Eat the frog, see the vacuous for what it is and find your buzz.

It‘s fast-paced, exciting and relentless. It’s frustrating and enlightening. It’s addictive and freeing. I’ve been on the Digital Mums roller coaster and have just stepped off the ride at the other end. It’s been dizzying and I’m still a little giddy.

Dizzying in every sense. I’ve had some mixed feelings about it and yet feel energised. Much like having a first baby, Digital Mums is a steep learning curve with a fair share of late nights and that niggling feeling that you’ve no idea what you’re doing. Yet you come out on the other side feeling euphoric and ready to take it all on.

I don’t want to dribble on about all the ins and outs of the course. They are subjective and personal and there’s plenty of that kind of opinion out there. I have two simple observations I’d like to share

What I loved. I loved my client, working for a live client is what makes this course. It takes it away from the pedestrian standard of reading, watching and generally trying to soak in instruction and moves it into the real world with proper the deadlines, demands and issues of any business environment. You have to work with people, manage characters, create narratives and find the spark for real consumers and clients. As real as that slightly skewed reality of social media is. You need to feed the social media machine. There’s no better way to learn how to do this than jumping in at the deep end. Happily it’s not a case of sink or swim here, you have support from your peer group and from Digital Mum experts, you go in with armbands and come out feeling like you’ve swum the channel.

What I hated. The addiction; probably the worst bit about social media. This is the least enjoyable element for me. I’ve noticed I’ve become far more attached to my phone, checking my apps and platforms constantly. I’ve been attached at the hip and it’s not been to my children of late. If I’m going to continue in working in social media and digital marketing that’s the one element I need to get a handle on. It vital to be able to say no and set aside time for family and for yourself that is distinctly technology free. I want to ensure I do that, I want to keep going in this arena, so that’s one to sort straight out of the gate. Let me know if you find the secret to crack this nut.

So is this for you? Who knows, that’s for you to decide. You need to have the drive to get things done; you need to be prepared to ‘eat the frog’ as an old boss once told me — face up to the difficult bits and tackle them head on; you will need to be resilient when things don’t go to plan and be able to bounce back when frustrated; you need to come up with ideas and try out new ways of working and be flexible when needed. There is a long list of what you need and it may seem daunting. But I’ll let you into a secret, you might think you don’t have what it takes, but you do. You find them on the journey.

I’ve loved delving into this social media maelstrom. I’ve felt that I’ve only just scratched the surface in this ever-re-inventing world, its exciting but engulfing. If you do try it, make it work for you. That’s critical, don’t let it eat you up. Do let it give you access to new worlds. Do use it to find new vigour. Ignore the vacuous, there’s plenty of it on social media. Do celebrate the sisterhood that is on social media, it’s a welcome antithesis to the male-focused, boys club world so pervasive even today. Do find time to get away from it too.

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