Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

By Ann KroekerBusiness Education Arts Books Self-Improvement Marketing

Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach episodes

July 10, 2018 Ep 160: Ways to Rebrand Yourself as a Writer - Cold Turkey
My dad started smoking when he was a teenager and smoked like a chimney all the way through college and into adulthood. He worked in the newsroom of a major metropolitan newsroom, where smoking cigarettes and cigars was the norm—almost expected.
9 min
July 10, 2018 Ep 160: Ways to Rebrand Yourself as a Writer – Cold Turkey
My dad started smoking when he was a teenager and smoked like a chimney all the way through college and into adulthood. He worked in the newsroom of a major metropolitan newsroom, where smoking cigarettes and cigars was the norm—almost expected. Isn’t that the stereotype from the movies?
Well, in the 1960s, when my mom realized she was pregnant with my brother, Dad quit smoking. Cold turkey.
The overnight switch must have been strange for his colleagues at the paper, with their coworker showing up to work the next day no longer shrouded in smoke. Overnight, unannounced, he changed a huge part of how others perceived him. He never smoked again.
Rebranding Cold Turkey Can Be a Shock
If you would make a sudden decision like that, it’s great for your health, but a bit of a shock when it comes to rebranding.
Yet, people do it.
I’ll bet we’ve all seen people suddenly stop writing with barely an announcement. They essentially shut down their blogs and social media accounts and walk away from whatever they’ve built. A clean break. No ambiguity. One hundred percent certainty. Then they begin with a new project, a new focus, a new tone.
They end one thing so they can start the next thing.
They move on to new ideas, new projects, new topics.
The Type of Person to Rebrand Cold Turkey
They may be the type to rip off the Band-Aid all at once. Or they leap into the cold pool without even pausing at the edge of the diving board—one bounce and splash!
Perhaps they leave up one blog post or article explaining their reasoning and that leaves their readers without any question or confusion as to what happened. It can tell people where to find them as they launch the new space for the new brand. That way it may be sudden, but it’s spelled out.
Reasons People Rebrand Cold Turkey
It happens. People rebrand for lots of reasons.
Maybe they grew weary of the subject matter. They got tired of the storyline. They felt drawn to something new. They ran out of energy or ideas. They changed in core ways and wanted their brand to match.
For whatever reasons, they decided it was time to move on.
Cold Turkey Rebranding Benefits
Rebranding in a sudden way certainly offers some benefits.
Clarity
A cold turkey switcheroo can throw faithful readers for a loop, but at least they have no question what’s happening. It’s clearly out with the old, in with the new.
Readers See If New Content Feels Relevant
If you rebrand cold turkey instead of choosing a slow transition, your long-time readers, while perhaps surprised, even baffled, at first, will see right away whether the new brand is relevant to them.
Writer Can Focus Right Away on the New
Another benefit of a sudden switchover is that the writer gains immediate freedom to focus completely on the new brand. He doesn’t have to drag it out over days, weeks, or months. If he’s excited about the new possibilities of the new look, feel, and content, he can get started right away building that.
Cold Turkey Rebranding Disadvantages
Rebranding in a sudden way may result in negative repercussions.
Upset Readers
An unpleasant possibility is that readers who felt they had no time to prepare or say goodbye leave with a bitter taste in their mouths. You can explain your reasoning sympathetically, trying to see it from their perspective.
And you can explain your reasoning clearly, trying to help them see your perspective. But you can’t control how they’ll feel or respond. Hopefully they see your logic and understand your decision and direction. Even if they stop following your work, I hope they wish you the best.
Writer Loses Momentum
Another challenge of rebranding cold turkey is that it takes time to build the new audience of new readers if you haven’t already gathered them in creative ways prior to the rebranding. In that in-between time, if the writer loses readers, he may also lose momentum.
9 min
July 03, 2018 Ep 159: Ways to Rebrand Yourself as a Writer - Slow Transition
If you’ve concluded you really need to leave behind who you are and the writer you’ve been, and transition to a completely new look, feel, tone, and type of writing, you’re going to rebrand yourself. - You have options for how to go about it.
9 min
July 03, 2018 Ep 159: Ways to Rebrand Yourself as a Writer – Slow Transition
If you’ve concluded you really need to leave behind who you are and the writer you’ve been, and transition to a completely new look, feel, tone, and type of writing, you’re going to rebrand yourself.
You have options for how to go about it.
Ways to Rebrand: Trial Run
We’ve already discussed starting with a trial run, which often leads to integrating the new brand with the existing brand.
During the trial run, you have time to experiment before fully committing yourself—in fact, you could still back out and return to your existing brand if you don’t like how it sounds and feels, and you can’t imagine this focus for the next few years.
Ways to Rebrand: Integrate
But at some point, let’s say you decide to move forward and follow through. When you decide to keep the old and add in the new, that’s a way to rebrand by integration. Instead of completely changing, you actually absorb and expand.
Ways to Rebrand: Slow Transition
Now we’re diving into total change—the true pivot. When you leave it all behind, you can do it right away—suddenly—or you can transition over time. When you take your time rebranding, I think of that as a slow transition.
If you’re the type to pull a Band-Aid off in millimeter increments, stretching out the process over several minutes of tiny tugs instead of ripping it off all at once, this might be a good fit for you.
It might also be for you if you know your readers hate surprises—and you hate pulling the rug out from under them.
Time to Adjust
The slow transition eases your readers into this new you. And it gives them time to adjust to the idea that you’re changing—that eventually you’ll discontinue their favorite articles, posts, and tweets (or whatever) that you’re known for. They get a taste of what’s coming before the full shift takes place.
With the slow transition, readers have time to prepare, to find other writers offering similar content or styles, to adjust to the idea of life without your signature words and tone. As you slowly shift from the old brand to the new—when it’s clear what’s happening—you might even recommend to your readers other writers and authors who are similar to you and your style.
Personal Rebranding: First, Integrate, Then...
I’ve mentioned before that my website content was much less focused in the past. I wrote random stories about family and faith and eventually food. When I added food, those articles integrated with the existing brand, so readers never really felt a shocking jolt.
I continued with that kind of content for years on my personal website. In addition, I served on the editorial team of two online organizations.
I taught composition and creative writing and coached speech once a week to high school students.
I led writing workshops.
I wrote another book.
I became a writing coach.
A friend and mentor nudged me to focus my website on that and that alone. If I did that, it meant my core me—my core brand—would have to change. It meant I’d have to rebrand.
I was nervous. I hate making people upset. And I definitely hate pulling the rug out from under someone.
Shifting to Slow Transition
So I did it in stages, in a slow transition.
My tagline “Ann Kroeker, Writer” shifted first to “Ann Kroeker: Writing Coach, Editor, Friend.” About a year later, I dropped “Editor” and “Friend,” which my son thought was hysterical because it implied I wasn’t a friend anymore.
My brand became, simply: Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.
It was a slow process, but I rebranded.
Rebranding Aftermath: Readers Decide to Stay, Linger, or Leave
And all those readers who followed me because I posted recipes on Friday witnessed the slow change.
Instead of waking up one Friday and finding me basically gone—suddenly become a writing coach—wondering what in the world happened, they could see the content shifting. I even said as much at one point—I let them know I was stepping into my role of writing coach not just on the side but online.
9 min
June 26, 2018 Ep 158: Ways to Rebrand Yourself as a Writer: Integrate
You’re going for it. You decided you’re going to rebrand yourself. - How will you go about it? - We already discussed one option: the trial run. Rebrand Yourself: Integrate Today we’ll see if choosing to integrate will work best.
8 min
June 19, 2018 Ep 157: Ways to Rebrand Yourself: Trial Run
You’re going for it. You decided you’re going to rebrand yourself. - How will you go about it? - You have options. One is what I’ll call “Trial Run.” Next time, we’ll talk about “Integration.” Then “Slow Transition” followed by “Cold Turkey.
7 min
June 12, 2018 Ep 156: In a World of Author Branding, What If You Want to Rebrand?
In the last episode, I finally attempted to define an author brand. Before that, we talked about staying consistent with the core you—the brand you’ve developed, the tone you take, the voice your readers have come to enjoy. - The episode before that,
6 min
June 05, 2018 Ep 155: In a World of Author Branding, uh…What's an “Author Brand”?
I guess I got ahead of myself. - I’ve been talking about author branding, but I didn’t describe or define it. And in this world of author branding, you may be wondering, “Uh...what’s an ‘author brand’?” - Sorry to leave you full of questions.
9 min
June 05, 2018 Ep 155: In a World of Author Branding, uh…What’s an “Author Brand”?
I guess I got ahead of myself.
I’ve been talking about author branding, but I didn’t describe or define it. And in this world of author branding, you may be wondering, “Uh...what’s an ‘author brand’?”
Sorry to leave you full of questions. Like:
Is it the logo you design and the colors you choose for your website?
Is it the font you use for your name?
Is it the banner image you use on Facebook or the photo that shows up in Gravatar?
Is it the art on your book cover?
Is an author brand more about voice and style?
Is it tied to the subject matter you’re known for? The topics you tackle?
Is your brand revealed in the way you manage your Instagram feed and select images for your blog?
Maybe all this talk of “brand” sickens you. “Seriously?” you’re thinking, “Brands are for jeans and perfume and hotdogs, not writers!” Thinking of yourself as a brand feels slick, commercial, and product-y. “Brand” sounds like marketing manipulation or sales-speak.
“I’m a Writer, Not a Brand!”
“I’m not a brand!” you’re shouting. “I’m a person! A writer! An artist!”
And of course if you’re shouting that, you’re right—absolutely right. We are not neon signs to flick on and flash in a window or a color palette and typography design hoping to entice interest.
We are people—people who love words.
We tell stories. We pour out our hearts and hold out hope to the world. We’re essayists, memoirists, novelists, poets. We are artists.
(But I Would Love Readers to Read My Work)
And yet, if we seek publication, we’re trying to draw interest. If we’re doing more than write in a journal, we must be hoping to find readers for our articles, our poetry, our short stories, our books.
If we write for the public, we want to impact people. If we’re honest, we’d love readers to read our work, wouldn’t we?
Readers Default to “Brands"
And readers face a lot of choices. When a person shells out money for a book or sinks time into reading an article, she wants to be pretty sure it’s worth it. So she’s choosy.
Sure, she’ll read someone new, especially on a friend’s recommendation, but she tends to gravitate to the writers she has come to know, like, and trust. She turns to those writers who turn out content that consistently addresses her need or lifts her up or makes her think or laugh or sigh. She reads the writers she knows will help meet her need.
She probably doesn’t think of it this way, but she turns to author brands.
A Brand Is a Promise
So that’s a way to think of brands and writers. How can we become that trusted writer who consistently addresses a reader’s needs or lifts her up or makes her think or laugh or sigh?
How can we offer an unspoken, informal promise of sorts, that when a reader finds us and reads our words, he will get to know us and we’ll deliver content in the same general vein.
If, for example, I don’t use four-letter words in my content then suddenly spew a stream of them unexpectedly, I broke my “promise,” so to speak, and went off brand. I blindsided my readers who had come to trust my tone and turn up my podcast or read aloud my articles within earshot of their conservative grandmother or grade school kids.
A Brand Accumulates, Forms, and Strengthens Over Time
Whether intentional or random, everything we write and send out—from social media updates to podcast episodes—is leaving people with an impression about who we are and what we’re like.
Over time, one blog post, magazine article, short story, or poem at a time, you’re becoming known for something. Over time, you gain visibility. And over time, your brand is forming and strengthening into something. A group or groups of people are beginning to recognize you.
You can see how it does involve a lot of different elements, including our subject matter, our tone, and, yes, even the colors on our website, our author photo, the cover art on our book covers, and the style of our logo.
9 min
May 29, 2018 Ep 154: In a World of Author Branding, Be Consistent at Your Core
Last time we talked about having a playground. A place to relax and try new things. A place where you can experiment and be a little messy until you figure out how you want to use that space. Consistent at Your Core At the same time,
7 min

About Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

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With Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach, you'll gain clarity and overcome hurdles to become a better writer, pursue publishing, and reach your writing goals. Ann provides practical tips and motivation for…