sacha chua :: living an awesome life

Now that I've shifted to wearing my consulting hat, I'll be giving more presentations and facilitating more workshop sessions on Web 2.0, collaboration, Generation Y, and other topics. I have a couple of sessions to prepare and deliver over the next two weeks. I thought I'd take some time to "sharpen the saw" by planning how I can do this more effectively.

I need to organize frequently-needed concepts. For example, I often talk about multi-generational workplaces. Organizing key messages, case studies, and other material will make it easy for me to see at a glance which points are relevant to an intended audience and customize the presentation accordingly. A mindmap or outline is one way to do that.

I need to scan what's going on. Most of the discussions and case studies for my areas of interest appear on blogs. Investing time in expanding my reading and organizing my notes will pay off later, when I can refer back to stories and examples I've seen. I can also analyze previous presentations and discussions to look for talking points and results.

I would like to organize my presentations more effectively. I often find interesting charts or explanations in other people's slides, and I sometimes reuse my slides as well. I would like a visual way to organize those slides so that I can easily include them in presentations Microsoft Sharepoint allows Powerpoint 2007 users to organize individual slides in a slide library, but I don't have access to that, and I may move to a Linux/Mac setup soon. One thing I can do is to build a master deck of slides (possibly broken down by topic), keeping track of the provenance of borrowed slides in the speaker's notes.

The ideal scenario would be: The team tells me about an upcoming workshop. I retrieve my notes about that industry, and I do a search for new information about the company. I select some basic talking points with screenshots and case studies that they might be interested in. I put together a brief presentation designed to be a conversation-starter. I deliver this presentation, and we brainstorm scenarios or ideas. I document the results and my notes afterwards.

Okay. Bringing it back to my two upcoming workshops… For the first workshop, my role is to help the client learn more about Generation Y. We have some material around this already thanks to our work with other clients, and there are some thoughts out there as well. For the second workshop, my role is to help the client learn more about incorporating Web 2.0 features (community, rich user interfaces, etc.) into a website. They're also somewhat interested in Generation Y.

For each workshop, I need to:

• perform an industry scan to find examples from their industry and related industries
• review past presentations to see if there are case studies, statistics, or talking points I can reuse
• review past discussions to find ideas
• brainstorm
• organize the presentation
• prepare the presentation

This will be fun!

"How are you?" asked a client after the Canada Day holiday.

"Fantastic!" I replied.

She was surprised by that. Perhaps she expected me to say that the holiday was too short, or to wish that the weekend were here. So I told her about how I filled my holiday to the brim with wonderful hobbies, and how I was also happy to have another day to spend on work.

A day is a day. To spend the day wishing it was something else is to waste the potential of each moment.

When it's a holiday, I take time to explore other things and to reflect. When it's a work day, I work. I enjoy exploring my interests. I enjoy figuring things out for clients, the company, and myself.

Every day can be a terrific day when you aren't wishing it's something else.

Almost anything can be terrific when you aren't wishing it's something else.

I learned that the hard way by being homesick and confused. To be homesick is to be mis-placed – to be in the wrong place, to feel confused about where you want to be. I missed the Philippines when I was in Canada. I missed Canada when I was in the Philippines. When I stopped wishing I was someplace else and started really living wherever I was, it was easier to find the good things.

Same goes for days. If you're always wishing for the weekend, or for the end of the day, or for the start of the week so that you can tackle your pile of work, you'll find that time works against you. Time slows down when you're looking forward to something. Time speeds up when you're there–it's over too quickly.

Be in the moment.

=)

I spent Canada Day indulging in hobbies that benefit from concentrated time. It was terrific!

I started the day by sewing a pajama set from the adorable penguin flannel I picked up last week. I modified Simplicity 3548 to make shorts instead of pants, and I tried to copy one of my existing pajama tops. The shorts turned out wonderfully. The top is a good first top, and I'm sure I'll make even better ones. I plan to take this set along on my next business trip – another little thing that'll make me smile.

Then I played the piano. The tricky bit in the middle of Send In The Clowns is starting to yield to practice. I'm also enjoying learning the second part of Fur Elise.

I spent some time in the garden, too. I filled all the empty containers with potting soil and planted seeds in them. Might as well enjoy the rest of the growing season, after all. I also weeded the garden, cultivated the soil, thinned the over-enthusiastic radishes , transplanted some basil, and rescued a tomato plant.

Photography was fun. I set up the lights, and the cats decided it was portrait day. Well, Luke sat for portraits, at least.

I broke the mini-USB connector on my camera, so I disassembled the camera and W- soldered the component back on. =D Everything still works–hooray!

Yes, I could've spent the day working, but going a little deeper on hobbies helps me develop a more interesting life. The more I know, the more I'll enjoy. =)

Great day!

If you're new to social media and Web 2.0, you probably feel overwhelmed by all the different tools that are out there. Should you use Twitter? Get on Facebook? Start a blog? Share photos? Share videos? It seems that as soon as you've worked up the courage to try something new, another ten new tools come along. And where are you going to find the time to do all of this, anyway?

When I coach people on social media, I notice that people often focus on–or get distracted by–the tools. They worry about not being on the right networks, about staying with a tool long after their target audience has passed. They sometimes have a hard time seeing the big picture and how all the pieces fit together.

Here's the big picture: You want to work more effectively. You want to reach out and connect to people.

The tools you use to go for that big picture will change over time. That's okay. You might need to be in more than one network or to use more than one kind of tool. That's okay. You might need to leave tools, copying your data over if possible. That's okay.

The big picture is: You want to work more effectively. You want to reach out and connect to people.

So, how do you go about putting the pieces together?

At the minimum, you should have one website where people can go to find out about all the rest of the tools you use to share. Many people build their profiles on LinkedIn for this purpose, but it's best to use your own web host instead of relying on a third-party company that might be renamed, go out of business, or simply go out of style.

I strongly recommend registering your own domain name. If your name is still available as a domain and it's easy to spell, use that. If not, come up with another phrase or tagline that people can use to find you.

Set up a simple site with your photo and some information about you. Include your contact information. You can use something like Wordpress to easily create a few webpages.

You may also want to set up e-mail so that you can use your new domain name for your personal mail. If you never change e-mail addresses, you'll never have to worry about losing contact. Google Apps is a good way to get your own mail system.

Now that you have a main site, you can explore other tools and social networks. Here's a sample:

• Social networks like LinkedIn.com, Xing.com, MySpace.com or Facebook.com make it easy to keep in touch with contacts
• Microblogging sites like Twitter.com make it easy to share short, quick updates
• Blogging sites like Wordpress.com or Blogger.com let you share longer stories and posts
• Media-sharing sites like Flickr.com (photos) or YouTube.com (videos) let you share your creations
• Social bookmarking sites like Delicious.com

Other kinds of sites cover all sorts of other purposes. Go ahead and explore.

Whenever you build a presence on another social network, link back to your main site. If you want, make it easy for people to discover your other profiles by linking to those profiles from your main site.

Worried about losing track of what you put where? Take notes by bookmarking the resources you've shared or by blogging about them.

Over time, you'll figure out which set of tools work well for you, and you'll have the flexibility to add interesting new tools as they come along.