Secret Projects

I’ve had to keep a big project under warps wraps for the last month. The last few days I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the word to let it go.
Over the past year I have been working on appearing more comfortable on camera and I owe Don D. Lewis a lot for all the help he has provided.
I have the pleasure of being part of BlissTV and my first appearance with other Arianne, Audrey, Danielle, and  Jo-Lynne was launched late Friday night. If you haven’t seen it, it’s on Home-Ec101.com. The best part, is I can actually watch it and not cringe every time I show up.
I can’t wait to work on future projects with Alli and Barbara.

Very Cool Tool

I tried out Prezi for my workshop on Saturday.

Lots of fun stuff, I’ll be tweaking it a little more to smooth out the transitions, but overall I think it is very cool.

For the Extended Family

A friend of mine video-ed the recording he made of my appearance on Lowcountry Live. I thought I’d share it here so extended family could get a giggle.

Thankful Thursday

• I made the deadline with the book. I’m a 1/3rd of the way through and just shy of half of the expected word count. This was a huge one, if I hadn’t met it, I would have been in violation of my contract.
• My editor is a joy to work with.
• The final manuscript deadline is in four months. There is an end in sight.
• There were no major mishaps during yesterday’s segment on Lowcountry Live. If you don’t know Jennet Alterman, the Executive Director of the Center for Women, you should.
• The kids are all healthy.
• I have today to pull the house back into order. I wonder what that says about me.

It’s Been Twenty Years

Since I have seen snow like this in Charleston.

I assure you, Ellie was only mad because we made her stop rolling around long enough to take a pic.

Of course we left all of the snow gear in Minnesota. Figures.

Notes from Blissdom Thursday am

Dan Barber

• Don’t wing it, know what you want to say.
• Message points are carefully prepared, concise and memorable
• Aligned with your brand and objectives.
• Define your agenda & focus
• Tell your story,  memorably
• Your message serves as a life raft
• Keeps your message consistent.
• Your messages are your brand.
• Concise, simple and specific.
• Memorable, genuine and personal.
• Strategic – what do you want the audience to do with the message.
• Be ready for well-prepared reporters
• No such thing as off-the-record
• Don’t speculate and never lie.
• Is there anything else:
  I just want to emphasize my points 1,2, 3 – referred to as a bookending an interview
• Don’t answer questions on behalf of someone else.
• Flagging phrase
  verbal cue such as:
  What’s really important
  The real news is

Jessica Smith

• Relationships matter
• Media is not the enemy
• Interviews can be unpredictable
• Make sure your cause / agenda / focus is apparent / easy to find.

Truly excellent session; I could have used this a couple of years ago. Many thanks to both Jessica and Dan.