Target is brilliant. There rebranding the last several years has been top notch. Big designers have turned their coolness factor up several notches. One thing that I am totally loving that Target is doing, is their gift cards. They have taken the typical standard blah blah blah gift card, and gave it pizazz!

Who wouldn’t want this? Check out their "thumb war" gift card, that I bought just so the kids could play with. Now they fight over it.

Target doesn’t charge extra for these, and in stores the funner gift cards can be found next to the card aisle. Also just noticed Target started carrying several of their fun gift cards online, the thumb war is still my favorite!

Excellent marketing Target! You have me buying gift cards now more than ever before!

In the next 17 days, our life will be flipped upside down with the addition of our little baby I. At home, I am nesting like a mad woman, donating, trashing, recycling and passing down everything from clothes, toys, book and misc household goods. The house is being cleaned from top to bottom. The dogs are scheduled for grooming. The carpets are in need of steaming and the car needs detailing.

The funny thing is, this time around Sean (baby daddy) is nesting as well. At 11:30 one work night a few weeks back, I went downstairs to find him cleaning out the garage. He’s put the nursery components together. He’s assisted me in making sure all the laundry is caught up and all the household maintenanve is up to date. I knew I married him for a reason. After 2 pregnancies, he knows my needs and my insaneness and still loves me. I guess he did get me into this

If I could sell this energy and my new ability to do so much mentally – I could make millions. I’ve began thinking that this broken toe is God’s way of keeping me from going into extra overdrive. While I would love to say that this is just going on at home – it is unfortunately the same way at work. I am a recovered people pleaser – but some tendencies remain – such as inconviencing anyone when I can help avoid that. Let me say this – one of my strengths is strategy. With that being said and knowing that I will be away from work for 10 weeks – I have been working on a master maternity leave plan.

This leave will be different from the last 2. The first leave I was back working after 6 weeks. The second, I was contract and was back working after 2 weeks. This being number 3 and me now working in the office – I knew I needed more time off than that. While I would love to be able to honestly say I don’t get sucked into my job – that would be a lie. This little baby is sent here for something, maybe just maybe helping me refocus on my life priorities – God, Family and then work.

Fortunately for my A.D.D. my job has several responsibilites. Unfortunately – this makes my leave more difficult than bringing in a contractor to cover my job.

I am very fortunate to work for a highly oiled machine of a company. We get things done with minimal staff. Every move is very agile. Each employee is dedicated to the success of keeping the train moving. If someone falls, there is someone else there to help them up. This is reassuring but also makes me want to ensure nothing falls thru the cracks.

While I am no means saying this is the answer for everyone – here are a few action items we’ve adapted and morphed to make sure keep the train churning:

What is on the businesses calendar for duration of your leave? What action items are involved during that time?

This part of planning has been a little hairy. Our business is that of holding live events and it just so happens our event season starts right before my departure. I started by reviewing last year’s plan, evaluated what we wanted to do new, updated our master grid and met with the team to get things in motion.

Empowering the people

I have a great team who would let me throw the world’s weight on to their shoulders and they would manage to still smile. I’m too nice to do that. But, in reviewing what we needed while I am out – utilizing internal resources and empowering the current staff let’s them rise up to a new challenge. We have found a way to bring in extra production help and give more of my work load to the team.

When it boiled down to it – my team knows our business more than any contractor could learn over a few weeks time. Each member took on their area of strength and will be working on those areas for me while out.

Do a 360 eval of your responsibilities – identify each and determine who in the company can handle what

This can be as simple as, signing off on invoices and timesheets – or as complicated as who can make mangerial decisions.

Educating others in the company

The digital team acts as both as a creative and services department. We work with each department in the company in some capacity. Ensuring that each department has a simplified way to still get things done is key. In order to keep things simple, we have setup a distribution list for anyone in the company to email. This email list distributes to each team member. The team each knows who handles what and addresses that issue. This also works well should someone be out – another team member can pick up the issue.

Who – What – When – Where – Why – How

I have at least 5 new projects in the works. While I would love to say these will all wrap before this kid arrives – I’m pretty sure that something is going to stall or something will occur that is out of my control. To eliminate too many questions and/or concerns, each project now has a simple document outlining the who, what, when, where, why and how.

Who – who am I working with on the project and how to contact
What – what exactly the project is
When – when is the anticipated launch or plan for executing
Where – where is the location of any files or where the action items need to happen
Why – why is exactly that. I find that including the why helps eliminate questions
How – how is how this is executed to make this happen

By doing this – anyone on my team, though they may not know what the project is about – they will now know the basics and who to contact to make sure everything is complete.

Removing myself from the loop

With the processes above set in place, nothing is perfect. Starting today, I am removing myself from the loop. Other teams will start emailing the distribution list rather than myself. My VP will now meet with my team rather than just myself to go over anything new. Any issues that come about, my team will handle.

By doing this, we can see where there are any hiccups. I am still working – but can now evaluate what is working with this plan, what suggestions can I provide to make sure out of the box thinking is occurring and that projects are executed and communicated properly.

Having a SUPER team

At the end of the day, nothing can run without my team. I have a talented bunch who are dedicated to the cause and purpose of our organization. Each believes in what we do and the greater good. That is something money can’t buy. I can’t thank them enough for their eagerness and their ability to smile regardless of what stress is present.

Individual commitment to a group effort, that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.
Vince Lombardi

Now God, it’s all in your timing for this little boy! Whether it’s tonight or in 3 weeks – it’s reassuring to know that when I return to worklife – all will be good.

Working moms: what advice do you have in prepping for maternity leave?

A few days ago, I received 2 emails forwarding the new OK GO -- This To Shall Pass video. Their inital viral video sucked me into being a fan. This band gets it. Viral videos can make you. And they don’t just do it, they go ALL out.

When I initally showed this to my husband, I noticed it only had 78,000ish views. I told Sean, let’s check it in a few days. Well here I sit, writing a blog post and watching Anderson Cooper -- he just mentioned this. I went and watched again -- WHAM 2,095,808 views! And by the time I post this -- that number will rise even higher.

Having a husband and son who LOVE Rube Goldberg machines, made this video even more popular in our casa. My 4 year old watched it at least 3x, paying attention to each detail and making silly comments. My husband it busy trying to figure out how a effects b -- and as for me and Z, we just love the music.

Syyn labs, a creative engineer group helped put this together, as well as SUPER clever marketing sponsor State Farm. Notice the truck in the opening?

State Farm logo, then the thank you at the end. Brilliant partnerships all around, but State Farm, who would of thunk they could make this fit? Taking chances with unlikely partnerships pays off!

If you haven’t watched the first huge viral video from Ok Go -- check it out here. This launched their career, sold millions of records and who even knows how much money they are making from YouTube marketing. This video currently has 49,925,634 views!

If you are going to do it, go all in or stay home. Everyone wants this type of success -- but it takes risk and not conforming to the man to make it happen.

YouTube allows millions of people to discover, watch and share original video content.

Interesting fact: 20 hours of new video is uploaded to YouTube every minute

What does that mean? Your video is a needle in a haystack. If you are going to utilize this platform to increase SEO and awareness of your brand, learn how to better optimize your videos for maximum play.

Here are a few videos from Greg Jarboe, from SEOPR on how to make your videos known:

Optimize YouTube vidoes and 3 key steps on how to do it

YouTube Optimization techniques

Optimize YouTube videos and how to share them

HOW am I just now finding out about "I Heart Faces"?!?! WOW – Brilliant.

Welcome to i heart faces…a photography site focused on the art of capturing faces and their various emotions. Each week, people from across the world have the opportunity to enter their favorite face photos into a themed photo challenge. A “Guest Photographer Judge” will choose ten of their favorite photos that will then be displayed on our home page. 

This week’s challenge is Hilarious outakes. If you know me, you know my Japaneseness (hey, I’m a quarter Japanese!) – has me carrying around a camera everywhere I go. Here are a few from the archives that made me smile:

My darling nephew Jared. It’s as if he is saying,
“WHY THE BLACK SOCKS WITH THESE WHITE LEGS MOM!”

Grant and Cade – it’s a love/hate relationship. Oh brotherly love.

Z gave her brother E a PEN to play with in the crib. This is what we walked into see.

Memories. Can’t wait to make new ones.

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