By Chelsea Duran, on June 11th, 2011
There will be an agreement in whatever variety of actions, so they be each honest and natural in their hour. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Found some quiet time at home, by myself this weekend, so I’m going to use it wisely and catch up on my #Trust30 pledge. Next up on my list, Corbett Barr’s prompt:
What would you say to the person you were five years ago? What will you say to the person you’ll be in five years?
Part one: Five years ago – June 11, 2006. Who was I?
On paper, I was Chelsea Daughenbaugh, a recent University of Florida grad. I was a returning tenant to my childhood home, trying to figure out how to do that whole thing they call “growing up.”
My advice to her today:
- Trust yourself, you’re stronger than you think.
- Screw it, move to Austin. You’ve been dreaming about it all year, even filled out a few job applications. Don’t have any money? That will come. Just go. You may regret it, even just a little bit.
- Keep moving forward. Yes, you want to put money in a 401k and build a nice comfy savings account, but don’t get stuck in a place where you’re not moving forward anymore.
Part two: Five years from now. Who will I be on June 11, 2016?
In five years I hope to be – a mom, successfully self-employed and loving life. My advice to her:
- Trust yourself, you’re stronger than you think.
- Take a deep breath. Smell the roses. Hug your kids. Kiss your husband. Life is good.
- Keep moving forward. You can have what you’ve always dreamed of, but it’s going to take some work. You’ve been doing it for the past five years, now it’s onto the next 10, 15, 20. Keep it moving, lady.
Wow – what a great way to start a Saturday! Thanks #Trust30 for helping me get all of these ideas, feelings and dreams down on paper (or keyboard in this case). Perfect timing.
By Chelsea Duran, on June 5th, 2011
If we live truly, we shall see truly. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Chris Guillebeau brings us my favorite #Trust30 prompt so far:
Not everyone wants to travel the world, but most people can identify at least one place in the world they’d like to visit before they die. Where is that place for you, and what will you do to make sure you get there?
I can’t say there’s only one place in the world I need to visit before I die. My short list of places includes:
- Thailand
- India
- South Africa
- Australia
- New Zealand
One not so exotic place I need to visit – Colorado. Specifically, I’d love to visit Boulder and/or Fort Collins. Why? Cities in Colorado consistently rank on lists featuring top places to live, have the most active people, best outdoor activities and are just all around beautiful.
What am I going to do to make sure I get there?
Work smart, play my cards right and take a vacation.
By Chelsea Duran, on June 2nd, 2011
It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
#Trust30 Day 3 prompt by Buster Benson:
The world is powered by passionate people, powerful ideas, and fearless action. What’s one strong belief you possess that isn’t shared by your closest friends or family? What inspires this belief, and what have you done to actively live it?
Here’s where my inner geek really comes out. I don’t come from a family of geeks, the man I married doesn’t have even a slightly geeky bone in his body and I can maybe name two good friends who tweet with me on a daily basis.
So what? Who cares? Why does it matter?
To answer today’s prompt – the belief I possess that I don’t share with family or friends is that the web is an awesome place where you can make lasting, valuable connections. Even if you’re living across the content from each other, two people can make a connection that can deliver value to both people – whether that’s in the form of friendship or business relationship.
The inspiration for this belief comes from personal experience. I’ve been able to make connections with people, using Twitter specifically, that could have never conceivably happened without the platform available. Twitter, more than other platforms, provides the awesome opportunity to talk to and connect with people you admire and respect.
Unlike most of my friends and family, I’m a social media hippie. I believe that social media can help anyone make lasting connections and find mentors in places you wouldn’t normally have access to. It’s only through using the tools and working on those connections, in person if possible, that you’ll get the most out of them.
By Chelsea Duran, on June 1st, 2011
Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. The force of character is cumulative. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
If ‘the voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks,’ then it is more genuine to be present today than to recount yesterdays. How would you describe today using only one sentence? Tell today’s sentence to one other person. Repeat each day.
Today in one sentence:
Take the time to connect with each other, you never know what awesome opportunities are within reach.
By Chelsea Duran, on May 31st, 2011
 Ralph Waldo Emerson #Trust30 challenge But don’t worry, it’s cool… it’s all to celebrate Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 208th birthday. In honor of Emerson and his 1841 Self-Reliance essay, The Domino Project created #Trust30 — a 30-day writing challenge urging “readers to trust their intuition rather than conforming to the will of the majority.”
With just two hours to spare before day one of the thirty day writing challenge began, I typed my name and url in the signup form. For the next thirty days, I’ll be writing along with the #Trust30 bunch and stretching my copywriting muscles.
Day one, prompt one: “You just discovered you have fifteen minutes to live.” Here I go, hopefully without getting to sentimental…
Thought 1: I hope I’m not sitting behind a computer screen when I find out I have 15 minutes left to live.
Thought 2: I hope I’m sitting on a beautiful beach, with the people I love, with a delicious, ice-cold IPA in hand.
Thought 3: I hope I can look back on a life lived in happiness and love.
When you break it down to those two things – happiness and love – it makes it hard to think about anything else, it all seems pretty insignificant. Happiness and love is what I want to be thinking about if I ever discover I have 15 minutes to live. I’m grateful to have both today.
By Chelsea Duran, on May 11th, 2011
Maintaining a social media content calendar not only ensures you’ll always have something to write about, but it also ensures you’re sticking to your overall social strategy and that your messaging is proactive. Karen Woodward over at the Conversify blog shared a great graphic that illustrates the proactive/reactive nature of content creation in a post earlier this month (see Why You Need a Social Media Editorial Calendar).
Your content calendar can be as simple as jotting down topics by hand in a notebook or as detailed as a line-by-line plan in an Excel spreadsheet. However you choose to keep your content ideas organized, the most important part of outlining your social strategy is creating a calendar that keeps you on target.
 Content calendar key to social strategy
By Chelsea Duran, on January 17th, 2011
Recently, I had to write a letter at work – a real letter, to be mailed by the US Post Office to someone’s physical mailbox. Easy enough, right?
Well, sorta. Communication is my thing, but it was weird to feel like I didn’t know how to write an old-fashioned business letter. Thank goodness for Google to help jog my memory on the proper way to put one together.
It’s only a letter, and I didn’t screw it up (hopefully), but it taught me a valuable lesson – with all these newfangled communication outlets like Facebook, Twitter and even email, you can’t forget about the basics.
When you’re in school learning about how to write a business letter, it can be hard to picture yourself actually writing one in the real world. Try to pay attention in school, but if you forget (like me), Google it and make sure you do it right. Because even if you end up with a job with “interactive” in your job title – you’re not off the hook when it comes to sending snail mail.
Lesson learned.
By Chelsea Duran, on January 9th, 2011
The folks at WordPress.com have challenged writers to a fantastic New Year’s resolution: the Post A Day and Post A Week challenges.
It came just in time for everyone out there like me who have been in need of a swift kick in the ass. I could rattle off a bunch of reasons for putting my blog on the back burner, but instead I’m just going to take the challenge and run with it.
I put myself up to a post-a-day challenge when I started this blog. You can read for yourself about how well that went. This time around, I’ll be taking up the Post A Week challenge.
I’m hoping the challenge will help me achieve some blog and writing-related goals, including:
- Getting organized. Simply put, I need to get my act together.
- Writing on a regular basis. Weekly, in this case.
- Getting active. I know what I have to do – comment on other blogs, connect with other writers and improve my networking skills (just to name a few).
So, I want to send a super shout out to my friends at WordPress.com. Thank you for a much needed kick start.
See you next week. (Maybe twice a week … if you’re lucky.)
By Chelsea Duran, on September 2nd, 2010
So, it may have taken me all week to post the news over here, but I still think you should check out my guest post on the PRSA Miami blog recapping the social media panel discussion the had last week. Please, check it out and let me know what you think.
P.S. You have to scroll down to my post on August, 31. Can’t link to the individual post. Weird.
By Chelsea Duran, on August 24th, 2010
“There’s no excuse for not protecting your brand.”
Both Jay Berkowitz and Murray Izenwasser spent a some time on the topic at today’s PRSA Miami Food for Thought panel discussion and, in my opinion, it was one of the most important takeaways from the lunch.
Your brand is exactly that – yours. And it’s your responsibility to take care of it.
But don’t freak out if you don’t have your brand on lock down, it’s ok, I promise. Realizing that you own – and have control over – your online reputation and personal brand is the first step.
Personally, I’m on the front line of a major battle for my brand. Whether she knows it or not, the other Chelsea Duran who currently owns the number one spot on Google is my challenge. Seriously, she’s beating me with her Facebook page. Really? Her Facebook page? Ok, so she may have more than 1,000 Facebook friends, but what she doesn’t know is that I’m the only Chelsea Duran who holds the rights to that spot.
Yes, I know I’m not the only Chelsea Duran living in the United States, or even Miami-Dade County, and it may seem completely selfish, but still I want that number one spot. And – I’m going to get it.
Protecting your brand, personal or commercial, is not only doable, it’s necessary. The best way to protect it – content. Lots and lots of content.
Create content – blog, tweet, update your status on Facebook and LinkedIn, post videos on YouTube and pictures on Flickr. Create content and put your name on every piece of it.
I’m on a content-filled mission to take control of my brand (even if someone else shares the same name) and take responsibility for what shows up when you Google it. I’m on a mission and I’m going to write about it, then write about it some more.
Oh yeah, and if you run into that other Chelsea Duran, let her know her days at the top are numbered. [Insert evil laugh here.] 
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