Back from cyber break.

I should have hung an “out to lunch” post on the blog before closing my Mac down before Easter – that would have let you know not to expect to see me for a while. But in the run up to my self-imposed cut-off time, the words didn’t get written. Instead I made a deliberate choice to give energy to my clients, and to finish an eBook I’ve been writing. And I honoured my commitment to finishing when I said I would.

The perfectionist in me bristled with that. I don’t like to leave things unfinished.

And I’ve been percolating some thoughts on how to make work fit life or life fit work when you live on social media – or at least do some of your marketing there.

Purpose

I’ve asked myself recently why I’m on social media; why I use it. My immediate answers are about building engagement around my two blogs (this and Christine Livingston). Why am I interested to build engagement? Well, as much as I love it for its own sake, I also have an agenda of increasing my traffic in order to be able to sell digital products.

Presence

Building traffic demands that you be there, stirring the pot from time to time with fresh content and interaction.

But are these goals in conflict with having a life, or indeed, paradoxically, of building the very kind of social media presence I want in the long term?

What if I – or you for that matter – choose that our presence is valuable in other, non-social media places? Or even that time normally spent, for example, hanging out on Twitter, is better invested in developing those digital products that I ultimately want to sell?

No right or wrong

I suspect that there’s no right or wrong to any of this and that what works for me may not work for you or for the next person. Catching up on stuff I missed when I was off, I came across Michael Martine’s post on the need to be consistent as a blogger, which I totally get. But what if consistent is something you can’t be? Or, rather, if consistent is something that emerges?

Priority

There’s something in the mix too for me about the grand hierarchy of what’s important in life, and making my commitments accordingly. I’m crystal clear that the top priority in my life is my partner and my relationship with him. So when, at times like the holiday I’ve just had, it’s something we’ve arranged together, I choose to turn up for it.

I remember some years ago a colleague telling me that, one of the reasons she was quitting her very senior HR job to spend time with her children, was for her sake as much as theirs. That stayed with me; it made me understand that time with other people was not just to appease them in some way, it was to nourish me too.

And that’s important. Especially as relationship is a core principal of my work. If I cannot be in good relationship with myself and the key people in my life, I’m pretty useless to my clients and readers.

But what do you think? How do you make work fit life when you spend a lot of your time on social media? Can you? If so, how do you make it work for you? What are the costs and benefits? Share your thoughts in the comments.

PS The new eBook is for newsletter subscribers only. If you want a copy, sign up here. It’ll be with you in the next week!

photo credit: gogoloopie

No related posts.

I’m sure he didn’t mean it.

Indeed, what he said about me was couched in flattering language, in a flattering post on blogs to watch in 2011.

Except that I didn’t recognise myself in the description.

“A career coach.”

Not that there’s anything wrong with being a career coach. But I’m not one. At least not in the traditional sense. Maybe it wouldn’t have stung so much if I’d had less respect for its author.

“Is that really how I’m projecting myself?” I asked.

This happened late January at the end of a month during which I’d been quite ill. You might remember me writing at the time that, after a very busy 2010, I’d felt like I’d needed to get ill to slow down and reflect on my own direction and progress. What emerged from all of that was a big sense that I was neglecting something important.

In tandem, a group of my clients and people I’m professionally close to, were sharing with me that, as much as they enjoy A Different Kind Of Work, it isn’t wholly reflective of the work I do with them or how they see me.

So, the “career coach” comment was the icing on the cake. The third of three things, and I knew I had to pay attention.

And, yes, I do work with business people who’ve temporarily lost their career mojo, or are seeking to redefine their relationship with work. I’m passionate about the role work plays in supporting people feel good about bringing themselves to the world. And I am on a mission to help people find their own way to work, whatever that looks like.

And, my blogger friend was right: this is a site to watch this year. Because I’m only going to be sharpening its focus on talking to that agenda and supporting people to feel good about work.

But, the missing piece?

Well, there are people I consult with who bring issues besides work, or where work is not the dominant theme after all. A broken relationship that’s tearing their heart out. A deep personal unhappiness that’s making them feel life’s not worth living. An unmet desire – for children, perhaps – that’s cutting them in two. A problem with their body that’s getting in the way of them living – like secret binge eating and its consequences.

They tend to be smart professionals who do a good job of presenting a sorted image to the world and do very well in their business lives. But need a safe haven to come to, where they know they can reveal parts of themselves that they wouldn’t often admit elsewhere.

I love that work, and the people I do it with, just as much as I could ever love the people who work with me around career issues. And it, and they, began to feel completely underserved.

So, I decided to set up a new website that talks more to that audience. It’s been up for a few days now, but I’m formally launching it today. It’s www.christinelivingston.com – Psychology For Smart People. You’re welcome to go have a look round. It’s early days of course and there’s still more work to do. But I wanted to let you know it was there and the thinking behind it.

If the new site talks to you, go ahead and read it and share your thoughts with me there.

Meantime, I’d love to know what you’d like to see A Different Kind Of Work deliver for you now. Share your thoughts in the comments below!

photo credit: alexphotocamera

Related posts:

1. How To Get Paid For Eating Chocolate Cake

What is it about Christmas that can leave us all feeling so wrung out? The stress of making sure we have presents for everyone; that no-one is forgotten from our card list; that we’ve got all the ingredients in the fridge and cupboard to delight our houseful of guests; that we’ve enough money in our bank accounts, or credit cards to pay for it all?

That we’ll get to travel in the worst of snowy conditions?

So much for peace on earth.

Instead of obsessing about creating your own myth of the perfect Christmas – which, let’s face it, will only leave you disappointed – why not be present to the moment, and enjoy the Christmas you’re having instead?

One of the best ways to snap out of the frenzy is to stop everything you’re doing for a moment and to take stock of all that you’re grateful for.

This year I’m grateful for lots

In the face of a stuttering economy, I have had a steady supply of work, and some awesome clients. I can’t name you, but you know who you are. I love that when you work with me, you turn up to the work and that between us magical stuff happens. For the pleasure of being with you and watching you grow I am grateful.

For the energy I’ve had to keep developing this blog and for the readers who’ve come to it time and time again, I am grateful. Your presence has helped it grow. Your on- and off-line input and feedback has helped shape it.

For my fellow bloggers whose friendship and support I’ve valued for itself, and in the marketing and techie aspects of the site, I am grateful.

2010 has been a good year.

Gratitude rocks

Gratitude brings us back to ourselves; to what’s important. In being grateful our focus shifts from what we don’t have, or what’s not right, to what we do have and what is just fine. Gratitude energizes us, it allows us to sparkle and to zing. It’s part of the real magic of Christmas.

So, if you’re feeling stressed out over this festive time, remember to pay attention to what’s good in your life and give thanks for it. Engage gratitude to make your Christmas rock.

On that note, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. The site’s taking a break over the holidays, but will be back early New Year.

Photo credit: Steven Durbin Photography

No related posts.

There’s a theme at the heart of some of the very different stories I’ve heard from my people this week. It’s about wanting to be and do so much more, but holding yourself back.

You know the kind of thing I’m talking about. Not pitching for a job that’s got you written all over it because you “know” you won’t get it. Not quitting corporate life, even though your entrepreneurial sideline business is showing more than green shoots of success. Not leaving a relationship that’s well past its sell-by date, because you tell yourself there will never be another.

You’ve read all the logical advice out there.

You know that you can tick all the boxes on the spec for the big job. That your moonlighting income is trending beyond break even. That there are lots of eligible singletons on the market.

It convinces you for so long. But…

You’ve listened to the motivational gurus.

You’ve heard the ra ra that says “Just Do It! Push past yourself. Be confident, find courage, and take a leap of faith”.

It inspires you for so long. But…

And there’s always a “but”.

A primeval doubt that forces you back on yourself, that immobilizes you, that stops you from acting as powerfully as you know you can.

And which in turn mixes with fear that dissolves you, taking with it all your courage and resolve.

It’s frustrating. So frustrating. Of course this thing you’re wrestling with right now is very specific. Yet the feelings are ones you’ve known before in different guises. Always you try to tuck them away. Always they bounce back.

The theme echoed for me because it’s in my story too right now. (I gotta love how my work as coach and self-development ninja is so often the cauldron of my own growth.)

My dilemma? Daring to unveil and unmask online even more than I already have. Believing that doing so will help take my blogging business to the next level again.

Oh, I do pretty well. I know I’m well respected by a solid community of friends, followers and clients. I’ve put the leg work in. I’m proud of where I am. My blog’s currently sitting at a not-too-shabby circa 200,000 Global Alexa. And I make enough money to pay my way in life.

You might say, “Wow. Why would you want to do more?”

And sure, I could cruise here.

But, here’s the thing. I know there’s an even bigger me inside, bursting to push through, if only I will let it.

I ask myself: “Who am I to dare to believe I could touch more people; influence more broadly?” I compare myself to others I perceive as having cracked it and find myself falling short. Jon Morrow’s magic; Johnny B Truant’s humor; Naomi Dunford’s razor sharpness.

In my own mind I play small to their bigness. I am perpetual apprentice to their mastery.

What if I took back my projections and broke through my own glass ceiling?

And I think of the other times in my life that I’ve pushed through growth points despite fear and doubt. The time I knew I had to jump from my prestigious career to self-employment, despite no savings to fall back on. The time I so wanted to accept a loving man’s invitation despite being one very scalded cat. The time I intuited I had to take my business in a very different direction, despite years of successful self-employment.

How did I get past my fears at these points. How did I quell my doubts?

You might be expecting me to say something crass like I kicked them into touch. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I befriended them. Shit, I became their goddamn mother.

A slight digression, but I was thinking there of how it is for my little nephew when he gets frightened about something.

Some years ago, when he was only three or four, he was staying with me at Halloween. He loved the pumpkin lantern making, and the orange flashing decoration lamps I’d found to hang on Eric the rubber plant. But when we opened the door to some older kids, who’d come round Trick-or -Treating in full ghoulish costume, he totally freaked and ran away.

What drew him back, enough to dare to look the kids in the eye and share a laugh, was me holding him tightly, calming him down, and convincing him we were going to look at these scary monsters together.

One of the things I most dislike about some pop coaching stuff is that it encourages you to disown bits of you that you don’ t like and would rather not look at. With enough logic and motivation, it suggests, anything can be overcome.

I disagree.

The thing that has always stopped me moving forward is the screaming kid inside that’s so totally spooked by the unknown that it just will not budge.

To shoot for the stars you need to take your kid by the hand and figure out what it needs in order to feel safe enough to even try.

Sure, there will be practical things. Is your resume the best it can be? Are you confident your price points are market sensitive? Have you got a great divorce lawyer onboard and do you know your rights?

Inspirational stuff has its place too. Of course you need determination, tenacity and sheer balls to push through.

But don’t discount what you need emotionally. Take support from knowing that loving people are right behind you. Take all the positive strokes you can. But understand, own, and take strength from your fears and doubts. They are telling you that the faces at the door of your current challenge are scary. Gather them up, calm them down, and look the monster in the eye.

That’s when the transformation happens. That’s when you’ll feel your fear and doubts become excitement, enabling you to move beyond yourself and fly.

What’s spooking you at the moment? What do you need to find in yourself to go ahead with your ambitions?

photo credit: shesarii

No related posts.

Ben Lumley across at 6aliens drew my attention to the 7 Links Challenge that’s sweeping the blog world right now, thanks to Problogger.

The main aim of doing this challenge is to create a list post that highlights some of the posts in your archives to new readers (a sneeze page), that links out to another blog and that hopefully is a little fun (and not too much work) to do.

A Different Kind of Work just turned a year old, so what a great time to step back and look at things. I’ve really enjoyed putting this post together and would love your feedback on it.

My First Post

A Different Kind Of Blog

Can’t you just feel the euphoria in this post?! I know I certainly do as I read it back and connect with the part of me that had just cracked the technology involved in getting a WordPress blog set up. Now I smile at myself, of course, because it all feels so easy.

The Post I Enjoyed Writing The Most

How To Make Sure You Never Get Ahead

Michael Martine, who was fabulous in helping me get this blog off the tracks initially, told me that he thought I should use my wicked sense of humor on the blog. And so, I channeled it into this post, which I have to say was a complete blast to write.

A Post Which Had Great Discussion

Split Work-Life Personality? Join The Club

This was a fairly open and contentious post in which I shared some of the different bits of my own identity around work, not all of which are an obvious fit with one another by traditional or even logical standards. Lots of people resonated. Others saw professional compromise. All views were welcome.

A Post On Someone Else’s Blog I Wish I’d Written

Is Spiritual Business A Contradiction In Terms?

Written by the amazing Mark Silver this post appeared on Copyblogger. I’ve had the experience for years that a lot of work can be soulless. But how to get the spirit back into it without resorting to new age woo-woo language and completely disenfranchising the mainstream? Mark cracked that question here.

Your Most Helpful Post

10+1 Steps To Make Coaching Work For You

I think lots of people would like to do coaching, but as a client don’t really know how to navigate themselves through it. This post gave pretty concrete advice about being a powerful coaching consumer.

A Post With A Title You’re Proud Of

Unhappy At Work? A Different Look At This Weeks Job Satisfaction Statistics

I like this title because it summed up the post really well. Also, although it was written this January, it still drives most search traffic to the blog.

The Post I Wish More People Had Read

Work Detox: 5 Coaching Questions That’ll Change Your Life

This was one of my earliest posts and, although I’d sharpen up the style significantly now, I thought the content was better than the response indicated. Still, it’s all about learning!

So, some personal reflections and a bit of reading to get to off to a good start this week. Don’t forget to let me know what you think. And if there’s a topic you’d like to see me writing more about, let me know!

Related posts:

1. A Month of Birthdays

I’ve had a curious experience this week that I wanted to share.

It was all the more surprising as I’d just spent some deeply happy days unplugging and enjoying the successes of the first half of the year.

And back at work, I’d confidently set my second half year targets: run 3 Worklife Makeover workshops; add 5 new coaching spaces; sell and deliver 2 social media strategy pieces.

More details on all of these shortly.

I can’t say that one thing triggered it. Maybe it was reading online about the Emergency Budget and its resultant public spending job losses. Maybe it was the stuff I’d seen on TV about the BP oil spill and its ravages on both the US coast line and on the financial markets. Maybe it was the two old whingers I’d overheard in my local coffee shop, crapping on about everything from England’s disastrous World Cup performance to the impact of recession on their pension funds.

But suddenly I found myself asking:

“Who am I…?”

Who am I to be this confident about business in the midst of such upheaval and uncertainty? To be so successful? To have this lifestyle? To feel so loved?

Fear and doubt crept in.

I noticed my attention shift from what I wanted to do in the next months, to what I feared I may not be able to do.

What if I can’t pay my mortgage?

I felt my power sap, and my horizons narrow.

Maybe I should get A Job.

Then, shit, there are no jobs, and, in any case, who’d hire me eleven years out?

Those of you who know me well enough may find this surprising, even funny, but I spent a few unhappy hours, just swimming around in this self-destructive soup.

Whoa!

Unhappy. It was realising that this was how I was feeling that pulled me back from a shockingly downward spiral. I’ve done a lot of unhappy in the past, and I’ve vowed not to do it for long any more.

Life’s too short. Who can afford unhappy?

It was as I was coming back to myself that I got to wondering about all the negativity that’s out there and whether it has some sinister purpose that I’d momentarily got caught up in.

Maybe, I thought, doom and gloom is society’s way of keeping us in line and reminding us who’s boss. It sends an insidious fear message that talks right at the level of our most limiting beliefs.

Sure, it’s all dressed up in fancy, logical language.

The black hole in the economy. Budget deficits. Necessary measures.

Blah, blah.

But it shifts our focus from what we want to do because it’s naturally us, to what we have to do in order to stay valid society members. And it robs our vitality, so that we have energy only for achieving those needs.

Not buying into this.

I heard the words as I regained my own perspective. Yes, I want much of what society would deem as acceptable. But I also want to it on my terms.

And I realised that this was the choice doom and gloom gives us. We can either allow it to knock us out and surrender to its spell; or we can choose not to accept its handcuffs.

And I wonder what choices you’re making in its midst?

Don’t miss more detailed news of upcoming events and product launches! Subscribe to the blog here. And, for priority notification of offers and downloads, sign up for the newsletter.

No related posts.

Believe it or not, this blog is a year old this month. And it was my birthday yesterday. As you read this, I’m easing back for a few days, basking in my gratitude for this last amazing year.

Join me in a slice of virtual birthday cake and indulge me as I share with you some of the highlights.

Creating

I started blogging because, simplistically, I thought it would bring together two passions of mine: my love for writing, and my thing about the role work plays in creating meaning in people’s lives.

In tandem I was ready to build more of a practice of clients who came privately to me, as opposed to having been referred and paid for by corporations, with all of the strings that tended to be attached. That meant building brand new networks.

In the beginning I had only an intuitive sense of what I could do with the blog. But the energy and enthusiasm I unleashed in myself just by starting it was reason enough to keep going.

I was a novice to the technical side of things. Still, I hungrily taught myself the basics of WordPress, as challenging in the beginning as that was. I also threw myself into learning about the wider social media world. As someone who’d done business in a traditional way for years, I felt like I’d stepped off my safe planet onto some fourth dimension, of immense potential.

Suddenly social media was opening doors I could never have imagined. If only, to begin with, in my own head.

Search for meaning

Offline it used to be pretty easy. My networks knew that I was the “go to” coach for the kind of stuff I do. Offline you don’t have to be so sharp: people know what you do and your experience speaks for itself.

But how on earth do you articulate that online to people who don’t know you from Adam?

Attempting to get clarity, I searched around in my niche and found a few terrific blogs and bloggers. Pam Slim’s Escape From Cubicle Nation is great for those wanting to set out in a entrepreneurial direction. Scot Herrick’s Cube Rules has terrific advice for people dedicated to sticking with their office jobs. In the beginning I put out some thought pieces, both for those who were thinking of quitting their jobs, and those in employment alike. I knew I wasn’t really hitting the nail on the head or being totally, authentically myself. But I had to search for my own voice and my own angle post by post.

Meantime, I was so convinced that social media was going to take my work in a new direction – and one that would allow me to work more from home – that my other half and I decided to move out of London. He doesn’t need to be in town, and I was concerned that having The City on my doorstep would tempt me to default of more of the same. So in October we took our courage in both hands and took up home in a 300-year old converted cottage in the Chilterns. Big change, but ultimately such a joy.

Focusing down

Moving house really did mean that I had to up the ante on the blog. By Christmas, I understood the whole blogging and social media thing so much better and so could begin to set targets for my business based on using it.

By then too, I was able to articulate for myself that my offering is about coaching and inspiring professional people to work and live on their own terms. I was starting to really get that my difference was in supporting people’s own process, rather than telling people what to do. Correction, I was starting to be brave enough to say that.

Additionally, I could see that there was a wave of people at work who tended to be more my kind of client than any other. They were those who were consciously directing their own lives and questioning the role of work within it. And in February, I put some of these thoughts out in my post on The Silent Rise of The New Work Pioneer.

I also started to get braver about putting my personality across, and wrote a real piss-taker in my How To Make Sure You Never Get Aheadpost. Now that was fun!

The clearer and more focused I got, and the more confident about putting it out, the more the comments and retweets came. More than that, the better I got to know and connect with people in and around social media, the stronger these networks and connections have become.

Whilst in the beginning an intuition drove me, I’m now motivated by the clarity of my vision and sense of direction.

Leveraging

So, things are now at a point where coaching prospects and clients are starting to come through the blog, both directly and indirectly. In addition, I’ve just run my first workshop, was very happy with the outcome, and am ready to start adding that as a product, which I’ll be running from September.

Of course, there’s more development to come yet. The New Work Pioneer Manifesto needs PDFing and sending out. There’s a book to be written from some of the material for The Worklife Makeover. There’s another, longer workshop in development, and next year I plan to add an Interactive Learning Environment to the site.

It’ll all get done. But the point is that I could not be building these things, and seeing them generate results without the foundation work that’s been done.

An interesting, but unexpected, twist has come this week when in just one day I had several requests for consultancy support for social media for coaching businesses. My own personal development coach has been telling me for months that I need to package an offering. I didn’t see myself adding this to my business portfolio. If I can help people light up their businesses in the way I have, and enrich their experience of work in a similar way, why wouldn’t I?

Well, I’m off to eat more cake and drink more champagne now, but as I chomp and slurp, I want to thank you guys for being around these last weeks and months. It’s been fabulous and I’m only looking forward to more.

Cheers!

Related posts:

1. How am I doing?
2. How A Year In The Country Has Revolutionized My Work Life
3. What I Learned From My Broadband Blackout

That’s been the question on my mind as I’ve done my April blog review.

As regular readers know, I have a process for reviewing my blog that is now becoming pretty well established. I share the results of it because, not only am I passionate about helping others navigate career and life change for themselves, but also I’m in the process of reinventing my own already reinvented work life and believe there’s value in being transparent about my own process here.

This month’s headlines:

1. Most statistics are heading in the right direction
2. Notably, the blog has had 41% more traffic this month versus last; which, although it’s down on the stonking 93% month on month increase in March, is still heading in the right direction.
3. I achieved my ambition of writing and posting two posts per week.
4. The number and quality of comments being left on posts continues to be strong.
5. However, I’ve had no new paying clients via the blog for the second successive month, and
6. My RSS subscriber numbers have stayed more or less steady month on month.

What’s helping?

Guest posts

The blog broke into the realms of guest posting this month, thanks to my lovely friend Jen Smith who shared her article, Paving Your Own Path.

Life Skills Magazine is an innovative online publication, now in its third month. Its founder, Ayo Olaniyan invited me to give them an article which I happily did.

Traffic spikes

I had fabulous traffic spikes around four articles during the month, all different. First, thank you Jen, your article drew terrific traffic. Then, my honest and perhaps a little controversial article Split Work-Life Personality? Join The Club! got good numbers. Next, my tongue in cheek post Here’s How Not To Differentiate Yourself As A Coach did well. As did Five Things That Help New Work Pioneers Make Real Change.

What’s curious about the posts that did better than those that did not is that they’re all a bit quirky and different in their own way. And, although blog business guru Michael Martine might disagree, I think their headlines are pretty good in blogging terms. All things that seem to be important to grabbing the reader’s attention.

Recognition

I’m super excited to share a number of things here. First, Scot Herrick, perhaps better know for his Cube Rules site, has just written a book which hits the shelves this May and asked me if I’d read an advanced copy and endorse it. It’s called I’ve Landed My Dream Job — Now What??. I think it’s going to be a great resource for New Work Pioneers who are choosing to work in a corporate context.

Second, A Different Kind of Work was named one of the Top 50 Human Resource Blogs by Business Resource Master.

Awesome!

What’s curious?

It’s interesting, four months into seriously running it, that the blog still isn’t bringing in more income. A telling analytic is the stationary numbers for my RSS subscriptions. I think if I want to be able to make more direct contact with people, that’s an interesting sign. Still, it’s too early in the blog’s life to get worried about this and all my instincts tell me that I’m putting good foundations down and I should just moving.

And that’s really where the question, am I Building A Blog Or Building A Business comes in. If it’s the former, I need to be doing more of what I’m currently doing and continue to watch my Google Analytics figures grow.

But, if it’s the latter, I need to listen to some of the cautionary signs I’m seeing and act accordingly.

I am, of course, choosing the latter. Listening is taking me back and having me ask myself some vital questions:

• For whom am I writing and working? In other words, who is my market?
• What problem is it that I am uniquely positioned to help them solve?
• What are my business’s goals in bringing my offering to my market?
• What strategies am I using to try to achieve my goals? Are they the right ones for my market?

Future growth directions

My early answers to the questions I’ve just posed above suggest a tweaking of what I’m doing here as opposed to any major overhaul.

I believe that, after months of waiting, I’m about to switch over to my new site design and Headway: important considerations in the whole marketing and SEO capability of my site.

In addition to RSS, I’m planning to add Aweber, or a similar email marketing tool to the site, so I can build further beyond what I’m doing here.

I’m also going to host more guest posts from people talking about their own experience of A Different Kind of Work, and was pleased to welcome Linda Wolf to the site this Monday with her beautifully written piece, Deviation From The Norm – My Different Kind Of Work. Next starring attraction, Ben Lumley from 6aliens is lined up for next week.

Part of my challenge, I believe, is that whilst there are a number of people in my target market who have switched on to reading and writing blogs and taking part in social media, there are others who have not. I need to find non online ways to reach them. I currently playing with ideas around how I can write for relevant newspapers and other publications. And wondering whether a book idea that I had relegated to next year needs to come higher up my agenda.

I’m also keen to do some stuff that bridges social media and in person work. With that in mind, I’m delighted that Nick Williams, of The Inspired Entrepreneur Club, and I are going to be interviewing at the end of this month with the intention of having reciprocal You Tube videos on our sites.

And I’m spending this week crafting the webinars and seminars I’ve spoken of before so that I can get hard products on my site for people to engage with.

Well, that’s it for this month, folks. If you have any thoughts, observations or reflections as you read this, I’d love to hear them!

Photo credit: Skye to the West Coast: Steven Durbin Photography

Related posts:

1. A Different Kind of Blog Review: March 2010
2. A Month of Birthdays
3. Introducing The Manifesto For New Work Pioneers

Believe it or not, another month has passed since I posted my first blog review results. Which means that I recently skipped down to my local Costa again and spent a morning with a latte or two analysing things. Based on some of the feedback I got both on- and off-line last time around, I decided to make a regular feature on my blog of how things are progressing and what I’m learning in the process.

Remember, as well as helping others create their different kinds of work, I’m currently in the process of revolutionising my own. And if there’s anything you can take from my experience, be my guest.

This months headlines:

1. All my statistics are heading in the right direction
2. Notably, I’ve had 93% more traffic to my blog this month versus last; 55% of that was from new visitors
3. I achieved my ambition of writing and posting two posts per week, except for the week I was ill.
4. The number of comments being left on my posts is rising. There’s a good lived-in, community feel that’s building, which I’m enjoying.
5. And, I’ve had one more client begin working with me during the month and two further people currently interested.

What’s helping?

Traffic spikes

Since my first post on The Silent Rise of The New Work Pioneer, most of the other posts that have spoken about New Work Pioneers have prompted big readership spikes when they’ve gone live. This was particularly true of the post I wrote about how New Work Pioneers use times of crisis as opportunities for profound change.

To my delight, it seems that people are resonating with this topic. So, I’m encouraged to write more. (In fact, my Manifesto for New Work Pioneers ebook is almost written and will shortly be available for free download.)

Guest posts

I did two guest posts for some good friends of mine during the month. The first was for Jen Smith at Reach Our Dreams. The second for Ben at 6Aliens. The conversations that happened through the comments on these posts was awesome.

Naturally, some of their traffic checked out my blog in the process of reading the posts, so not only did I have some fun, but gained some new visitors.

Growing up to working online

The blog really appears to have turned a corner this year. Having developed a better picture of where I am heading and turned this into some solid goals, as I wrote about in Upping the ante in 2010 in January, has allowed me more confidence and focus. I feel I’ve “got” the point of social media and its relevance to business in a way I previously had not. This is undoubtedly helping. Interestingly, the more I see the power of focusing, the more I understand how focusing further can really help again. That’s very exciting.

What’s curious?

Your assumption – or wish! – about my new clients might be that they’re coming from the blog. This month, they’re not. All of them have come from being referred by existing or previous clients. I did, off the back of this, wonder whether I should be packing up the blog and concentrating on getting new business solely from referrals?!

I hope you’re relieved to know that I decided not.

First, as much as referral from existing clients is a brilliant form of marketing and not one I’ll ever stop valuing, the blog is serving a different purpose. It reaches more people than I’ll ever reach from doing my current one-to-one and small group work. It allows me to share my thoughts on all kinds of things in a way I couldn’t achieve without it. And it’s giving me a much wanted global and international connectivity, that I don’t at present have.

Second, I do want to develop my business beyond its current scope to include webinars, bootcamps and possibly a membership-based interactive learning environment, that I’ll run in due course.

So, after a moment of questioning, I am comfortable that it’s really not an either/or for me.

What’s still not right?

I’m disappointed to have let another month slip without switching to my new website design and to the Headway theme. Yes, I’ve added Commentluv, I’ve switched things around on my layout, I’ve put a Twitter counter on and a Twitterlink, but the design hasn’t fundamentally changed.

I asked myself whether this has taken so long because I’ve had something to learn. After all, I commissioned design work as far back as last September and it still hasn’t manifest. In the interim it has sometimes felt a little awkward and even naked to still be running on the plain vanilla Thesis theme.

On reflection, however, the benefit of being “brandless” is that I have had more time and space to evolve my own brand. I wonder if, with a glossy cover, I’d have felt compelled to live up to it, rather than to be who I am. Powerfully, what I’m understanding is that I am my own brand and that, whatever you begin to see design- or content-wise around this blog will be an expression of that, rather than the other way about. That feels good.

Future growth directions

As I said earlier, I’m delighted with the community feel here, and loving that lots of people who are dropping by the blog are sharing in the conversation. And, as I talked about in my Virtual Office of Self-Selected Colleagues post, I’m wondering whether seeing more results again is indeed going to come from me continuing to drive numbers to my site. Or whether it’s going to be more about creating and building the kind of relationships that will either directly or indirectly lead to business opportunities. I’m starting to err on the side of the latter because I think it aligns better to me and my business than the pile them high approach. I’m fighting it a little because, as you can tell even from reading this post, there’s something really motivating about getting lots of traffic and interaction. You can track numbers. Relationships are a lot less tangible. It needs much more thought and attention from me, but I suspect that this is now the route I’ll take. Of course, I’ll keep you posted!

So, how does all of this sound to you? Are you seeing echoes of any of it in your own work right now? What goes through your mind as you read.

Related posts:

1. Building A Blog Or Building A Business?
2. Health warning: blogging can seriously change your career
3. What do you do when your life doesn’t go according to plan?