Taking my own advice
It's been 7 months since I declared my own Independence Day - July 4, 2014 was my official last day of full time employment for someone else, before venturing into what I soon realized was the REAL full time job of being an independent freelance consultant and entrepreneur.
Since that day I've been blessed with the wonderful glory of being "busy" with my new venture. I am so grateful to my clients and supporters who have passed leads my way and recommended me to friends, acquaintances, business associates, and family members.
So often I tell my clients the importance of blogging and content creation to increase SEO visibility and customer relations. I say that developing a marketing plan with a calendar of social posts, blogs, and email marketing is vital to staying on track with your target audience and business goals.
Yet, there I was working to get my clients set up for this model, networking with leaders and analyzing opportunities in their respective fields, but not putting my words into action for myself too.
When I first started my business, I knew my target audience would be small businesses who didn't have time to focus on marketing, but who also weren't ready to hire someone full-time/in-house to do it. After that I realized my customer may not find me online - since, after all, they need me to help them be online savvy, so I focused on offline methods (I know right?!)
Now I want to take my own advice and do what I love: talk about online marketing, teach others about the amazing opportunities with social media and its constant changes, and share my knowledge.
I also look forward to sharing more of my own personality and writings. Over the years I've had many blogs on various topics, but I never felt that I could 100% be myself since I was in the cutthroat business world and feared what current and potential employers would think. I wanted to maintain a professional presence online and to me professional meant not personal, i.e. give them nothing to judge me unfavorably by.
Now I know that the online audience likes to know WHO you are, what makes you unique, and that diversity is so important to the growth of society and the workplace...and, well, working for myself helps me feel more confident about letting my true colors show as well.
If what I write can help people, and prove cathartic for me, well then I say, mission accomplished, and welcome aboard!
