TYN: Not just for grandmas anymore

Hypocrite. That's what's written on my forehead today. Here I am preaching to the world the wonders of the hand-written thank-you note. What just dawned on me this morning? I, the thank-you-note queen, missed not one but three chances to thank people who helped me achieve a goal.

Thank you notes aren't just for appreciation of gifts. They are for appreciation of time, effort, advice, and many other non-tangible things. I recently interviewed for a promotion with three executives in my organization. All three interviews went very well and all three executives agreed I was a good fit for the new job duties. I should have sent each interviewer a note post-Q&A thanking them for their time. It would have given me another chance to show how excited I was for the position and given my character a big gold star. Luckily, they overlooked my slip and offered me the position anyway. Had I been an external candidate without history with the company, it might have made the difference between reining in the resume and buying more eggshell paper.

In the off change you're reading this, thank you Karen, Doug and Dave! This interview process really was one of the best I've had, though I don't think I could have answered another Targeted Selection question to save my life.

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Infographic: Presentation Tools for Sharing an Idea

I put together this infographic as part of an internal training program I do for our account managers each month called "What in the EdTech". The account managers selected topics from a list of about 20 that they wanted to learn about. This is the fourth in the series, and after this one, we'll do another survey to see what else they want to learn about. Previous sessions included: Khan Academy ( and their results ), Gamification/Game-based Learning and 3D Printing .

Unchosen: The Graduation Invite

Sometimes I'm really bad at predicting which design a customer is going to choose. And that leaves me with some of my favorite designs unclaimed. I'm going to start highlighting some unclaimed designs here in the blog, as well as some of my favorite designs that were chosen. I'm pretty proud of my concoctions, and I want to show them off! I've been doing a lot of invitations lately, and they are a lot of fun. I'm sticking to the small, intimate parties (no Bridezillas here, please) like bachelorette and graduation parties. My customers have great ideas for themed parties and you just can't find invitations at Target for the "She Got Knocked Up" baby shower. Okay, I haven't done that one yet, but I bet it would be a blast! This unchosen design came from a recent graduation party invitation. The soon-to-be alma mater's colors were green and gold, and the graduate is a big fan of pink. That's where the color scheme came from. Because it was a ...

Finding Out How Similar We All Really Are

Story by Rossyyume Flickr CC BY NC ND I love stories. Especially people's stories. The stories they've created. The stories that created them. Stories were a big part of why I majored in Journalism. It was an excuse to listen to people tell their stories. As a 19-year-old soon-to-be Journalism student, my goal was to live in a tiny apartment with five cats and interview interesting people all day. And while it's probably best for everyone -- including the cats -- that the career muses didn't send me down that path, I am still drawn to the experiences of others and how they share those memories and ideas. It's fascinating to me that we now have so many ways to tell stories -- ours and others. So many ways to document our lives, the lives of the people we know and the people we pretend to be. With each story comes a chance to put ourselves in someone else's shoes. In doing so, we get a little more understanding of how similar we all are. Here are a few ...

A Note of Thanks

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