Business

Let’s Take Flight Together

Javacia-683x1024

Do you dream of seeing your byline in your favorite publications?

Do you have an idea for a blog or business, but you’re not quite sure where to start?

Maybe you already have a blog or brand, but it’s not getting the attention you feel it deserves.

Or perhaps you’ve written a book but you just can’t seem to sell it.

If any of these sound familiar, I’d like to help you get unstuck and soar. Let’s take flight together!

As founder of See Jane Write, I used very simple but very powerful strategies to grow a small writing group into a network of hundreds of women. And this network has helped me start an award-winning business and land the paid writing opportunities I once only dreamed about. You can use these same strategies to build buzz for your blog, book, brand, or business.

I want to share these strategies with you and answer any other questions you may have about writing, blogging, or business

For the next seven days I will be taking appointments for 11 one-on-one coaching sessions.

7:11

I’m calling this my 7/11 special. No, you can’t come to me and fill a pot with your favorite flavor of Slurpee (I’m sure y’all have heard about this on the Internet), but I can fill your mind with what you need to take your next step.

If you would like to meet face-to-face for hands-on help, you can get a one-hour session for only $99 (usually $125). If meeting in person is a challenge, we can chat via Skype. This one-hour session will only cost $75 (usually $100).

This offer ends April 18. (We can meet anytime, you just need to purchase the session by April 18.)

Here’s what one of my clients had to say after we spent an hour chatting at her favorite Starbucks:

My one-on-one session with Javacia was more than I expected. She not only listened to my goals and aspirations, she provided me with practical next steps to help me accomplish each. She was friendly, yet very professional. I left with an ambitious to do list which is now my roadmap. She followed up, as promised, with websites, worksheets, and tons of information to help advance my dreams to write, get published, and speak professionally. I now consider her my writing mentor.

— TiJuana W.


You see, after we meet I’m not going to check your name off my to-do list and forget about you. I’m going to follow up with information and inspiration to keep moving your closer and closer to achieving your goals. 

If you know you need guidance, but you’re not sure this is right for you, simply email me at javacia@seejanewritebham.com with any questions you may have.

If you’re ready to fly click here for a face-to-face session or here for a Skype chat and then email me at javacia@seejanewritebham.com for next steps.

Let’s do this!

You Need a Professional Headshot

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“Man!  You look like a boss!”

That was my husband’s reaction the first time he saw the portrait of me pictured above. It was the first professional headshot I’d ever had done and my husband’s reaction was exactly what I wanted.

If you want to start taking yourself seriously as a writer, if you want to transition from blogger to businesswoman, you need a professional headshot. Whether you have been asked to speak at a conference or you are being featured on a popular website, people will constantly ask you for a headshot. You also need a nice photo for your social media channels, especially professional ones like LinkedIn.

As photographer Lynsey Weatherspoon wrote in a recent blog post,  “LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network on the Internet, deserves more than the selfie you shot in the car on the way to your job.”

Lynsey was the photographer behind my #likeaboss headshot and she’s currently booking headshot sessions in the Birmingham area for March 1st and 2nd. Book your session here. Once you book, make a note of your preferred day. Send inquiries and questions to info@lynseyweatherspoon.com.

This is not a sponsored post. Lynsey didn’t ask me to share this information with you. I just really loved my first professional headshot and I want you to have a headshot that you love just as much.

I’d love for you to share your headshots in the See Jane Write Facebook group! 

 

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

bbj ceremony

A rising tide lifts all boats.

On Thursday evening the Birmingham Business Journal celebrated its 2015 class of Top 40 Under 40 with an awards ceremony at Iron City. I was among those honored, chosen for the work I do through See Jane Write. The evening was nothing less than fantastic.  I walked in the door and was greeted by several people I’d never met before who wanted me to know how much they loved my picture — the one that ran with my article in the Birmingham Business Journal, the one I was once insecure about because I’d opted to wear a trendy Olivia Pope-inspired outfit instead of a traditional black or navy business suit. “Your picture was hands down the best,” one fellow honoree said to me. This was a great lesson in daring to be different and daring to be myself.

A rising tide lifts all boats.

A table with my name on it and people stopping and asking to take my picture all made the night feel surreal and unreal. I tried to soak it all in. I tried to figure out what I would write in my blog post about the night, but I just kept hearing the same thing in my head over and over:

A rising tide lifts all boats.

As each honoree received his or her reward, a video recorded the day of our photo shoot was played for the crowd. I’ll be honest — we were all dreading this moment. Seeing yourself on camera is bad enough. Seeing yourself on a larger-than-life screen while hundreds of other people look on is much, much worse. In the video we were each asked what helped our career take flight. Again, I dared to be different. My answer wasn’t about a partnership or promotion. Instead I spoke about getting over my impostor syndrome and self-doubt. I talked about the importance of believing you deserve success and I declared that if I want people to take me seriously as a businesswoman I must do so first.

As the ceremony continued several women made their way over to my table to thank me for what I said in my video, to thank me for saying something they believed all women needed to hear.

A rising tide lifts all boats.

Ironically, even though Thursday’s ceremony was in part a celebration of me, it was also a reminder that my successes aren’t about me. In fact, that’s why I call my organization See Jane Write, not See Javacia Write. It’s not about me. It’s about empowering all Janes; it’s about empowering all women writers, bloggers, and entrepreneurs.

In my video and article for the Birmingham Business Journal I talk about the importance of women taking themselves seriously and this week I plan to help the women of See Jane Write do just that. Each day this week I’ll be posting inspiration and information to help you take your career to the next level.

Perhaps you’re not sure where to start. If that’s the case, then let’s chat. I’m currently accepting appointments for one-on-one consultations for March. During these consultations you can ask me whatever you need to about freelance writing and publishing, blogging, personal branding and marketing, building a community organization and more. Get more details here. There’s also one additional spot available in next month’s Blogging Boot Camp, which has been set for March 15.

Remember, I’ll be posting here every day this week giving you something big or small to help your career take flight, too. Or maybe consider this information the moon pulling the waters of your work toward the sky. But don’t forget: A rising tide lifts all boats.

Like a Boss

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Last week the Birmingham Business Journal announced its Top 40 Under 40 class for 2015 and I am proud to say that I am among the young professionals chosen for this honor. What makes me even prouder and even happier is that I recently learned a group of women who have in some way been inspired by the work I do through See Jane Write teamed up to nominate me for this recognition.

This time last year I didn’t even consider myself a real entrepreneur and now here I am being featured in the Birmingham Business Journal! This wouldn’t have happened without the support of that group of women (or the support of my sweet husband who helps me with every See Jane Write event). But I also believe this wouldn’t have happened had I not decided to change my attitude last summer.

Back in July Megan LaRussa Chenoweth’s keynote address at the See Jane Write Bloganista Mini-Conference inspired me to start taking myself seriously as a businesswoman. As a result, I revamped the See Jane Write website and weekly newsletter, started working with a business coach, and started signing up for every webinar on business building that I could find.

As I state in my article for the Birmingham Business Journal, “My career as an entrepreneur started to take flight when I overcame my self-doubt. Once I started to take myself seriously as a businesswoman, other people started to as well.”

For that article, each honoree was asked to answer a slew of questions and obviously not all of them could be used. If you live in Birmingham I hope you’ll pick up a copy of the latest issue of Birmingham Business Journal at a local bookstore like Little Professor Book Center. But I thought it would be fun to share with my blog readers a few of my responses that weren’t used in the article.

Enjoy!

What keeps you up at night? 

Ideas keep me up at night! I always have so many ideas for lessons I can teach, programs I can offer, events I can host, and things I can write to inspire my students, my clients, See Jane Write members and other women in my sphere of influence.

What’s the first website you visit each morning? 

SheReadsTruth.com

What book has influenced you most in your career? 

The book that has influenced me most as an entrepreneur is Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In. It pushed me to overcome my impostor syndrome and to start believing that I am good enough and smart enough to do what I want to do.

What inspires you? 

Women inspire me more than anything on this planet. My mission in life is to empower women and girls to find their voice and share their stories. That drives nearly everything that I do.

What important lesson have you learned that has helped your career? 

I’ve learned to embrace and be unapologetic about my femininity and to never see it as a liability.

What’s the best advice you’ve received? 

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Your turn! I’d love to read your answers to these questions, too! Leave them in the comments. 

*Cross-posted at WriteousBabe.com.

Entrepreneurship is a D.I.Y. Project

Julia McNair
Julia McNair of Do-It-Yourself Crafts

Sponsored Post for Do-It-Yourself Crafts

2015 is the year I’m really focusing on growing as a businesswoman and so I’m getting as much advice as I can from other female entrepreneurs. Recently, I had a chat with Julia McNair, owner of the Birmingham-based arts and crafts shop Do-It-Yourself Crafts. While talking with McNair I realized that entrepreneurship is very much like a do-it-yourself project because to be successful one must be both creative and patient.

What inspired you to start Do-It-Yourself Crafts?

I started the store in 1999. I had been working in corporate retail management and had loved my job…until I didn’t. I was considering going to law school, but that didn’t really call to me, either. I found myself doing more and more craft projects, but in my small Southside apartment, I didn’t have the space to store supplies. I decided I wanted a place like a paint-your-own pottery shop, where I could go to create things – not just paint your own pottery. When we opened, we had a varied selection. We sold supplies, as well as having a studio to work in. We did scrapbooking, rubber stamping, glass wine painting, and a whole lot more.

After a few years, we added paint your own pottery, and then mosaics, and then glass fusing. Other items went away. When Hobby Lobby opened, I knew I wasn’t going to out-do a big-box store, so we closed the craft sales section of the store and expanded the studio into the front. What has stayed over the years are the items that customers have told us they want to have – if it didn’t sell, it went away.

love your life

Starting a business is obviously risky. What is the scariest thing you’ve faced as an entrepreneur and how did you handle it?

Honestly, the first thing is the scariest: signing the loan, signing the lease. You have to make the money to cover those obligations. After you get started, the momentum will carry you.

What’s the one piece of advice you would offer aspiring entrepreneurs that you wish someone would have shared with you before you started your business?

Starting a business is wonderful and terrible and everyone should think about doing it, but you should know that once you start a business, it’s not a hobby anymore, it’s your business. I joke that I may own a pottery shop, but I’m in the marketing business. It’s nonstop and relentless and never-ending. I read something once that said that if you own a business, you spend about 15% of your time doing the thing you opened your business to do. I think that estimate might be high.

You can think you know exactly what you are going to be doing, and you might. But you might not. Your customers will let you know what they want – and you can change with what they are telling you, or you can stick to your guns and see if you make it. The customer isn’t always right, but they are your only source of income and so you should make every effort to let them be a source of income.

you are beautiful

What do you do to make your business stand out from other shops like yours?

Customer service. When I had competition, that was the most important thing to us – that we focus on our customers and make sure that we went above and beyond.

I no longer have any local competitors for pottery shops – the studio that had been my competitor closed and I have opened a second shop where she was located – but that doesn’t mean I don’t have competition for customers. We are competing against the roller skating rink and the bowling alley and the movie theater. We are also competing against all the canvas painting places and other “ladies’ night out” options people have. We are competing with not spending money at all. There is competition everywhere.

Speaking of ladies night out, give us some tips on how to throw a great party at your shop.

If you are having a kid’s birthday party at one of my stores, the best thing is that you can let us handle it and just enjoy yourself. I am a mom and have done parties for my son at other places, and I know that we are easier. (In fact, I am the WORST critic to go to a party – I really pay attention to the details when I’m seeing what other places do and don’t do.) My goal is for the kids to have a great time, but for the moms to say it’s the easiest party they have ever done.

For a girls’ night out – it’s up to you! We can be where you get together with girlfriends and just enjoy a night together, or it could be a class where everyone does something specific. Often we do the Introductory Glass Fusing class for this – I tell a bunch of bad jokes, and then everyone makes a project. We try not to tell you exactly what you have to do – but instead give you some lee-way in how the night shapes up.

To learn more about Do-It-Yourself Crafts and book a party of your own visit DoItYoursefCrafts.com.