cry copy or you want to learn all my secrets so you can DIY like a pro; sister, you’re in the right place. I’m a copywriter, editor, and copy consultant and coach for businesswomen ready to move away from the boring as bat poop churning out of content. Words that sound the same as everyone else’s. Bah humbug! I am terrible at writing my own blogs but smashing at writing for clients. I live in the Hills of Perth, WA, and work with women around the world through the technologically spiffy powers of t’internet. Yay for that!
Socially Crisp
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Girl Boss – What Small Business Ownership Teaches My Daughter

Girl Boss – What Small Business Ownership Teaches My Daughter

by | Aug 26, 2015 | Business, Motherhood, Work Life Blend, Writing

When my 12-year-old daughter informed me of her life plan, all the ugly parts of my parenting came to the surface. Her (current) ideal includes buying a farm, rescuing donkeys, baking scones every day and bearing a whole tribe of babies whom she plans to homeschool.

Husband optional.

Here’s how my inner ugly inner parent sounded:

“Shouldn’t she want a career?

What are we paying private school fees for?

Rescuing donkeys won’t pay the bills.

She’s going to homeschool the intended FIVE children?

All that talent wasted – the development netball, her ability with words, her love of history, her keen mind and capacity to understand the depths of a concept beyond her years.

How’s she going to buy that farm?”

My Mama Muzzle had to get whipped out quick, because, well, this is all my fault.

Haven’t I created a family philosophy and environment in my home to support her choices?

Hasn’t she been fortunate enough to have been born into a country that allows her the privilege to sculpt her life?

And then, in addition, haven’t I done everything I can to empower her to trust herself and completely reinvent her world

if she changes her mind?

This is what I’ve taught her.

I owe so much of my resilience, compassion and understanding about life to the lessons my own mother taught. She was my only parent, so there was a good while where her opinion was my only opinion, which suited her fine.

In the ever-evolving path we follow, there comes a junction where we step beyond our mother’s success and knowledge into a new trail, blazed by our own curiosity. This is how we grow a humanity.

It’s life’s lust for expansion, even though it sometimes upsets our own mothers. If you’re lucky, like I am lucky, your mum will pack her growth suitcase and come along with you.

So, what am I now showing my daughter, besides what she’s already gleaned this far from watching me as a young’un?

She already knows that she can be financially resourceful and reliant on herself in a crisis; because I’ve shown her that.

She knows that divorce and heartbreak aren’t the end of the story. She knows that being unceremoniously dumped on your bum doesn’t mean the end of your joy. I’ve proven that.

She also understands that staying married to someone who adores you is often seriously hard work, even if your values are aligned. She sees that marriage is tough, frustrating, joyful and messy and terribly, fantastically worth it. She knows because I’ve shown her that.

She knows that sometimes you just have to say “yes” to terrifyingly out-of-your-comfort-zone opportunities, then scurry around like a rabid fruit bat to get the job done. I’ve taught her that.

She knows that illness, inability and despair cannot rule. She comprehends that we all have coping mechanisms that can spring like weeds from barren ground and create a foundation for success. I’ve shown her that.

She knows that in order to be of assistance in a community and help those around you, you’ve got to save yourself first.  I’ve taught her that.

She knows that children change everything. That they are both a responsibility and a freedom and that the love of a new baby after a decade, only increases the love in the home, not divides it. I’ve shown her that too.

The birth of our new family business has shown her fresh lessons.

While we are growing something sustainable and clever at our kitchen table, there are seeds of confidence being watered in her soul. Because, if at any time she feels as if the life she’s structured isn’t as blazing and brilliant as she wants, she’ll have seen her Mum completely morph a situation with sheer determination. She will have watched me emancipate myself from an unbalanced career to unfolding into a creative businesswoman.

She will watch me take something I love, invest in my own talent and turn it into an award-winning, sustainable business within a year.

She will have witnessed me second guess myself, then strike a power pose and fire on.

She was there the moment I realised my own value, charged accordingly and changed our lives.

Which might just be what she needs when running the donkey sanctuary.

This post is now published on the Huffington Post site.

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About Jay

Jay Crisp Crow

Yep, really my name

If you’re here for the intuitive mix of done-for-you, make-you-cry copy or you want to learn all my secrets so you can DIY like a pro; sister, you’re in the right place. I’m a copywriter, editor, and copy consultant and coach for businesswomen ready to move away from the boring as bat poop churning out of content. Words that sound the same as everyone else’s. Bah humbug! I am terrible at writing my own blogs but smashing at writing for clients. I live in the Hills of Perth, WA, and work with women around the world through the technologically spiffy powers of t’internet. Yay for that!
Socially Crisp
Resources I Love

A Blog About A Bikini, and, well, Love

A Blog About A Bikini, and, well, Love

by | Aug 13, 2015 | Motherhood, Women, Writing

Before I began Crisp Crow Communications, I wrote an anonymous blog for a year. I didn’t tell anyone I was publishing, I just wanted to gauge if people would even read what I wrote, and if they’d like it.

This blog piece had an outstanding response. I guess it resonated with some people.

Rocking What You’ve Got – A Blog About a Bikini, and, well, Love.

Those of you who are mates with me IRL (ahh.. that’s In Real Life for readers without teenagers) may have read my social media posts or heard me tequila-ey slur (in one particular instance) about my campaign to be kinder to myself this year.

I’ve been on a hate campaign diet since I began professionally dancing at 11 years old.

We moved from Sydney to Perth and I began dancing at a studio that held the contract for the State Basketball Team cheer squad. I wanted in. God, I wanted in so badly I could taste it.

Which is fortunate, because for the entirety of my pro cheerleader career, that’s about all I tasted.

During my first cheer class, the teacher took my mother aside and told her I was simply too fat. So fat. I was a size 12. And so it began.

My daughter turned 12 last year and all of a sudden I am noticing something about the vocabulary I use when speaking about my body.

It’s pretty awful.

In fact, if it was a friend talking like that about me, I would ditch them.

My husband says “God, you’re gorgeous in that dress. Look at that booty”, I say “Don’t be ridiculous, I’m SO FAT.”

My son says “Come swimming with me Mama. Come RIGHT NOW!” (because he’s three and everything has to happen immediately) and I say “OK then… God I hate these bathers. Why am I SO FAT?”

My daughter asks “Do you want to come for a walk with me and the dog?” and I say “Gosh, yes, I really should, because I am SO FAT.”

The theme of this self-talk has been mind numbingly similar since I was 12:

Don’t eat that sandwich. You’re SO FAT.

You’d better get to the gym today. You’re SO FAT.

Wear something more sensible. You’re SO FAT.

Ridiculously, I was a size 10 from the time I was 12 until I was 16.

Now, at 38, I really am fat.

And I’m bored of hating myself about it.

Because I’m also freaking glorious! And clever, and an award winning copywriter, and a mother to amazing humans, and a successful wife, who makes her swooning husband insanely happy, and a good friend, and I can tap dance like a demon and I bleeding love lemon meringue pie, for goodness sake.

I don’t know where the battle with my weight will finish or who the victor might be.  And it’s not as if I’m giving up killing off a good 20 kilos, it’s just that I’m boring when I’m hating on myself all the time.

I mean, look at this fantastical creation!

It’s doing ok for all the damage I’ve wreaked upon it, mainly in the name of weight loss. The now-illegal diet pills, the eating of paper and obsessively working out, the lap band and consequent starvation. Doing 6 hours of dance a day and then it not being enough, running home the last five kilometres. Trying every weight loss over the counter medication under the sun (does anyone remember that fat liquidising one? I have nightmares.)

It’s all taken its toll. But here travels my body, luscious and soft in the dark, still holding up its end of the bargain.

So, now I’m trying a new tactic:

Love.

In this vein, and with rounds of applause from my children and inappropriate behaviour from aforementioned husband I let my darling beloved buy me a bikini yesterday during our weekend away.

I’ve worn it in public. Twice.

Once at the hotel swimming pool – which didn’t really count as it was 6.30 in the evening and we were only sharing the facilities with a naked toddler and someone’s Gran.

Then today also at one of Perth’s busiest swimming spots during our first really warm weekends of the season.

(For anyone who has ever been not confident about getting their kit off and walking that long, long walk between towel and water, you’ll know what a big deal it was to strip off my dress and walk calmly into the sea.)

Guess what happened?

Absolutely nothing.

The world did not cease to turn. No Japanese fishing boats tried to harpoon me. No one even darn well blinked. And my husband smiled the whole time.

It was a really lovely swim… And something I maybe would have missed out on back (last month) when I wasn’t actively pursuing a love affair with myself.

So fat. So what?

This blog also appears on Huffington Post. You can read and leave comments on any of my HuffPost articles here.

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About Jay

Jay Crisp Crow

Yep, really my name

If you’re here for the intuitive mix of done-for-you, make-you-cry copy or you want to learn all my secrets so you can DIY like a pro; sister, you’re in the right place. I’m a copywriter, editor, and copy consultant and coach for businesswomen ready to move away from the boring as bat poop churning out of content. Words that sound the same as everyone else’s. Bah humbug! I am terrible at writing my own blogs but smashing at writing for clients. I live in the Hills of Perth, WA, and work with women around the world through the technologically spiffy powers of t’internet. Yay for that!
Socially Crisp
Resources I Love

Storytelling – Both Glorious and Dangerous

Storytelling – Both Glorious and Dangerous

by | Jul 9, 2015 | Business, Writing

I love storytelling.

My business is built on stories and my capacity to weave a likeable tale around a concept. The spiralling, uplifting dance of adventure draws me in and takes me travelling. I’m such a willing co-pilot in the shotgun seat.

Beginning a business based on faith in my own skill has challenged the story I’ve always owned:

What chapters are true?

What will the epilogue be?

Do I still believe in the words I’ve been author of?

I’ve begun to realise that there is a lot of story behind all the reasons I’ve told myself that I can’t be successful. My disability is a biggun; the limited amount of spoons I have to use in a day (read about spoon theory here). My complex family structure and the commitment I make to my children is another. I’ve also spent years telling myself that I need more letters after my name or pieces of paper to be capable of furthering my prospects. I’ve told myself it’s not the right time, not the best economic environment, that I need a dedicated work space (pfft, the kitchen table rocks). All up, these stories equate to that I am just not good enough to chase after the life I want

Here’s the kicker:

I am not my story.

Based on this knowledge I can confidently state that you aren’t yours either.

So, here’s a new map:

Starting from my crooked, mortgaged, flourishing, fertile life, my trip begins afresh. I can choose to pack my experience in my suitcase, and I will. What I can happily leave on the driveway is any belief that I am any less valuable with a few travel dents.

This new path has surprised everyone, most of all me. It’s certainly not where I’d envisioned myself road tripping, even looking back as little as two years ago. But my headlights are on, I’ve got the family on board and the tunes are cranking.

The journey is looking fine.

Jay-crisp-crow-crisp-copy-signature
About Jay

Jay Crisp Crow

Yep, really my name

If you’re here for the intuitive mix of done-for-you, make-you-cry copy or you want to learn all my secrets so you can DIY like a pro; sister, you’re in the right place. I’m a copywriter, editor, and copy consultant and coach for businesswomen ready to move away from the boring as bat poop churning out of content. Words that sound the same as everyone else’s. Bah humbug! I am terrible at writing my own blogs but smashing at writing for clients. I live in the Hills of Perth, WA, and work with women around the world through the technologically spiffy powers of t’internet. Yay for that!
Socially Crisp
Resources I Love

3 Helpful Tips To Help You Get Unstuck

3 Helpful Tips To Help You Get Unstuck

by | Jun 8, 2015 | Work Life Blend, Writing

Feeling stuck?
Here’s a free ‪#‎teamcrispycrow‬ tip we all use:

To Get Unstuck!
Act unlike yourself. Behave in a way completely outside of regular. Do everything backwards for a day. Leave for work an hour early… Drop in to visit someone, take a walk, buy someone a cupcake and deliver it to their door. Repeat nuttiness for a good week and see if that helps.

‘Stuck’ is just sometimes a symptom of habit. If you give your habit a bit of a shake about, you can usually jiggle loose your ‘stuck’ as well.

I am practicing this new habit-ruffle this week as I seem to be sliding through a plateau. My business has taken off at light speed and I have been bounding through tackling new challenges and writing like a literary demon to keep up. I still have fabulous and inspiring work in the pipeline, but my fingers are hovering over the keyboard trying to figure out where to start. I am not exactly stuck… more like – ‘at recess’.

But there’s no delicious ‘little lunch’ waiting for me so I am going to have to use my powers of ‘unstuck – edness!’

Here’s what else I’ve found to help:

“Nothing in life, including our circumstances or potential, is fixed. Reality is bendable to our will.” ~ Brendon Burchard, The Motivation Manifesto – Whoooaaa! Wrap your head around that! Find more here: Elephant Journal

“Scary and Intense Go Hand-in-Hand with Excitement” ~ Sara Arey, Huffington Post – Read this excellent article here: Huffington Post

Do you have tricks you use? Share them with us!

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About Jay

Jay Crisp Crow

Yep, really my name

If you’re here for the intuitive mix of done-for-you, make-you-cry copy or you want to learn all my secrets so you can DIY like a pro; sister, you’re in the right place. I’m a copywriter, editor, and copy consultant and coach for businesswomen ready to move away from the boring as bat poop churning out of content. Words that sound the same as everyone else’s. Bah humbug! I am terrible at writing my own blogs but smashing at writing for clients. I live in the Hills of Perth, WA, and work with women around the world through the technologically spiffy powers of t’internet. Yay for that!
Socially Crisp
Resources I Love