For the Love of TEDx

October 8, 2014October 10, 2014Leave a comment

A while back I made a big to-do list for the year 2014. One of the things on the list was to volunteer for TEDxPeachtree 2014. I can proudly say I jumped into the project and it has been great fun. I am on the communications/social media team and I have had the joy of speaking with TEDx talent as well as watching more talks than you can imagine. In the role I have met some great new people and learned a lot about how much work it takes to produce a TED or Tex event.

If you are in Atlanta October 17th buy your tickets by clicking here.

Read my blogposts leading up to the event by clicking here.

For all of you who are wondering TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.

What We Are Reading – October 3rd

October 3, 2014October 21, 2014Leave a comment

Nicely Said by Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee

I have been wanting to read this book for a while but never made the time to do it. Other things (sleep and Pinterest), books, and magazines keeping jumping ahead of it in my “Books to Read” line. Now that I finally cracked it open I love it. It is valuable for both my professional writing as well as my personal blog content development and editing. If you write for any reason you need to put the pen down, back away from the keyboard, and soak up this knowledge.

What If? by Randall Munroe

While I have my face in a book about writing, my husband has his face in a book about everything else. In this book each chapter is devoted to answering one weird question. How many Lego would it take to build a bridge from here to Europe? If there was a robot apocalypse how long would we survive? These are two of the chapters people. See what I mean by weird? If you follow xkcd.com you will love this book by the same author. Random and ridiculous, educational and entertaining; if you have a sense of humor you are going to love this one.

What are you reading?

I’d like to Eat Spirals of Cheezy/Porky Goodness

September 29, 2014October 13, 2014Leave a comment

Photo courtesy of Flickr Commons.

So many of the food items that I want to cook on Pinterest are the exact opposite of healthy. A lot of them have butter and cheese as the main ingredients which make them perfect for these cooler months. When you are wearing layers of clothing, a few layers of cellulite aren’t even noticeable.

Are you looking for a dish to get that body into fleece lined jeans/wool coat season? Look no further than these Ham and Cheese Pretzel Bites or these Mediterranean Crescent Pinwheels . If you are not a fan of feta or basil and want to keep it simple, the first option from Joyzz.com is what you want. The second recipe, is a great step up with a bit of international kick and is from Pillsbury.

As you can see they take no time to make, and any leftovers you might have (yeah right) can be reheated in the oven/microwave.

Happy fat building! You are going to look great in that parka!

My Whirlwind Romance with Alt for Everyone

September 27, 2014Leave a comment

The organization bug has struck as I try to organize my Alt for Everyone notes, a new color coded system, and my content calendar. Let’s do this!

If you are a member of the web/blogging community, chances are you know about the Altitude Summit or Alt Summit. What you may not know is that in addition to their twice yearly conferences in sunny Salt Lake City Utah; they also hold an online conference by the name of Alt for Everyone. This was my first time participating and all I can saw is WOW!

For the past three days I have had sessions with leading designers, social influencers, and bloggers on what to do and what not to do when it comes to your website. Rachel Faucett of Handmade Charlotte, Chris Gardner from Man Made DIY and Hilary Rushford of Dean Street Society were just a few of the great talents who taught us Alt-ers all the tricks of the trade. Any question you could have asked was answered. Any doubt you had in your abilities in building a successful online presence were quickly dashed. No matter how large or small your experience was you were treated as a part of the team and were uplifted by the other attendees.

I have pages of notes that I need to transcribe and an even bigger list of action items. So many of the those items can be applied to my day work as well as my own blog.

Here are a few of my most valued tips from Alt for Everyone Fall 2014:

Keep It On Schedule – Make sure you post to social media and your website on the same days/times so that your audience knows when to expect new things from you.
PLAN PLAN PLAN – Communications plans are for all business no matter how large or small.
You Don’t Have To Do It All – If you aren’t into Instagram don’t try to be. Do the platforms you do and do them well. Don’t feel pressured to have your brand on every social media channel unless will make a large impact in the long run.
Style Like Simon Doonan – Your Pinterest pages should shine like his windows at Barney’s. Build and edit them well, never forgetting that they are a visual interpretation of your brand values.
Rich Pinning – This term was new to me and I am still learning. Read more about it by going here.
Be Authentic – You know what I mean.

If you attended this year’s event I hope you had as good a time as I did. I also hope your brain gets a much needed rest before it begins applying all of that new found knowledge.