A mostly monthly but forever occasional round-up of what I've been up to and what I plan to be. For full credits and details, see this entry.

Colleen of the future (places I'll be)

The February L.A. Biznik Mixer at Jerry's Famous Deli in Marina del Rey (February 10, 5:30pm, no drop-ins!) My co-host, Heather Parlato, and I will be doing a little "how to start hosting your own Biznik event" thing in the 6 o'clock hour. EVENT FULL. Sign up for Biznik NOW to get advance notice of future events, including other LA-area ones.
$100 Business Forum call My friends Chris Guillebeau and Pam Slim joined forces to create this smart smart smart class on how to launch a micro-business. (If you can practice with something small, you may be able to graduate to something big with the lessons learned, right?) SOLD OUT. I'm participating in a call about branding; if you're a part of the class, line up your toughest questions NOW and squeeze every penny's worth out of me!

Colleen of the Past (stuff I did you might not know about)

Cornell Alumni Leadership Conference I labored mightily to change my now rather standard social media presentations on branding and marketing into one that would be useful to those interested in building community for a good cause. I'm delighted to say that all my fretting (not to mention my foregoing DC sightseeing in favor of co-working at my friend Jared Goralnick's HQ) paid off, the programs (I did it twice) went really well, by all accounts: i.e., people had fun, got un-scared of using social media and learned something (even if, in some cases, it was simply a half-grudging, "Okay...I'll give it one more go."). One of the best things about this and my recent trip was flying there on Virgin America, speaking of which...
Referral Friday, Video Edition Yes, I shot an onboard testimonial for my new-favorite airline, Virgin America, 35,000 feet over North America. It's a departure (no pun intended) from my usual plugs, but well-deserved. And well-received, if the emails and texts I've received so far are indicative.
December in January A few different sources, including my friend, Dave Seah, with whom I've been collaborating on a fascinating (to us, anyway) Google Wave experiment, gave me the idea to postpone New Year's Goal-Setting to February. It was a grand success, if by "success" you mean "relief"; I posted my progress throughout the month, outlining in detail the steps I took towards a plan I could really get excited about. You can read them all here, in reverse chronological order for now.
Seth Godin's "media tour" for Linchpin I love pretty much everything about Seth Godin (not least of which how everything he touches so elegantly floats to the surface of Internet consciousness), so participating in his alternative media tour to launch his terrific and important new book, Linchpin, was a no-brainer. So is reading it, if you're at all the kind of person who enjoys reading here. It'll shake you up, but (mostly) in the good way.
Re:WORK, the monthly BLANKSPACES newsletter Last year, my colleague Peleg approached me about collaborating on a relaunch of the newsletter for our friend (and my fellow Cornell alum!), Jerome Chang's outstanding coworking space in the Mid-Wilshire area of LA, BLANKSPACES. I'm pleased to say that open rates increased immediately and have been rising since, as have click-throughs, thanks to our mutual efforts. If you're local, you should sign up to get word of all the great upcoming events they host; if you're not, you should get it anyway, for the articles. (Yes, really. I wrote January's.)

Colleen of the Present (ongoing projects)

communicatrix | focuses My monthly newsletter devoted to the all-important subject of increasing your unique fabulosity. One article per month (with actionable tips! and minimal bullsh*t!) about becoming a better communicator, plus the best few of the many cool things I stumble across in my travels. Plus a tiny drawing by moi. Free! (archives & sign-up)
Act Smart! is my monthly column about marketing for actors for LA Casting, but I swear, you'll find stuff in it that's useful, too. Browse the archives, here.
Internet flotsam And of course, I snark it up on Twitter, chit-chat on Facebook, post the odd video or quote to Tumblr, and bookmark the good stuff I find on my travels at StumbleUpon and delicious. If you like this sort of stuff, follow me in those places, I only post a fraction of what I find to Twitter and Facebook.

xxx
c

Photo of Arno J. McScruff housed on Flickr, where I also occasionally stick pixels.