Coach Cassandra Rae

**Update: the link to the recording has been fixed.  Plus, there is a player at the bottom of this post that allows you to play the audio directly from this screen.**

What a fantastic call we just had!  My favorite part was connecting with all of you and helping you articulate your 2010 blogging promises.  It’s given me some fantastic ideas for our calls for next year.  So thank you for showing up and sharing.

**Recording**
Click here to listen to the 1 hour recording of our coaching call.  Remember that when you listen to this recording, you are agreeing to honor all participants (including yourself) with authentic, positive, and uplifting words.  You also agree to pass on judging, criticizing, or put-downs of any kind.  {Note: I did get dropped off the call for a minute right at the beginning.  But, no worries, because I jump right back on and share lots of yummy information.}

**Resources**
Here are all the resources I talked about on the call with a short description of how I use them:

SocialOomph.com
I use the free version of this tool to schedule the daily tweets for the Simply Fearless Twitter Stream

TweetDeck
I use this free tool to manage my Twitter accounts, see who’s tweeting about me, and update my Facebook status.

Networked Blogs Facebook Ap
I use this free tool to automatically import my blog posts to my Facebook profile & fan page.  In fact, I love it so much I blogged about it here.

Feedburner
I use the free version of this tool to offer free email updates for people who subscribe to my blogs.

Blackberry Phone
I have email & Facebook access through my phone and it makes it so easy to share on the go.

Google Analytics
I use this to watch the traffic on my blog, how people are finding me, and what keyword searches I come up in.

Wordpress.org
All of my blogs run off of wordpress.org.  It is free software to download and install.  It is for self-hosted blogs and is different than wordpress.com which is a free blogging platform that will host a blog for you.

Dreamhost
I use Dreamhost to host all of my websites.  It’s only dollars a month and I can host as many sites as I want for the same price.  I must tell you that recently we had some major unexpected outages as they moved servers.  But, other than that I am super happy hosting with them.  Disclosure: I am an affiliate with Dreamhost and I will earn money if you use the link above and sign up with them.

GoDaddy
This is for domain registration.  They also offer hosting too, but I found that Dreamhost is easier to use for installing blogs.

aWeber
This tool is for setting up autoresponders and email lists.  I use it for my eCourse and newsletter distribution.  Disclosure: I am an affiliate with aWeber and I will earn money if you use the link above and sign up with them.

NaBloPoMo
This on-line community is for those of you who are ready to take on daily blogging for a month at a time.

**Call Participants**
For those of you who were on the call, please leave a comment with a link to your website or blog so that we can check you out.

**Practice Assignment**
In your journal, answer the following questions:

What do you want people to do when they visit your website?
Do you have a clear, concise, and compelling invitation to do so?
What changes, if any, do you need to make to inspire your website visitors to take action?

Make a promise to yourself for your 2010 social media strategy.  Think about:

1. How often you will blog
2. How you will use Twitter
3. How you will use Facebook

Finish this sentence:

I am willing to promise to…

**My Promises**
On the call, I shared my promises and here they are:

I am willing to promise to:

1. Change CassandraRae.com into my professional speaker site
2. Launch the Simply Fearless Friday meme (AKA blog carnival) and blog once a week beginning 1/8/10
3. Launch the 7 Simple Ways to Connect with Your Ideal Client eCourse
4. Publish a video once a week beginning the week of 1/4/10

**Your Promises**
That would be so cool if you posted a comment below with your 2010 social media promise(s) especially those of you who created one on the call.

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Hello there Simply Fearless Fempreneurs ~

Every 4th Monday of the month at 12noon Pacific I hold a free coaching call and I’m so excited to share with you that December’s call is all about:

BLOGGING, TWITTER & FACEBOOK!

Woohoo!  I can’t wait to share with you all of my strategies and best tips.  I’ll kick off the call with some content about how I use these super powerful tools in my coaching practice and then open it up for your questions.  So if you are new to social media or are wondering how to get the most out of it without going crazy, then you absolutely must join us for this call.   It’s so easy to participate.  All you have to do is call in:

What: FREE Simply Fearless Fempreneur Coaching Call
When: Monday, December 28, 2009 @ 12pm California time
Where: Over the phone {long distance charges may apply}
Led by: Coach Cassandra Rae

Our Promise to Each Other

This call will be recorded and available to listen to on SimplyFearless.com.  When you join us on the call or listen to the recording you promise to:

1. Make it a safe space to learn & grow in
2. Honor all participants with authentic, positive, and uplifting words
3. Pass on judging, criticizing, or put-downs of any kind
4. Hold yourself and others in compassionate honesty
5. Connect with an open heart and mind

Remember that you are also a participant and all of these promises apply to how you treat yourself.  This is a safe learning environment where we embrace one another right where we are, where it’s okay to not know, and where we see the beauty in each other.

Phone Guidelines

• When you share, begin by saying your name so that we know who is talking.
• Do not speak when someone else is speaking.
• Share your thoughts when you feel safe and inspired to do so.
• Silence is okay.  This is probably one of the most challenging aspects of a telephone coaching call for new participants.  Know that in our coaching space we get to be silent and still with one another. Remember to speak when there is something you’d like to share that contributes to our learning.

Popularity: 2% [?]

I just heard about Twitchuck from TheWeblogZone and it’s pretty cool. Of course, part of why I like it is because they like me (they really like me)! Check it out:

Twitchuck says you should follow the Simply Fearless Twitter Stream!

So I’m curious…what do you think your score is? Go ahead, test yourself, and let me know how it goes.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Print by Angela Hogan; you can purchase it here.

If my husband Luke didn’t find me, he might have married his iPhone. If I didn’t find Luke, I might have married Twitter.

But, if you’re like Luke, you’re bound to be asking right now, “Twitter is stupid!” OK, that’s not a question, but I can see that you’re confused. You might want to better communicate by saying, “What’s so special about Twitter?” You can keep the whininess in your voice if you’d like. I get it.

Well, I’ll tell you what’s so special about Twitter, besides the fact that Punky Brewster, MC Hammer, & Wil Wheaton are on it. Forget them. This is about you. You posting links that you want to share with others, and getting links that would be of value to you. You connecting with not only your friends and “people you don’t know” (that’s what your friend The Whiner would say), but your friends, potential clients, experts in your field (or other fields), your peers, etc. You taking 140 characters and making them mean something, forming a connection to both others as well as creating a more well-rounded picture of yourself.

My Coach (@intandem) said it best: “Use it to get others to know, like & trust you; you get to know, like & trust others. I tweet on a mixture of personal, business and marketing topics so ppl can get a 360 view of me. Also offer answers to be helpful.” Wil Wheaton also sums it up by saying:

Twitter didn’t have to be about What are you doing? but could be about What’s on your mind right now? It was, as the saying goes, a light bulb moment for me, and I started using Twitter for off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts that didn’t warrant their own post here on my blog.

In order to both give & receive some value out of this weird thing, I make sure to tweet about:

• my personal stuff (”Feeling really overwhelmed by all the things I “have” to do. Seems like a big, fat, juicy, oily, cheesy, crunchy list is in order”)
• links that I find personally interesting (”Anyone have over $100 to hear Carol Brady sing?: http://tinyurl.com/57nmtn“)
• links that I find professionally interesting (”My word for 2009 is FOCUS. What’s yours? http://is.gd/f0r6“)
• responding to other’s tweets (”@sweetblogomine What’s sriracha? Sounds like someone that wears fancy pants would eat that.”)
• promoting my blog (“My 30th Year, reflected upon on my 31st birthday: http://is.gd/fRzX One of my most personal posts, for sure”)
• promoting my business (”Updated my site! You can now find packages & pricing (Services), an updated landing & FAQ page, & a new Testimonials page! http://is.gd/becg“)
• retweeting other’s tweets that I find interesting (”RT @problogger Post by @Jimconnolly about affects of highly photoshopping avatars: http://tinyurl.com/97xhxv – via @LyricalVenus“)

Here are some Twitter Basics & Tips that I got from my friend who got me to join:

• If you want to put a short link in your post, you can make it small through is.gd. I have it on my toolbar, so I just click it when I’m on a page, and it makes a very short link to that page.
• To search for types of people you might want to follow, you can use:
  • Twellow
  • Mr Tweet
  • Twitter Grader (enter your own name & it’ll bring up people like you on the bottom of the page. You can also use the Twitter Elite in the site to find The Big Guys)
  • Twitter Search (you can also use this to check your own name & see if you’ve missed any @s as well as using it to find specific search terms)
• I also found these posts to be helpful:
  • Twitter Tips – Tools for your Tweets
  • Twitter Tips for 35 Twitter Users
  • Ten Top Twitter Tips
  • Twictionary – a dictionary for Twitter (although in all honesty, you just have to know what “@”, “RT”, “#”, “tweet”, & “follow” mean/do)

Just know this: Whatever you do, do not answer the question, “What are you doing?”, which is what Twitter asks above the box that you post your tweet in (yes, your 140-character Twitter post is called a “tweet”). Nobody cares unless you’re someplace, or doing something, awesome. There is nothing worse that a profile whose tweets consist of “Eating a turkey sandwich”, “Watching Baywatch” and “Going to bed. Night twiends!” The only thing that’s worse is a profile of an obvious spammer, who only tweets links to www.makemoneyquickyoulazyschmuck.com. Twitter is really there to connect with other people, & if I don’t see any @s or any links or any questions I would think you’re just there to promote yourself (=spam) or hear yourself “talk”.

Now that you’re a twexpert (see how this affects you? It’s a disease) please make sure that you follow me, and leave me a comment below (or @ me if you got the hang of things) so that I can make sure that I follow ya back!

May the tweet be with you!*

*That was for Luke. I figured a Star Wars quote would stop him from making fun of Twitter again. It’s also a dis back to him because Star Wars is for nerds. Thankfully, he likes when I make fun of him.

Popularity: 13% [?]