The other day, I took my sister out to breakfast before she had to leave for work. One of her coworkers had just passed, and since that was the day of his funeral (which she was unable to attend), she was visibly upset. While I was consoling her, a young girl who couldn’t have been older than 6 approached our table and hands my sister a lollipop.
Even reflecting on that moment gets me all teary-eyed and faklempt.
The topic is Barbara Streisand, talk amongst yourselves…
(Just kidding)
But anyway, the point is, this sweet little girl made my sister’s morning and she made my week. She made a kind, heartfelt gesture because my sister looked sad.
As I drove home, I couldn’t help but feel so deeply touched by this simple gesture, just because I was there as it happened. It got me to thinking about the impact that each of us could make on someone’s life.
Think of how many people you encounter every day. Now think about how you interact with them. Are you making a positive impact?
A few months ago, I realized that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to make someone smile. Usually, all you have to do is smile and make eye contact. Once I realized this, I made a goal to make someone smile every day.
It’s a really simple task, but the chemical reactions inherent in smiling are incredible.
Smile. Right now.
You just gave yourself a natural endorphine rush. It’s basically like the physiological equivalent of a happy pill.
Now think about sharing that with someone else.
Tell me the thought of that doesn’t make you feel good.
So next time, you’re merging in traffic, use your turn signal. Wait 10 seconds and hold the door for someone who’s walking in behind you. Call someone you care about just to say hello.
What are you doing to make the world a better place?
So I upgraded to iPhone OS 3.1.2 on Thursday. Within a couple hours, my precious white 32GB 3GS was going into what seemed to be the iPhone equivalent of a seizure.
At first it seemed benign. The backlight was dim as though it was about to go into sleep mode, but everything else worked fine. I restarted it to no avail, then I restored it.
That’s when things went all poltergeist.
The backlight started to flash when the phone was processing something. It was fascinating, really, because I could see how much power was used to flip between pages, open/run applications, and send texts (not writing, mind you, but sending). Power usage indicated by varying degrees of brightness.
But wait! It gets better!
So I plug in my phone directly to my MacBook (which is also plugged into the wall) and I watch my battery life drain itself away.
IT’S PLUGGED INTO A POWER SOURCE! WTF?!
By this time, it’s my lunch break, so I bring it over to the Apple Store at South Coast Plaza (a 5-10 minute drive from my office) and by this point the battery life, and apparently the phone itself, had died. Nathan, the Genius who was kind enough to squeeze me in, plugged it in directly to an outlet and gave it a little more than 10 minutes to charge. At this point, any functional iPhone would be good to go with about 20% battery life.
Not mine.
So Nathan lets me know that Apple will replace it. At the moment they were out of the 32GB white 3GS’s but he let me know that they would get them in within 4 days (and they did).
Fortunately I still have my 3G so I wasn’t without an iPhone for the weekend. However, the difference in operating speed between the 3G and 3GS is remarkable. Needless to say, the switch was a little bit frustrating.
Yes, I’m spoiled (but I spoil myself, thank you!).
Anyway, I’m now facing something of a conundrum. I’ve heard rumor of others with 3.1.2 issues, so I’m wondering if I should I install iPhone OS 3.1.2 on my replacement 3GS. Have any of you had problems with the latest iPhone OS update?
I recently had the privilege and pleasure of attending IZEAfest in Orlando, FL, a 4-day social media event with more than a dozen incredible speakers, hosted ever so graciously at SeaWorld by the coolest whale on Twitter, @shamu. There was a lot of information packed into our 2 days of panels and discussions, so I’ll be throwing out some great little nuggets on social media marketing, developing your brand, and building relationships in business and out.
However, there are a few points that stood out in my mind that I’ll come back to again and again in my personal pursuits and for my clientele.
“Personal branding is a process of sharing and developing who you are with others”
-Ted Murphy
A lot of the material covered at IZEAfest was focused on personal branding and developing a unified image that not only conveys what you do, but who you are.
1. Be yourself on AND offline
It’s amazing to learn about people in this industry before you’ve actually had the chance to meet them. It’s even more amazing when they’re exactly the person you anticipated they would be when you DO meet them.
Take Ted Murphy, for example. Online, he seems like a wacky, zany kinda guy. He has a very colorful personality, he is absolutely hilarious, but he still takes care of business by keeping his followers informed of what’s going on at Izea.
In person? He’s larger than life! He’s embodies and embraces the expression “a party waiting to happen,” but the information he has to share is absolutely invaluable.
He and his online persona are one in the same. I would be shocked, and probably disappointed, if he were a shy, retiring person when I got to meet him at IZEAfest.
So don’t disappoint people, and keep it all consistent. It’s easy to hide behind a keyboard, but it doesn’t take people long to figure out who is real and who isn’t. Embrace who YOU are and don’t be afraid to share it. You’re not going to please everyone, but that’s not what it’s all about, is it?
2. Make a great name for yourself
By make a name for yourself, I mean choose your handle wisely. There are a couple ways to choose a username.
Using your name or brand
Examples: Chris Brogan, Murray Newlands, Zappos
Simple as that. I use the name Resa Michelle because it’s my own. I could use my last name, but
a. I’m female and single and eventually (hopefully), I’ll have a different last name than I currently do. I’m just keeping it simple.
b. I happen to like my middle name and I think it sounds rather nice with my first name.
c. “Resa” was taken (which brings me to my next point).
Using an alias
examples: iJustine, TremendousNews, MurrayIz
Lots of reasons to use an alias.
- One is anonymity (See Tremendous)
- Sometimes an alias is unique and catchy (See iJustine)
- Yet another is that either your name is unavailable or is perhaps longer than the given platform’s character limit. (See MurrayIz, aka Murray Izenwasser)
(The list doesn’t actually end there, but I think you get the idea…)
It’s absolutely crucial that your name be unique and available because you need to own your identity. Thus my next point…
3. Cover your real estate.
I’ve discussed this before, but it bears repeating. Once you’ve figured out how you want to be identified online, make sure that no one else can take that identity.
That means making sure you own your domain name, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr..
Catch my drift?
It’s a simple concept, but not only will it help people find you across the platforms they find important, it will help you unify and maintain consistency within and of your brand.
4. Appearance isn’t everything, but it sure comes close
Ted emphasized the importance of a unified aesthetic that reflects YOU. This includes a professionally designed logo and designs that cross platforms.
I can tell your hypocrite-radar is going off, but rest assured that I have a few things in the works.
Anyway, this is another impression your followers, friends, colleagues and connections will (literally) carry with them (think business cards, swag, shirts…) and remember you by.
5. Finally, don’t be afraid to kill off a project that isn’t working
As Chris Brogan would say, “it’s not a kitten.” If it isn’t working, it’s not the end of the world. You move on and you learn from your mistakes. It’s totally okay to figure out what worked and leave the rest behind.
Now keep in mind that this was geared specifically toward blogs, but you can take it however you will. The point is, don’t be afraid of failure! You can insert your favorite cliche here.
So in short, design a brand that shows the world who you ACTUALLY are, own it in name and in action, and don’t be afraid to try something new, different and potentially risky.
So what is your brand?
Today marks the official launch of MMS for the iPhone. Can I get a yayyyy!!
Or maybe just an “it’s about freakin’ time.”
Anyway, a few people (myself included) hacked themselves the update a little early, which is awesome. For those who haven’t, it’s super simple with a beautiful UI. Did we really expect any different?
You can send pictures from the photo album the same way you send them to MobileMe or email OR you can send them from the text form by tapping the camera icon.
In short, yay! Next steps: Tethering (COME ON AT&T!!!!) and MMS to Twitter.
Let’s make it happen, people!
If you haven’t noticed, my middle name is Michelle. My dad’s favorite band of all time is The Beatles.
Coincidence?
Nope.
My middle name is a beautiful song and my dad sang it to me every night when I was little. I was always surrounded by music as a child, a fact for which I’ll never be able to thank my parents enough.
Granted, my parents were never big on listening to classical music when I was a kid. I didn’t necessarily seek it out frequently, but I always enjoyed it… or at least I enjoyed familiar programmatic and Romantic period pieces, though I didn’t know what they were at the time. My dad always liked smooth jazz, which, for obvious reasons, I’m none too keen on. My mom likes bubblegum pop. And she’s tone deaf. Bless her heart, I love her so much, but I’m working on making a YouTube Caraoke channel starring her that she’ll never be able to find.
So glad she doesn’t read this.
Anyway, I was raised listening to a rather broad range of musical styles. My dad loved classic rock, my brother liked ska & punk (among other styles), my mom liked bubblegum and oldies, and my sister and I loved everything we were surrounded with. Like most children, we lived in a world of cartoons and Disney movies, and 15 years ago, children’s programming was still musically rich.
One day, when I was about 6 years old, my parents were flipping through radio stations while we were in the car. They stopped briefly on a classical station and moved along once they caught the sound of strings. From the back of the car I asked them to stop and go back, and after flipping around from a couple of the stations prior, they were surprised to find out that the classical station was the one I meant.
I demanded that they listen because it was the “hippo dance.” It goes without saying that they were confused, but I was a kid. Most things that I said at that point were confusing. I was, however, quite aware that I confused them, so I went on to explain that the song was from Disney’s Fantasia.
We listened for a bit longer and flipped on, but once we got home, I pulled out the video cassette and fast forwarded it to “the hippo dance,” better known as “The Dance of the Hours” from Ponchielli’s opera La Gioconda.
I blew my parent’s minds – they didn’t know I actually listened to this stuff. They just thought it was something my sister and I would plop down and watch because it was a Disney movie.
Now I have to back up here – of course, I loved the Princesses (I’ve always been a Belle type, though I love me some Aurora) and The Lion King was a suitable explanation when I didn’t understand why the bunny my cat brought me was dead. I mean, who doesn’t like Disney movies?
But my favorites were (and still are) the old cartoons and kids features, especially Silly Symphonies. Among my favorites were the short films Tubby the Tuba and Disney’s Peter and the Wolf.
I never considered that they were orchestral pieces set to their corresponding animated story lines. I thought the music was really pretty, and I did realize that the music was like an aural animation in and of itself. However, I just thought it to be like the background music for any movie.
My mind was blown to realize that the pieces and the story were there far before Disney ever was. But it was because I saw them as cartoons that those pieces were a part of my consciousness.
And this is where we flash forward about ten years (kind of.. I still watch these when the mood strikes and I’ll be devastated when I ruin the VHS tapes that I have of these gems). While I was in high school, I found the album “Peter and the Wolf – Carnival of the Animals” featuring the CSR Orchestra conducted by Ondrej Lenard in my local library’s CD section.
I sat down and listened to the whole album, paying close attention to Carnival of the Animals since I hadn’t heard it before. I noticed something peculiar about the Aquarium movement of the Carnival of the Animals. It was SO familiar, and before I could even formulate the notion, it struck me. Beauty and the Beast. Aquarium was clearly an inspiration for The West Wing theme.
Now keep following me here.
A few years later, I started college as a music major studying percussion performance, hoping someday to perform with a major orchestra. (Things change… obviously.) I was flipping through a book of xylophone excerpts and stumbled across the name Tubby the Tuba. I thought it was just a coincidence, but as I started to skim the music, it was too uncanny. I took it to the keyboard to confirm that it was the same Tubby the Tuba that I knew and loved. Who would have thought that this seemingly silly children’s movie would later become a part of my professional studies?
These isolated moments brought something else to my consciousness: an awareness that my musical background has been incredibly rich. My parents are not musicians by any means. Though my dad can sing and play guitar, he never formally learned either. My mom… I love my mom.
That’s all I got to say about that.
Anyway, despite their lack of a musical background other than being lifelong listeners, I was raised as an aware, cultured listener. One of the biggest reasons and influences in that is Disney.
Everyone knows the songs, of course. I mean, how can you NOT sing along? But to recognize elements of the background music is what makes Disney Disney.
People often wonder why I’m so fanatical about Disneyland and why I’m such a firm believer in the Disney magic.
It’s music. The music is the magic.
Everywhere you go in Disneyland and California Adventure, there is a soundtrack to guide your experience.
I played the first movement of the Pines of Rome for a group of 6-10 year olds. Their immediate response was that it was from Disney (with a smattering of Harry Potter’s thrown in there). Why?
Because it sounds bright, lively, magical. The high metallic timbre of the glockenspiel & triangle paired with upper winds and brass playing a bouncing, driving theme over a bed of rolling high strings, no voice higher than the french horn, reminds them of something sparkly and extraordinary.
Magic.
When I explained what the piece was written to depict, we listened again. This time, they pictured the children chasing each other, playing soldier among pine trees and gardens.
Just as Fantasia 2000 took us under the sea and into the sky with a pod of whales with the same piece of music, the children were brought to a new place where they once saw magic and mouse ears.
See how I brought that all full circle?
Long story short, music is a universal language, speaking beyond the realm of the tangible. It tells stories, it It lends itself to interpretation and opens the mind to possibility. My path to it was paved largely by my experiences with Disney movies and music. It’s the entire reason that I appreciate “classical” music the way I do. It just dawned on me that it’s quite likely the reason that I have a strong sense of musicality and phrasing, and that I’m able to connect with black marks on a staff emotionally. It’s the reason music isn’t simply a science of sound but it’s an art to cultivate and share.
I believe in magic because I believe in music.
“Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here.”
-Albus Dumbledore
