by Cassie Howard | Feb 23, 2015 | Blogging |
Does this sound like you?… “I’d love to start a blog, but I don’t know what to write about.” “I’d love to write about ____, but people are already doing it, so it’s pointless.” “I have too many ideas for a blog, I don’t know which one to choose!” If any (or all!) of these sound like you, you’re not alone. I’ve spoken to dozens of moms who want to start a blog, but are stuck feeling like they have too many ideas or an idea that just isn’t good enough. Well, guess what - your idea is good enough. Whatever it is, it is good enough. Whatever makes you excited to write about, excited to think about, excited to talk about - is good enough. It may not be the most profitable blog idea (there are ways to determine that), but if you’re not excited to write about it, it will never take off anyway. There are ways to monetize just about every blog topic under the sun, so have no fear. Say what you want to say! If you’re suck on what to write about, here are some blog ideas: 1. Parenting Yes, there are lots of parenting blogs out there, but if you can make yourself different or better than them, you can still be successful in this niche. Consider blogging about parenting your special needs child, or if you’re a parent of multiples (twins, triplets, etc.), you can write from that aspect, or perhaps you adopted all of your kids - a parenting blog from that point of view could be interesting as well. Or...
by Cassie Howard | Feb 9, 2015 | Goals |
Just because January is over, doesn’t mean goal setting is off the table. Setting goals isn’t something that has to happen at the beginning of the year. In fact, I recommend setting multiple goals for yourself and your business throughout the year. I always set big goals at the beginning of the year, but then throughout the year, I create more, smaller goals for myself. This makes goal setting fresh, new and exciting all year long, instead of just for a few weeks at the beginning of the year. For example, one of my goals for this year is to write a book. That’s a pretty big goal. Throughout the year, I plan set more goals for myself, to help me reach that big goal, such as: Write 3 chapters Write 10 chapters Edit the manuscript Have a ghost editor edit the manuscript Finalize manuscript Get artwork done for book cover Send book to publishers (or start down the self-publishing route… I haven’t decided yet!) Setting these smaller goals helps me to break that big goal up a bit, so that it doesn’t seem unattainable and overwhelming. If you’re new to goal setting, or just want some tips on making goal setting work better for you, here are some of the things I’ve learned over the last few years: 1. It’s never too late to set goals. Never, ever! Even if it’s the middle of December. Goals are always helpful in giving us that little push to get things accomplished. When you set goals for yourself, you get excited about them, but if you don’t continually set goals, that...
by Cassie Howard | Feb 2, 2015 | Planning |
Have you ever had one of those weeks where you wonder “where did the time go?” and “what did I actually DO this week?” or some other variation of those questions? I have. Sometimes, when we work from home, it’s easy to get distracted by other tasks that may seem important at the time, but aren’t. For example, just a few weeks ago, I was working on content for a course re-launch, and I had to go upstairs to get my sweater first, because I was cold. When I was up there, I noticed 3 full baskets of laundry that needed to be folded and put away. They’d been there for 3 days already. So, what did I do? I sat down and folded them all, of course! My brain was screaming at me to get this task done, because it was SO important (even though it wasn’t). Without thinking twice, I folded the laundry and put it all away. It took me close to an hour. By that time, I had to leave the house to go pick up my son from school (and once he’s home, I don’t usually do any more computer work) - which means I didn’t get to my course content. All because of some stupid baskets of laundry. As you can see… it happens. I wish I could say that, after 7 years of running my business, that these distractions no longer phased me, but I’d be lying. Sometimes they do. What I’ve learned is that if I don’t have a list of weekly to-dos, these distractions seem to creep up on me...
