I had something that needed to get done. As in the “it must be done for tomorrow” sort of done.

You see, tomorrow I’ll be presenting  “Navigating the LinkedIn Landscape” at the Social Media Marketing Workshop at Blankspaces and I needed to finalize my handout.

Now mind you, I’ve talked about LinkedIn to many different groups.  In fact, it was the focus of this past weeks’ Beyond Social Media Basics call this week.  It’s not like I needed to think long and hard about creating something.

Sadly, I think that was my downfall.

Instead of sitting down and pounding it out in an hour or so, I puttered away the ENTIRE day doing the following (in no particular order):

• Facebook updates
• Watched this week’s Psych episode
• Made lunch for my husband
• Went shopping for missing lunch ingredients
• Washed my car
• Gassed up my car
• Chatted up the cat
• Played with the dog
• Cleaned the bathroom (scrubbing the toilet included)
• Watched some videos on YouTube
• Listened to some music
• More Facebook updates
• Sent emails
• Read emails
• Read a magazine a bit
• Read some articles online
• Did an exercise in productivity (of all things) for my Uplevel Your Business class that starts next week (ironic much?)
• Lamented a typo in one of my SuccessForSolopreneurs FB updates
• Talked a friend through updating her FB privacy settings for their Places app
• Wrote a step-by-step outline for a current FB campaign that a friend’s team wasn’t doing correctly
• Drank a lot of water
• Ate too many cookies (that I won earlier this week from Maria’s Italian Kitchen)

And I’m sure there’s whole lot more that I forget (but I refuse to spend the time trying to remember).

Did I get my handout done?

Kinda.

My copy is written.  After dinner, I’ll come home and create the actual handout version and print it off.

Basically…it’s mostly done.  But now, it’s time to head out for dinner.

But…once again, Facebook has their privacy settings set to opt-out instead of opting-in.  So you’ll need to change that if you don’t want FB to post where you are when you check in.

Here’s what you’ll need to do to change your settings…

1. Account ➨ Privacy Settings

2. Customize Settings ➨ Places I Check In To

3. Customize

4. Pick your privacy settings (I’m going with “Only Me” since I can post manually through Foursquare)

Just remember…

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” ~Colin Powell

Thank you to Susan Baker, Escape Hatcher for reminding me about this video.

I love the questions that they chose to accompany my spread.  If you click on the image itself, it will take you to a full-size image that you can read.

If you’d like to purchase your own copy of this very cool guide to some fab and amazing women ($10), just drop me a note and we can make arrangements.

Recently, they sent out their Quality Engineer and overall community liaison, Matt Cutts to share some strategies [video below].  I can’t say there’s really much here that’s new.  I’ve been mentioning most of these strategies to my clients for a couple of years now (you read more about it my Five Keys to Succeed at Blogging eBook which you can get for free on the left hand side over there).

The basic strategies that Matt shares in the video below include:

1. Create a Controversy
2. Answer Questions (I love this technique and have been using it a bit more)
3. Conduct Research & Discuss the Results
4. Get Involved with Social Media (a total no brainer in my book)
5. Create Lists (Top 10, 5 Reasons, etc)
6. Get a Blog and Establish Yourself as an Authority
7. Write How To’s and Tutorials (I love this technique and have been using quite a bit lately)
8. Run a Service or Create a Product
9. Make Videos That are Enjoyable (another way to use tutorials)

I think Cameron Herold has it right, let’s raise our kids to be entrepreneurs (video from Ted below).  Let’s teach them how to look at the world differently.  And as Mahatma Gandhi said, “be the change you want to see in the world.”

We all know how entrepreneurs are all about making changes and getting those changes out and into the world.

This course will help them learn how to optimize their social networking (while having fun participating in this awesome playground), claim and leverage their expertise and create a solid 3 or more pages in search engine results and more. And all without using any pay-per-click ads.

This course is by no means for everyone. It is geared specifically to the solopreneur or small business owner that is ready to take their business to the next level and really put themselves out there as an expert in their field.

I’m hosting a totally free preview call this coming Wednesday the 30th at 4:00PM Pacific.

The preview call will be focused on getting started creating your online presence and will cover the following:

• how to create your online tool kit to get the most from your online involvement
• how to build your brand and establish your online presence
• the biggest mistakes the uninformed small business owner makes when getting started with social networking
• how to pick which social networks are best for YOU, and your business and your strategy
• how to automate and manage your online presence using simple tools and a basic formula to help you make the most of your time networking online
• exciting new details about the upcoming telecourse series “Beyond Social Media Basics Intensive Sure-fire Strategies and Techniques to Gain Control of Your Online Presence, Dominate the Search Engines and Enjoy Your Social Networking (in less than 30 minutes day)”
• and more…

I invite you to join me on this free preview call.  I promise, there won’t be a hard sell and there will be genuine information shared.

All the details about the call can be found here ==> reserve your virtual seat now!!

Hope to see you on the call!!

PS – a recording will be available after the call.

This time around, it was creating an opt-in page for my upcoming Beyond Social Media Basics preview call on the 30th.  I’d been working on this  project since late January, so it’s been a long time coming.

Thing is, when you do something like this – create a signature product – it’s not just one little thing.  It’s a whole bunch of little things: newsletter announcements, articles, blog posts and tweets, client calls, copywriting, web-design, SEO, graphic arts, as well as the mental work involved in the creation itself.

There’s a lot of work involved. So much so, that you can sometimes give in to the fears and little nagging voices and hold yourself back.

This time though, I gave myself a deadline and I went for it!  And I did my best to ignore those nagging voices, following the advice of so many…fear is just your way of letting yourself know you’re ready!

About this time is when I realized that I was doing most of this work myself.  And yes, I was learning as I was going.  Lucky for me, I’d spent some time working with a great coach, Carey Peters from CoachToolsToGo (FB page) and she was able to help me map it all out and provided templates and scripts (note to everyone: you do NOT have to create it all from scratch…it’s been done before!!)

As I’m sure you can only imagine, doing it ALL is some crazy, stressful shit. And personally, I seem to have a tendency to get so confused want it to be do so right, that I just spin around in circles never able to focus on one thing.

Well, all that behind me and proud to say I DID IT!

And I’m even more proud to say that I’m proud of ME for actually having done it!

Through this process, I learned that sometimes, you have to take a moment and congratulate yourself for a job well done. The only way to move on to the next thing is to experience the success of the thing before it.

Sometimes your things are physical like learning to drive, passing your driving exam, and getting your license.  In many ways, that whole process is something that we take for granted.  But without it, we wouldn’t be able to learn to drive a 5-speed (oh how I miss my 5-speed).  Or you wouldn’t be able to drive on the opposite side of the street when you’re in the UK.  Silly examples, but still true.

Sometimes your things are emotional like trusting in yourself to leave a bad (or a not-so-great) relationship. Or knowing when and how to let an old hurt go in a way that feels right for you.

Sometimes your things are educational like graduating from high school or getting accepted and going to the college of your choice. Or maybe

And sometimes your things are silly like learning to blow a bubble for the first time.  Or learning how to make the best red velvet cupcakes with a killer cream cheese frosting. Or finding the restaurant with the most amazing margaritas. Or figuring out how the street magician did that magic trick.

It doesn’t matter.  Whatever your thing is…toot your own horn!  Tell yourself that you did a great job.  Tell yourself that you’re proud of YOU.

And on those days when those fears and nagging voices come out…tell them to piss off because you know you can do anything and that you’re great at what you do.

I give you permission to TOOT YOUR OWN HORN!

Action Step: Sit down, set a timer for 20 minutes and create a list of at least 25 things that you’re proud of yourself for accomplishing. It can be as big or as small, as physical or emotional or even as silly as you wish.  Just tell yourself that you did a great job!  Now look back to that list whenever you need a boost – emotional or physical.

The good news, you can hide them very easily (very similar to hiding a friend’s activity in your newsfeed).

The not-so-good news (well really, it’s fine) is that I’m so quick to hide all those games and applications that I don’t have a screenshot with that one specific image in the third step.  It’s so easy though, it shouldn’t matter.

Follow these steps and you’ll be able to silence those game notifications in three easy steps:

1) In your newsfeed, click over to the hover somewhere in the person’s post

2) You should see a HIDE box pop up to the upper right of their post…and click on it.

3) A box then comes up that asks you if you want to HIDE this person, HIDE the game or application or CANCEL…click HIDE the game

I am proud to report that you will NEVER see another update from that game (regardless of which of your friends are playing it) again!  Yay!

Quick note: you will still continue to get updates from other games your friends might be playing.  So every time you see a new game or application pop up, just follow the same steps.