A Note of Thanks

I'm not very good at keeping in touch with friends. After writing Christmas cards one year and realizing how little I had seen people -- and how long my updates were because of it -- I started putting reminders on my calendar for monthly check-ins with close friends. That's sad, I know, but it's what's keeping me from feeling like a total schmuck. Holidays and birthdays always give me an opportunity to think about individuals whom I sometimes take for granted. Instead of simple Happy Birthday greetings, birthday cards give me the chance to let them know how much I appreciate them and the things they do. In the way that most parents know their (grown) kids appreciate what they have done for them, my dad knows. I make a point to say thank you when he invites us over for dinner, or takes us out for breakfast, or lets my son hang out with him while I'm out of town. I get him (what I hope are) thoughtful presents for Christmas and his birthday. But often it...

Summer is starting to mean an opportunity to learn and make alongside other connected learners in CLMOOC. We are encouraged each week to disassemble preconceived notions and try new tools to reassemble our learning. This first week is about introductions, logically. But instead of the standard name, role and resume, how can we present ourselves in a new way? In a way that encourages interactivity, or at least mentally putting pieces together. Some suggestions included creating a puzzle or kaleidoscope from an image. Possibly a Mad Lib or a crossword puzzle.  I'd been interested in playing around with Thinglink for awhile, having seen it used to create something dynamic out of a standard image. So here is my CLMOOC introduction using Thinglink and a few of my favorite things.

I have a reminder that goes off each Monday at 8:30 am. The reminder says, "Write a Thank You Note". The company I work for was a start-up in its day. A couple guys looked at an old process in a staid industry and thought, "Why not?" I've been told the culture back then was pretty awesome. Tight-knit work family. Innovative processes and ideas. Book Olympics and races in the warehouse. Maybe not the safest, but this was the '80s. We didn't wear bike helmets or seat belts then, either. Forty years and a thousand employees later, and it's hard to scale that culture. In the four years I've been at this company, I know many layers of administration have tried different things to keep the gray clouds from settling over the cubicles, with varying levels of success. This past weekend, our leadership tried to resurrect some of that camaraderie and goofiness that comes from not taking yourself quite so seriously. And because it came from the top...

I have a reminder that goes off each Monday at 8:30am. The reminder says, "Write a Thank You Note". I am a huge proponent of hand-written notes. People aren't used to getting them, so your awesome points increase immediately and exponentially. Also, I can't tell you how many times I've seen notes hanging in cubes of co-workers. Somewhat selfishly, it's a fantastic feeling that something you said touched another person enough that they want to see it every day. Or throw darts at it. Could go either way. But sometimes you don't have a physical address, or if you dig up a physical address, the first thought of the recipient is, "I need to check my privacy settings." In that case, it is absolutely appropriate to send appreciation through the channels you communicate with the other person most often. Such is the case with this week's thank you. I've been on Twitter for several years, but only truly active for the past 18 mont...

This is the seventh 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. If you could choose an archetype, what would you want your brand or work to be known for? On the prompt, there were a number of adjectives as possible suggestions. Everything from edgy to safe, knowledgeable to innovative. Each had their pros and cons. If you are known for being adaptable, is that synonymous with a dilution of your talent based on what the client asks for? If you are known for being dependable, do you then forego being spontaneous? Does your voice, your brand, have to be singular in its purpose? Can it be known for being daringly patient or glamorously intelligent?  For the sake of completing the exercise, I would want to be known for being observant. Not only observant of the people I work with, noticing when they are engaged or when I'm putting them to s...

I have a reminder that goes off each Monday at 8:30am. The reminder says, "Write a Thank You Note". I have a friend I met in college. We worked the box office at a movie theater together. We bonded over 80s music and Harry Potter. She was always creative. She could paint. She knew how to work a sewing machine, which was -- and still is -- completely foreign to me. She made her own Halloween costumes. But always side projects. She went to school to be a nutritionist, then worked as a personal trainer and then in a hospital before becoming a stay-at-home-mom, which is what she enjoys the most. In this role, I've seen her decorate nurseries and create intricately designed birthday cakes. A few years ago she asked me to take a look at a draft of a children's story she'd written and was thinking of entering into a contest. It was a beautiful piece about a child's first plane ride. I recently had lunch with her and she has another story that she's wor...