I have made it my own personal goal over the last year to travel as much a possible. In the last two years I've explored local hot spots in Michigan as well as spent time in kayaking Pictured Rocks in Michigan's U.P., hiking Hocking Hills in Ohio, swimming with manatees in Florida's Crystal River, dog sledding in the Rocky Mountains, catching an outdoor Red Wings hockey game in Denver, and discovering an awesome national park called Pointe Peelee in Canada. And, currently, I am planning a trip to Iceland for later this year.

As my career heats up, I find myself appreciating time away more and more. And with each trip I find myself getting more out of the experience for my career.

1. Becoming a Self-Starter
If you have the ability, try taking a solo trip... even if it is as simple as a cross-state road trip. This gives you the ability to discover a place at your own pace without having to worry about someone rushing you along. You get to plan the trip and do whatever you want, when you want. This helps teach you to be a self­-starter and are able to accomplish tasks on your own.

2. Using Team Work (To Make the Dream Work)
But we all know, traveling is much better when you have someone to share with with. You know you have a good friend when you can travel alongside someone for an extended period of time and only get into a fight once. Traveling with another person or a group of people helps you to be able to work with another personality on a project as well as practice your teamwork abilities and conflict resolution skills.

3. Becoming Flexible
I personally love to have a specific itinerary planned out before going on a trip. But sometimes it makes the trip better to just have an idea of what you want to do then let the experience lead the way. Flexibility is important in both travel and in your career. Not everything will go according to plan, and that is OK.

4. Making Connections with People
While traveling you'll meet all kinds of people, from all walks of life, that you wouldn't have met otherwise. These types of people wouldn't necessarily have fallen into your typical circle and befriending them may be a challenge. Being able to make a positive connection with someone unlike yourself if a trait that will help you the rest of your life.

5. Ignoring Stereotypes
Whether your traveling stateside or internationally, you're bound to find yourself confronted by stereotypes at every turn. You've heard it: "French people hate Americans." But in fact, they don't. And my native state of Michigan says a lot of bad stuff about Ohio (we're college football rivals) but hiking after hiking in Hocking Hills, I was blown away by this state's beauty. Don’t let others bring you down or persuade your view on anyone or anything. Make your own conclusions.

6. Learning to Adjust
Similar to being flexible with those you are traveling with, it is also important to be flexible with adjusting to your surrounding. Paying attention to cultural customs and community norms. It is not for you to make them bend to your preference but for you to adjust to the their culture.

7. Trying Something New
Make sure to try something new where ever your travels take you. Bonus points to traveling to new places! By intentionally putting yourself outside of your comfort zone you will be ready and able to adapt to uncomfortable situations during your career with ease.

8. Disconnecting is Good for the Brain
And finally, traveling does wonders for your brainpower. The best thing about truly immersing yourself in your trip is that you don’t have to be constantly in touch. You're not chained to your laptop or tethered to your phone. When you disconnect, you reconnect with your brain, this can bring the creative juices flowing again, if you’ve been run dry. Traveling and disconnecting is the key to avoiding burnout.

Have you learned other valuable life lessons during your travels? Perhaps some wise notions that will help you throughout your career? Share them in the comments below!

What are your goals?

Such a simple question, but it often times difficult for social media managers to answer—much to their surprise! I love this example from Kim Garst: Let’s say you want to “get in shape”. Getting “in shape” is a subjective term. How do you know when you are there? Most people use weight as an indicator of what kind of shape they are in and most people have a “number” of pounds that they want to lose. So, let’s say you set a goal to lose 30 pounds and that when you do you are going to consider yourself “in shape”. Now we have a goal with a measurable objective. You can track your progress towards that goal every time you step on the scale. If you want to take it a step further, give yourself a deadline. “I want to lose 30 pounds before my high school reunion in 4 months”.

So if we are comfortable setting and working goals for most everything else, why do so few people do it with social media?

My advice is to start big and work down. Start by asking yourself these questions:

• What exactly do you want social media to do for you/your company? 
• Do you want to use it to improve your customer service? 
• Do you want to use it to boost attendance at your events? 
• Do you want to use it to sell products and services? 

Goal setting is really important. Most of the time people set a performance indicator without knowing what, if any goal that supports. They say, “I want 50,000 Facebook Fans.” But why? Having 50,000 fans means nothing if it does not support your overall goals and objectives.

Before you move forward with your social media actions, stop and take a few minutes and write down your social media goals. Where possible make goals objective and attach a deadline.

If you need a little help in deciding what your goals should be, remember the S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting method. Make sure your goals are Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely.

Now it's time to build your strategy.

Now that you have planned out and attainable social media goals, it's time to put together a strategy to reach those goals.

The basic social media sites you use and the amount of resources you need to commit to each varies dramatically based on your goals. All too often people think, for example, they have to use Facebook because "it's the most popular" or they want to exclude Twitter altogether because they "don't get it." This isn't the right attitude for developing your strategy. Although your personal opinion matters, choosing the right social media sites to support your goals matters more.

Going back to Kim's analogy: Imagine if you said “Well, I hate vegetables, but I love hot fudge sundaes, so I am going to eat 3 hot fudge sundaes every day to lose weight!”

If you sell retail goods to women, then Pinterest is the place for you. High end professional services? Then LinkedIn is a good place to spend much of your time. Are you a photographer? Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest are definitely more photo and graphics driven. You are more likely to connect to your ideal client there.



It's important that you understand the capabilities of all the social platforms as well as their popular target demographics and what types of content performs well.

On top of picking the right social media platform, your strategy should also include other items such as the resources you will need, key performance indicators (KPI’s), and the measurement tools you will use to track them among other things.

Stop and prepare.

It's so easy at this point to just go out and start posting. However, you should stop and prepare for your launch ahead of time.

Now that you have identified the social media sites you are going to use and established your social media goals and strategy, take some time to prepare before you start generating content. Take this time to

• Create credible, consistent branding to be used across all of your social media sites
• Optimize your profile with website links, keywords
• Update your “About” sections
• Inter-connect sites or create easy navigation amongst them where possible
• Learn the basics on how to use the site, the basic terms of service and etiquette

These days the #1 trusted resource for consumers is peer-to-peer reviews and word or mouth testimonials and, thanks to the wonderful digital world we live in, most of these recommendations happen through social media.

And the most trusted sources for these reviewers are known in the marketing industry as "influencers."

Influencers are individuals who can sway the sentiments of their online audience in a particular direction regarding a brand, idea, business, person, or any other entity. These people can make or break your reputation.

And since, whether you like it or not, there is already a conversation happening about your brand on social media, it would be best to get out ahead of it and start an influencer marketing campaign to build the trust and recognition among a large audience thanks to a popular voice on social.

To learn more about how Influencers can boost your business, check out my post on MELT.

Also if you're interested in getting started with an influencer marketing campaign, tune in to my online MELT workshop, How to Run a Social Influencer Program, on April 20 for everything you need to know!

March is Women's History Month and in celebration, here are some of my most inspiring quotes from influential women!

Oh @sherylsandberg you get us every time. pic.twitter.com/COz1ZVxxxU

— Women Rising (@TheWomenRising) March 29, 2016

In honor of International Women's Day, here are a few resources for women looking for professional development and mentoring opportunities in Metro Detroit:

Join Women Rising
If you are a woman in the tech or business industries, living in or around Detroit than this group is for you! Women Rising is an organization that pairs up its members based on industry and interests each month for some informal networking and mentoring!

Once you join, Women Rising will send you a questionnaire to determine your company position, industry, and your career goals. In the middle of each month, they will match you with two other compatible women for a fun and supportive mini-meetup that your group organizes on your own. It may be something as simple as a coffee meetup or a Skype call. The women you're paired with will be a mix of seasoned professionals and entry level for a well-rounded experience. Then the next month your network will grow by another two connections as Women Rising continues to pair you up.

Through Women Rising you will continue to meet intelligent and influential women every month for career advice or for developing new friendships! And the best part is that Women Rising is free to join!

If you are interested in joining Women Rising, visit www.womenrising.co.

Take Entrepreneurial Development Classes
Inforum, the professional women's organization, is working with two local leaders in finance and entrepreneurship for a program Inforum bills as the equivalent of master's classes in entrepreneurial development for women business owners called inGAGE.

The goal? In Inforum's words: "Positioning Michigan as the Midwest hub for high-growth women entrepreneurs."

The classes, which are sponsored by the Michigan Economic Development Corp (MEDC) and the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan, will help entrepreneurs assess their company's operations, finances and personnel; provide them professional coaching and mentors; and introduce them to sources of capital to fund growth. The current session of inGAGE classes is taught by Patti Glaza, a vice president at Invest Detroit who is managing director of its First Step and Detroit Innovate funds. She has also been CEO of several tech startups.

Applications are now being accepted for the second master's class, which will meet one Friday a month from April 22 to Dec. 9. It will be taught by Paula Sorrell, an Ann Arbor-based business consultant who recently finished a four-year stint as vice president for entrepreneurship for the MEDC. The cost to attend, $1,500, includes Inforum membership. For more information visit, www.inforummichigan.org/ingagemasterclass.

Join Inforum
On top of the inGAGE classes, Inforum offers a lot of other education, networking, and development opportunities and events all meant to help you make strategic and valuable connections, build relationships, expand your network, gain insight from thought-leaders, and hone your leadership skills.

Inforum's event calendar is really impressive. Just in the coming months it includes dozens of events geared at networking, learning, and community service. It's definitely worth checking out!

For more information on joining inforum, visit www.inforummichigan.org/making-right-connections.

Do you know more resources and organizations specifically for women in Metro Detroit? Let me know in the comments and I'll add them to the list!

As we celebrate International Women's Day today (March 8) as a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, I am reminded how important my work with the Girl Scouts is and the impact that I am leaving on their lives.

Data shows:

• Over 80% of Girl Scouts say that Scouting has helped them to feel more confident in taking the lead
• 94% of Girl Scouts say they feel like they can play a part in addressing issues important to them
• 3 out of 4 girls say that because of Girl Scouts they have become a leader in more activities with their friends, classmates, and their communities
• 71% of Girl Scout alumni consider themselves competent and capable, compared to only 55% of non-alumni who feel the same

WAGGGS reaches 10 million girls and young women in 146 countries across five regions. Together, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts are the largest voluntary movement dedicated to girls and young women in the world. Their mission is to enable girls and young women to develop their fullest potential as responsible citizens of the world, and their vision is for all girls and young women to be valued and to take action to change the world. And they've been transforming lives around the world for more than 100 years.

Together Girl Scouts and International Women's Day aim to empower girls and young women to stand up and speak out on issues affecting them, and they support girls to be leaders and make positive choices.

And to-date, Girl Scouting has an impressive track record:

• 2/3 of U.S. Congresswomen were once Girl Scouts
• At least 80% of women business owners were Girl Scouts
• Nearly every female astronaut who has flow into space was a Girl Scout

With leadership is at the core of Girl Scouting, leaders like myself aim to provide girls with dynamic and flexible training in life skills, leadership and citizenship all to develop the world's future female leaders.


How to Celebrate International Women's Day the Girl Scout Way:

1. Buy Cookies! Did you know the Girl Scout Cookies program is the largest girl-led business in the world? And that it teaches and builds some of the most important business skills the girls will use their entire lives? Through Cookie sales the girls practice goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics. Even our girls, 2nd and 3rd graders, learned and practiced daily "elevator speeches" and perfected their sales pitches to be used individually and during our troop cookie booths. We worked on our math skills by totaling orders, making change, and keeping an inventory of what cookies we had in stock. We also mastered customer service by making sure every girl was courteous, polite, helpful and knowledgeable about the product. This is how the next generations of entrepreneurs and leaders is created! Click here to find where to buy Girl Scout Cookies near you. Or if we know each other personally and you're in the area, let me know and my troop would be happy to sell you some cookies!

2. Make a Donation - If you're interested in being a part of International Women's Day's support of Girl Scouting and the entire WAGGGS community, consider making a donation. Your support helps deliver high quality programs and campaigns that provide girls and young women dynamic, flexible and training in life skills, leadership and citizenship. Click here to donate through International Women's Day. For more information on the partnership, click here.

By now you don't need me to tell you that first impressions are everything. And never has there been a truer statement than when it comes to LinkedIn profiles. You might have the most impressive resume but before they read the first word of your profile, prospective employers and clients visiting your page are going to see your picture.

And since a bad first impression could cost you a job or a valuable contact/networking opportunity, your profile picture is arguably one of the most important elements of your profile.

To make sure you're putting your best foot (or shall I say, face) out there, your picture should convey your competence, likability, and influence.

In a recent study by PhotoFeeler profile photos and their impressions were studied to determine what elements created the ideal profile photo for social media sites and blog profiles. The study was based on over 60,000 ratings of perceived competence, likability, and influence.