Posted by Heather on Feb 4, 2010 in
blogging 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.
Posted by Heather on Jul 23, 2009 in
blogging,
family life I’m walking around waiting for the other shoe to drop. Last week it was the washer and the minivan, so what’s next?
Interrupted to be told:
“Mom I wish I had some super sticky shoes so I could paint the ceiling. You’re going to have to take the fans down so I can’t paint around them.”
Imagination is not lacking in our house.
Somehow I missed the milestone, but Home Ec 101 passed a million pageviews a while back. With Ivy writing full time again our traffic has picked back up to where we are back in our growth pattern. I’m excited by this.
The campaigns that come are of higher quality. We’ll never be a site that focuses only on giveaways, but from time to time they add a little for our regulars that is appreciated.
Posted by Heather on May 25, 2009 in
blogging I can see down the road just a little ways and sure enough it forks.
I think what it boils down to is that I miss blogging for myself.
Posted by Heather on Apr 4, 2009 in
blogging I jokingly Tweeted that I was living a scene from The Cable Guy, but Medieval Times was much more fun that I expected. I think watching my kids in awe of the performance truly added too the experience. From the moment they received their crowns, the boys were entranced.
My favorite picture though was Mark with “his blue knight.”
We took our time leaving and as we were walking to the car the gentleman who plays the king happened to be behind the building. Mark began talking to this nice man and we were the lucky recipients of an introduction to many of the horses in the show. I wish I could spell some of the moves the Andalusians performed, but as an adult they were they most impressive part of the evening. One of the horses performed a leap where he kicked to the rear while in the air. I can’t imagine how strong he must be.
This trip has been awesome and I really can’t thank the folks at Myrtlebeachhotels.com enough for the opportunity.
Posted by Heather on Sep 13, 2008 in
blogging,
geekery 
This is to remind myself that yes, they can all be clean and happy at the same time.
Ellie still isn’t walking, but she’s finally sleeping better, which means I’m sleeping better. As if by magic the blinding headaches I’ve been muddling through have ended. Consequently, I am happier and probably more pleasant person. No comments from the peanut gallery, please.
As per usual there are a lot of things happening both in the local blogosphere and with Home Ec 101 that keep me busy. Last night Eugene helped organize a meet-up at Fiery Ron’s Home Team BBQ. The food was good, the atmosphere was casual, the staff was nice, and of course the company was great. I was truly happy to meet Raymond and Larry, both relatively new to blogging, but quite informed about the changing state of media.
Last night’s conversation did nothing but stoke the excitement I feel about ConvergeSouth. I may have a partner for the roadtrip, which is also exciting.
Ten years ago I didn’t see life outside of the restaurant industry, eight years ago I was double majoring in Biochem and Biology, five years ago I was anxiously awaiting the birth of my first child. The twists and turns of life amuse me greatly.
Posted by Heather on Apr 23, 2008 in
blogging Driving home I heard the German proverb:
Patience is a bitter plant, but it bears sweet fruit.
I’ve struggled through my whole life believing I have no patience, praying for patience, wishing I had patience. Never did it dawn on me that being patient did not mean feeling a sense of peace while waiting. I was under the assumption that patience was an emotion rather than an action.
This realization is somewhat disappointing.
Yesterday morning Ivy and I were interviewed by Shaine Mata on his BlogTalkRadio Show. You can download the file here. I ended up having a lot of fun and hope to do more.
Posted by Heather on Apr 21, 2008 in
blogging,
neurosis In a strange ironic twist, I spent the weekend of CREATE South almost completely disconnected from the net. There was no wi-fi in my hotel and I could not connect to the makeshift network at the conference itself. This was definitely a benefit in some regards, but not having our power point was a little frustrating.
My first true public speaking appearance is over. I completely forgot to pick on Joan as I had planned. I was going to ask her to lead folks in the chicken dance, as she so truly appreciates mediocre speakers who try to improve their appeal by humiliating audience members.
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Ed Cone and hearing him speak. He reminded me of a cross between Steve Carell and a dear friend of mine Fr. Bart. I appreciated his comment, at dinner, about parenting becoming easier as the kids become self-sufficient.
More to come.
Tags: createsouth
Posted by Heather on Mar 17, 2008 in
blogging,
local interest,
tech help,
travel Exciting stuff!
Registration is now live for April 19th’s CreateSouth New Media Conference.
Dave Slusher writes:
If you are a professional journalist or a politician or a pastor or a musician and want to learn how to make new media work in your career, this is for you. If you have wanted to blog or podcast or videoblog but aren’t sure where to start, this is for you. The goal of this conference is to get the newbies and the wizards together in the same room, talking and hanging out and sharing meals. Our focus is hands on demonstration and we are assembling the program right now to reflect that. The idea of the conference is that if there is some project you want to do but haven’t tackled because the learning curve is too high, you should walk out of the conference knowing where to start and maybe with an email address or three of people that can help you if you get into trouble.
I’m very excited to be a part of this. The family and I will be making a weekend out of the conference. If you consider doing the same, let me know and I’ll see what I can do to help you find accommodations.
Posted by Heather on Jan 5, 2008 in
Home Ec 101,
blogging,
dreams,
website I’ve been researching marketing while I try to figure out how to expand the reach of Home Ec 101 without throwing away cash. Social media is extremely useful and as I watch our numbers grow, I think we are doing at least a few things correctly. Ivy and I are patient, so we can deal with building readership in a slow and steady manner.
What baffles me are the plethora of self described social media marketers, SEO specialists. There are probably thousands of these sites I have wandered across all with the same content, just small variances in tone and word arrangement. It feels like the Amway of the Intertubes. What I have yet to figure out is exactly what these people are selling. Through the noise certain words pop up over and over contacts, client lists, expand your customer base. Yet, I never see exactly what it is these people are selling.
Additionally whose idea was it to sell these crappy e-books? I haven’t bought one, I’m just assuming from the general level of the associated blogs that the e-books contents are along the same lines. (There may be some good ones out there, I just see no reason to buy an ebook on say drinking water daily for $7)
These people are definitely enthusiastic and excited, I just have yet to figure out what it is all about.
All of this said, we’re plodding along, trying to build a resource people will enjoy and return to not only for Home Ec questions but for interaction with others struggling along the same path.
Oh and I have to boast a little. We launched just over 10 months ago and other than hosting, some art, and of course our fantabulous t-shirts, we haven’t spent anything. I’m sure if we hired professionals it’d have been less stressful, but I truly love what we are doing. Slowly we are finding our way and as we go, we’re meeting a lot of people. I’m excited about ‘08, there will be conventions, both in April and October. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
We hit 100k visits on New Year’s Day. Hopefully it’s just a sign of things to come.
Posted by Heather on Nov 16, 2007 in
Home Ec 101,
blogging It’s been a long, long time since I’ve had that much to say.
We’re hosting a contest at Home Ec 101. Submit your favorite kitchen disaster story and our favorite will win a $45 GC to Outback Steakhouse.
Spread the word, there will be plenty of link-love for all entries
Yep, it’s shameless self-promotion time.
