I’ve just taken the plunge and purchase Sarah Prout’s ‘Secret of an Online Empress’, Sarah seems like a pretty cool chick. I like the design of her website and she sounds like she’s doing well for herself, so I thought this ebook could offer some insight and tips on making more of an online presence for myself.

Unfortunately it didn’t live up to the hype I’d created. I think it would be great for someone brand new to the blogging or online marketing world, but that’s not me. I’ve read a lot of stuff about online marketing from many different free websites and ebooks which provide much of the same information.

There were a couple of social networking sites that I hadn’t heard of that I’ve decided to sign up to, but there were also a couple of links that didn’t work at all.
Most disappointing were the references to the book ‘the secret’. While gratitude and positive thinking are important in order to create the right mindset to get what you need, the “law of attraction” advice is not something I want to pay for when trying to learn business secrets.

Sarah offers a full refund for anyone not happy with the book which she gave to me promptly after I emailed her. I did ask to swap it for an ebook copy of her other book Sprout the Life You Love if she had one (currently only available in hardcopy) but she didn’t answer my question. Must be doing well for herself to ignore my request to let her keep my money!

I’m still interested in getting a copy of Sprout the Life You Love if you’re reading this Sarah :D

I may have exaggerated in my previous post when I said that I don’t work on my blog when I’m sick home from work. How else can you explain the last few hours I spent looking at every single font on the urbanfonts website. And they’re all free today (well, they’re free everyday but I really like saying it in the creepy child catcher voice from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang).

I made my selections from the thousands available and now I have to choose what I want to use for my title, tagline and signature.

What’s your favourite? Do you use a special font?

For those of you wanting to follow me on Bloglovin’ now you can… Follow my blog with bloglovin´

Or you could just read me in a feeder… Subscribe in a reader

CupcakesAndMace.com is currently under construction. I’m in the process of moving from wordpress.com so you’ll have to bare with me while I make everything pretty.

You could subscribe and automatically get the new stuff when it happens :D

Subscribe in a reader

People that have been here before may have noticed the sudden name change today from I’d Rather Be Wrong.

It’s step 1 in a series of steps to move to my own site!!!!!!

I’ve got a fantastic geek relative who is letting me use some of his server space so I will be putting that together in the next little while. The address will be … CupcakesAndMace.com.

Yay.

I’m really quite happy with it, think it sums up my aesthetic quite well with the cutesy shiny side and the rock loving, steel capped boots wearing side.

My new email address will be kim(at)cupcakesandmace.com.

I’m so proud. My first domain and personalised email address :D

HELP! Uploaded by FrizzText on 20 Oct 07, 8.35 NZST.

The big announcement was made today.

What announcement was that you ask?

Well nothing that concerns you much but it concerns me greatly. The new General Managers were announced today.
We’re currently going through a restructuring and therefore most of the people hired this year have been hired as contractors. Therefore we have been lucky (?!?) enough to get to know some of the people who have been made permanent employees…before they were made permanent.

Unfortunately this meant that my team had already decided that if this particular contractor was hired as their permanent GM then they would be leaving.

That was the decision handed down to us today.

I know I cannot work under this woman.

She reminds me of my old boss (the reason I left my last job). She micro-manages and does not realise she’s not an all knowing god and that other people have areas of expertise that she could draw on and use to enhance the company.

So therefore, sooner or later I will be leaving this company in pursuit of more exciting tasks.

What tasks are those you might ask?

Well, hopefully blogging. I HATE applying for jobs and being made to feel like I suck just because someone can talk themselves up better than I can. But I do love blogging and connecting with and help people. So you may be seeing a lot more of me in the next few months.

Any support or advice you can offer would be gratefully appreciated.

What would you like to hear about that you can’t find anywhere else?

I am heading into a very revealing phase of my life. I think I may be heading to the discovery of that holy grail…the true purpose of my life.

The journey of self discovery is being helped along by a couple of successful bloggers, Steve Pavlina and Tina Su. I’m a way off yet but a few articles on their blogs are giving me a lot to think about.

Finding a mission and a purpose

Tina’s entry on Think Simple Now titled Life on Purpose: 15 Questions to Discover Your Personal Mission gives a 15 question guide on how to discover your own mission.

Steve’s entry on StevePavlina.com, How to discover your life purpose in about 20 minutes, is the one I’m really interested in though.

Steve says it’s as easy as heading up a page with the words “What is my true purpose in life?” and then writing. Writing sentences, words, short answers to that question until you find one that makes you cry.
I haven’t got there yet. There have been mini-surges (as Steve calls them) but no crying.
But Steve has something to say to all the people that doubt the merits of the exercise

The exercise is fairly pointless if you don’t take it to completion. You can debate the possible merits of it until you’re blue in the face, but you can’t really gauge what the water is like until you’ve gone for a swim.

I encourage you to go read the post and give it a try. Please let me know how you get on

Do something you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life

That’s going to be a whole let easier to manifest once I’ve realised my purpose, but for now Tina has this advice:

• Have a clear vision of the result you want and why you want it
  It has to be measurable
• Write it down and date it
• Plan the steps
• Take action

Tina has just left her high paying job at Amazon to run her blogs fulltime so I know it CAN work.

Setting my own goals

I would like to be doing something I love, fulltime, that doesn’t feel like work (like blogging) within 2 years time. I’m going to start with a date of June 2009 for the first steps, and as a time for re-evaluation. I have a tendency to get bored with projects after about 6 months, so if I’m still going strong then I will have found myself a winner.

In that time I need to find a niche or purpose to focus on. I’ll need to move from a free blogging platform to something I can wholly own. I will need to monitise and I’ll need to get my name out.

Wish me luck :D

Slightly confusing signs by Rebecca

I need direction.

I’m constantly searching for it in my life but I seem to lack the ability to stay interested in any one thing for a period of more than 6 months to a year.

I realised this first when I left school half way through 6th form. I had decided I was going to do something with computers and got myself accepted to the Waikato Polytech with big ideas.

Luckily the course I did was only 6 months long because by the end of it I’d really had enough of sitting in a class room, even if it was hands on.

Then I moved to Wellington with my partner and got sick.

It was just over a year later that I realised I might actually want to go to university.

I had been reading my old maths books (?!) and was quite interested in pharmaceuticals and thought I might like to be a pharmacist. But, because I had left school with nothing but School Cert I wasn’t going to be able to get into University until I was at least 20.

So I did Victoria University’s Certificate of University Proficiency, which is pretty much University Entrance.

I really shouldn’t have been that surprised that by the end of this 6 month course I couldn’t face 3 years of study and so instead I got a job.

Wanting it all right now

It comes down to being from Generation Y. We want it all, right now and we assume that if we are good at what we do we will reap the rewards automatically. I want to do things my way. I want to minimise the use of paper. I want to be relaxed in my surroundings. Unfortunately our bosses are not of the same generation and often value long term commitment, age and ‘the boys club’ a lot higher.

Having only worked in office’s in the public sector I can’t be sure that’s true throughout though.

So what now?

My love of surveys, personality tests and divining all stem from my need for answers. Answers to questions like what makes me unique and what should I do with my life? I know it sounds overly cheesy but I want to be special! :D

As of now this blog is my project. Who knows, I may fail and get bored in a years time (like the bass lessons I took, and the languages I want to learn). Or I may find my direction in life. Two blog posts I stumbled upon today may provide another step in the path “The World’s Largest Blog Niche and Topic Idea List” and “How to Choose the Perfect Blogging Topic”.

I love music, design, television, movies, food, photos, writing (which funnily enough I hated at school but always got good marks in), I have a special interest in colitis due to my illness, I’m alternative in my approach to fashion and I’m a bit of a greeny/human rights/animal rights supporter.

Any ideas?

I’ll take all the help I can get.

the rut. – This cartoon wrote a sweary word on your toilet wall.

Greatest cartoon I’ve seen in a very long while? Highly likely.

Google Reader you smart little thing you…I accidentally clicked on home instead of reader in my Google Reader and saw that I had a few things in the ‘top recommendations’ bar. I didn’t even know this stuff existed :D

So, Daddy Likey was one of the recommendations. And I actually really like this blog!
And then Daddy Likey sent me to Kingdom of Style, specifically a post entitled Me, The Eyesore. If you have ever been shouted at, looked at funny or laughed at by small children because of your delishously fashionable clothing choices you should read this blog and all of the comments. It made me feel alot better about the “why would anyone wear pink tights” incident in Melbourne.