What I’m Working On

Life ebbs and flows, that seems to be how it goes. I went from relatively quiet days to too much. The quiet was prior to 6 months ago, it’s gone to relatively busy since then. In the past few days it’s caught up with me, either that or I have a bug that’s slowing me down (I do, finally took my temperature so if this post is a bit loopy that’s my excuse 🙂

It’s nice to slow down sometimes and take a deep breath though.  Taking a little time (how much time is up to you!) and resting can feel great. The revival it creates is excellent, although I have to admit it’s hard to sit still after so much productive time.

I’ve slowed down a little the past month, but not like the past few days. I’ve been trying to move to a post a week schedule but haven’t been able to push over that hump yet. Picking up a 2nd blog and trying to keep that up weekly has given me a bit more to think about, and some gear switching to do.

The question is, what have I been working? I’m going to go over some of the general projects I’ve been working on in my spare time outside of my daily 9-5.

eLearning Contractor

For about 5 months I took on a contractor position doing some basic work on eLearning modules. I don’t have a lot to say here though, it involved putting translations into place and animations.

Several of my other projects overshadowed this one so I had to put it on the backburner. In the end I learned you always have to do what’s best for your future, never for the immediate dollar.

Udemy WordPress Course

From late November to late December I worked solid on creating a Udemy course. The work didn’t end once I created the course, and it still hasn’t stopped. The hard work for this one went on for 3 months.

I became a marketer, an instructor, an editor and a lot of other things. I had used WordPress a lot on this website and it helped me get some jobs, but I hadn’t taken WordPress to the level I did with this course and beyond.

I’ve written about the course in its early days quite a bit, but not lately. I have plans to create another course on getting started blogging with WordPress.com. My goal is to have several courses that focus on using WordPress to have a better career. If you haven’t checked out my course yet there’s a link to it on my other website and a larger description.

WordPress Website

I originally created this website as I created my Udemy course. I walked through the entire process while recording. In the course I ended up with a very different website. The reason it looks very different now is that I rebranded it into another platform for me to blog, this time on WordPress and using it to promote yourself for your career.

I continue to blog on this website almost weekly including a recent post about my WordPress update process. I also have future plans for this website to help funnel all students I bring into my course through the courses section.

The reason for this? I was putting links all over the place for coupon codes that would expire and I’d constantly have to update them and find them. With one place I can put coupon code links on exprance.com and then link to that everywhere. It’s easy to chance the coupon code then, just one place.

With Udemy, if you bring a student to the course, you get 97% of the money for that student. If they go through Udemy then you only get half. Even if I don’t have a special going on, I can still funnel students through this page and ensure I get the credit for bringing the student to Udemy.

There’s always more updates to this website, and it’ll continue to evolve and change. I also use it to test plugins and run other WordPress experiments. Based off all my testing and researching I have a lot of updates to do on my course, so it’s always a work in progress.

Expanding with Social Consultant

I don’t have a lot to say about this one yet, but I’m hoping to write about this in the near future. I haven’t received permission to write in detail about the position, nor have I even begun yet, but it will be a lot of fun.

Enough cryptic talk though, the Master’s program I graduated from in 2011 has been going through some changes. It was a small program of about 30 students in each cohort, they’re now expanding and wanting to do so online through several routes.

My place in all this is to consult and help the program through its social presence. I wrote up a few proposals on what I would do to help grow the program.

I am a firm believer in social learning and the power of self-directed learning, but at the same time I think formal education has a big place also. If it weren’t for formal education I wouldn’t be where I am now. It gave me guidance and a goal of where I wanted to go. I had little idea where I wanted to go before beginning my undergraduate degree, and with each year I was given a path, guidance, and a place to go.

I’m looking forward to this project and will pursue writing about it more because being successful with it relies heavily on transparency and openness.

What I’m Working On Going Forward

Going forward I still have as much as ever on my plate. My goal is to be self-sufficient in creating an income for myself which includes consulting. This gives me the opportunity to have a great effect on organization who are ready to join the modern era of work which has limited places for silos and hierarchy.

What are you working on?