Things I learned in 2012

Resilience is the ability of a material to absorb energy when it is deformed elastically, and release that energy upon unloading. The modulus of resilience is defined as the maximum energy that can be absorbed per unit volume without creating a permanent distortion. It can be calculated by integrating the stress-strain curve from zero to the elastic limit. In uniaxial tension,

where Ur is the modulus of resilience, σy is the yield strength, and E is the Young's modulus.^[1]

I'm content, although surrounded by insecurity, that doesnt mean I've settled and know the future, but I have more peace, real peace. I’m proud of the jobs I have  had, the people I have helped and the hard work I do- my sheer resilience through pain, learning a new language, adapting to a new culture, helping others to find a way up, and  setting a good example for my children when I do what I have to do, and not  just what I want to do. 

Sometimes life gives you a huge curved ball and then you add ill health on top of that. That's a Tsunami wave, that I've survived.. Responsibility is taught and I’m learning that there are times you have to go to work,  sometimes hard soul-destroying work- and you cant bitch and moan about it, or worse- not do it at all- but the times you must grit your teeth, put a smile on your face and go because it’s what you HAVE to do, are the times you’re really acting like an adult. 

I dont place much worth in excuses, its just too easy to make them. I keep my word, and I expect the same of others now.

 I've learnt the limits of my determination and my physical and mental state. I don't need to fix problems and situations, not created by me. My body and mind are tired of fighting for justice that doesnt come, for love and understanding from family and friends. Some of them may never give their understanding and support in a real way, but I can and will give that respect and honor to myself.

I’ve learned to let go and forgive, and if I haven’t learned to turn the other cheek yet, I’ve definitely perfected the art of moving on. Life is too short to surround yourself with wolves in sheep’s clothing. In eliminating time wasted with people who have selfish or malicious motives, I freed up more time for the wonderful people I love.

I’ve learned what happiness really feels like- and how to discern it from the bullshit I’ve waded in at times. Life is not fair, we are not all born equal, I've always said that, but now I've learned the meaning of Justice delayed and to realise Justice sometimes never comes.

I’ve learned what honesty and decency sounds like- after marrying a narsissist a  horrendous liar. Real men don’t lie- because they care about the value of being a good man. They don’t cheat either, because they care about how they represent their gender and their families.

I’ve learned to get myself out of hot water even if it means swimming away  in search of safe shores alone, by just holding on to a few bits of wood from the shipwreck.  I’ve learned to spot bullshit, learned to reach out to the right people and to lay an abusers shit bare when they deserve it. I’ve learned to silence the evil men who dare cross my path… or at least slow them down. I’ve learned to use Google to my benefit- to the disappointment of the a ..holes.

I’ve learned to only apologise when I mean it- and to verbally eviscerate those worthy. I meant every word. How’s that for personal growth. No I’m not sorry. I may have lost a few friends, cut a few a holes out, perhaps got radical along the way, but Ive cut the cancerous people out of my life.

I’ve learned to quit while I’m ahead- to hush when I only have anger on my tongue and to accept the things I can’t change. I can’t be everything to everyone, I can’t do everything I want to get done and I can’t turn an a..hole into a decent person. Some people are ugly forever- and sometimes the best revenge is letting them drown in their own truth.

Im ready for whatever 2013 brings. You?

 happy holidays, Donna

Freelancing 7 things you should know for 2013

So you dream of firing your boss, kicking back in your newly decorated home office with your mac pro with coffee brewing and your music blaring. Yeah crazy cool.

Can you do it?

 

This year I celebrated ten years of working location independent, based in Italy but travelling all over Europe.  In those ten years I've worked as a content writer, editor,  blogger, travel photographer, project manager, coach, trainer,  digital strategist and consultant. I wear lots of hats and have clients  on every continent. I've seen amazing places and done fantastic things, but one thing is a constant - the ability to find, keep and bill clients. It is this alone that will determine my success or failure.

7 things you cannot afford to kid yourself about.

1. You're going to work alone, a lot, you're going to have to fight the distraction of popping out for a cappuccino, switching on the TV, digging in the fridge, playing on twitter, updating your facebook, watching clips on utube. All these are the drug of the solitary worker, and they eat the one resource you  do have, time.

2. You can choose your hours right?  Wrong. If you burn an all-nighter, the next day you feel like hell, so you sleep in  and lounge around in your pajamas till noon. Yeah this is it, no boss to chase me.  You just exchanged your one boss for many, your clients are now going to be your bosses, when you find some that is.

3. They will come if you build it -  The silent phone, the emails you dreamed would come in a flurry asking for you to design that site and write those articles. Silence.. If you just keep going to conferences and social events joining facebook and linked-in groups the work will eventually roll in, right? Wrong - you have to pitch, like the salesman who knocks on doors constantly, and for every presentation he makes gets rejected 90% of the time, you must get comfortable pitching.

4. Starting with no savings in a one income household? Panic sets in quickly once the rent isn't paid, and that new mac pro you bought starts to seem like an expense you should have waited awhile for. You'll need family support, or a regular job while you phase in your first freelance attempts. Office space can wait too. Yes you'll sometimes have to lock your spouse or  your screaming baby out of the room  to meet that deadline. You'll definitely work harder than you ever did for a boss. 

5. Billing according to industry standards and getting contracts and agreements signed is by far the most difficult and important thing you'll learn. When to bill? How to negotiate with difficult clients ? Sometimes the first client is a client from hell, that leaves you pacing the kitchen floor talking to yourself. You need a support group of other freelancers to bounce ideas off and learn from.

6. Getting recommended and verified. This is were time management becomes crucial, the ability to build a network of people who you can communicate with daily on social media in a directed and focused way, is an essential skill, asking for what you want is another. 

7. Keeping up with trends and adapting and transitioning is a full time challenge. The changes in the past two years alone  have made work people were getting paid good money to do, obsolete. Whole industries have disappeared. Re-invent yourself.

Can you do online coaching and webinars?  Can you continue to be competitive in your field?

If you can manage yourself, and your erratic finances it can be a wonderful lifestyle defined by you and your dreams.

Next week..

What should you charge for your services..

If you knew you couldn't fail

If you knew that you couldn't fail, what would you be doing with your life and career, if failure wasnt an option?

This is a question I've been asking myself.

Often fear holds us back from doing that one thing we dream of.

Fear of failure is a limiting belief that can throw us off the path to success.

As my friend says. 

"Aim for the sky and you may just land in a high tree".

Are you covering your bets, picking up things off the edges, going for the low hanging fruit?

What would happen if you put all your eggs in one basket and went for it.

 

Write and tell me your thoughts in the comments. Agree or disagree?

success entrepreneur 101

101 entrepreneur work work work, work while you live. enjoy the quiet moments, the sweet moments, they dont come very often. Don't expect understanding or support, sometimes not even your family will understand, but keep investing lumps, heaps of passion, dedication and commitment to that dream and one day success will arrive fleetingly, but dont get complacent, because, she is a hard mistress with a whip, keep refining that dream. Let your body be worn out with striving. Don't take anything for granted.
and dont try to take credit for others work. My 101 entrepreneur

© WiseQueen Donna Jackson

Your KLOUT score how much does it matter?

klout

so I guess by now youre on klout. Yes I am too, I'm on everything, at last count I was on and contributing to 20 social media platforms.

 Now, those of you who have followed me for years, know I used to write on Tech on this blog and other platforms, but then  last year  it began to bore me stiff, so excuse this brief journey through techland.

Today klout told me I use facebook more whereas in the past, I was on twitter.  Really useful yeah,I dont really believe the score on Klout,  Mine has been  up and down in the fifties for some time now, but then recently dropped to the forties, after they had a problem with the alogrithim, shock and horror! Well I don't take it  that seriously and nor should you.

 Newsflash ! I havent been on social media as much this month I've been too busy.

Lets start at the top ... Justin Bieber, how hard is it to work out that his groupies move in millions not hundreds, anyone who hasn't been asleep continuously  in the last 2 years could work that out, even if they didnt factor in his fan pages.

Then theres the list of people I know who should be on Klout  as major influencers, who don't even have a klout account. Maybe they cancelled last year when Techcrunch and many other techies wrote articles about them being a waste of time. I have read that Klout refuses to cancel accounts and merely suspended them so quite often theres the old account and the new one side by side appearing in the search, as if there were two independant people ... yeah useful-



Many people are still obssessed with Klout, although many industry leaders think they have lost trust, and refuse to reveal how they measure ( apparently because of competition). I will be watching this.
I've conducted my own little expeiment this week and this is what I've found.

Like quite a few others, I dont have only one twitter  account that I tweet from, they measure my influence independently  for @ wisequeen and  @winesocialclub,  that's   understandable. I'm diluting my Klout by not putting all my eggs in one basket if you'll excuse the mixed metaphor.

Then theres the fact, that to be a good Klouter you should have all your social presence linked up in klout so they can measure you across the web. I was and am  an  early adopter of everything from google plus  to flipboard to instagram, to tumblr,  

but my linked in page is apparently linked in wrong, and they can't fix it,  I've tried linking and un-linking it during my Klout  experiment week: as they told me this was hurting my score. I don't do a whole lot over at linkedin other than linking to my twitter etc,

So if you want a good score,  link it all up,
dont give-- but rather take mostly and others should quote, like or RT your content more than you do theirs.  The opposite of being  social,  yes..
Being antisocial 

Then apparently you should conduct yourself thus  (how quite a few of  the ones in the know do),  have very few people you follow and instead have tons of followers.

This ratio is important!!  its not rocket science  I know, but stay with me here, - leading many to unfollow after people follow them. So for example they may have, 400 they are  following and yet 4'000 or 40,000 followers;
making them much more influential acording to Klout.

YAWN::: 0

yes many techies even  state on the site policy,  they will not even bother to follow you unless you have more than 4,000 followers!!

 Well that  leaves me  safe, then,( I  have  5,800 in @wisequeen and 1,500 approx in @winesocialclub, collectively about 8,000 ( winesocialclub being my newer account).

 But No, ,  because I follow back  most  people who follow me, and I try to give back, more than I take online. heres my TWITTER

 P.S. Twitter matters the most on klout.

Then recently in another act of anti-socialsharing, many people removed the google+ button they had for sharing posts on their blogs, as it was slowing them down. Other people like me stopped using foursquare to publicise their movements, because it was annoying people who had to wade through location tweets on three platforms, and so  were being unfollowed.

People who had followed me for years since 2007 in my other twitter account.  told me  that now  you've joined foursquare Donna we are being swamped, you move too much"  : ) true I  travel a lot!  so I stopped with foursquare location tweets, and location on fb and twitter everywhere replaced that.   Klout tells me this is a bad move.. I should be on foursquare, I'm not and I wont be anymore, same story happened with Gowala. 

Many major influencers migrated from fb to google+ because google owned everything.. is klout punishing them for this?

If you are in the top layer scores in the eighties and above  which is very crowded with celebs, as is the bottom, your klout score becomes less  relevent, its the middle that counts, most people are not hiring VIP and celebs ,  and as so many people have said, it really doesnt, matter.

What should matter, and certainly doesnt seem to matter to klout, and its siblings is that real stats and usable data that are useful to leaders and influencers, are not being delivered.

as Chris Brogan a real  major influencer, recently posted :  "Give us stats measurements and information we can use, act on , thats useful.  read it here.

Forget about your Klout score, even my blog has better measurements than they do.
end of experiment.

I'm blogging over at tumblr and loving Pinterest   too, which has grown faster than them all,  its so easy to reblog, always loved it, hope it continues to stay strong. My prediction is they are the future and they  will.

Follow me there and start your own blog.  Do you have real Clout online and in real life?  

How is your score doing?