Category: Entrepreneurial Wellness

Posted on

AI Policy for Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and Editing Communications Documents (at “Storytelling Communications”)

Some of my clients ask if I use AI tools when teaching ESL and/or editing communications documents.

So here is my policy:

I specialize in teaching classes of English as a Second (or Additional) Language that are logical and effective. To accomplish that, I often create exercises and assessments myself, in the role of teacher — doing the important thinking, strategizing, and teaching myself — especially when I conduct a “Needs Assessment” and set up curriculum and content.

I do, however, use some resources from Cambridge University Press, onestopenglish.com, and other online sources for grammar exercises, accent reduction theory and related topics.

I also, occasionally, consult AI to generate fresh angles to teach matters of English (listening, speaking, reading and writing).  For example, I might use AI to:

  • Research a topic and to generate and assess pedagogical methods for it (e.g. reputable sources for curriculum that I review myself).
  • Provide insights into what learners (of a particular demographic) may need, in addition to reviewing learners’ LARC assessments (CLB levels) and conducting “needs assessments” at the outset of starting language classes.
  • Occasionally, to brainstorm fresh examples, scenarios, stories, analogies, metaphors, turns-of-phrases, etc. to use when I teach.
  • When editing communications copy, to review my original work for accuracy; and to suggest other edits and improvements.

If you provide me with information about yourself (as a learner or client) that is confidential, I will never input that information into an AI without your approval.

Bottom line: Regardless of how I use AI tools, my teaching will always be customized and will leverage my three+ years of teaching ESL; and, for communications clients, will leverage my 13+ years of editing and writing experience.

Do you have other questions about how ESL studies will occur in this AI age? Please write me an email! I’ll gladly discuss further and will set up classes that directly address your needs as a learner. 

 

Posted on

When can pauses & interruptions help our conversations? An answer in the mid-May issue of TYSN!

May 2024 Vol 6 Issue 5

Tell Your Story Newsletter (TYSN):

Specializing in Entrepreneurial Storytelling

Let us help you tell your story!

 

Welcome Mid-May 2024! 

As I prepare this issue of “Tell Your Story Newsletter,” the  delicious rain that fell last week in Saskatoon has caused trees, bushes and plants to “green up” beautifully.

And with the milder weather, we can again wear barefeet in sandals (woo hoo!). And our days continue to lengthen (the sun setting at nearly 9 pm, now), which means more patio and backyard time!

Cue Gershwin, “Summer-time, and the living is easy!”

I’m planning a visit to Patterson Gardens, as soon as the splendour of our flowering fruit and lilac trees unfurls. . . And how about a trip to a local greenhouse to admire (and select) a few annuals and plants?

In Article One of this month’s newsletter, I visit some surprising truths about how pauses and interruptions not only allow for, but also help, good conversation.

And in “Storytellers’ Corner,” I visit the work of British etymologist Susan Dent on quirky words, both from other cultures and from Britain.

May this late spring and forthcoming summer bring you JOY through time in nature and among family and friends; and through renewed health and growth, after another Prairie winter.

And may prosperity also greet you, valued readers.

Thank you for reading another issue of “Tell Your Story Newsletter,” now more than 13 years in production!

Sincerely,

Elizabeth

Principal

Storytelling Communications

www.elizabethshih.com

++++++++

IN THIS ISSUE:

ARTICLE 1: When can pauses and interruptions help good conversation? Writers from “The Economist” weigh in . . . . 

STORYTELLERS’ CORNER:

Some quirky words in English–from Susie Dent

SHOP NEWS

ABOUT US

++++++++

Article One: When can pauses and interruptions help good conversation? Writers from “The Economist” weigh in . . . . 

Before the Pandemic, “The Economist’s” collective of writers who compose under the name of Samuel “Johnson,” wrote an article on how verbal ticks and routine interruptions are “lubricants to conversation, not killers.”

Many of us strive to eliminate “um” and “uh” from our professional speaking, right? Consider Canadian PM Justin Trudeau before and after he received formal speech training. But recent analysis of human conversation practices show that minor words (e.g. “mm-hmm” and “uh-huh”) provide important pauses that are vital to good conversation.

Learners of English (especially English as a Second Language), take note!

The “Johnson” writers begin with the case of British PM (c. 1980s), Margaret Thatcher, a politician “known for a voice that brooked no disagreement.” Thatcher took elocution lessons to sound more forceful when she led Britain’s Opposition.

However, even after she became PM (1979-1990), she often used interruptions in the interviews she gave. Researchers who studied clips from the early 80s discovered that most often, “those hearing [her] interrupted phrases” [“um,” “uh,” “mm-hmm,” “uh-huh”], including her interviewers, “thought that the prime minister was ending her conversational turn.”  Most often, then, those interrupting her were not (as we might assume now) rude or domineering.

What explains pauses and interruptions in speech? The Australian linguist, Nick Enfield, discovered that humans abide by a linguistic rule called “no gap, no overlap,” in which people instinctively react to the end of another’s conversational turn by beginning their own, in about 200 milliseconds (the “time it takes a sprinter to respond to a starting gun”).

This is more interesting when we consider that it takes about three times as long (600 milliseconds) for a speaker to plan what they are going to say, by cognitively retrieving the words and organizing how they will use them.

People must then plan to begin responding well before their conversation partner has stopped (be it Margaret Thatcher or Mr. Bean). This requires “fine attention to the cues signalling the end of a turn, such as a lengthening of syllables and a drop in pitch,” Enfield says.

Not coincidentally, using a downward shift in pitch is frequently encouraged from speakers who want to sound more authoritative (as Thatcher did). Clips show she repeatedly dropped her pitch when she predicted an interruption.

21st-century business communicators (like yours truly) are often urged not to listen with the intention only of responding, instead of first (more empathetically) perceiving the speaker’s meaning and intention. But linguists like Enfield have found the boundary between listening and responding is more complex than that practice would have it.

And contrary to the assumption that speech patterns will vary between cultures, Enfield found that dynamics of human conversation are “similar from culture to culture,” from both major to minor languages and from rich to poor countries, throughout history.

For instance, the pattern of “no gap, no overlap” applies to ethnicities in ways that defy cultural concepts (or stereotypes). For instance, in contemporary Japan, speakers who are thought to be polite allow one of the shortest gaps before starting to reply: “In answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a question,” Enfield says, “the Japanese, on average, . . . reply before the questioner’s turn is over.”

He argues that this is not rudeness, but a practice that keeps the conversation flowing. Each speaker helps the other: words we might consider to be mindless throat-clearing (or verbal tics), such as “uh,” “um,” “mm-hmm” and “uh-huh” in fact “signal to the other speaker [listener] that a turn is not quite finished, that the speaker is planning something more. This makes sense only in the light of the split-second timing with which speakers take turns.”

Paradoxically, if there is “no gap” between turn-taking, there will be no “overlap.” The conversation will flow better and both speakers feel recognized and heard.

The “Johnson” writers note that men are more likely to use “pause-fillers” (esp. “uh-huh”)  than women are (although women favour “mm-hmm”), and speculate that this may result from men’s eagerness to “hold the floor.”

Enfield refers to research from past decades, including one experiment where several speakers “were asked to tell about a near-death experience, while listeners were given a distracting task, like pressing a button every time the speaker used a word starting with ‘I.’ ”

As a result, the listener was less able to encourage the speaker with “mm-hmms,” without which the speakers felt unable to cope: “[The speakers] paused more [and] used more ‘um’ and ‘uh’ themselves, and repeated the dramatic lines of their stories, desperate for affirmation” that they’d been understood and appreciated.

The “Johnson” writers note that Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero (1st C., BCE) was not the first to record “rules of conversation, which included taking turns and not going on too long.”

In fact, such rules have been discovered in many cultures long before Cicero’s. The “Johnson” writers say such rules may be part of “shared social instincts” among early humans, and “a product of evolution” over millennia.

The “Johnson” writers observe that the next time you find yourself pinned at a networking event by “a bulldozer or a bore,” know that they are more to be pitied than despised,” the “Johnson” writers conclude: Such speakers “are lacking a basic human skill” or capacity for relation. They efface not just “gap” and /or “overlap” but altogether the very identity of their listeners.

The “Johnson” writers conclude that conversation is fascinating not because it is hard to achieve, “but [for] how well people subconsciously cooperate to make it seem easy.”

And like many human skills, sharing conversation with others improves with practice: “If you don’t use it, you lose it.”

And now it’s your turn: How have you noticed “no gap, no overlap” in formal conversation with others? 

Could we re-write our social expectations for silence between shared conversation?

++++++++

 

STORYTELLERS’ CORNER . . . . 

STORYTELLERS’ CORNER

This month: Quirky words–some from abroad and

some “home-grown”– in English

Perhaps it’s the result of recent efforts to reduce my professional library that I happened upon some quirky etymology during my reading.

British lexicographer and etymologist, Susie Dent, has shared many complex words on YouTube.

She reminds us that the English language has borrowed words from countries all over the world—some with recognizable names and some, not. Here are three examples:

  • “Tsundoku,” from Japanese, is “the act of buying yet another book that you fully intend to read, but never quite get around to” (beware, you buyers at used book stores and fairs this spring and summer!)
  • “Shampoo” has origins in Hindi where “campo” means to “press” or “squeeze.” Originally, getting one’s hair cleaned involved heavy massaging and pounding of the flesh—affecting both the head and the hair that grew on it! . . . British and European colonialists took these treatments (and fragrant soaps and lathers) back “home,” where they were passed down through the ages.
  • “Ketchup” is based on a Chinese word, “Ke-chiap” for a brine of pickled fish that was taken from Vietnam to China and then altered by the British until it became the tomato sauce that (centuries later) dominates supermarket shelves in the Western world!

Some words may originate in the UK, but are happily onomatopoeic, and which Dent collected in one of her recent books, Roots of Happiness:100 Words for Joy and Hope.  This is a book for children intended to bring beauty and fun to them during Pandemic times.

Examples from it are “mubble-fubbles,” for feeling down or depressed.

Also, “thunderplump” refers to the “sudden downpour of fat, heavy raindrops that leaves us drenched and dripping in minutes” (more often a UK than a Canadian Prairie commonplace).

What “weird words” are floating in your office, mind or family? Please write in; I’d be delighted to share them in a future issue 

++++++++

SHOP NEWS:

Last night (the evening of May 15th) was an especially joyous one, as Women Entrepreneurs of Saskatchewan (WESK) gathered for their annual awards banquet. 

 

Awards were given for “Community Involvement” to Andrea Crittenden; “Indigenous Entrepreneur Award” to Destinee Peter; “Innovation Award” to Chelsea Stewart; “Growth & Expansion Award” to Maegan Mason and Cari Thiele; and “Resilience Award” to my colleague, Jolene Watson

 

Congratulations to all recipients and to all nominees! 

++++++++

WESK’s “Achievement Award” was given to veteran communications leader (and one of my first freelance clients, back in 2011), the amazing Adele Buettner, who shared 10 of her best tips for entrepreneurial success.

Congratulations to all of the women attendees, nominees as well as winners; award sponsors,  and to WESK’s board, staff and planning committee, all whose hands-on effort made the gala the best it’s ever been!

Thank you to all of them!

 

++++++++

Thank you to Joanne Fogarty ( Director of Employment & Learning) and Josephine Mensah (Employment Counsellor), YWCA, who hosted a recent job fair for newcomers to Saskatoon, where I discussed opportunities for newcomers’ language classes in Saskatoon.

++++++++

Thank you to my IT specialist, Jordon, for again discussing subtle tech matters with me, despite the many demands that cover his metaphorical desk!

++++++++

Thank you to Jolene Watson for referring me to Linda’s Printing, whose high-quality business cards and marketing materials have earned them admiration and plenty of clients!

++++++++

Alongside copywriter, journalist and creative writer, Ashleigh Mattern, I thoroughly enjoyed walking through the opening morning of “Gather,” Saskatoon’s second farmers’ market, on May 4th at River Landing.

“Gather” features local farmers’ meat, dairy (and this summer—fresh fruit and veg), as well as international cuisine, local jewellery, candles and soaps. It was reminiscent of “The Forks” (in Winnipeg) and the “Eau Claire” market in Calgary.

Vendors were just getting started on the 4th, but the atmosphere was generous and friendly.

Several restaurants and food trucks had scrumptious looking (and fragrant) cuisine. The market’s products are not intended to be low-priced, but to build local businesses who work so long and hard for our community.

Gather’s atmosphere is pleasant to immerse oneself in, especially with summer on the horizon!

++++++++

This issue of TYSN is dedicated to Edward (Ted) Gilroy, an extraordinary man with entrepreneurial instincts  who lived, laughed and loved fully in his nearly 100 years.

My childhood would not have been the same without his stories and jokes. My deepest condolences to his widow and sons. I am the better for having known him and share in his family’s sorrow.

Rest in Peace, “Uncle Ted.”

++++++++

ABOUT US:

Between 2011 and December 2018, Elizabeth Shih Communications chronicled the stories of B2B marketing and communications on the Prairies and across the country. 

Effective January 1, 2019, I rebranded as “Storytelling Communications.” I now help new and economic immigrants to get better jobs or secure more contracts by improving their language skills. And I also write and edit the legacy stories of major companies.

Interested in learning more? Please contact me through my CASL-compliant website (www.elizabethshih.com).

After I receive your message, I’ll be pleased to discuss projects with you!

Please visit my website for more information (www.storytellingcommunications.ca).

 

Posted on

Do our thoughts affect the evolution of our words? Some evidence from “Scientific American”

 

In a recent article in “Scientific American,” author Anvita Patwardhan discusses “how our thoughts shape the way spoken words evolve.”

We might ask, what causes a word to survive versus another that goes extinct?

Darwin likened the evolution of words with the natural selection of human and animal species.  He said that some words continue because they fulfill our lexical needs to communicate. (Others get dropped because they don’t.)

Recently, researchers have studied how words pass down to other participants. Thousands of subjects passed stories down a line and academics recorded which words survived. Also, large collections of English historical texts were studied (dating from the last two centuries, containing more than 40 Billion words), and only certain kinds of words survived then.

The word types that speakers consistently used drove language use, over time.

Patwardhan notes that three types of words are most likely to survive:

(1) Words we learn early (“uncle,” “today,” “hand,” “dog”);

(2) Words that are concrete, not abstract (“dog” survived longer than “animal”);  and

(3) Emotionally exciting words (eliciting both positive and negative emotions, such as “Happy Birthday!” or “Get Help!”).

In the past, linguists and historians assumed that language complexity increases over time.

But a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, shows that language becomes more efficient and easier to understand, as time passes.

This is “not” however, to say that English is “baby talk,” one of the authors asserted.

Yes, we gravitate toward simple language. But “we also grab complex language” when we need it.

And there are plenty of complex aspects of English grammar, such as the “five ways” to express the future tense in our contemporary tongue. But even these complexities are growing simpler over time.

In this increasingly AI-driven world where some communicators delegate plenty of communication to ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude3, we must consider how important it is for us to keep on expressing our own ideas, or risk losing  words we need to reflect human experience.

Words that are learned early, that are concrete and emotionally evocative persist over generations. They are important, but they are not everything.

So in ways not before seen, Patwardhan urges us to consider how “our thoughts” and emotional needs “shape the way spoken words evolve.” And if we want our lexicon to reflect the complexity of our (human) experience in the future, we must keep writing–our own texts and copy!

AI is useful, but only integrating it with EI (emotional intelligence) will keep our ideas and vocabulary alive. So, keep writing!

And that’s a commendation to learners of the English language (ESL), language majors, copywriters, editors and more.

And now it’s your turn. How do you think that the longevity of language relies on our thinking and emotions? Please write in;  I’d be delighted to hear from you!

Posted on

Always pressed for time? Try Dan Sulllivan’s “Entrepreneurial Time System”

Do you let work drip-drip-drip throughout every. single. waking. hour of every. single. waking. day?

Do you struggle every Monday to schedule the week’s work, or face a long list of “uncompleted” tasks, just as each weekend starts?

Freelancers often struggle to manage time. We may think we can work on whatever, whenever and wherever we want. But many of us work harder and longer than we ever did in our “day-jobs.”

American business coach Dan Sullivan’s “Entrepreneurial Time System” can restore healthy boundaries between our differing types of work and rest:

On “Free Days” (often Saturdays and Sundays), Sullivan says, we should not meet clients or do work. This is time to relax and to connect with family and friends.

Enforce that.

On “Buffer Days” (often Mondays and Fridays), we should handle administrative work (e.g. marketing, bookkeeping, answering messages, etc.).

Make sure you get those tasks done.

On “Focus Days” (often Tuesdays to Thursdays), we should work to earn income. Since Pareto’s Law tells us that 20% of activities create 80% of our income, we should dedicate our “Focus Days” to that intensive 20%.

Block off all distractions.

Moving from “Free” to “Buffer” to “Focus” Days,  “Buffer Days” can create a transition between “Free” and “Focus Days.” But you can structure your week as you wish.

Some entrepreneurs find quiet time on, say,  Saturday, to be very productive: it could be a “Focus Day” for you.

On his blog last fall, Ed Gandia posted about Sullivan’s “Entrepreneurial Time System,”  recommending the system as a “game-changer” for busy entrepreneurs.

Though simple, the “Entrepreneurial Time System” restores boundaries between our differing activities, so work doesn’t creep into every waking hour! It’s counterproductive (not to mention terrible for our health) to be  more-or-less working all the time!

Gandia says this: “If you don’t create boundaries, every day becomes a work day. And you end up with zero margin.” And that brings overwhelm and burnout, fast.

Sullivan’s system can prevent that,  paradoxically increasing our productivity while also restoring our time for rest.

The “Entrepreneurial Time System” is more fully outlined by David Braithwaite, one of Sullivan’s proteges, on the “strategic coach” website. The system does take a few weeks to adapt to (as I am finding). But the relief you feel is almost immediate: those who make the effort never turn back!

Dan Sullivan has been described as “legendary” by Gandia and Braithwaite–as one of  America’s foremost entrepreneurial coaches.

Give this system a try and you’ll see why!

Posted on

What is ‘Artisan Entrepreneurship?’ An answer in this month’s issue of TYSN

March 2024 Vol 6 Issue 3

Tell Your Story Newsletter (TYSN):
Specializing in Entrepreneurial and Organizational Storytelling
Let me teach you to tell your story!

Welcome Mid-March, 2024!

Last Friday (March 8th) was International Women’s Day marking the need to continue to fight for women’s professional and personal equality. In a currently regressive, far-Right wing and patriarchal world, that need has never been greater.

In SK, across Canada and the West, the glass ceiling remains firmly intact but, as a mentor recently said, it is now just “deceptively covered with attractive looking foliage.”

How often have you felt angry, good readers, from a story in the local news, or from scenes of customer dis-service you’ve witnessed in our community? And yet, as business leader Silvia Martini recently reminded me, joy is essential: “Life is a very luscious peach to enjoy, with only a hard core that we have to work around!”

Twelve days ago, our lives were punctuated by “Snowmaggedon,” when, in just two days, 35 to 40 cm of snow fell throughout Saskatoon. Twelve days later, city crews have largely met the challenge, so that we might forget about the storm altogether, apart from tall snowbanks and the thawing of
ice.  My point is that notwithstanding the inconvenience, even snowstorms can provide reason for hope: As a friend of mine marvelled over the phone that weekend, “Heavy snowfall in March is every farmer’s and gardener’s joy!”

A glimmer in my mind and heart reminds me that we’re approaching the first official day of Spring on March 19th! Thankfully, we have passed through the change to Daylight Savings’ Time (while we do not observe it, our clients often do).  And we can enjoy the increase in daylight hours each evening, making it easier for us to commute to events in our communities.

In Article One of this month’s issue, I explore the concept of “Artisan Entrepreneurship” as suggested to me by Silvia Martini, in a recent meeting. What does it mean and why was I glad to learn it?

In “Storytellers’ Corner,” I visit three practical ways to invigorate  (or vivify) your sentences, from publication coach, Daphne Gray-Grant.

And in “Shop News,” I acknowledge the work of a few others in my entrepreneurial circle who often go uncredited, but who advocate for and make self-employment possible for, others like me.

I hope you enjoy this month’s issue of “Tell Your Story Newsletter” (TYSN), good readers, and that you’ll share with me your interests and ideas for future issues!

Sincerely,
Elizabeth
Principal
Storytelling Communications
www.elizabethshih.com
++++++++
IN THIS ISSUE:

ARTICLE  ONE: What is “Artisan Entrepreneurship?”
STORYTELLERS’ CORNER:
How to vivify sentences, with Daphne Gray Grant
SHOP NEWS
ABOUT US
++++++++

Article One: What is “Artisan Entrepreneurship?”

I’m deeply indebted this month to Saskatoon’s Silvia Martini, a highly successful entrepreneur, community leader, board director and property developer, for sharing on February 23rd a transformative, highly intuitive and enjoyable meeting with me. During that meeting, she mentioned the concept of “Artisan Entrepreneurship.”

Silvia identified a match between the concept and my work as a freelance English language teacher and a professional writer and editor.

So what is an “Artisan Entrepreneur,” you might ask?

While I earn a living by my mind, pen (and keyboards) and encourage creative women (and men) everywhere who do the same, I would not say I’m a (scalable) startup entrepreneur, a small business entrepreneur, certainly not a large company entrepreneur, or even a social entrepreneur, although I
admire the latter’s socially responsible goals.

I imply no pejorative judgment to these other categories of entrepreneurs (and know, philosophically, that categories are not always a fully accurate form of identification).

Instead, I value the mentors, friends and colleagues who fulfill these roles (including Silvia Martini and Monica Kreuger), who are deeply committed to our community, who serve with profound decency, and who generously, tirelessly mentor others.

But I’m writing this month to acknowledge creative people’s philosophical and personal interests (and differences) that sometimes find a home under the umbrella of the term, “Artisan Entrepreneurship.”

In a collaborative 2022 book, Artisan Entrepreneurship, academic Vanessa Ratten says that Artisan Entrepreneurs “create social value by engaging in community business practices.” But that’s rather vague!

Artisan Entrepreneurs usually combine their entrepreneurial skills with expertise in a craft or art. While we manage the commercial duties of our enterprises, we are deeply committed to a specific skill or set of skills.

More particularly, as blogger Arian Adeli writes, Artisan Entrepreneurs “combine their artistic or craft skills with entrepreneurship to create a business.” The business may sell products made by hand, such as jewellery, ceramics, furniture, clothing or other artisanal goods. But the business may
also sell work that consists primarily of intellectual and emotional production.
Artisan Entrepreneurs provide a personal touch or craftmanship to our services or products, Adeli says.

The category of “Artisan Entrepreneurs” can include writers and illustrators (and not only potters or tailors), who are “often deeply involved in every step of the process, from . . . designing and creating the product or service, all the way to marketing and selling it.”

An Artisan Entrepreneur may make and sell a garment of “slow fashion,” like the beautiful work of colleague Kathleen O’Grady; or provide an hour of insightful Akashic Record Reading, like my colleague, Ann Chatfield. I have learned recently, too, of Yao Bo, who is an authentic Chinese tofu
maker who sells his painstakingly made products at “Good Farmer Tofu,” in Stonebridge.

These Artisan Entrepreneurs “sell a story, an experience, and the passion and love they put into . . . their creations” (Adeli).

It’s a concept worth exploring, since the value of the work of Artisan Entrepreneurs inheres in its uniqueness and quality—such output cannot be done by mass production.

For me, in pre-Artificial Intelligence days (AI), I would ordinarily spend two or more hours researching, writing, editing and publishing a particularly important blog posting for a client.

Or I might similarly read and plan for two hours a particularly effective English language class for a newcomer, when a mere AI “prompt engineer” (virtually an antithesis to an Artisan Entrepreneur) could dispatch of these processes in five minutes, downloading content without revision from GPT-4, or Google Gemini.

An oft-cited example of Artisan Entrepreneurship is of a local baker who might rise at dawn to knead dough and bake bread, sourcing “local ingredients, experimenting with flavours, and creating unique recipes” (Adeli).

That specialty bread contrasts a loaf of the cheapest supermarket variety, mass-produced to sell for $2.50 (and filled with unhealthy high-fructose corn syrup, to compensate for its terrible flavour).

The Artisan Entrepreneur sells what Adeli describes as “an experience, a taste of home, a piece of their passion.” We sell the unique outcome of a creative process.

The limited amount of public awareness of, and research on, the concept shows what Adeli says– “the motives of Artisan Entrepreneurs differ based on the way they are embedded in society”: their personality types may differ from other categories of entrepreneurs. We may be more introverted (but
not necessarily so), and we may be less driven by financial strategy than others (although some Artisan Entrepreneurs achieve, and all deserve, monetary success).

More research into Artisan Entrepreneurship can aim to “open up new opportunities” for this self-employment, writes academic Vanessa Rattan. Those opportunities may increase and promote a larger number of viable livelihoods for more creative workers (“creatives”).

I know from taking entrepreneurial training (through the Praxis School of Entrepreneurship’s “startSMART program,” 2018/19) and from networking in our community, whose economy has not yet rebounded from pandemic times, that Artisan Entrepreneurs—indeed all kinds of entrepreneurs—can struggle to be profitable.

Often, profits are low, which at times can be challenging, especially in a single-income household. But financial viability is possible when the craft(s) involved are pursued with entrepreneurial insight and planning (in consultation with experienced and successful mentors like Silvia and Monica).

For instance, as a professional copywriter, I can seek retainer contracts and long-term relationships with prospects in my niche for my services, instead of pouring hours over short-term pitches to unknown editors that often get ignored or are only accepted for below-market pay.

A key to financial success for Artisan Entrepreneurs is a stalwart belief in the value and worth of our services or products and the knowledge that gainful markets do exist, even on the “have-not” Prairies, and that the challenge is simply to search for and tap into them.

Although I have been working as an Artisan Entrepreneur for nearly 14 years, I am just learning what this means: Silvia’s sharing on February 23rd has improved my vision and understanding of the work I and others do in our community, leaving me with deep gratitude.

Not coincidentally, this meeting was facilitated as a Christmas gift exchange (December 2023) among a group of thoughtful and generous women entrepreneurs in Saskatchewan, including Silvia, Monica, Deanna Litz and numerous others.

These extraordinary individuals all know the risks and joys inherent in entrepreneurship, of all shapes and kinds.

And now it’s your turn. Are you an entrepreneur or someone who supports one (or many)?

And do you engage with the work of Artisan Entrepreneurs?

What insights do you have on this niche of self-employment for yourself or others?
++++++++

STORYTELLERS’ CORNER . . . .

STORYTELLERS’ CORNER:

“How to vivify sentences, with Daphne Gray-Grant” 

Publication Coach and editor, Vancouver’s Daphne Gray-Grant, reminded her blog readers recently that human editing is still needed to avoid the “very boring” writing that ensues from using ChatGPT and other forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

She showed that a boring tone arises when very basic sentence structure (subject + verb + object) repeats far too often. The example she shows is of the following paragraph (created by AI), where each sentence begins with the same definite article, “the”: “The researchers conducted a comprehensive
literature review. The scholars analyzed the data using advanced statistical methods. The authors discussed the implications of their findings in the conclusion. The study aimed to contribute valuable insights to the existing body of knowledge in the field.”

Just as we do not eat macaroni every night, Gray-Grant says, or want to read only one author of fiction in our leisure hours, we also want sentences in our marketing or communications copy to be more varied and creative.

Among the several strategies that she recommends for enlivening writing, Gray-Grant recommends these:

(1) Use subordinate clauses (clauses that begin with words like “because,” “since,” “although,” “when,” “if, and until”), so that you can emphasize certain ideas above others;

(2) Add coordinating conjunctions that support complex thinking (such as “and,” “yet,” “for,” “nor,” “or,” or “so”);
and
(3) Invert sentences so that the verb precedes the grammatical subject (“Look: there is the editing, now moved to the ‘done’ list!”).

If you’re finding your sentences to be monotonous, try these strategies. And subscribe to Gray-Grant’s blog for more ideas.

You may find your prose quickly vivified beyond what you can imagine!
++++++++

SHOP NEWS:

Since I believe deeply in the transformative power of empathy and gratitude, beyond the folk already mentioned in Article One (and in the usual round-up of this section), I am especially thankful this month to Julie Barnes and Josh Remai, who co-sponsor a wonderful newcomer in our community in
many ways, including by contracting me to teach private ESL classes.

Working with a literacy learner who comes from a faraway continent has increased my awareness of the many challenges that arise for refugees and newcomers to Canada, especially in these war-torn times.

But those challenges have been mitigated and excellent support provided for this newcomer by the generous and compassionate support of Julie and Josh.
++++++++

I also continue to be thankful for the work I share with women writers of “Saskatoon Freelancers’ Roundtable,” who since 2013 have been a joy to connect with. Most recently, we have been writing some collaborative articles (“Ask a Writers’ Group”) for the SK Writers’ Guild online ezine, “Freelance.”
Receiving and editing these women’s contributions last month, on the topic of “writerly resources,” has held much interest for me—and also been fun!

Thank you, Ashleigh Mattern, Julie Barnes, Adele Paul and Ashlyn George for their contributions to this group!
++++++++
I’m grateful to my brilliant colleague and friend, Conor Phillips, Founder and CEO of Pathfinder365, a tech start-up, for discussing frankly over Meta (FB) the challenges of being a single wage-earning woman in SK.

Conor posted a link to a CBC article from 2023 that says “the most overlooked group” in Canada is actually single, most often women, professionals who live alone and face financial discrimination by CRA’s unspoken “singles'” tax.
Single professional women in Canada bear the weight of an unfair tax burden and next to no affordable housing opportunities, despite being full-time, employed individuals.

This situation contrasts the housing deductions and other allowances offered to their married or partnered counterparts.

The “singles tax” amounted in 2023 to about $15K/person/year in Toronto. So, many professional women, as Conor has said, cannot afford the escalating costs of rent, groceries and other daily expenses.

Numbers aren’t much better, either, in Vancouver, or in smaller centres, like Saskatoon. What Conor cited as a “singles’ tax” policy may hit women entrepreneurs in SK even harder than conventionally employed women, when we choose or need to live independently, while working hard to serve our cities and surrounding communities.

Tax policy changes are urgently needed. Can we see through the attractive foliage currently covering the glass ceiling?

If these issues are new to you, please consider reading this link to CBC’s “Cost of Living” article, posted by Conor, and write both your MP and MLA.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/costofliving/how-the-tax-on-singles-has-people-who-live-alone-feelingthe-pinch-1.6797561

++++++++

The list of “thank yous” that any entrepreneur can offer, in any month, can be extensive. Instead of repeating familiar names here, I offer thanks to someone new–local opticians here (and throughout Canada) who don’t charge to do small, emergency repairs on eyeglass frames, even if you’re not their customer.

An optician at “Theodore and Pringle” on 8th Street assisted me recently, when I needed some minor adjustments to my glasses, in a hurry!

But besides refusing to charge me, the staff there advised another person (a bonafide customer) about what equipment they could use to accommodate his partner’s medical disability (she was absent at the time), for an upcoming eye exam.

The staff went further to outline what government funding would defray the cost of optometric services for the woman with a disability.

These moments of community service (Julie Barnes and Josh Remai; Conor Phillips) and customer service (Theodore & Pringle) demonstrate in unsung ways, how Saskatoon speaks out and supports others  in the face of injustice and shines with kindness, even (or especially) in these challenging times.

++++++++
And thank you to you, my good readers, for continuing to share your insights on social media and in correspondence with me!

Published by www.storytellingcommunications.ca – Storytelling Communications. Copyright © 2024.