I’ve heard about it since they started but I’ve never got chance to make it for any of the dinner sessions organised by Nadia. And hell now I know what I’ve been missing!

Thanks to the partnership 24seven is having with Standard Chartered Bank, finally I get to pull myself there with my blogger friends and foodies. With great company, great food and the great promotion Standard Chartered is having, the night was great fun!

As we all didn’t know what to order, we left it for the boss, Howard to decide for us. So we all had what we call “Howard’s Special”!

That’s Howard, Fin and Barry!

If you find Howard familiar, well, he’s the sweet guy from the show “Eye for a Guy 2″. And Barry and Fin, well, if you’ve been watching TV or taking buses lately, these fishes shouldn’t be a stranger to you. Yap! The two from Standard Chartered 15% Cashback TVC.

This was from two months back, but decide to post it up still so that I can remind myself about this in years to come. This blog has become part of my memory repository too, in case one day, I forget who I am or needs help in recalling portion of my life when I’m old. And my children and grandchildren can read about me too through this blog. Ha! Ok, back to the article on BT.

Companies reluctant to woo customers with tweet nothings

Larger version

Larger version

Nothing to comment on this right now since it was from two months ago. Progression and growth digitally is too fast too furious. Something two months ago may not be news anymore. Just want to post it up as a record for my own reference. And if you’d missed this, for your reading too.

The one thing that I’ve learned is to keep cheonging (dashing) forward and not look back. Things have been moving pretty fast and furious for the past couple of months. My dedicated team has been very supportive and understanding. They cheong with me. They make things possible for us to move forward and not fall back.

I was told many times that I’m a bad businesswoman. I get eaten very easily by clients and because of the demand I put onto my shoulder, I cheong, break and then gets bitten. At times, because I want to get things done, after much delaying by unexpected situations, I will give in, and deliver more than what was planned for upon project confirmation. That means extra hours put in, more actions carried out and more money going out. I was scold “Stupid!”. How can I have let them take advantage of me like that? *dumbfounded* (Ok I digressed…)

When I say cheong forward and don’t look back, it doesn’t mean that you don’t review what your’ve done and just move blindly forward. The standard AAR (after action review) is still necessary, and learning from past experience and mistake is essential too. But don’t look back at what you were doing before, and then thinking whether or not you shouldn’t have taken that step forward. Don’t look back at the what ifs. Cheong for the why nots!

From my personal experience, here are some tips on cheonging forward:

Been two weeks since my life in cubes post. Seems like life has been revolving around my work lately. Life’s getting pretty exciting!

In brief, here’s what happened to my life for the past two weeks…

Life in Cubes #06

By the way, don’t forget to rally for me at Omy Blog Award ya? Thanks very much!

Often I’ll receive emails or calls from friends from agencies asking if I know of anyone (bloggers) who would be interested in their client’s product or service. Perhaps they ask everyone they know for referrals, like how financial planner does the referral system where you give 3 to 5 new leads for them. And often, those names you give them are people whom you have on your blacklist. YES?

But for social media blogger engagement, I can’t do that. As a community member and one whom has a reputation to uphold, I cannot just pop a few names out and refer them. When I do ever make referrers, I give quality ones with certain standards and who are interested in the subject matter. If you have a relationship with me, often I would be more than willing to help. But if we hardly communicate and the only time I see your name is in my inbox with a BCC press release or media invitation, sorry, can’t help you.

Reason is simple. You’re not listening and participating enough.

There have been many talks and posts on how important relationship and contacts is in the game of social media. Well, at least in context of an event invitation or a possible test drive of products. And there are plenty of ways you can start building that relationship. Or at least, be seen elsewhere other than just their inbox.

Some of the things you can do to start the relationship (and build it):

• Add them in facebook
  And keep in touch regularly or comment on their posts/updates.
• Follow them in twitter or plurk
  And participate in discussion or drop a hello once awhile. These are great listening tools too!
• Read their blogs and start commenting
  Hello! You’re engaging bloggers right? They blog right? They blog because they want people to read and participate in discussions/ commenting right? So… are you giving them what they want before you asking them to give you what you want?
• Be part of the communities
  There are so many social events and gatherings! Join in! Introduce yourself and be seen. If you are not willing to commit some extra hours outside of the official hours, than perhaps you’re not ready. And did I mention that some potential clients are there to observe too? So where are you???

If all the above is beyond what your time and energy permits, than perhaps a system can be put in place to help you. Would you like one which can help you filter out the quality content providers that fits your target audience and list of criteria? How about one that will display very nice profile view of where the person is active in, his highlighted (or best) entries, his authority and influence level? Wouldn’t that be nice? But still, its only a system. The relationship building part still has to be injected somewhere in the process. Are you prepared to do that?

If you’re ready or think that you’ll be in months to come, perhaps you can be looking forward to a system like this, let me help keep you posted. You can sign-up for updates and news here. I believe this system will come in very helpful.

If you’re wondering what’s happening to Claudia lately, than this post is for you!

Before I share my story, let me introduce a new banner (section) to the already messy blog…

Yap! That’s right! This is where I will share about my experience, pain, sorrow, excitement, journey, happiness, story and so on with you (whoever you are). Since I’m only a couple of months into my journey as an entrepreneur, I’m sure this section will be an extensive collection of experiences and stories that perhaps one day, someone somewhere might be keen to help me publish it into a book! Than I might become the next Guy Kawasaki? *blank stare at myself*

Right, so why is Claudia, the already panda, becoming even more like a panda with double punch on the eyes? That’s because starting up is NOT easy! If you read anywhere telling you how easy it is to start your own business, its all bull shitake (ref to @guykawasaki)! Especially the part where you start forming your team, getting your developers and the non-developers in sync to work on the big picture, setting up the accounts, settling down in the office, building up your leads, meeting people, pitching ideals, sending that first service order and so much more!!

That’s what I’d been doing for the past one month, almost 24hours 7 days a week! That causes me to lose my radiance and adding more darkness to my already dark panda eyes. As witnessed by my team who are seeing me turn more and more chao lao as the days passes! I think I might look like this even before I’m 60!

But I’ve to admit, no other job will ever beat the kind of excitement and rush one gets for starting up on its own! And I’m very grateful to have a great team to work with. And also am very blessed to have met the many angels and saints that I’ve befriend. All your support and encouragement means a lot to me and my team.

If you’re interested to find out the real life experience of an entrepreneur who’s thirsty for survival and hunger for success, than come back for more from Claud the Entrepreneur (aka CTE!! How interesting!). The journey on CTE is never a smooth going one. There might be breakdowns along the way, jam that goes on and on during peak hours, the occasional slow moving traffic and time at night where you see speeding cabs and vehicles dashing to who-knows-where for who-knows-what.

I will be back (whenever I can) to share bite size stories with you. Till than, look out for a few to-be-typed and published reviews. Hope I can squeeze time out between work and rest over the weekend to get these reviews out.

It has been quite an eventful year for my career. The journey can be seen like a roller coaster ride and with a super dip at the end of the ride.

The graph above shows clearly my state of being in the year 2008.

This roller coaster ride has been the toughest and most tiring ride for the past 10 years of my life. From my first career which has been feeding me well (very well in certain months with bonuses), to a not-as-well-feeding career and finally to one that has been nice but isn’t feeding me well enough during the time of my life.

But now, at the end of the year (where I used to be able to afford go for holidays, buy nice gifts for christmas and spend good money on myself), I’m in such a bad state that I’ve to find means to sell off things I own which is in sell able conditions and live off Abang’s income (which I’m feeling very guilty and trying hard not to).

My spirit has been very badly shaken by the huge downfall financially and this has affected my personal life and well being. I don’t know how much more I can continue to let the blue line go on down like that. The longer this down line go, the harder and longer it will be for me to make a come back in that area. But I hope with the ever energized me filled with enthusiasm and creativity, the come back financially will be accelerated significantly.

To sum up my career journey in 2008 – It was a bittersweet experience.

My Career Resolution for 2009
To establish my company and grow its brand in the local social media scene. To be able to afford a decent office for my team and to expand out of Singapore by 2010.

PS: If you would like to help contribute to Claudia’s Pocket Money Fund, you can send a cheque to be, transfer to my DBS account or pass cold hard cash when you see me. OR! You can hope on over to my garage sale to see if there’s anything that will be useful for you. Help me clear my stash and also contribute to Claudia’s Pocket Money Fund. Thank you very much!