CategoryLife Advice

What I’ve Been Reading: My 11 Favorite Posts From 2015

As 2015 comes to a close, it’s a great time to reflect on everything that has happened this year. Before I dive deep into my annual recap and choose my theme for 2016 (This year’s theme was Vulnerability), I like to look back and reread some of my favorite posts and books from the year. Last year, I wrote a recap of the best posts I read or listened to in the community management...

Embracing Our Collective Fear Of Mediocrity

It’s perfectly okay to be average. This is the sentiment shared in many blog posts recently, including from two of my favorite bloggers, Jay Baer and Mark Manson. While their blog posts couldn’t be further apart, the same general theme held true. It’s about our collective fear of being average. [quote]“Being “average” has become the new standard of failure. The worst...

My Theme For 2015: Vulnerability

It’s becoming an annual tradition for me to write a post in the beginning of January reflecting on the past year, and choosing a theme to live by for the year ahead. Last year’s theme was about change and resiliency.  As I look back at 2014, I look back at a year that has honestly been the most rollercoaster of a year that I’ve ever had. Filled with some serious high points...

4 Community-Building Lessons From A Couple On A Cross-Country Quest

There’s a certain amount of community management that can’t be taught. It can only be learned through different experiences. Both directly managing a community and by all the encounters you have in just your day to day life. Some of the best things I have learned or just through the random encounters with people I meet. This brings me to a couple, The Padgetts, I met over the summer...

Reflections on Life 4+ Years Out Of College

To be honest, last week was one of the more challenging weeks I’ve experienced in quite awhile. Filled with some extreme highs (including my one year work-anniversary. 🙂 ), as well as a few stressful lows, spread out over the first, full work week of 2014. Some of the lows I experienced this past week would be enough to send my younger-naive self of even just 2 years ago to go curl up in...

The Four Letter Word That Is Destroying Your Career And Life (And’s it’s not what you are thinking)

When you think of fun, four-letter words that need to be banned, you generally think of the colorful adjectives and nouns that would get you sent to the principal office back in your younger years. But, there’s another FOUR LETTER word that’s much more commonplace, yet equally detrimental. It’s a word I can guarantee every single one of us says on a near-daily basis...

My No BS Advice For 2013 College Grads

Here’s a dirty little secret.  Your college degree doesn’t matter. It’s just a piece of paper that you spent thousands- if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition money- to get after walking across that big shiny stage. Your college classes, college major and that shiny piece of paper with your name on it (ie. diploma) don’t define you. Anyone can learn how to...

The Rise Of “The Self-Help Generation”

A few days ago, I was browsing Amazon trying to find a new book to read. I was having a hard time finding anything that looked even remotely worth reading. Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy (Yeah, no thanks.) The Hunger Games (I’m not fourteen.) JK Rowling’s new book (I’ll think I’ll pass because I can’t imagine her writing anything other than Harry Potter books.) Then, I...

The Best Advice Ever Received . . .

I asked 30 people, who I greatly admire and respect, one question: “What’s the best piece of advice you ever received?” Here are their responses. 1. “There are doers, and there are people who talk about doing. Be a doer.”– DJ Waldow (@djwaldow) 2. “Ignore your instincts at your own peril.”– Srinivas Rao (@skooloflife) 3. “The best...