Photo courtesy of Taylor Davidson

I started this meme in 2009 and continued it in 2010. Thanks to Taylor for inspiring me to do this project – his meme of cities goes back to 2006. Unlike him, I don’t have a photo of all of the places I slept, but that’s certainly something to aspire to!

As in previous years, a city makes it onto this list when I’ve slept there so any day trips aren’t included. If I was in a city and slept in multiple places, that counts as it’s own entry – since it counts against the total nights away and not spent at home in my own bed.

The big thing this year was having ONE home. A home that started unfurnished – a huge step for me compared to 2009 and 2010! It was still a year of travel (both in the U.S. and then to Haiti, Mexico, Barbados and Portugal) but it was also a great year to sink into New York City and enjoy everything that this glorious city has to offer and start to build a home. It’s been a good year. Here’s where I was in the year that was…

January
New York City (homebase)
Miami (1)
Boca Raton, FL (2)
York, ME (1)
Boston, MA (1)

February
New Orleans, LA (3)
Port-au-Prince, Haiti (2)
Jacamel, Haiti (1)

March
Austin, TX (2)
Austin, TX (2) *separate place
Los Angeles, CA (1)
Los Angeles, CA (2) *separate place

April
Miami, FL (1)
Tecate, Mexico (7)
Fairfield, CT (1)

May
Asheville, NC (3)

June
Kittery, ME (2)

July
Barbados (4)
Manchester, CT (2)
Boston, MA (1)

August
San Diego, CA (3)
Pittsburgh, PA (3)
Luray, VA (3)

September
Hidden Valley, PA (3)
Boston, MA (2)

October
Chambersburg, PA (2)
Kittery, Me (2)
Santa Monica, CA (1)
Burlington, VT (2)

November
Wahington, DC (3)
Hidden Valley, PA (3)

December
Scarsdale, NY (1)
Pittsburgh (5)
Lisbon, Portugal (2)
Duoro Valley, Portugal (2)

Total nights away from home: 76 (20% of nights)

Where did you go last year (work/personal or both? Where are your travels taking you this year? To all the places you’ll go and beyond – happy travels!

One thing in, one thing out.

I don’t know when exactly I adopted this rule. There isn’t one clear moment where I decided this would be guide for what comes into my home. I think it started as a saying, a general guideline, a concept not yet 100% adopted. But somewhere in the last year, it has in fact, become a rule.

It turns out it’s a rule that is talked about a lot online in the big declutter blogs! It makes total sense, I just landed on this one on my own.

When I left Los Angeles in December 2008, it was the first time I gave up one home without moving into another. I had to compress and declutter, then pack and give away all in two weeks. I held a weekend long garage sale and sold as much as I could, then packed as much as I could into my RAV4 and drop it off at Goodwill. The rest, I moved into storage.

I didn’t have a permanent home again until October 1, 2010 (a year ago yesterday). And that home was one that I was building with someone else. And that someone else had a lot less “stuff” that me. I spend hours every few months just going through my stuff to give away more things. Clothes I don’t wear, papers and books I don’t look at, DVDs I don’t watch. My big revelation? It’s EXHAUSTING! Stuff is quite frankly exhausting. The getting it, the keeping it, the organizing it and eventually the giving it away.

In order to free myself of this cycle, I had to free myself of the things themselves.

It’s hard to explain what happens when you free yourself of things. I mean, I still need clothes to wear, still have a “favorite shirt” and still look longingly at things I want to buy. The one thing that has changed is that when one thing comes into the house – one thing must go out.

Here’s how I do it…

I keep a canvas bag under the island in the kitchen, and that’s the “donate pile.” So I do, from time to time, buy things. Just last week I was in Boston and found a great chunky sweater at GAP. I good “winter is coming and I’m going to curl up and read on a Sunday” sweater. I bought it. I came home and the first thing I did (after putting down my keys and overnight bag) was to open my closet doors and give it an honest look. I never wear that longsleeve shirt, I am over those summer sandals and will most likely get a new pair next summer and I inherited that purse in a swap with girlfriends but actually have never worn it. They all went into the donate pile. When the bag is full, I walk it down the street to the Goodwill and drop it off. I’ve never regretted anything I’ve donated, or missed it, or wished I had it back. Life is funny that way, things we are so attached to when suddenly they are gone, they aren’t so important anymore.

It’s not a perfect system but it’s a system that FEELS pretty good once I got into the swing of it. The whole thing makes me pause before buying things because let’s face it, if you love the things you own and you buy something new, in essence, you have to give one thing up.

Do you have a “one thing in, one thing out” rule in your house? I’d love to hear about it! And if you’re interested in finding out more about decluttering and other organizational tips, here are some blog posts I’ve discovered:

15 Great Decluttering Tips
Instructions for decluttering your home (in less than 500 words)
Top 10 Blogs to DeClutter & Simplify Your Life

I have exciting news to share! I’ve started on a wonderful and new adventure to add to my already wonderful and full plate. I have just started graduate school as a part-time student at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service working towards a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in management.

The definition of public service is “a service rendered in the public interest” and I have always had such a strong pull to serving in the best interests of the public. That can be seen through all of my community activism and projects in social media for social good. Now I have the chance to deepen my understanding and my learning in these topics in a community of my peers.

I did consider MBA programs, but context matters folks. For me, it was a lot about the people in the program itself, as much as it was about the program and reviews on Wagner (one of my mentors is an alumni) are stellar. In fact, every time I mention it now to someone I often here about a person I have to meet in the program or someone who graduated from there that I would connect with.

Ranked in the top 10 graduate programs for Public Affairs by U.S. News and World Report, the school is an excellent blend of academics and practitioners. Many of my classmates also work full-time and the classes I’m taking are in the evenings which allow me to work all day and then make it to class on-time.

While my concentration is management, I am also going to be focused a lot on the two subjects that have been woven through much of my work during my careers – social innovation and access to education for girls and it’s implications on health, wellness and economic development. I am working in tandem to broaden my horizons of what is possible in my professional career and hone in and focus on the subject areas where I want to deepen my knowledge and network.

I’m kicking things off with Introduction To Public Policy and Microeconomics. If you see me in person you might have already noticed the shift in my lexicon – I posed the question last night about how I wanted my life to be linear and not parabolic (yes this happened). I also have been talking about public/private partneships a lot – in particular how something that is private becomes public and becomes policy. You can expect more of my musings and what I’m learning here, and of course in greater “live-time” on Twitter. You can also follow NYU Wagner on Twitter at @NYUWagner.

It’s going to be a long road, I know I’m putting a lot on myself to perform at work and now at school. I couldn’t do this without an amazing support network of family and friends and also the conviction that now is the time for this next steps in my formal education. You might hear less from here on this blog as I have to reallocate my time and focus on lectures and homework. Then again you might hear from me more as I’m learning so much and busting from the seams to share it. We’ll see. Either way, wish me luck! And if you want to talk at all about if going back to school is right for you or talk about Wagner in particular, you know where to find me.

Well. This is it. Rock bottom. I told myself I’d never do one of those “I’m sorry I haven’t posted recently” posts and here I am! I haven’t posted lately! I feel terrible about it.

Actually that’s not entirely true. I do have a few pretty good reasons why I haven’t been blogging lately and since I really want to get over this hump, I thought it best to wipe the slate clean, to buck up and share what all has been going down in my world. The good, the bad and the ugly. And then we can move on to bigger and better things without the rigamarole of having to explain where I have been. Here we go!

5. I got engaged! No, I’m not going to go all Sheryl Sanberg on anyone. I’m still the same hard-working girl I have always been. But I have to admit, that being in love can really take a toll on your blog – that is if you blog is not about love and relationships. Taylor and I just have the best adventures together and we spend weekends out of the apartment, on foot, exploring where ever we happen to be on any given day. And to tell you the truth, it’s marvelous. So at the end of the weekends, where I used to spend a few hours writing and queuing up posts for the week, now I’m mostly too tired to sit in front of the computer and so by the time the weeks starts the same cycle begins again.

4. Dollar, dollar bills y’all. I have a really amazing job right now that requires 110% at all times, no if ands or buts. Yes, I did have a job before (Answer With Action), but it’s all very different when you go into an office Monday-Friday and anyone who has ever worked for themselves or as a consultant would agree with me. I’m five months in now, time flies when you’re working hard! I started as Director of Digital Marketing at Lippe Taylor (and her sister agency ShopPR) at the beginning of March and it’s been absolutely amazing ever since. I lead a (growing) team and I was really looking for a place where I felt like my contributions and opinions would be valued and I have found that at Lippe Taylor. What’s hard is coming home when I have zero brainspace left. So it’s hard to get into the mode to sit and write. I’m working on it.

3. I am loving living in New York! I have wanted to live in New York City my whole life. I really have. I didn’t make it right after college as I thought I would – instead taking a year in Pittsburgh, pitstop in Boston, 5 years in Los Angeles, one traveling and volunteering (well documented here) and all of last year in New Orleans. I love every step of my journey and certainly no place outshines another. I love LA for LA and NOLA for NOLA. I know my version of “home” is different from some other people – for me home is where my friends and family are. It’s not so much a physical place but a state of mind. Living in New York means exploring and discovering new arts and cultural things to do, restaurants to try, long walks to take and spending a good bit of time offline. It’s been so important for me to balance working online and living offline and just taking some time for myself.

2. Fear. Writer’s Block. That what I’m writing isn’t good enough. The usual feelings of “not being good enough” that all of us have. I have a piece of street art I love that says, “Everything. Everything. Everything. Everything.” That’s how I am. I want to be everywhere and everything to everyone all the time. So not writing for a week, then a month, then longer, well it just ends up feeling like I have so much to get out of my system that I don’t know where to start. So frankly, I don’t start at all. It’s a hard thing to get over. I have been working on it. I recently took a class for 8 Thursdays through The OpeEd Project about multimedia thought leadership. Surrounded by the same group of women for 8 weeks talking about various forms of media, how to get our voices heard and sharing our collective experiences. I wrote for them, I wrote for myself, but it’s time to step back in and share some of what I’m writing.

1. I’ve gone old school and started journaling again. That’s right, pen and paper. Crazy times we live in! I really needed a place I would write without abandon and needed to get back to find that chi inside of me. I’ve kept actual paper journals since the 7th grade and written at some points more frequently than others but it’s something that has always been really important to me.

There you have it! 5 reasons I’ve been a terrible blogger of late, but honestly, I’ve been a pretty great offline person. Now it’s time to balance the two a little better. Does this ever happen to you? I’d love to hear any stories or tips about you got through a down-point in blogging and came back!

Rock the causebah,
Sloane

Collage Of NOLAlicious Desktop Wallpapers

There are quite a few changes happening this week that I’m excited to share. First, today marks the one year anniversary of NOLAlicious. It’s been an amazing year and there is no better way to talk about it than to share the introduction from this week’s newsletter:

NOLAlicious #53, January 11, 2011

Celebrating an Anniversary and a Goodbye.

Dear NOLAlicious readers,

Today marks the one year anniversary of the collaborative project between friends that became known as NOLAlicious. Today is the 53rd consecutive weekly NOLAlicious newsletter (with 11 additional special issues scattered throughout). We’ve shared with you over 35 desktop wallpaper images of classic New Orleans sights (mostly taken by our own in-house professional photographer Taylor) and produced a 2011 calendar from many of these images. We’ve featured more than 265 activities to do or places to eat around New Orleans and provided information about over 135 full-time jobs based in New Orleans. We have sent over 1,000 tweets, shared over 500 photos, and have close to 1,400 friends on Facebook. We hope you know, without a shadow of a doubt, how much we have enjoyed sharing a sliver of life in New Orleans with you every week.

Today also marks the final weekly NOLAlicious. When NOLAlicious was created last year, we were new to living in New Orleans and looking to find a curated list of things to do outside of the traditional media sources. There wasn’t anything like NOLAlicious (at least that we could find). Lending our skills, ideas and the little time we had to give, the concept for NOLAlicious was born. And what a year it was! The highlights are many including the Saints winning the Super Bowl, riding in Mardi Gras Krewes and bouncing through a muddy (and beautiful) JazzFest. It also included the election of a new mayor, the Gulf Coast oil spill and the 5-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. It included all of the magic that is New Orleans, from food and music and culture to sharing it with neighbors and new partners-in-crime along the way. 2010 was about making lifelong friends and memories that we will hold close to our hearts forever.

Throughout the year, the NOLAlicious family grew to include Elise, Kat, Martin and Emily, who each shaped NOLAlicious in their own way. Without them, we would have been lost.

Our lesson? Support those wacky ideas you hatch over coffee with friends. Use your passions to create something you can share with others. Be consistent. Share your passions and love. That’s why, instead of our regular PICKS this week, we’ve each described what New Orleans means to us, our perfect New Orleans day, and what we’re most looking forward to this upcoming year.

We like the idea of NOLAlicious having bookends, a beginning and an end. Of course, all of our past newsletters, featured picks and photos will stay online. On occasion, you might even hear from us when something comes up that is too good not to share. But now it’s your turn. We featured the New Orleans we found and loved in 2010, but our love for New Orleans lives on, stronger and deeper because you showed NOLAlicious what you loved about New Orleans, and why it was so important to you. Thank you. Now get out there and show New Orleans that same love you showed us.

Always yours,

Carl, Sloane, Taylor and the NOLAlicious Team

All of us wrote paragraphs about New Orleans and I want to share mine. Here you go:

New Orleans is so full of perfect moments that my heart aches thinking about having to choose just a few. I remember the spring days when the temperature started to rise and the condensation gathered on the windows of my French Quarter apartment and I would open the french doors to hear the clopping of the horses, the sounds of the buskers and the smell of the garden flowers from surrounding courtyards. I remember everything. Bike rides through the Marigny exploring every block and every nook in wonder. Long walks around Audobon Park and deep debates over what snoball flavors to try next with friends. Dinners so delicious with company so divine that we didn’t notice 4 hours had gone by. Laughing so hard at dive bars on hidden Uptown streets that my sides hurt. Life in New Orleans is turning up the dial on what it means to be alive. It’s brighter, it’s louder, it’s more decadent and yet it can fill one with pure childlike joy at the possibilities and wonders that lie around every street corner. It’s the definition of family, of generations coming together to celebrate culture and a place they love. From our family to yours, thank you for everything.

For the rest read the entire NOLAlicious 53 newsletter.

Change comes and goes in life and with NOLAlicious we loved doing it so much and wanted to end in a place where it was at the top. The future of the project is unknown, we do have some interesting conversations going on and ideas about where it can go. But for the time being we really wanted to celebrate it for what it is. Period.

This also marks a change in where I’m calling my primary residence. I have called New Orleans home since December 2009 and as of this week that is changing to New York City. I am so excited to continue to visit New Orleans as much as I can (hopefully once every other month at least including next up the weekend of Feb 11th) and I know that not a day will go by that I won’t think of New Orleans or my friends there who I miss already. That said, challenges and opportunities presented themselves here in New York and I’m excited to see what the future holds.

New York has always been on my list of places to live. It’s where my dad grew up. It’s the first trip I remember taking on a plane to visit. It’s close to my family in Pittsburgh and for the first time in 7 years I’ll be living in the same timezone as my family (a huge accomplishment trust me)!

Personally, I have friends here I’ve know my whole life and professionally this is one of the centers of digital strategy and social innovation and many of my clients for 2011 are based here.

Decisions to change and move and uproot are never easy. I can’t thank enough my support network of friends and family who have coached and guided me, not only through this transition, but through all of my big life decisions.

Signing off from NYC,
Sloane

This is the final post (#4) in the series wrapping up the year that was in 2010. Previous posts can be found here, here and here (with my favorite annual reviews around the web posted here). I can honestly say this has been the most thorough annual review I have ever done. I’ve chewed and let pieces of it reverberate in my head and it’s felt really amazing to take this time to reflect on where I’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going.

Year of the…

I believe in creating themes and having power statements as I look forward. I’ve made vision boards and life lists. I actively envision the future I want. But for the first time, I’m creating a theme for the year. My friend Erica O’Grady talks about this, as does the master of the annual review Chris Guillebeau. I’ve decided 2011 is the Year To Be Mindful.

Mindful is a mix of being aware and cognizant. I look to 2011 as a year not only of focus, but as a year where I am aware and indeed mindful of my actions, decisions, interactions and entire being. This includes how I spend my time and my money, where I spend my energy (personal and professional) and the outcomes of those actions. Part of this is meant to streamline my own process, I’m simply one of those people who want to do everything. All. The Time. In reality that is impossible. I can’t know everything all the time, read everything, be everywhere or be everything to everyone. This will be a challenge for me, but a welcome one. I plan to be mindful of being mindful, have fun along the way, and of course share my thoughts and perspectives here as the year goes along.

What lessons did I learn in 2010?

You control how fast the wheels spins. I can easily let myself spin out of control with too many obligations and saying yes to everything that crosses my plate. About half way through this year I was completely burnt out. And not fun to be around! I had a situation where I was asked to submit a proposal for a big (huge) brand and they offered me the job but countered with an offer that was way underpaid. I wanted to say yes because of who they were and what it could do for my career, but I also knew it was too far below my bottom line. I realized I control the wheel and I control how overcommitted I let myself become and also value my own work and not compromise to a level I’m uncomfortable. I said no to the project, and took back control. Saying no (respectfully), taking time off from being online, and creating boundaries are glorious revelations I’ve had this year that have made me better and stronger. I’m more of a marathon runner now and I don’t feel that push and pull of being burnt out or pressured by what I perceive as other peoples’ schedules and how that impacts my own psyche. It’s an amazing shift and I’m not letting go of this one for a long long time.

Learning when to exhale. Home, for me, is where the heart is and where my friends are and where my family is. It’s not always my home where I rest my head or the driveway I pull into or the ever-elusive view of where I think my life should be. I didn’t have a permanent place to rest my head in 2009 and in 2010 I moved into two separate furnished places in New Orleans. Both felt immediately like home. I went to Seattle and Los Angeles and Pittsburgh and New York City and immediately felt at ease. I wondered why. It occurred to me that without realizing I had fundamentally changed the concept of what home is to me. Refined the idea of stuff. My heart might be in one place while I’m physically somewhere else. It’s all less tenuous to me now. I can exhale and relax easier knowing it’s not tied to preconceived notions of stuff.

Walking makes everything better. I can seriously get my walk on. I have always loved being outside and walking but the big change this year was feeling the difference in me when I could take that time to get outside, clear my head and change my environment. I have a theory that everything changes when you walk 10 minutes in one direction. Often this year, I needed that perspective to keep going because life was so busy and I was balancing a lot of emotions at once. It wasn’t only walking but also leading a healthy lifestyle including yoga, eating healthy, limiting caffeine and alcohol intake, all of these things made a huge difference in me and almost eliminated entirely the mood swings that I remember all too well from my 20s. I largely credit walking.

What am I looking to create and what challenges do I see for 2011?

Know your colors, know your fabrics. Collaboration was huge in 2010. I really valued working with people whose own skills and backgrounds complimented my own. I’d like to continue to collaborate with the same success (or more) this upcoming year with amazing partners. Everything hasn’t worked, every relationship hasn’t worked out but I have learned an insane amount about people and how they operate from working for myself this past year and collaborating on more than 10 major projects and client campaigns. I’ve learned more about my strengths and weaknesses and have actively worked on both. Continuing the trend this year.

If seeing is believing, let’s make believing seeing. I believe in visualization techniques. Of course they don’t work every time, but when something is meant to work out I swear I can actually envision it and see it. I will have vivid dream about it. I can actually taste it before it even comes close to touching my lips. I want to believe what I see as much as I see what I believe. It’s a 360-view of how to make dreams a reality and I’m all for being my own personal biggest fan. It’s important to cultivate a balance between the id and the ego. Believe in yourself, but don’t let it go to your head. This is a balancing act, but I know that believing I’m the best fit for an opportunity means something in the greater scale of the Universe.

Creating is good for the soul. Giving back is good for the soul. Being happy and healthy is good for the soul. Well then so too is creating. Last year, I created a lot ONLINE. And it was amazing. But as the year came to a close, I craved something offline. I went crazy custom wrapping my Christmas gifts this year and only one week into 2011 have been a cooking and baking machine! I need to balance my online life (personal and professional) with offline activities and projects. Those can be producing the book I have talked about, becoming a better cook, challenging myself to get outside more or taking a class (as I’ve also talked about really wanting to do). Any of these acts that are done offline will help my online self be fresh and perky and ready to hit the ground running.

There it is. I hope my annual review has helped any annual review that you have undergone. I would love to read yours and share tips as the year goes one. Please leave a comment or send me an email to continue this conversation!

I have written earlier this week about my struggle getting into the 2010 review and resolutions for 2010 but thanks to these 5 annual review posts, and then starting small with My Cities 2010 list and some quality time with my journal, I’m ready. Tempted though I was to skip it and not share at all, it’s these sticky and difficult places that I have to push through to make myself stronger. Would you agree?

Last year’s annual review and reflections can be found here and here with the My Cities 2009 here.

There was a process in part last year, but I knew I wanted to improve upon that practice so I decided to take a few of the following statements and answer those questions and go from there. As a note, I left travel out for the most part since I included reflections in the My Cities post.

• What am I most proud of from 2010?
• What didn’t worked or could have been better about 2010?
• What lessons did I learn in 2010?
• What am I looking to create and what challenges do I see for 2011?

After writing down all my thoughts in my journal to each of those questions, I took each statement and expanded upon it and let it ruminate a bit more. I’m answering the first two questions about 2010 in today’s post and the other two questions in a post tomorrow. Without further ado.

What am I most proud of from 2010?

2010 was truly a spectacular year. If I had to sum it all up, I would say I created great relationships with new people while continuing to build upon relationships that were already near and dear to me. This wasn’t always easy since I was traveling quite a bit and also in a new city, but friends and family come first. I also think that back in 2008 I let work take over my life and suck me dry and that my personal relationships suffered because of it. This year I made sure to take time to be “offline” and not get stuck in the race.

Being based in New Orleans was amazing as well. After five years in Los Angeles (until December 2008) I was used to being far from my family in Pittsburgh and not being able to make the little events because it was just too far. While New Orleans is not right around the corner from Pittsburgh, it is only one timezone off and a fairly quick flight home. I was able to make my grandpa’s 90th birthday celebration this year and that was huge. Just being closer felt really nice, even though not a day goes by that I don’t miss Los Angeles, my amazing friends there and the sunshine on my face and access to great hiking, beaches and mountains.


I won’t gush on and on about Taylor, though I could. But I have to thank New Orleans (again) for bringing us together and in particular a few very special friends who saw my friendship with Taylor and knew something more was there between us before I did! It’s not my first rodeo and I wasn’t looking to be in a relationship when Taylor and I became friends. And then something happened. It didn’t feel like a rodeo at all. There wasn’t questioning or second guessing about how one person or the other felt. There wasn’t anything to disagree about or get into silly little battles over and we didn’t push each other’s buttons to have to prove how much we care. We just knew we did. Learning to let go and give in a little bit, I saw that I didn’t lose myself in the process and that spending time with Taylor made me a better person. I’m much calmer now (being 30 might have had something to do with that too!!) and so while I’m still the same go-getter in all the same senses of the person I was, I’m better because I now have someone to share it all with. For those who don’t know me offline, I’m a pretty big jokester and goofball when I’m not heart set on changing the world and to let this part out in a place where we just laugh and laugh is incredible. The other thing is that we compliment each other really well and there isn’t a huge separation of church and state with us. We help each other with projects (online and off) and that was huge this year with events like Gulf Coast Benefit and our New Orleans weekly enewsletter NOLAlicious. As an added bonus, Taylor is one of the only people I know who has been to more states in the US and countries than me and we travel really well together. Actually we just adventure really well together in general whether it’s a bike ride through the Marigny in New Orleans, hiking in Shenandoah National Park, or negotiating buses, taxies and on foot in Ghana, and all of that makes a huge impact oh how we see the world and also how we see our future together.

Professionally the year kicked off with a bang! I entered, and won, a video contest to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on behalf of MySpace and the Wall St. Journal. If you haven’t seen highlights from that trip, visit the custom page they created for my trip here.

Davos laid the path for the rest of the year which included over a dozen speaking opportunities at colleges and conferences nationally and for the first time, internationally when I went to Dublin to speak at the Dublin Web Summit in October. My main topic is “Baking Cause Into You Company” followed my a talk called “Social Media for Social Good” with a focus on fundraising for nonprofits online. Examples of my talks can be found on my SlideShare. Through founding and hosting the first CrisisCampNOLA, I attended a shareholder meeting at the World Bank this summer with CrisisCommon hosts. I also attended the Clinton Global Initiative and was named a Top 10 Twitter influencer by Waggener Edstrom and also named to the Top 10 Women To Follow in a Forbes blogpost.

On the web front, The Causemopolitan relaunched in October! When I first started The Causemopolitan in February 2009, I had not idea what would happen nor how much this tiny corner of the web would come to mean to me and so I really wanted for a long time to relaunch it with a more streamlined and focused approach to finding and discovering content while also giving the site a facelift with a new color palette and background template.

Answer With Action also relaunched as a platform for my consulting practice. Answer With Action has been evolving since 2006 and it was amazing this year to see it take off which included working on campaigns with the likes of Microsoft, Macy’s, PGi, Ochsner Health System, ezetop and agencies like FSC Interactive and Everywhere. I hosted a series of salons around the country, first in Austin for SXSW and then corresponding with being on tour for the Mashable SummerMash series. I had great partners and clients and all of my work came from referrals. A huge thank you to everyone who played a part in this success!

I also co-produced two series of Gulf Coast Benefits raising over $60,000 for nonprofits providing aid for families affected by the Gulf Coast oil spill. SloaneBerrent.com (which actually looks like an AboutMe page but is not) also was relaunched.

As a side project, NOLAlicious has a very special place in my heart. Taylor, Carl and I (along with help from three amazing staffers) create a weekly enewsletter that provides five things to eat, see, do and more in New Orleans. We also list job opportunities and have a weekly photo that can be used as a desktop image (or for the iPhone and iPad) and an Amazon store of some of our favorite things, a Tshirt with our logo and a 2011 calendar we created that is for sale.

I volunteered my services probono to nonprofits and projects and I also donated money to causes I believe in and also to friends running races or raising money. I also went to Ghana in November to deliver malaria nets and much more on that trip is coming in the coming weeks.

All of this serves as a platform to continue to grow in 2011. I often have this feeling like I’m not doing enough and looking back on this year, if for only a moment, my restless mind is quiet. It’s good to be proud of our accomplishments!

What didn’t worked or could have been better about 2010?

Lack of focus. I worked on a lot of projects, but there wasn’t one clear theme through them. I got better as the year went on (and said no for projects that didn’t fit) but I do feel like I am looking to focus on a few key area for 2011 and be more specialized versus a generalist in the digital strategy space.

Too much travel. I know it’s a catch-22. I travel for work and it’s a sign of success, and it’s easy for me to get on and off a plane. Still, I didn’t feel really connected to one place and that was hard on me. I will continue to travel extensively in 2011 I’m sure, but I want it to have direction and a clear purpose.

Didn’t finish a few key projects that are on my plate. I wanted to finish a book proposal and wanted to launch a webshow and neither of those came to fruition. Part of that is because other things took priority, which is ok, but part of it is because I didn’t put my feet on the fire with these. I need to hold myself more accountable this upcoming year for the projects that make me “uncomfortable” but in the end will push me to be better.

Continuing education still eludes me. I value education so much and really want to pursue an Masters of Public Administration full-time or part-time and I just wasn’t in a place this past year to do that or to take any professional development classes. Personal R&D is something I know is very important and I did spend time on my professional growth this year, but not in this structured environment.

So there it is! A lot about this past year and tomorrow will bring a post about the big lessons and take aways and then what is coming up in 2011.

A lifetime of my New Year resolutions sits in a freezer at my mom’s mountain house. I wrote about this last year reflecting upon my resolutions for 2010. What is interesting about reflecting on my 2010 resolutions is the wave of emotion I’ve felt at encapsulating this past year. I mean a physical reaction. I have sat to write about this past year and stared at the computer screen and nothing has come out. I’ve paced. I’ve distracted myself with cleaning and activities and doing just about anything but sitting down and writing about the year that was. The part I can’t figure out is that I accomplished a whole hell of lot this past year. It’s not like I did nothing to be proud of. In fact the opposite is true, I think it’s fair to say I kicked ass. I worked hard, I hustled, I got shit done and have a terrific portfolio because of it. And that’s just on the professional side. Personally, I met my philanthropic and volunteering goals and also fell in love (swoon) which is bigger and brighter and more wonderful than everything else combined.

So why looking back am I having such a hard time summing it up, writing it down, posting it and moving on?

I have come to the realization that as the year went by, I swayed back and forth in my feelings for technology. After all, I am a lover of technology and it pays my bills. Yet, many times through the year I craved “tech-free” days and opportunities to be offline and in the real world without constant checkins. I’ve been endlessly torn about what I want to share online and what I’ve wanted to keep to myself. I’ve also been really hard on myself. For all I’ve accomplished, I still feel like I should do more, like my weaknesses outshine my success and it makes me melancholy for not having all the answers all the time.

Much of that comes from how I use technology to communicate and to share. To that extent, there are some services I came to use more but many others that I barely touched at all. There are a slew of applications in the middle and I tried them all, claimed my namesake, but I couldn’t help but feel like every moment that I was capturing a photo of food or a moment to post online, that I was taking away from that moment I was living in. As a digital strategist, it is my responsibility to know the trends online and where people are spending their time and make recommendations to clients. But like the cobbler’s kids with no shoes, often I gave all my efforts to my clients and was just tired of all the online hoopla by the end of the day.

I have decided that before I do go into what I’m most proud of from 2010 and what I’m looking forward to in 2011 that, if for no one else but me, I would clear my chest and for a moment just say that this exercise is hard. It’s hard to hold up the mirror and then put your feelings down on paper regardless of that paper is shared online or kept to yourself.

An often used phrase this year was “Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.” What that means is that we never really know what is going on with someone else on the inside. The outside can be a million times different from the inside, or exactly the same, but unless that person is one of our closest friends how are we to know? When I feel like I should be doing more, caring more, giving more of myself, I think of this phrase and I’m reminded that I’m doing the best I can and shouldn’t compare myself to other people. The internet does this to us – we log onto Facebook and see shiny updates and can be tempted to think “everyone has it so much easier than me” because they appear to have something I don’t.

At the end of the day, I’m no better and no worse than anyone else. I can only believe in my heart that I do the best I can to be good to myself and good to others and be proud of the work I do and the woman I have become. There is no turning back, there is no magic potion to let us go back in time or see into the future. We can only have so many knowns before the unknowns creep in. And what I know is that 2011 is here. Another year has passed and another year is upon us. For that, I am grateful.

“I’m always doing things I can’t do. That’s how I get to do them.” – Pablo Picasso.

Sometimes, man, time just passes us by. Even with the best of intentions to-do lists get longer, email inboxes fill, and we find ourselves short on time, short on getting behind the eight ball and all seems like a big hopeless mess.

I’m no different. And often, when I feel my online self slipping it’s because I’m juggling a lot in my offline real world self. Or I have a lot on my mind. Or I’m incubating projects, working with clients and neck deep in new business development. But there is one more scenario to consider. Enjoying the day, celebrating with friends and getting out from behind this computer screen that is often both my saviour, source of information but also, at times, takes me away from that real world self that I so crave.

This past month has been just such a scenario. I went to Ghana for two weeks as I blogged that I would, delivering malaria nets through Infanta Malaria for Netting Nations, visiting tech companies in Accra to learn about the economic development opportunities around technology in Ghana (and Africa at large, spending time with the Millennium Cities Initiative as part of The Earth Institute and let’s not forget meeting the Kiva Fellows currently serving in Ghana and going back to my own Fellowship memories by accompanying them on borrower visits and group meetings.

Taylor and I have so much to share, and we’ll be rolling it out in a variety of ways. We have pieces soon to be published in other outlets online and off and can’t wait to share those with you. We did share some limited updates while we were gone, but we really wanted to live the experience fully. Be in Ghana (which let’s face it has limited connectivity) and not obsess over having to be online. We did check in with clients and our parents, but beyond that we allowed ourselves to relish in the experience and the now appreciating the trip for what it was, a very special and unique experience that we put a lot of heart, soul and planning into.

Now that we’ve returned and I’ve dug out of the black hole of email and catching up on all of my responsibilities, I can focus on what brings me joy – this blog. I feel like I do things all the time that people say are impossible, or out of the box. Why? Because why not? I want to share it all, lay it all on the table for all the world to see, but sometimes I do need to ruminate on things for awhile and consider exactly what I want to say and how I want to portray my thoughts. I’ve been having an internal struggle over some of these issues. I have a lot on my mind and I’m not sure if by not sharing it here I did a disservice to myself or a favor because I let it sift and filter out in my journal and in conversations with close friends giving me greater clarity to put it all in writing. But at the end of the day, The Causemopolitan is a huge part of who I am and I can only step away for so long until I miss it and it beckons me back. I think things we love are like that, they fill our soul in ways we can’t always define. For that, I’m hopeful to find the words within myself to share here with everyone. So here’s to celebrating my time offline, it was a welcome break to return to center and come back better and stronger than before.

My stepdad is from Braddock, PA, a small working class town just on the eastern outskirts of Pittsburgh, but still within Allegheny county. Growing up we heard the classic, some over-inflated, some as real as the sky is blue, stories of growing up in a steel community. Getting an apple for Christmas if you were good, nothing if you weren’t. Braddock held a lure, a mystery to it, because when I was a kid it wasn’t “cool” to go into areas like that and revitalize and pump hope in the community.

All that has changed now. It is incredibly “cool” to find neighborhoods and help them along, and in many cases the artists that moved into these empty warehouses to make them into lofts are the new cowboys, the fearless ones letting the rest of us know “it’s ok” to go, settle, create commerce, opportunity and places to call home amongst the long-term residents who have seen-it-all.

When I first saw the video above, a single tear slid down my cheek. I’m serious! It’s such an incredible tribute to a town not just of survivors, but of people who continue to thrive, fight adversity and fight back. Part of Levi’s “Go Forth” campaign around their corporate social responsibility campaign that was recently named one of the best of the year by Forbes magazine.

Levi’s also partnered with IFC and the Sundance Channel to create “Ready To Work” which is about Braddock and has been airing segments on both networks, some of which you can see on Levi’s YouTube. The channel say, “We Are All Workers: Braddock, PA, a town of pioneers answering the call to mend what needs mending and build what’s theirs to build.”

Part of what the series talks about is the effort to repair and mend the Braddock branch of the Carnegie Library, another personal connection to me. So this whole campaign struck very close to home.

My favorite line in the video at the top of this post is, “People think their aren’t frontiers anymore, but there are frontiers all around us.”

I’ve been thinking about that the last few days. What is means to create your own frontier and look beyond the horizon to a horizon that you’re creating. Here’s my conclusion; these new frontiers don’t have to be completely new to be special. And they don’t have to be entrepreneurial or something that only a specific group (or clique) of people can do. A frontier is for the every man, and we can all work to finding our frontiers and horizons and share them with those we love.

At least that’s my, somewhat realist but deeply idealist, interpretation.