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Hey Reader,

It’s Shout Out Thursday so here are 5 brilliant people you should know and follow and read.

And one cool thing from me.

​Sophie Blackmore, the Happy Marketer, who — totally bizarrely — lives in the town I grew up in! But that’s not why you should know her. She’s a sparkly comet of kindness and delight and her deep, deep knowledge of marketing combined with her sense of fun is kinda rare in an industry that takes itself far too seriously.

Sophie’s ideal client is the MD of a small growing business, probably in the technology or engineering world, who knows they should do marketing but would rather gnaw off their own toenails.

Oh, she recently published her debut book It’s Only Bloody Marketing which is wonderful and witty and a great read whatever your business. (Sophie was one of my first Book Coach In Your Pocket clients by the way :nails and I’m so proud of her and the work we did together!)

If you want to work with Sophie, book a Happy Hour with her here.

​Misty Santos, my sister from another mister, my shared brain, my bestie from the westie — even though she lives in Canada and I’m in the UK, we talk almost every week on the Zoom and get together whenever we can.

She is funny, supportive, kind, and an absolute GENIUS when it comes to sales systems and email marketing. She’s a very funny writer and she’s currently the executive director of her local Chamber of Commerce doing brilliant things. Catch her on LinkedIn and find out what’s going on in the world of LOCAL business… because most of us are so chronically online it’s not even funny!

​Ekua Cant, whose brand new book will be out verrrrrrry soon! Ekua is queen of taking you from speaker to PAID SPEAKER, and she’s the high empress of emojis — if you want a splash of colour in your LinkedIn feed, and some sparkling insights on how to really leverage LinkedIn to create a shiny speaking career, definitely get onto Ekua’s radar.

She is an absolute diamond, beautiful soul, and delight to work with and hang out with.

​Sarah Silva, the Chemical Translator, who has been part of my world and written books with me for (oh my god) probably a decade now wtf. We’ve grown our businesses together, given each other brilliant (and ridiculous) ideas, and shared our vegetable garden joy and pain.

Sarah is a German to English translator for chemical companies (that’s a niche!) and the other part of her business is helping translators to market themselves — because, like many of us, translators are great at what they do and hugely struggle with the marketing side of things.

It’s one of those industries where “we just don’t things like that” but if you’re a translator and you’re sick of the fact that the way things have always been done just doesn’t work very well, follow Sarah. She can change everything for you.

​James Pogson is the Pogfather. We’ve become LinkedIn friends and then actual real-life buddies over the past few years, starting when I invited him onto my podcast. James is a wonderful poet and humorist, and an amazing voice for the kids of the Windrush Generation. Follow him on LinkedIn for his sharp observations, his family and community histories, and give him a prod about getting on with his stand-up routine and his one-man-show.

And finally, a cool thing from me — I went surfing yesterday at Llangennith Beach and it was so much fun. I’m learning to jump, which improves balance and is just fun.

Here’s what I managed yesterday!

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Oh — and this time next week, I’m running another MicroWorkshop called Tasty Hooks — which will give you 3 techniques to grab people by the eyeballs and hook them in.

So if you’ve been feeling frustrated with your reach on socials, it’s probably not your ideas or your writing that’s the problem… it might be your hook.

Come along for just £25 (+VAT) and learn new writing skills plus workshop some of your existing writing to give it a new hook!

Book here:

TTFN,

Vicky 🫡

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