Door of Knowledge

He who opens a school door, closes a prison. ~ Victor Hugo

I love learning. I believe that this has been evident in many of the quotes that I have written on, posts about literature and even the posts in which I give view points on different items in business. Honestly, I do not know when exactly when my fascination with learning began (maybe when I was little and would borrow books from the school library about different countries/historical figures), but it has been a part of my life as long as I have remembered.

He who opens a school door, closes a prison. ~ Victor Hugo

Does anyone else find it a little ironic that kids now a days consider school a prison? I find this intriguing, because I agree with the Hugo's quote but I can also agree with the these current students.

To get the students' point of view out of the way, school has become almost too test driven. I have friends who are teachers who have to make sure that kids are being able to answer questions but not necessarily teaching problem solving skills. It almost seems like we are more determined to turn these students into robots than freeing them from a prison.

Now, not all education or schools are like that. Like I stated before, I agree with Hugo's quote because it's not about the actual school, it is the opportunity that it gives each individual.

Schooling is the opportunity, because it gives individuals the tools to acquire knowledge not just in the classroom, but in places like the library or extracurricular activities. It is a place that can help an individual realize their full potential; a place to think outside the box; a place that can help you develop a passion; and a place that can help you achieve your dreams.

To me, opening a school door is opening a world of opportunity. I understand that there are many schools that are not like what I described or that some may not have been as fortunate as me to have teachers who encouraged a unique way of thinking.

It is our personal choice whether we live in a prison or not. It is our choice to open that door and to keep that door open for not only our continual learning, but for the education for future education.

Let's not live in a world full of prison filled ignorance, but a place where the doors of knowledge are left open.

Content: What's your purpose?

Last week I wrote about how Content isn't necessarily King, but it is important. This week I am still on the subject of Content, but taking a look at it's simplest form: the purpose.

Have you ever been on a website that has a lot of writing, but none of it answers your question? How about going to website that has so many pages that you are unable to navigate through it because they decided that they needed to put every detail on it, yet it still doesn't answer your question?

I am sure all of us have experienced this in some way. And when we do experience this, it is absolutely frustrating and you wonder why this company even has a website or that they need a better one.

So how do you solve a problem like this?

To me, the solution is very simple.

Asking one singular question can solve a lot of this : What is the content's purpose?

In any English class that assigns an essay, the essay has a purpose like answering a question, analyzing a piece of literature, summarizing events or giving an opinion. Creating content for a website is exactly like this! For whatever reason, we do not like to edit our webpages and sometimes leave these tangents on it, which can confuse potential customers.

A perfect example of this is when I worked on my first internship. Most of my work consisted of content creation, specifically on a donor website. Before I started analyzing the website and breaking it down page by page, I asked them who they were targeting. I wanted to be specific so the page had just enough information that wasn't at novels length with random tangents throughout and to make sure it was speaking to the audience. It would have served me no purpose if I just started writing because it wouldn't be directed to anyone. The only person it would have been connecting to was myself and to be honest, I was not a part of their donor target, but more so there volunteer target age.

Understanding your audience is vital. I know last week I mentioned that content should be informational, start to form an emotional connection and has endless possibilities, but none of that matters if you don't know whom you are writing to.

Also during this first internship, there were many times that I would question them with what they wanted and ask them whether it was more appropriate to put it on the donor site or the client site. I did this not to rebel against them, but to make sure that they were thinking about the audience for each site. This non-profit specifically had separate websites, because they realized that the audiences were different but were not always thinking in that way when we were revamping the websites.

It is crucial to constantly ask yourself what is the purpose of it. If you are writing and it hits you that one of the paragraphs serves no purpose, then delete it off your page. Every word you type, every phrase you use, every paragraph those form needs to fit a purpose.

If the content on your page does not serve a purpose, then you need to go back and evaluate what you have and move forward from there.

Like I said last week, content is important, but if it serves no purpose then you are not utilizing the endless possibilities of content.

Old Enough to read Fairy Tales

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. - C.S. Lewis

I love fairy tales. If I am ever feeling down or just need an easy read to get my mind off of life, I pick up my book of fairy tales.

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. - C.S. Lewis

Fairy tales to me have never equated to just stories for children. There is a deeper meaning for each story and many lessons that come up more prominent as you become older.

I could give out examples and give an in-depth analysis on some of the lessons that are featured in each story, but I don't think that would be relevant with where Lewis is going when he said this.

There is something innocent and pure about fairy tales. There is also the fact that there is magic and for whatever reason when you become an adult, having that hint of magic is forbidden. It's like when you turn a certain age, it is no longer okay to be able to have an imagination and believe in the impossible.

For some odd reason as we grow up we turn into this (Robin Williams Character in Hook):

Williams' character lost his magic. He isn't old enough to be able to read fairy tales again.

I believe we should be more like this (Disney's Peter Pan II: Return to Neverland):

I want to be like Wendy in this scene. I personally don't ever want to lose the magic behind the fairy tales. There is just something about holding onto the magic that will forever keep you young and believing in the impossible.

I believe Lewis said this quote to somebody who just focused on being a "grown-up" who lost the magic. I believe he was warning them that if they don't believe now, then one day they may come back to these tales and realize that they have missed out of the magic all around them.

So, I believe I am old enough to read fairy tales. How about you?

So What Makes An Expert

Maybe this is just me, but has anyone else noticed that becoming an expert has become the recent "thing"? I don't personally see anything wrong in becoming an expert, I myself am constantly trying to learn more and understand online media to one day be an expert, but do we use this term too loosely?

The definition of Expert as told by Merriam-Webster's Dictionary is as followed:

• having or showing special skill or knowledge because of what you have been taught or what you have experienced
• Experience
• having, involving, or displaying special skills or knowledge derived from training or experience

From reading the basic definition, there seems to be a very common word: experience. An expert can be equated with experience, but it can also be from what you have been taught. In other words, schooling and experience can make you an expert. This seems a bit off to me.

With this type of logic, I can personally claim myself as an expert because I do have experience and schooling related to marketing and digital media. Do I consider myself an expert? Of course not! Why on earth would I consider myself an expert on that basis? I believe I do not have the level of experience nor have been taught the full amount to even come close to being an expert.

As I say this, do not think of me as being humble in claiming not to be an expert. I am only speaking the truth, but there are others that I know who consider me an expert when it comes to certain social media tools and creating strategy.

So where is the connect with this? What I mean is, how do I not consider myself an expert and others do?

The answer is simple: perception.

I do not perceive myself an expert, because of the people around me. I'm not comparing myself in a negative way, but more so that I am still in the student stage. I know that I have much to learn and that is why I follow some of the people I do on Twitter, subscribing to newsletters and receiving trade specific magazines. It is also the reason I want to continue my education by attending graduate school. This is not because I do not value the education that I have nor is it that I do not value my position, but I feel like there is so much more for me to learn. 

The reasons others may perceive me as an expert is because I have a passion for these very tools. Social media, content and editing all make me excited. Planning out and researching how to properly create a strategy is fun for me, while it may be boring for others. The way that I speak to people about certain topics and terms that I use make me seem like an expert.

So if I don't consider myself an expert, what are my specifications of an expert?

Any answer or list created is going to be exceptionally biased and my perception. But alas, this is my blog and I am going to give you my biased answer.

I can consider an expert someone who has had experience in the field, be unafraid of viewing other points of views, constantly is learning and willing to mentor.

This is what I consider the qualifications on being an expert. I keep seeing the ways on becoming an expert, but calling yourself an expert is not going to make you an expert.

But that's just my thought on the matter.

What are the qualifications that make an expert in your book?

Long live the Content King?

I am a bit tired of writing a series so the next number of weeks on Business Wednesday I will be just topic writing. Unless I come up with an idea for a series, but that is not likely since they are a bit draining.

In a past post, I have written about Social Media Marketing based off of two articles I had read. The thoughts and opinions I have about Social Media Marketing (SMM) has not changed since then, but after looking back at the article I more so was in agreement with the two writers than actually stating my view points on SMM.

As much as it would be enjoyable to ramble on about my each specific view on SMM, I will be focusing on only one part of it: the content.

"Content is King."

Anyone else hear that overused phrase? It can be seen on a ton of marketing websites, has been used in many lectures, it pops up in the latest marketing textbooks and has turned itself into a cliché . Now having stated that the phrase itself is a cliché does not mean it is not true, right?

After reading multiple articles that much more experienced marketing professionals have written whom I follow on Twitter or receive their newsletter have stated that you should never use the phrase "Content is King" in your blog because it has become passé.  As much respect as I have for these people and as much as I agree that the phrase itself is overused, I believe we miss the heart of the phrase.

Content is key, but king is a too self-important word to use. Content is important but there are other factors that are also just as important like site construction, the graphic design of the site and the actual product/service that is being promoted. Each have equal importance, but let's get back on the topic of content.

So if content isn't king, then why is it important?

I have three general overarching points that explain why it is so key:

1. Informational

Content gives information. Simple, I know but it's a fact. Whether discussing content in the sense on Social Media or websites, it is there to give out information answering the basic questions of who, what, when, where, why and how. Where some of the difficulty comes into play is to avoid rambling. I know I am guilty with that in my blogs and need to take my own advice, but it is true. If there is anything that seems too long then people won't read it. It does not need an over abundance of verbiage, but a just enough to have your information come across well.

2. Emotional Connection

Writing evokes feeling, content should not be any different. This emotion should lead to inciting incidents, which leads to people taking actions. At this moment content should be able to be used to form a connection with users. Having interactive posts and actually replying to users can do this. Now the difficulty comes to play when a company sends out canned responses or posts. I can understand the consistency of these posts, but they can come off as insincere. With that insincere tone or perception, it can make it difficult to connect emotionally with the user because it is not helping personify the product/service. 

3. Endless Possibilities

This is undeniably vague and almost too general of a point, but it is true. The way content is being distributed is constantly changing and new sites are being created that are also changing the game. I love this about Social Media Marketing because of the constant change! It is enforcing the idea of looking for unique perspectives and can only urge for more progressive ways in the future. This is why I believe that as we move in this direction, marketing will be much more interactive, even more so than it already is.

Content is not king, but is important because it is informational, it builds an emotional connection and leads to endless possibilities. No matter how much you fight this change, this change is here and adaptation is key!

Self-Made, I think not

There is not such thing as a "self-made" man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success. ~ George Matthews Adams

The entire concept of a self-made man has never made sense to me. It always seemed like a bit of a fallacy to me. Even some of the greatest businessmen had mentors (Andrew Carnegie would not have been the man we all know in history if it wasn't for his mentor Thomas Scott).

Before I go on I want to specify what a self-made man is. I believe that people view this concept as starting something, whether a business venture or creating innovative techniques, by themselves and just picking themselves up by the bootstraps. Even the Merriam-Webster defines self-made as: made such by one's own actions; especially: having achieved success or prominence by one's own efforts.

This definition seems a bit selfish to me. It is eliminating anyone who has helped you achieve anything (Andrew Carnegie would not have had all the opportunities he had if it wasn't for Thomas Scott who saw his potential). 

Maybe this is just me, but I do not believe you can be self-made. There are too many people that you come in contact with that makes it impossible for a person to be self-made. To claim you are self-made is turning your back on all the people who were ever there for you.

For example, I had a marketing professor, who I have referenced before, who taught me to view marketing and business in such a unique way. Whenever we had to discuss a project with him and we felt we had it all together, he would ask us the question "why?" He would ask this not to be annoying or to make us doubt, but to make sure we understood exactly what we were doing. He challenged us and this has forever shaped the way I do business. If I cannot answer the question "why," then I make sure I step back and evaluate what I am doing.

Another example is my specific writing style. Each writer has their own voice, but this voice may be influenced by a favorite author or a teacher or a parent. I know that I developed my writing style during my freshman and sophomore year of h high school during my honors English classes. They have been developed over the years, but if it wasn't for these teachers I would not be able to properly edit my writing, stand behind my writing and write from my heart.

There are plenty of others who have impacted my life and I attribute my success to their guidance. I have had plenty of coaches along the way who have mentored me, cheered for me during success, and were by my side in my failure. No matter what I succeed, whether it be history worthy or making me personally proud, I would not be able to achieve it without the people who helped me become the person I am.

Happy International Women's Day!

March 8 is International Women's Day! I love this idea of this with celebrating women around the world. It is a day that we can unite together and be proud.

The last number of years the United Nations have had themes about giving women a chance with education, ending poverty, creating equality and so on. I love this years theme: Inspiring Change.

Inspiring Change

Isn't that an idea that we all want?

I truly do believe life for women have improved in the United States, but there are still items that need to change. As much as I think that women need to be in more leadership roles and there needs to equal pay, I believe that this will come in time. But the whole idea of that coming in time would not have even been a thought 20 years ago if it wasn't for the women who inspired change.

Inspiring change will look different across the world, but it is needed. One of the biggest example of women inspiring change is one that happened in Liberia. Liberia had a horrible civil war which lasted for many years, but a group of ordinary women decided to fight back. There is a great documentary on these women who wanted peace and staged protests to stop the war called "Pray the Devil Back to Hell." Now this country has many women in leadership roles because they were the ones who fought against tyranny  and wanted peace.

The women in Liberia are just one of the many tales of what women are dealing with around the world. There are many others like Malala Yousafzai as she stands firm on the fact on why girls should be allowed to be educated to Inbee Park who was the first woman to win three major golf titles in 60 some odd years to the recent Oscar win and moving speech of Lupita Nyong'o. Women are leading change and speaking out. It doesn't matter whether it is changing a country's policies, being a competitor in a sport or acting, women are leading change.

All of the women I have mentioned (or the many that I have not mentioned) are inspiring change. It is these women and women in general that can help lead/inspire change, but we cannot forget the women who have come before us.

In my earliest memories I have always thought that I could do anything that my brothers could do. Just because I was a girl did not mean I was incapable of anything. That was how I was raised and the thought of equality was a part of my life. Even though equality was a part of my life, but it wasn't until I was assigned a project in 5th grade about a woman by the name of Francis Willard. Francis Willard was a leading suffragist and was a leader in the prohibition movement (saw that women were being abused by men who were over-drinking and wanted to put an end to the abuse). Willard inspired me for her dedication for equality. At that moment, in 5th grade, I began my journey as a feminist.

My journey did not stop there, because whenever I see a girl thinking she is incapable of doing something or thinking that only a man can do a specific job, I speak up. It is one of the little things we as women can do that can inspire change.

So as we celebrate International Women's Day, remember all the women who have inspired change and are inspiring change. Also, remember the each of these women were just ordinary women and it only takes one ordinary woman to make extraordinary changes.

Happy International Women's Day!

The Business of Church: Wrap Up

The last number of weeks I have written about the Business of Church and how business and the church correlate with each other. There are different key factors in each topic that were discussed in the series that separated a perfect correlation between business and the church, which is a good thing.

As much as it would be enjoyable to go over each topic in a brief overview, I have decided not to do that since you can go back and read each one whenever you fancy. Instead I will discuss some of my initial background in this area to let you understand my insight on this topic.

In the very first week I mentioned that I am a child of a Pastor, I have a brother who is a Worship Pastor, I created and co-led a young adult program at a church, worked as a youth leader (Church Staff) for seven months and now work as a volunteer, volunteered 2 summers at a church camp and have had to be in planning processes at the church. I could give you knitty gritty details, but let's be honest now, you don't care and the details don't get to the point.

I have seen churches work in some of the smartest ways and also some of the dumbest ways. For example, I have seen churches create committees that send a representative of their committee to a management group who then runs the church. This committee makes decisions and has a person from each specific committee to voice an opinion. Then I have seen some churches just rely on the pastor to do everything and wonder why the church is falling a part when that specific pastor is no longer there.

Both of these examples fit into a business model with the first having designated committees (departments in the business sense) and have a larger meeting when all the head's of departments meet together and discuss what is happening in a touch base. The second example is a model of relying to heavily on one individual, which will cause your church (or business for that matter) to crumble.

A more specific example is the position that two of my friends and I went into at the church. The youth group had been in transition for a while and the group had a number of leaders in a short period of time because life happens. That is how we became interim youth leaders (originally planned about 2-3 months and lasted 7 months), but with us gaining this position we were required to cast a vision for the youth program. The two guys and I met every Monday during that summer to create this plan and might I add that it was detailed. We created this outline to go to this Staff parish meeting and present what we had. This outline was about 3 or 4 pages long with specific groups we wanted to start, topics we wanted to reach and Scripture that backed it up. The committee looked at it for about 5 minutes and then decided to look for a new youth pastor. We spent about a month and a half working on this detailed outline and they didn't want to give us a chance, which for the longest time held us back from taking the kids on trips because we didn't want to force someone new to go on this trip if we made the initial commitment and they were hired on before the event. It was just not good communication.

Now does this happen with everything? Of course not, but it is not good planning. It also doesn't go into what their mission statement is, because we created our own for the youth but it fit into what the overall church's mission and vision. If you are unable to be consistent in one area, then there is a chance that this may carry over to other areas. This is not always the case, but from my experience of the church this is all too true.

My experience of the church in a business sense has been completely mixed as you can tell in this post and during this entire series. Do I think the church should be exactly like a business? No, because the church is not a business, but have some areas that are business-like. The church is not a business of making money, but in the business of saving souls (I get that it sounds like a lame bumper sticker on the back of a beat-up car, but it's true). There is going to be a much deeper emotional connection in the church than in business, which can lead to some poor decisions (emotions are good, but emotional decision making is not).

So my final thoughts on The Business of Church:
There are some key aspects that must be thought of in a business way, but not every aspect or you lose the entire meaning of what the church is. The business way may be able to keep the church financially afloat, marketable and have a strategic plan to bring more people in, but if the church is not changing people's lives then it is not succeeding in what it is called to do.

Glorious Failures

In great attempts it is glorious even to fail. ~ Cassius

It is even glorious to fail...

     It is even glorious to fail...

                                                Is it?

If you have read past quote Monday posts or even some random Friday posts, you may have come to realize that I like pondering over the concept of failure. I may not have blatantly said the word failure, but there are many that have the undertones of failures and success. 

So, do I agree with this quote?

If you take into consideration the person that said it, Cassius, and what he did, went against Julius Caesar and helped prod Cicero and Brutus to lead the assignation against Caesar, I don't know. 

For one thing I can say about the quote and the person, he held it very true. Cassius did feel like he and the Senators did fail because they did not kill Marc Antony who later seized control of Rome. But even though he failed, he still accomplished the main goal even though Rome had many Caesars after that and some in my opinion a little worse than Julius Caesar.

SO is it glorious to fail even when there are great attempts to be made?

I would have to say yes and maybe not for the exact reason or maybe for the exact reason (I do not believe I am a complicated person, but have unfortunately been told otherwise).

Think of a story, any story. What must all characters do? There has to be an inciting incident that draws them out to do something whether they are to fail or succeed. The only thing we can predict is that they must take that first step. Whether it is Elizabeth seeing Darcy for the first time or Arthur pulling a sword from a stone or Hazel meeting Gus for the first time, they each accepted the invitation of the inciting incident. Each story listed was a moment that led to something greater. Was there heartbreak, betrayal, love, hope, and death? Yes, but how can those endings taste as sweet if there wasn't any failure?

The way that I have been viewing life for a while and maybe this explains a lot about me is that you need to embrace failure. My gosh I even wear a ring that has the words LAM 3:19 (The verse says: I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall). I wear this thumb ring everyday to remind me of what I have gone through and to appreciate what I have.

For example: I finally have a career and am working as an event specialist. I LOVE it! Not because it is a career, but I am doing something I was trained to do and am actually using the degrees I got. I now see the correlation between the training I got in college and what I am doing. But that is not the only point; it's also the fact that I remember the struggle up until I got this position. I can honestly point you back to the posts that had the undertone of feeling lost, complacent, frustrated and unworthy. Having to go through that has made me appreciate this position so SO much because I don't want to ever go back to the phase that I endured during this past summer and fall. I have direction and the only way I can/will move is forward.

So how did that relate to failure? I had been rejected by tons and I mean tons of positions that I could have simply written myself off and not even applied. I took the step even though I felt defeated and applied and happily got the position.

In great attempts it is glorious even to fail. ~ Cassius

I would have to agree. If you don't attempt anything, then you automatically fail. But, even if you fail and tried, there is a type of success because you did something rather than nothing.