So…I had a wobble.

Not burnout with a BIG scary B, but a wobble with the warning signs.

So I took time out.
I focused on essentials.
I prioritised health, family & Nifty until I felt more balanced.

For anyone else feeling like this, here’s how I’m avoiding the BIG B 👇 1. The warning signs

Working too much.
Anxiety off the charts.
Regular exercise out the window.
All fun activities were non-existent.
My sleep was disturbed and patchy.
I then got sinusitis for the second time.

All work and no play makes Laura an ill, cranky mess.

Building course landing pages from scratch is scary.

The existential dread when facing a blank page is real.

I don’t want you to feel the same fear I did.

Here’s my landing pages swipe file from scouring over 60 course pages, so you can build yours in hours, not weeks 👇 Here’s cross cutting structure from all:
- The promise
- The difference
- The social proof
- The net new thinking
- Meet the instructor
- Results from participants
- Course content & structure
- Sneak peak at free content to intrigue
- The offer - detail different points of entry

3 micro-habits that have helped me read more in the first half of January than I did for the whole of 2022 👇 I read 4 books last year (absolutely terrible!)

I’ve read 5 between Christmas & now:
- Win w/o Pitching @blairenns
- Key Person of Influence @DanielPriestley
- This is Marketing - Seth Godin
- The Coaching Habit - Mike Bungay Stanier
- The One Thing - Gary Keller

Here’s how…

Tired of seeing stifled yawns when you present?
Frustrated with tumbleweed when you post online?
Pissed off you aren’t being recognised for your thinking?

Ditch words.
Draw attention.

Go from tangled idea mess to engaged audience using 3P framework to create Atomic Visuals🧵 When words aren’t working, you gotta try something different.

Visuals are:
- Fast
- Memorable
- Action drivers

Here’s the science 👇
- We process visuals in 13milliseconds vs 6 secs for words
- We are 65% more likely to remember visuals
- Visuals evoke emotion = drive action

Selling always felt sleazy to me.

I didn’t want to feel like a creepy car salesman that people run a mile from.

UNTIL

I read ‘Win w/o Pitching’ by @blairenns (thanks @theChrisDo!)

Here’s a visual guide of 3 ways to reframe selling so you do it well & feel good doing it 👇 THE VIEW OF TRADITIONAL SALES

You see them coming a mile off.

They’re the ones in your inbox going ‘BUY MY STUFF’ or ‘I CAN SEE YOU DIDN’T CATCH MY LAST EMAIL!’

Or

Those on socials shouting ‘CHECK OUT MY TOTALLY USELESS THING FOR THE LOW LOW PRICE OF $1MIL’

Eeeuurrgghhh

Pencil pirates is changing for January 2023.

If you’ve wanted to learn how to visualise your ideas in under five minutes so audiences get you in less than a second, then listen up.

Here’s a sketchnote visual thread on what’s been going on behind the scenes… Number 1: Name change

Why?
- Trademarking
- Clarity on what course & community is
- Reflect process of what you’ll create

Changing to: Atomic Visuals, with our community being the Atomic Armada!

Think atomic visuals are just for social media?

THINK AGAIN.

Quick, accessible visual frameworks help business leaders:

🧠think through organisational problems
✏️define business direction
👏align teams

Here's 3 visual frameworks to transform business strategy👇 The 3 core problems business leaders face are a lack of:

💎clarity over what is expected or needed to deliver

⚙️process on how to achieve business goals

👍buy in from teams to engage in that process

95% of presentations are shit.

Here are 4 storytelling structures to deliver impactful presentations like a pro 👇 First, why are presentations so shit?

It boils down to a JUMBLED MESSAGE.

We hastily write bullet points on a powerpoint slide the night before presenting, rather than taking the time to:

- Define the purpose
- Understand our audience
- Frame our messages so people listen

How to become a visual storyteller in 4 actionable steps.

Let’s dive in 🤿 Step 1 - Visual Language

You can’t tell visual stories, without a knowing a visual language first.

Develop your visual alphabet, so that you have a language to refer to when visualising your ideas to make it easier.

Here’s a 90 second overview to teach you that language 👇

Want to visualise ideas fast?

Think you don’t have the skill or the time?

Here’s how to visualise your ideas in less than 5 mins so audiences get your ideas in less than a second.

I call it the ‘Hamburger method’ 👇 Creating atomic visuals doesn’t have to be time consuming if you follow the same process every time.

Process removes precious thinking and prep time, so you can focus on visualising fast.

It’s like mass cooking hamburgers (I’ve played too much Overcooked recently😂).

£40,000 UK university degrees don’t teach you one key skill:

how to have good ideas.

What’s the use in all that knowledge if you can’t be creative with it?!

In the last 6 years, I’ve read 50+ books to learn how. Most repackage the same advice.

Here’s the 5 worth reading 👇: How to have great ideas by John Ingledew.

Not just theory - 53 practical strategies to have amazing ideas.

With case study examples of how those strategies have been used to create successful products, courses, & services.

amzn.eu/d/6SBhnnp

Creating visuals on Twitter?

Been approached to create some for other people?

Here’s 8 lessons on how to:
• price your work
• win clients and
• not get f**ked over

from my 6 years experience running a 6 figure visual agency.

(Inspired by @milanicreative) @milanicreative 1. Share the kind of work you want to be hired to do.

Want to create visuals solely for financial planners? Then share work that resonates with them.

Be known for your visual niche.

This increases your chances of being hired to do it.

Not a designer but want your visuals to look good?

Here are 4 design principles to level up your idea visualisation game in 90 secs 👇 1. Colours

• CHOOSE 3 of them: a bg, accent & main text colour
• Make sure they have good CONTRAST
• Use them CONSISTENTLY for the same things

This makes your visual easier to read & aesthetically pleasing to your audience.

Stuck? Use coolors.co for pallets.

Last week, Pencil Pirates crossed $50,000 in revenue.

In 90 days I went from no idea to:
• prepping for our 3rd cohort
• being signed by a literary agent
• over 300 pirates around the world using atomic visuals

Here’s all the low to no code tools that helped me do it 👇 @typefullyapp helped me to write Twitter threads and schedule them to share my knowledge and give my audience VALUE on the regs.

Like this one for e.g. 👇

https://twitter.com/EvansNifty/status/1487387647475523584?s=20&t=IgkFLTloJ8RpvinauapUbg

90 SECONDS:

is all you need to learn how to draw.

LET’S GO 👇. 1.

Realise that drawing is not about art or the accurate recreation of things.

It is about making marks with meaning, so that another person can understand what you are trying to communicate.

DRAWING IDEAS 101

To visualise your ideas, you need to develop a visual vocabulary.

I’ve spent the last 6 years drawing 100s of icons a day for 300+ clients @NiftyFoxCreativ

Here are my TOP 5 most used icons, how to draw & use them, to visualise your own ideas RIGHT NOW. MAGIC SAUCE before we start:

every icon can be built from the 6 shapes below.

If you can draw these, you can draw EVERYTHING.

PENCIL PIRATES 101

Writer?
Educator?
Creator?

Heard that Pencil Pirates helps you visualise your ideas in < 5 mins, so audiences get you in < than a second…

BUT

not sure it’s worth all the hype?

Here’s 5 reasons why you should join crew, from Pencil Pirates themselves 🧵👇 1. It will teach you to think & communicate with clarity

Visuals = clarity = leverage = results.

Sarah created her 1st visual pitch for bosses to secure funding for her project.

A meeting that usually took 2hrs & days of deliberation, took 45 mins & funding agreed on spot.

Think atomic visuals are just for social media?

THINK AGAIN.

Quick, accessible visual frameworks help business leaders:

🧠think through organisational problems
✏️define business direction
👏align teams

Here's 3 visual frameworks to transform business strategy👇 The 3 core problems business leaders face are a lack of:

💎clarity over what is expected or needed to deliver

⚙️process on how to achieve business goals

👍buy in from teams to engage in that process

I thought tweets like ‘here’s how I made a bazillion $ in 2 days' were:

BULLSHIT.

Until it happened to me.

In 90 days I:

📈Grew audience by 5455%
🛠Launched a cohort based e-course with 120 people
💸Made over $30,000 in revenue

Here's how👇 1. Share your high value skill, share it often, & share generously.

I went from not sharing my visual comms skills because I felt like an imposter, to posting multiple tweets, visuals & essays a day.

Remember: you are an expert in something others want to learn

The single most important thing to growing your audience:

perfecting the art of the ask.

Asking my audience how I can serve them has helped me:

🚀 grow my audience from 100-7,400
🔥 Sell out a CBC for $30,000

In 60 days.

Here’s 5 lessons to help you engage your audience. What is the art of the ask?

The ability to ask something of your followers in a genuine way to help serve them.

In turn, this helps you create content that your audience wants & needs.

My e-course Pencil Pirates grew out of a humble ask.

https://twitter.com/evansnifty/status/1479899874447564801?s=21

10 visuals that will change the way you build in public:

1. The key pieces you need

https://twitter.com/EvansNifty/status/1505244455124803587?s=20&t=tdiXT_o5jROX4HvVDAFHkQ

2. Start with understanding your audience

https://twitter.com/EvansNifty/status/1503078332438650891?s=20&t=tdiXT_o5jROX4HvVDAFHkQ