Managing Imposter Syndrome in a New Role

After the excitement of a new job wears off and you embark on new projects, you have to figure out what processes to follow and how to use new systems. For me the easiest part is figuring out the system and the hardest part is learning how people prefer to work within defined processes.

At the end of my second week of work, I was covering for my teammate while she was on vacation. During the handoff meeting everything sounded pretty straightforward. During a 1:1 with my manager, I mentioned I was going to cover completing the updates to a landing page and she said, how will you do that when you haven’t started training in the content management system (CMS)? Oh damn, she was right, I haven’t done one thing in the system. A cold vise gripped my heart when I realized, I was so new, I didn’t know what questions to ask. While part of me was afraid I didn’t know how to do my new job, there was a little voice inside that said, you’re good at learning new systems, it will eventually fall into place.

Fortunately, in my notes, my teammate who is super amazing, suggested that I work with our project manager to create the new components and have her walk me through making the updates required. As I worked on the updates, I was hit with imposter syndrome because it took much longer than I expected, mainly because I was new to Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). Part of my learning was that each component needed to be activated separately to be visible on the page. Instead of beating myself up for not knowing what I didn’t know, I messaged teammates to ask how they did things and asked for feedback to review my work before sending it outside our team for approvals.

When imposter syndrome hits you have the choice to go down the rabbit hole of running through the “I’m not good enough” scenarios or you can read documentation and ask questions to learn how to get things done.

Tips for Managing Imposter Syndrome

Reframe the trigger that caused you to feel like you’re less than capable and ask questions.
Ask yourself, have I done something similar in the past?
Can you leverage something you’ve done before? If not, is there a tutorial or documentation you can follow?
Is there someone familiar with the process who can walk you through it or get you started?
As you learn, take notes and create documentation as if you are explaining the process to a new hire. The act of creating the documentation will help you learn the system or process. They say you learn twice when you teach.
When you are unsure of what to do, ask questions to get started and follow-up questions on any terms you’re unfamiliar with.
Create a glossary of acronyms in the new organization.
Review your notes daily and add context if needed or links to documentation or templates.

Technology Used

Samsung Galaxy S8 (it’s old and I still love this phone)
Evernote to write and edit
WordPress app to layout and publish
Pablo by Buffer to find images

Building a Super Productive Work from Home Routine | TechLatte Eps 00

Working from home can rock or you can totally suck at it, depending on how disciplined you are with the time you save from commuting. In the podcast, I describe how I get ready to work from home. Unfortunately, I cut off some of the tips towards the end, it’s all included below.

GET READY

You’re probably thinking, “Oh hell no, I’m NOT planning to get ready, I’m working from home, no one will even see me. It’s no pants day.” Relax, you can stay in pajamas or sweats if that’s your preference. Get up at your normal time, then workout it’s no excuses on work from home days, make it happen! Then shower and put on your favorite comfy outfit to get ready to work. Working from home gets you a pass to workout, so you don’t have to worry about it the rest of the day. Take care of you; workout, eat a great breakfast, make your to do list, all before checking email or social media. No social media, until you take care of you!

MAKE A LIST

I love lists, it keeps me organized, and it doesn’t take long to write. I use Reminders on the Mac or Evernote on the phone. You can add everything you need to do, from personal errands, work tasks, long-term projects, grocery items, anything that needs to get done. Get it out of your head so you have a visual of everything you need to do.

Make a list of everything that needs to get done
Categorize your sticky notes or tasks
- Personal
- Professional
- Side Projects
- Groceries
- Errands, etc.
Prioritize
- Prioritize the top 3 things that need to get done today and do those first
- Next figure out which errands can be grouped together then schedule those on your calendar. Type in the errands, place and what you need to do or buy directly into the calendar notice.
- Schedule the other items on your calendar
Take pictures of your sticky notes or sync the newly organized list with due dates to your phone.

WORK

I recently read about the pomodoro technique where you set a timer to stay focused on a task for 25 minute increments, then you take a 5 minute break to do non-work related things. If you suddenly realize you have something else you need to do, write the task in your To Do List. For the “work” intervals, you don’t go on Facebook, email, Twitter, Snapchat, Periscope or whatever your distraction of choice is until after the timer goes off.

After you complete a pomodoro (25 minute “work” interval), make a tick mark on a sticky note. After you complete 4 pomodoro’s, you can take a longer break of 20 minutes. For a procrastinator, this technique is a dream because working for 25 minutes doesn’t seem daunting, so you can get to work pretty quickly.

RELAX

Since you’re not sitting around watching reality TV or talk shows or cleaning to procrastinate from doing work, you’ll have time to relax. Personally, the Pomodoro Technique was a game changer. It helped my mind stop procrastinating because anyone can stay away from social media for 25 minutes, right?

P.S.

I’m challenging myself to creating 1 minute Periscope videos daily. Then repurposing these videos into blog posts, YouTube videos and podcasts. The brilliant idea I had this morning was to turn the Periscope into a podcast, which morphed into this blog post because I realized there were a few points I missed during the podcast. What do you think of my first podcast? What would you like to hear about in the future? Let me know in the comments.

RESOURCES:

Pomodoro Technique

Follow 1 a Day, 1 Minute Video Challenge

Periscope: LifeHacks, Social Media & Business for daily 1 minute videos on life hacks, social media and business. I’m sharing tips, tricks and epiphanies.

Changing Focus: Learn by Doing

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As a digital marketing consultant, my favorite thing to do is talk about technology to enable websites, social media and content marketing. It seems entrepreneurs and small business owners have the same questions about how to optimize their digital presence. Even large companies, have to figure things out as they go and make adjustments in their strategy to take advantage of the latest trends or user behavior. Since I’ve answered more and more of these questions offline, I thought it was time to change the focus of my website from personal blogging to tutorials and best practices to better align with my business.

Over the next week, personal posts will reappear on Bombchel.com, where I will continue to write about my weight loss journey, post recipes, talk about fitness and how to look great while losing weight. If you are interested in these topics or you want to know what I’m up to, you can continue to follow my adventures on Bombchel.com.

The first blog series will be how to export content/posts from a WordPress website, import into a blog on a different domain, while maintaining SEO link juice through 301 redirects. This three-part series will start soon.

If you have any marketing questions, please post them in the comments below. I’m happy to answer them or create a tutorial. Cheers to change!

How to Stay Connected While Traveling Abroad

How to stay connected on the cheap while traveling internationally

As a recent Verizon wireless customer, I get sticker shock every time the bill arrives. My phone bill used to be between $45 – $50 per line on Virgin Mobile for unlimited talk, text and data (throttled after 3 GB). Now my phone bill is about $180 or more for 2 phone lines and 6 GB of shared data. When I found out that I would be traveling to Singapore for 2 weeks, I thought to myself, there is no way I could possibly use Verizon.

Previously, my solution was to use Google Voice then forward that number to whatever phone number I happen to have. Then I decided to port my number to Verizon to receive MMS messages and I’ve regretted that decision ever since. While Verizon provides their cross platform Messages+, none of their services are available when you are overseas. Something they do not mention and they will not make any exceptions. The only way around this is to use a virtual private network (VPN) to tunnel to a United States server to access their services.

After downloading and trying different apps to get text messages and phone calls, the simplest solution working on a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and on an iPad Mini with a data SIM in Singapore is below.

To Buy:

$6.99 for Skype Unlimited calling to the United States

$12.05 Skype Online Number, 3 month subscription

$15.00 SGD ($11.10 USD) Starhub prepaid SIM with 100GB data promotion for 5 days

$7.00 SGD ($5.18 USD) Starhub topup per 1 GB data

Free – Flash VPN (Android)

Freemium, $2.99 to $4.99/month – Tunnelbear (iOS/Android/Mac/PC)

Calling the United States

To call the United States, you’ll need to buy a Skype Unlimited calling subscription. To receive calls, you will need a Skype Online Number, you can buy this monthly or get a discounted 3 month subscription. The great thing about the Skype Online Number is you can change the caller ID to display your cell phone number. Secondly, you will need this number to forward your cell phone number so you can receive incoming calls to Skype. This solution will work well for countries with great 4G/LTE coverage or lots of WiFi.

Buying a Prepaid SIM

Next do some research and find the best prepaid carrier plan you can find with good service. For Singapore, I found that Starhub was a good deal and after using their data for a few days, after testing, it was fast enough to stream the Game of Thrones season 5 finale on my cell phone without lag despite using VPN to display a U.S. IP address to enable HBO. I know there are more pressing things going on in the world, however, “fear of missing out” (FOMO) on Game of Thrones had me looking for a solution while traveling. I was lucky enough to get 100 GB of data for 5 days to stream movies and TV shows to my phone and iPad during the jet lag adjustment period.

Watching Netflix, Hulu or HBO While Abroad

In order to watch any of my favorite Internet streaming services like Netflix, Hulu or HBO or even listening to Pandora, you will need an IP address from the United States. The best solution I’ve found without rooting your phone is to use a virtual private network (VPN) that allows you to tunnel to a server from the United States.

On the Android phone, I am using FlashVPN, it’s free, there are some ads and it will stay connected for a couple hours before disconnecting on its’ own. You can reconnect immediately if you get disconnected. I am on Verizon Wireless and they have a web app which allows you to get your text messages using a web app, however the IP addresses for Singapore are blocked so I can’t login to my account without connecting to VPN for a server in a United States first. However, for a small inconvenience, it’s worth it to use this workaround to save on your monthly bill.

On the iPad Mini, I used Tunnelbear which gives you 500 MB of data (enough for one episode of an hour long show), then you can pay $2.99/month for an iOS only subscription or $4.99/month for unlimited data for up to 3 devices (can be mobile, tablet, or computer).

Preferred Devices

After a couple days, I moved the Starhub prepaid SIM (changed it from a micro SIM to a nano SIM) to the iPad Mini. My colleagues communicate via iMessage, my boyfriend and I communicate via VZ Messages and it’s far easier to use the iPad for communications and entertainment since the Android battery drains really quickly. The Android phone has mostly been used as a camera.

What to Pack

If you are planning to be out and about sight seeing all day, you will need to take selfies and charge on the go. I love my new selfie stick and portable charger. While the subject of most of my pictures is food, there are times, I want to take photos in front of buildings or historical monuments to have memories of visiting.

Selfie Stick with Tripod and Bluetooth Remote

Water Resistant Portable Battery Charger (attaches to messenger bag or backpack)

Selfie Stick with tripod attachment and bluetooth shutter (iPhone and Android compatible)
Vor-Power Portable Charger (water resistant and attaches to the strap of a backpack or messenger bag) – has the capacity to recharge your phone 5 times. I was able to fully charge my iPad Mini, the phone and still have power left to recharge my devices.

Learn How to Do SEO from Rand Fishkin

I went to my first Hackers + Founders event hosted by Microsoft to learn about how to do SEO from Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz. As the co-founder of a startup, you have to take advantages of opportunities to learn low-cost or free ways to gain traction. In regular English, that means getting more users to use your product or buy your product from you. I’ve embedded a compilation of my tweets during the SEO talk using Storify.

Hackers + Founders attendees on the mailing list will get to use SEOmoz for free for 60 days…free fits in our startup budget! It’s always nice to be able to try out tools before shelling out a ton of cash for them. For a bootstrapped startup, cash is king. I’m hoping to measure marketing efforts for Hand Things Down.

Here are the highlights of what he covered in the talk:

Inbound vs Interruption Marketing
Use Social Media and Email Marketing to complement each other
10 SEO Tactics to Gain Traction for your Startup

View the slidedeck on SEO for Startups.

Passion: What would you do even if no one was paying you?

Passion seems to be the theme of the week. It’s a question I’ve asked myself and have been examining recently. When my friend sent me a Facebook message asking me how I manage being a mom and an entrepreneur I thought it was time to write a blogpost. It’s ironic she asked me how I do it all because I often have too much going on and have been thinking about what I need to drop. In reality, I don’t have motivation and passion for everything, I just power through that to get to the stuff I love to do. I certainly make an effort to publicize only the positive aspects of my life because no one wants to hear when you lose your drive or question direction. I reserve that discussion for my closest confidants whose insights I trust to build my decisions around. More often than not, I’m debating these things as I lie awake at night trying to relax and fall asleep. To read about the bumps in the startup road along with the lessons learned, check out the Cache Crew blog where I wrote and video blogged about the business.

Part of being discontent is losing sight of what your passion is in life. I think it changes over time and it’s important to assess where you are regularly to make sure your life is headed in the direction you were charting or even if that is still the direction you want to go. Personally, family and relationship is important to me and my actions never reflected that value because both have taken a backseat to traveling for my career. I realized that this aspect of my life really needs to be at the forefront of my decisions or my personal life will continue to suffer and be non-existent. Living and breathing work isn’t sustainable as you get older. I would rather build something with someone and have my family at my side than to build an empire alone. My struggle is finding out how to do this or make the changes in perspective so that it does become the priority.

Here are some questions to think about:

Do you know what excites you?
What would you do even if no one was paying you to do it? Is there something that people are always asking you to do that you love and can monetize?
What do you constantly research, read, or watch?
What do you like about what you are doing? Can you do more of that?
Is there a growth path that you can take within your company that excites you?
What do you dislike and can you delegate some of this to someone else?

If you determine you want to take the leap for something new, are you prepared?

How much do you need to live on?
Does your savings support making that leap now?
If it doesn’t, how long do you need to make sure you have a financial cushion of a couple years to build the dream?
Is there something small you can spin up to test if that’s what you want to do?

What are your answers to these questions? How to you balance family and ambition? Is there a way to have it all without losing your mind? Put in the comments I would really love to have discussion on this.