“Magic is believing in yourself; if you can do that, you can make anything happen.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
What do you believe you can do?
Tag Archives: newsletter content
Motivation Monday: I Am
“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.” — Mahatma Gandhi.
“It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.” — Dale Carnegie.
Mahatma Gandhi. Dale Carnegie.
Two men. Two cultures. One thought.
We are what we allow ourselves to believe we are.
Who are you?
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My images are to be shared, and I offer them to you via various venues —
- The Fiverr subscription plan (7 daily images emailed to you for $5)
- CafePress — select images such as Serenity Prayer are on drinking mugs and blank cards.
- Book covers custom created for your work
- Direct purchase of signed prints (Contact me)
- View my photography portfolio (with music) on YouTube. And more images may be seen on Flickr.
Motivation Monday: Dreams and Hearts
Our dreams are what keep us going, whether it’s the nightly dreams of our subconscious rolodexing our lives; or our dreams of a vacation in Sedona; or our dreams that our (photos, coffee mugs, books, collected sonnets, whirlygigs, wigets) will catch the public’s imagination on fire.
But Neil said it best: “There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.” (Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders.)
What has captured your imagination?
Merchandising, Dissemination, Transaction, Hype
Marketing.
A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.
Well, kind of. Encyclopedia Brittanica (on-line) says there are approximately 13,000 identifiable varieties of roses in the all of the various classes, such as hybrid tea and floribunda roses. And I know from walking around the Botanical Gardens that not all of the roses are fragrant.
But what is up with this marketing thing anyway? A basic Google search of the word “marketing” brought back, in 0.40 (that’s four-tenths of a second, mind you), about 1,400,000,000 results (plus one, because once I put the key words in, this too will be Google-able). But what is it really?
Simply put, it’s me telling you and showing you that my creations are a superior product and then proving it to you with my delivery and follow through. (And frankly, if you don’t click on those live links, I can’t show you how lovely these images are, so I hope you’ll help me out here by clicking on them.)
My images are to be shared, and I offer them to you via various venues —
- The Fiverr subscription plan (7 daily images emailed to you for $5)
- Book covers custom created for your work
- Direct purchase of signed prints (Contact me)
- View my photography portfolio (with music) on YouTube. And more images may be seen on Flickr.
And now there’s CafePress — select images such as Serenity Prayer will be on drinking mugs and blank cards.
So tell me, what can I create for you??
Motivation Monday: Experience: The Ultimate Teacher
Experience, aka Life, is an incredible teacher, if we allow ourselves to see it as such.
I know usually I’m guilty of being so immersed in what-I’m-in-the-middle-of that I don’t recognize the lessons I’m being taught until way after I’ve come up for air. I have to consciously stop myself and “be in the moment” to participate actively, as opposed to participating reactively. It’s very hard to do.
Marketing one’s work is an active experience teacher. We have to send work “out there” and hope it resonates with viewers (or readers, or listeners or customers, etc.), but we have to be aware of which delivery method succeeds, and which doesn’t, and modify accordingly. We have to monitor the perceived value of our message and content. We have to compete with all of the images that bombard our viewers every day.
Marketing never rests.
I want my work “out there.” I offer daily e-mails via Fiverr. I create book covers. I am waiting for my CafePress shop to go live, so that my images (with and without motivational quotes) can be put on note cards, calendars and coffee mugs, among other things.
It’s all to get the work into your hands.
So tell me, what can I create for you?
Do you have a company or group newsletter for which you need some new images? Interested in purchasing images? Contact me.
Subscribe to my daily inspirational images email here. Subscriptions are $5/week for seven consecutive days.
View my photography portfolio (with music) on YouTube. More images may be seen on Flickr.
Motivation Monday: Attitude is Everything
Like many people, sometimes I feel like Mondays are a drop, but usually not. Mondays are a fresh start, just like every day is, and I like to meet it bright-eyed.
Sure, as my search for a “regular” office job continues, some days are harder than others, but it’s still my choice how to face each day.
“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.” ― Mahatma Gandhi.
Values – integrity & professionalism – are important to me. I left my last job because of the diminished professionalism of the company, and being told by upper management to deposit a check we weren’t entitled to. My work, whether it’s in an office for a paycheck, or created free-lance, or for the subscription service, is held to high personal standards; that is, I give you, my client or my employer, the high standards I myself would expect to receive if our positions were reversed.
So tell me, what can I create for you?
Interested in purchasing images? Contact me.
Subscribe to my daily inspirational images email here. Subscriptions are $5/week for seven consecutive days.
View my photography portfolio (with music) on YouTube. More images may be seen on Flickr.
Art is a Business
I have been shooting photos since I was about eight. I majored in Silk Screen in a NYC public high school, learned to letter by hand using Higgins Black Magic (liquid) Ink and Speedball Nibs. I took a wood engraving class with John DePol at Bowne & Co. Stationers at South Street Seaport Museum (where I bought my first calligraphy kit.)
Life, of course, got in the way. I sold books at Scribner’s on Fifth Avenue, and at the Waldenbooks’ flagship store in the Wall Street area. I’ve worked as a receptionist, a general administrative assistant, a Realtor (yep, paid my national dues, which entitled me to use “Realtor”), and most recently, as a bookkeeper at a 700-unit apartment complex.
I still shot pictures, I still drew, I still crafted.
But I like systems and procedures, and utilize them when I can.
What you see above is how I run ThisMorningSmile, my motivational/inspirational photo subscription service. The photographs are arranged in seven-day groups (because the subscriptions are seven images for $5.00) by week number. Also listed are the authors whose quotes I’m using so I can easily search for them if necessary. The thumbnails allow me to keep from duplicating images. From there, it’s all a matter of (simple) data entry to keep track of subscribers (or authors who purchase covers).
That’s what I did today, as well as create four new images for the subscription service.
Tell me, what can I create for you?
Interested in purchasing images? Contact me.
Subscribe to my daily inspirational images email here. Subscriptions are $5/week for seven consecutive days.
View my photography portfolio (with music) on YouTube. More images may be seen on Flickr.
Let Me Read the Future
My art — my photography — is original.
I do not use, nor have I ever used, stock photography.
There’s nothing wrong with using stock — I have many photography friends who create stock, and other friends who use the stock imagery to create their art — but it’s not my thing.
Let’s talk! Tell me, what can I create for you?
Interested in purchasing images? Contact me.
Subscribe to my daily inspirational images email here. Subscriptions are $5/week for seven consecutive days.
View my photography portfolio (with music) on YouTube. More images may be seen on Flickr.
What Can I Create *for You*?
We’ve been playing game in our house — Misha will suggest a title for a mock book, and I make the cover.
Here’s today’s sample, for the fantasy world.
So tell me, what can I create for you?
Would you like an 11×14 print from the Flickr collection, or an Adobe collection of affirmations?
Do you need a book cover? Invitations?
Do you need someone to do a newsletter for you so you can just email or snail-mail them out?
Let’s talk!
Interested in purchasing images? Contact me.
Subscribe to my daily inspirational images email here. Subscriptions are $5/week for seven consecutive days.
View my photography portfolio (with music) on YouTube. More images may be seen on Flickr.
Live As Only You Can
Just a little something to contribute to the Motivation Monday category, as I continue to learn my way around WordPress.
What can I create for you?
Interested in purchasing images? Contact me.
Subscribe to my daily inspirational images email here. Subscriptions are $5/week for seven consecutive days.
View my photography portfolio (with music) on YouTube. More images may be seen on Flickr.
Here Comes the Sun 