Identify your passion purpose
Determine your path
Determine your audience
Design your optimal experience

Seven Things Highly Productive People Do.

Things I had resolved to do in 2012. I haven’t been good at any of it.
walk more
flirt more
stretch more
get facials
take care of body
make more money
save more
only buy things to make me hotter or nourish me
say no more than yes
don’t work for free. ever.
go on a date

First, I want to say that subsequent year in reviews will be easier thanks to Facebook Timeline, Photojo’s Time Capsule and Timehop.

January, I froze my ass off. There was lots of snow. I spoke at Long Island Social Media Club, and was featured in a NewsDay article about social media and business.

In February, I organized a Blogging While Brown Meetup at Bier International in Harlem.

In March, I went to SXSW with a press pass. I also was quoted in an Entrepreneur article about cupcakes.

I went home to Atlanta for Easter, and my sister and I had tea at the Ritz Carlton in Buckhead.

I organized our fourth annual Cupcake Craft Night at Etsy Labs in May. We made polymer clay jewelry and we had a big crowd. Also Rachel and I went up to Gardiner, New York to judge the Gardiner Cupcake Festival.

In June, I co-produced TECHmunch NYC with Babette Pepaj. Also, Cupcakes Take The Cake hosted our annual picnic in Central Park.

In July, I traveled down to Philadelphia for the Philly Vendy Awards. I had a blast! I also went to Montreal in mid-July. It was my first trip to Canada and first time using AirBnB.

Rachel and I went on a tour of Celebrity Cruise ship, The Summit, as we doing a Cupcake Cruise in August 2012.

Just a photo of myself wearing blue eyeshadow in August. I also spoke at Berkeley College in downtown in late August about blogging and social media.

I love this trio of bracelets. I also try to take more photos in natural light.

I volunteered all year long doing social media for the Vendy Awards and the event was in September. Here’s a photo of me with Nicole Taylor. I also spoke at Rochester Institute of Technology at a social media conference.

In October, I met Jesse Jackson while in Detroit visiting a cupcake bakery business, Just Baked.

In November, I went to Orrville, Ohio for the Smucker’s Blogger Conference. I had so much fun, and learned a lot.
I was also in Upscale Magazine in an article about cupcakes.
I was also in the November of Upscale Magazine in an article about cupcakes.

Cupcakes Take The Cake celebrated our 7th anniversary of cupcakes blogging.

This year has been challenging with two moves and two deaths of loved ones. Also, money has been tighter as I keep hustling to make ends meet. I would like a full-time job doing what I love. I would love to lose about 50 lbs. I would love to connect with a man who can I share my life with. I’m ready for 2012! It may not be better, but it will be different and new.

Eight years ago [!] I started blogging and my blog was named Nichelle Newsletter. First it was on Blogger, then later Typepad. I covered events, music, books and shared links. Some people even thought my last name was Newsletter. Anyway, I am bringing the newsletter back just in time for New Year’s Eve parties and such. The new Nichelle Newsletter will be a weekly aggregation of cool stuff that I find. It’s free and all you have to do is put your email address in the box below.

I am so happy to be in a print magazine, Upscale Magazine talking about cupcakes. Cupcakes Take The Cake is seven years old, and I am so proud of what Rachel and I have curated. There is a flourishing international cupcake community that we have engaged with on a daily basis. We’re going to party hard on Monday at our seventh anniversary party at Soho Gallery For Digital Art. There will be cupcake from over 15 bakeries, cocktails from Bulldog Gin, and sparkling wine from Yellowtail Bubbles

I am going to work on happiness by reading  The Happiness Project.
I am finally making salads that I really enjoy eating and that fill me up.
I am speaking about cupcake business at Berkeley College here in NYC on August 22.
I am speaking about social media at Rochester Institute of Technology on September 29th.
Rachel and I are coordinating a cupcake cruise for August 19 through August 26th 2012. Get on our mailing list by checking out http://www.cupcakecruise.com

Today is March 31st which marks the end of the first quarter. It seems proper to take stock and assess 2011 so far.

“A shiver in my bones just thinking about the weather.” – 10,000 Maniacs

The long winter weather has ruined my mood, a good pair of boots and tested my patience.  I never knew thought weather to be such a villain, but these last three months it seems like Cruella deVille is in full effect. You can’t escape it by going somewhere warm. Extreme weather is all over the world over now, and I guess global warming has something to do with it. Throw away the almanac, we’re dealing with new weather shit now.

“Money, where have you turned to?” -Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings

For over two months, I had an outstanding receivable from a former client. The money was significant and the delay was cruel. It is extremely difficult to function as a regular, sane human being when you have to worry all the time about having money to buy food, use the subway or pay your subway. I felt like I was this playing this game of truth and consequences whenever I broke a twenty dollar bill. Now things are better with my new gig, but sometimes I feel like I will never have a middle class lifestyle that I grew up with. However, I choose to live in New York City, so the hustle must go on. I just want more flow and less hustle.

On the good side, I did see Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings on New Year’s Eve which kicked off this year.  Also seeing Diplo at a BlackBerry party at SXSW was fun.

More good stuff-Discovering a different neighborhood in Brooklyn, making new friends, getting press mentions in magazines, hosting fun cupcake events and going to SXSW.

Anyway, the spring brings more change as where I live in Brooklyn will change. Plus I won some yoga classes and I made a vow to get more sleep. I plan to be more physically active, be more relaxed and centered.

I love my new owl earrings!

I will be in Fort Greene this Saturday hosting a twitter scavenger hunt from 12-3PM with BlackAtlas.com. If you find the van, then you can win passes for dinner at Chef Marcus Samuelsson new restaurant in Harlem, Red Rooster on Monday, November 15. Follow me (Niche) and (Black_ Atlas) for clues.

Update: Saturday was a lovely day, and I had fun hanging at the Brooklyn Flea and Greene Grape Provisions with Kiratiana, the editor of Black Atlas.

On Monday,  I spoke at the Postling event for small business owners. It was held at the new Brooklyn Winery in Williamsburg. The discussion was about using social media, geo-location services, blogging and having a website.   Here’s some highlights.

Facebook

Nichelle: If you have a business, then you should have Facebook.  Facebook gives you more room than twitter.  People want to know where you are and what you’re selling.

Alexis: Your Facebook fans advertise for you.  It seems less pushy when other people praise you.

Twitter

Nichelle: The great thing about twitter is that it caters to a niche (like chocolate, clothing, beer).  The focusing is on listening and sharing, more than telling.  Make your twitter name as short as possible.

John: It’s really powerful to tweet at someone who is talking about your subject, but not directly to you.  Your goal has to be looking a year out, because it’s a snowball effect.  Brooklyn Winery doesn’t advertise with twitter, we use it to find people with similar interests.  Remember not to be entirely self-promotional.

Alexis: Think of it as a 90/10 rule:  10% of content is specific about your business; 90% is conversation, related topics, neighborhood discussions

Blogging

Nichelle: Blogging helps you quickly build your brand. Small businesses have an advantage with blogging—you can really put your personality out there.  A good blogger brings you into their thoughts.  A blog is your platform.  Have a blog as part of your website.  Blog about what you’re passionate about.

John: Blogging puts content out there that allows people to find you. Often, 80% of our traffic comes from related Google searches. We blog about things related to other wineries; visitors will come from that.  You never know–in the end you may end up with content for a book.  We started our website 10 months before we opened.

Thanks Alexis and Meaghin for having me speak. It was great to meet Amy from Greene Grape Provisions, Daniel from Fine and Raw Chocolate, Hamilton from Maia Yogurt and John from Brooklyn Winery.

If you want to know more about implementing social media into your business, then check out Postling’s Social Media Boot Camp.

Digging through notes from my old Yahoo account, I found this.  It’s tips from a class I took nine years ago, and it is still relevant today.

1. See Yourself as a resource for others.
2. Seek common personal and professional interests.
3. Balance the amount of time you talk and listen
4. Introduce yourself to ‘people of influence’.
5. Join other conversations already in progress.
6. Introduce colleagues to help them increase their contacts.
7. Offer and seek referral when you feel it is appropriate.
8. Circulate and talk to as many people as possible.
9. End your conversations on a positive note and ask for the person’s business card or way to stay in contact.
10. Promptly call or send information to a contact after the event.
11. Follow up periodically on all your networking contacts.
12. Help others achieve their professional or personal goals and they will think of you when they or someone they know needs your skills or service.

Today I had the pleasure of being on Nicole Taylor’s show on Heritage Radio Network, “Hot Grease“. We talked and laughed about the latest news in food and hot food topics. The radio studio is in a recycled shipping container in the back of Roberta’s Pizza in Bushwick. There’s a garden and I took a picture of the peppers growing in the backyard.

After the show I ordered the Speckenwolf pizza. I love Speck. It is the bacon of fancypants.

BTW, Nicole and I will be down in Atlanta in December for Lavish. I will be moderating a panel on food trends.

I really enjoyed my first Blog World Expo. It was great to meet new people and learn tips on how to make my blogs and social media better. Thanks to Babette Pepaj founder of BakeSpace for producing TechMunch Food Track and for Jenn-Air for providing the demo kitchen.

Things I loved about Blog World:

• Thanks to Babette of BakeSpace for inviting to come and speak. It was fun!
• Meeting my fellow Techmunch panelists–LA Time’s Rene Lynch, LAist’s Lindsay Williams-Ross, and TechZulu’s Amanda Coolong. Our panel rocked!
• Seeing old NYC friends who now live in LA– Jayme Waxman and Tara Settembre.
• Eating lots of steak and shrimp at the Omaha Steaks event. Lovely talking to Todd Simon.
• Getting a hop scotch (butterscotch) cupcake from Kari Haskell of Retro Bakery. She’s cupcake royalty in Las Vegas.
• Meeting Manouschka Guerrier (Single Serving) of Food Network’s Private Chefs of Beverly Hills.  She’s a blogger and celebrity chef.
• Seeing Scott Hanselman’s presentation, “32 Ways To Make Your Blog Suck Less“
• Recognizing Brett Erlich at the Techmunch dinner as the host of Rotten Tomatoes on Current.
• Lovely tasting of sashimi, short ribs, octopus at Yellowtail. Thanks Light Group.
• Thanks Pop Chips for a basket of potato chips. I ate a lot of chips.
• Meeting Edouard Lambelet of Paper.li.  I wonder if Geneva has a burgeoning tech scene.
• Being interviewed by Sam Smith of Restaurant Business Magazine at the Pepsi booth.
• Getting on stage to sing “Don’t Stop Believing” with a bunch of techies at the Palms. Thanks Mashable.
• Hanging out with Erik Trinidad (Fancy Fast Food) and his buddy Terrence. Brooklyn Represent!
• Tip from Aaron Aviles: when traveling, take a photo of your hotel room number with your phone, so you know where to sleep when you get back after a night of partying.

Last fall, some of the contents of my purse were stolen including my old Canon digicam. I later bought a pink Samsung camera. A few months ago, Jaeger Sloan asked me to bring my camera to a Spot Dessert Bar and take some pictures. It was so much fun and very meta to have Sloan take pictures of me taking pictures of cupcakes. The result of the photo shoot is that I am featured on the homepage of Samsung. Click on the fourth to the last dot and you will see me.