“Dear 16-year-old Me”

May 19, 2011

Hey you, my favorite reader. (Shh, don’t tell the other one!)

I have a favor to ask. Will you watch this video for me? Pretty please?

And then, if it’s not too much, will you pass it on? It can be to just one person, that’s fine. Oh, two people? See, that’s why you’re my favorite.

You might not remember, but I had an experience with melanoma last summer. It was scary. It sucked. I’m ok now.

But I could have NOT been ok.

I didn’t have melanoma in my family.
I barely used tanning beds in college.
I rarely got sunburned as a kid.

I had melanoma.

I had avoided the sun like the plague for most of my adult life.
I wore sunscreen daily.
I ate healthy, took my vitamins, exercised, and went to the doctor every year.

And I still had melanoma.

I got lucky. Really, really lucky. Mine was caught early.

Not everyone’s is.

May is skin cancer awareness month. So could you help me out with this little favor?

If it convinces one person to schedule a check-up with their dermatologist, one person to skip the tanning bed today, one person to take an extra bottle of sunscreen on their vacation, then it will be worth it. Don’t you think?

You’ve always been my favorite.

Love,
Annie

Tagged as: ,

5 comments

From the archives: I Have Begun

May 19, 2011

Yesterday evening, while digging for something else, I ran into a few pieces of writing on an old hard drive. A few oooold pieces of writing on an oooold hard drive.

Most of what I found was…atrocious. Let’s just say that it will never, never ever ever, ever ever see the light of day.

But then I found a couple paragraphs I had written about writing. And about starting to write. Apparently, about the precise moment a few years ago when I decided I wanted to write regularly.

This is what’s so great about digging through old files. Whether it’s a piece of writing or a drawing or an outdated resume or photos of your puppy who is now older than you are (in doggie years, of course), you have almost always forgotten that they exist.

At least I have almost always forgotten that they exist. But I guess that’s not saying much, as if you ask Hubz I have the memory of…of…well, I have none.

Whatever.

Wait, where was I? What am I doing here?

Heh heh heh. Ha ha. Hee hee hee. Ahem.

There is always a bit of excitement and nostalgia opening those files back up again and enjoying a tidbit of your life that you might have otherwise forgotten forever. It makes you go awwww and pause for a moment.

I like it when something makes me pause for a moment.

The creation date on this file was Tuesday, December 2, 2008, 9:33PM. I was still working at The Corp then, and was staying up until the wee hours of the morning building my businesses around my full-time work schedule. Maybe I was bored and decided to goof off by writing for a while? Maybe I was sitting up in bed next to Hubz, him reading and me writing? Maybe I was on the couch with a Tuesday night episode of The Biggest Loser on in the background? WE’LL NEVER KNOW.

Interestingly, the last modification date was Tuesday, January 26, 2010, 1:22PM. That was four days after my last day at The Corp. I like to think, as I was transferring all of the files I stuffed onto junk drives from the work computer I had to turn in, to my personal laptop, that I reviewed most of them. Maybe I even laughed at these pieces of writing then. Who knows.

But it was from a few years ago. I had forgotten about it. And it marks a shift in my life and my interests. So that makes it fun.

————

I Have Begun
December 2008

In high school, circa 1998, it occurred to me that at some point in my life I wanted to be a writer. It was my secret ambition. I was the Type A personality that excelled in math and science – it was widely known and discussed that history and English and long term papers did not a happy Annie make. Actually, I was Ann back then, but that’s another story for another time.

I sucked at writing. I dreaded the essay tests and mid-term papers. But yet the dream of writing someday always kept popping up.

Perhaps I could be the next female Grisham, pumping out a novel a year and amazing people at my abilities to write about the same thing but not the same thing EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Or maybe I could write children’s books and travel to children’s libraries all over the country and oh yes! That would be so easy! Honestly, how many words are there in a picture book anyway, I couldn’t possibly mess that up. It’s a PICTURE BOOK full of PICTURES.

I daydreamed about my (naturally) award-winning writing, my author bio on the back flap, my book tours and website and Also Written By lists and (of course) the huge success that would bring mountain villas and European vacations and luxury cars. Throughout all the years of the visions of writing success, however, the thoughts would come and go. A fleeting thought for 5 seconds once a month, a few times a year. (Editor’s note: I have no idea what those last two sentences mean. Over and out.)

That all changed two weeks ago when my inner dialogue appeared. And by inner dialogue I mean the incessant, continual, maddening voice that started narrating everything as if I was sitting in front of a computer actually wanting to write the novel RIGHT THEN. NOW. Like, RIGHT NOW. On and on it goes. I’ve even found it editing as it goes along. Editing! What inner dialogue edits! I’ve been ignoring it for the good part of these two weeks until a couple days ago when I resigned to the fact that, fine, FINE, I’ll start writing this crazy, inner-conversation down.

So here I am. Writing.

I’ve begun.

Tagged as: ,

I Want Your Feedback Here -->

Big Omaha, a recap

May 18, 2011

Big Omaha

I spent 48 hours in Omaha last week for the Big Omaha conference and, phew, it’s going to take me 48 days to sort through everything I learned.

For those of you that weren’t there, I’m assigning you a bit of homework.

Are you ready? Ok, here we go:

1. Watch the recap video from 2010, Big Omaha: In Their Own Words.

It’s 4 minutes long.
You will like it.
2011’s video will be even better.

I may or may not have miraculously appeared in the video.
I may or may not have been wearing a vest at the time.

Sigh.

2. Scroll through ‘The Twitterverse replies: What is Big Omaha?’ Describing a conference in 140 characters or less gets straight to the heart of things. Nothing better.

My tweeting/twittering/twahootering may or may not have made an appearance.

Extra Credit: Review the live blogs, which include recaps of all speakers throughout the entire conference.

Day 1 live blog, morning edition
Day 1 live blog, afternoon edition
Day 2 live blog, morning edition
Day 2 live blog, afternoon edition

My face nor my words make any appearances.

Thank God.

Ok, have you finished your homework? Good. Here are a few scribbles from my notebook…

From Ben Huh of I Can Haz Cheezburger:

Us entrepreneurs, we’re a little wrong in the brain. But that’s what makes us successful.

What makes a successful start-up CEO?
Someone who doesn’t understand the word no, and knows how to survive failures.

Being weird doesn’t mean you’re alone.

Embracing your community is embracing your marketing. They will do the marketing for you, if you let them.

My mission statement? To make everyone happy in the world for five minutes a day.

From Dan Martell of Flowtown:

Don’t listen to your parents. Who are you getting your advice from? Have they truly been where you now?

81% of children end up in the same place (financially) as their parents.

Shervin Pishevar of Social Gaming Network:

Prune yourself of any value-extractors.
Surround yourself with value-creators.

Ben Nelson, Senator for the state of Nebraska:

Innovation comes from people like you, not from the government.

Gary Vaynerchuk of VaynerMedia:

Content is king, but conTEXT matters too.

We’re living through the biggest marketing shift of all time. For the first time ever, your ears matter more than your mouth.

Ideas are shit. Execution is the game.

A real leader builds everyone up around them, and challenges them to be better than they are.

Quotables galore! It was great. On a side note, I was one of the very few attendees who was actually writing, like, with pen and paper, my notes, versus typing them into an iPad/laptop/etc. I simply have the inability to type notes a) well, and b) in a way that will force me to keep them forever. Is anyone with me on this?

Anyone? Hello?

Shall we start a club?

We can call it the Old Fashioneds That Will Not Give Up Paper club.
Or we could just call it…Stubborn Geeks.

One of the two.

The space that Big Omaha was held in in downtown Omaha is called KANEKO. It’s, in a word, supercool.

(Supercool. Totally a word.)

Artwork in KANEKO
Artwork in KANEKO

It had pretty artwork.

KANEKO library

And a library.

KANEKO library ladder

A library with an orange ladder.

Swoon!

Personally, I had two main takeaways from this conference:

1) The reassurance that I’m not alone. Make no mistake of it, I am on an odd path. We are on an odd path. The author of The Art of Non-Conformity, Chris Guillebeau, would say, simply, that we’re non-conformists. It’s true. But what’s so great about going against the grain, about demanding something totally different from your life and your schedule and your finances and your philosophies and your relationships, can also be not-so-great because, well, you’re going against the grain.

It can get lonely sometimes.

If you’re not surrounded by enough likeminded individuals often enough, all sorts of nasty stuff can creep in. Doubt, specifically. The feeling that you’re just plain weird, as well.

But spending forty-eight hours surrounded by 600 people who all think the same way you do?

Ahhhhhhhhh.

Sometimes I forget how nice that feels.

2) The confidence that I’m doing what I am supposed to be doing. In the past couple years I’ve attended a handful of conferences. Not a ton, but more than one or two. And during and after each one I would be a swirl of new ideas and schemes and plans. I would be ready to launch this and start designing that and begin building the thing over there.

I wanted to do it all. I felt like I HAD to do it all.

It would take me a solid week or two to come down off the high of the conference, take account of what I really had going on, and make actual, reasonable, effective changes to my business based on what I learned.

This time, however, I had just as many ideas to scribble down after Big Omaha as I did in the past, but it felt different.

I was confident in what I was doing, that I didn’t feel like I had, this minute, to go after every, single one of those ideas.

The ideas were great.
But I was great where I was.

So I took them down for what they were – exciting, fun ideas – and I took inspiration from them to grow and strengthen what I currently have, but then I went on my merry way.

HUGE difference.

So, what was Big Omaha 2011?

Personal.
Inspiring.
Thought-provoking.
Honest.
Actionable.

And…a little crazy. :)

Tagged as: ,

2 comments

This dog

May 17, 2011

This doggie
This doggie 2
This doggie 3It’s so sad that she isn’t loved.

This doggie 4
So very, very sad.

Tagged as: ,

I Want Your Feedback Here -->

Books make me…

May 16, 2011

Books make me…
…happy.
…remember how much I don’t know.
…inspired.

Sometimes reading…
…is relaxing.
…is frustrating.
…makes me late. Oh my God does it make me late.

Books…
…unite people.
…are sold at airports.
…are cherished…
…and sometimes burned.

(Sad!)

Libraries…
…are under-used.
…are under-supported.
…sometimes smell like old-lady smell.
…can transform a third-world country, one shelf of books at a time.

Reading…
…flows easiest for me in the mornings.
…is best done with coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.
…can excite me and inspire me and motivate me.
…can bore me.
…can anger me.
…is so dependent on the book…
…and the subject…
…and the reader…
…and…everything.

Paperbacks…
…are the best.
…smell delicious.
…are most enjoyable with the grainy covers that feel delightful, not those dumb shiney covers, and are best in the bigger paperback size, not the small, cheap-o, impossible-to-hold-the-book-open beach book size.

Ahem.

A book?
– You will find one in my purse. Always.
– I own a couple. Times a jillion.

Photo on 2011-05-16 at 19.21
Books make me…
…remember how much I don’t know.
…inspired.

…happy.

Tagged as:

4 comments

Network Marketing via Jim Cramer

May 16, 2011

Network marketing (or direct sales or multi-level marketing or whatever you want to call it) often gets a bad rap. I won’t get into why. You know why.

So for those of us who have made marketing a product and getting paid for it a part of our lives, tidbits like this video are powerful.

And exciting.
And share-worthy.
And even…reassuring.

A quick talk from famous financial and investment personality, Jim Cramer, it assumes a few things about the network marketing industry that I wish it didn’t. Namely, that it’s mostly made up of women (not true) and that it’s comprised of only companies that are built on the home-party model (thank God, not true). Those assumptions are made by the examples he uses, which is too bad.

Anyway, it’s great that Jim is talking about it, nonetheless. Here it is:

(If you cannot see the video, click here.)

Vemma, the company I’m involved with, is much more of a network or referral marketing company than direct sales, as its members don’t sell product out of their homes, collect money, etc. The company does all of that for them (err, us!). However, we all full under the Direct Sales Association banner and therefore, we’re in this together.

Thanks for the comments, Jim. As with practically any business these days, we’re in the relationship business. And you’re making our job of building those relationships just a little bit easier.

——

P.S. Who watches this guy regularly? Do you? He’s a ham! Where he gets all of that energy…good gracious.

P.P.S. Oh! Maybe he gets it here! Ha ha ha. Hehee. Heh heh heh.

P.P.P.S. Shame. I got none.

Tagged as: , ,

I Want Your Feedback Here -->

10 (completely, utterly, totally, randomly random) things

May 13, 2011

1. I am currently reading Kathryn Stockett’s novel, The Help and, wow. It’s greatly affected my ability to get 8 full hours of sleep the past couple nights. Stupid book.

(What’re you reading?)

2. My triple chins say hello! From Big Omaha!
Hola!3. I almost left my beloved black blazer in my hotel room this morning. Correction, I DID leave my beloved black blazer in my hotel room this morning. And I drove away. And then I realized I forgot my beloved black blazer and pulled a u-turn and done gone and saved it.

Seriously, that thing. It’s from Banana Republic and I might not know how to dress for a professional occasion without it anymore. It heightens my geek outfits of t-shirts and jeans to t-shirts, jeans, and a blazer. It’s like icing on a pig.

Wait. Lipstick on a cake?

Whatever. I love it. It loves me. And I almost left it to die in downtown Omaha.

I hope it forgives me. Oh, which reminds me why I forgot it in the first place – it was hanging up in the closet, trying to dry out. Trying to dry out because I drenched it last night while running the 50 yards from my car to the hotel entrance.

During a thunderstorm.
Without an umbrella.
Carrying someone else’s luggage.

It’s a long story.

4. Grande non-fat no-whip mocha. I will take one.

Anyone?

Bueller?

5. Sorry about the long black blazer rant. I, umm…yeah.

6. We have fun news about our investment property, our first real forray into the real estate investment world – it’s official up for rent! Or, it will be sometime today. We have learned a ton the past week about property managers, prepping a property for rent, etc. Look for an update on all of the real estatey details soon.

Oh, and I would just like to announce that a husband and wife team can accomplish a surprising amount of business decisions and communication via text message, if they really want to.

Go us!

(Sorry.)

7. I’ve been learning more about Zaarly this week, and will get the chance to hear its founder speak this afternoon. A fascinating company from many standpoints – speed of launch, word of mouth, innovation, commerce, etc.

You familiar with Zaarly? If not, add it to your, something-I’ll-check-out-this-weekend list, yeah?

8. When my sister was born, I was almost two. I dropped Golden Books into her bassinet until she was practically buried in the things, much to the horror of our parents.

Baby want to read!

Years later, I graduated to stuffing her into the green, plastic, turtle sandbox and sitting on the lid.

9. Have I told you lately how awesome you are? Yup, it’s true.

I appreciate you stopping by this ‘lil site of mine. Thank you.

10. THANK YOU!

11. Also, happy Friday! Enjoy your weekend.

Smile.
Read.
Share.
Encourage.
Breathe.

12. 10 things? Sorry.

13. Smile! (It won’t kill you.)

Tagged as:

5 comments

Big Omaha, follow along!

May 11, 2011

Big Omaha

Greetings from (rainy. very very rainy.) Omaha!

I’m excited to get to spend the next couple days learning and networking and drinking coffee at Big Omaha. In its third year, this conference is “the nation’s most ambitious conference of innovation and entrepreneurship.” Also, it rocks.

If you’re in the Midwest, or if you’re entrepreneurial-minded, or if you just like learning something new, I’d encourage you to follow along Thursday and Friday.

The best place to do so? Twitter.

Follow the #BigOmaha hashtag or @BigOmaha mentions.

Additionally, keep tabs on SiliconPrairieNews.com for posts and articles related to happenings at the conference. They won’t be livestreaming the talks this week (but they will be recorded for you to watch later), so Twitter will really be the best – and only – place to catch knowledge nuggets in real time.

Follow along, yeah? You’ll hear opinions and ‘overheards’ from those in the audience, in addition to pieces of the talks from entrepreneurs from all over the country. The full list of speakers and their bios can be found on BigOmaha.com.

Oh, and one more thing, I must warn you – you might catch my crazy mug on the Big Omaha homepage. Do not be alarmed! Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.

Wait. What?

I attended Big Omaha last year and, unexpectedly, my friend Andy forced me to stand in front of a camera for a few minutes. The footage that I thought would never see the light of day kind of, umm, well, ended up very much seeing the light of day.

Eek.

Looking forward to seeing/chatting/tweeting you tomorrow!
Learning and networking. We will be doing.

Tagged as:

2 comments

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →