This installment of my interview series is extra special. When Gina Trapani from Lifehacker agreed to participate in my interview series I felt as if the goddess of all blogs agreed to come play at my house. If you spend any time in the blogosphere and have technology leanings, then she needs no introduction to you. If, like me you were a little slow in discovering who’s who on the ‘net let me just say that she runs the biggest and most popular blog on the Internet when it comes to technology and simply finding more efficient ways to use technology and gadgets to tackle life’s more geeky challenges.

1) What was your inspiration to start Lifehacker?

Back in 2004, a tech journalist named Danny O’Brien did a presentation called “Life Hacks: The Secrets of Overprolific Alpha Geeks.” His thesis was that “alpha geeks” - and he used that term in a complimentary way, meaning people on the cutting edge of technology - develop secret systems to filter information and get their stuff done.

The idea captured me. Mostly because I’m a computer voyeur - I love to see how people get their jobs done, to pick up little tips and ideas. Also because I loved the idea of re-engineering your workflow to make tech work for you in clever ways, making the interface between human beings and machines something unique and interesting.

2) As someone who is clearly successful as an independent programmer, technology writer, and more… what words of wisdom would you give to women today who want to break out on their own and be independent or self-employed? Read the rest of this entry »

Hi there, I wanted to let you know that on Tuesday, May 22nd I’ll have the pleasure of being the guest for the 4th installment of Lyle Lachmuth’s Genre Busters Podcast.

I will be talking both about her love of creating and expressing herself through coaching, writing, and photography and my passion for “Living in Your Own Skin”. I will share secrets of success as a independent professional and the power of “Living in Your Own Skin”.

If you’d like to join Lyle and I on the call, please send a blank e-mail to gb-interest@aweber.com for call in details.

I’d love to have you join us on the call

Last week I had the chance to do a Scavenger Hunt at the Philadelphia Art Museum. Normally I dread these sorts of activities, but this one was very creative and offered me a few great lessons.

The activity was set up as a two hour scavenger hunt through the museum where you had a set of 30 questions and the answers could be found in certain rooms. In order to find the answer to the extremely creative and witty questions, you had to look within the environment, the works of art, the explanations on the wall, among other places. You had to be creative and clever. The whole event was timed, so you not only had to answer the questions, but you had to get through them all and back to the end point by a certain time. And, like any good hunt or event, there was competition amongst the teams and a prize at the end.

I made a number of interesting observations over the course of this activity. Read the rest of this entry »

In a nutshell, the answer is No, but it can make you feel miserable. In fact, I wrote about the deadly “one day I’ll be happy” pattern we tend to fall into in my article “When Will You Be Happy?”. As it relates to careers, this deadly pattern translates into believing you’ll be happy only when you get that new, perfect job. Unfortunately jobs come and go and suddenly you find yourself in some new job and realize that it is a huge deejay-vu only with different furniture and the names and faces changed. Your feelings of happiness or unhappiness on the whole remain.

Given my personal interest in this topic as someone transitioning from life as an employee to life as a business owner, my eyes perked up when I read the recent “Pamela Slim and Penelope Trunk smackdown” on one of my favorite blogs Escape from Cubicle Nation. Since I am also an avid reader of Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist blog and distinctly remember her post “The connection between a good job and happiness is overrated” I got sucked in to this latest post like a kid at an ice cream shop.

When I first read Penelope’s post, part of me wanted to jump up and say “You Got That Right!” and part of me (the miserable day job part of me) wanted to say “Easy for You to Say Lady!”. That’s why I am jumping at the chance to add my own $.02 to this conversation.

After reading Pam’s smackdown post this morning, I had an epiphany on my walk to yoga class. One of those moments when everything gets clear, makes sense, and the angels sing. I love it when that happens! The aha moment was my ability to articulate an explanation as to why the connection between job and happiness is overblown. Read the rest of this entry »

In this installment of my interview series I get the pleasure of introducing you to Joanne Fleisher of Lavender Visions. I first heard of Joanne’s work when I was networking with some folks at the Bucks County Lesbian Alliance during a virtual networking meeting I hosted. Some time passed, and then I heard about Joanne again and then again. It was one of those things where the same message - “you should connect with Joanne” came to me several times and then I finally engaged my brain and contacted her. (Sometimes I need to listen more closely to the messages around me too!)

If you (or someone you know) is a married woman coming to grips with her sexuality, you won’t want to miss Joanne’s work. To learn more about Joanne in her own words…read on…

1) What was your inspiration to start Lavender Visions?

I was conducting my private therapy practice some 15 years ago, helping numerous women with coming out issues and other concerns that would have been helped best through support or therapy groups. There were NONE in Philadelphia at the time. I decided to fill that need.

There is always an issue of how to reach women who are dealing with different aspects of coming out when they are not connected to the gay media or resources. I saw the value of the Internet- back then even though most therapists were not yet using the Internet to reach people. Lavender Visions became the site I developed to market the groups that I was offering- which included, coming out, relationship loss, and married women attracted to women groups. Women who were searching the internet found me. I also used straight media resources to reach these women. Over the years I developed many resources that became a part of my web site.

Read the rest of this entry »