the journey to becoming an overnight success

i came across a very inspirational story on twitter about a make-up artist in pursuit of her dreams. 

if you can't see the video CLICK HERE.

no matter what industry you're in, if there's something you've been striving for, but just can't seem to get it - this is for you. read Tatiana's full story on Necole Bitchie's blog.

Getting More Facebook Likes

The Facebook page for my style blog has grown by 81% in the past three months and I didn't resort to buying "likes" for it to do so. 

Here's what I did to give it a boost:

updated my page more frequently - For me, that means going from 1-2 times per week to 3-4 times. Why not every day? Because it turns into information overload and your messages become diluted. Instead of forcing stuff on my fans on a daily basis, I focus on sharing relevant, quality content I think they'll read, benefit from, and share. 



liked other pages as Discount Thief - This strategy has proven to be super effective for driving people back to my page. In order for this to work, you have to engage ethically on other people's pages. Simply put: no spammy, self-serving comments. Never ever do I mention my blog or my services. If the page owner asks a question, I answer it. If they're making small talk, I chime in. when I read something interesting on their blog, I go to their Facebook page and let them know the value I got from it. It's always about the page owner. Not about me.

Here's what others did to add to my numbers:

publicly recognized my work - The administrator from a group of local bloggers emailed me to let me know I was chosen as the featured blogger of the week. This was a pleasant surprise, especially considering I was no longer an active member of the Facebook group. Keeping with that whole ethics thing, I immediately advised them that I wasn't a member and told them I understood if they needed to rescind. Turns out, since the group is geared solely toward Austin area bloggers - that was good enough for them. Talking about grateful! 



gave me shout outs - Natasha from One Woman's Style and Evolution and Miss Rockwell from Thrifty and Shameless showed me love. Be it blog traffic or growing your social media presence, having people in your corner to toot your horn is priceless. Reciprocating and returning the favor is a must. Promote others and you'll get it back ten fold. 

Are you making progress with your social media efforts? What's working for you?

Selling Your Soul For Facebook Fans

Kita over at KoKoa Magazine cracked the case on all of those Facebook pages with thousands upon thousands of 'Likes'. She tweeted about it recently, saying some brands are buying their thumb-ups. 

She and I both agreed we weren't going out like that. I tweeted back saying I'll continue to grow my fashion blog page just like I've been doing - one click at a time. 

While I won't rule out purchasing FB ads in the future, you don't ever have to worry about me forking over my hard earned money for other fraudulent questionable social media marketing shenanigans. 

The conversation got me to thinking though. Like, how up until last week, I hadn't hit the 50 fan milestone yet. I was holding steady at 45 for quite some time. The biggest reason my page isn't growing is due to my lack of self-promotion. I publish content and engage, but that's about it. 

Last Sunday I got a new hairdo and shared a pic on my FB page. The photo was accompanied by this simple two word status update: "what'cha think?!" 

Within minutes thumbs starting flying left and right. When it was all said and done, 20% of my fans had weighed in by liking the update and the post was seen by 84 people. I then shared the post on my personal page and had three friends like discount thief. 

The small amount of effort I put into that update took me from 45 to 54 likes. An increase of 20%. 

A social media expert is going to read this and want to give me all kinds of tips and advice on being more strategic. It's not that serious right now. Will it take longer to hit the next milestone? Probably so. But that's ok.

The bottom line is that I already know what to do. I just need to do more of it. More often. 

We Met, We Ate, We Blogged About It

One of the goals I have with social media is to actually meet as many of my online buddies in real life as I possibly can. 

There was the time when I flew to San Francisco and stayed with a total stranger - who I met on twitter. And then the other time when I invited a total stranger to come stay with me - who I met on twitter. And then Shonika came to Austin from D.C. and we got to meet in person after developing a close friendship - yeah, you guessed it - on twitter. 

Last month, Lynn Asummermoon Davis hit me up on Facebook and told me she was coming to town. I was really excited about this one!

Lynn and I have been online buddies since she stumbled across one of my guest posts in 2010 over at The Work at Home Woman. We've been reading each other's blogs, tweeting, and emailing since then. She's one of those kind of people who has the ability to make you smile just by reading her status updates. Always positive. Always encouraging. 

She's doing an awesome job of growing her social media business, A&D Media, which caters to small businesses and non-profit organizations. The fact that she dreams of even bigger things than she's doing now is contagiously inspirational. The few hours we spent together weren't enough. I invited myself to her place in Jersey so we can pick up where we left off here. 

After we consumed more food than we probably should have, we walked away feeling blessed to have had the opportunity to be in each other's presence. 

And did I tell you this was her first time flying?! 

I'm looking forward to our next encounter...on the east coast!

Me Time

I'm a huge fan of Dr. Oz. On one of his shows he said you should go out and socialize at least one time per week. I forgot exactly why he said we should do it. I think it had something to do with reducing stress or preventing depression or something. Regardless - I know that I don't get out "for fun" nearly as much as I should.

So when Chris called last week and said she wanted to get together, I didn't make any excuses. We set a date immediately to meet at our regular spot. Kona Grill in The Domain. The best weekend happy hour in town.

Either I'm a total lush or love the hell outta that girl. I drove with no a/c in what had to be triple digit temperatures during the hottest part of the day to eat sushi, avocado egg rolls, and sip margaritas. 

Note: It's impossible to overeat with a personal trainer sitting next to you. I had my eye on some chicken potstickers and I can still hear Chris's voice as I tried to tell the waiter to bring me some:

"We don't need that, Donna. We'll eat too much. The eggrolls are fried...that'll make us feel full."

Um...look here, Missy. We got two different stomachs. And mine is used to having one of everything on the menu. Thank you kindly. 

We did a good job of not talking about work. I needed that. I really really needed that. I proposed we do this once a month. She agreed.

Oh - and a huge shout out to Baby Daddy for sponsoring my field trip!

Are You in My Niche?

Identifying a target audience is a must for anyone in the service industry. I struggled with this myself initially. I knew from the beginning I had a knack for communicating and genuinely connecting with real people – the types of people that don’t have hidden agendas and also feel the need to have the connection reciprocated. This isn’t something I have to work at because it’s who I am, therefore it comes naturally. I don’t like hard sells or propaganda. You must be authentic, trustworthy, and honest if you want me to do business with you.

With all of the gurus, mavericks, and mavens popping up on the internet, one can easily be misled. If you’re aligned with these core values – authentically good, trust, and honesty – I’d love to teach you, learn from you, and just get to know you better. The world wide web could use a few more “regular” people. You are my target audience.


Photo credit: patlow

Don't Be Blinded by The Truth

From time to time, I get calls from people who want to vent. In most cases, it’s usually about someone close to them revealing their true selves. A friend who is starting to behave more like a wishy-washy acquaintance instead of the honest person you thought they were when you first met.

In almost all cases, the person venting has started to make positive changes in their lives. They’ve become more focused on self-wealth, career developments, furthering their education, and just letting go of bad habits and replacing them with new ones.

Listen...when you decide to do things differently, you’re going to lose some friends. It happens in life and in business. I experience it all the time. There are some folks who smile in my face, send me tweets and emails but could really care less if I succeed. They stay close to me to see what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, and how they can mirror what I’m doing without it being obvious that they’re really stealing my stuff. It used to get under my skin, but now I look at it as a form of flattery. You can try to copy my creativity all day long, but you’ll never be me. We don’t have the same vision. Mine is bigger than you can imagine and I work fearlessly to make it a reality.

I’ve been looked at and judged my entire life. My mama often told me, “If people aren’t talking about you, then you must be doing something wrong!”

The truth of the matter is that these people are showing you who they really are. They’re being their authentic selves. We’ve become accustomed to the word “authentic” being used to describe someone who is real, down to earth, and positive. However, when someone stabs you in the back, they are an authentic back-stabber.

Keep doing what you do to the best of your abilities. Embrace the people around you who show unconditional love and support. Surround yourself with like-minded people who don’t just say they want more out of life, but actually get up and do something to make it happen.

I strive daily to fulfill my mission: to globally represent what the everyday woman can overcome and become when you begin to love yourself, define your passion, and serve others.

"The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them."  — Maya Angelou

How do you handle naysayers? I could definitely use some pointers in this area.

Photo credit: lorrainemd

Blogging is Communicating - Commit to Comment

I took a poll on twitter to find out if people wanted blog authors to reply to comments left by their readers. Hands down - everyone who responded said yes. I asked the question because I'm not a pro blogger (if there even is such a thing) and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't falling short on delivering value to my supporters.

What I learned from asking this question is that people want two way communication when reading blogs just like any other form of communication. If you've taken the time to post a comment, the least I can do is take the time and show some love by reciprocating with a simple thank you or other relevant feedback.

I pledge to you, my readers and friends, that I will immediately begin to interact, engage, and communicate with you more here on my blog. For those of you who have blogs, I challenge you to do the same.

Talk to you soon...