Passion: found

I just got back from a work trip. Actually, I just got back from 2 weeks of craziness. My mind is still reeling. In fact, my entire body was reeling. It took an emergency trip to the dentist ending in an injected antibiotic into my upper gum to stop the reeling.

3 airports in 1 week is too many.

I don't know how people become jet-setters without completely losing any sense of normalcy. Although, if you did it enough, I guess it would become normal. And who says one thing is normal and the other isn't?

I was talking to a guy I met out in New York at the tradeshow where I was working (my coworker said, hey you're single, he's single and you're both Mormon, you should date...) and when we ended up on the same plan back to Salt Lake City he ended up giving me some great advice.

It wasn't earth shattering- but I was ready to hear it.

I'm ready to find my passion. And start talking about it.
I still haven't decided if I'll start a million different blogs, all talking about different topics- or just make one monstrous blog with 5 different sections. But, that airport conversation is about to put me on a new direction- and I don't want to miss this flight. Not this time.

Follow-up

Follow-up is an idea that seems so small, and yet a simple follow-up can make all the difference in the world in business and personal relationships.

Guys out there that are wondering about how to be successful in dating, let me give you a secret-- it's all about the follow-up. If only I had a nickel for every girl that complained to me about lack of follow-up, I'd be a rich woman.

What, you didn't decide after the first date that you wanted to marry her? Oh man, better not waste any time in giving the poor girl another chance. Just, save yourself that text message and the 3 minutes it takes to send it so you don't feel like your efforts are wasted.

And vice-versa... I once knew a guy who asked out a girl. She didn't answer an unknown number. He chickened out and didn't leave a message. She didn't call back. (Not very many girls call back unknown numbers these days.) He followed up a couple days later and left a message when she didn't answer this time. She called back. They went out. A few times.

In business, it's the same thing! Meeting someone at a networking luncheon is great, exchanging business cards after talking is even better. But then emailing the person afterwards? Almost unheard of.

I went to a networking luncheon with some fellow alumni from my alma mater. There was one guy there who worked as a financial representative. We exchanged business cards and he emailed me and simply said it was nice to meet me. I then ended up passing his information along to my brother who was looking to talk to a financial representative.

Some people might get annoyed when you follow-up, but those are the kind of people that you don't want to work with anyway.

The next time you meet someone at a trade show, a networking luncheon or at the grocery store and exchange means of communicating- follow up. You'll be glad you did.

Finding my passion at Simply Mac

For the last few months I've been having issues with my iMac at work. Random freezing, inability to replicate the issue when in front of the "genius bar" and then when they thought they did replace something (the logic card and the video card) the problem continues and is even worsened because the sound won't work. 

So, I took the computer in again to get looked at and Eric, the guy working at the genius bar is probably the most helpful and talkative customer service representative I've talked to in a LONG time. 

As he's putting all of my information into the computer he asks me, "If you could do anything in the world, anything at all, what would it be?"

I was ashamed to say that I don't really know.

The answer I gave him was "something to do with fitness"... which is something I have been seriously considering lately. I love running and working out and learning more about eating healthy. 

But, is that really what I want to do? And how do I go about getting it done? Do I go back to school?

Just now I had the thought, well maybe if I could do anything in the world, I would travel. I love airplanes. I love boats. I like trains a lot. Maybe I could combine the two and be a traveling personal trainer. 

Go with wealthy families on vacation and help them find active ways to vacation. 

That would be fun. But not conducive to starting a family. Or finding someone to start one with. 

I might have to go back to Simply Mac again. Genius Eric has really started me thinking.

The Answer

I realized the other day that it had been a while since I had talked to my dad. Mainly because he doesn't get text messages anymore, something about his cell phone being a government phone and they don't want to have to pay to keep the records anymore. (Full disclosure takes on a whole new meaning with these laws.)

I call my mom when I'm driving to or from work and catch up on life. My dad is always already at work or still at work by that time, so I don't want to bother him.

So last Tuesday I called him at night just to say hello.

He answered my phone call in the middle of his leadership meeting for church.

I asked him why he interrupted his meeting to take my call and said, "well, because my daughter is calling from Utah."

That was the only reason. Because I am his daughter.

I love my family and the lessons that they teach me about loving others.

Gypsy blood

My dad always talks about having gypsy blood. Not that we are actually descended from the Romanian people known for traveling around living off the land ( or the metro/subway, etc). But that he can't stay in one place for long.

I can't either.

Up until I came to Utah I had never lived anywhere longer than 6 years. It was something I'd become proud of, in an odd sort of way. I even wrote a paper about being the new kid for my high school english class. (I wonder if I could find that paper now...)

For the first few years that I lived in Provo, it wasn't like I really lived here. More like I stayed here until the summer came and I got to go home. That all changed in 2009. I graduated and got a great job. (You'll be reading more about my job as it comes, I have all sorts of thoughts about that. Prepare for geekdom!)

Now I've been in Provo for the last three years (I came back in August '08 and haven't really left since). I've changed apartments every year since then.

The Submarine House 2008-2009

The house on the corner. 2009-2010

I'm feeling that itch again. 

It's in my blood! How am I supposed to help it?

I need to go home and rearrange my room. Maybe that will help.

Falling

Daily I monitor the social media universe for my company. When I started, no one even cared that people might be talking about us. And truthfully, we are a small enough company that not that many people were talking about us. My initial research found only 10 or so mentions of us in more than two years. I’m sure there are some blogs that I missed (like I said, I was just an intern, figuring this all out). Even counting for that, it means there aren’t that many people out there talking about us.

One day, I found a blog that had reviewed a new competitor of ours, I sent it to my boss who immediately sent it to our entire sales/marketing department. This was a completely new competitor that we had never heard of, so we thought everyone should be aware of it. One of our well-meaning sales people commented on the post and seemed quite negative about the competitor, without doing his research before commenting. At first, when I found out he responded, I was excited that we were going to be joining a conversation that directly affects our industry. Then I read what he wrote.

The post was based on a good idea, basically encouraging people to make sure the product was capable of what it was promoting before getting too excited. However, the sarcasm this employee uses in every day life was included in his post, a place where people can’t hear inflection and no one knows the personality of the person commenting.

The School of Social Media makes it easy to learn a lesson, if you’re willing to be taught. What lessons did I learn? That we can’t wait any longer for a social media strategy; that if you interact with someone, they’ll respond; don’t let your competitor have a better response than you.

How can we prevent episodes like this from happening again? Other than making the intial email about the new competition a little clearer as to why we’re sending it out.

Peeking

Peeking over the edge before you jump can get you into trouble, at least if you’re afraid of heights like me. I hate seeing how far away ground is, my knees start shaking and I can’t even force myself to jump. I tried bungee jumping once, got all hooked up to the cord and stood on the edge of the platform counting to ten over and over again. I never jumped. My little brother, my mom and my dad all did. I chickened out. How does this all relate to social media?

Well, after I started this blog and posted my first post, I realized I didn’t really know what I was going to write about. In a sense, I was peeking over the edge, attempting to guide my free fall. Is that a bad thing? Only if it keeps me from actually learning and writing. I am JUMPING this time!