I've got a series of "Friend" videos for a few weeks starting with this one:
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Keeping It Real
What is "It"?
Life.
This evening I am in Indianapolis, enjoying dinner with some friends I met via Social Media online with Twitter.
We call it a Friend-Up and it was started by a man I first met face to face in January, Randy Clark.
Randy and assorted "Friends of Randy" meet once a month face to face to talk about how we can help each other. In between these meetings, we talk online via Twitter, but it's the face to face that has made it even more real.
How are you Keeping it Real?
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Why 10 Days?
I was unsubscribing from email mailing lists that I have been in the habit of deleteing anyway, and after opting out of Marriot.com, this is what they said:
Excuse me, but unless you are doing this by hand, which you are not, this is irresponsible.
That's all.
Email Sign Up Confirmation
Scott@MyEmail.com is subscribed to:
You have chosen not to receive email.
Please allow ten business days to process this request.
Excuse me, but unless you are doing this by hand, which you are not, this is irresponsible.
That's all.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Monday, July 18, 2011
Baby Steps to a new Career
A few years ago, while I was working for the group of radio stations I had been at for a few years, I decided that were not going in the direction that I wanted to go.
I was in management, overseeing a sales staff of two stations and we were turning things around positively.
Then my boss quit and there were two of us would could have taken over.
It ended up being the other guy.
I stayed for a couple more years but that planted the seed for evaluating what I really wanted to do career wise.
I almost walked away to start my own business, but instead started a side business which was active until about a month ago when I joined Cirrus ABS and now all of my efforts and energy's are back under one roof so to speak.
Here's some advice from DLM if you find yourself in a similar situation:
Do you have your own business – or have you ever thought about starting one? It seems like more and more of the people I talk to have side projects going on: they work a day job to pay the rent, but they’re doing what they really love in the evenings or on the weekends, hoping that eventually, they can make a career out of it.
It can be really tough, though, to keep up your motivation when you’re working long days in the office and coming home to work some more.
I spent months freelancing on the side, before I established a strong enough client base to quit my day job. It was tough at times, but I’m really glad I made it. Here are some of the things that helped me, and which might help you too.
Write Down Your Goals – With Dates
I’m sure you’ll have heard time and time again that you should write down your goals, and that you should put dates to them. It’s great advice – but many of us don’t follow it.
Rather than having a vague dream of being a self-employed computer programmer (or whatever it might be), set an actual goal down in writing. Maybe you want to get another client within a month. Maybe you want to write a business plan, or set up a website, or order your business cards.
Putting a date to your goals often helps them happen: it creates a sense of urgency. Without this, it’s all too easy to put off taking action until tomorrow (and then a year slips by, and you’re no closer to your goal).
Write Down Your Achievements
Something which I found very powerful when I was just starting my side business was to write down what I’d achieved each month. To begin with, these achievements were small (like getting my first client!) but they all represented progress towards my ultimate goal of being a full-time freelance writer.
It’s easy to feel discouraged when you don’t have much time to devote to your business: it can seem as though you’re not making any forwards progress at all. Keeping a record of what you’ve achieved (perhaps new clients, new projects, or passing a certain income thresh-hold) gives you something concrete to look back on, so that you can see how far you’ve come.
Find Regular Work Hours
Try to find a few hours in the week which you can consistently block out to spend on your side business. For me, this was 6am – 7am (ugh! But it worked...) If you’re even less of an early riser type than I am, you might choose to work on certain evenings, or even in your lunch hour, depending on what facilities and rules your day job has.
If you can devote some time to your business at the weekends, that will really help you to make progress. I personally prefer to work in the morning and then knock off for the rest of the day, but this is really a case of finding what best suits you.
Depending on your home situation, you may need to negotiate with other people for some uninterrupted time. For example, you could ask your spouse to take the kids out on a Saturday morning while you work (you can then return the favor in the afternoon).
Cut Down Other Commitments
If you’re working full-time and trying to establish a business on the side, you need to minimize your other commitments. This might mean putting a particular hobby on the back-burner for a while, or telling people in your community group that you’re stepping down as secretary.
You might also have the possibility of cutting down your hours at work. This is obviously something to be cautious about asking for in the current economy ... but depending on your circumstances, you may be able to approach your boss or line manager about the possibility of working a 4.5 or 4 day week.
As well as cutting down on your current time-consumers, don’t take on new ones! You might find it very tough at first to say “no” – but people usually take it surprising well. Don’t worry about giving apologies or excuses, simply say “I’m very busy at the moment, and I’ve promised myself I won’t take on any new commitments.”
Do you have a side business or a fledgling freelancing career? How do you juggle it around your day job, and how do you stay motivated? If you’re an established freelancer, what was it like getting started?
I was in management, overseeing a sales staff of two stations and we were turning things around positively.
Then my boss quit and there were two of us would could have taken over.
It ended up being the other guy.
I stayed for a couple more years but that planted the seed for evaluating what I really wanted to do career wise.
I almost walked away to start my own business, but instead started a side business which was active until about a month ago when I joined Cirrus ABS and now all of my efforts and energy's are back under one roof so to speak.
Here's some advice from DLM if you find yourself in a similar situation:
Keeping Your Side Business Moving When You Still Have a Day Job
Posted: 27 Jun 2011 08:50 AM PDT
Do you have your own business – or have you ever thought about starting one? It seems like more and more of the people I talk to have side projects going on: they work a day job to pay the rent, but they’re doing what they really love in the evenings or on the weekends, hoping that eventually, they can make a career out of it.
It can be really tough, though, to keep up your motivation when you’re working long days in the office and coming home to work some more.
I spent months freelancing on the side, before I established a strong enough client base to quit my day job. It was tough at times, but I’m really glad I made it. Here are some of the things that helped me, and which might help you too.
Write Down Your Goals – With Dates
I’m sure you’ll have heard time and time again that you should write down your goals, and that you should put dates to them. It’s great advice – but many of us don’t follow it.
Rather than having a vague dream of being a self-employed computer programmer (or whatever it might be), set an actual goal down in writing. Maybe you want to get another client within a month. Maybe you want to write a business plan, or set up a website, or order your business cards.
Putting a date to your goals often helps them happen: it creates a sense of urgency. Without this, it’s all too easy to put off taking action until tomorrow (and then a year slips by, and you’re no closer to your goal).
Write Down Your Achievements
Something which I found very powerful when I was just starting my side business was to write down what I’d achieved each month. To begin with, these achievements were small (like getting my first client!) but they all represented progress towards my ultimate goal of being a full-time freelance writer.
It’s easy to feel discouraged when you don’t have much time to devote to your business: it can seem as though you’re not making any forwards progress at all. Keeping a record of what you’ve achieved (perhaps new clients, new projects, or passing a certain income thresh-hold) gives you something concrete to look back on, so that you can see how far you’ve come.
Find Regular Work Hours
Try to find a few hours in the week which you can consistently block out to spend on your side business. For me, this was 6am – 7am (ugh! But it worked...) If you’re even less of an early riser type than I am, you might choose to work on certain evenings, or even in your lunch hour, depending on what facilities and rules your day job has.
If you can devote some time to your business at the weekends, that will really help you to make progress. I personally prefer to work in the morning and then knock off for the rest of the day, but this is really a case of finding what best suits you.
Depending on your home situation, you may need to negotiate with other people for some uninterrupted time. For example, you could ask your spouse to take the kids out on a Saturday morning while you work (you can then return the favor in the afternoon).
Cut Down Other Commitments
If you’re working full-time and trying to establish a business on the side, you need to minimize your other commitments. This might mean putting a particular hobby on the back-burner for a while, or telling people in your community group that you’re stepping down as secretary.
You might also have the possibility of cutting down your hours at work. This is obviously something to be cautious about asking for in the current economy ... but depending on your circumstances, you may be able to approach your boss or line manager about the possibility of working a 4.5 or 4 day week.
As well as cutting down on your current time-consumers, don’t take on new ones! You might find it very tough at first to say “no” – but people usually take it surprising well. Don’t worry about giving apologies or excuses, simply say “I’m very busy at the moment, and I’ve promised myself I won’t take on any new commitments.”
Do you have a side business or a fledgling freelancing career? How do you juggle it around your day job, and how do you stay motivated? If you’re an established freelancer, what was it like getting started?
 | Written on 6/27/2011 by Ali Luke. Ali writes a blog, Aliventures, about leading a productive and purposeful life (get the RSS feed here). As well as blogging, she writes fiction, and is studying for an MA in Creative Writing. | Photo Credit: mind on fire |
Sunday, July 17, 2011
ReInventing?
I've been giving some thought to reorganizing my social media life and face to face life.
For the past few years, I've been blogging on several sites and altogether 46 blog posts each week to write and or edit is a bunch.
The other side of it is a bit of a challenge that I've been thinking about.
The ScLoHo personal brand was originally built on a whim.
ScLoHo started as an email address, then I expanded it to an online idenity and then as a brand name.
It's origins are innocent... Scott Howard was too common a name for email or search, and I figured that a one name persona would be sort of cool.
In the music business there is only one:
- Frank (Sinatra)
- Diddy (Sean Combs)
- Madonna
- Prince
- etc......
And making up a name like Google or Yahoo! could work, considering ScLoHo was tied to my name as the first two letters of my first, middle, and last names.
And once you learned how, ScLoHo is pronounceable.
As I read this it almost sounds very egotistical, believe me, it's not. I am quite humbled by all of this and surprised as to how it has all developed.
The last couple of pieces to this puzzle came when my son created the above portrait for my 50th birthday party, (out of paper); my wife started calling me ScLoHo in casual conversation, and people who followed me on Twitter would refer to me as ScLoHo face to face.
So why change?
I'm not going to abandon ScLoHo, but the idea is to create enough "buzz", "klout", or whatever words you want to use, that my given name, Scott Howard becomes associated with ScLoHo online as well as face to face.
This reinventing is an interesting experiment in marketing, branding, social media and relationships.
Last week I bought another domain name which will serve as a hub, and we'll see how all of this goes.
I don't expect anything to happen quickly, but we are laying the ground work for an interesting future.
And for those of you who keep asking me, should I call you Scott or ScLoHo, either is fine, it's my pleasure to know you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)