Balance is something my clients struggle with often, and something I struggle with as well. For me it boils down to what is often referred to as the maker vs manager dilemma. I’ve talked a bit about that before, but it’s something that still comes up – after all I am in a business that has a vast need for the creative as well as the managerial, and I own my businesses, putting me in a manager role often, even when it’s time to be creative.

I must say this dilemma is a problem I’m happy to have – I love what I do! To that end, I’ve tried a number of ways to scale this in my search for balance this year. The advice I give my clients works well if you are one business, no matter how large it is or how many people you manage, but how do you scale if you do what I do (three businesses, several monthly events, two yearly events and a variety of clients)?

1) Be The Gatekeeper Of Your Own Time

Set aside time when you aren’t available for meetings or calls. You don’t have to explain to anyone why you aren’t available at a certain time, but you do have to be your own enforcer. Even if you have a secretary or virtual assistant keeping your schedule, you need to help them enforce your blocks of time and set a precedent about this. This is the hardest thing to do – with a global economy, time differences, and the varying schedules of other businesses and people you may work with on projects, you will have some clashes. I can not stress enough how important it is to stand firm. Trust me, when you don’t you cause yourself stress that is far worse than the slight disgruntlement that may occur when someone finds they can’t speak to you right away about something.

2) Don’t Be Afraid To Go After Your Schedule With A Scalpel

A) Recently, I was slated to speak at SXSW. I had a brief solo presentation in the Future 15 block. I was honored to be included, but as the event drew closer, I found myself stretched thin for time, with new client deadlines looming, and no way to make a week of travel fit into the schedule without making my client projects pay for it. About three weeks before the event I politely bowed out and suggested some names of people who were more than qualified to give my talk (never, ever leave a conference planner in the lurch by canceling too close to the date or by not finding your own replacement – it’s just rude). How did I make the tough call? Several factors came into play, but the biggest factor was “How will attending this event affect the quality of work I am providing for my client?” followed closely by “How will this tip the scale on my time and to do list and how long would it take to recover?”

B) On the flip side, it sometimes isn’t your outside engagements like speaking gigs that need to be trimmed, but your client deliverables. I see so many bids for work on projects I’m doing that I have to reject or send back because the person did not include a time line at all, or did not follow the time line set out in the RFP when structuring their bid. If you give the client unreasonable expectations of turn around on facets of the project or result windows, you are going to set yourself, and your client, up for disappointment. This does you both a disservice. Every client would like things to go as quickly as possible, but personally – I’d rather have it go well. Don’t be afraid to be realistic and blunt in your estimates of time – in the end it will work better for everyone, and on some occasions, you’ll still deliver early.

3) Figure Out What Distracts You, And Boot It

In this case, for me, you’d think it was social media being on, like Twitter, when I have to write or create something for a client. Nope, social media isn’t distracting at all – it’s like background noise to me (this may not be the case for you – everyone is different!). For me, it’s the phone. I try to schedule all of my calls on two days in a week. I prefer these days to be Monday and Friday but sometimes it works out to be two other days. Either way, I stick to it – otherwise my deadlines get thrown off balance. I turn the ringer off, the phone face down, and send everything to voice mail, only checking a couple of times in a day, on the other days. That’s what works for me, and it took me a good bit of time to figure that out. Once I did, it made my working life much, much easier to manage.

4) Sleep

Those who know I sleep about 5 hours a night may find this one a bit odd, coming from me, but I assure you it is essential. I don’t do well sleeping more than 5 – 6 hours a night, but others need as much as 14 hours. Figure out your sleep “sweet spot” and make sure you get it. I can tell when I pull several short nights in a row for a deadline that my work product is falling short of my own high expectations (not to mention the client’s), that my decisions are not as sharp as they could be, and that I need to put the brakes on and evaluate my time management to get back on track. Don’t burn the midnight oil because the “cool kids” seem to be up that late if it doesn’t work for you! Most often, those “cool kids” are just night owls and they still catch the sleep they need, just at different times of the day than you might. Learn your body clock, your sleep needs, and manage your time well so you take care of yourself.

5) One Day Blocks

These are not the same as a day off. In my office I call it “going to my garrett” because I do it most often when I need to write. One Day Blocks are days where you simply mark off your calendar, leave your extra gadgets behind and turned off, take only what you need, and go to a quiet place to be creative. No phone calls, no emails, no social media, no surfing the net – just you and your creativity. If you are trying to balance a maker/manager schedule, this will prove to be your hardest step to success. You will find that no one, client or staff, likes for you to be unavailable to them on their schedule for a whole day. I say TOUGH. Don’t defend it, don’t explain it, just stand firm about doing it, once a week or once a month – whenever you need to. Trust me, you’ll thank me for this one if you create.

6) No More Mobile Scheduling

Your calendar is your best resource for keeping yourself in balance and getting things done. In this mobile world, the temptation is huge to schedule things on the fly – everything we do it on our smart phones now, after all. No. Just no. The best advice I ever got on scheduling was from Michelle Wolverton, my VA, when she insisted that I never schedule anything unless I was seated at my desk, in my office, with my main calendar and computer in front of me. And she was right – making that a hard and fast rule was the best thing I’ve ever done for my business and my sanity. That way, you never have a forgotten appointment, you never go to two cities hours apart in one day (trust me, I’ve done that to myself, and once, 4 – don’t ask…), you don’t have calendar to phone synching issues, and you can visualize your entire week or month at a time, unlike trying to look at a tiny phone screen and figure it out.

7) Say No

With everyone chanting the “be helpful” mantra, especially in social media, it’s easy to take it too far. Learn to say no. You can not take on every project. It may look like I do every project, but I assure you, I turn down quite a few. Protect your time and your sanity and don’t be afraid to stand firm with a polite but finite and distancing “What a good idea, but I simply can’t fit that in.” Then stop. Don’t justify, don’t people please, don’t waffle, don’t waiver – say your no and then change the subject or excuse yourself. In the end how many plates you spin (or drop) is entirely up to you.

8 ) Keep Your Offline World Healthy

It’s tempting to have a fully online life for many, but that just isn’t healthy. It can be really difficult to balance work, play and home. Especially if you do this social media thing, and do it well, your offline friends may not understand. I do my best to bring the two worlds together whenever possible. I host wine dinners at my house for those that have become true friends online so they can meet my offline friends, and vice versa. I include and inform the significant other in my life (secrets are unhealthy, transparency begins at home). If your offline friends and family begin telling you they don’t see you often enough, they aren’t just being difficult – they really aren’t. Turn off the computer and go be with them if that happens, immediately, because a strong family and friends are gold. If they want to be online too, show them how – even if having your mom on your Facebook is hard (and it is). Do what it takes to give yourself time with the ones who matter most. No amount of perceived “rock star” online status or temporary internet pseudo fame is worth losing the people who helped get you there.

9) Don’t Leash Yourself To One System

To do lists, Get It Done, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (or whatever that book was called), white boards, segmented time… the list systems we come up with to keep track of ourselves span miles. I recommend having two systems. Why? Because I guarantee that in spite of your best intentions, life happens, and you’ll get off track. If you only have one system, you will only browbeat yourself for not keeping up and not be able to recover. If you have two in place, you can simply say, “Oh shoot, I missed xx on the GTD system, let me go over to my simple tasks in Gmail and see where I need to pick it back up”. It takes the pressure off, and acts as a backup plan. Rigidity kills.

10) Go Ahead: Drop The Ball

I say this with all seriousness – even if you follow every management tip you’ve ever heard to the letter, you will occasionally drop the ball. There will be days when you get frustrated, feel overwhelmed, miss deadlines, get swamped and feel like you are drowning. Trust me, I know. I have some days, maybe twice a year, where I get so frustrated with myself for being off track (yes, I get off track, too) that I look longingly at senior level social media jobs for established companies, because that day it seems like it might be easier to work for someone else. It happens. When it does, do not climb on board the self flagellation train, do not attempt to reboot your to-do list, stop treading water. Take a deep breath, close the computer, and go do something else all day. I am not kidding. Don’t even send an email explaining your absence or making excuses – it isn’t going to bring your project back on track and it is going to distract you from the reboot you obviously need. Go walk in some grass, play on a beach, take your kids to the zoo, hit a few golf balls – whatever. When you return to work the next day, you will find that magically, your reboot has given you an idea enabling you to catch up, and you’ve gotten some much needed time to de stress, because often, stress it what is throwing you off your game.

Justin Kownacki’s post, referenced in the video, can be found here (and seriously, if Justin isn’t on your daily read list, you are missing out).

Douglas Rushkoff’s book Life Inc.: How the World Became a Corporation and How to Take It Back
can be purchased here (affiliate link).

And last but not least, a link to the Pick My Brain experiment, for those to pressed for time (or lazy) to scroll down.

*the legal beagle yelled at me for not inserting something about “rates may change” in future. (I mean, duh, right?) So, there ya go, to make the legals happy.

As outlined over on the Epiphanies blog, Allen Voivod and I had an interesting conversation recently about ISMA and certification in general. Some of the things that made my conversation with Allen different than the knee-jerk responses that had been given in the past were perspective and a much more big picture conversation. Big picture conversations open up dialogue, and dialogue is how you effect change.

The perspective of someone who is not a part of ISMA, but who chose the course, was a valuable one to hear. It told me that while I don’t see this field as something ready for certification or even able to be certified yet, there is a significant subset of people out there who are not ready or able to think in such a dramatically new way, who are more comfortable with rules, regulations and guidelines and who feel a need for credentials that mirror traditional industries. I get that. This new and malleable adaptive media plane can seem scary, and is rife with underqualified people.

This is nowhere more evident than in the rise of full social media degrees or simple courses offered by colleges and universities, from Georgia to SNHU and UNH right here in NH. I think I’ll write a separate post next week on how to vet that professor or program to make sure the college is teaching best practices, but for now, we’ll just say that this rise in degree offerings showcases two things. One, that this field is here to stay (we as practitioners knew this, but the public is seeing the validity now). Two, that people really are clamoring for a better way to do due diligence and the tried and true degree method is one of the first places they turn, mentally.

The interesting thing to note about all of this is that when this new playing field is allowed to work in a thriving, rule-free environment, things sort themselves out. I don’t mean that in a kumbaya, “Twitter is Love” kind of way. I mean that people are smarter than we give them credit for, and that the online social world has an uncanny knack for sorting out the wheat from the chaf quickly and effectively (and publicly).

I can assure you, having a badge or certificate is not a guarantee that you won’t get scammed. Doing due diligence is the only way to choose who to ask for help. There are plenty of people sporting a “certification” that are fully unethical and underqualified (for what it is worth, I don’t think Allen and Lani are among those people). The same thing goes for lawyers, accountants, and many more professions, but you know all of this. I’ve talked about it before, both here and in person, and nearly everyone has at least one “I can’t believe I got suckered by…” story to tell.

One thing I admire about Allen and Lani is how they approached this as an education. New to the space, they went to as many sources as possible to learn as much as they could about this space that they wanted to work in. As evidenced by my continual integration of free and low cost learning opportunities for everyone (PodCamp NH, Social Media Breakfast NH, S•Cub3d Conference, Strong Women in Tech, the Pick My Brain Experiment, and many more) I am all about people who genuinely want to learn. While I’m somewhat disappointed that their quest for knowledge exposed them to some bad practices, if you look at the roster of places they sought knowledge and talk to their clients, they were able to get a level of balance through variety and it shows.

Has my opinion changed about the organization since that original post? No, if anything I think it may have solidified. But I like that Allen and I were able to open up a dialogue, and I’ll plan to continue going back and forth with him via blog post so we can keep the dialogue going and loop all of you into it as well. We can’t learn and grow and shape this space we’re in if we don’t listen to each other, after all.

So, you asked for it, you got it. As an experiment, I blocked out what free time I can to make this a service. We’ll start with this week and next, and we’ll see how it goes. If you are one of the people who has always wanted to take me to coffee or for a beer to pick my brain, now’s your chance. My advice? The software I found doesn’t let me put an end date on the project, so pick a time early in the experiment to allow for possibly not continuing it.

BOOK A TIME TO PICK MY BRAIN

When you get there, you see times first, then once you pick a time you see the description (copied below for your information) pop up with all of the legal mumbo jumbo. Or you should – if the long description form doesn’t pop up for you after, let me know. Please note: I am looking for a better system for handling this: this one does not allow for a lot of customization. Until I find a better system: If for some reason I am not available on a date you choose (e.g. if I have a speaking gig, etc), I will contact you to pick a different day.

“Let me take you out to [insert beverage type or meal] and pick your brain about something” has to be the thing I get asked the most.

I’m flattered to be considered pick-worthy, but one of the reasons you want to ask me questions is that I’m good at what I do and that takes time, which leaves little time for the simpler requests. So many people suggested I make the request into a service, I thought I’d take them up on it. At the moment this is a limited time experiment. We’ll see how it goes and if it makes actually doing my job more difficult, or if it is something we all enjoy. See below for cost.

Tell me a bit about you, and about why you want to Pick My Brain. Then schedule one of my available appointment times.

Legal stuff:

1) This is advice only. I can’t be held responsible for you deciding to use my advice for nefarious deeds and schemes. It’s intended to help you be better at what you need to be better at.

2) Sometimes I won’t be able to answer something if it falls under an NDA. Some of my clients require these little gems of legal silence. I’ll let you know that’s why if this happens and the genie will grant you another wish. Er, I mean, I’ll answer a different question.

3) I can’t create an entire strategy for your organization in an hour knowing not much about how you work as a whole, what your goals are, etc. That’s not what this is for. This is intended for questions I *can* answer in an hour. Think ahead to what matters most to you to know RIGHT NOW.

Cost

Here is where I get really experimental. I’ve set the cost at zero United States Dollars for now. Most people want to pick my brain over lunch because they think they can’t afford my consulting fees. They’d be surprised, I try to keep it reasonable, but that’s a discussion for another time.

For this: Make one of the first appointments. After we have our appointment, go to PayPal and send whatever amount you think the advice was worth to my business PayPal address. Or not. That’s it. It’s that simple.

I hope this helps you out and allows me to give some nice people the advice they need in a way that doesn’t eat my schedule alive.

Why adaptive media? Because in the end the platforms and applications are just tools, and they are adaptive. They require the user to adapt to a more inclusive set of societal rules, to get back into a communication mode instead of a sales or quota mode, to relearn how to be human even in promotion or business, more. They also adapt constantly, changing almost daily. Some live in a niche (Twitter), some fall out of fashion (MySpace) or lose funding or close for other reasons (TipJoy), some grow exponentially for a while only to begin to fade away (Friendster), some seem to eat the rest of the tools alive (Google), but in the end – they are only tools.

If you call it what it is and work on changing the midset behind the use of the tools, it’s easier to create an atmosphere where you can ride out the volatile nature of the social web and find growth no matter what happens to the tools you use to do it. The social mindset isn’t going anywhere, but it will become a more connected way of living and doing business that will outlast whatever tools you use to do it. Adapt in this age of adaptive media, and don’t trip yourself up by attaching yourself so firmly to one tool you can’t float if it sinks.

How does the Gruen Transfer apply to social media? In two ways, I think. The first is the moment a new social media user sees the vast array of tools and techniques out there. It’s simply overwhelming, a kind of constant information dump. This combination of information flow and disorientation causes the social media version of the Gruen Transfer, and can make people susceptible to a wide variety of unsavory choices and potential bad decisions. Luckily the vast majority of people who use the tools are willing to share their knowledge and be helpful, which helps many avoid common pitfalls and choose the best tools to navigate the space (as an example: think of Friendster as the social media equivalent of that teal sequined shirt your best friend talked you out of at the mall).

The second way the Gruen Transfer applies to social media is seen in the rise of the new social media sales force. This encompasses not just those who use social media to market businesses and brands, or those who teach social media, but the very same people who would finance things like shopping malls and Vegas casino construction. This new untapped frontier is, to a certain type of person, ripe for social engineering on a grand scale.

This type of thing fascinates me. I’ve been doing some digging to see if research has been done to help consumers combat the Gruen Transfer effectively. If I can find reliable research, or someone who is actively conducting this research, it could help stem the tide of the social media sphere becoming just another shopping mall, slash and burn mentality and foster a continuance of true community, as well as reduce the drop off rate in social media use that it causes. It could also help foster this new economy that is trying to hard to grow and be different, because a true collaborative economy and a shopping mall-straight consumption economy can’t effectively coexist.

I’d love to hear your opinions on the matter, and to be pointed to someone doing great research in the topic.

Myself (Leslie Poston) Uptown Uncorked and Film POP!, “Twitter for Dummies“, @leslie

Ariel Hyatt, Ariel Publicity, “Music Success In Nine Weeks“, @cyberpr

Dick Huey, Toolshed Inc, @dhuman

Tavit (David) Geudelekian, Primary Wave Music Publishing, @tavit

Lou Plaia, Reverb Nation, @reverbnation

I have a few clients who make a living creating sonic brands for commercials, products, moments in movies, events, and more. It fascinates me how music and sound affects us as humans. I mentioned the term sonic branding online the other day, and it sparked a very intriguing discussion about how sound affects the brain. Music has long been known to have ties to memory, emotion, and behavior. Is it any surprise that marketers and others have tapped into that over the years?

Where did the term sonic branding come from? I’m not sure – that’s just what I’ve always called it. It seems to make the most sense. That’s what it is, after all – auditory branding of a moment in time. If you follow Ze Frank’s premise that branding is the emotional aftertaste left after a shared experience, which I do, this isn’t a great leap of logic.

From Ze Frank’s web series, The Show, August 29, 2006:

If the concept of sound interacting with the brain and all of the possibilities that entails is new to you, you may enjoy some of these books on the topic (disclosure, I use Amazon’s affiliate links to help feed my enormous book addiction):

The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination

The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit

There are many more books on the topic, but those will give you a good start. If I missed your favorite, add it in the comments below!

There are a few admins of the calendar who can edit the events you post (Myself, John Herman, Justin Herman, Christine Major, Nick Plante, Kelley Muir, Ted Roche, Kevin Micalizzi). We can also help you post an event if you find yourself “calendar challenged” by the Google Calendar event posting interface. Other people can post events but not edit (Don’t forget to set your event to “public” so we all can see it before saving, and to include an URL for more info in your description! Make it easy for people to come to your thing!).

Here is the plain html NH Calendar link for sharing in emails and tweets and such

Here is the iCal NH Calendar link

Here is what it looks like embedded and reduced to fit a blog post window (you can grab the iframe embed code from the share calendar button, or one of us can email it to you – standard embed width is 800px, this is shrunk to 400px):

We’re adding some of the existing events this evening, check back tomorrow night and if you don’t see yours yet – ADD IT. All of NH will thank you. Have fun!

Note: If you can’t add your event for whatever reason, any of the people listed here can add it for you – get us the details

Also, We’re getting a lot of emails about scheduling around school. We know parents will make it to these events if they can, and if not – there is always next month as many are recurring. We have a quite a few single and child free people who go to these various meetups as well, so there is a nice, diverse mix of people every month as schedules change and people’s availability rotates.