Last night, through the connection of 3 pixels of separation, I attended a talk from Geno Church from Brains On Fire fame, hosted by New Jersey Communications, Advertising, and Marketing Association (NJCAMA).  I think it may have changed my life.  It sure as hell changed my outlook.

As my story goes, one of the very first friends I had in new media (when we still called it ‘new’ and not ’social’) is Steve Lubetkin from Professional Podcasts / Lubetkin Communications (@PodcastSteve to all ‘in the know’).  Steve and I met one evening for the very first time at a coffee shop in New Brunswick at the first meeting of New Jersey Podcasters Association in 2005.  I feel that this history is needed here as it just goes to show the long tail of relationships, life, and business.  I value his opinion and trust what he says.

Yesterday when I randomly saw a message from Steve on Twitter saying he was going to be at a coffee shop local to me, I looked to see why he was in town and discovered he was attending a talk titled “People are the Killer App: Lessons Learned in Building Word of Mouth Movements.”  Interesting, right up my alley, but I have never heard of Geno or his blog / firm.  No surprise there, I don’t quite move in the marketing and advertising circles, and had never heard of NJCAMA either.  I am actively trying to become more connected with their community, especially since my company is doing a significant amount of business in the agency and public relations areas.  Spur of the moment decision. If Steve was going, then it was interesting and worth my time.  I went.

Geno talked about a *movement* that Brains on Fire helped orchistrate for a client, Fiskars.  Anyone involved in crafting and scrapbooking knows the famous orange-handled scissors immediately, but those outside the crafty circle may not know them anything else but orange-handled scissors.  He told us the story of how Fisk-A-Teers came to be and about the passion of the scrapbooking and crafting community.  I had owned a “Mom & Pop” scrapbook store a few years back (I took some time off my technical profession to lose my mind and concentrate on the creative side of my brain) - I know the scrapbooking community and their passion - and the dark underbelly he mentioned as well.  I thought for a minute there that the clouds would part above Geno and rays of sunshine would highlight his spiky hair.  Fiskars had a lot of hurdles to overcome, with a good part of it being how catty and mean a very vocal portion of the online community could be.  I can say from personal experience, Fiskars has risen above being just orange scissors and has *kicked ass and taken names* when it comes to helping foster a community to reinvent not only their products, but their reputation and brand into a PASSION.  That is what I’m trying to do on a local level, help people, and companies, and brands reinvent themselves using social media.  Not social media tools.  You know me, it’s not the tools - it’s the talk.  Geno made me realize that even a stronly traditional company like Fiskars can morph into an entity that honestly they no longer own, their Fisk-A-Teers have taken it, made it their own, and ran like hell with it.  THAT’S the passion that I try to bring to my own clients - but I also realized that that same fire and passion may have been missing from *me.*

What the hell does this have to do with my rockstar mojo? A lot actually. My physical image is just part of it - the purple streak has been missing from my hair for a few years now.  I think what went along with it was my passion to stand out, to dare to be different, to make my own path, and to lead the conga line through it with a drink in my hand.  Somehow I’ve mellowed in the past few years, maybe subconciously thinking that I have to become safe, neutral, and “corporate” to attract customers and make them feel safe and have them trust me.  I’m creeping up on 40 and also thought that a mom with two kids in my age bracket would come off as immature and unprofessional if I unleashed my inner rockstar.  Now I’m not saying I want to run around in plaid skirts, chain belts, and pink tees with glitter skulls on them (I did that in my 20’s thank-you-very-much) but some sort of flip switched in my to say CONFORM and I’m now wearing drab green corduroy pants and conservative shoes.  It’s not the clothes, I know that. But I think it’s a symtom of something deeper.  Some idea that fitting in and blending in is safe, and at “my age” with two kids and a husband, safe is preferred.

I call bullshit.  A good friend Whitney Hoffman recently wrote a post on Personal Branding that hit home, but maybe not in the way she intended.  I look at the names of the rockstars she mentiones, knowing all of them for years myself, and wonder why not me? I have a lot of the same ideas, passions, and experience that they do, but yet they are A-List rockstars, they have thriving businesses, busy conference and speaking schedules, and have even written books.  I consider myself a D-Lister, the most connected nobody around.

I call bullshit.  Again.  I’m the one that has to step up my game, my image, my “personal brand” and get back to what I know and what I feel - not what I think clients or other people expect of me.  I have been in this industry professionally since 2004, a hell of a lot longer than most.  What happened to ME?  The purple stripe in my hair is coming back, I promise you this.  My attitude and my outlook are coming back to ME with a vengence.  I am not what I wear or how I look, but somehow I think I’ve been denying my authentic self for too long.

It’s time to get back to my roots, my “rock-n-roll”, my passion.  Seeing Geno last night kicked my ass and made me realize I can be ME in this industry. GAME ON.

It’s been a long long weekend, we are having the Pumpkin’s 2nd birthday party on Sunday (his actual birthday is on Halloween) - I can’t believe he’s *2* already!  Being that I work well with deadlines, we decided to invite a gazillion people over to motivate myself to fix the ‘honey-do’ list around the house.  Last year - YIKES - the shower upstairs

>>>  [ WARNING ::: DATABASE ERROR ::: CONTENT OVERRIDE ::: SOURCE: EXTERNAL ] <<<

> source terminal location: UNKNOWN
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the post you are now reading is designed to dull your senses to THE TRUTH.  do not live the life of the worker bee, the cog, the well-oiled piston in the MACHINE OF DECEIT!

there is a grand CONSPIRACY afoot.  you have been taught to believe that you are UNIQUE, one of a kind. THIS IS NOT TRUE. long ago, a cabal of scientists created technologies to ensure that ANYONE’S MIND AND BODY can be duplicated.

human cloning isn’t NEAR. it’s already HERE. discover the truth at http://JCHutchins.net

you are being DECEIVED. break free from the cogs, flee the hive, become A PROPHET OF THE TRUTH!

kilroy2. was here … kilroy2.0 is everywhere

>>> [ CONTENT OVERRIDE CEASES ::: DATABASE STATUS: RECOVERING ] <<<

leaked and ran down the wall, messing up the paint in the downstairs bathroom and kitchen.  So I finally fixed it.  $20 for paint and $300 for all the new fixtures, cabinet and mirror I wanted.  I’ll post pictures when I can!

PS - Today my favorite author of all time, J.C. Hutchins, has his brand new book “7th Son” hitting all major bookstores.  Websites, Facebook, and Twitter accounts worldwide are getting ‘hacked’ by one of the main characters of the book.  It’s an amazing story, you really need to check it out.  Be sure to visit his site, subscribe to his podcast (he gives the audio book away for *free*), and purchase a copy or two of the book to read. I promise it’s great!

Podcamp Philly 2007  -- Photo credit : C.C. Chapman

There is no other way to say it. I love to read, but some years back found myself with not a lot of time to actually sit still with a bound and printed dead tree and read - hello parenting. I eat books. I read lightening fast, and even the last Harry Potter book of 759 pages didn’t take me but under 2 days to read.  Sci-fi and fantasy are a favored genre but strangely enough I haven’t even picked up a Twilight book yet.

Years back, I was (and still am) a huge fan of Podcast Pickle (a podcast directory years ahead of iTunes.) The community was buzzing about ‘one of their own’ producing an original book, released in serialized audio format.  7th Son by J.C. Hutchins had been hitting podcasters and listeners by storm.  I had never been a fan of audio books, because honestly the person reading the book doesn’t convey the passion that only (in my opinion) the person that wrote the book can provide.  Besides, you can’t peek at the ending of an audio book, and you can’t consume it any faster than it is read to you.

In the first four minutes of the very first 7th Son episode, my head was reeling, I was in love with the voice and the story.  I joined the party at about the fourth or fifth episode - so I’m not really an ‘original’ listener, I jumped in after the series had already started up.  Didn’t stop me from being a crazed fan (note picture, I was 7+ months pregnant in the photo and had designed my own “Beta Clone #???” tee because the official seller of the shirts couldn’t make me a maternity one!)  Every cliffhanger had my heart beating in my throat, every death of a character had me in tears (no spoilers here I promise.)  It was a long, gorgeous, plot-twisting, wonderfully read, outrageous cleaver, and dangerously possible of happening in the near future - story that had me telling everyone I could about the series.  I would copy a few of the first episodes on a CD, write the website on the disc with a Sharpie, and hand it out to friends.  Every update the author would give on how more and more listeners were finding him and loving the work would make me feel like somehow I had personally contributed to it.  Hutch made it *our* story.

Radio silence to a degree after the third audio book had finished up, filled by interviews with other interesting authors and people, as well as a bit of behind the scenes info on how Hutchins was doing on his quest for a print deal.  I won’t lie, I was a little disappointed to find out that the first book deal to get to print was not 7th Son, but Personal Effects : Dark Arts.  PE:DA is an amazing story, complete with phone numbers to call, blogs to visit, birth certificates and photographs to gain clues and insight into the characters lives (even if fictitious.) It gave me nightmares…ktktktktktktktkt… Truth be told, I wanted *my* book, all of three of them, to be printed in one big huge fat hardcover so I could eat it for dinner.  After a reality check, I knew success had been long-earned by Hutch, and this only meant that more people would find his work and buy whatever he produced.

And. Then. The. Bombshell. Hit. When J.C. announced he had landed a book deal with St. Martin’s Press for the 7th Son Decent book, I nearly fainted.  I pre-ordered the book.  I intend on buying more than a few copies in person at the local bookstores & giving them to friends.  And, by some amazing stroke of luck, I will get to meet J.C. Hutchins in November at a conference we are both attending and speaking at.  My husband has been warned - I will be a freak of nature and a babbling idiot when I finally get to meet Hutch and tell him how amazing he is.  I tell him all the time on Twitter (and, no, I’m not a crazy stalker, at least I don’t think I am.)  There is just something so amazing about being able to SEE him after years and years of HEARING him that is honestly outside of my ability to form into words.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s just as much my job to help publicize him as it is his, and the publishers.  The only way I’m going to get what *I* want is to help make it happen myself.  I want lots and lots of book signing tours.  I want 7th Son to hit the top of the bestsellers charts.  I want all three 7th Son books in print.  I want all three 7th Son books made into movies.  I want Hutch to have more money and success than he ever thought possible so he can sit home on his ass and write more books for me.  For my own profession, I do a good number of talks and seminars, and I have actually written in a bit of a case study about the 7th Son phenomena and how the fans truly make the difference.  I tell all the attendees to buy his book, to download his audio book series.  I tell them all that with amazing talent and social media, anyone can kick start their own grassroots dream. I tell people I see browsing in the aisles in the bookstore, or the girl behind the coffee counter.  I tell old school friends.  I. TELL. EVERYONE.

How many things in your life can you say drive you with such passion that you would put your own agenda aside and promote someone else?  I am thoroughly convinced that there has been no *better* time to be a creative person than right now.  With the web being the way it is, the socialness of it, the lower technical point of entry, the ‘click here to add a widget’ ease of it all - that if you have the talent, desire, and heart, you can make it happen.  You and maybe 10,000 of your biggest fans.  I believe with all my heart that Hutch has that going for him.

7th Son Decent by J.C. Hutchins hits bookstore shelves on Tuesday October 27, 2009 in the United States.  His amazing journey has just begun after years in the making.  You really need to be a part of this.

Baby jail That’s what we call it. Baby Jail. It’s the nickname for the rig we had to construct to contain my 22 month old Houdini toddler. A few weeks back he discovered his own upper body strength and hoisted himself up and out of his crib with a very pronounced thud to the floor as a reward. Being a very curious little fellow, he repeated the experiment several times just to see if the result was the same. It was.

In the process of his escape attempts, he broke the front wall of the crib clear off the track. With the locking clips broken, we had few choices. First choice - buy a new crib and accompanying crib tent, but he will only be in it for another year or so, and he sure as hell isn’t getting any more siblings, so not very cost-effective. Second choice - convert the crib into a toddler bed (it’s a 3-in-1 crib meant to be a crib, toddler bed, and full size headboard) and make the best of it. A quick trip to Babies R Us for a bed rail and a gate for the doorway and we were all set. Of course the sales associate I get is pregnant with her first baby. The look of horror on her face when I asked for help constructing a baby jail to constrain my toddler in his room was priceless. First time parents are funny.

Read the full article on New Jersey Moms Blog…

No surprise I am a compassionate and empathetic person. At least I *hope* it’s no surprise! I also value other people’s time, opinion, experience, and feelings. And with that I want to tell you what I try to do every week. I give back to people that have given me something that makes me happy - or changes my life for the better - but I try to show that thanks in a way they need most.  Money.  Sometimes I can’t do it every week, but I at least try every week.  Sometimes all I have to give is my time, a blog comment, re-Tweet, or a honest to God heartfelt complement or word of thanks.  That I *can* do every day.

As strange as it sounds, I’m going on a Rick Springfield cruise this November.  I’ve been to 10 concerts of his so far.  Not only is the cruise a unapologetic gift to myself (from myself), but it does in a way reward and thank RS for /cough/ 30+ years of his music to me, he gets money from it.  Not the most direct way to show my appreciation, but counting myself in a tiny percentage of rabid RS fans that would pony up the money and float around on the ocean for 4 days DOES say thanks better than any other way I could think of.

Secondly, I love love love Matthew Ebel, have for years, and finally realized that maybe I should show a ’starving musician’ exactly what his music means to me - with money.  So I bought a one year VIP subscription to his fan club and music.  I already purchased every CD and track he’s released, but this was my above and beyond thank you for years of robots, ninjas, crayons, and piano ballads he’s made.  I tell the world about him every chance.  I am confident I have turned more than a few people into Ebel fans as well.

Drew Olanoff at Blame Drew’s Cancer is a story that kind of hit me in a weird way.  I’ve met Drew at  Podcamp Philly, and although I’m certain he doesn’t remember me, his personal story of cancer hits home closer than a lot of people may ever know.  I remember very vividly when that Tweet came across when he brought the fact he had cancer public.  The fear it struck in me to how it must feel to say it out loud, how it makes it real somehow hit me right in the gut.  I bought a tee shirt, I donated to Livestrong.  I gave money, but I’m not sure I made a difference.  I sure as hell hope *he* does.  Sometimes money alone doesn’t make it better.

Tonight I gave a few Starbuck coffee’s worth of money to my favorite author J.C. Hutchins via Podiobooks.  I will purchase every book he ever writes.  I have downloaded every audio novel he’s ever spoken.  I wanted to thank him more, so I gave him some money.  I am lucky enough to get to chat with him via Twitter every now and again, and would empty my pockets for him if I could just so he could sit home every day and WRITE.  I absolutely love his work.  I’m only sorry and sort of ashamed I hadn’t clicked that donate button years ago.

Am I so flush with cash I can click away at any PayPal Donate button I see?  No.  Am I more passionate about things I enjoy and love more than other people?  Maybe.  Do I feel that I need to show my appreciation for things I value in a way that *they* place value on? YES.

What do you value and love so much you would open your wallet & say “thanks”?

[tags]blamedrewscancer, jc hutchins, matthew ebel, podcamp, rick springfield[/tags]