Category Archives: general

clarity is power

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Clarity is Power. I read this some place (probably on Twitter) a few months ago and it struck me to the point that I now have it up on my bulletin board as a daily reminder. Clarity is Power. Three simple words that say so much.

Clarity is not only important in your personal life but also in your professional life and in your business. What are you about? What are your goals? What is your mission? What are your values? What is your image? What are you offering? How will you be of service?

Being clear on the answers to these questions (and others that may be more specific to your situation) will help you lay the groundwork for success. I suggest grabbing your notebook or tablet and writing down these questions and your answers to them. If you don’t have all the answers right away, it’s OK. Consider this to be a living document. Some of your answers may change over time but it’s important to at least begin the thought process. Let me know how it works out for you!

CLARITY IS POWER!

insight: why I don’t show before & after photos

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Some people may wonder why I don’t show before and after photos of my makeup and image consulting clients. After all, you may be thinking “how will I know that you can really help me if I don’t see photos?” I have two words for you: high school.

My teen years were a definitively non-photogenic period for me. I have purposely not retained a single photo from that period. Recently, as part of a reunion website for my graduating class, my senior yearbook picture was posted online. I immediately insisted that it be removed. I have no desire for that photo to be spread across the internet – or anywhere else.

When it comes to my clients, I think of them as being iterations of my teenage self. This is not to say that they are in any way ashamed or embarrassed of their looks. They are; however, coming to me for an upgrade of either their makeup, wardrobe or both because they feel they need a change. So why would I post photos of them in a state from which they are trying to evolve? That doesn’t seem right to me. When I am finished, they are pleased and that pleases me. I suppose I could just post ‘after’ photos, but alone they don’t pack quite the same punch, so I don’t bother.

So there you have it. No tabloid shots here. I respect my clients and hopefully you will respect that and my current and future clients will appreciate it.

summer reading list: social edition

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I’ve always loved books and reading. Never the one to want to climb trees or jump rope with the other children, I was the child who stayed in my room reading and drawing. Yeah, I was that kid. Now that the tech world has taken over my life I find myself buying more books than I’m reading. I still read a lot; but lately I’ve been reading more business and tech related blog posts, articles and websites than actual books. To that end, I have a stack of books beside my bed and next to my desk just waiting to be cracked open. Enter the summer reading list – a few books that I’m sure I should have read by now, but as the saying goes – better late than never. Here’s my starting lineup:


Any books you think I should add to the list? Let me know!

do I influence you?

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My Klout classification as of August 5, 2010 - Activist

I’ve been obsessed with influence (social media buzzword) lately. To be more specific, I’ve been obsessed with MY influence. Twitter fanatic that I am, I long ago discovered decided that number of followers does not correlate to influence. I don’t collect Twitter followers (or Facebook friends) in the same manner in which I collected Lisa Frank stickers as a child. I had books and books filled with them! Back then, it was all about quantity. These days though, it’s about quality. Quality and engagement (another social media buzzword.) That being said, I’ve become quite taken with Klout. Don’t know about Klout scores? Read this description from the website:

The Klout Score is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 0 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 25 variables to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score. The size of the sphere is calculated by measuring True Reach (engaged followers and friends vs. spam bots, dead accounts, etc.). Amplification Probability is the likelihood that messages will generate retweets or spark a conversation. If the user’s engaged followers are highly influential, they’ll have a high Network Score.

How exciting is that?! As of today, my Klout score is 52. I suppose this means I have a little more online influence than your average bear. But what does it really mean? In a nutshell it means that a decent number of good people list/retweet/listen to me and that I engage with a fair number of my 626 followers. I feel good about that. Onward & upward!

As a lark, I joined the Fast Company Influence Project. I don’t see this as a true gauge of any real influence since it’s only based on how many people click a project-based link, but I thought it’d be fun to see the results. My current rank is 3,089 out of 24,549. Apparently your photo size increases with your influence too.

While these metrics are certainly interesting, I’d love to know – do I influence you?

the ‘real’ power of twitter

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If you know anything about me, you know that I am a bonafide Twitter aficionado. Even with it’s API issues and that darn fail whale, Twitter is still my favorite social media platform.

Having attended (and livetweeted) the #140confDC in June, I heard a lot about the “power of Twitter.” It enables people to communicate and spread messages across the world – be it about education, sports, technology, you name it! It is truly amazing what can be conveyed in 140 characters or less. I’ve made connections with people via Twitter that have turned into job offers and other types of opportunities, so I certainly realize the power that being able to communicate with people in real time holds. For me; however, the real power has come in the connections that have been made offline. I attended two events this past weekend, a surprise birthday party and a cookout, and both were given by people who I met via Twitter – people that I did not know four months ago!

The surprise party was given for a sweetheart of a lady named Charlotte whom I have adopted as my sister. I love her to pieces and more pieces. It really struck me when she said that she couldn’t believe that these people that she had met on Twitter had done this for her, when she couldn’t even get something like that from family. John, who is just so sweet you could put him on pancakes, invited me into his home to enjoy his food and hospitality, and told me I could bring a guest – and we met on Twitter! Seriously. Now if that’s not the REAL power of Twitter, I don’t know what is. Not only are people connecting, they’re engaging, they’re relating, they’re coming together – in real life, for real events and real causes. And sometimes just to hang out.

If someone had told me about this phenomena, but I hadn’t witnessed it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it. I still have a hard time believing it. Somehow, some way, I have stumbled upon this group of individuals who are for the most part cool, friendly, down-to-earth, welcoming, supportive of each other’s endeavors..the list goes on. This isn’t how I grew up. I’m always on the defensive; always wondering “what’s the catch?” People just aren’t like that. The power of Twitter.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that every person that I’ve met via Twitter has become my instant best friend, but most definitely there are a lot of them that I can hang with in or out of a Tweetup. The best part about it is, these people are accepting me for me. I don’t know how to be anybody else, so my motto is “if you can’t take it, leave it.” So far, I keep getting twtvites, so I guess my tweeps can take it.

My “tweeps” as I call people I’ve met via Twitter, are like an extended family – they’re my cousins, my uncles, my aunties…they’re my sisters and my homegirls who are like sisters…they’re my brothers and my homeboys who are like brothers. Some of them are my “damn, he’s cute; does he really have to be my brother?” homeboys, but I digress. :)

The bottom line is that, for me, the real power of Twitter lies in what happens offline. The conversation may start on Twitter, but it sure doesn’t have to end there.

dating 2.0

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I had an interesting exchange with a friend recently which lead me to ponder the impact that social media has on dating. Chat rooms and online dating sites have been around for years and there are new ones popping up all the time. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have changed the game though. Now, if you have a brief encounter with someone yet, for whatever reason, neglect to exchange numbers, you can find them on Facebook and send a friend request. Or find them on Twitter and tweet them a message. Or find them on LinkedIn and request that they join your network. So with so many options the question becomes, “Where’s the line between showing interest and cyberstalking?”

Real Life Scenario: At an event, my friend met a guy who she found attractive. She chatted him up and before the end of the night they had exchanged Twitter handles. What they didn’t exchange; however, was phone numbers. Later, as my friend was kicking herself about that fact “what if he doesn’t go on Twitter often?,” my suggestion to her was to Google him. I figured she may get some hint as to how to contact him if that did turn out to be the case. After all, they hit it off, right? No harm, no foul. She took my advice and found his LinkedIn account. So I’m thinking, “Perfect! Now you can contact him on LinkedIn if the Twitter thing falls through. After all, you did discuss business.” She; however, was thinking, “I can’t contact him on LinkedIn. He’ll think I’m stalking him.” I told her, that it would be completely acceptable as long as it was done within the first few days after meeting. Any longer, and maybe it would seem a little odd.

Well, cut to a few weeks later. I asked her if she’d ever gotten in touch with him. She was really digging this guy after their first meeting so I thought for sure she would have reached out. To my dismay, she did not. She still felt that it would have been overstepping bounds. I disagree, but we’re friends so we can agree to disagree. :)

So, with social media making it so much easier to find and engage with people, how far is too far? As with most things in life, there’s no cut and dry answer. It depends. In this instance, I feel that it would have been completely appropriate for my friend to send an invitation to this guy via LinkedIn. Sending him a Facebook friend request; however, may have been a bit much. So as if navigating these choppy dating waters wasn’t complicated enough, now we’re adding googling and social media to the mix. Good or bad? Overall, I’d definitely say ‘good.’ At it’s core, social media is about engagement and relationship building. Sounds a lot like dating, no?