Cleaning My Birdhouse

I hope and pray I only have to write about this once. Apparently my Twitter account (@LuckyIJ) was hacked earlier today. I got a weird message from one of my followers but didn't think much of it. I was tied up this afternoon touring a facility site and visiting a colleague at his office. For most of the afternoon, I was not on Twitter. Had I been, I would have definitely been on the attack.

Thankfully, I got a message from Cecily Kellogg (@Cecily K), whom I met last week at the women's conference in Philadelphia. She sent me a direct message that was plain and clear. Basically, I got hacked!

So, what do you do when your Twitter handle gets hacked? Instead of wasting my energy by getting angry and trying to play Sherlock Holmes, I did the following:

1. I sent direct messages to each of my followers who received spam messages. Unfortunately, some of them got two messages but thankfully it wasn't too many.

2. Changed my password. I not only changed it, I made sure it was a very strong. The more differentiated characters you have, the better. It won't hurt to update my password every few weeks/months as well.

3. I shared my story, hence my the title of my blog post.

The Internet can be a crazy, mischievous place at times. This experience certainly woke me up. I turned a negative situation into a learning experience. And I definitely just bought my domain name.

Birdhouse cleaned.

Go. Girl. Goals.

The time has come for me to lay it out on front street. And by "it", I mean a list of goals. Having goals will keep me motivated and the thought of crossing off  each bullet point is my definition of fun. Before the month of October passes me by, I will have accomplished the following:

• Purchased my own domain name to make enhance my credibility and casually tell people to "visit my website".
• Updated my LinkedIn profile with action verbs, a jazzy introduction and new recommendations
• Finished at least one business school application
• Completed 40 blog posts (long term goal is celebrate #100 by year's end!)
• Joined a professional organization

I think these goals are manageable, although a few might be a tad ambitious. It doesn't hurt to try! Actually, I am looking forward to most of them, especially those overdue ones that shall remain nameless. Building your professional portfolio and your brand is a matter of consistent baby steps. By focusing on a few steps each month, I am working to prove to potential clients, consumers, sponsors, etc. that I am worth taking notice. Most of all, I am proving to myself that I am serious and that I want to succeed. Besides, time waits for no one.

Maybe at the end of the month, if all the aforementioned items are finito, I can shout, "GOOOOAAALLL!!!!!" just like the soccer commentators on television. Maybe.