Click here to view the embedded video.

The class I was attending on the day I shot this video was Jorge Bueno’s Business Codex: How to Get the Money to Fund Your Passion.  The workshop was so excellent that I chose to attend a second time July 31 & August 1. In addition to teaching what the title says he will, Jorge shares his wealth of knowledge on the subject of High Commerce, starting a business, legal entities, and much more related.  This is an excellent opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs and business leaders, as well as potential finance partners.  His next class will be November 13 & 14 in Los Angeles. If you are in business, or have ever wanted to be, you must make the time to attend this event.

(originally posted on April 3, 2010; revised on August 25, 2010)

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Facebook is definitely my favorite platform of Social Media mostly because it offers the best visual tools. (I am highly visual!) One of the features I strongly dislike, however, is the “updates” from Pages (fan pages, business pages, etc.) The updates are not user friendly, in my opinion, and easy to miss for long periods of time. So much so that many of you probably have never seen them.

What are updates?

Updates are messages a Page administrator (admin) sends to those who “Like” the page. Such updates may include a reminder about an event, membership policy, how to do something, or other message related to the business of the Page.

Why does Lisa dislike updates?

Page updates are often misused and abused by page admins forging their own rules of etiquette, or perhaps entirely disregarding any semblance of etiquette. For example, the Page admin of a venue I like (in both Facebook-figurative and literal terms) sends multiple messages in one day, always with similar content. This can become annoying and even considered to be SPAM. I chalk it up to inexperience of the admin and see them as a prospect for my consulting business! (There I go making lemonade, again!) Certainly there are Page admins who use updates effectively, but how to find the updates is yet another reason I dislike the feature as it is.

How do I find my updates?

They are hidden, so get out your Sherlock Holmes cap and magnifying glass, or your Pirates of the Caribbean treasure map & scope, whichever you prefer, but you will need such tools on this journey…

Step 1: One the upper right of your Facebook profile page, click the word “Home” Doing so will bring you to your news feed.

Step 2: On the left side of your home news feed page, you will notice a column of Facebook features that starts with your own profile photo and the option to “edit my Profile” followed by Messages, Events, Friends, etc. These are essentially folders, some of which contain subfolders.

Step 3: Click on “Messages” This will expand the folder and show subfolders “Updates” and “sent” Sent will, as you would expect, show you a collection of messages you Sent to your FB friends and Page admins, if you have sent any inbox messages. You will not find a record of your Wall messages here.

Step 4: Click on “Updates” and – low and behold – there are your Page updates! Here, if you are like most FB users, you will find a long list of unread messages from the admins of Pages to which you subscribe. You will therein find many events to which you were invited, offers on products, services, webinars, podcasts, newsletters… The list is as variable as the type of Pages to which you subscribe.

Now that you know where the updates are and how they usually go unread, you may see my point as to why I dislike this feature. I personally believe a FIX for this mess would be to have all the Updates appear in the same folder as the inbox “Messages” from “Friends”.

So, what can you do about it as the feature exists?

A) Check your updates now (or soon)

B) Re-examine your Page subscriptions. You can find the option to change them when you are at the last step above (4).

C) If you get too many Updates from a Page admin and you Like the content, cause, or company, tell the admin so they are made aware of what they are doing. Sometimes people just don’t grasp the consequences of their actions on Social Media. This is new and changing quickly, so we are all learning. Most admins don’t mean to be annoying, they simply aren’t aware.

D) Keep this in mind if you administer a Page, too. Keep in touch with your fans and friends not more than once per day unless the messages are about different subjects.

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Late Saturday June 19, 2010 or very early Sunday, June 20, 2010, my car was plowed in a Hit & Run.   I was neither in the car nor near it, so I was not hurt.  There is no report of any injury.  Auto parts left at the scene of the crime have been identified as belonging to a Nissan Pathfinder.  My insurance company and I need your help to locate the offending motorist and the vehicle.

My car was parked facing east in Chicago on Lawrence Ave., just East of Linder .  This is the southwest corner of Jefferson Park.  If you were in that area and saw anything, or if you know someone in that area, PLEASE share this information with them. I have only 14 days from the date of the incident to find the offending motorist and the vehicle.  Please use this link to share the license plate and info about the driver in the “your message” section.  You may disregard the other fields if they are irrelevant, or if you prefer to remain anonymous.  Thank you!!

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Part One in a Series

Success in medical school or other rigorous graduate or professional program requires preparation, dedication and focus among other strategies presented earlier in this blog. The ability to focus on academics and schedule-management precludes distracters such as health concerns, relationship problems and financial challenges.

In this article I will share with you issues specific to a student’s financial challenges and how such concerns affect not only the student, but ultimately our whole society.

As a first-year chiropractic and naturopathic medical student engaged in quality relationships and having health issues satisfactorily treated at the University’s clinic, my only major, ongoing concern was my personal finances, specifically the lack of adequate funds. My financial situation was typical of most of my schoolmates who are unemployed and dependent on Federal financial aid, primarily student loans.

For millions of students in a similar situation in The United States, it is nearly impossible to budget the limited student financial aid we receive in week two or three of each term and make it last into week three of the following term when we would receive our next financial aid disbursement. Because of the intensity and rigor of the material covered and studying required, few medical students are employed beyond a work study position not more than ten hours per week on campus, which usually pays slightly more than minimum wage. This amounts to a gross income of $400 per month, netting perhaps $290 per month after income taxes and Social Security.

Without adequate financial resources, students may have problems paying for rent and utilities, transportation expense, quality nutrition, and health care expenses, let alone recreation or unforeseen and unbudgeted expenses. Those of us with access to a university clinic for routine general health care usually do not have access to dental care (except for dental school students who do not have access to general health care) so we either pay out of pocket or do not get dental care while in medical or graduate school. When studying human biochemistry, physiology, pathology, microbiology…there is no room for thoughts of “how am I going to pay my electric bill before they turn it off?” or “I’m hungry but don’t have groceries,” and “This is the third time I am wearing this shirt but I don’t have laundry money.” We students hear these concerns every day, usually beginning at the time of mid-term exams all the way through final exams.

Financial concerns deplete the energy and enthusiasm of many future physicians and other professional and graduate students.  Being cash poor and feeling financially defeated is conducive to neither the state of mental health nor physical health necessary for success in a rigorous academic program.  As Maslow pointed out with his Hierarchy of Needs, it is futile to attempt to work on self-actualization when basic needs of food, clothing and shelter are not being satisfied.

Thus begins the downward spiral of our academic focus.  Concentration is impaired and academic performance waivers. Self-confidence often dwindles and without a strong personal constitution or a support system, self-doubt may sneak in and sabotage the student’s goal. This creates the kind of attrition I feel is detrimental to our society because it eliminates intelligent students with excellent potential.  Even if the student is able to continue in school while under financial stress, such distracters consequently nurture academic mediocrity, which later will likely affect the physician’s ability to diagnose and treat a condition that is not routine. Is this a contributing factor in the misdiagnosis of many patients in our society? Perhaps this scenario should be researched and not taken lightly, viewed only from the perspective of a first-year medical student on sabbatical.

It is my sincere belief that our society suffers as a result of all students’ financial woes, especially those of medical students.  Lack of adequate funds defeats many excellent medical students who otherwise would have the potential to be an excellent physician. Either the student quits school because they have to generate revenue to support themselves, or they quit school because they were distracted by working toward satisfying Maslow’s basic needs. Medical students who are able to keep their heads above academic probationary waters while dealing with financial distracters may be at risk of mediocre practice later, once a health care professional.

**********

Author’s Notes

(1)  The author’s use of “medical student” is meant to include students of each of the following programs:

• medical doctorate (M.D.)
• doctorate in chiropractic (D.C.)
• naturopathic doctorate (N.D.)
• doctorate in osteopathy (D.O.)
• doctorate in dental surgery (D.D.S.)
• dental medicine doctorate (D.M.D.)
• doctorate in veterinary medicine (D.V.M.)
• other professional doctorates required for licensure in health care, which may vary from state to state

(2) The information contained herein may be helpful to pre-med students and their parents or significant other so that the student-family team may better financially prepare for the student’s successful school experience.

(3) Current medical students may find the information herein to be affirming of their own experience.  If you find that to be true for yourself, please comment.  Thank you.

(4) Upcoming articles in this Distracters series will include potential solutions to being adequately prepared for financial success while in medical school, which will be applicable to others, also.

LMB

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Sabbaticals are supposed to be spent working on a project outside of the primary line of study or routine responsibilities.   In August 2009 I planned to set out on sabbatical from chiropractic & naturopathic medical school beginning January 2010.  Little by little while still in med school, I began learning social media skills that I had hoped would eventually provide me with passive sources of income so when I return to school after my sabbatical, I will be able to do so without concern for income.

Further, I intended that the social media skills I learn while on sabbatical will be of value to me long-term, enabling me to enhance my communications with my future patients, students and clients, thus improving the quality of life for them and for my family and me. With this in mind, the biggest overall skill-set I have been learning while on sabbatical is social media marketing.

More on that in a future post, but for now I want to focus on introducing you to the beautiful people who lead me on this path!

My social media “teachers” are not only knowledgeable, they are quality young men of integrity and compassion:

Gabe Strom and Lisa M. Blacker

Lisa M. Blacker and Russell A. Yermal

Bradley Will and Lisa M. Blacker

These are the teachers who started this website for me when I signed up for their Free Blog Factory.

Gabe Strom, Bradley Will, Russell Yermal and team have found a way to have a great deal of fun with their social media friends & followers: They are moving to California to start a reality show! I’ve grown very fond of these dear people and will miss them in person. But, what fun it will be to watch them on their reality show!!  I invite you to get in on the fun by checking out their Facebook Fan Page and enjoy the short video clip they made about moving to “So Cal”.

As I mentioned, these are my social media marketing teachers and they are GOOD at what they do!  They have gained in popularity exponentially in the six months that we have known each other because  THEIR STUDENTS GET RESULTS!!

If you’ve been dabbling in social media marketing, do yourself the favor of checking out this Social Media Cash System that will hep you cut to the chase and get down to business faster, easier and more effectively.

Dabbling in social media can be a waste of time and money if you don’t take direction from someone with experience.  Remember, taking lessons from someone who can teach the theory without experience in application can prove to be futile.  Learn from the doers!

–LMB

Please note: If you click on a link on this page and sign up to learn something, I may receive a commission.  Thank you for supporting my work on this site.

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He’s the Bill Gates of the book publishing industry!

He’s listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having

the most “best sellers” at one time.He has sold over 157 MILLION Books!

His name is Mark Victor Hansen, Co-Creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul franchise.

He is my mentor!

Mark Victor Hansen and Lisa M. Blacker

Mark Victor Hansen and Lisa M. Blacker

AND…

He wants to be your mentor to help you

create YOUR masterpiece

that could change the world!

If you ever wanted to write, publish and market your book you MUST check this out.

Here’s the link: –>>  bit.ly/chf4bX **

Can you imagine being mentored by the #1 author on planet earth to help you write, publish and market your book?!

Here’s your chance!  –>> bit.ly/chf4bX **

You are in for a real treat!

Make today a great day!

Lisa M. Blacker

P.S.  Share this post with any friend who has dreamed of writing a book!

** PLEASE NOTE: If you click on this link and purchase the program from Mark Victor Hansen, I will earn a commission from his company.  Thank you for supporting my work here on this website.

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What are you first thoughts as you awake in the morning? Do you moan to yourself, “I have to do A, B and C today” or do you say, “I get to do A, B and C today!”  Lately I find myself jumping out of bed bright and early in the morning, grabbing my laptop from my bedside where I left it after working late into the night, and heading to a chair in the sunshine to sit and work with a smile!

I use the word work very loosely here. While one of the desired outcomes of what I am doing on my laptop is to generate revenue to support myself and leave a legacy, this work feels more like play. Yesterday, while my sister Laura and I were in her car driving to the fitness center, I gained clarity about my passion for writing. It was not the first time the thought of myself as a writer occurred to me.  Rather, it was the first time in years that I allowed myself to give serious consideration to the concept.

Many years ago – in fact 3 decades ago – a friend gave me a giant, stuffed pencil he had won at a carnival.  Today, propped on one shelf of my wall-to-wall bookcase, I still have that pencil because of its iron-on transfer, which reads:

“I AM A BIG-TIME WRITER”.

Somehow, I internalized that slogan and without focus or direction, I wrote: creative writing, research, reporting, and journaling. Without ever having the title, it seems I have been a writer all along. Why did I not follow a focused writer’s path earlier?  After all, I did earn an “A” in Advanced English during my senior year in high school when I wanted to attend Northwestern University for Journalism.  I didn’t because I instead followed the path of the love of a young man, the man who would become my husband, briefly. Shortly after we divorced and I entered the work force, I was encouraged by executive employers who saw my potential as a writer after significantly editing their documents.

In the mid 1980’s I started a desktop publishing business and my social acquaintances in the Chicago area led me to big corporate clients, for whom I wrote and designed copy.  Working independently, I didn’t find a way to make the business thrive. Not knowing much about effective daily operations of the business stunted its health and weakly managing the operations took me away from my craft – writing and designing copy.  My business withered over a few years, which I found disheartening and disempowering.  In retrospect, it seems I confused my lack of business operations know-how with my craft skills and allowed feelings of inadequacy to dampen my passion for writing.

In 1990 when I relocated to a rural town in Central Illinois, I was one of the few people with a home computer and printer.  I began to assist one of the local ministers who was working on his doctoral dissertation for ministry (D. Min.) and soon took on the role of his editor.  Nine months later, birth was given to his dissertation bearing my name as editor. My love of writing was rekindled and the experience boosted my confidence for advancing my education and ultimately pursuing my own doctorate*.

In 1995 I enrolled in college without declaring a major so I could explore various subjects. My psychology teacher was favorably impressed and in disbelief that her class was my first. Writing papers for school was a fun challenge I faced with enthusiasm and ease, and the grades I earned helped re-fuel my desire to write. I outlined books that I would someday author, and even visualized myself being a guest on talk shows. I see now those were important and appropriate exercises in moving toward a goal although I didn’t follow through.

Just one semester later I declared “science pre-professional” as my major and took on a grant-funded student job as a research assistant at a V.A. hospital. In that position I was first exposed to medical research using the Internet and became a junior member of a team that published scholarly articles.  They were very gracious to include me in the publishing of their work (see #314), which provided another boost to my confidence and a reminder of my earlier passion to write.  Unfortunately, I was unable to remain in school at that time so I lost the job at the V.A..

An assortment of unrelated jobs helped me explore life before I returned to school.  Then, I wrote many, many term papers toward the completion of my Associates of Arts degree in general studies (2006) and my Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical sciences (2008), as well as toward a bachelor of arts in psychology, which I still intend to complete. In 2009 I was officially enrolled in a doctorate of chiropractic (DC) program with additional classes toward a doctorate in naturopathy (ND).  Although I felt ill-prepared for the hard sciences, I loved the philosophy and psychology-oriented course where term papers were the norm.

While the rest of my experience in the DC-ND programs is documented in my blog entries categorized under my blog Medical Student Success Strategies (MS3), it is the experience of writing I want to emphasize here: In all the years of glimpsing my subconscious’s vision of myself as a Big-Time Writer, I was a writer.  I have been writing often and well.

Meeting mega-successful Big-Time Writer, best-selling author Mark Victor Hansen in September 2009 with his co-author Robert G. Allen inspired me to begin writing my MS3 blog and to consider writing an e-book.  In January 2010, I met Hansen again and was tickled that he remembered me. In his presentation of his Wealthy Writer’s Wisdom program that day, Hansen emphasized the importance of writing every day, if you want to be a writer. If you know what book or other project you want to accomplish and by when, break it into sections.  E.g.:  If you want to write a 365 page novel in a year, write one page per day.

Mark Victor Hansen and Lisa M. Blacker Sept/2009

Mark Victor Hansen and Lisa M. Blacker Jan/2010

With my website in place, I will be writing regularly and publishing much of it here. I have an e-book in the works and a non-fiction book that I am outlining. Am I a big-time writer?  No, not yet. But, I am a writer.

LMB

Footnote: * I was enrolled in a DC program, a professional doctorate which requires a clinical internship, contrast to an academic or research doctorate (e.g.: doctorate in philosophy – Ph.D., or doctorate of ministry – D. Min.) which generally require a dissertation.

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Lisa is at the campus apartment of friend and schoolmate Angi H. and is packed and ready to roll.  The plan is to drive to Pontiac, Illinois, about 90 miles southwest of campus to the home of Pam & Mark T.  to take care of some business in the area, spend two nights, then move on to the real road trip.

Just a warning that the quality of this video is not good, but the content is important as an introduction to the sabbatical road trip.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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LMB

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There has been so much happening in my life since I last posted on this blog – much of it very purposeful and some rather serendipitous. Thanks for your patience and your continued interest (or is it just curiosity?!)

I began interviewing schoolmates whom I perceive to be successful. The video and audio quality was terrible, so I decided to wait until after this trimester of school is over and do it right.

Also in the time I’ve been away from this blog, I’ve been doing a tremendous amount of work on myself. That has been the most resource-consuming and rewarding of all my efforts. I intend to share with you elements of my journey and especially how it relates to those of us in medical school.

First, I intend to write two terms papers and prepare for my last final exam, then finishing packing and be out of this dorm apartment before 12/21.

I’m also in the process of taking lessons on how to enhance a blog, so look for some nice changes in the next month or so.

Until we meet again, happy holidays and holy days, whichever set you celebrate.

Peace, Love and Blessings to All.
Lisa

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