A Small Success is Still a Success

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I did it!  I drew!  In my new year’s resolution post, I said I wanted to make more art that was not business related (graphic design).  Last month, I wrote about how I was failing miserably at doing this.  A reader, Sushant Misra gave me a suggestion to try drawing for a set time limit like 5 minutes and then increase that time each day.  I tried that and failed at that too.  I set out to draw for 7 minutes, but I became so engrossed in what I was doing that it ended up being 10 minutes.  Then, I never made it back the following day…or the day after.

Nonetheless, I am celebrating the fact that I created something.

Last week during the Olympics, I did a few quick figure sketches of speed skater’s in their start stance and as they raced.  I am celebrating that too.  A small success is still a success in my book.  Now, I just need to work on making them a little bigger!

sketch

#TBT: Grateful Reflection

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I thought I would do something a little different today and make a play on the Throwback Thursday hashtag (#tbt).  I am in my home base of Atlanta, GA this week and we are currently experiencing a “winter weather storm.”  I put that in quotation marks because by Northern standards, this is a minimal  winter storm.  My visits to my grandmother’s in Chicago as a child and my time spent in boarding school in Pennsylvania have taught me that.  However, for Atlanta, this is really bad weather that they are not really equipped or used to handling.  Here the biggest issue is ice – and this is primarily an ice storm.

I was fortunate to miss the weather even that put us on the national news a couple of weeks ago and I am fortunate enough now that I do not have to go anywhere.  My grateful reflection is that I am thankful to have a career and business that I can conduct from just about anywhere.  If I was still in corporate America, I’m sure I would be stressing about the lost time from work and how I would make it up.  Although it is pretty cold and gray, the upside is that I can stay inside without repercussions.  There are others that are not quite so fortunate.

I am also grateful that although I am currently “trapped” in my home (can only venture out on foot), I have food, water, heat, electricity…and the internet!  Yesterday, there were upwards of 100,000 homes without power in the state and last night and this morning’s snow fall has the numbers fluctuating.  As quickly as they can get people back up and running, another line comes down and cuts off another group of people.  I have been very fortunate.

What are you grateful for?

Free Brand Marketing Review

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Negative Nellie: Who, me?

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In general I try to focus on the positive side of life and tend to disassociate myself with people that are perpetually negative.  I feel I am happier overall with my life because of this.  However, I find that as I brain dump onto my blog, the tone feels a bit negative at times.  Some of my posts are spawned from vents and/or frustrations I find within marketing and small business practices.  As a result, they feel to have somewhat of a negative tone to me and I want to be careful that I am not using this platform as a negative outlet for my thoughts.  I do not want to become an online negative Nellie.  It is not who I am in real life.

The reality is that anyone that stumbles upon my blog or reads it regularly (not sure if anyone does), will only have the perception of me that they see here.  I want to make sure that perception is truly authentic to who they would meet in real life.  While some would argue that the personal spin that I take with my blog is improper for business, I believe it is proper because I am what I am selling.  Me.  Colleen the designer, Colleen the marketer; Colleen the business person has the same values, ethics, perspective, etc as Colleen the person.

In order for me to show you the real and authentic Colleen that exists in person, I have to accurately portray myself online and in my blog.  If all you read are vents and frustrations with a negative tone; that is who you will think I am.  I want to do better.  I must do better.  I pledge to do better.

One Size Does Not Always Fit All

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I’m tired of the one size fits all approach…to everything; marketing, life, relationships, business, networking, etc.  Maybe it is because I always seem to be that 1% that it does not fit or work for.  For instance, I apparently have a watermelon-sized head.  No one size fits all hat or adjustable ball cap ever fits me.  At least not without an accompanying headache from it being too small.  As it relates to business, I have fallen prey plenty of times to messages and strategies from marketing gurus that just did not work for me.

I was gullible.

I can admit that it was gullible of me to believe that there truly are universal blanket approaches that will work for everyone, including me.  Can you blame me?  We are bombarded with advertisements, blog posts, books and messages that tout ways to get more followers, traffic, brand recognition, business, customers, etc, everyday.  We see them online through social media and offline in television commercials.  For the brand or individual that originated the messaging, it works.  People like me say, “Yes, I want that and need to know that!”  Then, I am disappointed when I realize that while it was a great strategy, it was not a great strategy for me.

Moving forward.

I cannot knock the methods for not working for me because they will work for someone else and perhaps a whole bunch of someone else’s.  What I can do is try not to fall prey again.  When I feel myself getting excited about a new marketing strategy, I evaluate the why and how of it’s effectiveness.  Then, I check to see if I have the why’s and how’s within my business and self to apply that same principle.  If I don’t, I keep moving.  If I do, I will implement the strategy for a three-month period of time and then measure the results against what I was previously doing.  If the results are good, I continue; if the results are bad, I discontinue the approach.

While it is hard (for me) to resist trying a strategy when it is coming from someone that is a credible and authoritative individual on the subject, I have to remember that I too am an individual.  Evaluating the effectiveness and validity of the strategy as it relates to me and my brand keeps me from banging my head against the wall for falling prey, again.