Tumgik
#edit: i think someone has posted a scan of this poster (so already without text) somewhere? me cleaning this has been useless but it's ok
asukachii · 1 year
Text
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July 2023 || Animage Magazine Cover [cleaned]
(I don’t like putting watermarks so, PLEASE, if you want to post this edit somewhere GIVE CREDITS! Also, don’t use it in graphic edits/videos. Thanks~)
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How to Generate More Traffic with Google’s New Features
Tumblr media
You’re probably already familiar with Google My Business.
If you aren’t, as a quick recap, Google My Business is a simple way to claim your office address or storefront on Google.
That way, when someone searches for your business, you’ll show up on the right side of a Google search like the image above.
Or better yet, when someone searches for a product or service you’ll offer, you’ll show up in the local pack.
What’s interesting, though, is Google has been making changes to it, which means it just got easier to generate leads and sales for you.
Best of all, very few marketers are even leveraging these features.
Welcome Offers
What’s one of the easiest ways to generate more sales?
By offering discounts and coupons, right? Just think of it this way, if it didn’t work, Cyber Monday wouldn’t bring in $7.8 billion in sales.
Google knows that people are looking for ways to save money and find good deals. With this new feature, businesses can reward their customers by giving them welcome offers.
By following your business, they can get first-time deals and always keep in touch to see when new deals are posted.
Not only will this bring you new customers but also repeat customers because people will be notified every time you have new deals.
To set up a welcome offer, open your Google My Business app and tap on your profile. Under “Turn followers into customers,” click on ‘Create Welcome Offer’ and hit ‘Create.’
You can enter the following information in your offer:
Once finished, you can preview your message and publish. For notifications on new followers, and editing or deleting offers, you can read more on Google Support.
Generate leads in just a few clicks
Google is now adding a “Request a Quote” button in your business listing which was discovered by Joy Hawkins and can also be seen on mobile when searching branded terms.
This is happening with businesses that have the Google My Business messaging feature on.
To enable messaging, open the Google My Business app and go to your listing.
Navigate to Customers -> Messages and turn on!
People will now be able to ask for quotes on cars, insurance, and pretty much any service out there.
You can even review these quotes and reply to them within the Google My Business App and connect with your customers easily for a quick sale.
Make sure you claim your URL
Businesses can now claim a Short Name and URL for their listing.
If you haven’t claimed your URL, make sure you do so before it gets taken by someone else.
Don’t get too crazy though as you can only change your short name three times per year. You can enable this by navigating to your locations page, click “Info” on the left-hand side, and see “add short name”.
You may not think this is a big deal, but if you have used Google My Business before, then you know it’s not easy to share your profile on business cards, emails, and text messages without posting a huge URL.
With short names, your landing page will show as g.page/businessname and can be easily shared.
A business can choose a name between 5 and 32 characters and it can contain the business name, location, and more. People can still flag a name for impersonating another business or if the name is offensive, fake, spammy, or contains inappropriate terms.
So, remember not to violate any policies with your name.
I recommend doing this as it will make it easier for your customers to refer back to your profile where they can read updates, post, make reservations, read/write reviews, and more!
And eventually, people will be able to search short names in Google Maps to find the businesses they love.
Google Assistant
Google is now letting customers order food from restaurants and stores via Google Assistant, which is delivered through DoorDash, Postmates, Delivery.com, Slice, ChowNow, and Zuppler, with other partners possibly coming soon.
Users can click on Order Now on the listing and can choose pick-up or delivery and if they want to order ASAP or schedule for later. Payment happens through the default payment on Google Pay. If they do not have one, they will be able to add credit card information through this too.
Additionally, customers can order food by using Google Assistant by saying “Okay Google, order food from [restaurant].” If the user has ordered before, it will let them see past orders.
Updating your menu online, as well as delivery service carriers and their apps will help get you started on this.
You’ll want to make sure your menus are consistent through all your service carriers to get the best orders to your hungry customers.
And of course, I know there is a good chance you don’t have a restaurant or aren’t in the food delivery business, but expect to see more ways Google My Business gets integrated with Google Assistant.
It’s better to be early than late.
And speaking of food, Google has also added the popular dish tab on your menu which features images and menu items that people love the most.
This scans reviews and images on your Google My Business profile to find the most commonly mentioned dish and adds it to your popular dish tab. Of course, if anything is wrong, you can suggest edits to these.
This helps if there are dishes without names, wrong names, or typos can be fixed.
Auto-generated posts based on reviews
Look, you are busy, but you have no choice but to create content.
Google has given you easier ways to generate posts… in essence, they are now creating auto-generated posts for you.
These recommended posts are suggested through customer reviews on your Google My Business profile and are similar to their Small Thanks program, which tried to get you to highlight reviews given by previous customers on social media and even being able to print it out and display it on your business walls.
You are probably wondering why should you use it, right?
This helps keep people engaged in your profile if you haven’t posted on Google My Business in a while and gives you fast and easy publishing. It even gives you options to customize backgrounds with images and colors.
This will pop up on your Google My Business dashboard and all you have to do is hit “Create this post”.
There’s no real way to pick other reviews for Suggested Posts, but you are always welcome to create your own. This is just a simple feature created to help engage your audience more.
Boost your conversions by controlling your images
Businesses can now set a preferred profile cover photo in your image carousel and have a place for logos at the top-right of your profile next to the business name.
This is an additional feature to the regular NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) as well as business hours and will be prominently featured.
You can easily create offline material
Google is launching a website where businesses can order and get custom promotional items such as stickers and posters to advertise their business. This is in hopes that it will entice customers to follow places on your profile, add reviews, and create bookings.
You can even order signs like ‘follow us on Google’ and more for free (one shipment per location).
For posters, you can use the editor to create your own type of poster that can be downloaded and easily printed by yourself or a local printing company. If posters aren’t your cup of tea, you can even share these on social media.
This is currently free as it is a downloadable offer, but you may want to pay to have someone print this out in poster size or as stickers to put on your business windows.
Just think of it this way, people put Yelp signage everywhere because it works. Chances are, it will work on Google as well.
Place Topics
Google launched Place Topics which uses data based on reviews to help give information on what previous customers think about your business.
This can help users see themes of reviews at a glance for businesses and it’s all automated.
It’s kind of like a tag cloud.
This does mean that you cannot generate these yourselves or edit them. So, if you don’t have one, you may not have enough reviews.
Also, if you have a negative one, there’s potentially no way of removing this unless you get the review removed. So, make sure your happy customers are leaving reviews is very important.
Possibly entice them with a 10% discount the next time they come… assuming you aren’t breaking any policy guidelines.
Q&A Auto-Suggest Answers
This feature that Google updated uses previous answers to questions and Google My Business Reviews to answer new questions on the spot. As you start writing the question, different answers start to pop up to give you the best match.
So how can you make sure people get the most accurate answer?
Similar to place topics, encouraging your customers to leave detailed reviews of their experience really helps. The more detailed the review is, the better the question gets answered.
Of course, people who are searching for answers can potentially see negative reviews such as prices are too high, service takes long, very long waits on weekends, and more.
In other words, always encourage positive reviews from your loyal customers.
If you haven’t used Google My Business before, you should check it out. With their updates and new features, it is now easier to generate sales and collect leads.
In the future, you’ll see a much deeper integration between Google My Business and Google Assistant. This is going to be important as 50% of the searches will soon by voice searches according to ComScore.
Make sure you are leveraging all of these features and release Google is releasing because it doesn’t cost you money and if you get in early enough, you’ll have an advantage over your competition.
So are you using Google My Business to it’s fullest extent?
This content was originally published here.
1 note · View note
Text
How to Generate More Traffic with Google’s New Features
email marketing a/b testing
Tumblr media
You’re probably already familiar with Google My Business.
If you aren’t, as a quick recap, Google My Business is a simple way to claim your office address or storefront on Google.
Tumblr media
That way, when someone searches for your business, you’ll show up on the right side of a Google search like the image above.
Or better yet, when someone searches for a product or service you’ll offer, you’ll show up in the local pack.
Tumblr media
What’s interesting, though, is Google has been making changes to it, which means it just got easier to generate leads and sales for you.
Best of all, very few marketers are even leveraging these features.
Welcome Offers
What’s one of the easiest ways to generate more sales?
By offering discounts and coupons, right? Just think of it this way, if it didn’t work, Cyber Monday wouldn’t bring in $7.8 billion in sales.
Google knows that people are looking for ways to save money and find good deals. With this new feature, businesses can reward their customers by giving them welcome offers.
By following your business, they can get first-time deals and always keep in touch to see when new deals are posted.
Tumblr media
Not only will this bring you new customers but also repeat customers because people will be notified every time you have new deals.
To set up a welcome offer, open your Google My Business app and tap on your profile. Under “Turn followers into customers,” click on ‘Create Welcome Offer’ and hit ‘Create.’
You can enter the following information in your offer:
Title (30% off oil changes)
Description
Coupon Code (Optional)
Terms and Conditions (Optional)
Website (Optional)
Once finished, you can preview your message and publish. For notifications on new followers, and editing or deleting offers, you can read more on Google Support.
Generate leads in just a few clicks
Google is now adding a “Request a Quote” button in your business listing which was discovered by Joy Hawkins and can also be seen on mobile when searching branded terms.
Tumblr media
This is happening with businesses that have the Google My Business messaging feature on.
To enable messaging, open the Google My Business app and go to your listing.
Tumblr media
Navigate to Customers -> Messages and turn on!
Tumblr media
People will now be able to ask for quotes on cars, insurance, and pretty much any service out there.
You can even review these quotes and reply to them within the Google My Business App and connect with your customers easily for a quick sale.
Make sure you claim your URL
Businesses can now claim a Short Name and URL for their listing.
If you haven’t claimed your URL, make sure you do so before it gets taken by someone else.
Don’t get too crazy though as you can only change your short name three times per year. You can enable this by navigating to your locations page, click “Info” on the left-hand side, and see “add short name”.
Tumblr media
You may not think this is a big deal, but if you have used Google My Business before, then you know it’s not easy to share your profile on business cards, emails, and text messages without posting a huge URL.
With short names, your landing page will show as g.page/businessname and can be easily shared.
A business can choose a name between 5 and 32 characters and it can contain the business name, location, and more. People can still flag a name for impersonating another business or if the name is offensive, fake, spammy, or contains inappropriate terms.
So, remember not to violate any policies with your name.
I recommend doing this as it will make it easier for your customers to refer back to your profile where they can read updates, post, make reservations, read/write reviews, and more!
And eventually, people will be able to search short names in Google Maps to find the businesses they love.
Google Assistant
Google is now letting customers order food from restaurants and stores via Google Assistant, which is delivered through DoorDash, Postmates, Delivery.com, Slice, ChowNow, and Zuppler, with other partners possibly coming soon.
Tumblr media
Users can click on Order Now on the listing and can choose pick-up or delivery and if they want to order ASAP or schedule for later. Payment happens through the default payment on Google Pay. If they do not have one, they will be able to add credit card information through this too.
Additionally, customers can order food by using Google Assistant by saying “Okay Google, order food from [restaurant].” If the user has ordered before, it will let them see past orders.
Tumblr media
Updating your menu online, as well as delivery service carriers and their apps will help get you started on this.
You’ll want to make sure your menus are consistent through all your service carriers to get the best orders to your hungry customers.
And of course, I know there is a good chance you don’t have a restaurant or aren’t in the food delivery business, but expect to see more ways Google My Business gets integrated with Google Assistant.
It’s better to be early than late.
And speaking of food, Google has also added the popular dish tab on your menu which features images and menu items that people love the most.
Tumblr media
This scans reviews and images on your Google My Business profile to find the most commonly mentioned dish and adds it to your popular dish tab. Of course, if anything is wrong, you can suggest edits to these.
This helps if there are dishes without names, wrong names, or typos can be fixed.
Auto-generated posts based on reviews
Look, you are busy, but you have no choice but to create content.
Google has given you easier ways to generate posts… in essence, they are now creating auto-generated posts for you.
These recommended posts are suggested through customer reviews on your Google My Business profile and are similar to their Small Thanks program, which tried to get you to highlight reviews given by previous customers on social media and even being able to print it out and display it on your business walls.
You are probably wondering why should you use it, right?
This helps keep people engaged in your profile if you haven’t posted on Google My Business in a while and gives you fast and easy publishing. It even gives you options to customize backgrounds with images and colors.
Tumblr media
This will pop up on your Google My Business dashboard and all you have to do is hit “Create this post”.
There’s no real way to pick other reviews for Suggested Posts, but you are always welcome to create your own. This is just a simple feature created to help engage your audience more.
Boost your conversions by controlling your images
Businesses can now set a preferred profile cover photo in your image carousel and have a place for logos at the top-right of your profile next to the business name.
This is an additional feature to the regular NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) as well as business hours and will be prominently featured.
Tumblr media
You can easily create offline material
Google is launching a website where businesses can order and get custom promotional items such as stickers and posters to advertise their business. This is in hopes that it will entice customers to follow places on your profile, add reviews, and create bookings.
You can even order signs like ‘follow us on Google’ and more for free (one shipment per location).
Tumblr media
For posters, you can use the editor to create your own type of poster that can be downloaded and easily printed by yourself or a local printing company. If posters aren’t your cup of tea, you can even share these on social media.
Tumblr media
This is currently free as it is a downloadable offer, but you may want to pay to have someone print this out in poster size or as stickers to put on your business windows.
Just think of it this way, people put Yelp signage everywhere because it works. Chances are, it will work on Google as well.
Place Topics
Google launched Place Topics which uses data based on reviews to help give information on what previous customers think about your business.
Tumblr media
This can help users see themes of reviews at a glance for businesses and it’s all automated.
It’s kind of like a tag cloud.
This does mean that you cannot generate these yourselves or edit them. So, if you don’t have one, you may not have enough reviews.
Also, if you have a negative one, there’s potentially no way of removing this unless you get the review removed. So, make sure your happy customers are leaving reviews is very important.
Possibly entice them with a 10% discount the next time they come… assuming you aren’t breaking any policy guidelines.
Q&A Auto-Suggest Answers
This feature that Google updated uses previous answers to questions and Google My Business Reviews to answer new questions on the spot. As you start writing the question, different answers start to pop up to give you the best match.
Tumblr media
So how can you make sure people get the most accurate answer?
Similar to place topics, encouraging your customers to leave detailed reviews of their experience really helps. The more detailed the review is, the better the question gets answered.
Of course, people who are searching for answers can potentially see negative reviews such as prices are too high, service takes long, very long waits on weekends, and more.
In other words, always encourage positive reviews from your loyal customers.
Conclusion
If you haven’t used Google My Business before, you should check it out. With their updates and new features, it is now easier to generate sales and collect leads.
In the future, you’ll see a much deeper integration between Google My Business and Google Assistant. This is going to be important as 50% of the searches will soon by voice searches according to ComScore.
Make sure you are leveraging all of these features and releases Google is launching because it doesn’t cost you money and if you get in early enough, you’ll have an advantage over your competition.
So are you using Google My Business to it’s fullest extent?
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Google
0 notes
reviewandbonuss · 5 years
Text
How to Generate More Traffic with Google’s New Features
Tumblr media
You’re probably already familiar with Google My Business.
If you aren’t, as a quick recap, Google My Business is a simple way to claim your office address or storefront on Google.
Tumblr media
That way, when someone searches for your business, you’ll show up on the right side of a Google search like the image above.
Or better yet, when someone searches for a product or service you’ll offer, you’ll show up in the local pack.
Tumblr media
What’s interesting, though, is Google has been making changes to it, which means it just got easier to generate leads and sales for you.
Best of all, very few marketers are even leveraging these features.
Welcome Offers
What’s one of the easiest ways to generate more sales?
By offering discounts and coupons, right? Just think of it this way, if it didn’t work, Cyber Monday wouldn’t bring in $7.8 billion in sales.
Google knows that people are looking for ways to save money and find good deals. With this new feature, businesses can reward their customers by giving them welcome offers.
By following your business, they can get first-time deals and always keep in touch to see when new deals are posted.
Tumblr media
Not only will this bring you new customers but also repeat customers because people will be notified every time you have new deals.
To set up a welcome offer, open your Google My Business app and tap on your profile. Under “Turn followers into customers,” click on ‘Create Welcome Offer’ and hit ‘Create.’
You can enter the following information in your offer:
Title (30% off oil changes)
Description
Coupon Code (Optional)
Terms and Conditions (Optional)
Website (Optional)
Once finished, you can preview your message and publish. For notifications on new followers, and editing or deleting offers, you can read more on Google Support.
Generate leads in just a few clicks
Google is now adding a “Request a Quote” button in your business listing which was discovered by Joy Hawkins and can also be seen on mobile when searching branded terms.
Tumblr media
This is happening with businesses that have the Google My Business messaging feature on.
To enable messaging, open the Google My Business app and go to your listing.
Tumblr media
Navigate to Customers -> Messages and turn on!
Tumblr media
People will now be able to ask for quotes on cars, insurance, and pretty much any service out there.
You can even review these quotes and reply to them within the Google My Business App and connect with your customers easily for a quick sale.
Make sure you claim your URL
Businesses can now claim a Short Name and URL for their listing.
If you haven’t claimed your URL, make sure you do so before it gets taken by someone else.
Don’t get too crazy though as you can only change your short name three times per year. You can enable this by navigating to your locations page, click “Info” on the left-hand side, and see “add short name”.
Tumblr media
You may not think this is a big deal, but if you have used Google My Business before, then you know it’s not easy to share your profile on business cards, emails, and text messages without posting a huge URL.
With short names, your landing page will show as g.page/businessname and can be easily shared.
A business can choose a name between 5 and 32 characters and it can contain the business name, location, and more. People can still flag a name for impersonating another business or if the name is offensive, fake, spammy, or contains inappropriate terms.
So, remember not to violate any policies with your name.
I recommend doing this as it will make it easier for your customers to refer back to your profile where they can read updates, post, make reservations, read/write reviews, and more!
And eventually, people will be able to search short names in Google Maps to find the businesses they love.
Google Assistant
Google is now letting customers order food from restaurants and stores via Google Assistant, which is delivered through DoorDash, Postmates, Delivery.com, Slice, ChowNow, and Zuppler, with other partners possibly coming soon.
Tumblr media
Users can click on Order Now on the listing and can choose pick-up or delivery and if they want to order ASAP or schedule for later. Payment happens through the default payment on Google Pay. If they do not have one, they will be able to add credit card information through this too.
Additionally, customers can order food by using Google Assistant by saying “Okay Google, order food from [restaurant].” If the user has ordered before, it will let them see past orders.
Tumblr media
Updating your menu online, as well as delivery service carriers and their apps will help get you started on this.
You’ll want to make sure your menus are consistent through all your service carriers to get the best orders to your hungry customers.
And of course, I know there is a good chance you don’t have a restaurant or aren’t in the food delivery business, but expect to see more ways Google My Business gets integrated with Google Assistant.
It’s better to be early than late.
And speaking of food, Google has also added the popular dish tab on your menu which features images and menu items that people love the most.
Tumblr media
This scans reviews and images on your Google My Business profile to find the most commonly mentioned dish and adds it to your popular dish tab. Of course, if anything is wrong, you can suggest edits to these.
This helps if there are dishes without names, wrong names, or typos can be fixed.
Auto-generated posts based on reviews
Look, you are busy, but you have no choice but to create content.
Google has given you easier ways to generate posts… in essence, they are now creating auto-generated posts for you.
These recommended posts are suggested through customer reviews on your Google My Business profile and are similar to their Small Thanks program, which tried to get you to highlight reviews given by previous customers on social media and even being able to print it out and display it on your business walls.
You are probably wondering why should you use it, right?
This helps keep people engaged in your profile if you haven’t posted on Google My Business in a while and gives you fast and easy publishing. It even gives you options to customize backgrounds with images and colors.
Tumblr media
This will pop up on your Google My Business dashboard and all you have to do is hit “Create this post”.
There’s no real way to pick other reviews for Suggested Posts, but you are always welcome to create your own. This is just a simple feature created to help engage your audience more.
Boost your conversions by controlling your images
Businesses can now set a preferred profile cover photo in your image carousel and have a place for logos at the top-right of your profile next to the business name.
This is an additional feature to the regular NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) as well as business hours and will be prominently featured.
Tumblr media
You can easily create offline material
Google is launching a website where businesses can order and get custom promotional items such as stickers and posters to advertise their business. This is in hopes that it will entice customers to follow places on your profile, add reviews, and create bookings.
You can even order signs like ‘follow us on Google’ and more for free (one shipment per location).
Tumblr media
For posters, you can use the editor to create your own type of poster that can be downloaded and easily printed by yourself or a local printing company. If posters aren’t your cup of tea, you can even share these on social media.
Tumblr media
This is currently free as it is a downloadable offer, but you may want to pay to have someone print this out in poster size or as stickers to put on your business windows.
Just think of it this way, people put Yelp signage everywhere because it works. Chances are, it will work on Google as well.
Place Topics
Google launched Place Topics which uses data based on reviews to help give information on what previous customers think about your business.
Tumblr media
This can help users see themes of reviews at a glance for businesses and it’s all automated.
It’s kind of like a tag cloud.
This does mean that you cannot generate these yourselves or edit them. So, if you don’t have one, you may not have enough reviews.
Also, if you have a negative one, there’s potentially no way of removing this unless you get the review removed. So, make sure your happy customers are leaving reviews is very important.
Possibly entice them with a 10% discount the next time they come… assuming you aren’t breaking any policy guidelines.
Q&A Auto-Suggest Answers
This feature that Google updated uses previous answers to questions and Google My Business Reviews to answer new questions on the spot. As you start writing the question, different answers start to pop up to give you the best match.
Tumblr media
So how can you make sure people get the most accurate answer?
Similar to place topics, encouraging your customers to leave detailed reviews of their experience really helps. The more detailed the review is, the better the question gets answered.
Of course, people who are searching for answers can potentially see negative reviews such as prices are too high, service takes long, very long waits on weekends, and more.
In other words, always encourage positive reviews from your loyal customers.
Conclusion
If you haven’t used Google My Business before, you should check it out. With their updates and new features, it is now easier to generate sales and collect leads.
In the future, you’ll see a much deeper integration between Google My Business and Google Assistant. This is going to be important as 50% of the searches will soon by voice searches according to ComScore.
Make sure you are leveraging all of these features and release Google is releasing because it doesn’t cost you money and if you get in early enough, you’ll have an advantage over your competition.
So are you using Google My Business to it’s fullest extent?
The post How to Generate More Traffic with Google’s New Features appeared first on Neil Patel.
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0 notes
felicezhukov · 7 years
Text
:: Dear Nicolas Jaar ::
I have been working on the below manifesto and whittling it down to its key aspects over the weekend, the last week has been adjusting to my new approach and its subsequent withdrawal symptoms. I haven’t had an alcoholic drink or cigarette for 8 days now, I think I finally understand that I can not drink in moderation so it’s better to entirely cut it out except for the occasional occasion. It has not been as difficult as previous attempts because my motives are strong and I’m correlating it to my art, making it my the next avenue of performance. This is ultimately me taking my self guided therapy to the next level I guess.
I have to be a strong muhrmaid samurai, as I will have to travel through the bowels of a sunken cruise liner soon and rescue people.
As I’ve made my breakdown so public it is somewhat of a relief to make my rehabilitation public as well, I’m already less shaky and more awake to my surroundings, in fact earlier on I walked home in ecstasy, everything feels more vivid, more present, it’s as if up to this point the lights have been dimmed in my life. I’m aware that it’s a long road and there will be cracks, breakages etc that might fork the path so I will have to be constantly aware when these arise. This bears repeating as it’s been of great use to me so far:
A hero walks with dignity A hero shelters others A hero stands tall A hero breathes deep A hero goes without A hero accepts their suffering
I will be keeping a diary alongside committing to discipline training for mind soul and body, below are the facets of what being a muhrmaid samurai entails:
THE MUHRMAID SAMURAI MANIFESTO
The Muhrmaid Samurai is sworn to a code of honour, which serves to guide the muhrmaid samurai both in light and in dark, the muhrmaid samurai acknowledges that adversity will be an outline on the horizon and that deep waters can get deeper still with the movements of the earth's core. 
So with this set of basic instructions the muhrrmaid samurai hopes to enshrine truth and nobility even against a backdrop of post truth politics and unsubstantiated fear. The muhrmaid samurai also acknowledges its forebear, the samurai, and bushido the samurai moral code, which these guidelines are born from.
The Muhrmaid Samurai swears allegiance to its master, the intellect or higher consciousness, the Muhrmaid Samurai is the beast aspect inside us all, fighting to protect us.
ENSHRINE TRUTH -- In lieu of the contemporary fascination with lies, always attempt to be as true to yourself and to others as you possibly can. Make truth the axis which you rotate around and practise it daily with peers and with yourself, truth is good and despite its nuances is the core of honour, make it your daily bread. Perhaps if we all tell the truth it will tip the balance of lies that now surround us.
PURSUE KNOWLEDGE TO DEVELOP HONOUR -- Your moral code is your own, as my moral code is my own, though they will most likely engage and decode the same subjects it must be based on knowledge. Take the surrounding world into account and vigorously begin a pursuit of understanding. Watch Youtube, read e flux, make a commitment to yourself to read daily and study what you don’t understand, if something comes up in a conversation which you’re not aware of, make time with that person and then with the vast compendium of thought that is the internet and literature, to fill the gaps you find within yourself. Each person's interests are like a fingerprint and I cannot tell you what it is you might find curious, but through a daily practise of rolling through texts, journals, books, the news, you will find it.
TRAIN YOUR FRUGAL SELF -- Muhrmaids where is your money going to? Plan for the future, creativity can be used as a tool to fatten what might seem like very little, let go of your preconceptions that £5 for a pint is reasonable, think of the taxes this price includes, let go your lack of resistance to paying over £10 for tobacco or £8 for coconut oil, all these things are unnecessary sundries, ultimately what do you need in this life and what you want to reward yourself with? Is having no money because you’ve drunk and smoked it away really logical? When you could spend it on a trip somewhere, on materials to make something, on watching artistry in the flesh. Smoking and drinking equate to time and money lost and inhibit the path to becoming a true samurai.
STAND TALL -- Tap into the bountiful stream of love inside yourself to find your body. Feel your muscles, engage with the physical world in whatever sense that fulfills you, walk from place to place, put your phone on silent sometimes. Sit with nothing stimulating you on the edge of your bed and breathe deeply, allow yourself to get bored, use times of transience as tools to invigorate yourself, know where you are and feel your feet on the ground, or your fins in the fresh water.
PROTECT YOURSELF AND THOSE YOU LOVE Carve out the handful of people that mean the most to you and make a shelter for them inside yourself. Look after and love them fiercely, channel the deep well of your warrior blood to make a bed for them to rest on. In protection you find a deeper self respect which allows you to rest the worries you may have about those in your life.
CREATE It matters not what form your creation takes on, whether it’s game design, writing poetry, carving twigs you find on your way to work, salsa dancing. All that matters is that you use some part of yourself to pour something back into the world, with the act of creation there follows satisfaction and self belief.
MUHRMAID SAMURAI DISCIPLINE TRAINING
Each Muhrmaid Samurai can define their own objectives and goals below is my personal objectives which I intend to adhere to and practice daily in order to be the most streamlined Muhrmaid Samurai I can.
PHYSICAL -- Train for an hour every day at least except Sundays which is a rest day. * 1+ hour of yoga, weight conditioning, pilates and gym ball (coordination / flexibility / strength ) * 30 mins cardiovascular exercise (predominantly running as can’t afford the gym) for stamina and endurance * only eat at mealtimes, relaxed and sitting down, respect food as ritual, practice chewing slowly and acknowledging and thanking universe for whats in front of you, no food groups are restricted except processed grains and sugar, attempt to eat whole foods where-ever possible with emphasis on fish, whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit. Treat yourself to 1x croissant / cake etc on Sundays and special occasions, Only drink alcohol (in moderation) on very special occasions (for me the next time that will be will be the birth of my niece or nephew in late august / early september) - this extends to my exhibitions, weddings or milestones of loved ones and christmas day.
INTELLECTUAL -- Study 1+ hours a day on -- invest in some titles from the epic amazon book list below: -- http://amzn.eu/033rra0 As well as reading e flux, science news, scanning the guardian daily and actively searching for blogs / articles on avenues of interest: * science // bio engineering, physics // inc. robotics, space travel, etc * theological questions // ways of seeing and consuming, semiotics, * political theory // chomsky // slavoj zizek // debate on current modes of living, anthropology,
SPIRITUAL / CHARACTER * Work on awareness, meditate, do yoga and practice in waking life to take in environment and engage with surroundings to have keener understanding of what is around you, this also means be aware of your movements, where you put something down, how your room is arranged, what the environments that you move through are comprised of - insert zen meditation into your daily routine * Flaneurism, go on voyages of discovery, actively seek out experiences in the city via internet and other means of publishing, watch music more often in varied environments, go to gardens, events, happenings, sometimes just aim to get a little lost * Practise telling the truth and not bending to other people’s will, defy people politely and with empathy, by being well read and studied it will be easier to counter things you don’t agree with in a methodical and unaggressive way, be aware of the interactions you have daily and cultivate healthy stimulating ones as much as possible * Live in your urges and let them pass through, recognise them to be given fuel by unconscious desires which can only be brought to pass if you bend to them, live in unsatisfied neediness and get used to less *Protect others, if you see an injustice that you can somehow alter do not hold back from throwing your energy in to this encounter. The powers inside you should be used for good and loyal endeavours, look after those that you love and if you are stronger, be stronger for someone else.
FINANCIAL Keep Diary of personal spending and make budgets, key to understanding access and factoring in what can be achieved fiscally. Plan for the future, ie travelling to Devon to see the new baby, going to venice biennale / documenta / istanbul biennale before they finish, trying to get to Europe to see Nicolas Jaar (that’s you) live, catch up with friends in Ireland / Finland / France * Sell wedding ring and hair, which has been sat in my room for some time now CREATIVE Look at getting some open edition prints online of posters I am making for myself as inspiration Edit pralay films for sale and quiz audience from Mermaid Prom to make me interpretations of their experience, whilst addressing how I document it without having any video footage-- perhaps as animated film?? Prepare and apply for funding / residencies for next part of project which should be begun in October 2017
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