Running with a poop bag.
This is usually how my run begins. And when I remember to bring a baggie with me — Diesel never, ever has to do his business. This particular time, I figured since he went 5.4 seconds ago when we left the apartment he’d be good for a quick 30 minute run. I was wrong. (Two bags full of wrong.) The problem with a mid-run poop, even if you have a baggie with you, is that those handy little poop stations are few and far between and usually require a pretty awkward poop-in-hand jog to the next one. For me, this job means one arm stretched out to the left with Diesel pulling almost all my weight forward for me (so sweet of him), and the right hand (poop-in-tow) held out as far as I can possible get one limb from my body — all of this at a 8 min mile pace because I can’t for the life of me get Diesel to run slower than this. Don’t know if you’ve ever seen anyone doing this, but if you have it was probably me so please, no laughing.

Wide Load.
You know that annoying “wide load” vehicle on the road that everyone moves out of the way for? That’s me on the trials when I bring Diesel along. We’re not exactly wide, but when you take into account the span of the trail that he covers in front of me while sprinting from right to left trying as hard as he can to trip me—it’s pretty good coverage. I can see the snickers as they are being exchanged from the passers-by, “that girl can hardly control her dog” they are saying as I’m sweating and looking distressed trying to sprint after Diesel…glad to be your evenings entertainment, folks.

Leash burn.
This is the part of the run where I’ve learned the hard way and now have to brace myself for oncoming pet traffic. Digging my heels into the ground and praying he won’t be interested. He usually is. Definitely 2 hands needed for this, I wrap the leash a few times around at least one hand, then summon all my strength. It usually requires a quick yank back on Diesel, some choking on his part and a whole lot of apologies on mine. My hands are usually a bit raw by the end of the run…

Sudden death.
Just when I think we’re doing good, running in sync, ignoring the other animals, walkers, joggers, bikers & strollers (which totally freak him out), Diesel smells something (anything really) and speed-quits dead in his tracks. The problem is I usually don’t notice until it’s too late and I’ve suffered minor whip lash and slight shoulder dislocation. It’s not bad really, unless someone is watching. When it’s really bad is when he’s running on the left side and smells something on the right and darts directly in front of me. I actually caught some paw today and heard a whimper which completely breaks my heart of course. Then, I say my thank you prayers that I didn’t actually trip over him and start wondering if this is the day that I’m actually going to injure myself and have to explain a band aide on my chin and bruised right side in the office the following day.
So, after dragging me all over the trails for one of the most embarrassing 1.8 miles of my life (and the a long slow walk back because I gave up) I’m wondering if I should give up and keep Diesel’s exercise to Fetch at the parks where he can roam leash free and I know I’m safe and can spare my dignity.

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Image via VisionMobile.com

Having just moved from one city to another—and then another—and landing in Fort Wayne, Ind., I have spent a great deal of time thinking and explaining what is important about where you hang your hat. There are several things that can draw people from place to place. George Straight makes a very strategic decision for New Orleans in this song. But after much consideration I wanted to share with you my top 5 when choosing where to settle—at least for now.

1. People. You know how LA-folks are sort of known for being rude? Well, I have found that around the Midwest, people are for the most part very down-to-earth, honest and genuine to the core. Oh, and also this is number one on my list because wherever you are, if you’re with people you love and can have/make fun with then…you’re home.
2. Community Involvement/Investment. Is your community investing in itself? Working towards improvement? Are there ample opportunities to get involved, lend a hand & give back? The answer should be a resounding yes. In Fort Wayne, it certainly is.
3. Accessibility. Wherever you are, you want to be able to travel and see other places. Nothing fun about being in one place all the time. What’s around you? Can you get there for a weekend get-a-way?
4. Weather. For some this may mean the unchanging 60-degree weather, and for a while that’s what it meant to me. But I eventually got homesick for the winter white experience, and bug-infested scorcher of a summer. (Yes, you heard me right. Bug bites and all.) Go where you can appreciate and love the climate—or else you’ll spend the majority of the year complaining about temperature. For me, for the time being, that’s right where I am.
5. Affordability. This goes along with number 3. In Fort Wayne, cost of living is low enough that travel is a bit more affordable for me than if I lived in San Diego still. Wherever you live, whatever home or area it may be, don’t strap yourself. Give yourself the room (and cash flow) to get out and about.
6. Water. This is the one I had to give on a little—or a lot. It was extremely tough for me to move away from a coast. Growing up on the cliffs, and having a 5 second walk to the beach most of my life, this is what I get homesick for. However, Fort Wayne has over 100 lakes just north of us and during the warmer months it can be an every weekend destination.

   So… where do you hang your hat? And, why?

Because I’ve had to do this a few times myself, after college, after a lay off and after a few re-locations—I can speak from a place of experience. The following is the advice I put into practice while looking for a job. I feel strongly that most people  find themselves in a place of struggle because they don’t go about it the right way. Many times, the issues is not talent or capability, but rather a naïvity regarding what it takes to truly be considered for a position. So if you’re finding yourself in need of a paying job that you enjoy, before you stress out, start here.

1. No excuses.

“I’m too old and they will assume retirement is around the corner.” “I have no experience.” “There are too many other candidates.” “I have been out of work for too long.” And,  the list goes on. So much time is wasted making excuses for why it’s harder for you to find a job, or why it is an uphill battle. Instead of making excuses, get down to business. What do you want to do? Make a list, then make a list of companies or contacts that might be able to help. Start talking to people. Start doing research. Start asking for interviews (informational if nothing else.) But stop giving me a reason why it’s going to be tough.

2. No distractions.

Sometimes, people who are job searching are secretly happy that they aren’t currently working. My question is, how bad do you want it? If you are also using your free time to head to the beach, go out with friends, get some “you time” in, then you’re going about this wrong. When you are job searching, your job is to get a job. Yep, that means 8:00 a.m. to at least 5:00 p.m. should be spent focusing on that search. Do research, make phone calls, go visit people, attend networking events, volunteer, etc. This should be your main focus. You can join that Thursday night Bunco club, reorganize your apartment, have movie night with your friends or learn the Spanish language after you have job. This search will be hard. Hard enough that you can’t afford to distract yourself.

3. No fear.

Most people are timid about contacting folks. They don’t feel like they can call someone once a day, or event twice a week. They worry they will bother, annoy and seem overbearing. Now, I’m not giving the green light to stalk people by any means. However, I believe most people can afford to be much more aggressive than they are. At the end of they day your persistence will communicate, “I want this, this is important to me and I’m passionate about the opportunity to work for this company.”  Be aggressive!

4. Be determined.

Be clear about what you want.  You can’t start job searching if you don’t know what you want. Make a list of the jobs you would consider and from there can you determine what your first steps should be. Who should you be getting in touch with, who should you be calling?

I’m not just blowing steam here. I’ve been through this, and to prove it here is my story…

When I made the decision to move from San Diego to Indianapolis, I made a list. From that list I could determine what my next steps would be in my job search across country. Here’s what my list looked like.

• Public Relations Agency – Account Executive
• Non-Profit Organization – Marketing, Event Planning & Communications

My list was only two jobs long, but it gave me a span of hundreds of companies I could reach out to (especially because Indy is a very PR-filled city.) Those were the two things I was interested in doing, so now I had my next steps…

• Reach out to a contact (whether I knew them or not) at every PR agency I could find in Indianapolis.
• Reach out to every executive director I could get in touch with for organizations like American Cancer Society, Big Brother Big Sisters, Muscular Distrophy Association, etc.

From there I developed a list of companies and contacts and I made phone calls every day for at least an hour (I still had a job, so that was about all the time I could spare.) I sent emails in the evening, when it was too late to call, and I rarely waited more than 3 days to give someone a second phone call (unless they asked me to do otherwise.) I kept a notebook tracking when I had spoken with someone, or when I had left a voicemail, and I reached out to an endless number of professionals in Indy. If they didn’t have a position for me, I asked who they thought I might talk to that would be beneficial. I was persistent, I was clear, I was determined. I was doing this across country, with limited time. It took me about 4 months.

No excuses folks. Do you want it, or don’t you?

With all the buzz about the NFL skipping the 2012 season, and the lockout yet to be completely resolved, I began thinking… What would we do without an NFL season and without a SuperBowl? Indianapolis, of course, will be at a loss for a few more years until they are re-slated to host the big game, but that’s actually not what I’m concerned about.

I’m worried about missing my commercials.

Yes, I’m afraid America will miss the highest rated television event of the year, and I’m sure the network shares my fear. No football, no commercials. Any marketing & advertising professional will understand that these 30 second spots are the highlight of the game. For some of these aforementioned folks, small talk happens during the kick off, time outs and field goals and the crowd is hushed when Budweiser, Doritos or VW takes the center stage on the big screen. And—we’re not alone. Nielsen reported that over 44 percent of viewers watch the Superbowl for the commercials alone.

Over the past 10 years, SuperBowl spending has reached over 1.6 billion. So, if the NFL is going to go black for a year, let’s keep the camera rolling anyway. Air the commercials instead of the big game. I’ll still watch, in fact I’ll grab a bud light if you bring the chips & dip.

• A look into how other journalists are using Facebook
• Tips for keeping readers engaged on Facebook
• Connecting with other journalists
• Information on the future of social news
• Insight into what works [on Facebook] and for who[m]

For Journalists looking to get started, here’s where to go: Getting Started.

Looks like Facebook already has some support with 26,793 likes many of which are high profile journalists including Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric and George Stephanopoulos. With backing like this, I’m looking forward to seeing the page take off!!

Image via Gigaom

The plan.
According to a recent post by Gigaom, Facebook says the plans for the page are to become an ongoing resource for journalists who want to use the network, and the page will highlight “best practices” engaged in by a number of media outlets and reporters who use it well.

Will it work?
Because journalist have been so successful on Twitter – an information based social outlet – it will be interesting to see Facebook step it up. They do have a leg up on Twitter simply because of the their reach. With 500 million active users, 250 using Facebook from mobile devices. If users are checking their smart phones throughout the day to see what their friends are up to, why couldn’t it become a news source for them as well? With this amount of people logging in constantly and the right use from those who deliver us our daily news, I don’t see why Facebook couldn’t become just as useful as a resource for the latest breaking news stories.

Nick Kristof Facebook

Success Story.

While we are talking social media savvy journalists, one of my favorite examples of journalists using social media is New York Times writer Nicolas Kristof, who has been posting to his Facebook page and updating Twitter from the Middle East and beyond.

To me, Facebook will probably always be primarily a place to play and connect with friends/family. But if you want to show me breaking news while I am there, bring it on Facebook.

Word on the street is that Google is working on a +1 button that you can add to your own site, that will effect search ratings as well. Meaning, the more people that +1 your content, the better chance it has of showing up higher in Google search results.

For advertising professionals, this feature may really peak your interest. The +1 feature will actually have the ability to allow people to recommend an paid ad. When you see an advertisement online, it just might might come up with a “Taylor liked this page” as well. Makes you wonder what will be more valuable to clients, a +1 or a click-through?

Morning Glory

Morning Glory follows the journey of a dedicated, passionate “go-getter” (McAdams) who proves herself in the broadcast world and makes some great relationships along the way. It’s a lively illustration of how great it is to have an family-like environment in the work place. It shows McAdams character, Becky Fuller, have full dedication to not only her job, but in the end, her network and co-workers as well. McAdams plays the part very well. She’s fast-paced, energetic, cheeky and surprisingly comedic. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’d give it a whirl.

If you have, what did you think?

An intro to group texting and how your business can use it

Group texting has been called the breakthrough trend at this month’s SXSW conference in Austin, TX. A few applications fought for the number-one spot as the word about group texting spread, but it seems there was a winner: GroupMe. The app is less than year old and is handling more than a million texts a day.

What is GroupMe, and how does group texting work?

GroupMe lets people quickly and easily text message multiple people at a time. In the application, you start by creating a private group. (If it helps, think of it as Google Groups for text messaging.) The app’s main functions include group messaging, conference calling, location sharing (like Foursquare or Facebook Places) and photo sharing. Each group is given a unique phone number, and a text message sent to that number goes to everyone in that group at one time. Or, to start a conference call, you simply call your group’s unique number. Also, it’s free.

Group texting really seems to be a new medium of communication that is spreading like wildfire thanks to the popular SXSW conference. Social media strategist Nate Riggs said it better than I could:

“In its simplest form, group texting sites allow for small groups of people to leverage the Web and mobile devices to set up a sort of chat room where conversations can happen in real time. One of the major advantages lies in the flexibility these sites deliver, in terms of how you can receive and send messages. For instance, if you don’t have a smart phone or are part of the BlackBerry crowd, you can still sign up for a group-texting site and send/receive messages via basic SMS. Be careful though, standard text messaging rates will apply.”

A test run and personal review

I see great potential for group-texting applications like GroupMe to make trying to coordinate meet-ups and professional or social events with a large group so much simpler. It may even become a standard for business collaboration in more forward-thinking companies, as it can serve as a replacement for e-mail for professionals on the go. Being the social-media explorer that I am, I created a group right away to test it out.

I tried it first by using it on a personal level, creating a special group for my family, which is spread out all over the U.S. We’re already finding it’s easier to keep everyone in the loop on life updates, share our latest photos, and coordinate dinners and plans when we do get the chance to be together in person.

Using group texting for business

How can businesses start thinking about using group-texting applications?

• Use group texting internally at work to send out time-sensitive information. Don’t wait for employees to check their e-mail — buzz their phones instead to let them know when the next sales meeting is or that Monday’s staff meeting is postponed 30 minutes.
• Making a Starbucks run at work? Get your department’s requests via GroupMe.
• Does your company have a sales force that is always traveling and on the go? Create a group for them to keep them updated when they are on the road and out of the office.
• A local business might use group texting to send its clients a survey. They can offer a discount or promotion for filling out the survey and get tips on how to run the business more effectively. People love to give their opinions, and text-message marketing gives them a quick and easy way to provide feedback in return for a special offer of 15 percent off or a free consultation/coffee/appetizer/insert your product here.
• Send out a short coupon code via SMS that can be redeemed on your site. Provide discounts and promotions, and you’ll likely get subscribers to your text message promotions, as they’re already active on their phones. Just be careful not to overload their phones with too many messages, or they may unsubscribe!

Other group-texting options

If you want to go against the crowd and use a different application, try Beluga, GroupFlier, BrightKite, Fast Society, TextPlus, PingChat, EzTexting, Rabbly, ProTexting or WeTxt.

Give it a whirl, and be sure to report back and let me know what you think!