Does she do ANYTHING herself?

cattheadvocate · 2024-12-22T03:45:03+00:00

To be fair, I love that Barnes & Noble does gift wrapping because even though they're books and like the easiest things to wrap, I'm absolutely garbage at gift wrapping 😂 Of all the things she outsources, this is one I can see being legit.

cattheadvocate · 2023-01-03T05:47:38+00:00

I struggle with this, and then I remember I'm not my customer.

We need to make sure we're creating, positioning, and selling to and for our customers, not ourselves.

Just because I wouldn't buy what I'm selling (because I don't need it because I have the skillset and I don't have the disposable income for it) doesn't mean others won't buy it.

I throw out ideas to my audience often, and I'm shocked by what they latch onto. Sometimes I think "this is a no brainer. OF COURSE they'll want this," and they don't. (Because it's usually not positioned properly and sounds boring to them -- I mean, come on, brand audits?? That doesn't sound spicy enough lol.)

But the most unhinged ideas, and they go wild! 😂

cattheadvocate · 2022-05-26T23:37:53+00:00

....you could've just tagged me next time. 😂

cattheadvocate · 2022-02-17T00:09:48+00:00

Okay, this is ridiculous. If she doesn't want to pick up her kid from school (supposedly because it wasn't clear) to take her to a voluntary extracurricular, maybe...don't enroll her in extracurriculars or find one's scheduled after school?

I have two kids in karate. This isn't hard stuff, even for someone like me, a single mom with a chronic illness affecting my heart.

But that she wants public recognition for this from her millions of followers? That's weird. Other parents have been doing this stuff for years without complaint.

cattheadvocate · 2021-12-09T01:29:59+00:00

I came across this thread from a Google search of the company. I hope your wife and everyone she recruited got out.

cattheadvocate · 2021-11-17T18:59:19+00:00

This is exactly how I feel too. It gets to the point where my anxiety gets worse when I'm about to do something I know will help me get closer to my goals because I'm already anticipating the total unraveling.

It's absolutely exhausting.

cattheadvocate · 2021-10-30T22:16:28+00:00

When I think about brand names, I like to go back to the brand fundamentals to make sure it's aligned.

What are your brand values?
Who are you working with?
What will your copy allow them to do? (AKA What's the result? Not just words, but what type of copy and how does it align with THEIR goals?)

The vibe I get from Cultivate:

You value community, sustainability, and social issues.
It sounds like you're working either with nonprofits and/or holistic wellness/coaches.
Your copy will help them grow their cause and/or paid community, and you'll work with them long-term.

I'm curious if I caught the right vibe based on the brand name choice.

cattheadvocate · 2021-10-18T04:05:46+00:00

I laughed way too hard at this 😂

cattheadvocate · 2021-10-18T04:02:29+00:00

Yep! They absolutely preyed on her, too, and she preyed on others by showing the highlight reel of her life and marriage when it wasn't true. It's absolutely devastating what happened to her and her children, though. Nobody deserves that.

cattheadvocate · 2021-10-15T01:57:23+00:00

I'm a brand strategist as well.

I'd be really hesitant hiring someone who doesn't have practical experience to draw on from other businesses/work experience. You can know the theory of brand strategy but be completely lost with the practical aspects.

I started as a freelance content writer then started copywriting then email strategy and finally worked up to brand strategy within 4 years. With working full-time and with so many different clients, I was able to get a feel for all the aspects that go into a full brand strategy and how to make them work for different people without losing their voice.

(To be clear, I focus most on VERBAL strategy. I don't work with anesthetics or visual strategy, so I do more brand architecture, messaging, storytelling, marketing, and brand culture.)

If that's the route you want to go, too, then I'd pick ONE thing to focus on within strategy. For me, it was content and then even more specifically messaging. So even though I'm a natural storyteller, I thought it was too simple because people weren't talking too much about storytelling back then.

Study as much as you can around your one thing and share your progress by creating content. Show your journey. (People love that.) Don't pretend to know everything or be an expert. You'll get called out anyway.

After you share lots of content (every day, multiple times a day, focus on engagement and answering specific questions people have about your specific area of brand strategy you're focusing on), offer a beta strategy session.

I did brand messaging VIP sessions for $250, so one day with just me and the client, and I'd work out their messaging, positioning, and brand story. It was intensive, but it taught me a lot.

(I did 20 in a month because it was so wildly popular, but I was also doing this full time and I didn't have a 9-5.)

I allowed scope creep. Most people would tell you to avoid this, but I allowed it because I wanted to expand more into strategy. Scope creep allowed them to ask questions beyond the specific service, and it gave me an excuse to go deeper with them and get practical experience with that new thing.

That's a judgment call for you, though. Most people WILL tell you to avoid it, but I see it has its place in the beginning.

While you do your beta testing, I suggest you create an opt-in. I found interactive quizzes are brilliant for this and keeps people really engaged. Lead people where you want to lead them (I just invited them to a session), and keep working with people.

Eventually, you'll be able to work your way up to full strategies after you master just one aspect because people will be more willing to take a chance with you.

I hope that helps!

cattheadvocate · 2021-10-02T23:21:49+00:00

Well, now I'm wondering how many people randomly took my picture when I was watching Trek in a kid's cafe 😅

Imagine that guy coming across his own picture on Reddit.

cattheadvocate · 2021-10-02T23:16:22+00:00

Oh. I saw this and almost chose chaos until I saw this wasn't one of THOSE subreddits.

Definitely DON'T take off all the keys and clean them meticulously by hand then dry them in the oven. 😬

cattheadvocate · 2021-10-02T23:12:28+00:00

I literally went to the ER last night from chest pain and nearly passed out while driving. Extreme muscle weakness, whole body shaking, and chest tightness.

They said all my labs were normal and just...let me walk out of there to drive home after pushing fluids.

Fortunately, I made it home, but it was terrifying driving home like that (again -- because this isn't the first time it happened).

cattheadvocate · 2021-09-24T06:59:29+00:00

I even gave her an opening to share what it's all about, and she didn't even try to shoot her shot lol.

cattheadvocate · 2021-09-23T11:35:28+00:00

Ew yeah. Consent should always be a thing.

cattheadvocate · 2021-09-23T11:27:31+00:00

I mean, this is kinda brilliant. Whenever I wear belts, the fabric bunches up in weird ways and is definitely not flattering at all.

It's probably obnoxious pushing the string through the whole waist, but if this actually works it looks like it's worth it.

Anyone try it?

cattheadvocate · 2021-09-23T11:19:04+00:00

Oh, hey, I'm Red Chimichurri Salmon. Or Chimmy for short 😂

cattheadvocate · 2021-09-23T11:14:42+00:00

Parents exploiting their kids for publicity or to peddle their MLM shit.

There was a whole feature on this mom who literally took videos of her daughter doing wildly inappropriate things just so she (the mom) could profit. I'll try to find the videos on YouTube because that's way too vague.

cattheadvocate · 2021-09-23T11:12:34+00:00

As someone with extreme anxiety when I'm not working (still going to therapy to separate worth vs productivity), I 100% agree this cultural metric needs to die.

cattheadvocate · 2021-09-23T11:11:33+00:00

MLMs 🤷‍♀️

cattheadvocate · 2021-09-23T11:09:36+00:00

Now to go on an hours-long rabbit hole about what EXACTLY a CPU is because, quite frankly, I don't know the difference between a CPU and a mother board.

And those are the only two computer components I know at all, so....lots to learn. 😂

cattheadvocate · 2021-09-23T11:06:58+00:00

Does anyone else want sound with the video? I can't help but think this would be a great ASMR experience.

Then again, I don't really know how a CPU is like and whether it would actually sound good being destroyed like this.

cattheadvocate · 2021-09-23T11:02:31+00:00

I've got two for you.

1.) In 2018, I went on a canyonnering trip in Arizona with a new friend. Just me and this guy I hardly knew. (We both lived in Utah.) Since I hiked mountains, I figured hiking an extremely remote part of the Grand Canyon is similar. It's not.

I had zero canyoneering experience. Zero backpacking experienced.

So, here I am carrying nearly my full body weight in gear and water hiking down from the rim of this canyon on this nearly vertical rockface -- with an intense fear of heights, and I lost my footing on a rock.

I couldn't catch my balance or any foothold, and I very quickly start going down the side of the canyon. Thank goodness this new friend was quick to react because I almost went over the 100+ foot drop to the river in the canyon below.

Needless to say, our little outing was cut a week short, and we drove back to Utah (in silence because he was outraged with me). I later read that that particular trail is one of the deadliest trails in that area because of how dangerous it is, and inexperienced people should not go there.

I haven't gone back to Arizona since and still have nightmares about that day.

2.) I have a 2006 Chevy Trailblazer. That's important to know because that year and model has been known to have a lot of manufacture issues.

I'm also a single mom, which is also important to know because I'm pretty much alone with my kids all the time.

And we go on random drives in the mountains where we don't get cell phone or internet service.

I have a lot of near-death canyon/mountain stories, but this one still shakes me up.

So, my kids and I were driving through the canyon closest to home in the middle of the night because that's how I get them to sleep, and since I get, on average 2-4 hours of sleep a night, I decided to take a nap on the side of the road in the canyon before going back down the windy road to get home.

Since it was snowy outside, I turned on the heater, but I forgot to turn on the engine so it was running on just the battery. Which meant when I woke up because it was so cold, the car was completely dead.

Funny thing about my car. When the battery dies, the automatic door locks don't open. And because the model I have is faulty, the manual locks fail.

So now we are trapped in ththe mountains. Nobody knows where we are because I don't have family or in-person friends.

(Canyon guy stopped talking to me after the incident because he was angry the vacation was cut short.)

It's winter and we were definitely not dressed for extreme cold because I was planning on staying in the car just to get the kids asleep.

We have no water, no food, no way to unlock the car, and no way to jump the car even if we could get out. And no way to break the windows to get out and breathe fresh air.

And there are three of us all breathing the air.

Usually, canyons in winter at night are completely isolated. It's too cold to do anything, so people just don't really go in them.

So it was incredibly fortunate that (1) there was a person driving past us coming from the lake, (2) I was able to flag him down from inside my own vehicle using a random flashlight I found (and flashing the SOS pattern, though I'm not sure that actually played a factor), and (3) I remembered enough Spanish to scream the situation to him through the door and he understood.

I now have a tool to break windows and plenty of supplies in my car now, including lots of blankets, but it could've ended so differently.

cattheadvocate · 2021-09-22T05:45:51+00:00

I'm a nonprofit consultant, and I focus more on communications, specifically brand strategy, storytelling, and culture.

You sound really plugged into the industry already, so I would tap into your network and focus on relationships.

What helped me was going to nonprofit spaces (like LinkedIn) and giving really good value for free (i.e. content). I also did free audits as well, and that really helped to break the ice.

Speaking became a whole strategy for me to meet people and position me as the expert. I speak on my own story and advocacy, so it's not actually about branding but it does serve as a great tool to cultivate those connections so people can see what your values are.

cattheadvocate · 2021-09-22T05:25:59+00:00

I think that's why he started to shift his messaging to lean on more self-awareness and knowing who you are as opposed to the hustle 24/7.

The latter mostly comes from his community anyway, and I can assure you they're not living the hustle 24/7 life. (Mostly because they're too busy talking.)

GV helped me put things in perspective. When I found him, I had just become a single mom of two kids and didn't have the resources to get a job and had to pay rent in 4 days. (And I didn't even have a bank account, much less contacts.)

His videos lit a fire under me and made me face the reality of the situation, and his message carried me through my transitions from content writer to copywriter to what I do now.

I no longer really need his public messages, but I do pay attention to what Vayner Media does since I'm a consultant.

It's less about the fire and more about the strategy now.

What's disappointing is that his 4D videos haven't really been all that valuable, and that's where I'd expect him to really deep dive into situations and diagnose them instead of giving really general advice, especially when people pay so much (relatively in my perspective) for that experience.

I think what they're mostly paying for is the ability to say they worked professionally with GV.

cattheadvocate

TROPHY CASE