Small Business Casual: Content Marketing, Productivity, Customer Experience for Entrepreneurs & Creators

Text Emily!

Ever had a moment in business or life where the dam finally broke? 

The pressure of "should" gave way, it all became too much, the straw broke the camel's back... and you woke up knowing something needed to change?

Something’s gotta give. And when that happens, we need to REGROUP! 

An honest sit down to review, reflect, evaluate, and discern the path forward. 

In this episode, we get into why it's important to regroup on the regular plus the areas I recommend you check in with and HOW: 

• Signs your business might be in need of a regroup 
• The risks of failing to regroup 
• When and how to regroup 
• Which areas to focus on when reflecting and moving forward 
• And more! 

👉🏻 EXTENDED SHOW NOTES 

Let's Connect!
Text Me!
Leave a Voicemail

I’m Emily Aborn, I’m a Small Business Copywriter, Content Marketing Consultant, Speaker, and Podcast Host of Content with Character. I'm a dog mom to Mr. Clyde and wife to Jason. Our little family lives in the backwoods of New Hampshire where we spend time wishing for Summer, hiking, stacking wood for the eternally long and freezing winters, reading, and procuring random and useless knowledge for future trivia games. 

Email: [email protected]
Website
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Substack
Book Your Content Strategy Session with Me

Text Emily!

When AI language models first emerged on the scene, I was a "hard pass". Largely due to my debilitating fear of art becoming a lost art, I warned everyone who'd listen about AI and resisted using it as a tool in my own business. 

Two years later, so much more has changed in the world of AI and content creation than I ever could've predicted. Some I love, and some I still very much loathe. 

I STILL do not think you should be using it to create your content for you...

And, I now see these tools in a new light and am able to utilize AI language models as a sidekick in both my business and personal life. 

In this episode, I'll give you 9+ ideas to use AI in your business plus some bonus FUN ways to try it out in your personal world as well.  

• 9 Things AI can still NOT be relied on for
• 9 Ways to use AI to improve your content, marketing, and more 
• 7 FUN ideas for your personal life, conversations, and beyond 

EXTENDED SHOW NOTES👇🏻

What AI shouldn’t be doing for you: 

1. Replace your lived experience and tell your stories for you.
2. Make decisions about your business or life. 
3. Be relied on to define your brand, values, goals, or direction.
4. Understand your very human clients. These models rely on data, not YOUR client interactions. Only you can get to the deepest levels with people when sharing your message. 
5. Taken verbatim. Never copy and paste. These aren’t generating ready-to-publish masterpieces. They’re giving you raw (ahem, generic) content with WAY TOO MANY em dashes (these things —). You’re not here to be generic. You’re here to be memorably YOU. 
6. Be trusted for 100% the facts, ma'am. Check your sources, data, and stats, and make sure you check who REALLY said that quote you’re citing! 
7. Be trusted with sensitive, private, or confidential information 
8. Do your SEO keyword research. Dear god, just make it stop! 
9. Replacing your creativity or human interaction (ie. you still need your therapist and coach). 

9 (Fun) Ideas to Use AI to Improve Your Marketing

1. Have it Roast You: Your website, social media, and beyond. It can help show you where you exaggerate, are making it too easy, or overlook things. 
2. Create Outlines: I love having AI help me with outlines for blogs and podcast episodes. Outlines are your friends, and AI does them well! 
3. Plan Your Day Effectively: During the busiest weeks, I use AI to help me figure out my time blocks and structure my tasks that are of the highest priority. If you struggle to create structure or need accountability, give it a whirl!
4. Refine a Story: When you have a great story but nowhere to take it or end it, AI language models can help you find the threads, lessons, and a moral. It can help you connect the dots and take them home! 
5. Find Similarities and Patterns: When finding a brand’s voice or when my eyes have glazed over as a copywriter, I find this helpful. I can put in text and have it help me identify common themes, tones, patterns, words, emotions, etc. All of which helps me hone in more clearly on what we want to be saying. It can find overused words, phrases, and more! Then you can pull those out and choose better-fit synonyms. 
6. Ask Better Questions: I use it to ask questions in client calls, on podcasts, and beyond.
7. Writing and Content Prompts Galore: I’ve been using chat for my morning writing warm-up. You could also try it for content prompts! 
8. Get Batching: Use AI to batch plan, organize, and create a month’s worth of content. I recently shared my four-part content framework with you back in March. You can plug in this framework, your content pillars (the big pieces), and put a solid plan in place for emails, podcasts, social, and beyond. 
9. Idea Generator: Got a starting point? Need an idea fleshed out? Chat can help you brainstorm FAST without bugging all your friends all the time. 

About Me -Let's Connect!
Text the Show!
Leave a Voicemail

I’m Emily Aborn, I’m a Small Business Copywriter, Content Marketing Consultant, Speaker, and Podcast Host. My little family lives in the backwoods of New Hampshire, where we spend time wishing for Summer, hiking, stacking wood for the eternally long and freezing winters, reading, and procuring random and useless knowledge for future trivia games. 

Email: [email protected]
Website
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Substack

Text Emily!

Celebrating episode 100(ish) because #AprilFoolsDayJokeisonMe

How do you know if something is just a shiny object and a distraction or an idea worth pursuing? 

Joining me to answer this question are three immensely special guests: one of my best friends, Lindsay Dreyer, my brilliant collab buddy Barb Davids, and... the man, myth, and legend, my husband, Jason Aborn. 

Representing three walks of my life, each of these guests has agreed to hop aboard onto MY shiny object train (or solid gold idea? TBD)  and deliver an episode on deciphering between what's worth pursuing and what's not for YOU!  

We get into:

• Where shiny objects hide and pop up, personally and professionally 
• What entrepreneurs struggle with in shiny object syndrome 
• How to weigh out the decision for yourself using heart, soul, and of course... maths
• And more! 

Barb Davids - Colleague/fellow podcaster/collaborator!

Barb Davids is the founder of Compass Digital Strategies and host of the Get More Website Traffic podcast. With over 25 years of experience in digital marketing, she’s not here for the fluff. Barb is all about direct, results-driven strategies that help ambitious business owners create and implement true, simple marketing that actually works.

Since launching Compass Digital Strategies in 2018, she’s helped business owners increase organic search traffic by 256%, generate 22% more leads, and drive 51% more sales from Google organic search.

When she’s not behind the laptop or podcast mic, you’ll find her running with her dog, Stone. Based in Gilbert, AZ… until the next adventure calls.

🌎 Website | ▶️ YouTube | 📲 Instagram | 🎙️ Podcast

Advice from Barb: To help herself overcome shiny object syndrome, she starts with CLARITY. Then, she looks at her options and asks herself: Which decision will I regret the least? Or: Will I regret not going down this path/trying this? 

Jason Aborn - Husband/residential painter/hobby enthusiast

Jason is the owner of Pitcher Mountain Painting, a family-owned residential painting company in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire. He and his father bring 33+ years of experience, a commitment to high quality, and a discerning eye to every project they take on. Jason lives in Temple, New Hampshire, with his wife, Emily (that’s me!). He loves watching birds while sipping his coffee on the back deck and enjoying the beautiful hiking trails this area has to offer.

🌎 Website | 📲 Instagram 

Advice from Jason: Do the math. Not just the financial investment, but the time, energy, and ROI. Weigh out the risks vs. rewards in what you might be running towards! 

Lindsay Dreyer - Friend/Realtor/Broker/Podcaster/Multipassionate entrepreneur

A truly happy real estate agent!? I know, it seems too good to be true! Meet Lindsay Dreyer, Founder of Reverie Real Estate and Happy Agent Co., oh, and let’s not forget mom of 3! Both personally and professionally, Lindsay is living proof that you can have a thriving real estate business AND live a joyful, abundant, and satisfying life. Through Happy Agent Co. and the Happy Agent Podcast, Lindsay guides agents to master their numbers, implement systems that create ease, and attract their dream clients without exhausting themselves. She takes a holistic approach and helps you align your career, personal life, and well-being so everything works together. 

🌎 Website | 📲 Instagram | 🎙️ Podcast

Advice from Lindsay: Play out the scenario in your mind. Create the budget (money, time, energy). Write the sales page, take steps to set it into motion, and see how you feel. And, make sure you’re clear on what problem it solves before you chase it! 

About Me (aka Let's Connect)
Text Me!
Leave a Voicemail

I’m Emily Aborn, I’m a Small Business Copywriter, Content Marketing Consultant, Speaker, and Podcast Host. My little family lives in the backwoods of New Hampshire where we spend time hiking, stacking wood for the eternally long and freezing winters, reading, and procuring random and useless knowledge for future trivia games. 

Email: [email protected]
Website
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Substack

Text Emily!

As a Copywriter and Content Marketing Consultant, people often ask me questions about visibility, marketing, and content creation (naturally). 

While I'm always ready to throw down and dive deep into all the nuances and nuts and bolts. While I WANT to dissect and break down the components of copy and content into the tiniest molecules, I have learned to keep it super simple when it comes to creating quality content that helps you achieve your goals. 

In this episode, you'll learn my super simple content framework: 

• Soil (Foundational) 
• Water (Educational) 
• Sunshine (Personal/Relatable) 
• Wind (Promotional) 

You'll also learn how to give every piece of content you create a single job to do and a purpose! 

Inside this episode on creating entertaining, educational, and actionable content: 

• The tried-and-true framework so you never have to overthink your content again
• Why you need to tell people who you are and what you do 
• How those photos of your dog help people laugh, be entertained, connect, and relate to you 
• What to share to help your community and clients 
• How to reframe promotional content and calls to action if they feel uncomfortable 
• How to give each piece of content a singular goal
• Structuring your content with a simple rinse and repeat method
• Experimenting and practicing to find what works 
• And more! 

👉🏻EXTENDED SHOW NOTES
The Dandelion Episode - Why I'm so obsessed with dandelions 

About Me (aka Let's Connect)
Text Me!
Leave a Voicemail

I’m Emily Aborn, a Small Business Copywriter, Content Marketing Consultant, Speaker, and Podcast Host. My little family lives in the backwoods of New Hampshire, where we spend time wishing for Summer, hiking, stacking wood for the eternally long and freezing winters, reading, and procuring random and useless knowledge for future trivia games. 

Email: [email protected]
Website
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Substack

Text Emily!

Ever notice how some podcasts, blogs, emails, and posts are seemingly created JUST FOR YOU? Creating content in a conversational way helps us be more relatable and personal. It uses everyday language of our community to mirror how people actually speak. 

The advice "just write how you talk" though doesn't exactly cut it when it comes to finding your own conversational tone and style. It's not that simple and there are some do's and don'ts. 

In this episode, I’ll share why being conversational matters in your content and copy, we’ll touch on that fine line between approachable and unprofessional, and how to REALLY get started in being more conversational yourself!  

• What does it mean to be conversational?
• 3 Myths on being conversational 
• 10 Magical tips to finding your own conversational voice
• And more! 

Resources & Links Mentioned:
My Brand Voice Solutions: Find Your Voice Podcaster Bundles, Brand Messaging Guides, Copywriting Services

About Me (aka Let's Connect)
Text Me!
Leave a Voicemail

I’m Emily Aborn, a Small Business Copywriter, Content Marketing Consultant, Speaker, and Podcast Host. My little family lives in the backwoods of New Hampshire, where we spend time hiking, stacking wood for the eternally long and freezing winters, reading, and procuring random and useless knowledge for future trivia games. 

Email: [email protected]
Website
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Substack

Text Emily!

What do you want to be known and remembered for? 

When it comes to business… 

The legacy you leave might look a number of different ways. It could be the impact and difference you make, the lives you change, the tangible assets and dollars you leave to someone else when you move on, or your unique skillset and experience. 

How do you want to be remembered, and how do you want people to experience YOUR business? 

In this episode, we'll get into why trying to be ALL the things to all the people can lead you to miss the mark on what makes the MOST impact. We'll uncover how to start defining your brand's unique imprint and living your distinct difference each and every day! 

• The tangibles of your brand's imprint
• The intangibles of the legacy you're leaving 
• Weaving in small actions every day that create the lasting impact you desire 
• And more! 

About Me (aka Let's Connect)
Text Me!
Leave a Voicemail

I’m Emily Aborn, a Small Business Copywriter, Content Marketing Consultant, Speaker, and Podcast Host. My little family lives in the backwoods of New Hampshire, where we spend time hiking, stacking wood for the eternally long and freezing winters, reading, and procuring random and useless knowledge for future trivia games. 

Email: [email protected]
Website
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Substack

Text Emily!

"Find Your Voice". Ah, the classic elusive and vague advice shared far and wide across the internet, amiright? 

What does that even mean? How do I find it? Where was it before I found it? Is a brand's voice the same as the business owner's personality? 

Brand Voice is the consistent way you/your business communicate. It’s an art and a science, a careful blend of pacing, rhythm, flow, the words you choose, and the feelings or mood you conjure up. The result is a voice that's distinctly YOU. 

Your Brand Personality might share attributes of your voice, but it’s more of the human traits that make you and your business relatable, recognizable, and have depth and layers. 

Personality is the WHO in your communication. Aka the pilot steering the plane. 

Voice is the HOW in your communication. What kind of plane are we taking to get there? How many stops are we taking? How much fuel do we need? How many people can we fit in here? 

In this episode, I show you the difference between personality and brand voice and give you some tangible examples so you can start defining, embracing, and expressing yours. 

• 5 Reasons you may struggle to "find your voice"
• The difference between brand voice and personality 
• What happens when brand voice and personality aren't aligned 
• Examples on common brand voices and how they differ
• Tips on embracing YOUR brand voice 
• And more! 

Resources & Links Mentioned:
Your Brand Amplified Interview with Anika Jackson: Mastering Content Strategy with a balance of soil, water, sunshine, and wind

My Brand Voice Solutions: Find Your Voice Podcaster Bundles, Brand Messaging Guides, Copywriting Services, Strategy Sessions 

About Me (aka Let's Connect)
Text Me!
Leave a Voicemail

I’m Emily Aborn, I’m a Small Business Copywriter, Content Marketing Consultant, Speaker, and Podcast Host of Content with Character. I'm a dog mom to Mr. Clyde and wife to Jason. Our little family lives in the backwoods of New Hampshire where we spend time hiking, stacking wood for the eternally long and freezing winters, reading, and procuring random and useless knowledge for future trivia games. 

Email: [email protected]
Website
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Substack
Book Your Content Strategy Session with Me!

Text Emily!

I often talk about the benefits and importance of consistency, focus, staying steadily in your lane as a business owner. AND, sometimes the element of random surprise can be just what we need! 

In this episode, I share three random insights on how mixing things up a bit led to: 

• Deeper connection and better conversation 
• Previously unseen correlations and insights 
• New perspectives
• Growth opportunities 
• And more! 

Never underestimate the power of being a little random every now and then. Randomness has its perks. 

Increase interest and attention, revealing the unexpected, and sparking your or someone else's creativity... I hope this episode encourages you to get out of a rut and try something entirely out of the box for yourself! 

About Me (aka Let's Connect)
Text Me!
Leave a Voicemail

I’m Emily Aborn, I’m a Small Business Copywriter, Content Marketing Consultant, Speaker, and Podcast Host of Content with Character. I'm a dog mom to Mr. Clyde and wife to Jason. Our little family lives in the backwoods of New Hampshire where we spend time hiking, stacking wood for the eternally long and freezing winters, reading, and procuring random and useless knowledge for future trivia games. 

Email: [email protected]
Website
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Substack <-- I spend A LOT of time randomly experimenting and share about it weekly here.
Book Your Content Strategy Session with Me!

Text Emily!

Small businesses are the backbone of many local communities.

Now more than ever, small businesses need our support and to lift one another up. This episode is a reminder of three simple ways to spread the love, pay it forward, and help out the other small business owners walking alongside us.

The best part? You don't need to spend a dime, take a ton of time, or break a sweat. It's easy as 1, 2, 3: Share, Engage, Shoutout.

In this episode:

• 3 Easy yet powerful actions that will lift up other businesses, generate visibility, and grow your relationships 
• Why sharing is caring 
• How to engage and comment in a meaningful way 
• Where and how to shoutout a small business owner 
• And more!

Extended Show Notes:

1. Share: Sharing is caring! Share posts or a podcast you find helpful from a small business. Make a post about the event you’re attending and help them get more people to join in too. Sharing can be as simple as passing something along and saying, “I’m going will I see you there?” or “I’m listening, are you?” 

2. Engage and Comment. Leave a thoughtful comment and provide feedback, encouragement, ask a question, open up conversation, the options are endless. You can do this on social media, a blog post or Substack article, replying to their email, a podcast review, an online Google review, a LinkedIn recommendation, or just a personal thoughtful little note. 

3. Shoutout. Think about the last great experience you had with a small business owner you wish to support. Post about what you loved in working with them and TAG them online! It’s such an immensely easy (and free) way to support them.

In my experience, these actions don’t just make them feel good, they also make YOU feel good

Supporting small businesses helps them grow, builds community, increases engagement, and holds endless possibilities.

About Me (Let's Connect)
Text Me!
Leave a Voicemail

I’m Emily Aborn, I’m a Small Business Copywriter, Content Marketing Consultant, Speaker, and Podcast Host. My little family lives in the backwoods of New Hampshire where we spend time hiking, stacking wood for the eternally long and freezing winters, reading, and procuring random and useless knowledge for future trivia games. 

Email: [email protected]
Website
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Substack

Text Emily!

We’ve talked about boundaries before and setting them in your business but… 

Which pieces of your messaging actually can help SUPPORT you in setting these boundaries and how do you express them for the world to see in a way that’s kind and honest?

In this episode, we’re going to talk about how our messaging on our websites, business cards, social media, and MORE can help us achieve our goals and set strong boundaries. 

In the episode: 

• How setting boundaries supports your goals
• Where to consider laying the foundation in messaging on your website 
• Things to consider in your proposals and contracts to avoid future headaches and miscommunication 
• How your messaging can be your ever-evolving business partner 
• And more! 

Resources & Links Mentioned:
Episode on Boundary-Setting

About Me (aka Let's Connect)
Text Me!
Leave a Voicemail

I’m Emily Aborn, I’m a Small Business Copywriter, Content Marketing Consultant, Speaker, and Podcast Host. My little family lives in the backwoods of New Hampshire where we spend time hiking, stacking wood for the eternally long and freezing winters, reading, and procuring random and useless knowledge for future trivia games. 

Email: [email protected]
Website
Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Substack