Life after One Life …

Yes, I’m back … and it’s taken me till now to recover! My weekend at One Life was ‘full on’ to put it mildly - 21 hours on my feet saying the same thing over and over again, not to mention the setting up and packing away and so on. I’m just glad I saw sense and booked a nearby hotel, rather than having to trek back home every night as well! And it was a real family affair. My sister came all the way down from up north to help out on Friday and Saturday and my mum, bless her, spent her Mother’s Day standing on my stand! Hey, it was hard work but really good fun. I met some great people, had some lovely conversations and, best of all, got some really positive feedback about Mummo. After a few recent ‘wobbles’, I came away from One Life with renewed confidence in what I’m doing. I got a glimpse of success, just enough to fire me up again and give me a new burst of energy …

So I’ve been back in the office beavering away, trying to capitalise on the contacts I made as well as test the first part of the website. And, of course, I don’t have the luxury of admin support these days … so there’s no-one else to enter email addresses into the computer but me! I’m suddenly scarily busy, and the children are already reacting to the fact that they don’t see mummy as much as they used to. It’s definitely a mum thing - I’m racked with guilt for working 3 days a week plus a very occasional evening or weekend, whilst daddy disappears 5 days out of 7 and never questions it! But don’t let me get on that soap box right now, I’ve got too much to do to start ranting!

Yes, I’ve got a cuppa waiting and a book by the bed, and I really want to calm down and listen to my ‘Just ten minutes‘ CD before I fall asleep. But I must just tell you about horsesmouth, who I met at One Life. I’m sure you’ve probably heard about it already as they’ve had a fair amount of press coverage, but it’s a really interesting idea … and a great way to give something back without having to step out of your comfort zone. I think people often find it easier to open up to an online stranger than to a real friend face-to-face. As long as we don’t end up living our entire lives in a virtual world!

Hormone hell … and how I survived it!

This is an official thank you to one of my very best friends (she knows who she is!) for getting me through “one of those days” earlier in the week … not to mention saving my children from their demented mother! Hormones have an awful lot to answer for. But whatever the reason, as a mum, there are times when you just need someone else to take over for a while - blow noses, wipe bottoms, wash faces and put food in hungry mouths - and a friend who’ll do all that for you (or rather, for your little ones!) is a true friend.

So, having survived my hormone hell, coming out the other side and getting back to work feels like going on holiday. Suddenly the fog has lifted and, in the words of a song, “I can see clearly now the rain has gone”! (Whoever was it who sang that?) Driving to the office today, the skies were blue, the sun was shining and the world looked like a pretty lovely place after all. It’s scary how much of a difference a few days can make.

Anyway, things are hotting up a bit now. I’ve taken the plunge and booked to exhibit at the Prowess conference and at the One Life Live show, both of which are happening in the next six weeks or so. In an ideal world I’d have a little more time to get everything ready, but what the hell, I’m just going to go for it. I’ve always found that having a deadline is a surefire way of getting the adrenaline going and getting stuff done! And if the website isn’t completely finished by then, I’ll use it as an opportunity to generate interest and get people signed up to find out more. I suspect the key is going to be to keep it simple and low-tech … and just give out loads of free chocolates!

Had a chat this morning with the guys in my shared office who specialise in search engine optimisation. Interesting. It’s a whole ‘nother world! I now understand why some websites have strange, repetitive, contrived-sounding language … just to get their key phrase density up so that they’re ranked more highly. Of course it’d be great to come top on Google , as long as Mummo still sounds normal! So that’s the challenge.

In the course of the conversation, I also found out about all sorts of new things, like social bookmarking, Stumbled Upon and Squidoo! I swear, you could spend your whole life online … if you didn’t have kids, anyway!

Oh bobbins!

As you can tell, I am having to watch my language these days, as my littlest has this scary habit of tuning into every last word I say and then repeating it back out of the blue a bit later on, generally to an audience! And she’s only just learnt to talk! So that’s why “oh bo***cks” has had to become “oh bobbins”, and even that sounds naughty the way she says it!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I think I’ve messed up! I asked someone I really respect for business advice … and got it … and now I don’t know what to do with it. I wish I’d spoken to him three months ago, when things could have been changed a lot more easily.  As things stand the design templates are about to wing their way over to the technical developers and a good few people are going to be mightily fed up with me if I start back-tracking now.  And, of course, there’s always the dilemma over who to trust - an expert … or my own gut instinct?! Am I just having a bit of a wobble and really what I need to do is stick to my guns, or is it better to rock the boat with a re-think now rather than being forced to do it later, once the whole thing’s up and running? Oh bobbins, who knows?!

As you can imagine, I didn’t sleep much last night, and ran straight to Starbucks this morning with my trusty notepad, hoping for clarity to come with my coffee! Of course that didn’t happen, but instead I bumped into my favourite Starbucks friend and had a lovely inspirational conversation that set me up for the day. Made me realise that sometimes it’s the simplest things that can make you happy, and when you connect with someone who’s on the same wavelength as you it’s a really good feeling. I need to do it more often. For now, though, it’s back to tearing my hair out!