So...What's Next?!?

Running on Faith

Late last year I was determined that I was not going to participate in a recession. The thing is it has been very hard to avoid participation. The beginning of the year started out very shaky, but a few opportunities came in from out of the blue making first quarter a respectable quarter. The second quarter has been less than respectable and I am faced again with standing on shaky ground.

I started this agency when there was no demand for social media and very little knowledge of what it was. I made it through the first year and grew steadily the second and third year, so I have faith that we are going to make it through this rough patch. But it is rough.

The other day I decided, for operational efficiency, I needed to start calculating how many hours I spend on business development before getting the business, to understand exactly how much I was getting paid per project. The results depressed me. The next morning I woke up at 3am wondering what am I doing this for. I believe if I put myself on the job market I could get a job fairly quickly, and to work for someone else would take away so many of the things that I have to worry about like corporate taxes and lines of credit and legal issues and so forth.

I stayed awake for a couple of hours and then fell back to sleep. When I woke up again I was in a much more positive mood. I remembered why I jumped into this world in the first place. The freedom to strive, to grow, to expand and stretch. I was reminded of a conversation I once had with a very successful business man in this city where he explained to me that you are not a business owner until you have to get loans to meet payroll, lay people off, deal with losing a major account, and the list went on. None of which sounded fun or anything anyone would want to go through. So why do people start their own business? Because they only see the positives and they focus on their hopes and dreams. Why do so many companies fail within 5 years? Because the realities of what a small business owner has to deal with is not all fun and dreams get delayed or shattered and many people decide that it is not worth it.

I realized that what I am going through is like an initiation phase to a private club. I also realized that I would be giving up some things that are very important to me if I were to give up.

I continued to think about this as I went through my day. I would not have any of the exposure I have received if I worked for someone else. This would eliminate me getting paid to present at cool places like Destin, FL or to go on press tours with the ACVB. Later in the day I was at an association meeting and learned how much progress has been made and what a great project this is that I am in the middle of. Would I get this kind of opportunity if I worked for someone else? Maybe, Maybe not.

A lot of good people continue to put their faith in me. I have enough faith in myself to keep running through this rough patch.

Today I mentioned what I was going through to my teenage son. His reaction was shock and insistence that me giving up was out of the question. It was a moment when I realized not just how proud he was of me but also what I was teaching him, the example I was providing. That was cool.

So without a doubt, I will keep running on faith ...and an abundance of caffeine. I will keep learning, keep stretching, and keep getting better. Because even during the times when cashflow is slow, or especially in those times, the payoff comes in ongoing personal growth - which is priceless. 

Thanks for the Ride through the Rat Maze

As an entrepreneur and small business owner I am faced with many new challenges every single day. Most of these challenges I have not had any experience with - which I guess that is why I say I am faced with NEW challenges.

However I am very aware of the people and their words of wisdom as well as the experiences I have had that tend to come to mind when I am in a new and foreign situation.

The last couple of weeks I have been going through some transitions, deciding to move on and to let go of things that are no longer serving me. Yep, this is something I have experienced many times in my life. However I am taking a new approach this time. I am not looking at the disappointments and false promises that were made, I am appreciating all that I learned and all the new opportunities and ideas that I discovered. In the short term there might be times when things get ugly, but I am not going to let the ugliness come from me. I will not allow someone else's issues bring me down to their level. I will stand tall and take their blows when I have to until we finish all that needs to be said and done.

I am going to put my energy and focus onto "What's Next" not on what was or what was supposed to be. This is what I have learned from being around some of the successful people I admire most. Most things will not work out the way you would hope, therefore it is very important that you focus your energies only on the things that are working.

When Thomas Edison was inventing the light bulb he did not stress over why one method was not working, he simply moved on until he found a method that did work...and it took a lot of experimentation. He did not beat himself up and blame himself when things did not work, he looked for things that did work. Why are we so inclined to find fault and to put so much energy in stressing about relationships or partnerships that do not work. On a high level it is very much like trying to make a light bulb work, it has to have the right chemistry and the right energy within the right environment. If it is simply not right, do we really have to spend time and energy on blame?

I have been thinking about this a lot the past couple of days. What I realized is how many of these relationships were just a ride from one stop to the next. Each one has brought me further along in my life and in my career, but there comes a time when we must go our separate ways. As I was  thinking about it more this morning I was appreciating what I have learned from past experiences. How to handle some situations best and how to not make the same mistakes over and over again. I considered that this was similar to how a rat in a maze learns from their mistakes and experiences in order to make it through the maze. My next visual was me in the passenger seat of a car riding through a maze with the many people who have guided me along the way.

So with each stop, when it is time to go our separate ways, I get to reflect on what I have learned from my mistakes and experiences and to say "thanks for the ride through the rat maze."

Catching Up

Wow - come back for vacation and hit the ground running!

Monday I spent the day working on a video script for a new client. It is really something I would like to see more organizations doing. They have tasked me with taking the legalese language of their social media policies and guidelines and creating a fun video that will show the importance of thinking before posting. We shot the video yesterday and one of the producers was holding back his laughter at one point.

Tuesday I got to meet with a peer I have not connected with in awhile and told him about a new business model I was working on. He completely understood the concept and added so many new ideas and resources. I will discuss this new idea in more detail as we launch, but it is very exciting.

After that I had a great meeting with a potential new client and was then off to the Digitainment board meeting. The momentum of Digitainment is growing by leaps and bounds and I feel incredibly lucky to be involved in this early stage. I am the social media director for the group and right now I am working on designing our social media road map as well as recruiting interns, which we will need on an ongoing basis. From there I headed over to the TAG Enterprise 2.0 meeting that we partnered with the Workplace Learning Society for. It was a packed room with many people taking lots of notes on how social software can be used for ongoing knowledge transfer and collaboration. There was the standard question about the ROI of using social media which got me to thinking...people who ask that question are thinking about the wrong thing. The ROI is on the project or the goal and social media or social software is implemented as a way to effectively and efficiently reach that goal - if it is leveraged correctly.

Wednesday I found myself having coffee with another peer I have not connected with in a long time and then I went over to the offices of our newest client, Creative Loafing to discuss our project. From there I had a wonderful lunch with a gentlemen whose company develops software solutions in the Healthcare and Government space. We explored many various ways we could work together and then I headed down to StudioPlex for their monthly ArtWalk, which Daddy-O was Djing for. I met my friend "Cocktails", founder of STIR. We discussed his new gig at Big Brothers Big Sisters as well as the new business model I mentioned earlier.

Thursday I spent much of the day with Public Broadcasting of Atlanta and Friday my day was split between being in the studio shooting the video for Grizzard and hanging out at the Atlanta Children's Shelter working on their social media plan.

There are also a number of really exciting things coming up.

This Wednesday I am running a social media workshop for CRMA

The 24th through the 26th of this month I am going on a FAM tour with the ACVB which includes my own hotel room in town - a little vacation spot, and visits to the Georgia Terrace Hotel, Dinner at Dogwood, Drinks at Pitty Pat's Porch,  Breakfast at Highland Bakery, a Bicycle Tour of Atlanta, the Oakland and Civil War Tour,  Lunch at Livingston Atlanta, a visit to Stone Mountain including Antebellum Plantation and dinner at Miss Katies Sideboard Restaurant. Friday we will start with breakfast at Cafe Mims and then head over to the Margaret Mitchell House. We will also vist the Atlanta History Center, Tullie Smith Farm, and conclude with lunch at Swan Coach House.

I have been in Atlanta for over 10 years and have only experienced a few of these attractions so I am excited to be able to be part of this. During those days I will be posting on my blog at the ATL Insider and on the Forums over there as well as posting pictures in their photo gallery and posting on thier Twitter account.

On June 30th is the Digitainment Mixer and Mashup hosted by Concept Hub and Fuzebox. Daddy-O will be DJing and we will have lots of presentations as well as will be shooting video shout outs up at our studio.

Looking out a little further, I am going to be in Birmingham, AL for a 2 day IAEE conference I will be presenting at. I am also presenting to a group of executives on Aug 28th re: Mapping Corporate Goals with Social Media Technologies and Trends

So, yep - looking forward to a fun, productive and very busy summer.

Knowing What You Want

Yesterday I attended the WIT Book Club. The conversations and insights were wonderful. In particular I connected with one woman who was about 10 years older than me. We were on the "same page" about many things with the exception that she was a lot further in her career. The things I have only recently come to realize she confirmed but as things she experienced earlier in her career.

One of the main insights that was the underlying theme to everything is that you have to know what it is you want. If you know what you want others can help you achieve your goals, connect you with the right people and provide you with the most appropriate advice. If you know what you want you can learn to filter advice and feedback, taking what works for you and setting the rest of it aside for another day or simply tossing it away. If you know what you want you will be able to seek out the right places, the right time and the right path.

On the other hand if you don't know what you want  you will be pushed down or pushed aside. Or you can feel pressured to take on more responsibility simply to please someone else or live up to someone else's expectations.

A simple line I heard yesterday, one I will adopt, is "thank you for your feedback, now this is what I have decided to do." That line says I heard you, I appreciate your insights, but ultimately I am the one who gets to decide.

I heard a lot of women talk about how they have received feedback about their image and style and how they each took offense to it but at the same time found value in the feedback. Someone asked if a man would give another man the same advice. I spoke up and mentioned that when a man gave me similar feedback, it was because he knew I could be more and that was a huge compliment, as opposed to any sort of discrimination. I, now, have great appreciation for the feedback I received. Admittedly it has taken awhile for me to process it all.

Today I had a meeting with a good friend to help her work on her business. She asked what she could do for me in return and I had an answer. I know what I want, who I want to know, what I need help with and where she could help. That makes giving and receiving support so much easier. When I was still figuring things out and people wanted to help it was much more chaotic because so much advice did not fit, especially since I was still working things out myself.

Reflecting over the past few years I am amazed that I was saying I wanted to work in Entertainment and now I am the social media director for Digitainment. I said as part of my agency I wanted a production studio and to work with people on the cutting edge of social media technology, and I now have a partnership that offers me both. I am no where close to where my vision is, but I have been steadily moving toward that vision and each day the things I need to do to reach my goals gets clearer and each day I uncover new opportunities that get me closer and closer to what I want. I know this, because I know what it is that I want.

Finding My Inner Coach

Have you ever had one of those days.

The day started out...early. I was awake at 3:38am, with butterflies in my tummy.

Today I got to present an overview of the work I have been doing at a client site to the Chiefs and Directors. It shouldn't have been something that would get me worked up, but for some reason, it at least woke me up...way too early.

As my Facebook friend, Kristen Collier, commented on my early morning status "Wayne Dyer would tell you to get to work... that's when the muse shows up... :)"

Which is what I tried to do, but the muse was just rattling me. So I took a shower and went back to bed, until the alarm woke me up 30 minutes later.

The meeting went OK. I could say it went well...I think it could be said that it went well, but if I were to judge it based on what I could have done, should have done better, I would give myself a 7 out of 10.

Afterwards I stopped by the office to connect with Mallory real quick and then came home to take a meditative nap.

That should have helped. I think it did help some, the nerves stopped rattling a bit, but then the sulking started to sneak in.

The sulking comes from not being good enough, not having enough time or enough money, not being sure of what is coming next, wanting more but not convinced that I am ready for more. It is a time when I could use a good swift kick in the ass.

The good thing is enough people in my life have given me a good swift kick in my ass. At first I started missing those people, thinking about who I could call or reach out to. But there is a very small number of people in my life who can even come close to saying the right thing during these moments in my life.

What I need to hear is to do better, be better. I need to hear that the reason I was not a 10 today was because I did not rehearse the presentation enough. I took for granted that I knew it all and could shoot from the hip, and although I did stand strong the whole time, the few times when I stumbled would not have happened if I took the time to rehearse.

I need to hear to stop counting my chickens before they hatch and get my head in the game to bring in more business. Stop worrying about whether or not I can handle it, focus on getting the business first - this would be a good time to remind me that I have lots of connections willing and able to help out if I get in over my head, so I need to stop holding myself back.

I need that person who sees me as the person who could be the star player if I would just start playing. The person who looks at me and says - "hey! isn't  all of this everything you said you wanted? well then start working it!"

It took most of the day but I found that person - she was screaming inside of me.

Recapping the day

I have officially been made Digitainment's social media director. Digitainment's goal is to connect Atlanta's talent within gaming, music, film and broadcastng. This is going to be a lot of fun.

Digitainment had their first mixer and mashup at Definition 6 a couple of weeks ago. The next one will be held at Fuzebox in June. The exact date has not been set yet.

As anyone who knows me knows, gaming, music and film are my passions. Okay - gaming is my son's passion - which means I have a good interest in it.

I also had a good meeting related to another conference that I am planning. As we get more of the pieces together I will write more about it. But it is something we need in the SE and unlike anything we have right now.

When I got to the studio I started working with NJ, the video producer at StudioPlex, on my first video in 4 years. It is a very brief introduction to social media. It will be one of several videos I have in mind.

NJ is great. He is so incredibly professional and nice and easy to work with. It felt great to be in front of the camera! We did not get to finish because I had to go to the doctor, so we will finish production on Monday and hopefully will have it finished later next week.

As I mentioned I went to the doctor today - the neurologist. Again I passed all of the basic tests - which is really good. They feel like they can rule out the worst case scenarios (MS, Stroke, Tumor)...but just to be sure I am having an MRI next week.

Overall, a very good day. A day that has me looking forward to many of the days ahead of me.

Back to Basics

So I have this journal...
Which I originally purchased as a business journal and over time it was used to take notes in from various sources and then evolved into my personal journal.

However lately when I want to write I do not feel inspired to write in this journal. I have resisted writing in this journal and I have not gotten my thoughts put down on paper - and there has been a bunch of stuff building up inside  of me and I was about to explode!!!!

So, I thought maybe it is the journal. Maybe it is just not speaking to me anymore and all I need is a new journal.

So I went to Barnes & Noble this morning and stood among all the various journals looking for one that "spoke to me..."

This is what I chose...
I guess I feel like I need to get back to the basics...

Turning the Boat Around

The best thing about being the top boss is that when I see that something needs to be done differently, I can do it differently. I do not have to convince the powers that be - I am the powers that be.

So...Now that Mallory has been working with me for the past couple of months I have been able to take a step back and look at the business a little more. I can see where I can optimize some things and where I can drink my own koolaide a little more (meaning work on my own social media strategy.)

Some changes that I am working on include;

- repositioning our training classes. The social media training space has become a RED ocean - meaning incredibly crowded and competitive. The only way to compete in red oceans is to cut prices or increase your offerings, both of which cuts into the margin. I do not like red oceans. So I have taken two steps to move this boat back into Blue Ocean territory.  One is I have aligned with i3Logic and iFive Alliance to position our workshops for an Executive level audience that is looking at high level strategies to meet corporate goals and two I am turn the 14 (which is now 15) online classes into on-demand training sessions within a private online community. I will be able to add and change up the classes as platforms and tools change and will be able to offer ongoing support to my clients, but I will not have any online live classes scheduled anymore.

- I am really working on my own social media strategy for the first time. It is a work in progress so I will not go into details just yet, but I am stepping back and looking at Concept Hub as a client and going through the same due dilligence that I would take with a client. So - expect to see some activity in the next few months.

 - I am looking at the "ecosystem" of my clients and contacts. As opposed to cold calling alphabetically - which is how I started, I am looking to see how I can evolve the ecosystem of my contacts and work within that ecosystem to create a win-win for everyone. This is something I will be mapping out in detail and presenting to my sales accountability group this month.

I am re-evaluating what I want this blog to be about....

It has historically been about my thoughts, feelings, and observations and I really like having that outlet - but I wonder what more I can do with it without losing the human/personal touch. I have thought about getting "strategic" here (if you haven't noticed there is no strategy on this blog) - turning this site into a blog about my thoughts and opinions about certain social media tools and trends and my ideas of leadership and all the things a "thought leader" would discuss...because I know that some people have come to this blog thinking that is what they would find here...but I also know that some people have come here and found a girl (yes I still see myself as a young girl...) trying to figure out what she is doing and how to do it, dealing with all the emotions that come with growing into new roles, and juggling family life with work life and those people have gotten to know ME a little better and I believe a few have been inspired. So - I do not want to give that up either....

Alright - so I need your help and I know you are out there because I have the analytics. There are several of you who are repeat visitors to this blog - why? What do you enjoy and what do you want more of? Do you want me to get all Scoble on you or Jack Canfield.... or to just stay Sherry wandering through this experience trying and sharing the journey.

Let me know your thoughts please.

What can I learn from today?

Focus? Still not my strong point...

I have mentioned in a few posts that I have been feeling stress. Today the particular situation weighed very heavy on my mind. So heavy I could not get the work done that was on my to-do list.

The thing is - it all worked out. Now I can not focus on work because I am unwinding from all the stress I was feeling.

But the thing is - even if it did not work out (which it always does....) it was not anything that should have caused me to not be able to focus on work. If I am going to grow I need to learn how to manage stress without letting it hold me back.

I have seen people, people I look up to, go from one stressful situation to the next and they keep moving. I struggle with that ...the keep moving part.

I literally let things weigh me down.

Again, I think it is a stamina thing...ok - so I am not in the best shape --- at all. I could not run a half mile if I had to. But I know if I got my butt to the gym and started pushing myself to run a little further everyday before long I would be able to run a marathon. It is not that I cannot run a marathon, it is that I am not trained to run one.

Same thing with these other things in my life. I need to identify where I am "weak" and focus on increasing my stamina.

This is as easy as getting to the gym everyday to train for a marathon - yeah - not so easy...

But it is what it takes to be a "champion."

So, what I can learn from today is that I have some work to do still, both on my to-do list as well as on myself. I know what I want and I know how to get there - I just have to keep training and getting myself in shape to be in the game.

A blog post I will always treasure but...Who is "Chris"? -

This morning I realized it has been awhile since I have googled my own name. It is not an ego thing - really! I will admit there was a time when it was an ego thing, but now it is more of curiosity to see what shows up and how google ranks the pages. It seems some things show up and disappear again while other things go from obscurity to page one. Yes all of you who follow SEO mumble jumble understand the ins and outs of why - I am just interested in what the tide is bringing in.

So today I google my name and for the first few pages there are no big surprises....then I get to page 4 and I see something I have not seen in a very long time...

Atlanta Media Bloggers: Still seeking a name

This is the blog post where "Chris" named the conference that we have held 3 years in a row!

But there is no link included with his comment. In 3 years he has never revealed to the world that he is responsible for the name. I have no idea who this person is...

Anyway, this blog post has special meaning for me on many different levels.

1. It was the first time in my life I had ever organized anything....I mean anything...and well - it was a pretty significant first which has led to many more opportunities in my life than I could have imagined.

2. It reminds me that there was a time when I was new to social media and people who had been around the block once or twice were NOT very welcoming to a newcomer. Nothing has changed. There is STILL a lot of social media veterans blogging about the huge numbers of social media "experts" coming into the space. I sometimes can relate to those feelings of "wait a minute - I have been doing this for almost 4 years - since before this city knew what a blog was - how dare you jump on the band wagon now!" but then I remember when I was jumping on the band wagon and there was actually still room for me there...and there is still much more room for the many other people finding opportunities in social media...so jump on board.

3. Finally - the friends and supporters who encouraged me to jump on board - they will always be people I hold dear in my life - and this was our little club house - our little meetup where we learned together and launched onto the many paths our lives have taken us. This was our beginning and for me, it is and always will be a very special time in my life.

But....who is Chris?