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Articles by Dawn Shuler

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110 articles by Dawn Shuler · showing 50

Browse every published article connected to Dawn Shuler, or search within this exact expert archive.

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Marketing, Oh That Evil Thing!

Well, it's only evil if you look at it a certain way. If the word "marketing" scares you off, it might help you to know that my definition of marketing is any kind of communication and connection you make with your people... anything. See, it doesn't have to be evil. Or what some people call a "necessary evil." You're just letting people know who you are and what you do. Simple. And if you can look at marketing like that, then perhaps it doesn't feel evil or like such a big, hairy monster.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

568 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

All Stories Tell a Journey

Whether you're writing fiction or nonfiction (even business writing), all writing tells a journey. There's a starting point and an ending point. Your job as writer and author is to get your reader from Point A to Point B. The most popular format for a journey story is Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, mainstreamed and made popular by Star Wars: A New Hope. But it doesn't have to be just fiction that gets to play with the Hero's Journey (or any journey). The story of a journey isn't just appropriate for all writing; I go as far as to say it's crucial.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

663 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Chakras and Writing

I've been studying the chakra system for years, and recently I just knew that was a way to incorporate the philosophy, the interconnectedness of the system, and the system itself into writing. Recently, I had one of the biggest business epiphanies of my life where I could see how writing and chakras could work together. Interestingly, as I explored these relationships, I realized that pieces have been there all along, especially in my writing from your soul work. I just hadn't see THIS level of connection. I am thrilled to be able to share it with you!

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,220 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

The Writing Race: Keep Writing, Even If You Think It Stinks

Many writers, maybe all writers, have trouble being objective about their writing. As you're writing or immediately after you're writing, you're thinking, "God, what am I doing? This is pure drivel. It's awful. I should just stop." Luckily, you don't stop; you keep going. And, with more luck, when you go back to your writing after a few days' absence, you realize it's not so bad after all. And you keep going. And you keep going. And you keep going.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

678 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Making Writing Easy - The Continual Process

I've committed to writing more and more, and what that looks like (ideally) is more blog posts, more ezine articles, and books. That means writing. A lot of writing. And THAT means actually writing. The other day, I ended my work day at 3:00pm with the intention to write. Oh my goodness, was that hard! As soon as I finished my last work task, I felt completely lost. What do I do next? What's the next step? How do I get started? I almost fled back to my office, to the solace of a to-do list that was very clear about what my next task was. But I didn't.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

805 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Top 10 Things Entrepreneurs Are Grateful for

Owning your own business is a gift and sometimes a challenge. Well, maybe more often a challenge than not. There are plenty of things that you have to work around, take into account, plan for, and adapt to. And… there are many things for which entrepreneurs have to be grateful. Here are a handful. 1. Ideas. Yes, so many ideas, possibilities, lovely potential can be the bane of an entrepreneur’s existence, but it’s also the beautiful conundrum. Bright shiny object can actually turn into THE idea.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

948 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Let Creativity In - 6 Easy Steps

"I have an article to write, so I'll just start writing." A few moments go by. "Hmmmm. Why aren't the words coming to me easily? Ah, it must be because I struggle to write." A few more moments go by. "This is hard." "I'm not very good at it." You stare at the screen. "I give up. Maybe I'll feel more inspired tomorrow." It's not really that you're not a good writer. It's not even that it's hard for you.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,084 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

What I Learned From Copying

At times, the creative process can almost look logical: "This is my purpose, and this is what I need to do." Other times the creativity just flows, and you do what you can to capture all the lovely ideas. Occasionally, I'll do some of the same writing exercises I require of my students. Actually, it's not that I feel I should share the pain, er, joy, of the writing homework, but rather that I have a very good reason for each and every writing assignment I ask my students to complete.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

693 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Write Like No One Else - Write Like You

As a business owner, you're writing all the time, even if you don't think you are. Think about it: you're writing all the time... emails, responses to potential clients, ezine articles, blog posts, social media status updates, sales pages, campaign emails, product materials. Business owner = writer. And that means your writing needs to be good.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

863 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Top Ten Writing Challenges

Communication. When you talk with people on the phone, there's tone, pitch, speed, and volume to convey meaning. When you talk with people face to face, add in body language, eye contact, and gestures. Just your words, though, account for only 7% of the meaning you're trying to convey. That other 93% comes from the visual and vocal communication cues you use. What this means is that most of the time you rely on these strong visual and vocal muscles to get your meaning across. And, if you're not doing a good job of that, you usually get immediate feedback from your listener.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

940 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Your Book is a Business

You're passionate about your message. Whether it's about frogs, women business owners, or creating financial stability, you have this burning desire to get your message out and help people (or frog lovers). The best way to do that is to write a book, right? Reach more people (and frog lovers) and, at the same time, become an expert in your field.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,197 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

How to Organize Your Ideas, Even If You're Right-Brained

One of the biggest problems I see with entrepreneurs is what to do with all the ideas they have swirling around in their brains. We entrepreneurs love ideas and possibilities! But if we spin mentally with those ideas and never engage with them, we can get frustrated and overwhelmed. The trick is to get those ideas, thoughts, concepts, and plans out of your head. But if you’re not a left-brained type, you might get stuck with the HOW to get them out of your head. (And if you are left-brained, or a combo like me, these steps might help you as well.)

Primary topic: Writing Tools

928 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Beware the Writing Wasteland

I was recently reading a science fiction story from the 1960s, and parts of the story just draaaaaaaaaaag. There's this old writing saying that if your character is going to open the door, then you, the writer, need to be able to see the doorknob. It doesn't mean that the readers need to see the doorknob; just that the writer has to be very clear on what's going on in his story.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

948 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

16 Rules of Soulful Writing

Writing is sacred, or at least, the power of words is sacred. We need to respect the word, the writing, and the process. While I believe there are no real rules to writing, here are 16 rules I use in my own writing life as well as with my clients and students. Feel free to break any as necessary, as long as you're always respecting the creative process. 1. Prepare your environment. Maybe you can write everywhere, or maybe you need to go somewhere different. Alte atively, make an environment as conducive to writing as possible.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,324 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

One Goal - Hundreds of Steps. How to Manage, Get Through, and Complete a Huge Goal

Mark and I work from home, and since we're in a smallish, three-bedroom house, we share an office. However, after two-and-a-half years of sharing the office (which personally works just fine), we're finding that the physical arrangement of the furniture no longer serves us. We have two big desks facing one another, and a huge computer armoire from my past life. We also have a bookshelf for my Oxford English Dictionary set, and an easel with a whiteboard.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

907 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Strong Writing- Powerful Endings

You need a great beginning in order to grab your readers' attention, but if you don't end just as powerfully, your reader could walk away with a bad taste in her mouth, your content forgotten. You can take a so-so piece of writing and make it powerful with a good conclusion. If you start with a great piece and don't conclude it well, it's not a great piece overall. In another article, I demonstrated several different models to begin your writing, whether fiction or nonfiction. Now I'm going to do the same with endings.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,020 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

4 Steps for a Successful Anything

I recently had some issues with a business who was providing a service for me. I couldn't get my messages through: no one responded to my emails or my voice mails. What I found out later was that a former employee had done some damage as she left the company, and the staff was dealing with repeated fires. They didn't have time to deal with me. (And that's another system to talk about another day.) So, lots of issues, lots of holes, lots of missing or broken systems. And all of it can be repaired.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,069 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

What Movies Can Teach You About Writing

After watching Gettysburg several months before, both Mark and I were champing at the bit to watch Gods and Generals. Mark's a huge Civil War buff, and while I'm not an aficionado, I really loved Gettysburg. Great characters, good writing, action that moved along... An hour into Gods and Generals, I tried to fall asleep. Mark looked for the function on the Blu-Ray remote to double time the movie, kind of like speeding up records. We were bored.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

648 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Pay Attention to Me - What Writers Want

Writing isn't as easy as it seems. The perfect word doesn't just flow seamlessly out your fingers and onto the paper or keyboard. At least not 100% of the time. We struggle. It takes longer than we thought to finish a project. We get stuck. We spend dozens, even hundreds of hours on research, and we haven't written a word. We feel frustrated. And all around us, it seems as if everyone else is writing much more easily than we. So-and-so publishes two books a year. She gets her weekly ezine out - on time and every week. He writes his column each day, without fail.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

881 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

The Importance of Working ON Your Business - 7 Steps to Making Your Business Soar

Michael Gerber in The E-Myth Revisited, talks about the importance of working ON your business, as opposed to working IN your business. The working in is the delivering of your business’s services or products: providing the service, fulfilling the product, writing the proposal, giving the class, hiring the vendors, firing the contractors, sending the reports to the CPA, ordering supplies.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

886 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

"I Don't Know What to Write!" 5 Steps to Find Your Hidden Content

Probably one of the biggest complaints I hear from my clients and other entrepreneurs is that they don't know what to write when it comes to creating content for their businesses. They know they NEED to be writing (blog posts, articles, press releases, social media updates, even video scripts), but they're at a loss for what to write and say to their peeps. Believe me, we all have something to say! And, yes, that "something" is valuable. Here are 5 ways to find the content inside you that is just waiting to burst out! 1. What are your successes?

Primary topic: Writing Tools

973 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

The 2 Most Important Questions for Entrepreneurs

If you are a true entrepreneur (meaning that you have a vision for your business that is beyond just the day-to-day work that you do), then you want that business to move forward. You need to plan. You need to strategize. But before you get to all that left-brained, nitty gritty stuff, you need to be asking yourself these two very important questions. How is that going to happen? What gets in the way? For example, say you want to launch a program that starts January 4. You ask, “How is that going to happen?” Your answer might be, “I need to enroll 6 people.”

Primary topic: Writing Tools

902 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Tips On Writing Well

Writing an E-zine is more than just a pretty packaging for words. Those words are the meat of your E-zine and your message. You have to think about content and your audience and writing it well and getting your readers' attention and keeping your readers' attention and.... The list goes on and doesn't ever seem to stop.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

990 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Create Beacons to Keep You on Track- And in Alignment with Your Purpose

I was working with a client in a book writing program, and she was having a hard time figuring out what she wanted to write about. However, one theme that kept popping up for her was that she was passionate about people's stories being told. "There are all these stories out there, and they just need to be told!" she'd say over and over. It was pretty obvious to me that telling other people's stories was what she needed to write. At first, she didn't agree. "That's not good enough. It needs to be bigger."

Primary topic: Writing Tools

819 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

The Trap of Listening to the Voices in My Head

I've had my business since 2001, and it's been profitable since the very beginning (meaning I made more tha I spent). Since 2008, I've had the sole support of me and my two daughters. My business has grown, and I'm thrilled to say I have a waiting list for people to work privately with me. What that means is that there's always a lot of work to do. Especially since I have goals and dreams for my business to reach more people and make a bigger impact.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

865 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Top 10 Ways to Be More Present in Your Life

As a small business owner, mother, and wife, I'm a busy gal. And as a creative entrepreneur, I have enough ideas to keep me going 24/7 for years to come. And I like to paint, draw, quilt, cross-stitch, write, run, hike... Unfortunately in some ways, though, I seem to be wired to work, work, work, and play after. "I'll do such and such AFTER I do my work." Guess when that happens? Yep... never! I never get ALL my work done. What I noticed was that I would get to the proverbial end of regular business hours, and I felt frenetic and panicked and stressed.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

981 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Writing is a Process

As I work with people at different stages of the writing process, I find that they're often surprised that there IS a writing process. Most often, we imagine how a "real" writer works. He sits down at his lovely, mahogany desk and gets out his pad of paper or his antiquated typewriter. He flexes his fingers, and grabs his favorite fountain pen or starts typing on the keys. Suddenly, words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters fly onto the paper.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

919 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

5 Common Pitfalls That Keep You From Getting Started Writing

It's time to sit down and write your article, and you can't seem to write a thing. You stare at your paper or screen, twirl your pen, tap the keys, get up and get a glass of water, sit back down, get up and go to the bathroom, sit back down, check Facebook/Twitter/Google+, twirl your pen some more... And nothing gets written.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

625 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

9 Pieces You Need for a Successful Business

According to an article in Forbes in 2013, there were almost 28 million small businesses in the United States, and over 22 million of those were self-employed with no additional payroll or employees. Over 50% of the working population (that’s about 120 million people) works in a small business. And the last statistic for now: small businesses have generated over 65% of the net new jobs since 1995. So, seems like a small business is the way to go, huh?

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,069 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

You ARE What You Write

At some point in your career as an employee or a business owner, you're required to write something. Whether it be the endless stream of e-mails that come into and out of your computer, the proposal, or the occasional, old-fashioned letter, your words need to convey the meaning you intend. You become your words; make sure it's the you that you want people to see. Here's what you can do to make your words count: 1. Read. If you're writing proposals, study those done by the experts. If you're crafting marketing materials, scrutinize the award winners. What can you learn?

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,030 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

When Our To-Do Lists Threaten to Strangle Us

I run a business. I'm writing a collection of short stories. I'm working on a product for writers. I'm a mother of two amazing teenage daughters. I have deeply connected relationships with my friends and chosen family. I teach. I coach. I create and design new programs. I work with clients to manage their businesses. So, yeah, I'm busy.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

913 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

The Building Blocks of Powerful Writing

What exactly is writing well? Is it writing with perfect grammar? Not necessarily. Is it writing that's worthy of The New York Times bestseller list? Maybe, but I'm not sure how practical that is. Could it be as simple as writing so that your readers understand the meaning you're trying to convey? Yep, I'm pretty sure that's it. So how do you make sure your readers understand you?

Primary topic: Writing Tools

848 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Writing With Power

You want to appeal to your audience and deliver your message in a way that rouses them to action, or makes them think, or laugh, or cry; you want to make an impact. That's where style and voice come in. Style covers things like word choice, the types of sentences you write, how you introduce a piece, how you conclude it, and how you show your meaning (if you don't know it already, memorize and make your own the mantra of "show; don't tell"). Voice is that element that's intangible, yet so crucial for effect. Voice in writing is what makes it yours and no one else's.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

886 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

How to Get Motivated - When You're Not

It happens... you set aside time to write and create. Or a client cancels at the last minute. Or that rare thing of a block of time drops into your lap. You're even all set with what you're going to work on. And you stare at the computer. You frown at your list. You shuffle papers on your desk. You look at your plan. You do nothing. And it's so frustrating!!! Especially if it's the case where you got the very rare gift of extra time. You DREAM about having a block of time to create and write. And then you get it, and you can't seem to even press a key on the keyboard.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

871 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Managing the Writing Cycle

Much of the work I do with writers, especially authors, is to help them understand that writing is a process. You don't just sit down and start writing Chapter 1, finish that chapter, and seamlessly move onto the next one. Before you can get to that place where you're writing full sentences, you need to know what you're writing about. You need to gather fodder, play with ideas, go down a few paths. Once you've gathered the fruit of your creative labors, then you can start forming that fruit into a more coherent message.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

710 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Connect the Dots for Your Readers

In conversations or in words, we usually know what it is we're trying to say. We have the concept in our heads. We can see it. Then, the trick is to translate that concept (which is not word-based) into words. Just like in a conversation with your spouse, you don't mention every single stream-of-consciousness detail (unless it's important). "When we were driving on I-695, this truck almost ran us off the road. Oh, and the sky was blue." Part of our job as writers is to understand what's important and what's not. The "sky was blue" is NOT important, by the way.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

648 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Creating Sacred Space - Both Inside and Out

Much of what I do for my clients is to create sacred space. When I'm leading a workshop, I'm creating sacred space for my clients and students to write and create. When I coach, the coaching session is a sacred space where my clients feel safe to share, to stretch, to take risks, and to uncover blocks to their creativity and content. I've realized recently that sacred space is one of my core values, along with connection and authenticity. I not only create sacred space for others, but it's crucial for me to do all that I do. And I suspect it's important to you, too.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

938 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

When You Don't Know What to Write - 6 Options to Get You Moving

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both... " One of my clients was writing a novel, and she was extremely frustrated. She had two different tracks she could follow, and she just couldn't decide which one to take. So she was stuck... and wasn't writing a thing.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

608 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Write It Badly

A Real Writer sits down at his beautiful desk, and magic flies from his fingers. Beautiful words appear on the page or the screen, with very little effort from him. And then WE sit down to write, hoping for the same magic to flow - to somehow make instant sense of the concept in our brains and convert that concept into perfect words. And it rarely, if ever, happens that way. But we think it should, and so we criticize ourselves before, during, and after our writing. "This stinks." "Why did I even think I could write this?" "Who is going to want to read this?"

Primary topic: Writing Tools

928 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Be Brazen - Be Bold - Be You

You have a product or service that solves a problem and that people need, and you want to share that. But then it comes down to communicating with your target market... that's where you get stuck. You have to write blog posts, ezine articles, sales pages, campaign emails, affiliate materials... the list goes on. You have trouble taking that concept of your valuable product or service and confidently and powerfully communicating it. You feel like you are not connecting with your market. (And you're not.)

Primary topic: Writing Tools

805 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Consistent and Persistent AKA You Need to Be Writing

A common marketing statistic bandied about is that it takes 7-10 touches to get people's attention. Hence, why on radio stations, you'll hear the same commercials over and over - because advertisers know they can't just play the commercial once and expect people to buy their widget. I've also seen reports where people have tracked their selling statistics, and they find they have much more follow-through after 14 touches. What that means is that you have to put yourself in front of people - consistently and persistently. You need to get your message out there - often.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

482 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

The Inner Critic Doesn't Belong in the Creative Process

Last week, I hosted the Writing Hour where I talked to writers at all various stages of the writing and publishing process. One writer was frustrated with her progress (or lack of progress as it were) in her fiction story. She felt she'd been spending too much time on the character development and not enough time on the plot. "It's like I don't know how to do beginning, middle, and end." As we talked further, we discovered that her time spent on character development hadn't been wasted. "Are you happier with who the characters are now as opposed to when you first started?"

Primary topic: Writing Tools

876 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Strong Writing Part I - Powerful Beginnings

Grab 'em at the beginning and don't let 'em go. Powerful beginnings - whether we're talking about short stories or sales pages - are crucial to capturing your reader's attention. If you don't grab her right away, she has no reason to keep reading. And you've lost her. Conversely, if you've kept her attention from the very beginning but you leave her wanting or, worse, confused at the end, then that's just as bad. Let's start with beginnings and introductions. (We'll cover endings in Part II.)

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,100 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

The 6 Most Common Website Problems

If you work virtually or market your business online at all, your website is a crucial part of your business. It’s one of the first things online people will see about you. Even offline people might go “check you out” after they’ve met you in person. Recently, most of my coaching calls and Content Strategy Consultations have centered around websites. These are people who already have websites, and their websites either need a tune-up or to be maximized.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

944 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

The Ladder of Abstraction: 5 Techniques to Strengthen Your Writing

Whatever we're writing, fiction or nonfiction, blogging or articles, sales letters or emails, we often find ourselves needing to convey an abstract concept. For example, in a marketing email, you are supposed to tap into your audience's pain. Whatever your audience's pain point, it's probably somewhat of an abstract concept. Stress. Want. Exhaustion. Fear. Need. The better job you do of conveying that pain point, the more likely you are to connect with your audience.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

2,109 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Don't Rely on Yourself to Get Things Done - Create Exte al Motivators

"An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. An object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force." You know how it works... if it's up to you get something done - and no one is relying on it - you procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate... And it doesn't get done. But the second that you're responsible to someone else and someone is depending upon you to get it done, man, you've never seen yourself be so productive.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

867 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Writing From Your Soul in Business

You have a business to run, bills to pay, a team to manage, services to deliver, new products and programs to create.... and that doesn't include all the writing tasks you *should* do: • A newsletter • Blog posts • Status updates on social media sites • Marketing copy • Web copy • Your bio • Speaker or one-sheet • Chapter of a collaborative book • Your own book • Self-study program materials • Compelling and juicy anything

Primary topic: Writing Tools

909 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

You're Stuck, and It's Your Fault

There are many reasons we procrastinate or simply don't do something we say we want to do. Something that will forward our goals. Something that moves us toward our dreams. Something that is EXACTLY what we want to do. But we don't do it. Why? It's being stuck, and it's not just a lack of inspiration, although we may use that as an excuse. It's almost always because of fear. And because of that fear, we keep ourselves stuck.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

902 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

Starting Big- 5 Steps to Making It Real

Some time ago, I went through an exercise from a great article online from Meredith Eisenberg, "The Reverse Funnel - How to Dream BIG and Start Small." It's basically a product development/marketing exercise to get you thinking differently about your products and programs flow. Long story short, the article recommends that you start with your big dream package, the $50,000 kahuna that people would be willing to pay you... and you have to figure out what you would offer at that price. Then, you work down from there.

Primary topic: Writing Tools

741 views

By Dawn ShulerRecently published1 topic

10 Specific Ways to Jazz Up Your Writing

The clearer (and more specific) you are about your message and the results you want to achieve, the easier it is for you to write. Then the words flow, because they're flowing from the heart. Once those words are flowing nicely and easily (because you're connecting with your passion), then you can go on to to look at the actual writing. What are 10 specific techniques you can use to jazz up your writing?

Primary topic: Writing Tools

997 views

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