Tag Archives: Marketing

Art from the Heart

Love motif art doodlesFollow your heart by following your inspiration…

This mode continues for me as I create designs according to inner guidance. Actually, inspiration can come from anywhere, but  promptings to act must be validated by intuition or strong resonance. Literal affirmations are leading contenders for fulfillment, but anything inspiring, beautiful, fun, or whimsical can be considered.

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Author, Author!

My claim to authorship is rather thin, since—outside of career—my writing is usually devoted to personal projects rather than public ones.

That’s starting to change. On October 5, the Springdale Library will host an Arkansas Author’s event and I am one of the participants. At the event, I’ll promote my writing and book illustration. I may also have to explain the photo of myself that appears in the library’s announcement. It’s the one at the top of this blog, but without the three monkeys … which leaves me looking rather impudent toward my audience. Anyway, if you’re nearby with free time, please come to the library that afternoon with your support.

Thanks!  ♥ ~Jo

“Pomes 5¢”

The Dream

“Pomes 5¢” is the booth title I dreamed up for my version of Lucy’s version of a lemonade stand. In visualization, my stand is full-sized and the poet is swamped by purchasers.

Poet doll selling poems

Poet’s “lemonade stand”

The Dreamy Reality

Yesterday, I experienced a modified version of this idea at my hometown’s end-of-summer festival. Lucy was portrayed by a doll my niece gave me. The lemonade stand was made from an inverted patio footstool and some small cardboard boxes. “Pomes” (so-called because my everyday poetry is not very refined) became “Poems” (so as not to confuse customers). “Pomes” also relates to apples, an everyday wholesome nourishment.

The real was better than the imagined. Along with a half-dozen other Arkansas authors, and at the invitation of owners Myra and Pat Moran, I shared booth space at Trolley Line Bookstore in downtown Rogers. At other times during the day, I filled in at the Lions Club chili contest booth and handed out flyers for an upcoming car show.

I wore a pocketed apron under my Lions t-shirt so I could carry poems with me and offer them freely to people who looked like they might be interested. My approach evolved as the day went on: “Hi! Have you had your poem of the day yet? No? Well it’s here in this spread somewhere.” I would then fan out a brightly-colored assortment of slips of paper, just as a Las Vegas dealer would fan a deck of cards. “Pick one. The one you pick is the one that’s meant for you … or for somebody who means a lot to you. It’s like a fortune cookie and, when you read it, you’ll know why it came to you this way.”

One man was reluctant to participate. “No. No. I’d rather not.” So we talked awhile about his t-shirt. “Fly Fishing in America” it announced above a related graphic. “Fly Fishing in America” is the name of a band that had just participated in a music contest. We talked on, about family, and eventually the man allowed that his wife might want to try the fortune cookie thing because she likes to read. So we went to her and, as it turned out, her poem was about books.

“Sure you don’t want to try?” I asked. He took one, read it, and was shaken. “How did you know I like trees?” he wondered. “I didn’t,” I answered, “something else did.” The man even knew Joyce Kilmer’s poem by heart. Here is the poem he picked:

TREES THAT PLEASE

Orange-gold
beneath bold blue—
October oaks,
we’ve pined for you.

Golden oaks and blue sky

October Oaks by Krosseel of MorgueFile

It kept happening again and again, that syncing. In one instance, the recipients were a couple. He drew first and got a disappointed look on his face. Same with her. Then they read the poems aloud—and each said, “You got mine!”

All this interacting happened during my wandering around. When I arrived at at the bookstore for the authors’ time-slot, I reviewed the small “lemonade” stand I’d set up earlier and its sign mentioning five cents. By then I knew enough to tell people, “Oh, the first poem is free. Just pick one. The one you pick is the one that’s meant for you…”

The story of the Lucy doll is a very special one, to be saved for a future time. I hope all your days are at least as delightful as mine was yesterday. ♥ ~Jo

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The Mechanics of Work

L-Lobo Designs

Yoicks! Who’ve thought? Ethan has been “swamping” at the mechanic’s these last few weeks and I’ve helped out, too, with graphics. My offer of a plan for storefront signage turned into a chance to do the signs. Then our joint involvement brought an opportunity to design t-shirts and other items for the gift shop … maybe maybe even to run the gift shop..

 L-Lobo Designs logo

So Ethan and I have been discussing the opportunities and risks. I’ve been researching the sorts of things that are sold in motorplex gift shops. And today I took time from some tax accounting to play around with a business name and logo.(It was quite a challenge to find a name that wasn’t taken.) Anyway …

Look what life lobbed to me: a LOBO LOGO project. What fun!  ♥ ~Jo

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Writing, Spirituality, and Marketing

Starting to Get Ready to Begin.

Last night I listened to a webinar about ebook writing and promotion. Is it intimidation, sour grapes, or what that I feel so alien toward speedwriting, keyword orienting, list building, joint venture partnering, upselling, and similar concepts? The overarching concept of the presentation was marketing … with emphasis on ecommerce.

eBook Button

As I search for my own resonance in this arena, it helps to recall this favorite analysis:

Selling is getting rid of what you have.
Marketing is having what you can get rid of.

 

As for poetry and spiritual musings … are there people who want that? And is it counter-productive (for lack of a better word) to combine those two things with marketing?

I’m grateful to authors who did that combining. I also sometimes wonder if their books, articles, videos, workshops, and counselling are—”bottom line”—spiritually positive, negative, or neutral. If the real orientation of spirituality is to go within, do these methods spur or stall?

My assumption is that it ultimately doesn’t matter … and that Life is operating through me to do what it wants. Yesterday’s poem seems apropos:

DEAR SELF,

I see that you’re in trouble,
mostly because you think
you’re a special case.

I have remedies.

But even I hope
you can pull this off.

—Your  Inner Guide

I also pondered yesterday about a God who pondered creating the universe. Why? What would be the enticement? I decided it wouldn’t be for worshippers or passive companions. It would be for playmates, as in a great cosmic game of hide-and-seek.

Go! ...You’re IT!  ♥ ~Jo

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[Photo by Wallyir of morgueFile]