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#reverb10 – Reflect and manifest

November 24, 2010 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

I keep saying “I want to write more” so I decided to do something about it.

I signed up for #reverb10 which their website describes as

“an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next. The end of the year is an opportunity to reflect on what’s happened, and to send out reverberations for the year ahead. With Reverb 10, we’ll do both.”

I’ve never done this sort of thing before. No NaNoWriMo. No NaBloPoMo. No 30 Days of Truth (I considered that one but didn’t like all the questions at first glance.) My posting frequency is spotty at best, so I don’t know how successful this will be. Especially in December which is a very busy month.

But small steps first.

First I signed up.

Then I put up this nifty graphic in my sidebar:

Then I tweeted my intent:

Then I got a really nice reply from the organizers:

Then I wrote this post.

I’ve said it out loud in several places. I really have to go for it now.

I’m still not sure if I can write one self-reflective post a day for a whole month, but like the mysterious “they” say, you’ll never know if you don’t try.

Wish me luck and let me know if you are participating as well. I’m enjoying the community-feel of this project and want to be sure I take part in that aspect of it as much as I do the writing aspect.

One word

November 10, 2010November 10, 2010 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

An off-the-cuff remark made during the closing session at Blissdom Canadagave many attendees their homework assignment from the session.

“What’s your one word?”

The one word in question is the word you’d use to describe your brand. Your online persona. Yourself.

Like a lot of people, I struggled with what I thought my one word was. I wanted one that represented who I am and who I want to be, both online and in the real world.

I also wanted a word that hadn’t been taken by anyone else. Why yes, I’ve got a touch of the special snowflake disease – doesn’t everyone?

The word I chose for myself is…

Perceptive

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, perceptive is defined as:

1: responsive to sensory stimuli : discerning

2a : capable of or exhibiting keen perception : observant

2b : characterized by sympathetic understanding or insight

I pride myself on paying attention to the little things, the details that make life great. I also do my best to think about those details so I can understand them and share my insights with others.

Seems to me that that is a lot of what personal blogging is about.

Now it’s time to up the perception and insight up in here. I gotta live up to this one word you know.

My experience at Blissdom Canada 2010

November 2, 2010 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

I attended my first blogging/social media conference last week. I’m finally starting to catch up with the cool kids on the interwebs!

I even lived to tweet about it.

I went to Blissdom Canada 2010 here in Toronto. Billed as “Canada’s first social media conference for women” it came with a lot of hype, and some high expectations. Tickets sold out very quickly so I was extra grateful to get my earlybird tickets. I would have been kicking myself if I had missed such an event taking place in my own city.

The conference ended on Friday so I’ve been processing it for a few days now. I’m struggling with how to put my feelings into words outside of “I had a fabulous time and learned a lot“.

It was great to be able to meet women who care about writing – and writing online – as much as I do. Matching faces to Twitter avatars is always fun – I joked that people would recognize me if I turned my head a certain way. I met and spoke to so many people I hoped to meet. I met and spoke to people I didn’t know of until we met, and now I have tons more blogs and tweets to follow.

Watching the smartphones and laptops going nonstop during the conference was a neat thing to watch. Some people are really great at live-tweeting or live-blogging an event or panel, which is really valuable for those following along at home. I tried to keep that to a minimum because I’m not great at it – I find I tweet one thought and miss the next one. I wanted to be sure I heard everything so I tried to keep my communications to a minimum during panels. It was neat to check my email and discover that my table mates had already started following my Twitter account. An extra bonus is that I’m already finding that I’m having more conversations on Twitter. I hope to keep that up. The fact that so many people are still using the #BlissdomCanada hashtag days after the conference ended says a lot about how much people got out of it.

What I wish that I had done differently

I wish that I had spoken up more! I have a tendency to speak less and listen more when I’m around people or situations I don’t know well. This is not a bad thing but listening to a conversation without contributing more than the bare minimum doesn’t show my best side. Once I warm up a bit, I can usually jump in and out as necessary, but I may end up saying something stupid or awkward. I know everyone does this, but I’d love a few less facepalm moments in my life.

I wish that I had asked more questions at the panels! This is related to my first point. I tend to not ask the questions I want to ask until close to the end or not at all. I want to listen to everyone else and see if they ask – or answer – my questions before I have to ask them. That doesn’t always happen so I need to learn to speak up for myself, whether it’s a question or a point I’d like to make.

I wish that I had a better “elevator pitch”! People would ask me about hellomelissa.net and I would say “I’m a personal blogger”. The next question would be “how long have you been doing this?” and my answer would be “over ten years”. I’m a dinosaur by blogging standards (and to a lesser degree, by Twitter standards, seeing that I started tweeting in 2007), and sometimes it shows. I was a little embarrassed that I depended on my longevity in the medium to try and legitimize myself. (I’ve struggled with this for awhile now as the link to a post from earlier this year mentions.) I struggle with the whole “elevator pitch” thing in real life too though so this is not a new thing for me.

I don’t want to be completely negative on myself so here’s some good stuff.

What I’m glad that I did right (for me)

I’m glad I mingled. I tried to sit with different people for each session. I came alone (and got a smiley face sticker to prove it) so it wasn’t like I had a group of friends I could hang with by default. Since I wasn’t staying in the hotel (hometown advantage! or disadvantage depending on how you look at it), I didn’t have roommates or travel mates. That left me free to sit with and talk to whomever I wanted. I spoke to lots of people – many of whom I may not have gotten to meet if I had sat with the same people all the time. When I went to the panels, I always sat at an empty or near-empty table and welcomed anyone who wanted to sit with me. That’s probably a passive form of networking, but it was networking nonetheless. If I wanted to go lone wolf and do things on my own, that didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings either.

I’m glad I dressed up for Halloween party. I was having a hard time trying to figure out a costume for the closing party. A frenzied trip to Value Village on the Wednesday before got me the stuff I needed. It wasn’t a fabulous costume, but I made an effort and that’s what really mattered. The fact that I ended up accidentally meshing with a couple of other costumes was a happy accident. Rockers unite!

I’m glad I sang karaoke at the party. I love karaoke, and I don’t get to do it often. I could have taken the easy way out and let everyone else do the singing. I’m fine once I get up there but I spend the time until they call my name super nervous and wishing I had never signed up. Once I’m done, I’m dying to go up again. I’m not the best singer by any means – I follow the “if you can’t sing it well, sing it loud” school of thought. But getting out of my sometimes shy, take a while to warm up, listening self to get up in front of people and potentially make an ass out of myself is a great way to get out of my comfort zone. That and I have a secret rockstar living inside of me.