Failing

…And what I’ve learned from it.

Fail Whale (cc license: michperu)

1. Optimism Clouds Judgment – I want to think the best of people and companies. I want to be trusting and positive. Of course it makes life better to have positive attitude, but I have learned to proceed with caution and do my research before I get excited because of my own ignorance.
2. Cleanliness is Next to Godliness – I lost something kind of important. I am typically organized, but when my schedule got crazy, I slacked and now I do not know which way is up.
3. Just Get Over It – I let things stew when I am upset. I replay situations over and over again in my head. But sometimes you just have to get over it. I like to talk things out and not let them build up, but some things are better left unsaid. It has taken me a million “fails” to learn this.
4. If You’re In, You’re In – If you care about something or are passionate about it, you will be involved in it. I have failed when I have tried to avoid projects I care about. When you are passionate about something, you feel like you are doing the work for yourself anyway and find time for everything.

I’m curious – when was a time you learned from failing?

The Power of a Guest Blog Post

Hannah DeMilta

This is a guest post written by Hannah DeMilta.

It can be tough enough keeping up with your own blog that the thought of writing for someone else seems out of the question. However, I would argue there are some great reasons for writing a guest blog post. I find that it’s especially relevant to students but many of the same rules apply to professionals and other bloggers as well.

• Get published: Get your work out there. Being published is great especially if multiple people are willing to feature your writing. It builds your credibility when you are published on more than just your personal blog. Students take the opportunity to build your online portfolio and link back to your guest posts from your personal blog.

• Try a new topic: If you write a niche specific blog, writing a guest post might be your opportunity to break away from your normally covered topics. Perhaps you are a famous foodie blogger but you are also extremely passionate about racecars. Write a guest post for a racing blog instead of betraying your loyal readers with out of place content.

• Reach a different audience: This can be a huge opportunity depending whose blog you are writing for. You have the potential to reach out to a new group within your market or perhaps outside of it. Take the opportunity to gain new readership for your own blog by writing a compelling piece for someone else. Be sure you can include a link back to you.

• Have others promote you: I know personally I have trouble promoting my own work at times. I’ll tweet or share my posts once or twice but I always worry about being obnoxious. Let someone else do the promoting for you. It not only takes some pressure off of you, but also builds your credibility by having someone recommend you.

• Pay a small favor: Writing for someone else (especially for free) can pay off in the long run. Bloggers need constant content so sometimes a guest post can be considered a favor. Don’t make the mistake of expecting some type of return. Write because you want to, but remember nice favors for others pay off in the end. It’s just good blogger karma!

If you are interested in writing a guest post on my blog, just drop me an email. I cover a variety of topics and I’m always interested in what others have to share.

PaRtners Conference: See You There

I wanted to write a little bit about this year’s PaRtners Conference (#OCPaRtners), and why you should care that it is happening at Otterbein College this year on April 24. There are many reasons you should attend, but here are three:

Network with Columbus Professionals – Fellow communication students keep telling me about how they hope to move to Columbus after they graduate. PaRtners Conference is their chance to meet potential future colleagues including upcoming graduates, panelist, presenters and other Columbus professionals.

Get social – Network with other students and professionals during our lunchtime “challenge.” Bring business cards, resumes and be an impressive student others will want to get to know. After the conference is over, head to The Old Bag of Nails in uptown Westerville. Have a good time and simply hang out.

Professional development – Many of the speakers have taught me something invaluable. I have also learned a lot from some of the other students attending. We are hosting phenomenal speakers and panelists you will have the opportunity to meet. Ask insightful questions and have an open mind. You’ll definitely learn something.

Our conference is primarily for communication and public relations students, but we have approximately forty professionals already confirmed for this year’s conference. If you are young professional looking to learn more and network, or if you are a professional from the Columbus area interested in getting to know students and hang out with some awesome people, please register. We’d love to have you as well.

See you at PaRtners Conference at Otterbein College and at The Old Bag of Nails.

About: http://centralohiopartners.wordpress.com/about/

Programming: http://centralohiopartners.wordpress.com/programming/

Register by April 1 for a discount: http://centralohiopartners.eventbrite.com/

Rewriting Myself: How Otterbein Changed Me

As a freshman, I would have never guessed I'd be inducted into Mortar Board as a senior. Pictured with: Hannah DeMilta and Brittany Rings

Below are questions posed by my professors this quarter. I wanted to share my answer.

Think about your education at Otterbein: major, minor, IS, SYE, electives, co-curricular, extra-curricular, all of it. What has your education given you? What important lessons have you learned here?

My education has given me a sense of purpose. As a freshman, I did just enough to get by and had a very carefree attitude. Most people who meet me today would never believe this. I now move through the world with a passion and purpose that is driving me to work hard.

My liberal arts education has taught me to see everything in shades of grey. Nothing is black and white. There are always other questions to ask, complexities that may be hard to see on the surface and voices unheard. At the same time, I learned to defend my own way through which I view the world.

I have learned to consider my life. This is something you would assume everyone would do, but being a nonfiction creative writer and communication major especially gave me room to consider my place in the world. I got the chance to reflect upon and really mull over the choices I have made and will make.

I joke that college gave me the chance to “rewrite myself,” both literally and figuratively. I went from someone who scribbled in journals, to someone who writes press releases for national media. I went from someone who was passionate about a lot of things, but felt no purpose, to wanting to do something specific with my degree. I wrote over the things that I did not like about myself and had the opportunity to change who I was.

How did college or another life experience change you?

Go and Rule

Students and Dee Dee Myers (I'm on the right).

Last month, I had the privilege of having brunch with Dee Dee Myers before hearing her speak at Otterbein College. If you don’t know, Myers served as White House press secretary for President Clinton. She has also worked as a political analyst and former consultant to NBC’s The West Wing. In her speech to college students, Myers discussed the topic of her bestselling book, Why Women Should Rule the World. I was amused when she wrote in my copy of her book, “Go and rule.”

Myers argues we need to have women in positions of leadership in order to change the world. Having one woman in the board room can present challenges, but having a critical mass of women in leadership is better for everybody. I want to share some of her other insight and advice:

• Women need to raise their hands. We are more reluctant to raise our hands for the promotion we want or the resources we need. Part of the reason we are paid less than men is because we are less likely to ask for raises or promotions. Women don’t get credit because we are first reluctant to give ourselves credit. For example, men are seven times more likely than women to ask for more money for their entry-level job.
• Mothers make terrific leaders. Myers said she would rather hire the “her” that is a mom. Myers said, “Being a mom teaches you to look for the win-win. If you can get four kids to watch one video, what can’t you do?”
• Women need women mentors. We need to look to past women leaders and be mentored. We should learn from the women who led before us and learn from their challenges and successes. In addition, women need to support each other and personal decisions, rather than being our own toughest critics.

When responding to a question from a student, Myers said there will be some generational differences in the way women are viewed in the future. She pointed out that at our liberal arts college, with a female president and majority of students being girls, we are less likely to see discrimination. She cautioned that as we advance in our careers, we’ll see less and less women advancing and we will ask, where did all the women go? Myers cautioned current students not to assume all women choose to be home with their families, but realize they might not be in leadership because they are not given opportunity to advance because of their gender.

Do you think Gen Y embraces women in leadership?

A Generation Defined

This is part of a larger essay on Generation Y that will be made into a digital essay. In case you missed it, here’s the intro. I still have one more post coming to finish the script. I’d love your feedback.

Before I explain what it personally means to me to be a member of generation y, we have to consider what generation y is in a larger context. I found Gen Y-ers referred to by many titles. The millennials is another popular name, but there are others: Google Generation, Echo Boomers, Trophy Generation, the Boomlet, Nexters, Generation Y, and the Digital Generation. Sources differ in defining this generation, but most agree that it includes those born between 1980 and 2000. Born in 1988, I fit almost right in the middle.

One generation y book’s subtitle portrays the way some people describe my generation. Jean M. Twenge’s “Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled – and More Miserable than Ever Before” compacts in its title some of the ways people think about Gen Y. It seems positive to be thought of as confident and assertive. Others opinions are less flattering, and Twenge explains how she sees being raised to have overly high self-esteems has set my generation up for disappointment. Numerous blogs and online articles teach employers how to “deal with” this new generation who are so “shocking” for feeling at liberty to wear jeans and have flexible hours in the workplace.

But these stereotypes do not fit the generation I know. I think my peers enjoy volunteering, are goal oriented, are not afraid to work hard and are passionate about many things. Not all of us, of course. But for the most part, I feel honored to be part of Gen Y and inspired to work harder to disprove stereotypes.

Some generations get defined by wars they have served in. Adversities they have overcome. Accomplishments they have achieved. A baby boomer I talked with said, “Gen Y hasn’t let Sept. 11, Iraq or a recession define you. If you did, you would all be bluthering messes and I don’t think you’re bluthering messes.” We have had so much to compartmentalize that we have learned to not let the outside world affect us so much, and maybe that is why we come off as selfish. When you have 80 boxes of cereal to choose from and follow 500 people on twitter, you have to learn to make part your world a little smaller.

We’re the generation that has learned how to embrace change quickly.

I’ve included this clip not to be a saleswoman for Apple, but to show just how many operating systems we have mastered in our lifetime. We might not have liked it, but we have had to be versatile to survive in our ever changing world. If we can teach ourselves Google Wave and what a hashtag does on twitter, imagine what we will be able to do once we can take ownerships of those skills and innovation, and can use those to fuel the passions we are discovering as young employees and students. We’ve grown up with the tools. Now we have the chance to use them to change the way the world works. It has yet to be determined what we’ll do with our skills, but we have the potential.

On a personal level, not so long ago, I was maybe what critics would define as the typical Gen-Yer who did just enough to get by. I had it down to a science how to do just enough in my classes to do well. The world which I existed in was pretty small, consisting mostly of me and the people who made my life easier. But once I learned from real world work experience and got advice from some amazing mentors, and found a passion in public relations, I was able to put my stereotypical generation y overconfidence to good use. Once I found something I was good at, I didn’t have to teach myself the tools to begin to succeed in my field – I was a Gen Y student who already knew how to use the resources at hand –I just had to go one step further and apply them. As generation y steps into leaderships roles, we will have the opportunity to succeed, it’s just a matter of finding out what we are motivated by.

I think what strikes me about those who categorize Gen Yers is that they do not leave enough room open for the unknown. Most Gen Yers are not old enough to be in any higher position than an entry level employee. It has yet to really be seen what we’ll be like as leaders, managers and mentors. While my essay has a beginning and end, I want it to be an open, living piece. There are many unknowns that my generation will have to face, and I want to leave room for that here. There is a website I’ve enjoyed reading which names us The Next Great Generation, but I hesitate to be this positive as well. I’d like to think of us as Generation Potential. Now what will we do with it?

What do you think is missing or overlooked when generation y is defined?