Back to school?

It's not about getting another degree to add to my resume.

What it's about?

I have many areas of interest and the economy is probably not going to come around for another couple of years. Also, if you know what is going on with me personally, you might just realize the other angles of why I'm not just toying around with the idea of going back to school. It might just be my only option at one point.

It's no secret that I live at home with my parents. A lot of college graduates are starting to do this because they are not sustainable enough after graduation. Jobs are extremely hard to come by and it puts major stress on new graduates; I've been experiencing stress like never before lately. But I'd like to think that the majority of the time, I'm handling my situation gracefully and I'm doing everything I humanly can to make my own situation better.

I help out around the house with bills, I vaccum, take the dog for walks, keep my stuff clean, do dishes, take out the garbage and sometimes, I even cook dinner!

Financially, I'm on my own. I have my own health insurance, dental, I have a car payment, car insurance, school loans, a cell phone bill and I'm "debt-free" with my credit card. I rarely and I mean, rarely eat out, minus the last date I went out on -it's been a while; hard with my whacky schedule. I'm pretty sure the last place I ate out at was Subway.

OK. So, what would I go back to school for?

I've been told more times than I can count on my hands and toes I have a voice for radio. I've applied for a position with WCCO-AM radio, but have yet to hear from them. I'm going to make a phone call soon to contact them, even though they probably don't want this. I have some radio background and if I were thrown in a studio, with a little practice I'd figure out how to run a show. A click of the mouse here for music, use that "slider key" on the sound board to turn down the music in the studio if someone calls in for a request and hit that record button in the program if I want to record the dialogue between myself and caller. I can visually see it and it's...fun! :)

Marketing: When I'm passionate about something, it's hard to shut me up, but I know when I'm getting a "vibe" and can easily allow the person to be on the merry way in less than five seconds. Honestly, I don't see myself going back to school for this though I'd be interested in minoring in it, but that's probably all. Why? I know enough about marketing to get people interested a product...just depends on what I'm selling!

Theater Production: Sound, lights, action!! Being the person in control in the sound booth is a pretty big deal! I'd rather do this for concerts at a venue with a minimum of 15,000 seats.

Graphic Design: I love designing things and had a BLAST with InDesign when I took it for one of my classes at MNSU, Mankato. Too bad the version I'm looking at costs $1,500. I might seriously consider this as my next degree. My only question is, what school will I apply at for the program and how long is the waiting list?

Psychology/Forensic Science: As much as I love helping solve problems to make people feel better, I'd go insane knowing all the problems people have...or the exact opposite would happen. Whenever I see an article in the newspaper about a kidnapping though (such as Jacob Wetterling like this one or this one) my brain starts to spin in circles and I all of a sudden want to jump into the crime scene and dig up what I can to help solve the mystery.

Once again, if I go back, I have research to do. I see a lot of conversations taking place with a couple people in particular.

My clock is ticking, I have no time to "play around" anymore and this might be the only door I see myself walking through -going back to school- within the next six months. This doesn't mean I've given up on my job search because that is simply NOT an option.

Important note for my readers:
This does not mean I'm turning my back on public relations. In fact, if I can go back and get another degree, I'll have more time to actually act on/create more opportunities. For those of you who know why I made my RRPR handle, I hope to get crackin on that side of the picture as well if I have to open my own door. With the major I'm considering, I would actually only benefit from the classroom, if I'm thinking about everything in the correct format. That is one thing (creating opportunity) I feel like I didn't do enough of the first time around in college; utilize my resources and get my hands filthy-dirty.

Marketing yourself: past vs. present

How did you marketing yourself before Twitter, Facebook, Flicker, MySpace, Blogging, etc.?

Before I had a blog, Facebook, MySpace or even AIM, all I did was talk to people...obviously either over the phone or in person.

We live in a tough, tough market right now. I find I'm having one hell of a time marketing myself! It's frustrating, but who isn't frustrated? We're still in a recession, but staying positive and getting creative is the only way out of this mess.

So...

I want to know what you're doing.

What tools are you using? What apps have helped you? What meetings are you attending? Where do you live? What are you doing now that you weren't doing 1 week ago, 1 month ago, even 1 year ago? You don't have to answer all of this information publicly. If you're ready to continue engaging, lets do it together. I'd love to hear your story.

Contact me on Twitter, RachelRyanPR.

Summer: more lows than highs

For those of you that know me very well, you know my work schedule isn't "user friendly" . . . at all. I haven't had very many "high" (great times with friends/family) moments this summer because of something I decided was not necessarily more important, but more "needed."

I worked. Way. Too. Much. And it's nothing to brag about. I know this, because I have nothing to show for it.

This summer has been not taken advantage of in the correct way, from my own personal useage. It's nearly three-quarters done and what do I have to show for it?

Almost absolutely nothing.

* A couple of dates with my StepDad that included motorcycle rides; he's my person who I confide in and I'm lucky - no wait- beyond blessed to have him in my life. If I'm off doing something and he calls for whatever reason, I pick up the phone for him.

* A long-lost friend I reconnected with on Facebook, Densie Bachman (Densie Frenzel), married the love of her life July 10 this year. I've seen her twice this summer and only three times this year. I miss friends like her and I need to spend more time with my friends.

* I went over to my sister and brother-in-law's home last Sunday for dinner. I ended up chilling on the couch, had a few margaritas and a couple Pina Colada's with the family. It was the perfect night. We even watched "Family Man" and man, can I relate to that movie or what.
Note: Working and the things I have are not important to me; I value my relationships way more than a paycheck.

That's it. That's all I have for memories this summer. Otherwise, I've been job searching or trying to sneak some "me" time in there. I've worked myself to sickness --literally. This past Thursday I went into the doctor because I could have sworn I had strep throat. The test came back negative, but I was diagnosed with something else.

What I was diagnosed with kept me from going up north to Little Falls this weekend for a family fishing tournament called Blood On The Water. If someone doesn't have Fossum blood in a boat you want to fish in and you're not family, you can't participate in the tourney. We're pretty strict about it, but we have a blast. But because I worked myself to the point of jepardizing my own health, I had to stay home in fear of still being contagious.

So, now what? I'm really, really irritated with myself. I'm so ready for a change. I'm in dire need of one.

One thing I know I'm going to do without question? I'm taking at least one day off every week. My mind-set was "no, taking days off isn't an option. I need as close to 40 hours as I can get." But where has that got me?

I do know at least three jobs I've applied for have rejected my application. One of them was out-of-state and the other was techincally in-state, but probably would have required me to travel a little bit. The other, I don't recall.

You know, the sickest part of it all? I had complete control over it the entire time. Starting today, I'm taking control of my life again.

Building and constructing your brand

I stole this phrase from someone who works in the social media industry, but I can't remember who unfortunately:

"Go for Noah, not the Ark."

I like it. Why? A couple of reasons:

1) It's catchy and anyone I tell this to usually has to have me repeat it. And then they don't get it. When explained, it takes them a while to process it and that's perfectly fine with me because the next time they see me, they're going to remember our conversation had to do with some whacky phrase and they might approach me to ask about it again. Who knows what conversation could spark from there!

2) It's not offensive, it's not meant to be offensive and it gets people thinking in a different way.

I'm also at another turning point in my life. And it has to do with the above phrase.

I follow Russell Herder (@russellherder) on Twitter and saw their tweet about an article they posted on their blog Building Business. They follow a blog called Construction Marketing Ideas and a blog of theirs caught my eye yesterday and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it much in the last 72 hours. In the blog, they layout six ground-rules for bloggers that I believe we should all follow. There are more "rules" out there, but I felt this post was very simple, forward and the guide-lines are so easy, even your Grandma could start her own blog and "get" it. ;)

The rules are so simple, the blog will probably having you say (out loud), "well, duh?!" Oh really? Well, if that is your reaction, take a look at how you've built your brand (blog).

I want to talk about the elephant in the room now: my blog does NOT, I repeat...my blog DOES NOT follow these rules and I've been thinking about the material I've posted. I could start over with a new blog. In fact, Arik Hanson (@ArikHanson) tweeted a few days ago this question: "if you could rename your blog right now, what would you title it?" I answered him within 5 minutes. If you're curious enough, ask me what I came up with. He liked the new title however, I don't know that I want to abandoned my baby: Spring To Anything.

In due time, I want to act on a simple solution of how I'm going to write about what intrigues my my own interests and obviously keep my audience in mind for the future, whether it be with this blog, or a new one, only time will tell. My gut is telling me to not build another blog. Why? Well, I'll save that for another blog post. ;)

Stay tuned folks!

Sevans Strategy - I'm ready for you...if you're ready for me :)

When I was a little girl, I dreamed of being in the spotlight, on stage and in front of a crowd. Perfect example?

My Mom's side of the family has seven grandchildren and when the generations were able to come together all at once, we had Grandchildren's Week. Grandma put everything together and we had crazy, fun events: garbage dinners followed by a volleyball match on the beach to a day at Valleyfair, wolf howling and something to do with a secret menu --we literally picked something from the menu and you never knew what you were going to get. Example: a "horse stick" could have been a fork.
When I was as young as 4 years old I believe, we put on a talent show where our families had to 'buy' tickets to come see our show. The stage was on my grandparents porch facing The Lake of The Woods lake. I wish I had a picture for a visual.
The older girls, my sister Leah and cousin Sarah, chose a song and I never recall my two older cousins, David and Patrick ever joining us as it just wasn't their thing. We did this every year until I rememeber begging two of my cousins, Suzie and Emily to do one last show with me when I was 13. They are both younger than me. Leah and their older sister, Sarah helped us choregraph our dance to "Anytime You Need A Friend" by Mariah Carey.

I was very sad the last time we stepped onstage to do this peformance.

Well, I had my stage when I younger and I enjoyed my time when I could. I knew when I grew up, I wanted to be doing something fun for other people. Helping to better the community, meet the people whose lives I could help impact along the way and learn about other individuals' backgrounds.

One of those fun things I wanted to do? I wanted to be a singer. I told myself at the age of 10 that that is what I would do. So I joined choir, wrote songs, played the flute, bought myself a guitar, etc.

I'm still a singer, but I've never signed a record deal. I have however, been asked to a sign a song-writers recording contract through a contest I could have won, but felt it was fishy at the time (I was 15), so I never sealed the deal.

I then went onto college and finally chose Mass Communications as my major. Why not stick with the whole "mass audience" idea? I mean, that is what I enjoy...and I know I'm great with a stage and microphone (metaphorically speaking or not) when I've done my research.

I saw a tweet last week from @PRSarahEvans to send an e-mail to Sevans Strategy explaining two reasons why I'm a rockstar. Anyone could do this.

I had to be at work in less than 20 minutes...that meant out the door in five minutes, so I wrote quick five-sentence e-mail.

I now have an interview with the team of Sevans Strategy on Friday, July 16. It's been a while since I've been this excited, calm, yet entirely anxious.

Why? I've been following Sarah Evans now for 1.5 years on Twitter. I'm a huge fan of hers. I read her blogs, I watch her interviews she posts and I've watched her interview with Tim Jahn recorded back in January 2010. Her platform hits it on the head for me in what I want to do with my career.
Her new media consultancy, her platform, what she's created, what she stands for as a business woman, what she does daily and where she's looking to takes Sevans Strategy (at least from what I understand), including the newest "hippest" ways in social media; her visions are what I've found my own visions to be within the last year.
And my time to shine is just around the bend. I don't know who I'm up against. Quite frankly, I don't want to know because if this is truly meant to be, it's going to happen. I'm on fire.

I'm willing to pick my life up and move to Elgin, Ill., for this part-time fall internship. It's only 8 hours away from family. Not bad if you ask me. I've also done my research and if needed, I could ask to transfer to locations for my job to a site only 20 minutes North of Elgin, to continue working with the company I work for, so if at the end of the internship, I have a safety net if something doesn't evolve with or from Sevans Strategy.

As Sarah would say, "simple goals" and I'm adding "with a gigantic platform" to the phrase. I am SO not british, but I am on bloody hinges and ready for a whole new experience. I'm hungry, thirsty and this is a once in a lifetime experience.

Rewind!! Training for 5k first!

I'm writing this on Sunday, July 11, but it will post for the 12th. I can deal with that.

I had an interesting session today on the treadmill and encountered a few 'problems':

* My ponytail kept bouncing like mad --I had to redo it (while running) about 3 times. Eventually, I was able to get it tight enough and concentrate on my mission.

* My warm-up was horrible --I attempted a pace of 3.7 for the first .2 miles and after just over 3 minutes and 30 seconds, I sped up to 5.0 mph. BAD CHOICE.

* I speed-walked at about 3.7 mph (possibly 4.0 mph) until I hit .5-miles and then pushed for 5.0 mph. Better, but I wasn't happy.

* The run wasn't as refreshing as I wanted it to be . . . at first.

I wrote down some stats as I was running.

At 38 minutes and 39 seconds I hit the 3.2 mile marker; not impressed by this because I had a super crappy warm-up. Therefore, I hit it hard between the 2-mile and 3-mile marker. What did I do? I ran at 5.5 mph because I was frustrated. I'm not going into detail of what thoughts were charging through my brain.
--> Positive Thoughts: I already beat my own time by 1 minute and 21 seconds. As you'll recall from my run on July 9 and the underlying reason I'm doing this for myself is in that post.

At 44 minutes and 39 seconds, I hit the 3.7-mile market. Decent.
--> Positive Thought: Because I didn't officially begin running until .5 miles into the run, I didn't hit the 5k mark until this point. You can't 'win' every time, but what counts is that I made it work and I pulled through.

At 47 minutes and 52 seconds, I did something I don't recall doing by myself... EVER. I hit the 4-mile marker.
--> Positive Thoughts: SUCCESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! HOLY CRAP DID I JUST DO THAT????!?!??!??!!!! A little heavy on the punctuation marks for you? Tough. :-D

My stats:
Calories burned: 489
Total distance: 4.29 miles (again, this includes a .5-mile warm-up and a 5-minute cool down beginning at 4.0 miles)
Time(s): ran 5k in 38:39 minutes (remember, this includes a .5-mile warm-up) but ran "official" 5k in 44:39 minutes.
Official work-out time: 52:56 minutes

Training for 7K

I'll be honest: I had a not so great day on Friday, in the beginning. But the day ended up turning around for me.

And this is the shortest post I'll probably ever write. :)

What happened? I decided I was going to live like I was dying. I had the hugest urge to run and I'm not sure where it came from (perhaps stress?) and I did this after working for 5 hours. After I ran, I bought a wedding gift for a wedding I'm going to today and I spent time with my StepDad at the Lakeville Pan-O-Prog that runs from July 4-July 11. Simple things, but things that made a difference for me.

I got on the treadmill with my Mizunos and ran my heart out. It felt amazing. I was refreshed. My legs felt great. The blood in my veins was on fire. The sweat felt even more amazing.

I hope I can keep this up so I can run a 7k this fall. I need to figure out dates for that.

Here's my stats:

Calories burned: 418
Total distance: 3.69 miles (this includes a .2 mile warm-up at about 3.7 mph and a 5-minute cool down beginning at 3.40 miles)
Time: 40 minutes
Official work-out time: 44:28 minutes

Hello Target Center

I don't like not making up my mind. I take social media and my industry seriously, but know that if you're not getting the right things done and you're not taking the time to get better at what you love, your visions fade and it's your responsibility to stay up to date with the times.

I'm currently concentrating on getting my 40 hours in a week at work and it's a struggle, especially since I have to work every day, literally. In June, I had 2 days off. Maybe 3. July? I don't even want to think about it.

Where is the time for family and friends? Is the economy getting worse? Is it slowly getting better? When I can put the brakes on job applications? When will the phone call happen? When will I sign a contract? When can I have my weekends back? I have a job that gets the bills paid for now and that's what matters.

I'd like to be positive and say the economy is ever so slowly coming back, but America keeps getting "bombed" with disasters and we as a country are not ready for them emotionally or financially and the governement doesn't have a spare $X to give to each "problem" so it can rebuild and clean up.

Do we as a country take responsibility for our actions, or are we just too hungry for the paycheck? Statistics apparently still tell the story that half of Americans (if not more) are not very happy with their line of work. We all know we're not taking it to our grave, yet it's a constant obsession.

My next thought is well I need my 40 hours, but I need experience in my field. I like getting into computer animation (slide shows, etc., (power point)) and I love the stage.

Ok. What are different angles I can take to being "on stage"? One of my mentors, Sarah Evans (@PRSarahEvans) built a new business in July 2009 - Sevans Strategy.

I can be doing behind the scenes work as well. I love getting my hands dirty; there's a reason I took shop class for 4 years. ;)
The amount of testostrone in the room didn't bug me. I like being on stage, but you can't be on the stage until you've proven that you have a reason to be there. Oh, I cannot act. But I love dancing and singing my heart out. These days, it's all about connections; who you know not what you know. We're all learning as we go.

A part of me is telling myself if I can't play with the big dogs quite yet, go behind the scenes of my creativity; you never know where the experience will take you. I think my goal this month will be to shadow someone who does stage work at the Target Center. I love music, I can't act to save my life, but I have a voice that I'm not afraid to use.

What do I have to lose?

He was speaking out loud and I listened

At work tonight, I was sitting down taking a break to get off my feet as I am constantly doing something to help keep the chaos of the my working conditions as easy as possible.

As a lifeguard, I get the chance to think about a lot of different things when watching the water. Whether it's what I'm going to do when I get home, what is going on tomorrow or even something as simple as what my next step in life is, it's a great way to "declutter" the thought process. I just wish I could write everything down.

I thought about Prince Charming today. Where he is, what he's doing and when we'll meet. Heck! Maybe I already know the guy? I have no idea. But that'd be pretty sweet if I did wouldn't it?!
When I sat down to get off my feet for 10 minutes, this older gentleman came my way and was following his little boy whose I'm guessing about 2 years old. He looked at me and said "this is the hardest job ever."

He wasn't talking about my job. He was talking about being a dad. I didn't even have to think twice and I responsed (I think) with "I know it is." He then asked me if I have kids and I said no.

We talked about living the bachelor (bachelorette) life and he told me to enjoy my youth while I can.

I told him that when I was 19, I thought that by the time I hit the age I currently am, I'd be married and have at least one kid. He responded by saying "you know, all Minnesotan girls seem to be in such a rush to get married and have kids!" I gave him a look and responded by telling him that the older I become, I've grown wiser and I've learned that I'm still too selfish to have kids and that I barely even have time for my own [family] dog!! He laughed.

He ended the conversation by saying "wait until you think you're ready and then give yourself some more time and then start a family. Wait though...seriously wait and give yourself time. You'll wish you had listened to me if you don't. I love my wife and kids to death, but I wish I would have waited a bit longer." I think I agree with him for the most part.

For the remainder of my shift, I thought about kids and having my own. To top it off, I saw an adorable baby tonight. No more than 6 months old. Man, I lit up like a Christmas Tree.

Every so often, I'm not too sure about whether or not I want kids. I think because it's a HUGE responsibility and your freedom to be selfish is taken away however, I know that this is so not the case (how loving parents think) once having a child because I hear about it time and time again. Plus, when you've found the right person to build a family with, that helps. There's no way I could adopt and raise a child on my own. But kids can be the best thing to happen to you. I did a lot of thinking tonight and decided if I start a family within the next 5 to 7 years and have two kids (preferably back to back, maybe??), I'd be content with that.

I think that guy was supposed to come up to me tonight for a reason because I've been thinking about the future and starting a family...when the timing is right. :)

Spring to anything? Don't mind if I do! :)

Have a great weekend everyone!