Jane Quigley

Advancing technologies continue to accelerate our access to information, social media, content, shopping and every other thing we do on our latest devices. As such, it is more important than ever to make a great first impression. In fact, it’s critical because chances are you won’t get a second chance at a first impression.

ROI Research conducted a study on “Participant Behavior and Social Engagement”, and discovered users are most likely to engage with a brand through pictures and videos. To better understand the scope of the findings, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam recently told the National Association of Broadcasters that video makes up 50 percent of his company’s wireless traffic. By 2017, he fully expects that two-thirds of Verizon’s traffic will be video!

Internet usage is increasing exponentially, projected to nearly triple just in the first half of this decade. The clulprit: video. By 2015, it is expected that there will be one million minutes of video — the equivalent of 674 consecutive days of viewing — crossing the Internet every second!

Faster connections, more ways to get connected and this insatiable hunger for new content increase the nearly limitless possibilities out there for savvy brands who take advantage of this increasing consumer desire for visual content. Because of it’s vast popularity, Internet video can help add “ooh” factor (possibly even “ew” or “oooooh” factor) that is capable of capturing the attention of the modern consumer.

Compelling people to respond favorably to your marketing and branding efforts is a science that requires some level of understanding the psychology behind how the human mind works. One thing researchers have known for quite some time is that most people tend to remember more visual than written information. We retain more of what we see than what we read. Think of all the places you’ve lived in your life. Chances are very good you can picture them in your mind easier than you can recall the street addresses. That’s just the way the human mind is naturally wired.

Compounding this bit of biology in the modern world, is the Internet and this exploding era of digital information and content consumption is changing the way the human mind works.

Studies show that technology is rewiring our brain’s neural circuitry, heightening skills like multi-tasking, complex reasoning and decision-making. In a world where our brains are evolving to the changing ways we are consuming data, brand marketing decisions are better made when they factor in the human desire for visual content.

Are you utilizing video and photography for your business strategy? Comment here or on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Thanks so much for reading!

To learn more about  StrategyJQ and our services, contact us - we look forward to speaking with you!

Ah, Pinterest. I can understand how people (and businesses) mistake it as just a place online where moms post recipes and various photos from home decor magazines. To some, Pinterest is an addictive mystery wrapped up in an enigma. But to those who dare unlock its secrets, Pinterest has become a treasure trove of marketing and branding mojo, as well as a valuable weapon to carry on your ninja toolbelt. Especially since yesterday the company released their new analytics tool.

The trick is simple. The answer, complex. Find new “out of the box” ways to use Pinterest. I mean REALLY outside of the box. Nothing too scary, though. Nothing you wouldn’t want to write home about. I’m talking about creative ways to harness what Pinterest is good at: interaction.

My Pinterest eureka moment came to me recently when my sister happened to mention how social media has influenced her noble profession as a teacher. This is a person who is as anti-social network as they come. Teachers, as you know, are the most important asset any society has and yet they are often given not enough resources to do their jobs correctly. The best teachers are often those who are the most resourceful. When she told me that a common Pinterest addiction among her co-workers drove them to create boards that she and the other teachers use to pin lesson plans and ideas for other creative ideas they can do at their school, I was blown away.

Using a Pinterest board as a creative crucible to help each teacher make their job easier harnesses the interactive capabilities of this platform. Making good lesson plans great has probably never been so much fun, either.

The collaborative platform of Pinterest as well as its ease of allowing you to collate ideas makes it a perfect project management tool for projects involving remote workers. A friend of mine in Los Angeles is currently collaborating on a book with someone in Santa Fe, New Mexico by using one of Pinterest’s “secret” boards to post ideas, drafts, rewrites and edits. Shortly, as they get near the end, the creative duo will add in another user to the process, a copy editor from Florida.

And the possibilities to use Pinterest for vision boarding are endless. I can imagine filmmakers using Pinterest boards as digital storyboards capable of evolving and cataloging ideas.

I believe that Pinterest’s ability to be such a welcoming collaborative environment opens up a wealth of marketing and branding opportunities. Perhaps if you have only used Pinterest for your brand as a way to inform your followers of something you think is interesting, you may be missing out on a lot of what Pinterest can do for you.

Every smart brand wants social engagement. They realize a majority of the audience will just sit back and passively watch the social conversation happen. But the most important audience is made up of those who, for whatever reason, really want to be in the conversation. These are the priceless influencers, those who virally spread the kind of praise about your brand that money can’t buy.

Creating strategically curated boards specific to products or divisions and inviting your audience to participate in them can deeply aid in the discovery of valuable metrics related to demographics, usage and customer satisfaction. This is a great way to keep the customer informed while showing them that you do indeed have your ears pointed in their direction.

Many forward-first brands are taking things even a step further by allowing their Pinterest followers to aid them in the development of new products. What could be stronger than harnessing the power of many minds who all want the same thing — for you to succeed?

Making sure you choose the right-minded people to curate the content is as important as the social strategies you undertake. Given how market analysis and focus groups have become integral to successful product launches, getting your audience into the conversation early has the potential to make your job easier and your efforts, more influential. Look deeper at Pinterest, and you will discover that pinned to it is a treasure map capable of revealing the riches your audience and customers have to offer.

******

Do you use Pinterest for your business? Comment here or on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Thanks so much for reading!

To learn more about  StrategyJQ and our services, contact us - we look forward to speaking with you!

At StrategyJQ, we believe that social marketing is more than a budget line item – we think that conversation is steeped into every piece of business and marketing plans. Today, we wanted to highlight some examples of companies that are participating strategically and effectively.

******

FORD MOTOR COMPANY - Have the right philosophy about how relate to your audience:

“Our strategy at Ford is first and foremost to support our broader business goals and our communications and marketing strategies, which largely focus on improving Ford’s reputation and building purchase consideration for our vehicles. To do that, we need to be a brand that people trust, and we do that by showing them that there are people just like them who work for Ford and who drive our vehicles. People trust people like them, so in allowing others to tell our story and continuing on the path that Henry Ford and the Ford family established, we have a great and relatable way to showcase our strong business and great products.”
- Scott Monty: Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager for Ford.

This is huge. Take a breath for a second and read Scott’s quote again. Scott Monty is the worldwide head of social media for one of the best known brands in the world, The Ford Motor Company. You may think an iconic brand like Ford doesn’t need social media and you’d be wrong. Both Ford and Scott realize something very crucial: just because a brand owns a bit of your mental real estate, it doesn’t mean you’re going to give them your business. One of the reasons Ford continues to excel in the online branding battle is because they are using social media to nurture a relationship with you, one they feel the consumer will recognize as being built on a foundation of trust.

JETBLUE - Help to inspire and engage an informed audience:

A company born at the turn of the current century. JetBlue came of age at a time when the Internet had already established itself as a force of nature that would transform media and communication. JetBlue is one brand that soars in social media because they remain grounded to their most important asset: their customers.

Since their birth, most of JetBlue’s outreach has been done through digital media and it has paid off. JetBlue has 1.7M Twitter followers. A quarter of a million more than next-closest Southwest and over three times as many as industry icon American Airlines.

Add nearly three-quarters of a million Facebook Likes and social media infused campaigns like 2012’s “Election Protection” offering free flights to voters desiring to leave the country if their presidential candidate lost and it’s easy to see why JetBlue remains social media’s most buzzed about airline.

According to Morgan Johnston, Social Media strategist for JetBlue, their social media presence is “a collaboration with other customers. We are guests of the community.” Johnston says that JeBlue is “Seeing more and more of our customers looking for interesting marketing initiatives,” and that social media is the best place to cement that audience.

TACO BELL – Making the audience feel extra special

McRib be darned, the most successful ‘out of the box’ fast food item of last year may have been Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Taco, a menu item that tells you everything you need to know. It’s a taco in a shell made out of Doritos and if you like either of those things you’d be loco not to order it. Though the sheer idea of such a marriage of junk foods may have driven health-conscious consumers into paroxysms of revulsion, The Doritos Locos Taco succeeded like mad thanks to a social media-enabled mini cultural supernova that helped drive sales through the roof.

I’m sure that some of you may think junk food junkies would have found the Doritos Locos Taco irresistible, hunting them down like pigs to truffles no matter how much Taco Bell advertised them. But there are product launches and there are ways to turn an already-interested audience into a viral army of influencers capable of converting deeper into that great pool of fence-sitters and beyond.

First they leveraged the power of Twitter to handpick the best Tweets about their new product that were then featured on electronic Doritos Locos Tacos walls of fame set up in iconic locations like New York’s Time Square and Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. Cameras were coordinated to take photots of the Tweets on the billboards and then sent back to the users as well as being posted in a special branded gallery.

If that wasn’t enough, Taco Bell also enticed Doritos Locos Tacos fans to post photos of themselves with the product on Instagram. The best shots were then used in TV and Internet ads. The big net effect, Taco Bell saw their social media engagement by women grow 27 percent from the previous year.

Sensing they were onto something, Taco Bell went back to the social media well to launch their brand spanking new Cool Ranch Doritos Tacos Loco. After teasing the product for months to an already eager audience, the nationwide chain made the Cool Ranch Doritos Tacos Loco available to it social media fans one day before its official debut.

If there’s one large reason this social media win was so crucial for Taco Bell, just look back at early 2011. A storage room photo posted on Digg revealing that their taco filling was only 88 percent real meat caused a social media firestorm of people wanting to know, and making viral jokes about, what was in that other 12 percent. By focusing so much new positive branding through social media, they flushed out the negative conversation and turned a waterfall of criticism into a fountain of product praise.

A brave new (social) world -

Of course, not every brand’s exact strategy will work for everyone. You have to find how to get your particular audience interested and excited.

One of the main differences with the old fashioned Madison Avenue approach is that social media branding initiatives are seldom carried out with a bulldozer. The idea of knocking down your competition is far less effective than taking an approach that these are conversations meant to inspire, entertain and engage.

But no matter what social media strategy your brand chooses, ask yourself one thing: Is it just a coincidence that the brands which succeed most in social media are also brands generally associated with being “friendly?”

Perhaps. But maybe it’s also because these are brands with their ear to the ground, their finger on the pulse and their heart in giving their audience a reason to love them for being a lot like themselves.

******

What does Branding mean to you and your business right now? Comment here or on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Thanks so much for reading!

To learn more about  StrategyJQ and our services, contact us - we look forward to speaking with you!

“Once upon a time…,” is a perfect way to start a fairy tale. Insert one princess, a kingdom and a bad, evil thing trying to turn it all into rubble and you’re off to the races. Here, let’s try to write our own fairy tale…

Once upon a time, brands were built out of brick and stone…

It’s quaint, I’ll give it that. The only problem is that it has no bearing on the reality of today. If you don’t like it, go ahead and complain on the Internet. Once you’re done blowing off steam, go see how much good that does you? Did you effect change? Did anybody even listen? How many “Likes” did you get?

And if you don’t feel like enough people listened, maybe, just maybe, it’s because your “brand” isn’t big enough.

Sure, I could make some cornball “size doesn’t matter” joke — if that’s what you’d like, we can pause for a second for a few harmless yuks — but just take a moment to think about this: in today’s world, EVERYBODY is a brand!

Yeah, it’s nuts. It’s Andy Warhol on acid, because now everyone who gets (and desires) their 15 minutes now has the ability to turn that tiny bit of attention into a “brand.”

Branding was something you used to have to earn — with a damp sweat rag mopping your brow with one hand as you wielded a trowel with the other. It’s different today and I’ll tell you why.

In the past, branding was the act of creating trust. Today, branding is all about creating a sensation. 

Now there’s nothing wrong with trust. In fact, trust is a foundation that weathers the ages — a foundation that will remain in place when the occasional hurricane passes through. Trust is what will bring you repeat business and loyal customers. We’re talking the trust that your brand will deliver the goods.

The only problem is that nowadays, trust isn’t always enough to bring them across your threshold the first time. In a world that offers more choices by the second, to get ‘em though the door the first time, the second time and everytime after that, you need a better cheese.

Go ahead and blame the Internet, but we live in a short-attention span world. Through our desktop and mobile browsers we voraciously devour information like Blue Whales inhaling great draughts of krill. If that wasn’t enough, we are also bombarded left and right by advertisements and messages. We, as humans, don’t shrink away from it. No, when given the opportunity, we consume even more. We can’t get enough and we can’t get it fast enough.

And because those consumers in the expanding customer base you desire drink from the firehose of information known as the Internet, your claims of quality will only get you so far. Because hyperbole on the net is like a shovel in a horse stable, there will be those in the demographics you covet who won’t know the difference between your claims of being the best from those being made by Joe who started yesterday in his basement, regardless of your pedigree. There’s only so many times you can rest on your laurels before the message gets lost in the cloud.

All those billions upon billions of bits and bytes flying around the world every second of everyday make up the shifting sand of the Internet. What you did yesterday may have been great, but it’s already been swallowed up and forgotten. Your fairy tale “happily ever after” may only last till the next page refresh.

But fret not, friends. It’s not all bad news. In today’s blink-and-you-missed-it world, however, there is one saving grace for the beleaguered marketer: conversation.

Building a brand today is all about inspiring people to talk about you. 

And in that respect, the Internet has given Joe in his basement the same opportunities to brand-build as any built-in-stone company. His reach may lack because he hasn’t been around as long, but his ability to get people talking about his brand exists. All Joe has to do down there in the basement is whip up something worth talking about… a sensation.

You can stand on your soapbox and shout all you want, but today if other people aren’t talking about your, your brand, and all that brick and stone you used to create it, is as good as invisible. Small brands come and go because while they may inspire people to come through the door that first time, they lack the resources, credibility and creativity to get enough repeat business to stay alive.

Branding today is not about creating one good idea or one good slogan. It’s about building a platform from which great ideas come from time and again. To make dollar one, you need faith more than you need trust. Faith that you are worth pulling out a wallet or checkbook that first time. Faith that you are worth talking about in an online status report that my friends will “Like.”

Because the Internet has given us all access to realize our own fairy tales, Joe in his basement can have a “once upon a time” by getting enough people to talk about him. However, the way you build a brand today is by maintaining or re-establishing your place in the conversation. True, not all succeed, and it’s not for for a lack of huffing a puffing or the machinations of a wicked witch in the woods. If you’re looking for a happy ending to your brand-building efforts, you need to constantly create the kind of sensations capable of inspiring others to tell your tale to others.

What does Branding mean to you and your business right now? Comment here or on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Thanks so much for reading!

To learn more about  StrategyJQ and our services, contact us - we look forward to speaking with you!

As all StrategyJQ clients can attest to – we are absolute believers in the power of social video for a company’s (both large and small) content strategy. While it may be intimidating to get started, video enables the creation of deep connections and relationships with your audience/customers through this very personal medium. Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff  is an award-winning and best-selling author, composer, podcaster and occasional TV host who’s worked with StrategyJQ on a number of different initiatives – all focused on online video. He was the perfect person to give us some perspective on building your brand’s online audience.

How are you fighting the war for attention? What are you doing to get more eyeballs to your brand?

Smart brands realize they don’t just have customers anymore, they also have audiences. What you say is still as important as how you say it. However, in our ever-expanding universe of social engagement, you can’t just rely on all the same old channels and still expect exponential results.

Recently, Jane wrote about how the new social video app, Vine could be utilized as part of an overall content strategy. The beauty of Vine is not only in its brevity and ability to put a “moment” in your audience’s face, but also in the fact that it’s new and popular — and also not a medium currently oversaturated with branding. A Vine video, when used right can be its own art form in the way that a great cup of coffee is an art form. Vine of course, is not a complete solution in and of itself, but instead another piece of a well-rounded content strategy that includes both produced and social video.

Produced and social videos each have their own merits. A sound marketing and branding battle plan is made up of both types.

Ken Fleischer is not only the founder and managing partner of dmWorks, a creative services company that develops and produces high impact videos, motion graphics, and dynamic content for marketing, advertising, and entertainment campaigns, but also a holds a degree in Mechanical/Aerospace Engineering which makes him a certified rocket scientist. According to Ken, types of “produced videos” include: commercials, marketing videos, interviews and product demos. Here, let him tell you more.

Ken makes some very strong points about the value of “produced” video, especially in relation to showing your audience how much you value them. While it’s true that produced videos will most likely require more resources and more time, the use of them in your overall content strategy doesn’t exclude you from also incorporating social video’s relative ease of creation to expand your brand’s voice.

Social video pioneer Steve Garfield has been making videos on the Internet back since Mark Zuckerberg was still living in a Harvard dorm room. Steve has advised Fortune 500 Companies and some of the largest brands in the world. The guy practically invented the social video.

Steve is absolutely right when he says, “When you do social TV, it’s more personal.” It’s just part of our human conditioning to be compelled by watching someone speak when it appears that person is speaking right to you. The informality of social video even blurs some of that line that separates the speaker from the viewer’s personal space. There is no doubt social video often offers a type of personal connection with the viewer.

In the deep blue sea of the Internet, commanding a video content strategy is like commanding a navy. You’ll need your battleships and aircraft carriers, but you’ll also need the kind of quick-strike capabilities a destroyer has to offer. Let’s not forget submarines for the element of surprise. In the end, the best chance you will have to win the war for attention will rely on keeping your strategy fluid in order to capitalize on opportunities as they arise. A well-rounded video content strategy that includes produced and social video, as well as little secret weapons like Vine, will help you not only create, but also expand the separation between your brand and your competition.

Thanks Mark – terrific post! Check out Mark’s new book, Tearing Down the Wall, Decoding Pink Floyd, and all of his other books at an online retailer near you.

Which of Mark’s points really connected with you? Comment here or on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Thanks so much for reading!

To learn more about  StrategyJQ and our services, contact us - we look forward to speaking with you!

You’ve heard of Vine, Twitter’s newly-released video sharing app — and you may have heard just enough about it to wonder who on earth would ever use such a thing or even care about it. Videos posted to Vine are capped at a hair over six seconds (actually 6.5 seconds of nearly 29 fps video for you stat nerds) which leads many to wonder why on earth would anyone out there want to watch short looping videos only six seconds long? What else do you use it for other than showing clips of skateboard crashes?

Possibly defying expectation by some, Vine has, in fact, turned into a bona fide social media sensation-in-the-making. Not only are people watching these clips, but they are sharing them in droves with their own social circles. And we’re not just talking “early adopters” either. Vine is popping across different web demographics in the same way Pinterest did when it was first introduced.

But how can brands use Vine to advance the ball?

You may have heard that among the first adopters of this new micro-video format were fans of porn. Adult content, by nature, is voyeuristic. It plays on our human nature to be compelled to watch things that somehow excites some part of the brain. But what those who have capitalized on this trend reveal is how to exploit the human nature of any audience into paying attention to ANY type of content.

Looping video has the benefit of being potentially hypnotic. As such, it has the power to be memorable. In an age where we are bombarded by more messages than we can possibly remember, you want to keep those eyeballs lingering.

Micro bursts of video make impact when the viewer instantly understands they are witnessing something. In 6 seconds you can show me you have a proper golf swing, or you have a vast inventory of cars or comic books.

In 6 seconds, you can tease me into feeling compelled to click on your website link to take a better look at what you do.

Remember, every magic trick is made up of three parts: the Pledge, the turn and the Prestige. The Pledge is your setup. The Turn is where the ordinary becomes the extraordinary. Prestige is the big reveal, the payoff, the moment before the applause.

Use Vine to give people a glimpse of the Turn. Use it as bait to compel them to want to see the Prestige and the Pledge.

By extension, Vine is the obvious next evolution of the animated gif. Almost everyone likes sharing pictures. Now just imagine those snapshots in time are moving. In some ways, it’s almost like watching viral video without the usual commitment.

Though Vine is obviously not useful for sharing narrative, what it excels at is making moments more memorable. And though the audience may not know the difference, it can all be done without magic… just wink, a grin, and a little marketing.

As an extra – here’s my first Vine:

A couple of years ago I spoke at the last BlogPotomac – a Happy Capitalist in a sea of non-profits and government agencies – and had a blast, so I jumped at the opportunity to sponsor Geoff Livingston’s new conference, xPotomac.

xPotomac – where the Digital Future meets Business – will be held on February 25, 2013 at the Source Theatre in Washington DC. 8 sessions will be presented by the likes of Greg Verdino, Andrew Keen and Jennifer Cansalvo, in a tight format of 15 minutes per speaker and 30 minutes of Q&A. Sound fantastic, right?

If you’re interested – and you should be – today’s the last day to get 10% off ticket price using the code January.  There will be no February code, so if you have friends who are interested, now is the time.

So – come to xPotomac on 2/25 and make sure you introduce yourself! Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Melissa Pierce (Disclosure: Melissa has work with SJQ in a few capacities, we’re big fans!) has created something incredible – The Pitch Refinery! This Chicago conference, on September 22nd and 23rd, focuses on teaching people how to tell the story of their business, by a fantastic slate of speakers and mentors.

It blows the hackneyed “Elevator Pitch” into the 21st century!

Pitching is one of the most important work that StrategyJQ does – it’s how we get business. And it’s never easy, but it could be easier and a lot more fun! 

SJQ has bought 2 VIP tickets as scholarships for The Pitch Refinery to make  available to people who really want to go, but may not have the resources right now. As per The Pitch Refinery Blog:

“There are two scholarships available. Scholarships are open to anyone whether you are a student, an entrepreneur, or just interested in refining your presentation skills. If you are able to travel to Chicago and attend Pitch Refinery September 22nd and 23rd, but were previously deterred due to the financial burden of ticket prices. Please apply for the Pitch Refinery StrategyJQ Scholarship. 

This conference is going to be amazing, and now you have one less excuse. Go see what Melissa has created with The Pitch Refinery and make something great of your own!

StrategyJQ has almost reached the 2-year mark (I can’t believe how quickly it’s passed!) and it’s time for a refresh! I’ve been working with my design partners, Green Ball Media for a few months on the redesign and today it’s finally live!

It was important to me that what I, and SJQ, focuses on should be immediately accessible to anyone who lands on the front page, and that users should be able to find whatever they’re looking for quickly.

A website, especially in the Age of the App, doesn’t get you hired immediately – but it’s a great introduction to who you are and what you solve for your clients. The new StrategyJQ is a great first impression!

Let me know if you agree!

I’ve been talking about Intent a lot in the last couple of weeks. In conversations with friends, client trainings and even with my accountant. When I hear myself repeating a specific word or phase consistently, it’s time to examine why.

Being Irish-American, we place a lot of faith in, well, faith, luck and fate. It’s a charming, romantic notion – and lazy as ifreann. Lazy, because it takes no effort, planning or skin in the game. No investment.

What I realize is that when I’m speaking about intent, I’m talking about building relationships and trust by communicating with purpose. That a content strategy for a client means nothing without the business objectives, goals and intent behind the words – that teaching a company about having a “voice” is about more than personality.

Intent is an action, it moves you forward – intent reaches –>

• What am I really asking for?
• How do I want to be perceived?
• How can I show myself more clearly with these words?
• What choice can I make that moves me (us) forward to the objectives

A company that’s doing this incredibly well on Instagram is Kate Spade (katespadenyc). As the name suggests, the photos that are shared on her stream are filled with images of her stores, trends and new must-haves. It’s also filled with the color and feel of living in New York City during each of the different seasons – they know who their customer is and who she wants to be. Each photo creates the opportunity for this customer to share in the moment and see herself in it. To be the person already living that life – and the high volume of comments show that a lot of people want to be, want to know and want to connect with that person and w/KateSpadeNYC.

It’s easy to teach a company how to make status updates, YouTube videos and moment share – it’s the intent behind those that’s takes a “voice” and creates an opportunity for your audience to not only see the human face behind the words, but hopefully themselves within the connection.

I lost my wonderful Dad about 7 years ago. He was an old-fashioned guy, very much in love with my Mom, Irish (who loved his martinis at 5) and, I think, a bit overwhelmed with a house filled with women (My Mom, me and my sister). He was a man who grew up with very strong women, having lost his father before he was 3 yrs. old and having a Mother who raised him, his older brother (who ended up a 4-Star General), 2 older sisters and the baby (my Godfather, Eddie - born less than a year before their father died). He was born, lived and died in Nutley, NJ and gave a lot of who he was to his hometown in service as Town Treasurer and assorted other roles.My and My Dad 1983

He found a replacement Dad in Charles Nabor, my Grandfather (my Mom's Dad), who he met in Drum Corp, after he came back from military service (in Hawaii - the only place my Dad ever lived besides Nutley). It was through my Grandfather at one of the Cabelaros' competitions, that he met my Mother, Dorothy Jane Nabor.

My Dad once told me he fell in love with my Mother at first sight - in fact, he proposed on their second date. My mom promptly stopped seeing him for almost a year after that. Dad won out in the end. He was 40 when he got married (Mom was 35) and I was born 2 1/2 years later (my sister 18 mos. after that). We definitely had the oldest parents in our class, but I think it made us much more independent.

Dad died from complications of a series of strokes he had suffered for about a decade. He died on a day that I was going to see him and I believe that he did that on purpose. Every time I'd see him, before I left, I'd make him promise to hold on - for another visit, to see my sister's 2nd child born, to just hold on. I think he just didn't want to make any more promises.

The day of my Dad's funeral, wind chimes rang outside my window. I couldn't find them, neither could my landlords (they were so loud they woke everyone up). I still hear them, mostly when I need to. And I take it for what it is, Dad touching base and letting me know that he's there. 

And I still miss him.

My Charm BraceletI've been cleaning out my apartment - getting rid of a huge amount of stuff - and I found something. I'm not a particularly sentimental person - okay, maybe about some things - definitely not a lot about my personal history. I don't dwell, I don't romanticize, I just like to move ahead. And it's easy for me to put stuff aside - it's things - whether it's external or internal. And it's not that I had a bad childhood - I was loved and cared for, with a liberal side of dysfunction, just like most people.

But things seem to be surfacing on their own lately. My 43-year old cousin is unexpectedly pregnant for the first time, and it's brought us closer. My niece is asking questions about the Grandparents she never knew. A family that used to fill our house to bursting with all of aunts, uncles and cousins (we're fiercely Irish) has been distilled to less than 10 who speak on any regular basis.

And I found this. A charm bracelet that my Mom lovingly added to at every holiday and milestone. After my parents died and we sold the (really very charming) house, many things got lost or went missing. This was one of the items (my sister, who wore hers everyday, lost it during her own wedding reception. She was inconsolable. It was an omen.). I hadn't really thought about it in years, until I was going through some boxes before I sent things to the trash, and there it was. And a lot of stuff came flooding back.

I am the firstborn child of two public servants - my Dad was our (Nutley, NJ's) Town Treasurer and my Mom was the Assistant to the Mayor, who also for a time was the President of the NJ State Senate. He also grew up and went to Catholic school with my Dad. My sister and I grew up knowing that you had to work hard, that you didn't give up until things were done. We both went to Rutgers (NJ's State University, which we had loans to help pay for) and jobs each summer that allowed us to have money to travel or for play money during the year. They gave us a lot and set expectations about how to achieve the rest. They didn't really teach us a lot about money, but they did instill in both of us a very strong work ethic.

One night last week, I was working on a live event for a client. During the downtime, much of the conversation turned to parenting (as a single girl, not something I can contribute to in any meaningful way). It occurred to me that I was surrounded by wonderful people who were able to send their kids to private schools in NYC and great colleges. Again not a subject I can add to significantly. But I suddenly felt a wave of pride for who my parents were and what they did for us. I didn't feel disadvantaged, but really, very lucky of what I was given. And this bracelet, found at the right time, is a wonderful reminder of exactly that.

BTW - one of the most amazing pieces of writing I've ever read on someone's personal history was this. It's stayed with me for months.

Getting organized and getting some things in line to begin one of the projects. I'm borrowing an HD video camera (Panasonic - a client) from Greg Verdino, so I can concentrate on this video project that will be a big focus in the next couple of months.I'm also considering putting up some polls on some articles I'm writing to see what people might really be interested in. Again - no promises, we'll see where things go.

Looking to put up an intro video in the next week about the video project - something quick. I'm looking to really work with a number of editing tools on the actual project - something that I'll be experimenting with for the first time.

Yep - just what you were looking for - another blog. From me. And it's not like I'm posting so much on my other blogs that I need a new place to share.

This one is different - this is mostly for me.

I'm going through a ton of changes in my life right now - mostly good, some strange, others...meh, and also getting a lot of great opportunities. Which is really, really exciting and has also set me off in a creative space that I haven't been for a long time. So I had a few ideas for some interesting personal projects and thought I'd mix them in with some of the more exciting opportunities to come my way. All documented here when I feel like it.

No promises. No promises on finishing what I'm starting. No promises in sharing final versions. No promises.

This is for me (and hopefully, for fun).

BTW - New Direction, No Map also has been inspired (in part, but A LOT!) by Melissa Pierce and her "Life in Perpetual Beta" project - which is really incredible and you should (RIGHT NOW!) go, watch as much as you can and contribute. She's pretty amazing and I think had a ton to do with me being able to play like this. Thanks Melissa.