Social Media Content Marketing

or "Confessions of a Closet Optimist." Yep, I manifested a real donut. And not one of those generic grocery store brands or vending machine ones that crumble once you crack open the cellophane. No, I manifested a fresh, warm, glazed yeasty delicious ring of dough. More about the pastry from thin air in a moment, but first: manifesting business results . A dear friend called a while back and asked if I could help her with her digital marketing. So thrilled with the results, she wanted to return the favor. She told me all about the manifesting. " The Law of Attraction," "The Secret," and the like all have manifestation at their core. In short, the practice of how one could "wish" things true. Her discourse on Manifesting 101 immediately followed including a lesson on how to manifest anything or - anyone - I wanted. "What do you want to manifest?," she asked. "I have what I need," I said, "though I&#

Shy, skinny, and so nervous around my crushes I'd break out in hives: high school was not a favorite time in my life. I had my group of close friends, but didn't socialize much, spending my nights and most weekends writing. So I had pause when I had the opportunity to attend my high school reunion this month. Would I be recognized, remembered or worse revert back to that shy (albeit no longer skinny) kid? To my surprise, the evening turned out to be one of the most enjoyable in my life to date. How was it possible four unremarkable years could leave such a lasting positive impression? And then it hit me...I had rebranded myself. Much of how I look and act has changed since then - though the writing still accounts for much if not more of my time. I was essentially the same person - just enhanced. But what I've come to realized was that I wasn't enhanced. Shyness was replaced by genuine humility; nervousness by confidence, and that all translated into perceived enha

Your boss may manage like the Queen or King. But you don't have to overthrow the crown to fix it. Trying to do your job but get blocked by the owner who hired you to do so? Working at a large/public corporation or at an individually-owned operation often present distinct disadvantages. Red tape and pigeon-holed responsibilities are the banes of the larger companies. While smaller, one-person owned companies - while offering a fast track to promotion and increased responsibilities - may involve you working under a business dictatorship. Recently, a friend and I were having lunch to catch up. Like me, she began her career with Fortune 100 companies, then got wooed away by a small company a few years ago whose founder/owner was impressed by her big-name experience. She's done some job hopping to move up the corporate ladder since then. Three months ago, she was excited about the prospects of making strides. Today, she put in her notice. She just couldn't figure out

  You pick up the outfit you're planning to wear from the dry cleaners. You cancel weekend plans so you can instead study up on your prospective employer, its website, and its competitive landscape. You rehearse winning answers and examples pertaining to your experience. You take the day off from work for the interview because, well, you're a shoe-in. But instead, it's more of a shoo-out , and you find yourself back on the elevator down to the visitors parking garage in minutes. Disappointing, frustrating, demoralizing. Unfortunately, it happens more often than you may think. Or it will if you go on enough job interviews. What just happened? You barely had a chance to speak. Was it what you wore? Your tattoo ? Your personality? Was it ... you ? The answer is...all of the above. And then some. Until that dystopian day when robots replace us all like in The Matrix, you will often get or lose that job based upon factors other than what's on your resume. It ma

For some home-based, the business of energy healing can be both spiritually and monetarily rewarding. Chalk it up to an increasingly digital - yet disconnected - world, but we increasingly find ourselves disillusioned with all things traditional – be it in our business or personal life.   No longer reserved for the New Agers and the Glitterati, the search for “something greater” and “more rewarding” for the here-and-now has gone mainstream. No greater momentum than in the healthcare community where acupuncture, for example, is now covered under your policy. The definitions of health and healing continue to morph as the focus moves from the body and the mind, to the spirit and the soul. Energy healing, in particular, is gaining in both interest and credibility as proof from the growing number of books, seminars, and cottage industries promising and sometimes delivering on incredible claims. Yet different approaches to energy healing are appearing like shooting stars wit

As a business writer, journalist, graphic designer, and digital marketer, I'm often courted by clients looking to get the "most bang for the buck" as the saying goes. Consequently, during the Dot Com days of the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was often hired by startups wanting to become the next Yahoo!  I performed work for five startups in five years. The first four went belly up so quickly the ink on the business cards were barely dry. Looking back on those days now, I've tried to isolate if there was something they had in common to help new clients to possibly sidestep the same mistakes and thrive. In fact, management at the first four did have one thing in common: the quest for perfection. The perfect person, the perfect mate, the perfect home, the perfect job - none of it exists. So why would you strive to create the perfect company? I remember founders agonizing over logo fonts, the order of items on the nav bar, or comma placement in the mission statemen