Shining Brightly: Jade Craven Unleashed

Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things

Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things

Jade Craven is a sneak attack.

What I mean by that is she’s so transparent and unassuming that it’s easy at first glance to underestimate her. When I began blogging her name came up a lot and like any good newbie wanting to meet the right people and find a tribe, I followed her.

We connected on Twitter, and more often than not, I’d find myself talking to her about everything from spiders (which freak her out) to her nephew (who she adores) to music (Lady Gaga fan beyond compare) to friends in common! Rarely did we talk about blogging or social media and I simply fell in love with her honesty and enthusiasm for life. Oh, and she loves birthdays, particularly her own which is May 26!

But she’s got these super powers that come out of nowhere!

Like the day she announced a quickie consulting saleand SNAP! I was over at my PayPal site sending her cash! (How many people can get you to do that instantly?)

Mostly I was curious to get her feedback and maybe one or two tips on how to improve my blog. What I got back was insightful and detailed, a generous helping of advice and strategies: from what I was doing well to where I could grow to who I could connect with. So much food for thought that I’m still working on tasks from that list!

She’s an extraordinary connector and curator; goofy and geeky, a lover of Spider-man comics but spiders not so much.

She’s unabashedly herself with all her quirks and foibles, in a world where people try so hard to look like they’ve got it all handled.

Jade is in one word – REFRESHING.

Here she is shining bright, superpowers unleashed.

1.  Why are you here?

I think I am here to show people how powerful vulnerability is.

I’ve built up quite a profile in my industry, partly due to my brutal honesty, but I think that this is a calling that will follow me to all future work.

Look at it. All these people are trying to change the world and trying to unleash their clients potential. And, that’s cool. These guys – like my magnificent friend Catherine Caine – have the superpowers needed to change the world. I don’t. I just want to change my world, and the world of those around me.

So, I try to show people that it’s ok to be flawed. It’s ok to show your imperfections.

Even better, that people will accept you if you embrace your quirkiness in public. Being open about having an anxiety disorder, and the life-changing stuff that has been happening, has been the best decision I could make. It has been so freeing and has allowed me to grow. I want to show people how they can tap into the same thing.

Oh, and I also teach people about relationship marketing.

2.  What is your future self calling for?

My future self is calling for more meaningful relationships. So much of social networking is meaningless. There are a lot of brilliant people out there, but many people are motivated by their own needs. I’m making a conscious choice on how much time I spend engaging with randoms vs the time I spend with my close friends online.

This has been hard but I’m so much happier. I have been able to put more time into the close friendships. My soul is so much happier and I think if I continue like this, I could be truly happy. Others will talk about their grand business plans but all I really wants is to be content with my simple life. I’d prefer that life had chickens and loquat trees but hey – life is a work in progress

3.  How do you honour that calling?

I’ve stopped trying to connect with everyone who reaches out to me. Engagement is great but engagement alone doesn’t lead to profit. You need to develop, and create, and learn in order to earn a solid income.

So, I’ve stepped back from twitter. I’m going to stop blogging for a year. I wont try to be best friends with those I meet in person or who email me. If someone really intrigues me, I’ll pursue that relationship. Basically, I’ve accepted that you can have really strong friendships based on the occasional contact.

This has been brilliant. I now feel really engaged with my work and have been able to have really nice relationships in my work and homelife. I have more time to create and don’t feel so burned out. I love life rather than dread it now.

4.  What is both effortless and life-giving to you?

Connecting.

It has taken me two years to figure out just how valuable this is. I am able to do this very quickly. My brain works differently to most people. Because of the anxiety, my brain has been trained to see problems everywhere and find ways to deal with them before anything can happen. I’ve dealt with these negative thought cycles through therapy and have applied the same technique to my work.

I am able to visualize what will happen if I connect two people, or a person with a product. And it gives me a little spark of joy to see the impact that a simple action can have.

5.  What do you do better than anyone else?

I know how people work, especially on the social web. I know how people will react to new ideas and concepts, and how adopting these ideas will affect a person’s career. I only recently learned just how good I am at this.

I can see talent where others can’t. I can predict which products will take our community by storm. I can tell which traditional marketing technique will change how we work when applied to the social media industry.

I see it as a super power that has to be used wisely, and for the good of blogging-kind. I’m still working on this.

6.  What is extraordinary about your work?

The sheer amount of joy that I show when I find a project that is truly awesome. Seriously. Catherine, who I mentioned above, once Skyped me with an exclusive piece of gossip because she knew that I would squeal and get really excited. I’m the type of person that isn’t afraid to show how passionate I feel when I see work that is inspiring and engaging.

7.  What is guaranteed to inspire you?

I know most others would say people, but I find art more inspiring than an individual person. I’m a bit weird like that. I’m a total geek – I love my comics, musicals, poetry and Star Trek. I understand that it is inspiring people who create the things that fill my shelves, but I don’t care. I just love looking at artwork and losing myself in it. Listening to a chilling performance and feeling like I was there.

Art is the only thing that is guaranteed to truly inspire me. I just hope we can see more of it in the business world.

8.  What will your epitaph say if you’ve lived life on your terms?
“Jade wasn’t afraid to try to be a better person.”

Jade is the author of the world-famous Problogger List of Bloggers to Watch. She’s a Relationship Marketing specialist and co-founder of Social Media Solutions.

Connect with Jade

On JadeCraven.com

On Twitter

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