I strive to make 25% of my professional life ‘for free’ and provide mentorship, services, and my time to people or ideas that truly matter to me. My work with Podcamp Philly, Social Media Club Princeton NJ, and most of my ‘online’ persona is given away freely. It’s my face to face work that earns me a buck to feed my family.
My rule has been that I need to get the 75% paid work first before giving my 25% away. I’ve broken that rule with the Women of Google+ project but I love the concept, so I’m working 15 hours a day to fit it all in. Today I am meeting with my younger cousin to help him and his partners get a business off the ground (handling all their tech & providing any smart words of wisdom from decades in business). It makes me happy to give back to my awesome family!
I realized the other day that a lot of people that ‘know’ me from only online get the vibe that I don’t earn a living (or in a good number of cases – am required to give everything away for free) just because I ‘work’ online. I don’t toot my horn about all the face/face work I do, all the training, all the projects, etc. because then I feel like I’mselling. Maybe I should be a bit more pitchy in here 😉 The personal satisfaction I get for helping in person is honestly a bit more rewarding, online everything is taken for granted.
On an even happier note, good friends of mine and my husband’s gave birth to their first child today – a baby boy! Today is going to be a good great day…
