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A Personal Update & Plan

06.27.2012 by Jon // Leave a Comment

This morning I released a personal update.

Stay At Home CEO was launched about a month before we discovered we are pregnant with our third child.

This threw me and my dreams for SAHceo for a loop.

I still have a heart for supporting private solutions for public problems, but I also know the time commitment of a newborn, no matter if it is human or business.

This update is titled Would you like to Change Your World?

A question I ask myself and others from time to time, but have come to some conclusions.

My main focus outside caregiver for my family is now:
1. develop relationships
2. learn more
3. do things that can help private solutions for public problem

This means mostly working on JonathanNation.com and AllyNaiton.com, but from time to time I intend to add more to Stay At Home CEO, or talk about other content specifically for Stay At Home Moms & Stay At Home Dads who have a dream of some business.

I can say, I have had to think deeply about what it really means to be a Stay At Home CEO & how it can work.

I hope you will connect with me outside of SAHceo, you can learn more & find places at JonathanNation.com

Attention Economy

12.06.2011 by Jon // Leave a Comment

Generating one crappy post a day is a pretty easy thing to do. Generating one decent post a day can also be done, but takes a little more effort; something I might or might not have in between taking care of kids. I understand the importance of consistently generating new content on websites, but there has been a battle inside of me that Seth Godin really explained very well today in a post titled Getting serious about the attention economy

Everyone lives busy lives. From late November through mid January it seems that roughly 12 hours a day are eliminated from my schedule … magically. This has caused me to fight the urge to release something every day, just to have something new.

I know deep down that it would be the ideal, but I am also looking at my capacities to produce & know that there are roughly 10 unfinished articles, and at least 5 episodes of StartingCube ready to be worked on.

I’m taking the path of focusing on quality and minimum releases – you should too.

Here is something Seth says in that post, slightly altered for Stay At Home Dads & Moms:

If someone stood in front of your [house] and lit $100 bills from your [wallet] on fire, you’d call the cops. But people … waste the attention of their peers and your customers/prospects at the drop of a hat.

Every interaction comes with a cost.

I think about this with my posts on Google +, Facebook, Twitter, and other online communities I am involved with, too. It’s why I limit the number of links in articles.

The less words we say, the less posts we release, the less media can cause each to have more impact. The other side of it is that you do have to be consistent enough to get noticed in the first place.

Have you fought for the attention of your children? Does this same balancing act apply with the word “No”?

What have you done to balance the fight between a minimum amount of communication and keeping the attention of your audience? Your audience could be customers, friends, family, children, your spouse, or another community.

[ image originally by D Sharon Pruitt ]

Jonathan’s Process for Success – Reflect, Thank; Dream, Plan

11.29.2011 by Jon // Leave a Comment

My family has this process that we started the fall after my wife and I were first married. It stems from my frustration of Thanksgiving being overlooked & disdain for New Years Resolutions. Currently I am calling it Reflect, Thank; Dream, Plan.

Reflect

The first step is to look back on the past year, or longer, and see where you have come from. What all has happened?

Having twin one year olds this Thanksgiving, I can say that the year went by fast. We both have much to be thankful for, especially the growth in our babies and each other — both as individuals, as a couple, and family.

Thank

This part is simple, but important – be thankful & speak to people what you are thankful for. As a general practice I am trying to be encouraging more in the day to day, but there are still some specific people who have had an impact that I try to go out of my way to thank.

Dream

This moves from the past & present side to the future. Dreaming what the next year or longer should be. Currently I am thinking about a model based on relationships for viewing your world, so:
– Yourself – physical, mental, spiritual, capabilities
– Family – the special relationships around you
– Business – if you are an employee – you are a business hiring out your services to your employer. If you own or desire to one one, then you have a slightly different relationship
– Society – other people who are not in your business, or family.

So, what are the dreams for those four big areas? What about the subparts? Can you paint a picture that you are aiming for?

Plan

The practical steps you intend to take to make your dreams reality. Before you fully make plans you need to make goals. Goals are important because they are the measuring stick of how well your plans do, but doing the important work to write out the steps you are going to take to make the dream a reality is also vital.

My family is in the middle. We talked about reflecting and thanks recently. This week my wife and I will talk about our dreams for the next year – thinking in those four big fields. If you can have one dream for each & work on just four things over the course of a year – it will be amazing, as long as you take the steps of really making a good goal and then a plan.

What do you do to both reflect on the past & prepare for the future?

Originally Posted on Jonathan’s personal site.