How to Work At Home Successfully

Posted on December 27, 2010 by Kat

Three and a half years ago, my dream of working from home came true. I had long envisioned a life in which I could work in my pajamas with a ponytail in my hair during any hours I choose. My schedule would somehow magically revolve around the needs of my family and home, allowing me more freedom than ever before. I would be SuperMom, making it on time to all of the various activities and appointments that teenagers require. All of my work would be done on time, and all of it would be of an above-average quality. Less than a week later, I learned the hard way that dreams come with a price. Working at home is not as glamorous as it’s cracked up to be, trust me.

While I do tend to work in pajamas and a messy ponytail most days, I admit that no other parts of my earlier visions were correct. After more than fifteen years spent in office settings, I also will now freely admit that it’s easier in many ways to have one of those 9-5 jobs I spent so much time griping about. You see, life happens – when you least expect it. Sure, you can pencil in times to work… time for appointments… times to cook, clean and do the laundry. What you cannot pencil in are the million other distractions that are going to come your way every moment of every day.

The kids simply want to see me. The princesses will come down at random times through the day for hugs and kisses, or to show off something new they’ve learned. They return to the upstairs and their Mommy (my daughter) after just a short period. However, I have to then dash off a Tweet or an email to family members to brag about the uber-awesome thing they just did or said. My other daughter – who is fifteen – wanders down every time some type of drama happens she must discuss immediately. Remember – she’s fifteen. There is always some type of drama going on.

The phone rings. The laundry piles up. There are too many dirty dishes. Someone gets hurt. Another person suddenly develops a fever/rash/cough that requires a doctor. Yet another person has forgotten some item they absolutely need at school right then and there (and yes – I’ve gone to the school in said pajama pants and ponytail, tyvm!). The granddaughters may bonk their noggins while running hell-bent through the house and need Nana’s special kisses. Oh crap, I forgot to start dinner!

Someone in the chat room needs to talk about whether their ban was legitimate or not. Three other people IM me to air their thoughts on some pressing matters. I search my favorite website for possible story leads, and end up reading twelve other articles simply because they interest me. Oh crud – that one links off to three sources that look promising! Another hour is lost while I check those stories and tidbits off, as well. Let’s not forget Twitter. I admit to being addicted, and having to shoot off at least ten to twenty of those every day. Thank god they were genius enough to limit me to only 140 characters, or I’d spend four times as much time on there.

Something in the house just broke – gotta call the landlady and get approval to call a repair person. Wait on hold forever and a day when I have to call the cable company to resolve an issue on my bill or ask why my upload speeds are once again throttled. Geeez, now I have a question for Chris about a video he recorded, so I have to track him down to see what he wants me to do with it. While I’m waiting, I forget that I could be writing something else – I ended up distracted answering the thirty unread messages in my email Inbox that don’t even have anything to DO with work.

Are you seeing a pattern here, folks? There are so many distractions every moment of every day when you work from home that it takes willpower of steel to somehow block it all out.

The beautiful thing, though, is that I choose to not block out a single moment. Every distraction proves that I am living life. Every interruption by the kids is another memory made and another moment I did not miss due to being away from home in an office somewhere. Hell no it’s not easy working at home, but I am blessed to be able to do so.

Guess what? I feel the need to stop writing now and go soak in a bubble bath for an hour. I’ll finish my work when my fingers and toes are properly wrinkled.

Posted in Personal, Social Media | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Mark Zuckerberg: Time Person of the Year – Why?

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Kat

I love Facebook and the Zuck as much as the next person, honestly. I simply fail to understand why it is that Time Magazine has named him Person of the Year for 2010. The magazine backs up their choice by saying that: “For connecting more than half a billion people and mapping the social relations among them; for creating a new system of exchanging information; and for changing how we all live our lives, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is TIME’s 2010 Person of the Year.” My reaction was a raised eyebrow and an exclamation of “holy crap – seriously?”

Mark is certainly blossoming into a great CEO. His company is undoubtedly an important one, paving the way for the social media movement. He pisses us off, and he makes us love him. We alternately sing his praises on our blog pages and threaten a fate worse than death. We embrace many of the changes he forces down our throats at the same time we’re screaming at him about our privacy.

Do any of these things make him the “Man of the Year?” I honestly don’t believe so, no. In fact, I’m not happy with anyone on the top ten list. Lady Gaga? Really? What the hell has she done to influence the world? How has Steve Jobs managed to make this globe a better place? Please don’t tell me that my iPhone 4 or your Macbook Air is going to save the planet. I don’t want to hear it.

Why is there not a person such as my friend Mark Horvath on that list? He is literally changing the world – one story at a time. He travels all over the place, talking to those living on the streets (and sometimes in the sewers). He is giving a face to the invisible people of our world. By doing that, he’s making an actual difference.

I am well aware that Horvath isn’t the only one out there changing this little ball of gas for the better. There are hundreds – perhaps thousands – of amazing people out there. Why the hell don’t we see them winning an award such as this? Have we really become so illogical – our minds polluted against what’s real and necessary – that we would choose the creator of a social network as the most influential and important person in our world?

Posted in Politics, Rants, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , | 19 Comments

How To Keep Your Customers Happy

Posted on December 14, 2010 by Kat

I originally wrote this post as a rant about a month ago, after having to deal with horrible customer service repeatedly – from one company. Re-reading this today, I realized how much of it rings true… companies need to actually be listening to their customers. Don’t patronize us. Don’t act like we are complete imbeciles. Just – make your product or service WORK. That’s all we ask… honest!

It takes an awful lot to frustrate me to the point of tears. I am a fairly calm person most of the time and you won’t often see my feathers ruffled. However, I have reached the point of no return. I even mentioned on Twitter that I needed a white flag to wave and was throwing in the proverbial towel. The point of no return has come and gone. Why the hell can people not LISTEN for once? If you are in charge of the response team for your product or service, stop patronizing me. Yes, I’m talking to you. If your junk doesn’t work, it’s not me – your customer – you should be blaming. When you cannot figure out what the hell is wrong, you don’t turn around and flippantly tell your client that it must be “something on your end.”

I’m not going to name names or point fingers. The service I am ticked off at doesn’t really matter because I’ve seen this happen too many times to count. I have been having issues with your service for more than a year now. I have tried using it on multiple computers, using every browser ever built and even from different locations (with different ISPs). Since the problem exists 99% of the time, I can pretty much guarantee it’s NOT ON MY END.

In the past year, I have spent a countless number of hours on the phone with your technicians and engineers, and an even larger number of hours buried in emails back and forth. I don’t get paid for the time I spend trying to make YOUR service work. In fact, I tend to lose pay since I’m not getting other things done that I could be invoicing for. Each time we publicly complain about your service (on Twitter or Facebook), your latest mouthpiece acts very concerned and attempts to help.

It doesn’t help, though, when you have zero records of ever having talked to us before. It doesn’t help me when you have an entirely new team in place since the last time. It doesn’t help me to have to waste my time telling you my browser of choice, operating system and computer specifications. This is NOT an issue due to my computer. How will it benefit anyone to dredge our way through the same old routine tests and useless information to get to the same point? At the end of the conference call with your engineers tomorrow, I am sure I will be once again told that since THEY cannot replicate the issue, there is nothing wrong. My screenshots, concise explanations and screen captures don’t convince you there is something wrong.

I want your service to work – period. There’s nothing more to it. You jump down our throats if we dare to state that what you do is not worth recommending to others, yet you cannot be bothered to take a serious interest in the needs of your customers. I don’t expect perfection or even spectacular and amazing things from you.

I just want your shit to work.

What are your thoughts? Are you sick and tired of companies who care nothing about supporting you beyond the point of sale? What’s your worst customer service horror story?

Follow me on Twitter!

Posted in Rants | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Are You Truly Ready for Your Fifteen Minutes of Fame?

Posted on December 8, 2010 by Kat

As I was typing out a reply to this very question over on the other Lockergnome site a few moments ago, I realized that the thoughts in my head might just make an excellent blog post. Until this point, I had never really thought through my life and attempted to decide if I had, indeed, already had my fifteen minutes of fame. As I pondered my way through my life, I realize that I sure as hell hope my fifteen minutes hasn’t gotten here just yet.

I’ve been lucky to have received some cool recognitions and to have done many awesome things. In college (I began college at age 29, worked full time, single mom), I maintained a perfect GPA, was President of our local chapter of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society for two years, Illinois Regional President for a year and won a Coca Cola National Scholars award/scholarship. I was also featured (one of only 7 students in the entire school) in the book published about student life and the school itself. You know – THE book – the one that the college sends to a million people, hoping they will attend.

I’ve had a couple of articles written about me for various reasons in print newspapers and published online. I’ve been recognized at conferences. I’ve been interviewed more times than I can count and have been a guest on more than a few podcasts and web shows. Heck, I’ve even met – and hung out with – several “famous” people.

While each of these things were humbling and exciting, I certainly would call none of them my fifteen minutes of fame. If I were to label any of those events as such, wouldn’t that mean I’m “done?” There’s nothing more to do, folks. I no longer have to work so hard. I shouldn’t bother to strive to do more – accomplish more – BE more, right? After all, my fifteen minutes has already come and gone.

I’m sorry, but there’s just no way I’m ready to call it quits. I have so many things that I want to accomplish. Any one of those things could one day turn into my moment if I work hard enough. I know without a doubt that I have the potential to achieve far more than I have in the past. I set goals with specific action plans, brainstorm often and push myself hard. When MY fifteen minutes get here, I want it to be for something I have truly worked for.

How about you – have you already had your moment of fame?

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Why Should You Build Your Business on Social Media?

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Kat

Raise your hand if you have a Twitter account. Keep it up high if you also have a profile on Facebook or MySpace. Can I find you on LinkedIn? Does your name appear on the hallowed pages of foursquare, YouTube, digg or Flickr? What about your work? Is your business on social media? Think about this for a moment. YOU likely have a carefully-cultivated and active social life online. Your friends, family and co-workers have these same accounts. Guess what, folks? Your customers – and those people you want to be your customers – are hanging out and checking in to all of these same sites. Why isn’t your business there with them yet?

To be completely frank, you are completely insane if you haven’t begun to put your business out there in social-land. I don’t know about you, but I do almost everything online now. If I need to buy something for my home, I research the various brands online before purchasing online. I rely on what others say far more than I do on whatever propaganda the company wants to spin on their own site. Past customers are going to tell the truth about whatever it is you’re selling. If your product or service is hot, the world is going to know. If you flat-out suck… we’re all going to know that, as well. People talk – a LOT – on social media sites. Word spreads like wildfire. Companies are literally made or broken all the time simply by what their target audience has to say about them.

This may make you leery, and more afraid to take that plunge. If you believe in what you’re doing, though, why aren’t you putting yourself out there? You obviously started that business or created that service for a reason, right? Isn’t your goal to sell something? How the heck will you ever DO that if you don’t let people know how to find you?

The most important tip I can give you is to never – EVER – treat your professional social media profiles as nothing more than link-bait. Don’t sit there and post links to your specials, sales or blog posts. People will not pay attention. You have to engage your community. Talk WITH them, not at them. If you’re running a special this week on tennis shoes, ask your audience what type of shoe they feel works best for them, followed by a simple link to your sale page. Asking a direct question will nearly guarantee conversation, feedback and clicks.

Personally, I hate the word “followers,” along with the term “fans.” I don’t want either of those things, thanks. I prefer to have friends – and you should, too. Even if you are trying to sell these people something, you really want to engage them as though they are a friend. Draw them in to your circle. Make them feel a part of whatever it is you are trying to do. Let them know their feedback and ideas are important. You are going to win a hell of a lot of loyalty this way, and your community will begin to grow.

Always keep in mind that building a community is NOT about connecting people to you. It’s all about connecting them to each other. Give them the tools and platforms that they need to collaborate and watch the magic unfold. We’ve all seen how one person can make a difference in the world. Can you imagine what can happen when a group of people come together under a common interest? They literally would have the power to change the world.

Shouldn’t your brand be right there cheering them on?

Posted in Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

2010 Elections From a Teenager’s Eyes

Posted on November 3, 2010 by Kat

Election Day 2010 was an interesting one across the country. We watched Prop 19 fail. We witnessed a woman’s $130 million dream go up in smoke. Many citizens sighed in relief to see the House turn red. Still others were angry at this change in color. Rumors were slung like so much mud through the intertubes. Speculation was rampant across Twitter. Rants and outright cursing fits splashed their way across the world.

I spent my evening focused on a State Senate race for a state I don’t even live in. Joe Pirillo, dad to my boss Chris, was making a run for the Iowa State Senate in District 21. I have gotten to know Joe and his wife Judy very well in the nearly four years I’ve worked with Chris. They are GOOD people. Joe ran for office because he passionately believes that his state needs to make some serious changes in the way they are spending their money. With his Accounting background, he felt he was better suited to sit in that seat than the incumbent. I rooted for him to win with my whole heart.

A few hundred of our community members hung out together in the chat room. We followed the election results for Joe closely, cheering when he pulled ahead and cursing when he fell behind. We listened to Chris’ varying reactions each time the results were updated. If I had to guess, I’d say more than fifty percent of those participating in the political discussions tonight were under the age of eighteen. Within just a few moments, I noticed something that had my mouth nearly on the floor: it was the teens who were far more passionate – and educated – about this election than the adults.

You read that correctly. These kids understood the issues. They knew the candidates. They had researched the various bills. I watched in complete awe as these young people debated each other – respectfully – over the hot topics of the day. It was the adults in the channel who sat around not really caring. Most of them didn’t participate, other than to mock something or someone. Finally, I commented about this on Twitter. A friend of mine – who happens to BE a teenager – responded simply:

“You know why? More than ever, they want a voice, because they are sick of whats going on. This is an example of good doing something, giving evil a run for its money.”

To which another friend responded:

“That’s why the kids of today are truly scary. Most of the time, they don’t care. As soon as you get ‘em to care, they’re unstoppable.”

It was a truly awesome adventure tonight, seeing the way the minds of teens today work. They care about today’s politics because they know that they are the adults of tomorrow. The decisions we made with the votes we cast today will affect them “tomorrow.” These kids know this, and they are determined to have a voice in everything we are doing.

If only more adults would care this much – our government might not be quite so screwed up.

Posted in Politics, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How To Fix Your Service and Make it Work

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Kat

It takes an awful lot to frustrate me to the point of tears. I am a fairly calm person most of the time and you won’t often see my feathers ruffled. However, I have reached the point of no return. I even mentioned on Twitter that I needed a white flag to wave and was throwing in the proverbial towel. The point of no return has come and gone. Why the hell can people not LISTEN for once? If you are in charge of the response team for your product or service, stop patronizing me. Yes, I’m talking to you. If your junk doesn’t work, it’s not me – your customer – you should be blaming. When you cannot figure out what the hell is wrong, you don’t turn around and flippantly tell your client that it must be “something on your end.”

I’m not going to name names or point fingers. The service I am ticked off at doesn’t really matter because I’ve seen this happen too many times to count. I have been having issues with your service for more than a year now. I have tried using it on multiple computers, using every browser ever built and even from different locations (with different ISPs). Since the problem exists 99% of the time, I can pretty much guarantee it’s NOT ON MY END.

In the past year, I have spent a countless number of hours on the phone with your technicians and engineers, and an even larger number of hours buried in emails back and forth. I don’t get paid for the time I spend trying to make YOUR service work. In fact, I tend to lose pay since I’m not getting other things done that I could be invoicing for. Each time we publicly complain about your service (on Twitter or Facebook), your latest mouthpiece acts very concerned and attempts to help.

It doesn’t help, though, when you have zero records of ever having talked to us before. It doesn’t help me when you have an entirely new team in place since the last time. It doesn’t help me to have to waste my time telling you my browser of choice, operating system and computer specifications. This is NOT an issue due to my computer. How will it benefit anyone to dredge our way through the same old routine tests and useless information to get to the same point? At the end of the conference call with your engineers tomorrow, I am sure I will be once again told that since THEY cannot replicate the issue, there is nothing wrong. My screenshots, concise explanations and screen captures don’t convince you there is something wrong.

I want your service to work – period. There’s nothing more to it. You jump down our throats if we dare to state that what you do is not worth recommending to others, yet you cannot be bothered to take a serious interest in the needs of your customers. I don’t expect perfection or even spectacular and amazing things from you.

I just want your shit to work.

Posted in Rants | 1 Comment

How NOT to Deal With Internet Trolls

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Kat

For the past three years, I have had to deal with Internet trolls on a daily basis. I have had threats made against me for perceived wrong-doings, been called every name in the book (and some that I believe were made up!) and been told that I needed to kill myself to put the world out of its misery. When I first started working with Chris, I admit that these little idiots got to me. They really hurt me and made me question the work I was doing on more than one occasion. I quickly learned how to deal with them. I realized that they are nothing more than inconsequential morons who hide behind the anonymity of their computer connection. Their goal in life is to project their anger at the World onto others by attempting to hurt them. Realizing this was freeing: I took away their power to hurt me.

My daughter, however, is a different story. Anyone who knows me knows that you simply do NOT mess with my girls. I have been to hell and back in my life. I can tolerate and survive nearly anything that Fate throws my way and come out on top. Attempt to hurt my kids, though, and you’re going to pay for it. They are my life, plain and simple. They are the reason I get up every day and do the things I do. They are what drives me to be a better mom and a better person.

Recently, Chris sent me his iPhone 3GS after he had received his new iPhone 4. I was totally excited. I’ve never owned a smartphone of any type, so this would be completely new for me. Chris asked me to record an “unboxing video” to place on his YouTube channel. Those of you who know me at all know how much I LOATHE cameras, and why. I reluctantly agreed, knowing that the trolls would be out in full force. I was so nervous, though, that I asked my oldest daughter Ashley to join me in the video for moral support. She’s 21 years old, but still quite “new” at this whole Internet thing. Sure, she has a Facebook and uses Twitter occasionally. She’s never been subjected to most of the things that I do – and I’ve never told her about the trolls. Perhaps I should have.

One little asshole in particular chose the wrong person to mess with. The child (yes, child – he’s 14!) commented on the video and informed my daughter that he “hacked” us (which I KNOW isn’t possible) and knew where we lived. He claimed to her that he knew her phone number… and that he planned to rape her sometime this week. Needless to say, my kiddo freaked the hell out and rightfully so.

I admit it, y’all. I handled this badly at the start. I flew into a rage. I did not know at the time that this person was a young teenager. From all appearances on his own YT channel, he was an adult. That doesn’t matter, though. I couldn’t see past wanting him to hurt and be afraid the same way my daughter was. I turned to close friends on the IRC network, and asked them to troll him back. I wanted him to receive a taste of his own medicine. I wasn’t thinking clearly – or at all.

Before trolling the troller, my friends looked at his YouTube account. That is when they learned how young he is. By this time, I had calmed down considerably and knew that I did NOT want this handled this way. I wanted to take care of it properly – by contacting the authorities (and YouTube). Thanks to the power of the information people so willingly post on the Internet, I was able to turn over his full name, address, IP address, printed copies of the comment he left and more. The police have more than enough information to track the dreadful child down. I’m sure his parents will be amused to find out what he’s been up to online. And I sincerely hope he gets the professional psychiatric help he obviously needs. What 14 year old child goes around telling women they are going to rape them? Hello!

The moral of this story is that I blew it, gang. I KNEW better than to fly off the handle. I KNOW how to handle these situations. I have no excuses, other than the fact that when it comes to protecting my kids… I apparently act first and think later. I’ve never been faced with a situation before where THEY were threatened in any way. When they were, I turned into some type of mad woman for a short time. I apologize sincerely to those of you who were disappointed in my reaction. I learned a few lessons tonight, and hope that they will help someone else should they ever find themselves in this awful situation.

Ashley – remember what I told you tonight. Little pieces of slime like this mean NOTHING. Picture them with their little sandwiches in their mommy’s basement just like Chris said. They are people who have nothing better to do with their life than to make an ass out of themselves online. As the saying goes: you can’t fix stupid. ;)

Posted in Personal, Rants, Social Media | Tagged , , , | 10 Comments

Facebook, Calacanis and TechCrunch: Where Does the Truth Lie?

Posted on June 12, 2010 by Kat

Earlier today, I read a story over on TechCrunch where MG Siegler wondered why Jason Calacanis’ profile still showed up on Facebook. As you can see in the embedded video, Jason deleted his Facebook page back on May 22nd, 2010. He has publicly bashed Zuckerberg and company for their “shady privacy practices,” lack of ability to export content and not having an easy way to delete a profile completely.

Siegler reported earlier that more than the two weeks have gone by, and Jason’s page remained visible. When called on this, Calacanis appeared to be angry. In an email to Zuck, COO Sheryl Sandberg and TechCrunch, he blasted the company. Jason claimed that his page must have been reactivated by a third-party service or app. The site complied and immediately shut down his page, and the ordeal seemed to be finished.

Not quite.

TechCrunch just published a post with a headline that claims Jason is lying. After reading the original article today, Facebook engineer Mike Vernal left a comment stating in part: “In this situation, we’ve investigated and concluded that all of our policies were followed. We don’t get into specifics about individual users but in theory, the only way someone would be able to log back in to Facebook or another website with their Facebook information is if they had canceled their deletion request before the 14 day window expired.”

In a later email exchange with Facebook VP of Communications Elliot Schrage, Siegler learned that there is no way possible that the page stayed active for the reasons Calacanis listed. Either Jason – or someone acting on his behalf – told the site not to cancel his account. In the updated posted by MG on the TechCrunch site, he concludes:

Facebook is effectively saying that Calacanis is lying. They’re saying that there’s no way a third-party site could have kept his account active. And there’s no way he could have kept it active by logging into a third-party site (through Connect) without him explicitly canceling his deletion request first.

Sure sounds fishy to me. Perhaps Jason wanted to keep his Facebook account after all, but didn’t have the guts to say so after the public whining he’s done?

Posted in News, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Is Arrington the Devil in Disguise?

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Kat

I suppose that this post could get me into some proverbial hot water. It’s a good thing, then, that I tend to enjoy showers that nearly scald the skin off of my back. I’ve never been afraid to speak my mind in the past. I’ve oft wondered lately why I keep yelling things at my Twitter client instead of writing them down. It’s time I stop hiding what is rattling around inside this rock attached to my shoulders. If I don’t win any friends, that’s okay with me. I’m not trying to kiss up to anyone. I just feel it is time that I speak out on a subject that gets me fired up nearly every single day.

Being a girl behind the scenes doing what I do is honestly probably more fun than it would be were I the one in the spotlight. It’s also a whole lot easier. I don’t have to constantly take flak and have bullshit flung at me every time I write or speak. I can research and write about technology and social media to my heart’s content and not have to worry about what everyone else thinks. That’s the beauty of being a ghost-writer. I can write the news and stories, publish them and know at the end of the day I did one hell of a good job.

Being a community manager for Chris Pirillo, I spend a lot of time keeping my eye on Twitter. Where else will I get scoops on all of the latest news and hot stories? There are also a lot of interesting tidbits to be found there, if one is inclined to pay attention. I’ve noticed lately that there seems to be an even larger amount of bashing of Michael Arrington than usual. Sure, he’s controversial. You bet your ass he tells it like it is. He pulls no punches. If he thinks something, he’s going to say it. Personally, that’s why I follow the man. I could care less that he’s the boss of TechCrunch. I don’t care if he’s worth a dollar – or a million of them. I find his honesty and willingness to speak his mind refreshing. I disagree with him often. Does that mean I should slam him publicly? Should I start ranting and calling him names every time I think differently than he does?

We seem to have forgotten that it’s a GOOD thing to disagree with someone. Listening to what others think is a great way to expand our own minds. It helps us to look at things with a different perspective than we might have otherwise. Why has this become so taboo? I see people pointing fingers and saying some damn nasty things every time Arrington dares to open his mouth. I admit that a few things he’s said have ticked me off. Instead of throwing a temper tantrum, though, I end up trying to find out WHY he thought the way he did. You just never know when you might learn something new.

Michael Arrington isn’t the devil. He’s just a guy who likes to tell the world what’s on his mind and doesn’t really give two shits if you agree or not.

Posted in Personal, Rants, Social Media | Tagged , , | 9 Comments