Surprise! So I know you were expecting a blog post but after I wrote out the post I decided it was far too long for what I wanted from this series. SO I am completely jumping out of my comfort zone and starting this off as a podcast! I know it’s a lot to get excited about all at once so take your time…

Just to warn you, this is my very first attempt at audio recording but I must say I’m pretty proud of myself! I think it came out great. Sure there’s a few spots that I wish I could have sounded a little less scatter brained but I think it’s fun that way. This is something completely new just for you so let me know what you think!

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Download the podcast here!

Some show notes:

• This week we are talking about Masters of the Universe!
• It’s a pretty shaky plot with some weird side stories but all in all not horrible. It’s not like “Bullet Proof Monk” or “9th Gate” horrible or anything.
• Pop Tarts + my sister’s  She-Ra action figure = Hilarity!
• Skeletor gave me nightmares as a child and still continues to creep me out
• Back in the day Gwildor was super funny but now he’s kind of like the Jar Jar Binks of the He-Man world.
• Perhaps not the cheesiest of cheesy movies but there is definitely a level of Gouda to it…
• I mention at the beginning that I don’t talk a lot in public. That doesn’t mean I’m a hermit or am afraid of the Sun or something along those lines. It means that I’m not a great public speaker so this is a great way for me to break out of my shell. Just wanted to clear that up…hehe
• I noticed after listening to this podcast a few times that I tend to say “um” “basically” and a lot of things tend to be funny to me… I will work on toning those down in the future…
• I mention Wil Wheaton’s two podcasts so here are the links to Radio Free Burrito and Memories of the Futurecast
• The file is 19.3 mb so it’s not small but not huge. I’m still learning this podcast thing so maybe in the future we can make it a bit smaller so it’s easier to download but you should be able to listen in the browser if those 19 mg are just too much for your computer…

Over all I give it two out of four cheese wheels on the cheese scale.

Thanks for listening and

Good Journey to you all!

I know you’re all seeing dancing refreshments right now so here you go…

I have a lot of movies.

You know how some people collect knick knacks or comic books? I collect movies and books. I have so many I don’t even remember buying some of them! It’s not my fault, it’s the book stores and bargain bins fault for selling them for $1-5.00! How do you pass that up?!

So here’s the deal -

In an effort to show off my strange and odd personality I decided it would be fun to go through my collection and showcase a movie each Monday! That way I can show off my weird taste in cinema and you get to learn a bit about me!

Now you may be wondering, “What about your crazy awesome book collection Sara?” Well, I am trying to decide how to bring those to the blog as well. The problem is that it takes me FOREVER to read a book. Seriously. Ask any of my friends. It once took me 6 months to read Q-Squared… yea… and that’s one of my favorites books! So we will be adding books as I complete them… perhaps… but that’s for another post!

I wish I could say that these movies will be brought to you in autobiographical order but alas, I am not THAT organized. No, this will be pure luck and chance because at the moment my perfectly organized and alphabetized collection is strewn across the room thanks to my daughter who enjoys pulling them off the shelf and making piles all over the living room…

I’ll also be watching each movie again and adding fun facts and quotes about each of the movies ala Wil Wheaton’s Memories of the Future book and podcast – both of which I love by the way!*

So there it is! Have a wonderful weekend knowing that on Monday you will have some awesomeness waiting for you here!

*One point awarded to me for including a Wil Wheaton reference. I’m on my way toward my goal of Wil Wheaton acknowledging my existence! Score! hehe

She Made Ordinary Things Extraordinary by thedreamygiraffe

I recently found out that one of my favorite crafty ladies, Vickie Howell, has an amazing blog and website! While snooping around I found where she had done a free podcast series called CRL.

CRL with Vickie Howell is a podcast for those creative types.  Each pop-culture-infused episode brings you an in-depth interview with a celebrity or Craft/Fashion-genre expert, an informative segment we like to call T3 (Tips, Tricks & Trends) and lastly, Vickie’s ramblings about her random experiences as professional knitter and crafty lady.

I’m having a blast listening to these interviews but I wanted to share one in particular that focuses on how to use your creativeness to bring home the crafty bacon with Jennifer Perkins! I won’t go into everything they discuss but I wanted to give you some of the highlights if you’re thinking about or getting ready to step into the scary/fun world of being a creative entrepreneur!

• “Etsy is a built-in wonderland of easiness for you!” – I love this quote from Jennifer because it’s so true! With Etsy and other sites like it there’s no excuse not to sell your awesome products to eager buyers! They take a very small percentage of each sale but this is a remarkably versatile way to promote yourself as well as sell your products!

• Don’t expect to make your first million a month after you open your Etsy shop. Sure, you could be one of the fortunate ones who gets a celebrity to latch onto your awesome home made neck ties or original art pendants but lets be real here for a minute. Yes it will be hard, yes you will have to be persistent but if this is your dream and your love then all that waiting and work will be worth it!

• There are tons of ways to promote yourself for free! Art cards, business cards and your website are great ways to promote your work but places like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Flickr are amazing places to start promoting for nothing but the time you put into them!

• Connect with your potential buyers. Bringing your personality into your blog, your products and your communications in general will give your buyers a better sense of who you are and why they should buy from you instead of some other not-as-good-as-you Creative!

• Just do it!! Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. If you have an awesome idea, go out and share it with the world! No one is holding you back except for you.

Yesterday I was confused.

Not that I’m not normally confused about one thing or another but this time I really thought I was going crazy.

Green.

Red.

Nude.

This is what I saw all day yesterday on Facebook so I finally asked what the heck was going on.

I understand the message and I believe that making the problem known and talking about it can always be a good thing but come on, you have to let us in on the plan!

When I was in college I worked at Mirror Lake Cafe. They had the best subs ever! One day I got a ticket for an order as well as a card  from a customer that said:

She didn’t talk, I knew why and I thought about the issue. Simple and to the point. She didn’t just not talk and expect me to know why.

So basically what I’m saying here is…

Breast Cancer Awareness is awesome.
LGBT Awareness is awesome.
Mirror Lake subs were awesome.

Random unrecognizable Facebook updates, not so awesome.

Essential Daily to-do list by CreativeKismet

I know this is late and I should have been up all night on New Years Eve putting together my “How Great was 2009″ post but thankfully no. My New Years Eve consisted of dance songs from the 1990’s c/o blip.fm and a World of Warcraft marathon with my hubby! Level 70! Woot!

Ahem…

Ok well this is not a look back, even though this past year has been pretty great; Aerith turning one, starting my own business, my best friend getting married, meeting some of the coolest people ever online, yada yada yada. No, this post is a look into the future! (insert creepy Twilight Zone music here)

(I must admit that I stole borrowed this idea from my life coach, so blame her if you’re unhappy with this post!!)

1. If you were only allowed to have ONE Intention for 2010, what would it be & why?

My intention this year will be more self care. I am the kind of person who would chop off her arm for her friend but I tend to just bleed all over the furniture instead of taking care of myself afterwards. I need to put as much effort into giving myself time for my business and my sanity that I do to making sure my husband gets what he wants for dinner and my daughter has all her favorite toys strewn across my living room! I’ve started this off by signing up for the BabySitEase service and I will MAKE myself actually call for a baby sitter because I need my time. I have had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I am not super mom. I’m not ok with it, but I am starting to accept it. I also need to spend more time on my inner self. Be less stressed out over stupid little things, stop eating until I’m sick because I’m bored and stop waiting until the last minute to do things so that I feel rushed! No more I say!! Losing weight is one thing but being a healthier happier me is the main goal.

2. If you were only allowed to have ONE Goal for 2010, what would it be & how can you achieve it?

My main goal will be to double my clients by signing up at least 5 new creative clients this year. Uggg, it’s so scary to put down a number but I think five is realistic and attainable. Plus, having a number to work towards will give me motization and boy do I need motivation sometimes… which leads me to….

3. If you had to get rid of ONE Thing in 2010, what would it be & why?

SELF DOUBT! I am constantly over thinking the most ridiculous things and I need to stop it! I need to realize that I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and doggone it, people like me!! OH and I’m going to stop letting other people’s negativity affect me. I have got to a point in my life where shit happens and you deal with it. Worrying and dreading and moping and pitying are not going to change anything. Being negative only brings you more negativity so my new/old motto is “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!” (Have I mentioned how much I love Monty Python, because I do!!)

4. If you had to do ONE New Thing in 2010, what would it be? Will you commit to it now?

Hmmm, new things are scary aren’t they?! Heck I’m terrified to try a new fish dish let alone a new routine! I want to create a presentation, product or e-book to help creatives in some way. I know, really specific huh! I’ll know the perfect idea when it hits me but I am ready to try this in 2010. Or maybe I’ll just take up curling… we’ll see.

I hope you all have a wonderful 2010 and I can’t wait to see what it has in store for us!

Happy Holly Days!!

Oh it’s almost Christmas and this is the first year that I didn’t stress out until the last minute about gifts and whatnot. It will be so nice to just enjoy the weekend and not worry about who got what for who and what I’ll have to re-gift later on!

Since it is a holiday weekend I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite holiday videos because who doesn’t love a good holiday video? (That and I’m too lazy to write a whole post today. I have 5 hours of driving ahead of me people!)

Many of these are new this year but some of them are just good old favorites that I have to bring up every year.

Enjoy and Happy Christmahanakwanzakah to you!

Adam Sandler Hanukkah Song

Bing Crosby and David Bowie “Little Drummer Boy”

Burger King Christmas Song – So annoying but funny!

Jars of Clay – “Little Drummer Boy”

Mr. Bean’s Nativity Scene

Christmas Story – Fa Ra Ra Ra

Typical One year old
+
Working from home on client projects AND re-branding project
x
Not enough time in the day

= One crazy stressed out Mom/Wife/Woman!

Everyone has those days when things get overwhelming whether it’s your job, your family or the dog that won’t stop humping the neighbor and digging tunnels to China in your backyard (I love my dog, I love my dog…) If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Congratulation! I hate you. I award you no points and my god have mercy on your soul.

I started my business to help alleviate some stress in my life because riding a bus into the city everyday meant a 10 hour work day (if I worked overtime it was longer than that) and the childcare would have been redicutarded expensive. Now, I LOVE my job and am so happy I decided to stay home with my daughter and watch her grow up. I get to work with people I want to work with, work when I want to work and see Aerith with her funny little dances and giggles as she watches the dog chase his tail outside!

BUT

Now I have new stress that I hadn’t planned on. Watching Aerith is a full time job, being a good housekeeper is another full time job and running my virtual assistant business is a full time job. I hadn’t really considered the fact that I would have three full time jobs but here I am, and some days I want to quit and run away to distant shores and open a mom and pop porn shop!

SO

I have devised a new strategy to help me ease some of my stress and hopefully make me a happier person in general (which I’m sure everyone would enjoy). I started planning out my meals ahead of time, focusing on one area of the house at a time to clean and yesterday I signed up with a local babysitting service called BabySitEase to give me some ME time each week. This babysitting service is a big step because trusting someone else with my daughter might be the hardest thing I will ever do but I need to do this for my sanity and hers.

If you are getting overwhelmed by life and you are a planning kind of person like me I invite you to come along with me on my journey of organized chaos!

1. Write it down. Write down everything that is making you stressed out. Making dinner, cleaning your office, going through emails; whatever makes you want to run away screaming when someone reminds you that it has to be done.
2. Plan it out. Instead of waiting until the last minute to make dinner, plan out your week’s meals so you don’t have to come up with something off the top of your head. If social media is overwhelming, plan out times during the day that you check your accounts and/or schedule out your Tweets for the day, or the week, ahead of time to make sure you’re still involved.
3. Make time for yourself. Make sure to schedule in YOU time. YOU are the most import part of your business and your family because if you don’t work, it ain’t gonna work. Even if it’s just a weekly coffee break to a near by coffee shop or a Sunday bath/spa night, make sure you get a chance to decompress after all the hard work you do all week.

I’m going to try and tie in songs or movies with my blog posts from now on because I think it will be fun! SO, I shall leave you with this creepy version of “Once in a Lifetime” by the Talking Heads as performed by Kermit the Frog. (Yup, it’s just one of those things you need to see…)

Hello from my corner of the internet where most, if not all, of my work is done virtually, digitally and intranetly. (Ok I made that last word up but you get the idea.) I work with several clients who I have never met before because I have the ability to work with them online. I would never have met some of my new friends if it wasn’t for Twitter and social networking. I LOVE the internet but maybe “going digital” isn’t good for everything.

At the begining of the month I saw an interview on The Colbert Report, one of the only news shows I watch – The Daily Show being the other – and Stephen had the author Sherman Alexie on to talk about his award winning book “War Dances” and how he believes the digital age will be the end of book tours and personal contact between readers and authors. Sherman believes that once books begin to be made into digital copies for use online, and for digital readers such as the Kindle, authors will start to have less and less interaction with their readers.  He describes his Fall book tour and  how he did magazine articles, newspaper interviews and book signings but not nearly in the amount that he has done in years past. He even jokes at one point about how he is the afternoon matinée now.

Reading a whole book on a little device is just too out there for me so I haven’t jumped onto the Kindle excitement train like some of my friends. I want to be able to move pages and highlight parts I want to remember. I want to be able to “lend” out a book and then have to buy another book because I know I’ll never see the original book again! (That reminds me, I need to get a new copy of “Q-Squared“…)

This got me thinking about my role in all of this. My job is to help authors to share their personality and their work with the world by using the internet. I use social media and tools such as Scribd to help authors take their business to the next level by putting their work out into the internet tubes. I wouldn’t say that by doing that I’m killing off book tours but I would say I’m giving authors a different way to interact with readers. It may not be face to face but Twitter conversations, Facebook updates as well as blog comments can turn into pretty heated exchanges that feel very intimate. Doing a virtual book tour is a great idea as well if authors want to feel connected to their audience and draw in some new readers. Instead of going to book stores and coffee shops, we go to blogs and podcasts and interact with readers in a great new way.  Plus, this way you don’t have to look at the guy who just threw a shoe at you while you were reading a passage from your new poetry book!

This interview has been in the back of my mind all month so I decided to share it and see what you thought!

(When Sherman describes his people as “Paranoid Indigenous” it cracks me up everytime!)

(If you can’t see the video above click here. )

Something good… found on Etsy by valentinadesign

Ok so I’ve been away for awhile and I’m not too happy about that but I hit a wall when it came to writing blog posts for some reason. My business is doing decently well and I have some super great clients but I feel like I am missing something.

I need to have fun!

I need to be creative!

I need to be me!

When I created my business plan last year I followed the rules that I read online. I looked at what other VAs were doing in their businesses and tried to make my business as similar as possible because that was how I thought it worked. It works for them right? Why wouldn’t I want to base my business on a model that works? So I created my website and started offering my services to anyone and everyone who would ever possibly need me! I forgot one thing though – me. I forgot to add my personality – my witty, silly, edgy, smart and sassy personality – into my business. So although I’ve gotten clients over the past 9 months (oh my gosh has it been that long!!!) I’ve been struggling to keep my personality in check because that’s what I thought I had to do.

Going forward into the new year there will be some changes. Changes to my business plan, my website and my attitude towards my business. Just because I make money doing this job doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy myself at the same time!

This will also mean a 90 degree turn in my business in regards to my target market. Who, do you ask, is my target market?

“Howdy! My name is Sara Carbaugh and I work with creatives to make their lives easier through my crazy awesome virtual assistant skills.”

(I am so excited about this I might pee my pants a little!)
Read the rest of this entry »

Aerith Marilyn,

You are my reason for living and the most important person in my life. I know you will grow up to be a beautiful, wonderful, creative, independent woman… but just don’t do it too quickly! Thank you for your morning smiles and your silly giggles that make my heart melt!

Josh,

You are my soul mate and my best friend and I don’t know what I would have done without you this past year! We have a baby! Isn’t that crazy?! You are an amazing father and husband and thank you for always being there for me. Now go do the dishes! hehe

Family,

This is for my nuclear family as well as certain extended family and in-laws. I LOVE YOU!! Thank you so much for loving me and dealing with me when I was complaining about  #1 and #2 up there (ahem)! Thank you also for believing that I can do anything I put my mind to and encouraging me and my business. I wish we all lived closer so that we could all see each other all the time but Dad hasn’t invented the transporter so we’re just waiting on him now. : )

Friends,

You all are amazing. There were so many times this year when I found out who my true friends were and I appreciate each and every one of you so much. Wendy, Ann, Tiffany, Missy and Nora you have been especially wonderful this year and I appreciate you all so much. : ) *Sends out hugs to all of her friends!!*

Right Click Office Services,
(I guess this is kind of like saying thank you to myself since I run this show but whatever…)

I am so thankful that I was able to start my own business this year! Right Click Office Services was a dream I didn’t even know I had until I started making it a reality and it has changed my life! I have met so many awesome people and learned so many amazing things this year because of my VA business!

To all my clients and business friends,

THANK YOU!! Thank you for taking a chance and working with a noob like me! I am truly grateful for your faith in me and my abilities this year. I always thought I was kick ass but knowing that others think so too is just so encouraging!! Shout outs go to Cristina, Rebecca, Nora, Michelle, Nancy, Vickie, Catherine and  Marjorie!!

When I Grow Up Coach,

You are amazing and wonderful as a person and as a coach so you get your own thank you! You have truly helped me see how I can make my business and my life in general what I have always wanted! Thank you for being amazing and hopefully you’ll let me help you out at some point…. ; ) Please check out Michelle’s blog (and website ) because she is the kind of writer who will change your life for the better every time you read it!

Social Media (Twitter, Facebook),

Umm I kind of love you! Social media was pretty cool before I started my business but now that I can use tools like Twitter and Facebook to build my business it’s so much more amazing! I had Facebook for years before but Twitter was new to the arsenal this year. Oh how I love Tweeting about my love of music, books and random knowledge while still Tweeting about my business! Plus, I can imagine that people like Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day and Barack Obama actually care what I say to them! : )

Blip.fm and Pandora,

I love finding new music and these two sites make that hobby far too easy!! I love being able to randomly listen to “I Wear My Sunglasses at Night” by Cory Hart right after I thought to listen to “Push It” by Garbage. Or maybe I’ll decide to listen to some Dave Matthews Band or some Our Lady Peace on Pandora and end up finding Oren Lavie or Stars. I LOVE IT! Plus, it makes random music night with Josh and/or Katie so much easier.
So thank you Blip and Pandora for giving me endless amounts of fun and enjoyment throughout the day now!

THANK YOU!!!!

This post was created as part of a global groundswell of gratitude called TweetsGiving. The celebration, created by US nonprofit EpicChange, is an experiment in social innovation that seeks to change the world through the power of gratitude. I hope you’ll visit the TweetsGiving site to learn more, and to bring your grateful heart to the party by sharing your gratitude, and giving in honor of that for which you’re most thankful.