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HASO (Help A Sister Out)!

29 Aug

And by that I mean literally, my fresh-out-of-college unemployed little sister, Rianna. She’s probably the

best person that I know, and I’m probably the best sister that anyone could have. Which is why I’m dedicating an entire post to her today.

I’m not sure exactly when she decided she had to move to New York City after graduating from UNC-Chapel Hill with an Anthropology degree this past May, but I’m pretty sure her mind was made up when we visited the city during her Spring Break back in March. While I was walking around complaining about my blisters, the cold, and what a dirtier city this was than I remembered from a few years earlier, she was plotting how she would move back there.

So what now?

Well, after 3 months of unsuccessful long-distance online job hunting (that is, a lot of “we went with someone more local”), she took the plunge and booked a one-way ticket to JFK and found herself traversing the NYC metro by Wednesday morning. Now don’t get me wrong, this girl is my best friend and she just left me in Raleigh for what appears to be, well, nothing, so I’m not super ecstatic about it. But if she wants something this badly, then gosh darnit I’m going to help her as much as I can.

For now she’s couch surfing with friends and staking out over-booked holiday weekend hostel rooms until she finds a job and a place of her own or until she runs out of money (and we really can’t have that, can we?).

What she’s looking for:

While she’s working her ass off looking for jobs online, writing kick-butt cover letters, and stalking companies like Big Duck and Carrot Creative to get her dream job, she’s not above anything that pays the bills at this point and still walks the streets of Manhattan & Brooklyn looking for “Hiring” signs in the windows.

About that dream job though, in her words:

I love people, so it makes sense that I would want to work for them as much as with them. I love non-profit, socially conscious organizations because they are groups of people with a mission they really (have to) believe in.

Working with people means that every interaction, day, minute is always different. I like when I have multiple things I have to do in a day, all with completely different teams, places or requirements. I love new things, new challenges, new problems and new solutions! One of my favorite quotes is “if we do not find something pleasant, at least we shall find something new” – Voltaire

What I know is that she’s dedicated her life to the arts in one form or another. As an artist herself, interacting with talent at performances, and even on the nonprofit organization side. And even if you’re mean to her, she’ll pretend to be your best friend. (I’m not sure where she got that from; maybe the southern upbringing, but definitely not from me!) Point being, she’s mad smart (some even say smarter than me; gasp!), insanely creative (I have her write all my catchy headlines & titles, brainstorm with her about creative fundraising ideas, and I insisted on hanging a pencil portrait she drew above my bed), and a total people-person. In my personal opinion I think she would make an amazing company spokesperson or first point-of-contact. Yeah.

How can you help?

We all know how important networking is. If you live in the New York City metro area then you can easily help just by reaching out and connecting with her. I can promise you a great return too, because she’s a pretty amazing person and the Mallard sisters are known for being genuine helper-outers.

So meet her for coffee or lunch. Send her job leads if you have them. Take her on a tour of your neighborhood so she knows how real New Yorkers live. Be all-around nice to her!

Find her:
Twitter @riannam
Email rianna[dot]mallard[at]gmail[dot]com
Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/riannamallard
 
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Posted in Living Professional

 

To the unemployed whiners: make your own job!

23 Aug

Am I wrong to scoff at those unemployed citizens who keep applying for job after job like everyone else out there? I can’t help but think that if you’re not thinking like an entrepreneur and creating a job for yourself instead of waiting until someone creates a job for you, you’re just not living in the now.

There aren’t a heck of a lot of jobs out there. And when a job opens up, a million people are going after it. The fact of the matter is that unless you’re some big wig superstar or have been dating the hiring manager, chances are you’re not gonna get the job.

So you say, “yea, I know that, but I’m trying my best!” Well I say that you’re not. If you know that all the jobs you want are going to go to someone else, you either take a job way below you or something you didn’t think you would have done—say, selling cars, waitressing, or temping at a secretary—or you just sit around unemployed for months (even years for some) telling yourself that the economy will get better or that eventually someone will notice and hire you.

But hey—there’s a third option out there too! Make your own job. Nobody is going to hand you anything. I’m not saying that everyone needs to freelance or “be their own boss” (although that seems to be the trend), but I am saying that you need to take control of your career and make a place for yourself.

If you really want to work for Cosmo or Cisco and they don’t appear to have any openings where you fit in or you keep getting rejected from the stock applications, get creative. The phrase “get your foot in the door” still rings true today. Maybe not in the “start working in the mailroom” sort of way, but definitely in the start somewhere sort of way.

Know what you’re good at and what you enjoy doing (at least to some degree) and just start doing it! Even then if you still can’t make your own job just doing it, maybe you’ll end up being a superstar. Who knows?

But what I do know is that if you don’t act like you’re the one in control of your own life and career, you will never get what you want.

 
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Triangles Crowdsource Our Careers (Brazen Style)

20 Aug

On Wednesday, August 18, 2010 I organized a local chapter of the

Brazenites at the first official meetup

Brazen Careerist’s “Crowdsource Your Career” meetup where 8 other fellow brazen careerists and I met – some for the first time, although many were very familiar faces—to talk about why we were drawn to Brazen Careerist and to discuss the question of the day (below). It was certainly a success (if I ignore the loud after-work crowd at nearby tables). I both met some new people (with new perspectives) and made even stronger connections with some Brazenites that I had not yet had the chance to speak with in such depth. Even more exciting is that we will be organizing similar continuing meetups from now on to help support the Triangle’s community of young professionals (and wannabes), providing feedback, guidance, and mentorship. More on that later, though! On to the question of the day.

Question: What does it mean to be in the driver’s seat of your life and career?

Answer 1: You are in control, no one else. You might have backseat drivers that try and tell you what you do – but ultimately you make decisions. – Courtney Burns

Answer 2: You determine your worth. You control the flow of income based on your own schedule. Autonomy. The ability to make your own decisions. – Brianne Villano

Answer 3: To be in the driver’s seat of my life and career does not mean that I have to name a destination. Each minor decision is my decision. I may make a wrong turn according to my backseat drivers, but who is to say what is wrong and right when you don’t know where you are going (or how you are getting there). Being in the driver’s seat means being in control, listening to your self and being confident in your decisions. – Rianna Mallard

Answer 4: You know what you want to do, and you know how to get it. – Tony Shaffner

Answer 5: You are following your passion with a single focus and you are the determiner and measurer of success. – Bruce Robinson

Answer 6: You turn off the GPS and toss the maps of people’s previous travels and go for it! – Emily Moore

Answer 7: Driving is important and at the same time it’s important to drive with a purpose, of intention, a destination or you could be driving aimlessly. Being in the driver’s seat of your career is about being aware of your external environment: education, career, and life options and making the decisions/choices for your life with your inner knowing (self-knowledge), to ensure that your drive has meaning and purpose for you. – Latoya Williams

Answer 8: You’re location independent, you are financially independent & you love what you do. – Kristen Jeffers

Although all of us are Brazenites (yea, I used that word, again), everyone took a different angle in responding to the question. Some of us took the driver’s seat analogy a little further while others completely ignored it and got to the heart of the meaning. I think what we all agreed upon, though was that “being in the driver’s seat” means having control and a direction (although some would argue that you don’t need a destination). And even more than that, we all believe that it’s important to be independent, driven (no pun intended), passionate, happy, and that to be in the driver’s seat of your life sometimes you need to break away from the mold.

I can think of a few other qualities of a driver, too:

  • Leadership. Think about when you’re in a group and need to decide who’s going to drive some place, chances are the same person offers to drive over and over again. They’re being a leader, taking the reigns when nobody else steps up.
  • Competency. There are some basic competencies a person needs to be in the driver’s seat. You have to learn a new skill, practice, pass a test, and then prove every time you get in that seat that you still have a right to be there by knowing the rules to play by. Our lives and careers are the same. We need some basic skills to get us going, but then it’s up to us to stay in the game.
  • Adequacy. Let’s face it, we’re all adequate enough drivers, we get from place to place hopefully without crashing, but very few of us have mastered the art of driving as stunt drivers have. The same goes for our lives: we’re not perfect, but “ya mon, ebeything’s gonna be alright”, or rather, we get by!

I think it ended up being a pretty good analogy, don’t you think?

Thanks again to Ryan Paugh at Brazen Careerist for setting up the meetup and getting us started connecting face-to-face!

 
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Posted in Living Local, Living Professional

 

Quit Planning & Just Do It!

07 Aug

For as much as a planner as I am, I’m currently en-route to Montego Bay, Jamaica with absolutely no idea where I’ll sleep, eat, or how to get from one place to the next.

I travel a lot, but almost always at least somewhat planned. I’ll at least purchase plane tickets more than 3 days ahead or book a hotel or hostel room for a night or two (or know which friend’s couch I’m crashing on). Sometimes I go all out get guide books ahead of time and make a list of all the places I want to see with an hour-by-hour itinerary. Most of the time, however I’m visiting friends and just let them lead the way.

I thought about planning a relaxing week-long Caribbean vacation a month or two in advance, bringing friends nd family, and just having an all-around chill time on the beach. But planning is harder than you think. You have to coordinate with everyone else’s schedules (“Oh, that week won’t work: I have an assignment due the day after” or “Well I’d rather go in off-season than high season”). You’re constantly searching for a better deal (“Yea that’s a nice beach house but I think we could get a better one for cheaper, let’s wait”). There’s often a sense of “analysis paralysis” (thinking about doing something and analyzing all the options so much that you end up doing nothing at all).

A few weeks ago I gave up on the search for a Caribbean destination vacation. So when a friend who I just recently volunteered at Bonnaroo with said he booked a flight to Jamaica for 5 nights and asked if I wanted to come, I thought about it for about 2 minutes and blew it off as too impulsive or crazy. Then he said he was serious and gave me his flight itinerary.

Hmmm. I checked my calendar: just work. Work will go on without me. I could actually go if I wanted to. I threw the question out to the twitterverse and got a resounding, “Just go! You’re only young once!”

Analysis paralysis could have set in but in didn’t let it this time. I booked the flight. And THEN I started asking my friend questions like “where are we staying?” and “what should I bring?” to which he responded “I don’t know” and “a little bit of everything, but small enough to carry on your back”.

So here I am trying a new type of travel. Not exactly the relaxing, reading on the beach all day trip that I imagined, but as long as I don’t die I hope I learn something. Again.

So your turn. Have you ever just booked a flight without any other plans? Have you tried a new kind of travel experience that you wouldn’t normally try? And what did you learn about yourself from it?

See you all in a week!

 
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Posted in Living Millenial

 

Confessions of the frail: I am STRONG

27 Jul

I won’t lie. I’m a wimp. I have this reputation with my family and friends for being frail, weak, and often physically ill.

While my friends in high school were practicing on the cheerleading, track, and Ultimate Frisbee teams, I was recovering from mono on the couch for months at a time. Every time I moved (just about once every 6 months after graduating high school) I counted on my father or a good Samaritan male off the street to maneuver all my furniture up the stairs and through the doorways while I begged them not to scratch the new chairs I bought and continued to feel like I was helping by organizing all the boxes. They know not to ask me to play paintball (“Sorry, I bruise too easily.”), run too fast during a racquetball match (“Am I actually supposed to move my legs from the floor?”) or take a bike ride in the middle of summer, which have on more than one occasion ended in vomiting on a stranger’s front lawn or passing out on the sidewalk even after drinking a liter or two of water.

And I’ve whined about all of it. I cry when I stub my toe, I complain about how much my arms hurt the day after carrying groceries home from a mile away, I make it known to everyone around me if I’m dehydrated, tired, or sunburned, and I call the doctor for every rash, fever, and sinus headache.

Then when I’m worried that I’m whining too much, I check the symptoms for hypochondriasis, as if I need to confirm another ailment. Maybe I am a hypochondriac. Or maybe I’m really just a huge wimp. I could even be dying faster than a 90-year-old grandmother right now. But it doesn’t matter, because I want to keep living life, like now. I’m sick of telling myself I’m not strong enough or tough enough. I’m sick of holding myself back. I’m sick of being sick.

And when did I come to this realization? Funny story.

I started going to the gym about two months ago. I didn’t just sign up for a gym membership, though. I signed up for additional sessions with a personal trainer for the next year and I committed to a healthy lifestyle.  I knew that I had a heart condition (SVT) and anxiety that would try to convince me that I’m dying every time I had to catch my breath. But I also knew that I wanted to walk up a flight of stairs without panting, that I had a family history of breast cancer, diabetes, and brain aneurysms, and that I just didn’t want to be that whiny weak girl anymore.

The first few weeks I complained a lot. I complained about not being able to squat over the Port-a-potties at Bonnaroo for days after my first lower body workout. I gave my trainer the evil eye & a sad pouty face every time he pushed me harder than I thought I could handle. I even sat out one session that I paid for because I couldn’t get my heart rate to normalize.

I’m gradually getting stronger and stronger. Not just physically though, mentally too. Every time I push my physical limits further than I thought I could and don’t die, I realize that I’m not as frail as I thought. I used to be scared of the sessions with my trainer and now I see them as challenges. I used to leave the gym thinking I was so abnormal and unfit because I was so sore, and now not a day goes by that I don’t feel sore. I barely notice it anymore. I’ve accepted the soreness and the pain as part of feeling alive.

AND THEN, and this is the embarrassing part, I had a moment while watching the latest Twilight: Eclipse movie. Remember that part of the end of the movie where Bella is sitting in the grass with Edward? Edward tries to convince Bella that she’s not ready to become a vampire, but what Bella said really hit me. She explained how she had already gone through the most difficult part of her life when she thought she was going to die; after that she could handle anything. Very super-hero-like, right? Alright so maybe I didn’t have vampires hunting me down for the kill, but somehow, those silly movie-character lines hit me just at the right time in my life to make me believe one thing: I am strong, even if my mind tries to convince me I’m not.

 
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Posted in Living Millenial, Living Professional

 

Tips From My Journey To Find The Cheapest Gym

21 Jul

[Note: Article was originally published on iGrad.com's website on June 3, 2010. You can find it here.]

Rhian's Tree Pose

My little sister moved in with me just two weeks after her college graduation. And even though she’s a “poor college graduate” with no immediate prospects for income and may have no idea what she “wants to do with her life” (and I mean really, she has no idea), she informed me that the first thing she wanted to do when she moved in with me: get a gym membership.

My initial reaction was, “Are you crazy? Gym memberships are expensive and riddled with complicated contractual agreements!”

To which she replied, “I’m going to get it for under $30/month and if I get a job and move away I can cancel it, no problem”

“Ok…”

Somewhere along the way, she convinced me (or maybe I just realized myself) that I should probably join the gym with her. I’d been meaning to get into better shape after two years at a desk job with a worsening heart condition (SVT). Now would be the perfect time, and we could give each other the motivation and support we needed.

We were both still a little concerned about price. We’d always used the Student Recreation Center in college. I had even used the free on-campus gyms at my workplace from time to time (usually when it was convenient or a coworker went with me).

To be honest, I’m very frugal, so I don’t like to pay for anything unless I have to. That can only work for so long, though, until you realize that that something is a priority. Sometimes, you need to pay a little more for your priorities – provided you still aim for the best deal you can get!

Weighing the Options

So one hot, sunny afternoon after lunch, we began our four-hour long quest for the perfect gym. We started with a recommendation. During lunch that day a friend had mentioned the gym she belonged to was very cheap (about $10/month).  It was on the way to the 2 other gyms we were going to check out, so we started with the cheapest option—which ended up working to our advantage, because we could mention to the other gyms that we’d already seen the cheapest option in town.

Option One: Bare bones. Proclaimed the “judgment-free zone” for general physical fitness. Lots of cardio machines and open space. Massage chairs and tanning rooms (strange perks for a bare bones gym, no?). Great price: a $20/month no-contract membership. No negotiation necessary!

  • Lesson A: Always ask about guest privileges. This particular gym offered unlimited free guest privileges, which basically meant that if you were always going to the gym with someone else (in my case with my sister), you could completely share the membership and split the cost in half. Gym membership cost then came down to $10/month per person. It really doesn’t get much cheaper than that!

Option 2: The 4-star hotel of gyms. Guided tour of all sections: treadmills, Stairmasters, and bikes, oh my! All new 2011 versions with personal TVs and iPod/iPhone connectors on all equipment. Blacklight cycling class room, quiet yoga room, mixed martial arts and boxing ring (for an additional fee), a large studio fitness class room, and a private women-only workout room. Not only that, but there’s a chiropractor and nutritionist on location (with whom you’re given a free consultation/information session), and they throw in 3 free personal training sessions. Don’t forget the free Wi-Fi lounge, child care, tanning beds, and smoothie bar. All for just $25/month…but only with a 2-year contract and at a student rate.

  • Lesson B: Ask about a student discount, even if you’re not a student anymore. They knew we weren’t students anymore (but offered it to us anyways because we still had student IDs), but most of the time the salespeople are just looking for excuses to give you “a deal” so that they can make the sale. See if you can get $5/month off your membership that way.
  • Lesson C: Contracts aren’t really contracts if you’re planning on moving to another city soon. Ask about the cancellation policy. Almost all gyms with 1- or 2-year contracts will allow you to cancel your membership for no fee if you can provide proof that you’re moving more than 10-30 miles from the gym’s location. So if you’re a recent graduate worried about signing a contract because you might take a job in another city, make sure to read the fine print!

Option 3: Last stop of the day. We made it clear that we’d already been to two other gyms and were getting tired, so they promised a quick tour that wouldn’t waste our time. If Option 2 was a 4-star hotel, this one was the 2.5-star hotel. It had everything that bare bones Option 1 had, plus one personal trainer, group fitness classes, and a snazzy movie theater workout room. It was also seriously convenient: we could walk there from our house in under 3 minutes. At first, they could only offer us $29/month, until…

  • Lesson D: Competition is good. It only hurts the businesses when you expose what deals the competition is offering. It is REALLY GREAT for you, the consumer. Tell them what you love about the other gym (e.g. I’m concerned about my heart, so I told them the other gym was offering me 3 free personal training sessions to see if they would throw that in). Don’t be afraid to tell them what the other gyms were offering ($25 or $10/month) if it’s lower than what they’re offering you ($29/month).

Shopping Around is Key – and Competition is Priceless

We left all the gyms that afternoon to go home and deliberate.

Tip: you will not get the best deal unless you shop around.

Together we decided that Option 2 was the best choice for both of us. My sister really wanted group fitness classes and I valued the individualized personal training sessions. It made sense. We signed up that night.

Tip: Like I said before, the salesmen are always going to make it look like they’re giving you a great deal, so if they don’t waive at least the enrollment fee, processing fee, or annual membership fee, act surprised and tell them that the other gym offered to waive blankety-blank fee (whichever fee is higher).

The next day,  the salesperson at Option 3 called me to ask what we had decided. When I mentioned that we went with their competition, he immediately asked me what the deciding factor was – and how much they ended up offering us. I was completely honest, and 15 minutes later, he called me back.

After “speaking with his manager,” he said, he was able to offer us a deal at $19/month each. In other words, they dropped $10 off our monthly fee just for engaging in a little local competition!

I explained that we already signed a contract with the other guys. He called back five minutes later (for the 3rd time!)  to explain that there should be a 3-day contract cancellation periodthat would void our contract with their competition for no cost, just in case we were still interested.

Another win for the consumer: we wouldn’t have known about the cancellation period if Option 3 wasn’t so desperate for our business!

Now you know just about everything I didn’t know going in. Get out there and negotiate your way into the cheapest gym membership you can get. Good luck!

 
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Posted in Living Millenial

 

PechaKucha: Creative Minds do Durham

09 Jul

It’s already been three weeks since our last PechaKucha Night. Since we’ve already made a lot of headway getting the next set of speakers together for the September event at SPARKcon it feels more like months ago, though!

I wanted to take a moment to relive and reflect on that night.

It was such a great event though that I can still feel the energy in the room. I remember the smiles as guests, organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and even curious passerbys walked into Relevance’s snazzy loft office space to grab some wine or beer, Mediterranean appetizers, and mingle with old and new friends. I remember the silence as everyone focused intently on the first three presentations about dealing with stress in our lives, issues of modern civil rights right here in Raleigh, and how our life should be more like the bees (packed full of graphic honey bee photographs). I remember the room full of laughter as up-and-coming improv comedian Nathania Johnson bashed the modern education system. I remember seeing some people even start taking notes after the first intermission during the presentations on business, nonprofits, and entrepreneurship. I remember the flutter of excitement & chit-chat during the breaks. And finally, I remember seeing tears as Gabrielle talked about the 10 lessons she learned from her grandma who had recently passed away, a tribute of sorts. As one attendee said, “the circle is complete.”

All in all, I was genuinely impressed by the entire evening. As an organizer I was probably more ecstatic about how smoothly everything went (especially compared to the March event) than all of the guests. Having a private space with amazingly helpful sponsors (Relevance, Lonerider Beer, NC Wine and Grape Council and Saladelia Cafe) and volunteers (Cyn Mallard, Janet Stracke, Brianne Villano, Kartik Bhavsar, Rianna Mallard, Shannon Prue, & Jeff Brenman) certainly helps. On the other hand, my one regret as an organizer is that I was so preoccupied with organizing that I wasn’t able to give all of the presentations my 100% undivided attention. Ahhh the sacrifices we make.

Nonetheless, there were a few presentations that really stood out for me personally that I’d like to share:

Nathania Johnson’s We Don’t Need No Education: Why the Worst Students are the Brightest Thinkers

HILARIOUS. I knew that she’d be bashing traditional education, but I was completely unprepared for the level of hilarity that ensued. Sometimes the best way to get your point across is to be as ridiciulous as possible. She succeded. I don’t think anyone could have left the room that night without rethinking their own educational choices, the education their children are getting at school, or how society got so far out of hand.

Thank you Nathania, for saying what a lot of us are thinking, but in a completely different way.

[you can watch the video of her presentation on her website here—and you really should!]

Gabrielle Kaasa’s Love, Life and Friendship: 10 Lessons From My 99 Year Old Great-Grandma

I didn’t realize it until nearly the end, but Gabrielle’s “mama” as she calls her, only recently passed away earlier this year. The fact that she was able to give tribute to her great-grandmother so soon after her passing was courageous, if nothing else. Not only that, but there was some real substance to the lessons she shared with us. My own grandmother was in the audience that night a few seats away and I immediately felt a closer connection with her than I had earlier in the night. She brought the audience a little bit closer to their families that night. Gabrielle reminded the audience not to take their family for granted and that if you listen closely, they might even have some words of wisdom to pass on.

[read how she was glowing after the event on her blog here]

Steven Keith’s Epiphany Farming

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Steven having never met him before, but with a title like Epiphany Farming I was intrigued. It was either going to be a huge bust or inspire an epiphany of my own. His slides ended up being the simplest of the evening: all the same background with one word on each, and of course there were 20 slides as necessary. At each slide he talked about one important point or tip for encouraging the flow of ideas, or epiphanies. With no tears, laughter, or captivating slides to distract me I paid attention to every word he said. The outcome? This man needs to mentor me.

I spoke with some of the other attendees and organizers after the fact and we’re intent on starting our own Epiphany Farming Meetup for young people who want to brainstorm or flesh out ideas with others. Can’t wait to see where this goes!

To see more photos of the event, check out the Facebook photo albums:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16168&id=127784347243885

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2465064&id=2717888&l=44545d7f1e

 
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Posted in Living Local

 

Lesson From Social Media Day: I’m An Expert, Too

01 Jul

What I learned on Social Media Day (June 30, 2010)

Yesterday was Social Media Day, as pronounced by Mashable. I only heard about it a few days earlier and I really wasn’t sure what the purpose of a Social Media Day would be, even after reading Mashable’s explanation. But as someone who is, I’ll just say, interested in social media and its future, I didn’t debate whether or not I would participate, but rather debated which local event I would attend.

There were two haphazardly organized events: the first one at Campbell University’s business school nearly an hour from Raleigh and the second one in Cary organized for everyone who didn’t want to drive the distance. I ended up grabbing a ride to the Campbell University event with three other social media buddies (Tedd Huff, Regina Twine, and my sister Rianna Mallard) expecting that there would be between 3-5 informative presentations on real-world business applications of social media. I expected that there would be some talk of local startups I was already familiar with, but I was going there in hopes of learning something new. Because that’s what I do: I go out there, experience, and hope to gain some sort of useful knowledge I didn’t have before.

In a way I sort of did, but not what I expected.

What I really learned is that I am way ahead of the game. I come to these sorts of events from the perspective of a measly 24-year-old college graduate (without a degree in anything like Marketing, Computer Science, Journalism, or Business) with little paid work experience—which, for the past 2 years, has been in the survey research field. I show up as if my mind is an empty receptacle for knowledge from the more experienced professionals.

Normally that’s not a bad angle to take, but not when the discussion is about social media. I’m actually ahead of 99% of the world when it comes to social media. Those of us who are intimately familiar with social media are always complaining about how we hate it when people declare themselves a social media “guru”, “expert” or “aficionado”, or how ridiculous it is when someone starts up a social media consulting business after only creating a Twitter account 6 months ago.

I had this revelation yesterday that I just don’t agree with all that anymore. All of us active social media users tend to run in the same circles and interact with the same people: and it’s a much smaller circle than we think. If you walk out into the street and ask the next 10 people if they know what Twitter is and if they use it, I would bet you that a few wouldn’t even know what Twitter is and if they did, they probably wouldn’t use it. We tend to think that everyone uses social media (and I don’t mean just have a Facebook account) around us, but the truth is that most people still don’t.

Example: When I spoke at the ProductCamp RTP unconference in May, there was a Career Transition Panel session that I was considering attending after my session. We weren’t sure if the session would be useful for us (me & 2 other fellow job-hunting social media users), so we asked the woman running the panel what they would be discussing & if she thought we would benefit from it. She asked us what we were already doing in our job search. We mentioned things like going to networking and tweetup events, blogging regularly about our fields, building a personal brand on Twitter & LinkedIn and managing our Facebook privacy settings. She point blank told us it would be more beneficial for us to attend a different session because we were “already way ahead of the game.”

So if we are already so ahead of the game, why do our peers get irritated when we call ourselves experts? I think it’s a semantic issue. We’re actually social media pioneers. Of course we don’t have all of the answers because the field is changing and evolving so rapidly. I like to call myself a social media experimenter. If I were ever to open a social media consulting business that’s what I would call myself. There are some guidelines to follow, but the rules are changing pretty quickly. I couldn’t guarantee specific results just because they worked in a different situation 2 months ago. A social media “guru” is really just someone having the basics down and be willing to experiment with the tools and rules, whether that be in a business, educational, or job-search setting.

So wake up and realize that the world is actually a really big place! There’s enough room for more social media “experts”. We all just want to help make the world a more social place!

Note: I’m ahead of the game when it comes to social media, but not when it comes to business, marketing, or journalism/writing. I’m actively looking for continuing education in all of those fields, whether that be formal courses, a great blog, a local Raleigh meetup group, or something else I’m not thinking of. Pass on anything you can!
 
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Posted in Living Local, Living Professional

 

On TNGG: Volunteering at Bonnaroo

28 Jun

I’ve been writing over at The Next Great Generation for some months now (archives here), but my most recent piece took a lot of emotional labor to write and required learning some new skills like learning how to make videos in iMovie, so I wanted to make sure to share this particular one with my readers.

Bonnaroo was sort of this life-changing, mind re-wiring, boundary-testing sort of experience that I’ve been trying to comprehend for weeks now. This particular article (only one of many possible perspectives) focuses on my experience as a vendor specifically and why I probably will never go to Bonnaroo as a general patron.

So click the screen shot below to go straight to the article and my video/photo collage of my Bonnaroo experience.

Click the picture to read the full article on The Next Great Generation

 
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Posted in Living Millenial

 

Mixing It Up

20 Jun

Sometimes you need to step away from the daily grind and try something new. That’s pretty much what I’ve been doing the past month:

  1. Spoke at an “unconference”. As my most recent post stated, I gave my first presentation to a group of about 15 product developers, product managers, and others after giving a quick 20-second pitch to a group of about 100 at ProductCamp RTP on May 22nd. It was a fantastic success. I learned a tremendous amount about my own public speaking skills as well as learning how to teach and/or explain an idea to a group of professionals not only in a very different field than myself, but also much older & more knowledgeable about their fields. Our presentation ended up being voted the 2nd best presentation of the entire day (and you can listen to the audio of our presentation here and here). I genuinely did not expect that, especially being my first jaunt in the public speaking realm, but boy was I pleasantly surprised. It made my day to know that I could single-handedly contribute valuable knowledgeable to the community.
  2. Started writing for iGrad.com. And then next thing I knew my little sister was moving in with me and turning my world upside down. She somehow convinced me to join a gym and sign up for a personal trainer with her the following week. So naturally I wrote about it and iGrad.com published it on their site on June 3rd! After the folks at iGrad asked me to submit something for their awesome new site helping college graduates transition into a post-college career & life, I knew it was right up my alley and I had to contribute! Hopefully I can continue submitting more pieces to help recent college grads when the inspiration strikes me.
  3. Recruited Raleigh writers for a TNGG theme week. While contributing to The Next Great Generation is nothing new for me, I took on a larger-than-normal role coordinating the Raleigh, NC portion of Cities Week (which ran June 6th-13th) and writing an article of my own about why Raleigh is my home, sweet home :) It was pretty exciting for me to find other Gen Y peers who had opinions on the future of Raleigh who may not normally be given the opportunity to express those ideas to others. Giving someone else a voice for a change was awesome.
  4. Volunteered at Bonnaroo. And then as that was all coming to an end, a really big opportunity fell into my hands. I was asked to volunteer for a local nonprofit called Grow and Share at Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival for almost an entire week, all expenses paid (including free entry–yea, pretty sweet deal!). With my part-time work schedule and my sister’s complete lack of employment we jumped at the opportunity unaware of, for the most part, what we were getting ourselves into (which ended up being a life changing experience). We were eager to try something new, and having never really camped alone in our lives (or for more than one night or in torrential downpours at that) or been to a large music festival (heck, we’d never been to any music festival), this was definitely something new. We learned of the trip on June 4th and were on our way to Manchester, TN by 5am on June 9th. We returned 6 days later on the afternoon of June 14th, cherishing running toilets & showers, water that doesn’t smell like rotten eggs, clean clothes, a soft bed, and above all air conditioning to get out of the 97 degree heat we struggled with every day. But in the end, we loved it. The music was great. We volunteered for a cause that practically sells itself. We bonded with each other and with new friends along the way. It’s been a long transition back into the “real world” again, but as I reflect I will have more to say… just you wait and see…
 
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Posted in Living Millenial

 
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