https://www.tangleandfern.com/a-manifesto daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650281253550-4K7PLE37Z1HR47NBZH14/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.03.10+pm.png 1.5 A manifesto - A Values Manifesto We’re going to create a simple Values Manifesto that represents what your brand stands for, and how your brand will behave in accordance with its values. We’re going to treat this process like a simple, algebraic formula: Take two or three of the “I believe” statements you made in Activity 2 that most resonate with you (let’s call these x) Take two or three of the values + behaviour statements you made in the previous activity (Activity 4) that most resonate with you (let’s call these y) Now put them together in a statement (you can either combine them, or separate them out as I’ve done in the example below): x + y = a brand values statement For example: (x) I believe our planet needs to be protected and cared for, and that we are the stewards of a precious and limited natural resource. (y) I will only use reusable and recyclable packaging. (x) I believe in promoting and celebrating the voices of women. (y) I will always hold space in my communities for everyone to participate, and will actively invite and support women to share their stories. Your turn! Turn to page 9 and have a go. (For the moment, don’t fuss about the grammar or making things sound perfect: we can finesse that later. The goal right now is simply to solidify a Values Manifesto that resonates for you). https://www.tangleandfern.com/lesson-2-finding-your-people daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/5476fafb-08e2-4ff1-80dc-eb05c5988923/flowers.png Lesson 2. Finding your People - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/0ef2700a-ebe9-41dc-ad0b-266ac9cc4fd5/Audience+Onion+Diagram.jpg Lesson 2. Finding your People - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650710212753-3HASSHD88XCNGLTILONA/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.00.48+pm.png Lesson 2. Finding your People https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650710725668-9SQ9JKAMVXSZ16YKROKZ/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.02.44+pm.png Lesson 2. Finding your People https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650710673132-L60YS712P97C1TBUATH7/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.09.44+pm.png Lesson 2. Finding your People https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650710857021-Y3UTXV0PQ1SSBIS54CLK/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.04.22+pm.png Lesson 2. Finding your People https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1661832339173-NVQJV7UXIYXE09D5Z05P/Screen%252BShot%252B2022-04-18%252Bat%252B9.08.38%252Bpm.jpg Lesson 2. Finding your People https://www.tangleandfern.com/motivations daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650710673132-L60YS712P97C1TBUATH7/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.09.44+pm.png 2.2 Motivations - Motivation If we are truly to understand who the members of our ideal audience are, we need to understand what motivates them. When reading a script, actors will often ask, “What’s my character’s motivation?” It’s not enough for them to be told, “He opens the door and steps through it,” they want to know why he wanted to open that particular door at that particular time, and what made him go through. Motivation is the unseen force behind any action. It might not be scripted, it might not be spoken, but it’s there all the same. Today we are going to do a spot of creative writing - using our most educated of guesses - to begin to create your audience persona. First, keep in mind everything you wrote about your ideal audience in the previous activity. Also picture that moment, once again, when someone from your audience is doing exactly the thing you want them to do. Got it in your head? Now, turn to page 16 of your workbook and answer the questions about that person’s motivations. If you don’t already have engaged audience-members, customers or clients, you may have to use your imagination. That’s ok: as I said, your guesses are educated guesses. Read through the hints and tips below, to get a better feel for what to look for. (ps. It’s completely OK if you feel you need to create more than one persona. Just start with one today, and repeat these exercises later, as many times as you need or want to). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 2.2 Motivations https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 2.2 Motivations https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 2.2 Motivations https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607628784608-5D22G9GPLHDSAB2IXC2G/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0638.jpg 2.2 Motivations https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 2.2 Motivations https://www.tangleandfern.com/terms-conditions daily 0.75 2022-04-25 https://www.tangleandfern.com/courses daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/83cd1575-b5ef-4e44-84ff-23822eba3818/cereal+square.jpeg Courses - Magic Pudding Marketing A seven-day mini-course to help you create a never-ending source of content ideas for your creative work or business. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/738926b6-cafe-4fa9-8601-7bec7fedf4b2/Let+it+Grow+-+logo+%28solid%29.jpg Courses https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/df7c627b-9f5f-4245-9fd0-300a304e5fd6/bottle-narrow.jpg Courses - Signature Scent A weekend-intensive storytelling and personal branding workshop for bloggers, artists small-business owners and creative people. Delivered online or in person. https://www.tangleandfern.com/lesson-1-articulating-your-values daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/5476fafb-08e2-4ff1-80dc-eb05c5988923/flowers.png Lesson 1. Articulating your Values - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/5476fafb-08e2-4ff1-80dc-eb05c5988923/flowers.png Lesson 1. Articulating your Values - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650281173552-SRO7YZH3FLO62P8RVUM2/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.06.04+pm.png Lesson 1. Articulating your Values https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650280926055-UYJJEPK2SNKL58M6JRLI/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.00.38+pm.png Lesson 1. Articulating your Values https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650280978613-92RR68GAI3GIOC4EGF9O/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.06.24+pm.png Lesson 1. Articulating your Values https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650281050931-3K2H7FGQGYXZJRNG6GUU/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.10.21+pm.png Lesson 1. Articulating your Values https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650281253550-4K7PLE37Z1HR47NBZH14/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.03.10+pm.png Lesson 1. Articulating your Values https://www.tangleandfern.com/not-negotiable daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650281050931-3K2H7FGQGYXZJRNG6GUU/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.10.21+pm.png 1.3 Not negotiable - Not negotiable! This activity is all about distilling things down to what you absolutely must have (your non-negotiables), and also what you absolutely cannot abide (your deal-breakers). First, read back over your answers to all the questions in the previous two activities (what you stand for, and what you believe). Now, see if you can pull out a list of words and phrases from these answers that help to describe the things that matter to you the most. I’m calling these your “non-negotiables,” they are the values and behaviours without which you just wouldn’t want to be doing what you do. List your non-negotiables in your workbook on page 7. Next, still reading back over your answers from the previous two activities, keep an eye out for words and phrases that represent your genuine turn-offs, the kinds of behaviours and values you absolutely don’t want to be part of. I’ve called these your deal-breakers. List any deal-breakers in your workbook on page 6. Obviously, non-negotiables and deal-breakers don’t only have to come from your previous activities. You might think of others to include here, that you hadn’t included in the previous activities. That’s perfectly fine. But do also consider whether you might want to add to or change some of your answers from the previous two days, if you think it’s important to incorporate today’s work into them. https://www.tangleandfern.com/services daily 0.75 2022-04-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/e37b8e5a-5ba7-4bf8-a923-b9a16538acdc/IMG_2186+2.jpg Services - I could use a chat Let’s imagine you and I are sitting together over a cup of tea, brainstorming everything you need in order to move forward. We can work through any specific questions you have, any challenges you are facing, or just help you make plans to kick things off. More about coaching >> https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/d7c6172b-d567-42d7-bd93-deb311c69c13/social+media.JPG Services - Manage my socials I can audit your existing platforms, create strategies for you, and even create content on your behalf and manage your channels according to your goals and in your voice. Find out how >> https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/7774e070-a2a2-46dc-8527-925d2ac39726/0F97608F-9BF0-4ED0-91CC-D0DE77F8F7CA-AA9B486F-B51A-42D9-A893-1833E6888117.JPG Services - I need a brand Let’s get you set up and running. Together, you and I will create something beautiful and practical, that you can roll out straight away. Learn more >> https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/103c1db0-3850-4b00-bd82-52126b438606/2CB2DDB8-561E-4432-B358-9A854E8AC753-7CF16765-7B23-4081-8202-23ED76FCC439.JPG Services - Make me a logo If you’d like something bespoke and hand-drawn or painted, I can create a logo that encapsulates the mood and story of your brand. Browse logo portfolio >> https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/05630d73-1dc7-4e54-9b14-082a5b057e4a/banner-content.JPG Services - I’m lost for words Roger that! I’m a journalist, editor and comms consultant from way back, so let me write your newsletters, blog posts, pitches and website copy for you, exactly the way you want them. Writing services >> https://www.tangleandfern.com/logos daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1b3dac3a-f879-4d3b-9d6e-5a8abe34b9de/HH+logo+-+white.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/ccb1abc9-ea27-4a5d-98f1-dbeaeafd9f1a/PSP+logo+-+green+%28low+res%29.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/df87227f-e486-4c46-b020-c699e45b2f6f/NaomiLoves_logo_jpg_LO+RES.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/61292639-078e-4642-9e0d-262218121d8d/Logo-square+%28white%29+LOW-RES.jpg Logos https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/23c92d97-8074-43a1-927a-a323cc93bfbd/TTF+logo+-+trees-pink-LOW+RES.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/4b4cf448-a103-4b0b-9494-419b2549cccf/logo-long-table.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/a1ee9dd3-ba59-4e77-8383-baf5be9c1de9/logo-rise-up.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/8c9afca6-1520-47af-b0c7-114f79969838/chemins+sauvages+logo+%28white%29+LOW+RES.jpeg Logos https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/31e4ae26-fcd9-4f6e-aa9f-5c5d9ebf7b32/logo-natalie.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/b8387290-73f5-4e07-9bac-93486f2b655f/logo-kulinary.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/9fbe9254-154e-474a-8a3b-4ac518b224dd/logo-longview.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/bac32887-3110-434c-af7d-77b7dd426c62/logo-loretta.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/8031d68b-83e0-4027-bd88-fc5788623066/logo-back-room.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/c338d1ba-cd01-4aea-a5a8-921ace056938/logo-mini-kitchen.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/fbced90a-8bc5-45ae-a9ff-7a9d57916826/%28BLUE+BACKGROUND-LOW+RES%29+-+red+cup.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/83472f49-d11b-49c6-8731-3c4e725aa891/logo-whisk-cook-graze.jpg Logos - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/0da70717-f54e-484f-9246-56b6b1d05d1b/Logo-long-white+%28low+res%29.jpg Logos https://www.tangleandfern.com/branding daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/7774e070-a2a2-46dc-8527-925d2ac39726/0F97608F-9BF0-4ED0-91CC-D0DE77F8F7CA-AA9B486F-B51A-42D9-A893-1833E6888117.JPG Branding - I believe branding is, at its heart, storytelling. It’s how we know we belong. Through good branding, we are able to find our ‘right people’ (our customers, clients and audiences) and connect with them through stories that express our shared values, shared goals, and shared aesthetic. When we connect with people in this way, ‘marketing’ doesn’t feel sleazy or insincere. Instead, it is a coming together of likeminded souls. When people hire you or buy from you, it is because you have what they want, and you are the kind of person they want to buy from. https://www.tangleandfern.com/social daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/7e3c6acb-ab47-482b-abfd-dc873249dd23/5358F400-9D56-489C-81BF-5D0122592E7F-2783C438-8C40-4BD3-BEB6-723652D671D1.JPG Social https://www.tangleandfern.com/coaching daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/fa7608da-7be1-42fe-b747-fac0d8359379/tempImageQH7QWv.jpg Coaching https://www.tangleandfern.com/demographics daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650710212753-3HASSHD88XCNGLTILONA/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.00.48+pm.png 2.1 Demographics - Understanding demographics This is the beginnings of us getting to know who is in our ideal audience. We’ll start with broad brushstrokes (demographics), and fill in the details as we go along. Remember that imagined scenario, in which I asked you to picture someone in the very act of doing exactly what you want them to do? Open your workbook to page 14, and write what they are doing in the first box. Paint a good picture for yourself. Keeping that moment in your mind’s eye, in the second box, write down anything you can observe about them - are they in an office? their home? your shop? Are they wearing jeans? a suit? a princess costume? Are they alone or with colleagues? significant other? children? acolytes? What else? Now, make some educated guesses (the best you can do, using your common sense and your knowledge of anyone who has engaged with you or bought from you so far) to answer the questions in the rest of the boxes on pages 14 and 15. If you find yourself getting stuck, use the hints and tips I’ve provided for each of the questions, below. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 2.1 Demographics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 2.1 Demographics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847743861-GWVMBPD7Z7WQRQL9IZZ8/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0380.jpg 2.1 Demographics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 2.1 Demographics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607628784608-5D22G9GPLHDSAB2IXC2G/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0638.jpg 2.1 Demographics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 2.1 Demographics https://www.tangleandfern.com/what-you-stand-for daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650280926055-UYJJEPK2SNKL58M6JRLI/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.00.38+pm.png 1.1 What you stand for - What do you stand for? To get us started, I’m going to ask you a series of questions about you and the work you do. Open your workbook to page 5, and jot down the answers to the following questions: What problems do you solve for people? Or in other words, what is your gift to the world? In this question, we are beginning to think not only about what you do, but why you do it. For example, “I want to empower mothers to make healthier choices in their lunch boxes.” Or, “I want to brighten people’s homes with beautiful art for their walls.” What do you want people to say about you or your business, after you have left the room? This is a big question, because it goes to what really matters to you. How do you want to leave them feeling? What does “A job well done” look like to you? Describe it… Go into some detail, as this question encourages you to think of your audience, instead of yourself What would you have to do to feel you had failed your customers or community? We all have standards, and they all differ from one person to the next. Your answers to this question will help you recognise yours What are some attributes that you enjoy and respect about other people’s brands, businesses or projects? It’s easy to feel that we like and respect someone or something. Here, I’m asking you to dig deeper, and identify what it is, specifically, that you like and respect about them (and why) When it comes to other people’s brands, businesses or projects, what are your biggest turn-offs? The point of this question is to help you recognise some of the boundaries you don’t want to cross Finish this sentence: “Nobody should have to…” This question - inspired by my own coach Mel Wiggins - is calling upon you to exercise empathy. I want you to identify with the struggles that the members of your audience experience, and express why you want to help them. If this prompt doesn’t work for you, try, “I understand how it feels to…” https://www.tangleandfern.com/categories-themes daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651276403389-SWMZ30CKVYLCAX3TDD5V/Botanical%2Bmultiple%2B-%2Bmushrooms.jpg 3.4 Categories & themes - Categories, subjects, themes To help us get to the heart of your visual style and aesthetic, we’re going to return to your Pinterest boards and hunt for any common visual themes, subjects and categories that recur. Look at each of your boards critically, one a time. In each, what do you see? Are there any visual themes that you notice recurring again and again? Lots of pictures of leaves? Bright colours? Muted tones? Unusual shadows? Flatlays? Artistic photography? Whimsical illustration? Try to focus on the themes, rather than the content, of these images. For example, the theme for “lots of pictures of leaves” would probably “natural,” or “autumnal,” rather than “leaves.” The theme for lots of pictures of cups of tea and teapots would be “homely,” or “comforting” or “tasty” (etc) depending on what this means to you, rather than “tea.” Write the themes from your boards down in your workbook on page 25. If you are struggling with this, you’re not alone: this process stumps a lot of my clients! Bring it up during our next workshop, and we can go through your Pinterest boards together, to see if the group can provide you with some insights. https://www.tangleandfern.com/lesson-3-emotions-style daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651275819907-TLVG3KAY4MBW2V627J8X/dinan%252Barchway.jpg Lesson 3. Emotions & Style https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651276403389-SWMZ30CKVYLCAX3TDD5V/Botanical%2Bmultiple%2B-%2Bmushrooms.jpg Lesson 3. Emotions & Style https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651276211414-8LOQH8QYD1SP81DFUM1X/flowerswall1.jpg Lesson 3. Emotions & Style https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651275914793-BT3OE2XGHPV20NGK6TGZ/tempImageViQtEz.jpg Lesson 3. Emotions & Style https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651276355909-ZZB0W20OL4QIHAR3BYTJ/353C4E1F-D422-47D7-8A9F-99FCCBD8E938.jpg Lesson 3. Emotions & Style https://www.tangleandfern.com/lesson-4-brand-toolkit daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651890493264-W6GREQKKVI2AROOLTXG7/letterpress-6.jpg Lesson 4. Brand Toolkit https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651890713603-B4RRKNAC9U7OVF04Y263/5358F400-9D56-489C-81BF-5D0122592E7F-2783C438-8C40-4BD3-BEB6-723652D671D1.jpg Lesson 4. Brand Toolkit https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651890014757-41QPRYC9OYRDU8A05GAZ/Botanical%2Bmultiple%2B-%2Bbeetroot.jpg Lesson 4. Brand Toolkit https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651890116694-J1UWTZU54UCAMBUED0EC/AEAAF265-B120-472C-A57C-291FB8FB0DAA-CA179F79-0516-44EB-8083-BE3893668804.jpg Lesson 4. Brand Toolkit https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651890608322-OZCRSR5AXRNJ7HSW38AN/592EBD03-619D-40C7-ACD3-785826E6AF9A-48512376-2276-4530-8204-C57588560FE4.jpg Lesson 4. Brand Toolkit https://www.tangleandfern.com/about daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/a21d21e2-2c90-49ea-95bb-ac76ea17728c/9C4A40BB-904A-4745-8479-CA62DCA29CFE.JPG About - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/fa7608da-7be1-42fe-b747-fac0d8359379/tempImageQH7QWv.jpg About - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/d0d24c8d-956d-4439-958a-d6751d52ecf0/UNP_Naomi+4.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/a1c890d0-5214-4bf5-8017-ab5d7a4cc9f9/flw-last-jpg.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/47d2c81e-c0e3-49c3-9e41-c442dbb30e11/mag-peppermint.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1ac9a9d0-5c24-473e-b7d7-662744d2fe22/gd65_cover_1140w--crop-upscale.jpeg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/c81e7fa6-6fc6-4a74-bc66-052d9f503adf/TF+logo+-+illustration.png About - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.tangleandfern.com/values-in-action daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650281173552-SRO7YZH3FLO62P8RVUM2/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.06.04+pm.png 1.4 Values in action - Values in action How will the things you value the most influence your behaviour? That’s your values in action. Read back over the list of “non-negotiables” you created in the previous activity. These are your values. You’ll probably find the list contains a lot of descriptive words (you might have words like “kind,” “sustainable,” “accountable,” etc). Now, for each of those values, see if you can attach a behaviour to it. So for example, if one of your values is “Sustainable,” you might write, “I will only use reusable or recyclable packaging.” Or if one of your values is “Helpful,” you might write, “I will always share my processes and suppliers,” or, “I will answer every question as quickly and fully as possible.” Create behaviours to go with each of your values (your “non-negotiables” from the previous activity) in your workbook on page 8. Use the deal-breakers too, if you want to. https://www.tangleandfern.com/home daily 1.0 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/39f2824a-5a1a-449d-81f7-11279bac22b7/desk.jpeg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/05fbca7a-c6cf-4291-b110-73ec88ed476d/IMG_8489.JPG Home https://www.tangleandfern.com/persona daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650710794237-7NZ9GYBHJQMUNFMQLT82/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.08.38+pm.png 2.4 Persona - An audience persona This is the final step in helping your ideal audience become a real person in your mind. We’re going to create an audience persona. Start by reading back over everything you’re written about your audience during the past few activities, and review all there is that you know about them. Now, give them a name. Choose something that suits their age, situation and personality, and write it into the box on page 18 of your workbook. From now on, when you are writing newsletters, sales copy, social media posts, courses, and just about anything else, write to that person, and think of them by name. Doing this will help you keep your audience front-of-mind when you’re communicating, and bring a warm, personal tone to your content. (We will talk more about this when we come to create your content next month). Next, I want you to create a bit of a visual collage for your audience persona: a “mood board,” if you will. You can either paste your pictures directly into page 18 of your workbook if you’re working from the print version, or create something online using a tool like Canva, then simply share a link to it in your workbook if you’re working online. Look for pictures of people who look like your audience persona, and then find other images that help give a visual feel for who they are. Maybe you’ll look for interiors they might have in their own homes, art, objects they use, activities they do, pets, playlist covers, shops, locations, colour swatches… any and all the information that you have created over this past week can be made visual in your mood board for them. https://www.tangleandfern.com/statements-of-belief daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650280978613-92RR68GAI3GIOC4EGF9O/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.06.24+pm.png 1.2 Statements of belief - Statements of belief We’re going to create a list of “statements of belief,” representing your opinions about the world and what’s important to you. Think about your brand, about the things you do, about the way you want to be seen. Your first statements might feel a little superficial - that’s ok! It’s perfectly legitimate to pick the low-hanging fruit! - but challenge yourself as you go along to think about your core beliefs. What do you truly believe about this thing, and why does it matter to you? Write your statements of belief in your workbook on page 6. Once you’re done, walk away for a few minutes - make a cup of tea, play with the dog, fold some washing - and then return to do the second half of this exercise. Opening your workbook back up to page 5, fill out the rest of the statement. You’ve already listed what you believe, now I want you to fill out why it matters to you. So each statement will look like “I believe ABC, because XYZ.” https://www.tangleandfern.com/mood daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651276355909-ZZB0W20OL4QIHAR3BYTJ/353C4E1F-D422-47D7-8A9F-99FCCBD8E938.jpg 3.1 Choose your mood - Choose your mood Today we are going to create three “mood words” for your brand. These words will represent your goals and values, while influencing how you express them in public. What are mood words, exactly? Mood words identify how you want to make your audience feel. They’re not what you do. Not a description of your style. They’re how you want to make people feel. This is the most important thing for you to remember. You are not going to be describing your brand itself with these words, you are describing how your brand makes other people feel. Maya Angelou said it best: “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Turn to your workbook on page 23 and read over the sets of “mood words” on the page. Then follow the workbook instructions below to choose your words (scroll further if you need extra help). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 3.1 Choose your mood https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 3.1 Choose your mood https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 3.1 Choose your mood https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 3.1 Choose your mood https://www.tangleandfern.com/style-tone daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651276211414-8LOQH8QYD1SP81DFUM1X/flowerswall1.jpg 3.5 Style & tone - Style & tone Let’s imagine you are briefing a photographer to take a series of “brand images” on your behalf. Bring your three mood words to the front of your mind. Now, how would you instruct the photographer to shoot images in a style that best matches the mood words of your brand? For example, if one of your mood words is “nostalgic,” would you instruct the photographer to aim for a contemporary style, or vintage? Do you think they should shoot in natural light, or a studio setting? In your workbook on page 26 is a list of words to help describe a photographic style. I’ve grouped them in general opposites, but don’t feel you have to pick either/or, just use them as a jumping-off point to inspire you. Choose three or four styles that would work best with your mood words. If you can think of a style that better suits your mood words but isn’t listed here, that’s fine. Ultimately, your visual style will become a combination of the content themes you chose in the previous exercise, photographed or illustrated in the styles you choose today. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/693ec0e5-d9e1-4545-ba57-2278f2310d61/priscilla-du-preez-CoqJGsFVJtM-unsplash.jpg 3.5 Style & tone https://www.tangleandfern.com/pinterest daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651275914793-BT3OE2XGHPV20NGK6TGZ/tempImageViQtEz.jpg 3.3 Pinterest! - Pinterest! Whether you prefer to work with photographs, illustrations or a combination of both, the images you use when you want to express yourself and your brand publicly are most often the first thing that people see. Like it or not, most people make judgements on whether or not they want to know more, based on images. We all judge books by their covers. This is why, when it comes to your brand, your visual style can help you stand out from the crowd, and express what it is that makes you, you. You will likely have specific photographs that display your work, or help to sell your products. I’ll help you create these later in Let it Grow. But you’ll also need what I call “brand imagery.” These might be photographs, illustrations or patterns. They don’t illustrate a specific thing or action related to your work or business, but they help to express the mood of your brand. For example: A photograph of someone drinking a can of Coke is a product image. But a photograph of people dancing under the sprinkler on a hot day expresses the joyful, summer-time mood of Coca Cola’s brand. Icons of houses, dollar signs, and wealth-building infographics are service illustrations for a bank. But a photograph of a person sitting down in their kitchen, with a cup of tea in hand, looking relaxed and content, expresses the sense of “a place of my own” and security that many banks want to engender. Once you know to look out for it, you’ll see that brand imagery is used in all kinds of places: Newsletters Websites Brochures Design briefs Shop banners Social media platforms Business cards Postcards Media stories about you Pinterest boards Presentations Video tutorials And whether you decide to create your own visuals or outsource photography and illustrations to a friend or professional, it helps to have a concrete idea of your visual style so that you can keep things in line with your brand. So we’re going to make a start on developing that visual style in this exercise. I want you to go onto Pinterest, and create FOUR new boards, using the instructions below. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 3.3 Pinterest! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 3.3 Pinterest! https://www.tangleandfern.com/explain daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651275819907-TLVG3KAY4MBW2V627J8X/dinan%252Barchway.jpg 3.2 Explain your choices - Explain your choices For each of the three mood words you chose in the previous exercise, spend some time today explaining why you chose them.. This is quite an important step because words can carry different weights and even different meanings, depending on who is reading them, and the context in which they are read. We will be referring back to these mood words several times in the exercise to come, and you’re likely to continue doing so as your brand grows and evolves, so it is vital that you are very clear what they represent to you. Take the word “slow,” for example, which I chose as one of the mood words for my “Naomi Loves” brand. I use this word to represent my journey towards a more considered and mindful lifestyle. But someone else reading the same word could just as easily assume it means I lack energy or motivation. To demonstrate the idea or mood of “slow” when I write content for that brand, I deliberately weave other words like mindful, considered, organic, handmade, care, nurture and simple into my copy. All of those words, working together, help to share with my readers the mood I want them to feel from that one word I chose, “slow.” Your explanation might simply be a second list of words. For example, if one of your words was “passionate,” you might list what that means to you. Maybe words like “soulful, energetic, all-in, and expressive” would help describe what you mean when you say “passionate.” (And remember - you don’t need to share this explanation in public). Or you might choose to go deeper with your description, using examples or narratives to flesh it out. To explain my use of the word “slow,” I painted a picture with my words: “A winter picnic, home-grown vegetables, family meals around the table, freshly baked bread, limiting your footprint, conversations over coffee. Slow living, for me, is simply about mindfulness; about appreciating that a good life is worth waiting for, working for, and caring for.” Write the explanations for each of your words, or the descriptions of that they mean to you, in your workbook on page 24. https://www.tangleandfern.com/find-them daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650710857021-Y3UTXV0PQ1SSBIS54CLK/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.04.22+pm.png 2.5 Find them - Where to find them It’s all well and good to have identified and honed our ideal audience. We’ve gotten to know them pretty well by now, but that’s not a lot of use to us if we don’t know where to find them! That’s what this activity is all about. Use the list of “interests” that you noted down in the activity on Context as a prompt to help you think about where you might find your people. The questions on pages 19 and 20 in your workbook will help you be quite specific about this. To whit: What social media platform(s) do they use? What groups or hashtag feeds? What books and magazines do they read (Look for the mags/authors online and who follows them) What conferences or gatherings do they attend? Where do they go for information? Blogs? Online forums? Online courses? Community resources? Encyclopaedias? Where do they like to shop? Bricks and mortar shops? Farmers’ and makers’ markets? Online marketplaces like Etsy? What sorts of places do they go to, to eat? Home cooking? Take-out? Fine dining? Cafes? Food courts? Dinner parties with friends? Where do they hang out on Instagram? The last two questions in this section of your workbook are a little different. To answer these questions, I want you to continue the social research you started at the beginning of this week. First, look on Instagram and identify other feeds or individuals who do something similar to you. Note down 10 people who follow and comment on their feeds. Next, look for content that is similar to yours. This is a bit different to the question above because, let’s say you are a portrait artist (so, in the question above, you look for other portrait artists). But you don’t only post pictures of your art: sometimes you post pictures of your dog, your breakfast, and your art supplies. This time, you’ll look for other content that features portraits, dogs, breakfast, and art supplies. Now note down 10 people who follow and comment on those kinds of posts. That’s all you need to do for this activity right now. But you can use the users you note down here to prompt the work you do in the social listening tracking sheets I shared at on the lesson “home” page. https://www.tangleandfern.com/content daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/05fbca7a-c6cf-4291-b110-73ec88ed476d/IMG_8489.JPG Content - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.tangleandfern.com/resources-workbook daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/9e0d3d79-e827-4804-a13a-a338e3721e6e/2CB2DDB8-561E-4432-B358-9A854E8AC753-7CF16765-7B23-4081-8202-23ED76FCC439.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/5474920e-f23a-4806-8fab-65e595aa8a49/393015EE-DB0E-42E8-B15F-E3B04E0D0072-49D33382-6592-44D8-BF18-55B1BDEEE0EF.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/878d9fa2-5db0-416f-969a-e4ae46b12ca5/IMG_7540.jpg Resources & workbook https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/238727b3-5613-4cd2-a22d-6164db23475e/IMG_8796.jpg Resources & workbook https://www.tangleandfern.com/contact daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://www.tangleandfern.com/context daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1650710725668-9SQ9JKAMVXSZ16YKROKZ/Screen+Shot+2022-04-18+at+9.02.44+pm.png 2.3 Context - Giving them context Audiences are made up of real people. Complex, multi-faceted, contradictory, fascinating people. This sounds obvious, but it’s actually very easy to forget, and therefore quite commonly forgotten! When we are deep in a branding exercise like the lessons that you are doing right now, we can develop something of a tunnel vision. We are focussed so powerfully on what it is that we do, what we offer to the world, and what people want from us, that we overlook the fact that even our ideal audience isn’t thinking about what we do and what we can offer them 24 hours a day! Members of any audience or customer group don’t exist in isolation, inhabiting the world only to interact with us and the things we do or make. There’s a whole lot more going on in their lives that has nothing to do with us. Recognising this fact is something of an audience-recognition superpower, because it immediately broadens the search radius for both finding the members of our audience, and connecting with them. To do this, now that you have created a basic description of your ideal audience, you’re going to build a list of other things they might be interested in, or need, beyond what it is that you can give to them. The goal of this exercise is to help you start to think in terms of communities, rather than just demographics, and to recognise that even people who are passionately interested in what you are doing have other interests as well. In your Workbook on page 17, make a list of some of their likes, interests, passions and hobbies - other than the thing you are offering them. You’ll be able to glean a lot of ideas for this list from the work you’ve done on your audience so far, and through the social listening you started this week. To get you started with some ideas, I’ve provided a case study below. https://www.tangleandfern.com/lexicon daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652923097647-XHONJS80ZKW4FDFZRLEF/Dinan%2Bstreet.jpg 5.5 Lexicon - Lexicon A lexicon is a roadmap that guides you through the process of using language and vocabulary to share the moods and personalities of your brand. It’s nothing too fancy: just a simple document that contains key words, phrases, sentences and principles that - if you use them consistently - will help you connect with your right people, and remain memorable to them. In this activity, we are going to take the answers you entered into Workbook 2 this week, and use them to build a lexicon that you can use for your brand. Open the Lexicon template I sent you via email at the start of this week, and save a copy to your own documents. Then simply cut and paste the answers from Workbook 2 into the template as follows: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 5.5 Lexicon https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 5.5 Lexicon https://www.tangleandfern.com/typography daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651890493264-W6GREQKKVI2AROOLTXG7/letterpress-6.jpg 4.3 Typography - Understanding typography I like to think of typography as the “no-makeup makeup” of your brand, because when you get your typography right, very few people will notice that you've done it. But when you get it wrong, the disconnect is glaring. Here's something else to bear in mind. Most people only spend 11 seconds scanning an email. This means they need to very quickly be able to read and scan your words. More research has shown that people actually take twice as long to read fancy fonts. That brings their time consuming your actual content down to five and a half seconds. That's not a lot of time! Getting the typography right increases the time people are able to give to your words, and it increases the amount of content of yours that they will take in and retain. And that's worth paying attention to, don't you think? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/c7aa9034-4158-43eb-aabd-1dc49adb0429/Typography+list.jpg 4.3 Typography https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/35891f2b-4930-44a8-85df-458edd16c569/Typography+list2.jpg 4.3 Typography https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 4.3 Typography https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 4.3 Typography https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 4.3 Typography https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 4.3 Typography https://www.tangleandfern.com/tone daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651890608322-OZCRSR5AXRNJ7HSW38AN/592EBD03-619D-40C7-ACD3-785826E6AF9A-48512376-2276-4530-8204-C57588560FE4.jpg 4.4 Tone of voice - Tone of voice The tone of voice you use when you are writing is critical. It plays a vital role in the way people perceive you, understand you, and the way you make them feel. And as you know by now, “how you make people feel” is the true heart of branding. As with everything else we’ve done, consistency is key when it comes to developing a clear and memorable brand. The tone of voice you choose in this exercise will be something you will roll out across everything you write or say. It’s the language and style you’ll use on your website, your newsletters and blog posts, your sales pages, social media captions, how you respond to and engage with people in your community (both online and offline), interviews you give, videos and podcasts you make, any teaching material you write or workshops you deliver, and speeches and presentations. To help you understand how tone plays into our communications a little better, I’ve shared some examples below. Each of them are about food, but are written in very different tones. Tone: INTELLIGENT, COLLABORATIVE, ASPIRATIONAL “Culinary artists have an inclination to improve dishes with their creativity. But the greatest skill is knowing when something is enough. When you’re a chef, it’s not enough to taste the food you’re cooking: you should taste it the way your diners and guests taste it – seated at the table, perhaps with a glass of wine, definitely with conversation.” - Financial Review magazine Tone: YOUTHFUL, IRREVERENT, HUMOROUS “No offence, fairy bread, but we think we’ve uncovered some carbs that are a little more deserving of the title. These baked goods by American food blogger Must Love Herbs look so magical that we wouldn’t be surprised if an actual fairy (or some other kind of mythical woodland creature) had cooked them up in their teeny-tiny toadstool kitchen. Catch us serving a colourful garden focaccia or fungi-laden forest cake at our next fairy party (adults can still throw fairy parties, right?).” - Frankie magazine Tone: INFORMAL, SENSATIONAL, OUTRAGED “An Aussie mum has left parents divided after she shared a photo of her teenage son's school lunch. Sharing the photo to the Aldi Mums Facebook page, the Victorian woman revealed that her 17-year-old boy is 'always hungry’. The seemingly-innocent image was posted to a private Facebook group where Australian mums share their finds from the budget supermarket chain ALDI. However, many users were quick to comment that the mum was over-feeding her child.” - That’s Life magazine So: let’s talk tone! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 4.4 Tone of voice https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 4.4 Tone of voice https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 4.4 Tone of voice https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 4.4 Tone of voice https://www.tangleandfern.com/style-guide daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652920989684-9BTV9EM0TVWZ1EO4I59W/DCCA6B5A-9F93-47BA-8948-2C61DB550039-83A99940-9BDF-4E91-BC2F-2A1EEF6D9BE4.jpg 5.1 Style Guide - Style Guide Today you are going to create a Style Guide, a document that will become your guiding light when it comes to creating branded content. First, check your emails. I’ve sent you a link to a Style Guide Template,. I created the template in Canva, because it’s free and accessible to everyone - no need for you to purchase or download any software. I’ll take you through this step by step in our workshop but if you can’t make it, follow the instructions below: 1. Save a copy to your own files The first thing you should do is save a copy of the template to your own Canva projects - otherwise, any changes you make will be lost. To do this, open the link, then click File > Make a Copy. Then save it. 2. Copy and paste written content from your workbook Go through and replace the written content in the Canva template by copying and pasting from your Workbook. Follow the instructions below to populate the verbal content to your Style Guide. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607628784608-5D22G9GPLHDSAB2IXC2G/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0638.jpg 5.1 Style Guide https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 5.1 Style Guide https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 5.1 Style Guide https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 5.1 Style Guide https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 5.1 Style Guide https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847743861-GWVMBPD7Z7WQRQL9IZZ8/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0380.jpg 5.1 Style Guide https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 5.1 Style Guide https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 5.1 Style Guide https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 5.1 Style Guide https://www.tangleandfern.com/lesson-6-first-impressions daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/c621a217-01ee-4fe1-95e8-5edb02680790/annie-spratt-obniAGHVxjs-unsplash.jpg Lesson 6: First Impressions https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/a8f3c54a-2e81-49ad-945c-2121b715af15/social-long.jpg Lesson 6: First Impressions https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/16736b65-afad-4df9-9da3-3b03e8a47cfd/riccardo-mion-xEHzcW3sgvs-unsplash.jpg Lesson 6: First Impressions https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/425543a1-91bc-48c7-92c1-aaa0260aad2e/FA786A68-ED0F-47FE-A96B-54EFB8CEF6C6-80A50380-9D1B-4B3A-B0C5-73016435C84F.jpg Lesson 6: First Impressions https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/377a4989-30c8-4c29-9103-3e9c6db86142/689FA42E-2A56-4C6F-9443-CE2DEAC2907C-454DFBEE-5393-4AEA-BD7F-D1411DB4FD19.jpg Lesson 6: First Impressions https://www.tangleandfern.com/voice-in-action daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652923659307-8EEHGTNU3YOM31N5J9L8/wildflower%2Bfield.jpg 5.5 Voice in action - Your brand-voice in action Your brand’s voice reflects the personality of your brand (your language principles), and implies the various levels of friendliness, formality, openness and trustworthiness (among others) that you want to convey. While your language principles are derived from your mood words and help to establish your brand’s personality, your voice will be derived from the words you chose to express your tone in the verbal style exercise during Phase 1. In this activity, we are going to drill down and explore that that voice will look and sound like, in action. I’ll be asking you to think about different ways you can say something, using different tones. You already did this during the practice exercises (remember the invitation you wrote several ways during Phase 1?). The difference, now, is that you are aware of your language principles, and you are going to combine this with your brand voice, and apply it to common communications that most of us need to write at one time or another. Turn to Workbook 2 on page 12, and work your way through the questions, following the instructions outlined below. But first, meet Aesop and Scratch For each of the instructions below, I have shared some examples from real brands, so you can see the way they are using language to convey their brand voice for various uses. I’ve chosen two Melbourne brands, Aesop, a skincare company that is fairly universally known, and Scratch, a new pet-food business. Aesop’s voice is high-end, aspirational, and (to my mind) can be overly pseudo-intellectual. A brand of Vogue Living magazine and a way for people to feel they are touching a small piece of the “rich and famous” life they aspire to (like Holly Golightly buying something very small, from Tiffany’s). Scratch’s voice is playful, informal and conversational. A brand that is as friendly as a Labrador and as playful as a puppy, designed to appeal to dog-owners who genuinely feel that their pet is their family. It will be helpful for you to see the way each brand’s voice is employed to say similar things, in very different ways. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 5.5 Voice in action https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 5.5 Voice in action https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 5.5 Voice in action https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 5.5 Voice in action https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607628784608-5D22G9GPLHDSAB2IXC2G/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0638.jpg 5.5 Voice in action https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847743861-GWVMBPD7Z7WQRQL9IZZ8/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0380.jpg 5.5 Voice in action https://www.tangleandfern.com/colours daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651890014757-41QPRYC9OYRDU8A05GAZ/Botanical%2Bmultiple%2B-%2Bbeetroot.jpg 4.1 Noticing colours - Noticing colour Colours matter. Colours can evoke feelings, help create connections, and make you memorable. And when it comes to branding, your choice of colours can be a powerful, even game-changing resource. But it’s not enough simply to choose “colours I like.” Here are some examples of how colours can play into the overall story of a brand: If you have a farmers-market produce stall and you want to evoke a “natural, homestead, and rustic” mood, your brand colours might be warm colours that are found in nature, such as browns, greens, reds and sands If you run a children’s party service and you want to evoke a “energetic, vibrant, and welcoming” mood, your brand colours might be quite bright and kaleidoscopic If you are a basket-weaver and blogger, and you want to evoke a “nostalgic, handmade, and gentle” mood, your brand colours might be softer pastels and neutrals And if you are a therapist and you want to evoke a “calm, mindful and sensitive” mood, you probably wouldn’t choose hot pink, yellow, and black In this activity, we are going to begin the process of choosing colours for your brand by first noticing the colours that are already helping to tell the story of what you stand for, and how you want to make people feel. The way we’re going to make these decisions for you and your brand is first to revisit all the work you’ve done up to this point, what is already working for you, and pay attention to the colours in that story. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 4.1 Noticing colours https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 4.1 Noticing colours https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 4.1 Noticing colours https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 4.1 Noticing colours https://www.tangleandfern.com/lesson-5-using-your-brand daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652923438506-RRLYBA9LAPQVBCS1EYD0/logo-long.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652923659307-8EEHGTNU3YOM31N5J9L8/wildflower%2Bfield.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652920989684-9BTV9EM0TVWZ1EO4I59W/DCCA6B5A-9F93-47BA-8948-2C61DB550039-83A99940-9BDF-4E91-BC2F-2A1EEF6D9BE4.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652923097647-XHONJS80ZKW4FDFZRLEF/Dinan%2Bstreet.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652923299785-1691PNC66KTJTC9A3CM8/393015EE-DB0E-42E8-B15F-E3B04E0D0072-49D33382-6592-44D8-BF18-55B1BDEEE0EF.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg Lesson 5. Using your Brand https://www.tangleandfern.com/palette daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/2d8d12e6-601b-4422-b38d-caab0d6d6fa3/colour+palette.jpg 4.2 Colour palette - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651890116694-J1UWTZU54UCAMBUED0EC/AEAAF265-B120-472C-A57C-291FB8FB0DAA-CA179F79-0516-44EB-8083-BE3893668804.jpg 4.2 Colour palette - A colour palette In this exercise, we are going to pull together your chosen colours into a palette that will begin to tell the “colour story” of your brand. A colour palette is a collection of (say three or four) colours that are frequently used in your brand. They are colours that you’ll try to weave into your instagram photographs, into website imagery and into designs or illustrations that you commission. They don’t need to be the only colours you use, and you don’t need to use all the colours in your palette in every picture you share. But if you make it your goal to include at least one of your palette colours in all of your photography, and if you respect the general tone and saturation of your palette, then your brand will be on the way to telling a consistent story. It’s also important to note that having a brand colour-palette doesn’t necessarily apply to the products you create. For example, if you’re a potter, an artist, or a basket-weaver, your cups and bowls, paintings and baskets don’t need to be restricted to the colours in your palette. Instead, your palette will be the backdrop to your products, the gallery walls, so to speak. Your palette will show up in the photographs on your social media, your blog posts, your product packaging, the notecards you create, the covers on your e-books, your website… you get the picture! You know the brown and tan that we all instantly recognise as being Louis Vuitton? Those are that brand’s colours, and it doesn’t matter what colours are in this season’s designs, the Louis Vuitton colour palette is still recognisable and memorable as tan and brown. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/01d250f4-7c19-43d5-aa5f-a96bb2e193f2/colour-wheel.png 4.2 Colour palette - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/e7893cea-0efb-4c59-9f8f-6bf773f26b12/Screen+Shot+2022-05-11+at+11.57.58+am.png 4.2 Colour palette - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 4.2 Colour palette https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 4.2 Colour palette https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 4.2 Colour palette https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652230100558-D9KYUQK469G5EIZIW35B/3.jpg 4.2 Colour palette https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652230123659-CG6HC22ZJHIQ08161P4N/4.jpg 4.2 Colour palette https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 4.2 Colour palette https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 4.2 Colour palette https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652230037833-JS6BC7ABZASYXI6HV43V/1.jpg 4.2 Colour palette https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 4.2 Colour palette https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652230078091-74MJWGC5VL410PK8DG9X/2.jpg 4.2 Colour palette https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 4.2 Colour palette https://www.tangleandfern.com/about-page daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/c621a217-01ee-4fe1-95e8-5edb02680790/annie-spratt-obniAGHVxjs-unsplash.jpg 6.2 About page - The “About” page Why you? Why now? Why here? Once upon a time, the “about” pages on a lot of websites and blogs read like the beginnings of a job application. We’d state what we did, give a bit of our employment history, and throw in a quirky tidbit every now and then (“lives with three cats,” “loves to eat cake”) to show the world we were real people. Businesses and shops, meanwhile, favoured the personal back-story. “Brenda was an accountant but she dreamed of being a baker.” “Sophie was always good at finding thrift-shop gems so she became a stylist.” “We started out selling potted herbs at the market and now we’re Australia’s biggest indoor plant franchise.” You know these stories, yes? You’ve read these kinds of “about” pages, I’m sure. But unfortunately, this kind of content more often than not fails to cut through. The problem with sharing our back-stories and resumes on our websites is that they are about, well, us. And even though the heading at the top of that page often states “About Us,” the reality is that it is actually about your audience. Because this is the page that somebody clicks on first if they want to know whether you are the right person, or brand, for them. And they’re not so concerned about the personal journey that you have been on to get to the point you’re at now, as they are about whether or not what you are doing, saying, sharing or making is the right fit for them, right now, at this point in their own personal journey. A values manifesto The best “about” pages nowadays read almost like a manifesto. They help their readers understand why you, why now, and why are you doing it this way? What are you setting out to do here, and what makes it different to everybody else? In other words, the best “about” pages encapsulate your values. You may recall that we talked about this quite a bit during Phase 1 of Let it Grow. When you are clear on your values and articulate them well, you will be able to attract your right people: they will feel they have discovered someone who shares their values, and who is speaking directly to them (you). Turn to Workbook 2 on page 17, and work your way through the questions on that page. You answered these questions in Workbook 1, so it shouldn’t take long. Once you’ve answered these questions, you should have everything you need to write a compelling “about” page that will actually speak to your audience, not just about you. Your page will express: What you believe (your values manifesto) What you do and what qualifies you to do it (briefly) What you do because of those beliefs (break this up into sections if you need to, eg. beautiful products, sustainable packaging, personal service, etc) The problems you solve for your “right audience,” and the needs you meet Have a try at actually pulling all these elements into an “about” page for your own work. If you have a website, try doing this in a draft page, so you can play around with how you’d like it to look (images help to tell your story just as much as text). If you don’t, you can use the blank pages at the end of Workbook 2 (pages 38 and 39) to draft it up. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1653554060098-2KY59N1N2Z0DT7WSRT4G/Screen+Shot+2022-05-26+at+6.06.16+pm.png 6.2 About page - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1653554108655-4MD0KOQOV0BGKGK9U0VH/POT-about+2.png 6.2 About page - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.tangleandfern.com/language daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651890713603-B4RRKNAC9U7OVF04Y263/5358F400-9D56-489C-81BF-5D0122592E7F-2783C438-8C40-4BD3-BEB6-723652D671D1.jpg 4.5 Language - Brand Language The language you use for your brand will impact on everything you do. It’s how you’ll share what you stand for, and it will influence the way people feel when they engage with you, learn from you, and buy from you. In this exercise, we are going to begin the process of identifying the language that will help bring your brand to life in this way. But before we start, I want you to have a think about the language that is typically used in your industry. And by “industry,” that might mean the things you do or make, but it could also refer to specific communities in which you are active (if they also relate to what you do). Here’s how the website Be You Not Them describes it: “The cancer medicine industry uses the language of struggle – the war against the big C, getting through this, soldiering on, fighting the illness, being brave. “The manufacturing industry uses the language of efficiency – quality, value, hard work, output, craftsmanship and history all point to an ethical hierarchy in the space. “The beauty industry uses the language of positive ideals – of the purity of youth, cleanliness, and western notions of femininity.” Think over what you know about your own industry (or look to your social listening notes) and consider what kind of language is used. Now turn to your workbook and begin working through the questions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 4.5 Language https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 4.5 Language https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 4.5 Language https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 4.5 Language https://www.tangleandfern.com/self-portraits daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/ad546fc8-a57f-441a-a4dd-dd1f9453bb83/Screen+Shot+2022-05-25+at+9.57.08+pm.png 6.4 Self portraits - Make it stand out @honeyatkinson https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/50ea257e-eefe-4a48-bec7-3815d1bdc784/Screen+Shot+2022-05-25+at+9.51.06+pm.png 6.4 Self portraits - Make it stand out @me_and_orla https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/7d07c56a-c28d-4736-b5b1-743ed0997819/Screen+Shot+2022-05-25+at+9.34.34+pm.png 6.4 Self portraits - Make it stand out @ziqianqian https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/6bdb5aca-bba7-4e6d-b770-6ac8514b491b/Screen+Shot+2022-05-25+at+9.59.03+pm.png 6.4 Self portraits - Make it stand out @frombeewithlove https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/a9ec2e55-3c66-411c-9413-7309a4d84a28/Screen+Shot+2022-05-25+at+9.41.24+pm.png 6.4 Self portraits - Make it stand out @kutovakika https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/16736b65-afad-4df9-9da3-3b03e8a47cfd/riccardo-mion-xEHzcW3sgvs-unsplash.jpg 6.4 Self portraits - A self-portrait A self-portrait is not a selfie. No mirror-shots or duck-faces allowed, and no clear evidence of one arm outstretched. A self-portrait is not simply about looking as good as you can, it’s about hinting at the story of you, and the work you do. In this activity, we are going to go ahead and take some photographs of you that you can use in your various communications. I realise this idea sits uncomfortably with a lot of us: many people (myself most definitely included!) are not particularly happy being in front of the camera, and would rather avoid it if we possible could. Your homework for this activity is not in your workbook. Instead, I challenge you to pick up a camera (or smart phone) and take some portrait photographs of yourself. Today! Go ahead right now, or read on if you need encouragement or advice (or both). Why you need photographs of yourself But here are some reasons why it is important for you to have a handful of on-brand photographs of yourself among your suite of content. People engage with people: you are not a mega-corporation, and being small and personal is one of your superpowers - people will want to engage with you! But for them to engage with you as a person, you need to show up as a person. Let them see your lovely face This is doubly so if you want people to learn from you or come to your events (either online or in person): people will feel more as though they know you if you share your photograph When it comes to social media bio pictures, research shows that people consistently engage better with brands that can show personal faces, rather than logos. This will especially work for you if you are the person behind your business or brand Later in Let it Grow we will look at ways of getting your message out into the world, and that includes pitching to traditional media, podcasters and bloggers. You’ll find that when this happens, these publications often ask for a photograph of you that they can share when they introduce you - it helps if you have some handy that are on-brand, and that you don’t hate! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/b4e41df1-062d-4b6a-9f82-d695e077c774/Screen+Shot+2022-05-25+at+9.36.06+pm.png 6.4 Self portraits - Make it stand out @jamiebeck.co https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 6.4 Self portraits https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 6.4 Self portraits https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 6.4 Self portraits https://www.tangleandfern.com/vocabulary daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652923299785-1691PNC66KTJTC9A3CM8/393015EE-DB0E-42E8-B15F-E3B04E0D0072-49D33382-6592-44D8-BF18-55B1BDEEE0EF.jpg 5.2 Vocabulary - Vocabulary Words are the building-blocks with which we will create the language for your brand. They are how you will convey your tone, and how you will connect with your right people. So vocabulary is how we’ll start creating your lexicon. The challenge is that we do not all walk around with dictionaries inside our heads. The meanings that words convey will depend upon our own experiences, our own contexts, and our own histories: we all know that a single word can be a powerful trigger to one person, and completely benign to another. This is why, in the previous workbook, I asked you to first list the words and phrases you have used in your brand so far, and then to list how you think your audience persona might interpret those words. In this exercise, we are going to build on those insights to create a list words and phrases that: a) Help you convey your mood-words and express your chosen brand voice b) Are most likely to resonate with the members of your right audience, in the way you intend them to resonate Ultimately, these words will go into your Brand Lexicon, and you’ll be able to dip into them whenever you are writing to help you maintain consistency in your brand. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 5.2 Vocabulary https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 5.2 Vocabulary https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 5.2 Vocabulary https://www.tangleandfern.com/social-media-bios daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/a8f3c54a-2e81-49ad-945c-2121b715af15/social-long.jpg 6.3 Social media bios - Social media bios Why are you on social media? What do you want people to do? Assuming you’re not only on social media for fun, you’ll need to think a little bit strategically about how people find you, and whether or not they decide to follow you and engage with you. That’s where your bio comes in. Think about the way you find and follow new people on social media. Usually, it goes a little something like this: You come across something the person has posted - either the algorithm suggests it to you, or someone else you follow or read links to it You like what you see in that one post, so you click on the person’s profile to see what else they are about You read their bio, and look at the recent content they have posted on their home feed If you like the sound of their bio and their recent content, you click “follow” So, while the content you post on social media might act as an “ambassador” to pique the interest or admiration of a potential new follower, they usually won’t make the decision to follow you until they have also checked out your bio and home feed and decided they want more. We are going to approach this activity in three parts. Keep scrolling for instructions on each part. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 6.3 Social media bios https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 6.3 Social media bios https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 6.3 Social media bios https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 6.3 Social media bios https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 6.3 Social media bios https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 6.3 Social media bios https://www.tangleandfern.com/language-principles daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1652923438506-RRLYBA9LAPQVBCS1EYD0/logo-long.jpg 5.3 Language principles - Language principles Your brand has a distinctive personality, one built on the foundations of your values. You have begun to identify and establish that personality through your mood words, imagery, colours, typography, and tone of voice. But one of the most powerful ways you can project your brand personality is in the way you use language. In this activity, we are going to look at each of your mood-words in turn, and create an over-arching “language principle” for it. Each language principle will guide the content you create and the way you write it. It will also have very specific implications for your writing, which will make it easier for you to bridge the gap from “language principle” to “on-brand content”. To get to those writing implications (the practical nitty-gritty) we will work through a process of moving from your mood words, to what they mean to your audience, to how your actions will align with your mood words, and then finally to your language principles and the content implications. This is a very helpful route to take - even excluding the benefits to your writing - as it helps to ensure your mood words (how you want to make people feel) govern your actions (how you actually do make people feel). When you’ve completed this exercise, aim to incorporate as many of your three language principles into your future writing as you can. Once you get the hang of it, this will become a bit of a game-changer, and you’ll watch the way your brand unfolds with a beautiful, unique voice that embodies everything you stand for, and is both recognisable and memorable. Use the detailed workbook instructions below to make your way step by step through the activities on pages 6 through to 11. To help you if you’re struggling, I’ve gone through the same process with my own three mood-words, and you can read that here to see how I approached it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607628784608-5D22G9GPLHDSAB2IXC2G/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0638.jpg 5.3 Language principles https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 5.3 Language principles https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 5.3 Language principles https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 5.3 Language principles https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847743861-GWVMBPD7Z7WQRQL9IZZ8/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0380.jpg 5.3 Language principles https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 5.3 Language principles https://www.tangleandfern.com/simple-bio daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/425543a1-91bc-48c7-92c1-aaa0260aad2e/FA786A68-ED0F-47FE-A96B-54EFB8CEF6C6-80A50380-9D1B-4B3A-B0C5-73016435C84F.jpg 6.1 A simple bio - A Simple Bio In this activity, we are going to write a simple “bio statement” that will enable you to tell people what you do, and how it might apply to them. You’ll find this statement incredibly helpful. It will mean, for example, that people visiting your social media can know exactly what you’re about at first glance. Same goes for your website, newsletter or blog. If you are featured in the media and the editor asks for one or two lines to explain who you are and what you do, you’re ready with a response that truly reflects you. Your bio will be invaluable at conferences and networking events, markets, for retailers who stock what you make, and on third-party platforms like online shops and teaching platforms. A simple bio needs to be short: short enough to be an elevator pitch, and short enough to fit on one or two lines of a screen. As any poet will tell you, shorter isn’t always easier (editing is hard!), but I’m here to help. A basic formula There’s a basic formula that almost anyone can use to develop a bio, that encapsulates what you do in a succinct and engaging manner. To write a compelling bio, you simply need to share: WHO you serve (your ideal audience) WHAT you bring to the table (the thing you do / make / share) HOW it helps (what they gain from you / the transformation they achieve) When you put these three elements together, a simple but effective bio will look something like this: “I help WHO with WHAT to achieve TRANSFORMATION.” You can switch the order around, and sometimes people choose to leave out the transformation, but this basic formula is commonly used and a great way to articulate your bio. For example, my own bio is “Branding and content for creative and big-hearted women at the start of something new”. My WHO is “creative and big-hearted women,” my WHAT is “branding and content” and the TRANSFORMATION I help them achieve is “the start of something new”. https://www.tangleandfern.com/sales-copy daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/377a4989-30c8-4c29-9103-3e9c6db86142/689FA42E-2A56-4C6F-9443-CE2DEAC2907C-454DFBEE-5393-4AEA-BD7F-D1411DB4FD19.jpg 6.5 Sales copy - Sales copy Excellent, compelling and persuasive sales copy appeals to the head, heart and soul of your right audience. The “head” content explains why this product or service is worth paying for. It outlines the benefits, and demonstrates what makes it special, and how it stands out from other similar offers on the market. The “heart” content, on the other hand, is all about “show don’t tell.” It gives the members of your audience a taste of how it might feel to have this product or service in their lives - the transformation you bring. The “soul” content goes back to your core values: what you stand for and how you want to be remembered - because your ideal audience shares those values. Working together, your heart content shows your ideal audience what it would feel like to buy your product or service; your head content helps them weigh up the benefits; and your soul content reminds them that buying from you aligns with their own core values. Make sense? Now: if you don’t intend on selling, feel free to skip this activity for today. You can always circle back to it if your circumstances change. But if you intend to sell either products or services (basically, if you are doing anything that involves money changing hands in return for something of value), use this exercise to practice writing your sales content. First, choose just one thing that you intend to sell. So, if you have an Etsy shop, choose just one item in your shop. If you provide services, choose just one service. If you run courses, choose just one course. I want you to focus on this specific product or service, because your sales copy should be all about said product or service, and the value it brings to your right audience. You’ll focus on that one product and practice it in your Workbook. If you’re selling a product, turn to page 19 of Workbook 2 If you’re selling a service or course, turn to page 20 of Workbook 2 Now, focusing on the one thing you chose to write about in this activity, start filling out each of the boxes on that page in turn. The Workbook Notes below will help you make sense of each of these. Use the “Secondary details” list at the bottom of this page (underneath the Workbook Notes) to fill in any gaps in your sales copy. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 6.5 Sales copy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 6.5 Sales copy https://www.tangleandfern.com/lesson-7-an-image-suite daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1654601144212-D32PXK9S2XFD5FMLUUC3/lilartsy-jw3xbuelpKM-unsplash.jpg Lesson 7: An Image Suite https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1654601569983-K2YR8UM2WA6072ZZEKB0/Screen%2BShot%2B2022-04-18%2Bat%2B9.06.04%2Bpm.jpg Lesson 7: An Image Suite https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1654601821844-C3OHUQ5QMEKDGR85I0GA/vladimir-tsokalo-UH9ax_FS-bw-unsplash.jpg Lesson 7: An Image Suite https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1654600949953-V2VUOEEXLBNDCKV3H55J/cassidy-phillips-EOJRrenjc4c-unsplash.jpg Lesson 7: An Image Suite https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/236b02a8-935f-4fed-a999-1ccdee14fd14/unsplash-image-iI72r3gSwWY.jpg Lesson 7: An Image Suite https://www.tangleandfern.com/descriptive-products daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1654601821844-C3OHUQ5QMEKDGR85I0GA/vladimir-tsokalo-UH9ax_FS-bw-unsplash.jpg 7.4 Descriptive products - Descriptive product shots You set the mood and told a story in the previous activity, one that helped your audience members imagine what their lives might be like with your product in it. Now, we are going to help them figure out whether it actually fits. Where context was essential for telling the story in your previous photographs, in this case, we want to remove as much of the context as possible from the frame. Our goal is to show them exactly what the item looks like and consists of, without anything else to distract from it. We are trying to answer as many questions your audience members and customers might have as possible. Questions like “How big is it?” and “What shade of blue is it?” and “What’s it like inside? Underneath.” Return to the product you photographed in the previous activity, grab your camera and smartphone, and let’s shoot some descriptive images. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 7.4 Descriptive products https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 7.4 Descriptive products https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 7.4 Descriptive products https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607628784608-5D22G9GPLHDSAB2IXC2G/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0638.jpg 7.4 Descriptive products https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 7.4 Descriptive products https://www.tangleandfern.com/maker-images daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1654601144212-D32PXK9S2XFD5FMLUUC3/lilartsy-jw3xbuelpKM-unsplash.jpg 7.2 Maker images - Maker images In this activity, we are going to invite your audience into the world of the things you make and do. This is an incredibly helpful project, and you’ll be able to use these photographs across your website as well as social media. You may also find them as useful alternatives to the self-portraits you took in Lesson 6, and as handy resources that you can use if you’re selling courses, writing e-books, or find yourself featured on podcasts or in the media. Showcasing you doing the thing you do in this way will: Build trust in you, by demonstrating your skills and experience (and if you are teaching, it will familiarise people with your face) Personalise your website and social media (showing people that you are a real person, not a faceless brand) Boost engagement, because you are inviting people into your world, which prompts conversations and questions Inspire and spark curiosity in your audience, because these little glimpses into your work and processes leave them wanting more Have a go at the “photography challenge” below, to take three different styles of “maker images” for your collection of photographs. (If you’re short on ideas, browse through my “inspiration gallery” at the bottom of this page). When you’re done, drag all your photos into your “maker images” file so you can easily access them when you need them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 7.2 Maker images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 7.2 Maker images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 7.2 Maker images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/c88d0f98-f670-4bbf-a83b-6d8f8c213b45/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.52.53+am.png 7.2 Maker images @zannilouise https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/7d877b01-a34a-4f32-8c6a-b94fb613e76b/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.19.32+am.png 7.2 Maker images @marigold_stories https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/71cbb414-b2e6-4630-a0e0-616abc1cfe8d/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.16.27+am.png 7.2 Maker images @kristenallancheese https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/b344e2c1-6a20-48b3-a8f8-7830979e28d4/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+7.04.17+am.png 7.2 Maker images @the_chateau_tv https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/7fed2a31-54cb-42ca-9cd1-296a007ff08f/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.23.31+am.png 7.2 Maker images @diannesutherlandartist https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/6b044518-0125-45bb-af62-ddcc04797d88/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.18.49+am.png 7.2 Maker images @marigold_stories https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/cabd480e-801c-4d0a-9fcc-80ff87dfd4f5/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.54.29+am.png 7.2 Maker images @wearestardustuk https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/d9220a0e-d8b0-4f54-b9ef-7f239841f514/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.21.04+am.png 7.2 Maker images @botanical_tales https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/9d3c983e-72fc-4597-bda4-ff3625eb8fbc/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.56.37+am.png 7.2 Maker images @wedge_edge https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/d5a41256-28a8-4051-abe4-91ab12de45c4/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.26.57+am.png 7.2 Maker images @nicolabennettart https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/8caa8ba8-dafd-4d53-b57a-bb3eb9e12c96/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.31.39+am.png 7.2 Maker images @evakosmasflores https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/8fef378e-a6c8-46e2-b32f-878d7382378c/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.37.39+am.png 7.2 Maker images @mimithor https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/7f3a2323-fc0d-4dea-8d33-e5aec0114bfa/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.41.14+am.png 7.2 Maker images @whitepeak_ruth https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/2e52885d-dc39-4571-9281-69b817018e60/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.44.42+am.png 7.2 Maker images @beckyocole https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1c17490e-003e-4100-bb7f-ae8efc118e05/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.47.03+am.png 7.2 Maker images @5ftinf https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/e92ed8e3-b784-49ce-99d6-44c682934c0a/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.48.13+am.png 7.2 Maker images @rootedwings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/f8c442d2-c160-4b38-8fca-b9ffb2706351/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.09.12+am.png 7.2 Maker images @melwiggins https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/595f8f28-3832-4286-9c76-967b20e74b50/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.17.56+am.png 7.2 Maker images @skyemcalpine https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/44376cff-b528-45c6-8dab-68c0d527639c/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.15.02+am.png 7.2 Maker images @simpleandseason https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1da01358-d043-4409-804c-81e01cb3930f/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+6.58.35+am.png 7.2 Maker images @yorkshireshepherdess https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/e9ed0cee-be56-49b8-8af3-653a3d4a06c2/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+7.01.09+am.png 7.2 Maker images @locallovely https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/3f145d14-8d88-41c2-a7fc-9ae4b6fac0c3/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+7.01.42+am.png 7.2 Maker images @artclasseswithannieherron https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/067173c7-3779-4f2f-86c0-c9faf0e1ed93/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+7.02.47+am.png 7.2 Maker images @_foodstories_ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/e4e3dbfe-4807-4903-bab6-23a9cade08c5/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+7.10.57+am.png 7.2 Maker images @modernbotanics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/3817220e-5322-4d0d-839f-587cbab4ce3a/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+7.12.14+am.png 7.2 Maker images @knit_purl_ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/00d75fdb-5c78-4dc8-9dc5-fd61cbf4721f/Screen+Shot+2022-06-08+at+7.14.05+am.png 7.2 Maker images @tommy.ceramics https://www.tangleandfern.com/free-stock-images daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/236b02a8-935f-4fed-a999-1ccdee14fd14/unsplash-image-iI72r3gSwWY.jpg 7.5 Free stock images - Free stock images It’s always better to take or commission your own photography. I hope that by now, you have learned how important it is to craft a unique brand style (one inspired by your values, imbued with your mood-words, and honed to speak to your audience). It’s rare that stock photography can do this, and even more rare to find enough stock photographs that are on-brand for you to fulfil your photography needs. However, there are times when we need an image and simply don’t have the time, access or capacity to capture it for ourselves. That’s when free stock images come to the fore. Royalty-free versus actually free You’ve probably heard the term “royalty free” images, and this is something that many people mistakenly believe means the images are free to use. Not so! This term simply means that you don’t have to pay royalties every time you use the image. Usually, you do have to pay for it, but you only pay once and then can use it as frequently as you like. What you want to look for are images with Creative Commons license (the different licenses will tell you what you can and cannot do with the images, and whether or not you need to attribute the photographer). In this lesson, I’ve listed five of my favourite places to find beautiful images with Creative Commons licenses. There are many more sites, but I have used each of these, and can recommend them. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/be3c0fd8-dec5-47c7-bcff-f256d91a07a0/annie-spratt-JC8ggPmYEMo-unsplash.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/fccb77e6-a22e-4e9c-86bc-61dda38829bc/reading-4045414_1920.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/4ada0a10-faa2-4cdd-9da0-0fb214ff09d2/kaboompics_Woman+in+a+grey+sweater+taking+notes+in+an+organizer.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/6133efc4-1aa4-42c2-9954-8d511ed9b4d7/kaboompics_Two+small+dogs+are+playing+on+fresh+snow.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/c656b32c-b2f3-4d20-a93c-486a9093450b/kangaroos-1869759_1920.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/777c56d5-86a2-48e9-94f7-b71eee1065c0/annie-spratt-zS8zmmxlpGE-unsplash.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/5a473f76-d8fb-472f-ae56-f65206cf2afe/fly-agaric-516281_1920.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/9ca9cb06-e14b-4575-9fc1-92f25eca2fc0/kaboompics_Woman+planting+seedlings+on+a+newspaper+cover+table.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/43034c13-9b49-42f5-832d-fcc09ca5ef8a/annie-spratt-pzzoCYyv_tc-unsplash.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/e9b20fb0-0878-4140-ab2e-c5782dff070d/cup-of-tea-in-autumn.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/afa2d94d-1c77-4d5d-86bb-9e733dcfead4/queen-anne-s-lace-on-forested-hill.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/0dd2f906-3be4-48d8-8c3e-020bcd5ff882/paint-palette-brushes.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/7907ed1b-e171-4962-9820-d81d5e4d59e8/pexels-fadi-imane-9785272.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/4896ed72-a5e8-4e58-8c16-08794f0b6dca/pexels-natalie-3759659.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/a2c64931-d672-4b90-8061-9dffe83d1927/pexels-tomasz-filipek-1637422.jpg 7.5 Free stock images https://www.tangleandfern.com/storytelling-product-shots daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1654601569983-K2YR8UM2WA6072ZZEKB0/Screen%2BShot%2B2022-04-18%2Bat%2B9.06.04%2Bpm.jpg 7.3 Storytelling product shots - Storytelling product-shots This is Step 1 of “product shots” if you want to showcase or sell physical objects. The primary goal of this activity, and the next one, is to help you create images that will actually sell your products, so feel free to skip ahead if you don’t intend to sell anything tangible. The reason I’ve called this section “storytelling” is because these images are intended to tell (or hint at) a story, and set a mood. They are all about helping people visualise your product in their homes or in their lives, and inspiring them with ways that your product can make their lives easier, more relaxing, more beautiful, or whatever it is that you are trying to do. This kind of storytelling photography is very different to descriptive photography, which we will cover in the next activity. You’ll have the best chance of selling your products or work if you provide both styles of photographs in your sales pages. Do you remember last week, when we looked at “head and heart” in your sales copy? This is the visual equivalent. These storytelling shots are the “heart” of your product photography, and the descriptive shots in the next activity are the “head”. When I was learning journalism, my first editor told me that the key to writing any good story was to know the 5Ws: who, what, where, when, and why. Shall we see how this might work for the story of a photograph? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607628784608-5D22G9GPLHDSAB2IXC2G/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0638.jpg 7.3 Storytelling product shots https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 7.3 Storytelling product shots https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 7.3 Storytelling product shots https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 7.3 Storytelling product shots https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 7.3 Storytelling product shots https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847743861-GWVMBPD7Z7WQRQL9IZZ8/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0380.jpg 7.3 Storytelling product shots https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1654717945226-TXQWPDV2WXB9BJDTKLRD/Screen+Shot+2022-06-09+at+5.46.47+am.png 7.3 Storytelling product shots https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1654692748606-1BDOLZ9M1DVKOQ2OJNHV/Screen%2BShot%2B2022-06-08%2Bat%2B10.40.20%2Bpm.jpg 7.3 Storytelling product shots https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1654717176740-9OCS6CK4VJTVWGNFFLW0/Screen+Shot+2022-06-09+at+5.38.59+am.png 7.3 Storytelling product shots https://www.tangleandfern.com/brand-image-suite daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1654600949953-V2VUOEEXLBNDCKV3H55J/cassidy-phillips-EOJRrenjc4c-unsplash.jpg 7.1 Brand image suite - Brand image suite Grab your camera or smartphone: we are about to go on a walk to collect photographs for a “branded image suite.” This will be one of the most useful things you do for your brand: because you’re not illustrating a specific act, product or person, there’s a lot of flexibility. Do you remember, in Lesson 2 when we were talking about your audience, that we gave a little bit of time to the fact that there is a whole lot more to every member of your audience than just what they want from you. They have other interests, other needs, face other challenges, and seek other experiences. Your brand image photographs are a little bit the same. Your brand is more than just the things you do, make or sell. Your brand is also about your values, your goals, your personality, your mood-words, your audience, and your aesthetics. It’s all of these things that we will be capturing today. In the activities to follow, we will get more prescriptive: we’ll be photographing your workplace, the things you do, and physical objects if you make or sell them. The photographs you take today will provide context to those other images: they will help to set the mood and convey your personality. When you finish the exercises in this activity, save all your photographs in the file you created called “Brand Images”. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 7.1 Brand image suite https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 7.1 Brand image suite https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 7.1 Brand image suite https://www.tangleandfern.com/content-ideas daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1655099177917-8D26B1I8NDN5D0Y0LNQS/annie-spratt-zS8zmmxlpGE-unsplash.jpg 8.2 Content Ideas - Content ideas In this activity, we are going to take the themes you noted down in the boxes of your Workbook on page 24, and turn each of them into a big list of content ideas. An example: To help you visualise this process, I’ve created an example for you. It’s based on a friend of mine, a business-owner who is a massage therapist and has decided to branch into making all-natural, scented candles that she will sell to her clients and online. Working through the questions on pages 23 and 24 of the workbook, I was able to identify three audience-led themes for my friend: one was her audience’s desire for lovely home decor (pretty candles); the second was their desire to live healthier lives (healthy ingredients); and the third was the importance of scent to them (olfactory aesthetics and aromatherapy). I made a start at filling out three workbook pages on her behalf, and you can view them below (click on each to see a larger version), or download them here if you find the text in the documents below hard to read. This process is sometimes called “ideas mapping,” and once you get the hang of it, the sky will be the limit for all your content ideas. Use the workbook instructions below to go through this same process for your own brand or business. If you’re struggling, reach out to me via email for help, or ask your questions in the Workshop and we can go through it for you as a group. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 8.2 Content Ideas https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 8.2 Content Ideas https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 8.2 Content Ideas https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 8.2 Content Ideas https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/dc13300e-9303-4e5e-ac90-550200635af7/Example+-+Content+ideas+mapping_Page_1.jpg 8.2 Content Ideas https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/a0bdb845-2168-47a5-a782-16e0fd27fe4b/Example+-+Content+ideas+mapping_Page_3.jpg 8.2 Content Ideas https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/601f0d76-87ec-42b6-a426-0866d64619b2/Example+-+Content+ideas+mapping_Page_2.jpg 8.2 Content Ideas https://www.tangleandfern.com/social-media-strategy daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1655099399028-58R8W7337LVGK2RHXNUL/annie-spratt-pzzoCYyv_tc-unsplash.jpg 8.4 Social Media Strategy - Social media strategy First, a friendly PSA: social media is here to serve you, not the other way around. You don’t owe it content, and you don’t owe an unknown group of “followers” something new just because they asked for it, your life story, or time that you would be better off spending elsewhere. Social media is a tool that was created to serve you, and that’s how we’re going to treat it today. OK, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way… social media is a complex and ever-changing environment. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of social media platforms out there, and sometimes it feels as though a “hot new platform” appears every day. It would be easy to find this overwhelming, but it’s important not to ignore or give up on social media, because – love it or hate it – these platforms are where the majority of people hang out and interact online these days. Depending on the platform you use, and how you choose to use it, social media can be a powerful tool. For example, it can help you: Establish and communicate your personal brand Create a profile for you, or for your body of work Find like-minded people for friendships and support Discover creative colleagues and opportunities for collaborations Be seen by potential clients or employers Find a place to “practice in public” as you hone new skills Develop relationships and sponsorship opportunities with brands Position you as a thought-leader in your field Promote a cause you’re passionate about Launch and promote your business Sell that thing you make The key is to find the place or places online where you can find “your people,” and that best help you achieve your goals, whatever those might be. So, for example, the social media platforms where you decide to be active will differ, depending on whether your goals are creative, commercial, professional or social. Follow the instructions below to first choose a social media platform on which you want to focus, and secondly, plan your content for the coming months. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 8.4 Social Media Strategy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 8.4 Social Media Strategy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 8.4 Social Media Strategy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 8.4 Social Media Strategy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 8.4 Social Media Strategy https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 8.4 Social Media Strategy https://www.tangleandfern.com/adding-value daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1655254495843-X19LIH3D9WKPQXZKAMCL/annie-spratt-JC8ggPmYEMo-unsplash.jpg 8.4 Adding value - Adding value Today's activity is all about adding value. The idea is that you look over each of your content themes and ideas from the past two days’ activities and think about how you can use them in ways that add value to your audience or customers. After all, there's not a lot of point in going to all the trouble of creating content that doesn't add some kind of value to the people you're trying to reach. You need to make it worth their time! In addition, it's worth remembering that any content that you or your business creates is a reflection on you. That's as true for a 280-character Tweet or Instagram caption as it is for a 280-page book. Of course, “adding value” isn't only about giving things away for free. There are lots of ways to add value! Journalists and marketers are frequently taught to look out for six specific ways that any piece of content they create can be used to add value. They are as follows: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 8.4 Adding value https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 8.4 Adding value https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847743861-GWVMBPD7Z7WQRQL9IZZ8/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0380.jpg 8.4 Adding value https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607628784608-5D22G9GPLHDSAB2IXC2G/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0638.jpg 8.4 Adding value https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 8.4 Adding value https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 8.4 Adding value https://www.tangleandfern.com/research-the-publication daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/06d67e25-37a3-4771-a7b4-2fda559061e8/pexels-lukas-hartmann-1276237.jpg Research the publication - Research your publication After you’ve chosen a publication to pitch to, make the effort to read a recent issue, cover to cover. Go ahead and read more than one issue if you can. If they’re a blog or podcast, read or listen to as many posts or episodes as you can. While you’re reading or listening, try to find out if the publication has recently published anything similar to the story you hope to pitch. For example, if you make macramé plant hangers and want to pitch a how-to story with a tutorial, Google the publication name and “macramé” to see what comes up. If there's anything similar that was published within the past couple of years, either pitch a different story to that publication, or choose a different publication from your list. Before you pitch, work out what sorts of stories the publication publishes, and how many of them it creates. Magazines, for example, might come across simply as a suite of stories, short and long. But the reality is that those are carefully and strategically pieced together, weaving a complex embroidery of news, opinions, features and educational materials. If you can understand this, you can learn which of those sections is most suited to your story, and pitch accordingly. https://www.tangleandfern.com/choose-wisely daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/6e7dff3b-00fb-45e4-8095-80a773d9105a/pexels-kristina-paukshtite-5429056.jpg Choose wisely - Choose wisely When you decide you are ready to court media coverage for what you do, make, and stand for, it’s important to remember that bigger is not necessarily better. Television channels, national magazines and big daily newspapers might have hundreds of thousands of viewers and readers... but are those people your “right people”? Bigger is not always better. What do your right people read, watch, and listen to? Those are the publications you should pitch to. Here are some ideas: * Local newspapers: they are always on the lookout for stories that celebrate the people and activities in your home town * Magazines in your niche: your right people probably read these magazines, so it’s worthwhile thinking of how you can bring your voice to their pages * Magazines that your right people read, even if the magazines aren't about your exact niche: they might not know about your niche yet, but you share a lot of other interests so this is another good way to find those people * Radio programs (not necessarily news, but themed programs): think about programs that celebrate arts and crafts, nostalgia, creative expression; interior design... whatever it is that relates to what you do * Podcasts in your niche * Other people’s newsletters that relate to your niche * Blogs in your niche https://www.tangleandfern.com/generate-your-own-content daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/e51fb659-bc03-4458-94d4-db8588484368/pexels-cottonbro-4921249.jpg Generate your own content - Generate your own content first Traditional media coverage can be useful and give you credibility. It's worth making it part of your overall marketing strategy. However, traditional media will only truly work for you if you are also generating your own content. The two need to work together. If you are pitching a story or interview idea to a magazine, for example, you need to be able to demonstrate your expertise in the subject matter. The easiest way to do this is by generating expert content yourself: on your website, in your blog, on your social media platforms... When a journalist reads your pitch, if the idea sparks their interest, one of the first things they will do will be to check you out and establish your credentials to tell the story you want to tell. If you can't be found online, how do they know to trust you? But a nice-looking website, a frequently-updated blog or an engaged social media presence will be a way for them to learn more about you. (Likewise, having these things will stand you in very good stead if and when your story is picked up: if readers want to learn more about you or what you do, you need somewhere for them to go, or else all the effort is lost). https://www.tangleandfern.com/show-dont-tell daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656282265799-IA0P5VYP5QFH82201SOC/kaboompics_Street%2Bbook%2Bfair.jpg 10.4 Show don't tell - Show, don’t tell “Show don’t tell” is the writer’s equivalent of “easier said than done.” You can explain to someone how to drive a car, but they won’t really learn until they get behind the wheel for themselves. Even if it’s tricker to get a handle on, and slower, “showing” is a lot more effective than simply “telling.” “Show don’t tell” takes us (the readers) into your world. It helps us feel what you are feeling, and identify or empathise with you. It’s a very persuasive technique, so will be valuable to you if you’re writing sales content, if you’re undertaking advocacy, or if you’re writing narrative non-fiction (like blogs). Among other things. How to show (not tell) One of the best ways to force yourself to show instead of tell is to limit adjectives and adverbs. These are “describing words,” words that tell you a little more about a person, thing or action. A slow day, a green apple, a cold heart. Writing creatively, eating ravenously, painting mindfully. You get the picture. Adjectives and adverbs are helpful descriptive tools, but they are often over-used. These words tell us what’s going on. They describe a situation for us. But what if, rather than reading about a situation, we could experience it for ourselves? What if we were to ditch the adjectives and adverbs and, instead, paint a picture? Wouldn’t that be better? To whit: “Marie returned home from an exhausting and over-tiring jog.” Okay, we’ve been told that Marie’s jog was exhausting and over-tiring, but do we really care? How about: “Marie returned home from her jog, clutching her side and panting. The couch had never looked so inviting! She kicked off her sneakers and let herself collapse into the cushions.” Now are you feeling it? The first example relied on describing words to tell us how Marie was feeling. The second example took us there by showing us the story as it unfolded. This distinction is even more important in corporate and business writing. In these cases, the use of adjectives and adverbs can make your document appear juvenile and unprofessional. https://www.tangleandfern.com/content-themes daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1655098574569-ESQJ9PI284BZ6RELRZSZ/cup-of-tea-in-autumn.jpg 8.1 Content themes - Content themes In this activity, I’m going to ask you to mine all the work you’ve been doing up to this point for possible sources of content themes. For now, don’t try to edit yourself or worry about how those ideas will be turned into content. That will come later. Treat this activity like a brainstorming session, just getting as much down as you can. Use the instructions below to help you answer the questions in Workbook 2 on pages 23 and 24. When I’m talking about content “themes” here, I’m really talking about “categories” (if that helps you understand them a little better). They are the over-arching subjects on which you will create content. In the next activity, we’ll brainstorm just how many ideas you can come up with that fit inside each theme/category/subject, for your content. You’ll be able flesh those ideas out into content for your social media, blogs, newsletters, and even come up with ideas that you can pitch to bloggers, podcasters and traditional media. (So for example if one of your themes is “sustainable gardening,” you’ll be able to come up with a host of content ideas around that subject). But to ensure that your content actually reaches and engages with your audience, and, ultimately, to encourage the members of your audience to do whatever it is you want them to do, this content needs to be created with your audience in mind. So that’s where we’ll start today. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 8.1 Content themes https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 8.1 Content themes https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 8.1 Content themes https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 8.1 Content themes https://www.tangleandfern.com/why-so-tense daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1655099287679-HHBDBSS2LM1U9GX3P7UG/paint-palette-brushes.jpg 10.5 Why so tense? - Why so tense? It is important to use the correct tense(s) in your writing. As well as being grammatically correct, it’s a necessary step in ensuring your content is understood the way you want it to be understood, and will help you come across as professional. There are 12 tenses in the English language (some argue more!) but, for the purposes of this lesson, we will only discuss the fundamental trio of past tense (things that have already happened), present tense (things that are happening right now) and future tense (things that are yet to happen). In other words: Past tense: I ate my lunch. Present tense: I am eating my lunch. Future tense: I will eat my lunch. Most importantly, choose the right tense. Think about when the action is happening, in the piece you are writing, and choose the tense in which you will write. It’s important to do this mindfully: don’t take it for granted. If you are recounting something that already happened (a place you visited, research you undertook, an article you read), your copy will likely be written in the past tense. If you are expressing your feelings, your thoughts on a topic, or describing something, your copy will likely be written in the present tense. And if you want to speculate about something yet to come (maybe an upcoming event, recipe instructions, new products you intend to release, or simply your wishes, hopes and goals for the future), you will most likely write your copy in the future tense. Once you’ve chosen the appropriate tense for your piece of writing, be sure to follow the following three rules. https://www.tangleandfern.com/active-not-passive daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656282194939-1RJBDF7AQV1KLJWUJ8SF/girl-g720c23b66_1920.jpg 10.3 Active not passive - Active, not passive Most sentences can be written in either an active or passive voice, but it is almost always better to write in an active voice. Why? Because the active voice brings energy or ‘punch’ to what you write, and conveys a sense of immediacy to the reader. On the other hand, the passive voice frequently makes your writing look clumsy, and can slow down the flow of information. But what are active and passive voices? The active voice is when the the subject of a sentence (the subject is often but not always a person) is doing something. The passive voice is when the subject of a sentence is having something done to them. How to write in the active (and passive) voice To write in the active voice, the person or thing responsible for the action should come first To write in the active voice, the person or thing being acted upon should come first For example: PASSIVE: “It has been urged by the Prime Minister that all citizens should be on the alert.” ACTIVE: “The Prime Minister urges all citizens to be on the alert.” Both of these sentences communicate the same meaning, but the active sentence is more direct, more succinct, more immediate, and leaves less room for doubt. https://www.tangleandfern.com/media-kit daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 8.5 A Media Kit https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607638148090-Y6OFDI575CM3NQV732RJ/Large+JPG-Aro+Ha_0387.jpg 8.5 A Media Kit https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 8.5 A Media Kit https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 8.5 A Media Kit https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 8.5 A Media Kit https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 8.5 A Media Kit https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 8.5 A Media Kit https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 8.5 A Media Kit https://www.tangleandfern.com/use-short-sentences daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656282423060-CDI1PTJJ86472E7RIMGI/forest-silhouette-at-sunset.jpg 10.6 Use short sentences - Use short(ish) sentences Lengthy sentences are often convoluted, hard to follow, and weaken your message. Conventional best-practice for Plain English writing is to limit your sentences to 25 words or less, but there’s more to it than that. Recently a woman I know was called into a meeting at work, during which the company CEO decreed that all sentences must be written between 15 and 20 words long. Can you imagine the massive time-suck of constantly having to count your words and pad or cull your sentences accordingly? Not to mention the uncomfortably rhythmic and monotonous paced content that is now likely to come out of that company. Somehow, I suspect that rule won’t last. Despite this, my friend’s CEO isn’t entirely wrong. While she might be taking the guidelines around sentence-length a little more literally than is necessary (or helpful), at least she’s paying attention. Because here’s the deal: Very long sentences make your content drag out, they’re hard to understand or follow, and they’re just frustrating to read. Very short sentences, especially when placed one after another, give your content a staccato effect that make it hard to build momentum. So, where does that leave you? Try to vary the length of your sentences depending on what information you are trying to convey, and to maintain ‘rhythm’ and ‘flow’ in your work However, as a general rule, try not to let your sentences get any longer than 25 words How to shorten your sentences If you’re finding it difficult to keep the length of your sentences down, a simple technique is to stick to just one idea per sentence. You’ll frequently find that if your sentence is too long, you can look at it a second time and break it up so that each idea has its own sentence. For example: “I went to Grandma’s place to find out what type of brick was used on her house because I received a big enough bonus from work to build my own home, and I’ve always loved the bricks at Grandma’s.” What’s wrong with this sentence? It is too long, and combines too many ideas. But we can easily simplify it, by breaking it up according to the different ideas in the sentence. “My bonus this year was enough for me to build my own home. I had always loved the bricks on Grandma’s house, so I visited her to find out exactly what they were.” https://www.tangleandfern.com/bonus-lesson-good-writing daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656282265799-IA0P5VYP5QFH82201SOC/kaboompics_Street%2Bbook%2Bfair.jpg 10 - Bonus Lesson - Good Writing https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656282423060-CDI1PTJJ86472E7RIMGI/forest-silhouette-at-sunset.jpg 10 - Bonus Lesson - Good Writing https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1655099287679-HHBDBSS2LM1U9GX3P7UG/paint-palette-brushes.jpg 10 - Bonus Lesson - Good Writing https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656282144427-SBDAXESY96BABTVU4UJB/kaboompics_Beige%2Baesthetic%2B-%2Bcoffee%2B-%2Bpumpkins%2B-%2Bautumn%2B-%2Bflowers.jpg 10 - Bonus Lesson - Good Writing https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656281893290-I0D1JAO8PZWWF6K5YB4C/kaboompics_Mushroom%2Band%2Bmoss.jpg 10 - Bonus Lesson - Good Writing https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656282194939-1RJBDF7AQV1KLJWUJ8SF/girl-g720c23b66_1920.jpg 10 - Bonus Lesson - Good Writing https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/a2c64931-d672-4b90-8061-9dffe83d1927/pexels-tomasz-filipek-1637422.jpg 10 - Bonus Lesson - Good Writing https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656474332447-4Y0L9J1IW45KA43I5A84/hand-holding-irish-wildflowers.jpg 10 - Bonus Lesson - Good Writing https://www.tangleandfern.com/forget-the-finale daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656281893290-I0D1JAO8PZWWF6K5YB4C/kaboompics_Mushroom%2Band%2Bmoss.jpg 10.1 Forget the finalé - Forget about the grand finalé The fundamental mistake made by many new writers is that they put too much emphasis on building up to a grand finalé. And the problem with this is that if you haven’t gained the attention of your reader in the first few sentences, they will probably stop reading and never make it to your finalé, grand or otherwise. For example, picture a piece of writing structured in either the shape of a pyramid, or an hourglass: Mistake 1: Pyramid writers ‘Pyramid writers’ treat each piece of writing like a movie or a song. They start gently and slowly (ie the top, narrowest part of a pyramid); build the tension and the energy chronologically (the middle, expanding part of a pyramid); and culminate in a big finalé that they believe will make their final impression both remarkable and memorable (the wide base). Mistake 2: Hourglass writers ‘Hourglass writers’ like to start with a big, important or impressive statement to grab their readers’ attention (ie the top, fat part of the hourglass where the sand rests at the start). They put all their minor arguments in the middle (the narrow part of the hourglass); and finish with their most impressive argument yet (the bottom, where the sand lands) in the hope of leaving a lasting impression. Do you recognise your own writing habits in one of these? Don’t worry! On the surface, both appear to be sensible methods. However, applying this structure to writing in the workplace has one critical flaw: few readers will ever make it to your finale, no matter how impressive or important it may be. Think about the way you read: Do you carefully read through every email you receive? Do you read your company’s annual reports from start to finish? Do you read an advertising brochure from the top to the bottom? Do you finish every newspaper or magazine article that you start? The answer to all of the above is most likely no, unless your attention has been thoroughly caught from the start and you therefore trust that everything to come is going to be either relevant or interesting to you. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/6aeb068b-10a2-44ab-b8d8-7b41082f70ed/Inverted+triangle+copy.png 10.1 Forget the finalé - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.tangleandfern.com/keep-words-simple daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656282144427-SBDAXESY96BABTVU4UJB/kaboompics_Beige%2Baesthetic%2B-%2Bcoffee%2B-%2Bpumpkins%2B-%2Bautumn%2B-%2Bflowers.jpg 10.2 Keep words simple - Keep your words simple Bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to word choice. Longer, formal-sounding words slow down the pace of your writing, making it clumsy and inelegant. Sometimes, particularly when we are trying to sound professional or authoritarian, it is tempting to fill our text with big words. You know the ones I mean? The ones that impressed our teachers in school. Unfortunately, the outcome often feels forced, as though the writer is trying too hard, and it can make your writing hard to understand. In the English language, we are lucky to have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to word-choice. And often, it is possible to choose a short, punchy word that means the same as a longer, more formal, lofty or old-fashioned word. By choosing words that are simple and straightforward, you will be able to create a clean elegance to your writing. Far from feeling juvenile or unprofessional, these words, when working together in a Plain English piece of writing, help your content to come across as purposeful, professional, and smart. But by choosing simple, straightforward words brings a clean elegance to your writing, and makes your content purposeful, professional and smart. Try to use the most plain, ‘everyday’ word to say what you mean, rather than using lofty, formal or old-fashioned words. Following are some examples of formal or old-fashioned words. Click to see the shorter, simpler alternatives that you could choose. https://www.tangleandfern.com/lesson-8-outreach daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1655099399028-58R8W7337LVGK2RHXNUL/annie-spratt-pzzoCYyv_tc-unsplash.jpg Lesson 8: Outreach https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1655099177917-8D26B1I8NDN5D0Y0LNQS/annie-spratt-zS8zmmxlpGE-unsplash.jpg Lesson 8: Outreach https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1655099465434-0YE22WPZ0TGDHE5MPPP9/unsplash-image-KPMtqVo9Iv0.jpg Lesson 8: Outreach https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1655098574569-ESQJ9PI284BZ6RELRZSZ/cup-of-tea-in-autumn.jpg Lesson 8: Outreach https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1655254495843-X19LIH3D9WKPQXZKAMCL/annie-spratt-JC8ggPmYEMo-unsplash.jpg Lesson 8: Outreach https://www.tangleandfern.com/make-the-pitch daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/aeb4e775-3865-4d34-a04e-5cc7013007e2/pexels-cottonbro-4153146.jpg Make the pitch - A great story You don’t need to be a good writer to pitch a good story. But you do need to know what a good story looks like. Anything can be news, but not everything is newsworthy. To pitch a story that is interesting and has the best chance of being picked up by a publication, you need to think about a story that they and their readers want to hear, not the story that you happen to want to tell. The American Press Institute says, “A good story is about something the audience decides is interesting or important. A great story often does both by using storytelling to make important news interesting.” But remember: you don’t need to come up with the great story, just the great story idea. The five Ws Pitch the stories that your “right people” want to read, not the news that you want to tell. If you’re not sure if your idea would make a good story, ask yourself the five Ws: * What is the story about? * Why is it worth reading? * Who is involved? * Where does the action take place? * When does the action take place (if the story is timely)? and also, one H: * How did this come to pass? Once you have answered all these questions, look critically at what is in front of you and ask yourself: “If I was a stranger reading a magazine, would this story interest me?” If the answer is yes, pitch it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/7c7d876f-7484-4eb9-81f8-aaa06e183c4c/Screen+Shot+2022-06-16+at+11.29.49+am.png Make the pitch - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.tangleandfern.com/make-a-flatplan daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/ce6c0407-3776-4264-b78a-019cf2df7274/pexels-elina-fairytale-3893502.jpg Make a flatplan - Create a flatplan The way that magazines keep track of all this is by creating what’s called a "flatplan," which is essentially a tabulated map outlining what story goes where in the entire issue. To get to know the magazine to which you'd like to pitch your story, try creating your own flatplan of one of their issues. I realise this sounds like a lot of work, but if you genuinely want your stories and ideas to be picked up by the media, it’s absolutely well worth it. Creating a flatplan will give you an overview of the types of stories the magazine (or whatever the publication is) publishes, and how many of them that are in each issue. Even if you’re listening to, say, a radio show, it will be helpful for you to map the length and frequency of different types of segments, such as interviews, opinion, news, music, caller interaction, etc. https://www.tangleandfern.com/big-project-frameworks daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1651275724694-6DGZNR4MLBPAD95L4FG5/dinan+archway.jpeg Big Project - Frameworks - “Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible!’” — Audrey Hepburn https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656493321797-9BWTV0ASH2JHQ6KJRQ4R/unsplash-image-4IqTki_q8KI.jpg Big Project - Frameworks https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656493347335-AMCI1YY5UWVFYUZ36KC3/unsplash-image-B6yDtYs2IgY.jpg Big Project - Frameworks https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656493221036-3PPTG5D3EZWTI5AKCCIM/unsplash-image-1J8k0qqUfYY.jpg Big Project - Frameworks https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656493445122-12WBO7M9MREL75U6KNEK/unsplash-image-AQO1lAaZ2OE.jpg Big Project - Frameworks https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656493128125-ZFQPAE89KBNWSIXC3KQI/unsplash-image-_wkd7XBRfU4.jpg Big Project - Frameworks https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/1656493811399-U0K5YLXBE2WVKBVMU03U/annie-spratt-OxTT6kZs_gU-unsplash.jpg Big Project - Frameworks https://www.tangleandfern.com/bonus-lesson-pitch-to-media daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/06d67e25-37a3-4771-a7b4-2fda559061e8/pexels-lukas-hartmann-1276237.jpg Bonus Lesson - Pitch to Media https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/aeb4e775-3865-4d34-a04e-5cc7013007e2/pexels-cottonbro-4153146.jpg Bonus Lesson - Pitch to Media https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/6e7dff3b-00fb-45e4-8095-80a773d9105a/pexels-kristina-paukshtite-5429056.jpg Bonus Lesson - Pitch to Media https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/e51fb659-bc03-4458-94d4-db8588484368/pexels-cottonbro-4921249.jpg Bonus Lesson - Pitch to Media https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/ce6c0407-3776-4264-b78a-019cf2df7274/pexels-elina-fairytale-3893502.jpg Bonus Lesson - Pitch to Media https://www.tangleandfern.com/big-project-form daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://www.tangleandfern.com/bonus-lesson-approaching-retailers daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694644871-IC85FNH781UNZSZEGHDR/Aro+Ha_0428.jpg 11 - Bonus Lesson - Approaching Retailers https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1618497259178-6XJGK9GR6YAVBQL5L519/20140301_Trade-151_012-2.jpg 11 - Bonus Lesson - Approaching Retailers https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1607694583486-2PQT0LQ193RL7MCB6DX4/20140228_Trade+151_0046.jpg 11 - Bonus Lesson - Approaching Retailers https://www.tangleandfern.com/stay-in-touch daily 0.75 2024-01-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/625ceaa829252c11b038f540/4ada0a10-faa2-4cdd-9da0-0fb214ff09d2/kaboompics_Woman+in+a+grey+sweater+taking+notes+in+an+organizer.jpg https://www.tangleandfern.com/welcome daily 0.75 2024-01-07