Advice for my 14-year-old self

When I got my first degree, I made the decision when I was 18 years old. Everyone told me that I should chose something sensible, which is the best way NOT to live up to your potential that I've ever heard. It's a pretty lame response to the fear of not being able to support yourself. Why be mediocre at something sensible when you can be amazing at something ridiculous?

I love my first degree- but I remember feeling totally lost about why exactly I was doing it (it certainly didn't come from an inward desire to get a management degree, or any understanding of my own likes and dislikes.) My internal sense of direction took 23 years to develop.  When I think back to high school and college - I wish I had developed it a bit earlier. It's a horrible feeling to feel out of control.

If I could go back in time and talk to my 14 year old self, before college, before high school, and before the insanity people put high-school age children through, I would tell her:

• Figure out what you want and what you love, and how you want to spend your time.
• Get the best education money can buy in your field.
• Don't worry about grades in high school. Spend time doing projects in your free time that you are interested in. If your studying gets in the way of that, work around it.
• Go on Youtube and look up how to do your hair and stuff. People judge you on appearances and you've got to get it together at some point. 
• Focus on doing things just for you that nurture you and are good for you. 
• If you don't like what someone's telling you - stop listening.
• If someone's preventing you from doing something, instead of assuming it's because you aren't good enough, find a different path that will lead you to what you want.

 This sounds like the making of a snotty and self-centered anarchist.  I'm a firm believer that the kinder and more understanding you are of yourself the more understanding and love you'll have for others. If I could have gotten to that realization sooner that would have been great - but the path I'm on didn't have that on it until a bit later. That's OK.

I don't find that being kind to myself gets in the way of my intense desire to help others - that desire is why I became a consultant in the first place. I can't seem to get away from consulting. :)

Be honest about what you suck at and create a way to never do it again

I'm not a naturally organized or put-together person. A large part of the reason why I am successful is because I have an amazing support system and I hire people to do the things I do not do well, which by the way, is quite a few important things (such as paying bills on time). Here are some other things I am not very strong in:

• Taking photos
• Feeling motivated to go out and party (I don't drink alcohol, so it's not the same.)
• Accounting
• Detailed forms
• Repetitive tasks
• Organizing
• Following up after a project is completed
• Tracking the answer to a problem through 18 different channels
• Managing stress
• Taking financial risks
• Laundry
• Doing things I don't want to do

I've managed to build a pretty successful consulting practice, despite not being able to do a lot of the things most humans need to be able to do to feed, house, and cloth themselves. How could anyone successful be so bad at so many things?!

I have an amazing support system to help me. Most of the time, if I don't do something well I either create a system where it is done automatically or isn't needed at all, or I hire someone to do it. Why spend time trying to learn to be good at accounting when you could be focusing on the things that you are excellent at, and working with someone else who does it well? Unless you want to become better at accounting and you have the time to devote to it, it's better just to build it into your system. A great support system is the difference between the CEO of a fortune-500 company and a struggling stay-at-home entrepreneur. Instead of making yourself feel ashamed and guilty by asking questions like, "How can I convince anyone that my ideas are good if I can't even get organized? Who wants to work with someone who doesn't have it together?", ask a friend, do a trade on Facebook or Craigslist,  or pay someone to help you do the things you aren't good at so that you can move forward.

If everyone had to face their demons about paperwork, or ironing, or whatever bogus stuff your parents used to yell at you about before we could do anything else, we'd never do anything interesting. 

Pricing Your Services

I've been reading this article about putting pricing on your website after getting annoyed at how many venues don't list pricing on their websites. Seems like it should be a very transparent system and when it's secretive it looks sketchy. Even very large and popular event venues don't list pricing. I won't bother listing them - it's pretty much everyone.

It's a very well-thought out article. It's made me want to try to figure out a way to put pricing on my website. I work on a per-project basis, and I happily try to work within the budgets of clients. I base pricing on how many hours I think it would take me and my team, include any emergency or follow-up services the client may need, and then make sure I give them a few free hours, usually because I like them and want them to succeed. So how do I make this into a transparent pricing system that is easy to understand?

It works something like this:
(My hourly rate which is $75 at this particular time in 2012 x how many hours I think it would take me and my team to complete the project successfully, not including some free time and support that I love to shower my clients with, and that usually goes on infinitely in to the future) + any reimbursables the client wants me to list upfront, such as event help, transportation, supplies = cost.  This is a good time for an infographic.

Defining what success means with a client early-on means that I always have a good guess how much a project is going to cost right away. Everyone's definition of success is based on so many individual factors, which may be hard to lump into categories. Also, I can do many different types of projects. Anyway, this is my attempt at actually sharing important knowledge. But I really feel like sharing my favorite knitting patterns. I've been trolling Ravelry hardcore, despite my discipline with not starting any new projects until I finish 3 old ones I've been working on for months.

Hiring Your First Assistant Part 2

As promised, here is a form you can use to submit on Craigslist, Task Rabbit, local college forums or job boards, and your personal Facebook, if you feel comfortable with that.

Title: Personal Assistant for [insert your job or goal here] in [location you would be meeting with this person. You want an assistant who lives close to you.]

I am looking for a Personal Assistant for [how many hours per week or month]. [Talk about what times and days typically work for you, and how close you would like your assistant to be to you.]

I'm a [Talk about your age, job, hobbies, and personally traits here. Are you upbeat, do you have a busy schedule or would you like to be busier? It gives the person applying an idea of who you are. ] 

I have [what kind of goals?] goals that I need your help with. I am not very strong in [list your weaknesses]  and I would like someone to provide me with focussed support on an ongoing basis. 

I need help with: 

[bullet point list of all the tasks you see this person working on]

I would like someone with the following experience or qualities: 

[For your first assistant you may not know what you are looking for, just make sure that you are looking for things related to what you need help with, and not more. No one likes being lowballed for the experience they have. In the meantime, here's an example of what I might list.]

• -simple graphic design skills and a good eye for photography 
• -good with Excel 
• -providing accountability and consistency 
• -methodical and logical 
• -interested in startups/technology (the company I work with is in this field) 
• -interested in finance/investing 
• -interested in personal development 
• -thrifty 

Pay: [Your rate here. Will you offer a higher rate after a 6-month review?]

The hiring process is as follows:

[This is important! It's important to give people an idea of what they would be participating in, and when they will expect to know if they've gotten the job or not. Here's an example of my process, feel free to copy. ]

• We talk on the phone for 10 minutes and see if we have a connection.
• We meet for a working interview for 2 hours, with pay! This would probably take place at my office.
• We schedule a set day to work together that is ongoing.

Please e-mail me with your intro e-mail and your resume pasted into the body of the e-mail.

[A nice closing and a thank you]

Fielding the massive amounts of applicants you'll get is kind of a part-time job, but I tend to only look at applicants until I have 5 good candidates. I set up the 10 minute interviews with those 5 and choose 2 from those interviews. Then I set up the working interviews and make my final choice in the evening of the final interview, and e-mail both candidates right away with my decision. Actually, to be honest, I e-mail the one I've chosen first to make sure he or she still wants the position, then I e-mal the other applicant.

Anyway, now you know a little bit more about how I operate. I've had an assistant for years, and this has been my system that I've tweaked to what I consider pretty close to perfection.

Hiring Your First Assistant Part 1

"The president is just a person with a large support system." I forget who said it first, but it might have been Hutt Bush, a business coach and consultant who is totally awesome.

If you have at least a little bit of money coming in, you can afford to hire an assistant as long as you budget wisely. I spend a portion of my monthly budget each week on things that give me the support I need to live my life to the fullest, like an assistant. Maybe you are saying that you don't need an assistant. That's ok, you don't have to get one. But I've had an assistant for years, and I think it's a huge part of my support system. An assistant helps me run all aspects of my life more fluidly. With her, I become the person I want to be. Without her, I think I would be more like the person I was in college- disorganized, not as reliable, and stressed out from all of the ups and downs of my energy levels. If you are ready (note: ready means ready to pay, ready to commit), feel free to use the suggestions below to find someone to give you regular support and help you reach your goals:

Assistants are all over the place. You can post an ad on TaskRabbit or Craigslist. More about that later.

How much expertise do you want? paying $10/hr will get you a very different level of expertise than $15/hr. Are you comfortable with training someone on some of the skills you need? If so, $10/hr may work for you. I need more expertise and I'm not willing to train for most things, so I pay a little bit higher.

How much time are you willing to spend each week? If you give a minimum and maximum time approximation each week, it makes people much more comfortable with relying on you for part of their income.

Make a list of tasks you are not very strong in. Make a list of goals you would like to reach in the next 6 months and 1 year. Most assistants will not stay with you longer than that, which is totally fine. Unless you are paying $80,000 per year, you are simply someone's transition from college to full-time work, or a stay-at-home mom's part-time gig until she gets bored (or pregnant again).

If you answered these questions, you have most of the information you need to make an ad on Craigslist or TaskRabbit. My second post will have a form to use that you can fill your own information on. This post is very text heavy - no yummy pictures this time.

What do I do?

A lot of people have never heard of the job title Community Manager, and I suppose it's one of those things like "Account Executive" in that one Community Manager with one company could differ very much from another. Even my boyfriend sometimes has a hard time figuring out what I do. I'll explain it, then, in two ways.

What do I do? 

I create and engage communities based around a company's presence and culture.

What does that mean? 

Well, it could mean cultivate an engaged online community with online events such as pop-up chat rooms, twitter events, and a beautiful and interesting virtual space that makes connecting with others fun and easy and meaningful.
It could also mean connecting people and cultivating passion among users in real life through on-brand events aligned with the values and mission statement of the company.
I am the local extension and human face of a company, and my purpose is to connect users to each other first, the company second, and the community third.

Event Planning 101 Infographic

I am trying out Piktochart this week, and I made you all an infographic! Meet my Events 101 Infographic! I designed this infographic to share the most basic planning steps for throwing a party for friends, clients, customers, or potential customers. I know it is not the prettiest infographic in the world. I am still learning! Here it is, click for larger: