27

Its absolutely crazy how time flies. I remember growing up, being the only kid staying at home with mom before I started primary school. I refused to go to kinder garden because the man who worked there had long hair. It scared me. Instead I would watch TV, walk around in the empty streets talking to myself, draw lousy pictures or set up theatre plays on my doorstep and invite neighbors where I would be serving lemonade and cupcakes. As you can imagine I had a very good imagination because I had to entertain myself most of the time. Turning four I was pretty much the managing director of the street. I mean, I was the one looking after the playground when the kids went to kinder garden during the day, so no wonder they trusted me. I look back and it makes me both happy and sad. It was a wonderful time and a reminder that time is pouring out my hands like sand. There is nothing I can do about it.

I look into the mirror and I very much look the same. Even friends and family say that I haven’t really changed in appearance since I was five. My imagination is also still intact. I guess the only thing that has changed is that I’m 27 soon to be, and that I have tons of grey hair, which is really not fair considering how well I look after myself. And well, if I have to be a 100% honest I must admit I feel older, not because of the grey hair or because of a number; after all 27 is still young, but I don’t get too excited about things and I feel calmer. It’s sort of boring, but its more comfortable. I have also discovered that I have gone from being very impatient, probably used to be my weakest link to having plenty of ice inside, however, sadly I sold my last company, and it had nothing to do with not enough ice inside. After being sued a million times I decided to sell it to my partner. A friend of mine whom produces computer games in London told me that if you are being sued you must have done something right. I guess so, because we were getting plenty of clients, but I just couldn’t deal with all the paperwork even if we won all lawsuits (it’s the nature of the business: private investigation), but the reason why I left was really just because I had a inner conversation about what I really wanted to do in life. I could probably do well in a number of fields, but I wanted to be true to myself and do something I’m genuinely interested in. The conclusion was the same I ended up with before choosing subject at University 5 years ago. I wanted to study something I understood and something I was really good at, so it would feel like playing and not working; that’s why I chose Music and Media Management, because I’m good in business and sales and I have a very creative head particularly when it comes to music. I have written and composed songs since I was a ten, however business and art do not go very well together, simply because art “should” be priceless, unique…its an emotion. The music industry for instance is a business that makes money by selling emotions – emotional sales, and money doesn’t have any feelings. Are you with me?

Have you ever tried to talk money to a “true” artist? Its like they are disgusted by the word “money”, which is kind of funny as the music industry in particular is multi billion industry.  My friend Raykay, one of the world’s biggest music video directors knows all about this, that’s why he is so successful. He knows the value of commerciality and how necessary it is.  He has another advantage; Mr. Raykay is a true entrepreneur, which allows him to see opportunities where most people see nothing, also outside the music industry. A few people in the Norwegian music industry thinks his music videos looks easy and superficial (I have to say that I feel that some of the Norwegian music industry is slightly weird and envious), just because its commercial, but I can tell you and so can he; its not. Its like he said earlier today; Its the worlds toughest business, or the worst. 

Sooner or later the artist is forced to look at himself as a product. That would be my best advice to any artist trying to break it today, because artists don’t earn money on music anymore, but on every other activity such as gigs or advertising. Reason: Internet and downloads. That’s why the record companies tries to make the artist sign the “360” deal which is spreading risk, investing in all activities that the artist does and then earn from it, which could be good and could be bad. Really, you don’t need a record company today. You would need a PR company, a manager and really good producers and musicians and tons of discipline. Talent is nothing without persistence.

The media landscape in general has changed dramatically forcing the music, film and TV industry to look for other ways to earn money. A great deal of them is seeking revenue in social media, which is a fantastic place to start because there is so much potential. I now work for a company called VMS (http://www.vmsplay.se/) which stands for Video Messaging Service, the natural step after sms and mms. VMS allows you to make money and market efficiently in both pull and push strategies. Our business model looks very much like a TV-channels business model when it comes to pull strategy, earning money from pre-rolls, product placement and subscriptions. VMS as pull looks very much like Twitter, just in video. Then we also offer VMS to cooperate as an internal communication tool and as a marketing tool; it is cheap and effective. Instead of boring sms we allow Mercedes to send video clips of their latest car to clients and potential clients.

I’m very excited of VMS future and the whole change in the media world. Even though I did sell my private investigation company I will be back. Its still an industry that amazes me, and I enjoyed combining journalism with private investigation during my studies, so I guess when I have accomplished some results in what I’m truly good at, which is media, I will go back and invest in business that I’m next to best interested in. Remember that people who are successful are also those who have failed the most; fail, fail better.

When time becomes your worst enemy

So there are 24 hours a day. Why is it so? Is it because human only can stay up a certain amount of hours before they collapse or is it just because of how the sun rotates the earth and how the earth rotates around the sun? Why can’t we just add few more hours to the day, or maybe we can? Maybe we should not.

Today I wrote down a list of things that makes me happy. Like; Mc Flurry with Daim , the rush after a proper work-out, kids trying to convince each other with their limited vocabulary  (its so cute), Coca Cola with large ice-cubes , my mom pulling jokes on me – she thinks I’m too serious with everything for my age (she has the most insane laughter I know)… the list goes on and on. I love a lot of things that life has to offer. There is no doubt about it, but sometimes I just don’t get life. Why don’t I do more of the things that make me happy? What’s the point of living if you are just going to watch it and not live it?  Obviously, I don’t have the time.

I just had an appointment with my doctor; my new doctor. I couldn’t stand my previous one, which I’ve had for years. Since I was a kid actually.  In fact instead of going to the doctor I would still show up for work most of the time when I was feeling horribly sick just because I couldn’t stand this man.  Anyway, my new doctor is not…well, not the regular type. I had only been sitting down for a second and he asks me “what do you want to become in life?”. At first I didn’t answer, just searching his eyes for what he meant… I mean I was there because of my headaches and my nauseous. I was not there to talk about my ambitions. I smiled and said, “ A good leader so that I can run my entrepreneurial companies as successful as possible”.  He smiled, and then his face became dead serious. A long pause followed. We were just staring at each other.

Then the silence broke with his sharp strict, voice saying, “ You are missing my point”.  What? I thought to myself… what a weirdo.

Then he asked me the regular questions about my health. He just shook his head and said,  ”You are 26 years old… how many hours do you work per week?”  I didn’t answer. I didn’t want to answer. I was just sitting there wishing that there were more hours during a day so that it wouldn’t sound too horrible. My regular day-job plus my own company equals no life pretty much, however I’m ok with it. I’m serious. I’m ok. So I went straight to defense and said that I didn’t mind working this much. In fact I love my job and my projects.  “If you are ok with looking like you are 50 when you are 35, then it should be ok”, followed with another killing pause.  He was starting to freak me out.

“I know people, and I know girls like you.  You suffer from a syndrome called the Nice Girl Syndrome. –The kind of girl who ends up getting mad from working too hard. It will happen to you, it’s just a matter of time.  You need to find more balance and reflect. Is this really what you want? You are not prioritizing; you are sacrificing. Sacrificing. “, He said with a firm tone cutting through to my intense headache in the back of my head.

Honestly, I don’t know what to do. I’m very confused. I am confused because things I love sometimes makes me feel bad or even sick. Like, if I were to drink Coca Cola all day long which I love I would probably end up feeling like shit, not to get started on the McFlurry. I guess its the same with work. 

It really doesn't matter how much you love something, you will always end up tired of it if you do it too much, right? The problem with the McFlurry and work is that I wont stop until my body physically tells me to stop. With boyfriends its easy. What a bore. 

I wonder why life is like this. Aren't we supposed to do what we love as much as we can? I don't get it. God/Big Bang created time that was not enough and then things to like that makes us sick? I just don't get it. 

Are we programmed and trapped in a thinking pattern that makes us slaves in our own life? Its a bit too creepy. Im very happy Im not a psychologist. I think I would have killed myself long time ago. Ignorance is bliss. 

Talent is nothing without persistence

I read a lot of stuff about self-development; books, articles etc… I even go on Youtube every now and then to see video-clips about how to become a better, stronger, more efficient and more successful person. The last books Ive read is ¨The secret of Success in selling¨, ¨Think yourself to success¨ and a couple of short-books both by best seller Paul Arden, ¨Whatever you think, think the opposite¨ and ¨Its not how good you are, its how good you want to be¨. They are all very fascinating and most of them say the same thing; dear to be different, dear to fail and most of all persistence will take you there. I like that! I especially like it because we are having/had a rough time dealing with our company http://theinfidelityinspectors.vpweb.no/Home.html. 
We have so many processes going on, so many licenses to work through and see out and for a short time we even had the government wanting to get rid of us, but luckily they gave up when they realized we were playing by their rules. They actually apologized for their behavior and explained that unfortunately companies like mine are dealt with as part of the spy-industry and not part of the private-investigation industry. I still don’t understand what that means, but I’m sure they have their reasons.

Although one problem is out of the way, it seems like the list of ¨problems/hinders¨ are getting longer for each day we are growing. Strange, huh? You would think that with more experience, expansion and knowledge more control would come by itself. Think again.

I remember when we started out a year ago we didn’t have any problems, but a long list of doings, and gradually the doings became hinders which we had to tear down one by one. I really cant decide whether to call it problems or hinders as you can see from what I have just written, but from all the self-development books my mind has no choice other than to think that it is hinders that will go away/be removed with enough persistence and determination. That’s really what we have done so far anyway, and it works. What doesn’t work is giving up. If you aim high enough you will naturally meet more resistance, so this must be healthy? Yes? I mean, if we didn’t aim as high as we do there wouldn’t have been so many hinders, right?

This has been a real challenge to me and still is; holding out, hanging in, keeping faith even when it looks like its only going one way and finding motivation. Not because the challenge is a challenge, but because of how I am as a person. I play to win and when I don’t I suffer big time. I do have patience, but running this company wants so much more than my patience. It wants me even when I sleep. In fact during the interview process for the new daytime job the last manager to interview me warned me about my number 1. Attitude. He actually said ¨I don’t doubt that you are the right candidate; I’m just worried you will have a hard time if things don’t go your way¨. I promised to be aware of it, and I am. I made this promise to my partner in my own company a year ago, and it works, but boy it drains me for energy! Talent is nothing without persistence…also in bad in times. So even if I can make fast results in periods, it’s worthless without persistence. That’s no joke… Hard work might sound a bit old fashion during this era of ¨10 ways to work smarter¨, but I’m convinced hard work is essential to be successful. 

Social Media Marketing

Did you know that if Facebook were a country it would be the forth biggest in the world? Only Facebook alone has more than 300 million users, and the fastest growing segment is 55-60 years old! But this is just Facebook. Social media is so much more.  It has overtaken the porn as the number 1 activity on the web. That’s literally MIND-BLOWING. Don’t you think?

When I graduated in June I didn’t realize how important my degree would become. As a Music and Media Management student the course put a lot of emphasize on the online revolution in social media, or the social media revolution.

It was easy to understand how it worked because I was already a part of the generation social media was first introduced to and used by. I was already using social media everyday, communicating with friends and colleagues and my first part-time job after completing university was as a social media manager for an investment company.

When I finally launched my company officially in February 2011, ¨The Infidelity Inspectors¨ http://theinfidelityinspectors.vpweb.no/default.html it was no question in mind whether to use social media platforms to market my company or not.  I know a lot of companies even today are sceptical towards using social media for the sake of branding or attracting costumers; don’t be. A great number of companies today are using it, so if you are not using it competitors will bypass you in no time. A great brand and company that is very aware of this is Coca Cola. They know that if they don’t let their engines run they have hungry competitors breathing them in the neck ready to take over. That’s why they are the number one brand in the world; because they never underestimate competition even thought they are the best. It’s the same thing if you ignore social media.

Using social media today is not only a great tool to bring in statistics or to study the market, but it’s a great way to show that you care about your market. You are giving the market a chance to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction about the product or service, and that is often very much appreciated by the costumer. It’s all about great service, really, and honestly a great company is always a company that always offers great service. Don’t piss the costumer off. They are right, even if they are not.

Be sure to control your platforms so that unfair and unreasonable discussions on the forums will not harm your good name and reputation.

In my job as a social media manager I use www.hootsuite.com to correlate all the platforms (Blogs, Twitter, FB and more), which saves me a lot of time and gives the audience an impression of consistency. Consistency signalises stability, which signalises trust. Trust is key to a young entrepreneur because a young entrepreneur doesn’t have success-stories behind her/him, and are counting on the clients trust to be able to move forward in the long-term.

There are a couple of crucial factors for successful social media marketing. Two things are already mentioned; consistency and control and the third crucial factor is high activity. High activity is extremely important because of the short lifetime of published news that is the social medias nature. You need to strike while the iron is hot!

Good luck with your social media marketing! 

Losing fOcUs

OK, so I am slowly gathering my thoughts, my ideas, my frustration and my focus, which have been all over the place the last two months. Ever since I came home from the US really.  I guess so much have been going on up in my head and so many impressions eventually blew my mind. Sometimes you don’t see it coming: the stress the confusion that most likely will lead to a sudden lack of focus and make you question if you really want this or not. But worst of all; losing motivation because you simply aren’t inspired. It’s not a good feeling. But as long as I’m aware of it it’s easier to deal with, because this feeling is not necessarily a true feeling.  It’s like being married; there are days you want to strangle your partner, however it doesn’t mean that you don’t love them anymore and you swore to be with them for better or for worse. So instead of thinking that I’m bored and I want to end it, I’m thinking that I need to work on myself becoming better to deal with these type situations. Cause they will probably come again. I’m sure.

Just to get it straight, I’m absolutely not bored of what I’m doing, but there are so many things that I have to do alone. I’m doing the accounting, the marketing and a whole bunch of other stuff that normally would be divided on a team of people. But since we have just started up and we are just two people the workload is just insane.  There are overwhelmingly many fields that  we are constantly being introduced to simultaneously, which we have no experience with. For instance I am not an accountant or tax expert, but to be able to be as cost-efficient as possible during start-up we are forced to do this. I did have some accounting in university...thank god! Still its hard with all the regulations.

Not only is it overwhelming and energy-draining, It gets really lonely too. People don’t understand how much I work and how important it is to get results. For instance they don’t understand how I can get up at 6am and stay away from alcohol for months just get results business wise. I feel alienated sometimes when people say that I should relax and go for a drink (I do drink when I feel like it). Its not like I have a problem because I have chosen to spend my time differently. Honestly it pisses me off sometimes that my friends don’t understand. Some of my friends calls me ¨ Yassmine The Machine¨, which is sort of funny, as long as I don’t get to hear it all the time. I know I have dreams and goals that most people cant identify with, but for God sake, I’m not crazy just because I’m ambitious! I think its rather odd to call a person who wants to stay healthy, who goes to bed early and gets up early to push for greater achievements crazy. That’s crazy!

It’s not like I’m some weirdo who loves to sit in front of my laptop alone working because I don’t have a life.  Of course I would like to go out more often and enjoy myself. Sometimes I sit in my tiny room and I’m sleepy and tired from reading a bunch of documents, drawing strategies etc wishing I was with my friends at that dinner I turned down to reach my deadlines. It sucks. But then again; the reward of progress is just such an amazing feeling. I love it, and that is what I must never forget. I must never forget that I am an entrepreneur-soul. I have plenty of ideas and I love to work. I have taken a choice, which I need to stick with: because without persistence and determination talent is useless. Talent is useless anyway if I don’t have skills and one of the most important skills is discipline, and therefore persistence. Its hard sometimes, but I’m sure its worth it in the end.

             

So many possibilities, so many thoughts...

New year. New possibilities. That’s what they say. What if there are too many possibilities? Sounds a bit weird, but I feel like there is so much more I can do than just what I’m doing right now. I mean there are so many other industries that fascinate me, and I have so many ideas it’s killing me.  Its frustrating knowing that you have ideas that probably could work (I know they would work), but also knowing that for one idea to turn into reality persistence and determination is alpha and omega, and with less time to work on each idea the chances for anything to become reality is very small. I guess focus is the key. Focus on as few projects at a time. I need to clear my head and vision my goal clearly and stop myself from thinking about everything else. It’s hard, very hard.

I don’t know what to write or feed you readers with right now, cause my mind is simply all over the place. I need a break from my own head. My biggest problem is probably that I’m always somewhere else in my head, way into the future most of the time. I’m barely HERE.

Actually I might have some vice words to share. If you feel like me doing something physical like working out might give your head a rest. Personally I enjoy almost any kind of sport, but I have fallen in love with cross-country skiing this winter. It feels really good being outside among trees and tons of snow breathing clean air through my lounges. I also love cycling, but there is something very liberating by doing sports out in the open. You should try it. So for now, I’m just going to clean up and organize my head.

See you soon! 

New year’s resolutions

Its really weird how time flies. I remember when I was a kid. I felt like time was moving so slowly, but now time is running like an Olympic champion. I am afraid I’m missing out on the real values in life. I’m afraid I’m running for the gold medal with my eyes shut.  

For me the real values in life are intangible. Real values are when I feel that I’m making a positive and significant difference for other people or the environment. It is also the love I get from people around me, mostly from my family and close friends and it’s the feeling of victory. It could be in sports or in business. Unfortunately I am a victory junkie. Sometimes the pleasing feeling of doing well takes up too much attention in my life, but its mainly because I’m so passionate about what I’m doing I don’t feel like I’m working. As a matter of fact I set out some rules for myself regarding what types of work I would be doing in the future already the second year in University. I said to myself that I would never, ever take on any jobs that weren’t particularly useful or interesting to me. Meaning I would only work on projects I felt genuinely passionate about.   

While most of my friends had part time jobs at some bar just to have an income I was being extremely picky and prepared to do almost whatever it took to get an interesting job.  One of my favorite jobs was for one of the worlds biggest credit rating companies in the world; Dun and Bradstreet selling credit ratings, which taught me invaluable sales techniques. Another great job was an internship for Tv2, Norway’s biggest commercial television channel as a journalist on one of the most central murder cases in Norway. The Martine Vik-case. But guess what, I really never felt like I was working during this time of my life…. well maybe when I was working for Dun and Bradstreet. It could get brutal on the phone sometimes, but besides from that I think it’s a smart idea to only do what you are passionate about because that way you hold out longer.

As much as I love what I do and often feel like I’m not working at all, just playing, I think that my number 1. New Year resolution this year will be to spend slightly more time just being, and not doing or at least spend less time working and more time on my hobbies which I have neglected the two last years. I used to play guitar, write songs, do some acting, painting etc. I feel like I need to take that back into my life.

I don’t like the thought of not being as efficient as possible, but I don’t want to become a workaholic. I need to change from being a victory junkie to a victory lover because to be successful in life is so much more than to be successful running a company. I want to be a good friend, daughter and a parent whenever that time comes. I would also like to stay healthy and have a rich life outside my company. So to all other young entrepreneurs reading this take a minute to think about what you really want in life, because I’m sure its not only to be the number one in business, or is it? We just need to work smarter.

(Note: The used is not my official new years resolution list. I am not losing 15 pounds...for sure!)