by Nicole Ouellette | Apr 1, 2010 | Blogging
The honeymoon is officially over, folks.
Last week, I got a cute skiddish dog named Gidget. This week, it has been all about establishing calm assertiveness à la Cesar Millan and getting the now outgoing (and oddly vocal) Gidget trained. The good news is I’m more stubborn than a 30 pound Corgi mix but that doesn’t mean this has been a cakewalk. There has been whining, panting, and other attention seeking behavior (her, not me). But I am firm and so far, I’m winning very small victories with crate training and basic commands. Who knew she could
sit like a meerkat?!
Trying to work through the whining, here’s what’s been happening at Breaking Even Communications:
Flickr had me convinced that I was going crazy.
So I saw there was a breakingeven user on Flickr and I was pretty convinced it was me. I set up the account a couple months ago…only I couldn’t remember what email address I had set it up with. I’ve been wanting to look more into image sharing as part of a project I’m working on for a client but I wanted to set it up my Flickr presence with ‘breakingeven’ if I was able.
by Nicole Ouellette | Mar 18, 2010 | This Week In Business
This week was all about helping friends (and having them help me out) in both my personal and professional life. Here’s how things went.
I attended my friend Ogy’s first webinar, and he did a heck of a job.
I love attending webinars but I’ve never given one myself. Giving one must feel an awful lot like being on the radio. You are talking to yourself and not sure about what your audience is thinking because you can’t see their faces or get any other feedback from them. Meanwhile, you are trying to get through your slides and read everyone’s questions all while being an interesting and engaging presenter. In short, I’m sure it’s way harder than it looks, which is why no matter what, I was going to attend my web designer friend Ogy’s first webinar.
Turns out Ogy did a great job, and the good news is he has more coming up. (Did I mention they are also free?) Seeing Ogy do this actually encouraged me to go public with a few projects of my own I’ve been a bit nervous about.
Matt came over and we set up the screen and projector.
My friends know that while I love the internet, I am completely nervous about setting up anything physically. Everything from operating a dog crate to a sewing machine for the first time, I usually try to get a friend to help me by offering to cook them food. I have a profound fear of breaking things and get easily frustrated.
by Nicole Ouellette | Mar 12, 2010 | This Week In Business
Sometimes, I catch myself thinking in terms of black and white. I’m sure this comes from making my own decisions (most of the time rather quickly) as a business owner. “I don’t buy that.” or “I always do this.” The truth is, of course, a little less simple than that but it’s easy to convince yourself one way or the other when you are the only person there is to convince.
I’ve spent this week beginning to really work with other people as peers. And while this is a sign things are growing, it also means this is no longer all about me, and my snap judgements are no longer going to work. Here’s what I’ve been up to this week, besides realizing I’m not the center of my own universe:
The workshop organizing continued.
I apologize to those of you who are probably sick of hearing about Matt and my upcoming workshop. I keep telling myself that the first one is taking so much planning because, well, it’s the first one. We fielded questions over email (and put them in an FAQ on the website, work once use twice I say!); got a few more registrants; and put up a website at
www.onedayworkshop.net. I also created and sent out a press release and
Matt made a Facebook page for the event.
Since three people have registered and a few more have said they’ll come, I think we might actually have enough people to *gasp* break even!
I began life as a paid blog contributor at Almost Frugal.
When my friend Kelly posted that she was thinking of selling her blog, I sent my condolences. Thinking about ending a blog seems (at least a bit) like ending a long term relationship. It takes more time than you’d expect and you care way more about it than you’ll publicly admit as your ego gets pretty tied in. (Full disclosure: I won’t even date a guy who doesn’t read my blog.) And while I haven’t dated Kelly (she’s married and in France), I have been reading Almost Frugal since the very beginning so I was a bit sad about the end of an era.
A few days later, I got an email from her.
by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 24, 2010 | This Week In Business
Sometimes, all it takes is one person to make a difference. This week, I salute that one person, and the many forms they came in:
My friend Matt and I had one person sign up for our workshop…and hopefully more to come.
We took the plunge and Matt and I went forward with our presentation idea. We reserved the room. We advertised the presentation to our networks. We bought the projector and screen (nothing like the thrill and terror of spending $850 in 5 minutes). I began to panic this week when no one was signing up. Did we charge too much? Was it too early to hope for more enthusiasm? Did we schedule this workshop the wrong time of year?
And just when I was second guessing the whole thing, someone signed up. And paid. Insert sigh of relief here.
Here’s hoping for a few more participants. For more information or to sign up yourself, click here.
I’ll be presenting to the Deer Isle-Stonington Chamber of Commerce, and as part of the Schoodic Arts Festival this summer.
Based on my Ellsworth Chamber presentation, I booked two more speaking gigs for the coming months.
by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 18, 2010 | This Week In Business
Remember last week when I had the brilliant idea of offering a workshop with my friend Matt? Well turns out planning events takes, um, planning.
This week, I learned there’s always a little more to something than we expect there to be. Here’s what happened so far this week:
The workshop had multiple details to iron out.
First of all, Matt and I realized that neither of us have a projector. With this realization came more questions: Which projector do we buy? Are there any on CraigsList? What about people we know who might have one? Which one of us should buy it? You can see what I mean.
Then there was the whole “How are we going to accept payments?” issue. Which one of us is talking about what? What if people don’t have laptops? What’s the internet connection like at our venue? Oh, and what are we going to call this workshop anyway?
