Writing

In this life, there are many ups and down, ins and outs, ons and offs to contend with. The key is to maneuver through the web of networks you belong to and get through to the next level of living.

Today, is Thursday, and it’s a day of breakthroughs for visions, income, and personal and group achievement.

Challenges are inevitable in this life.

The first breakthrough was a text from a professor in Oklahoma connecting me with another professor who will be the first member in Langston, OK, to join ASALH and will be my colleague in forming the Langston, Oklahoma ASALH branch. He owns two buildings – one for a cultural center and another being renovated for a residence. Both will fit my vision of a cafe and home by April. Meanwhile, the head of the business department at Langston U said the hiring freeze should end in July, making it possible, hopefully probable that I will get a teaching position. They want to start a Sports & Arts Management program and I would like to head that division up.

The second breakthrough was getting an AT&T rep to change my rings from 2 to 4 to go to voicemail. The 2-ring problem was that I missed the call back from the rep from Florida Unemployment, which almost drove me mad because, this week, I spent hours on the phone to get my application for unemployment submitted. Here’s how it went.

December 22, 2025

SNHU had no classes for me to teach this term, trimming my income way down.

January 5-6, 2026

New Hampshire, where my school is (SNHU) said not eligible there.

NORTH CAROLINA – UNEMPLOYMENT APPLICATION – NOT ELIGIBLE

January 7, 2026

Spoke with North Carolina Unemployment. SNHU paid taxes to Florida.

Florida – Unemployment claimant #496183, but driver’s license or passport don’t work.

Called 833-352-7759 and held for 3:42 hours

Tatiana could not help me. Told me to call NC DMV. I did and my license is active.

Called FIRE @ 888-993-9713 – two messages, then NOTHING

Called the first number again and pressed 1, nothing;

Called the number again and pressed 3, message said “wait for 55 minutes”. I only held for 20 minutes. Monique told me she worked in the department for login problems, and I would have to call the number again and hit the prompt for General Questions. I told her I had been on the phone since 8 a.m. and it is 2 p.m. now. She didn’t know I am in California. She expedited the call to a supervisor, after I insisted.

January 8, 2026

Gene from Florida Unemployment called me at 1:15 p.m. PST (4:15 p.m. EST)

He scheduled a request to input my information tomorrow, January 9, 2026, at 2 p.m. EST

He told me to fax my SS Card, Passport, and Driver’s license to 877-934-1504

I created a document with these three IDs in a PDF file and downloaded a fax app to my phone.

More at 11.

This is in response to a student’s SMART goals for a social media campaign.

Hi, Student,

The strategy you developed here is well-done. You wrote, “create engaging content on all forms of social media because each platform has different functions and various users that could potentially become interested in the company’s products and services.”

Although this is an ambitious goal, unless you have a team to post, reply, analyze, and report, it’s difficult to devote the time to make this goal achievable. On Hootsuite, you can post to several sites at a scheduled time. But their fees are unaffordable for small companies. This week, I cancelled a premium upgrade on WordPress for $96, because our nonprofit members didn’t pay dues this year. See http://wijsf.org

That’s not a lot of money but to a nonprofit with little income, it’s a lot. We can’t pay a SM team, so the burden falls on me, the director, to get it done. I have 25 students with two assignments each week. In seven days, I grade 50 assignments. I must read, digest, and respond to each student, intelligently. Rarely do teachers get paid for the time they devote to grading. Luckily, I don’t have face-to-face classes of one to four hours. But grading takes up at least four hours of my time five days a week.

I post about my company on several social media sites. I cut and paste messages and wait for responses. However, I don’t have the time to analyze each post. The post sent to 449 members this month is – PAY YOUR DUES – so we can pay our graphic designer who spent hours from January to June to create our publications that are printed and online at http://issuu.com/joancartwright

As the editor of each article, I don’t get paid a salary. I’m literally working for gratis, which becomes tedious. The customers I aim to retain are 449 members who may not have $75 for dues (increased from $60 in the past three years). We promote women musicians who struggle, financially. My challenge is to continue what I do for free or stop altogether. After 18 years of fulfilling this mission, do you think I should continue or quit?

Fortunately, my daughter picked up the SM banner by posting about our organization on social media. But she doesn’t analyze the data, which is an important component of the SM process.

Please excuse my rant. What do you think about this real-life business scenario?

In your feedback to Brett, you mentioned having celebrities promote the new seasonal product. Does every business owner know a celebrity willing to promote their product?

You mentioned hashtags to Sofia. Just this week, I had my son search my hashtags – #joancartwright and #divajc. He’s known me all his life and he was astounded by the number of entries that came up.

Did you see my announcement “So many sites, so little time” with 47 social media sites? There’s no way I can post on all of them. Could you?

So, SMART goals must be achievable. I think you get the picture.

Thanks,

Dr. Cartwright