Menopause Brain...

I know this is a little late, ... but HAPPY 2010! After 2 lay offs in 2009, I have officially joined the ranks of the many who are self employed! At 53, I am beginning the adventure of working as an independent freelance marketer. When I wasn't self employed I had work, I survived, I paid my bills, BUT... I didn't grow much. Now with the rug pulled out from under me, I need to reach out, talk to people, take some risks, learn a WHOLE lot of new stuff (and believe me, this is a challenge because my menopause brain  just doesn't work the way it use to!) Change is scary and uncomfortable and some days I just want to crawl under a rock but it's also exciting and I mean to give it my all... on all levels. Physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

Being employed with Baird & Warner Real Estate for 10 years as a marketer, I didn't do very much online marketing. I mostly designed some flyers, brochures, managed databases, etc. After many months of searching online for work (and I looked everyday) I had the luck of connecting with a real estate agent who advertised on Craigs list. It turned out she lives about 2 blocks from me and needed an assistant! It has been part time but it's helped me keep afloat. I managed to attract a few more clients. I learned how to do e-newsletters (which are lots of fun by the way) and had the extreme good fortune of recently meeting a young man who I started working with. He is a social media marketing expert and he has placed me in charge of designing and implementing the newsletters as well as helping him set up accounts.

My first 3 attempts at setting up accounts were less than brilliant! But now I have a much better handle on it.  One thing I noticed is that I sometimes miss the lack of daily feedback from co-workers. There are not too many people in my condo patting me on the back saying, "you are so good"... "how do you do that?"... "you are worth your weight in gold!" At Baird & Warner many of the real estate agents knew very little about marketing and computers so what I did looked fairly close to walking on water. Comparatively speaking, only knew a little more than what the position required for me to know! So, now I have to be brave and ask my clients "Am I doing well?' "Do I need to change anything?' The answer isn't always a glowing report on my amazing skills...but that's ok! It's all information I need to know so that I can keep learning.