Inspire With Hope » Kathleen

Kathleen returns, with achievements

Kathleen Bright — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 19:51:13 +0000

I'm back!

It's always difficult returning to a website after a break, probably more so after an unplanned one.

Life has been introducing me to new iterations of complexity and I've only recently felt ready to start making sense of things. I didn't want to return without resuming my regular schedule (every other day), but I just can't write that frequently any more. I have too much going on in my life to do that, especially as I'm successfully challenging my issues with motivation and procrastination to re-discover my passion for creativty.

Consequently, I'm returning for once-a-week updates until I have more time to say all I have to say. This will allow me to concentrate on my web design projects (get in touch if you're looking for a web designer, or know someone who is) and to improve All Things Bright (let me know what needs changing).

Achievements

It's not as if I haven't been busy; here's a summary of my latest achievements, as well as some information about what I'm working on at the moment.

Graduate Fashion Week

I recently completed work on a project that was on exhibit at Graduate Fashion Week. It's a website called Subcultures: Fashion & Music Trends, a collaboration between myself & Melissa Taylor.

Photographs to follow shortly – look out for them next Wednesday!

Women in Media

In February 2007, Sali from Women in Media interviewed me and the resulting profile is now online. I feel truly blessed to be recognised as a woman in a successful media and technology career, especially as I don't feel that way most of the time. I hope that the fact that I can achieve this will encourage and inspire other people, because if I can do it you surely can!

Here's an excerpt:

Describe your job/role?
I run a blog about personal entrepreneurship. I'm starting my own business and writing about my experiences, focusing on 'personal' aspects – how my business affects the rest of my life, how my friends influence and inspire me, how other people can get started out.

What is the best thing about your job?
I love the fact that by doing something that I enjoy, it inspires other people. It means a lot to me that I can create and share that kind of value. I have to admit that I love playing around with the design and code for my site too.

What attracted you to it?
I've always enjoyed writing and geeky stuff (like making websites) – when I was at school I taught myself web design. Combining the two happened naturally, it feels almost inevitable that writing and web designing would come together.

Read the rest: Kathleen Bright: Women in Media case study interview

Bright Portfolio

I'm actively looking for web design, web development & site administration or web management work, to that end I've been revamping my portfolio. It's by no means complete, but I wanted to let you know about it now.

Check out brightportfolio.com!

August 2006: New Leaf: Aims & achievements August 2006 marks a significant point in my life; I'm...
What entrepreneurship means to Kathleen Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) has made me re-evaluate what I hope...
Getting personal with Kathleen; my life in a blog post I simultaneously noticed that it's been challenging knowing what to...

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50 things I didn't know last year

Kathleen Bright — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 23:10:47 +0000

How to re-think your perspective

Kathleen Bright: Not â€˜I need', instead â€˜I want' or, How to get things done, changing your perspective. Don't forget to focus on how much you want to do what you need to do. If you're prone to procrastination, get as much help as you can, including changing the way you think about your goals.
David Seah: Productivity through Discomfort. Stepping outside your comfort zone is a great idea! Plus, the only way to test your limits is to keep going until you fail. This is also the only explanation or justification for the crazy amount of stuff on my to do list. :)
Failure

Failure is okay!
Kathleen Bright: Power of three: Goal-setting: Business (3 of 3). Really, failure is good. Failure is proof you tried.
Kathleen Bright: Power of three: Goal-setting: Studying (2 of 3). Conquering failure is difficult because of fear.
Fear

Mind Petals: Fear Based Decisions are the Wrong Decisions.
Yes, it's hard to face your fears, but it's worth it.
Help

If in doubt, say thank you.
Keep saying it.
Watch (or read) The Secret for some inspiration, including why saying thank you helps.
You can get 'The Secret' free if you hurry, because I think it's that great and I want you to see it.
Tubetorial: Back Up Your Blog or Risk Losing It All. It happened to me, it could happen to you too…
Making money with blogging is not a quick fix

In order to make money you need to have a product or service that people want to buy.
Products can be easier because they're usually tangible.
Content is an example of something that straddles the product/services divide.
Yaro Starak: Can professional blogging be a sustainable business model? In order to be successful, (some) people need to love your content.
Tom Peters: Love Thine "Enemy"! It's Good Business! Love is important in all areas of life, including business.
Dazzlin' Donna: Becoming an authority. It's important for bloggers to participate in their niche communities. Plus, you should participate out of love for your niche.
Pamela Slim: Create your media plan for 2007! Planning is important.
But acting, a.k.a. execution, is even more important.
Especially if you're prone to procrastination.
Personal life lessons

Life gets more and more complicated each year. Well, mine has so far!
Love is sometimes the problem, as well as the solution.
You can get too much of a good thing, e.g. education and academia: Being a student isn't all it's cracked up to be.
Entrepreneurship is for me!
Escape is the best idea I've ever had – i.e. moving out of my parents' house – I just need to implement it.
Goals

It's easier to refrain from spending than I first thought.
How to Set Goals for the New Year. Just remember to have clearly defined goals so you can't wriggle out of them (which tends to be a problem with many New Year resolutions).
Health

Kathleen Bright: Power of three: Goal-setting: Health (1 of 3). Health is important for everyone, including entrepreneurs.
Mind Petals just emphasised the importance of health too.
Happiness

Kathleen Bright: How to be happy, or Why you're sad and how to fix it. Happiness is an interesting topic.
You are the only one who can make you happy.
Other people and things can help or hinder, as you will it.
Steve Pavlina: Making Decisions That Stick: "Once you reach a certain level of conscious development, you gradually de-couple your happiness from external events. You loosen your attachment to circumstances and learn to feel good regardless of what happens."
On Philosophy: The Good Life. Some people think that the pursuit of happiness is a bad idea.
Needless to say, I disagree.
I find that music really helps me to change my mood and would love your suggestions for happy music.
Making myself happy and making others happy are the two aims that define my life.
Entrepreneurship is my tool to achieve these aims.
Wealth & money

Steve Pavlina: Making Money Consciously. Being wealthy is not the same as being rich.
It's hard to remember that when you're poor.
Being frugal is an excellent way to remind oneself of the unimportance of stuff.
Being a student helps you to be frugal because there are few other options. :)
There are lots of useful site out there that can help you be frugal.
Get Rich Slowly: Debt elimination is possible, even for students.
Life Coaches Blog: Saving your money can become fun, even addictive!
Mind Petals: If you want to be rich, make it one of your goals.
"Energy flows where attention goes"*

John Richardson: Goals: Create The Gallery of Your Life. Don't forget to intend your goals. Visualisation is one powerful method for achieving. *From 'The Secret'.
Steve Pavlina: Manifesting Intentions Without Resistance. Role-playing is another good way of doing that.
Lorelle VanFossen: Blog Challenge: What Have You Learned This Year? Blogging challenges are great for writing ideas and for extra traffic. Thanks Lorelle!

Power of three: Goal-setting: Business (3 of 3) This is the third, and final, installment of Power of...
My New Year's goals, dreams & aspirations Lessons from life or, Things I've learnt this year Fear...
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Books: My reading habits, likes & dislikes

Kathleen Bright — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 22:58:32 +0000

Questions from Booking Through Thursday's October meme entries.

26 Oct: Do you make notes in books as you read them? Why or why not? If you do, do you make notes only in certain kinds of books or all of them?

Yes, sometimes. Only in pencil and only in books I own. Usually only if the book is not new though – for this reason I much prefer pre-owned/second-hand books to new ones. Yes, I'm odd like that. I make notes in books for my academic course books.

12 Oct: Do you read in bed? For how long? Do you fall asleep reading? Will a good book keep you up all night? Where do you keep your night time reading? Do you have a special table next to the bed? Are there many books there? Do you keep books there that you aren't reading (finished or unread)?

I do sometimes read in bed, but I tend to fall asleep as soon as I'm tired. (I got in to the habit of talking until I fell asleep and now my body seems to just switch off when it needs to, quite a nifty trick).

I used to read a lot more in bed and would sometimes stay up all night reading. o_O

I keep my night time reading on my bed – I have a double bed, over half of which is covered with stuff. I have tonnes of stuff on my bed, including books I'm not reading.

5 Oct: Do you read short stories? Why or why not? What do you like and dislike about short stories?

I do sometimes read short stories, usually collections. I love stories that are perfectly self-contained. I dislike it when I get to the end of a short story and want to carry on reading. Another thing I like is when the story's bad, but it's over soon or you have no chance to get heavily invested in the book and thus can easily abandon it.

So, what are your reading habits?

How can I get enough sleep? I'm still not getting enough sleep. Interestingly, I was listening...

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5 things you didn't know about me and would never have thought to ask

Kathleen Bright — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 22:52:18 +0000

One of the things I liked about personal blogging was posting my answers to interesting memes (usually quizzes, sometimes something more pointless). Why give that up just because I've switched my old personal blog for something a little more upmarket?

In the spirit of continuing my explorations of different types of blog entries, I present (with my answers in bold):

Tuesday is Chooseday asks…

Have five years of pretty severe bad luck knowing you'd have relatively good luck for the rest of your life OR have your bad luck spread throughout your life?
Knowing when it would be over would make it easier to bear, I should think (assuming I survive it…)
Mix everything you drink with sour cream OR squirt lemon juice on everything you ate?
I'm not a big fan of sour cream, sometimes I have it with nachos or fajitas, but it would just be too weird with anything else and it would ruin desserts completely. Lemon juice wouldn't actually be that bad.
Cluck like a chicken whenever a phone rang OR lick your lips whenever somebody mentioned food?
At least licking one's lips when talking about food is pretty natural. If you start randomly clucking, people tend to notice and have you committed.
Only be able to hold your head straight up, as if looking at the sky OR only be able to look down towards your feet?
Originally, I thought I'd prefer to look up. However, I have an almost obsessive habit of looking where I'm going to avoid stepping in things, so it's a bit of a no-brainer really.

Hmm, that was moderately fun. Must try again! What do you reckon?

Bloginality says I'm an Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perceiving type…

"As a weblogger, you have wonderful words to express your feelings because of your idealism. Because you don't like conflict, you may be likely to make one list of links and leave it for a long time without updating for fear of offending."

I am very idealistic, it's true and my bookmarks grew so unwieldy I switched to del.icio.us at the first opportunity. :) Team Technology says I'm INFJ (Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging).

With thanks to The Daily Meme, for making my meme-locating so painlessly easy.

No related posts.

Jack of all trades, but not simultaneously (yet)

Kathleen Bright — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 18:55:42 +0000

I'm really good at focusing on one thing to the exclusion of all else. Usually I compromise (a little) and focus on one thing to the exclusion of most everything else. However, this isn't the best way to get ahead or stay balanced. It's no good having one area of your life perfect and the rest in ruins. It's not even any good having a few ideal areas, you've got to be making progress on all of them. Yes, it's tough, but it's worth it.

Or so I'm reliably informed… :)

How I'm doing with areas of my life

I've awarded each area some stars out of 5 to indicate how I'm doing with it.

Entrepreneurship & blogging

4 stars

Exceedingly happy with this area! I've been blogging professionally for four months now. Wow, what an achievement! I've heard it said that six months of blogging is the first major milestone – if you can keep going after six months and continue consistently for a year, I think that says something important about your commitment to professional blogging.

I'm maintaining a regular schedule at Make More Mistakes (every other Tuesday) and a regular & frequent schedule at All Things Bright (every other today).

I'm working on Ethical Beads (dotORG & dotCOM), which is my next BIG project. I'm very excited about it; lots of potential there.

So far, my overall main challenge with entrepreneurial blogging is writing for a minimum of an hour each day. I tend to spend hours researching instead, but I need to discipline myself to do both. The negative consequences of not doing this include manic writing frenzies when posts are due. I have most of the information in front of me, but I have to get it ready & weave it all together with some creativity & original content. It makes blogging more stressful doing it that way.

In addition, I need to make as much headway as I can with Ethical Beads before I go back to university. I want to have all the systems in place and a decent variety of excellent quality links in order to pique interest & encourage interaction. My ideal set-up would be one whereby users submit links themselves, I moderate where necessary and everything goes up very quickly and correctly, with lots of viral publicity. I need to make that happen.

Recreation

3 stars

It's been hard to relax and I'm still working long days. However, I have made space to see quite a lot of DVDs, including new films (Snakes on a Plane, Volver), recent classics (Pulp Fiction, Signs, Unbreakable) and the hilarious adult cartoon series, Futurama. I've caught up with a couple of friends recently, which has been great.

Sites – Change Things Now! & Refresh London

2 stars

My enthusiasm for these sites is still present, but it's waning due to lack of contributions & support. With All Things Bright I wholly expect to go it alone (comments are always welcome, of course), but Change Things Now! & Refresh London are social sites and I expected them to be partially community-driven. Never mind, once I've made some moe headway with my entrepreneurial blogging (see above), I will delve in to these projects with renewed vigour, inspiring those around me to contribute too.

Change Things Now!

I need to create the London Feminism Calendar with the little information I have and an easy way for users to add events themselves.

Refresh London

I need to install WordPress, put a basic theme in place, contact Ahmed about creating a theme, mail the group with a suggested date, time & place for meeting… Lots to do, but all of it easy.

Healthy eating

0.5 stars

Er, not so much. It's not that I don't try, it's just that… Actually, what am I talking about, it is that I don't try.

One of my main reasons for not eating healthily is that I hate cooking and healthy fast food is hard to come by. I suppose what I need to do is come up with an easy list of easy, quick, tasty dishes I don't mind preparing.

Hmm, how will I do that?

Well, my Detox health kick pledge is a good start!

MA

1 star

I'm worried about this one for a few reasons, the most easily tackled one is my lack of reading to date, due to my focusing on entrepreneurship & blogging. Later on, my MA & blogging are going to clash big time, unless I do something to change that. Need to start thinking about that now, the main solution seems to be planning, as usual, again.

What entrepreneurship means to Kathleen Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) has made me re-evaluate what I hope...

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What entrepreneurship means to Kathleen

Kathleen Bright — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 22:41:49 +0000

Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) has made me re-evaluate what I hope to achieve here and why I reference him & Steve (Steve Pavlina) so much. Well, I do it because their ideas are amazing, genius, even. (Although, I definitely need to be more actively linking to lesser known sources too). I don't expect that my readers will necessarily start reading their blogs just because I've linked to them: After all, my target audience is people who want to know about me.

Notoriety; Kathleen: Virtual celebrity

I was talking to one of my friends last night and realised I've neglected to share the main aim of All Things Bright, as it has evolved to be: The clue was always in the name – All Things Bright – really. As I told Dave, the purpose of All Things Bright is to make me a virtual celebrity. Some people like to go on 'reality' tv for their five minutes of fame, some like to go on talk shows to tell the world their dirty secrets, some like to go in to acting or music. Not me.

It girl of the IT world

I want to be the 'it' girl of the IT world. Famous for being famous, but in the blogosphere (i.e. the whole network of online journals) and cyberspace, not in 'Real Life'.

I updated Projects today, so have a look to get an overview of my current activities.

Ethics; Kathleen: Social entrepreneur

I want to use my creativity to help people too. Hence the launch of Change Things Now! – my site to make feminism mainstream, building on my involvement with local feminist groups. I started Refresh London, an initiative to rejuvenate web professionalism and help those starting out.

Ethical Beads

My latest product, one which merges vitally important ideals about humanity & social justice with e-commerce is Ethical Beads. Ethical Beads bridges two sites – EthicalBeads.org, directory for info & resources about ethical beads and EthicalBeads.com, store for bead & jewellery shopping.

Ethical Beads is in development, I recently completed the designs for both sites (just tweaking left now) and am focusing on research. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, now as always, I welcome all links to related news & articles about working practices, environmental effects etc. of beads & jewellery. Thanks!

Change the world

You can change the world by joining me at any of these sites. I am always looking for people to help. Just sending me some related links makes a world of difference, that way I can share your knowledge with others. Please do email me with feedback, links etc. Much appreciated.

Staying healthy

I posted recently about how important it is for entrepreneurs to eat healthily at Make More Mistakes.

Relaxing

So far, I'm not doing great with that. However, I am making a special effort to relax. I do a fair bit of travelling each day and my working day is long (8am – I fall asleep (past midnight), although that's by no means continuous working), so it is important. This week I've managed to watch the entire first series of Futurama, very funny. It's by the same guy who does/did The Simpsons.

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Getting personal with Kathleen; my life in a blog post

Kathleen Bright — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 22:44:20 +0000

I simultaneously noticed that it's been challenging knowing what to write about recently and that I've yet to write anything personal. These can easily cancel each other out – this week I'll be experimenting with more personal articles. Do let me know what you think.

Younger brother now in Mexico; life suddenly emptier

Today my brother flew off to Mexico, where he's going to be teaching English for nine months. My mum & myself are missing him terribly already and confessed that we've been 'emotional'. It's weird, because I saw him fewer than 12 hours ago and we've hardly spent any time together lately.

We did have a good time on Friday though – I took him out to Haagen Dazs, which I promised him about four years ago.

Business, money & ethics

An excellent thing I've done today is securing three months of free advertising with Ethical Weddings, for my emergent business Ethical Beads.

Ethical Weddings is (or, will be) "a searchable database of ethical wedding services and products which give you the chance to celebrate your wedding the way you want while giving others something to celebrate too", which I think is an excellent idea. I found the site as part of my regular research for ethical products; I'm excited about this opportunity because Ethical Beads – as an ethical beads & jewellery store – fits really well in that area. If you decide to join Ethical Weddings, please mention Ethical Beads.

Creative observation & the Genius! list

I have a Genius! list, which I want to share. Steve Pavlina is top of the list, you should listen to his latest podcast (over an hour long, mind; well worth it): The True Nature of Reality.

I find it difficult to take on the subjective reality perception. I want to, because it sounds amazing, but it is challenging. I find it encouraging how passionate Steve is about this (especially evident from his podcasts), especially in conjunction with how he has difficulty with this sometimes as well.

Blogging

It is definitely challenging to maintain frequent & regular updates. Sometimes it's really easy to know what to post about, other times, not so much. Will just have to see how it continues to develop. I'm very positive about the whole thing because I love writing, I love the topics I write about and I love doing the research.

Entrepreneurship

I've had some difficulty trying to explain to my friends what it is I do and what I'm attempting to achieve, even though (I thought) I have this straight in my own mind. So, my next blog post will be about what entrepreneurship means to me. Look out for it on Wednesday!

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August 2006: New Leaf: Aims & achievements

Kathleen Bright — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 22:57:14 +0000

August 2006 marks a significant point in my life; I'm calling it my New Leaf period because I'm making new commitments to myself about the way I handle my life & I'm taking positive actions to achieve my aims.

All Things Bright is set to reflect these intentions and behaviours: I'm being transparent & explicit about my aims as and when I develop and refine them. I'm making & publishing specific Pledges to ensure I stay on track for my goals (coming soon). I'm learning & researching at a faster rate than ever before, with the help of some fantastic tools (NewsFire) and resources (my Genius list, coming soon).

I'll be making individual posts about my action list & my pledges. In the meantime, here's a taster of what I've decided:

Project: Emperor's New Clothes – I will refrain from buying new clothes for a year
All Things Bright: I will post every other day, for at least a year
Make More Mistakes: I will post every other Tuesday, with insightful ideas about entrepreneurship, technology & blogging
Research & implement ways of making money from inspirewithhope.com, which fit with the site & add value to it
Research & implement ways of adding increased value to inspirewithhope.com, for the benefit of the mainstream, for free

Laudable aims? Let me know what you think!

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Inspire With Hope » Kathleen

Kathleen returns, with achievements

I'm back!

Achievements

Graduate Fashion Week

Women in Media

Bright Portfolio

50 things I didn't know last year

How to re-think your perspective

Failure

Fear

Help

Making money with blogging is not a quick fix

Personal life lessons

Goals

Health

Happiness

Wealth & money

"Energy flows where attention goes"*

Books: My reading habits, likes & dislikes

5 things you didn't know about me and would never have thought to ask

Jack of all trades, but not simultaneously (yet)

How I'm doing with areas of my life

Entrepreneurship & blogging

4 stars

Recreation

3 stars

Sites – Change Things Now! & Refresh London

2 stars

Change Things Now!

Refresh London

Healthy eating

0.5 stars

MA

1 star

What entrepreneurship means to Kathleen

Notoriety; Kathleen: Virtual celebrity

It girl of the IT world

Ethics; Kathleen: Social entrepreneur

Ethical Beads

Change the world

Staying healthy

Relaxing

Getting personal with Kathleen; my life in a blog post

Younger brother now in Mexico; life suddenly emptier

Business, money & ethics

Creative observation & the Genius! list

Blogging

Entrepreneurship

August 2006: New Leaf: Aims & achievements