Archive for the Flexible Work Options

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.

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.

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.

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:

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 just returned from an 18 day trip last night. My last stop was Blog World Expo ‘08 in Las Vegas. I went to the conference to enhance my understanding of the New Media industry and to learn how to better serve you, my readers, as a writer/blogger. Little did I know of the almost limitless benefits that this little four day trip would bring me. I’m still digesting everything I learned over the past few days and I know I will be for quite some time. However, the one gem of the conference is this:

For several years, I’ve been saddened as the Starbucks, Gaps and Banana Republics of the world take over the mom and pop shops of local neighborhoods. The local charm and personality of every American city has slowly morphed into the same homogenized version so that you can’t really tell whether you’re in Hillcrest or Kansas City. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Starbucks fan right there with the rest of you. (In fact, I really like the book Pour Your Heart Into It, How Starbucks Built a Business One Cup at a Time as one of my favorite quotes about confidence and dealing with uncertainty comes from the author, Howard Shultz, Starbucks founder). However, in general, I’m not a fan of chain restaurants and I’d drive way out of my way on a business trip to experience local personality versus visit the same old Ruth Chris anyday.

I received great comments both online and in person regarding my previous post, “Is It Easier to Solve The Quadratic Equation or Work LIfe Balance?“so I thought it worthy of further discussion.  Specifically, Jen Potter posted an interesting comment.  We’ll investigate further but first let me tell you a little about Jen and how I know her.  I ran into Jen last weekend.  We probably hadn’t seen each other in over four years.  We used to work together in a large accounting department.  Jen is one of those people that sparkles.  She has an incredible personal compass, pizazz and a personal style that gets her noticed and liked wherever she goes.  She’s also been dealing with life threatening health issues since childhood but she doesn’t let that get in her way.  To the contrary, she uses it as motivation to be strong and live her life cherishing each moment.  When I ran into Jen last weekend she introduced me to her daughter and we talked about her current situation as a part time worker.  She said she told her employer she had to have part time work or resign.  That was the only option she could accept so now she’s working part time.  Jen is an accounts payable employee and she’s out there bellying up to the bar and making change for future generations.  She’s a pioneer in creating her best life and forging a path for flexible work because she’s asking for what she needs and designing a life outside of the box for herself and her family.   What an example for the rest of us?

Women consistently tell me, “I love your blog, but I just don’t think I fit as a Six Figure Mom”.  They tell me they aren’t working right now or they don’t make six figure salaries.  Ladies, regardless, YOU are the target.  You and all other moms that have worked, want to work, or are working now.  The thing you all have in common is that a professional career is ingrained in who you are… whether you work today, yesterday or tomorrow. 

There have been a lot of articles in the media over the past few weeks debating whether Facebook actually has any value.  This, in itself, indicates that there is a whole lot of value in Facebook.  I wanted to share with you an interesting article from Harvard Business Publications by Jeff Stibel.  Jeff talks about why Facebook is so much better than other social networks and why it fundamentally works.  Personally, I continue to be amazed at the functionality of Facebook.  Almost every day I discover something new that you can do with it.  Did you know you can even hire a Facebook coach?  Yes, it’s true, many mainstream corporate employees continue to choose LInked In and Plaxo over Facebook since some perceive Facebook is for a younger generation.  I did an experiment last week after attending a UC-Irvine MBA Alumni event.  For all of the business cards I collected, I checked to see if the folks were in Facebook and Linked In.  >90% were only in Linked In.  Interestingly enough, the next day I received a phone call from someone looking for a coach who had been refered to me in Facebook by the other 10%.  These folks also happened to be the younger people in the crowd.  Point in case, if you want to do business with Gen X, you’ve got to be in Facebook.  You know what their vote is regarding whether Facebook has value.