Experiences, Fears, I Think... 2

Terrible.. bad experience.. again:

My last public speech! Everything started pretty well, as I learned from previous ones, I decided to get ready for this one. I told my friends it's going to be well-prepared this time.

I started preparing 1 hour ago(!) with making an outline with a brain mapping tool. I was supposed to explain one of my favorite city, Ashgabat, so I made a great outline, printed it, also added some photos of the dictator of Turkmenistan, and on&on.. 

I started presenting with this question, I love questions, "Everybody loves travelling right? Well, no: some people hate it and they prefer staying in their comfortable home, and friends" and then talked about "my travelling" concept, how & why.., as always I was very confident and made sure my audience will hear something interesting and they will want to visit afterwards..

Well..

Then I started talking about my Ashgabat trip, and then..

The time was up!! I officially and literally said "Noooooooo!! You're kidding me. I didn't even started". The timer were looking so sad and desperate as if it's his fault :)) But, it was over.

No-you-can't-do-that-to-me-look.. grrr..

Yes, I didn't practice my speech, and the best part which I was keeping for the end of my speech was never mentioned.. "you can't go out after 11pm without car, forbidden", "smoking is not allowed outdoor cause Turkmenbashi - their leader stopped smoking", "you can't have any unmarried relationship, cause hotel employee, your neighbors call soldiers if you do something nasty, and the reasons are..", etc..

I was so excited, and I felt one of the greatest disappointment in my life for few seconds.. regret, anger, disappointment, and I'm sure more of them.. and there was one more feeling: being happy and calm.. that knowing it was only practice, what if it was an important presentation or speech..? I'd lose so many opportunities with an unprepared important speech and feel regret forever?!

Let's recap very quick the most important parts of preparing a speech:

1. Know your audience (yes, I do)
2. Why do you do that, what's the point (yes, I get that)
3. Prepare your outline, don't go away from topic  (always, at least in my mind, for everything I have an outline) 
4. Practice, practice & practice (over confident makes me, "aww I don't need that, I'll do it easily", but that's so important for so many reasons, and my main mistake!)

Things Happen You Never Expect...

Oh my God!! I still can't believe what happened...

Everything started with a skype call with my dad. I was kinda sick, and he was kinda mad that I was not taking care of myself, these conversation can only be with my parents:

I said: "Noo, I take care, just didn't eat enough lately.

He said: "Why didn't you eat?!"

I: Well, I didn't want to... I hate eating!!!!

He: WTF!??

I: Well, in home, my mom was cooking, and I was eating, I love these kind of yummy, healthy food. But when I started college, I realized I don't like to eat outside, and I can't cook. It's still same.. I'm always forcing myself to eat.. It's not fun eating for me anymore.

(At this moment, my mom brought a dish and I heard she said don't show her, then my dad :(( he started eating "manti" very clearly and sapur-supur in front of me)

He: Well, you don't like to eat then no problem, ha?

I: Noooooooooooooooo!!!!! That's torture!!!

Yes, he, my lovely dad, ate all of my favorite food in front of the camera, and I was so so so sad, and desperate... I wrote in my facebook, "what am I gonna do now? :(" And solution came from one of my best friend: why don't you cook yourself?

And I'll keep it very short, I found the recipe in google, went shopping, texted my roommate, I'm cooking the dinner, don't eat!!! and for 4 hours (seriously) I prepared it... There are 4 basic long process (I didn't know it was that long), that I don't know their English description, etc..  I asked my roommates help (poor girl, she rejected eating somewhere else to eat my food, and found herself helping me cooking), she said when we were preparing it: "Turkish Girl, don't ever cook again". I'm still laughing it, and I said OK, your wish is my command! :))

The point of my story is:

• I can cook!!! The interesting thing is, later this week, I cooked again and again: pasta with bolognese sauce, french fries with pepper, tomatoes sauce, Turkish yogurt with garlic sauce (I couldn't take photos, cause I was extremely hungry) I started enjoying my meals again :)
• Don't give up! This four-cooking-manti-process was difficult, I saw my mom was doing and it was looking easy.. When I realized somethings wrong, I thought I made a mistake, and fucked it up. I didn't have so many supplies, like roller, I found a big bottle and used it as a roller (I cleaned it of course). I could give up, but I tried.. This happened in all-3 process.. :( I was almost ordering some food, cause I was still sick (remember I talked with my dad in the morning)
• I repeat again, I can cook :))
• and again: Don't give up, whatever you're doing. And nothing is impossible :) If I can cook, you can do anything!!!! Anything ever..

Here the photos: 

fresh looking right? Manti is kind of heavy food.. I remember we couldn't move for a while after eating all :)

My first plan was cooking a lot, so I can keep it in the freezer and eat later, but trust me, it took years from my life, so I  decided to not be greedy =)

"Do one thing every day that scares you" Oh boy, I touched meat.. 

Just a spicy, oily sauce :)

And that's MANTI: my favorite food! And it was so yummy... Although I said I'm not going to cook again, I can do it again.. :)

And these are from Christmas time:

Did I ever mention, although I hide my socks Wolf ate them? :)) 

And then, I brought her to my home, she pied everywhere :) And I gave her my bear to play :)

But, then Wolf was not kissing her, she was biting and eating my poor bear, I felt sorry.. What was my cute bears fault?

And after these pose, I saved her life.. :)

That's our winter drink: ginger, lemon, garlic, honey, and I don't know what that red thing is.  Obviously I don't make it but my roommate, but I love to drink.. So good! :) edit: "red thing is cinnamon silly"

My New Two Love: Josh and Scott

I don't generally talk about inspirational companies, and products here. But this time, I have to mention Josh and Scott, and kickofflabs! Who are these guys? And what's this kick-thing?

Imagine, you have a great idea: what would you do?

1. you can think about it forever, till one day, you hear someone else did it, and you start telling everyone, you were thinking the same: it's too late.
2. you can start working on it really hardcore, and then when you launched the website and business, you realize there are no customers!!! nobody actually wants that! you only get disappointment, waste of time and maybe money. yes, idea was great, but probably timing was not..
3. you can create a coming soon page, and let people know what's coming next. and see how many people sign-up.. :) see the demand.. make a market research.. see maybe you should change something, etc..

So, kickofflabs basically creates great, useful, social integrated coming soon pages (landing page maker) in less than a hour! You can see the details in their website. But why do I love Josh and Scott?

Again, imagine you have a business: what's your most important treasure?

1. if you say your product, no! let me tell :) your most important element is your customers.
2. you should have a contact with them. you need to have a list, nowadays it's called email list. that's the access to your most important treasure: customers. 
3. customer relations have always been the most important value in a business for me. if you're business is not great with your list, you can build a new one.
4. Scott and Josh always answer my questions less than 2 hours (even weekends) and you never receive anything from a no-reply mails.
5. I feel like they love me :) that's how customers should feel, right? 
6. and they have one of the best, clean, smart, logical internet marketing blog! my favorite one is this one: so true about why start-ups shouldn't be your target :)
7. also, I think just seeing how they do their business is as good as reading about it :)  

Maybe just one single suggestion I can give is: since their target are businesses, they can focus using linkedin more, and connect with their current clients. I'm sure so many will write reviews and once they write it, it will appear in others profile, too. (word of mouth)

Thanks guys, although I'm one of the person who don't pay for the things I can do by myself, you made my work easier, in a very quick time and with high quality. I don't even use the monkey, although I love their service and support. I'll use your service for all of my projects :)

Youtube Craziness and Brain Maps

Today I want to share some stuff I liked lately:

1. It's a TED talk, and as always it's inspiring and make you think.. It's absolutely not just the app, or the visuals, I like what and how the guy (Marco Tempest) is telling. He use technology with old style magic and also, he use social media to engage with his audience! Nice! And he's living in NYC.



2. lol. I watched that hilarious video at least 3 times! So funny. Cruel parents.. Innocent kids.. :) And I love this batman t-shirt kid! Also, after watching that, you can watch the Jimmy Kimmel - Youtube Challenge - I gave my kids a terrible present part 1, too. I then watched some of the scary maze thing, and keep going like that..



3. haha. Why dads always make us (daughters) in love and crazy? I liked that girl.. :))



4. New year is going so fast. we're on the 9th Jan! And one of my close friend told me, he likes time is fast. I asked so would you like to wake up one day and see you're married with a woman, have 2 kids, and still working in a 9-5 job at the same office? He said yes :)

5. My turtles are still alive. :) And I love them. And I learned that they carry salmonella viruses. So I can't kiss them :( and even I can't touch them now (scared to be sick), but they are sooooo cute :)

6. I always say and believe the power of brain and belief. What makes Nadal a great tennis player is not his muscles or training or anything else: only his brain makes him different than others. So, this is the last video I'll share. (I forgot youtube can be very addictive, it's like my reading books addiction: reading all of this novels which are simple and easy and without any point like twilight, harry potter, all romantic-comedy style women novels, Bridgette Jones diaries, hunger games, etc.. If I start I have to finish the story to turn back to life, so I stop eating, talking, everything till I finish the book. So, youtube is same! watch forever, in the end? waste of time. But yes, my weekend was kind of waste of time :p )



7. At last, I found an app for my crazy working brain. I'm so surprised why I was so late to find it, cause there were so many options. This is a tool to map your brain, making your life easy :) I was always trying to use paper to map my thoughts, but lately it was getting so messy, and I was getting lost. (I LOVE PAPER: real books, real note-books, pen, eraser, and I don't believe I'll be e-person ever. But sometimes they are irresistible). Cause if you can see how you think and plan it and make clear your priorities, you're happier. You know what to do next. This is the one I started using: thinkbuzan, however, there are so many other companies giving the same kind of service, I downloaded their free version to check and liked it so far!