I’m having a little love affair with Substack these days, and maybe I’ll start posting regularly here again…or not. We’ll see.

There’s been a lot of life happening to me in the past 6 years or so. Global pandemics notwithstanding, my dad died, one of my best friends died, a close childhood friend died, I had a pretty significant collapse of my mental health (recovering now!), and recently I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder (Sjögren's Syndrome if you care to Google it). So you know—life. Oh, and F%$# cancer.

On the upside (there’s always an upside), I’m back teaching at the college part-time, our business is scaling up again after 2 , 3, 4 or so pivots (thanks, COVID), I’m still happily married to my favourite person, and my musical life has never been more exciting (singing with the choir and working on an album with a very talented friend).

So hey, balance, amiright?

So here I am. Sitting here on a cold Sunday morning in the Canadian Capital, heating pad and coffee warming me, thinking, “Do I really want to do this blogging thing again?” But, as my mom has always said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” So here I am.

Maybe this will be my once-a-week, Sunday morning brain dump of all the things I’ve been musing on lately. I am “The Muse,” after all (at least according to my husband). Maybe it’ll be an on-again-off-again kind of thing. We’ll see. I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself either way. I do know that it’s going to be different than what I was doing here before:

More Real, More Raw

If there’s anything I’ve learned in my 55 years on this planet, it’s that hiding who you really are because you’re afraid of what others will think is bullshit. I always thought that because I was a business owner and a professor, I had to conduct myself in a certain fashion at all times. Sure, being a professional is necessary in certain situations, but being someone you’re not all the time is not only insincere, it’s HARD. Since I’ve started to be myself everywhere, I’ve realized that people don’t really care that much anyway. So I’m just gonna be me now. If you don’t like it, the door is thataway.

Less Shameless Self-Promotion

One of the most popular posts I ever had on this blog was a post I wrote a million years ago about the Art of Shameless Self-Promotion. You can go find it if you want. I’m not going to link it here because I’m tired of Shameless Self-Promotion. I’m probably going to break all the rules I’ve spent so much time touting to others in the past 20 years. I’m not going to cross-promote this anywhere; I’m just gonna hang it out here on Substack, and if people drop by, that’s great. If they never see it, oh well. Marketers ruin everything anyway.

More Intention

If the past few years of my life have taught me anything, it’s that life is FAR too short to do anything but be intentional. With time. With money. With relationships. With creativity. Being present in my life is my priority now. And that means more living in the moment. More taking joy in small pleasures. More doing what I want, when I want to (even if that is simply taking a nap).

So there you have it. I guess maybe you can call this SuzeMuse 2.0. I’m going to talk about stuff like this, but I’m also still going to talk tech and trends and yes, AI. Maybe I’ll see you Sundays. Maybe I’ll see you more.

Come along for the ride, won’t you?

xo
Suze.

The Doing More with Less Effort Era is Here

The truth is, we are now in an era where the possibility exists that tasks that once demanded hours, days, or even weeks can now be completed in minutes.

Case in point:

I recently designed some new training materials, from concept to finish, in just 40 minutes, a job that in the past has taken me days and sometimes weeks to organize. Confession: I used ChatGPT 5 to do this. (WHAT???)

Of course, I did not (and never would!) just use what ChatGPT generated as the final and done product. But it did help me figure out the schedule and syllabus accurately and helped me elaborate on the key course learning requirements that need to be covered and map them to my own ideas of how the course content should flow. Now all I have to do is go in and refine things and add my personal touch.

You see how this works? ChatGPT did the messy, clunky, time-consuming stuff like formatting documents and figuring out dates and deadlines, and this freed up my time so I can focus on being creative. Ultimately, my end product is going to be better than it ever could be had I used only my limited time and resources to develop things.

I have started thinking of AI as an assistant, not a creator, and that one shift is changing the game for me. It’s still MY ideas, knowledge, experience, and perspective. It’s still my stuff. But my assistant (in this case ChatGPT) helped out a lot by making sure that I thought of everything and by taking the menial tasks like document formatting out of my hands (like any assistant worth their salt should!).

It’s miraculous, and I’ve only started to scratch the surface on what is possible.

As a self-proclaimed productivity junkie, I feel like I am finally ahead in the game of productivity, at long last.

It Feels Like Cheating

In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell offered to sell the patent for the telephone to Western Union for $100,000. Western Union declined the offer, reportedly calling the telephone a "toy" with "no commercial possibilities." In a sense, people felt like the telephone was cheating the familiar systems of mail, telegraphs, and seeing people in person. What’s the point? Why don’t we just keep doing things the way we’ve always done them?

Every technological leap since the beginning of time has felt like cheating until it became the norm. When email replaced typewritten and handwritten memos (remember inter-office mail?), it was revolutionary. Voicemail, fax machines, the Internet, social media, and even working from home felt radical at first. Now? You and I are now writing, living, and thinking within worlds that are shaped by these everyday, perfectly normal things.

This new wave of productivity that is centred around leveraging AI does feel like cheating. It still seems like a bit of sorcery, to be honest. But remember, so did every good technological innovation before it. We know deep down that ultimately, it’s all about growth.

The Even More Epic Impact of AI

Leveraging AI in one’s day-to-day isn’t just about efficiency. It’s also about our mental health, work–life balance, and even the quality of our relationships. Let’s explore this.

When the everyday drudgery of doing all those little daily tasks that add up is no longer there, it leaves space for something soft and human to grow in its place. It means we finally have time for the really important things, like patience, presence, and meaningful connection.

Who feels like they are busier than they have ever been? Is it any wonder we are overwhelmed? Since the world connected digitally, we have gotten so bloody busy. The inputs we have to deal with on a daily basis now, like texts, emails, social media, and the always-on nature of things, have maxed us out mentally and emotionally. It’s simply not sustainable, and things like the analogue movement and digital detoxes are becoming more prevalent the more stressed we get.

But the tsunami of information isn’t the problem. It’s how we are dealing with it that is causing the grief.

So, what happens when you remove some of the pressure? When we have tools to help us deal with the overflow of information coming at us, whether that’s outlining a report, analyzing data, brainstorming content ideas and strategies, or learning how to fix the hinges on your front door, AI is changing the game rapidly.

I believe that this transformation is going to help us do amazing things, like rediscover deep thinking. Need space to reflect? It’s suddenly there because we’re not bleeding time on coding errors or other mundane tasks. Delegating the tedious and boring stuff to AI means that we will have a lot more time to be present with our families, friends, colleagues…even ourselves.

Connecting More (Even with Less)

Have you ever noticed that when you have fewer distractions, you tend to connect more deeply? If you’re having dinner with friends and nobody is on their phone, you can really embrace and enjoy the time you spend together. If you’re not worrying about the dumb little details, you will find yourself having more conversations and typing fewer messages.

A Shift in Consciousness

The big question I’ve been pondering lately is, if using AI productively frees us from the grind, what does that make room for?

Perhaps the benefit of productivity is not about ticking off more on your to-do list but about reshaping how we experience life. When we aren’t bogged down in the mechanics of menial tasks, we free up space for presence. We have time to notice the way light falls through a window or the way a conversation feels when you’re not half-distracted by emails and mentions.

I think that, if we do it right, AI could actually nudge us toward a new kind of consciousness, one where “work” doesn’t just define us by output but by how fully we engage with the world and with those around us.

Maybe the AI overhaul isn’t about efficiency at all. It’s about awakening.

What Comes Next?

We’re at the dawn of something fascinating and life-changing, again. What if the real goal of this new era isn’t to trim seconds off tasks but to create space for the moments that matter?

Productivity isn’t about doing more. It’s about being more. More present, more thoughtful, and ultimately, more connected to what truly matters.

Back in 2008, I wrote on this blog about my experience growing up on Haida Gwaii, and my family’s involvement in starting up a community television station there back in the 80s.

I spoke about the coming together of an already tight-knit community to share stories through the medium of television, and how we were pioneers…some of the original creators, if you will.

Here we are 40 years later, and it seems like everyone is a creator now. How things have changed! Sharing your stories with the world is now just a few clicks away on a device that you can put in your pocket. It’s been an incredible transformation.

My early introduction to television production at the age of 11 set me up on a path to eventually becoming a creator of television shows myself. When the digital age emerged, I continued to create - websites, blogs, social media and more, for myself and for our clients.

Technology has evolved considerably, and I’ve always found tech to be pretty cool, but that’s not what has driven me to create all these years.

I’ve been involved in some pretty cool projects throughout my life. From working on the now-defunct Jerry Lewis Telethon in the 90s (we produced the Ottawa feed of the show every year), to being involved in choirs, comedy festivals and musical theatre competitions, I can tell you that without a doubt, the most fun I’ve ever had is participating in projects like these.

The idea of several brains coming together to create is so exciting! There is nothing quite as rewarding as working with people towards a common goal, be it raising money, awareness, or simply having fun and entertaining people. It takes a tremendous amount of effort and time, but it is SO worth it! I have had so much fun and made so many lifelong dear friends. It has improved my life immeasurably to create with others, and it is something that I anticipate I will do for many decades to come.

There is something really special about building something from scratch with a group of people. It’s a place where voices can be heard, and where people can fully express themselves. It’s a space to be creative and involved and an experience that is unmatched in terms of improving one’s quality of life.

So, if you’re a creator, hats off to you. It’s hard work! And if you’re a creator who creates with others, then you know what I mean when I talk about how rewarding and heart-filling it is.

So the question remains then….what will you create next?

Sleep is the most important thing, I’ve learned….have a look at www.sleepysuze.com and subscribe if you wish. Here’s a pic of me at my sleep study.

Artificial Intelligence. It’s the buzzword of 2025, bombarding our news cycles and filling our feeds with plenty of varied opinions on what it is, what the risks are, and how we should use or not use it to meet our goals. There are many viewpoints on the rise of the machines, and the online world is getting more and more cluttered with arguments for both sides as the days go by.

For some, it’s all bad news. AI is taking over at a pace that makes many of us uncomfortable. For digital marketers specifically, it’s becoming a thorn in our sides - we are in a position right now where we need to pivot or lose valuable search traffic, and we need to strike the right balance between what we let AI build for us and what we build ourselves.

I’m hearing it time and again - AI is going to become such a crutch. It’s going to make critical thought all but disappear, and we’re basically going to become robots ourselves - preferring to regurgitate content produced by AI models over using our brains to create. In short, it’s going to make us lazy.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

In fact, I see it from a completely different angle. Since I jumped on the AI bandwagon several months ago, I have experienced a sort of freedom that I had not previously encountered. Here’s what I mean:

It’s Not About Generating Ideas - It’s About Perspectives

I mean, sure, it’s cool that you can say, “Hey, ChatGPT - give me ideas for my next 10 blog posts.” and ChatGPT will obey, and pop out 10 ideas in a matter of seconds. You could simply run with those, and then crank out content based on those AI-generated ideas. But, what does AI really know about you, your blog or your audience? That takes human thought and human experience to get right.

I have written nearly 600 blog posts here at SuzeMuse, and all of them came out of my own head. Sure, I looked at my analytics and trends to see what resonates more with my audience, and crafted posts around those ideas, but at the end of the day, I am the one writing it all down. I may have gotten the idea or inspiration from someplace else, but what I’m sharing here is my unique perspective, and therein lies the difference.

AI Isn’t Necessary, But We Are

Consider this - we don’t need AI. We really don’t! We’ve gotten by just fine without it all these years. We’ve made a lot of progress in spite of not having a chatbot nearby to help us ponder the biggest mysteries of the Universe. But now that AI is here, and here to stay, we need to figure out how it’s going to fit into our lives and how we can work with it, instead of having it do all the work for us.

AI is helping cancer researchers compile and analyze more data than humans alone can ever analyze in a lifetime. It can quickly find connections that we mere mortals may have overlooked or never even seen, and there is tremendous potential that this could help us discover new treatments or even a cure for cancer in the coming decades. Now that’s progress.

So yeah, the robots are good at gathering and analyzing, but what they are still kind of lousy at is real-world execution. It still takes human brains to look at what AI generates and synthesize it, apply critical thought and ultimately, test and deploy the solution. I’m not saying that this won’t eventually change as technology advances, but right now, the missing piece of AI is that it still requires human intervention to make real change.

Can AI cure cancer? It can surely help us out, but we are the ones who ultimately decide what direction to take based on the information that’s been given to us.

Hey Siri, Do My Dishes

Author Joanna Maciejewska has rather famously stated, “I want AI to do my laundry and dishes so that I can do art and writing,” and I think about this statement often.

Look at it this way. If you are a creator of anything - music, writing, painting, you name it - wouldn’t you rather have a computer do the menial tasks for you so you can focus on creating better art? I sure would. Even if you aren’t an artist, wouldn’t it be lovely to have AI deal with the day-to-day mundane tasks in your life (they vary for everyone), so that you have more time to do things you want to do, like hang out with friends and family, spend more time in nature, or binge the next 3 episodes of The Pitt?

I’m actually at my laziest when I have a bunch of chores to do around the house. I’d MUCH rather dive into a good book, practice my choir music or write more than mop the floors or make the bed. If AI takes over my household chores someday, it stands to reason that I’ll have more time and headspace to create cool stuff. If you ask me, that’s the best use of AI there is!

Let’s face it - AI is rushing at us faster than we can imagine. But in the end, we need to make up our minds as individuals about how we’re going to include it in our lives, and to what extent. Find ways to use AI for good - whether that’s the good of you and your family, or the good of humanity. It’s your call.

Since 2006, I have been what some would consider a power user of social media. I was one of the first 100,000 accounts created on Twitter. I was a super early adopter of Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and more recently Threads and BlueSky. To say that I’ve spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs of these platforms would be an understatement.

It’s benefitted me in so many ways. I have made lifelong friends, driven new business to our company, and became enough of an expert on social media strategy to be able to provide solid advice to our clients and also teach others.

Social media has changed SO much over time. Back in the day, we were there to hang out with our friends. Soon, we realized the potential for promotion and marketing on social. We rode that wave for a long, long time. We learned how to work with the algorithms. We even paid to play sometimes by boosting our posts and sites. It was all a tonne of fun and boy, did we learn a lot!

These days, many of the things we were doing back in the old days still hold true. The strategies have evolved over time, and ultimately, social media is still a place to connect and share with others.

But social media has also become a more unhealthy place. The proliferation of false information, political content and even hate has made social media into a mishmash of content, and the companies that run the sites have done a lot to ensure that users get sucked into these sites and stay there. The cost of using these mostly “free” platforms? Our attention.

I noticed that despite my better interests, I had gone from a power user of social media to someone who was drinking from the fire hose of multiple feeds of information daily. The time I was spending flipping from tool to tool on my phone, checking for the latest info was growing, and not in a healthy way. It was making me concerned, anxious and grumpy.

So I decided to put a stop to it.

It took me a while to figure out the best way to do this. Deleting all my accounts wasn’t really feasible, as I do need to be able to access social media for work. I needed to find a way to limit my exposure while still having the option to pop in when I needed to. So I decided to go on a diet, rather than eliminate social altogether.

My solution was to remove social media apps from my phone’s home screen since that’s where I was going most of the time to check socials. I took a big breath, and removed them all in one fell swoop. My new rule is that I only check social media on my laptop…that’s it.

The instant they were no longer on my home screen, it’s like a switch went off in my head. While I’d been concerned that I’d have severe FOMO by not having instant access to my fire hose all day every day, it actually was the opposite!

I felt free, and this freedom has persisted for the past two weeks. Now, I maybe check in on my personal social media once every couple of days. People can still reach me via text and Messenger, and that’s fine by me.

Have I missed out? Maybe on a couple of things, but I am able to catch up pretty quickly if I need to.

How Things Have Changed Since I Started My Social Media Diet

• I am less anxious. I have been dealing with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) for many years, and in recent years, for personal and pandemic-related reasons, it has become worse. I have the right combo of meds and therapy now and it’s made a huge difference, but I noticed that when I was drinking from the social media firehose my anxiety would creep back in. Since the diet started, I am WAY less anxious on a daily basis.

• I have been reading more. My Kindle app has been getting a real workout lately, and I have been much more mindful of the online sources I’m consuming. I use the Newsify app to subscribe to relevant blogs and news sources, and I feel like I have a lot more control over what I see in my stream. I am no longer beholden to what the algorithm is serving up.

• I am writing more. I have re-launched my blog here on Substack, and I intend to do a lot more writing here. My blog sat dormant for a long time but I’m back, baby!

• I am making meaningful connections. I am still connecting with others, but doing it through messaging instead of social media means I am making deeper connections with the people that really matter to me. This is all good!

• I am not doomscrolling. I’m no longer getting sucked into ridiculous debates with strangers. I am not refreshing my feeds to see the latest news on the Orange Dumbo or anything else for that matter. It is refreshing.

At first, I thought I might just do this for a while, then re-install my apps. But I really don’t think I’m going to. I feel just as connected as before but my mental health, creative health and the amount of time I have, have all improved greatly, in just two weeks.

5 stars. Highly recommend.

It’s a lot.

But, whether we want it to or not, life continues to move forward, in whatever way this “new normal” dictates. The stress point comes when we try to go back to the way things were. (Hint: we will never go back to the way things were.).

Look, change is hard. We all know that. But I truly think that one of the ways to be successful in life is to learn to not resist change but to embrace it. So how do we do that? Here are some thoughts.

Get used to it. The one sure thing in life (besides death and taxes) is that things change. Impermanence is a philosophy that many of us try to fight against. We want to stay firmly in our comfort zones. We instead get stuck in a pattern of meandering through life, firmly planted in our routines and we get grumpy when someone throws a wrench into our plans. What can we do to prevent change? Absolutely nothing, so we might as well get used to it.

Learn to go with the flow. Yesterday there was a crew here to install a new liner in our pool. Just when we thought things were going smoothly, the foreman comes to us and says that we need to replace the pool skimmer as well as it’s leaking. Well that’s an extra expense we didn’t want. But instead of fighting it, getting angry, jumping up and down, and cursing our house and everything to do with it, I decided to roll with it. Did I cringe at the amount of extra money this unexpected repair was going to cost? Of course! But after I cringed, I took a deep breath and decided that there’s nothing more I can do except go with the flow. In the end, the repair was made and we’re thrilled with the results, and I didn’t feel any additional stress because things changed on the fly.

Live and in the moment. For years, I produced live television shows. Live TV is an interesting beast. Anything that can change suddenly will change suddenly, live, on air, and as a production team you just have to run with it. In live TV there is no “fixing it in post”. You’re out there, warts and all. But there’s an interesting thing that happens in live TV when you just relax and let things roll the way they’re going to roll, and that’s called serendipity. Those are the moments of perfect timing, of the right thing being said exactly when it should be, of a shot working out just perfectly, or even the show ending on time. These things can’t always be controlled and you just need to create space to allow serendipitous moments to occur in your life.

So how do we change the way we feel about change? Well, start by realizing that nothing is permanent, and once you do, it will be much easier for you to let go and let serendipity do its marvelous work.

What say you? Do you resist change in your life, or embrace it? What are some of your tips. I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

Now that we’re here in the dog days of summer, a lot of us are experiencing a bit of downtime. People are on vacation, nobody is making decisions, and time seems to stand still as people spend more time daydreaming on hot afternoons than they do in the office.

So what’s a savvy business owner to do?

Start Something New

Remember that podcast you’ve always wanted to produce? Or that book outline you’ve been struggling to find time to write? Or maybe, like me, you have a dusty old blog that needs a little TLC. Whatever it is, your downtime is the perfect time to pick away at it! You never know, a little effort now and it might blossom into something huge!

Open New Doors

It can be a little more difficult to prospect in the summertime when people tend to be away, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try! Go to your LinkedIn contacts and pick 10 people that you’re going to reach out to in the next week. Set up some coffee dates in your wide open schedule, and see where it takes you!

Make a List

It’s important during your downtime to stay at least somewhat productive. After all, a mind at rest tends to stay at rest! Even if you’re working from home, get up every day, get dressed, and make a list of things you want to accomplish. Maybe it’s finally getting around to setting up that savings account with your bank (so you can fill it when business picks up again!). Or perhaps it’s cleaning up your Dropbox or Google Drive. Inbox Zero? No time like the present! Put it on your to do list and get it done!

Take a Break

In this hectic life, we tend to get caught up in wearing “busy” as a badge of honour. But you know what? It’s ok to be not busy once in a while. In fact, when we’re flat out swamped, we long for hours or days or even weeks where we don’t have a lot on the go. So, it’s okay to give yourself permission to take a much needed break. Shut the laptop. Go for a walk. Take a nap. Play with the dog.

Everyone uses their downtime differently. Successful business owners know how to capitalize on their downtime, to not only move their business forward, but to rest up for when the craziness ensues again.

What do you do with your downtime?

The world is a dramatically different place now, but has the online world really changed that much? Sure, there are more networks now and WAY more people on those networks, but I wonder, can we still reap the benefits of using social media even with all the online clutter that exists now? Let’s break it down.

Noise to Signal

The amount of noise social media makes is deafening, there is no doubt about that. So how do we break through that noise, so that we’re getting the signal we want? It is for sure more difficult now that it used to be, but it IS possible. It just takes time and careful curation. Social media is, after all, still a choose your own adventure game. On Twitter, you can mute keywords, hashtags and entire accounts. It’s how I cleaned my Twitter feed of any and all mentions of a certain President. And what a blissful place Twitter is now!

On Facebook, you can unfollow, leave Groups, unlike Pages, and even unfriend, until your feed is what you need it to be. Facebook can be a wonderful place if you get in there and clean it up once in a while.

The trick is to decide how YOU want to use social media, and then curate your feeds until they suit you. Yes, there’s a lot of noise out there, but you can drown it out. Trust me.

Micro-Connections

Social media has always been considered a “Many to Many” form of communication – meaning everyone is talking to everyone. But it’s in the micro-connections we make that the real gold of social media lies. What’s a micro-connection? It’s those small interactions we have with people…it may be a single tweet that gets a single reply. It may be a comment on a blog post, or in a chat forum. It’s that small connection you make with other people as you go about your day. Often they are strangers. Sometimes they are people you’ve never met who gradually, through these tiny interactions, become friends (I’m looking at you Mark Dykeman!).

Micro-connections are what makes the social media world go ’round. It’s the phenomena of small interactions with people from far away (or even close by) that makes us all feel connected to each other; whole. It’s how, when an event happens in the world, we all come together to encourage, support, grieve, and commiserate. It’s that feeling you get when you open up your phone, and see your friends, even for just a simple “hello”. Micro-connections enrich our lives, by allowing us to drop in and out of the lives of those around and make real connections that can last a lifetime.

Sure, there’s a lot that is different now with social media than say, 10 years ago, but has it really changed all that much? By curating your feeds carefully, and focusing on those micro-connections, you too can relive the glory days of social.

When it comes to “luck” in my career, though, I feel a bit differently. I’ve had many successes and failures, like anyone, but to be honest, I’m not sure what luck has had to do with any of it. Sure, I’m lucky to have had many supportive people in my working life. I wouldn’t be running my own business if it wasn’t for my amazing business partner and the many mentors I’ve had along the way. But to say that it was luck that got me there is not entirely correct.

How to Make Your Own Luck

The first thing you should do if you want to be lucky in your career or even in love is to throw away any preconceived notions you have about what it takes to get what you want in life.

Because it takes…you guessed it…guts. Every opportunity – and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE – that I’ve had in my career has happened because I positioned myself in the right place, at the right time, with the right attitude. If I wanted something, I asked for it. No, I didn’t just ask the universe. I asked the actual people that could help me get what I want. Was the answer always yes? Of course not. But if I’d never asked in the first place, I wouldn’t be doing half the things I am today.

Success in career and life is all about positioning. It’s about seeing an opportunity and jumping in with both feet if it feels right to do so. It’s about not resting on your laurels and expecting that the world will hand itself to you on a silver platter. It’s about being willing to take on tasks and roles that may not be exactly what you want, as a stepping stone to what you do want.

Is it scary? Sure as hell. Being lucky in life is not for the faint of heart. It’s putting yourself out there, time and again, asking for what you want, and then accepting it in whatever shape or format it comes.

Luck is for lottery winners. For the rest of us, it’s hard work.

My biggest issue is email. I have a bad habit of checking too often, of making my email my task list, and getting all too overwhelmed by the volume of communication coming at me in a given day. That alone has been my motivation for wanting to change things up a bit.

But what if my days were more structured? What if I blocked off time for certain tasks, and focused on just those tasks during that time? I decided to try an experiment.

I reorganized my calendar to look something like this:

This is a high level view, but it basically shakes out like this: I devote time each morning to writing tasks – my blog, web content,  social media content for myself or my company, whatever needs to be written.

I check and process email 3 times a day. That’s it.

I have one block a week to focus on business development, and another focused on administrative work (on Friday afternoons so I can have a beer while I do the tedious stuff).

I block off time for lunch each day (a vitally important thing that I often overlook).

The rest of the time is devoted to client work, whatever form that takes (I refer to and prioritize my to do list for these chunks of time).

So how’s it working so far? Actually, better than I expected! Organizing my days means that by the end of the week I’ve accomplished a bunch more than I tended to in the past. Checking email less frequently means I’m not driven by my inbox. Instead, I’m driven by the tasks that need to be accomplished in any given block of time.

I challenge you to try something like this for yourself! Blocking your time puts you back in control of your schedule. It means that other people can’t come along and take command of your calendar. And ultimately it means achieving a great deal more of the important work in a week.

Let me know how it goes!

I’m just here for the free doughnuts.

Are you doing business or playing business? This is a really critical question and one you should ask yourself often. I see this kind of thing posted online all the time: “Busy! Today I’m going to write 6 blog posts to promote my business, then put out my email newsletter, then visit my Facebook groups and engage.” Now, I’m not saying that marketing your business is a bad thing. In fact, it’s really really good. However, if you’re spending too much time doing things like “engaging” on Facebook and not enough time actually building something, it’s going to be a tough go. If you spend your days “playing” at your business you’re not “doing” business.

Why are you in business? 

Now, you might answer this question multiple ways:

“To help and serve my customers.”

“To feel like I’m part of something bigger than myself.”

“To do what I really love to do.”

That’s all fine and well. But the hard truth of the matter is, you need to be in business to, first and foremost, MAKE MONEY. If you’re not making money, you’re not in business. You’re playing. Yes, all of those other things are good reasons to be in business too, but they aren’t the most important thing. If you run a business, and it doesn’t make you at least some money, then you’re a volunteer.

But can’t I have my cake and eat it too?

Yes, you can. But you won’t be able to afford cake if you aren’t making money. So, do what you love, for sure. Help and serve people, for sure. Be part of something bigger. But remember, being in business is about making money. Everything you do for your business should point towards how you’re going to win new business. If it’s not, then take a long hard look at why you’re doing this in the first place.

The bottom line is, well…your bottom line.

I mostly believe that.

However, I also believe that a lot of strategies are misguided. It’s about much more than just downloading a template and filling in the blanks. Real strategy development takes research, thought and care. And even when those pieces are there, there’s still something missing from most of the strategies I see.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Creating a social media strategy helps you to determine WHAT you’re going to do to achieve a set of goals. It lays out those goals and matches the what to those goals. It considers your audience and the channels on which you’ll communicate. It determines outcomes and sets up measurements so that you know when you’ll be successful.

Here’s an example:

I want to promote my online flower shop using social media tools. My goal is to increase brand awareness and up my sales by 20% within 6 months of starting my campaign. I decide to use Instagram and Facebook (the WHAT) to achieve this. I’m going to build an engaging presence and position myself as an expert on flowers. I’ll track retweets and mentions and hashtags and my web site traffic to monitor my progress.

That’s all great, but there’s more.

Where many strategies fall short is not at the WHAT. Where they are lacking is in the HOW. It’s all fine and well to know what you’re going to do. But how you’re going to do it is the key piece of the puzzle that most strategies are lacking.

If you don’t know HOW you’re going to implement your strategies, you run the risk of those strategies never getting off the ground.

So how do I determine the how?

Once you’ve lined up your strategy (i.e. posting valuable content to Instagram and Facebook), think about what comes next. Make a list of the actual tasks you need to do in order to implement the strategy. Something like this:

Instagram Tasks

• Open account

• Upload profile pic

• Do hashtag research

• Add first 10 posts with captions and hashtags

• Follow relevant accounts

Then you can take it a step further, by estimating how long it’s going to take you (or the person you delegate tasks to) to accomplish each task.

Instagram Tasks

• Open account (5 min)

• Upload profile pic and bio (5 min)

• Do hashtag research (2 hours)

• Add first 10 posts with captions and hashtags (2 hours)

• Follow relevant accounts (2 hours)

Total: 6 hours 10 minutes

Once you have a time estimate, you can multiply that by your hourly rate and voila! You have what’s required to start putting together a budget or a quote for a customer.

Your strategy is a living, breathing thing

A good strategy determines WHAT you’re going to do. A great strategy also determines HOW you’re going to do it. Practice with this by revisiting some of your previous strategies. Follow through the process and see what you come up with. Let me know how it goes!

It’s been an interesting evolution. In the early days, there seemed to be only a few voices. Now there are hundreds of millions. This has changed the landscape of communication on these platforms, and it’s meant one has had to evolve their strategies for communicating effectively along with the evolution of the platforms themselves.

So what’s different now, and how has social media evolved? Let’s take a look at a few key things.

It’s ubiquitous.

You cannot turn on a television or radio, pick up a newspaper or go on the internet without seeing some reference to social media. From Twitter to Instagram, Facebook to Snapchat and more, these platforms have taken over as a key way to communicate with each other and with the masses. There are those that still maintain that social media is no more than a fad, and that it will die off eventually. But the truth is, it’s become the 4th medium (TV, radio and print being the others). It’s not going anywhere, and will only continue to become more powerful as a way to share and disseminate information.

It’s influential.

Big name celebrities aside, social media has created its share of influential folks over the years. The fascinating part is that these influencers exist in really niche spaces. From self help to cocktails, and entrepreneurship to work/life balance, influential people have popped up everywhere. These are ordinary people who have found their voice online. They have true fans and even detractors, but they share one thing in common – they built what they have on their own, most of the time without the help of mainstream media. The ability for anyone to share their thoughts and ideas anytime, is one of the biggest advantages of social media. Anyone, and I mean anyone, can become influential in their niche. It takes hard work but it is possible and more and more people are realizing this every day.

It’s changed our behaviour. 

For better or worse, social media has changed our behaviour. We watch television and movies with our smartphones or tablets in our hands. The “second screen” as it’s called, is a phenomenon that I don’t think anyone could have predicated 10 or 11 years ago. It’s split our attention in a very interesting and compelling way. It’s turned watching television and movies from a passive activity to a much more active one. In other ways, social media has changed who we interact with. I know that I’ve reconnected with friends that I would never have otherwise reconnected with. Now we know on a daily basis, what’s happening in each others’ lives. We make new friends via social media too. I can’t tell you how many people I know that I met through Twitter. Probably a couple of dozen, maybe more. Social media has made us act and interact differently. Our social skills have changed fundamentally. It’s really quite amazing when you think about it.

So what does it all mean? Well, I think we’re still learning what it means. But there’s no doubt that social media has changed a lot of things in our society, and it will continue to do so as tools and technologies evolve.

What say you? How has social media evolved for you? Do you use it differently now than you did, say 5 years ago? I’d love to hear what you think.

As is customary each year, I kick things off by listing my 3 words – guiding words for the year that will help keep me focused on what’s important. I started this tradition several years ago when my friend Chris Brogan first published his three words. I’ve found it an immensely helpful practice and one that I highly recommend to others.

But first, let’s do a little revisit to 2016. My three words for last year were Planning, Direct, Discipline. How did I do? Well, some weeks were better than others. But I did manage to get my schedule under control and that was a big one for me. I had been over-committing and over-scheduling myself into oblivion, meaning I had little to no juice left for the things that were truly important. I reduced my extra-curricular activities, namely leaving the comedy festival I was working with, and finishing up with the band I was in. While it was tough to say goodbye to these projects I enjoyed so much, it was important to my mental and physical heath to back away from these things, so I could focus more on my business, my family and my friends.

I am happy to report that I’ve found a new hobby (all work and no play makes Suze a dull girl), volunteering with the Sit With Me Dog Rescue as a transport driver and helping out at events. I truly enjoy it.

2016 was not without its challenges. My father in law passed away in September, and my friend Bob Goyetche passed away too. It made for a pretty sad Autumn, but it also served as a reminder that tomorrow is not promised. So live every day to the fullest and don’t waste time on things that don’t bring you joy.

Now, onto 2017.

My three words for this year are Create. More. Value.

Create:
This is something I want to do a lot more of in 2017. In 2016 I kind of let this blog go, as I felt I’d run out of things to say. But I’m entering this new year with a new attitude. I DO still have things to say. They may be different than the things I’ve talked about before but I’m willing and ready to make that shift. So you will see more writing here, and maybe some other types of content too. I also will create more content for my business, revitalizing our social media presence, blog and more. Creating is something I have missed out on in the past while, and that is about to change.

More: 
More means more everything. Produce more content, spend more time with people that I love, do more work on the business, get more rest. Live more life. This word is about overcoming those things that have been holding me back (I’m looking at you, anxiety), and getting more out of life.

Value:
This word is a big one for me. Not only do I want to create more, but I want to create more things that are of value to people, whether those people are my friends and family, my blog readers or my clients. Value is a word that will define everything I do in 2017. If I’m not creating value, I’m not going to do it. It’s that simple.

Now, you may have noticed that my three words also create a sentence. That’s intentional. Because in 2017 I want to create more value in everything I do.

There you have it! My three words for 2017.

Feel free to share yours below and may you have a wonderful and prosperous new year.

My first experience with teaching, albeit rather informally, was when I worked for Skyline Cablevision/RogersTV as a producer back in the early 90s. The majority of the people who worked on productions at the TV station were volunteers, and they needed to be trained. So I conducted workshops and did on-the-job training for probably hundreds of volunteers over the years. That’s where I cut my teeth as a trainer..

It seemed I had an aptitude for teaching, because flash forward a few years to the early 2000’s and I was hired at a private training firm to teach web design, and I was also brought into Algonquin College to teach in the same Interactive Multimedia program I’d taken in the late 90s. My first few classroom-based courses were rough, I’ll admit – not because I didn’t know my subject, but because classroom control is a learned skill! But I persevered and eventually I was able to be in control from start to finish.

I took a break from Algonquin for a few years to start our business. And to be honest, I went back because I personally needed more cashflow. My bank account and I were both thrilled when I was offered a couple of courses, teaching video production and social media. It was this time around that I really honed my skills and developed a real passion for teaching. I felt like a real professor! I WAS a real professor!

I started to experiment with delivery methods, including flipping my classroom. I learned more and more about what students needed in order to be successful.

To this day, I love every minute of my teaching work (well except maybe the marking!).

To answer the question, why do I do it? Because every single time I step foot in the classroom, I learn something new about myself and my students. Having to teach things to someone else forces me to keep my own skills up. And because there is no better feeling than when I help someone have a “lightbulb moment”. Teaching isn’t something I choose to do. It’s something I HAVE to do. I believe it’s part of my purpose. And that’s a really, really good feeling.

There was a time when one of the most joyful moments of my day was settling in with a cup of hot coffee to write on my blog. But then it all changed. I felt as if I had nothing more to say, at least on the topics I’d been writing about. As time went on, and I didn’t write, other things came along to fill my time. And when I sat back down to write, nothing came to me. The very act of sitting down to compose for my blog started to give me anxiety.

Those of you who know me well know that anxiety is something I’ve struggled with for most of my adult life. It manifests in very strange ways sometimes. That it had manifested into anxiety over writing was very strange indeed. After all, writing was my happy place! Why then, all of a sudden, was I afraid of it? I get butterflies when I sit down to write for myself. I’m afraid I’ll have nothing to say. I’m worried it won’t be good enough. That nobody will care. Now that I see these words on the page it all seems so silly. After all, I don’t write for others. I really do it for myself first, and if it happens to resonate with others along the way, that’s great.

But for now, the thought of composing and publishing my thoughts and ideas fills me with dread. It makes my heart beat faster, and my mind spin. I don’t want it to be like this.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about my anxiety disorder, it’s that sometimes I have to push through the things that make me anxious, especially if my fear is preventing me from doing something I love. And this irrational fear I have of writing IS preventing me from pursuing that which I love.

So I’m pushing through it. I’m ignoring the panicked feelings and just letting the words flow out onto the screen. I’m ignoring the voices that are telling me it’s a bunch of BS and that nobody will care.

And here it is. The result of the push.

I’ve got this.

The truth is, there was a group of us doing that connection thing online well before the social media gurus came along and gave it fancy names. I didn’t know when I was one of the first 100,000 people on Twitter that I was using it to build anything, let alone a “brand”. I was just hanging out there because I had these new friends I’d met and I wanted a way to keep up with them. I joined Facebook because it seemed like a good way to reconnect with people I grew up with. I started blogging out of sheer love of writing, and out of a desire to get better at it.

None of this was intentional. But here’s what I know now, that I didn’t know then.

Figure out who you’re talking to. Granted, the online world is a much bigger place now than it was in the early days of 2006. But the same holds true. You have to know whose attention you want to get, if you’re going to get anyone’s attention at all. How do you do that? You listen. You hook up your HootSuite with a pile of searches around keywords and hashtags. You join groups and like pages on Facebook. You search on Instagram and Snapchat and whatever other tool you think your audience might be lurking around on. Then you walk in the room, and you listen. And then, after you’ve listened for a while, and you feel like you have something relevant to say, you start talking.

But I’m shy to talk to strangers! What if nobody likes me? I don’t care if you’re shy. I’m shy. But if you’re going to succeed as an entrepreneur these days, you have to get over yourself, and learn to talk to people you don’t know. That holds true in person as well as online. The fact is, the online world is generally a friendly place. If you extend your virtual hand and say hello to people with common interests, you’ll probably be greeted warmly. So just do it and stop hiding behind your shyness.

Create content. Then create some more. Here’s another hard truth. If you’re going to build trust in your community, if you’re going to get people to respect what you have to offer, you have to show them what you’re capable of. It’s the only way these days. So blog. And if you’re not a writer, start a podcast. Make YouTube videos. Draw pictures. Create something that speaks to your talents, and then just hit publish. And when people start to take notice, talk to them. This is the only way I know to really get people to know who you are and what you do. It’s the primary way to build credibility in today’s entrepreneurial world. I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Make the ask. My parents taught me from a young age that if I want something, I’m to ask for it. That lesson has served me well as an entrepreneur. The online world is not “if you build it, they will come”. You have to pursue the things you want. That means, if you come across an opportunity, you need to find the people making the decisions and talk to them. After you’ve been providing great content and talking to people for a while, you can feel more comfortable making the ask. But don’t forget to make it! Otherwise your bank account will be miserable.

I’ve learned a lot these past 10 years. Above all, I’ve learned that being able to connect and share with people all over the world is the biggest opportunity we have as business owners. It’s an amazing thing, if you’re willing to embrace it.

Now go forth and prosper!

If you’re like me, you have a tendency to “go dark” in the winter. The call of Netflix and cozy blankets on a cold winter’s day is just too hard to resist, and your social life, both online and off, take a hit. Your blog sits dormant. You haven’t logged into Twitter in a week. Your Facebook friends are sending out smoke signals.

If you’ve been hibernating, like me, now is the time to shed those winter blahs and emerge with a fresh new outlook on your social presence.

Start with your blog. When was the last time you gave it a face lift? Is your theme feeling a little outdated? It’s easy enough to put a new face on your tired old blog site. Go for a browse in theme land, and find something new and exciting to play with. Next, get some new content up there! This is the first time I’ve really blogged in 2016, and I have no excuse, really. I could say I’ve been busy, or I could just admit I’ve been a little lazy. So, pop open your Evernote, or whatever you use to write, and start brainstorming some ideas. Then, just write, and hit that “publish” button. Sometimes taking just one step is all you need to get back on the train.

How about those social networks? Feeling a little humdrum? Change up your profile pics and cover images to liven things up a bit. Then, get reacquainted with your friends and followers. It doesn’t take much, just a few minutes a day. Get back in the habit of checking in on social media regularly, posting your thoughts and ideas and before long your audience will remember you.

Finally, try something new. Never really grasped Instagram before? Is Snapchat still baffling to you? Taking on a new social network is a great way to learn, and there’s no better way to learn about social media tools than to just buckle down and try them. So give something new a try, and see how you like it. You never know, you might just find a whole new world of opportunity out there!

Rebooting your social media is as easy as that! Happy Spring!

In 2015 my three words were Moment, Movement and Mindful. How did I do? Well, some days were better than others. I’ve definitely gotten better at taking each moment, each experience as it comes. Am I perfect at it? No, but I don’t think anyone is. I did move my body more, working out at the gym on a semi-regular basis. I didn’t meet my weight loss goals but I certainly learned the value of exercise, and how much better being active is for my mental and physical state. And finally, I worked hard on mindfulness. Being prone to suffering from anxiety and depression, I’ve had to work hard at keeping tabs on my mental state from day to day. Developing a mindfulness practice has definitely helped with that.  Sometimes it means meditation, sometimes it means just sitting back and taking a few deep breaths, and getting centred in the moment. Overall, I think 2015 was a success from a 3 words standpoint.

That brings us to 2016, and my three guiding words for this year.

Planning. No more flying willy-nilly into my life. I’m going to work harder to keep my schedule from getting out of control (read: say “no” more), and I’m going to make an effort to plan the things that are important to keeping life flowing smoothly – planning mine and my husband’s meals every week, doing the grocery shopping once a week based on a list – those are seemingly small things but they add up to something big when you consider the impact on our health, our busy lives and our pocketbooks. Work-wise I’ll be spending more time looking at the big picture of what needs to get done, keeping my task lists in check and looking forward.

Direct. This word means so many different things, and that’s precisely why I like it. This year I intend to be more direct about the things in my life. This means being more direct with friends and colleagues (i.e. don’t beat around the bush), but also it means directing my life more, instead of life directing me. That means making decisions about who and what I choose to spend my time on, eliminating distractions and dramatic things and people, and taking control of the things I can control.

Discipline. This is a big one, because it’s something I’ve always struggled with. I’m 45 years old and terribly out of shape. I need to develop the discipline to fix this. That means every day, waking up and making the decision to do something towards that. I also need to develop the discipline to stick to my budget, work within the hours I designate, and nurture the relationships that are most important. It’s not going to be easy, this discipline thing. But I’m ready.

There you have it – my guide to 2016. I’d love to hear your three words, or your one word, or your intention for the year.

Happy New Year.