The Three Month Vacation Podcast

If you haven't already heard the news on the street, you soon will. AI is going to take away all our jobs as writers.   Anyone can create a course in minutes, write an article like a pro, or generate thousands of outstanding headlines. Is this just a rumour or is this our dystopian future? Here's a slightly sane answer from New Zealand.   Next Step: Read or listen to Writer's Block Series: How A L...

Even if you have a workable metaphor, how do you use the metaphor in your article?   The key is to go backwards and find the one word or one idea that you want to convey. Almost magically, the word seems to fit the metaphor. Not convinced? Listen to this podcast and find out how to go about this relatively-easy task.   Next Step: Here are— Three Unknown Secrets of Riveting Storytelling    

You'd think you would need to have some scintillating stories to write a metaphor. Or worse still, you'd believe it's a skill that only some people have and can never be learned. Well, you know what they say, right? The proof of the pudding is in the eating. And the proof of writing metaphors isn't in some fancy story but rather in the mundane activities in our everyday life.  Ready to go on a met...

The myth that is perpetuated is that you just need to sit at your computer and get an endless number of clients.  The reality is the face-to-face connection is far superior.  This is why musicians, politicians, et cetera hit the road. Face-to-face – even with the smallest audience is extremely powerful. Here's how you go about it. ________________________________________ Next Up: Why List Building...

Why are some books, videos and audio so much "better" than others?  Or rather, why do we consider so many to be dry and boring? The style of delivery matters, of course. A well-spoken audio, a well-crafted book is always going to stand out. Yet, all information can do with the cherry on top—namely, entertainment. In this podcast, we're going to explore why entertainment is so crucial and how much...

Sometimes, all it takes is for us to sit in a car, and all hell breaks loose.   Here are a few stories of how things went a bit "off-the-road" during our travels. Did you enjoy the travel stories series? Here are a few more. India Travel Stories: The Cheese Story India Travel Stories: The Goa Cashew Nut story 3 ½ Slightly Unusual Vacation Tips (That Makes Travel More Fun)    

At the start of the year, it's almost natural to want to wipe the slate clean and start doing something new. We create goals, set deadlines and hope like crazy that things will work out well.  The part we consistently forget is the "stop-doing" bit. The very same issues that have been a pain in the neck before, will continue to be a nightmare in the future. Why is this stop-doing list so very impo...

No matter what industry you're in, there's already competition. This isn't just some random competition, but rather people who are better established than you. They've worked with your clients before, have a greater profile and probably a fancy portfolio. And then there's us—you and me with no way to get our foot in the door. But are things really that hopeless? Can we come from behind to take ove...

Practice, practice, practice! Isn't that how you get better? Well, yes, but the problem with that mantra is that few of us have the time to get to schedule in as much practice. What if you stopped believing in endless "practice, practice, practice"? Suddenly you'd have to have answers to problems pretty rapidly. Instead of spending endless time in practice, you'd be able to get fluent not at just...

We all seem to know that fluency takes time—lots and lots of it. It also takes a lot of effort and learning. We're told that to be fluent, we have to put in thousands of hours of work. However, what if that premise were wrong? What if you could be fluent at something in a matter of weeks, or better still, in a matter of minutes? It sounds almost scammy doesn't it? And yet, fluency is closer than y...

In the first part of this podcast, we noticed that there's a logic to choosing what elements to fix on the sales page. We're looking at attraction, conversion and risk. And at the same time we're trying to slow down the client from skimming. This episode puts the brake on skimming by using graphics and captions.  Let's learn how to use them effectively.   Next Step:   Are there different copywriti...

When creating sales pages—or even when fixing them, you have a long list of elements to tackle. So many in fact, that you may just put off the fix for a few weeks, which ends up taking a few months. The reality is that you and I can't do it all at once. Why not take on a few elements, instead? If you were to fix things, where would you start? Here are two of the ones I'd get cracking on, right awa...

We know how it feels to be in a state of flow. Our work seems so effortless. However, we almost seem to be rushing to meet a deadline, and work seems—well—just like work. We've always thought getting things done on time is a good thing, and it is. But is it possible that getting things done on time is one of the biggest reasons why we always feel behind? How do you get into a state of play if you'...

We all know storytelling is a crucial skill to have as a business owner and also for you as a person. When we tell stories at the dinner table, everyone seems to listen. The same concept applies to marketing, but there's another bigger reason why you need to be able to tell stories. In this podcast, you learn the core importance of storytelling.   Next Step: Ready to listen/ read the entire series...

No matter how good things are, there's a moment when things just don't go your way. That's when you've entered stall mode. It doesn't matter how skilled or experienced you happen to be. It's still a place that you can't pull out from. Yet, we all do. And there's a way to speed things up. Next Step: Listen or read about— The "Coats Of Paint" System To Break Out Of The Curse Of Perfection.

Isn't it better to recycle instead of writing all the time? A tiny bit of recycling may not be out of place, but there's a good reason why we should keep writing new material all the time. Well, here are my reasons anyway. Next Step—Listen or Read over 51 articles on: How do you keep your readers locked into your article? (Audio and text)

You know how you're told to set a goal and then benchmark your success based on that goal? Well, that's what we set out to do with our membership site at 5000bc. However, we kept running into these headaches that seemed to derail us. In time, however, we found that these constant diversions were to our benefit. That if we just stopped fighting them so much and figured out a way out, we'd end up be...

What does it take to get a membership site to keep going? We go on a wild journey where the entire site was wiped out and how it bounced back again. And how nearly 20 years later, it's still going. Next Step: Listen to: Planning On Starting A Membership Site? The Limited Membership Website Model