Yesterday was some day. Most of my days run fairly smoothly, nothing too crazy or off the rails ~ well as sane as things get with a 4 year old as your only company.
But yesterday… phew. It was a doozy. It was one of those days where the worse it gets the worse it gets. Here’s just a few things that have gone haywire in the last couple days.
1. A snake came to visit. Right on the front step where I apparently stepped right over her without noticing. Didn’t notice him until I went to come back in and nearly stepped on him. 
2. Hanna’s having some weird craziness with potty training ~ been trained for a long time ~ not so much anymore. That’s VERY frustrating.
3. Got a flat tire yesterday. Huge nail.
4. Deleted my Squidoo blog ~ on accident because I was messing with stuff I had no business messing with.
5. Every time I tried to fix it something else got messed up.
1-3 are inevitable life happenings, but let’s talk about number 4.
Yesterday I got this wild hair to move my Squidoo blog from the subdomain it was on, to the root domain. I was thinking it would be easier to remember, easier to say in video etc. All that was there was my Squidoo services page which could easily be moved to another directory.
So I went online and found some instructions to move this thing.
I followed (? apparently not) the directions, and when I clicked the move button *poof* everything disappeared but completely failed to reappear where it was supposed to go.
Here’s the thing.
I had no business trying to move that site. I had no idea what I was doing. A 5 step article on God knows who’s website giving me directions. Thank heaven it didn’t have tons of content on it already ~ quite a bit, but … well…
How I spent the rest of the day:
Pulling my hair out. Seriously pissed off at myself, and for no good reason everyone else that came my way. Did I mention crying for being such a dumb ass?
I spent a good part of the day trying to recreate the site. Every time I did something (because I was in a nearly panicked state by that time ~ heaven only knows why ~ it’s a website, it’s not life or death ~ but I do have readers and I got emails) it got messed up even further.
Tried to re-add the opt in box and then suddenly all my fonts were huge in the sidebar. Looked at the site and there’s a random link to hostgator webhosting on the left hand side of the page.
I should have just said ok. Walked away, and left it well enough alone. But I didn’t. I kept puttering and trying and then at one point I said to myself.
“Jackie… you’re being a moron. There are people who can help you. You don’t have to do this yourself. ”
I then sent an email to my fabulous tech genius who’s helping me install and configure all the stuff for the upcoming launch of my membership community. (yes, that’s right ~ you heard it here first!! Stay tuned for more on that)
I sent her a panicked, I’m so stupid email. She said she’d look around and see if it could be found. Later (as I’m still trying to put pieces back together) she sent me an email asking if these were some of the posts on the site. THEY WERE!!
She told me she thought she’d be able to pull it back and make it right.
Me… I just kept winding myself up, trying to fix stuff, put it back together.
WASTING TIME and ENERGY!! (and seriously feeling like crap in the process)
I finally went to bed, couldn’t sleep, woke up late and checked my email.
There in my inbox was a note from Michelle. “Your site is back”
OMG. Sure enough, I went to SquidooChristmasCash.com (where I was trying to put it) and there it was. The opt in box was right, the font was right, the content was there, the links were there, the crazy hostgator link was gone.
She is my hero, and I suddenly have an even greater realization that I need to start letting go MORE. I have wanted to start a community here on this site for probably a year now… but I didn’t want to have to configure and install and bleck… all that stuff. If I couldn’t do it, then I guess it just couldn’t be done. What foolishness.
It has been a little gut wrenching not having my finger in the middle of it all, but it’s also been liberating. She sends me an email, this step’s done. Check it out. This steps done, check it out. And it’s seriously coming together. Fingers crossed I’ll be launching on Thursday (and at an insanely low charter member price).
There are some things I just have no business messing with.
Because I don’t have a clue how to do them.
Because I don’t want to learn how to do them.
Because someone else can do them quickly and easily.
Because to spend hours and hours stressing over something someone else can do quickly and easily is a complete waste of my time and my talent.
YOURS TOO.
I wasted a few years trying to figure out every piece of every thing before getting started. I’ve been doing this for years now and I’m only now, finally, able to let go and let someone else do the stuff I don’t want to, or can’t do.
Don’t waste years of your online career being as hard headed as I’ve been.
You can find people who can do a great job for you at just about any price range. You want to make sure you find someone reputable ~ they will have access to a LOT of your stuff depending on what you have them do.
How do you find a reputable tech genius?
1. Hire mine. 
Michelle Gustafson
2. Ask people you know who they use.
3. Check in trusted forums (I’ve found some great people through Lynn’s forum ~ and the KISS Club (my new community) will have a services offered section to use as well)
4. tweet your needs ~ then ask for references
5. Odesk ~ just check to make sure they have good feedback
There are tons of ways you can find someone to help you out. Over this weekend I have certainly realized the benefit of having a web tech whiz on my team. I only wish I had realized it sooner. Who knows where I’d be now.
No related posts.
Old post, I know, but I’d like to comment on your last words of it and I hope you don’t mind and are in good mood somehow.
“I only wish I had realized it sooner. Who knows where I’d be now.”
Well, you have obviously lost time and opportunity when you do those “stupid things”, but you will not achieve what you get now if you do not do them. So I believe you are much better with those things
And you are perfectly right: “Everybody does stupid things sometimes”.
Cheers
Deena@Travel Updates´s last [type] ..Free – Frugal Travel Paris
I have to admit that I am a “do it myselfer” as well and I know just enough to be dangerous.
I have done similar things in the past and when it comes to my blogs, it has always worked itself out because I understand WordPress a lot more and I was able to chalk it up to a learning experience. This was not the case with my OSCommerce online store and I really hosed that up a couple of times.
If anyone things WP is confusing, stay away from OSCommerce. Actually, I don’t recommend OSC anymore anyways.
B
Bcarter @ Making Money Online´s last [type] ..Read Your Spam If You Need To Stroke Your Ego
Jackie, The range of emotions, you described, sounds so familar. I’ve been there. I’m glad everything turned out OK.
Ooh, that was a tough day for sure!! Glad everything turned out for the best. I’m going to check out your tech girl because I tend to do similar things!
Tina @ Ride On Toys´s last [type] ..A Plush Rocking Toy Will Stimulate In Many Different Ways
I destroyed my blog not once, but twice – each time it was from a slightly different scenario. Once I installed a new theme that had the appearance of wiping out my content. The next time, I tried to upgrade to the newest version of wordpress. Each time, my site wasn’t backed up. Did I panic? Yes a little. But you’re right in that having a brilliant tech person “on your team” helps a lot. In both instances she got my site back in working order in thirty minutes!
Katherine´s last [type] ..Why are we in business online
OMG! twin sis!, is that really you!?
No foolin’, everything right down to the deleted blog (my flagship no less) described some part of my life…..well, maybe minus the potty training, I’ll have to ask mom.
The #1 key there as I too learned is no panicking, you will indeed just dig it deeper.
I too lost count of years lost before I learned the secret to knowing limitations, going with strengths and hiring out weaknesses…..although now and then, it is wise to study up on them also, just not at a time like that. lol
Lookin’ forward to hearing on this new membership!
Btw, how did you wake late if you couldn’t sleep? (Sorry had to, I am that guy) LOL
Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing´s last [type] ..You’ll Want to Read-Comment-Share the Following Posts ASAP – Please-
Don’t mind at all Michelle, thanks for stopping by! If you all need tech help I really do recommend Michelle ~ she’s been super patient with me and I appreciate it more than she will ever know!
Hi Jackie, thought I’d pop in and say thank you for the plug.
Tech is something that comes fairly easy for me, but I can tell you there are alot of areas where I need help as well – each of us has our strengths and we need to focus what we are good at (or want to learn and improve upon) and outsource the rest.
I know it can be challenging (it is for me) but in the end sometimes it’s worth spending the money to forgo the headache.
Hope you don’t mind me adding this but if any of your readers need tech assistance they can reach me at my temporary site http://www.michellevgustafson.com.
I’m looking at putting together a new site, focusing on providing technical services for online entrepreneurs so be on the look out.
Hi Jackie,
I might just call your reputable genius, mine is too busy to return my calls — never again. On a separate issue, i decided to upgrade to WP 3.0 at 5AM and somehow deleted my highly modified theme. I had a backup, but there was about three hours of terror until I figured it out. Ah, technology.
Best,
devin
Devin´s last [type] ..My Travel Blog- the Sunday Check-in — 6-21
Hey, Jackie – If that ever happens again just call your web hosting service and have them locate and reinstall everything where ever you want it. HostMonster is excellent about fixing things like that for me. Once I uploaded a new site on top of another site by mistake, which of course wiped out the other site. They had it all put back together for me in about 20 minutes and it didn’t cost anything extra. Their techs are awesome and are available 24/7!
June @Home Business Infopreneur Resources´s last [type] ..Free Website Creators to Build a Web Site with No Money
Hi Jackie,
Other than the snake (yuck!) I have had days like that, I feel for you! And I’m so happy you were able to recover your site! I sooo appreciate the info you share, you make things clear and easy to understand, which my 40+brain really needs! I am going to save your techie recommendation for a future project, thanks!
I don’t know if I can stand the suspense of waiting to hear about your membership site until Thursday, I’m not very patient I’m afraid! We have been working on trying to get our own membership sites up, so can’t wait to see what you used to create yours, I’m sure you have come up with a better way than I have!
Looking forward to hearing all the details,
Juls