Author: Cheptiony Mutai

  • 5 Lifetime Lessons I Learnt After Auctioneers Came For Us

    If you buy any daily newspaper today in 2021, you cannot not help but notice that 2-3 pages of the paper carry Auction Notices for properties and valuables due to bankruptcy caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

    In the year 2015, auctioneers were threatening to close my business. At the time, Kenyans were losing their properties to auctioneers due to the long electioneering period which led to a stunt economic growth and a whole lot of uncertainty.

    More and more people were finding themselves at the mercies of the ‘hammer man’,some caught unawares and others well… They knew what was coming.

    Newspapers published Auction Notices ranging from vehicles, homes, lands and office equipment, which were being sold off at very cheap prices to recover debt. It’s similar to what we see today.

    When I found myself in this desperate situation after a misunderstanding with a client, I got a whole lot of schooling which I would like to share…

    So, in the year 2015, auctioneers stomped into our office and collected all our electronics and valuables. We were all caught unawares.

    I was in the middle of a very important project for a South African company and the deadline was nearly approaching.

    It was a very scary situation. They started with collecting our chairs so that we couldn’t continue working. I panicked. I could feel a light sweat rolling down my armpits and at the center of my back.

    My assistant editor stared at me hoping I could say something… Anything! I was silent and she gave in her chair.

    I remember mumbling to the auctioneers to wait a little bit so that we could save our work and shut down our computers. It was about 3 p.m in the afternoon.

    After switching off my computer, I went out to check on my brother at his office and hear what he had to say. He was been my landlord since I started my business.

    He subleased part of his office to me. He had nothing to say. So we had to let go until the court settled the case.

    Now, a week later, after all the dust had settled, we were back to the normal day to day business.

    However, here are some of the lessons learnt from this experience.

    Deal With The Embarrassment ‘in the face of those who work for you’ That Comes With This Action

    When this happens, be prepared to fight the battle of embarrassment that comes with it. As directors and founders of companies, there is a particular pride that we carry with us. This will be the best time to deal with it. When you share the story with your allies, most will pretend to pity you, but you will be surprised to find out what they say behind your back, talk of wolves in sheep’s clothing. The storm will be over anyway and new life will start afresh. So, be calm and trust in the supernatural being.

    Don’t Get Attached to Material Acquisition

    I was attached to my editing suites. My new suite which had costed me $1000, was what kept me awake all night the actual day when the auctioneers visited. I was worried the auctioneers would sell it and pretend it got lost. After the 3rd day, I was calm. Questions that went through my mind were: what would I have done if a disaster had taken place and I had lost everything?

    You Are Not The First One

    People get auctioned everyday and they still push on. They never give up on their dreams. They start their lives once again and push on like nothing ever happened.

    Do What You Can to Contain Any Situation and Leave The Rest to God

    When you are aware that you might experience a disaster because of failing to settle on a few things and its beyond your control, never panic. Ask God for guidance and if it gets out of control, stay calm, keep your faith and you’ll reason your way out.

    Co-operate And Negotiate Later

    When the auctioneers came in, we cooperated and allowed them to do their job professionally. Despite inconveniences we were facing as a result, we knew with a little bit of negotiations through the court, we would be back to business in a short period.

    Lastly, that is how God will take control of the situation- I am kidding!

    Food for thought:- Go out and research on the meaning of ‘detachment’ in life and what it means to you….It will change how you look at life.

    We would like to hear from you!

    Have you ever had any bad experience with auctioneers? Let us know in the comments section below.

    Also make sure you subscribe to our website to get our new posts.

    And if you need help to create and produce professional screencast video tutorials, let me know by requesting a free quote here.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • 4 Reasons Why People Love To Watch Your YouTube Videos

    I am a video producer. I love creating videos for people for a living as well as watching well thought video concepts on YouTube by creators across the globe. There are many things that will make someone subscribe to a YouTube channel even without the creator asking them to do so.

    Among the common things that will push someone to like or subscribe to a YouTube channel is;

    Relationship With the Topic

    A lot of creators you see with many followers on Youtube have passion and love for what they do. So by the time the start to film and share, they have a plan. They have a specific niche they want to reach out to. When someone fully watches their videos, it’s because they resonate with the topic being covered by the creator. At the end, they will confidently comment and ask the creator questions because they want to learn more.

    Information

    People trained as media Journalists is another group of creators on YouTube. They aim to inform people on what’s happening. They do proper research on any given topic and ensures that whatever they are sharing is true. That’s why people love and follow them.

    When one is consistent in reporting facts, people will love and comment on their work. Information is power. People are happy when they find out that the information they are consuming are factual.

    Lifestyle and Family

    Vlogs which revolves around lifestyle and good family values are very common know days. Most people long for good lifestyle, family and good values.

    As we speak, there is a growing trend of vlogs done by new couples in town sharing their lifestyle. If someone relates with the lifestyle that the vlogger is projecting, they will dearly follow the videos they share.

    Its worth mentioning that lifestyle and family videos vary and is dependent on the topic the vlogger choses to take.

    Career and Life Coaching

    We all pursue different careers based on our aspirations. There is a growing need for independent professionals remotely with different skills. On the other hand, those who have built a successfully career as independent professionals online. Those are the one who mostly vlog.

    Some share motivational thoughts sending out positive vibes. Whichever it is, vloggers who choose to motivate people are professionals in this niche.

    Its worth mentioning that your personality matters as that is what people are connecting with. Be real. Don’t fake. That’s how people fall in love in you and your work.

    And that is it from me. If you need to create professional screencast videos for your software or application, your can request a free quote here.

    Until next time, Merry Christmas and happy new year 2021. God Bless.

  • 10 Animals You Will See When You Visit Nairobi Safari Walk

    If you are a freelancer who live and work in Nairobi, going out for a nature walk at Nairobi Safari walk is worth your time. Here are 10 Animals you will see when you visit Nairobi Safari Walk.

    Video

    Entry fee is only Ksh.200 payable by card or Mpesa. No cash is accepted.

    Nairobi safari Walk is located along Langata road at Nairobi National Park.

    1. Baboon

    Baboon

    2. Waterbuck Antelope

    Waterbuck Antelope

    3. Maasai Giraffe

    Masai Giraffe
    Masai Giraffe

    4. Domestic Water Buffalo’s (Carabao)

    Domestic Water Buffalo
    Domestic Water Buffalo

    5. East African Oryx

    East African Oryx

    6. Rhinoceros

    Rhino

    7. Monkey

    Monkey

    8. leopard Tortoise

    leopard tortoise

    9. Colombus Monkey

    Columbus Monkey

    10. Masai Ostrich

    Masai Ostrich

    11. Bees (Bonus)

    Bees

    You don’t have to wait for you friends to get ready so that you can visit the park, you can go there alone and spend so few hours to connect with nature. It feels refreshing I tell you! Whoever said nature heals was right.

    I hope this photo story was helpful to you.

    If you need help to edit and produce your videos, let me know by initiating a chat by clicking the bubble icon below or simply request a free quote here.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • Is There Anything More Than Bidding For Jobs on Freelancing Work Platforms?

    Sending out new bids everyday via the freelancing site of your choice is boring and sometimes costly when you either pick the wrong job posts or use generic cover letters. It becomes even worse when you have done everything right but still don’t get any response.

    Summary in Video

    In the year 2019, there was a very popular party goers anthem in Kenya by a Ugandan artist- BigTril-called Parte after Parte. The chorus to the song is very easy to master irrespective of how drunk someone is.

    On top of that, its an easy one to refer to when talking about anything fun.

    Like Parte after Parte, is freelancing- bidding after bidding?

    Most Freelancers who have been in the business for 5 years or more will tell you that bidding as a way of acquiring new clients is no longer exciting to them unless they are invited by the client to bid on a project.

    I am talking of long term freelancers with top rating status and raving 5 star reviews from their past clients.

    Does this mean that they have enough jobs at their hand for them to apply for new work?

    And if they do, why are they interested in getting new clients anyway?

    There is never enough jobs for any Freelancer with a progressive mindset. As you build your portfolio as a freelancer, you tend to look for premium projects that challenges your creativity and innovation.

    Before I delve into this, I will like to unearth the myths surrounding Top rating status and 5 star reviews that one gets after completing any given assignment.

    MYTH NO. 1- When One is Top Rated, They Are Guaranteed to Get New Work

    This is not true. The status only gives you a good standing on the freelancing platform and the chances of being recommended by the freelancing site you are in is high. Also, you don’t have to explain yourself very much when negotiating for a contract.

    MYTH NO. 2: Clients Will Hire You Without Interviewing

    It depends on which freelancing site you work on. Let me talk about Upwork. Clients come to the platform with various requirements and budgets. Before deciding to hire, they have to first discuss and agree with the freelancer on what they need. Sometimes, a top rated freelancer has everything that a client wants but will not be hired. Why? because their rates are high.

    So, does this mean you have to continue to regularly bid until you succeed?

    Yes. But have a different approach.

    Narrow Down Your Skills Using The 80/20 Principle

    More experience means more knowledge on what the market demands. Focus on sending bids to projects that requires the skills you have perfected and pays well. For example in video production, I have learnt overtime that I am good at Screencast Video Production. This is the area I have perfected my skills on. Also, I have invested a lot of income in purchasing software’s that makes it easy for me deliver the best quality of screencast videos.

    Mold Your Patience

    Its easy to give up on freelancing considering that sometimes one can go for a month or so without work. If you know your worth, you must start cultivating your patience. It will take time to convert a high value client. In most occasions, they are not in hurry to hire. They take calculated risks before hiring you.

    There’s more to bidding as your freelancing experience grows. What other ways do you approach bidding to break the monotony of bidding after bidding?

    Please share your feedback on the comments below.

    And if you need help to create and produce professional screencast videos and other kinds of videos, please request a quote here.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    You can follow me on twitter @cheptiony.

  • Why November End is A Good Time To Purchase Software Licenses and Service Plans

    If your business revolves around using Software’s to accomplish your tasks, I recommend that you purchase your software licenses and service plans like domain hosting towards November end.

    Video Summary

    This is a secret that most people don’t know.

    Why is November a good month?

    Well, It’s a month that most people across the world celebrate Thanks giving. Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Liberia. It begins on early October in some states and November end in others.

    Thanksgiving began as a day of giving thanks and sacrifice for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.

    It thus gave birth to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

    Black Friday

    Black friday is an informal name to the friday following thanksgiving in the United States. It is regarded as the beginning of US Christmas shopping season since 1952.

    This is a good time to visit your favorite software or service provider platform and take advantage on their black Friday offers. Most them offer discounts ranging from 25- 75% on annual subscriptions. Considering what you get, this is a good deal for someone who is ready to save big on discounts.

    A screenshot of Adobe 2020 Black Friday offers

    Cyber Monday

    Also, know as Blue Monday, Cyber Monday is a marketing term for the Monday after thanks giving in the United states. It was created to encourage people to shop online.

    Owing to the fact that almost all software and business service providers like webhosts have their services and shops fully operational remotely; tt’s therefore good to take advantage of their offers on Cyber Monday. some providers offer up to 90% off.

    Hostinger Hosting Platform Cyber Monday offers

    Conclusion

    Black Friday and Cyber Monday is very ideal for start ups and newbie freelancers. But anyone who intends to save money every year on software subscriptions will run and take advantage of this.

    When you build a culture of using genuine software’s, you will be in a position to not only grow your business, but also help developers of your favorite software give you the best and live a good lifestyle.

    Do you think taking advantage of the discount offers on Cyber Monday and Black Friday is good?

    Share your thoughts on the comments below.

    If you need professional screencast services, let me know here. Alternatively, you can send me an e-mail to connect@cheptiony.com

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.

    Until next time, bye and take care.

  • Does Fast Service Delivery Mean More Money?

    Does delivering your freelance services faster than the others means more work and more pay? My answer is no. But again It depends. In some occasions, yes. But if you are thinking of offering this in a long term, it’s not sustainable. I am saying this based on my personal experience.

    Watch video

    When I started Freelancing, I gave outrageous promises so as to get as many jobs as I could. I was very ambitious. This does not mean that I was not delivering to my promise, but the consequences of me doing so has costed me several years of wasted time and energy.

    In this blog post , I will share you with 3 long term damaging consequences of offering fast delivery services at a fraction of the price. Many people do this with the hope of making more money only to end up in a freelancing rat race.

    Fatigue

    Fatigue is a term used to describe an overall feeling of tiredness or lack of energy. Here is a case scenario of fatigue in Freelancing. Lets say you send 5 bids, and you get hired for all of them. The clients motivation behind hiring you is faster delivery at a fraction of the price.

    If the normal delivery time for the project is 3 days and you are doing it in a record time of one day for the same quality, you will have to work day and night so as to deliver.

    While it’s possible to hire other freelancers and subcontract some projects to them, the main question will they be able to meet your standards? Are you making a profit even after sub contracting the project? How much are you paying them out of your negotiated price? When all this is combined, you will always be anxious and fatigued.

    And what happens when you are fatigued? You have no motivation and no energy. You become a loser but you don’t want to admit. If you are not careful you will be dealing with dispute after dispute because of failure to deliver assignments on time or failure to meet the standards required by the client.

    No time for Yourself

    You will not see this until you realize that you can never get enough of the money you want even if you are hired and assigned a hundred similar jobs at the same price.

    By the time this awareness hits, you will be years deep on the rabbit hole. On the other hand, if you are not careful, your relationships with friends and family will be fully disintegrated. You will start building them again from square one.

    While this experience will prepare you to be an entrepreneur, you will never recover lost time and stress trying to overdeliver.

    Poor Diet

    When you are fatigued, your appetite is lost. It’s even worse when you are living alone and you are busy working. It means you don’t have time to go out and do some shopping. On the other hand, you can’t afford to pay someone to do shopping for you because you want to save money. I mean your motivation is money.

    When this two are combined, your health becomes the last priority. You eat just to satisfy your hunger which is very dangerous in a long term if you are eating the wrong food.

    It becomes even worse if you don’t exercise. If you want to make more money, invest in good diet.

    Conclusion

    You can only make as much money as you want if you are reasonable in your freelancing work. Don’t take actions or make decisions based on greed or desperation. Offer todo a job because you want to add value. When this is the motivation behind what you do, you will not rush.

    And when you don’t rush, you will deliver the best. At the end, high value jobs will follow you instead of following them and it be upon you to set the terms of engagement.

    Do you think offering fast delivery on your freelancing services will make you rich? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

    If you need professional screencast video production services, let me know here.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care. Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • Why it is Difficult to Purchase Licenses For Adobe Products in Africa

    Since Adobe launched Creative cloud subscription model few years ago, many ‘software crackers’ have been left with little options of exploiting and using the software for free. On the other hand, it has become very difficult for many faithful users to buy the product they want on a need basis.

    Many freelance video editors and videographer startups I know in Kenya still use the old outdated Adobe CS6 and CS7 to edit and produce videos in 2020.

    “I mean why should I pay for a new software when the one I have can do the same job?” They say.

    Videography startups in Kenya

    So, does this mean they have the license for the same even if ‘it’s oooldd… as we know?’ well I don’t think so. If the do, then they are using a ‘copy and paste’ license code which does not require any login. For it to work when installing, one has to disable internet.

    I remember in the year 2016, I purchased full Adobe creative suite CS6 from a local tech guy for $10. Yes you heard me right, $10. He came and installed the software for me. To my shock, while he did the installation, I noticed he was using a ‘patching tool‘ to activate the products after disabling the internet connection.

    When I questioned, he promised it will work. And true to his word, when we tested it did work. At the time, I had little knowledge on software copyright license.

    Few days later on using the software, it was really slow and crashing regularly. Out of me being irritated by it, I reached out to the tech guy who installed the software for me. To my surprise, he said I needed to upgrade my memory from 2GB to at least 6GB. Moreover, buy at least 23 inch monitor or higher for video resolution display.

    That was the end of my rant on him. I was not ready at time so I had to manage the software as it was or go hungry without food on my table👱‍♂️

    Each time the software crashed, I crosschecked Adobe premiere specifications for CS6 which said it required at least 2GB of Ram which I had installed already.

    As if this was not enough, the quality of video it rendered was somehow pixelated despite me exporting the videos in HD. I later learnt the huge variation in quality of a video rendered with a torrent premiere pro and a genuine premiere pro.

    And that’s a short story of how most Software’s downloaded via torrent work.

    Startups in the video production and design industry only install and use Adobe products on demand because of the cost implications in terms of long term sustainability.

    In this blog post, I will focus on the top reasons why it is very expensive and difficult to purchase Adobe license in Kenya and most African countries and why Adobe is missing out on ‘individual‘ potential customers.

    Why is it difficult to Purchase Adobe Products?

    Message that you get when you select Kenya as your country when attempting to purchase Adobe

    It comes down to billing address. Where is the billing address of your card? This depends on which country in Africa you live in. If the card billing address is in the US, and you have signed up as US resident you can make the purchase without any problem. But if it’s Kenya, then you can only get the software via resellers.
    FYI: I know South Africa alone as the country you can directly purchase Adobe products.

    So Who are the resellers? This are companies within a given country licensed to resell the product.
    Now this is where startups gets completely turned off.

    Resellers price is 2 times what’s on the Adobe site. E.g annual subscription on Adobe site for Adobe premiere pro is $239.49 inclusive tax. Resellers sell it for around $500. You only need few dollars to get annual subscription of Adobe creative suite of about 7 products!

    Most of the resellers don’t offer monthly subscriptions owing to its sustainability.

    So what do Kenyans and other Africans do when they find themselves in this dilemma?

    It’s obvious. They either find an old version of the software or download the software torrents online. This is despite the security risks that comes with installing torrents and patched products.

    My story

    Before I was capable of purchasing Adobe Premiere pro, I used to install Torrent software’s which slowed and caused my computer to heat all the time. At the end, I was spending more dollars repairing my PC than doing the work. It was not making any economic sense at all.

    I did this for close to 5 years because of inability to purchase the license due to my production rates. My case is similar to the one of many fellow design and creatives in Africa who can’t directly acquire any of the Adobe products directly from the website .. and when they go to the recommended resellers, they are slapped with a double price. Phew!

    Kenyans are creative. But due to the cost of purchasing genuine Adobe products from resellers, they resort to using either cracked or unlicensed products to do their work coz the profit they get from selling the output is not enough to purchase Adobe products directly from recommended resellers.

    My Recommendation to Adobe

    See a way of enabling interested Kenyans to buy any Adobe products directly using their credit cards at the site listed price inclusive taxes.

    And to my fellow Kenyans, I am a witness. After using a licensed Adobe Premiere for more than 2 years now, I have never regretted. It’s worth it. I have always discouraged people from installing torrent Software’s because at the end, it does not make any economic sense due to misfortunes it comes with.

    And that’s it from me. If you need help to edit and produce professional videos, let me know here.

    Until next time, take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • How Clients Apply ‘Carrot And Stick Policy’ To Induce Freelancer Excellence

    History of Carrot and stick policy dates back to 15th century and was applied to the conduct of the Chinese during the Ming treasure voyages. The Phrase ‘Carrot and stick‘ is a metaphor which refers to the combination of reward and punishment in order to induce a certain behavior.

    This is a motivational approach that top hiring managers use to achieve the best of every freelance talent or creative they engage in their project.

    orange carrot

    If the carrot and stick approach is appropriately used, it will bring the best of any creative talent, but if overexploited, it will turn the good intention to slavery and exploitation of labor for services being offered.

    Remember the definition of ‘carrot and stick‘ above? 

    The client will make you do a lot of hard work with a promise of good reward for excellence. It thus takes me to the history of most ‘Freelancers.’ A lot of freelancers who are rated highly in a particular ‘niche‘ learnt their skills at work. They are self taught. They started as beginners with meagre pay.

    Watch Video – How they apply carrot and stick policy on you as a freelancer

    Those who were lucky to meet the best clients while at their early stages of Freelancing grew to become highly on demand. The best clients in this case can turn anything to Gold. They create different ‘Carrots‘ to pull the freelancer to deliver their best within their set budget.

    Here are few rewards used by clients that can be referred to as Carrots in the stick. It can either make you great as a Freelancer or blind you if you don’t have a vision of what you want to achieve in your career.

    Bonuses After Completion of A Contract

    There is nothing wrong with bonuses. I mean it’s a free carrot for excellence. Moreover, how many clients are kind enough to give bonuses these days after you have completed a contract? With this said, a competent freelancer should learn from this and see if they can package the Bonus they were given -when offered a new contract by another client – and as an extra service. Before you go ahead and do so, ask yourself, what made the client offer you the bonus?

    Do you offer extra revisions on a video or design(s)? Did you work for extra hours without billing the client? While such extra miles that you take is often treated as a gift to the client, it should also be looked at in a business perspective.

    You can then apply them to those stingy clients who never see the extra hours you spend to give them the best. Also, sometimes it costs money to go the extra mile and being rewarded for it should be taken seriously.

    Promise For More Work

    grayscale photo of a man working from home

    Most Freelancers will agree with me on this. Let’s say you have completed the project as per the client’s description. When you deliver it, the client requests for revisions. You are ok with it as you want to satisfy him or her. After 5 rounds revisions, you realize that the requests are becoming too much and you start to question why?

    The client first declines to say anything and keeps requesting for more changes. Noticing that you are persistent, he/she apologizes for ignoring you at first and starts explaining to you why you should make the changes. He says that their company is made up of a big team and only you can get paid on approval by the company director which is a time consuming process.

    Looking back, you have no option but to do as they say. When finally they approve the project, they praise you and promise to assign you a lot of work. While you are happy that they still want to work with you, you are afraid of complying with their ‘Carrot and stick’ policy the next time they hire you.

    Good news is that you can bend the policy by restructuring your terms. When they are ready to set new milestones, you can bring in your terms to accommodate the past conditions. i.e Introduce a charge of a certain amount for additional extra revisions after the 5th revision. This is something I have practically applied and it works.

    Sending Referrals Your Way

    This is very common in the media and design industry. You give your best knowing that many people will watch the video or see the designs you worked on. Most definitely, one of them will like what they see and follow up to know who did it.

    Question is, how sure are you that they will refer them to you? That’s why professionally, in video production, its highly ethical to include names and contacts of the production company on credits at the end if it was a video. This way, if someone watching the video wants your service, they can reach out to you directly for help.

    On the other hand, doing the donkey job with a promise to get referrals in return is not fair. It is thus important to set your limits and ensure that no one exploits you in anyway. 

    Give You A 5 Star Review

    yellow star shaped plastic toy

    There is a price for everything. This is the price you pay when starting up as a freelancer. Give your clients unlimited revisions on tasks that you know you can complete them yourself. However, don’t spend your money to go an extra mile to do work in the name of revisions. You will be playing too hard to get the carrot in the stick.

    If it costs money to make a certain revision; e.g Voice over revisions for a video you are producing; Let your client know of the cost implications.

    You will be surprised to learn that serious clients don’t play carrot and stick on such costs. Don’t give your client a reason to intimidate you.

    Just do what you can to give it your best. At early stages of your career, go out of your way so that you can grow. Once you have a name, start reviewing your limits by putting a price tag on it.

    Exposure

    This happens mostly to actors, musicians and spokespersons. If someone is talented; when they are starting up, a lot will be required of them. In return, they will get half the pay with a promise of exposure. This is an idea that was borrowed from carrot and stick policy.

    Now, before you take any action as a freelancer, analyze the situation. Is the exposure worth it? Is the work linked to a popular brand? Some brands are very popular and you being associated with them will be worth it. Do your research and know their rates. That way you will know how to negotiate when offered an opportunity.

    When you do this, you will be in full control.

    Conclusion

    Always update your terms based on how demanding the client is. For instance, if after giving your all and the client wants revisions, set a limit on the number of revisions you can offer. e.g I offer 3 rounds of revisions for free. Then, put a cost of any revisions after that. Tell your client upfront when delivering the first draft of the project. This way, they will be careful because they want to save money.

    And that’s it from me. Do you know of any other ways clients apply Carrot and Stick policy? Let me know in the comments below.

    If you need help to create professional screencast videos for your software’s or application, website review and more; let me know here.

    Until next time, take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.

  • What Will You Do If You Run Out Of Cash And Bank Credit Today?

    What will you do if you run out of both cash and Bank credit today?

    Will you go to Google and search for a solution? e.g ‘What to do when you run of money?’ That will be so lame unless you have time to do so.

    But lets be honest, this question never hits anyone until they find out that there is no food left in the house or the cooking gas has run out in the middle of fixing an evening meal at night especially Ugali for Kenyans:-)

    Running out of cash befalls us differently. For others, it’s fuel running out of their cars while they are driving along the highway. While their first thought will be to reach out to friends and family for help, sometimes the help you need doesn’t materializes until you run out of airtime while in the middle of your conversations.

    And then what? That will be your dead end right?

    You are right. Dead end. That will be the case for the next hour or few hours. This again depends where the tragedy hits you. Was it home? Was it on the highway driving? If you were home then you can give yourself time to think of a way out. It is because at the end, you will end up with a solution after exploring all the available options.

    Hope, is what we end up hanging on.

    The hope that tomorrow is another day. And that it will come with good things and new ideas.

    If you are a business person who depends on contracts and projects to make money, you will put hope on your skillset knowing that new opportunities will present itself and once you handle them, you will make money out of them.

    Hope is not enough. You have to solve the arising issues at hand. At this point, you have called everyone and no help has come your way. You have explored all the possible options and still nothing is forthcoming. But you are relentless and keeps exploring what comes to your mind.

    Finally, one of your contacts gives you hope. But now, they will be able to assist you after 3 days when they have money.

    You will never reach this point without hard work on your end. You even go an extra mile and borrow airtime so as to call them.

    This brings us to the answer on what to do when you are in such a predicament of ‘instant lack of cash.’ Your guts will not allow you to even relax for a minute. Each hour, you will be pondering upon how to get out of your situation.

    You will call everyone you know who can help. You will even e-mail every client you have worked with in the past to see if they have some work at hand to offer you. You are confident that a solution to your problem will finally come through.

    My advise is, do what you can do to get out of your trouble. Take your time and think. When someone comes to your mind, call them and ask if they can help.

    But don’t sell your phone or valuables unless its a matter of life and death.

    Lack of money has never killed anyone with good reasoning capacity!

    That’s all from me here. What will you do if you run out of cash and bank credit?

    I hope this article was helpful to you. Until next time, take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • 5 Great Tips to Keep Your Mind Healthy While Working From Home

    As we Mark the World Mental Health Day today the 10th of October, prolonged lock downs, loss of jobs and businesses, and increasing deaths due to covid-19 pandemic has led a surge on mental health issues than ever experienced in history.

    Around 450 million people currently suffer from mental health conditions, placing such disorders among the leading causes of ill-health and disability worldwide.

    World Health Organization

    World Mental Health Day is a day for global mental health education, awareness and advocacy against social stigma.

    Creating awareness on this is very crucial according to a report released early this month by WHO.

    While treatment for mental health is available, nearly two-thirds of people with a known mental disorder never seek help from a health professional.

    Why? Because of Stigma, discrimination and neglect.

    Mental should be the first Priority

    World Health Organization (WHO) says this has prevented care and treatment from reaching people with mental disorders.

    My Story

    This leads me to the question I am going to ask you today from a personal level of a freelancer and Entrepreneur working from home. Are we able to manage our mental health before it becomes a crisis?

    Before the covid-19 pandemic hit the world, I was working from home for close to 8 months. I decided to close my company office so as to adopt a new business model of operating legitimately from home with my team working from wherever they are.

    At the early stages of this process, I struggled a lot because I worked alone from home. I was used to waking up every morning and going to an office within the Nairobi CBD.

    One of the biggest hurdles in my early days was the missing social life. I felt separated. My girlfriend left me because of my decision to work from home. Her breaking up with me made the situation even worse.

    I went through the solitude alone. Sometimes, I resorted to go out and drink in order forget about my troubles.

    While at it, I was always cautious not to abuse whatever I was drinking, else, it could have gotten me into more trouble than the one I was feeling I was in at the time.

    Glasses of Beer

    The process opened up my mind. I learnt how to drink responsibly. I learnt that Yoga and meditation has set of spiritual rules based on Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism and you cannot combine it with Christianity.

    Therefore, you have to decide if you are a Christian or a Yogi under the above mentioned religions.

    Moreover, I learnt some important brain science. That mind is made up of the conscious mind and the subconscious mind.

    When you are able to control your subconscious mind, your future is lit.

    The subconscious mind is the ‘god‘ in you as quoted in biblical story of creation. Read Genesis chapter 1:26.

    You should culture of Drinking responsibly

    By the time Corona came, I was never lonely when I am alone. I had known myself better than never.

    While all this took place, I started becoming more conscious of my health. For example, if I get a stomachache, I could immediately do ‘contact tracing‘ like they do for Corona virus but now on the food I ate.
    Where did I buy them? Where did I eat last? What ingredient could have caused my problem?

    After repeatedly following this process of ‘tracing’ either what I ate last, and where I was last’ each time I got sick or felt stressed, my life changed.

    In this blog post, I will share the top five things that leads to poor mental and body health to anyone working from home. Mind and body is one. When you are sick physically, you mental health is affected as you are worried.

    Your Diet

    What do you eat? Where do you buy your food from? What you eat matters. For example, eating food with too much sugar can result in slowed cognitive function and deficits in memory and attention.
    If this pattern repeats over and over, your productivity is depleted and hence anxiety then depression.

    The same thing is with where you purchase your food.

    Some outlets are dirty and don’t observe recommended health standards.

    Depending on your body immunity, the effects of bacteria from the food may not emerge immediately, but it will eventually. Some bacteria may change your body hormones’ resulting in anxiety and depression.

    If not keen, by the time, you go out and seek for treatment, you will have suffered enough.

    Digital Well Being

    How well are you in control of your digital gadgets? The technology industry is becoming sophisticated day by day. Phones, computers, laptops, TV’s, Sound systems are being designed in a way that you become addicted to them.

    happy asian couple doing yoga in bed
    Photo by Miriam Alonso on Pexels.com

    The recent Netflix movie, Social Dilemma paints a picture on the motive that drives the designers of these digital gadgets and apps. They aim to fuel user addiction.

    While all these tech gadgets are made for the good of the users, it’s important to be in control of them. Know when to use what and for how long.

    If you are in most social media networks, use the free Digital Well Being app by google to see which app is addictive to you and set time usage on it. This way, when the time set elapses, the app is frozen and will activate the next day.

    As you progress, see a way to be in control of your gadgets without relying on the digital well being app.

    Exercise

    We love to talk about exercising but do we really exercise? It doesn’t matter where. It can be jogging outside, or doing aerobics indoors.

    It has been found that frequently exercising is good for your brain. It optimizes your blood circulation and cell degeneration on your brain.

    In an article published by www.dana.org, when you exercise, your body releases chemicals such as dopamine (pronounced doh-pa-meen) and endorphins (en-door-fins) in your brain that make you feel happy.

    Not only is your brain dumping out feel-good chemicals, but exercise also helps your brain get rid of chemicals that make you feel stressed and anxious.

    Friends and Family

    Many a times, when we are stressed and anxious, our friends and family never comes to mind as the source of our stress. This is because they are the ones that we first run to for help.

    But have you ever ‘traced’ back to who you were with before the stress hit you?

    If you are conscious each time you feel stressed and anxious; you will realize that the source of your problem maybe arising from a conversation or interactions you had with a friend or member of your family.

    Being able to look at it this way is the key to finding solutions on your mental health.

    Spiritual Well Being

    While not all of us belong to or believe in any religion; in one way or another they acknowledge the role religious and spiritual institutions play in the well being of its people.

    They are the masters of positive energy. They offer a shoulder to lean on.

    In fact, religious institutions are the most sort after for counselling and rehabilitation. This is owing to their compassionate nature.

    It’s therefore important to find a religion or a school of thought to belong to. There is much to gain through this than when you are alone.

    And that’s it from me.

    Do you have any other tips on mental health that you recommend to freelancers or anyone working from home? Please share in the comments below.

    Until next time , bye bye and take care.

    You can follow me on twitter @cheptiony