TOC #235: welcome to "no brain cell summer"
(June 24, 2025) SARA'S SUMMER OFF: journal prompts, how to switch up the way you market yourself, inclusive ways to replace "ladies and gentlemen", and 4 ways to make sure your readers get it
I think I've officially, finally learned my lesson.
I've made this ridiculously frustrating mistake one too many times, and I'm over it.
You'd think that after four years of this happening on a maddeningly regular basis, I'd have changed my behavior by now.
But no.
I still write my fuck ass draft in my fuck ass Flodesk template, and this fuck ass platform doesn't autosave as fast as I type (220+ WPM, btw), meaning my gorgeous, hilarious prose gets rudely ripped from my screen every time my fat ass fingers swipe too far to the left.
(Side note: how the fuck do I turn off the feature that makes that accidental swipe the equivalent of hitting the “back” button? I hate her.)
Ugh.
No hate to Flodesk, actually.
We can chalk it up to user error.
But I'm not rewriting my intro.
To be honest, it was just me yapping about how obsessed I am with my new paddle board and how it's my entire personality now, and how I'm gonna float off into the sunset with it until the end of time, never to be seen or heard from again — so you're not missing much.
Enjoy all the other, much better stuff I say below.
And hit “reply” and tell me if you're watching Love Island, because we need to talk.
BEACH CHAIR FRIENDLY JOURNAL PROMPTS
June 24: 30 ways to describe the kind of person you are (or want to be)
June 25: 30 things you need in a relationship / want in your dream person
June 26: 30 things you could yap about for hours on end
June 27: 30 things you wish your ideal clients knew before working with you / knew in order to be ready to work with you
June 28: 30 ways you'd use 2 uninterrupted hours to yourself (thank Tori for this one!)
June 29: 30 businesses you could start (this is the original prompt from James's “Daily 10” practice that inspired Journal Prompt June!)
June 30: 30 people or businesses you'd love to work with
SOARING THROUGH THE SLOW SEASON
Have you tried my 28-day sales challenge yet?! It's essentially a big ass list of different things you can do to bring in more business, and it's a fun excuse to try things you don't normally do / things you haven't dabbled in yet.
& speaking of trying new things — here's one of the tasks from the challenge, which is centered around branching out + trying new ways of marketing yourself!
If you market yourself by posting on IG…
Write a blog post instead
If you market yourself by blogging…
Reach out to someone and ask if you can guest blog for them
If you market yourself with Pinterest…
Make a post in a Facebook group OR comment on 5 posts from other people
If you market yourself with TikTok…
Publish your POV on LinkedIn
If you market yourself with LinkedIn…
Take your IG followers through a day in your life on stories
If you market yourself with IG stories…
Send an email to your list (or if you don’t have an email list yet, work on creating your lead magnet + share it online)
UNDER THE COPYWRITING UMBRELLA
Good copy is ethical, respectful, inclusive copy — and oftentimes, that's as easy as using the appropriate terms to address your audience.
(We like ethical copy, because we like being nice. Nice people get clients. Nice people get good karma.)
SO, I present to you:
✨ inclusive terms to use instead of "ladies and gentlemen" ✨
Folks
Friends
Assembled guests
Colleagues
Y’all
Humans
Allies
My dears
My companions
Friends and foes
Partners
Gathered associates
Patrons
Besties (my fave obvi)
All assembled
Guys, gals, and nonbinary pals
Beloved friends and tolerated acquaintances
Entities of interest
The FBI’s most wanted and least wanted
Ladies, gentlemen, and those of us who know better (love this one)
Gremlins
If you ever hear me say “guys” — I mean it in the gender neutral version.
See also: dude, girl, GURL, gurl 🙄, GIIRRLLL!!!!, queen, bitch, sister, brother (my most-used currently!), hoe, bestie.
(None of these terms are gendered in the BTL vocabulary.)
SHELLING OUT MY BEST TIPS: 4 SIMPLE WAYS TO MAKE SURE YOUR READERS “GET IT”
#1 - Simplify everything. When I have kickoff calls with my clients, I ask them to tell me about their business / what they do, then I literally say “explain it to me like I'm stupid.”
#2 - Think about the way your readers speak. Not sure how they talk / which phrases they use / how comfortable they are with certain industry terms? Think about who your ideal client is, find them on social, then read through their posts or interact with them.
#3 - Consider their stage of awareness. This really changes the “what” of your message.
There are 5 different stages of awareness, but chances are your audience is either Problem Aware (they know they have a problem, but not how to solve it), or Solution Aware (they know which solution they need, but are deciding where to get it).
The reason this influences your content so much is because you're going to say different things to a Problem Aware audience than you are to a Solution Aware audience.
Let's use my lovely friend Fran as an example. She's a Dubsado Specialist.
If her readers were Problem Aware, that would mean that they know they don't want to waste their time manually onboarding, offboarding, sending questionnaires and invoices and proposals, scheduling, etc., but they don't know that a CRM can help them automate all of those tasks, or that people exist to help you set up your CRMs.
So, she'd spend time telling them about what a CRM is, why Dubsado is a great choice, and the benefits of automations.
If her readers were Solution Aware, she'd spend time telling them about why she is the best person to help them, because she's certain they already know the benefits of using a CRM.
#4 - Take the time to care. This is an essential step that a lot of people unfortunately skip.
Taking the time to really get to know your ideal client or customer is so essential in being able to simplify your message for them, so you can say things in a way they can easily comprehend and resonate with.
You won't be able to convince someone to take your desired action if they don't know what the hell you're saying.
& you won't be able to figure out how to communicate with them if you don't know what they want from you, how much they know about your solution to their problem, and how the hell they talk.
THE LOVE-YOU-BYE LOVE NOTE
It's not too late to join us in the “WON'T SELL ITSELF” workshop series!
You may have missed yesterday's live sales page copywriting lesson, but I recorded it for you — so feel free to join now to get instant access to our Slack group + a cal invite to next week's sales email copywriting lesson!
ICYMI: I'm teaching a 2-part workshop series about sales pages (yesterday) and sales emails (this upcoming Monday) so you can make this summer your richest summer yet!
>> Click here to join the WON'T SELL ITSELF workshops !!!!
I hope to see you at the next one, bc let me tell ya, yesterday's lesson was nonstop 🔥 DON'T MISS OUT!
OK LOVE YOU BYE
—S
If we haven’t had the chance to *virtually* meet yet, hi! I’m Sara Noel—website copywriter and marketing mentor for creatives, copywriters, and all-around cool people. If you like my content and you want even more BTL in your life, here are a few ways you can connect with me:
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