I thought I had it all figured out And then my pastor threw me a curveball (As any pastor worth his or her salt should do, I suppose) It’s my third go at this word-of-the-year thing (see exhibits A and B), and I’d chosen mine for 2020 well before Jan 1 It had played itself out before my eyes so many times I’d seen it in my daughter as she sang her first solo in front of a crowd In my teenage son, as he participated in a sport he hadn’t played since he was a little boy, unfazed by…

We’ve been sharing Google Analytics tips with you on social lately, and today we wanted to bring it all together in one post So, here it is (including a special bonus if you stay with us to the end)! Google Analytics is a seriously powerful tool for your website It collects anonymous user data about your site’s visitors as they interact with pages and site content Specifically, Google Analytics can tell you the exact visitor behavior on your site that leads a user to become a customer,…

I found it no coincidence as I drove away from Corbin that a lonely banjo and the haunting voice of Patty Loveless emerged from my speakers, adding complexity to my thoughts In the deep, dark hills of eastern Kentucky That’s the place where I trace my bloodline Indeed, as I listened to the ideas worth sharing throughout the day at TEDxCorbin, I was reminded of my own story Of seeing my dad’s coal-stained hands after a night shift working at the coal washing plant Of admiring his and my…

“I think I’d miss you even if we never met” This perfectly dreamy quote from the 2005 movie The Wedding Date is the essence of romance, of Valentine’s Day, of what we want to hear from the person we like so well This is what all the effort is for, yes The conversations, the dinners, the dates doing things you enjoy together to ultimately hear that this — THIS — is the person who would miss you even if they didn’t know you existed This is better known as the honeymoon…

She looked like she felt helpless As I took my place in line at the Kroger Pharmacy window, I assumed the elderly lady in front of me was her companion — the older of the two holding one toddler, while the younger woman wrestled with another toddler in the cart basket The elderly lady handed off the toddler she was carrying on her hip, then turned to me and said, “Lord, I don’t think I ever would’ve been able to take care of two at one time” Ah, yes Helpless was the look on that…

So, I recently took this quiz to discover my copywriting “superpower” It was as corny as it sounds But anytime someone offers me the opportunity to explore my personal brand a little deeper, I take it I love to learn, but more importantly, I love to understand what makes me unique so I can do more of what I love Said quiz posed a few silly (but interesting) questions that made me think Like: If your writing were a style of cheese, what would it be (Cheddar, of course, the go-to…

So we’ve been talking to you on the blog lately about strong logos and powerful taglines and today I will submit to you Exhibit A: an excellent example of both But first, I’m going to get personal and say something on which I believe we can all agree Cancer sucks “Sucks” is a word I fuss at my kids for saying, so I don’t type that lightly But there’s really no other word to use here Cancer is a low-down dirty dog of a disease that can silently creep into your life and rip it to…

I recently returned from my first trip to Colorado Denver and the surrounding small towns to be exact And wowza, this eastern Kentucky girl fell fast and hard for the big brother of our beloved Appalachian Mountains The most familiar thing I saw and felt throughout my trip was local pride Kentucky is full of proud folks too The Colorado brand of adventure and free-spirit oozed out of everything The pride was visually displayed everywhere I turned From T-shirts to tattoos, stickers to…

There’s a scene in the movie What Women Want that perfectly illustrates the power of this little thing we call a tagline (Quick definition: In marketing, a tagline, also known as a slogan, is a memorable phrase that sums up the tone of a product or business and strengthens the audience’s memory of the brand) The movie’s heroine, Darcy McGuire (played by Helen Hunt), is the newest creative director at a major New York City advertising agency, chosen over Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson) for…

From the time she first told me of her aspirations to write a second book, my friend Rachael’s “why” was dangling in front of us like our daughters were on the playground monkey bars When you get in deep with a passion project, though, it’s easy to forget   Rachael has spent the last 10 months feverishly writing “Fulfill,” a book about sharing God’s love with others through acts of service The book targets adult Christian females and required her to put herself out to the…