So many gurus are giving advice about unplugging from the net, facing our web addiction and how we’re so overwhelmed with technology that we aren’t living our lives.  Let me share with you a little tale filled with irony.  Last night I was looking at this “Internet Rehab” called reStart.  Their platform (as with many others) is that internet addiction is on the rise and undermining the fabric of real connections.  But, here’s the kicker:

They have a Facebook page, which they promote to users and even ask their fans to participate in online campaigns and suggest a mascot.  It’s like a drug dealer who gives you a taste, and while you’re high as a kite, tries to tell you about the evils of the drug you just took.  It’s a perpetual cycle of need and remedy all at once.  A week ago on our blog we published a blast from the past story from Newsweek in 1995 that predicted the fall of the internet.

So what do we take from the two extremes of net failure and net addiction?

Humans are Humans.  Give us a toy, a communication tool and we’ll wear it out. Like a dog with a bone, we move at the speed of trends.

Now between these two extremes, there’s a middle ground.  What I want to impart is that technology is not going anywhere, but it doesn’t have to be overused.  You’ve all been watching television since you were young … but do you watch EVERY program on TV?  Not likely. You watch what is interesting or speaks to you.

You also don’t have to be on EVERY social site.  But, think about when you spend your time texting, Twittering, Facebooking.  Most gurus are going to tell you that you’re removed from reality.  What I’m saying is: choose your battles.  If you’re taking the same walk from your apartment to work every single day, what are you missing by multitasking?  Save time for the unique, and work the mundane.

For some of us, like myself, who grew up in one horse towns, the web was the window to the world. For me, it was my connection to the reality of the world that didn’t exist in my small town.

But, success didn’t start and stop there.  We are human, and it wasn’t until I started traveling, meeting people and lecturing that I took off my training wheels and learned how to to find the hot buttons.

When you do spend time “hooked in”, you need to be laser focused.  Social from the inside out.  This stems from a true social and cultural evolution of why you have to be yourself online.  Workshops demonstrate “how to”s and tools to add Twitter followers, etc.  Those practical tools are great when you really understand who and what you need to be in your online brand.  But just because it’s there, does not mean you have to overindulge. Here are a few guidelines for your online social life:

Social Marketing is the envelope, you are the letter.

Our first initiative with getting social from the inside out is not how to address that envelope, but rather – what are the contents of the letter? Then, how are we going to use that envelope to attract a social match or two?

Let’s look at your personal brand online, whether you’re working for a company, or representing yourself.  Today’s social environment is about being able to connect with others and represent who you are and what you stand for.  Social Media is where most potential clients, employers and partners check you out.  Social has replaced the antiquated need for the “three references” approach.

What is your personal brand online? Determining the answer to this question is truly an offline activity.

NO AUTOMATION REPLACES MEDITATION.

This is about mindfulness.  We feel overburdened because all the ways in which we can communicate have increased dramatically, but human behavior hasn’t changed.  It’s just faster and we all feel like we’re in a race. The universe itself provides web inspiration, if you’re tuned in.

Let’s say you are a sales person, an interactive guru or a PR maven.  There are literally THOUSANDS of individuals and business with the same service.  What makes you different?  I’m not asking for bullet points about the services you offer I’m asking … what makes YOU different?

To answer that question, go offline … and redefine how you stand out!

Jenn

Love the song “Grace Kelly” by Mika. “I can brown, I can be blue, I can be violet sky.  I can be hurtful, I can be purple,  I can be anything you like.”  And it made me think of how we behave in our campaigns online.  I see so much of, “I can be what you want!!!”  It begs the question, how are we using research to identify our brands?

Now, don’t get me wrong – solid research is the foundation of finding our buyers and their hot buttons.  But, I wonder if we go too far simply trying to service the “numbers” and changing our campaigns and brand identity online to only realize the “surface” indicators.

Now, we’ve seen some historically bad campaigns.  And, we know that the agencies behind them were trying to target people based on what they thought the research told them would “make them buy!”  I found this hilarious blog about “Six Idiotic Ad Campaigns” posted by Mom Logic.  Clicker beware, these really stupid ads are targeted for women with our, ummm … women issues.

What were they thinking??  Well, you have to know that it probably came from someone who misread the indicators and thought these were clever and nifty.  Let’s stick to who we are in order to relate to our customers.

You wouldn’t change who you are in order to date someone who wasn’t like you.  Why would we do this in our campaigns?  Here are a few key questions to look beyond the research and create the reality of who your brand really is.  And, to inspire action from those people behind the research.

When you are devising a campaign, ask yourself:

1.    Am I offending my target audience? (See Idiotic Campaigns)

2.    Am I too generic with my ad?  Are people gonna go, “Eh … whatever”.  Take some risks, just be smart about inspiring ACTION.

3.    What do my buyers/customers really NEED?  This is a point often lost in “slickness”.  You must listen to needs.  Past research, what are your buyers faced with?  Recession issues?  Overworked?  More convenience?  SOLVE their problems and you will get solid response.

4.    Is this campaign an INSPIRATION or PROMOTION?  Very different strategies here.  Inspire action for B2B marketing.  Avoid the direct campaigns with “I know you are busy, but….”  Business consumers always stop at the “But”, because we know whatever comes after it is the real motive, and it seems sneaky and unrealistic.  It’s like a guy saying “I love you … but, your ass is fat.”  Promotions are reserved for B2C Consumer Marketing.  We wanna play, click, be personalized … have you tell us who we are as people.  Promotions need to be multifaceted.  I wonder how the Idiotic Campaigns integrated with the web?  Stop sending banners to a landing page without something for consumers to DO besides buy.  We KNOW you want us to buy … but warm us up, buy us dinner.  Promotions need play.

5.    Have I covered all bases? This is definitely about integration from our last point.  Do you know (from your research) where your customers are?  The answer “Internet” is as broad, and uninformative as saying “they read”.  What do they read?  Where do they read it?  Where do they shop for that book/mag/newspaper?  We have much more knowledge about our traditional buyers than our Interactive buyers – generally speaking, that is.

Of course, there are agencies and marketing companies who “get it”.  But they don’t need to follow these tips.

When you’re marketing online – what sites do your users visit?  How long are they there?  Do they read email or RSS?  Are they on a smart phone 10 hours a day?  Go deep with campaign integration online.  PPC and banners don’t cut it, unless you understand the tips above:  Give them NEED, INSPIRATION, TEASE THEM, and make them BRAND HAPPY!

Past the campaign, though – please look at your overall brand.  Can I go to your site, cover up your logo and know who YOU are?  Know what it is about your product/destination/service that is uniquely you?  I once heard a tag line: “Like nowhere else”.  Well, Hell is like nowhere else either, but I don’t want to visit.  Seek uniqueness past the numbers.

May the brand power be with you,

Jenn

We thought we’d start your week out with some new technologies and sites (they’re new, but thriving) that you may not have heard of, and that might fit with your business model.  Here’s a list of 10 places you should check out this week.  Have fun … click happy!!

Blink Geo
Publisher’s Description:  BlinkGeo is a new community-driven web site that aims to provide a new platform for the Geospatial community to share valuable information related to various categories and user groups, including GIS, CADD, Cartography, GPS, LBS, and more.

The primary objective for BlinkGeo is to allow people interested in geospatial information to post, share, vote, and comment on news, stories, online articles, blog entries, and other information commonly available on the world wide web.

MindOmo
Publisher’s Description:  Mindomo is the most advanced FREE online mind mapping software, excellent for organizing, project planning, task scheduling, brainstorming and studying.

It offers all the functionalities you would expect from a desktop application! Create, share and include your maps in blogs, web sites or browse thousands of public maps created by other users!

Files Tube
Publisher’s Description:  Filestube – the first Rapidshare search engine not “powered by Google”. As a file sharing search engine FilesTube.com finds files matching your search criteria among the files that have been seen recently in uploading sites by our search spider. This information is accumulated in a database. When you execute a FilesTube.com search it delivers results from the database.

With our unique approach to crawling you can find the files shared on uploading sites that the other crawlers miss. Also our search engine collects rich and relevant metadata for each page. As a result, when you search for files (video, music, software, documents etc) with FilesTube, you can always find high-quality, relevant search results.

Please Visit Me
Publisher Description:  PleaseVisitMe is a simple travel invitation service. Just fill out the form with your information and your friend’s information and it will automatically check prices for the best deals and email your friend the invitation and the lowest price it can find.

Joobili
Publisher’s Description:  Joobili’s timely travel approach is a solution for better travel inspiration. With Joobili, you say when, and they will help you to find the best travel experiences specific to your travel dates and personal interests. Simple as that.

Red Anyway
Publisher’s Description:  Redanyway provides a social way to follow a blog. It provides a friends’ and followers’ widget which you can sport on your personal blog/site. This enables your friends or readers to directly add your blog to follow or add you to their friends list right from your blog.

Kevutu
Publisher’s Description:  Kevutu, which is free, allows users to create and share what they want in life with friends and family. They can also share it with the entire community. Creating wants is free and easy.

MashUp Arts
Publisher’s Description:  On mashuparts, Find ideas and create lively Video Cards, Social Cards and Ecards. Easily integrate community content from Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.

IconFinder
Publisher’s Description:  The goal for Iconfinder is to provide high quality icons for web developers and designers in an easy and efficient way.

Triporama
Publisher’s Description:  Triporama provides a free web site designed to make leisure travel planning easier for friends and family group travel. Triporama’s Group Trip Planner reduces the substantial burden faced by groups by simplifying the process of collaborating on all aspects of planning a trip, including sharing travel research, determining travel dates, and coordinating on travel details.

I LOVE this quote. I mean, really. What better way than to illustrate that hard work goes into what we really want in life? In this post, I want to highlight some kick-ass stories about women from herfuture.com that show how we’re willing to do what it takes to make our dreams come true.

http://www.herfuture.com/profile/TaniaSantanaSantos

http://www.herfuture.com/profile/EmilyLButler

http://www.herfuture.com/profile/Marie38

http://www.herfuture.com/profile/GabrielleBernstein

http://www.herfuture.com/profile/DeeLoveSolutions

http://www.herfuture.com/profile/Nitika

http://www.herfuture.com/profile/ReenaDesai

1. Be cognizant with your friends online as you would IRL (in real Life). Friend people with common interests, those you know and those you would like to connect with for networking purposes. Swiftly unfriend anyone who is offensive or would not reflect well on your image.

2. Don’t disparage the work of your colleagues OR your competitors.

3. Don’t be aggressive in self promotion. Be humble and ask for permission. Certainly use the appropriate way to promote, common interests, cool news, etc. DO NOT SPAM, that’s the fastest way to burn a bridge.

4. Don’t engage in a “pissing match”, no matter how rude or provocative the comments may seem.

5. Mix business with pleasure carefully. You want to be real … but some things are just better not said on the web. Use common sense, if you don’t have any — borrow from a friend.

6. Keep the joke forwarding to a minimum, you never know who you might insult, or who you might spam. I mean, we have WORK to do!

7. Treat everyone and their opinions the same way you would treat your mom. Be polite , funny and articulate.

Granted, we geeks like to throw out web terms, acronyms and other made up words, just to keep you guessing and fetter out the “cool kids”. But, the English language has more than doubled in the last 10 years, thanks to “geek speak”. LOL, XML, BLOG, TWEET, IRL, AGGREGATOR, and of course, one of the newest: Microblog.

In a nutshell, Microblogging is a shortened kind of blogging. Blogging is more like article writing, and it can go on for as long as you can type, or anyone can stand to read. Microblogging was introduced in 2005 as a quicker way to communicate, initially through text messages. Texting has a limited amount of characters and can be a quick back and forth conversation, same as a Microblog. Restricted characters and a Mass Audience. To better explain the microblog and the different types that are out there, I have included below the official information from Wikipedia, which does a far more thorough job of explaining than I could manage for you.

From Wikipedia, ENJOY:

Microblogging is a form of blogging. A microblog differs from a traditional blog in that its content is typically much smaller, in both actual size and aggregate file size. A microblog entry could consist of nothing but a short sentence fragment, or an image or embedded video.

As with traditional blogging, microbloggers post about topics ranging from the simple, such as “what I’m doing right now,” to the thematic, such as “sports cars.” Commercial microblogs also exist, to promote websites, services and/or products.

Some microblogging services offer features such as privacy settings, which allow users to control who can read their microblogs, or alternative ways of publishing entries besides the web-based interface. These may include text messaging, instant messaging, E-mail, or digital audio.

Services

The first microblogs were known as as tumblelogs. The term was coined by why the lucky stiff in a blog post on April 12, 2005, while describing Christian Neukirchen’s Anarchaia.

“Blogging has mutated into simpler forms (specifically, link- and mob- and aud- and vid- variant), but I don’t think I’ve seen a blog like Chris Neukirchen’s Anarchaia, which fudges together a bunch of disparate forms of citation (links, quotes, flickrings) into a very long and narrow and distracted tumblelog.”

Jason Kottke described tumblelogs on October 19, 2005:^[1]

“A tumblelog is a quick and dirty stream of consciousness, a bit like a remaindered links style linklog but with more than just links. They remind me of an older style of blogging, back when people did sites by hand, before Movable Type made post titles all but mandatory, blog entries turned into short magazine articles, and posts belonged to a conversation distributed throughout the entire blogosphere. Robot Wisdom and Bifurcated Rivets are two older style weblogs that feel very much like these tumblelogs with minimal commentary, little cross-blog chatter, the barest whiff of a finished published work, almost pure editing…really just a way to quickly publish the “stuff” that you run across every day on the web.”

However, by 2006 and 2007, the term microblog came into greater usage for such services provided by Tumblr and Twitter. In May 2007, 111 microblogging sites were counted internationally.^[2] Among the most notable services are Twitter, Tumblr, Plurk, Emote.in, Squeelr, Beeing, Jaiku and identi.ca. More recently, varieties of services and software with the feature of microblogging have been developed. Squeelr adds geolocation and pictures to the microblog, while eliminating user accounts, making it an anonymous microblogging service. Plurk has a timeline view which integrates video and picture sharing. Emote.in has a concept of sharing emotions, built over microblogging; with a timeline. Pownce (developed by Digg founder Kevin Rose with three other developers) integrated microblogging with file sharing and event invitations. Following its acquisition by SixApart Pownce has been shut down effective December 15, 2008 while an upcoming replacement “Motion” is in the works.

Other leading social networking websites Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and XING also have their own microblogging feature, better known as status updates.

Users and organizations are also able to set up their own microblogging service. Open source and free software is available for download for this purpose.^[3]

With the growth of microblogging, many users want to maintain presence in more than one or more social networks. Services such as Lifestream and Profilactic will aggregate microblogs from multiple social networks into a single list. Services such as Ping.fm will send out your microblog to multiple social networks.

Usage

Several studies, most notably by Harvard Business School and Sysomos, have tried to analyze the usage behavior of Microblogging services.^[4][5] Many of these studies show that for services such as Twitter, there is a small group of active users contributing to most of the activity.^[6] Sysomos’ Inside Twitter survey, based on more than 11 million users, shows that 10% of Twitter users account for 86% of all activity.

Twitter, Facebook and other microblogging services are also becoming a platform for marketing and public relations,^[7] with a sharp growth in the number of social media marketers. The Sysomos study shows that this specific group of marketers on Twitter is much more active than general user population, with 15% following more than 2,000 people. This is in sharp contrast to only 0.29% of overall Twitter users who follow more than 2,000 people.^[5]

Microblogging services have also emerged as an important source of real-time news updates for recent crisis situations, such as Mumbai terror attacks or Iran protests.^[8][9] The short nature of updates allow users to post news items quickly in real-time, reaching its audience in seconds.

The findings of a study by Emily Pronin of Princeton University and Harvard University’s Daniel Wegner have been cited as a possible explanation for the rapid growth of microblogging. The study suggests a link between short bursts of activity and feelings of elation, power and creativity.^[10]

Microblogging for organizational usage

Micro-blogging has the potential to become a new informal communication medium especially for collaborative work. Over the last few years communication patterns have shifted primarily from face-to-face communication to more online communication in E-mail, IM, and other tools. As more collaboration is being done remotely through technology, there are relatively fewer opportunities for face to face informal conversations. In addition because of time constraints at work due to employee downsizing there is more concern about interruptions along with convenience brought by IM and E-mail.

Many individuals like sharing the whereabouts and status updates in Microblogging. This highlights microblogging’s potential to support informal communication among co- workers. The areas where it looks to impact are the informational effects and the social and emotional effects. The informational effects include increased opportunistic valuable information sharing, expertise realizing, building and maintaining common ground. The social and emotional effects are mainly enhancing the feeling of connectedness among co-workers.

Some microblogging services, like Qaiku provide private channels and permission management tools for organizational microblogging.

Issues with microblogging

The main issues with micro blogging are privacy, security, and integration. Privacy is a major issue due to the concerns of broadcasting social or work information to everyone who follows their feed. About security, people^[who?] are worried about the public seeing possible sensitive work information on public microblogging sites like Twitter. Integration could be the hardest issue to overcome because the company and its employees would have to adopt microblogging into the corporate culture. This would take time since companies would need to recognize its value before they could embrace it.

“Passion is the Genesis of Genius” is a quote by Anthony Robbins, the great American motivator and author. But it got me thinking, can passion about something actually bring about greatness in what we do? I think it depends on our “rules of passion” , and I’m not talking about the provocative romance novel written by Sarah Bennett. Although, I hear it’s an interesting read!

So, what are the rules that would govern a passion turning into Genius? After doing a little blog reading and sharing stories with fellow colleagues and entrepreneurs, here are my humble thoughts on the rules of passion that define true genius in what we do.

Question yourself:

1. What are the things that I am really passionate about and how do they apply to my life? This is step-back time. My personal story is that I actually took a break from Internet Marketing after 10 years in the trenches and asked myself … is this who I am? Am I saving lives here? Am I contributing to a better society by running media? But, I knew it — I know Interactive Strategy like I know breathing. It’s natural, it’s exciting and it’s what makes me feel good about me. After taking a hiatus, when I got a call from one of my contacts in the Tourism Industry, and told me he was running a large campaign and didn’t trust anyone but me – my heart fluttered. My “sign” from the universe was that. Just because I’m not working at saving lives, I did have a gift to be shared and it was for the benefit of those trying to do their jobs. I am helping, shaping and contributing to a better society by not letting these gifts stay hidden.

2. Concentrate on your talents for the good, not the dollar. Now, to my advertising friends, I know we are in a commercial business. And, certainly a decent living must be expected for a full and happy lifestyle. But, I’m talking about flipping the script. If your business plan starts with how much money you can make, you’re sure to have lost passion for anything but money. Money is cheap. True ideas, unique ideas and filling a need in society assures you a living, an abundance. But you must find out what you want and how you want to affect people’s lives. The money will follow and the universe always provides to those who believe.

3. You’d better be having fun! Even in the most mundane tasks (which all of us hate), give thanks for the opportunity to do those tasks that support your passion. Contract writing is notoriously boring … but I have made a habit of doing this in a way that promotes my passion and gives thanks for the opportunity. When I write contracts, I do it out of my normal office environment, have a glass of wine and pour my passion into the thanks I have for the people who want to do business with me. What a way to shift your passion! Focus on the end, not the task and revel in the small things. Hate to answer emails ? Well, hell — be glad they are coming! Passion that is deep and true has to ring through both the mundane and the challenging.

4. Passion is Inspired, not forced. There are good days and bad days with your vision, whatever it may be. If you are a company rolling out a marketing campaign, it’s easy to lose the end passion in the tasks (see above rule). But, like they say about keeping your eye on the prize, it is the passion you have — whether it be the promotion you get from a genius idea, the vision you see through to fruition with a new product or just “who you want to be when you grow up”. Inspired action comes naturally. It wakes you up for insane ideas at 2am, it gnaws at your brain and asks for speed of intention. If you have an off day, and question your passion, reset and revisit. Do not give up.

5. People will think you’re crazy, and that’s a good thing. You see, we all yearn for that comfy life, the 9-5er, and an abundance of free time. But, when you have a passion for something it’s just in you. Like Bill Cosby says “Anyone can dabble, but once you’ve made that commitment, your blood has that particular thing in it and it’s very hard for people to stop you”. How true. If all you are risking is someone looking at what you want and asking, “huh?” What’s the harm in that, really? 100 years from now… how do you want your legacy remembered? That safe, comfy life — or sliding, experiencing andrisking it all for the glory of your passion? I choose the latter. When I started this company people told me, there are too many internet consultants, education will never work in your industry, and web knowledge is everywhere, you employ no sales staff, your competition will eat you alive … the list goes on. My answer was, “so?” I have something unique to share, more to teach than code … more to inspire than a Facebook page. And to tell the truth, you just have to know me to understand my passion for what I do. I am referral only. Standing here three years later watching all my passions come to fruition with like minded companies and individuals. I have more followers and fans than anyone in my industry and I still have no sales staff. It works. I live, breathe and give all to my passion. I hope you do the same.

Internet wishes, and social dreams,

Jenn

Most of us don’t have an actual Rolodex anymore…but if you are one of those people who like to have your contacts where you can see them, I can guess that you haven’t turned that dial as much as you used to. See some cob webs around there somewhere??

We have a suggestion…turn it!! Pick up the phone and reconnect with someone. With the virtual mentality we are all in these days, we are yearning for a different kind of conversation in the mix. Studies show that our generation who rely on the web for the majority of their communication, experience mood altering effects when stimulated by a different kind of conversation…over the phone, over lunch, over drinks.

Networking and social outings are coming back in a big way. I really feel this, in a big way, has been brought on by the boom of social media and networks popping up all over the web. Social media is a big part of our day and for a lot of web marketers, being on Facebook during a typical working day is now just part of the job.

On March 4, 2010, the DotCom Diva Unplugged lecture series kicks off in New York City with “Social from the Inside Out“. This first lecture from our series digs deep into social as it should be and takes a look into an “unplugged” healthy social balance. Join Jennifer Barbee, with special guests Tania Santana-Santos and Emily Butler for an engaging conversation on the topic of women+web+wellness. Join us!!

I’ve always wondered about the origins of the expression, “Those who can’t do, teach”.  What a ridiculous concept.  If you can’t do it, how can you teach it?  I’ve never met an algebra teacher who hadn’t mastered algebra.  I’ve never met a cooking instructor who couldn’t cook.

I’m quite sure the expression derives from a contempt for authority figures (generally because they’re not just in a teaching, but also in a JUDGING/GRADING position), and the pursuit of a more individualistic life.  I can certainly understand the need for one’s own path, but without a doubt, you must DO if you want to impart any knowledge.  So, let’s look at how this has evolved, specifically in my industry of interactive and marketing.

In the conferences I speak for, there are many experts in the panels, the keynotes, etc, and a fair share of salesmen (more about them in my upcoming post:  a quota and a conscience). Recently, I’ve noticed some strong opinions on technology tactics – strategy is still reserved for more “taste” than “correctness”.  What I know about my esteemed colleagues in these sessions is that they DO.  They have battle scars and funny stories about how they were actually able to tackle issues – and still manage to impart that knowledge.  The really good teachers are never afraid to tell you how they’ve screwed up.  Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from … well, bad judgment.  :-p

But, in my world – the fast pace of trends and cultural shifts with the speed of the internet and entertainment industry (yes, the entertainment industry has become the job of marketers) – you can’t have “done” years ago and manage today.  That’s my lesson learned.  I actually rose very fast in my career and was leading a large staff and no longer “doing” by the age of 26.  That’s 10 years ago.  Had I kept “teaching” and not getting dirty – how relevant would my experiences be?  Today, you have to know how to “do it yourself” and simultaneously be the architect to convey any meaningful information to those who need instruction.

But, here’s the dirty little secret:  I still love doing things myself.  Though I lecture about mass cultural shifts, I still secretly design sites myself.  I need to touch my art – not just be a dealer.  When I am creating a web brand, an interactive widget, a viral video – I am duplicating the process of what my students need to know.  I learn the tricks, and pass them on.

But, though I have a boutique agency and serve as creative director – I am first and foremost a teacher …  and proud of the title.  I never had the opportunity to finish school myself.  Most people are shocked by this fact considering my blessed early success in the Internet industry.  But, not having the completion of a formal education forced me to be hungry, to be voracious for information to learn, master and get ahead.  I did this at such a feverous pitch that I needed to let go of all the life and marketing lessons before I burst.  They say you can’t pour from an empty cup.  And, I’m here to tell you that an overflowing cup must be poured or it goes to waste.

I love the Internet, its possibilities and its constant challenge to my knowledge base about its capabilities.  If I were a sculptor by trade, it would be the equivalent of using a new kind of clay every day.  We all know the theory of how it works, but each new version brings opportunity and a tweak in knowledge. Recently, I played with the theory of designing a blog with more of a website strategy and created a blog homepage for one of my new lecture series, dotcom Diva Unplugged.

Now that I’ve stretched my clay a bit, when I teach “blog bling” theory and connecting to the audience in an authentic way – I’m not just “being a President of an agency”, I am a practitioner.

Thanks to my followers, conference attendees, coaching clients and those who let me pontificate internet theory – I am able to TEACH every day.  And, folks, I’ve learned – not only those who teach CAN do – they MUST do, or you can be sure that you’re getting outdated lessons.

You don’t have to be a workaholic 24/7! Are you an email junkie, Blackberry freak, or a computer nerd? I am, or should I say used to be! I used to find it quite difficult to enjoy family time or just time to myself because I was always worried about checking my email, or waiting on my phone to ring and even when everyone was asleep at night I would sneak back into the computer room and finish that document that wasn’t even due yet. I have to admit being a workaholic can be pretty addictive. It got to a point when we would go out on the weekends to dinner, my Blackberry would be sitting on the table like an uninvited guest!

I finally started unplugging myself daily, and it made a HUGE difference for myself and my life. When the work day is over, I turn off my phone and computer and place them both in my office where I can’t see them, that way I am not constantly worried about checking my email, or answering my phone. I learned if it’s after work hours, unless it’s an emergency it can wait until the morning. I even came up with a few house rules: laptops aren’t allowed in the bedroom, along with the Blackberry; when its dinner time everybody’s phones must be off and out of sight; if we go out we do take one phone for emergencies but it stays in the glove box.

Developing your tolerance for being unplugged for several hours at a time allows you to truly engage in your work and with people at a deeper level. Ultimately, what ends up happening when you start unplugging yourself on a daily basis, you get more done in a shorter amount of time, with better results, because your brain is refreshed. Unplugging yourself puts you in control of your time and allows you to reconnect with yourself and with work the next day. So remember turn off your phones, computers, and any other hand-held devices and enjoy your time off! It will make you a better worker, and a happier person, overall.