A Savvy Start:

The title of my post says I’m running. Truth? I am not physically running, but my brain is running. It is 1:11 a.m. I am watching The Daily Show on Tivo. My laptop has been in front of me for the past seven hours.

Once again, my inbox was overloaded with resumes when I woke up. It took me several hours to go through the resumes and then another few hours to do work that doesn’t involve sending resumes. My work schedule is a bit upside down. I’m on that bad schedule when I’m working all night and my sleep is off. Sometimes it’s just easier to get the e-mails done at night when the phone isn’t ringing. One of my readers suggested a virtual assistant. I actually think that is a great idea. I did hire an intern who starts next week, so I’ll have a better idea of how I can manage my time once she starts.

My goal right now is simply to raise traffic on my pages and raise the amount of resumes that I get in. The more resumes I get in, the more students I can help. I’ve been receiving some great testimonials from students and internship coordinators whom I have matched up. It is a great feeling to know that I’ve helped these students get the internships they desire.

I just started a partnership with CollegeRecruiter.com and Internweb.com that I’m really excited about. Thanks to Google Analytics, I’ll be able to see how valuable the partnerships are and vice versa. We are hoping to get some great traffic flow going between all of us. Another great partner site of mine is EntertainmentCareers.net. It also has great job opportunities for those heading to Hollywood.

I feel like talking about my day today. So if anyone feels like listening, this is how it went:

12:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m.–Finish forwarding resumes from previous day, check Google Analytics, etc.

4:30 a.m.–Go to sleep.

10:30 a.m.–Wake up. Go through e-mails. Make sure postings are still up and site is working. Go through new changes on the site.

11:30 a.m.–Conference call with potential partner site.

12 p.m.–Conference call with potential sponsor.

12:30 p.m.–Work out.

1:30 p.m. –Go to IKEA to get furniture for new place. Note: IKEA is overwhelming. Pick out the things/sizes/colors you want online first and then have a plan before you go in. It is like the Disneyland of furniture stores.

3:30 p.m.–Go through e-mails again. Make a few phone calls.

5:00 p.m. –Eat food. Lots of food.

6:15 p.m.–Go to local Coffee Bean to do more work (I like changing locations; I get more done and get refocused.) Go through resumes and e-mails and forward/reply appropriately.

9 p.m.–Coffee Bean closes. Change location to another coffee shop that is open until 11 p.m. Continue going through resumes.

11 p.m.–Second coffee shop closes. Go home and make food.

11:15 p.m. –Continue to send resumes.

12:30 a.m.–Done with resumes. Time to blog. I blog on this site and then I have a new blog called I Am Intern.

1:25AM - Here I am. Blogging to all of you about nothing. lol. I still need to post more internships on my site.

The good news is that my site is getting some super super cool internship listings. Seventeen magazine; Bop magazine; O, The Oprah Magazine; At Home; House Beautiful; Winkler Films; ManiaTV and more. They are coming in and they are hot! Visit the website.

All right, that’s enough of the Intern Queen for now. Signing out.

One of the goals of my website is to put a face behind internships. I personally hated when I’d send my resume to an e-mail address such as “jobs@blahblah.com.” It was so impersonal, and I never knew if anyone received my information. I would just sit and sit and usually get no response back.

As The Intern Queen, I can respond to students who send me their resumes. I personally go through the resumes and send them to my contacts at each company and then respond to the students, letting each of them know his or her materials have been sent to the companies they requested.

I started out only getting a few resumes per day. Now that amount has doubled, and I’m getting a few more resumes per day. I spend at least two to three hours each day forwarding the proper materials and logging the information into Excel. So the question is, when do I start outsourcing that work so that I can devote that time to handling other business matters (such as press, sponsorships, partnerships)? Let’s set a goal right now. When I start to get 40 to 50 resumes per day, I will think about ways to outsource my work–whether it be to interns or to India.

As of today, I have 161 companies posting internships on my site. I’m no EntertainmentCareers.net yet, but I hope I will be one day soon! I also plan to expand our internships into some other fields in the next few weeks. So if you have any suggestions, I’m all ears!

Also, make sure to read the post I did right before this one on “How to Interview an Intern.” You might find the advice valuable.

Must stop blogging and get home to watch the new 90210.

I did find an intern for myself. This was sort of a miracle. Because I was sending interns to all of the companies on my site, I didn’t want to take any of them for me. I found a great girl who seems very excited about the opportunity. I decided to put together a blog on the dos and don’ts of having an intern at your company.

1. The Interview with The Intern
I always like to say “Tell me about yourself”: This gets the intern speaking to you. For me, one of the most crucial qualities about an intern is that he or she is able to communicate. Anyone working for you needs to properly represent you. I am extremely talkative and like to think I’m personable. I need to be 100 percent sure that the intern will be just as personable on the telephone– especially when speaking to press or people he or she is unfamiliar with.

The ability to speak clearly and slowly is also important, especially when pitching and making cold calls. Also, telling someone to “tell me about yourself” usually gives me a quick understanding of his or her background, education and prior experience.

Always ask what the student’s ultimate career goal is. You don’t really want someone working for you if you can’t give him or her anything back. If they have no long-term interest in the work you are doing, I wouldn’t hire them. I don’t believe they would put as much into the internship as a student who might be interested in the field.

Clearly explain the day-to-day tasks to the student. If the intern will be making lots of coffee and hanging out by the copier all day, make that clear. Treat him or her as a client and properly manage expectations. This will keep the intern from complaining down the line. I was clear with my intern that she will be rolling some calls with me, doing heavy research, putting together many Excel documents with contacts, etc.

Make sure to communicate about scheduling/hours. With fall interns, employers should be prepared to be flexible. Students are working around their school/class schedules, which can sometimes mean a few hours on multiple days or long hours with few days in the office. Whatever they are going to be, make sure to be on the same page about this in order to manage your own expectations. You don’t want to be frustrated with someone because you weren’t on the same page about the time commitment.

Tell the intern NOT to come in during his or her first week of classes. Let the intern get himself or herself in order: School does need to be the first priority. Start the internship the second week of classes: This way the student can clearly plan the schedule.

If you do like the intern over the phone, don’t offer the job to him or her right away. Let him or her wait for a day. Play hard to get–you don’t want the position to seem too easy to obtain. If you do like him or her, I’d call the following day and offer the position. I always tell the student to sleep on it for one night and, if he or she is interested, to call me the next day. You don’t want to put him or her on the spot or have the intern commit to something under pressure and then flake out.

Labor Day is quickly approaching, and–like every Thursday before a holiday–no one is around. People are extremely hard to reach, and my inbox is cluttered with auto responses from everyone and his or her mother saying, “I will be out of the office from blah, blah, blah.” Hasn’t anyone else heard of a BlackBerry? Being available at all times?

I guess not everyone is a workaholic like me, and probably like most of my readers. People get flaky pre-vacation, and it makes work so worthless. Maybe that should have been my blog title, “Work Is Worthless.”

It is 10:46 p.m., and I’m at my favorite coffee shop in the Valley. I’ve been sitting here for the past three hours trying to go through old e-mails and consolidate my contacts into one, solid list. I figure this will be handy for sending group e-mails/newsletters/etc. I’m also categorizing the contacts in one column of the Excel doc into categories such as entertainment, publicity, etc. This will help me sort through the contacts when I need to send specific e-mails.

Today was an all right day in the office. I moved from a cubicle into an office, and that is always exciting. I even put some pics/press up, just to mark my territory! I continued to get a steady flow of resumes in today from potential interns. Other than that, I spent most of my day sitting in traffic on my commute from my new palace/one-bedroom apartment. Oh, check out internweb.com–it’s featuring my program. I’ll have to persuade them to put me above the fold–but hey, we love Internship Partner Friends!

I hope everyone is making his or her goals for September. September 1 is right around the corner. Oh, and I’d like to wish a very unprofessional happy birthday to one of my best friends, Lauren Gold, who is celebrating at midnight! I’d love to say that I’m signing off for the weekend, but I’m sure I’ll be here, blogging away.

Yes, I’ve been trying to prove to different people over the past few years that internships are important and that students do need help getting them. Today, I finally got a nice amount of resumes in my inbox. The only problem? Well, I spent about four hours sorting resumes and adding internships. Today I added Benderspink, Marie Claire, Out Traveler magazine, Nu Image/Millenium Films, Polaris Entertainment and CollegeHumor.com to my list of internships. I wish I were still in school. An internship at any of these places would be amazing.

How did the Intern Queen spend her day?

I know you are all dying to find out. Well, I was up late working last night and then saw The Big Lebowski for the first time, so that kept me up a bit. I woke up early to do a conference call with a potential partner website that went very well. It’s great that I can provide content for a lot of these sites that don’t have much internship advice to offer their users. I like that I can link up and work together with other internship companies. After all, the goal is to create a “One-Stop Intern Shop” so that students can go one place for all of their internship needs.

Anyhow, so I did my calls–went back to sleep–and then got up again for another call later this morning with a press outlet. It was a nice-sized press outlet, so I hope I’ll have a link to send all of you soon. I usually go into the office for the second part of the day–I miss rush hour that way, and I like to work later in the evening. And I really just spent my mid-day combing through resumes. I had a few interesting phone calls about potential partnerships, etc., but that’s really it. I worked on my other blog, I AM INTERN (you can access that from quarterlife.com/intern), and now I’m dealing with my favorite readers! I’m also speaking to a potential manager–so that should be interesting. Everyone knows how picky I am when it comes to working with other people, so we shall see what happens.

I’m going to stay at the office for a little bit longer–again, I like to skip the traffic–and then head to my old apartment to finish cleaning it out. I discovered a new coffee shop across the street that has . . . wait for it . . . free wireless. Rockstar! And since my wireless won’t be installed in my new place until Friday, I’ll be hanging out there this evening, plugging away.

So last week I mentioned that a little celebrity action really helped my site get the word out to more people. I received more resumes this week than any week before because of increased awareness about the site and the program, quarterlife.com/intern. I’m continuing to work hard to build my brand, build awareness of our program, etc. Am I still struggling with time ? Yes!

Time Savers and Traffic Bumpers
I try to work with two computers–my desktop and my laptop–and try to avoid taking random notes on pieces of paper as much as possible. I’m notorious for having random papers everywhere, with e-mail addresses, notes, etc. Typing my notes directly into an Excel sheet has enabled me to save time. I’m also trying to post my listings on other job sites with a redirect link back to my site. This has helped generate more traffic as well.

I moved this weekend: Phew! Thank goodness that’s over. I can now stop focusing on moving boxes and go back to my intense WORK ALL THE TIME AND DO NOTHING ELSE philosophy. I’m kidding–sort of. I did make a timeline today of all of my goals, and that helped put things in perspective. We launched August 5. It isn’t even the end of the month, and I have more than 100 listings of great entertainment, web and magazine internships, some great press and some cool opportunities coming up.

My goals for the rest of the week are to keep updating my listings and get my random notes and papers organized. I’m also continuing to reach out to schools and see what the best way to get involved is. Oh, and calling the press is ALWAYS on my agenda. How could the media not want to write about  internships ?

Well, for those of you who didn’t see, Nicole Richie and Joel Madden’s foundation posted an internship listing with my site and–POW–the masses come to follow. The traffic on my site increased significantly, thanks to a few news/celeb blog articles on the Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation internship. Now, just because it has a great name doesn’t mean it’s the only great organization offering an internship. In the world of foundations, we also have Gen Art and Arts Alliance America internship opportunities.

So my blog advice is, if your business can get some sort of celebrity spin, it can really be a great thing. The first article about Richie/Madden using my blog ran on EOnline.com, and it was followed by articles on Pink Is the New Blog, Nicole Richie Fansite and other celeb-news destinations.

My scheduling and timing for things have been going a lot better. In additional organizational efforts, I created a large binder where I’m going to print out all of my follow-up sheets each week. I have one for partnerships, sponsorships, publicity, students and schools. I printed them all out and also put all of the new Quarterlife Internship Program press into the folder. This is easier to go through at night to see whom I still need to call, etc.

My goal is to get traffic to my web pages. College students are harder to track down than one might think.

Over the weekend, I was in my best friend’s wedding in Florida, so I had zero time to work. It is one of the few times I’ve taken almost four days off in a long time. It was a nice break, but today it took me a few hours to catch up on e-mails. I spent my time on the airplane trying to determine which tasks I need to focus on each day and how much time I need to spend on them. I’ve found myself struggling to finish tasks–starting many and not completing them. Here’s what I decided I need to spend time on each day:

1. Sponsorships
2. Publicity
3. Company outreach
4. Student outreach
5. Research
6. Updating system
7. Follow-up notes

The tricky part is that tasks always end up taking longer then I think they will. I’m only one person, and I can only dial so many telephone numbers at the same time. Also, this is the beginning stage of my program so I’m making plenty of cold calls and not getting calls returned, so my follow-up time is automatically heavier than it should be.

I’m trying to put in a good 13 hours of work each day. Last night I went to bed at 2:30 a.m. and then worked from about 11 a.m.-9 p.m., had a meeting at 9:30 p.m., and just sat down to work again. Remember, I’m moving as well, so I have tons of boxes that I need to pack in between.

Oh, Well. I’m sure it will work out. Today, I did focus on the things I mentioned I wanted to focus on–so I hope I’m on the right track. Also, I’m so glad more of my readers are commenting and leaving me helpful tips, pointers and questions. Please check out my new site at quarterlife.com/intern and let me know your thoughts. I recently added New York Magazine internship, Tom Sawyer Entertainment internship, EcoStilleto.com internship, the Chronicle of the Horse magazine, Richie-Madden Children’s Foundation internship, and more!

Hello readers ! You will be so proud to hear that I switched up my schedule this morning, worked more “normal” hours and was actually very productive. I didn’t let myself stay up until 5 a.m. last night so I woke up at 7 a.m. and got to work by 9-ish. This was very helpful since I haven’t been able to get enough NY calls in with my late-night working patterns.

I’m extremely happy with how the site is running. Companies were more responsive than I thought they would be to posting their internship opportunities with me. Now the problem is . . . I need students! I have some great internship opportunities. The other day I signed on US WEEKLY internship, Rolling Stone internship, BWR Public Relations internship, Parents.com internship and more.

I need to fill these internships with wonderful interns–but where are the interns hiding? With students lives being so filled with Facebook and Myspace, will they ever come search for my site ?

I made a list of about 40 of the most relevant sites online that are like mine. I even called competitors up and asked if we could work together. The goal is to build one big internship resource for students, so I don’t mind. I’ve also been calling press outlets nonstop to try and generate some sort of buzz. It’s so frustrating to try and reach students because they don’t normally spend time places other than Facebook and Myspace, which don’t have the greatest returns for media buys/etc.

Any ideas for me? Let me know! I’ll be going to a few colleges over the next few days and passing out fliers. I know it sounds old-fashioned, but I think it will give me an opportunity to connect one-on-one with students.

Hope you all had a nice weekend.

Dear Diary,

I know what you must have been thinking. I start a business and then I never blog. Not to worry, I will not make a habit of that. I just got so caught up in everything else that I lost track of my blogging time. I also lost track of my precious working out time that I find so important.

Things the Intern Queen did for her website launch this week:

1. Stayed up late Sunday night making sure all of our internships were properly entered in the system. While doing this, I came across a bug. I wasn’t able to properly edit the individual internship entries. This was something that got fixed by our web team later in the week.

2. Sent out a press release on PRWeb.com focusing on the Los Angeles, New York and Chicago metro areas. Those are where most of our internships are right now. We are expanding to everywhere, but those have the most postings at the moment. The release got picked up on a few other basic newswire-type sites. Nothing great. Was PRWeb worth it ? I don’t have an answer on that yet.

Note: If you send a press release via PR Web, you need to put it on the web two days in advance. I had to pay an extra fee to get it released that day.

I’m also thinking about putting the release out on Business Wire–but so far, the response from PRWeb has not impressed me. I will make a judgment call on this next week.

3. Sent a note to friends/family. I drafted an e-mail explaining the function of my site and sent it to friends and family whose contacts were saved on my Outlook address book. The problem is:  All of the hundreds of friends I have on sites like Facebook and Myspace aren’t in my Outlook Address Book. I just spent a good amount of time sending e-mails to all of those people. It takes awhile because you have to first pull up their profile pages to get their e-mails.

4. I tried spamming some students at NYU and UCLA via Facebook–telling them to go to my site for free internships. Facebook is pretty secure and doesn’t really allow you to spam. They sent me a warning message. Ooops.

5. I studied the Google Analytics I set up on my page to see exactly where most of the visitors were coming from and tried to study trends about the visitors on my page.

6. I spent lots of time on “Google” and “Yahoo” search engines. I took note of what came up when I typed in internship-related terms such as “intern,” “internship,” “Quarterlife,” etc.

I’m still trying to get my schedule together. My daily responsibilities include: E-mailing and calling companies that I’d like to get to post on my site, sending student resumes to employers, entering the data from the internship posting forms into our system, reaching out to the press, reaching out to students, reaching out to potential sponsors, etc. When my inbox is full, it’s harder to get the data entry and the longer tasks finished. I like to do the data entry late at night when there is no e-mail overflow. When I stay up too late, I miss the New York calls that I need to make in the mornings. UGH. And when I stay at work late I miss my workouts!

I’m having a difficult time getting the word out to students that they can get FREE internships on our site. Since our launch, I’ve had a great response from companies. Time Inc, Rolling Stone, US Weekly, Sony and Weinstein Co. internships are all on the site. I have more than 100 companies looking for fall Interns–so that is great. I just have to get the students aware of my free internship services.

Currently, I just finished e-mailing more contacts from Facebook.com. I can only do so many in a day. I’m going to take a quick dinner break and then finish studying a list of the most popular sites for 18-to-25-year-olds that a colleague tracked down for me. I’m so cool on a Friday night.

My site has officially launched! Check out quarterlife.com to see the promo video in the main player and link over to the intern pages. I hope you all enjoy. Now you’ll be able to get a better understanding of what I’ve been working on. Students and companies can post their internship listings for free. I’m launching with 76 companies, most of them in the entertainment field in Los Angeles. I’m going to try to expand nationally/internationally as soon as possible. I’d love to get all of your feedback. This is proof that if you work hard, you can get what you want.

Have a great Monday!

Lauren

It’s 5:13 p.m. on Friday. I hate Friday because I feel like a clock is ticking for me to leave the office and get on with my weekend. I’m sitting in the office semi-freaking out about all of the tasks I still have to accomplish. I have so many things to do that I’m unable to process how I’m going to do all of them.

I have about 75 internship listings that need to be entered into my data system ASAP. I have company logos to upload. I need to create an organized way to manage all of my listings. I’m in the process of creating an Excel document where I can store the important internship details and keep track of them.

I need to make sure listings aren’t entered twice. I need to be able to send mass e-mails to internship coordinators. This list is taking me forever to go through. I also need to make sure that none of the company’s listings fell through the cracks for whatever reason. So I’m double-checking all of my lists against one another and trying to make this master list on Excel. Ugh.

I’m hosting three friends at my apartment tonight because they are nice enough to come over and help me sort through my stuff for my big move in a few weeks. I have to have pizza ready for them by 8:30. Well, I know what I will be doing this weekend: entering data. Yahoo!

But get excited . . . as of Monday, you’ll have a new favorite location on the web to check out. And of course, I’ll put all the links here on my blog.

Have a great weekend. I’ll be plugging away!

Lauren

My new site on quarterlife.com is set to launch on Monday. We’re in the process of staging the pages. The web developers came back to me today with the frames we are going to use. Our team made some changes, and then we’ll approve the new frames ASAP. It’s quite the process to build a new page.

Meanwhile, the listings keep coming in, which is very exciting. I know that you’ll all recognize a majority of the companies that will be posting with us for our Monday launch. Again, if you’re searching for fall interns (they can start anywhere from August 1 through October 15), e-mail me at internqueen@quarterlife.com, and I’ll get you all set up.

I didn’t get the opportunity to blog about Tuesday. As forecast, it was a sunny and productive Tuesday filled with meetings about the launch of the new site. I’m going to act as my own publicist for now, so I’m developing a strategic press plan for the launch. Readers who’ve been with me from the beginning know all about the chaos I endured when I used an outside publicist. Most of our initial listings are in the Los Angeles and New York Metro areas, so I will probably keep it regional until we get more of a variety of companies.

I was in the office late last night, then bolted over to the park for a quick workout with my trainer, Nikki. She’s great and is going to help me with a special workout-themed blog for next week. For entrepreneurs looking to get fit, I strongly suggest finding a trainer with a flexible schedule who is willing to work with you. After my workout, I ran home to prepare some of my “Rachael Ray” specialty meals. I made a delicious spinach/ricotta pie. I’m telling you, go buy the new magazine and grab some of the recipes!

This morning I was interviewed by WetFeet.com, a great online career source. I’ll provide the link when it gets posted next week. I also got in a quick game of tennis this morning and completed some conference calls on my way into the office. Today was filled with meetings again, and a short shoot for a promotional spot on quarterlife. I’m excited about the launch, and you should bem too! Get your interns while they’re hot!

Hey, Hey, Hey, Entrepreneurs! I hope that most of you are sleeping right now. I’m clocking in to blog at 1:48 a.m. PST. I’ve been sitting by the computer since 10:30 p.m. e-mailing employers about my internship services. I need to stop soon because my eyes are starting to close.

Monday was a successful day. I didn’t have the energy to get up and run this morning because I stayed up late last night. But I did play some tennis tonight and go for a quick run. Note: Tennis is my new thing. I’m not good yet, but I plan to be.

I had a few conference calls with potential partners today. I scheduled a few more calls for Friday. My goal is to fill Fridays up with calls since Fridays aren’t very productive.

I went through my phone sheet today (my Excel document) and did follow-up calls and e-mails. I got about 12 more companies signed up today and hopefully will continue to get more in as the week goes on.

I also wanted to clear something up for a few of my readers. My new internship program is not up and running yet. I’m in the process of developing the new site. It should be ready in the next few weeks. My Intern Queen site (www.internqueen.com) is an outdated site, and I only keep it up for reference purposes. It needs to be cleaned and revamped. It is full of irrelevant information and outdated blogs. It is the “Lauren” site instead of the “Intern Queen” site. It’s an OK start, but it’s not properly branded. My new site will feature internship listings. That’s what I’ve been contacting companies about.

RANDOM NEW THING or “Intern Queen Favorite”: I love buying Rachael Ray’s new magazine and having close friends and family rip out their favorite recipes. I spent about an hour in the grocery store today searching for the ingredients to make at least three delicious meals this week. I keep my phone in my car while I’m in the grocery store and use it as a time to relax and think about food!

Monday is everything. If I can get on track Monday morning, then my week will be set at a lovely tone. My goal is to wake up early and take a jog. I’m going to see whether working out in the morning helps increase my focus. I have a conference call at 9 a.m., so I’ll try to be in the car at that point. That means a 7:45 a.m. wake-up for the Intern Queen. We’ll ignore the fact that I’m blogging in between e-mails at 2:07 a.m.

This weekend wasn’t the most productive for me. Luckily, my Blackberry is my best friend, and I have e-mail access and capabilities through it. Otherwise I would have been in trouble because I left my computer charger at my office. My poor laptop has experienced two dark weekends in a row. Ugh. Anyhow, I did get a chance to go by the office tonight and take care of some work. I made about 80 phone calls on Thursday and four of them were returned. Note: These are cold calls. This seems to be the ratio: For every 80 cold calls and pitches, I get four to eight calls returned. I hope it gets better as my business grows, or else my throat is going to be extremely sore.

I did have a very relaxing weekend–which is a change. I saw the movie Stepbrothers, which I do recommend. It was hysterical. And I spent the rest of the time with close friends and poolside. At least this week I’ll be an entrepreneur with a tan. Very exciting.

In other news, my site should launch August 1. And if your company needs interns–I hope you’re e-mailing Internqueen@quarterlife.com.

Let’s have a productive week. My goal is to get 100 companies signed on this week. I’ll let you know what number I’m on later in the week. Cross your fingers.

My “Blog Drafts” shows what my blog would have been headlined yesterday: “A Dark Weekend. A Crabby Day.” I’m so glad my attitude has adjusted and that I’m back in action. My computer was broken all weekend (hence the “dark” weekend), so that’s why there have been no blogs from the Intern Queen. I spent all day yesterday trying to fix my computer and bouncing around from meeting to meeting. I have adopted a new policy: Meetings should take place in the a.m. (so I can stop on my way to work) or after work hours. Unless someone can come to my side of town, it isn’t worth it to sit in traffic all day. I sat in traffic all day yesterday until about 7 p.m., when I finally threw my hands in the air and drove home. Ugh!

Anyhow, today is a much better day in the land of my business. I made about 80 cold calls today, so I might lose my voice but at least I’ve accomplished a lot. It’s just so much easier to get a response from people when you personally pick up the phone and call. I would say that for every 100 e-mails I send, I get two responses. But when I e-mail people directly and speak with them first, I get a much better response. I don’t have “high-profile” tech equipment, so I just keep a running Excel document with all of the numbers/people I need to call and the status of those calls.

*NEW ROUTINE: I’m also trying to print out key Entrepreneur.com-related articles daily. I’ve found that reading more articles/newspapers/magazines has made me more knowledgeable about the industry and helps me keep my focus.

I think I’m a Tuesday/Thursday kind of girl–those days always seem the most productive for me and my business. Today was extremely productive (hooray!). I know I keep going on and on about finding the right schedule but I really believe that if I experiment enough with different scheduling strategies, I’ll see an improvement in my work.

Last night I started my new ritual of “Research Before Bed.” I turn on the TV (last night I think I did a mixture of Friends reruns, Sex And The City reruns and Talk Soup on E!), and I look up phone numbers and websites. Sounds like a party, doesn’t it? Well, it’s completely necessary for starting a new business with not-so-many contacts in the right areas. I wish I had a database of career counselors and internship coordinators built into my brain, but I don’t. So I sat in front of the television for about two hours and looked up names in Google and Yp.Yahoo.com (Yahoo’s Yellow Pages). The sad truth is that by doing that I was only about 50 percent accurate–if that.

This morning, I sat in front of my computer answering my morning e-mails and calling all of the companies from my list. It felt nice and productive to have number after number to call. I didn’t have to pause after each call to look up the next one.

I had coffee today with a friend and college publisher/expert who told me about Jigsaw.com, a database of contacts that you can purchase. I checked into it and my question is– is it worth it to purchase contacts off a site like this? What if the contacts are outdated and incorrect, and my e-mails are just sent to the dark side? On the other hand, my random e-mails would reach more people if I sent them to massive numbers of HR directors and internship coordinators at the same time. Any ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions?

Tonight I have another huge list to go home with. We’ll see how long it takes.

Here we are again, 6:30 p.m. on Monday, in the office. It’s hot. I’ve been working up a sweat all day today. I had a slow morning due to a lack of coffee on my way to work, but I was able to power through. I’ve realized that whenever I start to get tired, I need to leave the office and go somewhere with my notebook. Placing myself in a different environment seems to re-energize me and gets me through the tired phases.

RESEARCH
My focus today was to get the word out to companies that they can post their internship listings for free on my new site. Students can access these listings for free, as well. I’ve been tracking the companies that post on competitor sites and making sure they know I exist.

I’ve also been looking up internship studies and listings. For example: BusinessWeek magazine did an article last year about the top 50 internship programs. I’m working hard to get those company numbers and call each up and speak to their internship coordinator. For every 100 e-mails I send out, I only get about five back. That’s not a great proportion, but I guess you have to start somewhere. Today I signed up about 10 new companies to post their internship listings. That’s all right. But tomorrow I want to get 30 companies to sign up. Yes, 30 companies. I wonder how I’m going to do that?

I also started keeping even more specific stats on my sites and my competitor sites. I’m interested in seeing how much new business they are bringing in daily.

I’m finally attempting some sort of balance between work and weekend. This weekend wasn’t 110 percent work, but I’d say I accomplished 85 percent of what I aimed for.

FRIDAY
I’m not the biggest fan of Fridays as far as work is concerned. I’m still cold-calling and pitching ideas to different companies and employees, and on Fridays, everyone I speak with is “signed off” work for the weekend. I guess if Friday didn’t exist, then I wouldn’t like Thursdays. Oh, well.

I left the office earlier than usual because I got a case of the Fridays. I felt as though no one I called was listening. I figured I’d have much better luck on a Monday when people are in the “work zone” and focused. Fridays are a great time to get some socializing into your life. That’s what I did: I went out to a few bars with some friends and had a great night. I’m also in the middle of moving, so I did some location scouting. In life, so many things happen at once. My new business, my move–when it rains, it pours.

SATURDAY
Saturday is usually a complete play day for me. I wanted to change that and get some work done. I still went out to breakfast and sat by the pool with friends, but I also made time to visit The Coffee Bean and get about two hours of work in. I decided to really try and utilize my social networking tools. I started going through my contacts on LinkedIn to see whether anyone was looking for interns/internships. This also gave me an opportunity to organize my daily e-mails and file them properly. I’ve also been keeping an Excel doc of “stats,” and I’m logging how many visitors my blog and my site get each day. Saturday evening I picked up a new hobby: tennis! I played for over an hour and, by the end of my time, I was actually doing pretty well. Again, I stress exercise for entrepreneurs. There’s just too much information flowing through your brain all of the time to not exercise and get it all out.

SUNDAY
Its 10:53PM and I just got back from a few hours at the bookstore. I had what I call “massive workout” for my brain. I grabbed a few magazines off the shelf and wrote down pages and pages of notes and ideas that I had for Intern Queen.

MY MASSIVE WORKOUT SELECTIONS:

Book: Free Money and Help for Women Entrepreneurs by Matthew Lesko

This book provided me with at least 10 phone calls to make tomorrow morning. It’s a great resource, and lists pages and pages of small business resources. The listings are categorized by state, so it’s easy to find your local SBA. On my “check out” list are the following women’s organizations: NAFE, ABWA, WBOC, NFWBO. I’ll let you all know what I find out.

Magazines: Entrepreneur’s StartUps Special, Fast Company, Success, Every Day With Rachael Ray (I just love her), and Shop Smart.

I always enjoy the articles in magazines where they interview a celebrity or successful businessperson and ask about that person’s daily routine. I would always take the celebrity’s schedule and compare it to mine. Today I had (and I’m still having) a huge day.

I used to dream about the days when I wouldn’t have to sit behind a desk all day and would be free to take meetings and run around town. That day came today.

And although I’m on my third coffee, I’m still energized and motivated. Remember in my old blogs when I used to search high and low for motivation? Today it’s right here with me (as it should be).

My schedule for today is listed below. I’d love to get comments from readers on how they spend their days. I always find these interesting . . .

INTERN QUEEN’S THURSDAY

6:30 a.m. Still pressing snooze.

7:30 a.m. Convincing myself that if I don’t get up soon, I’ll miss my meeting.

8:15 a.m. En route to McDonald’s for my “Intern Queen Favorite,” iced coffee.

9 a.m. In downtown Los Angeles for my first meeting with a college counselor.

10:30 a.m. Working from home, sending e-mails and making calls from my phone sheet.

1 p.m. Lunch meeting with another college career counselor.

2:45 p.m. Coffee with the head of another recruitment service.

4 p.m. In the office finishing my daily phone sheet and returning calls. I also typed up my weekly productivity report. (I decided I’m going to make these daily at 6:30 p.m. and turn in an all-inclusive version to my superiors every week.) Normally, I would do my blog at 6:30 p.m. as well, but I was a little backed up today with my meetings.

6:45 p.m. Emergency manicure. Hey! I couldn’t help it. My mother would be horrified if she saw me going to meetings with nails that looked the way mine did. I should have done them pre-meetings.

8 p.m. Quick bite to eat across town with potential manager.

9:30 p.m. Coffee catchup with two close friends (It’s important to me to stay updated on what is going on with my close friends, even with a busy schedule)

10:15 p.m. Back home to check e-mails, blog and create my phone sheet for my ride to work in the morning. I usually have a little bit of “at home” research I like to do each night, as well, to feel productive.

11 p.m. Cleaning my apartment and going through old Intern Queen files to decide what to take into the office. I also need to make sure the ants that found old peaches in my kitchen are all dead.

12:30 p.m. Late night workout. Then, most likely, food (even though it’s horrible to eat this late). All followed by sleep.

Why have I not posted in a while ? It’s simple; I still have a full-time job, a full-time social life, the full-time head of a mid-twentysomething. Is it even possible to be a true “entrepreneur” when you are so wrapped up in everything else that is going on in your life ?

Take this week. for example. I have a new full-time job, I’m hosting my two best friends’ “Joint Bachelorette Party” in New York City this weekend, I have dirty clothes all over my apartment, a charity event on Thursday night and the need to work out at least twice a week. When do I have time to be an entrepreneur ?

I know that I’m complaining. That is ironic because I completely choose to be “The Intern Queen” and I completely choose to be a “young entrepreneur.” The thought of ditching my company is like breaking up with a guy you love. I couldn’t do it. But when I feel myself only putting half an effort in, it is so frustrating. All of my friends are constantly telling me that I need to really “do something” with my company. What they don’t understand is that it is much easier said than done. They constantly volunteer themselves for roles they can play in my company, but they never follow through. It’s hard enough for me to follow through. Every time I get close to a deal or an investor, something falls through the cracks.

I wish this were a post filled with love and joy and bubbles, but this blog is about honesty–and being an entrepreneur isn’t easy. You have really high standards, and you have to attempt to meet those standards.

On a positive note, I’m in this month’s issue of Justine magazine, so check it out on newstands.

I know that you all must have missed me … and I appologize for not giving you my necessary bloggin last week. … But I’m back, so let’s play catch up! Hope everyone had a nice weekend. Let’s talk about the fun weekend stuff before we dive into business. Friday night I had tacos with some friends and over the weekend I saw Dan in Real Life, which was excellent. I hope you all saw Dane Cook and how great he was in this part! It was nice to see him take on a different type of character. I left the theater with a huge smile on my face. Saturday was cleaning day for my messy apartment and then a bunch of friends and I went out on the Hollywood scene that evening. On Sunday I hosted the first University of Central Florida (my college) Los Angeles alumni event. I’m the president of the club, so it was our first event and it was great!

Today.

In efforts to not get down on myself for no movement … it was back to the old breakfast joint (Mani’s bakery in Los Angeles) to get my motivation back. I was supposed to have a breakfast meeting about growth possibilities for the Intern Queen webseries that used to consume my blogging but was canceled at the last minute. Just to catch you all up on what is going on in the Intern Queen’s life … this is what I’ve been working on …

1. I did get a chance to go to Borders on Monday evening and do a little mind workout. I grabbed a bunch of different business and teen magazines and started doing more brainstorming. The majority of my notes consists of different organizations I want to contact, upcoming conferences, press outlets to contact, fellow entrepreneurs to reach out to, people I need to e-mail, and a few nonprofit sites for young people to check out. Once I get through all of these websites, I’ll let you know whether I recommend any of them.

2. I’m trying to read the following publications daily (well, the ones that are daily) starting today. The publications are: WWD, LIMA, HFM and Brandweek.

3. I have a full list of top 500 companies to contact for internship consulting. I tried calling the main line to ask for the internship coordinator contact info but, since they are such large companies, I’m being directed to the websites. This is going to take forever. Ugh. I need a virtual assistant.

4. I’m working on setting up a fashion show for Dec. 4 at a club in Hollywood. I only have seven T-shirts and would like to at least have ten tops in the show. I’m looking through old design sheets to see which shirts I’d like to make.

5. As far as follow-up, I’m not having the best luck in the world. Here is what’s happening:

Book

I got one ambiguous letter from a publishing company that stated it is interested in working with me but didn’t really state in what capacity. So that is a good thing. I have left word for a few people several times and still not heard back. Another company said that I need to wait six weeks for a response …

Press

I have an interview today at 1 p.m. for a new college magazine that some girls from the University of Florida are starting. My interview with Justine magazine is supposed to run in the Feb/March issue. I got a “pass” from a women’s magazine today, but I e-mailed back asking whether I could submit a sample of the article I was pitching. I got a “pass” from a Florida Magazine that wasn’t interested because I don’t live in Florida anymore. I left word for a couple of follow-up pitches.

Web Series

I just read over the five episodes I have completed and I want to look for a venue that is interested in producing them and providing financial backing and location (which shouldn’t be too much money).

In other news, I have a whole folder at work with me today of things I need to get done and look through. I’ve eaten sushi nightly for the past four days, which can’t be good. I have a meeting tonight with a great publicity friend who works for a major clothing line. I’m excited to hear her advice. I’m going to Vegas for the Stevie Awards on Sunday, and still don’t have a dress or cute business suit.

Have a wonderful Wednesday, and let’s all try to not get stuck in the mid-week blues.

This weekend was “blah” in terms of the Intern Queen. In terms of my social life, it was one of the best weekends ever. It was a very close friend’s birthday so I hosted a whole weekend full of fun surprises, nice dinners, spa treatments, etc. We had a blast but there was really no time for work. I tried to do a Barnes and Noble run late last night in The Valley. Did you know that a world exists in which Barnes & Noble has no cafe? What?! Were these people serious? Part of my “Barnes & Noble” experience means grabbing everything I’m interested in at that moment (books, magazines, etc) and taking them to a table in a cafe and taking notes over an iced coffee.

Needless to say, my Barnes & Noble experience was cut short for this reason and I lost my sense of urgency for the weekend.

This morning, I decided to definitely attend the Stevie Awards Final Ceremony in Vegas. It’s coming up in two weeks and this is the first awards show I’m attending on behalf of my company. I’m a little nervous but very excited. And I am suddenly faced with a bevy of questions!

What do I wear?

Is anyone else going to this show?

When people take business trips for these purposes do they try to set meetings as well?

Are there certain people I should be contacting?

In other news, I did get an email back from one of the publishing companies I’m speaking with today saying to hold tight while they get some things together. It actually sounds semi-positive so I’ll keep my fingers crossed. Didn’t do any follow-up calls today, but I’ll get back on the phone call wagon tomorrow. Fun Fun! Need to get focused on internship consulting and the clothing line. Nothing new to report.

Let’s have a BOOM week. (By BOOM, I mean as productive as possible!)

My readers must be sick of the phrase follow up because honestly, I’m sick of blogging about it. But let’s face it — to be solid entrepreneurs, we must consistently follow-up. I try to recognize the boundaries between being persistent and being annoying. My rule of thumb is to give the person two days to look over materials and then put in a friendly email or phone call reminding the person or company of your existence.

Today on my 40 minute traffic-filled drive to work, I had my list of follow-up phone calls in hand. I actually got through about 10 of them. Most of the companies are in New York so by the time I took my lunch break it was too late to get them on the phone.

My 10 phone calls were to the folllowing:

1. Business Magazine - wrong number - need to get the correct one

2. Florida Magazine - they don’t want to work with me because I no longer live in Florida. The editor said he liked my website so that is always a positive. My website tracker confirmed that he did visit the site. That is a good way to turn a negative into a positive.

3. Student Organization - Left word.

4. Teen Magazine/Website - Left word.

5. Another Teen Magazine - Left word.

6. Publishing Company - Left word.

7. Possible Literary Agent - I spoke with her assistant who tried to nicely tell me that the agent had reviewed my work and was not interested in working with me. I told her I appreciated her time and thanked her. Yes, I know I’ve said that I’m trying to represent myself but sometimes I do try to contact random agents that I feel would do a solid job in representing me.

8. Potential Retailer for Clothing - Left word.

9. Another potential retailer for clothing - Spoke to buyer and I emailed over my materials (website, product sheets). I’m not sending samples just yet. I think you either like what the shirts say or you don’t…

10. Another potential retailer for clothing - Left word.

Tomorrow, I have four more calls to make from my list and then I’ll add on another potential investor and two more publishing companies to follow-up with. Whew!

Website Update
Last night I had an in-depth chat with my web designer. We are trying to restructure the site to make it more like a company (which I know I’ve previously mentioned). We are trying to use a more consistent design and get it updated more frequently. We came up with some nice ideas and the changes should be ready for me to approve next Thursday.

Clothing Line
Still playing phone tag with fashion people about putting together a show for beginning of December. Grrrrr!

If you are wondering whether or not I got up early this morning to send emails? Nope! But I did come in contact with the magic of the DOLLAR STORE last night. I didn’t realize that I could get so much stuff for so cheap. They have food and condiments and all sorts of things that other stores would completely up charge you for. I also had to stop at KINKOS last night (a favorite pastime of mine) and I thumbed through a book called 101 WAYS TO LIVE A CLUTTER-FREE LIFE (yes, in addition to being the Intern Queen, I am also a clutter queen). One of the first chapters said to carry a clipboard because it gives you a sense of authority to get things done. So guess what Lauren bought today?

Clipboard… check.
The road to a clutter-free life… in progress.

Update 

Well, like every entrepreneur, I’ve put myself and my company out there. In this specific case, I have sent out some (top secret) business proposals. I am very interested an excited about the slight possibility that these companies will realize that together we could create a huge opportunity and experience for anyone looking for more information on internships. I should definitly hear from one of the companies next week and the other might be a bit more of a process. I’m communicating my goals and my materials over email with both companies. I think that maybe I should send them some Internal EthiKs T-shirts as well ! I will get that package together this weekend. It would be such an amazing thing to partner with an organization that believes in my ideas like I do. To really be able to have the resources to make my company come to life would be a dream come true.

Also, in the Press world, I had my interview with JUSTINE magazine yesterday. It was a phone interview and I think it went pretty smoothly. I haven’t done too many interviews for Teen Magazines so I tried to stay on track and keep the article about motivating teen girls to get the internships of their dreams. With interviews its important to remember that they are most likely recording you and that speaking clearly and grammatically correct is crucial - as you will most likely be directly quoted. And I’m sure anyone who reads my blogs can tell that I tend to speak in tangents and go on and on about certain subjects! The interview is being considered for a feature in the Dec/Jan issue so I will keep you all posted. I’m looking forward to doing more teen magazine interviews and really reaching the teen demographic and personally explaining to each young one that internships are possible for everyone.

New Random Task

So I decided that I should make folders with my company logo (Intern Queen Inc.) on them so that when I send out my press materials they are presented well and look sharp. I choose black folders and wanted to get my logo printed on them in white. Did you know that just to print on the folders alone is $100.00 ? What ? My friend at Kinkos said it is because they use a special machine. Seriously ? $100.00 for printing on folders ? There must be a cheaper way to do this. I thought about just purchasing the folders myself but are they ok to go out without the company logos ? Even to make logo stickers to place on the folders would be around another $100.00 dollars. These folders would contain press materials and/or business plans to send to potential investors. Does anyone have any advice on this ? Thanks so much!

Goals

This weekend my goal is to actually be a “weekend entrepreneur” and pay attention to my business instead of draining my schedule with plans after plans after plans. Sometimes I find that I don’t want to deal with the possibility of my business failing, so I just crowd my agenda with social plans. That process will get NOTHING done. This weekend I’m going to attempt to take 2 hours on both Saturday and Sunday and just hideout at my local Borders or Barnes and Noble and strictly focus on working. I’ll let you know how it goes!

More Chatting

Sometimes all I need is a good negative comment so get me motivated. Everyone finds motivation from different sources. Today I was speaking with my mother (who I speak with approx. 10 times per day) and she mentioned that her manicurist asked how my T-shirt line was going. My mother responded with, “yeah, she really has done much with it… it just sits there… and the shirts sit in her closet.” GRRRRRRRRR. The statement is frustrating but true. Since my fashion show, which was almost 8 months ago, there really has been no movement with the line. I have a few new designs but haven’t moved forward to have them printed and create more samples. This weekend will be a good time to re-strategize on the clothing line and find some new opportunities to move forward with it.

Also, if any of you are regular A SAVVY START readers, I’d love to hear what you like to read about and what you want to hear more about! Thanks so much! Happy reading and blogging.

Well…I predicted it in my earlier post. I was referred to a book agent from one of the publishers that passed on my project. I called the woman and told her that I was previously represented by a book agent but I terminated my agreement with him last October (2006) because I didn’t feel he knew how to communicate my work properly and he didn’t communicate well with me. She told me that in order to look at my material she would need a list of publishers that he pitched. I contacted the old agent and got this material for her. He had contacted most of the “business book contacts” but I was/am confident that he didn’t do properly. I want to sell my book as part of the brand I’m trying to build - I think that is what brings true value to the project. The woman looked over the list of agents that my old agent pitched and wrote me the following:

” I regret there’s nothing I or any other agent can do for you with this
content.  I recommend you wait a year, dramatically repackage it, and try
again. You can send me a query at that time.”

So I wrote her back and told her that the material had dramatically changed (as I have revised the chapters several times since it was last pitched) and asked her if she could just take a look at my website to better grasp the concept I was going for…she wrote the following:

“No, thank you.  Your website is not relevant. Publishers won’t consider that
when they’ve already rejected the content once. You would be well-advised to
do as I have suggested.  I cannot overcome this, nor do I think can any agent. ”

With two of my closest friends before a Birthday Party in Hollywood.

Nothing like a little rejection, your actors falling out of your podcast, and a 24-hour fever to jumpstart your weekend! I’m sure anyone who reads my blogs can tell that I like to “go go go” all the time and I guess sometimes that has to catch up with you. I’m so fascinated by the word BALANCE - and especially fascinated by people who have a great BALANCE in their lives. BALANCE is what I struggle with daily with my job, my INTERN QUEEN projects, and the gym !

BUT this weekend was a great weekend. I decided (as I was sick in bed on Friday) to not work - and just relax and have a good time. I decied that I don’t need to rush my podcast - we don’t need to film this coming weekend. I’m going to take a deep breathe and push the shoot date. I HATE PUSHING THINGS BUT I think in this case - it is definitly the right thing to do and will help me deal with the stress the rushed date was causing. I have four episodes drafted out now but I’d like to have them tightened up a bit. I was also going back and fourth with directors and editors to help me work on the project. I think I met a director who will work…but I haven’t made any decisions yet. Tomorrow I need to sit down with my producers and figure things out. A rushed project is never a pretty one so I think this choice will benefit the outcome.

In other news, I did purchase MIND OVER BODY by Nordine (the guest blogger on Michelle’s site) and I LOVE IT so far! I’ll let you know the outcome but I’m hoping it finally brings me to the gym - day after day after day!!

SIDENOTE: Today I had my first massage!! It was amazing - I had a whole spa day with my girlfriends and we had the best time. It was just what I needed to re-energize and relax….here’s to a wonderful week filled with NON-STRESSFUL THINGS!!!

Sometimes (most of the time) it’s ok to go out and have fun all weekend - we can’t all think about work all the time - I know that I needed a break!  

MODELS FOR INTERNAL ETHIKS BY THE INTERN QUEEN !!!

 (More about the clothing line to come in future blogs)

A short work week - hooray! I had another non-productive weekend. My best friend’s from Florida were in town (it is purely company season for me) so I started Monday with lots of follow up calls and slightly antsy dancey (like that one?) feeling in my belly. It is time to GET THINGS DONE!

Follow up calls and e-mails were first. There were two large print and online media sources that I was pitching hard. The first was a print publication that had started off well. They wanted more intern content so I pitched them a list of ideas. I left word with a follow up call on Monday and today (Tuesday) I got a voicemail from the editorial contact I was dealing with. She said that she was “simply understaffed at the moment and would check in with me when she restaffed in a few months.” Boo. But I have to say - I was impressed she even called me back. I’ve found that most editors/creative execs who don’t want to deal with you simply just don’t call you back.

The other online media source I was pitching was kind enough to write back asking for more detail on my ideas. I wrote them back today (via email) and hope to hear back on that front very soon! I calendared to follow up with them a week from today (since Memorial weekend is this weekend).

If you’re wondering what’s going on with my “book deal” I’m still waiting to hear back from the company. I did follow up with them on Monday and they very nicely told me they hadn’t made any decisions yet and that they should know by the end of the week. Again, if I don’t hear Friday - I will try and follow up on Monday. -As proper follow up is VERY IMPORTANT.

I’ve taken a few days to think about the FACEBOOK DIARIES project I mentioned the past few weeks. I’m going to speak to the producers and see if I can focus it solely on my company. I’m just not comfortable speaking in front of the camera about “heartbreak” “love” and “losses”. I just don’t see my personal life necessary to be broadcast on the facebook.com - my company is NOT tied to those experiences. And although any press could be considered good press - I don’t want to give a wrong impression on screen or talk about anything too personal to a mass audience with no control over the editing process…Does anyone have any thoughts on this ??

My new web designer is great so far - although he’s on vacation - so we haven’t been able to see many updates. He’s back early next week so I’m hoping for some great press and blog updates on www.internqueen.com.

I’ve completed the character breakdowns for my video blog. Now, I must start writing the episodes…here goes nothing!

On a side note: I took a YOGA class last night and found it so relaxing and a great way to channel my stress and energy. I definitely recommend this to anyone - especially entrepreneurs who might drive themselves a little dizzy at times! I’m going to try and make it a priority to get to the gym or do some sort of physical activity a few times a week to help maintain a solid self-balance.