Jade Craven

There has been an influx of trench posts lately. That's because I've been so darn busy just taking action. I've just been doing the usual - creating, launching and meeting Gary Vaynerchuk!

This trip to Sydney was a test. I wanted to see where I fit in the Australia social media community and how I could handle a week of intense networking. I believe I learned more last week about myself then I did about social media.

Being social and being present are two different things.

I had this conversation with Iggy Pintado after he laughed at me for saying "I don't want to be social" and then going on to hug half the people I met.

I define "being social" differently to most people. For me, the act of socializing requires a lot of effort. It is extremely difficult for me to go to someone I've barely interacted with and make small talk. Cold networking is something I'll always struggle with and resent.

Being present however is dead easy. This is when you have made the prior connection online and it's just an extension of the conversation. I got deservedly whacked by Alex Popovic.  I was able to talk candidly with, and hug, people I'd never met before. Heck, I was able to go up to people who were kicking arse in their respective fields and they asked how MY business was going.

I aim to be more present now, both online and offline.

People in business take me seriously

I'm quite humble. Some people have accused me of being fake, but its just part of my personality. I find it easier to play down my success instead of explaining the extent of my low self esteem. I assumed that because I was "just a blogger" that I didn't have anything valuable to contribute.

My major takeaway from the past week was that I had a lot to contribute. I'd been experiencing this beforehand, where many people I respect were contacting me for social media and affiliate advice. It was nothing compared to the genuine interest showed at the conference.

Never underestimate what you have to offer the community. You may be robbing yourself of opportunities.

If you ask a question after a panel, expect to be the photographer

At the end of the second day, I went up to ask Stephen Johnson more about the Unicef Undercover initiative. It took me a while to actually ask the question because several people asked me to get photos of them with the speakers. I happily obliged but it took me about 10 minutes to actually ask about how I could help with Undercover. This was a fun lesson - it showed how I can connect with others accidentally.

I want to be like Gary Vaynerchuck

Just before I went home, Siobhan (the organizer) asked me to hand each of the presenters a copy of  Connection Generation. I knew she would have been exhausted so did this. It was hard giving it to Gary because of the group of people surrounding him. As I got closer, he shared eye contact equally among the group. As I handed him the book, he looked me straight in the eye and genuinely thanked me.

This really shocked me. I was so exhausted I could barely stand straight and Gary was giving 100% of himself to everyone he met. This is the type of person that I want to be and I hope that eventually, my anxiety wont prevent me from doing so.

Conferences are an amazing experience

I was freaking out going into Connect Now. It cost a lot of money and time - both of which we don't have a lot of. It was hard, but it was so worth it.

I was able to meet so many people I wouldn't have met normally . People are still following up with me - sending me tweets about my blog and checking out the photos I took. I was panicking about business cards and buying formal clothes when I should have been focusing on how I could get more out of my time in Sydney.

I would go again if I could - provided it started a couple hours later.

My final thoughts?

This conference was what I needed. I've come out of it revitalized and so enthusiastic about my business. We've already taken baby steps towards our new projects. We've made changes to the layout to fit with our new vision. I'll be taking a step back from my Social Media Solutions commitments in order to make this blog my first priority. We have so many fun and exciting challenges ahead of us this year and I'm so excited to be able to share them.

Sometimes, you have to give something up before you can get the kick in the arse you need. I struggled financially to attend this but I believe it will help my business become something amazing.

So. We launched the Social Media Solutions website today.

This is awesome. It means one of the major projects is done and I can focus more on blogging and creating products. Both of us are very relieved and excited about what opportunity to pursue next.

As usual, I've learned a lot in the process. I've decided to turn lessons from the trenches into a regular feature. Whenever I complete a massive project, I'll blog about it. I'll talk about the nitty gritty stuff I learn while creating this business. Building a small business has been a fascinating learning curve and a lot of the lessons also apply to blogging and social media.

Now, the first lesson was a doozy. I should have expected and but boy, did it throw me.

There is a natural distrust for the social media industry.

I knew this but I somehow assumed that we'd be immune to it. Both Bill and I work hard to avoid the stereotype. So, when someone made a few negative comments, it really threw us.

I understand why people make such comments as I feel the same way most of the time. Commercializing my online presence has been difficult and was something I struggled with. Sometimes, I think that people forget that there are humans behind every business and those humans can get hurt feelings.

It worked out okay. I had a chat with the person, talked about my insecurities and offered to help. Basically, I did what I always do and try to be really useful. Once I'd calmed down, I was able to see why we were judged and was able to come up with strategies to show our personality and avoid some of the stigma. It also helped me realize that there is a real person behind every negative comment, and you don't always known why they distrust something.

I feel that this was an important lesson. Now that I'm making money, there will be more people that judge and hate me. It will get worse as my brand grows. I'm rather sensitive so will have to learn how to deal with this. I'd love for you to share any tips.

Metrics matter

We had tried to avoid doing anything with the @smsols account. We didn't want to make a commitment to our followers when we were pulling long, stressful days to get the website done before Connect Now. As such, we only had about 80 followers upon launch.

I was proud of that. I don't try to buy or beg for attention. I like to let it happen organically and have people opt in because they are  genuinely interested rather than out of obligation. We did get a comment about our low numbers. The idea was that we mustn't be good if we had such a low follower count.

I can see that. I would have thought that. We were naive in thinking that the only people that would be interested in us would be familiar with our work elsewhere.

I've done some fantastic work on campaigns for my old employer as well as kicked arse when giving free advice. I have to be more open about my experience rather than get embarrassed about bragging.

You need to learn to lose control

Building this business has been terrifying. Bill and I share the responsibilities of the business and have a different skill set. It was very hard to lose control over the design process and just trust that Bill would make it awesome.

This is nothing against Bill. His work is awesome. Seriously, most of the comments we received post launch was about the design. However I find you get a bit protective of a product that has spent months in development. Eventually, I got to a point where Bill would ask my opinion and I would just say that I trusted him and that he could do what he thought was best. This saved a lot of time and meant that the product was a lot better. This was a lesson that was very hard to learn as it is had for me to lose control. I think it is one that will really help my business grow.

Negative copy is bad

I learned this today thanks to the brilliant and helpful Paul Cunningham. He pointed out an example of negative copy and explained how it could inadvertently damage our brand. He was so nice about it and I'll be addressing it as soon as I hit publish. While I now understand what negative copy is, I haven't been able to find a useful resource to explain it. I'll use the example that Paul sent to me via email.

So on that page, you're giving something great away for free, and adding more later, but instead of selling the awesome-ness of the freebie its got a negative tone in it because of the "Currently we only have one available" bit.

If it were me I'd be talking up the value of the freebie you're giving away and telling visitors why they should be signing up to be notified when the next one comes out.

This was killer advice and something we hadn't considered. I hope you can learn from my error and Pauls help.

Over to you.

I'd love to know more about what you have learned during the launch cycle or ways we could have done things better. We decided to make it low key so we could learn on the fly and it has been a fascinating journey so far.

Things have been busy in the world of Jade. I finished NEIS - an intensive two month business program. I've been working madly towards the launch of Social Media Solutions, preparing for my Sydney trip to Connect Now and frantically trying to get my life back in order.

The awesome news is that, amongst all the craziness of the past two months, I've managed to finish the new edition of the Guest Post Mini Guide. I'm working with my business partner, Bill Journee, on these and I'm so proud of how they look. My last attempt at a product was in response to Dave Navarro's product in a day challenge and was a very basic PDF. The new version has been properly designed, edited and updated to include new information from my latest guest post Marathon.

We are planning to launch the complete course in a month, after the conference. There will be three additional guides:

• The Affiliate Mini Guide
• The Blog Commenting Mini Guide
• The Twitter Mini Guide.

You may be wondering what does the blog title have to do with my e-course?

The Affiliate Mini Guide - Yours for FREE

Part of the launch for Social Media Solutions was to create a guide to help our affiliates. As usual, we went kinda overboard and created a smaller version of our mini guides to thank those who took the initiative to support us.

Some of the content will be boring to many of you as I had to cover the basics. I also covered some of the advanced networking techniques I use.

You can download it here. As usual, I'd love to know your thoughts in the comments.

Last chance to get the course for over 50 percent off

I was originally planning to launch in February but life happened. Our first priority is getting the  business site up and going before Connect Now. We've pushed back to late April and will primarily be promoting  the course through guest posts.

If you are interested in a guest post, hit me up via twitter or the comments. I'm also interested in interview  opportunities especially via scary mediums like Skype!

You can buy the standalone guide for $20 by clicking here. You'll get the remaining guides upon the full launch and will save $27.

We also have an option to get two free consulting emails on top of the guide. This is more expensive at $77 but is still cheaper than our consulting rate. Click here to get the premium package.

A quick thanks

I just wanted to thank you guys for supporting my blog and my business during the past few months. I have received a huge amount of support via email, twitter and facebook. It has meant so much and has made the stresses so worth it.

I do want to extend a special thanks to Ali Hale and Bill. Ali has been an amazing support and it has been an honour to be friends with her. I also don't think our business wouldn't be as awesome as it is without Bill and I am so grateful for how much he has helped me over the past year. If you want two genuinely brilliant people to hit up on twitter, follow @alihale or @mr_billiam.