The good life - TheSilverTelegram.com

The week before last, I launched my new business, TheSilverTelegram.com a public relations consultancy, focused on brand building and good PR. This is a huge change in my life, along with helping to build another business as well (to be announced later).

It's so much hard work, but also completely rewarding. It's funny that being on your own work schedule can be so much more physically demanding, but the mentality is so different when you're working for yourself. It is definitely only for certain types of people. For so long I have wondered why my focus and interest wasn't quite right at agencies I've been at, now I know.

With my persistent ADD, running my own business feeds all aspects of my mental hunger. Now I just need to stay organized, which isn't very hard for me anyway. I am so excited to pursue my business and hopefully maintain successful relationships in the coming years. This way I can continue to travel regularly, enjoy life at home, cook more and be in better physical shape among other things.

I have also considered getting a small loft in Downtown LA, which would be nice. That may be coming soon, depending on the next few weeks. Anyway...I am officially an entrepreneur and hope to continue expanding my portfolio to the other two businesses (now three) that I hope to pursue throughout my life.

Return to planet normal...

So I have been back home for a little over a week now and have started new routines and gotten used to the time. I feel like I wake up, workout, work, go home and pass out. My energy has been a little low, however it's possibly because I thought it was a good idea to give up caffeine (I've resolved that problem today).

My new wake-up and workout schedule has been working really well for me, but it's difficult for me to stay up at night after I get home. I feel like I just make dinner and plop on the couch...and there is no return from that. My productive self has slowly been pushing me to wake up earlier to get things done, but I'd really like to stay up longer and see more of the day. I need regain control of my schedule so that I can fight the good fight against time.

Managing yourself as a business is so difficult. There are way too many things that I need to get done in a day. I feel like I over-promise and under-deliver, something that I have always vowed never to do to clients, but keep doing to myself.

Lists are beginning to mean nothing to me. There are no consequences to my personal laziness and if there are, I have already lived with them and they aren't bad enough company where I care. I guess it boils down to the fact that I'm not really a patient person and generally want everything to be done and dealt with yesterday and if it takes longer than that, I feel I have no control. Ah well...we are home, happy, healthy and ready to move forward. Maybe now that I got this out on screen, I can make myself accountable.

I did bribe myself with shopping, which may just work!

How-To write AND keep your New Year's resolutions!

It's that time of year again and I love it because it means there's a whole year of new-ness ahead. Actually, I don't even know if that make sense ;). Anyway, I have a pretty good ritual of writing my new year's resolutions for the next year around this time. Nothing unique about that right? WRONG!!!

I'm one of the few people I know that KEEP my resolutions, yes...I actually check in with them throughout the year. I keep a copy of them in my planner or phone or wherever and I check in mid-year to see where I stand. Yes, that may be obnoxious to you...but when it comes the end of the year to write new ones; I'm excited about it because its more like a prediction of what i'm going to accomplish over the next year.

There are definitely some key tricks to writing good resolutions, so I thought I would share with you all; so that you can make 2010 your BEST year yet. Especially after the depressing 2009 we just went through.

1. Figure out what you want to accomplish! - Ok, this may be self-explanatory but it has to be said. Take some time for yourself one day, sit down and really think about where you would like to be by the end of 2010. Don't think about where you are today - that will just throw wrenches in your plan.

2. Be realistic - It may sound good to say you're gonna lose 50 pounds next year, but are you really going to do that? Make sure that your resolutions are something that you can stick with and really give effort to. If you think 20 is the realistic number then put down 20, you know your limits. If your goal is too ridiculous in any area, you'll be more likely to forget it or give up.

3. Give yourself measurable goals - Be sure that you are setting some expectation for yourself. Saying to yourself "I'm going to save money next year" doesn't really say much at all. Remember, these are for yourself for the most part. Put a number goal on things like; I'm going to save $1200 in 2010 or I'm going to lose 10 pounds by march. Putting dates and number give your nearer and farther goals and gives you some motivation to work towards things. You don't have to make it ridiculous, its not a competition. Resolutions are just things you feel will make you or your life better. (I promised myself I would play in 10 tennis tournaments next year!)

4. Tell people about it. - Does a tree make a sound when it falls in the woods if no one hears it? Tell someone about your goals/plans, this is probably someone close to you or maybe even a friend that you're writing resolutions with. That way, someone is a witness and possibly may ask you how your getting along at certain points. If you have someone to share it with, it's easier to keep your resolutions throughout the year.

5. Keep them close - Have your resolutions handy. I generally have mine on a half sheet of paper in my planner. Sometimes when i'm flipping through to check something else I run across and re-read them. This is a great reminder of what you have to accomplish and keeps them in your head. It's not surprising that you won't have them memorized. Another good place is your wallet.

6. Check-in mid year! - Right before summer hits, check in with yourself. If you check-in mid year and you kind of put some of the items by the way side, you still have about 6 months to accomplish some of your goals. Most of our goals won't take a whole year to get to, but we give ourselves that much because we've gotta live life. This is a great time to check things off your list (my favorite) so you can see what you have left and how much progress you have made!

7. Celebrate yourself - There's never a bad time to celebrate. I generally see new year's as a time of celebrating the past year and really seeing all that I have accomplished. But along the way, have small celebrations when you accomplish your goals.

8. Keep it short! - Last but not least. Having 100 resolutions for the year is a little out of range. Create as many as you think is important to really get to that year. I generally have about 10 main goals for the year, other stuff comes up; both those 10 I make sure to keep top of mind.

Well, I hope that you get a chance to plan for 2010 and I wish every one a very happy New Year! Good luck and god speed....2010 Here I come!

Getting social at BlogWorld - Day 1

First thing is first...WHY did I forget the camera? Was it because I left my place this morning at 4:30 a.m. to catch the first flight out to Vegas? Maybe so....Maybe that's also why I forgot to stock up on b.cards....DUMMMMMBBBB! That's ok, I should have enough to last me tomorrow night's Blogworld party.

If you don't know what that is, it's a party where a whole bunch of computer nerds that love to write and be heard go and consume a bunch of free alcohol at really cool places in Vegas (well...this year anyway). If you can't tell, I'm looking forward to it.

Now...back to our regularly scheduled programming...The Social Media Business Summit (Day 1)


Getting at the Las Vegas Convention Center at 7:30 a.m. is not my idea of fun and there was really not much fun involved, but the day was more eventful than I expected.

I started my day at the Keynote (which was awfully early for a conference). The first 5 minutes was full of apologies and thank you's for making it out so early on the day before the expo. The rest of it was really the speaker's recount of how she got started in social media and how it opened doors for her.

I really feel like social media should be able to do that for anyone who puts time and effort into it like most relationships. Something that started out as an annoying fad, has now been translated to an essential business and communication tool.

What I realized yesterday is that we are at a pinnacle of technology that may never be seen before. This generation is the one that was able to see the turning point of simple technology into advanced technologies. Our children will never have to look up anything in books if we don't make them. That said, I think that traditional learning is still very important.

Make time to learn and use new technologies but introduce your kids to the essential tools of learning (like how to write in cursive for example), how to look things up in the library, playing an instrument (like the piano or violin), reading novels, writing letters. Now that technology has 'simplified' everything, we have become simple and forgotten about the sophisticated and romantic cultural traits of years past.

I guess that's another topic. Recap for Day 1's poignant new media sessions......

Things I could care less for:
Disorganized badge distribution this morning
Me hauling around my suitcase all day
Not enough power outlets
Getting yelled at for networking at the luncheon (bad planning on their part)
The guy who was snoring in the back of the Internet Marketing panel

Major +'s:
Informative panels
Great discussions
Knowledgeable speakers
Super friendly social media people that like to network and learn

Follow me on Twitter to hear what's going on at the show @Ronjini

even Creativity is subject to change!

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Today, Fast Company posted its:

“The Most Creative People In Business: Top 25” Slideshow | Fast Company

What does it mean to be creative? I think I'm creative, however, I noticed that I'm not quite on the list...so maybe I'm not creative enough. Everyone on the list is a successful entrepreneur or the lead in a business unit of a large company, as it should be. So, hmmm... how do I get on the list? There are many things I'd like to accomplish in my lifetime and I think this list could just be one of them. I did not see one Indian female or a PR professional on this list of a pretty diverse range of people.

That kind of bothered me. Isn't PR as a profession supposed to be creative? Why do the writers or marketing people get all the props? Public relations has grown to be a delicate combination of writing, marketing and creativity...Oh and a lot of calling on the phones, but that's just tactics. I think the problem has become that many have come to recognize PR professionals as annoying, ineffective cold-callers. To be honest, I think that many of them have become just that. Many PR plans lack strategy and the ability to change at a moments notice. Instead of thinking on their feet and changing with the wind, they are caught up in corporate documents and contracts. If more PR people acted on passion and end-results, I think the creativity is more likely to emerge and maybe then PR folks would get recognized as creative professionals. Strategy can be creative.

In the past few months, I have spoken to entrepreneurs, individuals and companies that have all had bad experiences with their PR agencies. Their main complaint? Lack of results, too much red tape and rejection of ideas from the client. It seems that large agencies in creative industries have become complacent and lack the creative edge that many growing businesses for branding and awareness. I've always believed in working with a client rather than forcing ideas down their throat just because 'we said so'.

Therefore, henceforth, wherewithall, there to....all that crap; creative bloaks are doing business themselves to break free from the bondage of bad management and dull lives. I guess I can't really argue with them. To be creative in a creative industry, you really have to let go of all of those corproate processes and feel the flow. Thus it begins, my journey to a top 100 list. Mind you, this may take several years but I'm just putting it out there so everyone knows where I'm heading ;). Take a brief look at the thumbnails on the list if you can't read all of them, it's pretty interesting and gives you a brief moment of hope that anything is possible.