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Technically, I’m still on my break  so let’s just pretend that the blog fairies wrote this post.

Yesterday morning, the annual Problogger ‘Bloggers To Watch‘ post was published. It has been a fascinating 24 hours since, but I’ll save that discussion for when I’m officially back blogging.

Around August last year, I stopped releasing the weekly ‘Blog Networking Tips’ newsletter to focus on paid work. I was burning out and several people recommended that I quietly step back. This did lead to a few complaints and unsubscribers, but most people didn’t mind. One of the things I had struggled with was that I didn’t like the format. It had become another chore rather than something that was genuinely useful.

I realized last year that I didn’t want to be the person that tries to do and be everything. I want to help as many people as possible and I had to step back to let that happen. I decided to create a monthly magazine and incorporate various blog features into it and integrate it with the new site features that I’ll be launching next month.

This edition was rushed to coincide with the release of the Problogger post. I wanted to be able to test my theories with a large audience. There are some bugs, such as minimal proofreading, but is this just an example of what is yet to come.

I’d love your feedback. Also – feel free to send in tips and questions, or even suggest what you’d like to read about. I have a lot more plans but want you guys to be part of the evolution.

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Blogworld was a HUGE struggle for me. I don’t think anyone knows just how hard it is for someone with anxiety. I really hope that following up with Alli’s story will show people that its okay to make mistakes. Most people are understanding and don’t care. I don’t even remember if I met her and I’m kinda blog-crushing on her because she is awesome. Enjoy.

The opportunity to work for BlogWorld Expo and attend the event was, for me, a dream come true. And a complete nightmare. You see, while I absolutely love networking online, I’ve dealt with social anxiety since I was a child. I can give presentations, talk to clients in person, etc. without a problem. But a casual conversation at a party with people I do not know? I find the prospect of putting me hand in a wood chipper more enticing.

After thoroughly researching all options, I decided that attending BlogWorld was, in fact, a better option than purchasing large lumberjack machinery. Since I had never been to BlogWorld or even Las Vegas before, I had no clue what to expect, which meant I didn’t really have a plan. So, I was even more nervous that usual.

I’d like to say that this story has a happy ending, that I showed up in Vegas and was a networking rockstar. I’d like to say that, but in reality, I was a slight disaster. I had a lot of fun and learned some really amazing things, but along the way I made some pretty horrendous networking mistakes. If something good can come of them, perhaps its in sharing my story so you don’t have the same problems when you do some in-person networking.

Inappropriate Groping

One of the people I was most excited to meet while at BlogWorld was Amber Osborne, better known on the ‘net as Miss Destructo (@missdestructo). I saw her walk into the UnMarketing tweet-up – the perfect opportunity to say hello. Right? Well, it would have been if I hadn’t already consumed more drinks than was prudent because I was feeling so out-of-place. I wasn’t drunk, but whenever I have a drink or two in me, I don’t manage my anxiety well and say things that are more awkward than normal, even for me.

Yet there I was, jetting through the crowd toward the girl with blue hair without a single idea in my mind as to what to say. It was crowded. She tries to shake my hand hello. I decide that the best choice is to give her a hug, because that’s not creepy at all. My arm gets all caught up in her jacket. I may or may not touch her boob accidentally. Then, I can’t even back up a step because it’s so crowded. And I have nothing to say, because I have overpriced alcoholic slushie coursing through my veins and an inability to think on the fly like most functioning human beings.

Oh, and I’m so caught up in calling myself an idiot in my head that I don’t pay attention to the people with Amber who are introducing themselves to me, missing out on some potentially awesome networking. Awesome.

Lesson #1? When introducing yourself in a social environment, do what you have to do to feel comfortable (such as preparing a few talking points in your head), and manage how much you’re drinking.

Faking It

On Friday, I had the opportunity to go to diner with some awesome people whose blogs are part of the reason I’m a writer in the first place. Also part of the group was Andy Hayes (@andrewghayes), who is one of the most respected travel writers and entrepreneurs out there. I knew his name because he was on the speaker list for BlogWorld, but I admit that I didn’t know who he was at all beyond that.

I mean, I admit that now.

All through dinner, our group talked and had a great time, while I contemplated going to the rest room so I could look him up on my smartphone. I really enjoyed getting to know him but I had this knot in my stomach, inwardly panicking that I was going to say something really stupid in my ignorance of who he was.

I finally worked up the nerve to ask. You know, as we were walking back to our hotel rooms after spending an entire evening together. Rude? Yep. I was essentially faking it all evening, and why? Because for some reason I have this high expectation for myself that I should know about every single person who attends BlogWorld even though I have problems remembering what day of the week it is sometimes.

Lesson #2? If you don’t know who someone is, ask. No one, not even an event’s keynote speaker, expects everyone to know his/her name. It’s only rude if you don’t ask. Also, Andy Hayes is a sweetheart.

Doing Too Much

As I’m writing this, I realize that I could probably write seven posts on the networking mistakes I made while at BlogWorld. Most of the others fall under a single category though: trying to do too much, which essentially led me to doing nothing well.

• In rushing around to get to appointments, I apparently sped past Jordan Cooper (@notaproblog) multiple times without so much as a hello. I can only imagine how many other people I did that too as well. If I had slowed down to take in my surroundings a little, I might have actually avoided being a complete jerk to people I consider friends.
• Rather than just focusing on BlogWorld and the people who were making it wonderful, I was upset about things happening at home. At one point, I was even talking about it in public with the lovely Lucy Thompson (@LucyEvolved) and KiKi L’Italien (@kikilitalien), and I missed an opportunity to talk with Pace Smith (@PaceSmith) when introduced to her because I was upset about personal crap.
• I literally ran from presentation to presentation in attempts to catch as many as possible so I could write about the for the BlogWorld blog. In the end, I didn’t actually soak in much information anyway and I missed out on the hallway networking that others were doing.

Lesson #3? Slow down. Meet people. You don’t have to do everything. Just focus on making real connections with the people in front of you.

In the end, I guess the story does have a bit of a happy ending after all. Though I made a number of mistakes, I have stayed connected through Twitter and email with some of the most intelligent, interesting, kind people I’ve ever met in my entire life. I’ve found that the most important lesson is this: no matter how nervous you are about going to in-person events, the biggest mistake you could make is to not go at all. You can do damage control when you get home, but you can’t go back in time and attend an event if you stayed home.

Plus, think of all the money you’ll save on wood chippers.

When Allison’s not blogging for the BlogWorld blog (say that three times fast), she runs After Graduation, a career advice and motivation site.

From Jade:

It was a relief reading this post. I’ve had a tough year emotionally and it was really nice to know that others stuffed up as bad as I did. I mean – an accidental grope is just as bad as puking outside a party, right?

Alli has also released a really useful ebook for freelancers called ‘Out Of Thin Air‘. It’s the type of book I needed when I started. It’s about how to make money from freelancing in the short term. The strategies aren’t sustainable long term, which Alli reminds us of, but I learned a lot. I read the darn thing and I barely have time to read ebooks anymore. Oh, and Alli is a blogger I totally ‘gots my eye on’, to quote Glee. That’s right. I place her in the same category of awesomeness as Glee.

That sentence only makes sense if you were in a live ustream chat with a group of talented, amusing bloggers. Somehow to conversation turned to how I know everyone and *BOOM*, a new post title was born. Jokes aside, it led me to think of some of the amusing stories that have happened over the past year. I wanted to share them with you because it’s stories like this that makes it worth pushing through the hard times.

Srinivas Rao.

Earlier this year I hooked Henri up with Dave Navarro for an interview. One of the commentors was this random guy called Srini. I had no idea who it was but I told Dave that offering to do the interview would be great from a networking point of view. They got together, Dave said some smart stuff (as usual) and I forgot about it.

Shortly afterwards, Srini interviewed Ali Hale. Being the awesome person that she is, she mentioned me in the podcast. Srini got in touch with me but I kept on recommending other people because I hate phones.

Thats where the ironic bit ends but it took several months for us to actually get together to do an interview. That one introduction has considerably helped them grow that site. Never underestimate the power of connection.

Oh, you should totally check out that interview.

Traci Love

My business partner, Bill Journee, does a lot of ebook design and was working on several emails for a local client. The client had sent an email to Bill with an example of a nice ebook that he thought would give him ideas. Bill had seen it before but couldn’t remember where.

It was one of the free ebooks Traci Love had released as part of her 180 Journey launch. I connected her with a couple of my friends and they were all impressed with the quality of her ebooks. She showed them to people on her ipad and also had a print version for people like me who gush over such things.

I never knew that well styled ebooks were something clients shared with the designers. I’ll be researching if this can be something designers can leverage.

Fleur

A lot of my networking stories involve Bill because I’m heavily involved in this industry and he hears about everything from me. So. Fleur was one of Bill’s clients. She needed some consulting so she hired Kelly Diels.

Kelly recommended that she touch base with me for some help. What I found amusing though was that Kelly mentioned my business partner. She was half way through saying his twitter handle when Fleur said “He’s doing my site.”

I love this story as I have no idea how people perceive Bill online. He’s my best mate and I trust him based on the many conversations we’ve had where he has talked me out of bad design decisions. I’ll recommend him when people ask, however I didn’t know that Kelly even knew he existed. Most of Bills tweets are about geeky stuff.

Shannon Noack

Shannon Noack is the creative director of Snoack Studios. She discovered Dave Navarro‘s blog and contacted me seeking an interview with him about his design. I asked her to wait but also brought up that her name seemed familiar.

After a few emails, and a bit of sleuthing on her behalf, she told me that she discovered Dave through a post I wrote called ‘50 Netsetters You Should Know About.’ I recnogized her name from the comment section – I had made a note to check out her blog at a later date.

Wait, there is more!

I’ve been wanting to share these stories for a while. Over the past year my reputation has grown rapidly and it’s amazing how much impact my small actions have had. Sometimes, though, I’ll see someone and will really out of my way to help them. One of those people is Srinivas Rao.

I have a huge amount of respect for Srini. He’s a genuine, caring guy and a really hard worker. He genuinely cares about his community and tries to provide the best value for them.

Srini, Sid Savara (another person I highly respect) and Mike Tiojanco have joined forces to create Blogcast FM Premium. I’ve talked about the site before – last week I even did an interview for them. The story behind it is brilliant. Mike offered to help after hearing a tip from an interview. Sid offered to JV with Srini initially because he knew it could be something amazing.

That’s why I’m recommending them to you guys. I think that Blogcast FM will become something amazing. Srini is a true master at building relationships. Theres no affiliate link in this post and I wouldn’t recommend you buy unless you are 100% sure you want to. I just know you could learn a lot from watching what they are doing and by listening to the interviews.

Over to you:

Do you have any silly or inspiring connection stories? Let me know – I may be able to use some of them in high profile guest posts next year.

As the above picture proves, I did a lot of hanging out. And, by hanging out, I mean sitting in a jetlagged stupor thinking ‘damn I’m hanging with some of the best minds in this industry… now wheres Andy Hayes and his promised ice cream?!’

Despite the many things that went horribly awry, I still managed to keep my eyes out for awesome stuff to share with my community. There have been a lot of comments in Blogworld roundups about how I excelled as a connector. Well, what most people don’t know is that I’m even better at sourcing and sharing the good stuff.

The people and products featured in this post are the ones that really stood out. Some of those reasons are not logical.

Learnable.

I was first introduced to Learnable when I puked outside the party Sitepoint were holding with Problogger. It featured on the screen in the suite but I was unfamiliar with the concept.

The incredibly helpful Shayne Tilly filled in the blanks when I rocked up to the Problogger/Sitepoint booth the next day. By ‘fill in the blanks’, I mean explained it to me in a way that my friends and peers could resonate with.

Basically, it is the platform that Sitepoint are using to deliver their courses and they are now allowing it to be used by normal people. They have a slick delivery system which includes a Q & A and forum sections. It is all hosted on their site and all the customer/tech support and sales queries are handled for you. In return, they take 50% of the income earned.

The launch post summed it up better than I could by saying:

Learnable handles the technical stuff, payments, and support to allow you to focus on what you know best: communicating what you’re passionate about.

This reminds me a lot of the Review Me model. I’m not sure how effective this will be for a number of the A-Listers but is worth monitoring. I’ll be talking to the Sitepoint guys about this fully when it’s close to the full release. I do know that it is time consuming handling and outsourcing many elements of the sales process. It’s also worth keeping track of as you can potentially earn affiliate commissions by referring it to your audience.

Learn(able) more

Jaime Tardy

I met Jaime briefly. I wish there was an interesting story behind it, but it was on the day a stalker-face called me 10 times in a row at 2am in the morning. I stupidly decided that it was worth staying awake when he called again at 8am.

One of my secrets to success is relying on the judgement of my network. When asking for recommendations for bloggers to watch, her name come up several times. Srini wants to interview her. And, when searching through my email, I discovered that we had already been in contact.

Basically, she was lovely enough to point out some errors on my testimonial page after being referred to me via Michelle Woodward. She offered to buy me a meal but by the time I got to Blogworld I had totally forgotten. I now have a CRM in place to ensure people like her don’t get forgotten when I get overwhelmed.

Normally I don’t connect to many personal finance blogs because I have been poor for all of my adult life. I connected to hers. She blogs at Eventual Millionaire and I really appreciate her common sense approach to managing her finances. Usually, I get turned off because the blogger practices extremely frugality or has aggressive plans for wealth creation.

From her about page:

I like to help people put money back in it’s place. Where people control money and money doesn’t control people.

You can read her recap of Blogworld here

Mark Thompson

I sat next to Mark when we all went out for lunch. He was talking to Annabel Candy about how nice her ebook looked. She was showing it off on her iPad and he commented on how Dave Navarro also has slick ebooks. I was like “Wouldn’t it be funny if you were sitting next to Dave’s networking assistant’ and he handed me his card.

You can follow him on twitter, check out his blog or visit Search Creatively. Networking tip: his blog accepts guest posts

I’ve been home for 24 hours and my mind is full of blogworld awesomeness. This post is going to be less of a ‘lessons learned’ and more of a ‘stuff I did’ post. This is for those who, like my parents and best friend, heard about the funny and interesting parts but didn’t get the full story of what I was up to. Let the tales of insanity begin…

Jetlag makes my anxiety worse.

Seriously. Who needs to drink alcohol when you can make a total arse of yourself just with sleep deprivation. I was fine the first night. I’d spent 35+ or so hours travelling and was able to catch up with David Risley, Nathan Hangen, Dave and Chris Guthrie on the first night at New York, New York. I was knackered but it was so worth it – I learned that I had no reason to be scared of bloggers who have considerably more authority then me.

On the Wednesday night, I left a party crying because I was so overwhelmed. I called Bill and cried, saying I just wanted to go home. On the Thursday I ended up vomiting meters away from the room the Problogger party was being held in. This was humiliating but also very humbling. I learned that my anxiety disorder is multifaceted. I can be fine emotionally but if I ignore the warnings my body will let me know. It works the other way. I can feel exhausted emotionally and if I ignore the warnings, my body will play up. This may lead me to walk down the Vegas strip publicly crying.

I was fine on most of the other days. I learned to listen to what I was feeling, physically and mentally, and retreat to my hotel room when I needed a break. I learned not to feel guilty for being unable to spend every waking moment with friends or learning about blogging.

It’s stupid to try and pretend I’m superwoman. I’m not. I worked so hard in the months leading up to blogworld and surprisingly, the event was the trigger I needed to take a step back and just care for me.

I didn’t think it was possible to be so happy when surrounded by people.

I hung with the same crowd most of the time and I loved it. I felt so safe and loved, and I felt so peaceful being able to see how my work helps people. I figured out that I was more of a matchmaker then a connector and that the compulsion to connect is evenstronger in real life.

I realized the main thing that inspires me to connect is how much goodness I can see in that person. I’m always talking about Srinivas Rao, Ali Hale, Catherine Caine and, before employment, Dave Navarro. I did that because I could see a goodness in them and wanted to help the world see their talents. I’m kinda blessed in having a dodgy brain. My anxiety means that I can see considerably more steps ahead then most people are capable of. This allows me to see the impact certain actions of mine will have.

Something a lot of people asked me was to list who I was keeping my eye on. I was too jetlagged to think of suitable names at the time, so I’m going to kill two birds with one stone and write about those I met and the logic, or lack thereof, behind the friendship.

Karol Gadja

When I first met Karol I was intimated because not only has he accomplished so much at his young age, he is also rather tall. Seriously – we tried to shoot a video and couldn’t fit us both in the frame. I felt at ease around him quickly though. He is a lovely guy and quite the gentleman – he helped me carry stuff when finding a spot to shoot our video.

This is proof that you can’t starfuck with me. I decided Karol was awesome when I discovered that he was in Geelong the day we (the Geelong Cats) won the AFL grand final. The fact that he knew, and had been to, my home town was enough to make me feel comfortable enough to ask more about his work. While he was in Australia, he went to the Marketing Now conference. Three of the people that attended – Darren Rowse, myself and Emma Merkas – were also at Blogworld. More surprisingly, the only people he remembered was Emma and Darren. He is brilliant, inspiring and someone I’m looking forward to getting to know.

Traci Love

I was meaning to contact Traci about paid work (she offered to hire me) but failed to do to way too many work commitments. I promised myself that I would make it back to her when at Blogworld. I certainly did.

I connected her with Dave. He was really impressed with the fact that she implemented the recommendations he had given. She showed him a copy of her free book on her ipad and he was incredibly impressed. She also had a print copy of that book that she showed us. I helped her find some inspirational people for an interview project for her site. She’s going to be interviewed for Blogcast FM. She also happened to call the moment I gave the phone back to Dave, so she had Naomi Dunford answer the phone.

She has some awesome stuff coming up. If I hadn’t talked to her before hand, she’d totally be in the new discoveries section.

Clay Collins

Dave had told me about how awesome Clay was but all I saw was the aura of super-geniousness that surrounded his work. I was too intimidated to talk to him.

Then we hung out over the Wednesday and I learned just how cool the guy was I don’t remember why – I just remember feeling like this guy is someone who will be accomplishing so much during 2011. And, I felt like I had to tell you that.

Sid Savara

Sid. I was hesitant about meeting him. I learned you shouldn’t base your opinions of people on how long and confusing the tagline for their blog is.

Sid is hilarious. Again, I can’t remember why I like him due to jetlag however I will always remember the banana I stole from him. Seriously, Vegas fails at fresh fruit.

Srinivas Rao

I rave about Srini online a lot. I’ve also heard about who he wants to connect with and what he wants to accomplish. Therefore – I had a challenge.

I connected him with some pretty kick arse people. I also learned just how much faith he places in my recommendations. He is also so fun to hang around. I always knew that he was awesome but I had never experienced it up close. He is totally the type of person I want as part of my inner circle – the people I trust and respect and want to keep in touch with because they make me feel happy.

There will be some fabulous interviewees appearing on BlogcastFM in the coming months. There will be awesome stuff coming from Srini. He is one smart guy and works hard.

Thursday Bram

Thursday seems so formal and serious online. She told me that her mum follows her twitter so I understood. I’m different in real life too because I’m on ‘mum manners’ online.

But seriously – she is so freakin’ awesome.Words can not explain it. She is smart and has a wicked sense of humour. Her hair is purple and her husband likes taking apart napkins. She is someone I think I’ll become really good friends with.

Andy Hayes

Andy is even more nice in person – we totally went on an ice cream date. The fact that it was actually frozen yoghurt is a tiny detail. Andy has been a huge part of keeping me on track this year and I felt so happy to be able to tell him that.

I did meet many others. Corbett Barr, Adam Baker, Erica Douglass, Sean Platt, Jonathan Fields, Deb Ng, Darren Rowse and many, many more. I just didn’t want this post to turn into a name dropping one. The people I met were awesome. I’ll be writing about their projects and sharing their stories in the coming months.

New discoveries

As soon as I learned that I wouldn’t be helping out Dave, my brain switched gears. I decided that I wanted to take advantage of the situation and learn as much about the awesome stuff as possible. I succeeded in my challenge.

However these will have to wait until a future post. This draft has sat in front of my computer for three days, untouched. I had such a blast at Blogworld and wanted to let people know that, but I’m currently unable to write about it as thoroughly as I’d like. Know that I’ll be talking about many of the people and information featured – and include pictures and links – in future posts.

This has led to a lot of questions – some of which are answered in this post. It’s also the perfect opportunity to talk about this awesome product Catherine Caine and I have created.

So! Onto the awesometasticness!

How did it happen?

In July, after getting denied for a bank loan (thank you, self employment), I made the difficult decision to cancel BlogWorld. For the first time this year I was able to take an honest look at my workload, and budget, and realize that I didn’t have the energy to pull off what was required to attend.

I tweeted about it, had a bit of a cry, and went back to work.

Later that night, Dave Navarro asked to speak with my honestly about what it would take to get to BlogWorld. This conversation was brutal on my end because I am a very proud person. I don’t like mixing personal and business. I won’t get into the content of the conversation however I was pretty adamant that I don’t accept charity. Dave was equally as adamant that this was a business opportunity and it would be win/win.

This was offered to me because my work has proven to be an asset to Dave over the past year. I really want to write about what an honour this is and how I am enjoying the work I do, but that isn’t useful for you guys. Instead, I’ll be blogging about the specific skills that make me stand out as a networker and how you can position yourself as someone that is extremely useful.

My name is Jade Craven and I’m going to Vegas.

The AWESOME news is that Dave will be covering my travel expenses in return for me being his networking assistant. This will require a lot of work before, during, and after the event.

I do want to clarify that this won’t be an easy gig. There is a reason I rock at what I do . We haven’t yet had the chance to formally talk about strategies but I have a fair idea of what I’ll be doing. Networking at a conference is really hard work and a lot of the hard work will be shifted onto me so Dave can do what he rocks as.

I’m really looking forward to it. I’m brilliant at what I do but, because of my obscurity, am unable to see if my theories on a larger scale.

So – what makes me appealing as a networking assistant?

I know who he should be talking to

Dave is busy. Like, really busy. Most of our conversations happen around midnight his time when he’s starting to feel exhausted.

Checking out people takes a lot of time. There are so many tiny aspects of filtering the information. I check who they are talking to, what they are writing about and whether their business style aligns with Dave’s.

Here are some examples of how I made it easier:

• Corbett Barr shows a lot of social proof in the sidebar of Think Traffic. However, I didn’t even have to look there to recommend him. I’d had several friends speak positively of him and he demonstrated his authority via the tone of his email. The week after, they created a podcast.
• Another example is when Srinivas Rao commented on Henri Junttila’s post, and mentioned how he wanted to interview Dave. He was doing a launch and didn’t have the time to go back and check the posts so I sent Dave there and recommended he approach Srinivas. It’s amusing now because Srini approached me shortly after for an interview without knowing the connection.
• I’d recommend people to feature as a Lessons Learned case study. This was awesome because it meant some of the less famous people were featured and was able to show that you don’t need to have a huge empire to have a success launch.

These activities were incredibly easy for me because I have created processes for people to keep me up to date. It saved Dave a significant about of time. This will be beneficial at BlogWorld because:

• I can help set up interviews and testimonials. I know the people that have bought Dave’s content and were able to successfully create a product. I also know of unique interview topics tailored to that persons situation.
• I have a solid idea of the products and launches that are going on in the industry, and in other verticals. This means I can save the chit chat and connect Dave with people that he could really help, and then leave a good impression on.
• I’m going to be doing cheat sheets on some of the people we’ll be talking to. Some of these will include inside information.

I can help facilitate the conversations

When bloggers of two different tiers get together, the initial conversation can be stilted. This is something Catherine and I discussed in our new super-awesome product.

I’m the type of chick that is good friends with bloggers and people at all levels of success. I see them as the person they are, as opposed how much authority they are perceived to have. This makes it easy for me to walk up and have a conversation with them about their kids, hobbies or projects.

Additionally, I encourage people to talk to me about their projects via various backchannels. I’ll ask about ways I can help, and to learn more about what they are doing. This means that when I introduce two people, I can present the information in a way that they’ll be instantly interested in the other person.

This is awesome for me because it means I get to network passively – I’ll be remembered, but I won’t be the centre of attention. I’m really looking forward to attending for this purpose.

It’s also good for Dave and the people that I’m connecting him too. I can bypass the initial ‘get to know you’ stage and encourage conversations that will be memorable.

If you aren’t buddy/buddy with a lot of people like I am, you can make the conversation easier in the following ways:

• Engage with them on twitter beforehand. When I met Jonathan Fields he said “I know that face” which really shocked me.
• Try and figure out what topics make their heart sing. In the case of Dave, if you stalk him on Twitter it’s pretty obvious he loves his Halo music.
• Get something signed. I’m an autograph collector and this a useful way to get someone’s attention for a couple of minutes – AND you get an autographed book!

I’ll help record the conversations

This is the part of conferences that is always a pain in the arse. I kinda love being the photo girl because I get to hang out behind the scenes but will capture the stuff that people remember forever.

I’ll be collecting and uploading interviews, testimonials, photos and other media as part of my job. I’ll even be able to sneak in a few tips on good questions to ask.

This is awesome because Dave doesn’t know all the random stuff that I do. He may not remember the many gushing emails he gets about his product in a weekend challenge. I do, and in many cases will have checked out the product. This is going to make for some brilliant conversations to share with people.

How I can help you:

The fabulous Catherine Caine and I have just released a product called Awesome Non-Icky Conference Networking. We bring two different personalities and perspectives to the table and bring you the knowledge that will help you kick arse at a conference. It’s a couple of hours of us talking and giggling and we’ll be uploading the worksheets shortly.

We hope you like it and if you have further networking questions, just ask

The background.

I was approached to create buzz surrounding the relaunch by Joel from Envato. Skellie, who I idolize, recommended me, and Envato is probably my favourite company. I was so ecstatic to be approached and pitched the idea of this post. I did the 30 Bloggers To Watch post 6 months ago and while that was successful, I had wanted to try some of the new techniques I had learned.

For full disclosure, the original job offer was to build awareness and create buzz. I pitched this post because so I could start the conversation and continue it when people decided to take it elsewhere. It was a non icky way to be useful and earn money. I’ve put in way more hours then the original brief but that’s cool, because this is how I work.

Then I heard my Pitch got accepted. I had four days to complete it, and had an amazingly hectic real life schedule between then and the deadline. Eek.

My approach

Creating segments

The five areas you see weren’t part of the original post. That was just a method for me to keep track of people in my head to make sure the list didn’t become too incestuous.

I quickly realized that it made the post so much more useful. The individual sections helped people continue the conversations in the comments. Many people in the support team group were especially grateful that someone drew attention to their work.

If you are considering creating a list, I’d look at how you can segment it into groups. And, within each segment, look at ways you can shine the spotlight on people who aren’t normally talked about.

Focus on people from different hubs

I discovered the concept of hubs in Emanuel Rosens brilliant book ‘Buzz‘ but had trouble finding a good definition. A good example from the book was someone that was connected to a lot of different clusters and “served as an information broker amongst these different groups.”

Now, if you apply that to an online setting then you are looking for someone that dabbles in multiple niches. They can have the majority of their influence in once niche but have the skills to identify the right people to approach in other areas.

I’m a hub. That’s what makes me kick arse. However, if you talk about people who are members of multiple clusters then you increase the chances of the post being sneezed beyond your own.

This sounds market-y and a bit icky, but it is possible to do it in a way that helps them. In my case, I placed them in a list amongst their peers and idols. They wanted to share it out of the sheer joy of being acknowledged. And, that was my intention with creating this list. I wanted to test my theory of hubs but I wanted to make people happy.

Do you know people that are friends outside of your niche? If you, touch base with them to see if there are ways you can work together and help each other.

Identify the people that aren’t being talked about

There are some brilliant people out there that aren’t being talked about because they aren’t easy to label, or are hidden gems. I know many of these and, where appropriate, am helping them out. One is BlogcastFM.

This is very effective because in most cases, the people are very grateful. It opens up the dialogue and opportunities to collaborate. It also means that people are willing to sneeze it because they are genuinely happy at finding new role models and people to engage with. Those people will then start to talk to you to find more cool resources and even send you tips of cool stuff to share.

The good stuff

I got a lot of social credibility

I got this gig on a very short notice and had a tight deadline. I was more worried about doing the right thing about Envato then how it would affect me. That meant that when the GilkMeister emailed me to ask me what I planned to do now, I genuinely had no idea. I’d just moved, been sick and had a depressive episode. I haven’t had the time to focus on the next phase of my business.

My short term goal is to build up the relationships with some of the people who now know who I am. I also want to strengthen the ones with good friends who I haven’t talked to in a while. Today I got to speak on the phone with Annabel Candy and that was awesome.

I got to test crazy theories

I read a lot of marketing books and I’m always trying to find cool techniques traditionally used by big businesses with the budget for viral campaigns. What I loved is that I was able to take knowledge from a book – a simple 300 page book – and create a post that has echoed around the blogosphere. I have learned so much and can’t wait to test more theories with future guest posts.

The Hard Stuff

I couldn’t play favourites.

There were so many people that I wanted to include. Lavonne Ellis, Siobhan Bulfin, Natalie Peluso. I felt really bad because I would have loved to be able to share them with people from other hubs, but I didn’t want it to be a list of people I liked.

I also had to be careful what communities I picked people from. I excluded some people because I had a lot from that paid community or even the country.

I wanted to create a list that was so useful that people would be coming back to it for months. I want people to discover brilliant minds and resources that could help them. This meant that many people couldn’t go on it but that’s fine. I’m a sneezer by trade and I always find ways to share the awesomeness.

It was hard to step back and let the conversation happen naturally

This was a paid gig so even though I was immensely proud of my work, I had to step back from the conversation. I am very, very careful about what I share and do not want to compromise the relationship I have with those that follow my work.

I did sneakily tell a few people about it. People like Annabel and Catherine. My motivation there was to unburden a secret moreso then create pre-launch buzz. I was very fortunate in that most of the craziness happened while I was asleep.

Now that the initial buzz has died down, I am able to step in and help continue the conversation. Pat Flynn had a fascinating post on his blog and I added a few insights there. Other people are creating projects based on this and I’ve been in email contact with them.

I’ve exceeded the paid hours so I’m allowed to do this is a fan, rather than a client. I truly believe that this is where the awesomeness begins.

Was it worth it?

Gosh yes. On so many levels. It was awesome to wake up to so many positive tweets, emails and comments. It has given me a lot of material for my own business and has inspired me to think bigger.

I would recommend that anybody creates a list but only if the list serves a purpose other than attention. Create something so darn useful that people feel compelled to share.

If you have any questions or want to share your own experiences, I’d love to hear them.

This post covers some of the little lessons I’ve learned over the past month. I’d recommend setting up a newsletter just for the learning experience. Taking action doesn’t compare to just reading about it.

Conversational writing translates really well in emails

One of my concerns with building an email list was that I disliked hype laden emails. I wanted to write something that is friendly but didn’t know how that fit in with all the pitches I was getting in my inbox.

I decided that I’d wing it. I’d go with my gut and would let the audience tell me what they disliked. This method resonated with me as I had trouble finding an email style that resonated with me. This risk paid off.

When I wrote my last email about moving, I got a lot of responses from people with support and advice. I got two emails congratulating me on my writing style saying that they normally don’t respond to emails.

I’m sure I’m probably breaking the rules as I’m learning, but doing it this way has allowed me to test out a new tool that I’m really uncomfortable with.

Your feelings will get hurt when people unsubscribe

When I discovered our first official unsubscriber, I got angry. I took it as a personal rejection. I was hurt when I saw the person still followed me on twitter.

I quickly realized that some people just wanted pure content and less personality.  That’s cool. It’s not a slight against you. You just have to figure out if more people are engaging with your content than unsubscribing.

Don’t expect an instant response

When I sent out my first newsletters, I expected instant action. I thought that I’d get lots of responses, affiliate sales and traffic to the links contained in the post. In some cases, I’d get an instant reply. Paul Cunningham and Andy Hayes have been really helpful and supporting in this process.

What I have found is that it is great for networking. I’ve been contacted by people thanking me for recommending them in their newsletter. People have responded with their own feedback on the products I have recommended. This is really valuable information for someone that acts as a filter.

We have made several affiliate sales based on the newsletters, and it’s great for building my brand. I don’t believe that a simple newsletter will solve your problems until you’ve built up traction.

I regret not starting a list sooner

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that you should not let your fear rule your business decisions.

I was terrified of starting a list. I was comfortable with blogging, no, I was awesome at what I did. I didn’t want to start that learning curve and make mistakes quite publicly when I had just found my freelance mojo.

It has been difficult, but it has been worth it. I’ve been able to learn so much by observe how people interact with the content and by asking for feedback within the post. It helps me ascertain what my core audience wants. The learning experience has far outweighed any negatives.

Over to you.

I’m probably in the minority for being such a mailing list newbie, but I’d be really interested to hear about your early experiences. How did you figure out what to do when you started? How did your approach change as you got more established?

Everett Bogue

Glen Allsopp kept on saying that Everett was going to be the next big thing but I had trouble resonating with his content. Then I became overwhelmed with my business and started devouring his posts in the hope of simplifying my life.

I love his approach to work, art and business. He is demonstrating that you can earn a full time income while taking a minimalist approach. I have read his two books, Minimalist Business and The Art Of Being Minimalist, and whole-heartedly endorse his work.

Corbett Barr

I actually started chatting to Corbett when he wanted to arrange an interview with Dave. Despite the minimal communication, I was really impressed with his professionalism.

He blogs at Think Traffic. I am very impressed with the standard of his articles and believe this blog will become and authority. I hope to see him add more resources and interviews in the coming months.

Fabeku

I discovered Fabeku through Catherine Caines fear wrangling course. Despite the awesomeness of his site, I was kinda turned off by the woo-woo aspect of his sound healing.

I heard the interview and instantly loved him. He is awesome. We chatted on Skype shortly after and both of us were plotting world domination with our stuffed business mascots.

He is so much fun to get to know. And, for the business inclined, you can learn a lot about positioning and conversation marketing from his site.

Amy Harrison

Larry Keltto recommended Amy to me recently. Her name sounded familiar so I dived into my email archives. There was this lovely email from her offering to help.

Amy is everything I love about blogging. She is engaging, hard working and genuinely loves the community. I definitely recommend you check out her copywriting services.

Joi Murugavell

I met Joi at the Connect Now conference and may have snobbed her. We soon bonded over being introverted misfits and she has corrupted me in more ways then getting me addicted to the duck song.

She is a fantastic designer. She also does these addictive sketches called Oodlies.

I highly recommend her to delightful weirdos and those who like brilliant design.

Danielle Laporte

I found Danielle via Dave’s interview with her. I figured that considering I worked for him, I may as well check out the people he interviewed. I’m so thankful I did that.

I bought her Fire Starter Sessions and fell in love with her work. She is a brilliant writer and a genius at empowering her community. She is in a league of her own.

I’ll be diving in her archives in the coming weeks and will report what I’ve learned about community management and compelling writing. You can find her at White Hot Truth.

So, last night I was at the Social Media Club Melbourne event. (Side note – YAY for getting a shout out from the Problogger himself, even if it thoroughly embarrasses you.) After the panel ended, I *may* have been proudly showing off my new Haul bag to my friends Darren, Renee, Fran and anyone else who would listen. I then made the comment that networking is expensive.

On the train home, I realized how ruthless that sounded. I didn’t buy that bag because I wanted to connect with the owner, Scott. He’s awesome and I know we’ll have the chance for a decent conversation at some point. I did it because I don’t like recommending a product unless I have experienced it. This is why I stand out as a connector. My goal with this post is to give a bit of an insight behind the scenes of what I do.

Spending money makes you a better filter

I get given a lot of stuff to review. We are talking close to $10’000 worth of stuff. Ebooks, courses, seminars. Half of it comes from existing contacts and the other half comes from word of mouth. Over the past two years I would have spent at least $6000 on infoproducts. I would have spent more if my finances didn’t limit me. This isn’t because I needed the material. It was so I could make an accurate recommendation.

When you make a financial transaction, you are in the same mindset as other buyers. You have the same fears and hopes. You aren’t getting the special treatment from your mates. You are getting the exact same experience that most people would get.

What I loved about going to Haul was that Ann was friendly, knowledgable and helpful. She brought the celebrity canine down so I could have a snuggle. She gave me background about the product. She didn’t know I was going to blog about it. I am 100% confident in recommending that people buy from them. I am equally as confident of people such as Danielle Laporte and Kelly Kingman. I had no prior connection with them and spending $167 on two information products terrified me. Both purchases impressed me with their awesomeness.

I will go out of my way to help people who acknowledge me and help me.

This stems from having an anxiety disorder and having a lot of insecurities about how I fit in the social media/corporate world. When I was very ill, some people treated me poorly including some of the support services that were meant to help me. As a result, I have very little time for people who are just after favors or want to use me.

Usually, I’ll decide that I’ll want to help someone and then make the first contact. With Scott, I did this at Connect Now. I told him I was interested in the messenger bags but didn’t understand why they were, in my tiny budgets opinion, expensive. He took me very seriously and explained the extra time that went into creating the product. The other times I’ve met him he has remembered my tweets, inquired about aspects of my personal life and congratulated me on my small successes.

Basically, Scott was able to demonstrate that he wasn’t in this scene for what he can get out of it. That was one of the major factors behind my purchasing decision. I didn’t necessarily want the product now but I knew I wanted to show it off and talk about it.

If I am thinking of talking about you, I will ask for recommendations

I was driving to the Dandenongs with Lane Burdett just before I went to the Social Media Club, and I mentioned how I wanted to drop into Haul. Lane told me about how impressed he was with the service at Haul. He phoned up wanting a Macbook sleeve and they didn’t make the one in the size he was after. Scott was able to direct him to two other companies that could help.

This works in the opposite way. At the same event, I was talking to a friend who had worked with someone who was getting a bad reputation. While the service was initially good, she got treated poorly when she decided to leave. I had heard similar things from other people and as such will not be researching her because I don’t want to recommend someone who will screw over of my friends.

I am putting my reputation on the line

I know that people buy my products, and those I recommend, because I have personal experience with everything I talk about. I don’t bullshit. It makes me feel sick if someone buys something that I know is poor quality and I could have stopped them. I can see the potential in people and will connect them with whatever they need to kick arse.

What most people don’t see is the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. The long emails to those who are wanting advice on what product to buy. Talking for ages on skype, google chat and in real life so you can learn enough to make a proper recommendation of them. Messages saying that ‘such and such is amazing and can really help you.’

I’m getting a reputation as a connector. It’s a skill and one that I’m leveraging to help others. However, I wont recommend someone unless I am 100% confident they wont screw over my friends. That’s what all this hard work boils down too.

I work this hard because I like helping people. I have a skill and am an incredibly good judge of character. Just be awesome like Paul Cunningham, Jonathan Fields or Scott and I will work so hard to help you out.

Note: This post is unproofed because I didn’t want Bill to know I spend $160 on a bag. He’s busy this week so hopefully he wont have time to read this. That is all.