26th August 2013

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Despite having lots of fun  socializing with my friends on the Bank Holiday Monday i felt sad.  I got a lift to pick up my car from Polegate and then accepted an invite to visit a friend.  

I appreciate the friendship we have shared over the past 26 years and how we can chat and joke over our lives and the up’s and downs.  I recalled the empathy i felt for another friend who’s life seemed difficult but I could not help them to change their perspective or encourage them to get out of their comfort zone to make a few changes and set themselves small goals to move ahead.

“A Deer in Headlights” seems to sum up how a lot of people feel and that they don’t see any way out of their circumstances.

When i left to go home my head was in the clouds and typically i was multi-tasking while walking along and slipped up, next thing I knew i was flying though the air, leg slipped beneath me and I landed rather awkwardly, i immediately felt sick and thought I had broken my leg.  Called my friend and she came to help me, called the ambulance and I went to our #Eastbourne A&E.

My friend went home and and my son joined me within four hours I was on the operating table as ex-rays showed i had fractured my hip.  

Find Your Target Market’s Social Demographic

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Therese Matthys's avatarTherese Matthys

Before completing your social media marketing strategy, make sure you have researched “Who?” your audience is, “What?” their social behavior consists of, and “Where?” they’re hanging out on the web.

Today’s economy forces companies to stretch their marketing dollars as far as they can. Adding a social media marketing plan to the mix allows companies to create greater awareness, increase lead generation, and increase sales in an economical manner. To get the best results though, it’s vital that you research the “who?”, “what?” and “where?” of your target market’s social behavior. If you don’t answer these questions now, your social media marketing efforts will be like a bird flying against the wind.

A quick snap shot of some social media demographics compiled from Pew Research’s latest report includes:

• Gender: 9% more women use social channels than men. Pinterest is the most used channel by women and Google+ is…

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Leadership – Are You Following The Person That Has Your Interests At Heart?

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I was influenced and inspired by Amanda Wells – http://www.amandawellsministries.com/category/blog/ who came to our church (Suncoast Church) I have recently read a blog she wrote about understanding the chemistry of the person who was leading your team and was their leadership right for the team?

 

As I mentioned before my calling with regards to “Servant Leadership” that is about looking after other people.

What does Leadership mean to you?

Have you been on a team with highly competent people?

Have you found that sometimes that person is acting like a self-serving jerk.?

A team I am part of uses a strategy and expects us all to adhere to – based on finances!

Relies heavily on the individual’s finances.  Their ability to self-fund from savings or their main occupation, regardless of whether the business is producing an income that could be used to spend on the training expenses.

Those of us that are living from hand to mouth and don’t have spare capital can’t keep up with the rest!

Should someone pitch you a business opportunity and they are clearly looking for what you want to change in your life – look very carefully at this leader’s philosophy to how and what their expectation of you will be before you commit your finances. 

In my business and building my team I will look at individuals skills and abilities and how their can be monetised to work together to help the whole team succeed.

Before I became “The Connector “ I was called “Sunsetwoman” as I was always on the computer and Internet at Sunset when I had got the children into bed, this was my time to build my business.

 

My recent encounter with the Supernatural

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Seemly, it has been quiet but I have been away undertaking a temping role in #Lewes!

Had a contract for a few weeks working in #Lewes – turned out to be working in a haunted building!  The thought would never had entered my head if it hadn’t been for the incident when I was in the ladies toilet, I heard high heeled shoes entering the room, as I was in a cubical I was not aware of who entered but just heard the door open and close.

It did occur to me that it was strange that no sound of clothes rustling then occurred next to me,  but when I was in front of the wash basin 2 minutes later I saw the water run on it’s own.

Well as I had got up two days running prior to the current one at 4am and was working from 6.30am to 6.30pm I was quite tired and the whole scenario never sunk in until break time when the subject of ‘ghosts’ in the building was mentioned and in particular conversation between other staff.

Spooky goings on including hearing heavy breathing and a sharp prod in my lower back incidentally really freaked me out, i used to dread going into work especially on the night shifts when the main fire door would slam on it’s own

As a Christian I would always prayer ask others to pray for me and be in agreement to their prayers.  Great when you are at home, every time I shut my eyes I would be in that large room, well I spent such a lot of time there it was hardly surprising.  Well, perhaps I should have agreed with the others that of course this could not hurt me but the fact of not knowing what or who it the spirit was was the un-nerving thing.

Glad to say that this task is not over.  Lewes is however, renownded for hauntings etc, just Google for more details…

What is your Passion and Purpose? (2)

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Four days in to my new life as a Care Support worker (Nurse)  wasn’t going well.   Basically, I don’t have the strength to man-handle people on their beds to wash them etc.

On the first day I found it very emotional.  I realise that we all take advantage of the freedom we have in our lives.  Most of us have no health issues and can get up and go for a walk when ever we feel like it.  Many of the people this particular Homecare Services take care of do not have that option but are relying on someone to do just simple tasks for them…

I met a lovely Christian lady who knew someone that I know and she only had the use of her right hand and can just about move her head.  She was always very bright and cheerful and intelligent.  I could feel myself getting quite tearful as I could empathise how frustrating it must be for a bright minded person to be trapped inside a body that can’t function.

With only the use of one arm she was keen to get onto her lap-top and communicate with her friends via email and with the use of her one arm could use the phone to call out.

I don’t know anything about MS but have since found this page on Facebook –

http://www.facebook.com/nationalmssociety.

I love “Technology” – I would like to put a project together and raise funds to create applications to help people with MS and other disabilities.

This would be a good purpose that i could give my God given skills to accomplish something that would be of benefit to a great number of people, so it is important for me to realise that in my own strength I can do nothing, I need to rely on the Grace of God to be lead to the work that he needs me to accomplish…

 

What is your Passion and Purpose?

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My passion and purpose is to be an Entrepreneur and to inspire others to use their gifts.  It all started with the fact that our family history on my Father’s side originates from the Native Sioux Indian, via Grandmother who was in the Entertainments Business with Buffalo Bill‘s Circus

Sioux Indian’s are very spiritual – I have to confess to not knowing that much about them sadly but I do know and understand that they were very Psychic –  and my Father had inherited the gift of Psychometry.  He was very good at this and helped a lot of people.  Lots of people came to our home to have a consultation.

I had a really good relationship with my father until my mother and I joined the local Church of England Church and I was confirmed in 1971.  I think following the Christian faith and spiritually it was rather conflicting.  Spiritualism is part of the Occult – Darkness v Light.  after my Confirmation my father and I didn’t get along so well.

I was musical, was involved with singing and I learnt to play the guitar at school, participated in the choir and our school regularly put on concerts and musicals, both at my junior and the secondary school that I attended though being a Christian at school was another conflicting situation, so I didn’t have many friends and when I left school I went straight into Banking.  I worked hard but didn’t get promotion and then was introduced to a job at the local theatre setting up the drinks in the interval.  For seven years I used to work over 60 hours a week, in the Bank during the day and at the Theatre in the evenings.

In my early twenties I was re-united with my school friend who had chosen to go into the Hairdressing profession and she led me into Network Marketing,  while I was out and about in the evening with Party Planning I met my future husband,

From time to time I had gone along and had the occasional Tarot card reading, which strangely enough from time to time was quite accurate and just before I was due to marry I went and had my birth chart drawn up.  Sadly, I lost the information but did remember that I was told not to get married to this person, that we would be in conflict all the time! Well, it was too late to back out and hurt a lot of people so we got married in 1993 and had two lovely children, who are now teenagers and a great credit to us both, but sadly our relationship didn’t survive and we divorced in 2002.

SERVANT

When i had my birth-chart drawn up I was also advised that I was going to be a “Servant” “Writer” and also a “Nurse”

Well life being a journey and all these possibilities didn’t seem like they would happen to me at the time.

The years that followed the marriage break-up have been challenging and I have been glad of my involvement with the Church as a solid foundation to build my life on the ROCK of Jesus Christ.  I committed my life to Jesus and became “Born Again” in 1997, my son was born in this year and also my Mother past away.

In my early twenties through to my late thirties I was on the committee for a local social club and had a very active social life also so community building is something I have learnt with recruiting people into the club

When my children were at their junior school  I used to be a leader via the church with their youth club, I undertook this position for seven years. This also led me to go into their school with other church leaders for the “Jesus and Me Club”called “JAM Club”

In 2002 – I went back to college as a mature student and undertook the City and Guilds Diploma in IT ( the link is for info – I studied at Sussex Downs College, Eastbourne) and also changed my church and joined the Christian Outreach Centre Movement and undertook the Spirit, Soul and Body Bible School for two years.                                                                                        Within the Church we undertook the D.I.S.C personality test  and this is where I then understood the concept the Servant and Servant Leadership.    

Click on the link above to read the section “Characteristics of being a Servant Leader”

Thankfully due to my working life I have gained the experience to be a good communicator  and I am competent to make decisions.            My Spiritual Gifts give me the discernment to pay attention to what remains unspoken and it is therefore important to listen to my inner voice\affimation from the Holy Spirit.  I can rely on that inner voice in order to understand what the body, mind and spirit are communicating.        I really love technology and I have been willing to follow and learn from the Social Media Experts and Geeks to learn all i can and now my ideal client is someone who is a true Entrepreneur. Combing with my passion for music really gives me the passion to help Musicians though i am willing to extend my services to everyone connected with the Entertainments Industry.    In the past three years I have got involved with the local “Rock Music Community of Bands and Supporters and have made connectiions and new friends via their Community in London and World-wide.

WRITER –

I created this Blog – Daily Ramblings of a Professional Networker  

to portray the “Life of Networking” online and offline. A diary of life experiences.   I have had severe writer’s block for the past two years when i started to combine it with “Encouragement and Life Coaching”  I had started to train to be a “Life Coach” but finding the people who wanted a coach and also the people i wanted to coach was a challenge.  This is something i have had to put on hold temporarily for the time being though I pro-actively work as a Personal IT Coach and share articles and write articles that i share as a Social Media Expert.

NURSE

I am about to embark on a course to train to be a Carer in the Community.  I will be looking after people that rely on someone to come in and help them to remain independant by staying in their own homes.   I will be doing this on a part time basis so i can also continue with my passion and purpose as an Entrepreneur to network with those that have the heart-felt motivation to inspire others to use their Entreprenerial Talents especially in the Entertainments Industry…

 

 

,

Friday I’m in Love

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Friday I’m in Love – was a blog I wrote last year that explained about my love for networking and going out and meeting other Entrepreneurs.  The event I wrote about was at the Business Franchise Exhibition at the ExCeL London Exhibition and Convention Centre, where I was allocated to chair a mock-up for a Boardroom in alliance with the Ecademy Business Network

Last Friday I went to a local free networking event to meet up with someone I made contact with on Twitter who advised me that she has been following my Tweets for a few weeks and had read my recently blog and identified with my situation.

We identified the strengths and weaknesses that we both come across in our daily work and agreed to see if we could collaborate to form an alliance.

Now I will be putting together a proposal for her to view to make plans to move ahead.

Following on from banter on my Twitter ac @Stella_Holman this week…

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…I made a new connection in my town who said she had been following me for several weeks and liked the content on what I posted.   Now I have been invited to attend a local networking event on Friday organised by EDEAL in one of our hotels.

Since I have been sharing pictures and events of the group Letz Zep  though out my various Social Media sites I have made lots of new contacts in the Music Industry.  Weirdly enough out of the blue I started to be tagged in the pictures of Letz Zep on Facebook that had been taken by Musikota.Com

The Tribute Band Guns and Roses from Bilbao also seem to be tagged back to me, I think probably my business friends and contacts from church will think I have flipped!!

All this tagging on Facebook has made a vast improvement to my Klout scores which took a noise dive to 59 when I added one of my Facebook pages and took off my personal account.. All this recent activity bought it back to 75 and it has since increased to 76 this week – http://klout.com/#/Stella_Holman.

All about “Giver’s Gain”  I couldn’t achieve this without collaboration from other people.

ROI – Return on Investment then is the people that then get in touch with you about either your services or perhaps in my case how what I do could help them with their own Social Media Marketing.

 

Good night!

 

 

 

 

Actually, now I am out of sync with the time……

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….I am going to bed later and getting up later along with the other members of the household.  

In November of late I went along to a Women’s Networking evening and met Jo Bremmer who introduced me to the Lyoness International Cashback and Loyalty Club.

With the intention of doing most of my shopping through this card I would be able to create myself a residual income plus commissions of quite a substantial amount.  Most people that I know well are dreadfully cynical and suspicious of doing anything new and when you see the figure of how slow it is to create something they tell me that it is not worth it.  But I just have this feeling that all things big start from things that are small.  After trying for six years to get people along to networking events of which they find tedious and boring as they are introverts and have no people or networking skills I look at actually what does rock their boat and find that it is “Music”

No word of a lie – in fact in the past six months I have connected up with people from a wide range of life of whom I had never met if it hadn’t been for the fact that I started to attend local live music “Gigs” and met some famous people along the way!  

As we know we can’t be good at everything with the exception of a few people the Musicians are not that good at IT and Social Media is really complicated to them so I agreed to help someone out and have made lots of new connections and I am find it all every educational.  Seems to be quite a small world between the fans of Led Zepplin for example, if you look on their Facebook friends everyone seems to know everyone…

 Then I undertook a session with Stuart Kerslake on Core Process and mine was getting a buzz out of helping creative people which had been my initial intention with my Coaching Course helping Entrepreneurial types get started in business networking.

Going back to Social Media you need to create a type of Momentum around a subject to get others talking and so you need to create a tribe of people supporting and the only way to start that off is to support them,

 

A type of givers gain, creates energy that draws people in.