I’ve been working on redesigning my website with a brand more fitting in the direction of my focus. Which has expanded from narration to include commercials. In both narration and commercial, I want to support projects that uplift or improve our lives in some way. With fiction novels, it’s usually stories of overcoming barriers with wit and determination. Traits or skills we hope we possess and demonstrate in our own lives. With non-fiction, it’s teaching us to find or hone the best part of ourselves. To recognize and forgive our failures and to learn from them. With commercials it’s products that help us improve our lives in some way.
Working on things that uplift the human heart, life, or spirit, doesn’t feel like work at all. Hence why I want that to be the focus of my endeavors. However, developing the business material behind that feels like a monumental task, especially when you can’t hire out. When working with a small budget as a budding entrepreneur, I’m having to be my own graphic designer, web page designer, content creator, and a whole bunch of other hats I’ve never worn (or sometimes heard of) before. But these are the things entrepreneurs do when they are their team of one.
If you are a team of one needing to learn how to do -well- anything, I’ll tell you a not-so-secret secret, your favorite search engine (Google, Yahoo, etc.) and YouTube are your best friends. So are keywords. And the key to good keywords is to find repeating words in the few materials that you find on your topic of interest. If the keywords you use only turn up one or two articles that are within your scope, look at the words in those articles to find other, more relevant keywords. Look up videos that teach the “hat” you’re looking to put on and look up the keywords in their descriptions. Web page designers have videos targeting people who are designing a web page for the first time. Graphic artists teach budding graphic artists how to make a logo. There are businesspeople teach budding entrepreneurs in your field. Just be sure to use keywords relevant to you. For example, if you have WordPress but use Elementor to design your webpage the keyword, “Wordpress” alone will bring up tons of irrelevant to you results. Use both “Wordpress” and “Elementor” when looking up, “how to make a website”. Play loose yet be specific for your keywords. If you need to use a key phrase, use quotation marks around the phrase!
Keywords also work if you’re looking up how to clean your old hoover vacuum that seems like it’s working too hard and you don’t want to replace it. Look at the date of release on the how to videos. If your program (or vacuum) is old, don’t look at videos released in the last 6 months. Looks at videos as old as the technology you’re using.
That said, here’s another reminder based on experience. Taking breaks is not only healthy, it is WAAY more efficient for your project timeline. Instead of spending time and energy spinning your wheels for 10 hours. Take a break and work on something else or work on self-care and restoration so you can tackle the barrier later. It’s not giving up if you take a step back, it’s giving up when you refuse to try again. But sometimes, giving up is what is best for certain things. Know where you draw the line and don’t be afraid to stick to it! For me, electrical work and plumbing are where I draw the line and call in an expert.
The featured image is the working prototype for my brand. It’s a sneak peek into my redesign. I’m redoing my website, logo, SMS accounts, banners, business cards, etc. I’ve already changed the logo over 50 times. I know because Canva celebrated my 50th and 100th design even though I’m working on the same logo! Doh!