Creativity isn’t just about getting inspired — it’s about strong systems to capture inspiration when it arises.
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Sonia Simone
Sonia SimoneConfessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer
Sonia Simone delivers advice, encouragement, and the occasional rant from outside the drone of the marketing mainstream. Join her for a regular mix of monologues, interviews, and answers to your content marketing questions.
Anniversary Edition! On Finding Your Stubbornness and Going the Distance
It’s the podcast’s birthday! To celebrate, today I want to talk about one of my favorite traits: stubbornness.
Q&A: Cornerstone Content, Creativity, and the Future of Our Businesses
Cornerstone content, how to create compelling content for an “overexposed” topic, and predicting the future for our businesses. It’s Q&A day!
Getting to Freedom and Business Clarity: A Conversation with Sonia Thompson
Content strategist Sonia Thompson talks with me today about business clarity and the power (and pitfalls) of limitless opportunities.
New Mini-Series: Things I Love / Things I Hate
All-caps, all-me Twitter accounts! A fabulous police department Facebook page! It’s time for Things I Love / Things I Hate.
Getting Clear on your Metrics and Benchmarks: The 3 Lenses to Look Through
Any time you can take a measurement in your business — any time you can look at something and get a number — the question arises: What number should I be aiming for?
The Untethered Society: Scary or Liberating? (Or Both?)
“Untethering” is a major 21st-century trend, from Uber to minimalism to remote workplaces. How can we get the most freedom from this social trend, without getting lost in the shallows?
Deep Creative Focus, the Long Haul … and, Yes, David Bowie
What does it mean to live an amazing life? Why put the time in to get great at something? And how can we keep having fun for the long haul?
Motivation and Creativity: A Conversation with Mark McGuinness
Creative people (in other words, all of us) are supposed to be motivated by the pure joy of creating. But what happens when we aren’t?
Vision and Goal-Setting for Your Digital Business
Vision and goal-setting are useful practices for business owners and professionals — but they can also be a recipe for beating yourself up and feeling like crap. Here are my suggestions for productive goals.
Encore: How to Avoid Getting Sucker-Punched by Internet ‘Facts’
Don’t you love those Internet facts? You know, the ones that aren’t facts at all, they’re fodder for our own confirmation bias, and weapons in the Outrage Wars.
To Craft Content Marketing that Works: Avoid Silly Fads … and Do this Instead
Ever wonder why some people think content marketing is the greatest thing since sliced bananas, and others find they never get any real return on time and energy they’re putting in?
How to Work from Home: Getting Stuff Done when No One is Looking Over Your Shoulder
Getting your stuff done every day is tough enough. Getting it done while working from home? Definitely “Hard Mode.” But the rewards can be pretty great.
5 Work Habit Hacks from 12 Creative Geniuses
Today I’m going to dive into the work rituals of 12 widely influential creatives — writers, musicians, artists, and others.
Encore: Productivity for Flakes, Head Cases, and Other Natural Disasters
Today we’re revisiting a popular early podcast about how those of us who aren’t “naturally organized” can still get lots of high-quality work done.
What You Need to Know about Guest Posting
Thought about guest posting? It’s an excellent way to grow your audience and build your authority in your topic. But you want to approach it in the right way.
7 Straightforward Steps to Superior Blog Posts and Podcasts
If you’re actively creating content, you’ve probably noticed that “waiting for inspiration” doesn’t tend to work all that well.
Self-Help for Business Owners: Useful or Useless?
Self-help books, seminars, and retreats: People tend to either love them or loathe them. I have some thoughts on what’s useful for business owners — and what isn’t.
The 2 Points of Clarity that Will Make You So Much More Productive
Are you struggling to make progress on a project, a business, or something in your personal life? Find these two points of clarity for a map out of “the land of Stuck.”
Launching Your First (or Next) Digital Product
Ready to launch a digital product? Here’s are the first steps to get you moving …
A Quick, Enjoyable Way to Sharpen your Vision, Goals, and Values
How do we know we’re successful? How do we set up the rules of our own game so that they serve us, and give us a more meaningful life?
Q&A from Twitter, Independence Day Version!
The keys to good sponsored content or native advertising, content for B2B organizations, and how to make connections with the big-audience content publishers …
The Difference Between Mindset and Wishful Thinking
Is an “abundance mindset” the same thing as wishing really hard and making something magically appear? I don’t think it is. Here’s why …
Things I Love / Things I Hate #4: Trade Secrets, Transparency, and Lemonade Stands
When is it smart to keep your business’s “trade secrets” — and when should you blow them up? How much sharing is too much?
Should You Swear on Your Blog?
Language is complicated, and in the context of shifting cultural norms, it gets even more complicated. So the question comes up: Is it OK to swear in our content marketing?
Up All Night to Get Lucky: Sonia’s in a New Documentary!
No, it’s not a simplistic “Secret,” but there are some very pragmatic benefits to adopting a mindset of abundance.
The Context of a Successful Content Strategy: The Harpoon and the Net
Content marketing has been a hot buzzword for awhile now, but it’s tricky to pull off unti you understand this context.
My #1 Time Management Tip: Don’t Multitask; Compartmentalize
What’s one of the biggest constraints that keeps us from doing the things we want to do? We don’t have the time. Here are some thoughts on how to manage that.
The 7 ‘Escape Pod’ Principles (Help Me Write My Book!)
This week I want to talk about the values, practices, and principles that help us build “escape pods” from whatever is not serving us. And I’d love to hear your take!
Things I Love / Things I Hate #3: Nerdy Nummies and Crummy Content
Great content creators are made, not born. It takes a mix of a well-chosen topic, smart content strategy, attention to craft, and lots of personality. Then, as Rosanna Pansino would say, just Put it all together!
Leadership, Categories of One, and Purple Rain
Real leadership starts when you step up with the courage to be a category of one.
Make Better Mondays! 6 Minutes to a Happier, More Productive Week
Creative productivity is all about habits. Here’s a super quick weekly ritual (you could even do it daily) to have a brilliant week … every week
5 Idea-Generating Techniques We Use on the Copyblogger Team
“Help! I have no idea what to write about!” We’ve all been there — and when you produce as much content as the Copyblogger team, keeping the idea stream flowing is a top priority.
Blog or Podcast? 5 Questions to Help You Decide
Blogging isn’t the only game in town any more for content marketers. Podcasts are super popular as the new “do-it-yourself” content format. So which works better, and why?
Two EQ Hacks: A Nifty Trick for Making Big Changes, and How to Handle Hurt Feelings
Today, two techniques that can boost your “EQ” (emotional intelligence) and help you be a happier, more productive person.
New Mini-Series: Things I Love / Things I Hate
All-caps, all-me Twitter accounts! A fabulous police department Facebook page! It’s time for Things I Love / Things I Hate.
Vision and Goal-Setting for Your Digital Business
Vision and goal-setting are useful practices for business owners and professionals — but they can also be a recipe for beating yourself up and feeling like crap. Here are my suggestions for productive goals.
5 Work Habit Hacks from 12 Creative Geniuses
Today I’m going to dive into the work rituals of 12 widely influential creatives — writers, musicians, artists, and others.
What You Need to Know about Guest Posting
Thought about guest posting? It’s an excellent way to grow your audience and build your authority in your topic. But you want to approach it in the right way.
Call to Action: The Awesome Power of Asking for What You Want
In business and in life, there’s a magical way to get more of what you want, more of what you need, and more of what you desire.
How Not to Be a Dirty, Rotten Spammer
Email is an incredibly effective way to nurture prospects and leads, and pave the path for those folks to make a purchase. But so much marketing email goes horribly, horribly wrong. Here’s how to get a whole lot better at it …
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