Upcoming Projects

Currently, I am working on articles for Lawrence Business Magazine and for Lawrence Memorial Hospital's "Connect" newsletter.  As always, I am still writing weekly Flying Fork columns for The Lawrence Journal World's Pulse section, and weekly parenting columns for The Lawrence Journal World's GO! section.

In December, I'll be appearing twice at Weaver's Department Store to do cooking demonstrations in order to promote my brand and the Weaver's Housewares line.  I'll be heavily marketing these events via Facebook and Twitter, and designing social media incentives for attendees via Foursquare.

Social Media: where I began, where I am

In 2007, I quit my job.

I quit my career.  I quit the thing for which I had prepared with one undergraduate degree and two graduate degrees to do.  The thing I had been doing for the better part of ten years, in one form or another.  I. just. quit.

I quit because of the internet.  Because I finally found my voice.  Because, it turns out, I actually had one, and I didn't know it until I started blogging.

As a kid, I wrote and wrote.  Notes, stories, letters, quick poems on the back of my check register.  I dreamed of being a writer, but I never felt like a novelist.  I felt creative, but not like a poet.  I wasn't sure where my brand of observation and voice belonged.  So I guessed it was in the classroom, and there I went, to teach teenagers to write good sentences and trust their own voices.

Until the internet came along, and I was instantly obsessed with emailing everyone I knew.  And then Myspace, and then blogging, and FacebookTwitterFoursquarePinterestGoogle+TumblerReddit - the list goes on.

I ate it all up with a spoon.  When other people were ditching accounts, I was adding them.  When people argued that we'd all live like hermits with our laptops and televisions, I argued it had opened the world to me - I was more social than ever.  And it was all in a really positive way.

So, somewhere in 2007, I gave up the ghost, as it were, and went to work for myself.  I could not support myself by tweeting; this much I knew.  But I could do something for myself and I knew the internet was my friend.  I looked at my skills: writing, talking to people, networking, smiling, and cooking.  Cooking, I thought, is something that makes people money.  I figured if I combined my cooking with The Internet, I'd be onto something. And so it was born: The Flying Fork.  I started cooking for people who didn't have time to cook for themselves, and advertising strictly on the internet.  I didn't spend a dime, aside from a domain name and a small hosting package.  And it worked.  I supported myself for most of that year, but soon realized that while I had plenty of work, I didn't make enough money.  I didn't charge enough for my goods, and I didn't want to raise my prices.  I needed a new angle.

And so I took my cooking strictly to the internet.  I started writing The Flying Fork for Lawrence.com - an entertainment offshoot of our local paper, in 2008.  I built the brand through Facebook and Twitter, eventually starting my own fanpage.

Since then, I have gone back to work in a brick and mortar building (I had a baby to insure and support) but I grew my writing and social media persona along the way.  I now write for Baby Talk on Wellcommons.net, I maintain my fanpage and my personal Facebook page regularly with constantly increasing stats.  I have been asked to do many freelance projects, some print some online, and I've started connecting with more and more "popular" bloggers to do joint work.  Also, I have  used The Flying Fork's relative popularity to land several in-store cooking promotions.  I work with Weaver's Department Store to cross-promote their housewares line and my Flying Fork brand.

The net grows wider and wider, and I feel quite ready to make this a career.  I am confident that I have not only the personality for it, but all the necessary skills to keep clients comfortable and happy in their social media spaces.