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Tag: @smexaminer

5 Things I Learned To Have A Successful First Year In Business

5 Things I Learned To Have A Successful First Year In Business

March 20, 2019

This month my business has advanced into its second year. I was released from my consulting job a year ago.  Although it took a long time to get over the self-doubt and rebuild my confidence, I am now thankful for it.  I finally felt like I was able to let go of those feelings when I was on the Oprah cruise back in January.  During this past year there are 5 things that I have learned to have a successful first year in business.

5 Things I Learned To Have A Successful First Year In Business

1. Be Part Of A Community

I am so thankful for the people who I’ve met at conferences, through social media, and mastermind groups.  The women in these communities have been very open and welcoming to me and they all genuinely want to help one another. 

I can’t begin to tell you how much knowledge I have gained by being a part of these great groups.  I have been able to ask questions without judgment and really admire the women who have built their businesses from the ground up up and are now very successful in this industry. 

5 Things I Learned To Have A Successful First Year In Business

Being a entrepreneur, I work from home most of the time.  But when we I attend conferences, I have the opportunity to see my friends and make new friends.  I love the fact that at almost every event I have attended, I left with two or three great new friends that I remain in touch with throughout the year.  

2. Secure Multiple Sources Of Revenue

Blogging and social media marketing does generate revenue; but it doesn’t come automatically.  It takes times to build your reputation in the industry.  For that reason, I also provide consulting services to non-profit organizations, local businesses and I even have clients in New York City.

Providing these services allows me to keep my technology skills fresh and gives me the chance to learn new things as well.  It is also something steady to rely on should the social media industry have a drastic change.

Social media is constantly changing, and you can’t rely on building your business on someone else’s land.  That’s why it is important to also build real life relationships with individuals and brands as well.

3. Attend Conferences

One of the first things I started to do when I wanted to turn my blogging into a business, was find conferences related to blogging.  My favorite blogging conference is Mom 2.0.  I attended Mom 2.0 for the past two years and always came home with so many notes and great information on how to grow, organize, and manage my business.  Conferences are also a great place to network, talk to brands, and find PR contacts to introduce yourself to in hopes to work with them in the future.

My favorite social media marketing conference is Social Media Marketing World, which is run by Social Media Examiner.  I volunteered at SMMW last year and am currently there now.  This conference is AMAZING!  So many social media experts are there and the atmosphere is electric.  Being a volunteer is a lot of work but it is worth every minute.

5 Things I Learned To Have A Successful First Year In Business

We have the opportunity to network and interacting with the speakers, the attendees, sponsors, and other volunteers.  I’ve already exchanged business cards with several people that I am working with in my volunteer group and also individuals I met at the Pat Flynn Meetup last night!

5 Things I Learned To Have A Successful First Year In Business

4. Hire Experts To Do Things You Aren’t Comfortable Doing Yourself

I know a little bit about a lot of things.  But many times I don’t know enough of other things to take my business to the next level.  As I worked through my first year of my business I tried to do what I could; but learned that I needed to hire some experts to do things which would advance my business.

SEO is one of those skills that I am not well versed in.  Since I hired someone to manage my SEO, my traffic to my blog has increased greatly.  Even though it costs me a little extra for this service, the payout will be great in the end.

I also hired a business coach.  This is a great resource for me to bounce my ideas off of and to help keep my focus and directs me to the area I need to give more of my attention to.

5. Be Grateful

The most important lesson I learned this year is to be grateful.  I am grateful for every opportunity, large or small.  I am grateful for the people who have given me wonderful opportunities and experiences.

5 Things I Learned To Have A Successful First Year In Business

I have had the chance to do things I never imagined.  So now when I create my vision board every year, I add things that are dreams for me because dreams can come true.  Nothing is too big or too small to put on the vision board.  It is honestly, a little scary when I look back on what I put on the board last year and what actually came true!

Gratitude is a new trait that I have embraced this year.  I must admit that I am usually a glass half empty person.  My friends and I joked about it when we were away in Boston for a weekend last summer.  I keep a gratitude journal and when I am feeling stressed or down I stop myself in my tracks, take a deep breath and tell myself it is going to be a great day.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy. It’s not the safe route compared to a full time job with benefits.  But the rewards are so much greater because they are a direct reflection of your efforts.  I love being a business owner.  There are days that I question it; but rarely does that happen.  I have so much to do and learn that there isn’t time to allow self-doubt or negative thoughts to come in and take over my mind.

Are you and entrepreneur?  Have you always wanted to own your own business?  If you have questions about it, reach out to me, I’d love to talk to you about it!

5 Things I Learned To Have A Successful First Year In Business

Losing My Job

What’s Next After Losing My Job

March 7, 2018

I just got back from the Social Media Marketing World 2018 Conference in San Diego on Saturday.  During the flight home, I kept thinking of how I was going to find a way to break out on my own doing what I love.  Well, that choice was made for me on Monday afternoon when I found out I lost my job.

Social Media Marketing World 2018

The conference was a gift to me.  I was approached to volunteer at the conference after reaching out to Michael Stelzner.  I didn’t know that being a volunteer was an option.  What an AMAZING gift!!!  The experience was life changing.  That’s not just an expression.  I really felt that way.  I met such great people, the volunteers are reaching out to me to help me collaborate and come up with a strategy for my business, and I also made some wonderful friendships in such a short amount of time.

Losing My Job

I had the chance to meet some of the biggest names in the Social Medial business world:

I didn’t realize how many amazing people I met until I actually listed them all out.  I listen to these people in my car, on my long training runs, or when I am working.  I feel like I already know them!  To actually meet them in person made me feel like I was meeting celebrities at a red carpet event!  But they were all so approachable, down to earth, friendly, and eager to help!

On the last night of the event when everyone left; those of us who were travelling home the next day all met up at the Hyatt for dinner and drinks.  I got to meet several more great people from the volunteer team as well as the conference attendees.  While there I was on a mission to have my “Scout” mascot signed by all of the members of Social Media Examiner, along with the guest speakers that were there.  I was blown away by the excitement everyone had about my idea.  This is a treasured item that I have in my office now as a reminder of how and when my life had changed.

Losing My Job

My Life Just Took A Rapid Shift

Life can throw curve balls at us.  It’s a matter of what we do when we get those unexpected curve balls.  I wanted this.  I wanted it really bad.  I didn’t want it to happen the way it did; but it was a gift.  I wasn’t happy to hear the news that I was no longer going to be working in sales at Slalom.  It was a surprise coming on the day that it came; but this field wasn’t the right fit for me.  To be honest, not matter how I tried, it was never good enough.

I went to Seattle in January to get trained on Sales; but didn’t have much of a chance to implement what I learned in my training.  There were aggressive goals set for me and I wasn’t meeting those goals.  Not for the lack of trying.  Sales is a difficult field to be in.  I have many qualities that make me successful in this field, such as my ability to network and creating and fostering relationships.  I will still use those traits in my future endeavors.

What’s Next After Losing My Job?

I am not afraid.  I went through several emotions since Monday afternoon; but sadness didn’t linger for very long at all.  If anything, I was angry and disappointed.  I am relieved and happy right now.  I feel like I have a weight lifted from me.  I am no longer living in fear of not being good enough or losing my job.

During the last hour of the conference, Pat Flynn was the closing keynote.  I felt like every word he spoke during that presentation was aimed to me directly.  At the time I didn’t know I was going to go through the same thing Pat went through; but when he was working in the architect industry he lost his job just a few months before his wedding.  He said it could have been a terrible time in his life, but it wasn’t.  That was because he built a website and used that website to create a study guide for an architectural exam and that became a stream of income for him.  I spoke to him after the conference was over and told him I felt like he was speaking directly to me.  I saw the emotion in his eyes and I was getting emotional as well.

Losing My Job

This is why I am not afraid.  I also have dreams and goals and have been working on my blog over the past year to grow it as well as my social media following.  Now is my time to really focus on that growth.  I can be home for my children, I can set my own schedule and I can be my own boss!  I am happy.  I feel like I have a clean calendar and now is my time to find all the things that bring me joy.  When God closes one door, he opens another.  I truly have always believed this.

I feel like my old self is coming back.  A weight has been lifted.  The fear is gone.  I made it a point to take some time to myself on Tuesday, I had lunch with my husband, went for a run and took some time to breathe.  Now it’s time to plan for my future!  I hope you’ll stick around and follow me and support me on this journey as new and great things will come my way!

Technology Is Out Running Me

June 16, 2015

I was having dinner with my family the other night and we had the Be Our Guest Podcast playing in the background because Mike, Rikki, Pam and Debbie were doing their 12 hour live show to raise money for Give Kids the World.  I think my dad was fascinated that Mike was running the show out of his basement.  He was asking me how it’s done and I explained that he has a microphone and it’s set up to his computer and he uses Skype.  That’s about the extent of my knowledge of how Mike runs the show from his basement.  I know that there is more involved with editing the show and getting it posted to iTunes afterwards.  In fact, I researched how to create a podcast last summer; but nothing came of it.

So we were talking and my dad was saying how technology is outrunning him.  We were discussing voice over IP and how phone lines used to transfer data via fax and bits and bytes… (I’m not sure of all the technical telephone data jargon he was using).  He worked for the phone company for my whole childhood.  That was when the phone company was known as the phone company, Southern New England Telephone (SNET).  There was only one phone company.  That’s when you worked for a company until you retired, you didn’t switch jobs every couple of years because of layoffs, downsizing, or companies leaving the state because the taxes are too high to do business here.

What was my point???  Oh yea, technology.  I have been on a learning kick lately listening to podcasts about Social Media Marketing.  One podcast in particular that I like a lot is Social Media Examiner with Michael Stelzner.  Back in April I heard about an app called Periscope.  I didn’t know what it was, but it was popping up on my phone.  So I had to check it out.  My younger friends like Joe Pardo were using it and that was making me feel like I am behind the times on these new cutting edge technologies.  I felt like what my dad said.  It was beginning to out run me.  So I had to research into it.  I signed up for Periscope and saw my friend, Joe who was running a race in Philly stream it live while he was running.  Then when the Mickey Milers were in Disney for the Everest Challenge race, they were using it to broadcast the event.  I still used it to only watch what others were doing; but wasn’t “broadcasting” any of my own events.  Then I tried it one night.  It was fun.  I want to use it for more purposeful things instead of live streaming my gas fireplace on my back deck, and I will when the time is right.  But I also needed to learn more about this so I turned to Michael’s podcast.  Most recently he had an episode with Brian Fanzo about Meerkat and Periscope.  If you don’t know what the differences are between these two apps, please check out this podcast.  It was great.  Brian explained the differences between the two, the pros and cons of each and also, which one do you want to use to get started with live mobile broadcasting.

If there is an event that I can’t attend I am now going to search Periscope to see if anyone is streaming that event live.  This is great for attendees of conferences who want to share some of the content they are hearing to others.  But as I was thinking about that, I wondered how that will be received by the event hosts.  Attendees pay money to attend the conferences, and if others are live mobile broadcasting the content, then where is it considered not appropriate to share?  Using your phone to live broadcast a movie is of course, illegal and I’m sure the platforms will shut down the users who are taking such actions.  So there is a lot of questions regarding privacy and copyright that must be considered when using these live mobile broadcasting tools.  But when using them with the right intentions in the right way; they are a powerful way to influence and share with others.

My friend Amanda recently attended the IPW15 and Periscoped a private party being hosted in the Magic Kingdom that night.  It was incredible to see the ghosts of the haunted mansion outside while she showed us the video and answered questions that were being typed into the app.

photo by Amanda Tinne7 https://twitter.com/amandatinney

photo by Amanda Tinne7 https://twitter.com/amandatinney

So if you want to stay ahead of the curve with technology and social media, I suggest you start listening to the Social Media Marketing Podcast.  It has been an extremely helpful podcast to educate me on the latest trends in Marketing and Social Media.

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