Things on my mind this morning, in a somewhat higgledy piggledy manner…

---

I started in the fall, and I’m still going in the spring. 

By the time I completed Mark Schaefer’s personal brand master class last December 4, I had already posted the first article on my blog. 

In the class, Mark emphasized repeatedly that we were embarking on an 18-month journey. There would be no easy button to press. No simple SEO trick to employ. No hockey stick. But if we stuck with it and did good work, we could see results.

That was the week after Thanksgiving. I’ve written an original article every week since then except for one week in January; my flu week. 

How’s it going, you ask?

It’s difficult. In fact, it’s tougher than I ever imagined it would be, but I’m doing the work.

I still need to build out a section for services on the website, and I want to add a page so people know I’m open to speaking about personal tech and ways we can all be smarter than our smartphones. It will all get done eventually.

For now, I’m taking it one week, one topic, one article at a time. And I am enjoying the journey. To make something that’s entirely my own, to find the ideas and the inspiration and decide to follow a spark, it’s an amazing gift to give myself.

---

I went to sleep in winter, and I woke up in the spring. 

This has been a unique week.

My Nextdoor post teasing and linking to my explainer about how to set up 2FA on Facebook has been hidden. Considering this comment I saw before the post disappeared I suspect a user reported it as spam.

Apparently, the post is stuck in some human review death spiral. Perhaps it never sees the light of day again. I don’t know. 

This is how I learn.

Later that same day, a friend from high school shared my posts about the same article with her followers on Facebook and LinkedIn. She also paid me an extremely kind compliment which I’ve preserved in my signals folder.

What is a signals folder?

For me, it’s a way to capture the glimmers. Eighteen months, 78 weeks, is a long freaking time. To help keep me going, I’m collecting signs that indicate I am, as my dad loves to say, on the right track.

Doing the work is the only way to get these reactions. To be able to experience the ups and the downs, and to learn from what does and does not elicit a reaction, I need to keep writing and thinking and goading myself to keep going.

I am not “there” by any stretch of the imagination, and I don’t even know fully yet what “there” looks like. It’s hazy, but I’m beginning to at least see some general outlines because I’m doing the work. Struggling with the self-doubt and the uncertainty. Leaning into it instead of continuing to stand on the sidelines wondering what might be.

---

We never live the same day twice.

All of this is happening while I’m working full time, maintaining a home, nurturing a wonderful relationship with a terrific woman, seeing my daughter and her partner, staying in touch with friends, and trying to squeeze in a movie now and then. And now my it feels like my parent’s health may be turning. 

I don’t know what’s going to happen. Well, I do. I just don’t know when.

Why share this here? Why post this?

Because you’re one of my signals! Thank you for signing up, for providing feedback, and walking part of this road with me.

I couldn’t do it without you. And, as Mark always says when he signs off his Marketing Companion podcasts, I will never take you for granted.

Enjoy this spring day. Treasure it because we won’t get to experience it ever again.