Writing

How to Attract the Right Clients for Your Catholic Business

/ chicoinematt / Leave a comment

How do you attract the right people you want to do business with?

Create niche content that adds value (informative, inspiring, and/or funny) to your target audience.

My target audience is small Catholic business owners.

I create and share content that almost always is tied exclusively to the Catholic faith.

The times I showcase a glimpse into my personality and hobbies I make sure it’s still connected to Catholicism.

Not everyone will get the joke below.

It’s a very niche Catholic meme. 😆

But that’s okay. I’m not writing for everyone.

That’s what Generic Social Media Influencers do.

I’m not generic. As a neurodivergent, left-handed, literary omnivore Catholic I’m wayyyyyy too weird for the average person.

And you aren’t generic. You’re too awesome!

I like to partner and work with non-generic people.

Saint Therese of Lisieux wrote, “The world is thy ship, not thy home.”

Think of your business as a ship, carrying your family and helping your clients with their needs.

The destination? Our home in Heaven.

We do need to live in the world but we still need to keep our gaze on Our Father.

I create non-generic Catholic content that will attract the right clients for your business.

Will you let me join your ship on the journey?

P.S. What’s the funniest Catholic typo you made or read?

#catholichumor #catholiclife #catholiccontent #nightwing #saintjosemariaescriva

Thank you for sharing!

Celebrating a Milestone: Freelance Catholic Writing Success

/ chicoinematt / 2 Comments

💲This month marks a significant milestone for me as my freelance work has exceeded my “day job” monthly income.

How did this happen?

It’s much simpler (not necessarily easier) than you think.

In 2015, I started my blogging journey, which served as a way to cope with the grief of losing my unborn child due to miscarriage and to continue my mission of spreading knowledge about the Catholic faith.

Writing has been a lifelong passion for me. 📝

As a kid I developed a deep love for reading I used to visit the library weekly, borrowing 20-30 books.

The stories that I read fed my creativity and led to my desire to write.

At the age of 7 I started writing adventures on my mom’s typewriter.

In college, I fostered the skills of reading and writing when I earned a Bachelor’s degree in history (and minor in philosophy).

I completed my Master’s Degree in theology in 2014.

But my higher education credentials aren’t what got me freelance work.

Sure it helped but it wasn’t the main reason.

Instead of merely talking about my expertise, I demonstrated it through consistent daily writing.

It’s easy to tell others about the degrees, programs, or certifcations you amassed.

But it’s more effective to SHOW that you know the subject matter.

And how do you show others?

In the case of my field (content writing), it meant “showing” up everyday.

Over the past 8 years, I’ve been writing daily, whether on my website, through social media, in my notebooks, or in the margins of the books I was reading. 📚📖

I also proactively reached out to websites in my niche, writing guest posts while managing “The Simple Catholic” blog.

Even those numerous unfinished drafts played a role in my freelance success.

One unique aspect of my work is my ability to connect almost anything back to the Catholic Church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Here’s a few things I can tie back to Catholicism:

🦔 Hedgehogs

🙂 Tetherball

🪃 Boomerangs

✨ Grand Admiral Thrawn

🖇️ The Office

🌟 Kaleidoscopes

♟️ Board games

🏈 Paper football

⚾ Baseball

📦 Cardboard boxes

I even captured the attention of a client who saw a post I wrote about John the Baptist and eating locusts (with honey of course)!

Success occurs when your passion intersects with your skill and you hone your craft over time.

Repetition is soooooo key.

If you’re a Catholic small business owner seeking engaging, faithful Catholic content for your website, reach out to me yesterday (or today) if you’re behind schedule. 🙂

Email me at chicoine.matt@live.com to learn more.

Thank you for sharing!

A Life Update from The Simple Catholic— Dreams Realized

/ chicoinematt

The cool thing about pursuing your dream is the amazing doors it opens up.

This year I signed at least six clients (two renewed contracts so far) and met with lots of inspiring small Catholic business owners.

I’ve been featured on a couple podcasts, interviewed for a diocesan newspaper, and even had an article published (as a cover story) for one of my dream publications.

Freelancing has given me and my family more financial and scheduling freedom which has led to less stress.

I’m even trending towards being able to cut back hours at my main job by the end of the year.

Dreams Take Time to Take Root

The seeds were planted back in 2015. Well, maybe even further back in 1996 when I wrote silly stories about my orange stuffed animal named Snap on my mom’s typewriter.

Grateful for all those in my network (Catholic and writing) who have helped encourage, support, or teacher me valuable insights about my industry.

Special shout-out to my wife, parents, and siblings who have encouraged me along the way.

And finally, most importantly, thankful for God for giving me the opportunities and strength to carry on and craft my writing skills.

What’s your dream?

Start traveling towards it today. 🙏 🙂

Thank you for sharing!

Relaunch Your Catholic Small Business: The Proven Strategy to Reconnect with Customers and Revive Your Business After a Tough Year

/ chicoinematt

Are you struggling to relaunch your business after a challenging year? Here’s the proven strategy I used to reconnect with my customers and successfully get my business thriving again.

Use this strategy ⤵️

The What:

📬 Send them personalized postcards— in a digital world, paper will stand out

💬 Send personalized DMs to check in with them (don’t sell anything off the bat…that’s spammy/salesy)

Post consistently on social media about your products/services:

🔶 Be valuable (educational/entertaining depending on your brand voice) about it at least 80%.

🔷 The other 20% you can mention th products/services you offer but frame it from the problem you solve

✍️Publish regularly on your blog to help provide insights about your industry for your audience.

The When:

Reach out to your customers (works for prospects too) at natural checkpoints.

Holidays, weekends, end of the week, liturgical feast days (my clients are Catholic small business owners 🙂).

For example:

“Hi (insert first name)! Hope you are having a blessed Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.”

OR

“Hope you had a blessed Feast of the Most Holy Trinity (insert first name)! Here’s a funny meme I made for the occasion and thought you might like it”

At around 90 days before your relaunch start to be more overt in your messaging about the products/services you provide (thank you Stacked Marketer Holiday Marketing Guide for this tip!.

If you try to promote your work any sooner from a cold hiatus then your customers are going to notice and be turned off by the experience.

—–

Rebuild relationships first. Sell later. 👍

#customers#smallbusiness#relationships

Thank you for sharing!

How to Activate Your Small Catholic Business’s Uniqueness

/ chicoinematt

Do you want your business to stand out in the sea of Internet-noise?

Be like John the Baptist. Do something different.

Eat locusts with a dab of honey. Record yourself chomping on these crunchy bugs. 😋

Don’t worry, I said you can have honey on it.

Now, if aren’t near a grassy field you can order dried locusts online (link in the comments).

😳

🦗

🙄

You might be reading this thinking, “Surely, you must be kidding!?”

I’m only half-kidding— about the locusts.

*Reader breathes a sigh of relief*

But I was serious about being LIKE John the Baptist.

Do something different.

I mean with your blogging strategy on your website.

“But we post once a month.”

We live in a fast-paced world. And it’s weird.

Heck, people video record themselves eating things much stranger than locusts (and in a much greater volume than John the Baptist did with those bugs)

Posting once a month isn’t enough to distinguish your business from every other one.

Going back to weirdness…

Last month, the priest at my local parish talked about how we need to keep the weirdness in Catholicism. This was in the context of our Corpus Christi procession.

Being weird isn’t bad.

It captures people’s attention.

John was weird with his Nazarite vows and yelling “Repent” or “Behold, the Lamb of God”.

And if you have a small Catholic business, we are compelled to preach the oddness of the Gospel.

This doesn’t mean making up new doctrines or stretching the truth.

But it does mean being different.

And if you don’t have a current blog on your website the first step to being different is starting one.

I provide blog writing services for small Catholic businesses.

Reach out to me if you want your business to stand out and attract new customers. More details by clicking on: https://thesimplecatholic.blog/writing-services/

And the best part?

I won’t ask you to eat locusts…unless you want with them with honey. 🍯

Thank you for sharing!

3 Tips to Write with Ease

/ chicoinematt
writing-bad.gif


Editor’s Note: Post originally publiched on February 20, 2019.

British author J.K. Rowling declared, “The wonderful thing about writing is that there is always a blank page waiting. The terrifying thing about writing is that there is always a blank page waiting.” Writers since the beginning of time faced the double-edged sword the joy of creation from words and the fear of writer’s block. Some days it seems that words cannot be typed quick enough as phrases, sentences, and paragraphs already exist in your mind. Other times crafting a mere word or phrase is as painful as getting a tooth pulled at the dentist!

ouch-that-hurt-meme

Whether you currently are in a state of inspiration or at a standstill in your writing here are three tips to enhance the ability to write more naturally and effortlessly.

Read, Read, Read— Feed Your Mind

The great American author William Faulkner advocated for the importance of reading, “Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out.”

I’ve found that reading a lot leads to effortless writing, without any strain. The mind needs a steady stream of information, like the body needs a balanced meal. Writing different genres is crucial for growth. I read comics for creativity and Catherine of Siena’s dialogues for spirituality and intellect.

feedtheminds.jpg

Reflection 

Another tip to develop more natural and effortless writing is to make time to reflection on the stuff you read. The Greek philosopher Aristotle purported, ““Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Without proper time to examine yourself and the ideas that you read about it gets difficult to organize them into coherent thoughts. Among the best times for reflecting on a post that I want to write about occurs in the car. Using the minutes between drives to work, the grocery store, or other errands I ponder how I want to organize the essential points of an article that I am working on. Even a few minutes of reflection helps me write at a quicker rate and with less resistance!

Passion and Purpose

After feeding your mind with plenty of information and reflecting on the material that you want to write about the third tip I use to make my writing more effortless includes a passion and clear objective. Why are you writing? Is it for an increased amount of exposure and social media fame or is your reason deeper?

writing_purpose

I created The Simple Catholic blog to find joy in life on my journey to Heaven. Flannery O’Connor said, “I write to discover what I know.” Through faith, I know that freedom from sin and death comes from following the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

pablo meaning.jpg

My secondary goal is to help people find joy in this life and the next. Jesus said loving God and neighbors are the greatest commandments (Matthew 22:34-40). Prioritizing God, others, and myself brings joy to all aspects of life. This joy is meant to be shared with readers and passed on to friends and family.

Summing Up

Filling my mind with a variety of ideas, taking time to analyze that information, and remembering my original mission for becoming a writing has all contributed to helping me write more naturally, more honestly, and more effortlessly. I hope that these tips help you in your writing endeavors as well. Please feel free to share these tips to your family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors.

“All for one and one for all” —Alexander Dumas

“No one has ever become poor by giving.” —Anne Frank

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” — Mahatma Gandhi

Thank you for sharing!

Unleash Your Unique Writing Voice: Engage and Stand Out!

/ chicoinematt

💡 When you find your voice in writing you will grab the attention of those you want to work with…

and repel those you don’t want to.

Bonus benefit for finding your voice in copywriting and crafting your message for your niche audience??

You sound like less of a generic-humorless robot.

Making is that much tougher for you to lose work due to #aicontent.

Here’s three simple things I did to form my unique voice for The Simple Catholic blog and my brand:

1️⃣ Write the way you talk

I love Catholic theology, comics, and The Office so it became natural for me to combine those ideas together in my writing and social media posts.

This combination inspired me to create several memes that conveyed information about the Catholic faith but with a humor-angle.

2️⃣ Pivot to your expertise

While I have a Masters Degree in Catholic theology, I have learned an immeasurable amount from my decade-plus years of experience as a Catholic dad.

My four kids (and even my unborn children who died via miscarriage) taught me so much— and they are awesome content-generators!

(on numerous occasions I have posted about my kids’ shenanigans at Mass including an incident on Palm Sunday about my three-year-old being concerned Peter chopping off Malchus’ ear).

I rebranded my blog sometime in 2017 from “Prayer, Recreation, and Organization” to “The Simple Catholic”.

I did this because I wanted to communicate the truths of our faith in a simple manner that allowed people to be more open to wanting to learn more.

Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”

3️⃣ You become what you consume

The people you spend time with, the books you read and the activities you do on a frequent basis shape your habits.

This isn’t any earth-shattering news.

I have formed my unique voice for my brand through the time I spend learning from saints like Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, Philip Neri, and Louis de Montfort.

Some of the most unique and inspired content have come during Mass.

After the liturgy ends, I wrote notes to myself on my phone to remind myself to develop the thought-seeds further.

Plus, I have spent more time reading (and replying) to comments from my followers and I have discovered they enjoy my funny posts that teach the faith the most…so I have doubled down on Catholic-informative-funny posts.

Let’s Recap

When I have started away from this strategy my voice falters and it is easier to fall prey to writing generic content (i.e. the stuff that gets easy likes on LinkedIn).

✍️ Write how you talk

💪 Lean into your strengths

🧠 Be cognizant of what you consume

Follow this basic three-step path to find your voice and create unboring and vibrant content that resonates with your audience.

How do you shape your unique voice that captures your audience’s attention?

Share in the comments section ⤵️

Thank you for sharing!