A Note of Thanks

This is the sixth post in response to question prompts in Seth Godin's Freelancer Course,  found on Udemy . Please feel free to include your answers to these questions in the comment section. What emotions do you want people to take away from interactions with you? I understand why this question is in a course on freelancing. People don't buy simply because of the product. They buy because of the people. The stories. The emotions. But these emotions, and the intent to create these emotions, shouldn't just be limited to the times when we want something from someone else. It really should be a part of who we are. Whether we are talking with our children, our co-workers or the cashier at the grocery store. This is a great question. And it should be asked by every one. In every profession. Every day. Not because you have something to sell. Because you have a story to tell. For me: Appreciated. That someone cares about their success. Interested. I've g...

I have a reminder that goes off each Monday at 8:30am. The reminder says, "Write a Thank You Note". This weekend, we had a friend come in town. On our way back from the airport, the friend arranged for us to stop by the house of some mutual friends -- his history with them went much further back than mine, but we had met several times, and I am Facebook friends with the wife, so that counts. With just four hours between the time we confirmed our arrival and when we actually rang their doorbell, this family amassed a feast fit for 20. Though with my teenage boy, their teenage son and daughter, and their friends that seemed to appear out of nowhere, it was probably about the right amount of food. Though the food was delicious and seemingly unending, the hospitality was unmatched. The wife took me into the kitchen, and though she wouldn't let me lift a finger (I think she had heard the rumors about my cooking ability), managed to carry on a conversation while peeli...

I've been thinking about labels a lot lately and the comfort they provide us as humans. There are the big ones -- smart, handicapped, athletic, poor -- and the subsequent effort not to apply those labels to others, especially those I haven't met. Because I recognize labels are minimizing, looking at another through a narrow lens and not seeing the whole, or worse, seeing a trait completely out of context. It denies the opportunity for growth. But what about the small labels, the boxes we put ourselves in to help us understand why we act a certain way or get anxious in certain situations? Extrovert. Poor public speaker. Picky eater. Often, I feel I need some labels to help make sense of me. To categorize my emotions and take comfort in the fact that there are others who align themselves with similar labels. For the most part, these labels give me a place to start for professional development. Okay, I don't speak well in public. That's a skill I need so I subm...

Photo credit Marc Wathieu CC BY NC This is the fifth post in response to question prompts in Seth Godin's Freelancer Course,  found on Udemy . Please feel free to include your answers to these questions in the comment section. I'll frame these questions in the context that a contact agrees to have me come to their school and provide information about digital content options to their faculty and/or administration. What is your client afraid their boss will think if they say yes? I need to effectively explain the purpose of the presentation lest they think I will: Waste their time:  This is a trainer's most inexcusable sin. Time, specifically planning time, is increasingly precious, especially with schools that are implementing wide-scale technology integration. Only promote expensive textbooks: Textbooks are the four-letter word of education. And no one wants to listen to a pitch about how expensive content is the best for students. I don't even th...

I have a reminder that goes off each Monday at 8:30am. The reminder says "Write a Thank You Note". I work in a large building, housing several hundred employees during our peak rush season. A large portion of the building is our warehouse, with conveyor belts whirring and totes strolling their merry way to the shipping stations. Within this large building, I work in an open configuration of desks and cubes in a fairly quiet area. Fairly quiet, that is, when the door to the room is closed. That door maintains the balance between concentration-enhancing white noise and a cacophony of heavy steps on concrete, snippets of conversation and the buzz of machinery. Maybe because my desk is closest to that door, or perhaps because I have the concentration of a gnat while I'm procrastinating, but my productivity drops to sloth-like levels when the door is left open by unaware (or less distraction-prone) co-workers. Many times have I looked at the door left ajar, will...

This is the fourth post in response to question prompts in Seth Godin's Freelancer Course,  found on Udemy . Please feel free to include your answers to these questions in the comment section. Compared to others who do what you do, rank yourself on reputation, knowledge, expertise, tools and handiness. Which will you invest in developing? I've been putting this assignment off for a few days. There is a lot to unpack on this question, and the answer requires airing some dirty laundry. The first part, comparing myself to others, hurts my brain, which is not a good start. I'm not sure who to compare myself to. We have competitors that do presentations like mine, or they have some really fancy marketing that says they do. I've never had the privilege of crashing their presentations so I'm not sure how I compare. If marketing is to be believed (I know, I snickered to myself too) these companies are doing all the things I hope this position evolves in t...

I have a reminder that goes off each Monday at 8:30am. The reminder says "Write a Thank You Note". My son was in a play this weekend. This was his third play, and largest role, with a local children's theater group.  When he first asked to audition with this group, I figured it was worth a shot. We had transitioned through sports, he was lukewarm about scouts and band. Why not? It didn't take long for him to decide, and me to see in his excitement for play practice, that this might be his "thing". After the second play, driving away from the cast ice cream gathering, Gabe turned to me and said, "Mom, these are my people." The first show of the first play, I was fully expecting these kids to be adorable, and maybe miss a few lines and possibly be off-key here and there. Because this was children's theater. I didn't expect to be utterly floored with the amazing talent of high school students pulling off every song in Joseph...

Photo credit: Carissa Rogers  on Flickr CC BY This is the third post in response to question prompts in Seth Godin's Freelancer Course,  found on Udemy . Please feel free to comment or include your answers to these questions in the comment section. The things that are not the thing. List 10 things you deliver to your client, e.g. timeliness, confidence, a story. For this exercise, I thought of the presentations I do for our partner schools and what I hope comes across in each one. Understanding . To clearly explain the digital content options. Patience . Not only with questions during the presentation, but also exploring their story before the presentation. Simplification . The digital options aren't complicated. Just often new and different. Choice . Both in terms of the content they are adopting for their class and in how I present it to them. A smile . I have fun with it. I want them to see it, and maybe have some fun, too. Thoughtfulness ....

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 .

Photo credit Davide Restivo CC BY SA I have a reminder that goes off each Monday at 8:30am. The reminder says "Write a Thank You Note". This week, I wrote a note to a former boss. I only worked for him for about a year, but I worked with him for almost four. When I joined his team, he told me that, while I was on his team, he wanted me to do the best work I'd ever done. Not because he thought I needed a reminder, but because he saw potential. When someone asked me about an interesting project I'd worked on, he wanted it to be something I was doing in this role, now. Not something I'd done years ago, or a side project not currently related to what I was getting paid to do. He recognized that doing my best work required projects that gave me new problems, required I learned new tools and asked a lot of "why not?" to both him and myself. And he gave me those projects. In the 12 plus months under his tutelage, he also encouraged my fledgling in...