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At 4am when my body decided it was time to wake up (curses to you insomnia) I opened up the messages and clicked through.

Sweet.  Baby.  Cheeses.

The first link was this:

It’s the first part of an episode from Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and a nightmare it is!  You have to see it to believe it.

Here’s part 2:

It shows a couple who own a restaurant in America and cannot take criticism.  At all.  They yell at customers and physically abuse them for walking out after waiting too long for sub-standard food.

If they’d left it there, although incredibly damaging to their brand, I’m sure the storm would have blown over.

Except they didn’t…

This is clearly a case of people who should walk away from the internet.

I have no idea how tough it would be to see so many thousands of negative comments about something that you put your heart and soul into.  If nothing else, they’re passionate people at  Amy’s Baking Company.  Very passionate.

It reminds me of a cafe we went to earlier this year where I found a hair in my food.  I’d only had 2 bites and discovered the rogue dark strand of hair.  I told the waitress who took the plate away and came back from the kitchen with this response from the owner: “Our chef has blonde hair”. That was it.  No apology, we were still charged for the meal and it’s safe to say I’ll never eat there again.  The owner obviously thought I’d put my own hair into my meal, underneath the food…

Chefs are renowned for being fiery and passionate folk: it’s what makes their meals so good.  They put their heart and soul into the food they serve.

However, perhaps they should leave that intensity in the kitchen and away from social media accounts.  Here are some samples from the company Facebook page:

I honestly have no idea how hard it would be to face such vitriol online (thankfully).  This morning, they had gone from 2,000 Facebook fans to over 13,000.  Some of the comments are heinous.  Keyboard warriors have spat forth nasty things after watching the episode of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares and it’s quite disturbing to see the level of hatred.

This is a great lesson in knowing when to walk away.  Delete.  Block.  Ignore. And if all else fails: close down the Facebook page temporarily.  This type of social media strategy will not have a happy ending.

It may seem like such a simple idea, but it really makes a difference.

Working for yourself can have the most amazing rewards, but it can also be quite isolating.  When you create your own community, you are building a resource of brilliance when you need it most.

Reach out to others in the same field, develop twitter chats and facebook groups.  Arrange coffee dates or better yet, an evening with wine!  Do whatever it takes to keep you connected and surrounded by greatness.

The more you experience success, the more you will succeed.

It doesn’t need to be your own success either, it can be the celebration of a friend’s achievement.

Try it, it really works.

Do you surround yourself with positive energy and successful women?

Roger never says to me: “but the floor is fine, it doesn’t need vacuuming”.  He methodically goes about his business and doesn’t ask much in return.

My husband on the other hand; he grumbles and whinges when he’s asked to do the same task.  Not my Roger, never a peep out of him.

Introducing Roger:

A few weeks ago this new love-of-my-life turned up on a stormy evening.  I opened the box to find him requiring a little charge, but nothing more.  He’s low maintenance and oh so valued in our house.

The kids even stare at him as he carries on doing the cleaning.

Some evenings I will sit with a cup of tea and my feet up as Roger whizzes around the room (his name was Neato when he arrived but the kids have dubbed him ‘Roger the Robotic Vacuum’).  Other times with a glass of red in my hand I stare lovingly as he makes his way under furniture, around table legs and effortlessly glides from carpet to lino, cleaning as he goes.

Admittedly he has been found stranded a couple of times.  The first was when he tried to remove my son’s dirty jocks from the carpet (GROSS) and the second time he became caught under the spare bed.  I gently removed the stray jocks and moved him back to his docking station where he recharged and was as good as gold.

Now to the serious stuff:

Pros	Cons
Neato/Roger can be scheduled to come on at any time of day or night and vacuum when you’re not even home	He can get caught under furniture and low lying chairs
He’s relatively quiet (we don’t need to turn up the tv even when he’s vacuuming in the same room) unlike our upright vacuum	He needs to be emptied after every vacuum, and in my experience the brush also needs cleaning every time (this is an easy job though)
He does a really good job!  I was surprised at how much dust is collected each time	Although he does a great job, you will still need to vacuum once a week
Neato/Roger maps the room with a laser mapping system- if nothing else this is super cool! (It’s also a great function )	The Neato can run out of energy half way through a clean and will take himself back to the charging station sometimes forgetting to come back and finish the job
Neato/Roger’s filter picks up three times the amount of particles than a standard filter does.  As 3 of us in this house suffer allergies, this is GREAT news.
The kids know they have to keep the floor clean now because otherwise Roger takes their things

Roger/Neato was sent to me to roadtest and review.  I have to say for someone with a fetish for buying new household gadgets, this is the BEST one I’ve ever owned.

Yesterday as I walked out the door to drop the kids at school, my dishwasher was doing the dishes, the washing machine was cleaning my clothes and Roger/Neato was vacuuming my floors. I love the fact that my life is so automated.  I don’t have time to do everything I want each day and this is one less thing to worry about.

Roger/Neato is now available in Myer for RRP $799 and would I buy one?  Hell yes!  The amount of gunk that comes off my floors after each run is quite scary.  We have a large carpeted area and not only do I want it to look clean, but my children play there too: I want it to BE clean.  The Neato claims to have the most powerful suction of any robotic vacuum and I’d believe it.  I’ve seen another one in action at a friend’s house and the difference is clearly visible.

Overall I’d give this a 9/10.  I was incredibly happy with the functionality and convenience of it.  Would I recommend Roger to my friends?  Yep, I would.  At $799 he’s half the price of my upright vacuum and I don’t have to walk around and do the manual labour.  Winning!

Do you have an appliance that makes you swoon too? 

Disclaimer: This product was gifted to me but no $$ exchanged hands.  I was under no obligation to make a video that makes me look like a fool

Linking up with Grace for #FYBF 

There are a million ideas running through my mind and fears sweep in to cloak them in blackness.  My old friend Fear; always there to put a dampener on things.

That’s as far as I’ll go…

Despite what some people think, bloggers are not over-sharers. We all have stories that we keep close to our hearts and away from our keyboards.  There are ideas swimming through our minds that will stay there and not see the light of a computer screen.

It’s easy to think that as a blogger, we spit forth every conscious thought and share it with our readers for validation.  Not true.

I know many fellow writers who have drafts folders filled with secret posts that they write as a form of therapy.  I know this because I do it too.

It’s cathartic to let the words flow through our fingertips onto the keyboard and then read, reread and reread once more.  That’s not to say that we give away these inner-most thoughts to everyone and anyone.  We’ll never hit publish.

So next time you sit in judgement of a blogger, and think you know their innermost thought, just stop for a second.  Chances are, you don’t have a clue.

This is not the case for my young friend Courtenay.

She is inspiring.  Truly.  At only 17 years old, she’s doing something that I would never have dreamed of at her age.

The day after year 12 graduation (doesn’t leave any time for celebrations) she’s heading over to Africa to volunteer at the local hospitals in the morning, and the orphanages in the afternoons.   She’ll continue to do this and then head back to Australia to start a nursing degree next year.  Did I mention she is only 17?!

She’s the type of girl I want my daughter to have as a role model.  The type of daughter any mother would be proud of.

This video will tell you a bit more about her quest:

To help Courtenay in her mission, I’m creating an online auction of donated items.  We already have accommodation packages, signed Collingwood and Swans football jumpers, a one-on-one marketing strategy session, restaurant vouchers and heaps more.  If you’d like to donate something to the auction, it would be greatly appreciated.  Courtenay is funding this trip with money she’s raised herself and it’s tough in a small town.  She’s already managed to get together part of her fare, but I’m hoping the blogging community can get behind her and help her raise a little more.

The Auction date is yet to be finalised as we’re waiting to hear back from a couple of potential sponsors, but it will most likely be in early June.

You can check out her Facebook page here, or leave a comment of support as she’ll be reading this.

She’s such an inspiration to me, and makes me want to be a better person in my everyday life.

Do you know of a young person doing something incredibly inspiring?  Share their story in the comments.  It always makes me so hopeful for the future to hear about people like Courtenay

ME “No thanks”

PR “Oh…why?”

ME “Um, because I would be earning about $15 an hour if I did that”

PR “What do you mean?”

ME “Well, I’d research your company and product, write a piece then edit it two or three times.  Following that, I’d take photos or even create a video and really, $50 doesn’t cover it.”

I want to debunk a myth today.  You don’t need to have high stats to value your worth as a blogger.  True story.

Chatting with a friend yesterday (who is a highly respected blogger), she commented that her stats were lower than mine.  Not true, in fact hers are higher.  I think she assumed this was the case because we had been previously discussing sponsored post rates and we discovered that there was a difference between what we both charge.  My rates are higher even though my stats are lower.

Why?

Simply put, I’ve set my value and even though I’m not pulling in the fabulous page views that my favourite bloggers are, I don’t want to sell myself short.

This has meant that I’ve turned down $$ (like the example above that occurred last week) but it also means that the companies that I work with get the best of me.  Not that people who are receiving lower payments are not giving it 100%!

The brand/blogger relationship is still a relatively new sphere for many companies.  They’re testing the waters and so are we.  As bloggers it’s really important to value yourself.  Value your time.  Value your community.

It’s easy to think: “I have to start somewhere”.  That’s true.  We all do.  However if you’ve taken the time to build a community and populate your blog with quality content, don’t feel that you have to say yes to PRs who are not respecting the time that you’ve spent to get where you are today.  The fact that you have an audience reading your blog means that you have reach and influence.  A small, highly engaged audience can be very beneficial to brands.

My site stats are not huge.  In fact, compared to many others they’re tiny.  Does this mean that I miss out on opportunities?  HELL no!  At the moment I’m reviewing a great product that is relevant to my readers and makes me smile (more to come on that one).  I’m making a video, testing out the limitations, giving it hell so I can offer my readers an honest review.  That.  Takes.  Time.

Think about the value of an hour to you.  Place a dollar value on what some prime real estate on your blog is worth.  $50 for a sponsored post barely covers my overheads when I consider hosting, plugins etc.

I encourage you to think about your blog as a business if you’re offering sponsored content.  Write a brief business plan and think about where you want to eventually end up.

Act today, the way you want to be treated in the future.

Some PR’s have laughed at me when I’ve told them my sponsored rates in relation to my stats.  That’s fine.  I get it, I honestly do.  However, I’m not going to lower my standards.

I want to make blogging a full time business, and that’s why I need to set my standards high from the start.  If I were to accept that a post on my blog was only worth $50, that would mean my time over the last 2 years has not really amounted to much at all.  Unless I was posting sponsored content 7 days a week, several times each day, $50 doesn’t really add up to much at all.

I’m not saying to compare yourself to the successful bloggers who are earning fabulous rates. Unless you’ve been blogging daily for several years (as they have) and building your profile to command 4 figure sums, you’re comparing apples and oranges.  What I beg you to do is to VALUE yourself.  Think about what your time is really worth and add a few $$ on top of that.

In the retail world, there are two main strategies for selling: high volume at low cost, or higher cost with lower volume.  In terms of blogs, I find it difficult to read post after post that is sponsored from the one writer.  I am happy to read sponsored content, but I think that a blogger who has a balance of sponsored versus organic content is given more weight in my mind.  I think the second strategy works better for blogs: higher cost with lower volume.

Maybe I’m in lala land, but I think if we all band together and let brands/PRs know that our time is more valuable than a packet of bandaids or $50 they will soon start to listen.

What do you think?

Take the time to watch it.

All you need is love.

This is what homophobia would look like if the tables were turned.

Powerful, powerful thoughts.

It gives a whole new slant to the Marriage Equality debate, doesn’t it?