Path — Gary Vaynerchuk- No Regrets

Gary Vaynerchuk Talks Wine and Social Media at ABC News Radio with Dan Patterson on Vimeo by Dan Patterson (Photo credit: Dan Patterson)

Path — Gary Vaynerchuk. Click to see this wonderful poster to be.

Many of you may have seen this Poster to be on Facebook this week, if not I invite you to take a minute and click the link. It comes from an interview that Gary  Vaynerchuk did this week. He hopes to make this into a poster.  I hope he does, because it will be a hot seller.

To the Right is a photo of Gary from a previous interview, not from the one that this possible poster is from.

He challenges many of us to have no regrets in the last 10 years of our lives. To take the challenges of life and move to the places where we can accomplish our dreams.  If you never pick up the challenge and do it, you will never know if you can or not.

Many of my friends from high school are still in our home town,I am not saying they have done anything wrong, but there were several of us who had a challenge inside of us to leave and go out into the world to see what we could do and achieve.  Some of us are in foreign countries, I am in Los Angeles, California, not doing what I had expected to do, but doing what I have  enjoyed doing since I was in high school. Planning events, and working for a non-profit.  I have some regrets of course, but my accomplishments outweigh the regrets.  The people I have met on my journey have been educational and fun, witty, charming, quirky, spontaneous, giving, and I wouldn’t change one of them.

We learn from everyone who comes into our lives, they all teach us lessons. Some lessons are short and some are longer and painful to endure, but all must be learned.  Life is a path and there are no right or wrong paths, we each have our own to walk.  I have lost many friends along the path, some whose time had ended on this earth, and some whose time was gone from my life for now. I hope to run into some of my friends again down the road, and maybe even those who I left in my hometown.  Remember that quote, You can never go home again.  I think it is because, when you do, your realize, you are not the same person as the one who left, and everyone else has changed as well.  Life is about change, thank God.  If we all stayed the same how boring we would be.

40 Social Media Curation Sites and Tools

Reblogged from Social Media Pearls:

Last month I shared 40+ networks that you could consider depending on your niche or interests. As part of my commitment to this community, I shared that I will  expand on this list throughout 2012. So here is the first addition to that build!  The topic- Curation!

I thought I would focus on curation because a) I have a favorite site and b) there has been a  lot of "press" on Pinterest  as a curation tool  and as a result I thought the timing was right.  

Read more… 1,703 more words

Social Media Curation Sites and Tools is an excellent article for anyone using social media. Many business owners are needing the tools that are addressed in this article

A Hero From My Home Town: Bob Kalsu: Former Buffalo Bill &Vietnam Hero!

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Many of you will remember when I wrote about my home town of Del City, Oklahoma a few weeks ago and how we were playing the Remember When thread on Facebook.   One of our hometown heroes was Bob Kalsu, who I grew up with in my church, and  in my community of Del City, Ok.

I have attached a link to Sports Illustrated that is the story of  the first hero from the Vietnam War who also played in the NFL.  http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1023026/index.htm.

Many of us remember Bob and his kind spirit and we named the Del City High School Stadium after him.  He will always be a hero for many of us in Del City.

Related articles

• Best Of The SB Nation Network: July 21, 2010 (sbnation.com)
• Remember When? Facebook Posts Are Wonderful Ways to Bring a Community Together! (michellegilstrap.wordpress.com)

I Believe She’s An Amazing Woman

The other day on Facebook, a highschool friend posted this video to honor one of our friends who had passed away, Margene Griffin, who had graduated from Del City High School, and went on to Central State University with me.  She joined Tri Sigma Sorority and convinced me to pledge and to join her on this path.

I should also add that Margene and I were in Senior Girl Scouts together and we did many special community service projects together.  Tri Sigma Sorority at our college had many Girl Scouts in it and we even sponsored a Brownie troop.

Margene graduated from Central State University after serving as President of Tri Sigma, with a degree in nursing.  She was married very soon after graduation and she and her husband began their journey around the world as missionary’s for a program that took them to many different countries.

I did not know that through this journey, Margene was battling an illness within her lower GI tract and she had been on liquids for many years.  I saw her at my 25th high school reunion and  she shared that she was waiting on a lower intestine transplant.  She did receive the transplant and did very well for several years.

Both of us were battling physical issues, mine was a physical disability and her’s was an internal issue.  She was smiling and strong just as she had always been.  Margene and stayed in touch through our Sorority for several years after and then she moved to Colorado and I moved to California.  I lost track of her.

I was on Classmates.com to try and find her but I couldn’t, so I contacted her brother, and discovered that she had passed on.  I felt terrible that we had lost track of each other.  Sometimes life gets in the way, and we lose one another.  I just urge you to stay in touch with those special people who touch your life in high school or college and let them know how much they mean to you before you lose that opportunity.

Margene and I did have that time, but I still feel that we could have had a little more.  Here is the Video that I dedicate to Margene who was an Amazing Woman.

Remember When? Facebook Posts Are Wonderful Ways to Bring a Community Together!

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Many of us are on Facebook and have personal pages.  My high school has an Alum page and recently we started a thread discussion Remember When? about the community we grew up in.  Before we knew , many of us were connecting with people we had not spoken to in 30 to 40 years.

The memories of our elementary schools and the teachers and crossing guards, came rushing back to all of us.  Our Kindergarten teacher and the photos pulled from Mom’s who had so carefully stored them for us, were suddenly posted.

Our community, Del City, was a Baby Boomer Community where the Veterans came back and bought homes and we grew up.Our city  we could ride our bikes and visit the grocery store for our Mom’s and wave to everyone on the way home.  We watched every new business that came into the community and we remembered those that were no longer there.

One of the television stations in Oklahoma did a story on the Remember When threads going across Facebook about the many communities in Oklahoma City.  Although, I am in Los Angeles now, it made me homesick for a time when all was simple and pure.  Our lives were filled with going to the Drive-in Sonic and Burger Train and seeing our friends after school.  Life was not filled with the stress  of debts and recession, although, we did have the Vietnam War that took lives.

What we all realized as we came to the end of our high school days, was that we had lost many of our friends over the years, and then the Remember When turned into a Memorial Wall postings of who had passed and left our lives too soon.

If you have not participated in a Remember When? thread on Facebook, I urge you to see if there is one going for your community.  If not start one, and relive the history of your community.  I emailed the current city manager for our community, and advised him that much of the history of the developers and the business owners was now part of the thread for our community.

Knowing the history of how things started and who started them, can help you understand growth and why you and your children need to continue to carry that growth forward for your community and our country.

Using Social Media In A Crisis For Communications, Get Information Out There Now!!

The Tragedy at the Indiana State Fair this weekend shows us the power of smart phones when every news channel was showing the collapse of the Indiana State Fair stage from concert goers’ phones who sent them to local news channels.  But a very astute observer from Indiana, Erick Deckers, has written in his blog the failure of the state authorities to use social media in this crisis.  http://problogservice.com/2011/08/15/social-media-crisis-communication-lessons-learned-from-indiana-state-fair-stage-collapse/.

Having worked at a hospital in Houston, before we had Social Media, I can relate to many of the elements he brings up in his blog.  When you need up to the-minute information, you depend on state authorities to give it to you, and having cell phone towers clogged with everyone trying to reach their loved ones, it would have been nice to have the state authorities updating their messages via Twitter or Facebook.

In an earthquake, emergency responders will shut  down cell phones allowing the networks  for emergency responders use.  Getting word to family members can become difficult.

I have gone to many state accounts here in Los Angeles only to find they haven’t up dated them in months.  Why have them?  If you are not going to update your Twitter account with relevant information, then you need to assign a staff person to check it and update it.

People depend on Social Media in a Crisis and on Facebook for updates.  When Michael Jackson died, did I go to CNN? Yes, did they have anything, no.  NBC, Yes, but nothing, I then went to Twitter, and found many sources that I follow there with up to the second updates from trusted news sources not CNN or NBC, but others at the time, who had just announced his death.

With Smart Phones, we can use our Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts in an instant to see any updates from local authorities.  In my case, I check the Los Angeles Fire Department to see if there are any fires or accidents that might delay me in traffic around the Los Angeles area.

Updates can be sent from the scene with a Smart Phone to a Twitter feed, and many people need to use them when an emergency happens.  Updates can also be sent directly to news outlets from phones as we saw this weekend with the Tragedy at the Indiana State Fair.

Social Media can be used to find relatives in a disaster to let family know you are okay, by posting an update to a Facebook or Twitter feed.  This was used by survivors in Japan to let families know they were okay, when phone lines weren’t working, but somehow, the  internet  was working.

Social Media has transformed our world, and if you do not know how to use it, learn!  Many classes are out there and now is the time to learn, because it isn’t going away.

Related articles

• Sugarland, Sara Bareilles Tweet Their Condolences After Indiana State Fair Stage Collapse (theofficialtyler.wordpress.com)
• Video: Stage Collapse Kills 5 at Indiana State Fair (newsfeed.time.com)
• Stage Collapse at Indiana State Fair Kills Four, Injures Dozens – RollingStone.com (news.google.com)

Casey Anthony Gets Ready To Leap From Jail And Into More Law Suits!!

CNN is reporting that Texas Equusearch filed a civil lawsuit to recoup the costs for their search for Caylee in 2008  during the summer and fall.  The Defense said in open court that Casey knew her daughter drowned and yet she lied to authorities and everyone else where her daughter was.

Now Ms. Anthony you must pay the Piper!! It is proper that Texas Equusearch files now while they know the whereabouts of Casey because once she is sprung it is anyone’s guess where she will be and finding her will be difficult.  Serving her in jail is the best place because she can’t run and she can’t hide.

The suit is asking for compensatory damages of $115,000 plus interest and attorney fees according to CNN.  So any new found wealth Ms. Anthony finds once she gets out of jail, will be earmarked for her defamation suit, Texas Equusearch and the Orange County costs which have not been added up yet.

Oh what a terrible web of lies she did weave and now they are all unraveling to her dismay.

Cindy Anthony received some good news, she will not face perjury charges for lying on the stand over the computer searches.  I’m not sure I agree with that, but then maybe the state of Florida has had enough of the Anthony family.

In the meantime, Caylee’s Law is mounting pressure and steam across the country with over 1 million signatures on the Facebook petition.  Many are urging caution on this wave of emotion and saying to be careful with the drafting of the real law so it doesn’t get teenagers into trouble who violate curfew.

I don’t think Caylee’s Law has that intent, but I do understand how laws can be misunderstood.  Caylee Anthony will continue to shine down on this earth as a bright light helping to protect children who need help.

Related articles

• EquuSearch sues Casey Anthony over wasted efforts in Florida (chron.com)
• Sheriff says he’s not done investigating Anthony case (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Casey Anthony Out Of Jail This Week (buzz103.radio.com)
• Group seeks to recover expenses in search for Casey Anthony’s daughter – CNN International (news.google.com)

Sexting And Politicians. The Truth?

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By now you have heard that Representative Anthony Weiner admitted he tweeted his private  implict photos to a college coed, and that yes he has sent other photos via his phone and engaged in lewd discussions on Facebook with many women.  But it took him a week before he admitted the truth.  Why?

Personally, I believe Anthony Weiner thought all of us were dumb when it came to social media.  It takes two to send a direct message on Twitter, and yes that means that both parties must have accepted the other as friends.  A Hacker can’t do that.

The fact that he said he wasn’t going to resign and that he hasn’t broken any laws reminds of John Edwards who just said almost the same thing a few day earlier when he was indicted for using campaign funds to cover up the existence of his mistress while he was running for office.

Okay, how many of us believe both of these guys belong in public office?  How about none of us!  The public trust has been broken and lost fellows.  You lost us the minute you denied your part in the scandals and then had to admit it.  We are not going to buy anything else you say.

Representative Weiner has been called on to resign by the many in Congress.  I think he should.  He needs to devote time to rehab for his possible sexual addiction to sending pictures of himself to women he doesn’t know.  He also needs to explain to his wife, what was going on in his world and why he did this!

Once again the powerful feel that they can lie to the public and get away with it.  Guess again, we caught you and we don’t like it.  We have not lost all of our values in this country even though some like to think we have, running around on your wife and sexting with college age women is not acceptable.

Resign Representative Weiner and face the facts that you need help!  John Edwards tried to get his mistress to marry him, and she said no.  He didn’t want her to testify against him.  Good for her that she saw through that veil of hypocrisy.

Related articles

• Weiner, Sexting and other Dirty Words (aborovkoff.wordpress.com)
• Rep. Anthony Weiner and the Sexual Roulette Syndrome (psychologytoday.com)
• Weiner Admits to Half-Dozen Sext Relationships (patspapers.com)
• Actually, Anthony Weiner Sexted From His Congressional Office–And Had Phone Sex, Too (businessinsider.com)

New Publishing Venues Open Many Doors to Writers

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LA BookWoman Day was held yesterday in Marina Del Rey, and we had some outstanding experts on our panels.  We live-streamed the conference to many around the country, and we will have it available shortly on our Women’s National Book Association LA Chapter website for a  fee, http://www.wnba-books.org/la/

One of the most interesting realities that kept coming up yesterday is that authors now have choices, and many of them.  We are no longer restricted to one path to get our books out.

We can now choose an interactive path and develop a book with an app that has a means to help the reader interact with the author or with other readers.

Or we can choose self-publishing and make a higher rate of return on each book, for an investment up front, but with a proper marketing plan that includes social media many authors are finding great success.

Then there are digital formats for publishing books which is a brand new avenue for all writers with the IPad, Kindle, Nook and many smart phones utilizing digital books.

Of course utilizing the web for promotion is an area that authors are just now beginning to wake up and realize they need to have a presence on-line in Social Media, such as Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Twitter. These are the major ones and there are others that are smaller niches, but our experts yesterday brought out these formats to focus on.

The one major message that everyone said, was that the author must have a marketing plan, and be ready to work hard on that plan.

Related Articles

• Writers Can Make Good Publishers (tc.eserver.org)
• The Writer’s Dilemma: Tweeting Your Good News (blogher.com)
• Getting the Most out of Your LinkedIn Profile (compukol.com)

Social Media For the Rest of Us? – How to Teach to Different Generations!

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Have you been wondering what Social Media is all about?

Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube?  Well join the club, because it isn’t going away and the numbers are growing daily.  There are many wonderful ways to learn, and I teach Social media for those of us who didn’t grow up yesterday.

I was at a conference this week, and two individuals who were obviously under the age of 30 were teaching it and they went so fast, that many in the room felt overwhelmed.

You know why this happens.  Those who are under the age of 30 are from the instant generation who want it now.  They don’t understand about the rest of us who didn’t grow up like they did.

Learning about things for us might take a little longer, but we are just as smart as they are, and our brains work just as well and with more wisdom when it comes to actual applications.

When I was at dinner with a few of my conference companions, I was explaining about some of the nuances of LinkedIn.  They said, “you understand this stuff?”  Yes, but I can speak slower and I can explain it so you will understand it too”.

Generations all want to learn the new technology, but each of us have different way of learning.  Knowing this can make all the difference when you are teaching it.

Related Articles

• Social Media Should Be Taught in the Classroom (kylelacy.com)
• SIMPLIFY Your Social Media Communications, especially for LinkedIn Users (rocktheworldbook.com)