A Savvy Start:

As a woman business owner and entrepreneur, my schedule is everything. If I don’t feel like I accomplished what I wanted to at the end of the business day, it can throw off my mood. I get overwhelmed and don’t feel on top of my game. The proper time management can really make an effective change in my life. My work takes up a good portion of my life and, when I’m not working, it’s key for me to be spending my time wisely.

In my last blog entry, I discussed my enthusiasm for what was to be a Schedule Makeover with Time Management coach Elizabeth Saunders from Real Life E! I’m so happy to announce that my experience was a great one.

Elizabeth and I spoke last Wednesday. We scheduled an hour’s time period that worked well for both of us. Elizabeth asked me a series of questions about my personal and professional priorities. She asked about my weekly work schedule and wanted to become as familiar with it as possible by gathering info on my day-to-day meetings, phone calls and time obligations. I spoke to her about all of the associations and organizations that I’m part of, and we decided on the appropriate amount of time I should be spending on each during the work week.

It’s funny how I put very little thought into my personal time (probably an entrepreneur’s curse). Elizabeth asked about my sleeping, my eating, the time I spend with my friends and family. It was all about being honest about what I currently do and also realizing what I want to do. I currently sleep for about seven hours per night. I currently go to bed at around 2:30 a.m. Ideally, I’d like to sleep for eight hours each night and get to bed no later than 1:45 a.m.

After an hour of questions and really thinking about each part of my life and talking it out with Elizabeth, our session was complete. Just having this call put me in such a focused place. We spoke about not only the tasks I currently spend my time on, but also about the tasks I want to accomplish. We put time in my schedule for going over finances, networking, researching, philanthropy. It was an amazing experience and I felt extremely cleansed afterward. My thoughts seemed to be put into place, as if everything had a home.

At the conclusion of our call, Elizabeth informed me that I would get my new schedule in two days (by Friday). I could not wait and proceeded to tell everyone I know about this amazing experience. Why didn’t I have something like this done before ? It was such a relief !

Friday afternoon I received my new life from Elizabeth. She had outdone herself. I got a complete, mapped out schedule with an hour-by-hour breakdown of how I should spend my days. She included time blocks for me to work on certain business deals that I have going, time for my afternoon workouts, even time for me to run errands and lie by the pool. The schedule was amazing.

Along with my new schedule came a checklist so that I could visualize everything I’d accomplished at the end of each week. She also included a “Tips Sheet” with pointers for keeping my schedule tight and how to overcome some of the daily struggles we discussed. I highly recommend this service to anyone with a busy schedule who wants to do everything but can’t always find time in the day.

For more information on Elizabeth Saunders and Real Life E visit her Schedule Makeover Page.

I’ve blogged about time management in the past, and I still think that the hardest part of being an entrepreneur can be managing your time. I’m constantly bringing new tasks onto my plate. It’s my job to delegate certain tasks and figure out when I have time to execute certain responsibilities.

The internship business is a good one to be in at this moment. High school and college students, and even mature adults are all seeking top-notch summer internships. For the past few months, I’ve received hundreds of resumes per day, along with internship questions, requests, company postings and new marketing affiliates. Over the past two years, I’ve learned to say no to ideas and financial agreements that don’t benefit my brand directly. It’s really difficult to say no to friends, co-workers and related companies–but sometimes it’s absolutely necessary. There comes a point in every entrepreneur’s life where you can’t make everyone happy, and you need to evaluate what benefits you and what doesn’t.

The problem arises when so many beneficial opportunities come your way, and you want to figure out how to manage all of them. Recently I’ve been dealing with an overabundance of e-mails, requests and partnership opportunities that need my attention. Financial deals have been signed, and I also need to put a certain amount of time per week toward new partners and marketing initiatives to uphold my end of the bargain. I’ve felt a lack of focus and productivity because I spend my time trying to manage and react to my workload instead of actively accomplishing tasks and eliminating the workload.

Elizabeth Saunders is a friend of mine and one of the “Monday Morning Entrepreneur Call” participants. Her focus is on time management for women in business. She suggested a “schedule makeover.” The minute she told me about her new service, I was immediately interested. I was trying to give myself a schedule makeover and loved the idea of a professional providing one for me. Elizabeth and I have a phone call set for Wednesday of this week to go over my schedule and how we are going to rework and revamp it.

I want to share the steps of this process with all of you and explain my priorities. I hope readers can re-evaluate their schedules as well.

Steps for Starting a Schedule Makeover:

1.Write ‘Em Down.

Take a few minutes to write down all of your responsibilities. Try to note the amount of time you would like to spend on each per week. Also make note of which responsibilities you get paid to do. These should probably be listed first and considered first priority. Without these, you don’t see money at the end of the work week.

2.Put Together a Sked

In the world of entertainment assistants, we abbreviate “schedule” as “sked.” Take all of your tasks and the allotted times for each, and put them together into an ideal schedule. Try to put one small task in between two larger tasks to help break up your day and give you a moment to breathe.

3.Determine Your Hours.

When I first started as a young entrepreneur, I read a quote by Donald Trump that said, “My work is my play.” I decided that would be my reason for being successful: Because my work was my play, it was my passion, and I would do it all day. Instead of playing all day, I would work all day–it was all the same to me. As I’ve grown both personally and professionally, I’ve realized that it’s not about working all day. In fact, without time to just sit around and relax, you can drive yourself crazy. For a healthy lifestyle, there needs to be some division between your work and your play. Even if you enjoy working more than playing, there needs to be something that you do that signifies you not working and taking some time for yourself. The hours I determined that I would work are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday, and 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Sundays. Just having start and stop times is a step in the right direction for me. I have trouble shutting down my computer at night (For example, the current time reads 2:49 a.m.). So this plan starts as of tomorrow morning.

4.Evaluate Your Priorities.

It’s always nice to remind yourself of what’s really important. My relationships with friends and family always come first. I find that when I’m more organized in my work life, I can enjoy myself more in my personal life. When my work is left undone and incomplete, I tend to rush through personal activities and feel a cloud of stress hovering in the air. Having a clear schedule in place can affect your lifestyle at your desk and away from it.

The next step in the Schedule Makeover process for me was to answer my first questions from Elizabeth. She sends each schedule makeover client a few questions. These aren’t questions that need to be answered directly; they are just meant to sit in your head until your phone conversation, just ideas to ponder. She asks about your lifestyle, if you enjoy it, how you can make it better, what you want to achieve from your schedule.

I encourage you all to go through the above steps. Let’s make over our schedules together, with Saunders’ help.

I’ve had so many e-mails over the past week from entrepreneurs in different cities, locations and regions all over the country. Everyone has her own thoughts about getting dressed for working from home each day. I received such a variety of answers. Many of you tried this challenge and decided it was just too much of a pain. Others tried this challenge and have vowed never to go back to pajamas ever again.

Personally, I learned a few things. Most important, I learned that my mentality of “whenever I’m awake and not doing a ‘must-do’ chore, I should be working” is flawed. I found that allowing yourself time to get ready in the morning is as important as any other time-management technique. Just as I prepare for a meeting, pitch or phone call, it’s important to properly prepare myself for my workday. I found that “The Getting Ready Challenge” improved my time management, helped me waste less time getting ready, made me more prepared and focused, helped me relax, made me more organized and really did pay off.

Below are more specifics about how the challenge helped me. I wrote the blog on Monday, so it’s my Tuesday through Friday work schedule. Now, was I eager and excited to get ready each morning ? No way. I usually just dive right into my work and don’t get ready until I have to. But after reviewing my notes and examining how this positively affected my work attitude and productivity, I’ll be sticking with the challenge. I want to thank Kelli Claypool, @talkradiodiva, for inspiring this blog.

Tuesday: I had my workout scheduled first thing in the morning. I decided this was a strong move since I prefer to shower and get ready post-workout. After my workout, I did a full “get ready,” then went on with my day. I noticed that because I was already dressed for the day, I was more eager to get my errands done during lunch and felt a slight increase in confidence during the day and on the phone. I do lots of cold calling, so I deal with rude people a few times per week. I found that the increased confidence helped me deal with difficult personalities on the telephone. I felt like I was speaking from a more professional place. I also found that because I felt good about the way I looked, I was more productive after work with my personal household projects (laundry, dishes, hanging up artwork, etc).

Wednesday: I try to block-schedule meetings one or two days per week if I can. Ironically, this is intended to limit the amount of times I need to spend time getting “ready” throughout the week. Wednesday I found it very helpful to get ready first thing in the morning. I had to get up around 8:30 a.m. to meet the deadlines for the rest of my day and not run late. I was filming in the afternoon and had to get my makeup done at 10 a.m., so it was necessary to get ready before I did that. I had a radio interview (with the inspiration for this blog @divatalkradio) at 11 a.m. that day. Because I had already done my hair and everything else, I could relax and enjoy the radio interview. I found myself less “fussy” when it came to leaving the house, making sure I was dressed properly and had everything I needed. I had taken care of all of those things during the “getting ready” process that morning. I also hosted the BLOBLIVE (@bloblive) event Wednesday evening, so again, getting fully “ready” in the morning meant I didn’t have to worry about fixing my hair, etc. for the event later in the evening. I guess you could say that I felt more organized and put together because of the challenge.

Thursday: I had my “Six Person Entreprenuer Call” (that I’ve previously blogged about) at 11 on Thursday morning. Normally during these calls, I’m running around my place trying to get myself put together for the day. Because I spent the extra time getting ready earlier in the morning, I was able to sort through papers and get organized during this call. I was actually more productive, thanks to the dress challenge. I had a meeting Thursday in the late afternoon, soI didn’t have to take a 2 to 3 p.m. chunk out of the middle of my day to get ready.

Friday: I did another early-morning workout on Friday and got ready right afterward. I found both working out in the morning and getting ready in the morning to be such a timesaver. The morning shower also woke me up and got me more focused. Usually I just go from bed to desk with a cup of coffee. I usually plan social activities for Friday evenings and often find myself scurrying around trying to finish up the days’ work and then rushing around to get ready for the evening. Since I’d gotten ready earlier in the day, I only needed to worry about changing clothes for my dinner with friends that evening.

I had an interesting initial conversation last week with a very successful entrepreneur. We were on the phone discussing potential opportunities to work together and went off on a tangent about the personal and professional struggles of being an entrepreneur and working from a home office.

Because of Los Angeles traffic, I opt to work from my home. I’m at a satisfactory place right now in terms of my satisfaction with my productivity. I’m always experimenting with different time-management techniques, goal trackers, organizational systems and scheduling techniques to figure out how to be most productive. In the home, entrepreneurs are often distracted by the television set, a room that needs to be cleaned, photo albums, roommates, the refrigerator, etc. I find it difficult at times to have a clear and smooth focus when working from home. I constantly change my environment and coffee shop-hop to avoid  feeling unproductive.

The entrepreneur I was speaking with by phone told me that she gets up every morning, gets all dressed up, puts on her high heels–and gets ready for work. She said she is constantly complimented by people (the mailman, UPS, relatives and family) who stop by her home and notice the effort she has put into looking nice. They don’t expect someone who works out of the home to be dressed nicely during the day.

I sit here and blog about this in a huge sweatshirt and funky-colored pajama pants. It’s 12:48 p.m. Should I be in pajamas still sipping cold coffee out of my morning mug? I have the freedom to do that–at least until I have to leave the house for a meeting. But would I be more productive working from home if I got “ready” each morning? Would entrepreneurs (working from a home office) be more successful and avoid feeling unproductive if they got fully dressed and ready in the a.m.?

This is where the challenge comes in. Each morning for the rest of the week (Tuesday through Friday), I’m going to wake up 45 minutes earlier to properly dress, put on shoes and do my hair–as if I were going into an office. I’m going to see if my productivity increases. I encourage all of you to take this challenge with me and let me know the results.

I wanted to interrupt my “What I’ve Learned” Series to mention “12 Calls in 12 Months–What Happens When 6 Entrepreneurs Get on The Phone?”

I’ve blogged in the past about how, every Monday morning, I get on the phone at 8:45 a.m. PST with two other young entrepreneurs. We discuss our personal and professional business goals for the week, along with struggles, obstacles, events and the positives in our businesses, etc. This weekly call among the three of us started in November and has stayed strong over the past few months. I’ve found that speaking for about an hour about my goals and their goals has motivated me and also urged me to be more focused. These calls also hold me responsible when I don’t meet my goals for the week. To hear others’ goals and how they are running their lives and their businesses is really encouraging and sheds light on areas where I sometimes only see darkness.

So what’s 12 months, 12 calls? Well, another group of entrepreneurs I know also conducts a three-way phone call once a  week. They reached out to us (Note: This was specifically @MichaelSimmons genius idea) and asked whether we wanted to all get on the phone together. They thought this could give us all the ability to share ideas and ways to run our businesses. After a few e-mails, we set our first call last week. It lasted about an hour and a half. There were three guys and three girls on the call. The topic was social media. We choose one person to moderate the call. In this case it was Morgan First (@morgan1st), social media extraordinaire. She put together an entire document about social media, the most popular social media tools, etc. She did an excellent job preparing for the call. She also had everyone who was participating e-mail her about their strengths and weaknesses with social media so that we could be more organized.

Topics That Came Up On Our Call

1. Everyone on the call took turns speaking about their individual strengths and weaknesses in the field of social media.

2. Everyone spoke about the social media tools they like best and the beneficial ways in which they use them.

3. We talked about using Facebook for personal use vs. professional use.

4. We discussed whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that baby boomers and employers are now on Facebook.

5. We talked about how we can best utilize Twitter.

6. We discussed how we can keep our identity and the identity of our brand separate.

7. We talked about what functions of LinkedIN are the most useful.

8. We spoke about whether creating Facebook groups is really helpful.

9. We covered how much time should be spent on social media.

10. We discussed how often one should one blog and the benefits of blogging.

Our next call is in a few weeks and the topic is time management. Elizabeth Saunders, reallifee.com, will take the lead on this call.

These weekly/monthly calls have really helped me to focus and learn from others. I strongly encourage other entrepreneurs to participate in something like this.

I wish I had a Fairy Tale story about some lovely professional relationship between myself and a lawyer/law firm. Unfortunately, that is not the case. In fact, that is the complete opposite of the case. I’ve been told there are some wonderful lawyers out there; I’ve just yet to come across one.

What I’ve Learned From Working With Lawyers

Use Only When Needed. A big misconception for entrepreneurs is that you need a lawyer on board, on retainer, throughout your whole business process. Many lawyers will work on a per-project/per-case basis and if you don’t sense you’ll need them too much, don’t use them fulltime. I found myself keeping a lawyer on retainer almost as a security blanket. I knew he was there and I felt more professional because he was there. He didn’t actually do too much. Use as needed.

Be Clear About Expectations/Payment. My favorite lawyer story is that when I first moved out to Los Angeles I asked my lawyer if he wanted to go to lunch to meet face to face. He had helped me trademark my clothing line, Internal EthiKS, and I wanted to put a face to a name. I was naive at the time. We met at the Coffee Bean in Hollywood, spoke about work and life for about 45 minutes, and had what I thought was a great introduction and meeting. The following month I got a huge bill in the mail for the meeting. I didn’t know that he was charging me for his time. Be clear on your/their expectations. Be precise and exact when it comes to payment. Don’t let anything take you by surprise.

If They Want Your Business, They Will Call You Back. When I first started my company, I needed to get a few things trademarked,properly registered, and form a corporation.. I wanted to consult with a lawyer. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing at the time. I was a communications major and wasn’t taught how to start my own business. I did some online research and a friend of my parent’s referred me to a woman near where I grew up in Clearwater, Florida. This woman was impossible to get on the phone and her secretary gave me the constant run around. It took me three months to finally get her on the phone. She granted me 20 minutes of her time in a free consultation. She was going to run a trademark search for me. It took her about one month to do the trademark search and another month to call me back with all sorts of ridiculous pricing. After all of that I got a letter in the mail saying she had too many clients and didn’t want to work with me. I phoned a lawyer in Los Angeles the next day that a friend had suggested. He called me back within 10 minutes, did my trademark search, and requested my trademark in that same week. If they want you, they will deal with you asap.

Go Somewhere Size-Appropriate. If you are a small/entrepreneurial company, you don’t need to go to a large firm unless they have a designated department that deals with start-ups. In my experience, the larger companies are so busy dealing with their larger clients that they don’t get back to you promptly and often let things slide through the cracks because of their lack of interest/attention.

Explain Exactly What You Want. When giving tasks to a lawyer, be clear on exactly what you want done and then amount of time you would like them to spend on it. Ask the lawyer if that time estimate is appropriate ? Manage your expectations from the beginning. I asked a lawyer to draw up some Terms and Agreements for my original website thinking that it wouild take an hour of his time and be a small document. He gave it to me one month later claiming that it took him weeks. The document was five pages. That situation could have been avoided if we had communicated our needs properly.

Don’t Be Lazy. Sometimes the DIY (Do It Yourself) method is better than trying to have a lawyer do everything for you. There was a time when I wanted my lawyer to get my business liscense, and draw up all kinds of silly forms for me. I had to ask myself, “what do I really need?” The answer is: Not Much. I didn’t need that much from the lawyer. There were several things that I was asking him to do that I ended up doing myself.

Know Your Terms. Before having an in-depth phone call with your lawyer, try reading a book on key Business Terms or a book on creating business plans. This will help you become familiar with the language that the lawyer might use. This will avoid elongated conversations.

Ask About Phone Time. Always ask your lawyer if they charge for increased communication or any communication at all. Many lawyers DO charge for phonetime and also for email correspondence.

Good luck !

I’m Asking My Friends On Twitter What They’ve Learned As Well

“Don’t ever try to reason with them. There are better ways to spend your time ” @Panah, http://www.bloggingot.com/.

“From working with lawyers I have learned: that I am just as smart as they are. Depressing. They just know the rules better.” @dianaejennings, http://www.freewebs.com/dianaejennings/.

I wanted to do a series for my readers on all of the different things I’ve learned over the past 2 1/2 years as a young entrepreneur. I’m sure that several of my entrepreneurial readers/friends can relate to these issues. For everyone building and creating new businesses out there, this is a great time for all of your hardwork to really shine. If anything, try to take the mistakes I’ve made, and the problems I’ve come across into consideration, so you don’t have to deal with these issues. Any entrepreneur will deal with struggles and obstacles constantly - this blog should help you eliminate a few !

WHAT I’VE LEARNED ABOUT WEB DESIGNERS

When I decided to start my business, one of the first things I needed was a web designer. I had taken a Front-Page course in college but I wanted something a little more impressive looking. I wasn’t (and still am barely) knowledgable of HTML coding.

1. Learn as Much as You Can On Your Own. I spent so much time trying to educate myself on everything about my business. I was a communications and unfamiliar with how to start a business, trademark, find a lawyer, etc. I should have also educated myself on web-design. The more that you can do on your own the better, the cheaper, the easier it is to understand what your web guru is going through. I made the mistake of being lazy and enjoying other people doing the site for me. This hurt me in the long run because when I couldn’t afford a web designer any longer, I couldn’t change/add/fix anything.

2. Don’t Work With Friends. My first website was designed by a great friend of mine (who will remain nameless because our relationship has been tarnished ever since). My expectations were much larger than his. He was happy to set the website up but when I needed changes and had different ideas, he wasn’t as willing to fix them. We had our professional differences and that came in the way of our personal friendship. If I could go back in time, I would keep ALL work relationships and friendships seperate.

3. Find someone Who Has Been Around and Isn’t Going Anywhere. The first web company I worked with was out of Tampa, Florida. They were reputable and had designed the Chico’s Department Store Website. However, they were young and hadn’t been around for too long. They were wonderful for about one year. After one year, they told me that they were having personal issues and wouldn’t be able to do the site anymore. They had designed the whole thing. I felt like they left me hanging. As an entrepreneur, once you have things going, you want them to keep going, not stop in the middle.

4. Make Sure Any ‘Extras’ Purchased Are Under Your Name. The first web company I used told me that I needed to pay $1,000 for a Content Management Software called Expression Engine. This program would enable me to upload my own blogs, pictures, etc. I paid the web designers the money and they bought the software. They purchased the software under their name and linked it to their email address. When they stopped working with me, they no longer had their company emails. I had problems logging in to my own website content management program. Having no access to your backend is not a fun feeling. Luckily, Expression Engine/EllisLabs is a great company and very customer-friendly and helped me fix this problem. I highly suggest that other entrepreneurs use their services, http://expressionengine.com/.

5. Ask Your Designer To Note All Changes, Folders, etc. When I finally switched web companies, I had no idea which files were at which location on the FTP site. I should have worked closer with the designer to make sure I understood where/how he was placing/storing files/pictures/articles/etc.

6. Pay by Project, Not Hourly. When I started working with an individual, as opposed to a web company, the issue came up about how the pay structure would work. We decided that he would log his hours and then submit his pay sheet at the end of each month. In my experience, you need to really micro-manage this process. Paying by the hour was a big mistake because I didn’t know how long it was taking him to do things. When I saw that it was taking him over 1 hour to upload a picture for my “photos” section, I knew I had made a mistake. Charge by project.

7. Be Clear On Your Expectations. With anyone that you are working with, your expectations need to be stated clearly at the beginning to avoid surprises. I know myself and how fiesty I get when my expectations aren’t met. I can be a crazy emailer at times. I explain to anyone I hire, that just because I send multiple emails, doesn’t mean those tasks need to be done right away. All I ask is that within 24 hours of me sending the email, I get a response back with the estimated time the project will be complete. I don’t mind if it takes a few days, I just want to know when I can follow up. If I follow-up and the project is still incomplete, I tend to get frustrated.

8. Keep it Business Focused. When I first put together the ideas for my website, it was very “Lauren Berger” based, as opposed to “Intern Queen” based. It contained too much personal information. Having a bio section about yourself is really all you need. Remember, you are selling the company, not yourself. Even with my self-integrated, Intern Queen, company - when creating my new site, www.quarterlife.com/intern, I kept it much for Internship-Focused and less “LB” focused.

9. Watch Your Spending. Some people spend thousands and thousands on a website. You could probably go on forever, giving your web designer new projects, design work, layout changes. Just get your basic website up, add a blog, and go from there. Don’t spend all of your time adding and taking things away from your site. Many entrepreneurs get lost in this process and are constantly redesigning their website. Focus on what brings the money into your company. As long as you have a decent site, a destination online for your customers, you are fine.

I asked my Tweeps on Twitter What Problems They Had With Web Designers:

“Use a project software like grouptable.com when working with web developers. Great way to manage communication and files.” @b_wang, Bruce Wang, Marketing Strategist.

“1. communication 2. design specs 3.. creative direction 4. Examples of what you want 5. Goals Set 6. Time Line on Tasks.” @BrianHawkins, http://www.pingo.com/.

“Check out previous clients for satisfaction, check their work on other sites.” @Susan_S_Smith, http://www.mudministries.org/.

“Have you used Office 2007? A big hit has been the new automatic formating in Excel, heat maps, business indicators. and more.” @msoffice_us, http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx.

“You need to give your web designer specific directions. And cute doesn’t mean best when it comes to design.” @pahah,http://www.bloggingot.com/.

The other night I had the privilege of watching the movie The Reader. This is an intense story about a woman (Kate Winslet) who works as a guard at a concentration camp. She is involved in post-Holocaust trials and eventually gets sent to prison for her wrongdoing. There is much more to this movie, but the part I want to point out is as follows: When Kate Winslet’s character, Hannah Schmidt, is asked why she did what she did and why she stood by and let all of these people die, she responded with “It was my job. What else was I to do?” (I don’t remember the exact quote, but this is close).

This point stuck with me because it rings true in today’s economy. By no means are we dealing with another Holocaust, but we are dealing with many greedy, fraudulent individuals who run large corporations. I’m not worried about the CEOs and their superiors, but I am concerned about the people under them. There are people who work under these CEOs and presidents who need to stop thinking like machines and really think for themselves.

Doing something because you are told to do it isn’t going to work anymore. We all need to think and take responsibility for our actions before putting them into motion. If we are asked to do something we know is wrong,we need to stand up for ourselves and speak our mind. This isn’t the time to say, “I was just doing my job.” This is a time to say so much more.

As entrepreneurs–because we are the ones making the decisions and we are the ones making the calls–I suggest that we have an advantage compared with the average corporate worker bee. Since the beginning, we have made decisions that will determine how we are seen, how we are viewed, how our monetization happens. We are comfortable speaking our minds and everything depends on us speaking our minds. But is the rest of the world, the working, corporate, machine-operated world, ready to do the same ?

Why Being An Entrepreneur Is Linked With Taking Responsibility Over Actions

1. Every decision we make affects our entire business in one way or another.

2. We are constantly balancing, budgeting, rebudgeting to make sure every part works together.

3. Our business is our passion. Donald Trump has said, “My work is my play.” We make our business decisions from our heart, not because someone else tells us to.

4. We own our brand. Since we created our brand, we know it, understand it and wear it with integrity. Our brand is a part of us and who we are. Any ethical/moral decisions are a part of us as well.

5. Our staff is our family. We have built our staff person by person, step by step. We are comfortable and confident in the role that every person plays. We know the meaning of each employee and how their absence would affect our business. There is no one to look at and say, “Let me justify why he or she is here.”

6. Our energy is our nature. You think it’s hard to tell an entrepreneur she will never make it? Try telling an entrepreneur that her business will go under because of the economy. An entrepreneur has a kind of magic in her energy. We are unstoppable and will do whatever we must to make ends meet, continue developing our dreams and make ethical decisions.

7. We are risk takers. Entrepreneurs take risks on a daily basis. Operating in a scary economy doesn’t scare us because we have built our industries up from nothing. We have built our businesses from nothing. We know that nothing is impossible and live our daily lives under that philosophy. Hard work, dedication and focus have created wonders in our lives.

8. We are untraditional thinkers. When ends don’t meet one way, we don’t call it quits. We look at alternative ways to make things happen. We look outside of the box. We don’t take no as an answer.

Today I spent my morning cold calling companies. Why was I doing this? Why would I waste any time cold calling? I’m trying to expand my internship company into regions that aren’t filled with opportunities. I have tons of internships listed in big cities such as Los Angeles and New York. Unfortunately, when students from smaller cities e-mail me, I’m not able to assist in their internship search if they are looking to stay local.

I do have a “Pay For An Internship” program where students can hire me to research companies and send in their applications. However, the goal of my site is to connect as many students as possible with great opportunities. I feel the need to have at least two internships in two cities from each state.

The truth is, I’m the Intern Queen. I don’t have a huge staff behind me. I’m running most aspects of the business myself. I don’t have time to reach out to every company in America and beyond and beg each company to post its internships with me. I don’t think the small amount they are paying is worth the time it takes me to make the calls, do the proper follow-up, etc. Does that make me an entrepreneur “in hiding”? Am I waiting for people to come and to “seek” me? Do you feel the same way ?

I seek out new relationships, partnerships and contacts on a daily basis–which makes me the seeker. But with my clients, the companies that are posting internships with me, am I just playing their game? Am I just hiding and waiting for them to come find me? And if I am waiting for them to come and find me, how long does that take? How much time can I really put into outreach?

*I would love your thoughts and comments on this issue I hope my next blog will be headlined: “How Not to Play Hide and Seek.”

I just finished a debate with a close friend about the importance of brands changing the way they connect with consumers. She did not agree with me about the importance of large companies creating blogs and innovative ways to speak with their consumers. I tried to give her this example: If you needed financial advice, you would go to Suze Orman’s page, not to Washington Mutual. However, if Washington Mutual had a blog that gave young adults and professionals financial advice, maybe you would visit its site instead.

Twitter has clearly helped brands communicate with their consumers. Through Twitter I can speak directly with Starbucks, JetBlue, Dunkin Donuts and other brands that I’ve never been able to reach directly in the past. The people behind these Twitter accounts are doing a great service to these brands. They are providing a voice and a way to interact directly with the consumer. This is going to turn our marketing culture upside down. In the past, brands have been able to get away with traditional advertising and being displaced from the consumer. Times are changing. Brands need to reach out to their consumers. They need to shake their hands. At the very least, they need to extend a hand. It’s this connection that brings me, the consumer, into each store and onto each website.

The idea of great customer service isn’t new. But the idea of really integrating that customer connection into branding strategy might be. The entrepreneurs who are able to successfully establish this connection will last.

Start Developing Your Connection Factor Today

Establish a voice. The voice brings the brand to life. As if you are developing a character, the voice should bring out the brand’s personality. This new voice can introduce new products, speak to customers, and speak about related news, issues and ideas. Use this voice in creating your company blog. Look over the company mission statement and translate those goals and attributes into a voice.

Start a blog. Each brand should have a blog that speaks about upcoming events, tips, products, services, news, etc. Consumers trust certain bloggers and constantly return to their pages. Each brand should develop a tone that it brings to each subject that helps users to identify with it. For example: My favorite clothing store is Nordstrom. It’s been able to establish a voice and create a blog that is everything I would expect it to be: savvy, sophisticated and smart. It speaks about fashion advice, recent upscale fashion events, store openings and upcoming sales, and it highlights new products.

Change the contact page. Instead of the “contact” information on your webpage sending users to an info@blahblah.com, try sending them to an actual person’s name AKA lauren@blahblah.com. Just the idea of sending an e-mail to an actual person instead of an “info” address can help the user feel a connection. When you apply for a job, it’s nice to be able to address your letter to an actual human being instead of “To Whom This May Concern.” Think of this the same way for “contact us” pages.

Communicate with your audience. Create at least one social networking profile for your company. I always suggest Twitter, but you could also use Facebook or a MySpace account. Assign one person in the office to cover this area. That person should communicate with as many consumers as possible and try to answer all inquiries that come in. Make sure you agree on what is appropriate and what is not appropriate, as “tweets” are not private and can be pulled up with the click of a mouse. The person controlling your social networking is representing your company.

Open your mind. Many companies think that having a “wall” between their customers and their staff is the correct way to do business. As emerging entrepreneurs, I encourage you to take down this wall and focus on different ways to build connections with your consumers.

I try to achieve the connection factor with my company by putting an actual person/expert behind my brand. “The Intern Queen” puts a face behind a service. Students not only can search and apply for internships on my site, but they also can look to me (The Intern Queen) as an example. They can also read my advice and pointers, and e-mail me directly with their questions. I’m constantly communicating with my users.

This connection factor becomes more and more crucial as the way brands and consumers communicate continues to change.

Below are examples of the feedback I’ve received about my site and my connection factor:

“Lauren is a fantastic speaker, but more importantly, she represents to the students by her personal example, that with tenacity, planning, great enthusiasm, optimism and the ability to translate a ‘no’ into a ‘yes,’ your dreams can come true.”
– Marlene Simon, career services director, Mt. St. Mary’s College.

“You are great because you e-mail me back and don’t take months to do so. You are very helpful and persistent, you e-mail people back as soon as you can and you give helpful advice, you’re great!”
– Kelli Sutherland, Community College of Baltimore.

“I found the personal attention very helpful and you had excellent opportunities available.”
– Gillian Brown, Emory University.

“Your personal service gives the applicant a sense of comfort in knowing that there is someone is looking out for them. With other internship sites, you feel as though you’re sending your resume into a sea of others, blindly, almost. The Intern Queen’s way of getting us internships is very unique because it’s kind of like a recommendation.”
– Simone Porter, student, Five Towns College.

I decided a few weeks ago that I was to become not only The Intern Queen but a social media expert. I’m generally not a huge fan of mainstream social networking sites (e.g. MySpace, Facebook, etc). In my experience they are used for personal bragging rights or to “stalk ex-boyfriends,” etc. I did attempt to form a Facebook group for my business and a Myspace page and I saw minimal results in terms of click-throughs and/or increases in traffic. It wasn’t until I started using Twitter that I decided I wanted to be on the brink of social media.

Through this website I was able to connect and network with so many other social media experts and entrepreneurs. I’ve decided I want to be one of the first to discover and participate in whatever the next social media tool will be. Below, you will find a list I put together on tips to become a social media expert. These are things that I’m trying to do on a daily/weekly basis to expand my knowledge of this new world. I think as entrepreneurs we are all responsible for keeping up with the times and learning how to communicate and grow our buisnesses in this new environment.

Tips on How to Grow Your Business Via Social Media

1. Join Twitter ASAP. Twitter is a social media tool where you state what are you are doing in fewer than 140 characters. Since joining Twitter, the traffic on my site, quarterlife.com/intern, has increased by about 800 uniques per day. You meet people on Twitter by “following” them. My goal is always to increase those “following” my account. Many brands (Dunkin Donuts, Expedia, Starbucks, Southwest) are on Twitter, and it’s a great way to connect with them.

I suggest networking with PR professionals, freelancers, columnists and brands to help grow your business and make new connections. I try to reach out to a fixed number of new Twitter users each day. I try to follow at least 100 new “Tweeps” daily. This usually guarantees that I get more followers. A great benefit with Twitter is that you get to put a voice behind a brand. I’m constantly talking about internship opportunities on my site and linking to my website. I’m also speaking about my day-to-day tasks and what I’m involved with. This really takes my brand and makes it come alive a bit more. I’m not just an internship service–I’m actually The Intern Queen with goals, daily struggles, etc. This makes other users feel more comfortable with me and my brand and provides a sense of familiarity.

2. Set your Google feeds. I run an internship company. I get Google feeds for words such as “intern,” “internship,” “young entrepreneur,” “summer internship,” “social media,” “new social media tools,” “how to use social media,” etc. I also subscribe to all the Google feeds that mention my competitors (e.g. MonsterTrac, CareerBuilder). This allows me to see how other businesses are leveraging social media tools. I can see which businesses show up on which networking sites. The most popular site besides Twitter for entrepreneurs seems to be LinkedIn.com, which I suggest everyone join as well. I look and see which freelancers are writing about the topics I’m involved with, then reach out to them on Twitter or on LinkedIn and pitch my company to them. By subscibing to social media feeds, I can keep track of any interesting bloggers I might want to follow and read any new tips and tricks. Bloggers are constantly writing about new ways to enhance your business through social media.

3. Identify social media bloggers. Social media blogger I’ve really enjoyed following are Chris Brogan and Shannon Paul . These two are really at the forefront of all things social media. Play around with your feeds and you will find other social media experts who really appeal to your interests. I’m still looking for great ones, if you have suggestions.

4. Keep up with trends. I’m now subscribed to the RSS feeds for Techcrunch, Techmeme and Mashable. Checking these sites and reading about what’s new and popular in tech really makes me feel much more well-rounded in my tech knowledge.

5. Manage your time. I don’t suggest putting all of your time toward learning the social media route. I could spend hours and hours on Twitter, so I really have to keep a watch on the clock. I let myself communicate with “tweeps” (that means “friends” in Twitter language) on Twitter for about one hour each day. I do update my Twitter often to keep followers engaged. I don’t check my messages multiple times per day. I try to keep it to three times each day. I check them in the morning, lunchtime and evening. Also, I don’t constantly read the articles from my Google feeds or from the bloggers I follow. I try to print out all of the articles every Saturday or Sunday night and take them with me wherever I go. If I’m in line at the grocery store or getting my hair cut, I’ll pull out the articles and go through them. If I make notes on any papers, I’ll save them and go through them the next time I’m working.

6. Explore further. I’m in the midst of trying to find out which social networks are popular overseas. There is a site called asmallworld.net that has a big following in Europe. I also try to follow several international users on Twitter. I’m extremely interested in what international students/companies are using to connect and network with businesses and professionals. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

Welcome to 2009. I wanted to wait to write you all until I had successfully started my first Monday of 2009 with a bang. I want to fill you all in on my goals and missions for the first part of 2009.

Use New Time System. I’m finding that I have several larger-scale projects I need to work on. Examples include: targeting new press, reaching out to more companies, obtaining more speaking opportunities, adding even more internship content, and developing new projects and new business opps. I’m going to try a system where I have a weekly plan and specific days geared toward accomplishing specific tasks. For this week, I’m going to try the following plan:

Monday: Organize e-mails, resumes and major marketing efforts. This is the “catchup” and “get on track” day of the week. Working out with trainer Nicky on Mondays.

Tuesday: Tuesday is going to be PRESS day. I’m going to make a list of the media I should target and start reaching out to them. This will be done in the afternoon on Tuesdays. The mornings will be dedicated to e-mail follow-up and marketing efforts and the evenings reserved for sending resumes. Tuesdays I will be responsible for my own form of exercise (tomorrow I’m playing tennis).

Wednesday: This will be the day to reach out to companies. I’m now charging companies a small fee to post internships on my site. This my experiment to see how I’m really going to monetize this business. This will be a morning task due to the time differences. Wednesday afternoons will be for e-mail catchup and blogging, and the evenings will be reserved for resume sending. I’ll work out with my trainer on Wednesdays.

Thursday: Thursdays will be dedicated to speaker outreach and getting more schools and organizations to have me come and speak to them. This will be done in the afternoons. Mornings will be for e-mail catchup and marketing. I’ll be on my own for working out on Thursdays.

Friday: I usually end up working for a shorter time on Fridays. I will use Fridays as a “wrap-up day” and make it my goal to be caught up on e-mails by the end of the day. I will also work out on Fridays.

Weekends Weekends are for catchup and for researching. I also plan to keep up my blogs on the weekend so that I don’t see that intense drop in traffic.

*YES, I’m trying to make working out a priority this year. I went grocery shopping and stocked up on healthy food and snacks. I even snacked on carrots today at the Coffee Shop. I think eating healthy and exercising is really going to lead to improvement in 2009.

Recently I was subjected to some blog criticism. It wasn’t for this blog but for the I AM INTERN blog that I do for The Intern Queen. Until yesterday, the blog was a bit scattered. I didn’t really have different categories or pages for the many topics I cover on the blog. A contact from Twitter reviewed my blog on his site. His review was extremely rough, saying,  “The Intern Queen Doesn’t Deliver” and that the site had “too many good-looking people.” He said I “had a blog just to have a blog.” Those comments were a little harsh, and I was taken aback.

However, I was really able to turn this negative review into a positive experience by not dismissing what this critic had to say but really taking advantage of my opportunity to learn from feedback. I went through my blog and reorganized it. I now have different sections for things, such as “interviews,” “reviews” and “Q&A.” I’ve found that my blog is much easier to follow now. It’s funny how something can seem harsh, but now I’m grateful for it. So if anyone is friends with a certain @zakmo on Twitter, thank him for me. Trust me, I already have. I sent my new blog to him, and he said he was very impressed–he even crossed out his “Intern Queen Doesn’t Deliver” line

Because of the success of the Intern Pages on quarterlife.com, I was recently asked to take on some marketing initiatives for the entire website. It’s really hard to look at something that has significance but lacks a certain community feel. So the challenge is to encourage users on the site to be more active–to give users a reason to come back and interact with other users. Using Twitter has definitely given us a consistent bump in traffic. I’m also trying to use more conversation starters in all of the forums.

I’d love for all of you to sign up and check out the quarterlife site. Most of our users are in the 18 to 30 demographic, but I’d love to hear from everyone–what you like about the site and what you don’t like. Play around and let me know what you think. You can also check out the classifieds page, which recently was updated with two job opportunities. I hope I can continue to post jobs on the site (along with internships) since jobs are what people are really looking for right now.

Lately, I’ve been finding myself hitting that 5 p.m. wall of EXHAUSTION. If I’m not close to Starbucks, it really affects me and I feel unmotivated for at least an hour. Last week, I did a great job sticking to my goals, but I still kept hitting that wall. A friend and young entrepreneur, Elizabeth Saunders (yes, the one from my phone calls), sent me her weekly e-mail about “checking in with yourself.” Anyhow, Elizabeth explains the importance of checking in with yourself mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I got her e-mail during my “funk,” and I started a blank document on Microsoft Word and went through all of the subjects and wrote personal notes about where I felt I was on each. This process was so revitalizing for me. Doing this exercise not only helped me get out of my mood but also put the focus back on my goals–both personal and professional.

In other Intern Queen news, it’s been a productive Monday. I was up by 8:30 a.m. for my Monday morning “goals call” and then worked until about 12:30 p.m. I went for a quick run, then headed to a meeting at a local school. I have to say that Twitter has become my favorite social networking tool (my name on Twitter is @internqueen); I’m learning new things about it each day. I’m almost ready to call it a night. Have a great week, and I’ll be blogging.

I’m back from Thanksgiving in Florida (It was COLD there) and ready for entrepreneurial action. I had my Monday morning goals call–which I highly suggest all of you start doing. Find a group of young entrepreneurs and have weekly calls during which you set your goals. I just sent my goals to Morgan and Elizabeth, and they are as follows:

1. Keep a tight work schedule this week and be up by 9 a.m. each day.
2. Work out at least once each day Monday through Friday and try to hike over the weekend to eliminate stress.
3. Get caught up with all resume sending.
4. Record series of YouTube videos.

So that is that. I’m actually sitting here in workout clothes blogging to you all because I plan to try to go on morning runs. I’ve found that I plan for 5 p.m. runs and they get pushed, and by the time I want to go, it’s already dark. I’d still LOVE to be outside for the 5 p.m. “magic hour,” so maybe I can go for walks and make calls or something to utilize that time period.

Also, in Intern Queen news, I just started charging money for companies to post on my site. Big step. I’ll do a whole blog on the “how can I monetize my site” later today or tomorrow. I’ve pitched several companies and told them the price; I’m interested to see the feedback I get on this.

Have a great Monday.

I was having some technical difficulties with my blog, but I’m back in action, as you can see. Let’s do some updates:

Intern Queen November Updates

1. I am officially changing my site a bit. Companies will now pay $50 to post each semester. I will also offer premium services for which students will pay a fee. They can still access and apply for internships for free, but they will have to pay for consulting calls, resume help, etc.

2. The resumes are starting to pile up from lots of different schools across the country–I like this !

3. I’m also sending students’ resumes to more than one company. If a student is interested in a magazine, I’ll send it to 10 magazines. This is to ensure that the companies have a large selection of resumes and to help students not only apply for internships but get internships.

4. I started a weekly “goals” phone call with two entrepreneurs whom I met through the Extreme Entrepreneur Tour that I did a few weeks ago in Iowa. We limit the time spent on the calls and all speak about our goals and help each other brainstorm. We had our first call this past week. I’ll keep you posted on how the calls go. The types of goals I’ve set for this week are as follows:

1. By Sunday, finish sorting all personal e-mails.
2. By Sunday, finish sorting all work-related e-mails.
3. Purchase domain name for new idea I’m working on.
4. Maintain this blog and my other blog, I Am Intern, for the rest of the week

I must run because I’m late for a pre-Thanksgiving feast at a friend’s house. But happy working, and I’ll be in touch !

Ever feel like you are running in a race but not fast enough? Welcome to my world. That’s a pretty common feeling for me lately. It all seems to be a process. It’s a process to run your day, find an efficient way to get things done and organize your lifestyle. I never knew time management is such a key ingredient to being a successful entrepreneur. But even if I had the most energy in the world, if that energy isn’t properly focused, nothing gets done.

On my recent trip to Iowa, I and two other young entreprenuers discussed the importance of networking. Many young professionals feel the need to attend every networking event possible. We feel like we have to go out every night and always have plans to be the most productive in our lives. In fact, I’ve come to find that taking several lunches, meetings, dinners and drinks can be counterproductive.

When I first started working at the talent agency (my full-time job before becoming the Intern Queen), everyone was playing a game, a political game. Every assistant found the need to have lunch with every other assistant each day. I learned the difference between a friend and a co-worker–and there’s a big difference. The people I was “lunching” with were interested in one thing, and that was where I wanted to go. Once they realized I probably wasn’t on the “agent” track, they could cross me off of their “people to compete with” list.

Now that I run my own company, people are still asking for lunches, meetings, drinks, etc. When I first started working with quarterlife, I promised myself I would do at least three lunches each week even if I had to pay for some. I was also going to try and do drinks a few nights per week or attend parties and events that were industry-related. I was wrong to do this. Here are some new rules I’ve established for myself:

RULES ON LUNCHES, MEETINGS, NETWORKING, ETC.

1. If you decide to be on a board and/or membership committee for a group, than you should try to attend at least 80 percent of the events it throws. When you make a commitment like this, you need to stick to it and help the organization grow.

2. Only do lunch when you there is a matter of active business to discuss or if you haven’t seen the person in at least six months and need to touch base to keep the contact. Going to lunch with random friends or contacts you know you will stay in touch with is a waste of time and money. This rule does not apply to close friends; this is strictly for business relationships. Don’t do lunches to simply “have a lunch.” You’ll find you are much more productive if you use your lunchtime as a “break” for yourself or eat and sit at your computer and work through it. I found myself taking 30 minutes travel time, 45 minutes to eat and not getting much out of the lunches.

3. The same rule applies to drinks at night. I like to work until at least midnight most nights. When I go for drinks, I’m usually done for the night. One drink means I’m probably not going to be able to focus on my work that night. So go for drinks sparingly.

4. If I’m invited to networking events for free, then I’m all for it. Otherwise, I don’t have the time or budget to be attending such events. Because of the nature of my business, I do associate myself with networking organizations, but I typically try to be invited as a speaker. If you are new to a city, it’s a good idea to choose two or three networking groups to try out. Make sure you look over the organization and its membership first. Don’t go to an event that doesn’t suit your professional needs. Also, check out the events the organization holds. If you know you aren’t likely to attend any of them,  there’s a good chance this isn’t the right group for you.

5. If you go to a networking group once, don’t feel like you have to go back each month to reconnect with the people you met. E-mail can do it for you. It’s much faster to send a little note: “Hey, I won’t be there tonight but have a great time and let’s catch up soon” to the people you previously connected with. As long as you attend once every six months, you should be able to maintain your contacts.

6. Know When to Say Goodnight. I think that all young professionals struggle with when to say “goodbye” at parties.  I still have this problem on occasion. When you are an entrepreneur and have to self-motivate and prepare your own schedule, I suggest keeping an eye on the clock and telling yourself when to wrap it up. I was out last night and around 11 p.m., I told everyone I would be leaving “soon.” I started my goodbyes at 11 p.m. and left by midnight. I know my body and how much sleep I need to execute my day properly. Think of your own body and your habits, and act accordingly.

The rules I have set don’t mean you can’t go out and have fun. As an entrepreneur, I’ve learned the difference between friends and professional relationships. I see my really good friends all the time, and I always make time for them. I also suggest taking at least one night during the week for fun. Whether that means a movie, a social gathering, a party or an event, relax and have fun. Working by yourself or in a small environment can be confining, so it’s important to get out and be social. Let me give you an example of my “social” schedule this week:

Monday: Solid work pretty much all day long. At one point I left my apartment (home office) and went to a coffee shop to change the scenery. Made time for phone calls with friends and family and a run mid-day.

Tuesday: Business calls/e-mails in the morning, lunch with two best friends in the afternoon, worked through mid-day, went to a friend’s house to watch the election and hang out in the evening.

Wednesday: Worked throughout the morning, then went to coffee shop to change the scenery. I will take a small break to have lunch with myself in about 30 minutes. I’ll go for a run at some point and then run a personal errand. I’ll work until about midnight.

I know it’s only Wednesday, but to give you an idea of how I’ll plan the rest of my week, it will go as follows:

Thursday: I have a meeting and a conference call in the morning. I’ll work until about 5 p.m., then go to a movie with friends. I’ll probably be done with work for the evening.

Friday: I’ll probably work until about 6 p.m., and that’s when the “work week” ends. Weekends have to be semi-social and semi-relaxing, so I’ll do something social on Friday night and probably again on Saturday night. Saturday is usually a work day for me. Sunday I like to work half days, so I’ll see what comes up.

I’m sitting at a coffee shop attempting to work. Unfortunately, I’m not having the best of luck. The guy on one side is speaking about his ex-girlfriend and the table on the other side is talking about losing jobs. I’m having trouble tuning it out. Ugh. The ups and downs that come from working out of a public place.

My trip to Iowa went very well, and I’ve received several e-mails from students interested in getting internships and working on their resumes. It was so interesting to meet students who had never come across the type of careers I was mentioning. Marketing, advertising and branding careers were not real to the students I met–they had never heard of such things. I was so glad I was able to get to them and tell them about my personal experiences. I hope I inspired them and encouraged them to follow their dreams.

Today was a very productive day. My usually backward work schedule was pretty forward today. I was up by 9:30 a.m. and using Elizabeth Saunders’ technique of clearing my inbox first thing in the morning. I got through my e-mails around 11 a.m., then dove into phone calls.  was mainly focused on calling universities and some of the Ivy League schools to add prestige to my program. I was able to prioritize my e-mails and even managed to execute a partnership with the Grapevine LA. If you haven’t heard of it, Grapevine LA is a fabulous resource for people looking for jobs. Together, we decided to tack some internships onto Grapevine’s routine e-mails. I chose Rogers & Cowan, Mr. Mudd and The Weinstein Co. as my internships to feature. The newsletter went out today and I had some great responses within minutes. Deciding to work together was a really great decision. I hope it benefits both of us.

It’s 4:11 a.m. on the clock by my bed. It’s 2:11 a.m. on my Blackberry. I went to bed at around 11:30 p.m. (according to the clock by the bed) and woke up several times. This is the second day in a row that I’ve woken up and thought it was time to get ready for the day. Ugh. Anyhow, I’m up–and not going back to bed, so I thought I’d share some of the travel tips that I’m learning along the way.

For those who don’t know, I’m traveling in Iowa because I was asked to be part of the Extreme Entrepreneur Tour, which puts on half-day entrepreneurial conferences at colleges across the country. The tour has two keynote speakers at each event, and I was invited to speak at one in Marshalltown, Iowa. I wanted to make the most of my trip, so I also booked a speaking gig at Southwestern University tomorrow afternoon in Creston, Iowa.

Business Travel Tips for Entrepreneurs:

1. Don’t plan on sleeping through the entire plane ride. Think of this time as “uninterrupted work.” Take advantage of the time on the plane when you don’t have e-mails popping up, phone calls or other distractions.

2. Buy a magazine for the plan. Inspire yourself. I’m a really big fan of magazines such as Entrepreneur, Wired, Inc., Money, etc. I love airplanes because they allow me to sit back and read and enjoy a magazine. I read magazines related to my field because they inspire me. I’m not just being entertained; I’m brainstorming as I read and learning about other business owners and the techniques they use to run their companies.

3. Compile your notes. I have random notes everywhere. I have boxes full of Post-it notes, Excel documents, old charts, statistics, phone numbers, contacts, etc. I used my time on the plane yesterday to take all of the random notes from my current notebook and transfer them all to one large to-do list for the week. I went through my list and put stars next to the items my “virtual interns” can help me with. Yes, my to-do list has at least 50 items on it, but at least they’re all in one place.

4. Plan your day appropriately. Today I need to be ready to go at 7:30 a.m. I’m going to be at the conference at 8 a.m. but not actually speaking until 11:15 a.m. Then I’ll be doing a panel discussion at around noon, following my keynote. I’ve been told that I shouldn’t expect to be completely done until close to 2 p.m. Phone calls are an important part of my day, and since I will probably spend the majority of the day in the company of other people, I need to evaluate and prioritize what I can get done. I’m currently going through my list of phone calls to see which calls are urgent. Pitch calls are not going to work out today. But tomorrow I’ll be on my own and have a rental car, so I should be able to make some pitch calls at that time.

5. If you are traveling with other entrepreneurs, talk shop. I’ve had the honor already of meeing four other young entrepreneurs who are going toparticipate in some respect at the conference today. Maybe I’ll do a special blog post about them later today or tomorrow. One of the other women, Elizabeth Saunders, has already inspired and helped me with my favorite topic–how to structure my workday. She runs a company that specializes in creating marketing materials for magazines and also has a speaking business where she goes to large companies and speaks with them about how to think like a young entrepreneur. Her website is www.reallifee.com - check it out and send her a quick hello ! She is extremely well-versed and communicates her thoughts professionally and intelligently. She actually does her e-mails first and makes it a goal every morning to clear her e-mails. Then she doesn’t go back to them for the rest of the day. She said she’s made her clients realize that she will get back to them within 24 hours, and they know and expect that from her. This way she isn’t constantly dealing with an overflow of e-mails. She explained to me how I shouldn’t let my clients decide how I communicate with them; instead, I should set the tone for the amount of communication I provide for my clients. I’m going to test this and let you know how it works for me. My friends at home are great, but they don’t run their own businesses, so it’s refreshing to be able to share and discuss with other like-minded individuals.

*I also wanted to note that I had a lovely conversation with the Orlando Sentinel’s Hal Boedeker, The TV Guy. Click here to read his blog post about me.

Sorry I’ve been MIA the past week. I’ve been very busy plugging away and getting all of the details set for my trip to Iowa next week.For me, proactive work means research, e-mail pitches, phone pitches, reviewing data, brainstorming, collecting data, building my contacts base, setting calls/meetings, requesting calls/meetings. I do these tasks to produce results, and to constantly improve and connect with more and more people.

I see reactive work consisting of answering e-mails, connecting with peole with whom I’ve been trading calls for weeks, updating blogs and internship postings and sending resumes.  These are all tasks I have to do to keep my company alive and my brand in the public eye.

Proactive and reactive work are equally important. But when it comes to time management, I’ve learned that it’s key to take care of the proactive work in the morning. One of my readers wrote in and mentioned how e-mails can really back you up throughout the day. I couldn’t agree more. I had another reader suggest that I put my e-mails on a five- or 10-minute delay so I get them all at one time and not scattered throughout the day. This is an idea that I think could potentially do wonders, but I have yet to put it in action.

I keep talking about “call in the a.m., e-mails in the p.m.,” and it’s just so true. I can’t even reach most of the people I need to reach past 2 p.m. Pacific Time. Another tip that I keep working on is to send follow up e-mails while you are making phone calls. I’m a big multitasker, and whenever I feel like I can be doing two things at once, I figure out a way to do that. So for those of you trying to manage your work load . . . those are my thoughts.

As far as Intern Queen land, I spent about three hours and $50 at Kinkos last week (yes, I learned my lesson) and used the color printer to produce a beautiful presentation on the past, present and future of my company. I wanted a document I could give to potential investors, press, etc. that would really show what I’ve done and how far I’ve come. The document contains a mission statement, company overview, press, content, goals, marketing strategies, potential revenue streams, etc. I’m trying to create a “one sheet” from the document now, so I can pass along both a short version and a long version.

I’m currently looking for more investors, so I put together a grid of all of the meetings I’d like to set (with whom, company info, etc) just to try to organize myself. I sent a large e-mail to all or most of my contacts last week with my updates. I copy/pasted them below for all of you to see.

The redesign on my intern pages is up.
My direct link is www.quarterlife.com/intern

Updates
We are now posting more than 300 internship opportunities. Recent companies that have signed on include:

• The Yes Network
• Nascar
• Original Film
• Livestrong.com
• NBC Universal
• Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc.
• The Public Forum Institute
• Wes Craven’s Company

We have received more than 500 resumes from students across the country and placed the students at companies such as VH1/MTV, Universal Music Group, Bop/Tiger Beat magazine, Celebrations.com, Jinks/Cohen, Marie Claire magazine, Silver Pictures, Untitled Polly Johnsen Co., NBC Universal, CollegeCandy.com, Lionsgate, The Weinstein Co., Feinstein McGuiness PR, Yari Films, Overbrook Entertainment, Varsity Pictures, Winkler Films, Relativity Media,The Daily Buzz, Participant Media, Sony Pictures Television, Dangerbird Records, SomeoneSpoilMe.com, etc.

If you have any suggestions on getting the word out to more companies/students/press–please let me know.

Best,

Lauren Berger

Sports internships are my goal of the week. And what better way to kick that off than by posting NASCAR’s internships on my site. I’m trying to spread my wings and get away from focusing only on entertainment and journalism positions. So far in the sports world I’ve received postings from CBS Sports, YES Network, Inside Sports and Entertainment Group, and now Nascar. I hope this will provide me with the opportunity to help even more students land their dream jobs.

The focus weeks are going really well over here. I did take a little vacation to Palm Springs from Friday night to Sunday night, so I didn’t work this weekend. For those of you who live near Palm Springs, I highly recommend it–it’s very relaxing, very quiet–and there’s a casino.

I started my week with a power workout with trainer Nicky yesterday. Pictures from our workout/photoshoot are coming soon. Yesterday, I worked until pretty late. I’m still trying to get into the Iowa swing of things, which hasn’t been easy. I’m at the follow-up stage right now where I’m just waiting and getting some frustrating e-mails that say “we are so busy. . .”

Today was a “meetings” day. I met with a potential advertiser this morning and had a big media group meeting this afternoon. I was in the car all day, so work didn’t really get done until I got home. Tonight I have an In Style magazine event, which should be a fancy-schmancy event. Elizabeth Albert in Toluca Lake was sooo lovely to dress me again for the occasion. I’ll post some pictures of the gorgeous clothing.

Have a great evening. Keep working

Yep, that’s right–my new schedule has been to wake up around 8 a.m. and make all of my calls. I simply go down my list and do call after call after call and hope to eventually get somewhere with it all. The past few days have been quite productive, which makes me feel great. I have one more day of “Iowa” calls–I’ve mentioned that I’m expanding to Iowa because I’m going there on a speaking tour at the end of this month. So I’m in the process of reaching out to as many people as possible to try to get press, speak at more schools and get some Iowa listings on the site. So far I have none. I hoipe that will change after I make my follow-up calls Friday and early next week.

Workouts
I have been following my workout plan. I actually did a photo shoot with trainer Nicky yesterday in the Valley. I hope to have those pictures for you all soon as proof that I really am trying to push myself a little.

Last night I caught Kevin Nealon at the Impove, and he was great. I highly recommend his show to anyone looking for a laugh.

Today was another productive day for The Intern Queen. I took today off from making calls and concentrated on getting through all of my e-mails. I sent out all of the resumes that have been sitting in my inbox: I hope students are getting internships even as I write this blog. I also did a conference call about some changes to my web page.

After much to-do about working from a home office and what I should do about the phone issue, I’ve decided to change my cell phone plan to unlimited daytime minutes and have work cover the phone use. I’m not going to get a home phone or landline at this point.

Week 1 of my new “workout plan” went all right–not great, but all right. I successfully worked out with trainer Nikki on Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday (today). OK. I didn’t succeed in working out by myself. Things/friends/events kept coming up, so I kept pushing it back, and then it just never happened. Ugh. But this is a new week. I’m set up a little better in my “home office,” and my sleeping habits have been a bit more “normal” lately. I’m ready to hit it hard this week.

The next two weeks are crucial for me because this is a major transition period from fall internship postings to spring internship postings. I’m trying to expand into different industries and different regions.

I’m going to set some small goals for this week. Tomorrow I want to get in at least three hours of phone calls and get all caught up on my e-mails. Just so you can get an idea of what I’m up to, here’s my “to do” list:

1. Catch up on work e-mails: Task completed Saturday morning
2. Follow up on work e-mails
3. Catch up on personal e-mails
4. Follow up on personal e-mails
5. Catch up on resume sending (I currently have 40 more to go through)
6. Calls/OutReach/Expansion/Press

Here’s to a Power Week for all of us.

Intern Queen here, reporting from the home office. Actually, that’s a lie–I’m reporting from the Coffee Bean, my favorite work destination thanks to its new, free wireless. What can I say ? I’m just not the best at working from home. I find myself almost too comfortable, and I get easily tired and distracted. With any change (for me at least) comes new inspiration. With a change of pace and the need to get reorganized (when I was never really organized in the first place) come new goals for the home-office lifestyle.

I’m hoping that with my “home office,” I can accomplish more things personally and professionally. I always used to blog about the importance of exercise, and I want to jump back on that bandwagon. I’ve been working out, but not as consistantly as I was before. I lost some initial weight and then did as most do–I fell out of it. As I jump back into it, let me introduce you to trainer Nikki. She is going to help me get through this workout rut and focus on a healthy lifestyle.

I really recommend that busy professionals dish out the extra money for a trainer. I have the hardest time devoting time to working out, especially during the workweek, but it’s necessary. Especially for me now that I doing appearances. Here is a link to Nikki’s webpage and fitness competition pictures.

The Plan

So the plan is to get organized personally and professionally. I challenge all of my entrepreneurial readers to do the same. Let’s all look at our schedules and set aside time five days each week to work out. I’m going to not plan any workouts for Saturday and Sunday at this time.

My workout hours are going to change by the day since my schedule is all over the place. But yesterday I worked out for an hour in the morning. Today I’m going to do a 20-minute run (starting small) , and tomorrow I’m working out for an hour with Nikki at 11. I’m on a budget so I’m only going to work out with the trainer twice each week.

Now for the home office.

Phone Calls
I have to do most of my phone calls from home. I don’t like being in public and making calls–the reception is usually bad, and places are so crowded. I spent about four hours this morning going down my phone list. There is nothing worse then making calls and not getting anyone on the phone. I’m expanding my company into some more regions and also trying to book some speaking gigs in Iowa–I’m going there to speak in a few weeks. I got a few people on the phone and now have to send them e-mails. I’m hoping we’ll get some new listings and people involved with the site.

E-mails
As soon as the clock strikes 2 p.m. in Los Angeles, I try to wrap up my calls for the day. Most of them are to other time zones, so I just deal with incoming calls in the afternoon. This way I can spend the rest of my day focused on catching up on e-mails, logging new contacts, sending resumes, posting new internships, blogging, press, etc. I think I’m going to take one morning per week to do a heavy focus on press and then spend of the rest of my week really focusing on my product (which in this case is my internship listings).

That’s enough blogging from Lauren for today. I am also going to do my I AM INTERN blog, so check that out if you’d like.

Send me your workout schedules! Let’s all get on track in time for the holidays!

Sincerely,
Your Intern Queen

Attention. We are about to conduct an experiment. Starting Monday, I’m going to work from home for a few weeks and see whether I enjoy it and accomplish more than having heavy traffic/travel time into the office each day. I’m excited because I’m all about “new beginnings,” and even though this isn’t that big of a deal, it is a change.

I’m going to try and manage my time wisely. I’ve been telling you all about my organization efforts. It’s really hard to send so many e-mails each day and attempt to log, categorize and chart each one. But I think it’s helping me put all of my information in the right place. It should also help to follow up appropriately.

I worked from home a few days per week to begin with, so this won’t be that drastic of a change. And to be honest, sometimes I get more done at a Coffee Bean or Starbucks, anyhow.

I spoke at Mount St. Mary’s College yesterday for a career-planning class. It went really well. I didn’t know whether the best thing to do would be to write a speech or just to run with it. I was talking about my experience with my internships and as a young entrepreneur, so I felt sort of cheesy reading a speech about myself. I ended up not reading from anything: I figured that would happen. One of the really cool things was that the advisor who ran the class said she learned something from me. She learned not to discourage ambitious students who want to take on internships early in their college path. I think everyone found what I had to say really interesting, for the most part. They seemed shocked that it was one of my first school speaking gigs.

I also attended an NYU alumni event to tell the alumni about my services. And although I’m obliged to the UCF alumni group in Los Angeles, I have to say they were all extremely nice and I had a wonderful time.

Today I ran around town back and fourth to meetings. I have family in town this weekend, so I probably won’t be blogging so much. I shall touch base with you all Sunday evening.

Have a wonderful, relaxing weekend and try to get some work done if you can

Hey, readers. Sorry to leave you all hanging for the past few days. I’ve been busy sending e-mails and trying to find some way to organize myself. I recently took on a manager to help organize my work and find some great out-of-the-box projects for me.

I’ve been doing lots of follow-up e-mails, lots of e-mails to old contacts, lots of logging e-mail addresses for newsletter and press list purposes. It’s important to have all of your work up-to-date and available in one location whenever you need it. I’m trying to make separate Excel documents for press lists, newsletter contacts, coordinator contacts and, of course, student contacts. I know–sounds like fun, doesn’t it ?

I’m in the process of expanding to Des Moines, Iowa, and Hartford, Conn., so get excited about that. I booked some press in Hartford via satellite interview, and I’m going to a school in Iowa to speak in late October. I’m going to make sure that when I speak to the press, I can help as many students as possible.

A shout out to Kristen Fischer, who was nice enough to blog about me and my company yesterday on her blog, Ramen Noodles, Rent and Resumes. Check it out

It’s now 3 a.m., so my day is coming to an end. It’s sort of funny that CNN Morning News is on right now. I speak tomorrow at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles. I’ll let you know how it goes.

10:34 a.m. Tuesday Morning. What in the world has the Intern Queen been up to ?

Book Project
I’ve started working with a manager as of a few days ago. This is to help me more with “out of the box” projects that I’m working on, such as television, books, etc. I took out the old book proposal yesterday.

I’ve been shopping around the same book proposal for years. I had a book agent out in Boston/New York about 3 1/2 years ago. We terminated the agreement because the book wasn’t selling and I didn’t feel we communicated well with each other.

Here I am again, a few years later doing the same thing. I have spruced up the proposal a bit. I had a phone call with a literary agent in NYC on Friday. We discussed where I’m at in my “Intern Queen Land,” and she seemed to be impressed. I sent her the materials today after discussing with my new manager. Fingers crossed!

OSTN Networks
I’m officially working with the OSTN Networks on an internship segment for its student news program, which reaches more than 17 million student viewers at more than 4,500 universities/colleges. My segment is about one to three minutes each week.

Last week, following my KTLA debut, I filmed a few different episodes to play around with the format and get a feel for what I’m going to speak about. Today I have a meeting with the heads of quarterlife to discuss how we want to edit the pieces together and take a look at some of the footage. Of course, since I’m a girl, my biggest fear is whether my makeup looked “melted” because we were outside for most of the shoot. These segments will probably start to air next week, and I’ll make sure to get a link for everyone to see.

My Intern
My intern started last week, and she’s doing great. I have her working on my Facebook page–updating it with recent press links–and helping me with my T-shirt line. I don’t know how many of you remember my Internal EthiKS T-shirts on my old site, internqueen.com, but I’m going to launch them on my quarterlife site in mid-October. So I’m currently connecting with different buyers about them.

Internship
I’ve updated my quarterlife website with great internships, such as the following:

Interview magazine
Art In America magazine
Brant Publications
NBC Universal internship program
Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. internships
CBS News
AAU Sports internships

My Weekend
Enough Intern Queen talk. We all need our playtime to keep our heads on our shoulders. I hope everyone had a nice weekend. I saw the movie Burn After Reading on Friday night and then went to CVS and bought Monopoly. I think everyone should go spend $20 bucks on Monopoly. I forgot how much fun it is. I think I spent at least seven hours playing Monopoly over the weekend. Not the best use of my time–but super fun.

Saturday, I watched the Ohio State vs. USC game and spent some time at the pool. This summer really flew by, and I didn’t pay as much attention to getting a great tan as I usually do. My new apartment complex has a pool, so I’m trying to take advantage of it. I was up early on Sunday watching the Bears game (they lost) and then did a little work and a little shopping for the rest of the day.

All right, I need to get ready and go into the office for a bit. Have a great day.