My Personal Transformation: 6 Life Lessons From 6 Years of Blogging
I launched erica.biz on December 4, 2007. This week, I’m celebrating 6 years of blogging here. Wow! It’s been just over 6 years since I sold my last company, as well, and I’m amazed at how much I’ve grown. This week, I figured I’d do something special, and share some of the deep, heartfelt lessons I’ve learned in the past 6 years. Some of these were tough for me to grok. All of them have changed me as a person. This may be a tough read for some of you…but I hope these lessons will have as…
Dear Investors, My Company Failed and We Lost All Your Money. Here’s What Happened.
Something wasn’t right, and I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was. On the surface, it seemed like I had the best life. A popular blog with millions of readers. The perfect relationship with Brian, the most adoring fiance in the universe. A great set of supportive friends and a nice social standing in Austin, TX. And, last but not least, an awesome company, making marketing software, with a great team, that was making money and (finally!) shipping products. Yet something lurked just beneath the …
My Experience at YC Hacks (Y Combinator’s First Hackathon)
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. At 33 years old, I knew I’d probably be older than the vast majority of the 400+ people attending Y Combinator’s first YC Hacks hackathon. But other than that, I didn’t have many expectations. YC Hacks was my first real hackathon. Many years ago, I went to the first SuperHappyDevHouse (and then 19 out of the first 20 of them), but I never had built and launched a web app in a weekend. Even though I’ve held down full-time jobs as a developer, I…
“What Kind of Business Should I Start?” A Surprising Answer from A Successful Entrepreneur
I often get asked what you might think is a simple question: “What kind of business should I start?” For the first time in many years, I find myself in the same boat as the folks who ask me that question. I (surprisingly) don’t have a concrete answer to this question for myself right now–but, as I’ll show you in this post, I have a way to figure it out. After I sold my software company last year, I did a ton of soul-searching. I coached other successful entrepreneurs, and ended 2014 by taking a 3-month, part-time marketing consulting gig for Help.com, a funded software startup. I’m helping them…
Week 2: “How Do I Start A Business When I Don’t Have Any Time?”
It’s week 2 of my adventure in 2015 to start a business. I started out last week not knowing what kind of business I wanted to start. This week, I’m taking an introspective look at another common issue people have when they want to start a business–and one that plagues me as well! It’s all about the feeling of not having enough time to start a business. Technically, I work part-time right now; I’m wrapping up a 3-month consulting gig with Help.com, building their launch plan, website copy, …
Week 5: What Do You Really Want to Do With Your Life?
I haven’t posted in a few weeks, though, as you’re about to find out, I have a really good reason for that! Also in this post, I share with you a (somewhat embarrassing) story about how I figured out what I really wanted to do most in my life. My boyfriend, John, owns a retail store called 1Up Repairs. He fixes cell phones, Xboxes, PS3s, and computers for a living. I’ve been helping him out with it for the…
Fashion Revolution Calls for More Ethical, Sustainable Manufacturing
There’s a revolution happening within the fashion industry. And big brands and high-profile designers aren’t the ones leading the way. Instead it’s a series of startups and independent designers with quality, sustainably, and ethical manufacturing on their minds. Fashion Revolution Day, which started last year, is a special day set aside for these goals. Designers Carry Somers and Orsola de Castro started the initiative, which encourages consumers to ask their favorite clothing brands one simple question: “Who made…
Small Businesses Feel Aftershocks of Baltimore Riots
Baltimore businesses are dealing with riots, looting and violence — as well as a citywide curfew imposed on April 28 — following civil unrest stemming from the suspicious death of a 25-year-old black man while in police custody. Because of the curfew, enforced within the city between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., restaurants and other businesses need to close earlier than usual. In addition, some business owners have chosen to temporarily close down — either as a precautionary measure or in response to vandalism — until the curfew’s end, slated for this coming Monday. “There’s a huge police and National Guard presence,” Steve Diamond, president of Synergy HomeCare, a franchise that provides in-home care for …
The Good and the Evil of Time Tracking
A recent article featured in Harper’s Magazine is making some waves for its take on time tracking and workplace monitoring. The article in question, entitled “The Spy Who Fired Me,” makes the case that time tracking and workplace monitoring software “has taken on a life of its own.” The author, Esther Kaplan, makes some valid arguments about the dangers of work monitoring software. One example cited is of a woman who works for high-fashion retailer, Century 21, in New York City. “She’d been selling watches from seven in the morning to three-thirty in the afternoon to accommodate evening classes, but when that availability was punched in to Kronos, the system no longer recognized her as full-time. Now she was …
Pinch! A Tiny Multi-Tool Boasts Over 11 Functions
So small you may forget it’s there, yet packed with purpose, the Pinch multi-tool can lend a hand if you find the need to make a quick fix. Yet, coming in at an inch and a half long and a half-inch wide, it can sit on your keyring and not get in the way until you need it. Pinch boasts more than 11 different functions in under two inches. The small metal tool contains a mini pry bar, bottle opener, hex wrench, wire stripper, nail puller, 1” mini ruler, 1” mini scraper, hex bit holder, and two flat screw drivers measuring 4mm and 6mm. Phew! That’s a long…
Is Your Business Making One of These WordPress Mistakes?
In a day where online efforts seem to be getting more advanced, it’s easy to forget some of the most basic, fundamental tips for online success, namely WordPress. Thinking about the type of content you want to create to populate your pages, the format and aesthetics of your website, and the optimization of your content for search engines is extremely important, but it all starts with WordPress. This is something that many companies forget. Unfortunately, if you make WordPress mistakes, all of your …
Where Did Cats Nap Before Laptops?
I was writing in my office one day and was totally stumped for ideas. Really, really stumped. But I’m a stubborn guy when it comes to writing and decided that, darn it, my brain owed me one more cartoon! So I played a game I use sometimes where I just look around the office, pick two things, and put them together to see what comes out. Stapler and water bottle was a bust. Marker and LEGO was a dead end. And scanner and headphones was pretty much a nonstarter. But cat and laptop … there was definitely something there. It took a good hour, but I finally battled…
DC Mosquito Squad: The ROI of Automating a Small Business
How do you scale a business to grow, and do it cost effectively? That’s the challenge facing many small business owners. You want to grow your business, but sometimes it feels like you can’t get out of your own way. One small business figured out how to do it by using automation. Damien Sanchez (pictured), founder of DC Mosquito Squad, a Washington D.C. area business, joins Anita Campbell, CEO of Small Business Trends for an exclusive one-on-one interview detailing …
8 Tips for Running a Successful eCommerce Business
Over the past decade, the global marketplace has undergone a substantial shift. No longer are businesses limited by geographical borders or location, but more by the amount of creativity they can marshal and their willingness to adapt to new technologies. In particular, entrepreneurs and business owners who are willing to launch and run an eCommerce business may position themselves to enjoy an enormous level of success. The State of the eCommerce Industry One of the beauties of the eCommerce industry …
Google Matched Content Gives Visitors a Personalized Experience
If you’re an AdSense Publisher, here is some news for you. Google has introduced a new tool for AdSense that could change your site. By generating relevant article recommendations from the content on your site, Google says its new tool could increase not only reader engagement but your ad revenue, too. Google Matched content is a free tool that promotes your site’s content to visitors. This is done by article recommendations that are contextually relevant and personalized for your site’s visitors. Google says Matched content could help visitors discover other content on your site, become more engaged, and increase reader loyalty. You choose which…
People are real, but the crowd disappoints
Every crowd, sooner or later, will let you down. The crowd contains a shoplifter, or a heckler, or an anonymous boor who leaves a snarky comment. The crowd loses interest, the crowd denigrates the work, the crowd isn’t serious. Worst of all, sometimes the crowd turns into a mob, out of control and bloodthirsty. But people, people are real. People will look you in the eye. People will keep their promises. People can grow, can change, can be generous. When in doubt, ignore the crowd (and forgive them). When possible, look for people instead. Scale is overrated, again and again. ; ; ; ; ; ;
Thanks
In just two days, my new course for freelancers is the fastest-growing one of its kind in Udemy’s history. I’m thrilled to see that so many of my readers are eager to dig in and make a difference. The course has already transformed the work of thousands of people. The half-price discount expires soon, and this will be my last post about it. I hope it resonates with you, and thanks again for leaping. ; ; ; ; ; ;
Reckless abandon (is neither)
It’s not reckless, because when we leap, when we dive in, when we begin, only begin, we bring our true nature to the project, we make it personal and urgent. And it’s not abandon, not in the sense that we’ve abandoned our senses or our responsibility. In fact, abandoning the fear of fear that is holding us back is the single best way not to abandon the work, the pure execution of the work. Later, there’s time to backpedal and water down. But right now, reckless please. ; ; ; ; ; ;
Terroir
You can taste it. Heinz ketchup has no terroir. It always tastes like everywhere and nowhere and the same. A Dijon mustard from a small producer in France, though, you can taste where it came from. Foodies seek out this distinction in handcrafted chocolate or wine or just about anything where the land and environment are thought to matter. But we can extend the idea to you, to your work, to the thing you’re building. Visit the City Bakery in New York. Every square inch contains the DNA of the whole place. The planking …
To overcome an irrational fear…
replace it with a habit. If you’re afraid to write, write a little, every day. Start with an anonymous blog, start with a sentence. Every day, drip, drip, drip, a habit. If you’re afraid to speak up, speak up a little, every day. Not to the board of directors, but to someone. A little bit, every day. Habits are more powerful than fears. ; ; ; ; ; ;
Product adoption: different problems for different folks
The product adoption cycle is one of the most essential things to understand when you seek to launch a product or service, or make any sort of cultural change. Different people sign up for new ideas at different rates. Some farmers, for example, are eager to try a new type of seed or irrigation device. Some farmers will wait years, or a generation, to try the same thing. Some people start the video going viral, some are the very last to see it. What distinguishes these people? It’s worth noting that someone who might be an…
Good design (and serial numbers)
Bosch puts the serial number for its dishwashers on the side of the door, not the top. Which means that 50{0e584ec94eaa64d073763ee1dc286a1f4d0f941424b1448bbfd01af7d90f9475} of the time, if the device is mounted in a corner, it’s impossible to see the serial number. Most companies use 0 and o and O in their serial numbers, as well as 1 and I. If they used nothing but letters, words in fact, there’d be no confusion. Make a list of 1000 short words, use each word twice and you have a million numbers. FISHY-LASSO, for example. Easy to remember, hard…
I didn’t see it because I wasn’t looking
My friend Alan came over to dinner the other night. Unbeknownst to me, he had a few plastic scorpions in his pocket (a reminder of a recent adventure). I saw a plastic scorpion on the bowl of nuts, but I didn’t see it, I just moved it aside and went ahead preparing dinner. A few minutes later, I saw a second plastic scorpion on the counter, but again, I didn’t actually see it, didn’t pause or consider it, I just moved on. It took until the third …
The naked corn paradox
Sometimes, the thing that’s done to market something makes it worse. And so, the corn at the local supermarket is already husked, because it looks better, sells better but tastes worse. And stereo speakers are designed with extra bass, so they’ll demo better, sell better but sound worse. The market isn’t always ‘right’, if right means that it knows how to get what it wants in the long run. Too often, we are confused, or misled, or part of a herd headed in the wrong direction. It’s almost impossible to bring the mass market to its senses, to insist that you know better. What you can do, though, is find discerning and alert individuals who will take the time to…