Beth's Pick of the Week

Talent has little to do with success.

Writing success grows from daily, voracious writing.

Ah, but where do you find ideas to develop?

It all begins with the way you approach each writing session. Check out this new meditation for writers:

Check out this new meditation for writers


The October Issue of The Creative Mindset Newsletter

 As a freelancer, it's all about connection:

Connecting with your reader. Connecting with a potential editor. Connecting with publishers.

If you miss that all important connection, you will not land the assignment. You won't sell the book. The article will go unread.

You can follow every single formula, craft your queries to a "t" and make your proposals shine.

But if you miss that all important connection with your reader, all is lost.

This month, I talk about connections... and a very ingenious way to make a solid connection.

It's a fascinating topic, one that you'd do well to familiarize yourself with if you plan on enjoying a long term freelance career.

Click here

P.S. Did you know that every single subscriber to the Creative Mindset Newsletter will receive Filbert Publishing's latest meditation CD? I've got more mind bending freebies in store, too.

Exploring Shadows

An Excerpt from the October issue of the Creative Mindset Newsletter

I'm sitting in room 1509 at the Platinum Hotel in Las Vegas. I just dined with “Big Mike,” Jason (Profit) Moffit, and my dear friend Leah B. Carson. It's midnight, central time, and I'm exhausted.

I'm never quite sure how to react when a gaggle of marketers get together to discuss their craft.

“Discuss” is a loose word because marketers don't really discuss, they yelp, yell, holler, whoop, engage in one-ups-man-ship, and try to wheedle every bit of insider marketing information they can out of each other.

It's exhausting.

So, while the ever expanding gang (along with some big-name gurus like David Deutsch, David Garfinkel, Parris Lampropoulos just to name a few...) meets in the bar down stairs, I've decided to hermatize and hole up in the room for a while.

So, here I sit on the patio overlooking the famous Las Vegas strip. My tiny home town doesn't light up this bright on Christmas Eve. I can't begin to imagine the electric bills the strip generates.

The Hard Rock Cafe sits to my right, Paris to my left. Directly in front of me I see “Terrible's Hotel and Casino.” Beyond that... lights for as far as I can see.

But here's the deal: despite the glittering landscape, despite the huge party raging downstairs, despite the never sleeping city, here I sit, fifteen floors above the action, teeth brushed, ninja ponytail on top of my head, droopy pajamas flitting in the breeze, bare feet warming against the concrete... totally alone, pondering shadows.

Every person on earth possesses multiple personalities, this I know. We're aware of many of them. However, it's odd to think that some lurk in the shadows, ready to pop out at any given moment.

According to many psychiatrists, mental disorders are best classified as “exaggerated normal behavior.” This means that the line between “sane” and “psychotic” is a thin one indeed.

It's one thing to feel like your hands aren't quite clean. It's another to wash them repeatedly until they chap, crack, and bleed. Then you're well into Obsessive Compulsive land and you don't necessarily want to wander there.

Secondly, it's good to know that these multiple sub-personalities serve a definite purpose. They protect you from uncomfortable situations. They charge in when you're feeling unsure and unsteady. They also provide you the celebration of a lifetime when something incredible happens.

For example, when I travel, “Travel Beth” kicks in. She's immensely efficient, never flustered, profoundly aware of the current time, and ultra alert.

When I attend a school function, “Mom Beth” pops in. She's nurturing and attentive, fiercely protective of her offspring, always on guard making sure she doesn't get volunteered for anything she doesn't want to take part in.

When I'm with my buddies, “Party Beth” kicks in and gets the mojo rolling. She laughs easy, is quick witted, and loves her occasional Margarita.

Writer Beth will wile away hour upon hour absorbing the English language, savoring each like a fine chocolate. She'll spend hours on a phrase making sure it's as powerful as she intends.

Copywriter/marketer Beth can take one glance at a marketing campaign and instantly blurt out ten ways to make it more efficient, boost profits, and cheaper to run. When she's in the “zone” nothing can stop her from creating the sales message that'll best serve her clients.

Then there's “Hermit Beth,” the uncomfortable shadow that unexpectedly pops up at the worst possible time. She abhors human contact and works compulsively to somehow justify her hermitistic tendencies.

That's who I am tonight. Strange illness, this freelancing can be.

It's one thing to identify sub-personalities, but it's quite another to dig deeper and unearth those illusive shadows.

I'm not tickled pink that I seem to lack an innate inability to schmooze. Yeah. I fly half way across the country to a writing conference... an event where some of the biggest and brightest marketers in the country generously hang out to aid their fellow copywriters... only to find myself utterly exhausted at the end of the day and totally without even the remotest desire to head to the bar to “discuss philosophy” with my peers.

It's downright weird when I see it in print.

So why should you, as a freelance writer, monitor these little imps we call shadows?

Perhaps one of your shadow personalities fits into the mindset of your intended audience. Maybe you can study your market enough to create a shadow personality that is essentially a dead-on facsimile of your preferred reader.

When you do this, you can essentially adopt the tools of a method actor and become your reader.

But beware, if you don't thoroughly know everything you can about your audience, your perfect reader, you can inadvertently create a spot-off shadow personality and all your hard work will come to naught.

On the other hand, if you really take the time to not only know but to understand your reader, their hopes, dreams, aspirations, everything you can about them, do this until you genuinely care about them; then allow your subconscious mind to create a personality based on that spot-on information, you've got a powerful ally in your quest to reach your reader on a very deep level.

And isn't that what writing is all about? Isn't it about touching your reader on a deep, emotional level? Genuinely caring about them on a near empathic level?

After all, if you touch someone emotionally, it's far easier to influence their thoughts. It's easier to communicate. It increases your chance to create an interpersonal connection that you otherwise would flounder to do.

Because when you care about another person, that energy reflects in everything you write. It's really that simple. And I think that exploring my and my reader's shadows would add an interesting dimension to this process.

In this terribly hurting world, I've discovered far too many communicators (especially newbies) who present their message to the wider community without taking a moment to consider the way their intended audience thinks, without a second thought given to their motivations, without entering their world, walking a mile in their pumps, and attempting to communicate with them exactly where they're at at this moment.

“The message prevails above all else.” Nope. Sorry. This doesn't hold true if you want to achieve anything significant with your calling.

Find out how your audience communicates best, then package your information in a way they find compelling. It's the only way to do reach your audience on that deep level in this MTV, instant gratification society we live in.

Using a sub or even a shadow personality for that purpose can become a very powerful tool. The greatest avatars communicated with the masses using their language. They (almost) literally became their target audience. They didn't tickle their ears (in fact most of them severely angered the powers-that-be), however they did package the information in a compelling way their followers could understand. I have to think that in doing this they had a profound understanding of shadows not only in themselves, but also in their audience.

So yeah. I'm pondering shadows a lot these days. I love the role of “observer” in this process because I certainly can be quite amusing at times. I still can't believe I'm sitting on a hot Vegas balcony instead of joining the party down stairs. But so be it.

It's also an interesting exercise to study the shadows in others. You'll gain insights you never thought possible.

After all, shadow work is a life long process, as is effective communication.

If you're out to make your corner of the world better, as I am, it's imperative to know your intended audience. It's that simple.

'Til next time!

Beth

http://filbertpublishing.com/creative.html

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I Recommend:

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