As I've been building my own brand and working with some amazing companies, I have to confess it's been pretty darn exciting.

So exciting, in fact, that looking back...there are times when I should have said no.

Not just to potential projects I've been asked to be a part of, but to my own personal project ideas.  When I look at the amount of time I've spent on researching the scalability and viability of a new idea...it's a lot of time.  Over the past month, I've learned that unless it fits into what I'm already doing easily, then I should probably say "No".

So these are the questions I'm going to ask myself next time an opportunity presents itself:

• Does it benefit my readers and/or my existing bread and butter clients?


• Does it contribute to my quest for work/life balance?


• Is it a personal project that can be integrated into JessicaKnows.com?


• Is the time commitment one that makes sense for my current schedule?

I've asked these questions over the past couple of weeks and here are a few examples of the resulting actions taken.

I said "Yes!" to the EA Sports Active 30-Day Challenge campaign because I need to exercise more (more about this in tomorrow's post) so therefore, it contributes to my quest for work/life balance.  My readers that follow along will also benefit.  And it will fit into my current schedule because I am making time to exercise more so I can be healthier (and fit into a bikini this summer!).

I decided to say "No" to my Rock Your Blog site that I launched.  The reason?  While it benefits some of my readers, I realized from feedback in a survey I asked members to complete that they are all at different levels.  So while the group consulting model helped 100%, it was 100% about 50% of the time.  Also, since I offered this twice a week at night, the time commitment wasn't ideal since I'm trying to find more quality "life" time in the evenings to achieve more balance.

With that said, what I have come to realize is that people put a high value on my connections so I'm leveraging that by offering the two list sign-ups at the top of this page so that my readers can know who "Jessica Knows" (never said I wasn't a cheeseball, did I?)

I regularly advise people on how to turn their blog into their own brand and their own business.  Now as I move towards diversifying my brand's (JessicaKnows) offerings to my clients and my readers, I'll be sharing what works and what doesn't with you.

In the meantime, I'm checking out Alexis Neely and Dave Dee's free teleseminar (Today at 3pm EST) about creating multiple streams of income from an existing business to get my mind juices flowing and hopefully get re-energized as I find this balance.

HOMEWORK

How will you streamline and focus your blog, business, and brand?  What questions will you ask yourself when opportunities present themselves?

Related articles by Zemanta

• EA Sports Active Trailer Channels The Infomercial [EA Sports Active] (kotaku.com)


• Time Management Strategies for Work-Life Balance, Part I (savvydoula.com)


• Electronic Arts Jumps on Fitness Bandwagon (abcnews.go.com)


• The 30 Day Blog Makeover Project (rohitbhargava.typepad.com)


• The price of saying 'no' at work (cnn.com)


• Finding the Natural Rhythms and Flows of Working (zenhabits.net)