My First Blog Award: Liebster Award

Yay for winning!

I can already see your confused look.

The Liebster Award? What the heck is that?

I didn’t know either until I read the blog from the person who nominated me, Deevra Noorling.

It’s a pay-it-forward award. Liebster is German for “darling,” “beloved”. The award’s origins have been demystified somewhat.

This reminds me of a blog hop. Or a glorified chain letter. Regardless, I feel special.

To accept the nomination, you in turn have to nominate 5 to 11 fellow, new bloggers (less than 200 followers). I think it’s a sweet gesture to other bloggers who you think deserve attention.

If you choose to accept this nomination, you must do the following:

1. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.

2. Display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”.

3. Answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.

4. Provide 11 random facts about yourself.

5. Nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have less than 200 followers.

6. Create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.

7. List these rules in your post. (You can copy and paste them from here.)

Once you have written your post, and published it, you then have to:

8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster Award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

The folks I have picked are seriously incredible bloggers. I’ve learned a great deal from them. Many of them have also been a huge support to me as I grow my blog.

So without further ado, here are my Liebster Award nominees:

• Erica – Rubber Ducky Writer -  copywriting and blogging
• Jesse – Cajun Copy – copywriting and best business practices
• Brandon – Read. Learn. Write. – falling in love with reading
• Tara – Write Naked – blogging and the life of a freelancer
• Peter – Writing in Color -  becoming a better writer
• Joshua – Strange Tiny People -  why kids are awesome
• Bree – Geek My Life – writing and all things geekery
• Claire – Write, Claire, Write! – the life of a blogger
• Sarah – Courageous Content – living a better life

I know it’s a long list, but I promise you will not regret following these folks. They are great writers and great people.

To Deevra: This is so sweet! I know we haven’t had a chance to interact a lot yet, but I look forward to getting to know you and your writing better!

To my nominees: Thank you. Thanks for inspiring me to be a better writer. I hope you participate!

Here are your 11 questions:

1) What is the first book you ever remember reading?

2) What time period would you choose to go to if you could (you can also go into the future)?

3) Who is your biggest supporter?

4) Why is blogging so important to you?

5) What’s your educational background?

6) How did your educational background prepare you for your blog?

7) What motivates you to keep writing, even when you don’t feel like it?

8) What is the one piece of advice you could give to aspiring bloggers that you wish you had figured out sooner?

9) What is your dream blog? Have you ever submitted a guest post to them? (Sorry. That’s two. )

10) Had you heard of the Liebster Award before this?

11) Other than blogging, what other interests/career goals are you pursuing?

Now, on to Deevra’s Questions!

1) What made you decide to start a blog?

I have been journaling since I was a kid. Blogging online publicly seemed like a natural progression, but I’ve only been doing business blogging since September 2012.

2) What’s your day job and do you enjoy it? (be honest – I promise I won’t tell your boss!)

Right now, I don’t have a day job. I’m still pondering if I should keep pursuing outside work or focus on this business and/or go back to school to finish my paralegal certificate!

3) If you won a $1 million, what would do with it?

More than likely, I’d give a lot of it to my family back home in S.C., buy a house for my husband and I, do some traveling and probably give to AmeriCorps, where I served in 2002-2003. The rest I’d save up for something special!

4) Do you support any charities, and if so, which ones?

Right now, I don’t support any charities monetarily. I’m hoping to become a Big Sister, volunteer for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and continue to support the General Federation of Women’s Clubs.

5) What is your passion and are you pursuing it?

I really consider writing more of a “calling” than a passion. I tried to move away from it, but there was always someone or something pulling me back towards it. I’m also pretty passionate about the Internet.

6) What has been your greatest accomplishment that made you feel truly proud?

My most recent accomplishment is finding and marrying my husband. (I feel like I have to say that, because he said it first.) But it’s true.  He’s pretty flippin’ amazing.

7) What has been your biggest regret in life?

I think I took my college experience way too seriously at times. I was more focused on grades than developing relationships with people and professors. But I’m still happy I came out with a great GPA. There are also some fellas I regret dating…

8) If you could choose to live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Oh, that’s a toughie. I think my current choice is maybe the Florida Keys, or at least somewhere bright and sunny like Hawaii or northeastern Australia. As long as there’s beach and water…

9) What’s the best advice anyone gave you?

To not take everything personally and to take one day, one moment at a time.

10) Charlie Brown or Bart Simpson?

Bart Simpson!

11) Chocolate or vanilla?

Chocolate

A Tidier Site (Bit O’ Spring Cleaning) & An Update

Design changes were made. (Hope you like them! Let me know in the comments.) Service offerings were trimmed.

A smidge of spring cleaning to spruce up the biz.

However, the best news to date:

My Freelance Life will be here June 1st!

Since I’m using WordPress.org, I hope to keep all of my followers, but please use the underlined link above to subscribe just in case. The design may or may not change depending on feedback.

Your responses to my survey will be heard. There shall be:

• Quick Q&As with writing and administrative leaders (and perhaps a few other interesting industries) about growing a business

• How to wade through the sea of information about freelancing and administrative consulting

• Case studies of how folks became freelancers, including myself

• Positive and uplifting news in the business world

Other fun stuff:

• Mega-beefy guest post I did on More in Media on do’s and don’ts of Twitter that you probably haven’t considered before. Seriously!

• Did a fun piece for the Goods page for Birmingham Magazine on board gaming and other activities. Hope to have a link up soon!

4 Reasons Lazy Isn’t (Always) A Four-Letter Word

Here’s the cold, bitter truth. In fact, my typing slowed as I started thinking about this.

I’m lazy.

Yes. I’m lazy. I don’t like doing…things. Anything that doesn’t involve an iPad, TV or sleeping. I just don’t like doing it.

No need to confirm with my Mom. (Although she did think it was funny to buy me a “Future Trophy Wife” pajama set.) I’m the youngest child. I’m spoiled. I was never expected to do a lot of chores. I just worked my butt off in school and…that was it.

The apartment my husband and I share is generally cluttered, even though I have all day to clean. I do my best. I take care of it as best as I can. But I put off anything that involves work.

Even my writing.

*sigh* Yes, I do delay writing out of laziness. In fact, I delayed this very blog. So. Much. Irony.

But is being lazy all bad? You may recall my post about how procrastination is a really great time management tool. (Yep, I did.) So how can laziness be seen as a positive?

1) Provides reorganization of thoughts: Taking the time to do nothing does what I call putting “perspective on the overwhelm”. Obviously, it helped me put together my thoughts of this very blog. It reminded me of the little things I should be focusing on and not all of the “busy-ness”.

Try it. Stop “doing.” Just for a minute.

Have you remembered something important on your to-do list? Notice you’ve had a muscle clenched or you were holding your breath?

Yeah, that freaks me out, too.

2) Brings out the proactive side of you: You’re a freelancer. An entrepreneur. A go-getter. Even I have a hard time being idle for very long. Taking a moment to be lazy reminds you of how proactive you have been (or need to be).

How has your business grown? What networking relationships have you fostered? What blogs or training do you need to catch up on?

3) Serves as a reward for working so hard: I’ve been doing a lot lately. Guest blogging. Working a new part-time job outside the home. Attempting to focus on the business side of social media rather than the personal side.

All while trying to maintain a small household, something I’ve never had to do on my own before (and for other people at that)!

4) May be a warning sign: Slow down and think about why you’re being lazy. Are you taking care of yourself – mentally, physically, emotionally and physically? Being a freelancer or business owner means neglecting a lot of those important sides of your wellbeing.

Are you exhausted or not feeling well? Laziness can be a cue to something deeper you may need to take care of.

Notice how all of these tips didn’t encourage further laziness? (Man, I wish it did.) But the truth is perpetual laziness is bad for you. Bad for your business. Just plain bad. It can’t get any worse than the worse three-letter word there is, now can it?

Despite my propensity to lie around and do nothing, moments of laziness (eventually) encourages some sort of action.

Self-employment: is it causing you to be lazy? Or are you a taskmaster, the dreaded other extreme? Talk to me in the comments below.

If you prefer being less burdened by tasks, so you can be a little lazy (for once!), consider working with me to relieve you of some of your writing and administrative assistant projects.

Image: susivinh

5 Resolutions For When You’ve Really Screwed Up

I suck. I really suck.

But I’ve been sick.

I overslept.

But I needed the rest and lost an hour because of the time change.

I still suck.

Such is the inner conversation when you know you’ve screwed up. It really doesn’t matter how small or little the mistake is, except some suckage may take longer to get over than others.

I didn’t put a potential client consultation on my calendar. When I forgot about it, I thought, “Oh, wait I’m not late.” But I was late. I was three hours late. Not to mention I already had to reschedule because I’ve been sick. So I’ve failed a potential client not once, but twice.

I know mistakes are inevitable, but in a brand new business, they hurt so very much. And you start questioning everything you’ve built.

But don’t go into a endless cycle of self-hate. Here’s a few (slightly unusual) things to try when you eff things up:

1. Apologize. Immediately. This is a no-brainer, but there have been times where you feel so bad you don’t even want to address the situation or talk to the person again. Let’s be real. That doesn’t work, especially in business. I sent an e-mail and asked to reschedule but told her I understood if she didn’t want to.

2. Be honest. Don’t just make excuses. Hopefully, if you’ve been following good business practices in today’s social media world, you’ve developed a rapport with this person before talking to them about being a potential client. I told her exactly what happened, and she was already aware of my illness and giving me some wellness tips.

If this is someone you have never interacted with, keep things brief and simple. There’s no need to explain every little detail as to why you screwed up. Just admit you did and move on.

3. Dwell. This is where my advice takes a bit of a turn away from the norm. Give the period in between the time you’ve communicated with this person and the time they respond to think about what you did. This may be a few minutes, or, in my case, several hours. I like to call this the “Wait For Lashing, Hope For Grace” period.

Think about all of the reasons why you screwed up. Yep, every single one. Think about what would have happened had you done what you’re supposed to do. Heck, even think about the absolute worst thing that could happen in the future.

For me – she may never speak to me again. She may un-friend me from Facebook, tell everyone in my networking group what I did and insist on never using me for virtual assistant/administrative consultant or writing services. Ever. My first two clients came from this group, so that could mean the end of a good opportunity for leads. That’s…well, that’s a pretty big deal.

Hey, I didn’t say dwelling on it would bring the bright fuzzies, did I? But keep going.

4. Learn. I mean it. Don’t just say, “Oh, well. I won’t ever let that happen again.” Really, truly learn from these mistakes. Take all of the things you’ve been dwelling on (yep!) and make something positive out of this.

In my case, I decided to blog about it, because I know everyone makes mistakes and wants concrete steps on what to do immediately after. It’s also one of my recommendations. Writing it down is great, because it gets it out of your head (at least temporarily) and it provides a written record to keep yourself accountable.

I’m also taking action. There’s the obvious stuff, like always write down appointment times immediately. Do not wait.

I had considered creating firm business hours for myself. This confirms it. More than likely I will be available from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. (or possibly 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.) Central time. This gives my East coast folks some time with me after their 9-5 and still includes my Pacific folks’ primary business hours.

I’m also going to specify one or two days and just dedicate them to consultations. Most likely, this will be Thursday and/or Friday. Mondays are hard. Especially when you’re getting over something. But now it will no longer be a reason to miss them. It narrows down the time period so I can remember.

5. Make Amends. Even if it’s a snail-mail postcard or note, do something a little extra than just apologize over the phone or via e-mail. Even if that person never responds, you’ll feel better about taking one last step. No bridges burned. And it may even renew your relationship with that person.

I’ll be honest. I’m still really bummed out about it, especially since I never got a response. But I’m so grateful I have this outlet so that others can learn from my mistakes.

Image: Balloon-juice.com

Staying Busy, Feeling Better

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m prepping for a relaunch and won’t be blogging as much. However, I also came down with a very rare condition and wanted to share with everyone about it. Whenever I hear about a medical condition that’s completely brand new to me, I feel like it’s important to inform folks about it.

Read about what happened on my personal blog. Let me know what you think!