Archive for the Flexible Work Options

I’m truly amazed at feedback I’ve received in response to my post on Proposition 8: Why Should the Majority Get to Choose How the Minority Lives?. In addition to the 16 comments on the blogpost itself, I’ve received emails, phone calls, twitter tweets & direct messages, facebook messages, phonecalls and people walking up to me to chat. It’s been so enlightening. Below are some demographics about the folks that have reached out to me:

• 90% of the group voted no for Prop 8.
• Most of them have someone in their family that is gay and therefore directly affected by the law.
• Most were frustrated that a Utah constituency directly contributed money to the passing of a California law.
• A small % felt that the church should decide who was “married”.
• Many mentioned their concern that our children would be taught to hate minorities as a result of this law passage.
• Some didn’t have any direct ties to anyone Gay but were a minority and related to minority causes. Thus, wanted freedom for all.
• Everyone wants to know if I think there’s anything they can still do now to make a difference.

As for me, I’m disappointed that I didn’t write my post a month earlier and that I didn’t do more to influence the defeat of this proposition. Why? Because I think the public was miseducated, scared and that it passed for all the wrong reasons.

I am a straight, married, white female. So, why am I so impassioned about this topic? I want my daughter to grow up understanding equality and love for all…not hate and I feel that discrimination teaches hate. I grew up in a small town where very few black families lived. My grandparents had very racist views that just never sat well with me. I wish that bias could be erased for my daughter’s children. Additionally, focusing our energy on topics like this takes our focus away from solving what I see as more important topics like promoting flexible work for all of you.

There are things you can still do if you’re interested in being a Proponent of No on Proposition 8.

1. See this great blog at After Ellen which contains some great celebrity pictures and stories.
2. This Saturday is National Protest Day. Check out JointheImpact.com for more information about how you can participate in this national event.
3. Join the When/If Prop 8 Passes, We’ll Do Something About It Facebook group.

Lastly, I think this video says everything there is to know about this topic. Please take the short 4 minutes it takes to watch it.

Refuse to Hate from Refuse to Hate on Vimeo.

Since last week’s election, you have inevitably saw some of the statistics covering how President Obama maximized social media tools to connect with his constituents. During his campaign, he reached out to connect with people using the internet through Facebook, Linked In, My Space, Twitter, and other social media tools. He even paused to email a thank you note to his team before his acceptance speech. Undeniably, he had many competitive advantages over John McCain, but one cannot debate that social media played a huge part in his election.

President Obama’s ability to reach out and connect with Voters, specifically Generation Y is due to the fact that he embraced their language: texting and communicating with social media tools. Compare this to John McCain, clearly a novice, and it’s easy to see how a younger generation might feel they have only one clear choice for President. They just can’t relate to someone who can’t communicate with the tools of today. It’s a text book example of the generation gap.

So you say, interesting enough but how does this impact me, the working mother?

Think about it for a minute. If Barrack Obama can use Social Media to have a landslide competitive advantage over his competition, then why can’t you? If you’re an entrepreneur or you’ve been thinking about starting a venture, what can you learn from this recent presidential election? What can you implement for your own business? What can you plagiarize from Barack Obama’s presidential campaign? If our President used Linked In, Facebook, My Space, Twitter, why wouldn’t you? After all, he did spend millions on his campaign, likely the largest budget for market research this year. Why wouldn’t you maximize the research that he’s already done and copy that for your own business?

Clearly, I am a Social Media evangelist. I believe that Social Media is the path for working mothers to flexible work. In fact, I believe that it’s the path for not only working mothers but for anyone looking to lead a more independent lifestyle. Think about it. For the first time in history, the playing field has been equalized by the internet. We’ve all got the power to step up to the plate and hit a home run. Why shouldn’t it be you?

So, go see what your new President did to get elected and copy, copy, copy. Working moms, the man just showed you exactly how to do it. All we have to do is watch, listen and implement for our own businesses. How lucky are we to be living in these times?

Got examples of things you’ve already done? Love to hear from you so that other moms can learn! Leave a comment and if you like this post. Please stumble it!

Here are a few other interesting articles covering our new President’s Social Media success and predictions about how he might continue to use it moving forward:

Mashable: How Will President Obama Use His Massive Social Media Influence?

Search Marketing Gurus: Barack Obama: The First Social Media President?

Advertising Age: Obama’s Rivals Should Steal From His Social Playbook

Read Write Web: Obama’s Social Media Advantage

Last Thursday night I attended the 15th Annual Women Who Mean Business Awards Ceremony presented by the San Diego Business Journal and Procopio. I was among 111 finalists and I had also nominated two other women. I’ve never been more proud to be a loser! As I sat at a table of 12 people I didn’t know who wanted to know my story as an honoree, I watched and read the details of each nominee as they were featured on three large screens in the front of the room. I was in awe of the talent surrounding me. What an esteemed and accomplished group of women doing great things in our San Diego community.

As I drove to the event that evening, I was having a phone conversation with a friend who couldn’t understand as I explained that winning wasn’t important to me. My friend was coaching me that the only reason I wouldn’t win was because I hadn’t set my intention to. I was laughing and trying to explain that I was already a winner and that getting a trophy just wasn’t that important to me. I was in a very calm state of mind with no expectations for the evening.

I hung up the phone and revisited the following as I prepared to enter the ceremony:

• The day Six Figure Moms Club chose me (and believe me, it chose me long before I ever embraced it), i started winning because I’ve been so inspired by every working mother I’ve ever met.
• Knowing that another working mom has the confidence in me to nominate me for an esteemed award like this already makes me feel like a winner.
• The members of the Six Figure Moms Club tribe and the commentors on my blog are the awards that drive me to push harder.

I’m different today now that I own my own businesses than I was in the competitive, corporate world and I’m proud of my transformation. I was pretty competitive in my old self. I still am but I have to say I like my self actualized self a lot better. I’m putting this out there because I know there are some of you that need to cross the same bridge that I have and it’s a bit scary. Believe me, I know. But let me tell you…it’s so worth it. Take it from a loser. You might not win a trophy…but you’ll win much more.

Just so you know, the winners were really phenomenal, here are just a few examples:

• Barbara Bry, Founder of Athena and Proflowers.com and Producer and co-host of Radio Show, “I’m There for You Baby:The Entrepreneur’s Guide to the Galaxy” et al
• Pat Brown, NBC 7/39 Emmy Award Winning Journalist and community servant
• Midge Constanza, Women’s Rights Advocate and Assistant to President for Public Liaison to President Jimmy Carter
• Debra Emerson, Executive Director, St. Madeleine Sophie’s Center, Adult Developmental Disabilities Center]
• Ruby Randall, COO Vistage International, and past CEO of Anthony Robbins Companies

It’s been so interesting to me lately to watch the faces of people when they ask me what I do and I answer that I’m a blogger. Of course, my answer includes a few other things too (executive coach, speaker, web 2.0 evangelist and a writer) but the blogger part always stops people in their tracks. If someone isn’t intimate with the blog community, their face gets distorted, they get a somewhat condescending smile and start asking questions. “You do what now?”

I’m not offended. I’m actually quite flattered. You see, I perceive bloggers as cutting edge and I’m happy to consider myself as part of a new and upcoming industry. However, uninformed people don’t take me serious as a blogger. They think I’m playing. It’s so entertaining to me how people react to things they don’t understand.

You see, blogging is just another form of media like TV, Radio, Magazines, Newspapers, Outdoor Advertising. You can make money with blogging similarly to how Dr. Phil or Oprah make money with TV. It’s all about personal branding and having a consistent, authentic message. Not only is it another form of media, it’s the newest form and it’s GROWING…while other mediums are decreasing.

A career in blogging is a huge, personal commitment. I spend at least 20 hours per week on my blog/internet presence. That includes writing, marketing, programming, search engine optimization, strategy, research, benchmarking, making friends in the blogosphere, monetization, researching, helping friends in the blogosphere and much more. And get this, 20 hours doesn’t seem like nearly enough. (This doesn’t even include my torrid relationship with Twitter. Remember that from my previous posts? And, by the way, if you aren’t already, follow me @aaswartz on Twitter)

So, why am I sharing this and why is important to you? A couple of reasons:

1. I want you to open your minds to the outside-of-the-box career options that you might not have considered yet as a working mother. Perhaps there is something right there that could make a huge difference in your happy factor.
2. The Tipping Point for the Web 2.0 world is getting closer every day. Given the current economic situation and where the stock market is, might you want to consider investments in Web 2.0 space when you are thinking about reinvesting your money??? I will be. If you are skeptic about the Web 2.0 Tipping point. Check out my recent comment at Harvard Business Publications.
3. The Social Media community is fresh and inspiring. They have a lot to teach us. Go meet them and see what you can learn. The industry is fast paced, upbeat, positive and so inspirational. Why wouldn’t you?

Yesterday, it was my great pleasure to attend Social Media Simplified in Ventura, Ca with some of the brightest and most successful people in the industry. Make sure to stop back later this week when I’ll be talking more about what I learned from Mari Smith (The Pied Piper of Facebook), Deb Michek(Twitter Evangelist Coach Deb), Denise Wakeman (The Blog Squad), Linda P Taylor (”Insider Secrets”), Nancy Marmelejo (Viva Visability) and Simon Leung (Google SEO expert).

Hint Hint: If you can’t wait to read my post and you’re feeling twitventurous, go to http://www.search.twitter.comand search on #smsv and you’ll see all the tweets related to this wonderful event. Pretty sweet huh? And you wonder why I’m having an affair with Twitter?

Last week Six Figure Moms Club sponsored a fabulous event in Orange county, The Next Generation in Work Flexibility. It was my intention yesterday to write a post about this terrific event and the fabulous women I encountered there. However, due to the Law of Attraction, that post has been detained a bit longer.

As some of you may remember, I have been salivating over tickets to Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference since it went on sale and then subsequently sold out in less than three hours earlier this summer. I even wrote a post about it hoping Maria Shriver herself might read the post and provide a few lucky Six Figure Moms Club members with tickets. Nothing happened.

Last week, my head hung low as I was conceding to the fact that I just wasn’t going to this fabulous event when one of my co-sponsors at the flexible work event offered up an option. I could volunteer on Monday and work the conference as a way to attend. Had I known about this earlier, I would have jumped on the opportunity, but I had commitments Monday that I couldn’t move. Regretfully, I couldn’t make this work.

On Monday morning, my phone started ringing and texts started pouring into my cell phone. By the end of the day, I had access to seven tickets to the conference. Crazy huh? Thank you Universe.

I’m writing this post in haste as I pack my things to run out the door to the conference. I likely won’t have a chance to write any other blog posts until the weekend but I wanted to let you all know how powerful we are. It’s always worth pursuing every little thing you want because the world really is here to help you! If this isn’t proof enough for you, I’m not sure what is!

If everything works out, I’ll be attending the Women’s Conference as a member of the media today. I hope to be standing next to Bono of U2 sometime in the next 24 hours. Universe, did you hear that one?

Of course, my love affair with Twitter continues and if I have a chance, I’ll be tweeting under hash code #miverva as will the other tweeps that attend. If you’re interested, go to www.search.twitter.com and search for “minerva”. There is also a live webcast of this event at the Women’s Conference webcast and I believe at Oprah.com. Sorry, you’ll have to search for the link…because I’ve gotta drive to Long Beach

Last night, I was appalled to have to share my Twitter with Rachel Pradhan, President of Blaze Interactive & Indra Successful Coach Marketing. (RACHEL! Did you not read my last blog entry????? Twitter and I are involved!)

You see, Rachel so graciously agreed to be a guest lecturer for a Six Figure Moms Club event in San Diego. Rachel and I spoke to a room of folks fairly new to social media about the almost endless benefits and ways to make money on the internet.

I spoke before Rachel arrived and started with a live Twitter feed up on the screen. The group was very inquisitive about Twitter and wanted a casual overview of how it works. We talked about the following:

• The feeling of confusion many people experience when they first sign up for Twitter. We discussed how many of them (me too) had signed up, sat there looking at the sceen saying, “Okay, I don’t get it. Now what do I do? How do I figure out who to follow?” or ” These people that have asked to follow me seem like stalkers. How do I block them? How do I make sure to protect my privacy and make sure I’m safe?”
• @PHDBRE was Tweeting away and had four posts in a row on the twitter feed. Everyone wanted to know why so many? Was she just really talkative? An overpromoter? What was she doing? I read her tweets aloud and explained that she was in the midst of conducting an online survey. Also, that @PHDBRE and I had communicated through DM’s earlier in the day about bloggers and my guess at their potential MBTI type of NT. This lead to a discussion of What is a DM? and Next, “Wow, Angie, Do you know her?” “Well, No, not face-to-face, but I hope to soon, and we did have a business related conversation (140 characters of course) earlier today”. They were amazed, glossy eyed and somewhat enthralled.
• Next we discussed how @AshleyMahaffey who was in the room, came because she found out about the event through connecting with me on Twitter. Next, we discussed a potential Tweetup between Ashley, me, @AnnVertel and @MariSmith sometime in the next few weeks…all as a result of Ashlee following me on Twitter.
• The group asked how do you learn Twitter lingo. @AshleyMahaffey offered a great resouce I can’t remember (so I’m hoping she’ll post it in the comments here) and I refered again to @MariSmith ’s Twitter LIngo Demystified.
• We also discussed that although several folks were interested in starting a blog, there were only a few folks in the room (in addition to the folks mentioned above) that had blogs like www.sandiegobargainmama.com, and www.healthwisewomen.com. This took us to a discussion of the untapped market of opportunity awaiting these six figure moms if they chose to embrace it.

Ok, back to Rachel, the main speaker. She presented, “Creating a FAPulous Website” and talked about how websites must have a clear Focus, contain a call to Action and be Personal. She then discussed the elements of a great website and maximizing the user experience. I twitted as she presented in hopes that any Tweeps not able to attend could get a taste of what she was talking about. (You can see what I tweeted by going here). Rachel also discussed how easy it is today to develop alliances with people using social media. Specifically, she discussed how she and her husband felt lucky to be corresponding with Guy Kawasaki, famous author/blogger.

We started a discussion in tandem both in the room and on Twitter about preferred Contact Management Systems/Autoresponders (aWeber vs. IContact) that continues today online. Meanwhile, Rachel’s husband, @webocsupport was twitting me, “Is the presentation over and what have you done with my wife?” from her home over an hour away. The night was a great success.

Today, just before writing this post, I finished my work day ordering some printed goods from a vendor I learned about at the event last night. When I called, she said, I know you, I follow you on Twitter and I offer discounts to all my Twitter friends. Check out @vpg_printing. She’s even offering some fabulous bonus to whomever is lucky enough to become her 1000th follower which she expects to happen by November 1. Perhaps that could be you?

One last note. If you are still wondering what you can do with Twitter, check out this great blogpost written by Dahna M. Chandler about Warren Whitlock, who she deems “Dr. Twitter” ” Why Do I Need Twitter and How Do I Use It? A Twitter expert tells you”.

Maybe, I’ll deem myself, “Mrs. Twitter” and see if that sticks….but alas, I think I might be getting ahead of myself a bit in our relationship…

So, again, can you see just a little why I can’t help but continue my affair with Twitter? I’m smitten.

Ok, I admit it. I’m crazy in love with Twitter. Just like my historical attractions to men, this is happening with Twitter because I’m learning things I never even conceived. My relationship with Twitter started about six months ago when we casually started seeing each other. I signed up for a twitter account and then installed the Twitter application on my facebook account. By doing this, I could tweet and my updates would show up in Twitter and on my Facebook page as “status updates”. So efficient which really does it for me. I thought Twitter and I knew each other pretty well. But little did I know, our relationship, analogous to relationships with men, was to grow in layers.

Next I went to Blog World Expo, a true Twitter explosion. The entire conference was run using Twitter as it’s heartbeat. Below are just a few examples of Twitter’s usage.

• The conference leaders created a unique identifier (a hash code in Twitter lingo) for the conference and instructed attendees to identify all messages with this code. That allowed us to track all conference related tweets.
• Most sessions had twitter displayed on the presentation screen so that attendees and seminar leaders could have live, direct communication during presentations which made for a real-time, interactive learning experience. This also allowed participants to almost be in two places at once since you could be reading other seminar tweets from other rooms.
• Most conference related communication was done using Twitter. (This included anything related to conference materials, schedule changes, meetings, after hours events, lunch, etc.)

I really started to get the power of Twitter for business and my heart raced faster.

The next big step in our relationship was the Vice Presidential Debate last Thursday. Did you realize that on certain channels, Americans could tweet their thoughts while Sarah Palin and Joe Biden were debating. Check out Hack the Debate? Seriously! Tweeps were sending their tweets into public television and they were appearing across the bottom of the TV screen complete with their Twitter names and pictures. They were likely censored but this was an historic moment for social media. Think about that. People all around the globe had the opportunity to weigh in on the VP debate. I kept thinking, “the only way this is really happening is if the government does not really grasp how Twitter works”. So incredible. I couldn’t sleep well that night thinking about the possibilities for working women and the next thing that Twitter would teach me. What WOULD be next?

So, the next thing was a random encounter with a work colleague I hadn’t seen in three years. I started to update him about me. He stopped me and said, “I know all about you Angie. In fact, a bunch of us were just talking about you at lunch. We were talking about how often you update your facebook page. We keep track of what you’re up to and in fact I know who you had lunch with yesterday.” A bit embarassing for me that this friend thought I had nothing better to do than update my facebook page so I asked him if he knew about my friend Twitter. He did not. So, what’s a girl to do to explain her relationships? Until the world catches up, it’s nothing but opportunity for those of in the know.

So why am I choosing to out myself and my relationship with Twitter? Because ladies, each day the picture becomes clearer and clearer to me that there are so many opportunities for all of you who have even a slight interest in the internet to create so many great opportunities for yourself. Coincidentally, our live Six Figure Moms Club meeting in San Diego this week covers this topic. You can reengineer your career using New Media options if you want to.

If you would like to learn more about Twitter (or New Media in general), check out expert, Mari Smith’s, Twitter LIngo Demystified

Mari is amazing and continues to stay on the cutting edge of New Media as it seems she in a different learning conference every other day. If you only choose to follow one person on Twitter. She’s a great person to start with. I’ll be writing a post about her soon so stay tuned for more on Mari.

I’ve talked with women all over the US about the loss of identity that often occurs when professional women have children. This feeling seems to be common among executive women that I speak to who usually range in ages between 30 to 45.

For example, I once interviewed a woman who was previously a partner in a very large law firm in Washington DC making over $.5 Million per year. Prior to deciding to start a family, she was the major breadwinner for her family. Once she and her husband embarked upon becoming three, they decided her husband’s career would become the focus and hers would take the back seat.

They left DC and relocated to the Midwest where he settled into a lucrative lead position in a prominent company. She got pregnant, had a baby and started consulting. At the time of our interview, she was a bit lost and although she was doing great work and award winning research, she felt uncomfortable charging for her services. Why is this? It is certainly a phenomenon I see in many women once they off ramp from their high powered careers to care for their children. It’s like our identities are so tied to success and the path that planned for ourselves that we don’t know what to do once we take a detour. What’s up with that? Do we feel guilty? Are we just confused? Can it be that we have tied our self worth so deeply to our salaries that we don’t know what to do once we take a different path? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic so please post your comments and let’s discuss.

Very interestingly and conversely though, women just a few years younger and still without children, can’t imagine this being an issue. Last Friday, I had a discussion with Ginger, Founder of Girls Just Want to Have Funds , a 20 something women’s finance group in Washington DC. Ginger posed the question of “Why Do Professional Women Lose Confidence?” to her blog readers. These readers are a few years younger, well educated and most do not yet have children. They are likely the Six Figure Moms of the future. The responses indicate that this group of educated, young ladies feel they will not experience this same emotion once children enter there lives. Hmmm. I’ll be interested to watch them and to understand whether a younger generation is better equipped to deal with this juggle/struggle. It will be interesting to watch their responses over the next few days.

What do you think? My bet is, as sorry as I am to say this, that unless they’ve been able to build a flexible career for themself already, they’ll be dealing with the same issues that you Six Figure Moms of today are. What CAN we do to help create a different path for them? Well, for one, if you are in a supervisory role, think about what you can do to make change. If you have power, you can be a change agent. What’s stopping you? Your image? Shame Shame ladies!

I wanted to pass along a great opportunity to participate in a conference coming up in Orange county on October 16: The Next Generation of Work Flexibility: An Innovative Forum for Employers and The Flexible Work Force.

The goal of the event is to help promote an open dialog about flexibility in the workplace for the many professional mothers and fathers who struggle with work life balance and the employers competing for talent in today’s increasingly demanding work environment. You can read more specifics about the event at their web site but below are a few of the highlights of the conference:

• Are you a professional woman ready to on-ramp / re-enter the workforce after a break?
• Are you an employer looking for new ways to engage high level talent?
• Are you a valued employee who is struggling to keep family life from impacting your work?

Six Figure Moms Club is a contributing sponsor of this event because we feel it is such an important step toward opening doors to more flexible work options with employers in Southern California.

If you would like more information, please contact Jessica Reister at 949-276-9812.

I’ll be attending so twitter me so I’ll be sure to look for you!

Waiting in the very crowded Bare Lounge at the Mirage Hotel last week during a Blog World Expo party, I was standing next to a guy i didn’t know. Naturally we were talking as there was nothing else to do but wait. It was hot and we were thirsty. He never told me his name but he was nice and funny so I didn’t mind. I ended up seeing him wherever I went the rest of the evening but still didn’t know him. That is, until I walked into my first session the next morning on Monetizing Your Blog. There he sat on the panel. Famous Brian Clark, aka CopyBlogger. Brian’s blog is a Technorati top 10 and he recently won the #1 spot of Top Ten Blogs for Writers for the third consecutive year.

I heard Brian speak in several sessions during the conference. His message was always consistent, “Focus on Writing Great Content for Your Audience and Be Authentic”. On a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) panel, he mentioned how a blogger could do all the right things for SEO and gain a number one spot on google, but still if the content wasn’t any good and nobody was reading it or linking to it, then it doesn’t really matter now does it? I loved every comment this guy had to say. Why? Because his philosophies are about life, not just about blogging and writing. He’s a guy who’s all about keeping it real, doing what you love and letting the rest take care of itself (or at least it appears so from the outside).

So, what does this have to do with a Six Figure Mom? Let’s see? Being authentic, doing what you love and letting the rest take care if itself. I think there’s at least a few things we can learn from Brian Clark. My advice is that you add copyblogger to your RSS feed for a few days and read some of his writing. His post on Monday, Are you a Spineless Blogger?, although written for writers, really can be used for all sorts of problem solving. This is a coaching article folks. You can use it to work through anything where you are striving for more clarity. Bloggers love comments so leave a few for Copyblogger and be sure to mention that Six Figure Moms Club sent you.