So...What's Next?!?

Sitting on the Edge

Again I am inspired to turn to my blog this morning. A dear friend lost her husband last week and I have been taking the time to let our mutual friends know. For the most part the reactions are shock. He was young and healthy and this tragedy was unexpected.

I observe the reactions of shock and I wonder why I was not shocked when I heard the news. Perhaps it is because a few years ago another dear friend lost her husband on Christmas morning. Was I shocked when I heard the news?...I do not recall.

What I do recall is a little psychology quiz that my High School Psych teacher gave us. It was a "fill in the blank" story. Your answers in the blank somehow gave clues to your inner personality. I still remember my answers and their meanings because I was amazed at how insightful the quiz was.

At the end of the story we are told that we are walking toward a cliff, we are to fill in the blank of what we would do next.

What would you do?

Most people kept walking the other way, a few looked over the cliff and then continued walking.

I sat down and let my legs dangle while enjoying the view. That seemed like the right thing to do.

Turns out, what that said about me was that I was comfortable with the idea of death. I did not jump off the cliff, that would have been cause for major concern, I just admired the view.

My thoughts, prayers, and all the love that I can gather is being sent to my friend today who is out of the state. I wish I could comfort her and her daughter at this time of loss. I know the journey in front of her is not one she had ever imagined.

At the same time, I somehow have always understood that each moment we are alive is a gift of that moment. Life is fragile. I honestly am more shocked of how many moments we get of life then when life is cut short. I sincerely try not to take any moment for granted, of my life or of the time I have with others.

Let this be your thought of the day.

Rejoice in the things that are present; all else is beyond thee.  ~Montaigne

Avoiding Burnout

As I mentioned on my corporate blog, I am coming up on my 4 year anniversary of running this company. Over the past 4 years I have faced and overcome a lot of challenges, but the most difficult of challenges for an entrepreneur/small business owner is burnout.

Here is the thing:

• Good ideas get shot down
• People do not follow through
• Lots of energy gets put into ideas that do not work
• Clients shift and change their mind
• Clients do not always pay their invoices on time
• Service providers, such as lawyers and accountants try to take advantage of you
• Competitors invade your space by over promising and under-pricing
• Fakers ruin the reputation of whole industries turning prospective clients into skeptics
• People have very short-term memories

Yes, all of this is true whether you work for someone or on your own. But then add in

• The need to manage resources
• Paying others before paying yourself
• Being pushed out by the bigger players
• Having to be more innovative and agile than those with more resources
• Only being able to eat what you kill
• Playing the role of sales person, researcher, writer, campaign manager, accountant, hr, and communications manager... all in one day.

No I am not whining or complaining, I am simply listing the many things that can eventually cause a person to burn out. For some of us, we also add being a parent and balancing family with work.

So, yes the past few months I have been fighting the symptoms of burn out. The key word here is FIGHTING

So, here are some of the top 10 ways I have avoided burn-out.

1. Accept the changes that you are not in control of as the Universe looking out for your best interest. Yes this is a leap of faith, but so is working for yourself.
2. Look at your competitors as a source of inspiration and learn from them, as opposed to  a source of pain. 
3. Take inventory of your accomplishments to-date.
4. Take some time off. Even if finances are screaming at you that you cannot afford to, sometimes you cannot afford not to.
5. Seriously consider what your other options are. It just may be time to move on and do something new. You will only know if you seriously and thoroughly evaluate what other options exist and what the advantages and disadvantage of all options are.
6. Re-evaluate your visions for the company. Your target might have moved which is why the goal no longer seems realistic. Perhaps you were shooting for more than you really wanted or maybe you simply were not challenging yourself to shoot for more than you have.
7. Start up a side project. Get your start-up/entrepreneurial juices flowing again, even if it is simply to have another reason to get out of bed in the morning.
8. Read books about inspirational business leaders.
9. Re-invent your business. 6 of my favorite words are : Where Do We Go From Here? It is a fresh starting point no matter where you are standing.
10.  Hang out with friends and family who tell you what an inspiration you have been to them. There is nothing like not wanting to let someone down to get you going again.

Honestly, after running through steps 1-10 I still do not have a solid answer of where I want to go from here, but I have found my groove again and things continue to move along while I figure the rest of it out.

Celebrating Oktoberfest

Yesterday, my husband and I drove to Helen, GA to see a friend perform for Oktoberfest.

First we spent some time enjoying a glass (or two) of Merlot at the majestic Anna Ruby Falls. 

Then we enjoyed the performance of the Chicken Dance...yes...The Chicken Dance...

Finally we had dinner that was perpared by an authentic German Chef at a restaurant that I can not remember and then we headed home in the pouring rain.

Overall, it was a very nice get-away.

Week in Review

It has been a heads down week for me. I am finishing a project and been thinking about next steps in my life. There are so many areas in my life that seems to be hanging in limbo it seems all I can do is take things day by day.

So here is a recap of the past several days.

My Family

Parenting continues to be the most interesting role I have in my life. There have been points of frustration this week, only for me to realize that my boys are just exhibiting the same traits that I have, some of which can cause the same long-term problems that I am plagued with, and others that, although frustrating to others, will serve them well. What will serve them well is that they take nothing at face value, question everything and stubbornly stand for what they want. These honorable traits can be very frustrating to a parent!

Concept Hub

As I mentioned I am finishing a project. I have always suspected that pitching to what I would term as "institutional bloggers" which are blogs that look more journalist vs the everyday blogs were not as valuable. This week I saw the evidence of that suspicion. I believe building online communities through interpersonal relationships with real community members, but others have argued for a PR approach to raise awareness of a site & drive traffic to the site and let the community develop. This has been a long term debate that I have only been able argue my side based on a hunch. Through my research for my latest project I can see how the PR approach does drive traffic which spikes only temporarily and does not translate to stickiness or community building.

This week I was also invited to deliver my Mapping Corporate Goals to Social Media presentation for ISPI . This was the second time I have delivered this presentation and both times it has been very well received. In fact my favorite feedback of all time came from a senior manager that was in his late 50s. He said he finally is starting to understand social media, that it needs to be a corporate wide strategy not just a PR or Advertisement initiative. It was a very rainy night that night, but I believe the clouds parted and the stars shined down when he said that.

Here is the presentation.

Mapping Corporate Goals

View more presentations from Concept Hub, Inc.

Community

I am the social media director for Digitainment and my role is to create a Georgia community around entertainment initiatives. The community continues to be very active.

I am also the chair of the Enterprise 2.0 society and I have renewed my commitment to raise awareness of the difference between social media for PR/Marketing and Enterprise 2.0. That is one of the things I have been heads down on this week.

Finally, Concept Hub is a very proud sponsor of the Atlanta Children's Shelter Awards Banquet that will be happening this Thursday. 

The Weekend

Last night I hung out with some friends at Shout in Midtown. It was fun and I got to see a side of Atlanta I rarely get to experience. I left the restaurant around 1am. I was not able to last any longer. My friends stayed a little longer. I noticed that around 1am is when things start getting interesting. The dance floor was packed. After I made my way through all of the hormone hyped bodies I had to walk several blocks to where I parked my car. On my way I passed a very beautiful woman dressed to have a great time, being led away from a club as she gracefully and continuously spit up the contents of her stomach. Another man was led away by a friend on each arm, it seemed his legs no longer functioned. Yeah...good times.

The rain does not seem to want to go away, and something in the air has 3 out of 4 of us battling allergies, so most likely we will be playing games in the house this weekend. It might also be a good weekend to catch a movie, there are a few new releases.

Who knows what we will do...as with everything else in my life right now...it's all up in the air.

Week In Review

This week has been a bit of a blur, definitely with it's ups and downs. Monday we drove home from St George Island leaving us little time to jump back in the groove, but life keeps moving and we have to keep up.

My Family

My husband has come home from vacation to a plate full of work. He has been putting in very long hours to meet deadlines and it does not seem to be slowing down. I am hopeful this is another sign of the economy improving.

The boys are back in the groove of school. My oldest has gone into overdrive with extra-curricular activities. In Elementary school we kept him in one activity at a time, in middle school he seemed to have no interest in anything, which I accepted but told him he had to have at least 1 activity when he started High School because it would help him get into college. He signed up for Debate right away. Last week he informed me that he has also signed up for a career club, a club that sends books to Africa and...table tennis (!?!)

 

My youngest is doing well. It seems he has at least 2 hours of homework each day though, but for the most part he is staying focused. He is interested in Chess club, which started this past week, but I still need to figure out scheduling before I sign him up. I should have that figured out next week.

He has become an incredible reader, bringing home a new book each week which he buries his head in. He is also enjoying the new neighbors we have. We have had 3 families with young children move in to houses on our street over the summer and they all tend to hang out in the cul de sac at night.

Concept Hub

It has been a great privilege to have Mallory work with me this year, but unfortunately business never got to the point where I could bring her on full time. This month she starts her new job at the Georgia Aquarium and I look forward to see what great things she will introduce to their already thriving social media program.

Mallory has been instrumental on the PBA Lens on Atlanta project, which will launch quietly next week. I will be highlighting that project on my corporate post this weekend.

I am also finishing up a project for another social network site that is in soft launch; iglued. It has been described as a social management tool for busy volunteers. I am very excited about the potential of this one and very happy with how their road map is coming together.

The other social network I have been involved with, eRollover also has some exciting growth happening which will be announced in the next few weeks...and that is all I can say about that. 

Community

This has been a lame week for me in regards to community outreach. I continue to contribute to my Concept Hub for Job Seekers site, and I learned that one of the members just landed a new job. More good economic news :)

I have gathered some things to bring to Goodwill...yeah I know, that is a stretch when it comes to community outreach.

I do have a few upcoming fund raisers on my calendar, and over the weekend I will be working on my plan to help promote Arts & Humanities month, but admittedly this has been a slow week for community involvement.

Our yodeling friend is performing in Helen, GA this weekend. If this sore throat and aching muscles is not anything more serious than fatigue (I hope, I hope) we will be visiting with here this weekend. Beyond that we have a bit of house work and yard work we need to catch up on.

I hope you all have a great weekend and enjoy the changing weather.

Has Social Media Ruined HS Reunions?

Next year is my 20 year HS reunion. There is a Facebook group and the planning has begun.

There were 565 students in my graduating class, I know this because my GF was #57, missing top 10% by 1. That is a lot of students. Yet only 60 or so came to the 10 year reunion, and of those 60 maybe 10-15 of them were people I actually knew well enough to remember 10 years later.

When I graduated HS I immediately began to lose touch with my friends. Within 2 years there was only one friend I stayed in touch with. Life moved on, new people entered and exited, new jobs, new adventures, new cities, new schools, and a new family with new responsibilities. By my 10 year reunion I could only name a few dozen people I was friends with in HS.

As social media began to bloom I began to find those few dozen people online. Char and I have always stayed in touch with, but then I found Michelle, Claudia, and Neil. When Facebook burst into our lives I found Matt Kennedy and Chris Irrizarry and that whole gang.

This past year I have traveled to SC to re-connect with Mhari and to AL to re-connect with Lisa and to DC to re-connect with Chris. I keep tabs on how Nikki and that group of people are doing through FB newsfeeds and I know that when I make it back down to S FL I will visit with them.

So, when Char asked me about going to our 20 year reunion I asked, "what is the point?" To pay money to go to some dinner where I may or may not know the people who will show up? I guess it depends on if they use social media to showcase who is coming so that I know who I will get to see. There are still a handful of people who are not on FB yet that I would love to connect with, but do I need to pay for a plane ticket and dinner ticket just to see if they show up, or do I wait for them to join Facebook?

I am sure there are many different stories and perspectives about how Facebook and other social media channels have impacted reunions, but for me, it has made them less valuable. 

Besides, if I do not go, I can stay in denial that it has been 20 years since I graduated.

Pictures