Mrs. B’s Corner

I went to four events that were a part of Geek Week here in and around Phoenix, AZ.

It started early with Ignite Phoenix 5 on Tuesday, November 3rd. I learned there that I can’t really listen and read and tweet all at the same time. I also learned that without bats, Arizona wouldn’t have the saguaro cactus. I also learned that I missed out on a great socializing opportunity. When it came to the twitter feed, I was sharing and following like crazy, yet when it came time to go out in the crowd and talk to people, I stuck with the familiar faces. I think that was when I decided to make use of twitter’s new list feature. I went through all the people I follow and put them in one of two lists, @sbowerman/hasmet and @sbowerman/hasnotmet. (Note: business and event accounts are listed differently for me). From doing this, I learned that people do want to connect offline.

That brings me to Phoenix WordCamp which happened on Friday, November 13th. During the first break of the day, I found a spot closer to the front of the venue with power and a few familiar faces. Just a few seats to the right of me was Chris Lee who I had seen around Gangplank, where I co-work often, and most recently as a presenter at Ignite but had never officially “met.” (I’m a bit old fashioned and consider a meeting an introduction and handshake, a real handshake.) He came over to me during the lunch break and said, “Hey, I saw your list.” We talked a bit about being familiar and his presentation the previous Tuesday, but I explained to him my definition of “has met.” At that point, I shook his hand and introduced myself. Of course, I learned a lot about WordPress from ways to write good content to SEO tips to muti-media blogging and much more. I also learned that it takes time for people to experiment with a new technology or application in order to understand what it does and why it’s useful. I’m referring to Google Wave. I honestly wasn’t very interested at first because my work doesn’t exactly involve a lot of collaboration, and as I understood it that was the main purpose of Wave. I had seen a blog post about Wave being used as a back channel at a conference and that it went over very well. I also saw in my twitter feed that there were Waves set up for another geek week event coming up the next two days. One more very lucky and very timely tweet got me an invite and access to Google Wave in time for my busy “camp” filled weekend.

By Saturday, I was very excited to see what a new group of people would do with Google Wave. It was time for PodCamp AZ which unlike WordCamp has many different talks going on at the same time throughout the day. While WordCamp’s Wave* was basically a chat room with a few notes and pictures, I was hoping that PodCamp’s Waves* would be more notes from different presentations from many different people. I was not disappointed. Not only did I learn how to make sure my blog is a good one, I learned about how technology is used in a certain high school classroom to increase learning and communication between that teacher, his students, and their parents thanks to the Wave and the lady that took notes.

On Sunday, I was pretty tired from the virtual non-stop of activity but interested to learn more and learn different things. I learned good ways to have Online Video Conversations, how to comment, and how to maintain personal relationships when everything is online. In this last presentation (which also happened to be the last of the day/weekend), my list idea came up again. Katie Charland was one of those people listed as “has not met” and she wanted to change that. She tweeted that she wanted to meet me so I found her early in the day and introduced myself. She liked my idea so much that she included it in her presentation. It was mentioned as a great way to move relationships offline, which I’m happy to say was my intention when I made the lists. I hate to admit that only a handful of people made the move from “has not met” to “has met,” but now it’s out there and a public reminder to stand up or reach out and introduce myself.

The most important lesson from geek week: connections are key.

Like what you see? You should follow me on twitter here.

*To find these waves search “wordcamp” or “podcampaz”

Photo by Andy Roberts

… beyond bagels and coffee is the tagline of a networking group near where I live in Queen Creek, AZ. It’s been a good experience networking with new, local people. The meeting has moved to once a month with a main theme of “masterminding” and plans to mix it up with show and tell, educational seminars, and mixers. I have been twice and really enjoyed it each time. This is a great group of people all with a genuine interest in how they can help further your business. If you’re on Twitter, here are a few follows for you: @luckyyoudesign by Erin Loukili, Kristeen Lofgreen at @twteen and @LofgreenCandle, Lisa Koch (pronounced cook) @lisakochaz, and of course the group @QCNT. These three ladies, as a design guru, soy candlemaker, and wellness coach, give a great example of the variety of people who make it out to network. Networking together meets every second Thursday of the month at Rhino Caffe (@rhinocaffe). If you’re in the Queen Creek area or just want to try something new, why don’t you come out and network with us. You never know what you’re going to find!

Photo by HJL

What is it?

For me, it’s a single place to keep all of my social media information. I learned about it from Charlene Kingston of Crow Info Design. Please, read about it here.

I use a SMP because I do not want to be like that photographer who had his information spread out over different places. I offer a service. I want to be found, and I want to make it as easy as possible for a potential client to do so. I also use it because of the sheer number of social media sites that I’m on. I’m not one of those who always signs up for the latest thing just to reserve my screen name. Most of these sites provide a particular service such as music, photos, video, blogging, status updates, and finding websites that would interest you. There are plenty in each category, but I try not to duplicate. I find the one in whichever category that suits me best and comes recommended.

Of course, my SMP is on yet another social media site called chi.mp. It is a site that wants you to “own your identity.” It is highly customizable even giving you your own .mp domain name. It is a place to not only keep your links but also your employment and educational history (much like Linked In). You can even set up different personas so that work contacts can find your professional information while your friends can find more casual information. My public persona has enough information to easily find and contact me, but not so much that makes me uncomfortable.

Want to know where I am, what I’m up to, or what I’m working on? Check me out!

Photo by stevendepolo

I know that this is true but after today I feel the need to say: TIMING IS EVERYTHING!

I had the business idea to become a personal shopper just about a year ago. In November 2008, I attended PodCamp AZ. I was intrigued by a topic called “Claim Your Passion! Create clarity about your specific direction” by Sharon Hooper. I came out with the goal to be a personal shopper that fits any budget by September 1, 2009. I made a commitment to spend at least one day every week to further that goal.

I set up a website, submitted my business to Google local, learned a little SEO, ordered business cards and tried blogging. I even started doing things in my community to try to get my name out there. My efforts seemed to die early March. I can’t think of any major event or disaster that kept me from it; I just stopped trying.

Here I am on September 1, 2009 blogging again. Something must have happened, right? Right! On August 17th, I got a phone call from a potential client for an interior design job. I got another one today for a personal shopper. I can’t say that I’ve fully made my goal, but I feel confident that I’m on my way.

I recently attended Laid Off Camp Phoenix where I purchased a copy of Working Girl (abbreviated title) and learned from Pam Slim. I am currently “funemployed.” That is to say that any and all of my income comes from various sources whenever I can find said sources. My recent work has included babysitting, data entry, cheer coach, and interior designer. Mixing what I learned at LOCP with what I read in Working Girl as well as considering recent work, I have come to the realization that I am a helper. I guess it’s something I’ve always been so why can’t I do it professionally? My interests, talents, experience, and skills vary a great deal so I have taken the plunge and am working on marketing myself as a Professional Helper. So, how can I help YOU?

I wanted to take a brief moment to publicly thank all of the people that attended my husband and I’s housewarming party on Saturday, February 28. I would definitely call it a success. Thank you all very much.

This is how I went about planning my housewarming. I started with handmade invitations to make sure the right people knew I wanted them to be there. I also sent out open invites via Twitter and set up a Twtvite for people to RSVP.

I kept the “menu” limited to finger foods. I had four different trays of food: fruit, vegetable, meat, and cheese. I also had chips, pretzels, and three different kinds of dip. I bought the freshest foods possible, and it was decimated!

There were lots of great conversations going on and a few rounds of Catch Phrase. Some guests only stayed for a few minutes due to other plans or obligations, but it meant a lot for them to make an effort to come and visit.

A few people brought gifts so I made sure to keep up with the handmade vibe and hand wrote thank-yous. Although there’s no way to tell, I made sure each message was unique and specific.

Thanks again for everyone who came and made my night great and my effort rewarding!

… out of “season” and on a budget.

When I was young, my mom was highly involved in the drama department at my school. I learned everything I know from her and want to share some tips from what I remember and my own recent experience.

Last week, I spent most of the afternoon with a friend of mine costume shopping for the Arizona Renaissance Festival. We visited three stores and got (almost) full costumes for five people.

A really important first step to costume shopping is knowing what look you’re going for. Using the Renaissance Festival as example, you should decide if you’re looking for a male or female. If it’s a guy you’re shopping for, will he be a knight? peasant? musketeer? pirate? You should go through the same steps for a female.

If you have no idea what looks right, ask the movie industry. In this case, what you see in the movies is absolutely true! Most movies go for authenticity when it comes to costume design. Copying any pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean is a good way to go if a pirate is what you want to be. Otherwise, choose from the right time period.

Those are the ways to find what you’re looking for. Here are some tips to buy what you’re looking for. Friendly warning, you will not find everything in one store! If you can or do, then you are very lucky.

You might think starting at a costume store is the best bet. This is not true. A costume store will have high quality pieces if that’s what you really need but will also have good accessories and detail pieces. A costume store is probably the last place you want to visit.

My friend and I actually started our shopping at a Ross store. She was going to the festival as a gypsy while I was just a peasant. The peasant skirt is fairly easy to find, but we were having trouble finding ones long enough. We walked through the dress section and actually found tube top dresses that could be worn around the waist for our nice long skirts. She found a bright orange one (perfect for a gypsy) while I took home a light, bright green one. This is one example of using a bit of imagination to make what you find work for you. At Ross, my friend also found mary jane type eco-friendly/all natural shoes that matched her gypsy look.

Our next stop was Goodwill. Here we decided to look for the men’s costumes. We got very lucky at this store in a variety of different ways. It took quite a bit of time, looking and relooking, but we were able to find two men’s shirts (one of which was actually linen), a great pair of drawstring pants, a leather vest, pirate belt, dragon boa (best find ever!), and really great costume jewelry. Although the jewelry cost my friend more than normal (three pieces for around $5 each), the dragon boa was only $2.99. I walked out with a costume for my husband (shirt and pants) for just under $15.

I hope this gives you an idea of what to do and how to do it when you need to find the perfect costume.

Happy hunting!

I’m an avid Twitter user and have had several great get togethers by simply tweeting out an open invite. It can be a pretty hit or miss thing–especially since I live so far away from most of my friends–but always a great time.

When it came to my housewarming party, however, I decided to break out paper and ink to make sure my favorite people were there.

Even if you aren’t very crafty, the thought that it takes to make invitations or even prepare those pre-made ones from the store, shows a great deal of effort. I can’t guarantee results, but I can guarantee that people will notice and *hopefully* remember.

I’ll still be tweeting out that open invite but now the people I *really* want to show up, know it.

On Saturday, September 6, 2008, I planned and co-hosted the very first Christmas Craft Day held at Gangplank HQ. I created an Upcoming page to help with invitations and RSVPs. It was announced via Twitter and retweeted a number of times.

The event was open to all ages and especially families. I was very happy with the turn out and hope to make it an annual event. Below is a description:

This is the first annual Christmas Craft Day where you create your own Christmas gifts and decorations. This event is for guys, gals, and kids of all ages. Bring your families. Bring your friends. Bring your craft supplies! We will have the supplies to make paper snowflakes, two different types of ornaments, and snow globes*. There will be other small make and takes and plenty of fun to go around.

Taking the suggestions and advice of Tyson Crosbie and Chuck Reynolds, I am currently moving my site over to WordPress. Please, bear with me while I learn. Thanks and see you next week!