Leonie Dawson's Blog, page 42
February 17, 2021
Tool: Use Bloglovin To Read Blogs
Hey panda bears,
As part of my Social Media Free experiment & my Blogs > Social Media goal, I’m embracing the joys of keeping up with the creators I love without a dastardly algorithm getting in the way.
Using Bloglovin is my principal way of doing this. It’s a place where you can read all new content from your favourite blogs. I’ve been reading my favourite websites via this method for over a decade now.
You can Follow my blog with Bloglovin. (Or any other RSS reader, for that matter!)
You can also see all the blogs I follow incase you’d like more reading inspiration.
Fuck social media.
Long live the open web!
Big hugs,
L
xo
The post Tool: Use Bloglovin To Read Blogs appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.
February 15, 2021
Daily Writing: Favourite Parenting Moments
FREE GOODIES:
[image error] Daily-ish writings
[image error] Weekly love letters
[image error] Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised
[image error] A library of free treasures
COURSES:
[image error] Sales Star (begins March 1)
[image error] Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income
[image error] 40 Days To A Finished Book
[image error] 40 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course
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February 14, 2021
10 Mistakes You Are Making With Your Sales Page
Panda bears,
I’ve been around this online marketing jam for a long ass time now. 16 years or so? I’ve brought in over $11 million online. I’ve coached tens of thousands of people to sell more online.
And I still see the same sales page mistakes, over and over.
So I’m going to write a list now, so when someone asks me to look at their sales page, I can spare my voice box and send them here instead.
And just to be super abundantly clear: you want to fix these mistakes TODAY. NOW. ASAP.
Because you are leaving shit tonnes of money on the table. Sales pages, without a doubt, are the biggest factor in your business’ success. It’s so so so so SO worth the time and energy to make it better. You will be rewarded. And by rewarded, I mean $$$$$$$$$.
Righto… on with the show.
Spot the mistakes you are making… then go fix them NOW!1. You don’t have a sales page!You’re just sending people straight to Amazon or your essential oil sign up page or the place people can buy direct from. STOP. DOING. THAT. SHIT.
You are wasting HUGE amounts of sales. Do not send people to another website to sell them. They will do a shit job of it. They’ll rock up to Amazon to think about buying your book, and they’ll end up distracted and order a 5 star vibrator and jumbo pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups instead. I mean, you can’t blame them. What else were they supposed to do?
Instead, SELL SELL SELL them on your sales page first. Make it absolutely and critically clear why they need what you are selling. And then, and only then, link them to where they need to buy (if it is off-site).
2. I can’t find your buy now buttonI’m stunned how many times I’ve gone to buy something on a website… and can’t find the fucking buy now button. Sometimes it’s hidden as a link. Sometimes it is a tiny button hidden somewhere. Sometimes it’s a little symbol. Sometimes it’s a little “Add to Cart” that then doesn’t take you to the shopping cart, and you have to careen around the page like an idiot trying to work out how to buy.
Stop.making.it.so.hard.for.me.to.buy.your.shit.
You need to have biiiiig motherfucker buy now buttons. Scattered throughout your website. As big and obtrusive as a donkey schlong. So much so that everywhere you look, you can see it. And you can’t take your eyes off it. It’s THAT compelling. THAT obvious.
When in doubt, donkey schlong it.
Example: A giant ole donkey schlong of a Buy Now button from my Sales Star page:
3. You haven’t shown me visually what you are selling.Even if it is a digital product, or a coaching program, or a mystical invisible woo-woo machine… I need some goddamn pretty pictures, guys. I need mockups. I need an illustration of what I get. If it’s a physical thing, I need multiple images from every damn shape and angle. Well lit and bright. If it’s something that I’m supposed to wear, I need to see what it would look like on. And not just on some sad sack mannequin. GIVE ME SOME DAMN PICTURES.
Humans are visual creatures. We can process images faster and understand things far more comprehensively when it’s visual.
When in doubt, MORE PRETTY PICTURE PLS KIND REGARDS AND THANK YOU.
4. You have named it something so hippy nampy-pampy I don’t know what it is forHippies, I love you. You know that. I am one of you.
AND: I need us, collectively, to commit to NOT inventing word salads and being super creative with titles to the point that nobody else understands what the fuck we are talking about.
Your product name is NOT where you win prizes for most creativity. Save your creativity for what’s IN the product. Save the creativity for literally EVERYTHING ELSE except the title.
Years ago, I met a very sweet man at the markets who was an incredible healer. He was writing a book at the time. I asked him what it was called, and he told me the name. Then he had to spend the next 5 minutes EXPLAINING the name to me, what it meant, and what the book is actually about. Spoiler alert: if you have to spend five minutes explaining a name to someone, the name has failed it’s job. You can NOT do that for everyone who this book is for.
Your product name should CLEARLY tell me WHAT THE FUCK IT IS + WHO IT IS FOR.
If it doesn’t do that, you are losing a shit tonne of money. And you are not helping the people who it is meant for.
Also: As hippies, it’s super important we also make sure we don’t fall into cultural appropriation when naming products or teaching. I’ve absolutely made this mistake before, and I wish I had known better then. I feel like it is my responsibility to educate you and direct you to anti racism educators. Cultural appropriation is harmful to the Indigenous cultures we claim to love so much. It is not good business practice.
5. You behave like you are in witness protectionHave you forgotten to tell me who you ARE on the sales page? Is there a photo of you? If there IS a photo of you… are you wearing sunglasses? Are you looking away from the camera poetically?
If so:
are you in witness protection?
If you are – sure, hide your identity. Or make a new one up for the sake of selling online.
If you are not however:
Stop. Fucking. Hiding. I can’t trust you to buy something from you if I don’t know who you are. I am a human. We look for common signals to build our know, like and trust factor of a new person. I need to see your face. I need to see your eyes. It’s not about whether I want to bang you or not. It’s about whether I, as a human, can trust another human enough to give them $$$ and know I will be well taken care of.
6. Your sales page is not long enough to really convince meI don’t even know why there is an argument about this.
Over and over again throughout all the ages, research and testing shows long form sales pages convert much better than short form.
So it’s really a question of money.
Do you like money? If so, make them longer.
If not, sure – make it shorter.
We need time (length) to be convinced and understand why we need to buy from you.
7. No compelling testimonials with faces on themHumans need social proof that we are doing the right thing.
We want to know that other people have already used your thing, and loved your thing, and highly recommend your thing to others.
I once asked an expert copywriter what three parts of a sales page sold the most.
She said:
Testimonials.
Testimonials.
Testimonials.
Go check out how many testimonials on the 40 Days To A Finished Book e-course. They basically sell the course for me.
8. You haven’t told me who this is forNew phone, who dis… for?
Am I the right person for this product? Or no?
YOU TELL ME.
No. Seriously. Tell me who this is helpful for. And don’t say everyone.
Also: being very clear about who this is for and who it is NOT for is also really important for YOU to define your ideal client, and who you don’t work with.
For example, in my Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income course, I have this:
9. You haven’t told me how this will actually help me.What are the benefits?What will I feel like AFTER using your product?How will I be transformed?What does this HELP with?For the love of Delilah, be clear. Tell me the answer to these questions.
Or I shan’t be sending you the cashy-cashola.
10. You are linking to everywhere else.Hush now. I love a good link. We all do. We all like to clicky clicky all the linky linkies all day long.
But guess what?
Your sales page is not the place to send us all off on a merry goose change around the interwebs and never return.
NO! Your sales page has ONE purpose.
That is to get people to click the Buy Now button… and send you cash.
Don’t be linking me to your Instagram, or your grandmother’s Only Fans account.
Bonus point #11: if you’ve got my sales page checklist, I can tell if you haven’t used it.If you’ve got my 40 Days To Create + Sell Your E-Course program, you have my original sales page checklist as a bonus. If you’ve already enrolled in the Sales Star program, you’ll be getting a new pimped-out version of my sales page checklist.
And when you’ve got it: MAKE SURE YOU USE IT. Tick every little fucking bit off of it.
But only if you want more money.
If you don’t… ignore, or just do a half-assed job at it. Then you can stay blissfully static!
The more you tick off the checklist, the more money you will make.
There’s a lot of money you’re leaving on the table.It’s your time to start picking some of it up!
And if you haven’t already – make sure you’re joining me for Sales Star in March.
But only… of course… if you like money.
If not… RUN! RUN FAR AWAYYYYYY!
Big love & abundance,
FREE GOODIES:
[image error] Daily-ish writings
[image error] Weekly love letters
[image error] Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised
[image error] A library of free treasures
COURSES:
[image error] Sales Star (begins March 1)
[image error] Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income
[image error] 40 Days To A Finished Book
[image error] 40 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course
The post 10 Mistakes You Are Making With Your Sales Page appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.
February 12, 2021
Scrapbook: What’s Inspired Me Lately
Treasures,
As part of my Blogs > Social Media experiment, I’ve noticed my inspiration, attention span & consumption of quality, thoughtful content is way up. Whereas in an hour of Insta scrolling left me a vacuous memory-less hole, an hour of reading blogs fills me UP UP UP until I am brimming with ideas & insights & itching to create.
Here’s a scrapbook of inspiration I’ve been collecting as I go.
Images:
Raych Pony Gold is me + my tween girl’s latest shared obsession. So much so that she is sitting beside me as I type this, writing a fangirl letter to Raych. Be still my creative mama heart! I joined Raych’s Patreon so I can get her magical postcards each month… the level of squee we get out of one postcard together is unreal!
Stunning collage artwork by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
This artwork by L Hensens feels like a memory, a familiar moment I recognise.
Mattias Adolfsson is my new favourite being.
The colours in Tammy Garcia’s work makes my eyes so happy.
Essays:Robin Rendle’s Essay on Newsletters is utterly beautiful & gorgeously designedFascinating, but not surprising. Instagram doesn’t give a shit about your time or your business. It just wants you to use it MORE.A Late Night Walk… eerily beautiful. I sighed audibly when I read the last paragraph.Dear Sugar: The Ghost Ship That Didn’t Carry UsOn Friendship Breakup. Oh, this was precious & heartwrenching all at once.I’ll never know and neither will you of the life you don’t choose. We’ll only know that whatever that sister life was, it was important and beautiful and not ours. It was the ghost ship that didn’t carry us. There’s nothing to do but salute it from the shore.
Misc + SundryA friendship break is more of that creeping dull ache in your side that, although mostly ignorable, never fully goes away. There is secrecy and shame in admitting you were dumped by a friend. Even writing this right now, I’m imagining some of you reading it and thinking…what must be wrong with her?
From James Clear
May we be deeply nourished by all we consume.
Big love,
FREE GOODIES:
Daily-ish writings
Weekly love letters
Podcast: Leonie Dawson Refuses To Be Categorised
A library of free treasures
COURSES:
Sales Star (begins March 1)
Money, Manifesting & Multiple Streams of Income
40 Days To A Finished Book
40 Days To Create & Sell Your E-Course
The post Scrapbook: What’s Inspired Me Lately appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.
February 11, 2021
Parenting Differently Podcast
Blossoms!
New podcast interview for you!
I sat down with the delightful Anja from Parenting Differently and we chat about the prep work I did before I became a parent, the incredible amount of hours parenting takes and how being a martyr doesn’t serve anyone.
Listen HERE!
Or, if you prefer to feast your eyes instead of your ears, watch HERE instead!
Ha!
Enjoy, treasures!
In gratitude,
The post Parenting Differently Podcast appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.
February 9, 2021
My Thoughts On Kids And Phones
Pookybears,
As part of my 21 Day Challenge to go without social media, I’ve been reading a whole hunk of books about the negative effects of phone use & social media use.
Some great books to start with:
How To Break Up With Your Phone by Catherine PriceDigital Minimalism by Cal NewportI’ve become wildly obsessed with the subject, as I tend to do with new interests, so I’ve been having long daily conversations with my husband. I tell him all about the research & neuroscience behind social media & phones and the very real damage they are having to our brains.
And we keep coming back to the same place we often do in these conversations:
We are glad for the parenting choices we’ve made (and continue to make) around tech.Some of our choices:
chose alternative schooling options that currently don’t utilise laptops or iPadswhen our country moved into quarantine schooling and classes were moved online, we opted out of it and elected to homeschool eclectically instead. We knew hours in front of a screen each day was going to create disengaged & unhappy learners (& also drive us insane as parents).have strict parenting controls & access time to iPads + computers at homedon’t allow them to have any social media accountdevices aren’t allowed in bedrooms at night (unless they want to listen to an audiobook, and they know not to play with it or we will remove it)maintain a strict no phone policy for our kids. If at a point in time they need one for safety reasons, we will purchase a “dumb” phone that allows for calls to restricted numbers instead.Granted, my kids aren’t still quite teens yet. However: they already know our family rules are they will only be able to purchase their “own phone” when they are 18. Until then, any access to devices will be heavily restricted and monitored.
The research continues to back up the heavily negative effects of phones & social media. It’s bad enough for adults:
“While research on these devices is in its early stages (unsurprising, given that they’ve barely been around for ten years), what is known so far suggests that spending extended time on them has the power to change both the structure and the function of our brains – including our abilities to form new memories, think deeply, focus, and absorb and remember what we read. Multiple studies have associated the heavy use of smartphones (especially when used for social media) with negative effects on neuroticism, self-esteem, impulsivity, empathy, self-identity, and self-image, as well as with sleep problems, anxiety, stress, and depression.”
– How To Break Up With Your Phone, Catherine Price
Those negative ramifications are intensified on young brains that have not yet developed fully, and souls that have not yet had the time or space to discover themselves and develop their own identity and confidence. Research continues to show again & again how detrimental it is to children’s mental health, self esteem & rates of suicide.
I like how the author Glennon Doyle once answered a question about how to respect a teenager’s privacy with their phone whilst also protecting them. Her response: my teenagers don’t have phones. If they use a phone, they are using MY phone because I pay for it with MY money. And I get to see every single thing that happens in MY phone – every message sent, every photo taken. They don’t get to have privacy on a phone.
It seems like a hardline approach, but here’s the thing: Steve Jobs, Bill Gates & other Silicon Valley tech leaders REFUSE to allow their kids access to devices because they know how harmful they are.
“The fact that so many tech executives limit their own kids’ exposure suggests that they don’t think the benefits always outweigh the risks – to the point that they feel the need to protect their families from the devices that they create.”
– How To Break Up With Your Phone, Catherine Price
I don’t care if we’re hard-ass parents on this front. I got the gift of growing up without social media. I got the gift of being able to form my own identity, connect with my own soul, fall wildly in love with nature, and develop a relationship with myself that is outside of how others experience me. It’s a childhood I wish for my children. And I know that social media has been difficult even for me mentally – even when I have a fully developed adult brain, a ridiculously high self esteem & a good understanding of who I am. What hope do our kids have?
I will be a Mama Bear, and I will protect their young spirits, even when they don’t like it. Even when it seems out of step with what others are doing. Even when others don’t understand. We can only make the decisions that feel true and right and good for us.
Big love,
The post My Thoughts On Kids And Phones appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.
February 8, 2021
February 5, 2021
Week 1 of No Social Media
Hi gorgeous humans,
I shared last week about a new project I am doing – a series of 21 day challenges.
The first challenge I am doing is 21 days without social media.
No Facebook or InstagramMessenger use is allowableI began a week ago. Here’s a log I kept, along with notes, quotes + inspiration.
Sun 31 Jan (Challenge Eve):I am trying to set myself up for success. Here’s how I’ve prepped:
Had already deleted Facebook and Instagram apps from my phone & iPadInstalled BlockSite Google Chrome extension on my laptop and blocked Facebook & InstagramFollowed these instructions to block access to Facebook & Instagram on my phoneTold my Facebook mates to either DM me or send me a snail mail so we could be penpalsTold the world publicly to set off my Obliger tendencies so now I have to stick to the challenge. Ha!Emotionally, I’m feeling a little bit excited and quite a lot anxious. My social media use has been a numbing mechanism for me for so long. I use it when I’m bored or want some headspace from the kids. It feels weird to be intentionally creating an empty space.
I wonder what will bloom forth from it once it is here.
Monday 1 Feb (and so we begin)…My first day social media free! And it was… surprisingly easy. And good.
I’m glad I set myself up for success yesterday – at one point, I absentmindedly pulled out my phone and typed “facebook” in my browser, and was blocked. And it shocked me that I’d even gone to look it up without even thinking about it. It’s like sleepwalking while awake!
I also noticed my brain was a little calmer throughout the day. For instance: I was sitting outside on the verandah, and I wasn’t itching for my phone, because there wasn’t anything particularly exciting that could be happening on there. Instead I was just… there. Journalling. Looking at the birds. Noticing the air.
How marvellous.
Remember a few years ago when I decided to take a few weeks off social media to recover from burnout… and it felt so good I continued the hiatus and didn’t return for six months? I don’t know why I was so worried about leaving social media… I’ve already done it before! And had a bloody great time. Re-reading those posts – my heart hurts for what I was going through back then. I was so profoundly jaded and hurt by so many things – being a public figure and dealing with multiple fires behind the scenes with staffing. I’m glad that I’ve healed and don’t feel the way I did back then. I’m glad creating feels sweeter and kinder again. I’m glad my business feels like a wonderful fit for me again.
Last night I sped-read through 10 Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier. It was kind of a crap read, probably would have been better just as an article instead. Still, useful chunks of info to consume and edify my resolve. Then I started reading The 52 Week Project: How I Fixed My Life By Trying A New Thing Every Week For A Year by Lauren Keenan. One of her projects is (of course) giving up social media. This kind of book is more up my alley – something that is more womxn-centric and is a memoir-ish story instead of a straight-up how-to.
Anyways, I’m working on a trickier project at the moment that I’m hoping to release in the next day or so. I’m glad I don’t have the temptation of social media to distract me from doing the important work.
Tuesday 2 Feb 2021 (Day 2)I’ve had a busy day today – podcast interviews, launching a new program, went for a bushwalk & recorded a podcast episode, took the kids to a birthday party, grabbed takeaway Thai on the way home and marvelled at the vast swarm of bats that stretch for kilometres above the river at sunset.
So I get to the end of the day with barely a moment in sight to miss social media.
Still, I was surprised that I unconsciously opened up Facebook THREE times today, and got a little shock each time as my phone and laptop blocked me. It really is like sleep walking: how did I even end up here? How is this process so automated in me? I wasn’t even thinking!
I’ll be excited for the day when I don’t sleepwalk into social media again.
Thursday 4 Feb 2021 (Day 4)
Saturday 6 Feb 2021 (Day 6)Looking back at the last week, I think it can be summed up in two easy dot points:
Surprisingly easy to do as long as you have automatic blocks on your computer & phone to stop you sleepwalking into the Infinite ScrollFeeling so much clearer in my head & more powerful.On a business front: I just finished up an early bird discount on my new course & it has earned more $$$ than any other early bird discount I’ve done. Without any use of social media (which I did for all previous course launches).
I had a look at traffic sources for the last year, and only 20% came from social media. Which is crazy considering how social media takes up MUCH MORE than 20% of my brain power + time. What could I do instead of endlessly creating more content for less traction on social media? What could I create outside of that environment?
I’m still pondering. I don’t know the answer yet, I will let you know when I do.
I’ve continued reading Deep Work & Digital Minimalism (both by Cal Newport) in tandem, and they have provided some absolutely excellent fodder.
Here’s some of the quotes I’ve highlighted:
“We cannot passively allow the wild tangle of tools, entertainments, and distractions provided by the internet age to dictate how we spend our time or how we feel.
We must instead take steps to extract the good from these technologies while sidestepping what’s bad. We require a philosophy that puts our aspirations and values once again in charge of our daily experience, all the while dethroning primal whims and the business models of Silicon Valley from their current dominance of this role; a philosophy that accepts new technologies, but not if the price is the dehumanization”
“We added new technologies to the periphery of our experience for minor reasons, then woke one morning to discover that they had colonised the core of our daily life. We didn’t, in other words, sign up for the digital world in which we’re currently entrenched; we seem to have stumbled backward into it.”
(We need to) “confront the thicker reality of how these technologies as a whole have managed to expand beyond the minor roles for which we initially adopted them.
(We need to confront the reality of how these technologies) somehow coerce us to use them more than we think is healthy, often at the expense of other activities we find more valuable.”
And more related articles I’ve read this week:
Author Ann Patchett has never seen social media + doesn’t own a cell phone.An illustrator takes a break from InstagramMika Perry on quitting social media:Quit Social Media: Your Career May Depend On It
One day, I felt a thud in my heart that said “Let social media go” – I paid attention. And then it came again, and again, and again. “Let it go.” I started to question it and ask why I was feeling this. So towards the end of last year, I started questioning the role of social media in my life, comparing and contrasting the pros and cons of it.
I’ve even taken breaks before so I thought about those times, too. Then it pretty much dawned on me as the following words were impressed upon me in a real, gut-punching kind of way :
We were not made for this.
I have tears in my eyes just now typing that.
In a capitalist economy, the market rewards things that are rare and
valuable. Social media use is decidedly not rare or valuable. Any
16-year-old with a smartphone can invent a hashtag or repost a viral
article. The idea that if you engage in enough of this low-value
activity, it will somehow add up to something of high value in your
career is the same dubious alchemy that forms the core of most snake
oil and flimflam in business.
Professional success is hard, but it’s not complicated. The foundation
to achievement and fulfillment, almost without exception, requires
that you hone a useful craft and then apply it to things that people
care about. This is a philosophy perhaps best summarized by the advice
Steve Martin used to give aspiring entertainers: “Be so good they
can’t ignore you.”
My… objection concerns the idea that social media is harmless.
Consider that the ability to concentrate without distraction on hard
tasks is becoming increasingly valuable in an increasingly complicated
economy. Social media weakens this skill because it’s engineered to be
addictive. The more you use social media in the way it’s designed to
be used — persistently throughout your waking hours — the more your
brain learns to crave a quick hit of stimulus at the slightest hint of
boredom.
If you’re serious about making an impact in the world, power down your
smartphone, close your browser tabs, roll up your sleeves and get to
work.
As this experiment has continued on, I’ve discovered I’m increasing in clarity + calmness of mind.
It’s made me consider other things I’d like to reduce or limit. How more isn’t necessarily more. And sometimes less can be positively decadent.
I’m absolutely THRILLED to keep going with this experiment for the next 21 days… and think it will end up going longer. Can’t wait to try another 21 day challenge as well!
Big love,
The post Week 1 of No Social Media appeared first on Leonie Dawson | Goals, Marketing + Creativity For Glorious Humans.
