Overcome Social Media Overwhelm: Should I use Pinterest for my Business?

The latest social media darling…Pinterest.

Unless you’ve completely disconnected from the web the last month..there’s no way you could have avoided hearing about it. It’s the hottest social network right now..BUT does that mean you should drop everything and join right now?

In this short video, I talk about Pinterest and how it is a tool to consider amongst all the other social networks but there is one KEY thing to consider…

Have a listen and let me know what you think in the comments!

Feeling overwhelmed with all the things there are to do when it comes to running your business online? Drop me a question in the comments, I’d love to answer your question in the next video!

What an 8 year-old Knitting a Sweater Taught Me about Launching a Product

What can an 8 year-old knitting a sweater possibly teach you about launching a product?

Read on.

There was an 8 year-old that I knew once upon a time whom for random reasons I thought about the other day. She was a curious, talkative girl and in grade 3 was really enthusiastic about a knitting lunch club her teacher started. She didn’t know much about knitting except for what she had seen her Mom do on occasion yet she was completely fascinated by the idea of creating something from a few strands of yarn and having an end-product of a beautiful sweater.

The teacher gave them the pattern, yarn, needles and all the materials to start.
They were instructed to knit square patches in a variety of colours which would then be sewn by the teacher into the final sweater. They would meet once a week during the lunch period where the teacher would provide additional guidance, tips and help.

There was only one caveat-the patches needed to be completed by a certain date in order to have the sweaters ready to present at a school assembly.

The 8 year-old worked furiously, knitting in all her spare time. She could envision herself in that beautiful sweater that she would wear with a sense of accomplishment knowing she had made it from start to finish.

And she did it. Over the course of the 3 months, the young girl worked away at her patches and got the teacher’s help whenever she was met with any challenges. Each week the pile of patches grew steadily until the day finally came when she was ready to assemble her sweater. She beamed with excitement and pride when she finally got to put on the sweater and show it off to her friends and classmates.

She had done it! She had turned those balls of yarn into a beautiful finished product.

Focus, dedication, commitment, and perseverance paid off.

Little did she know at the time the valuable lessons she had learned would be ones she would one day reflect back on.

I know..because I was that 8 year old 🙂

So..what can be learned from all of this?

Start

Starting is the first important step. You may not know everything or have everything in place but you will learn as you go. It may seem kind of obvious but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t actually get past this part. They get stuck at the starting line.

Be Specific & Work Towards a Goal

It is easy to get carried away and think you can do everything or even need to do everything. Picking too many things to start will most likely prevent you from a) starting or b) finishing. So be very specific about what it is you set out on doing.

In this case, the goal was the final product of a sweater. It was very specific and I knew what I needed to do to get to the get goal->knit patches. Your goal may be writing that ebook you’ve always wanted or finally narrowing in on that niche. Or maybe it is starting a blog? Picking your website designer? Getting started on social media?  Pick!

Seek out help/resources

You may know everything you need to get your product or service launched. Or you may not. The thing is you don’t have to know everything…ask for help. Research on the good old ‘net. Either way don’t let this stop you from getting your work out in the world!

Have a Deadline

Having a deadline is important. Too often we have moving targets which prevent us from committing and sticking to it. Pick a date and work towards it. And stick to that date.

Accountability

Deadlines are great but if we don’t actually tell anyone it’s easy to fall off track. Accountability partners are great for that..they can provide guidance and be that gentle (or not so gentle) poke when you need it. Don’t have one? How about making a public announcement on Facebook? Announcing that you have a project in the works with a fixed deadline may be the first step. Also something about making it public makes it so much more real.

Visualize Success

Picture yourself with the final product in your hands or using the skill you are hoping to learn. Research shows that the brain cannot tell the difference between a real and an imagined action so by visualizing yourself successfully doing something the stimulation in your brain (and subsequent chemical reactions) is no different than actually having done it. Win! You’re able to train your brain and convince it (and yourself) that you can (and will) do it.

Do the Work

So you’ve picked a specific area to work on, found resources to help you, picked a deadline and announced it to the world. Now you must commit and do the work. Carve out the time to spend on your project each day/week and in no time you will have yourself a new skill/ebook/niche/website or whatever it was that you set out to do. Go for it!

And there you have it- 7  things you can learn about launching from an 8 year-old knitting a sweater.

Anything to add? W ould love to hear your thoughts!

Unstoppable Entrepreneur Episode 3: How Emmy Winning TV Journalist Joyce Brewer Launched Her Online Talk Show

An important part of being an entrepreneur is learning from your peers. “Everyday Entrepreneur” profiles entrepreneurs just like yourselves who have taken the leap to follow their passion and create their own work & lifestyle.

This week I had the pleasure of speaking to Emmy award-winning TV journalist Joyce Brewer founder of MommyTalkShow.

I met Joyce last May at the Ladies Who Launch getaway and have watched her grow her online show for busy Atlanta moms over the last year and thought she would have a lot to share with us.

 

What Joyce of MommyTalkShow shares in this interview:

  • How she made the transition from working as a journalist to producing her own show
  • How she developed the idea for her own show using what she already knew
  • Tools that she can’t live without like Hootsuite & Tweetdeck
  • The ebook (and additional income stream) that she launched based on her experience
  • The importance of networking and surrounding yourself with other entrepreneurs

 

Goodluck Joyce and thank-you for your insight!

You can keep up with Joyce on Twitter, like the MommyTalkShow page on Facebook and watch MommyTalkShow here.

Enjoy Everyday Entrepreneur? Want to be featured or recommend someone? Email me at sandy@sidekickpm.com

5 Signs You May Be Going Through an Existential Business Crisis

Have you ever suffered from ‘Existential Business Crisis’? Never heard of it? Well, I kind of just made it up but let me describe..

Phase 1

  • You have an idea or lots of them.
  • You decide to pick one and start and seem confident about it and get to work.

Everything is going well up until now and then..

Enter Phase 2:

  • Your start questioning what you are doing and second guessing your choices. Questions like “Why am I doing this? Is this the right choice? Will I be successful?” consume your thoughts and you can no longer move forward.
  • You take two steps back..that blog you started gets abandoned, that domain name that you thought was perfect seems lackluster and basically..nothing gets done.

Enter Phase 3:

You find yourself curled up in fetal position in the corner of the room, the only light coming from your computer monitor.

  • You’re preoccupied with thinking “what if” or “will this be successful” that in fact you never even get started. Sorta like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Been there done that.

Your business idea before it even got a chance to take off was snuffed by your own thoughts/fears/concerns.

Starting or learning something new can be both challenging *and* distracting. Hello Twitter?/Facebook/Google+/

It is easy to be overwhelmed by the desired end result that it is easy to forget that things can be broken down into smaller, actionable parts. Think back to when you first started to learn how to drive. The instructor didn’t just sit you in the car and say-”Go!” (at least I hope not)-you had to take theory courses, familiarize yourself with the car and start with the basics. The same applies if you are beginning your social media strategy or a new blog, a product and so on. It is easy to think you need to do be everywhere and do everything; become frustrated by all the new information there is to learn and then end up doing nothing at all.

Take a step back and start with the basics

To quote one of my yoga teachers-

if you don’t start somewhere, you won’t get anywhere

Ask yourself:

  • What are your goals?
  • What do you need to learn to accomplish those goals?
  • What resources can you use to help you?
  • Are there success stories that you can learn from?
  • What is the minimum that you can implement that you can start learning from and measuring success?

    • The key is breaking things down and getting started.

    Once you break your project into smaller parts, it will be easier to identify the parts that you can easily start with and other parts that can wait. Start small and gradually build, always evaluating and identifying how things can be improved. I’ll get into this more in another post but I wanted you start thinking about starting small and what in fact is stopping you…

    As for the perfect idea and making the right choice? You won’t know until you actually start.

    How about you? Have you gone through an Existential Business Crisis?

    Unstoppable Entrepreneur Episode 2: Career Coach Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart

    An important part of being an entrepreneur is learning from your peers. “Unstoppable Entrepreneur” profiles entrepreneurs just like yourselves who have taken the leap to follow their passion and create their own work & lifestyle.

    This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart, a career coaching firm. Caroline and her business partner, Connie Thanasoulis-Cerrachio are former fortune 500 recruiters, and their goal is to lift the veil of secrecy in the world of hiring and help people find fulfilling and financially rewarding careers.

    Caroline has co-authored two books, is a career contributor on Forbes and regularly appears on CBS.

    Note: the video gets stuck at the 5:55 mark, but if you forward a few seconds it resumes.

    What Caroline of SixFigureStart shares in this interview:

    • Making the leap from employee to business owner and how she was initially a ‘reluctant-preneur’.
    • Why they initially focused and put emphasis on PR and Branding and their DIY approach to building their inital online presence
    • Not being wed to a single idea, being agile and open to opportunities. Starting your idea and adjusting as you go.
    • Her top 3 tips for entrepreneurs starting out which includes: “There is no subsitute for action!”
    • And how she landed a book deal through LinkedIn!

    You can keep up with Caroline and SixFigureStart by following them @sixfigurestart.

    Find this helpful? Leave a comment and share!

    Enjoy the Unstoppable Entrepreneur? Want to be featured? Email me at sandy@sidekickpm.com